One Hit
The words hit me right in the feels. Not a little. A lot. Like, straight to the male heart. The plan Noh Changhun laid out was simple. I’d use the General’s Secretion Pouch hanging around my neck to lure in a massive horde of zombies. Then we’d hunt the variants that gathered, growing stronger with every kill until we reached the minimum level needed to take down Baron. Since this bastard knew every single setting about Baron, it was basically a guaranteed win. Know yourself, know your enemy, and you shall win a hundred battles without loss. There was no way we could lose.
I got so excited I actually stopped for a second, body trembling with pure joy.
“Ah, I can’t say no to a good team fight.”
“This is exactly why men die young.”
“It’d be pretty funny if you died.”
“You say that, but you don’t mean it, do you?”
“Nope.”
To be honest, at our level we could probably call ourselves top-tier survivors in this area. Both me and Noh Changhun could only be evenly matched if a bunch of variants swarmed us at once. Most regular survivors got torn apart by a single hunter zombie.
Anyway, that was that. First things first—we needed to find the hardware store. I looked around. Luckily Noh Changhun remembered the way perfectly, so we arrived not long after.
“Hey, Changhun.”
“Yeah?”
“Is this the end of the plan?”
“Yeah. I’ll gather the materials around here. You go drag the hand carts over.”
“Load everything we’re taking?”
“Yep. What, want me to come with you?”
“No thanks.”
I wasn’t some kid who needed babysitting. I puffed out my chest, ready to tell him I could hunt variants on my own, but he just laughed. Well, I guess it made sense. A guy who could punch straight through zombies probably didn’t have much faith in me. Still, he didn’t completely distrust me. He smashed the hardware store’s door open with his fist, then waved me off.
He told me to grab any physics workbook I could find on the way back. I flipped him off and headed toward the PC bang instead.
The road back was strangely empty. No zombies at all.
“................................”
Normally at least one should’ve come charging at me. The silence felt ominous. But my body wasn’t heating up either… If there were no zombies, that was a win for me. I hurried back to the PC bang, tied the hand carts together, loaded them up, and dragged them back to the hardware store. On the way I didn’t forget to raid the academy for every physics workbook I could find. They were in good condition, so Noh Changhun would probably be satisfied. If not, he could go get them himself.
“You’re back.”
“What the—did they swarm again already?”
“Yep.”
Zombie corpses were scattered all around the hardware store. Noh Changhun casually rotated his fist once like it was annoying, then headed inside saying he had work to do. Staying here seemed like it would be difficult. My head started to throb. The store was on the first floor and completely open. If anything broke in, we’d be screwed. At least the previous PC bang had been inside a proper building.
“.......Haa.”
Just thinking about clearing the building with Beopbong in hand gave me a headache. Still, I had enough experience now. I could handle it alone. I was Ultimate Yeji, not some regular version. While Changhun was busy working, I decided to go inside and ask where we should sleep.
But the place was so packed with tools there was barely room to step in.
“What the hell is all this……”
“Stuff to modify the hand carts. Looks like we’ll have to loot more places besides here.”
“Isn’t a hardware store enough?”
“Do you even know what a hardware store is?”
“Isn’t it just a place that sells iron and stuff?”
“.................................”
“What? I’m right! Look, they’ve even got gears and things.”
“If you’re stupid, just stay quiet. Anyway, why’d you come in?”
“Oh, I came to ask if there’s any building you want. I’ll set up a honeymoon suite for you.”
“Hey, Lee! Stop talking nonsense and clean this building.”
Noh Changhun chuckled softly and kicked some items aside with his foot. Well, it was a five-story building, so there had to be at least one decent place to sleep. I circled the area once, checking for zombies, and killed any that appeared. Thankfully there were still more normal zombies than variants. But once we went inside the building, annoying variants were bound to show up.
“...................................”
I’d been relieved that my body wasn’t heating up, but then a wave of self-loathing hit me and I dragged a hand down my face. Yeah, fuck. Was I seriously relieved that I wasn’t getting endorphins? I might actually start enjoying pain at this rate. Shaking the thought away, I stepped into the building.
The structure actually seemed pretty good for defense. Only one entrance, one staircase, no basement. The hallways were narrower than expected with corners that would work well for ambushes.
“Grrr!”
“............!”
