Opening the Bulletin Board
Opening the Bulletin Board
Everything's hard the first time.
The first attempt is always scary and daunting for anyone.
But once you cross that line, the rest unfolds in rapid succession.
"Sorry about this, no hard feelings."
Crunch!
Blood sprayed.
The crowbar swung out of nowhere, ripping off a chunk of flesh.
"Hah! You blocked it? What's this, you've got some decent instincts?"
The man in the suit had blocked my strike with surprisingly impressive reflexes.
But bare-handed, with nothing but the flap of his clothes, there was no way to overcome the sharpness of steel.
It touched him.
Cut into his flesh and opened a wound.
Which meant it was already over.
"Gkh... Aaaaaargh...!!"
Starting from the wound, his flesh and bone began to dissolve bit by bit.
Right before he completely melted away, I kicked the bastard as hard as I could.
With a dull, heavy thud, the man went tumbling head over heels, and before long, he was nothing but white powder scattering into the empty air.
[You have killed a preliminary player. Points awarded.]
[Coins held: 838 > 848]
"M-Mr. Seokjin!? You! What the hell are you...!"
"Shut your mouth and keep your eyes on the road!"
Kang Ha-rin, who must have seen it all through the rearview mirror, cried out in startled alarm.
That sharp tongue of hers... she'd need a lesson later. A very thorough one at that.
Anyway, that man back there — was his name Seokjin?
Well, no reason to keep it in my memory, so I'll just delete it from my mind.
Now then... the remaining one, trembling all over as he stared at me.
I recalled his name being Mun... something-or-other.
In any case, he ground his teeth and spat fury at me.
"Y-you crazy bastard...! Why the hell are you doing this all of a sudden!? It was over! There aren't even many zombies following us anymore, so why the hell...!"
"Do I really need to spell out the reason? You'd understand it if I told you?"
"Of course I wouldn't understand! You killed a person! Just... just what the hell...!"
But he didn't have the guts to lunge at me; he just flapped his lips in rambling panic.
His pupils and his whole body shuddered and quaked like an aspen leaf.
It was clearly a reaction born of pure terror.
"Don't come closer...! I said stay back, you fucking bitch!!!!"
In his agitation, he lashed out wildly with his arms and legs, but that was practically a self-defeating move.
Anywhere I grazed him would be a fatal wound, and here he was, offering his body up so freely.
Swish!
My roughly swung crowbar skimmed the back of his hand.
And with that, his fate was sealed.
"Aaaah, aaaaaargh!!!"
The back of his hand, where the crowbar touched, rotted and crumbled away, then in an instant turned into white powder and scattered.
"You just don't know when to give up. How pathetic."
"Aaaaargh! Get away! Get the hell away!!!"
This time, I struck his remaining arm.
With a crumbling sound, both his arms were rendered mangled, and his wretched screams filled the air.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
I basked in his screaming, savored the tremors of his life force.
Was crushing the weak always this exquisite?
Haah... now I feel like I can finally begin to understand how those bastards felt.
"You can get off the truck now, too."
—Thwack.
A satisfying kick driven straight into his solar plexus.
Thus, just as before, he tumbled across the ground and oxidized into powder.
[You have killed a preliminary player. Points awarded.]
[Coins held: 848 > 858]
Points came in too. Killing two birds with one stone.
I chuckled and turned my gaze.
The direction I looked was toward Kang Ha-jun, who was shielding his younger siblings.
Kang Ha-rin's siblings.
They were uninvited variables, not part of my original plan.
But disposing of them right now came with a number of complications.
'Kang Ha-rin, that bitch would definitely go berserk...'
In that case, perhaps just some appropriate intimidation to keep them from doing anything stupid.
"Alright, now then..."
My voice held a field-trip excitement, but it was short-lived. The moment I tried to approach them—
Screeeeech!!!!
"Kagk!"
The truck, which had been cruising along fine, suddenly stopped dead.
It was a sudden halt without warning, so not only I but also Ha Hui-ryeong went tumbling and crashing around the cargo hold.
"Hey! Are you crazy!? What the hell are you doing all of a sudden!?"
