Zombie Hunter Kim Hyungwoo

Inside the government's secret bunker.

The President and his cabinet ministers had been locked in meetings since early morning. Countless topics had been raised and discussed, but the most critical one by far was manpower.

An enormous amount of labor was already being poured into sealing off Seoul and the other major cities, and distributing rice rations to the citizens was eating up no small share of personnel on top of that.

"Warmer weather and the arrival of spring won't exactly make things easier on us, will it?"

It was a foregone conclusion that rising temperatures would incapacitate the zombies through decay. But properly eliminating those zombies and cremating the corpses afterward would require far more manpower than they had now.

The number of zombies inside the major cities was simply staggering.

At the President's remark, the ministers began offering their own opinions one after another.

"We should mobilize every last reservist and summon the entire civil defense force."

"That still won't be enough. Forget gender—every citizen nineteen and older needs to be conscripted."

"You really think people will show up just because we tell them to? Honestly, if I were in their shoes, I'd hide to dodge the draft myself!"

"Do not underestimate the patriotism of Korea's youth!"

"Rely on patriotism and you may well reap a backlash! What happens if mass draft resistance breaks out across the entire country? The authority of this government will be dragged through the mud!"

As the meeting room erupted into chaos, the President finally spoke.

"Let's take a short break and reconvene."

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes wearily. That was when his chief secretary approached and reported.

"We have a call from Ko Geon-hyuk, Honorary Chairman of Hyunsung Group, sir."

"Tell him I'm busy—no, wait. Put him through."

The moment the President picked up the phone, a booming voice poured out of the receiver.

"Good day ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to you, Mr. President!"

"And to you, Honorary Chairman. How are the equatorial waters treating you? Livable, I hope?"

"I've been forced out onto the open sea, all to protect my family. I miss my homeland terribly. For a Korean, there's no place like Korean soil, wouldn't you agree?"

After a few pleasantries, Ko Geon-hyuk got down to business.

"You've been worried sick about the manpower shortage lately, haven't you?"

The President answered honestly.

"Yes. It's a real problem."

"Then allow Hyunsung to help with that!"

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"We'll recruit young people and arm them!"

"Planning to raise a private army and usurp the government, are you?"

At the President's blunt joke, the Honorary Chairman burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Naturally, full authority to command that workforce would be placed in your hands, Mr. President! Zombie elimination operations are in full swing across the equator and the southern hemisphere as we speak!"

In countries with hot climates, work was already underway to dispatch the incapacitated zombies and dispose of their corpses.

"Gather up the workforce and send them there to join the extermination efforts—they'll earn foreign ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠currency and build hands-on experience at the same time."

"And once spring comes, you'd send this experienced workforce back to Korea and deploy them against the zombies in the major cities. Is that it?"

"Exactly that!"

Even to the President's ears, Ko Geon-hyuk's idea wasn't bad.

No—it was positively innovative. All the government would have to do was outsource zombie elimination to Hyunsung Group and pay the costs out of the national budget.

"But will recruiting people really be as easy as you make it sound?"

Ko Geon-hyuk replied with a voice brimming with confidence.

"If word gets out that Hyunsung is hiring, don't you think young people will come flooding in? They always have before."

"Very well. We'll give it serious consideration."

After hanging up, the President murmured under his breath.

'So to Ko Geon-hyuk, even zombies just look like money.'

I swept the area around the valley with my binoculars, scanning every detail. Two more zombies were lurking upstream.

'That's 3 coins secured!'

I shouted at the zombies.

"Hey! Yoohoo!"

But they showed absolutely no reaction to my voice. Strange. It wasn't nearly far enough for sound not to carry.

'Could it be?'

I stepped outside the Blessed Farmland and shouted at them again. This time, the zombies came sprinting toward me like madmen.

I took a single step back, returning inside the Blessed Farmland—and then something remarkable happened. The zombies stopped running and went right back to shambling aimlessly around.

'Aha!'

It wasn't just that zombies couldn't enter the Blessed Farmland. Inside it, I didn't merely attract no attention from them—I didn't exist to them at all!

I raised my bow and aimed at the nearest zombie. Deliberately targeting its torso, I loosed an arrow.

Thwip—

The arrow flew true and punched into the zombie's chest. Even so, it didn't react. To the creature, I simply did not exist.

I stuck one leg out beyond the edge of the Blessed Farmland. Immediately, the zombies came running at me again. The moment one of them closed to point-blank range, I yanked my leg back inside—and once more, it ground to a halt.

Whish—

I swung the Kukri and took the zombie's head clean off.

The severed head landed on the far side of the field's boundary, while the body toppled inward. I quickly retreated a step.

Thud—

As the zombie's carcass collapsed inside the Blessed Farmland, an extraordinary phenomenon unfolded.

Sssss—

The corpse disintegrated into dust and scattered. No—not into dust. It broke down even smaller than that, splitting into particles too fine for the eye to see until not a trace remained. Even the clothes it had been wearing dissolved into nothing.

Two more of them remained. I lured them out the same way and dealt with them one by one.

This time, the zombies' bodies had fallen on the outside of the field. I stepped out and kicked their corpses across the boundary, shoving them into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Blessed Farmland.

