Zombie Apocalypse (2)
There were five broad types of zombies in this place.
First, the ordinary zombie.
The basic model, shuffling forward at a snail’s pace with its feet dragging along the ground.
The lowest of the low—something even a level 10 hunter could handle with ease.
They were so weak it was hard to believe this was the 27th floor at all, but the real problem was their numbers.
From the first day to the last, they kept pouring in without end.
Second, the mutated type known as a Speed.
This was the moment when hunters who had felt safe during the leisurely difficulty of the first day began to despair in earnest.
And it was these things that heralded the beginning of that despair.
They appeared on the night of the second day, and despite being zombies, they could actually run.
At full speed, no less.
Third, the pig.
A grotesque thing with a belly so bloated it looked ready to burst if you so much as pricked it with a needle.
It was disgusting, drooling as it wandered around all day.
The problem wasn’t its stench.
The real threat was its self-detonation.
The moment it was attacked and its swollen belly burst, an unimaginable reek spread everywhere.
And the zombies nearby would swarm toward it all at once.
Like a dinner bell had just rung.
They appeared starting on the third day.
Fourth, the tank.
The complete opposite of the pig. It boasted a thick, muscular build.
If Park Minsu turned into a zombie, he’d probably look like that.
The thought surfaced naturally in Kim Jun’s mind.
Ordinary zombies had rotten skin and a frail look, as if they might collapse at any moment.
But the tank was different.
He had no idea where it got its protein, but its muscles were honed like those of a bodybuilder.
And that strength was very real.
Enough to smash through an entire one-story building.
And finally.
The one called the Woman.
She was the most dangerous existence on the 27th floor.
Delicate body, pale skin.
At a glance, she looked weaker than the others, but that was the trap.
She possessed abilities on an entirely different level from the other zombies.
The ability to control them, to be exact.
She could move dozens, even hundreds of zombies at will.
Like shifting pieces on a chessboard, she methodically drove hunters into a corner.
“...”
Far away.
Kim Jun’s gaze moved farther still, until it settled on something much more distant.
The ruins of a collapsed building. It must have been six stories tall once, but now it had been reduced to one.
Someone was standing atop the rubble.
Grin—
Is she laughing?
That person, no—the thing—was smiling.
A chilling smile that seemed to carry all the way over here.
As though this entire situation were nothing more than entertainment.
Who is that?
She didn’t look like a zombie, and she didn’t look like a hunter either.
But there was no time to keep thinking about it.
Kieeeeeek!!
Kiiiiiiik!!
The Speed’s screams drew closer and closer.
Already fifty meters away.
A distance it could close in just a few seconds.
Kim Jun’s mind raced.
First, survive.
The 27th floor was a space that recreated Yeouido’s terrain exactly as it was.
The size, the building layout, even the road network—everything matched the real world.
Once you stepped beyond that range, however, a transparent barrier blocked the way and made any further movement impossible.
And most important of all.
The north is absolutely off-limits.
The three bridges connecting Yeouido and Gangbuk.
Seogang Bridge, Mapo Bridge, and Wonhyo Bridge.
At regular intervals, zombie waves poured down from those places like waterfalls.
A hellscape where hundreds came surging at once.
Going north was the same as choosing death with your own hands.
Then there was only one answer.
To a high place!
Kim Jun’s eyes locked onto a building.
Even in this ruined world, one skyscraper still stood alone and tall.
63 Building.
“Everyone, that way!”
He pointed and shouted, stretching out a hand.
“Run at full speed right now! To 63 Building!”
Grrrroooar!
The Speed had closed to within thirty meters.
There was no time left to hesitate.
“I said run, not stand there spacing out!!”
“R-run!”
“Carry me! Park Minsu!!”
At Kim Jun’s shout, the group moved at once.
*
Truthfully, zombies like these weren’t a threat to Kim Jun.
One strike was enough. No—one strike was almost too good for them.
And yet here he was,
“Don’t let them touch you—kill them!”
whoosh—
fleeing while swinging his sword.
He cut across Yeouido Park, passed the collapsed subway station, and raced down streets lined with bank buildings.
The goal was one thing: the golden tower gleaming in the distance, 63 Building.
The reason was simple.
Infection.
No matter how strong a hunter was, if they were infected by zombie blood, it was over.
One scrape, one tiny wound, and if even a drop of zombie blood splashed onto it, that was the end.
The body grew hotter and hotter, consciousness blurred, and eventually you became a monster yourself.
That was why the 27th floor was hell for melee hunters and a paradise for ranged ones.
No matter how strong you were, no matter how many you killed, even a single drop of blood could be fatal.
Of course, a top-tier healer like Lee Seoyeon could slow the spread of infection, but even she couldn’t overcome the Tower’s system itself.
Once it got in, it would eventually consume the whole body.
We need a shelter first.
The best option was to secure at least one safe stronghold and wage a defensive battle from there.
The goal here was survival, not extermination.
Even if someone became infected, wasn’t there an antidote?
The problem was the drop rate of supplies.
They were hard enough to find as it was, and the chance that an antidote would be inside was even lower.
If he had to estimate, it was probably worse than the legendary item drop rate in a domestic RPG.
No, the odds were more like a certain game’s “mythic” grade.
Even before regression, he had searched all of Yeouido to save as many people as possible.
The result had been...
Just one.
And he had found it only on the last day.
