Another Variable
Another Variable
Building 80, Number 3, Hansarang Apartment.
Two figures swayed in the dim light.
"Hngh... Haaangh..."
The man thrust his hips with a languid smile, and the woman's body rippled and heaved beneath him.
It was entirely one-sided.
His movements, driven by nothing but lust, held no consideration for her at all.
Soon, after a few more pumps of his hips, he spilled himself with a satisfied release.
The man was none other than Building Representative Seo Nam-woon.
He left the woman sprawled on the bed, steadied his breathing, then lit a cigarette.
"Hoooh...."
-Knock knock.
"Come in."
While he was still basking in the afterglow, a knock came at the door, and someone turned the handle and stepped inside.
"Sorry to interrupt while you're enjoying yourself."
The visitor was a man with a burly build.
The woman on the bed was sobbing, but he acted as if it were an everyday occurrence, not even blinking an eye.
"It's fine. More importantly, what is it, Ji-hyung?"
"Brother. It's about those new punks who just arrived. What do you plan to do with them?"
Jo Ji-hyung asked about Seo Nam-woon's intentions with his characteristically stony expression.
His demeanor was always stiff and cold, as if emotion had been surgically removed, leading people to label him as 'a strange guy you can never read.'
'Would you look at this bastard. Seems he's got his eye on those bitches after all.'
As men who called each other brother, Seo Nam-woon instantly grasped what he was after.
They say the eyes are the window to the soul.
Though he feigned indifference, his dull, sunken irises were stained with lowly desire.
Finding the sight amusing, Seo Nam-woon let out a small laugh.
"I intend to observe them for the time being. They're not just one or two people. We don't have enough justification to make a move on them yet."
"So... if we had justification, it would be possible?"
As he nodded, a faint spark of vitality flickered across Jo Ji-hyung's stony face.
Seo Nam-woon smiled with his eyes and continued.
"Yes. Let's approach them slowly for now. Wasn't one of their group Ha Ah-ri's daughter? Coincidentally, Ah-ri ran off with all the food supplies, so taming them with something to eat doesn't sound like a bad idea."
"A good plan. If we restrict their search zones, they'll submit quickly. I'll pass the word to the others."
"Good. I'll leave that part to you."
As he gestured for him to leave, Jo Ji-hyung turned around without hesitation and disappeared.
"Mmmnn..."
Seo Nam-woon stubbed his finished cigarette into the ashtray and stretched.
At the edge of his vision, a semi-transparent window was floating.
[Your trait is 'Necromancer']
[The trait 'Necromancer' allows you to control corpses. The number of corpses you can dominate increases with the amount of coins you possess, so gather more coins.]
[Subjugated Corpses: 458]
'Smooth sailing.'
Looking at the block of text, Seo Nam-woon let out an excited hum.
Everything was going according to plan.
Even if these recent newcomers introduced a variable, the overall grand scheme remained intact.
Soon, every single person in this apartment would be under his command, and furthermore, he would seize this city, and this very nation itself.
It was ironic.
The world was engulfed in chaos, yet thanks to that chaos, his life was being painted in ever more vibrant colors.
The law of the jungle. Survival of the fittest.
A world where the strong take and claim everything.
How could he not rejoice?
This newly emergent world was no different from a stage set just for him.
He gathered the corners of his lips into a grin and looked at the sobbing woman.
"Alright, shall we go for another round?"
*
[Tutorial Quest: Survive in Zombie World. Countdown-D22.]
8 a.m. the next morning.
A notification window floated before my eyes the moment I woke up.
Watching the number decrease with each passing day filled me with a vague sense of unease.
'It's really not easy.'
If the tutorial is this rough, what the hell is the next stage going to be like?
Wasn't it obvious that a mind-boggling difficulty spike was waiting for us?
And then there was electricity, water, gas, the internet, etc. The infrastructure we once took for granted would soon vanish.
Which meant from now on, we might even have to pick and choose where we take a shit.
Just thinking about it made me feel hopeless.
Zombies that never seemed to thin out, and now mutants too.
Things were already precarious enough—if even greater hardships piled on top... would I still be able to survive?
'Hmm... if I make good use of this dark merchant ability, maybe it's possible.'
Ah, I don't know.
Let's just think optimistically for now.
The vending machine is all-powerful and divine.
Someday, it would sell miraculous items that could solve those kinds of problems too.
I shoved the agonizing thoughts cluttering my brain back into the corner of my mind.
It was almost time to assemble. Time to get ready.
"Hui-ryeong, Ha-yoon. Wake up. It's time."
"Mmmnn... just 5 more minutes..."
After waking the two who were tangled up and sleeping on either side of me, I quickly washed my face and feet, then pulled some clothes from my bag and changed.
"Yaaawn... I really, really don't want to fucking go."
"...."
The other two, who had been grumbling as well, sluggishly got themselves ready.
Having slept in a comfortable bed for the first time in a while meant less physical fatigue, but my mental exhaustion felt even worse.
