The Heavenly Demon Goes Zombie Hunting (2)
“Why is there so little inside this house?”
I rummaged through the place looking for a map and came up with nothing but a few first-aid supplies, some already-rotten food, and torn scraps of clothing. If there had been anything worth taking, I might have torn up the clothes to make a bundle. But with nothing to carry, there was no point in the extra effort.
- It’s an apocalypse, what did you expect?
- Just check a few more houses.
- Or hit up a supermarket lol
- Supermarket? You haven’t even looted anything yet.
“Supermarket?”
Hmm. That’s actually a good idea. Instead of wandering between houses and wasting time, it would be far more efficient to stop by a supermarket and stock up on everything I needed. Even if it wasn’t a full supermarket, checking a convenience store or any shop would be smarter.
- No no no no no
- Going to a supermarket right now is suicide!
- Wouldn’t this person be fine though?
- Fine my ass!
Once I stepped out of the house, a street lined with tightly packed buildings came into view. It felt very different from the heart of a Korean city. If Korea was all about squeezing every last drop of efficiency out of the land, this place had breathing room to spare. The buildings were low, each with its own yard, and what was that park-like area I could see in the distance?
“Hmm. Is this not Korea, but some other country?”
- Yep.
- Looks like the outskirts of America.
“Even in a place like this, there should be shops, right?”
It would be troublesome if this turned out to be some empty countryside.
- These days even the tiniest rural towns have pretty much everything.
“Then that’s a relief.”
I had originally planned to climb to the roof of a fairly tall villa to survey the area, but that wouldn’t work now. I’d just have to wander around blindly for the time being.
As soon as I reached the street, I spotted the shambling corpses wandering about. Their energy felt incredibly alien. It was the sensation of something that should not exist. If jiangshi felt unpleasant because they stole the dignity of the dead, these things made people’s skin crawl simply by existing.
It was fortunate that this body was so weak; the dao patterns were barely visible. If they had been clear, I probably would have vomited. They were repulsive just to look at. Still, since they were enemies I would have to face constantly from now on, it was best to learn about them in advance.
I reduced my footsteps and presence to the absolute minimum and approached one of the dead from behind. I hadn’t done anything to mask my scent, so if their sense of smell was sharp they should have noticed me, but the creature showed no reaction. So smell doesn’t matter, then.
What about sound?
The moment I deliberately let my footsteps be heard, the dead thing whipped its head around. Hmm. So their hearing is intact. And since it’s looking for my location with its eyes, it seems their vision works too.
Now, how about their physical ability?
I lightly sidestepped the zombie that lunged at me, then created distance and ran at a moderate pace. This speed wasn’t particularly fast. It seemed the fact that it was already dead meant it didn’t know fatigue, but that was all. I could easily shake it off by running a bit farther.
As expected, individually they posed no threat at all.
After confirming everything, I threw a punch. The zombie’s head exploded, and its body crumpled to the ground.
“I know, you fool. There’s no way I wouldn’t see what you all are watching.”
Was it the commotion I had caused while checking various things? Zombies were starting to appear one by one along the street. There really were quite a lot. Just the ones I could see nearby numbered in the dozens, and the ones I could sense through presence were even more numerous.
“Each one lacks ability, but they make up for it with numbers. Not a bad strategy.”
- Why is this person so relaxed?!
- The zombies are bunching up, it’s so gross.
- Run!
- Ah. This is doomed.
- Heavenly Dragon Test Subject No. 1 has been sacrificed. This data will be inherited by Test Subject No. 2.
“I told you it’s fine. Did you really think something like this would pose a danger to me?”
I lightly kicked off the ground, leapt onto a nearby wall, then used that as a springboard to grab the edge of a building’s roof. Pulling myself up, I stood on the rooftop. The dead things that had been chasing me were now reaching their hands up like dogs begging from below.
It wouldn’t be difficult to wipe them all out, but if I did that, the sun would set before I could even meet Enly. I decided to deal with them later after joining up with her and jumped down from the opposite side of the roof.
- Crazy
- Heavenly Dragon Test Subject No. 1 survives.
- The movement is so clean.
- I thought there were wires attached or something.
- Is there anyone here who dared to doubt the Heavenly Demon? No, right?
“I think I have a rough idea of what to do now.”
If they reacted sensitively to sound but had poor vision, the solution was simple. All I had to do was move around while suppressing noise. And when I needed to eliminate them, I just had to finish them off cleanly with a single strike.
“Good. Then shall we head to the supermarket now?”
When I had climbed onto the roof earlier, I had seen a large signboard in the distance. To my eyes, it was clearly the entrance sign for a supermarket.