The moment I thought something might jump out, a green something threw a punch at me. Of course the fist sank straight into my stomach. I had to stop for a second to catch my breath. The boxer zombie that had been grinning triumphantly had its head smashed flat. I’d swung Beopbong with full power. As I’d just experienced with my own body, this place really was good for ambushes. If you hid and swung a weapon, even a variant would die on impact.
“.....................................”
But there didn’t seem to be anything useful in the building. It was all bakeries and restaurants. The only things you could get from restaurants were rotten or completely spoiled food. I decided to just kill the zombies and leave, sweeping from the first floor to the fifth. There were zombies, but not that many. The variants were only at the level of lurkers or boxers. None of the headache-inducing ones appeared. That made it even more ominous.
I didn’t know how much power that Baron bastard had stockpiled, but if we messed up we might not be able to finish the story. The novel’s ending was supposed to be killing the King and Queen. By slaying the strongest boss that represented hope for all zombies, the variants on the Korean peninsula would be wiped out. But if Baron appeared now and started gathering the surrounding variants, we were truly fucked. The protagonist was insanely strong, but this was right after he’d just gotten his hands on proper weapons.
“So that’s why we have to overexert ourselves to take Baron down.”
Now that I thought about it, what Noh Changhun said made sense. I’d thought he just wanted to empty our brains and go for a team fight, but that wasn’t it. This was closer to a desperate gamble because we couldn’t win if we didn’t do it now. Still, whatever. To get to Busan we had to pass through the city outskirts anyway. Baron’s army would be marching through there, so a clash was inevitable.
I decided to toss the corpses somewhere first and grabbed the leg of a nearby one. After throwing all the bodies into the grassy area outside, I went back into the hardware store. Noh Changhun was welding something with a machine he’d found somewhere. He seemed busy, and since I knew nothing about it, I decided to stay quiet. He’d handle it.
But one question popped into my head.
“Hey, Changhun.”
“Yeah.”
“Can you make a flamethrower with that?”
“Bullshit.”
“.........................”
“Well, if you really want one, I could make something else.”
“How!?”
A flamethrower was every man’s dream. Just imagining spraying massive flames at zombies made my heart race. Noh Changhun lifted the metal plate on his face and looked at me with a pathetic expression.
“You’d burn yourself if you mess up.”
“Ah, right.”
“..........How the hell have you survived this long? With a brain like that you should’ve died ages ago.”
“Nah, I just powered through with my body. Even if it’s stupid, if you can brute force it, it works, right?”
“True. If your body’s weak, you have to use your head. If your body’s strong, you don’t need to.”
Noh Changhun nodded. Yeah… with those ridiculous biceps, he could probably solve everything with his body. I would’ve agonized just trying to open this hardware store, but he smashed it open with his fist. I suddenly remembered what I was originally going to say.
“Hey, Changhun.”
“What.”
“I finished cleaning the building. Is there a floor you want? Separate rooms sound good, right?”
“What kind of nonsense is that? From now on we’ll have to sleep hugging each other.”
“..............Huh?”
My face turned red from the weird thought that crossed my mind. Noh Changhun looked at me like I was an idiot. But if a man and a woman hugged each other to sleep, there was only one thing that could mean. Wait, was I the weird one here?
“Here. Friend Lee Yeji. What season is it right now?”
“Fall……?”
“We’re moving from fall to winter, right? So is it cold or not?”
“It’s cold…..?”
“Can we light a fire inside the building or not?”
“We can’t……?”
“Do you want to go find blankets by fighting through zombies, or do you want to sleep huddled together even if it’s uncomfortable?”
“Huddling together… would be better, I guess?”
“If you understand, go pick a store and clean it roughly.”
“...............Okay.”
I was pretty hurt. No matter what, we’d saved each other’s lives once. I thought we’d built some kind of bond. I didn’t expect him to look at me with such a cold, what is this idiot doing stare. Still, even so. My body ran so hot—how could I possibly think about winter?
Having reached that conclusion, I went to argue with Noh Changhun. I told him that since my body ran so hot, I obviously didn’t need to worry about winter.
“Then go subdue a variant and keep your female radar on all the time. If you can kill it, that is.”
“Ah.”
“Idiot bitch.”
“..........................”
Noh Changhun lowered the metal plate again as if there was no point talking to me anymore. I stared at the sparks flying from the welding for a moment before heading upstairs.
“Fuck……”
Maybe it was because he hit me with facts, but I felt a little sad.