Symbiosis
I hadn't expected to find a corpse the moment I stepped outside.
The clothes told me he wasn't a hunter. A hunter would've had at least some armor on.
I edged closer and looked him over with care. Pale skin. Bruises along the arms and torso, and a bite mark on the neck. He'd bled out, by the look of it.
This is an object corpse.
The Tower's first floor capped out at twenty people and started everyone on solo random matchmaking. More importantly, everyone began at the same time, so it was physically impossible for someone to have fought a zombie and bled to death in a window this short.
Small mercies.
That eased me a little. If a real death had already happened, it would've sat heavy. I would've felt worse about taking his things, too.
A wooden bat. Lucky.
I picked up the weapon lying beside the corpse.
That covers the prep.
I crept a slow circle around the area. Thankfully, no other zombies. We hadn't been in long; it figured. This was the window to farm as much basic gear as I could.
I slipped back in behind the first zombie I'd run into. If I wanted to loot the residential block, I had to clear the nearby zombies first. Smashing a lock made one hell of a noise.
"Grrk."
But with the back of its head right there in front of me, I hesitated. Was I really allowed to beat this thing to death? Could I even do it?
Time kept sliding past while I stood there wavering. The longer I took to commit, the more dangerous this got.
I hauled in a breath, raised the bat overhead, and brought it down with everything I had.
Thwack!!
"Gwoaargh?!"
The zombie jolted awake on impact and staggered, trying to turn. I'd watched footage of hunters fighting zombies and run my own method through simulation after simulation. Time to find out whether it actually worked.
Position matters more than the attack!
Instead of flailing out a wild combo, I watched how it moved. It drew its right foot back to turn toward me, and I matched it, sliding hard to the left—still on its back. I brought the bat down again.
Crack!!
"Kwoaargh!"
It reeled harder than it had from the first hit. I followed with a blow to the right knee, then hammered the cervical spine as it doubled over.
Thud! Crack!
"Kruk."
It collapsed face-down. For the finish, I drove the bat into the back of its skull.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
"Hup—hoo. Fuck. Done. That wasn't so bad."
The fight had gone exactly the way I'd pictured it. A rush of adrenaline shot through me, and my hands shook.
All right. Moving.
Time to farm.
The villa next door was perfect for it. It used a key lock, not a digital one. First I smashed every doorknob on the way up to the fourth floor. No telling when a zombie might spawn; better to handle it in advance. Then I looted my way back down from the top.
The fourth floor had nothing but snacks and bottled water. On the third I found a wallet, 550,000 won in cash, and a junk item—a toy. The second floor, thankfully, gave me something useful: a leather jacket.
Things inside the Tower aren't the same as things outside. Enhanced versions, more or less. This leather jacket would be tougher and harder to tear, and the wooden bat was the same. An ordinary one would've already snapped.
On the way out I grabbed the duct tape sitting on a shelf. The first floor had a decent haul too—fashion magazines, scissors, a cheap aluminum pot.
With this, I can reinforce some armor.
I wrapped magazines around the sleeves of the leather jacket. Riiip. Then I wound duct tape over them. Even if something bit my arm, it wouldn't be fatal. I wanted to reinforce my torso as well, but I was short on magazines.
Time to go.
No more time to waste. The zombie spawns had to be well underway by now, and I needed to farm a little more before the place filled up.
The door swung open without a sound, nothing like my front door back home. I envied that a little. If I ever made it back, I'd have to replace mine. Not that I had any intention of entering the Tower again.
Outside, a freshly spawned zombie was waiting. This time I walked straight up to it.
No time left to check the perimeter.
Circle the block once and something new was likely to spawn. I got behind it, raised the bat, and swung down hard.
Thwack!!
"Kweee!"
The impact settled heavy in my hands. A strike to the right knee, and the zombie staggered as it tried to turn. I didn't waste the opening. I kicked the hunched thing in the back, dropped it, and finished the job.
Crack! Thud! Crack!! Thump! Crunch!
"Hoo."
My hands weren't shaking anymore. I didn't have time to dwell on it anyway. I hurried over and dug through a nearby trash can—something I never would've done in real life.
Lucky.
◈ Torn Cloth×5
◈ Magazine
◈ Packaging Plastic
The Tower had a way of turning up usable junk like this.
"Grrrrk."
"Ah, shit."
The groan behind me startled a sound out of me before I could stop it.
"Krk?!"
Goddamn it.
Crack!
I brought the bat down on its head and scanned the area. Thankfully, it was still just this one.
"Kwoaaah!"
The moment it spotted a human, it showed that reckless aggression.
Crack! Thwack!
Damn it!
The arm it thrust at me made the head a hard target. Then, for some reason, the zombie closing in hunched down.
"Kyaaaah!"
A sudden leap. Walkers can't run. A short leap, though, they can manage.
"Are you kidding me!"
I tried to backstep out—and stepped on a chunk of broken concrete.
Skrrt.