*
Enly smashed the glass window with a baseball bat she had found somewhere. She laid a thick cloth over the broken edge so she wouldn’t get cut, then carefully climbed into the empty house. Gripping the bat tightly with both hands, she looked around cautiously. After confirming there were no signs of movement, she let out a long breath.
“Ugh… What part of this is supposed to be fun…”
- It’s super fun though?
- The viewer count keeps going up?
- The way she freaks out every time she sees a zombie is genuinely hilarious.
“You terrible people.”
Even as Enly grumbled out loud, her movements while searching the room were skillful. First she checked the drawers for anything useful. When entering another room, she pressed her ear to the door to listen for zombies inside. If she sensed something, she would carefully open the door with one hand, grip the bat tightly, and strike first. She crushed their heads before they could even react.
“Hup. Hah.”
After knocking down a zombie, she poked the corpse a few times with the end of the bat to make sure it was dead, then continued her search with a tearful expression.
It had already been thirty minutes since she started Dawn Escape. At first she had screamed at every zombie she saw, but humans were creatures of adaptation after all. She was still scared, but she had learned to endure it and keep moving.
“A map.”
Having found what she was looking for, she quickly unfolded it. My current location is here, and the ranch where we’re supposed to meet is over here…
Enly had no good response to the donation message. Because it was a painfully accurate description of her current situation.
It was too far. Even walking normally would take at least two hours. But she had to fight her way through zombies to get there. Could she really make it all the way?
“Yeah…”
Finding a car itself wasn’t difficult. As long as she could break into one, the game’s assistance system would take care of the rest. The problem was that she would have to step out onto roads swarming with zombies to do it.
While she was sighing in despair, a video donation came in. Ah, I forgot to turn this function off. She had been so focused on the fact that she had to play this game that her brain had completely shut down.
The protagonist of the video sent by a viewer was Ara.
“Why is Heavenly Dragon-nim at a supermarket?”
She stood with her arms crossed, looking at a torn section of the store map.
‘Where would be the best place to get a map?’
“You haven’t gotten anything yet and you’re already going into a supermarket to loot?!”
It was true that supermarkets were great places to loot. But because they contained so many valuable items, they were also packed with zombies. Visiting a supermarket only made sense after you had properly looted a decent gun or armor and were capable of clearing out all the zombies inside. Going in unprepared was just asking to die a dog’s death.
“She’s going to die like that.”
Right now Ara’s body was that of an ordinary person. On top of that, she had no weapons at all. If she ran into a horde of zombies in that state, even Ara would have her limits.
Enly watched the video with a worried heart, completely forgetting her own situation, when she spotted a zombie appearing behind Ara.
“Dangerous.”
Ara was too focused on the map to notice. If she got ambushed in that state, she would definitely suffer a fatal—
“Eh?!”
But Enly’s worry was meaningless. Without even turning her head, as if she had eyes in the back of her skull, Ara simply swung her arm. The zombie’s head exploded, and its body collapsed to the floor.
‘For now, I should head to the section that has books and maps.’
The video ended with Ara’s calm voice, as if nothing had happened. Enly was left speechless.
What the hell was that?
- lololol
- Why is it only over there that it turns into a one-woman army story?
- Heavenly Dragon is Heavenly Dragon even here, huh.
- Look at Enly’s face, she looks so robbed.
“No way.”
While some people had to risk their lives and fight desperately just to take down a single zombie, why was that person swatting them like flies? Even if Ara herself was basically a cheat character, wasn’t that a bit too much?!
“…Let’s think positively. If I can join up with Ara, I’ll have a bodyguard with that kind of skill.”
Judging by that display, Ara would reach the ranch without any real difficulty. So all Enly had to do was get there herself. Once she did, she wouldn’t have to struggle like this anymore.
“First, I need to find a car…”
Crash!
“Eek?!”
At the loud noise coming from outside the room, Enly straightened up, gripped the bat tightly with both hands, and was certain a zombie had broken in.
“This place really is hell.”
*
“A supermarket really is heaven on earth.”
Not only could I get a map, but decent clothes and shoes as well. On top of that, I could stock up on various foods. Following the viewers’ advice, I gathered everything useful, and my bag quickly grew heavy.
- You’re not even supposed to be able to come here yet.
- Even veterans risk their lives looting this place, so why is this person so relaxed?
“Alright then. Shall we head to the ranch now?”
- You’re walking?
“Of course I’m walking.”
- Isn’t that too far?
- You’d have to walk all night.
It hadn’t looked that far on the map, but since all the viewers were saying the same thing, there must be a big difference between map distance and actual distance.
“Even so, is there any other option?”
Was there any method other than walking? There was no public transportation here, and no taxis either. In a world where everyone who could drive was already dead, the best choice was simply to keep walking steadily.
“Drive?”
Did they mean for me to operate the vehicle myself?