To the Real World
Everything I'd bought could fairly be called custom-made.
The full-body anti-stab suit wasn't like Achilles with some glaring weak point — it was a full-coverage design, halfway to the kind of suit you saw in movies. Closer to armor than clothing, really. Made from the latest materials, supposedly flexible and light… or so they claimed. Until you got used to it, it was still heavy as hell.
Weapons, too — I'd prepared everything I could within reach.
But I couldn't afford to get careless.
I stepped out into the street to take down the last one remaining, and the thing was already wandering nearby.
"Hey!"
I deliberately shouted loud. Only then did it react, slow and sluggish. Even in that state it looked at me like some dim-eyed old man — then its eyes flipped wild and gleaming.
Here it comes.
The moment it locked on, it came charging like a madman. Calling it stronger than a healthy adult man wouldn't have been an exaggeration. Enough to make you understand, crystal clear, why zombies were terrifying.
I aimed the crossbow with calm precision, waited until it closed to an easy shot, and fired.
A grotesque face — drool trailing, glass shards driven into its skull, an eyeball half spilling out. The bolt punched dead center through its head the instant I loosed it.
The zombie dropped. I caught my breath and moved on to the next site.
Primary objective: clear the zombies around here so I could come and go from this house freely. Save the world, collect women along the way. Absolute heaven — once it was safe, that is.
Either way, Lee Soyeon's place was only about ten minutes from my base. I would wipe out every obstacle along that stretch.
And as I already knew, there were clearly more zombies still inside the houses. For safety's sake, those had to go too.
So how? Simple — make the enemy come to me.
Zombies either stayed trapped inside or found some way to force their way out. Time for a little demonstration.
I found a metal railing that would make plenty of noise. Any building two stories or higher — especially the older ones — was bound to have a staircase leading up. I took the bat to that railing and hammered it like a man possessed. That ought to draw every zombie in the neighborhood.
After a few hard strikes, the sound of shattering glass started up.
They're coming.
Suddenly something slammed against the door of the two-story house whose railing I was beating. Ideally they'd just kill themselves on the way out. They supposedly checked before charging, right? Maybe it was just a random collision.
No room for complacency. I had to stay aggressive.
Then, from behind the building — right behind the railing I was cheerfully thrashing — came the sound of footsteps.
"…"
One of them, first.
I raised the crossbow to aim — and the thing lunged at me like a lunatic.
Just a little closer. A little more…
Then another set of footsteps from the side. The one that had fallen from the window must have gotten back up.
I hurried to finish the first and squeeze the trigger — and the zombie charging me suddenly stumbled, dodging the bolt entirely.
"…."
Know this: reloading a crossbow takes forever.
"Oh, for fuck's sake—!"
Time to swing the custom bat I'd bought from the knife shop. Harder than any ordinary bat, tough enough to smash brick — a specialty piece of lumber.
I brought it down on the skull of the thing crawling at me on its belly like a rabid animal.
"Kyaaak!"
One hit. One single hit, and the head caved in right in front of me. Brains and bone fragments stuck to the bat — deeply unpleasant, but right now that wasn't the— wait.
Something leapt at me from the side.
"Ugh—!"
Before I could even finish appreciating the bat's destructive power, the one coming from the flank slammed into me. In an instant it was on top of me, hideous claws raking across my body.
A pure beast. Not the approach — the savagery of it lunging right in my face was worse than any wild dog.
"You son of a bitch!"
I shoved its face away and cracked it with my fist. The bat had already left my hand, rolling off to the side. This was getting dangerous.
"Kyaaaak!"
I turned my head and saw another one — screaming, charging on all fours, throwing everything it had into the attack.
In that split second, my hand went for the dagger.
I offered my arm as bait, drawing its teeth. Pressure clamped down on my forearm — and in that same breath I drove the dagger into its skull.
"Goddamn it."
I shoved the still body off and exhaled. I'd trained in judo. I had technique. Why the hell couldn't I use any of it?
I checked the arm where its fluids had smeared. Worth every expensive won I'd paid — the suit had held. Nothing got through.
But my ears still caught the noise of more zombies. The second-floor railing side, for one. I grabbed the bolts and the bat in a hurry and kicked the corpse aside.
Dagger, crossbow, and bat alone weren't enough.
Guns really were king. Maybe I'd pick some up once I got back today? I'd need a permit, so it wouldn't be immediate.
And I had plenty else to do. Buy food, haul it over here, show some sense of responsibility. Get survival training so I wouldn't make mistakes like this again. Against zombies, I needed weapons without mercy.
Time to head back, then?
I started toward my house — then looked up at the villa on impulse.
There, without so much as underwear on, Lee Soyeon's face stared blankly down at me.
"…."
No reason I couldn't enjoy myself a little more before I left.
Who knew what would happen next?
I changed direction.
After being ravaged by a beast in a frenzy, Lee Soyeon lay dazed on the living room sofa.
An ordinary day. After the zombie outbreak, people either fled or met their end as the infected themselves.
Her whole body went past languid into aching and exhausted. Physically drained, and mentally so chaotic she was suffering twice over.