"I should be asking that! Have you seriously lost your mind!? Now you're even trying to mess with my siblings!? Are you even human after doing that!?"
"What? Seems like you're not grasping the situation here—"
"You're the one not grasping it! Lay a single finger on my siblings! Just try it! You think I'll just sit still! If you don't want us all to die, stop right there!"
A flicker of irritation crossed my face.
This was certainly a problem.
We hadn't completely shaken off the zombie horde yet, and if we stopped dead here, we'd be surrounded in no time.
Then it's over.
Ha-yoon was worn out, and so was Hui-ryeong.
The three of us trying to break through alone carried far too much risk.
...Though, if there was one thing she was misunderstanding here, it was that I really had just been about to scare them a little.
I hadn't been planning to dispose of them yet.
Maybe later, but not now.
I steadied my breathing for a moment, then continued.
"Ha-yoon, that bitch—"
"If you're thinking of threatening me, you'd better drop it. I'm ready to die for my siblings."
"Oh, for fuck's sake, if we stop here, your siblings all die too, you know! You're not making any sense!"
"Then stay here forever. I don't care. You choose."
"No, look! There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding here! Choice or whatever, I said I never even planned to touch them in the first place...!"
But of course, my sincerity didn't get through.
Kang Ha-rin raised her voice even louder, erupting in fury.
"You came at them holding that nasty thing and you're saying what? Misunderstanding? Are you trying to play word games with me right now!?"
"Oh, goddammit...! Hey, logically speaking, what could you possibly gain by provoking the driver? I was just planning to give 'em a few smacks and leave it at that, I swear!"
"That IS messing with them!!"
"No, I said I wasn't planning to kill them, dammit!"
"So hitting them is fine? Enough of your bullshit!!"
"Grrrrgh...!!"
Somehow the point kept getting further and further from the mark.
Anger surged up inside me, but I couldn't afford to keep dragging this out.
"Fine, all right. You win. I promise I won't lay a single hair on them, just like you said."
In the end, I decided to back down a step.
For now, I needed to calm this woman down. I plopped down on the spot as if I had no intention of causing harm.
"Haah..."
Kang Ha-rin, having confirmed this through the rearview mirror, let out a deep sigh and restarted the engine.
Her reluctance was written all over her face.
Judging by that reaction, she probably knew it too. That this kind of promise meant nothing anyway. That it was just empty words, liable to be overturned at any moment if circumstances changed.
"...Fucking bullshit, seriously."
But even so, there was no better option here.
In the end, to save her siblings, she had to swallow her rage and drive the truck wherever we wanted.
Even though she knew the ending, she was forced to accept the lesser evil just to evade the immediate crisis.
"Keep your word. At least, if you have a conscience."
Perhaps because she was confronted with that miserable reality, Kang Ha-rin issued her warning in a tone laced with thorns.
Though from where I stood, even that was nothing more than adorable defiance.
Either way, that concluded the conversation.
Rrrrrr, the truck that had been stopped started moving again, cutting across the ruined city center.
In the pitch-black night sky, a single dim star had risen.
Small and faint, but the only star illuminating the earth.
Beneath it, we finally got to take a short rest.
I still watched Kang Ha-jun as if I were deeply displeased, and he had no energy to spare as he comforted his weeping siblings.
"That woman's got some guts, huh?"
"Uh... yeah. Haha, I... guess so?"
Ha Hui-ryeong had her arm around Jeong Ji-min's shoulder, giggling.
Jeong Ji-min also smiled back in reply, but the strained, awkward sight of it seemed deeply forced no matter how you looked at it.
It was right then.
KURURRUNG...!
A colossal boom echoed from somewhere far away.
It was near the Hansarang Apartment.
No, to be precise, the sight of the apartment where we had been staying came crashing down into my view.
I murmured in a low voice.
"Going out in style. A real spectacle."
*
[Tutorial Quest: Survive in Zombie World. Count: D-7]
[Notice! One week remains until the end of Season 1 'Tutorial'. The 'Player Bulletin Board' function is now open to prepare for the next season.]
[Trading between players is now possible on the bulletin board. Please note that both barter and coin transactions are permitted.]
