The Heavenly Demon Hunts Zombies (3)
Ha-rin, who had heard from Hwa-ryeong that she would be playing Dawn Escape, cheered inwardly. Dawn Escape was the most trending game at the moment. If she quickly edited and uploaded footage of this game, it stood a high chance of riding the algorithm's wave and racking up views. On top of that, the protagonist of this game was neither a Murim inhabitant nor a fantasy-world resident, but an ordinary person. Naturally, these game videos would be hard to post on the martial arts channel, so they would fall to Ha-rin and Han-sik instead. Determined to finally make Seol-ah say "amazing," Ha-rin watched Hwa-ryeong's live stream with wide eyes, searching for entertaining moments.
However, the scene unfolding before her was far from a typical Dawn Escape session.
Throwing zombies over her shoulder and smashing their faces. Toying with zombies as if she were the "it" in a game of tag, tormenting the seeker. Casually escaping when surrounded by hundreds of zombies. Charging alone into a supermarket, one-shotting the swarm of zombies rushing at her while leisurely shopping. Not a single thing about it was ordinary.
“If someone who doesn’t know Hwa-ryeong saw this, they’d probably accuse her of scripting it.”
People who knew Hwa-ryeong would just laugh it off with a “Ah, that person’s at it again,” but anyone else would find it impossible to believe she had accomplished these feats with nothing but her own skill. If you removed the name tag “Hwa-ryeong” from this broadcast, it wouldn’t be strange to hear accusations of cheats or mods. Well, another community firestorm might erupt over this. She sure knows how to draw aggro. The comment section’s going to be a mess, though.
While Ha-rin was thinking this, Hwa-ryeong was in the middle of stealing a car. No—calling it stealing wasn’t quite right. The car’s owner was no longer among the living, after all. It would be more accurate to say she was picking up a car that had been left lying on the road.
After smashing the window, opening the door, and settling into the driver’s seat, Hwa-ryeong leisurely looked around the interior before asking with an utterly serious expression,
“So, what am I supposed to do now?”
Normally, no matter what VR game she played, she never used the assistance features. Since she had never tried them before, she had no idea how to handle a situation like this. Fortunately, though she was alone, she wasn’t truly alone. When Hwa-ryeong showed signs of difficulty, advice began pouring in from all directions, and she fumbled her way toward the correct answer based on their input.
“Hmm. So first, I turn on the assistance function…”
In Dawn Escape, the process of stealing a car was supposed to be quick and precise. Otherwise, you risked being surrounded by zombies and put in danger. But Hwa-ryeong had no need to worry about that. What she found terrifying wasn’t zombies or death—it was modern technology itself.
“What is this? I followed the instructions, yet it still won’t work.”
“No. In the end, I just need to connect the blue wire to the red wire, don’t I?”
So it was possible to grind people’s teeth in this game too. Though she had never played it herself, Ha-rin had watched plenty of other streamers’ broadcasts, and seeing Hwa-ryeong argue with her viewers struck her as novel. Usually in Dawn Escape, the act of grinding viewers’ teeth was tied to survival—getting ambushed by zombies for moving carelessly, drawing a horde by making unnecessary noise, or missing an essential item. Something like starting a car was supposed to be handled automatically by the assistance feature, so there was no way it could be frustrating. But unfortunately, the assistance feature this time had to deal with Hwa-ryeong. The person who had nearly crashed the entire broadcast while trying to open the point-betting function was now grinding her viewers’ teeth in the most unexpected way. She was the most magnificent person when it came to moving her body, so why did all her dignity vanish the moment she started touching machines or systems?
Even Ha-rin, who liked Hwa-ryeong, was starting to feel frustrated when Hwa-ryeong finally succeeded in starting the engine.
Ha-rin and the other viewers thought they could finally watch in peace, but that was a misconception. An even greater ordeal still stood in Hwa-ryeong’s way. Seeing Hwa-ryeong gripping the steering wheel with a blank expression, Ha-rin suddenly wondered—could that person actually drive properly? The same Hwa-ryeong who had faced countless hardships just to start the engine, the same person who couldn’t even follow the assistance feature’s instructions… really?
The moment Ha-rin began worrying, Hwa-ryeong slammed down on the accelerator.
