Veteran Newbie (3)
Ju Kang-rim stood before the cleared emergency stairs, surveying the path downward. Aside from the periodically flickering emergency lights, there was no illumination at all. The elevator seemed to be operational still, but just as in a fire, riding it amid a zombie outbreak was too risky. Who knew what might lurk beyond the doors.
Ju Kang-rim raised the goblin lantern to light the stairs. As expected, it revealed everything clearly for about ten meters ahead. Descending like this, he might run into a few zombies, but he could escape without much trouble.
But Ju Kang-rim suddenly halted.
...I wonder if those people are still here?
At twenty years old, Ju Kang-rim hadn't survived alone. There had been a group of patient survivors, and after struggling alongside them for two days, rescue finally arrived. Contact had been lost as the zombie plague worsened afterward, but without their help, survival would have been far harder.
I should at least check if they're safe.
Ju Kang-rim headed toward the ward he remembered. A couple of zombies appeared along the way, but he split their skulls effortlessly with the hand axe and pressed on. He paused briefly before the door where the zombies had stood.
Gripping the handle, Ju Kang-rim hesitated a moment—then flung the door open in one swift motion.
"Eek!"
The moment the door swung wide, Ju Kang-rim pressed the axe's edge against the throat of the nurse behind it. The nurse, who had been holding a fire axe, let out a shallow gasp and recoiled with a twitch.
Ju Kang-rim pressed a finger to his lips, forcing her back. Scanning the room, he saw several elderly patients huddled inside, faces pale with terror.
He lowered the axe.
He could have knocked politely, but in their heightened state of alert, they likely wouldn't have let him in easily.
"Who are you?"
Ignoring the nurse's question, Ju Kang-rim asked, "Why didn't you evacuate? Why stay here?"
"We couldn't evacuate everyone."
The nurse seemed to relax upon realizing he was human, answering with evident relief.
Ju Kang-rim pieced it together.
"A Gate opened."
"Y-yes. But..."
"This is the long-term care ward, so the zombie plague hit simultaneously across the board. Most evacuated, but the bedridden ones stayed behind. You couldn't abandon your patients, so you're holed up here waiting for rescue, right?"
The nurse nodded frantically.
She was a good person, but Ju Kang-rim had seen countless good people like her die.
He jerked his chin toward the door. Long-term wards had no locks—for safety in emergencies.
"You should've barricaded it."
"Y-yes. We did at first, but one patient went out to call for help and hasn't come back..."
The dumbest decision when the zombie plague struck. If you missed the escape window, holing up in a sealed space maximized survival odds.
Just like I remember.
In his memory, this nurse died blocking zombies that breached the room. The questions he'd just asked were the ones past-Ju Kang-rim had always wanted to pose.
Ju Kang-rim sighed deeply.
No matter how adept he was at zombie hunting, escorting this group would be a burden. Leaving them behind, though, meant accepting casualties that weighed on his conscience.
Then, a chime resolved his dilemma.
Escape the Hospital
📍 Objective: Escape the hospital with the patients
🎁 Rewards:
• Pointless Lives
• Self-Inflicted Hardship
Ju Kang-rim stared at the rewards for a long moment before typing.
So this is the madman behind the insane red interface.
Ju Kang-rim was pragmatic. He had no intention of risking his neck just to escort patients. It wasn't hugely dangerous anyway; hunters would arrive in a couple days. Staying put was safer by the book.
But if you're nudging me to save them, there'd better be rewards to match.
Ju Kang-rim was at a loss for words. Yeomra was right. He'd shone so brightly in this hospital back then—it wasn't for nothing he'd chosen the zombie hunter path later.
But Yeomra dropped the jokes and added a new reward.
Escape the Hospital
📍 Objective: Escape the hospital with the patients
🎁 Rewards:
• Pointless Lives
• Self-Inflicted Hardship
• 10 nyang per patient
10 nyang per patient?
Ju Kang-rim counted the survivors. Seven including the nurse. Full survival meant 70 nyang—a hefty sum.
Yeomra teased, but Ju Kang-rim had no intention of letting even one get infected.
He turned to the nurse. "We should escape."
"Pardon? But protocol..."
"This hospital's a priority protection zone for local zombie hunters. No one's here yet? Means a dangerous abomination popped up in the city."
