Dexterity

"Um... that arm..."

"Let's just go."

But Shanks... your arm!!!

"Yep."

The hunter's stride kept getting longer. Between the dark and the motorcycle helmet, I couldn't see her face, but I had a feeling it was bright red.

If you're going to reinforce your gear, you could at least ask me.

The duct tape plastered on in thick, sloppy layers grated on me.

"That's... not how you do that."

"Wh-what?!"

She spun around, flustered. Oops. The words had slipped out before I could stop them. Looking closer, I saw magazines stuck all the way up to her elbows.

That's going to get in the way when she moves. This wouldn't do.

"Noona, over here for a second."

"W-why."

"It'll only take a moment."

We stepped back into the restaurant we'd already been through, and I shone my flashlight on her arm.

"Isn't it uncomfortable when you move?"

She held her silence, then nodded. Knew it.

"Mind if I reinforce it again for you?"

Another nod. Too embarrassed to answer out loud, she only dipped her head.

Reinforcing armor on your own is actually pretty hard for a beginner. Me, I'd practiced alone at home, so I'd gotten decent at it. A little embarrassing to admit.

Hmm. Be nice if I could peel all this duct tape and junk off cleanly.

A subspace backpack would make it easy. Not that I could lend her mine. What if she had a change of heart?

"Could you take off what you've already put on, first?"

On the off chance the pack she was wearing was a subspace backpack too. She nodded.

Pop!

Knew it. Subspace backpack.

The duct tape and the clutter vanished without a trace. A little adhesive left behind was unavoidable.

"Give me your arm."

She offered it, carefully. I wrapped thick packing plastic around it first.

Unlike my leather jacket, this might be an item. Be a shame to get it dirty for no reason.

Over that I layered magazines, then added reinforcement with wire from a fan.

"Other arm."

Again she just held out her hand, not a word.

What is she, a prim little cat?

Once the left arm was done, I pointed at a chair.

"Sit here."

She hesitated, then sat. I crouched in front of her.

"Leg."

"Th-that's fine."

"If we're doing this, we might as well do it right. Our lives are on the line."

She stayed quiet, thinking it over, then timidly extended one leg. I wrapped that in plastic too.

This time, maybe leather and plastic plates.

She was strong, but her build was nothing next to a grown man's. Better to keep it light, so it wouldn't hinder her movement. I stitched the leather ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scraps from the clothing store together, tight and even, wrapped them around her leg, and fixed them with duct tape. A plastic plate went on only over the shin.

Even I think this looks good. At this point it's a perfect shin guard, isn't it? And it had to be far lighter than magazines.

She seemed curious herself, bent at the waist, watching the whole time.

"Other leg."

She flinched. At my words she snapped upright, startled, and offered the other one.

Now I'm getting embarrassed too.

Thick leather suit or not, kneading a woman's arms and legs left me feeling strange.

"There! All done, noona."

She was on her feet like she'd been waiting for it. A deep bow, and she walked straight out of the shop.

God, I'm parched.

I pulled off my helmet and was draining a can of soda when it hit.

"H-huh?!?!"

Another skill? Was that even allowed? At this rate I was getting way too strong. Three skills off a single entry—was that possible? I read the effect first.

Dexterity was a passive that applied a bonus to precision work done by hand.

This is huge. Useful in all sorts of ways. Not just reinforcing armor—lockpicking a locked door, that kind of thing, too.

I just got the skill, so asking to redo the reinforcement right now would be weird, right? Manhandling a woman I had no business touching already made me feel like a pervert. Which, fair. Better to redo it once I'd gathered better materials.

A peek. The hunter who'd gone outside stuck just her head back in, watching me. Had she come back because I yelled?

"It's nothing. Let's go."

A nod. We headed back to Hongje Station. Time to go up to the second floor.

"Mind if we stop by the escape exit first?"

I needed to check whether the quota had reset. She nodded.

Contrary to what I'd hoped, it hadn't reset.

"The quota didn't reset."

"It probably never does."

"You've checked before, noona?"

A nod.

"At least through the third day, it was like that."

"What?"

She'd actually stayed on the first floor for three whole days? Was the apocalypse just her natural habitat?

The turnstile on the far side, unlike the escape exit, was washed in red light.

"If we move together, we go up to the same second floor, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right?"

I'd gone digging for information on the Tower and on hunters, and I still barely knew anything about the second floor. Most of the footage hunters had made public was of the first.

"Probably?"

Probably? So we might get matched somewhere else entirely?

"You don't know either, noona?"

"No. I've never gone up with anyone else."

"Um, noona... you're not ditching me, right?"

"Do something about that noona first, and I'll think about it."

Then she could just tell me her name, couldn't she?

"Then what should I..."

She let the silence sit a moment.

"Yoo Sia."

Finally, a name. Getting one out of this noona was no small feat.

"Understood, Noona Sia."

"Drop the noona."

"Yes, Miss Sia."

"That's better."

Maybe because the station interior was bright, it looked, just for a second, as if Yoo Sia smiled beneath the motorcycle helmet.

Ah. Not the time. I'd been staring without realizing it. I pointed past the turnstile.

"We cross at the same time."

A nod. Before that—

"What."

I held out my hand.

"Just in case."

Yoo Sia looked at me like she couldn't believe it.

"I don't mean anything else by it."

We could hold hands on the way through, couldn't we? What if we just walked in and got matched to two different places?

"Haah."

Instead of her hand, Yoo Sia set a rope in mine.

