Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Choose Your Weapon
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"W-What the hell is this?"
"What's floating around up in the sky right now?"
"I-I can see it too!"
Not just me—the cards were visible to everyone else here as well.
Everyone around me was staring at the same sight.
'It means pick one of these cards.'
There were four cards floating in front of my eyes.
A dagger, a bow, a bat, and a gun.
Pick a card, and you probably get the weapon it shows.
Excitement lit up the faces of those who'd figured it out.
"Whoa, jackpot! I've got the gun card."
"Me too, me too!"
"With this, zombies will be a piece of cake!"
Zombies were strong and intimidating monsters.
But that didn't mean you couldn't take them down.
No, with a weapon, killing them wouldn't be hard at all.
Especially if that weapon was a gun?
One person could stand against an army.
'But is it really that straightforward?'
From the vibe in the room, most people seemed to have the gun card.
That was like having a full squad of soldiers right here.
Even if dozens of zombies charged in, they could handle it with good coordination.
Honestly, things felt a bit too easy.
'This is an apocalypse novel.'
Would they hand out good gear to random extras like this?
That'd make the difficulty way too low.
It'd be boring as hell, a total snoozefest.
If I were the author, I wouldn't write it that way.
-Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Grraaaah!"
The pounding at the door turned everyone's faces pale.
A relentless thud echoed nonstop.
The door that had held off the zombies so well was about to give way.
Weapons aside, the zombies themselves instilled pure terror in everyone.
"I-It’s all their fault!"
That’s when one woman screamed, pointing at us like a demon.
"Those bastards brought the zombies here!"
"Cut the bullshit. Does that sound like just one zombie out there?"
A flicker of annoyance rose in me.
Even now, blaming others?
"And didn’t you see the message in the air? This was happening whether we came or not. If anything, we’re the ones in danger here."
Maybe she had no comeback.
The woman clamped her mouth shut.
I just turned away.
No time to waste on petty arguments.
I had to decide on an item before time ran out.
The best choice for this situation.
'Guess I’ll check it out first.'
I didn’t deliberate long.
Instead of picking a card, I opened my skill window.
This choice could mean life or death.
Worth investing a skill in.
"I agree."
The moment I muttered it, a message popped up.
The same selection window as before.
1. The first comment on the prologue
2. The comment with the most dislikes on chapter 1
3. The comment with the most likes on chapter 2
4. The longest comment on chapter 2
'One more comment added to the list.'
The previous ones had vanished.
Replaced by ones from chapter 2.
I pondered briefly and picked 3.
4 was tempting too, but
the high-like comment had helped before.
Betting on it again.
'......No bullets?'
No time to think.
I grabbed the bat card and yelled.
"Everyone, don’t pick the guns! They’re empty—no bullets!"
Was I too late?
Or did they just ignore me?
-Click! Click!
Almost everyone chose guns.
But a few seemed to have listened at the last second, faces falling in realization.
-KABOOM!
"Grraaaah!"
The door flew off its hinges, and zombies poured in.
Not an overwhelming number, but
the fearless charging corpses were threat enough.
"Uwaaaah!"
Faces drained white, people aimed their guns.
Pulled the triggers.
-Click! Click!
But the guns just made empty metallic clacks.
No one-on-one massacres like they’d hoped.
"W-What the fuck! This gun... no bullets!"
"Uwaaaah! Save me! Save me! Kaaaah!"
......If they’d prepared to fight with something else from the start, it might’ve been different.
Guns without bullets were still solid clubs.
But the realization threw them into panic.
Terror-stricken, they couldn’t even swing before dying.
'No time to worry about others.'
A zombie charged me.
I gripped my new weapon tight.
Full Power Strike
Consumes 50 mana to deal massive damage on the next hit.
The baseball bat I’d grabbed in a rush.
More than enough to kill a charging zombie.
-Thwack!
The zombie’s head flew off from my swing.
Great reach, solid power against corpses.
Way better than a mediocre sword.
"A-Amazing, Ji-hoon..."
"It’s just a good weapon. What’d you pick?"
"Oh. I got... this."
Hye-na cautiously showed me a knife.
An unusual pick.
"It’s coated in poison, so stabbing spreads it."
Like my baseball bat,
this wasn’t just any dagger.
'Definitely an event designed to screw over gun-pickers.'
I didn’t know why.
But this world seemed hell-bent on killing people.
"Why a knife, though?"
"I heard you say no bullets and panicked, switched quick, and this ended up in my hand."
At least one person listened.
A dagger wasn’t ideal here, though.
"Too short—dangerous. Use this for now."
"T-Thanks."
I pulled a rifle from under a corpse and handed it over.
Better than a knife with its length.
'Hope she holds up.'
I swung the bat, dropping another zombie.
Glancing around, the crowd had thinned a lot already.
"Uwaaaah! Die! Die!"
"Get lost! Do you know who I am?!"
A few survivors swung rifles desperately.
Seemed they’d caught on after the frontrunners died.
'Might make it through like this.'
The broken door wasn’t wide.
Maybe 1 or 2 zombies at a time.
The horde was scary,
but not if they couldn’t swarm all at once. We could manage.
'Problem’s that one.'
I eyed a zombie standing beyond the door.
It was watching me too.
It definitely had intelligence.
Hanging back, letting weak zombies fight for it.
'Why target me, though?'
Because I’d escaped it before?
Seeing me as a dangerous prey?
'Fine by me if it stays put.'
With that thought, I dropped another zombie.
Stamina still good.
Good call on the bat.
Then a voice from the side.
"Hye-na! I’ll protect you! Stay close!"
"Huh? Oh... okay."
The cycling club captain had sidled up.
Claimed he’d fight for her sake.
But really, he was hanging back a bit.
Even sneaking glances at me.
'Ah, trying to leech off us?'
Hye-na was fighting too,
but mostly under my protection.
The bat was lighter than a gun.
Naturally, I was stronger than most here.
So next to Hye-na was the safest spot.
'What a joke.'
He’d ditched us faster than anyone earlier.
Now glomming on immediately.
"......"
Hye-na looked displeased too.
Not the time to call him out, though.
That’s when we were cutting down zombies.
"Hye-na, get back!"
"Huh?"
The moment I shouted, the tentacle monster unleashed its tentacles.
They speared through people in an instant.
"Guhk!"
"W-What..."
Fighters went limp without resistance.
One hurtled toward us too.
"Tch!"
I swung the bat fast.
Thwack! The tentacle ricocheted aside.
Half luck, honestly.
"Gaaaargh!"
But the cycling club captain next to us wasn’t so lucky.
The tentacle pierced his chest dead-on.
"S-Save..."
He reached for us pleadingly.
Nothing we could do.
-Splash!
"Uwaaaah!"
The tentacle dragged them away.
A gaping hole in its belly split wide, teeth sprouting.
It swallowed them whole.
-Crunch, munch.
Heads literally exploded.
Bones shattered, blood oozing from mangled flesh.
The tentacle monster chewed the meat lumps down.
One hand plopped unfinished to the floor.
"Eek!"
A gruesome sight too horrific to watch.
Hye-na trembled, face ashen.
'That’s how it ate the others earlier.'
No better off than when we fled before.
Worse, even, with remaining zombies.
'...?!'
But its tentacles didn’t stop after the people.
It grabbed its own zombie kin and shoved them in.
"......What the hell?"
Its body swelled unnaturally.
Already huge, now nearly brushing the ceiling.
'......Did the protagonist beat this thing and survive?'
Suddenly, I really wanted to see this novel’s protagonist’s face.