“No mobility skill?”
“Haha!”
“Don’t laugh!”
The number of skills a hunter could learn was limited.
There were caps by rank, by level, by class.
Only exceptional cases like Kim Jun or Ryu Jia could learn skills without limit.
So most hunters chose carefully.
Rather than useless skills, they filled their slots with core abilities that matched their fighting style.
What about a tanker like Park Minsu?
He didn’t have a single mobility skill.
It was the result of focusing entirely on party play, after all.
“Haha... when you put it like that... that hurts my feelings too...”
Lee Seoyeon said with an awkward smile.
“A-asterisk—no, I mean, exclude the sister!!”
Ryu Jia frantically waved her hands.
“Why are you excluding me!! That’s some real selective outrage!”
“B-because she’s a healer!”
“And I’m a tanker?”
“You’re a muscle pig!”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Lee Seoyeon, the healer, was no different.
She hadn’t learned any mobility skills either.
Her slots were filled entirely with healing and buff skills.
In the end, all five of them had no choice but to run with their own two feet.
They had to keep pace.
Panting, gasping for breath, and still—
Clang-!
Kraaaak-!
They ran, cutting down, blocking, and dodging the zombies pouring in from every direction.
How far had they come?
It felt like about twenty minutes had passed.
His chest was starting to tighten with every breath, and his legs were beginning to wobble.
63 Building was drawing closer.
Just a little farther.
Then—
[Only 5 minutes remaining until nightfall!!!]
[Only 5 minutes remaining until nightfall!!!]
[Only 5 minutes remaining until nightfall!!!]
Along with the eerie warning, red letters flashed into view.
“F-five minutes already?”
Ryu Jia cried out in shock.
“Is this for real?”
Park Minsu looked just as rattled.
“Hurry!”
Lee Seoyeon shouted anxiously.
Kim Jun’s brow furrowed.
That’s strange.
The time of entry into the 27th floor was fixed at 1:00 p.m.
On the first day, night shouldn’t arrive for at least another six or seven hours.
And yet it had only been twenty minutes?
Where did it start going wrong?
Something was different from before his regression. What variable kept causing these changes?
And that “human” from earlier.
The existence grinning from atop the ruins.
He was definitely nothing like a zombie.
Who was he?
There was a strange feeling of familiarity, yet not familiarity.
He was certain he had seen that face somewhere before, but he couldn’t remember.
Slash—!
Kim Jun swung his sword again and cut off a zombie’s head.
This isn’t the time to think about it.
Put the questions aside.
For now, run.
“Focus!! More are coming!”
Kim Jun shouted.
In front of them, an apartment complex spread out across the road. If they could just get past this section, they would reach 63 Building.
But—
Kieeeek-!
Uuugh-!
Zombies were charging in like mad from both sides of the apartment complex. There had to be at least a thousand of them.
And from the hospital beside it—
Kraaah-!
Zombies in white coats poured out of the building in a flood.
Doctors, nurses, patients—whatever they had been before, there were at least a hundred of them.
“Jia!”
Kim Jun called out, and—
“I’ve been waiting!”
Ryu Jia stopped in place.
Crackle-
Snap-
Mana began swirling around her.
The air around them grew heavy in an instant.
The wind died, and only the sound of leaves scraping the ground broke the silence.
The zombies drew closer.
Thirty meters.
Twenty meters.
Ten meters.
And then—
Fsssssht-!
“Lightning!”
Ryu Jia’s sharp cry.
──!
Lightning cascaded from the sky like a waterfall.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAAANG-!!
The thunderclap hammered against their ears. A blinding flash burst forth, bright enough to make it impossible to keep their eyes open.
And when that light vanished—
Grrr...
Guuuu...
Every one of the thousand or so zombies had fallen.
The stench of burning flesh hung in the air.
“Jia! Next!”
Kim Jun shouted urgently.
If they relaxed here, it was over.
Before regression, countless hunters had been done in at exactly this moment.
They killed the zombies, then let their guard down.
But what was the purpose of the 27th floor again?
What was the emphasis placed on above all else?
Not extermination, but survival.
The greatest danger here wasn’t the zombie in front of them.
It was infection.
Zombies were only the medium. The real threat was the infection they spread.
And it spread with terrifying ease.
When hundreds of zombies died at once, that meant blood was splattered everywhere.
It turned into microscopic particles and drifted through the air.
If it got into your nose or mouth?
It was over.
No, not just that.
You could be infected through a tiny wound in your sleep, or through contaminated water or food.
It responded even to second, third, and fourth contact.
It was dangerous even if you merely touched an object stained with zombie bodily fluids.
Before regression, Kim Jun had witnessed countless tragedies.
A comrade who had fought beside him suddenly turned into a zombie one morning and attacked everyone.
The horrifying sight of someone sleeping inside a shelter transforming into a zombie and infecting the rest.
The moment a person who had seemed perfectly fine suddenly collapsed and, within minutes, became a monster.
There was no way to know when or where the infection had happened.
And the place where the zombies had just died was exactly where they had to pass on their way to 63 Building.
“Frost Nova!”
Ryu Jia quickly activated her next skill.
KAGAGAGANG-!
In an instant, a wave of freezing cold exploded outward.
The blood suspended in the air froze solid and crashed to the ground.
“Now! Move!!”
At Kim Jun’s cry, all five of them rushed into 63 Building at once.
66
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