On the Way to Kill Baron
It was fortunate that I had ended up inside a zombie apocalypse novel. At least it hadn't spiraled into the worst-case scenario I'd imagined.
"Captain Han Daewi's trip to Busan doesn't overlap with when Baron seizes power."
"How far apart?"
"Three days."
"Four days?"
"Three days, you dumb bitch."
"Ah, I might not have known that. So who comes first, the captain or Baron?"
"The captain."
"Aha."
That meant there were probably still zombies scattered along the route we were taking now. Enough time had passed since the whole chaotic mess of sending in the military. It would be safe enough, but not completely risk-free.
"But, well."
"But, well what?"
"Since they can't beat guns, Baron probably stayed quiet."
"Aha. Good anger management."
"Unlike you."
"What did you just say?"
"Asking because you don't know?"
Noh Changhun clenched his fist. No, it's not that I didn't know. I just hadn't heard him clearly. Hehe.
Still, it really hit me that this was still the early stages of the outbreak. Later on, the high-tier variants wouldn't even flinch at bullets. They'd either regenerate almost instantly after being shot or dodge them with dynamic vision. At that point, only a handful of superhumans could handle the high-tier variants.
"I need to get stronger pretty quickly."
"What? You, Yeji?"
"Why not?"
"Never mind."
Why did that bastard have to say it in such an ominous way? It didn't seem like he was mocking me. More importantly... there was a motorcycle up ahead. Two of them, actually, crashed and tangled together.
Noh Changhun gave one a test punch. When it didn't budge, the answer was obvious. While he was walking back, I detached the bicycle and pushed it onto the road. We signaled each other and lifted the cart onto the pavement together.
"Man, shit... They say a man's waist is his life, but this hurts like hell..."
"You're a woman."
"Ah, a woman can be on top too."
I ignored the what the hell is this idiot doing look in Noh Changhun's eyes and slowly hooked the chain to the bicycle. After straining for another few dozen seconds, the cart finally started to move.
This was all fine, but stopping was pure torture. Once it was rolling it didn't take much effort, but getting a dead-stopped cart moving again was agonizing. If I had to pull this thing like a rickshaw the whole way, I'd be half-dead by the end.
"I hope we don't have to stop anymore."
"Yeah. Ah, my blood sugar's dropping."
Noh Changhun pulled a lollipop from his pocket. I knew exactly where it came from without looking. The PC bang. When I reached out for one, he popped a candy straight into my mouth.
"Just pedal."
"Ah, fuck."
"What? I give you candy and you curse at me?"
"Up ahead."
"Fuck."
From a distance I hadn't noticed, but a kindergarten shuttle bus had flipped over in a spectacularly artistic way. The road was blocked so completely that the cart couldn't squeeze through even a hand's width, so we had no choice but to move it again. We hauled the cart and bicycle back onto the road and kept going. Fortunately, nothing else interrupted us this time.
"This was that one kid's mom, the one who used to take her child to kindergarten."
"Hey, you. Stop talking nonsense."
"Yeah, yeah. So where exactly do we need to go to catch Baron?"
"Gangdong-dong or the airport. One of the two."
"One of the two?"
When I shot him a look that said don't be so damn vague, Noh Changhun just shrugged. The reason was that the original setting had been the airport. But since the situation had changed so much, the one from the airport might have moved to Gangdong-dong. He said he wouldn't know until we got there.
Honestly, it pissed me off. No, why doesn't the author know his own story? But soon after, this bastard spoke with sudden certainty.
"I don't see any Todd-type corpses. Baron is at the airport."
"Then."
"He's expanding his forces from Gangdong-dong. Killing survivors and gathering food and supplies."
"Aha?"
"So we rest at Gangdong-dong, then head to the airport and slit Baron's throat."
"Got it. So we just kill everything we see?"
"No, you fucking idiot."
"Can't you take a joke?"
"Ah."
Noh Changhun opened his mouth slightly and apologized. No, the apology made me feel even worse. It was like he thought of me as some brainless hehe hehe Beopbong hehe idiot. I could think for myself, and I had sharp wit too. I'd saved my life with it more than once.
"By the way, Changhun."
"What."
"When I watch you fight, you lower your upper body a little and raise your guard. Is there a reason?"
"To protect my stomach."
".........Stomach?"
"Yeah. My stomach. More precisely, the upper abdomen. Around the navel."
"No, why the stomach?"
Just hearing the word sent chills down my spine and brought the pain rushing back. I'd been hit with stomach punches dozens of times. Honestly, it would be perfectly normal for me to have PTSD by now. Huaaak! I hate stomachs! If I rolled around screaming that, anyone would understand.
The words "stomach" or "abdomen" felt that heavy to me.
"Because zombies target the stomach first."
"......Why? Well, if the author set it that way, I can't really complain...."
"A human's life is in danger if even one organ in the abdomen is damaged."
"So the goal is to weaken...?"
"Yes. Zombies don't really eat the internal organs. You know that if the liver is even slightly damaged, the person is done for, right?"
"Ah, fuck."
