The Rooftop Garden

After stuffing their packs with loot from the sixth floor, Bennett and his companions made their way up to the seventh.

Stepping off the central escalator brought them into a surprisingly comfortable space. Where the fifth and sixth floors had carried an air of solemn, dignified luxury, the seventh possessed a far softer ambiance. Small and large shops were packed shoulder to shoulder without a single gap. The vast majority were eateries and restaurants, though a handful appeared to sell something entirely different. One store in particular sold food and accessories meant solely for dogs and cats, leaving the trio utterly bewildered.

"...People in this realm must've had far too much time on their hands," Bennett muttered, shaking his head. "Opening an entire storefront just to sell that sort of rubbish?"

"Haha, perhaps keeping dogs and cats as pets was all the rage in this world," Kyle offered with an amused chuckle.

After surveying the interior, Bennett turned away, but the next establishment proved just as confounding.

"What on earth is this place?"

The row of chairs arranged near the entrance clearly served as a waiting area. Deeper inside, however, sat a bizarre assortment of peculiar tools and mechanical chairs whose functions were impossible to deduce. There were anatomical charts and models of human jaws, leading them to wonder if it was some sort of mortuary or funeral parlor, but the ambiance was entirely wrong for that.

It's far too bright and cheerful for a morgue, Bennett thought. Even accounting for the quirks of another world, the aesthetic was far too welcoming for the dead.

Just as Bennett was scanning the interior for anything salvageable, he froze.

"Bennett-nim?" Kyle asked, pausing mid-step.

Bennett raised a single finger to his lips. Noticing the sudden change in his demeanor, Kyle and Edgar went rigid as well.

"Scared the living daylights out of me," a coarse voice grumbled from the corridor. "What kind of lunatic pulls a stunt like that?"

"Count your blessings, damn it," another voice replied. "Nobody in our squad died. Do you have any idea how lucky that is?"

Footsteps were echoing near the entrance.

It's them, Bennett realized.

"Once I track down whichever bastard herded those zombies onto us, I swear I'll—"

The moment the figures rounded the corner, Kyle and Edgar struck in perfect unison.

"Guh-ack!"

A severed throat and a caved-in chest sent two men collapsing side by side to the floor. Edgar snorted proudly, stepping over the corpses.

"Hmph! A bunch of worthless weaklings—"

Mid-boast, Edgar suddenly lurched.

Thwack!

An arrow grazed his forearm before sinking deep into the drywall behind him. Bennett caught Edgar by the collar and hauled him behind the wall, instantly thrusting his crossbow out to return fire, but the archer had already turned heel and bolted.

"Enemy attack! Ambush!"

"You cowardly little shit—!"

Edgar attempted to give chase, but his knees buckled and he slammed a hand against the wall to catch himself.

"Edgar!" Kyle cried.

Bennett stepped over and examined the arrow embedded in the plaster. A dark, oily sheen coated the steel tip.

"Paralytic poison," Bennett said flatly.

"Th-Then what do we...?"

"He won't be able to move for a while. We hold our ground here. Get him inside, quickly."

Bennett and Kyle hoisted Edgar's rapidly stiffening frame and dragged him into an examination room deep within the clinic, laying him flat across the floor.

"Over here! In here!"

The archer's shouts had already drawn reinforcements. Heavy, hurried boots rumbled down the tiled corridor, growing louder by the second. Bennett's eyes flicked to Edgar's rectangular tower shield propped against the corner.

"Pick that up and hold the doorway," Bennett ordered Kyle.

"R-Right!"

Edgar's massive shield was wide enough to cover more than half his hulking frame when crouched. For someone of Kyle's leaner build, it offered near-total protection.

"Just plant your feet and hold the choke point," Bennett instructed.

Without another word, Bennett raised his repeating crossbow. Kyle's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the custom Dwarven rapid-fire ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weapon, but he promptly nodded in grim understanding.

"They're in this room, boss!"

A half-dozen men crowded into the entryway. Every one of them bore the unmistakable black skull tattoo on the back of their left hand—scavengers from the infamous Hunters syndicate. Flanked by a shielder, the Hunters squad leader strode boldly through the threshold.

"So it was you bastards, was it? You're the ones who dumped the undead on us!"

"Zombies?" Bennett replied smoothly. "Wasn't us."

"Hah! Who do you think you're kidding?"

