Chapter 9
Chapter 9
For convenience's sake, he had even given his ability a name.
'Mandatory Death Eye.'
An eye that guaranteed death.
Following the prompt from his Mandatory Death Eye, he threw a kitchen knife pulled from his inventory at a zombie charging toward him.
"...!!"
A zombie that should have shrugged off such an attack instead crumpled to the ground, its movements ceasing entirely.
An ironic word to use for a zombie, but it was dead.
'Confirmation complete.'
After that, he swung his great hammer.
In a dungeon like Zombie Burst, where numbers mattered, a weapon with long reach and wide range was far more efficient.
But wasn't a heavy, unwieldy weapon a problem?
Of course not.
『Skill Acquired: Heavenly Strength Steps (1★).』
After all, in his past life, he had been a Martial God.
Joo Do-gyeom deliberately smashed the rooftop iron door of the apartment with his great hammer.
The loud noise drew aggro, summoning the zombie horde lurking in the stairwell.
Not that it mattered.
No—this was exactly what he wanted.
Facing the endless wave of zombies surging toward him, Joo Do-gyeom danced across the rooftop, sweeping them aside with nothing but his great hammer.
To him, the great hammer was not just a blunt weapon reliant on its heavy head.
The grip in his hand.
The shaft connecting the handle to the hammerhead.
Even the wind generated by each swing—
All of it became his weapon.
Before long, zombie corpses piled up around him.
Even excluding those sent flying off the rooftop to their deaths below, the sheer number he had slaughtered was staggering.
At the climax of the battle, Joo Do-gyeom flicked a finger infused with internal energy at the last zombie, which had luckily slipped through the gaps of his hammer swings and closed in.
SHWEEEK—!
The sound of splitting air echoed, and the zombie collapsed where it stood, its chest caved in.
『Skill Acquired: Shadowless Finger Bullet (1★).』
Without even bothering to confirm the kill, Joo Do-gyeom lowered his great hammer to the ground.
THUD—!
『Strength Rank Increased: E- → E』
『Skill Upgraded: Heavenly Strength Steps (2★).』
The heavy impact reverberated through the silent night.
But no more zombies came rushing in—no footsteps climbing the stairs, no growls from the darkness.
He couldn't be sure about the interior of the apartments or individual units, but at the very least, every zombie in the stairwell and rooftop was dead.
Joo Do-gyeom opened the dungeon info screen to check his kill count and remaining time.
『276/1,000』
『69 Hours 53 Minutes 28 Seconds... 27 Seconds...』
Had the nonstop combat made the difference?
He had killed far more than expected in such a short time.
'No wonder my internal energy is depleted.'
Still, after a few deep breaths, his energy rapidly replenished.
Part of it was due to the small amount of energy stored in his dantian, but the greater reason was the sheer efficiency of Heaven-Binding Qi Art, his internal energy technique.
In the meantime, Joo Do-gyeom gulped down water from his purification canteen.
Some of it trickled down the corner of his lips.
He wiped it away with the back of his hand, then lifted the great hammer with one arm and stored it in his inventory.
Had his strength rank increased?
It felt noticeably lighter than before.
'I won't need it for a while if I'm heading downstairs.'
But it would still be useful once he went back outside.
With that thought, Joo Do-gyeom retrieved the kitchen knives he had thrown or picked up mid-combat, then stepped toward the broken rooftop door.
He descended into the dark stairwell, surrounded only by the motionless corpses of zombies.
BANG BANG BANG BANG—!
Before he had even descended half a floor, the sharp noise struck his ears.
A cold smirk curled on Joo Do-gyeom's lips.
'Thought I killed them all.'
Must have been one trapped somewhere.
It had stopped moving when things quieted down, only to start thrashing again upon sensing his presence.
Pinpointing its location wasn't hard.
20th floor.
Behind the closed metal door of the apartment stairwell, exactly as labeled.
From beyond it, the still-living(?) zombie was making a racket.
Joo Do-gyeom approached, raised his foot, and—without any particular technique—simply channeled raw strength and internal energy into a powerful kick.
CRASH—!
The door caved in, crushing three zombies that had been pounding against it.
Even as undead creatures, incapable of feeling pain, they shrieked as they tried to scramble free.
