The Cook Zombie's Rage
The Research Institute has two bosses.
The first is the security guard zombie you run into the instant you step through the first-floor lobby doors. Its body is grotesquely swollen, the result of the illegal steroid cocktail that once pumped its human muscles to bursting. As the transformation took hold, the medicine’s residual chemicals accelerated, turning the corpse into something that no longer resembled anything human.
It boasted the highest attack power in the entire facility, but Je Hyeon-o had already put it down before either of us ever saw its face.
The second is the cook zombie lurking in the underground generator room.
After the outbreak, the chef who fled to the emergency generator room had become a zombie. Trapped in a space that never stopped ringing with noise, its hearing was sharper and its aggression greater than any other zombie’s. It was a time-attack boss that kept slamming the emergency generator with shocks to drop its operating rate.
If you delayed the strategy by focusing only on deliveries, it would eventually smash the generator completely and send you straight to a bad ending. Once the boss fight began, it would attack indiscriminately, so the only way to survive was to keep its attention locked on you and prevent it from breaking the machine.
If you failed to repair it within a certain time after the fight started, the generator would explode and wipe out the entire underground zone. Even if you reduced its health to more than half before the repair finished, it was still game over—the cook zombie would detonate and take the generator with it.
Without information about the boss, you had no choice but to die.
I had already caught the cook zombie to my heart’s content. That was why I had let myself feel a little arrogant, thinking I could handle any variable that might appear.
But the zombie transformation recovering was… an unexpected variable that shattered every prediction.
The moment I exhaled the breath I had been holding, the cook zombie lunged.
“Kuaaaak—!”
“Goyo!”
“Training soldier!”
At the sudden emergency, Kwak Han-muk and Mo Hae-in moved to react immediately, but I stopped them.
“It’s fine!”
I gritted my teeth and shouted as I ran.
“I’ll handle the boss! Throw me the slingshot!”
Kwak Han-muk immediately shrugged off his sling bag and hurled it.
The slingshot flew in a perfect arc and landed exactly in my hands.
I snatched it, and Kwak Han-muk and Mo Hae-in sprinted toward the spare-parts box.
Kwak Han-muk slammed his body into the steel cabinet, forced the door open, and swept every part inside onto the floor.
◆ MAIN!! QUEST!! : Defeat the Raging Cook Zombie.
You seem to be insane. You think you are not sane yourself.
■■ You are still weak. Your abilities are also insignificant.
I swear you will never drop the system window again.
However, a terrible situation has already occurred.
The cook, who was always angry because the researchers kept complaining about the side dishes, has become even more ferocious since becoming a zombie.
It might carve you up in one stroke! Carve! Carve! Carve! Carve!
Defeating the raging cook zombie will never be easy.
‘I should have said something useful earlier.’
If I had, I would have read the system window diligently myself.
It was the same now.
There was nothing helpful, and there were only complaints and nonsense saying “you didn’t read it.”
I confirmed that the cook zombie was still chasing only me.
The reason for the recovery was unknown. I had done nothing special after Mo Hae-in bit me.
The only difference between me and the others was one thing.
I was the system.
Since it had already been recognized as the attack target, it no longer mattered if I became a zombie again.
I had to face the cook zombie as a human.
You are in a life-or-death crisis this time.
But fortunately, a way to overcome it exists.
You want to register “Mo Hae-in” and “Kwak Han-muk” to fill all three slots and raise the system’s ability by one level.
Do you want to register “Mo Hae-in” and “Kwak Han-muk”?
Ah, really.
‘If you keep spouting nonsense like this, I won’t read it.’
The strange sensation I had felt when I registered Je Hyeon-o was still vivid.
No more registrations. That was final.
I ignored the system window and ran, scanning the generator room.
The room was spacious enough to hold a huge engine, but it was not large enough for a six-minute game of tag with the cook zombie.
I was not that agile, and if I had been in zombie form, my physical abilities would have been even better by now. What a pity.
I opened the zipper of the slingshot and reached inside.
I pulled out the item Kwak Han-muk had fetched with surprising diligence despite complaining about why I needed it.
A plastic gonggi stone.
Gonggi stone: Use only for air play.
Clack, clack, clack.
Small pellets inside the stone kept clicking.
I threw one gonggi stone in the opposite direction from where I was running.
“Kuek!”
The cook zombie shrieked in a strangely high-pitched voice and immediately lunged at the stone.
Perfect.
Kwak Han-muk had brought the item properly.
The gonggi stone had been a toy the elementary-school child in the Green Zone used to play with.
The cook zombie reacted instantly to the small noise leaking from it.
It also picked up the stone and swallowed it whole, which stunned it for three seconds.
Throwing the stone and running was the cook zombie’s hidden strategy.
But there were only five stones, so I could not afford to waste them.
I had to use them wisely while the emergency generator was being repaired.
“Kruuk, krrru…”
The cook zombie picked up the gonggi stone with its rotting, swollen hand.
It instinctively grabbed it, but it seemed unsure what to do with it.
After standing there blankly for a moment, it stuffed the stone into its mouth and swallowed.
While the zombie was stunned for those few seconds, I climbed the steel shelf lined with pipes.
I reached the two-meter-high shelf and checked the emergency generator.