Sneering, the squad leader smoothly closed the distance. Bennett didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger.

"Look out!"

The shielder beside the leader snapped his buckler up in the nick of time.

Clang!

The metallic screech rang out as the bolt ricocheted harmlessly off the reinforced boss, bouncing off the wall and clattering to the floor. A sinister smirk crept across the squad leader's scarred face.

"Now! Take them!"

The Hunters lurking out in the hallway surged through the doorway en masse. An archer hovering near the rear leaned out from behind the frame, firing a suppressing shot on the move.

Fwip—!

The marksmanship was surprisingly decent for a running shot. Bennett leaned back just enough to let the arrow slice the air where his head had been, then snapped back into position. By the time he reemerged, the vanguard of the Hunters was practically breathing down their necks.

Th-th-th-th-clack!

Having broken their narrow column to fan out around Kyle's shield, the Hunters offered a wide, defenseless target. The repeating crossbow coughed violently, emptying all fifteen bolts from its magazine in a continuous, deafening drumroll of steel.

"Aaargh!"

"Ghk!"

The carnage was absolute. Caught completely exposed in the tight quarters, the front rank convulsed and collapsed like puppets with severed strings. The men trailing behind instinctively cringed and ducked at the sight of their comrades being shredded, but crouching in a narrow choke point did nothing to spare them from the relentless hail of steel.

Thud! Thwack! Crack!

They dropped right where they knelt, riddled with black-fletched bolts.

"A-A repeating crossbow?!"

In the span of three seconds, nearly the entire squad had been wiped out. The squad leader, who had been barking orders with complete confidence moments ago, went pale as chalk.

Bennett snapped a fresh magazine into place and immediately pushed forward on the offensive.

"Fall back! Fall back, damn it!" the squad leader shrieked.

"Y-Yes, sir!"

Clang! Cl-clang!

A flurry of bolts hammered the upper lip of the remaining shieldbearer's guard. Panicking under the barrage, the shielder instinctively raised his buckler to protect his face. The moment his lower body was exposed, the repeating crossbow dropped its sightline.

"Gaaah!"

A bolt punched straight through the shielder's boot, pinning his foot to the floorboards and sending him crashing down. The squad leader shrieked in terror and spun around to flee.

Thud—!

A bolt slammed squarely into the heavy pack strapped to his shoulders. Though thrown off balance by the impact, the squad leader used the momentum to scramble down the hallway on all fours, sprinting for his life.

Bennett stepped out into the corridor and clicked his tongue in annoyance. In that brief window, the squad leader had already rounded the bend and vanished from sight, leaving behind only the heavy pack he had discarded to lighten his load.

Kyle, having methodically put the groaning Hunters out of their misery, walked over to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Bennett's side.

"Did their leader get away?"

"He tossed his loot and ran like a scared rabbit."

"Well, Edgar is going to love that," Kyle remarked with a wry grin. "More profit for us."

Surveying the room strewn with the corpses of the syndicate scavengers, Bennett lowered his weapon.

"Let's clean this up."

"Right!"

It was time to reap the harvest.

After taking stock of his remaining ammunition, Bennett decided against retrieving the spent bolts from the walls and corpses. Had they been the custom-forged Dwarven bolts, he would have extracted every single one without fail; these, however, were standard iron bolts bought in bulk from an ordinary smithy. Wasting precious inventory space on cheap ammunition made no sense when they could pack away valuable equipment and scavenged goods looted from the Hunters instead.

"Phew, we're going to pack these bags to the brim today, aren't we?"

Kyle was naturally cheerful, but the grin spreading across his face right now was one of pure, unfiltered satisfaction. Bennett kept his composure, but inwardly, he was just as pleased.

The two worked with swift, practiced efficiency. They picked out the highest-value gear and crammed everything into the packs as tightly as possible. While it sounded simple enough, balancing weight distribution and maximizing internal space required considerable care. It was only after filling three full rucksacks—including Edgar's—that Bennett could finally pause to catch his breath.

Loot wasn't the only reward this skirmish had yielded.

An unexpected achievement notification hovered in his vision. Without a moment's hesitation, he allocated all three points directly into his primary attribute.

Donggggg—!

A solemn, resonant bell chimed directly inside Bennett's mind. Snapping out of his thoughts, he locked eyes with Kyle.

"Did you just...?"

"I heard it," Kyle confirmed, his voice hushed.