[In Season 2 'Collapsed World', a greater number and variety of mutant entities will be added for smoother coin acquisition.]
[Additionally, this is not limited to humans but includes all flora and fauna, so please be advised.]
...
The next day.
The moment I woke up, what greeted me was a flood of text.
"...What the hell is all this now."
I scratched my messy head and got up.
Then I slowly examined the notification window once more.
'Barter? Coin trading? Hmm...'
In other words... to roughly summarize, an exchange system had been activated.
Specifically for ability users like me.
'It's not bad, but a few useless elements got tacked on too.'
A phrase about significantly increasing the number of mutant entities was also added.
Should I take this as good news, or should I see it as bad news?
'It does mean more opportunities to earn coins as the danger grows... but somehow I really don't like the sound of it.'
Things like that Muscle Monster I ran into last time are going to increase?
Ugh... I really never want to face a freakishly dangerous thing like that again.
And on top of that, it said not just humans but other living things could become hosts. It left me with a creeped-out, uneasy feeling.
'If it's like this, running off to some remote place won't mean much.'
To put it bluntly, even if I holed up on some deserted island, the nearby flowers and grass could suddenly turn into monsters and attack.
Now, except for deep underground, it was safe to say no safety zones existed anymore.
"Oh? You're up?"
It was a familiar voice.
I turned my head slightly, and there was Ha Hui-ryeong, wearing an apron.
...Maybe I'm still not fully awake.
"What the hell is that getup?"
"What do you mean. I was getting breakfast ready."
"...You?"
"What's with that reaction. So what if I do it? Is it weird?"
To be honest, it didn't suit her.
How should I put it... that domestic look on her felt like she'd been forcibly crammed into a frame she didn't fit.
"I didn't see you when I woke up, so I wondered where you'd gone. That's what you were doing?"
"Yeah. Kim Ha-yoon, I was prepping with her."
What, Ha-yoon too?
"Then who's watching them?"
We'd tied them all up just in case of any unforeseen trouble, but we still shouldn't take our eyes off them.
"I figured you'd say that, so I moved them all near the kitchen. So we can respond right away if they try anything stupid."
A satisfying answer.
I really liked that thorough streak of hers when it came to things like this.
"Oh-ho. I see. So, what's for breakfast?"
"Pork cutlet rice bowl and grilled pork belly."
"...Pork cutlet rice bowl? You know how to make that?"
"It wasn't me, Kim Ha-yoon made it. Well, she just looked it up online and then whipped it together on her own. It looked pretty decent."
She's pretty handy.
For someone so young, she's surprisingly capable.
"Really? Then let's go have a taste."
I slowly walked with her toward the kitchen.
Our current location was a rest stop on a quiet stretch of highway.
It was where we'd ended up after searching for a place with few people around.
It wasn't the same rest stop we'd visited before, but like that one, this place was completely deserted.
Only the facilities besides the water supply were intact; all other supplies were utterly emptied out.
The one saving grace was that there were a few vending machines here. It was the perfect spot to stay for a while.
"Mmmpf...! Mmpf...!"
After that, when I entered the cafeteria, I saw three men and women and the two Squirt kids, all laid out on the floor like caterpillars.
Their mouths were even gagged, so all they could do was weakly squirm.
Looking at that sight, the events of last night suddenly came back to me.
— '...So it's come to this after all. I knew it would, but now that it's real, it feels empty.'
— 'Since the danger is gone, empty words are meaningless. It was a temporary alliance anyway, right? If you knew, then just quietly accept it.'
— '...Fine. I'll accept it. Let's do it your way. My body, my heart... I'll give you everything, so just my siblings...'
— 'I'll decide that after a bit more thought. As you know, I'm a little tired right now.'
...It had been a somewhat coercive process.
Yeah, the moment we arrived, we'd subdued Kang Ha-rin's family and Jeong Ji-min and tied them up tight.
It was necessary.
These people couldn't be considered fully on my side. The best course of action was to first secure safety by forcing them into submission with strength, then get some rest.
Using a Subordination Scroll was one method, but it wasn't something I felt like deciding on right away, you could say.
As luck would have it, the vending machine at this rest stop sold rope for tying people up and ball gags, so I decided it was better to tie them up first and then decide their treatment.
