Chapter 2: Money First!
Reality check done, what did I do? Of course, I rushed straight to the basement.
And closed the iron front door behind me, just panting for breath.
I needed time to organize my thoughts. What had I experienced so far?
“Let’s organize the information. Right now, this door connects to the world two years from now, and humanity starts facing the crisis 1 year and 6 months from now?”
It was shocking, but the current reality was clear facts.
The visible landscape outside was definitely the Korea I knew, yet it was a bizarre world where zombies crawled.
“Huu… huu…”
Was this really a dream? No way?
Just in case, I pinched my cheek and banged my head against the wall, feeling the shock.
“Ouch! It hurts like hell.”
This pain and the sense of reality was definitely not a dream.
Why? The word came out naturally, but what mattered was that there were zombies.
“How am I supposed to sleep?”
A zombie might come running from this door at any moment. Moreover, there was a corpse I had killed. Would it get up again? Do zombies die if the head is pierced?
I hurriedly moved the closet and blocked the entrance.
It was really strange things happening today.
I sighed, and suddenly the doorbell rang.
“Eh… eh…”
With my head still in a fog, I hurriedly went outside and saw a perm-haired auntie.
“Bro. Are you home?”
“Yes. Yes. What’s the matter?”
“It’s not that. I bought clothes for my kid and I want to know if they’re okay. You know, since you’re a guy.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t some deep content. What clothes?
The auntie’s clothes were a plain sweater. Spring was coming to an end—would it be okay?
“This is fine. It’s plain and not bad at all.”
“Isn’t it? No need to change, right?”
I enthusiastically agreed, but a strange feeling hit me.
It was the same sense of déjà vu as when I had seen that room two years from the future.
I looked at the auntie and ran to that door. I moved the closet again and peeked through the gap.
Even then, I was terrified, holding a kitchen knife.
“…Huu.”
Fortunately, no zombie came out again. The head was still pierced through.
“Amazing…”
And the moment I saw the clothes the zombie was wearing, I was shocked.
It was exactly the sweater the auntie had asked about just now.
“No way…”
Too surprised to confirm yet, but then this zombie was…
Seeing the face, I saw the wrinkles and spots of the auntie’s husband.
“Impossible.”
The zombie was the auntie’s husband. Was this the future two years from now?
While I was at a loss, the only thought that came to me was that I couldn’t just leave the corpse.
“Eh… eh… rubber gloves.”
First, I dragged the auntie’s husband’s corpse out with my bare hands.
Sorry, uncle.
Feeling sorry in my heart, I locked the door.
“Huu.”
And I exhaled the breath I had been holding.
It wouldn’t get infected, right? I wiped the turbid blood flowing in the house with a rag and threw it out immediately.
No, this needed to be burned.
“Gas… of course it wouldn’t work.”
The gas stove had run out long ago, and electricity didn’t come.
No, since the zombie situation had occurred, of course.
I had to take revenge, but what was this sudden situation?
The future where the zombie situation had occurred. Then, there was less time to take revenge.
I handled the materials left by the owner of this place.
1 year and 6 months until the zombie situation. Remaining time also 1 year and 6 months.
The goal was to gather the money to do whatever revenge. Even if I won the lottery…
“Damn it. Is there no lottery number?”
I was also dumbfounded. After the zombie situation, who would remember lottery numbers while surviving?
When I thought it was impossible, suddenly the computer here came into view.
It wouldn’t work since electricity didn’t come, but?
“This space where I am now is possible, right?”
I immediately moved the computer.
Just in case there was some good material for making money.
And upon close inspection, the newspapers were classified by year.
“Up to 10 years ago, it’s all classified.”
The scraped articles were also about the zombie situation.
[Unprecedented disease, the whole world in chaos]
[Worldwide debate over whether it’s zombies or not!]
[Where did it start? In the situation where Wuhan in China is pointed out, the Chinese government denies it.]
[Strange men in black suits discovered worldwide, the virus suddenly increases where they passed.]
[Drug distribution spreading zombie virus? Mexican drug cartel collapsed due to zombie situation]
Among these, the Wuhan and black suit articles had stars attached, which were more important than the other scraped articles.
Was it important among the things that happened in the future?
And there was a note attached to the scraped article.
[If we can stop these in the past?]
-If someone in the past knows this fact, they might be able to stop it in advance?
“Looking at this person?”
It seemed like a wish. I looked up the diary I had roughly covered, and this person’s feelings were there.
1 year and 6 months later, the zombie situation occurred and gradually grew until the government and the world couldn’t stop it, so he started collecting materials.
But it meant that he himself had gone beyond what he could do.
“What? The future me wasn’t it?”
The original me seemed to have already moved, and it was written that I came here about 2 months after the situation started.
This diary recorded anecdotes like starting pseudo-religions and burning walls, etc.
He had already figured out there was no answer in the future world and was trying to send information to the past.
“Scraping articles and organizing them by hand, he must have put in a lot of effort. Until 3 months after the situation, the internet was still there?”