Sssss—

They all dissolved into dust and vanished.

'Oho!'

Back in the village, they were busy burning the carcasses of the zombies they'd killed—and burning rotting corpses produced a truly vile stench. But with the Blessed Farmland, corpse disposal was as simple and clean as could be.

'Come to think of it, this might be an even bigger jackpot than farming.'

Once spring arrived, the government would mobilize in earnest to eliminate the incapacitated zombies. Every incinerator in the country would be running at full capacity, day in and day out—there were tens of millions of corpses to process, after all.

'Start a zombie corpse disposal company and you'd make a fortune, wouldn't you?'

Either way—whether I farmed or disposed of zombie carcasses—the bigger my field, the better.

I drove my hoe into the ground and extended the field by three pyeong toward the valley. The Blessed Farmland now measured five pyeong in total. Since my goal was to reach the valley's water source as quickly as possible, the field had taken on a long, narrow shape.

I would need to stockpile plenty of coins before the zombie crisis was fully over. Only then could I boost soil fertility whenever needed and deploy Binding in an emergency.

Once the zombies were incapacitated, I planned to head for the major cities and hunt them aggressively. If it meant earning an astronomical number of coins, a little risk was worth taking.

And if I ever gained the ability to open the Blessed Farmland in multiple locations? That would be the ultimate jackpot. Plant one inside a major city and I could hunt zombies in droves, in perfect safety.

The nickname Jinbeom had coined for me popped into my head, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

'Zombie Hunter Kim Hyungwoo.'

Time to put it to work.

First, I would plant seeds in the Blessed Farmland, raise its fertility, and measure the growth speed.

I checked to see whether the beans I'd planted yesterday had sprouted.

'They did!'

The bean cotyledons had pushed up through the soil. Normally that takes a week or more—these had grown at super speed in just a single day. Even without spending a single coin on fertility, the base options alone were incredible.

'This is amazing!'

A golden future of farming my way to untold riches bloomed in my mind's eye.

'If the baseline is this good, how fast will it get once I raise the fertility?'

I changed my plans. The original idea had been to plant several kinds of seeds across one pyeong and compare their germination rates. But if raising fertility truly made same-day harvests possible, the story changed entirely. It wouldn't just be a matter of faster growth either—the stems and leaves might turn monster-grade in quality. In that case, a single watermelon seed would swallow up the entire pyeong of field on its own.

I planted a watermelon seed in the center of one pyeong of field and raised that field's fertility.

Sparkle, sparkle—

The enriched soil glittered like gemstones. It was wondrous to behold—a genuinely spectacular sight.

'Do I not need to water it at all? Fertilizer?'

For now, I decided to simply let it be.

Bzzt—

The phone vibrated. A call from Jinbeom.

"Hey, Jinbeom. What's up this early?"

"Hyungwoo, did you check the app?"

"No, why?"

"The area around here's turned yellow."

Ah.

Three zombies appearing in the valley near my home was unprecedented. I'd been so dazzled by the Blessed Farmland that I'd completely overlooked what that meant.

Jinbeom went on.

"Songhyeon-ri and Yongdam-ri have both been wiped out."

A combination of factors had sent the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠zombie numbers soaring, and as a result, the residents of the two villages nearby had all been overrun.

"Is Deoksu-ri okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine here. That's actually why I'm calling—we've decided to evacuate to the military base."

There was a small army outpost about seven kilometers from Deoksu-ri village—roughly twelve kilometers from where I was. A small garrison of about a hundred soldiers was stationed there, but most of the troops had been deployed to seal the major cities, leaving only a skeleton crew to hold the base.

A few days earlier, the local government had issued an advisory: if the situation deteriorated sharply, residents should evacuate to that military outpost. With the base surrounded by barbed wire, it was far better positioned to keep the zombies out.

Most villagers had been reluctant to abandon their homes, which was why they'd held out until now. But with the situation turning dire, everyone had come around.

"We're packing up and leaving this afternoon. Hyungwoo, come with us."

.

.

.

Past noon, I climbed the hill and looked down over Deoksu-ri village. The villagers were clambering aboard the cargo beds of military trucks. I heard that the outsiders staying in the village had also decided to evacuate to the base with them.

Bzzt—

My phone vibrated. A text message from Jinbeom.

I had, of course, decided to stay. With the Blessed Farmland right here—warm as toast and safe from zombies—leaving it behind would be nothing less than kicking away fortune when it had rolled right into my lap.

That said, I did worry about the villagers' safety.

Hmm. But I couldn't very well reveal the Blessed Farmland to them, either. If the villagers and the outsiders were absolutely trustworthy with the secret, maybe—but there was no chance of that. The very first day it was disclosed, someone would inevitably start blabbing about the field's wonders all over the internet.

And from that moment on, the worst-case scenario would unfold right in front of me. Having it stolen. Being bound and restrained. Being experimented on.

'The military base should be safe enough. Everyone should make it through to spring in one piece.'

The trucks rolled away one by one, and the village fell silent and empty. I walked back down the hill toward the Blessed Farmland.

Now, at last, my survival entirely on my own truly began.