How should I put it... like I just didn't want to go out.
Actually, it'd be more accurate to say things were too comfortable, so everything just felt like a hassle.
'But I still gotta do what I gotta do.'
About 10 minutes later, we boarded the elevator, still bleary-eyed.
According to the rules, all the apartment residents were gathered in the first-floor lobby.
Ah, well, not all of them, since Jeong Ji-min's boyfriend was out with an injury.
Anyway, once everyone was assembled, the Building Representative spoke from the center.
"Good morning, everyone. As always, please post any special occurrences in the group chat. Now then, let's all pull together again today."
He then urged those who wished to go scavenging to form their own groups and report in.
There was no coercion, of course.
This only applied strictly to those who volunteered.
'Though we have no choice but to go.'
Even if we wanted to rest, Ha Hui-ryeong's house was completely out of food.
All because her mother, CEO Han Ah-ri, had packed up every last scrap of food and hauled it away.
"Ah... the more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. If you're sorry, shouldn't you at least leave something behind? That bitch has no business ethics whatsoever."
Our Hui-ryeong was still grumbling irritably, her anger towards her mother showing no signs of cooling off.
Her outfit was different from her usual shabby look.
She still wore black leggings, but over them, she had on a skirt, a white sweater, and a brown trench coat.
With limbs as long and slender as hers, she looked good in just about anything.
Kim Ha-yoon had undergone a change, too.
A white beanie, a white padded jacket, and blue jeans.
She'd thrown off her grimy old clothes and borrowed something Ha Hui-ryeong had worn back in middle school.
I was a little shocked to hear they were from her middle school days... but what can you do? The size difference really was that stark.
Though to my eyes, even that just looked cute on her.
Aren't they always saying the model makes the outfit?
If the hanger is good, even a burlap sack will look great.
"...."
For some reason, Kim Ha-yoon had been quiet since earlier.
Was she hurt by Hui-ryeong's blunt remark about her being like a piece of gum stuck to him? Or did she simply have nothing to say?
Her gaze was fixed in one particular direction.
Who was she looking at like that?
Curious, I followed her eyes and realized she kept glaring at some guy.
"What, do you know that guy? Why do you keep glancing over at him?"
"...Yes. I know him."
Huh. Really?
"Just out of curiosity, what kind of relationship were you in?"
"Not... anything special, we weren't close. He's just a high school classmate, that's all."
Oh-ho.
But for it to be nothing special, she sure seemed to be paying a lot of attention to him.
'Well, whatever, it's not my problem.'
Whatever their past relationship was, it didn't matter to me.
I was the one who took Ha-yoon's virginity anyway, and I planned to be the one managing her pussy from here on out.
What was more interesting was that Ha-yoon's classmate belonged to the same group as the woman I had on my radar.
Two squirters, two young men, and one lone woman wedged between them. An uncommon combination.
"I heard he moved to Seoul... guess this just happened to be where he ended up."
What a small world.
Kim Ha-yoon muttered to herself in a somewhat wistful tone.
Leaving her to her thoughts, I spoke to Ha Hui-ryeong.
"Hui-ryeong. They said to form groups of five, right? What should we do about the rest? Just pick up anyone?"
"Why the hell would we take just anyone. Honestly, the three of us are more than enough, so let's just tell them we're going like this."
She had a point.
Our combination was already perfectly balanced. There was no need to force a foreign element into the mix.
Except... the way Jeong Ji-min, who'd been tailing us since yesterday, kept watching us with those pitiful eyes kind of bothered me.
She looked like she was silently begging for us to let her join in.
'Honestly, it's a bit much.'
I understood her desire to catch a ride on the bus, but from our perspective, there was no real benefit to it.
So staring at us like that won't get you anywhere, so cut it out.
Well... I might consider it if she actually puts out for me once.
"Alright. Let me go tell them."
I told the two of them to wait a moment and approached Building Representative Seo Nam-woon.
Spotting me, he greeted me with his characteristically genial smile.
I gotta say, there's something low-key creepy about a guy who smiles like that.
"Hm? Have you formed a scavenging group already?"
"Yes. But, uh... I know it's a bit awkward to say this on the first day, but would it be okay if just the three of us went?"
"Just the three of you?"
"Yes. We're pretty shy around strangers. We're comfortable as a trio."
"Hmm..."
He stared at me intently for a moment, as if thinking, then nodded and said he understood.
"Very well. Although the regulation says five is the quota, there's no need to strictly fill it, I suppose. Any risks that come with that, you'll bear yourselves. However, I forgot to mention this yesterday—please take care to ensure your scavenging zone doesn't overlap with another group's."
He could have mentioned that sort of thing earlier.
But well, I get it.
If too many people crowded the same zone, there wouldn't be much to scavenge anyway, and the noise could needlessly draw in zombies.
"Understood. We'll do that."