My foot went out from under me.
Ha. Fuck. Was this really how I went out?
"Kwoaaah!"
I shoved my right arm into the maw coming for my throat.
"Gwooop."
Good thing I'd wrapped it in magazines. Even a zombie with a stronger bite than a human couldn't tear through them in one go.
"Fuck! Get off, you lunatic!"
I tried to shove its shoulder away with my left hand. It didn't budge. A stage-one zombie's strength sits about even with a person's. Unless you've trained in jiu-jitsu, you don't just slip out of a mount.
Then a light flashed behind the zombie, followed by a dull impact.
Thud!
"Kwek!"
I didn't miss the opening. I kicked the zombie off, rolled, and got to my feet.
"Thank you!"
The one who'd saved me was a person. I never thought I'd be this glad to see another human being.
"Wh-what for. We ought to help each other. Haha...."
It was too dark to make out the face well, but it was a soft, heavyset man in glasses.
"Behind you! Behind!"
A zombie had spawned at his back.
"Uhek!"
I soccer-kicked the head of the zombie sprawled in front of me, then charged the one behind him and swung full force.
Thump! Crack!
"Uhek! Uheek! Uwaaaek!"
I stomped hard on the head of the zombie the blow had knocked flat.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Get it together and fight!"
"Huh? Y-yes?"
"I said fight!"
Crunch!
"Kweeeek!"
The zombie that had mounted me came at me again.
"Just die!"
I drove a front kick into its gut. The kick landed clean and dropped it—but I went down with it. Apparently the laws of physics applied inside the Tower too.
Thud! Crash!
"Mister, smash its head!"
"M-me? I'm still in my twenties."
"Just smash it!"
"Y-yes sir!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He caved the zombie's head in with a hammer.
"Ha. Goddamn."
We were barely past the opening, and my whole body already ached. I headed back to my starting point to patch myself up.
A pain-relief patch would help.
This was harder than I'd thought. Getting tackled by a zombie. Rolling across the ground. The spawns weren't even finished, and I was already in this state.
"So you're in the opening phase too, mister?"
"I'm not a mister. I'm Lee Junsung."
"Ah, right. Junsung. I'm Yoon Jaeha."
He looked a little fragile.
"Why'd you come into the Tower?"
He didn't look like someone adventurous enough to enter, not at a glance. Don't tell me he'd talked in his sleep, the way I had.
"Because of that alert yesterday."
"Ah."
The one about a calamity if we failed to hit the target amount.
"Were you the same, Mr. Jaeha?"
"...Yeah."
"I knew it!"
Knew what, exactly? As if! Did he have any idea how dangerous the Tower was?! But I couldn't say I'd shown up because I talked in my sleep. Too embarrassing.
"Still, meeting someone makes me feel a lot safer. Hehehe."
I was grateful he'd helped, but from where I stood I didn't feel safe at all. Just remembering how he'd acted in the fight made my stomach churn.
Riiip. I wrapped duct tape around the wooden bat.
"Why are you taping it?"
"It cracked a little while I was fighting."
Had to reinforce it somehow. Then I set magazines against my shins and wound tape around those too.
"Magazines? Oh, that looks like you've got a system. Are you making armor?"
Awful curious for a guy I'd just met. Why was he acting so familiar already? Still, he was my benefactor. I could spare him that much.
"When you farm, you find stuff like magazines and rubber sheets. Reinforce yourself with them like this. It'll stop a bite or two."
"Ooh!"
Lee Junsung let out a gasp, thought hard about it, then asked:
"But what's farming?"
"Sorry?"
"Farming. That."
Don't tell me this guy had walked in knowing absolutely nothing. I was going to lose it.
"Gathering stuff. Weapons, money, items. Whatever."
"Ah."
I finished the rough repairs and pulled out a snack. While I chewed, Lee Junsung stared.
"Want some?"
"Ah, yes! Thank you."
I wasn't eating because I was hungry. Food from the Tower has a special effect—just eating it boosts your stamina. Hunters had tested it thoroughly, so the information was solid. It even helped a little with recovering from injuries. Lee Junsung almost certainly had no idea.
I drained a bottle of water in one go. The fatigue lifted enough that I could feel it. So this was what it was like to experience something I'd only ever heard about secondhand.
"Let's head out."
"Mmph—yeah. But where to?"
If I'd been alone, the destination would've been obvious. Dragging this guy along wasn't a good idea. Then again, I couldn't just ditch the person who'd helped me.
This was my first time in the Tower, but I'd lived through it indirectly in countless videos. This guy, though, was a complete beginner.
Guess I should at least give the newbie a guide.
I was still turning it over when he spoke.
"Mr. Jaeha, aren't we going?"
And he says something that carefree.
"Shh! From here on, no talking. Hand signals."
"Hand signals? I don't know any."
Did he not understand why I was keeping my voice down? The road ahead looked bleak. I needed to dump him at the station and get on with my own way as fast as I could.