"This works, right?"

"Nn... yeah."

We crossed the turnstile together. Red light closed in around us on every side. A chime—an app notification. I checked it.

"What is this?"

"An inter-floor shop."

Yoo Sia, who had been watching in silence, filled me in.

"I thought the shop only worked outside the Tower."

I'd heard hunters used a shop linked to the app.

"You can use it before you move to the next floor, too."

If the shop worked inside the Tower, farming efficiency was about to jump.

"They barely pay anything, so only sell what you don't need. And get your gear repaired."

"Got it."

I pressed Cash Out first.

The prompt came up, and I hit yes. Holding on to it would only weigh me down. The bag lightened at once.

Convenient.

I sold the things I didn't need, and points piled up. I could buy with them, but nothing looked worth it, so I passed. I repaired my gear instead.

Cashing out and repairs were the real point. Even the black blood on my hand axe wiped clean.

"We're going up now."

"Got it."

The countdown ended with my answer.

A low hum. We came out inside a subway-station elevator. A clack, and the doors opened at once, no waiting. Zombie corpses lay scattered around us. Someone had already come through.

Tap, tap. Yoo Sia patted my shoulder and moved first. I slipped after her into the dark.

Between the tightly packed buildings, we found a cosmetics shop that hadn't been sealed with a shutter or wooden boards. She started to go in, so I tapped her shoulder. She turned, the look of someone asking what the problem was. I signaled, I'll go in first. She nodded.

"Grrrrk."

"Grk."

"Grrrr."

I pinned their positions with Echo Sonar first.

Behind the counter. Beside the display shelf. In front of the storeroom door in the back.

I crept toward the counter. Crunch. Just as I'd expected, I caught the one about to topple and lowered it carefully. Next, the display. Crack. Then the storeroom. Thud.

Clear.

I went back to Yoo Sia.

"All clear. Let's go in."

She looked at me in silence for a moment, then nodded. I was getting used to that reaction.

"The zombies didn't react..."

Rare, her speaking first.

"That's thanks to a skill called Stealth Strike."

"Ah."

The name alone seemed to be enough. She didn't ask anything else. I turned on my phone and checked the map first.

The terrain around us looked strangely familiar.

Euljiro 1-ga Station? Then this is Myeongdong.

That might be a little hopeless. The population density was insane, and there was almost nowhere to hide or parkour. Worse, the center was lined with huge department stores and hotels that might as well have been monster dens.

Escape exit first!

But the map wasn't showing one.

What? Why isn't it here?

I asked Yoo Sia.

"On the second floor, the escape exits open at random, on a timer."

"Ah. So we can't leave right away?"

"No."

I'd known it was different from the first floor. I hadn't known it was like this.

"And a second-floor exit can only be used by a set number of people."

"How many?"

"That's random too. So is how long it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stays open."

"Then we might have to compete with other hunters ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over the exit?"

"Yes."

Damn it. So even if I hid myself away, waited it out, and barely made it to a randomly spawned exit, showing up later than the other hunters meant I still couldn't leave? Even so, I'd been lucky. I was with Yoo Sia, and she knew the second floor.

"Miss Sia, do you have a plan?"

She thought about it.

"First, we link up with other hunters."

"I like that."

"But I don't see anywhere worth linking up."

"Where would that be?"

"People usually gather wherever looks safest. The second floor is pretty dangerous."

Farming as a group, then? And how did they decide who got to escape?

"But this place is packed with buildings end to end, and I don't see anywhere to hide..."

On top of that, Myeongdong was a high-traffic district. Zombie density rose with the foot traffic, which made it more dangerous. That was why we'd already run into fifteen of them on the way here.

"So we just have to hope we run into them naturally?"

"Pretty much."

If I'd come up to a place like this alone? Awful just to imagine. Good thing I'd worked up the nerve to talk to her back then.

"Let's make this our base and clear the surroundings first."

"Got it. But how about we eat before that?"

A boost before the fighting, while we were at it.

"Sure."

I was pulling out some snacks, nothing fancy, when—

Huh?

Yoo Sia had set out a camping mini-burner. Then, almost like an excuse:

"If we're going to eat, we should eat something that sticks."

With that she produced a water bottle and a kettle and started boiling water. I set up ramen from my backpack, her share included. We agreed to eat apart. She must have had a reason she didn't want her face seen.

Slurp, slurp. She finished it off to the last strand, neat as anything. Then a gulp, and another, of the broth.

Never thought I'd be boiling ramen inside the Tower. Only possible because the zombies couldn't smell.

Wait...

An idea flicked through my head.

"Miss Sia, you're not going to drink any more of the broth, right?"

"Huh? I mean, no, but why?"

"I have a use for it."

Yoo Sia stared at me, long and suspicious.

"I'm not going to use it for anything weird."

I hurriedly pulled out a tumbler and poured the broth in. Hmm. She didn't think I was collecting merch, did she?

"Then what are you doing...?"

Right. I should have explained first.

"It's not that. I'm going to use it when we look for other hunters."

"What?"

"Zombies can't smell, right?"

"Right."

"So we splash ramen broth everywhere we go."

"Ah."

There isn't a person in Korea who can't pick out the smell of ramen. If someone meant to link up with us, they'd follow it.

"It's not a bad idea... but if that's the plan, let's just use this."

Yoo Sia took out a bottle of perfume. Yeah. Perfume beat ramen broth. Broth was a little cheap. And with that, what we had to do was settled.