Sub Scenario - Escape (2)
“Graaaaaagh—!”
“Shit…! This is gender discrimination, you bastards!”
They were ignoring Yoo Joonghyuk so deliberately it almost felt like a coordinated plan, drooling as they locked onto me alone like I was the only meal worth having. The dread crawling up my spine was no joke.
I edged backward under the weight of those zombie stares—and the whole pack lunged for me at once.
Desperate to shake them, I bolted through an open subway door, scrambled out of the car, and sprinted toward the bridge where Kim Dokja’s group was waiting.
The first thing those things did after hauling themselves up off the floor of the subway car was practice gender discrimination.
Sure, they’d died and come back as zombies—but I had no idea where they’d pawned off their basic human decency.
Mid-sprint toward the bridge, I glanced back to check on Yoo Joonghyuk.
“…Heh.”
There she stood, arms crossed, smirking at the sight of me fleeing the zombies like it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen.
That—that—! Look at her, standing there all leisurely with her arms folded, laughing at me!
Someone’s running for their life over here. Damn it!
I tore my eyes off the smirking Yoo Joonghyuk and looked at the zombies charging after me. Dozens of them, at least, all fixated on a single person.
A number of Constellations are delighted by the sight of you fleeing from the zombies.
“Damn it…. Some of us are having a really hard time here.”
My life was actively in danger, and the Constellations were sending messages about how much they were enjoying the show. Infuriating.
Ugh—! I really didn’t want to spend coins on this.
“You dead bastards are really pissing me off!”
Activate skill: Shop User.
The long run had me gasping for air, but I forced it down and kept running as I triggered Shop User in my head.
A shop window materialized in front of me in an instant.
“From the General Shop, purchase one 20L oil drum filled with oil and one ceramic paring knife.”
Purchasing a 20L oil drum filled with oil from the General Shop.
230 Coins consumed.
Purchasing a ceramic paring knife from the General Shop.
20 Coins consumed.
Two hundred fifty coins spent. I took the 20L oil drum in my left hand and the paring knife in my right.
According to the skill instructions that had been automatically downloaded into my head, purchased items went into something like a game inventory, and I could pull them out whenever I wanted. I could also put them back—but only items bought through Shop User.
Still running, I cracked open the oil drum’s lid, tipped it, and splashed oil all over the zombies behind me.
A few of them slipped on the slick oil and went down—but I wasn’t done. Not after those bastards had forced me to spend coins.
“Let’s play with fire for real. Enchant.”
Exclusive Skill Enchant activated!
Attributes currently available for Enchant: Flame, Frost
“I will imbue the ceramic paring knife with the Flame attribute.”
The ceramic paring knife has been temporarily imbued with the Flame attribute.
The moment Enchant activated, a crimson aurora bloomed along the ceramic blade—then fire coiled around it.
“Huff… haah—! Already empty.”
I’d already burned through all twenty liters. I hurled the empty drum into the lead zombie, stopped running, and gasped for the air that had been building up to the limit in my lungs.
Still panting, I held the flame-wreathed ceramic knife three centimeters above the oil pooled on the ground and glared at the oil-soaked zombies that had stopped with me.
“……….”
“Grrrk….”
I could see their eyes flicking back and forth between the oil under their feet and the fire-wrapped knife hovering three centimeters above it.
“You’re already dead and you’re still scared….”
“GRAAAAAAAAGH—!”
My words must have hit a nerve—they roared with rough, guttural voices—but they didn’t charge me.
So these bastards still had a shred of self-awareness after all.
Even in the webtoon, when zombie Kim Namwoon got stabbed by Kim Dokja, he’d clumsily mumbled that he didn’t want to die before he went down.
And the fact that they hadn’t gone after Yoo Joonghyuk either—they must have instinctively sensed she was overwhelmingly stronger than them.
I wanted nothing more than to burn every last one of these zombie bastards at the stake for making me spend my precious 250 coins.
“………….”
