Community 005: The Imperative to Reach Stage 4
I had put the zombie through another round of intense training. Now it lay sprawled beside the tree stump, motionless and indistinguishable from a corpse.
“Keh… kek.”
Leaving the zombie where it was, I checked the community in between sets. The posts led me to one crucial conclusion: I needed to reach Stage 4 as quickly as possible.
One new fact stood out. The abductions hadn’t respected national borders. Everything appeared in Korean to me, but the existence of country-specific boards meant people from every race and nation had been taken. Cultural differences showed in how each server approached the situation. China leaned toward alliances, Japan toward complacency, and Korea toward competition.
China had quickly formed a coalition under powerful users. They excluded outsiders and began controlling information, building their own isolated world within this new one. Their posts soon filled with cryptic, story-like phrasing, and users from other countries stopped visiting.
“Typical communist state. If you’re going to be communist, shouldn’t information be shared equally?”
The Japanese server was where I found the clue that confirmed my urgency. According to them, Stages 1 through 3 were the “beginner zone.” It wasn’t about resurrection or anything dramatic. Basic nutrients were supplied automatically even without eating, which also meant no need to use the bathroom. That was the real problem.
Many users had grown used to the beginner zone. When the incubators suddenly vanished, they panicked. They had to find food and safe zones. As survival tips started flooding the boards, the Japanese server—once rich with information—changed. In that process, I recognized a lethal, chilling issue.
“Automatic nutrient supply? That can’t be right…!”
If nutrients were supplied automatically, then physical growth would also be capped at that basic level. Nutrient distribution equaled growth distribution. That might suit the Japanese users who wanted to settle, but I refused to accept it.
Korea’s “competition” was exactly that—competition. Important information was sometimes hidden, yet the boards still shared more actively than the others.
The critical point was that muscle loss was happening in real time.
After a short rest, I shook the zombie awake.
“Hey, get up. Time for another round.”
“Kki… kke…”
“Did it really eat that regeneration cell?”
I grabbed the back of my neck. My muscles were disappearing in real time, yet the zombie looked completely unbothered.
“Huu…”
I looked around. Dumbbells, kettlebells, and other equipment made from rocks and trees came into view. They would all disappear once the round ended. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Let’s just push through to Stage 4.”
I carried the zombie into the cabin and laid it on the bed. I couldn’t afford to waste time because of it. Then I grabbed a chair and pressed [Combat Start]. The zombie was nothing more than decoration right now.
Crack— crack— The sound of breaking trees echoed as a path formed.
“Ten dwarfs, was it?”
I was still among the lower ranks even among latecomers because I had spent time training. Most information had already been revealed. The number and type of enemies per round were basically common knowledge.
Just as the community had said, ten dwarfs carrying clubs emerged from beyond the forest. The boards claimed that while Stage 1’s theme was “prisoners,” Stage 2’s was “bandits.” They looked weak, but their physical stats were much higher than Stage 1’s. “They just look weak to me.”
Come to think of it, the same people whining about the Stage 1 boss had been the ones posting. Filtering their complaints seemed wise.
I charged forward. Cool wind brushed my face.
Thud— The lead dwarf flew through the air. The others grimaced and swung their clubs wildly. I deliberately took a hit. The moment the club touched me, I felt it.
“There’s no way I lose to this.”
The dwarf that struck me seemed to sense the same thing instinctively; despair spread across its face. I beat them mercilessly while taking hits. Defeat was impossible.
While I was steamrolling them alone, a post I had seen on the Russian board came to mind. There was a user called BearUncle who had introduced themselves as a bear summoner. They had gathered every reward from Stages 1 and 2 to summon a Russian brown bear—nearly three meters tall. A single bear had supposedly cleared Stage 3 with ease.
“All rewards from Stage 2…”
I had poured every reward since Stage 1 into a single zombie. Could my zombie become a monster rivaling that Russian bear by the end of Stage 2?
Imagining a muscular zombie made me oddly cheerful.
“Heh heh…”
I deliberately avoided hitting the dwarfs’ heads. The zombie would need those brains, after all. Damaged goods wouldn’t do.
Anticipating the zombie’s growth, I prepared a meal. Twenty minutes later—
Knock knock—
I knocked on the cabin door.
Creak—
When I opened the door and stepped inside, the zombie sat up groggily.
“Kkigek…”
Its complexion looked better. It had recovered a little.
“Zombie, come outside.”