First, organize the thoughts.
The diary told how he survived in this situation and what he needed to solve.
[Now my body is weird. After cleaning the zombies around, I got scratched. The end is coming. I lived for 6 months, barely. I can’t live comfortably like those in the ark or those gathered in high-rise apartments. But there won’t be anyone who will go around solving this world situation like me. If someone sees this, please. Kill zombies in this world for me.]
“Since it’s happening worldwide, how can I answer?”
I understood the feelings, but how was I supposed to do it alone? If they all came at me like in the movies, there was no answer.
What was important was to stop the zombie situation from happening in the world I was in.
This might be easy. By telling the scraped materials to catch suspicious guys or informing the source of the virus.
“My life is important. Since it’s connected to the zombie world, what’s important?”
Even so, it was a miserable life, so I sighed, and at the end of the diary, more scraped materials were attached.
[Is it gambling or opportunity! Lumen coin 30x surge!]
[Due to war concerns, Kospi plummeted rapidly in the stock market.]
[New drug called zombie drug distributed in the US!]
[Lotte Tigers, again won the top spot in the exhibition game, but netizens smile wryly calling it planting hope in spring and mental scissors in autumn.]
[Ulsan Hyundai, this time it’s different! To break the nightmare of runner-up, they recruited Brazilian star Natingyo!]
[B’s recent popular group A has a bad reputation that he’s a jerk.]
“What is this useless gossip?”
Suddenly, in the scraped materials far from seriousness, such words were written.
[If my attempt succeeds and connects to the past, you will definitely not believe it. So, I’ll write some fun things here. Future lottery, future stocks, future coins. The scraped materials I have are full of things that would make your mouth water if you were the past you. This can prove the credibility of my words.]
“Future coins, stocks, lottery?”
To me, who was gathering money by doing manual labor miserably, this information was literally shocking.
Did future stock and lottery information exist? Then I could definitely make money.
Moreover, revenge.
At this time, news came from the TV.
[Even if the victim’s statement is retracted, the Supreme Court ruled that it cannot be doubted for credibility.]
Ah, now even if it wasn’t a consistent statement, it was okay. This world was crazy.
Surprisingly, I focused on turning on the computer.
Zombies? It was more than that—I needed change.
A mysterious thing happened to me, who had been mocked as a failed life and at the bottom.
It was like a fairy tale where a rope had been lowered.
Even if I didn’t know what was what, it would be better than now.
Yeah, whether this rope was rotten or not, I’d try it.
If it was better than the current situation, I’d accept it anytime.
Originally, I was thinking about doing a proper thing and going to prison, but suddenly something strange happened.
“Instead, it’s good.”
A smile naturally came to my lips.
The computer was on, and detailed organized materials were visible.
He had recorded the diary of that day, gathering records over at least 20 years.
- Incheon battle
- Busan defense battle
- Daejeon Suseong battle
- Seoul liberation battle
“The flow of major wars. In the end, we lost here.”
[Evacuation of high-ranking officials or rich people]
- They successfully escaped first than citizens by receiving special privileges.
- There were ark or air raid shelters where they stayed, but currently we didn’t know what happened. There were many things in internet communities that we couldn’t be sure if they were them.
“Hah, even in this situation, you’re still like that. Yeah. Since you have money, you can easily receive help for your life or death.”
It was unfair, but it was good for them to survive because of the wealth and status they had built with their efforts.
So, don’t think badly. What was important was other lives, not theirs.
“Is there anything about Melonia?”
Yes. I wondered if Melonia, my revenge target, had survived at this point.
If she survived?
What do you want to do? Jin Dohyuk.
I was asking myself. Either way, the party who had eaten me was not.
“Revenge. Same. Moreover, since the world is ruined, no police, no lawless zone… eh?”
Upon thinking, the future world was ruined. No law or police in the world.
So, if I met Melonia…
“What can I do?”
A refreshing feeling rushed into my head like Aristotle shouting Eureka.
Yes. Here, I could do whatever I wanted. Those with strong power could have anything.
Killing, violence, and women too.
I could just do as I liked?
[Melonia]
- After the situation, she escaped to the ark, but after leaving a message asking for help as the ark collapsed, she disappeared
- If alive, high probability in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul
“Kick… kuh…”
Please live. Future Melonia. Then if I went to Seocho-gu, I might meet her?
There was the premise ‘if alive’, but if I met her?
Above all, I could bring the advantages of the real world.
Weapons, food, electricity.
With the powerful backing of the real world, I couldn’t do anything.
Should I wear a full-body protective suit so I didn’t get bitten by zombies?
I had to buy that too, right?
Moreover, to maintain it, buying a house was fine.
Suddenly, the worry about money was gone. Starting from now.
“What should I do first?”
Holding the bankbook, I rummaged through the materials left by this person.
[2023 lottery, pension]
I checked the stock and coin sections as well.
The place where it rose the most rapidly and made the biggest money instantly.
Coins.
I started investing in coins first.