A Peaceful Vacation in the Apocalypse
I ended up inside a zombie apocalypse novel. And I'm not even kidding—this could legitimately be called a vacation. Busan was one of the most peaceful cities in this entire world. At least at this point in the timeline.
Up north, there was basically just one noble, and even he didn't have much influence right now. The other three regions were slowly nurturing forces with good alignments. The university-related faction in the west. The military in the east. The church in the south. And obviously, the most developed among these three was the east. Unlike the soldiers in other regions who had been utterly annihilated, only true soldiers had gathered here. On top of that, they had properly stimulated the reservists' sense of local pride, rapidly rising as something like a second Seoul.
If nothing went wrong, it seemed entirely possible for them to unify Korea starting from Busan. The biggest drawback of this faction was that they had introduced military ranks to establish order. People who could work. People who couldn't. People who could fight. People who couldn't. They had roughly categorized everyone like that and implemented a reasonable rank system to distribute supplies fairly. That part was fine. Their flexible attitude—using formal speech in public and doing whatever in private—was also good. And since the military ranks were essentially a measure to quell chaos, there was no discrimination based on rank.
The problem was that the fundamental measure for maintaining order was those ranks. And that they emphasized the recreation of Korea through ideology. The old Korea before the apocalypse. Shouting about the Miracle on the Nakdong River and working hard was all well and good, but once the so-called "important people" flooded in, it all went to shit. That's why they collapsed so quickly and were wiped out by the northern zombie forces before they could even turn into warlords. I think Captain Han Daewi and the other military supporting characters all died there trying to save the citizens.
If. IF. But right now, that "if" was exactly the situation we were in. Even someone like me, who only had a vague grasp of the future, was receiving endless trust from Kang Siwoo. If that bastard Noh Changhun, the one who actually wrote this novel, was there, there was no way it would fail. He would have clearly been slowly rebuilding civilization by now. He'd probably be rolling up his sleeves, expanding territory while bullets still worked properly, saying they needed to secure land for protection.
All I had to do was chill in a decent lodging without thinking about anything and then come back. If anything, we'd be the ones receiving help from them, not the other way around. They didn't need our help at all. This trip was basically just an attempt to let them know that there was a friendly survivor faction nearby.
“Mmm…”
What actually worried me was somewhere else. First of all, this zombie apocalypse was different from what we usually imagine. Getting bitten by a zombie didn't mean you died. Living things slowly decayed while helpful plants started growing around them. So survivors tended to repeat cycles of rest and reconnaissance rather than just hiding. Survivors who grew stronger through this process usually became leaders of their groups. Most factions transformed according to their leader's personality. Stories where a good helper hid inside an evil faction rarely appeared. Unless they were deliberately imprisoned, they could just grab a weapon and run away to survive.
That's why once a faction's alignment was set, it didn't change easily. And usually, there were far more evil-aligned factions than good ones. Instead of helping a fellow survivor in danger, they'd think about how to exploit them first. It was strange that all three factions in Busan were good-aligned. Originally, people were supposed to be stabbing each other with knives and fighting.
At this point in time, aside from the military force in the east, none of the others could truly claim to control their regions. Even we had only barely recovered the area around the campus. We knew absolutely nothing about the survivors in the other neighborhoods or districts around us. So it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say there were probably some messed-up factions out there that hadn't been discovered yet, before the major powers grew too big. They were actually mentioned a few times in the original work.
I was worried that if I went south, I might run into some bad guys. The reason Kang Siwoo was teaching me how to deal with humans was basically a side gig to make me handle the cleaning. If I saw any of those bastards later, I was supposed to beat them up so they wouldn't cause problems. Otherwise, there was no way he would suddenly spend several hours teaching me how to beat people to death with my bare hands.
If I said I didn't want to, Kang Siwoo would understand… but I couldn't run away from every situation. There was always the chance that things could go wrong at least once.
“…”
“Miss Yeji. Is something worrying you?”
“Ah… well.”
“Go ahead and tell me.”
“I was just thinking… what if I run into bad people?”
“Beat the shit out of them. You can even kill them.”
“I know that's what you taught me, but… I actually…”
“Ah.”
“I've never tried to kill anyone before… It's like I'm a forced pacifist or something?”
“You were hitting me pretty hard earlier when you were trying to kill me.”
Kang Siwoo asked back as if he didn't understand. Yeah, but that's different. That bastard Kang Siwoo owed me a shit-ton, so that's why. He keeps tapping his sword hilt like he's ready to go for the kill the moment I do anything suspicious. Every time I see that, I feel so wronged I could die. No, if I had actually tried something first, maybe I'd get it. But the moment he saw me, he thought I looked like a queen bee and decided to stab first. It's… pretty fucking unfair, you know?
“I'm joking.”
“…And anyway, I can't run away every single time.”