GRRAAAGH—!
GRAA—!
Joo Do-gyeom calmly stepped forward and lightly stabbed the kitchen knife into the red dots hovering over them.
No internal energy.
No extra force.
Just a light, precise motion.
That was enough.
The zombies, still twitching under the wreckage, went still.
With this additional skirmish concluded, Joo Do-gyeom stepped into one of the 20th-floor apartments—its front door already ajar.
GRAAAK—!
A zombie lunged from the darkness, only to be swiftly impaled by his knife.
Silence fell.
The darkened interior of the apartment.
He pulsed his internal energy outward like sonar.
『Skill Acquired: Ripple Perception Qi Art (1★).』
No presence.
No living, no dead—just stillness.
The inside was clean.
Joo Do-gyeom quietly entered the living room and opened the fridge.
Several bottles of water.
Some expired ready-to-eat meals.
The pantry was much the same.
"Hmm..."
He let out a short sigh, then smiled again.
Each floor of the apartment had four units.
Joo Do-gyeom moved between them, breaking down doors or picking locks to enter.
He cleared out zombies, gathered supplies, and returned to the 20th floor—the first open apartment he had found was the cleanest and most intact.
This process repeated several times.
Soon, the apartment was stocked with enough food and drinks to last one person quite a while.
Next, Joo Do-gyeom barricaded the stairwell and elevator doors with heavy furniture.
The windows, too.
As a result, not even moonlight seeped inside, plunging the space into near-total darkness.
But regardless, within the Zombie Burst dungeon, Joo Do-gyeom had successfully built his own fortress.
Why?
For the sake of restoring and training his martial arts, as he had initially stated.
To an outsider, this might seem like an incredibly risky move in a time-limited dungeon.
But conversely, no other early-stage dungeon offered such a perfect environment for undisturbed martial training.
Martial arts cultivation—especially internal energy techniques—required extreme sensitivity to external disturbances.
"This will do."
Satisfied, Joo Do-gyeom murmured to himself before sitting in a corner of the dark room.
He began his breathing exercises.
Following the principles of Heaven-Binding Qi Art, the dungeon's mana flowed into him with each breath, cycling through his body and accumulating within.
The speed was remarkable.
『Skill Upgraded: Ripple Perception Qi Art (2★).』
『Skill Acquired: Five Senses Unity (1★).』
『Skill Acquired: Golden Blood Purification (1★).』
『Skill Acquired: Bodyguard Warm Qi Art (1★).』
.......
.......
.......
『Skill Upgraded: Clear Sight Art (3★).』
『Skill Upgraded: Heaven-Binding Qi Art (3★).』
『Skill Upgraded: Earth-Binding Qi Art (3★).』
『Skill Upgraded: Five Senses Unity (2★).』
『Magic Rank Increased: E- → E』
『Stamina Rank Increased: E → E+』
『Strength Rank Increased: E → E+』
『Agility Rank Increased: E- → E』
Rustle.
Joo Do-gyeom crumpled the plastic wrap of the last remaining triangle kimbap and tossed it aside as he stood up.
Simultaneously, a burst of light erupted from his eyes—twice as intense as when he had first entered the dungeon.
In truth, his vision could now pierce through ordinary darkness with ease.
A result of Clear Sight Art reaching 3★.
Countless other martial achievements had followed.
Excluding those requiring larger spaces or real combat to progress, nearly everything had improved.
Even this much was a literal leap in power.
Remaining time?
『16 Hours 11 Minutes 20 Seconds... 19 Seconds...』
Not much, but the results spoke for themselves.
The Joo Do-gyeom of this era, before regression, could never have dreamed of such growth.
But the thought was fleeting.
His eyes cooled instantly.
Because it still wasn't enough.
And rightly so.
'I've barely taken the first step.'
Compared to the era when he had fought the Demon King of Annihilation just before regression, this level of power was pitiful.
With the future ahead, he couldn't afford to be satisfied with just this.
'So I'll keep moving forward.'
Zombie Burst.
The primary reason he had entered this dungeon.
To obtain that thing.
As mentioned before, Zombie Burst was an open-world dungeon.
It wouldn't be strange to encounter other hunters within the same dungeon.