Bennett recalled the information he had studied in the scavenger guidebooks. Escape portals fell into two distinct categories.

The first was the Public Exit, an unrestricted gateway that anyone could use without prerequisite conditions. The second was the Secret or Conditional Exit, which required meeting specific criteria or finding an obscured location. Conditional exits invariably opened first, followed shortly by the public gateway.

Locating them was straightforward enough: you roamed the dungeon and followed the chime of the bell, moving in the direction where the sound resonated the loudest. Conditional exits, on the other hand, gave off a distinct, rhythmic ringing like a bicycle chime.

Bennett closed his eyes, focusing entirely on his hearing.

No high-pitched ringing nearby...

Donggg—

The deep, heavy chime reverberated from somewhere far above them.

"We'll rest here until Edgar's paralysis wears off, then head straight for it," Bennett decided. "Until then..."

He laid back against a vinyl sofa in the waiting area. "Let's catch our breath."

It took two full hours for the neurotoxin to clear Edgar's system.

"Ugh... Can't we just rest a little longer? My head feels like it's split in half," Edgar groaned, rubbing his temples as he stumbled to his feet.

"You spent the entire past two hours lying down while we did all the fighting and packing," Kyle chided lightly. "Do you really think you've earned the right to complain?"

"...Probably not. Damn it all," Edgar grumbled, shouldering his pack with a wince.

Seeing Kyle effortlessly handle the massive warrior brought a faint smirk to Bennett's face. Composing his expression, he stepped forward to lead the way. Finding a nearby emergency stairwell allowed them to take a brief detour through the lower landing before heading upward.

"The bell grew fainter down there," Kyle noted.

"Then we go up."

The eighth and ninth floors appeared to house large performance auditoriums and event halls, but with their packs stuffed to bursting, the party bypassed them entirely and climbed straight to the tenth floor.

Stepping out onto the threshold, Bennett couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh.

"Hah."

"What is that...?" Kyle whispered, staring in horror.

Pouring through the wide panoramic windows was an unearthly, blinding blue radiance—the dread Blue Light. The Public Exit had spawned directly in the center of the open-air rooftop garden. Naturally, there was no awning, roof, or barricade to shelter anyone crossing the expanse to reach it.

Bennett quickly explained the nature of the phenomenon to his companions.

"...Gods above," Kyle muttered, shivering at the thought of losing his mind to the light. Edgar, however, merely snorted with arrogant bravado.

"That only happens to weak-willed cowards! A man with a sturdy body and an iron mind can shrug off a little blue light without flinching!"

Bennett narrowed his eyes and gestured toward the glass door leading out to the garden, inviting him to prove it.

"Ahem... On second thought, my headache seems to be acting up again," Edgar mumbled, abruptly looking anywhere else. Kyle shook his head in embarrassment and bowed apologetically toward Bennett.

"I apologize on his behalf..."

"Let's just wait," Bennett said quietly. "A public exit remains open for a full day. Once the blue glow subsides, we make our—"

"Aaaaargh!"

A piercing scream echoed from the stairwell behind them, freezing everyone in their tracks.

"That was... a scream, right?" Kyle asked, gripping the hilt of his sword.

"Sounded like one to me," Edgar muttered.

Edgar, who was standing closest to the landing door, stepped aside just as a frantic mob of scavengers burst through the doorway into the rooftop hall. Running for their lives, the terrified explorers only screeched to a halt when they saw the lethal blue glow blanketing the garden outside.

Bennett walked up to the individual who looked the least frantic among the newcomers.

"What happened down there?"

"I-It's...!"

"Drink some water and breathe," Bennett said calmly, handing him a waterskin.

The stranger eagerly grabbed the canteen and took a desperate gulp before stammering, "P-People who turned into monsters... they're attacking everyone!"

"Are their eyes glowing blue?"

"What? No! No, not them. These things are—"

"Kyle? Bennett?" Edgar called out from the stairwell entrance, his voice tight with tension. "You two need to see this. Right now."

Bennett hurried over to the threshold. "What is it?"

"Tell me I'm not crazy," Edgar muttered, pointing down the darkened stairs.

"..."

For once, Bennett couldn't argue. Ascending the stairs were figures whose flesh was so pallid, bloated, and dripping wet that they stood out even in the pitch-black shadows. A foul, nauseating stench of stagnant swamp water surged up the stairwell. A few scavengers who had lingered near the lower landings were grabbed and pinned against the walls.