The zombie’s legs trembled as it climbed off the bed. It hadn’t fully recovered yet.
“Tsk… All that lower-body work and it’s still like this…”
But there was no need to worry. The zombie would become a Russian brown bear soon enough.
“Come on, Zombie. Get outside. Let’s turn you into a bear.”
“Kkik…?”
It didn’t understand, but the zombie sensed something ominous and stood unsteadily in front of the bed.
“Hey, come on out!”
The zombie shuffled outside and froze at the sight of the dwarf corpses. It looked at me with eyes full of emotion. Honestly, I couldn’t tell if it was emotion or not—the zombie didn’t have much in the way of eyeballs.
“Eat as much as you want!”
At my permission, the zombie began devouring the bodies. Its trembling legs seemed to steady slightly after eating meat. Its posture while eating grew more stable.
“Oh…? At this rate, I could run another full cycle before the next round.”
The zombie suddenly shuddered.
***
I had discovered something enormous.
After clearing 2-1, I received another [Lowest-Grade Zombie Enhancement Potion] and a small amount of gold. I summoned the zombie as usual. The one that had done lower-body training crawled toward the cabin on all fours. When I used the potion… the zombie recovered completely and stood on two legs again.
I pounded my chest and let out a frustrated cry. I had been an idiot. I hadn’t known that using the enhancement potion would heal the zombie.
“Aah… How could this be! Why wasn’t such valuable information shared on the community?”
“Kkik…”
“Yeah… You’re sad too, huh.”
“Kki…”
The round had reset, and the forest gym had disappeared. With a heavy heart, I made brief preparations for the next round and pressed [Combat Start]. There was nothing else I could do but vent this sadness and resentment on the dwarfs.
Crack— crack—
Ten club-wielding dwarfs and twenty bow-wielding dwarfs appeared. I had already known this. That was why I had prepared two shields from nearby trees.
The zombie and I raised our shields and waited for the dwarfs to approach. The moment they fired their first arrows, we moved according to plan.
I charged into the club dwarfs. The zombie sprinted toward the archers.
The zombie was no longer the weakling that had struggled against a single dwarf in the tutorial. It could probably defeat the Stage 1 boss now. The enhancement potion’s effect was greater than expected.
“Kieeeek!”
The zombie tore through the archers with claws and teeth. The club dwarfs tried to reinforce them, but turning their backs on me was a terrible idea. Chair in my right hand, shield in my left—I swung my arms indiscriminately, and every dwarf that was hit rolled across the ground, incapacitated.
The archers occasionally fired arrows, but they bounced harmlessly off my shield. The zombie couldn’t block them all, but zombies weren’t meant to be killed by arrows anyway. Even with arrows embedded in its body or head, it kept moving and slaughtered them.
“Easy. Too easy.”
Honestly, even if I had gone easy, it wouldn’t have been difficult. Plenty of people on the community boards complained even at low stages, but it seemed like they had been exaggerating. Or perhaps the real experts were too busy climbing to bother with the community.
I had gathered enough information, so I planned to spend less time on the boards. Still, there was one reason to keep checking occasionally. Among the countless posts was a user named “Barosoft.”
Barosoft. That was the name of the company I used to work for. Whether that person had been in my department was unknown. But their summon was a doll.
“A doll…”
It reminded me of a certain perverted bastard who enjoyed roleplay. It wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on them.
“Kkeruk?”
After the battle, the zombie approached me curiously. It had gathered the dwarf corpses in one place and waited.
“Ah, I got distracted for a second.”
“Yeah. Eat up.”
“Kkieee!”
Chomp— chomp—
It needed to eat plenty. Because the next round was the boss round.
The Stage 2 boss round. I already knew the composition. Instead of a single powerful entity, fifty bandits would appear. Some posts mentioned a way to weaken them, but no details were given. It might have been trolls messing with newbies.
Fifty bandits. Not a bad number. The zombie had eaten fifty brains so far. After the boss round, that would be exactly one hundred.
One hundred felt like a number where something would happen. It wasn’t just a feeling. Many users had been observed growing rapidly after clearing Stage 2. Even accounting for the fact that more users bragged about early-stage growth, the number was still significant.
Perhaps this was the turning point. The divide between those who would settle and those who wouldn’t. The line separating those who would grow from those who would fall behind.
I cracked my neck and loosened my body. It had been a while since I felt like I was walking into a job interview.