I Don't Want to Die Like This
I ended up inside a zombie apocalypse novel. Obviously, I didn't think I'd be able to run much longer. Never mind the bleeding, my stamina was about to give out. I'd already been sprinting for dozens of minutes. And that was while losing blood the whole time. I had no idea how much I could even swing with a hand that had a hole punched through it. But I kept running anyway. Because I really, really didn't want to die.
"Haa... haa... ughhh..."
"Giii—!"
"Ugeeeek!"
I threw my body forward in a desperate leap, barely dodging the Spider King's charge. Blood poured from my hand as I grabbed a display shelf, using the momentum to whip myself around the corner with everything I had. My body spun hard and I rounded the turn. Ignoring the Spider King that was still barreling straight ahead, I sprinted at full speed. The opportunity had come much sooner than I'd expected. The moment I thought I just had to grab my iron staff and keep running, a strange whoosh sound reached my ears.
"Ah?!"
It was a web shot from one of the Spider King's leg-like appendages. The sticky thread had wrapped around my ankle. Obviously, if your ankle gets caught, you fall. And if you fall, you die. But by the time that thought fully registered, my stomach had already slammed into the floor and I couldn't even breathe.
"Kuhk! Uuu..."
On top of that, the earlier blow to my gut left my mind reeling. For a second I saw a river. And an old man standing beside it. Only then did I snap back to reality. That's when I realized one crucial fact. I was being dragged.
This wasn't just a tripwire to knock me down and see how I'd react. A horrible certainty washed over me that something awful was about to happen, so I immediately twisted my body. I thrashed like a madman, grabbing onto shelves, but with a pierced arm and hand I couldn't slow myself down at all. Inch by inch, half a meter at a time, I was slowly being pulled toward the Spider King.
"Auuuugh... uuu, uwaaaaaaaaaaah..."
Of course I clawed at the floor. I fought with everything I had to move forward. Even so, by clawing desperately I could make some progress. Every five times I struggled, the Spider King would yank me back once. After thrashing for over ten minutes, I finally realized the truth. I was gradually losing ground. Struggling five times wasn't enough to move forward. I'd need at least six or seven frantic kicks just to gain ten or twenty centimeters.
The moment I understood that, I started flailing my arms like a lunatic. Every limb that could still move, I used. I fought with everything I had. Then suddenly my body was yanked forward at high speed.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah, I don't wanna die! I don't want to die, huuuuuurgh...!"
"Giiiiiiaaaa."
"Huuuuurgh...?"
Thankfully, the nightmare I'd feared—being pierced or beaten—didn't happen. I wasn't eaten. I wasn't injected with venom. Instead, the Spider King lifted me up as if delighted and hugged me close. Then it carried me toward a corner of the mart.
"............Ah."
I wondered what it was going to do, but instinct told me immediately. The Spider King was building a honeymoon nest. Using its leg-like appendages, it was carefully spraying webs, creating a home where I could rest. It was a little... confusing. Two emotions mixed together. Tension that this was my last chance, and relief that I might actually survive.
Obviously, since it really was my last chance, I planned to seize it. But why did it feel so ominous?
"Uuuu..............."
The honeymoon nest was completed at frightening speed. It was a classic spider den, but inside it had something like a hammock. The Spider King checked whether it could fit inside, whether I could rest comfortably in it, whether it could protect me in an emergency. It performed all these fussy little tasks while still holding me. Then, deciding it was finished, it set me down and tried to push me inside.
That's when my stomach let out a loud growl.
"Giiiaaa—?"
"Uwaaah! You don't have to feed me! My stomach's not empty so please don't hit me... wait, huh?"
"Giiiaaaa."
"Is this... a shackle...?"
A web connected my ankles together, and that shackle had a long tether attached that was anchored to the honeymoon nest. The Spider King kept making strange cries, explaining the situation. From what I could gather through its body language, it went something like this: The tether was long enough to reach the shelves with drinking water and food. Don't even think about breaking it. Only the venom I produced could dissolve the web I produced. It was very satisfied, so eat and drink plenty and rest your body. ...That seemed to be the gist of it.
