No Hesitation
I swung Beopbong as I charged forward. Hesitation meant death. The chamdokchung pulled back her left hand and lightly retreated a few steps. I retrieved my staff with nothing to show for it and reset my stance.
At least for now, I held the advantage. My reach was longer than hers. And more importantly, my regeneration was strong, so I could afford to take a few hits if it meant landing a solid blow.
“With arms that short, you really think you can pull this off?”
“…”
She twisted her waist at the last second, barely dodging the one-handed swing I’d thrown with a casual flick. Then she dropped low and rushed straight into my guard. Just as I’d expected. I figured she’d try to stab me with those knives.
The Beopbong, still swinging through the air, suddenly stopped mid-arc. In one smooth motion, its trajectory flipped and slammed downward toward the chamdokchung.
“…!”
“Whoa, you’ve got good instincts!”
She crossed both arms to block the descending staff. When she staggered back a few more steps with a pained grimace, it was clear she’d underestimated Beopbong, thinking it was just a regular aluminum bat.
I grinned triumphantly. “This thing’s solid iron. Five kilos, easy.”
“…Monster.”
“What’s that, bitch? If you’re jealous, go train your strength too!”
The chamdokchung clenched her teeth. Her arms looked noticeably slower now—my hit must have landed properly. I charged forward immediately. You always press the advantage in moments like this.
This time I didn’t swing. I just held my stance and ran straight at her. She flinched and tried to reset, but it was too late. The reason I’d deliberately turned on the flashlight earlier was for this exact moment.
“Eat this!”
“…!”
I tilted my head slightly and blasted the flashlight beam directly into her face. Naturally, she blinked hard and tried to back away. She probably thought I was about to follow up with a close-range strike. And I was attacking—except it wasn’t close-range.
Beopbong, thrown with considerable force, spun through the air. I saw the chamdokchung’s eyes widen in belated realization.
“Kyaaak!”
She toppled backward. The kitchen knife and cleaver slipped from her hands, clattering loudly against the ground. I noted where Beopbong had landed. Fortunately, it had fallen near her.
Without hesitation, I sprinted over and stomped hard on her stomach. Her face twisted in sudden agony. So I stomped again. You had to keep stomping until they couldn’t fight back. I hadn’t gone full force, so it should count as subduing her.
The chamdokchung painfully turned her head. I pressed down harder with my foot and said,
“Hey, idiot. That’s why you should’ve stopped when I told you earlier.”
“…”
“What, did you think you were hot shit? Figured dual-wielding knives made you invincible or something?”
“You’ve completely adapted, haven’t you…”
“What?”
“Even got married, of all things.”
Instead of answering, I drew my leg back. This wasn’t something she had any right to mock. It was proof of the first real friend I’d made in this world. How dare this bitch insult it?
I was about to kick her jaw hard enough to make her choke out a pathetic groan—when the chamdokchung suddenly grabbed my leg with both hands. She yanked upward, flipping me over.
Shit. I’m fucked.
Changhun had warned me earlier. He said she knew taekwondo. But looking at her now, it was clearly more than just taekwondo. She slowly assumed a completely different stance and stared at me.
“You little—!”
I got into my own stance. I had the boxing basics Siwoo had taught me, plus the gut-training I’d endured by taking hits directly. In pure hand-to-hand, I wasn’t about to lose. Plus I had my insane durability, so I didn’t think I’d lose. And for a while, that’s exactly how it went.
The chamdokchung kept her distance as much as possible, throwing only light kicks. But that wasn’t enough to beat me. Her kicks hurt, sure, but they couldn’t match zombie strength. Unless she had monster-level power, she couldn’t do meaningful damage to my limbs.
So when I tightened my guard and started closing in, she was steadily driven into a corner. She clearly hadn’t expected my body to be this tough. Before long, a perfectly timed tackle sent her sprawling.
I didn’t hesitate—I slapped her across the cheek. A vicious smack rang out. Her face flushed red as she glared at me with pure venom. But there was nothing she could do. Both arms were wrecked from blocking Beopbong earlier, and with me on top of her like this, her legs were useless too.
All that remained was to arrest her.
“Got you right where I want you. What the hell are you—urk!?”
Stars exploded in my vision. A heavy impact slammed into my jaw. When I regained my senses, a boyish girl with blue hair stood there. She wasn’t in great shape either—one arm dangled uselessly, probably broken, and she was breathing hard.
They seemed to recognize each other. I saw the chamdokchung and the girl exchange a quick glance. I immediately stood and got into position—only to get absolutely demolished.