"...You're here?"
As Ha Hui-ryeong and I took our seats in a roughly chosen spot, Kim Ha-yoon's voice came from inside the kitchen, accompanied by the clattering of dishes.
Soon, she approached us carrying a bowl with steam gently rising from it.
I snuck a peek at its contents, and just as Ha Hui-ryeong had said, the visuals didn't look half bad.
"Oh, you made this?"
"I just copied what I saw. Can't guarantee the taste, though."
For her to say that, the taste was also pretty good.
Taking a small bite, the savory saltiness of the soy sauce and the mildness of the egg wrapped around my tongue.
Coupled with the crispy texture of the pork cutlet, it whetted my appetite even more.
"It's good? Yeah, this is tasty."
"That's a relief. Glad it suits your taste."
It was far more satisfying than I'd expected.
She said she used the ingredients I'd randomly popped out of the vending machine yesterday, along with the oil and sauce left neglected in the kitchen. Could someone really pull off this level of quality with just that?
"Hey, what about the pork belly I grilled?"
"I only have two hands. I'll bring it right over, so just wait a moment."
A short while later, Kim Ha-yoon brought over the rest of the dishes too, and once I confirmed she had also taken a seat, I casually broached the subject.
"Did you guys see this too? The moment I woke up, some weird stuff had been added."
When I pointed at the empty air and asked, Ha Hui-ryeong and Kim Ha-yoon both nodded in affirmation at the same time.
"Yeah. It says a week left."
"And a bulletin board? I went in out of curiosity, but it's mostly just shitposts. Those guys who've killed people are surprisingly laid back."
Aren't we ones to talk...?
Considering the mass murder we committed yesterday, weren't we also acting awfully nonchalant?
"That's not the part to focus on. The key point is that trading is possible. Especially for me, it's incredibly useful. I can pull out special items from vending machines, right?"
"So? You planning to sell stuff like that contraceptive?"
"Yeah. I'll have to consider the scrolls carefully, but selling other stuff shouldn't be a problem."
"Hmm... but will it sell? They need trust to buy stuff, don't they? If you just throw items up out of nowhere, are they really gonna buy dubious things that haven't been proven?"
For once, she's making a valid point.
Still, it's fine. I've thought about that angle to some degree.
Well, I just came up with it right now, but anyway.
"First, I'll limit the sale items to daily necessities. But on top of that, I'll throw in a free bonus item for additional purchases. Since it's given for free, they'll give it a try at least once."
"Aha. So once word of mouth spreads, that's when you'll finally demand a fair price, right?"
"Exactly. That's precisely it."
First, let's put up some of the water and pork belly sold in the vending machine at this rest stop.
And we'll slowly build up a reputation like that.
"But Hui-ryeong. That... Old Man, when you sent him off, what exactly was the ability you got?"
"Ah... that?"
Ha Hui-ryeong replied in an indifferent, casual tone, as if it were nothing.
"Me? They called it 'Saintess.' From what I saw, it seems to be a healing type. Well, I don't know how far the healing goes, though."
At that, I gave her a look of utter disbelief.
You? A saintess?
There's a limit to things that don't fit, isn't there?
"A saintess? You?"
"What's with that reaction. You not gonna open your eyes properly? Want me to just gouge your eyeballs out while I'm at it."
"Was it maybe a different kind of saintess...? No?"
"Hey."
Ha Hui-ryeong glared at me with murder in her eyes.
I discreetly averted my gaze and looked at Kim Ha-yoon.
It was a look asking for an explanation.
At this, she gave a light shrug of her shoulders.
"At first, I thought it was one of those lewd types that governs sexual things, too. But she insists it's not."
"What, it's true? Is it actually something like healing through caresses?"
"I said no, you little shits. Wanna test it out since it came up? Huh? We've got test subjects right over there — shall I beat the crap out of them and then show you how I fix them up good as new?"
It was a better suggestion than I expected, but I soon shook my head.
That's for later.
For now, the priority is—
"No, let's do that later. First, checking out this bulletin board comes first."
I need to figure out how to list items, and how to convert them into coins.