The Secret of the White Hair
Getting sucked into a zombie apocalypse novel was genuinely infuriating. If I had to fight for my life, I could. Even if that bastard flexed his muscles to block attacks, it wasn't like he was invincible. Keep hammering away and he'd eventually go down. But I didn't feel the need to make an enemy of him.
"Guess I've gotten attached. Tch."
Once the pain eased a little, I stood up and crossed my arms. It was a gesture that said, Let's make up and work together. There was still some lingering resentment, but we'd have to get along for the time being. We weren't actually on bad terms to begin with. We just bickered. When it really mattered, we'd obviously team up to survive.
"By the way, you said my hair's white?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Normal people can't see your hair as white, right?"
"Huh?"
Now that he mentioned it, something felt off. My white hair and red eyes were only visible to people who'd been pulled into the novel—like some kind of chamdokchung detector. So Kang Siwoo should've seen me as an ordinary black-haired, black-eyed beauty. But he'd called my hair white and said it was pretty. That meant something was seriously wrong with the situation. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough information to figure out what.
"This is a first for both of us, isn't it?"
"It is."
"But I don't think other people can see my hair as white."
"Really?"
"Yeah. White hair and red eyes aren't exactly common. There should've been talk about it—someone with unusual hair or eye color."
"Even when they reported it, they said there was nothing unusual."
"Then..."
I had at least one guess. When Kang Siwoo mentioned my white hair, I'd been on the verge of death after fighting a monster. There had to be a connection. That was when my ability had activated at its absolute limit. Kill them before they kill me. My body had flooded with adrenaline in that moment. So maybe it was tied to adrenaline. Or maybe the more I pushed my ability, the more my appearance changed.
Earlier, when Noh Changhun had been about to use his power, his skin had turned red. In the original novel, some people’s bodies changed when they used their abilities. I didn't know if that included hair and eye color, but it wasn't impossible.
Of course, Noh Changhun looked like he didn't agree. Fair enough—he was the author. A setting that didn't exist in his own novel would be annoying. From his expression, he hadn't even considered it. Still, there was no harm in making a hypothesis.
"I guess I'll have to survive another near-death experience."
"You're insane."
"But every time, I got a lot stronger. Maybe it'll reveal the secret about my hair color."
"You're willing to risk dying just for that? Did you... hit your head or something?"
Noh Changhun stared at me, clearly worried. Honestly, I couldn't blame him. My basic survival strategy had always been the same: bow to the strong, crush the weak. I applied it to zombies too—avoid the ones that seemed strong. The weak ones I could just beat to death. After watching me be so cautious, it was natural he'd misunderstand.
"Hah, you still think I'm that weak?"
This bastard. I needed to tell him exactly how many brushes with death I'd had. How many variants had I killed on the way from Jangyu to Busan after we split up? Unlike Noh Changhun, who probably stuck with groups, I'd mostly fought alone. Taking down that General during the zombie attack, fighting off both a Monster and a horde of zombies—I could've bragged all day, but I held back.
"A thousand zombies. Swindlers. And a Monster. I took them all down with these fists!"
"Oh, aren't you impressive. Wait—what did you just say?"
The look of exasperation on Noh Changhun's face shifted. When I explained in detail, he demanded more information. I told him I'd killed another General recently and had been carrying two of its secretion pouches in my cleavage while wandering around Busan. Then someone had started following me. A horde of zombies had charged, only to be blocked by a Monster, and I'd ended up fighting it off.
After I summarized, Noh Changhun looked horrified.
"You should've said something sooner!!!"
"Huh? Why?"
"Never mind. Good job."
"No, wait—"
He suddenly pulled me into a tight hug and started babbling excitedly. I could mostly follow what he was saying, but the fact that he was hugging me made it hard to focus. I'd been in a woman's body for so long that maybe my mind was turning into one too. I felt a little flutter—then realized who I was feeling it for and immediately shoved him away.
"You're the best."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it."
"You should've told me earlier..."
"It hurts, you idiot. Hugging me that hard actually hurts."
"Let's go. Right now. We need to report to the Captain and come up with a plan."
"Sure, sure."
Noh Changhun was talking so fast I couldn't catch everything, but the gist was this: Generals left behind secretion pouches to remember the survivors who'd killed them. When survivors handled those pouches, they got the secretion on them. Other zombies would then target those survivors, hoping to turn them into useful variants after death. After all, anyone strong enough to kill a General would make an even stronger zombie.
Moreover, the zombies in this world evolved rapidly through various breeding methods. They used strange plants that grew from zombie corpses to mass-produce stronger variants. Creating a General-level variant also consumed massive amounts of food and water. Securing women who'd come into contact with a General's secretion pouch was extremely important—strong mothers produced strong offspring. And here I was, carrying two of them. Naturally, I'd be incredibly attractive to other variants. If they could kidnap me, their combat strength would multiply several times over.
That was why the variant up north had targeted me. It had been gathering zombies to build its forces while securing a strong breeding mother for the future. Sending that many troops just to capture one survivor made sense now—Swindlers and a Monster were more than enough to wipe out most survivor groups, and over a thousand regular zombies on top of that. They'd probably been thrilled at the thought of getting such a valuable prize.
But I'd destroyed all of it, which complicated things. The Baron had misjudged the local forces and was now holed up, gathering every zombie it could while it completed its evolution into a higher variant. At least, that was Noh Changhun's assessment. I didn't understand all of it, but since he was the author, I just went with it.
"There was no reason you couldn't have outrun them on a bike in the first place. You planned to fight them, didn't you?"
Uh. Not really. I'd been caught because I was too scared to speed up. One wrong move and I'd have been in excruciating pain—maybe even dead. Plus, I didn't know the geography of Busan. I'd just gone wherever the zombies herded me. I definitely hadn't planned to fight.
But if Noh Changhun wanted to misunderstand, who was I to correct him?
"Yeah, this Lee Yeji predicts every fight in advance!"
"...You do?"
"You know that better than anyone. When I think I'm going to die, my brain goes into overdrive."
"Ah."
...The fact that he accepted it so easily was a little annoying. I preferred being seen as smart all the time, not just when my life was on the line. Since he was already misunderstanding, he could've at least assumed I was brilliant every moment. But from his expression, he clearly thought I only got clever when death was imminent. The truth was simpler—I'd just fought because I thought I was going to die and won.
"I'm heading to the second defensive line to explain the situation to Captain Han Daewi."
"Since Busan's empty right now, we should advance?"
"Yeah, something like that. We need to secure it while we still can."
"That's your call. And..."
"Hm?"
I carefully grabbed Noh Changhun's arm and smiled awkwardly. Time for the balance game.
"Join the original protagonist's harem and have catfights. Or become the annoying guy's girlfriend."
"What?"
"I think the latter sounds better. Let's do the one-day couple thing..."
"...I think the former would be more fun."
"Oh, come on!"
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Don't glare at me like that."
I shot him a sharp look. After hearing what I said earlier, how dare you joke like that? It wasn't funny at all. I was genuinely not amused. If I'd done something wrong, fine—but getting treated like this just for staying close to a guy I liked? Noh Changhun seemed to think it was all a joke, but we'd see. If I wanted to avoid future trouble, I'd at least put a couple ring on his left ring finger.