That much wasn't an issue.
The problem lay in the dungeon's unique rule:
『Players who die in Zombie Burst drop all collected items from their inventory.』
Normally, when a hunter died, their inventory items didn't drop.
To rob a hunter, you had to force them to spit out their inventory contents themselves.
But in Zombie Burst, dead hunters automatically vomited their loot.
And let's reiterate—
Items obtained in Zombie Burst sold for high prices in the real world.
Which was why some hunters said:
The scariest thing in Zombie Burst isn't the zombies—it's the people.
In a way, it was a fittingly apocalyptic dungeon setting.
Silently.
With utmost stealth.
A gaze watched Joo Do-gyeom moving alone in the distance.
The group Hellhound.
A trio who took pride in their self-given name, each possessing at least one D- rank stat.
At first, they had been ordinary.
Just three guys trying to farm the "easy-money" Zombie Burst dungeon.
With a bit of luck, even low-tier hunters like them could strike it rich.
But windfalls never came easily.
Though Zombie Burst was indeed lucrative, the rewards never matched their greed.
Then came the turning point.
A chance encounter with another hunter group, a fight over loot—and their first mass murder.
It was a revelation.
The moment the hunters died, their inventories spilled open.
Taking their loot was easier than dungeon crawling.
The money was incomparable.
They just had to kill and pick the choicest items.
From that moment, the three became predators.
They had no qualms.
Their villainy in Zombie Burst remained their secret.
The outside world knew nothing of their crimes.
Now, among the Hellhound trio—three friends of the same age—Baek Jung-hu licked his lips unconsciously.
Just watching Joo Do-gyeom's back made his mouth water.
"Looks like he's been here a while. And alone..."
He must have some skill.
That's why he dared enter Zombie Burst solo.
Probably had at least one, maybe even two D- rank stats.
But it also reeked of arrogance.
"Doesn't he know how brutal the hunter world is? No fear at all."
"Tsk tsk..."
Slightly higher stats?
Not a concern.
Joo Do-gyeom was alone. They were three.
Im Jeong-yeol, loading a bolt into his crossbow, muttered:
"Makes my mouth water too. How do we do this? Ambush and swarm?"
"No need. Kill him before he even realizes. I'll distract him—you put a bolt between his eyes."
The reply came from Kim Dok-su, the last of the trio.
With sharp features, his profession was Thief.
Fast on his feet, skilled in deception.
The other two nodded confidently.
"Get ready."
With those words, Kim Dok-su stepped out and strode forward.
Joo Do-gyeom carried no visible gear—just an Infinite Rope and purification canteen at his waist.
Kim Dok-su raised his arms in a show of peace, smiling as he called out:
"Hey, fancy meeting someone out here—"
His words were cut short.
A kitchen knife, seemingly out of nowhere, embedded itself in the center of his forehead.
Blood gushed down from his brow to his chin.
Kim Dok-su collapsed sideways, his hidden inventory items spilling out.
Baek Jung-hu, momentarily stunned, screamed:
"FUCK, SHOOT!"
Im Jeong-yeol raised his crossbow—
But Joo Do-gyeom vanished from his sights.
'Too fast...!'
Unthinkable, even by Zombie Burst's entry standards.
For an archer like him, with sharp eyes, to lose track completely—
"Where—WHERE IS HE!? Jeong-yeol, hurry!"
THUD—!
Baek Jung-hu's head exploded under the great hammer.
Loot spilled from his inventory.
And the attacker?
'Gone again!'
The last survivor, Im Jeong-yeol, bolted upright and ran.
'I'm fucked.'
They had picked the wrong target.
His higher-ranked brother had once warned him:
Even within the same rank, there existed monsters beyond comprehension.
Those who maximized their stat efficiency to inhuman extremes.
The man they had tried to hunt was one such being.
He had to escape.
Run until his soles tore.
No matter how efficient Joo Do-gyeom was, catching a fleeing archer wouldn't be easy.
'If I'm lucky...!'
That was Im Jeong-yeol's final thought, his face twisted in terror.
Somewhere in his vision, a pair of eerie red eyes flashed—
THUD—!
The great hammer smashed into his torso with crushing force.