As time passed and her mind cleared, every kind of thought came flooding in.
What the hell… why would I let a kid like that…
Her head was running far sharper now than right after she'd been taken while half-asleep. Which only made the humiliation burn hotter.
Looking at that face, you can tell — he's the type who toys with women.
Ugly? Not even close. Handsome, if anything. The kind of looks that suggested he knew exactly how to handle women.
The problem was how much younger he was. Who could have imagined a boy that age would treat her so roughly? Forcing himself on her wasn't enough — he tore into her with words, too. A kid years her junior.
Where did he even come from? I've never seen him before.
Plenty of people had tried hunting zombies. She'd watched them from the window. But before long they got bitten, vanished, and never came back.
That boy will be the same. He'll be dead soon enough!
She wanted that to be true. But in a corner of her mind, the filthy sex that had spilled from bedroom to bathroom rose up unbidden, and her legs drew in on their own.
It hurts so much. My body's wrecked…
There hadn't been many men in her life — and even among those, she'd never seen anything that size. It had felt like a vicious, hard club forcing its way in. And she'd taken it twice while fully conscious.
No… he might have done it several more times while I was asleep.
The sticky mess she'd felt the moment she woke up was screaming that it hadn't been just once.
I'm losing my mind… how did it come to this?
Nothing that ruthless had ever happened in her life. And yet the fact that she was starting to accept it was strange in itself.
It hurts… I should take something.
It was past six in the evening. Not quite summer yet, so the light was already fading. She touched her foggy head and drifted toward the living room bookshelf.
The medicine she actually needed had run out long ago. Sleeping pills, supplements, painkillers — that was all she had left. She slipped a headache tablet into her mouth and washed it down with a little water.
The coolness helped, but the steadily worsening food situation only drew another sigh.
And then, unbidden, a solid-sounding line rose in her mind.
Of all things — the words of the man who had freely violated her.
"Get a grip… I need to get a grip."
She tried to scrub the thought away with open distaste. But since the outbreak, he was one of the very few people she'd actually spoken with.
I can't just keep taking this.
Her heart had been trampled countless times, but a spark of resistance still remained. Circumstances made it hard — that was all. She hadn't fully surrendered.
Then a small noise rose outside. Lee Soyeon stepped out onto the veranda and saw a zombie drop, a crossbow bolt through it.
A man in a helmet and full anti-stab gear, radiating pure intimidation. The same trash who'd been with her moments ago — the same one who'd taken her however he pleased.
He finished the zombie, kept scanning, then began combing the whole area. Suddenly he shouted from a building across the way, grabbed a metal railing, and started banging on it without stop.
"He's insane."
To Lee Soyeon, he looked like a man volunteering for suicide. And there had, in fact, been a crisis.
"Ah…"
She clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. The familiar sight of someone fighting outside, getting bitten, dying. She should have felt satisfaction — he'd forced himself on her — and yet a thread of pity ran through it too.
Of course, he got back up almost at once, thanks to the anti-stab suit, leaving her with a tangle of complicated feelings.
Where did he even get that gear?
The thought struck her as odd. Just from what she could see: bat, crossbow, anti-stab suit. Not what a normal person carried around.
Until now, ordinary people at best wore thick clothes. And this doesn't look improvised. It's strange.
Once the danger passed, the man standing there was thoroughly peculiar. Starting with the outfit itself.
"Ah."
And then her eyes met Jin Dohyuk's.
Through the helmet, a burning gaze seemed to reach her. Lee Soyeon's knees went soft of their own accord.
She knew what he wanted. She knew what he meant to do. She knew why he was turning back toward this villa.
A completely different example — so why was her married friend's boastful line floating up now?
No. I didn't want this. I was just… forced…
She knew exactly what he was coming up for, and fear came first. If she'd been a little sharper, she might have locked the door and held out — but that thought never quite formed.
The male was coming back.
The door swung open. Jin Dohyuk stood there with his helmet off, looking at her.
"I…"
"Once I clear the zombies around here, I can search the houses and pick up whatever we need."
He stripped out of the anti-stab suit as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Lee Soyeon realized, all over again, that she had no choice in the matter.
Six-forty in the evening. From that moment on, she gave her body over to the young male who came at her — without even managing to resist.
"W-wait, just a moment…"
In the living room, in the bathroom, in the bedroom — swept up by a desire that refused to let her sleep, she was ravaged without pause.
"Ahh… please… slower…"
It was worse than right after she'd woken. Refusing his kisses was her last scrap of resistance. Under the heat crashing through her whole body, that resistance steadily weakened.
"Aah… ahn!"
Her cries turned more wanton, and the man only pressed harder. Deliberately driving her to climax, letting her rest, then starting again — ruthless pacing that pushed Lee Soyeon to her absolute limit through the entire night.
"Haa… haa… haah…"
When it was all over and the man left again for the outside, dawn had already passed.
Lee Soyeon sank into sleep, drained of strength. And the young male who had so thoroughly claimed her flesh left this place behind and headed for the real world.