Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Zombie Apocalypse (16)
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After returning home, we washed our hands and feet clean and decided to have the most important meal of the day.
"Let's have ramen."
"We're finally at my boyfriend's place, and all we're gonna eat is ramen? But since those bastards trashed my place, I guess I'll have to keep living here."
Na-eun tried to fire back with a weak sex joke but got a bit angry remembering what happened earlier.
She's not mad at me, so it should be fine.
"I cooked yesterday, so you do it today, Sian. Make the ramen tasty."
"I'll boil it perfectly according to the recipe."
I grabbed two packs of ramen from the food box, filled a pot with water, and set it to boil.
We have leftover rice from yesterday, so ramen with that should do it.
Na-eun climbed onto the bed—the clean zone of our room—and started tapping away on her smartphone.
"What're you doing?"
"Uploading a short video and checking in with friends. Now that the random generation thing is gone, wouldn't it be better to stick with groups? We should think about that too."
Na-eun brought up groups first.
The internal breakdowns from zombie drops—the biggest weakness of groups—were basically gone now.
It's still random to some extent, so we can't relax completely, but the situation was way better than before.
That meant we had to deal with three times as many plague seeds, and more people would make that easier.
If a battalion-sized zombie horde came, we'd need a battalion to fight it.
As the water started boiling, I added the noodles and powder, then suddenly remembered and said to Na-eun,
"Aren't you gonna sort your bag? What'd you pack?"
Na-eun grimaced at my words and replied,
"I grabbed some leftover clothes, but I'm just gonna toss 'em. Pretty sure those guys did something gross to them. That's why I brought it out to dispose of."
"Wanna sprinkle it in Room 101?"
"The official dump. Please do."
I added everything, picked up the bag Na-eun had brought, went down to Room 101, and dumped the trash inside.
It wasn't much—just plain underwear and socks for workouts—but I mixed it well with the household garbage and looked around the place.
It was still a dump, but you could totally tell Jung Jun-ho had scavenged materials like the heavy fridge and curtains from here.
After tossing the trash, I headed back up the stairs and spotted a woman coming out of her place with a white plastic bag.
There were eight confirmed survivors in this officetel right now.
Five guys: me, Jung Jun-ho, and two from 104 I didn't know well.
Three women: Na-eun, the one from 106, and this lady.
Judging by where she came from, she must live in 205.
She caught my eye, bowed in greeting, and I nodded back before heading home.
I stirred the ramen gently, turned off the heat, and called Na-eun.
Na-eun scooped some into her bowl at the table, and I dug in too.
Instant food hits different!
"We'll need fire for ramen next time too. Should I collect books or something?"
Everyone prioritized useful supplies, but I figured there had to be piles of books or newspapers somewhere.
How long could people last without fire, electricity, or water?
"The mart didn't seem to care about that stuff. They've got plenty."
Na-eun kept mentioning the mart, so maybe she was a little tempted, but we needed to think it over.
We finished lunch, filled our bellies, and were about to chill on the bed when a loud voice boomed from outside.
"Star Mart is recruiting survivors! Anyone who can fight! Anyone who can do odd jobs! Everyone, come to Star Mart!"
"Those lunatics?"
They were shouting loud enough to hear from the third floor for their promo.
Even if they could handle the zombies it'd attract, this wasn't decent business practice.
I grabbed my baseball bat, stepped into the hall, and looked down. About ten people were wandering around with weapons.
"I asked around, and they decided to recruit like this. It's safe to gather now, right?"
"Na-eun, you heard that saying? When five people group up, one of 'em's trash."
"Yeah, I think so."
"With fifty, that's ten trash. Get too big, and malicious types will slip in for sure. It's been less than two days since zombies hit. Not enough time for old groups to dissolve. Survival groups could clash with ones out for profit."
"Could happen. But couldn't forty good ones beat ten bad?"
"What if I'm one of the ten?"
"Ah. Tough call. But our Sian isn't trash~"
Na-eun hugged me from behind, wrapping around my waist, and we headed back inside like that.
Zombies come? We'll smash 'em in the hall.
Back on the bed, we checked the video on Na-eun's phone of me fighting earlier.
It was short, but outsiders could see how I moved.
I charged the target, swung the bat at near-invisible speed.
Zombie head flying off, paused it—jaw completely smashed.
"So, is this hopeful?"
"Not many can drop a zombie in one hit."
Status Window didn't mean much, and the quest gave a big boost—not normal.
Should look into Insight too.
Watching Na-eun tap away furiously on her phone made me wanna check community sites too.
Skipped regular posts, found highly recommended ones with decent info.
Analysis of large zombie horde movements, mapped out nicely on a chart.
Korea's known big zombie groups: four total. Two heading Busan, two Seoul.
No clue how massive they'll be by arrival.
With infections and plague seeds joining, impossible to calculate.
If we survive to the 29th for modern weapons, could we turn it around?
Another post had useful info.
[Flamethrowers don't count as modern weapons? Zombie roast go go]
Not commercial—DIY flamethrower video burning zombies. If not banned modern tech, we could make one.
But need materials.
Another analyzed the World and Plague Lord's convo from earlier.
'This could help.'
Plague seeds dropped in high-density areas from the start.
Zombies clustered there first, but as people fled and bunched up in new spots, seeds rained down, causing mass infections.
Repeated a few times, big groups turned zombie, so World suggested randoms—now groups are better for survival.
Similar to my thoughts, but backed with overseas zombie horde pics for credibility.
Seeing the horde pics, I regretted not having magic.
Evan Jack could've cleared that with fire magic in seconds.
Julian Loa's light probably even better against zombies.
Compared to those OP powers, my Survival Rules felt too ordinary.
Just strong for this layer, right?
'Ah, gotta boost combat power for quests. Workout?'
Na-eun tapped my thigh as I pondered ways to get stronger.
"What?"
"Uploaded it to NewTube. Now I can show friends."
She posted the short clip of me blasting a zombie head.
After horde pics, fighting one felt kinda embarrassing, but damn, that head flew far.
"Won't get many views."
Title: My BF is Super Strong! No algo pickup.
"Just keeping it. For memories."
She switched to selfie cam, leaned on me, snapped a pic.
Us smiling with peace signs—cute couple vibe.
"Seeing pics like this, hard to believe zombies are even a thing."
"Yeah."
Step off this bed, and survival supplies everywhere.
Zombie outbreak just day one plus 14 hours.
To lighten the quiet mood, I teased Na-eun,
"Na-eun, wanna raid next door? Rule was if not back by night, treat as dead. Should be fine."
"301? Hmm. Sure? They raided ours too. And folks here won't care much."
Na-eun replied brighter, so we left the bed for 301.
Yesterday's 101 showed front doors open with enough strength.
Kang! Kang! Kang!
Smashed 301's knob with the bat, busted it open.
Like the daytime spot, wanted to remove door to block stairs, but leaving it open and barricading back with heavy stuff seemed good.
Inside 301: not much supplies.
Looked like a solo male college guy's place—bare like my room pre-hoarding.
"Sian, no password on this!"
Na-eun found and opened a laptop first, called me over.
I checked the fridge: some frozen food, drinks.
Food this scarce, no wonder he died outside.
"Found porn."
She was messing with the laptop for that?
"Na-eun, now you get how merciful smashing laptops is."
Felt less bad about Geon-woo and his crew.
It was protecting human rights, after all.