“…Grrk?”
I flicked a glance at the zombie standing at the front of the pack. It seemed to feel my gaze—tilting its head as it looked back at me.
Blackened skin, white hair, a green school uniform, and a name tag that read Kim Namwoon.
“You.”
“Grrk?”
I pointed at zombie Kim Namwoon with my index finger. He pointed at himself in return, as if to ask whether I meant him, and answered with another grrk.
“You can go. Unless you want to die.”
“…Grrrk.”
I jerked my thumb toward where Kim Dokja’s group was standing. Kim Namwoon nodded once, almost gratefully, and walked past.
With that, there shouldn’t be any problem with Kim Dokja learning how to use the Bookmark skill.
The moment zombie Kim Namwoon brushed past me, he let out a howl and sprinted toward Kim Dokja’s group.
I watched him go, then turned back to the other zombies—only to find them staring blankly after the one who’d abandoned them and bolted alone toward other prey.
“Time to settle the bill, don’t you think?”
You owe me my precious 250 coins. You’ll be paying with your lives.
“KRAAAAAAAAH!!”
“Grrk! Grrk!”
I began slowly lowering the flaming knife toward the oil. The zombies shrieked and scrambled to flee in the opposite direction—
—but the oil pooled on the ground kept sending them sprawling. They fell, got up, and fell again, over and over.
“Goodbye.”
The moment the knife touched the pooled oil, fire raced across the slick ground and began to consume the oil-soaked zombies as well.
A number of Constellations nod as they watch you overcome hardship and adversity.
500 Coins sponsored.
Constellation, ‘Lord of the Riffraff,’ is disappointed you didn’t take a single hit.
Constellation, ‘God of Wine and Ecstasy,’ praises you, saying the scene made for excellent drinking fare.
300 Coins sponsored.
Constellation, ‘The Poet Who Died Mid-Drip,’’s eyes light up at your movie-quote delivery.
100 Coins sponsored.
Constellation, ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband,’ nods, calling it a thrilling scene.
100 Coins sponsored.
Constellation, ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire,’ takes an interest in your command of flame.
100 Coins sponsored.
Constellation, ‘Secretive Plotter,’ gazes upon you.
100 Coins sponsored.
Constellation, ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon,’ nods as he watches you wield fire.
100 Coins sponsored.
I burned the zombies and dropped heavily onto the ground—and the Constellations’ coin sponsorships started up all over again.
“Haa… peace.”
I’d taken those damn zombies out easily enough with oil and fire, but spending 250 coins because of them had left a bad taste in my mouth. The sponsorship rush from the Constellations fixed that right up.
“If I play this right, I should be able to get that.”
A number of Constellations are curious about your muttering.
“There’s a thing. You’ll see.”
Ding!
You have slaughtered 34 lifeforms of the 9th-grade non-human species ‘Demonkin.’
3,400 Coins acquired.
100 Coins deducted as channel usage fee.
A grin spread across my face.
“Money really is the fucking best.”
A number of Constellations look at your expression and say you look like a capitalist maniac.
I ignored the Constellations’ messages, opened Shop User again, and bought a bottle of Bacchus—my usual go-to—from the General Shop.
Purchasing one bottle of Bacchus from the General Shop.
3 Coins consumed.
“How extravagant of me.”
Still sitting on the ground, I cracked open the Bacchus and turned to look behind me.
At some point—thanks to nothing more than a single Sea Dragon’s Bite—the bridge had already been destroyed, and a bridge of light now spanned the gap where the broken one had been.
Up on that bridge, Kim Dokja was fighting Kim Namwoon, while Han Myungoh—leaving her to it—had Yoo Sangah slung over his shoulder and was hopping across on one leg.
What a complete mess—.
I watched them, thinking just how thoroughly chaotic the whole situation was, and leisurely sipped my Bacchus as I enjoyed the show of Kim Dokja fighting Kim Namwoon.
Behind me, the zombies crackled and popped as they burned.