When I nodded blankly, the Spider King let out a pleased cry. Then it looked at the corpses of the other spiders and shrieked in irritation. It began to devour the spider corpses. Greedily. It chewed them up with wet crunching sounds, even drooling venom onto the floor. The spiders, shredded by its fangs, disappeared into the Spider King's belly.
I'm so fucked. That was the first thought that came to mind. I'd read that a Spider King entering its breeding season would eat the corpses of survivors or its own kind to replenish nutrients. It was probably planning to create new soldier spiders to dominate this area. And the female that would give birth to those soldiers... would be me.
I really felt like crying. No, I was already crying. But to survive, I had no choice but to wait for the exact moment it tried to breed with me. So until then, I decided to eat something and headed for the shelves.
"........Hiiik!"
I'd thought it was busy eating, but its human upper body had twisted all the way around to stare at me. When the shelves blocked its view, it actually climbed on top of them so it could keep watching. Its intention not to tolerate any funny business was made crystal clear by the way it was tearing the spider corpses into pieces.
Anyway, the only thing I could do in this situation was eat. I went to the shelf with instant foods, grabbed something at random, and peeled off the packaging that was half-covered in webbing. The kimbap that should've been spoiled and completely inedible looked perfectly fine. No, it actually looked freshly made, glistening with moisture. It was cold, but I wasn't stupid enough to complain about temperature right now.
I stuffed the kimbap into my mouth with my bloody hands and cried. When my throat got dry, I opened my bag, took out a bottle of water, and drank.
"Thank god the bag's still intact."
It really was. Food I normally wouldn't have touched. Cold kimbap covered in spider webs. Cold kimbap covered in spider webs. But honestly, it was so incredibly delicious and nostalgic that I gulped it down. It made me sad how quickly I was adapting to this world after seeing so much horror.
".........................."
When I came to my senses, I'd lined up a mountain of food and drinks beside me and was devouring them like a starving ghost. I was eating so much that the Spider King was gently stroking my head with a satisfied expression. A hamburger patty and some lettuce fell out of the burger I was eating and landed on the wrapper. I trembled, terrified I was about to get beaten, but the Spider King just watched me. It even used its fangs to clean up the trash, carried it to the shelf, and reinforced it with more webbing.
I felt sad because I could guess why it was doing that, but for now it was a relief. The more time I could buy, the better for me. I could think more about the original story, and I could use my ability to recover my body. Thinking that, I figured I should eat a bit more, so I tore open another hamburger wrapper.
".............................."
"Gi—?"
"Haha... no, if you stare at me so intently while I'm eating... ugh."
"Giga."
"It hurts when you press down like that. Our sizes are completely different, you know."
"Giga—!"
"Whoa?!"
Thankfully, what I feared didn't happen. I was simply shoved back into the honeymoon nest still holding the hamburger I'd been about to eat and the water bottle I'd reflexively grabbed. The entrance was sealed so tightly with webs that I couldn't break out. There must have been gaps for air since I could breathe, but there was no opening big enough for me to squeeze through.
The Spider King let out a cry, opened the entrance, and left. It seemed to be going on patrol. It would probably mark its territory, warn other zombies to stay away, and if any stupid zombies or variants showed up anyway, it'd eat them to replenish nutrients.
Since I really had nothing to do, I finished opening the wrapper and ate the hamburger.
"......................................"
It was a little pathetic, but the hamburger was delicious. I decided to be grateful for the author's convenience this one time and took a huge bite. If there hadn't been that convenient web-preservation setting, I couldn't imagine what I'd have to eat right now. It was a real relief that certain entities had ways to preserve food. Back when I was reading the novel I'd cursed the author for giving things lazy English names instead of cool Korean ones, but now I had to admit they'd named it pretty well. Spider King. Just hearing the name, you could tell it would spit webs and use poison.
Anyway, after I finished eating and drained the water bottle, I lay down in the hammock and fell asleep. Then I woke up with a strange feeling and sat bolt upright. The Spider King was wrapping my body in webs. In other words... this bastard was comparing the women's clothing it'd set aside with my body and trying to dress me. And somehow it had decided on a dress style. I confirmed that my body had recovered quite a bit, then simply closed my eyes again.
I was... a little tired.