#016. Join the Box Squad
The next day, I turned on my stream again and loaded up Cheon-sang: The Last Heaven, the same zombie survival game I'd advertised yesterday. It was pretty fun, so I figured it'd be fine to play it occasionally on stream.
"Rennie's off today, so I'm gonna run some solo queues."
I logged into Cheon-sang smoothly and entered the lobby screen. Since I'd successfully finished a match last time, my level had gone up.
"Oh, I can pick a new trait now?"
Cheon-sang had a trait system—every level-up gave you one point to spend on survival or combat traits.
"Hmm... what should I go for?"
"Box? What's that?"
I searched for the box-shaped trait and clicked it. A ton of viewers were pushing for this one.
Flip a cardboard delivery box over your head to make it harder for zombies to detect you. Movement speed is reduced in stealth mode, and you can't attack or pick up items.
"Oh... that's pretty good?"
I had no idea how well it evaded zombies, but I decided to give it a shot. I hit matchmake right away, and it found a game quick. I still had the items I'd farmed with Rennie last time, so I grabbed my wooden plank and headed for the gas station quest.
"T key to put on the box..."
I pressed T, and my character flipped the box over its head and started crawling. It looked just like a turtle—hilarious. But it worked; even crawling right next to them, the zombies didn't notice me.
On the way to the gas station, I spotted other players. A female player making a ton of noise while fleeing was closing in on me.
"There are too many zombies! Help me!"
"Ah, sure!"
How many could there be, really? I'd cleared 2v10 with Rennie. Sure, she handled eight of them, but still.
"Where... huh?"
A dozen or so regular zombies were chasing the woman.
"Whoa, that's a lot."
I instantly knew I couldn't win and flipped the box on. She looked betrayed.
"Mister?! Mister!!"
Sorry. But they were too many, right? If it'd been like eight, I'd have helped, but numbers overwhelm raw skill. Unless you're as good as Rennie.
"Ahem... good luck!"
I wished her fortune and kept going. Without a box, she fled the way I'd come. The zombies ignored me and swarmed her. Box is legit. Being an alpha test game, the balance was a bit off.
I reached the gas station and had to find the building code. I poked around and spotted a dropped note I could pick up.
Jeong-ho said he'd go scavenge food yesterday... still no sign of him today...
"Ugh, heavy stuff."
I skipped to the last page—the code was 0520. I punched it in, entered, and found a corpse with a bag nearby.
"Oh, empty bottles—nice."
Inside: a dagger for weapons, empty bottles and a smoke grenade for aggro, and car keys. The dagger had a special effect for assassinating elite zombies—decent. But for regulars, longer reach is better, so I'd use it sparingly.
"Quest cleared... time for the next one."
Next needed the car keys. Problem: the car was smack in the middle of the street, crawling with zombies. Even with the box, solo was tough. They'd eventually smash it if you crawled right in front of them.
"How to get over there..."
Then two other players approached. They'd allied up already.
"Hey."
"Oh, hey. Where you headed?"
"Gas station quest."
They had less progress than me. An idea hit.
"Rare item in that car over there—wanna help me out?"
"For real? You'll share, right?"
"Of course~ But lotsa zombies..."
"Come with us."
Solid. One had a baseball bat, the other a pickaxe. We dove into zombie central. Plan: assassinate what I could, then fight.
But the pickaxe guy got spotted mid-assassinate and pulled aggro.
"Argh! Get off!"
"Shit..."
I bashed an incoming zombie with my plank, keeping distance. Then—damage from behind. Baseball bat to my head.
"Ah! You little sh—"
Inappropriate word detected. Censorship applied.
"...rude bastard!"
"Sorry! My bad!"
My bad? Felt off. These guys might backstab me. Then pickaxe dude "accidentally" hit my side. HP at 70%. No hesitation—I popped the smoke grenade.
"You crazy...!"
"Where are we?!"
I'd slipped out, boxed up, and watched. Zombies still on them.
"Argh! I got bit!"
"Shit... no smoke?!"
Sudden casual speech— they knew each other. Planned betrayal from the start. I tossed an empty bottle from afar.
"Argh! Run!"
"N-no! I can't!!"
Zombies cleared, I hit the car for quest items: supplies log (skipped), food, card key. Time to base up and extract. Exit 120m away.
Passed their corpses en route.
"Mmm, delicious."
My bag was stuffed after looting them clean. 50m to exit. Box-crawled zombie packs—tense but smooth.
Exit swarmed. Dropped box, held F to open. 10 seconds, any hit fails it.
"Please...!"
It creaked open. Zombies heard and charged.
"Argh! Close faster!"
It auto-closes over 10s, even if hit. I bashed incoming hordes, praying. Couldn't dodge all, but survived.
"Phew..."
That was close. I, Lee Se-hyun, vowed that in a real zombie apocalypse, I'd trust boxes over people.