“Mmm, I figured you might think that way. Shall I teach you one solution?”
“Are you going to do the cleaning yourself?”
“I need to know where you saw them before I can clean it up, right?”
“Well, that would satisfy me, but… it seems difficult to avoid those situations.”
I could tell for sure. This bastard had huge expectations of me. From the context, it wasn't going to end after I visited two factions and came back—he was probably going to ask me to tour the entire Busan area. Honestly, there wasn't anyone more suitable than me. With my nearly inexhaustible stamina, if I rode Jeokro around, I could go pretty much anywhere and return. Above all, he was probably being considerate by sending me to Seoul as well.
Wait, huh? I saw the highway map in that book you gave me last time.
“Miss Yeji. How good is your endurance, exactly?”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Um… why?”
“I think if you just take one hit and act tough, most people would run away.”
“Do I… look like that?”
“If you just stay quiet and glare, the person who attacked you would probably run away.”
“No…”
“It was like that last time when you fought the General too. They thought you were a zombie.”
The words “Why the hell is my treatment so harsh?” rose all the way to my throat, but I held them back. It was true, after all. My endurance far surpassed human limits. If I had to pick the most memorable moment, hmm. Probably when Baron punched me in the stomach and I fell from the second floor to the first? I still regained consciousness after that. And there was that Monster incident last time too.
Kang Siwoo was right. No, now that I thought about it, it actually sounded pretty cool. Think about it. Suppose someone suddenly ambushed me and hit me in the face with a weapon. Whether it tore me or sliced me, blood would pour down, right? In that situation, I slowly turn to look at the person who hit me as if nothing happened. Then I say, “Ouch.” Wouldn't that actually be kind of badass…?
“You're not planning to practice on me, are you?”
“Come on, why would I practice on you…”
“…I'll trust you. Anyway, it would probably be good if you just ride around on your bike here and there.”
“And come back to report on any memorable survivor factions or whatever?”
“Yes. Information on supply locations would be good too. Since you have a bike, travel should be convenient.”
That was true. I had never pushed it to maximum speed before because I was scared, but with my current body, I could probably go as fast as a car. No joke, seriously. Since I had a body better than past athletes, as long as the road conditions were decent, I could hit 100km/h. I already tested it when I rode the bike last time. The generator efficiency was insane.
“How many kilometers is it from Haeundae to here?”
“Probably a little over 20 kilometers.”
“Pfft, that's nothing. I could go there and back in 20 minutes.”
“That's why I'm asking you. You can even go quite far if you want.”
“I can take all the food and water I need, right?”
“I'll give it to you.”
“Supplies too?”
“Just tell me if there's anything you need.”
“Huh…??”
Something felt off. I thought he'd only give me a bit of water and some food, but he was offering way too many supplies. That guy had said it before, right? That he felt anxious if I wasn't in front of him. That's why he always kept me by his side.
“Because I trust you. Miss Yeji. No. Lee Yeji, I trust you.”
“Ah.”
Kang Siwoo smiled brightly with genuine sincerity. It wasn't a polite smile put on for appearances—it was a smile that came from truly trusting me. On top of that, since we were really close, he even used casual speech. That guy didn't easily open his heart to people because of his PTSD. That's why he rarely used casual speech except with a few people. So he could speak indifferently even if they died, saying he had expected it. The fact that someone who controlled himself like that was using casual speech with me… made me feel embarrassed and shy.
Honestly, I couldn't even say with a straight face that I had lived well. The whole reason I ended up here was because I had illegally read a novel. I couldn't say I had become a complete human being… And there was this strange tickling feeling in my chest. I would have to have heard sincere praise like this before to react normally. But seriously, that bastard's face was such a cheat.
“…If you make that kind of face like you're about to fall for me, it makes me feel awkward.”
“With a face like that, even a guy would fall for you if you set the mood.”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
“I'm not joking. At least one would.”
“No wonder I keep seeing someone around you often.”
“…Is that true?”
“I didn't say it was a guy. I noticed Miss Ayoung keeps appearing often.”
“Have a wonderful romance~!”
Fuck, seriously. Some people couldn't even hold a girl's hand before coming here. But that bastard, even though he's just text on a page, has a ton of heroines. I want to be held by a reliable, big-breasted mommy type too. Does wandering around alone every day make you happy? But why was he making such desperate excuses? It was just a joke.
“Have a wonderful romance, I said!”
“Miss Yeji!”
Anyway, since I already knew that bastard was going to build a harem, there was nothing to hold back. I came from the future. That Kang Siwoo bastard won't even be able to fit wedding rings on both hands. Would I really listen to excuses from a guy like that saying he's not a womanizer? Still, it didn't feel that bad. In the past, I wouldn't have been able to have this kind of back-and-forth with Kang Siwoo. Now we could joke around with each other like this. So I probably wouldn't die at Kang Siwoo's hands anymore.