Harvesting Virgin Zombie Points
Dohui had been bustling around the bunker since first light, running inspections on everything in sight. That left the two of us to make do with a light breakfast of bacon and toast. She kept at it afterward, so I left her to the work and started getting ready for a fight — I was going to wipe out the zombies in the bunker's front yard.
"Time for the showdown."
I was resolved. The night before, just as I was drifting off, I'd confirmed that the stat surge from climbing F-Rank to E-Rank was enormous. I had about twenty points left until the rank-up — a relatively easy haul, all things considered. The summit was right there in front of me, and the goal of hitting E-Rank had crystallized into something sharp and certain.
So was I going to open the gate, step outside, and start beating zombies to death?
Nope. I wasn't going out. There was no need to. Thanks to Dohui, I could hunt them just fine without ever leaving. Last night, she had handed me a variable that changed everything.
"Let's hunt them from here."
I climbed up to the bunker's 2.5 floor. The first floor was primarily living space. The basement held supplies and equipment of every kind. Above the first-floor ceiling there was a pocket of extra room, and sitting on top of that was the 2.5 floor. Crack open the small iron hatch up there, and you had a clear view of the bunker's front yard. This was where I'd take the zombies apart.
The method:
"Come forth, Reverse Draw Compound Crossbow!"
I was going to hunt them with the reverse-draw compound crossbow. A crossbow, in other words.
The Goddess had never mentioned that awakening abilities would appear after the apocalypse hit, which meant I'd had to prepare at least a minimum of defensive weapons. Steel pipes, an axe, a baseball bat — all stocked. A stun gun and a gas pistol too. What I needed most, of course, was an actual firearm. But even in the Korea I'd been reincarnated into, getting a gun was no easy feat. So I'd picked up a few crossbows and secured a generous supply of bolts to go with them.
"If I can hunt them with a crossbow, there's no reason to go outside."
That was exactly why I hadn't rushed out to kill zombies on day one. I'd figured it would be smarter to nibble away at them from the second floor with a crossbow. If yesterday afternoon's situation had held, that slow, grinding approach would have been the only option.
Hunting zombies with a crossbow was anything but easy — which was precisely why I'd used the word nibble. A crossbow's range stretched well past a hundred meters, but once the target sat around fifty, accuracy fell off a cliff. And even if they were only shambling, they were still moving. Landing a hit under those conditions was a tall order. You'd have to pour bolts into them and hope. That had been the scene in front of the bunker on day one of the apocalypse, before the sun went down, so my plan had been to thin them out gradually rather than wipe the slate in one go.
Then Dohui had herded them right up to the front of the bunker — and she'd done a damn good job of it. That was the variable.
At this distance? More than enough.
On her way back, Yeon Dohui had drawn a whole pack of zombies all the way to the bunker's front gate.
Grrrrrr....
Kkrrrrrrrr....
Guhk, guhk, krrrrr....
Shamble.... shamble.... shamble....
The zombies were still milling around the armored vehicle, bumping into each other as they wandered. About ten meters out. At ten meters, I could put a bolt through a zombie's skull with precision.
"How many are there? Looks like more than when Dohui got back."
The pack she'd dragged in had been roughly a dozen. The number I was looking at now was closer to twenty. The sound of her engine had probably pulled in the ones that had been lurking behind the bunker as well. She'd pulled aggro like a champ.
Situation assessed, I loaded a bolt into the crossbow.
Oh... so General Weapon Proficiency applies to crossbows too.
The moment I went to use it, the trait's correction settled over me. I'd figured I'd feel the difference even more once I was in actual combat, and that assessment had been dead on. I'd practiced with the crossbow now and then before this. The sensation I'd had then and the one I had now were worlds apart.
Fwoooosh!
Feeling the correction from General Weapon Proficiency, I loosed a bolt at a zombie.
THWACK!
The bolt flew true and punched straight into the zombie's skull. No — it punched clean through. The instant I pulled the trigger, a powerful sense of a guaranteed hit washed over me. And then I—
Whoosh!
—ducked straight down out of sight.
Their eyesight is definitely bad, that much is confirmed... but they might be a lot more sensitive to presence than I'm giving them credit for.
I'd verified the poor vision yesterday. But this was still only day two of the zombie apocalypse. It was too early to start making assumptions about their traits, which was why I was trying to approach this as carefully as possible.
You have slain a zombie.
You have secured 1 inaugural Zombie Point.
In that instant, a booming system message smashed through the silence I'd so carefully, so seriously constructed.
Ba-bam-bam!!
"They even throw in a fanfare for Zombie Points. Hell yeah..."
My grade was Special Hidden. My class was Nano Warrior. And I, bearer of that tremendous prestige, had just killed a single zombie and ducked out of sight. For such a pathetic picture, the celebration was absurdly over the top. Regardless, I collected my virgin Zombie Points to the Status Window's applause.