BOOM!
The car, which had suddenly lurched forward, slammed headfirst into a telephone pole right beside it. The speed hadn’t been high, so the impact only made the vehicle rock back and forth, but in that brief instant, everyone instinctively knew—Hwa-ryeong should not be driving.
The viewers all united to dissuade Hwa-ryeong, but she paid them no mind whatsoever.
“Hmm. The speed increases faster than I expected.”
“You lot. How could one expect to be full after the first spoonful? Success is achieved only after failure precedes it. If one gives up just because the beginning is disastrous, how many things in this world could possibly succeed?”
Hwa-ryeong’s words were certainly wise—if only she hadn’t said them after reversing into another wall. The front and back of the car were half-destroyed; even a mechanic would probably say, “Wouldn’t it be better to just scrap this?” Jokes about the car exploding if she crashed one more time were floating around in the chat, but Hwa-ryeong calmly pressed the accelerator again. However, the car, whose engine had shut off from the previous impact, no longer moved.
“What is this? Why is it doing this?”
Hwa-ryeong tried to start the engine again, but this time she wasn’t given that luxury. The sound of the car crashing had drawn zombies from the surrounding area, one by one. Seeing the zombies approaching through the window, Hwa-ryeong sighed and stepped out of the car.
“I suppose I’ll have to escape the commotion first and find a new car.”
“If it’s that, I’ll do it until you’re sick of it when I play Hwaryong Muin. Right now, mastering how to operate this vehicle takes priority.”
Unlike when she had been struggling inside the car, Ha-rin let out a hollow laugh as she watched Hwa-ryeong break through the zombie encirclement with her miraculous movements. If someone compiled just the footage of Hwa-ryeong crashing cars, it might make a full episode’s worth of content for MyTube.
*
“It really is faster and more convenient to ride in a car.”
If she had been using her original body, running on her own two feet would have been better than this mode of transportation. But the body she currently inhabited belonged to an ordinary person. No matter how skillfully she used it, there were limits to stamina and strength. She wouldn’t be able to move at this speed and comfort without a car.
“If I had given up on the car after failing, would I have been able to enjoy this comfort?”
The viewers watching the broadcast had been shouting, “Just give up already. Walking would be faster. If you lose everything you’ve farmed because of this, it’ll be a loss instead.” But in the end, she proved her own words by successfully driving the car.
The moment I puffed out my chest and said that, a donation voice came flying back in rebuttal.
“Hey. Does it hurt your pride to boost someone when they’re feeling confident?”
Of course, it was true that she had gone through multiple failures due to her inexperience with operating the machine called a car. But all of those had been necessary failures. They were all essential for getting a feel for accelerating, stopping, and changing direction.
“Ahem.”
At the time, even she had been a bit flustered. She had only crashed into something like usual, yet the front of the car had caught fire. When she hurriedly escaped, the car was burning and the dead were gathering.
“If the editor watching this broadcast is there, let’s pretend the previous failures never happened.”
There was no reason to show her humiliating appearance to people who weren’t even watching this broadcast, was there? She thought it would be enough to erase the trial and error and only show the successful moments.
“Hgyaaaaak!”
While they were chatting like this, a scream echoed from afar. The owner of that loud voice was probably the person she had been searching for all this time.
“Just in case, I must ask. Has Enly been screaming like that since the beginning of this game?”
“Normally, screaming like that would attract the dead, wouldn’t it?”
From what she had observed, the dead seemed sensitive to sound.
“Hah. I see.”
The direction the sound was coming from was the residential area on the right. After braking to a stop, I shouldered my bag and headed toward Enly’s voice. In the distance, I could see Enly running toward me.
“Huh?! Hwa-ryeong! Hwa-ryeong!!”
Perhaps she had been feeling wronged from being chased by zombies until now. The moment Enly spotted me, she burst into tears, spread both arms wide, and charged. I didn’t know if she had expected me to hug her, but when I casually stepped aside to dodge the rush, Enly rolled straight onto the ground.
“Why did you dodge?!”
“Shouldn’t we deal with the dead you brought along first?”
You’ve brought quite a number with you, haven’t you? Let’s handle them first before enjoying the joy of reunion.