At that exact moment, the system window popped up with a ding.
Start repairing the emergency generator!
Repairers: Cheongroe, Morae. (Repairers cannot be changed midway.)
Current repair progress: 1%
Kwak Han-muk and Mo Hae-in sat on either side of the generator, prying off metal plates.
Mo Hae-in sprayed rust remover, then hurled the spray can with all her strength.
Clang!
The can slammed into the opposite fence.
At the same moment the stun wore off, the cook zombie rushed straight toward it.
“……”
Mo Hae-in’s trembling eyes checked that I was unharmed, then she immediately turned her head back.
She sprinted toward Kwak Han-muk, together loosening screws with a wrench and beginning to replace broken wires by color.
Both of them moved calmly according to the repair method we had been briefed on.
I expected it to be finished within six minutes.
Thanks to Mo Hae-in stalling for time, I safely climbed onto the steel shelf.
“Kiaaaaa!”
The cook zombie screamed horribly and slammed into the shelf with a heavy thud.
The impact was strong enough to vibrate the floor-fixed steel shelf.
It was most important to keep the cook zombie’s gaze locked on me.
I placed the repair-progress system window in the corner of my vision and waited until it climbed the shelf.
Then, leaving one last section, I started running.
As I ran along the long steel shelf inside the generator room like a track, the cook zombie chased after me.
The blood-stained apron fluttered wildly behind it as it followed my path.
Just before the shelf ended, I threw the second gonggi stone toward the opposite side.
The cook zombie reacted as expected, turning its head.
Uddangtang!
The zombie chasing the stone fell beneath the shelf.
After a few seconds of being unable to move from the unexpected fall, it twisted and stood up with a grinding sound.
Then it ran toward where the stone had rolled.
I checked the repair situation.
Mo Hae-in had turned back to the right, wiping rust and loosening the inner screws.
On the left, Kwak Han-muk had finished connecting the wires and was tightening each screw one by one.
Sweat ran down Kwak Han-muk’s temple because of the heat radiating from the generator’s engine.
When the cook zombie returned to the steel shelf, I jumped to the generator’s cooling fan.
The hot wind blasting from the fan was painful, but the noise was the loudest here, so I could confuse the cook zombie for a while.
Indeed, the zombie chasing me stumbled and lost its target for a moment.
For the next minute it would wander looking for a new target.
But after that, its aggro would reset and it would pour attacks into the generator.
I had to act before the minute was up.
I secured a small safe zone and counted in my head while checking the opposite fence.
Beyond the fence was another emergency generator that had stopped working.
While watching the cook zombie, I threw the third gonggi stone the instant its aggro reset.
The stone was neither too strong nor too weak, flying perfectly through the gap between the fence bars and landing in the ideal spot.
It was a position the cook zombie’s hand could not quite reach.
As soon as it heard the sound, the zombie stuck to the fence.
Its hand could not reach through the gaps, so it began tearing with raw strength.
Thud, thunk— the fence tore, and sharp edges pierced the back of the zombie’s hand.
Rotten fluid dripped from the pierced hand.
But the zombie felt no pain.
It tore the fence apart messily, eventually grabbing the gonggi stone and stuffing it into its mouth.
It was an unexpected sight.
In the game, only the action of tearing the fence had appeared; no one had told me it could injure itself this badly.
Since it was dot graphics, information was limited.
‘I can’t damage the hand because it’s the cook.’
I had no choice but to change the plan slightly. I took the Glock 19 from the slingshot.
The compact model held fifteen rounds.
But I planned to use only one.
The cook zombie’s health was not high, so if I used it wrong, its health would drop below half and it would self-destruct.
It was a convenient but dangerous gamble.
I had avoided using firearms normally, but I had no choice for suppression.
I pulled the slide back to chamber a round and aimed at the cook zombie.
In FPS games I had been a master, but in reality it would be difficult.
I had been exempted from basic military training, so this was my first time actually holding a real gun.
The prickly texture of the checkerboard pattern on the palm felt rough.
I placed my finger on the trigger, body tensed.
The cook zombie growled and turned toward me. It recognized the breath I exhaled and immediately lunged.
I waited calmly.
‘When it comes closest.’
It was the best way to reduce aiming errors.
The approaching zombie looked like slow motion.
Even though it could not possibly be slow.
Just as I focused tightly, heat rose from my eyes.
I had felt this heat several times recently.
Despite the strange phenomenon, I was not scared.
I rather felt it was natural.
I pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Instant recoil sent the barrel shooting up, and the shell ejected sideways.
The first shot missed, leaving only a long scar on the flesh.
But I curled the corners of my mouth into a smile.
I immediately pulled the trigger again.
This time it did not miss. The bullet penetrated the knee bone.
“Kiaak!”
The cook zombie lost balance and fell. The sound of the falling shell rang sharply.
I immediately lowered the barrel. If I attacked more here, I would enter the self-destruct range.
I breathed lightly and checked the generator side.
But Kwak Han-muk and Mo Hae-in were not repairing.
They had stopped, staring at me with tense expressions.
What?
I wondered if something was near me, so I looked around.
There was nothing.
Instead, my face was reflected in the glass window of the fire-extinguisher cabinet.
Even on the dirty glass, a clear light was engraved.
My pupils were glowing gold.