Quite Impudent

I had seen it in the game: the setting that Je Hyeon-o's vocal cords had mutated until what came out of him was no longer a human voice.

Knowing it and hearing it were different things. The sound crawled over my skin and stood every hair on end.

I forced my locked-up brain to move.

How did he know?

I had not planned for this.

Je Hyeon-o waited for my answer, and his fingers shifted. Metal clicked against metal.

Listening to that wordless threat, I opened my mouth with care.

"I…"

A tap.

A pointed fingertip settled against my chest.

Through the thin fabric I felt the keenness of the metal. A little more pressure and it would punch straight through my heart.

The placement was not an accident. It was a statement of intent, and a very clear one.

Lie to me and I will kill you where you stand.

I swallowed the lie I had been about to tell and gave him the truth.

"I sent it to you, Lieutenant Colonel. The one that told you to stay still."

A system window bloomed in front of Je Hyeon-o.

That was the Transmission I had sent him.

Je Hyeon-o stared at the window, unblinking. I swallowed dryly and kept still.

The tension was sharp enough that it felt as if even my hair were standing on end, but the dark was kind enough to hide the goosebumps along my cheek.

I took the first operation I had originally planned—pretend it's a quest—and twisted it a little. Now it was persuade him with system windows.

I opened with something that might catch his interest, then typed the rest of the Transmission as fast as my fingers would go.

I could already picture the looks on Mo Hae-in and Gwak Han-muk's faces. I had told them I would try to talk him down, and here I was, standing in silence.

From where they stood, Je Hyeon-o and I would have looked like nothing more than two people facing each other without a word.

I am persuading him, Captains. Very hard, in fact.

I watched Je Hyeon-o and held a small, foolish hope that this would be enough to bring him over.

The contents were the sort of thing that ought to have interested him. He always aimed to clear Trials as fast as possible. No matter which one he was dropped into, he never let a clear take more than a week.

Even so, my desperate pitch about how useful I could be drew no reaction at all.

The metal hand was still resting on my chest.

I reached for the last argument I had not wanted to use.

The Trial that had turned Je Hyeon-o into an infected. I held my breath and waited for him to react.

A smiling emoticon surfaced on his goggles.

I hesitated, unsure what it meant, and then a grinding whisper crawled out of him.

That short line, rising as if from the bottom of an abyss, told me everything I needed to know.

We're screwed.

The first operation was a complete failure.

"Captain Gwak!"

I bolted, shouting for him. The prayer beads yanked me off my feet and flung me into the air, and at the same instant the jeep that had been waiting at a distance slammed down on the accelerator.

I landed against the spare tire on the roaring jeep's rear. Bound to the beads, perched on the tire, I twisted around to look back toward Je Hyeon-o.

The dark had already swallowed him. I still could not let myself relax. He would close the gap in a heartbeat.

The jeep tore over asphalt that had gone too long without care, pitted and split. Every time the tires hit a stone and the chassis bucked, my body bounced with it.

"Captain Mo, I need you out here now…!"

"I know, Recruit."

A pale hand shot out the window and caught the body of the jeep. Mo Hae-in hauled herself up and climbed onto the roof.

The zombie transformation was already underway, and the extra strength let her make the climb even on a moving vehicle. Gwak Han-muk lashed the prayer beads around her ankle so the speed would not tear her off.

Mo Hae-in stared into the dark for a moment, then drew the Black Moon Blade.

The spear did not turn toward the rear, where Je Hyeon-o would be coming from. It pointed at the jeep's front.

She rapped the vehicle with the Black Moon Blade, and the beads around my waist cinched tighter, binding my arms as well.

I looked like a prisoner trussed up by some armed militia.

Lashed in place, I faced the rear of the jeep—which, from where I sat, was straight ahead.

The racket drew zombies in droves, but they could not match the jeep's speed. In the space of a blink we punched through the Yellow Zone, tore across the Red Zone, and finally crossed into the Dead Zone.

The moment we entered, Dead Zombies came screaming in.

Unlike ordinary zombies, Dead Zombies could keep pace even with a jeep at full sprint. I ignored the ones closing in from every side and looked at the sky instead.

A black speck sat on the moon. It was swelling at a terrifying rate.

"Ten seconds!"

Mo Hae-in called Je Hyeon-o's position and swept her spear through the zombies blocking the jeep's path. There were simply too many pouring in from the flanks and the rear.

"Holy shit, he's fucking fast…!"

Gwak Han-muk barely had time to swear before Je Hyeon-o slid into view, and with him the black crescent-shaped aura he carved through the air.

"Captain Gwak!"

At Mo Hae-in's shout, Gwak Han-muk put the accelerator through the floor.

The jeep shot forward. Dozens of black crescents buried themselves, smooth as silk, in the stretch of road we had just left.

"Gyaaah!"

The zombies that had been lunging for the fresh human on the jeep's tail took the crescents instead and came apart as dead meat.

The slashes Je Hyeon-o had meant for me hit the zombies instead.

A metal hand came for the jeep in the next breath.

A shriek of torn air split the night, and the beads wrapped around me yanked my body up. The fingertips that had just missed their mark raked the jeep's rear instead.

Screeeeech!

The sound of steel being clawed dragged on and on. The jeep was left with gouges like a beast's rake, but the spare tire, at least, had been spared.

The attack he had missed carved through the zombies glued to the jeep's tail, same as before.

Dozens of Dead Zombies bared their teeth and howled. They had been sprinting with everything they had, rotten arms stretched as far as they would go, and they never so much as grazed a speck of dust off the tires, let alone a scrap of my flesh. They only came apart in clumps under Je Hyeon-o's strikes.