"Thank you for understanding. When two teams meet in the same zone, it frequently leads to unnecessary emotional conflict, which has been a headache. So I must ask you to please abide by this rule."
"Hmm, but there are bound to be times when zones overlap. What happens then?"
"Usually, we've settled on yielding to the team that arrived first. That way, there's less dissatisfaction. Ah, right. This is a matter shared with other apartment residents as well, so of course..."
"Ah, yes. We'll do that. I'd rather not get into an argument myself."
At Seo Nam-woon's words emphasizing the rules once again, I frowned slightly.
This old guy is seriously annoying.
Judging by the way he talks, was he in sales in his previous life?
The type of person I just don't mesh with.
"Well then, I wish you luck out there today. If anything unusual comes up, please post it in the group chat at any time. The elder invited you in yesterday, correct? You can post it there."
I replied with a vague acknowledgment and returned to where the two were standing.
At the sound of my footsteps, Ha Hui-ryeong and Kim Ha-yoon slipped the phones they'd been looking at back into their pockets.
"How'd it go?"
"He told us to do as we please."
"Oh, he's got some flexibility after all? If he'd stubbornly insisted on us filling five spots, I would've beaten him black and blue."
At this point, I think you're just looking for someone to take your anger out on.
I stared at her with a wry expression, and she just snorted back at me.
"Whatever. Let's get going."
*
Our immediate objective was food.
Since it's no exaggeration to say food is the most critical of our basic needs—food, clothing, shelter—we decided to start by hitting the nearby supermarkets and convenience stores.
But the good spots always seemed to have been claimed beforehand by someone else.
The moment we set out to scavenge, we hit a wall.
"Taken."
"....."
Somehow, most of the surrounding shops had long since been picked clean by other, quicker residents.
Sure, we had dawdled a bit, but wasn't it basic business ethics to at least leave some scraps behind?
Lucky for us, they hadn't shown the slightest bit of courtesy.
"Then where are we supposed to go?"
"That's for you folks to figure out. You expect us to worry about that, too?"
He had a point, but what an asshole way to put it.
In the end, we had no choice but to trek out even farther.
"Something's off, I tell you. Did you see how those people moved? Like some kind of special forces unit, snapping into place in perfect unison."
"Yeah. They didn't give a damn whether there were zombies around or not."
Kim Ha-yoon agreed with me.
She also seemed to find their behavior strangely unnatural.
Ha Hui-ryeong then added in a deliberately serious tone.
"The zombies around here are actually acting weird, too. It's this noisy, and they're not swarming us? Did only the deaf and dumb ones gather here?"
"Hmm. Definitely."
Zombies were generally scarce in this area, but even so, those people's attitudes were far too careless.
They spoke loudly as a baseline, and some groups even ran around or chattered boisterously out in the open.
Meanwhile, we were huddled close, whispering to each other while muffling our footsteps as much as we could.
It wasn't like they were advertising themselves to be killed, so what the hell kind of act was this?
I seriously questioned how they'd managed to survive for over a week with that kind of mentality.
"Should we just say 'fuck it' and go on a rampage? We could just slaughter the whole lot of them. What do you think?"
"Not yet, Hui-ryeong. There might be people among the residents with special abilities like ours."
"Like, for example?"
That was Kim Ha-yoon's question.
I thought for a moment before answering.
"I dunno. Something like manipulating zombie behavior, or granting a wide-area stealth field?"
"I don't know about the former, but the latter seems unlikely. If that were the case, we wouldn't be able to hear those people talking."
Yeah, that's true.
I conceded easily.
Honestly, I was just throwing stuff out there, so I wasn't exactly attached to the idea.
Isn't it true that in life, baseless guesses sometimes turn out to be right on the money?
So I was just saying whatever.
"Forget it. If we're desperate, we can always fall back on the vending machine."
I'd already discovered a goldmine that coughed up five loaves of bread for 1 coin, so we weren't in a rush.
It'd sting to spend the coins, but when it's time to use them, you gotta use them.
"More importantly, we've come pretty damn far. By the time we head back, it's gonna be evening, huh?"
"If I'd known this would happen, I would've asked that Old Man inside if he knew any good spots."
Ha Hui-ryeong muttered this as her brow furrowed.
The place we'd ended up at after a solid two-hour march was the shopping district with the cafe where we'd once had that sex party.
So we wound up back here again, huh...
Still, I guess I could take some comfort in the fact that there was at least a bakery nearby.
"But at least there might be some stuff left here, so... Huh?"
It was just as we were about to enter the bakery.
The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, I spotted some strangely familiar faces.
"Kang Ha-jun...?"
"Huh? Kim Ha-yoon? It *is* Kim Ha-yoon, right?"
Kim Ha-yoon's classmate.
Along with two young men and the one woman wedged between them.
Someone had beaten us there.
But for me, it was far from an unwelcome encounter.
'This is a lucky break.'
Seems they'd drifted all the way out here by chance, and this worked out perfectly.
Since they were the very group that included the woman I'd had my eye on.