Edgar couldn't make out the details in the dark, but thanks to his Night Vision perk, Bennett saw the horror with sickening clarity.

"What the hell are you freaks—mmph?!"

The dripping abominations pressed their mouths tightly against the scavengers' lips. After a brief, violent convulsion, the victims' skin turned pale and bloated, and they rose in unison to join the shambling horde.

There are too many to count... Bennett thought grimly. As far down as his sight could reach, the stairwell was choked with them.

"Shut the door and barricade it," Bennett commanded.

"What? We're not fighting?" Edgar asked.

They slammed the heavy steel fire door shut, but that alone wasn't enough; the latch had no interior lock. Bennett swept his gaze across the lounge and pointed toward a pile of heavy abandoned maintenance equipment and thick metal display counters.

"Grab everything heavy! Pile it up!"

"R-Right!"

The surviving scavengers who had fled to the tenth floor quickly understood the gravity of the situation and rushed to help. Desks, iron stands, and stone planters were dragged across the floor and heaped against the doorway.

"That's enough! Back away!" Bennett barked.

The party backed away from the barricade, weapons drawn. A second later, the handle jiggled.

Rattle. Click.

The knob turned smoothly. Seeing that the abominations hadn't forgotten how to open doors, Kyle and Edgar scowled.

"Damn it, they're smarter than they look."

Had they not piled the barricade high, the horde would have poured into the hall already.

Thump! Thuuump!

Realizing the door was blocked, the creatures ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠began hurling their wet, heavy bodies against the steel slab. The door shuddered on its hinges, but the massive pile held firm. Seeing that the barrier wasn't giving way, several scavengers let out ragged sighs of relief.

It was relief celebrated far too early.

From the narrow crack between the bottom of the door and the floor, pale, worm-like tendrils began squirming through into the room. Bennett, who had never taken his eyes off the threshold, squeezed the trigger instantly.

Skreeeech!

The parasite squealed violently as the crossbow bolt pinned it to the linoleum.

"Hell yeah! Nice shot!" someone cheered from the back, but the celebration was short-lived.

As if enraged by their brethren's death cry, the parasites' movements accelerated drastically. The pale, wriggling worms that had been crawling sluggishly began snapping their bodies like springs, launching themselves into the air in short, aggressive hops.

I can pick them off.

Bennett's eyes narrowed, methodically tracking every moving shape.

Thwip. Thwip. Th-thwip.

Every single bolt struck true, skewering the airborne parasites mid-flight. It was the lethal accuracy of a ranger honed by a decade of mercenary skirmishes. People were shouting and yelling around him, but Bennett blocked out the noise entirely, sinking into absolute, mechanical focus.

"Bennett-nim!"

A hand gripped his shoulder, snapping Bennett out of his trance. Kyle was standing right beside him, pointing toward the courtyard.

"We have to go! Now!"

Bennett glanced toward the glass panes. Sometime during the chaos, the eerie blue moonlight had faded into the dark night sky. Outside, Edgar and the other scavengers were already sprinting across the garden toward the glowing green portal.

"Hurry!"

Bennett nodded sharply, spinning on his heel to run alongside Kyle.

CRASH!

With an ear-splitting boom, the heavy steel door sheared off its hinges, and the mountain of debris collapsed inward. Bursting through the wreckage, the pale, waterlogged horde flooded the hallway, lunging forward with explosive speed. The sluggish, lumbering gait they had displayed earlier had been a complete lie; they closed the distance in the blink of an eye, trailing foul, putrid swamp water in their wake.

Feeling the rank chill of death creeping up their backs, Bennett and Kyle pushed off the floor with everything they had. The emerald-green vortex of the portal expanded before them, and in the next heartbeat, the world violently flipped upside down.

When Bennett opened his eyes, he was standing on familiar, solid ground.

An intoxicating rush of vitality and adrenaline washed through his limbs. Bennett shuddered as the pleasant tingling settled into his bones, then let himself sink onto the floor, steadily regulating his ragged breaths.

Alongside the achievement, a glowing prompt prompted him to select a new skill in honor of his level increase.

Just hold your horses, Bennett thought with a faint, exhausted smile.

For now, he simply closed his eyes, savoring the sweet relief and profound triumph of having made it out alive.