No wonder they all seemed to specifically hammer my stomach like crazy. When tackling, they deliberately headbutted the stomach. Boxers openly threw jabs or hooks at it. They'd try to stab it with their nails. I'd wondered what the reason was, but knowing it was realistic just made me angrier.
If he'd just said "because I set it that way," I could have brushed it off with a you dumbass and moved on. But because there was an actual plausible reason, it pissed me off even more. I was really, incredibly furious. Fuck.
"Stop making that stupid fa......"
"Shh, fuck."
"Why are you swearing again?"
"It's activated."
My body was heating up. The endorphins being secreted to protect my body and brain from the coming shock were racing through me at tremendous speed. And I soon found out why.
Zombies were suddenly pouring out from the intersection. They must have been luring us into complacency. After crossing the bridge, nothing had appeared, so I'd let my guard down.
"Huu............."
Noh Changhun slowly took up a stance and steadied his breathing. His skin flushed red as he charged forward. I got off the bicycle too. It wasn't a number he could handle alone.
And the Noh Changhun who had rushed ahead was sent flying back with a short scream.
"Hey!"
It didn't look like he'd lost consciousness. The force had simply been too strong even after blocking. I could tell who the culprit was. An enormous green mass. Not muscle, but a shield of pure fat. Cannon fodder.
That variant, weighing hundreds of kilograms like something out of fiction, had only one role: charge at full power into survivors or barricades first, then slowly walk forward while acting as a living shield.
"Fuck."
As much as I wanted to help Noh Changhun up, neither of us was in any shape for it. I closed my eyes as I watched the wave of approaching zombies. If I swung wildly trying to count them, I might drop Beopbong. This was going to hurt. A lot. No, it hurt quite a bit.
The zombies bit my legs or grabbed and clung to them so I couldn't move at all. That wasn't enough—variants started closing in too. Noh Changhun had already gotten up and was running. He smashed two runners that pounced on him in an instant, swinging his fists with strength that looked like it could pulverize a mountain.
One punch was enough to kill most zombies, and even the variants had to dodge direct hits. But even Noh Changhun couldn't overcome the violence of numbers. Before long he was surrounded and buried by the horde.
At least I was relatively safe. Because I was female. It seemed they wanted to kill and take him but capture me alive. Of course, that would be their fatal mistake.
"Fuck."
I was bitten and scratched everywhere. The wounds were no joke. But they weren't lethal, and I could recover from this much soon enough. Let's see. I'd given up on my lower body. My shoulder was bitten, and three of them clung to my right arm that I'd tried to protect.
Normally I would have cried and begged for my life, but the seasoned me was different. It hurt like absolute hell—I was screaming and shedding tears—but I was different now. So I shook my body and started resisting with the handle of the Beopbong gripped in my left hand.
Then I took a few hits to the stomach, got thrown by biting zombie hands, and stomped on. I fought desperately like that for what must have been dozens of minutes. Of course, when it ended I didn't even have the strength to twitch a finger, so I simply collapsed on top of the corpses.
That bastard Noh Changhun seemed to have struggled just as much. I saw him wrapping something around his stomach. But something was off.
"No, fuck. Why don't you have any wounds?"
"If I put strength into it, I can defend with my muscles."
"What?"
"No, if I just flex, my muscles harden."
"Pfft. Hahahahaha.... What the fuck.... By that logic, that would get hard too."
"That's the corpus cavernosum. It hardens with blood, you dumbass bitch."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let's rest in a nearby building for a bit. I don't have any strength left to move."
"I was planning to do that anyway."
Noh Changhun explained carefully. Originally, only zombies at a level he could handle alone should have appeared in this Gangdong-dong. But seeing the Todd-types and the cannon fodder from earlier, it seemed there was at least an Officer or a General. I'd heard that when zombies expand their territory, they dispatch Officers or Generals starting from areas near the boss, so it was interesting.
"Their base is probably around Ulman Church."
"Where the hell is Ulman Church?"
"I don't know either. I only know the name and the rough location."
"Ah, seriously. The author doesn't even know that."
"There was never any reason to go there in the first place, and I only looked it up on an internet map."
"So which direction?"
"Follow the riverbank all the way. There's a bridge to the northeast. That's Ulman Bridge."
"Ah."
I nodded slowly, then tried to grab Beopbong and force myself up. But after being bitten, beaten, and scratched so badly, I couldn't stand at all. So I had no choice but to ask Noh Changhun for help and ended up being carried in a princess hold.
"Still though, huh? I did some serious tanking. Right? Let's acknowledge that, Changhun."
"Yeah. You're right."
"No, why are you agreeing?"
"Dumbass. Which is easier, killing them or holding back your strength to keep them alive?"
"Ah."
"I'll set you down inside that building, so wait a moment. I'll scout around and come back."
"Okay."
We rested in the nearby building and talked when Noh Changhun returned. There wasn't much conversation. Just route planning, really. In the end it was mostly treating our wounds and eating. It was only a short break.
But it seemed to be enough, because I was fully revived.
"Ultimate Yeji, revival!"
"Good for you, idiot."
"Ah, you should try it too. It really lifts your spirits."
When I climbed back onto the bicycle and finished preparing to move forward, Noh Changhun laughed. And with that, we started moving again.