The second operation—use Je Hyeon-o to clear the zombies—was proceeding beautifully.

It was the plan that had earned me a heartfelt you lunatic from Mo Hae-in the instant I said it out loud.

There was, to be fair, a modest amount of risk. I had to serve as bait so Je Hyeon-o would keep unloading attacks. Mo Hae-in had to stand on the jeep and hold the front with her spear. Gwak Han-muk had to drive and work the prayer beads at the same time. Little things like that.

In the end, though, the operation worked. Mo Hae-in only had to cut down the zombies in the jeep's path. Je Hyeon-o handled the rest.

Every time he struck, Dead Zombies vanished in satisfying swathes. If I had to put a name to the feeling, it was like running a cheat in a game.

And maybe a second chase counted as on-the-job experience, because it felt smoother than the first time he had come after me.

I dangled off the back of the jeep and thoroughly enjoyed my role as premium bait.

Then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my eyes met Mo Hae-in's.

"……"

Zombie Mo Hae-in, still mid-swing against the horde, paused with the Black Moon Blade in her hands and stared at me. Her face said she had a great deal she would like to discuss. I only then noticed the grin I had been wearing and put it away.

She scowled once, hard, and went back to carving through zombies with the Black Moon Blade.

Thanks to Gwak Han-muk's rage-fueled driving, the Research Institute began to rise out of the dark.

It was the Dead Zone, and the land around the institute was ruin. In the Yellow Zone and the Red Zone you could still find the occasional intact building. Here, the only structure left standing was the Research Institute itself, raised out of reinforced materials.

It jutted up alone, like the last hope of a world already ended.

Having used the cheat named Je Hyeon-o to reach the institute in record time, I scanned the ground ahead.

"Captain Gwak, right turn!"

Gwak Han-muk wrenched the wheel in front of the Research Institute. The tires painted skid marks across the asphalt. The chassis lurched hard enough that I thought the oversteer would roll us, and then he threaded the corner on a razor-fine drift.

A black metal hand came down on me.

Je Hyeon-o had been waiting for this. The jeep's speed dropping. Gwak Han-muk locked on the driving, too busy to work the beads.

I still had one card left.

Binding.

It only lasted a few seconds, but the control was absolute.

The metal hand that would have carved me to pieces this time froze in midair. His body, unable to govern the wings, dropped, and the black shape tumbled across the asphalt.

"Kh…"

I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed a groan as a pain like fire in my sockets tore through me. I had braced for it, at least, so it was bearable.

I really didn't want to use that unless I had to.

If I had not used it just now, I would have died. A little pain was obviously better than that.

I did not think I could use it again, though. One more time and something in my body would give out for good. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could feel it.

The jeep slammed on the brakes and lurched to a stop. My body jerked; the prayer beads slithered loose and set me down on the ground.

My feet finally touched earth.

"Ah."

My legs folded. My vision went dark red, and the sound of my own heartbeat thundered in my ears.

"Recruit!"

Mo Hae-in jumped from the jeep and caught me before I hit the pavement. Gwak Han-muk scrambled out of the driver's seat after her, took one look at me, and nearly had a heart attack.

I wiped my chin with the back of my hand and offered an awkward excuse.

"I'm fine. I'm just in a dying state. Hunger and thirst gauges… Give me a minute to eat and I'll recover right away."

"…What?"

They both stared at me, startled. I felt a little embarrassed.

We all skipped meals. Why am I the only one dying?

Both of them had pushed themselves far harder than I had, and neither had dropped into a dying state. Our base stamina was simply on different levels.

A Trial will fill in whatever abilities fall short of the baseline needed to clear it. It will not shave down anything that already sits above that line.

Mo Hae-in, Gwak Han-muk, and I had never been standing on the same starting mark.

Which meant I should have been that much more careful about the hunger and thirst gauges. I had been so locked on Je Hyeon-o that I had made a beginner's mistake.

"You… what were you doing until you got this bad?"

"I'm sorry."

"That isn't— I wasn't looking for an apology."

Mo Hae-in shoved her hair back roughly and whipped around toward Gwak Han-muk. She did not even get a word out. He was already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hauling a backpack out of the rear seat in a panic.

He upended the whole pack and dumped the food into my hands in a clattering heap.

I clutched the armful of rations and looked up at him.

"I think I just need one can and a bottle of water."

"Just eat. Eat all of it."

He tore the wrapper off a sausage stick and shoved it into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my mouth.

I chewed, swallowed, and the thunder in my chest faded. The tunnel of my vision opened back out.

While I took the bottled water Mo Hae-in had already uncapped for me and drank, Gwak Han-muk kept making noises of disbelief.

"Whoa. This is actually insane. Gwangbam hyung-nim's gonna drive me crazy."

Gwangbam.

The nickname Gunbam had, at some point, made it all the way to Gwangbam.

The moment I had crammed enough food and water into myself to get the gauges back up, I checked on Je Hyeon-o.

He had been lying where he fell, sprawled and still. Then he pushed himself up in one smooth motion.

Gwak Han-muk and Mo Hae-in stepped in front of me at once.

Je Hyeon-o flicked his hand through the air.

"Lieutenant Colonel. You back with us now?"

Gwak Han-muk asked it like he did not quite believe the answer would be yes. An emoticon surfaced on the goggles.

Was that a wink…?

It did seem to mean he was lucid again.

Je Hyeon-o crooked a metal finger in a come-here.

Gwak Han-muk stepped forward, and Je Hyeon-o shook his head. Mo Hae-in stepped forward, and he shook his head again.

He kept shaking it until I was the one who moved. Then the motion stopped.

I was still deciding whether to close the last of the distance when a click sounded in the dark.

Je Hyeon-o was taking off his goggles.