This was factual. The abomination on Bukhansan was ravaging northern Seoul, tying up all combat forces. No spare manpower for lingering hospital patients.
"No reinforcements anytime soon. The plague's only worsening, and some patients are in bad shape, right? Rescue could take days."
The nurse paled, glancing at her charges. Those too unconscious to move had already turned via the Gate. She nodded resolutely, accepting the inevitable.
Ju Kang-rim approved of her quick resolve—and felt a pang recalling how she'd died too soon trying to save them.
"I'm Ju Kang-rim. Your name?"
"Han Min-ah. Han Min-ah."
Ju Kang-rim nodded. "Good. Han Min-ah-ssi, gather what I tell you."
While the patients scrounged for makeshift weapons, Ju Kang-rim cleared the floor of zombies. No hidden ones; potential turners must've been out in the halls.
The blood-soaked returnees recoiled in horror.
"Let's go."
Familiar reaction. Ju Kang-rim moved toward the stairs without a change in expression. The patients shuffled after him, clutching improvised shields—plastic chairs, broad lids.
He didn't expect much from them combat-wise. At best, they'd buy seconds shoving zombies back with chair legs.
Click.
Ju Kang-rim raised the goblin lantern. Its bluish glow lit the dim stairs brilliantly.
The patients behind stared curiously—they lacked aura sight.
"Wh-what's that? A lantern?"
Only Han Min-ah asked, puzzled.
"You see it?"
"Yeah... faintly."
Not as clearly as Ju Kang-rim, but she had weak aura sight.
Ju Kang-rim descended briskly. In the dark, patients clung to railings and shoulders, stumbling cautiously.
"Gah... gahak."
As expected, eight zombies clustered midway down. Most had evacuated via stairs, so these were from unlocked floors or chasing survivors.
But zombies rely on sight like the living.
Ju Kang-rim calmly smashed the head of one gaping right in his face. A few reacted to the noise but chased sound blindly without visual confirmation.
He whacked them like whack-a-mole.
These small fries add up nicely.
Four more from the upper hall: 8 nyang. Sixteen here: total 38 nyang after 1 for lantern fuel.
He considered shopping but decided to save. Yeomra warned against splurging.
Nothing tricky yet anyway.
"Hurk... ugh... urk..."
Trailing patients tripped over sprawled corpses. Some dry-heaved at the gore glimpsed in emergency lights. Han Min-ah paled but murmured apologies, eyes shut.
Yeah... they reacted like this back then.
Ju Kang-rim eyed them awkwardly amid the carnage, struck anew by his regression. Future folk saw zombies like pests—no guilt in killing. But now? Zombie hunters were still scorned.
No one dared complain to the blood-drenched Ju Kang-rim, though.
"Follow carefully."
His awkward advice landed as 'Don't end up like this—or get bit.'
He descended nonstop.
First floor soon.
A few more zombies en route—dispatched easily for 56 nyang total. Nice side income.
After dropping the patients, circle back for another sweep?
Tempting, but fatigue loomed. The once-light axe now dragged. Experience aside, stamina was stamina. Untrained body couldn't risk it.
"Hold."
Before the first-floor stairs, he halted them. Zombie groans echoed below. Lantern light revealed dozens pounding and clawing at the door.
At least twenty... tricky.
Lantern sniping worked at low density. Packed tight, even darkness wouldn't shield him from the din.
"Chasing evacuees, probably."
"Yeah. Zombies love escape routes."
Ju Kang-rim glanced at Han Min-ah. As anticipated—no surprise. Better than them loose in the lobby.
Lure 'em up using height advantage, block and strike? Or find a second-floor drop path?
No viable option. The patients—mostly elderly—could barely manage themselves. They followed trustingly without complaint; that was the win.
Easy so far. Real trouble starts here.
He spotted stairs beside the first-floor emergency exit—leading down.
"Where do these connect?"
"Uh... morgue and funeral hall, I think."
Han Min-ah shuddered, imagining it. Frozen corpses turned zombies? Nightmare fuel, even if trapped in freezers.
But Ju Kang-rim recalled something.
"That hall links to the underground parking, right?"
Funeral halls connected to lots for visitors. Han Min-ah nodded vigorously.
Ju Kang-rim opted for the garage over the lobby.
"But... we'd have to break through those zombies."
"No problem."