Are you fucking kidding me.
One of them was poking at me with taekwondo while the other was hammering me with kickboxing. There was no way my half-assed boxing knowledge could keep up. A kick to the shin, then a blow to the stomach. A hook to the jaw followed by a perfect 360-degree spinning kick that smashed into my face.
Before long I was a broken mess, half-collapsed on the ground, vomiting stomach acid.
“…Hurry. The demon is coming.”
“…Yes.”
“What the hell are you two… ow! That hurts!”
“I kicked you because I wanted it to hurt.”
I clutched my stomach and looked up. Whether they were zombies or survivors, every single one of them seemed to have a fetish for gut punches. They’d been hammering my belly nonstop. If I ended up with internal injuries later, I wouldn’t even know who to bill. What a bunch of assholes.
“Earlier you said if I was jealous, I should train my strength, right?”
The chamdokchung met my eyes as she spoke. I nodded slowly—then got slapped across the cheek just like I’d done to her. She took a deep breath and continued.
“I have a message. The Prophet wants to meet you at the largest church in Nam-gu, Busan.”
“What? Wait, fuck…”
The moment I heard “Prophet,” I had a pretty good idea who it was. Looked like some over-immersed loser had managed to found a cult. I had no clue what these people were even trying to accomplish. Who the hell could live comfortably running a cult in the middle of a zombie apocalypse? Any sane person would probably persecute them instead. There was a limit to what blind faith could achieve.
But these two seemed to genuinely believe it, which left me speechless. I was about to curse them out when a beam of light swept over me. The air grew cold. An unknown oppressive pressure crushed the surroundings. Something heavy scraped across the ground with a dragging sound.
The air itself seemed to scream.
“…”
Noh Changhun scanned the three of us. He was clearly furious—his entire body was flushed red. It was such a bizarre sight that I half-expected to see a vengeful ghost painted on his back. The chamdokchung and the girl immediately backed away from me and assumed fighting stances.
But I didn’t think they could win. My body was already starting to recover, and on top of that, there was that crazy bastard Noh Changhun. He’d literally snapped a traffic sign in half with his fist and was now carrying it like a weapon.
The reason was obvious. He was here to intimidate them.
“Checkmate.”
The way he unnecessarily struck a dramatic pose while lifting the sign made it clear. Honestly, it looked badass. I kind of wanted to try it myself later. I’d thought it might look ridiculous, but apparently it worked—the chamdokchung and the girl backed away with terrified expressions.
Well, when a two-meter-tall giant showed up in the middle of the night carrying something like that as a weapon… it would be weird if they weren’t scared.
That aside—
“Got y—ack!”
I lunged, but the chamdokchung kicked me first. Before I could even get up, both of them were already sprinting away like their lives depended on it. The girl used her dangling broken arm to grab the wall and vault over it, while the chamdokchung jumped onto a nearby car and fled. Changhun and I watched them go for a while.
They were running so desperately fast it was almost comical. If they were that scared, why the hell had they attacked in the first place?
I grumbled for a moment before turning to Noh Changhun.
“You’re late, asshole. Did you have a nice long chat too?”
“Yeah. And why the hell did you get your ass kicked again?”
“Ha. Look, if it had gone all the way, I would’ve won. I lost because it didn’t go all the way.”
“Sure. Can you move?”
Changhun tossed the traffic sign aside and offered his hand. I grabbed it and gave him a rough summary of what had happened. Those two had told me to come to the biggest church in Nam-gu, Busan. He explained what happened on his end too.
“She suddenly appeared out of an alley and hit me with a knee kick.”
“So what did you do?”
“I politely asked what she wanted, but she started ranting about demons and devils, so I punched her.”
“You punched her?”
“Yeah, and her arm must’ve broken because she ran like crazy. I didn’t have anything else to throw, so I ripped off a sign and chased after her.”
“She didn’t say anything weird to you?”
“At first she said she had business with my comrade, but when I pointed out my hair color, she said I was the demon the Prophet mentioned…”
Noh Changhun looked at me with exhausted eyes. I nodded, confirming it.
“Looks like the over-immersed loser actually succeeded.”
“I’m going to lose my mind.”
Changhun let out a long sigh. I’d been through so many ridiculous situations like this that I could only sigh too. Still, it wasn’t a complete loss. We’d gained information about Nam-gu in Busan and the whereabouts of other transmigrators. I explained to Changhun that we hadn’t lost anything.
Then, as if nothing had happened, we roughly wiped off the blood and other fluids, grabbed some books and toys, and started walking back toward the high school.