I peeked my head back out and checked on the zombies.
Grrrrrr....
Kkrrrrrrrr....
Shamble.... shamble.... shamble....
Fortunately, they hadn't changed their behavior in any meaningful way. Apparently they didn't have the awareness to register the sound of a bolt. They didn't seem to have the brainpower to catch on just because one of their own had keeled over, either. Like the zombies everyone already knew, they looked like they only reacted to loud noises or a direct sense of presence.
Alright then. Time to hunt!!!
Having confirmed their tendencies, I found a surge of confidence kicking in a little late. I loaded another bolt and took aim with a swagger I hadn't had a minute ago.
Fwoooooosh!!!
I fired without a shred of hesitation.
THWAAACK!!!!
Another skull. Another perfect hit. After that I just kept shooting as fast as I could reload.
Fwoooooosh!!!!
Fwoooosh!!!
I kept firing.
Thunk!! Three.
Thwack!! Four.
Pewk!!! Five.
WHAM!!!! Six.
THWAAACK!!! The seventh zombie went down.
Hey, hey, hey... Come on out! Don't hide behind the vehicle!
One bashful zombie refused to emerge from behind the armored car. I could have just picked off a different one, but stubbornness kicked in.
That's it! Come on out!
Fwoooooooosh!
THWACK!
After a few minutes of patient waiting, I nailed it. Eight zombies down.
Flop!!
Thud!!
Crumple!
Flop!!
The corpses piled up, one after another, across the ten meters of ground in front of the bunker.
That one makes fifteen!!!
Fwoooooosh!!!
THWAAAAACK!!!
Fifteen zombies in total.
Okay. Fifteen points. Exactly fifteen kills.
Daily Zombie Point Cap
F-Rank — 15 / 20
I checked the Status Window and confirmed it. The satisfaction was a different flavor from what I'd felt earning Training Points. This felt like winning a war.
Might as well dump them in right now.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Savoring the taste of victory, I mashed the Agility, Stamina, and Durability buttons on the Status Window in rapid succession.
"Ahhhh, that feels solid... Ahhhh, so damn reassuring...!"
I'd filled everything except Mana. As far as physical ability went, I was already E-Rank.
I pulled my smartphone from my pocket. I needed to text Yeon Dohui, who was still inspecting the bunker.
I'd taken fifteen of the twenty and left five standing. I wanted Dohui to kill one herself so I could see whether she'd awaken.
"I'm here."
A few minutes later, Yeon Dohui came up to the 2.5 floor.
"Hey. Come on up."
I answered as I watched her climb the stairs.
"What, we're hunting from here? With the crossbow?"
Yeon Dohui looked at the crossbow in my hands as she spoke.
"That's right. Honestly, as of yesterday afternoon this wouldn't have been easy with a crossbow. But when you came back last night you dragged them all the way up to the front, and that made it possible."
I leaned lightly against the wall and looked outside as I said it, like a scout surveying enemy positions.
"Ah, so they're still shambling around the armored vehicle?"
Yeon Dohui had slammed to a stop last night and gone straight through the first gate without looking back. She hadn't known how many had actually followed her in.
"Well, hell. That's nothing."
Once she'd heard the situation, Dohui snatched the crossbow right out of my hands.
In a single motion she loaded a bolt and drew a bead on a zombie without the slightest hesitation.
Fwoooooosh!!!!
She fired immediately.
THWAAAAACK!!!!!
A clean hit, straight through the skull. Then again, maybe that was only natural. Yeon Dohui was the one who'd taught me how to shoot a crossbow in the first place.
"So this is it? This is how we find out if I awaken or not?"
There wasn't a hint of hesitation in her. She'd blown a zombie's head off with a single shot, and now she looked at me with that same cool composure, mission complete.
"I don't know about other people, so I'll just tell you what happened with me. I think I awakened about an hour after I killed my first zombie."
I scratched my head a little as I answered her. "That's just how it went for me. No idea if you'll be the same. I figure we should keep an eye on it for the rest of the day, at least."
There was no control group, so I couldn't give her a hard answer on the timing.
"Then I guess we wait. If I don't awaken by the end of today, then it's not happening."
Dohui gave a small nod and handed the crossbow back to me.
Fwoooosh!!!
Fwoooooosh!!!!
Crossbow in hand again, I started cleaning up the rest of the zombies.
Whoa... how many Zombie Points is that for today already?
The points just kept stacking. This was a gold mine.
"Alright, good luck. I'll head down first."
Yeon Dohui walked toward the stairs.
"Yeah. I'll finish up, take another look around, then come down."
Fwoooooosh!!!
I answered her without breaking concentration, still picking off zombies.
Then I heard her stop on the stairs.
"Taeshik."
Yeon Dohui called my name.
"Yeah?"
Fwoooooosh!!!
I answered as I finished off the last one, and—
"...That's what it says?"
Dohui had just informed me that she had become an Awakener.