Aren't You Afraid of Dying?
I had let my guard down, thinking nothing much could happen after getting sucked into this zombie apocalypse novel. After all, I'd already taken down a baron and killed off the dangerous variants. I figured we didn't even need to bother barricading the door. No matter what happened, Noh Changhun would handle everything anyway. And in reality, it looked like he had taken care of it all. I woke up to a fishy stench and found zombie chunks scattered across the floor. Two or three normal zombies, by the look of it. Noh Changhun stood near the counter with his arms crossed.
"You want me to clean this up? Fine."
"I didn't say anything."
"Well, it was about to get annoying, but you stopped them for me."
"Sure, whatever."
That line about it almost getting annoying hit me strangely. Not that he'd almost died, but that it would've been a hassle. It was the kind of thing you could only say once normal zombies couldn't kill you anymore. I was getting further and further away from being an ordinary human, and that was fine. When those variants showed up, my body would burn up and regenerate at insane speeds. No way a normal person could do that.
"You must've been pretty exhausted. That's not like you, Yeji."
"I don't know. I just wanted to sleep. More importantly, I need some water. This isn't coming off easily."
"We've got plenty of bottled water. We can spare one for washing."
"Sounds good. If there's any left, I might as well wash my face too."
After we finished cleaning up, I lay down again. I checked the watch I'd been carrying around like a treasure and saw it was still the middle of the night. Might as well treat it as proper rest and just sleep. I'd wake up tomorrow and go look for whatever else we needed.
But then Noh Changhun suddenly lay down too.
"You're going to sleep too?"
"Yeah."
"Oh. Okay, then."
The mood felt a little off, but... whatever. It could happen. Maybe things hadn't gone well at the convenience store. Or maybe he'd run into some other bad luck.
"Lee Yeji."
"What?"
"When you get back, what's the first thing you'll do?"
"Get back? I don't know. I'll probably start by adjusting."
"Adjusting, huh..."
"You said it yourself. When we return, I'll go back to being a woman."
"That's right."
"Then of course I need to adjust. It's not like nothing will have changed."
I'd probably spend a while glued to my phone. I needed to know what the female version of me had been doing if I was going to live properly from now on. Once I finished adjusting, everything should be fine. I wasn't my old self anymore.
I wasn't Park Jeong-heum from the pig processing plant anymore, but Ultimate Lee Yeji. So no matter what I did from here on, I felt like I could handle it.
"Who knows? Maybe I'll become famous later and make money just like you."
"If you can't make money with this, that'd be the weird part."
"True. Even if I just wrote it like an autobiography, it'd probably sell hundreds of thousands of copies."
Noh Changhun nodded slowly. Then he suddenly sat up and asked point-blank.
"Aren't you afraid of dying?"
It was absurd. He'd been right beside me watching how I'd survived all this time, and now he was asking if I was scared of dying? Still, since he'd asked, I figured I should answer.
"I'm scared, so I'm gritting my teeth and doing all this shit just to stay alive."
"I see."
"You're asking pointless questions like it's the most natural thing in the world."
"I just wanted to ask. We'll be apart for a while. With no guarantee of when we'll meet again."
"Fuck, anyone listening would think we're married."
The thought gave me goosebumps so bad I had to sit up. We weren't some newlywed couple, for god's sake. Jesus, even my arms were covered in gooseflesh. And honestly, our relationship was just camaraderie. Not romance or anything. Being tied together so casually like that felt a little uncomfortable.
"No, Yeji. Think about it again. How many people actually know about the original world?"
"The original world... Oh. Yeah, I guess."
"There can't be more than a few dozen at most. And the only person you've met in person is me."
"You little shit. I thought you were worrying about something serious, but you're just getting sentimental like the author you are."
Still, if he died, I'd probably be sad too. Forget about returning to the original world or not. We'd slept pressed against each other, fought, and gone through all sorts of crap multiple times. Come to think of it, we were really heading to Busan now. And the closer we got to Busan, the farther we'd be from Gimhae.
"Hey, Changhun."
"Yeah?"
"Remember that notebook the PC bang owner had? The one at the place I was staying."
"Oh, that? The safehouse?"
"Yeah! That's the one!"
Noh Changhun looked at me like he was surprised I remembered. But how could I forget? The first place I entered after leaving the officetel was that PC bang. I lived there, worked out, and practiced swinging the bat. Of course I remembered everything that happened there. We were still using the generator I'd brought from there, weren't we? Forgetting that would make me more than just an idiot.
"Leave the safehouse as it is."
"Why?"
"Just in case."
"That makes sense. But what if people are living there?"
"People need hope."
Noh Changhun was right. Hope was necessary. This was something that should remain a MacGuffin. I'd probably only go there in one of two situations: when everything had gone to hell and I had no choice but to seek hope, or when everything was almost over and I went there for fun. Of course I could just end the story without going, but if I did go, the latter seemed better.
"And, Lee Yeji."
"Yeah?"
"I'll make you some new weapons too, so stop using that bat."
"What? What's wrong with my Beopbong? The number of zombie heads I've smashed with it has already crossed into triple digits."
"Triple digits?"
"Of course it has. I've killed at least a hundred, easy."
I said that, but honestly even Beopbong had its limits. First, it was ridiculously heavy. At five kilograms, I couldn't swing it lightly. The strain on my arm when I missed was no joke. More importantly, I couldn't handle it with one hand. Swinging it one-handed would destroy my wrist, so I had no choice. It wasn't for nothing that I'd gratefully accepted the weapons Noh Changhun made. He was using those brass knuckles like they were made for him, so I couldn't complain.
"So, tonfa? Flail? What are you going to make?"
"Yeah. If you need anything else, I'll make that too."
"Wow... you're pretty handy. At this rate, you'll be supplying weapons on the spot?"
"I've made every weapon that appeared in the novel at least once."
"Every one?"
".........Within legal limits."
Noh Changhun smiled awkwardly. He said "within legal limits," but knowing his personality, it probably meant "as long as I don't get caught." I was sure he'd broken the law at least once to make something.
"Right? You've broken the law before, haven't you? Spill it, Changhun."
"I never got caught."
"Teach me too."
No matter what it was, knowing couldn't hurt. Personally, explosives or something like that would be nice. Wait, no. Even for him, that seemed unlikely. If he'd made explosives, he'd have been arrested without question.
"That's difficult."
"Why?"
"To make a pipe bomb, you need to find proper materials."
"You crazy bastard, what the hell did you make? That's illegal!"
"You were the one who asked if I'd broken the law!"
"I didn't think you'd know how to make explosives. Are you some kind of radical?"
Noh Changhun frowned. But since it wasn't exactly wrong, he quickly relaxed his expression and started explaining. Something about sealing one end of a pipe and filling it with stuff. When the chemical formulas started coming out, my head spun so I asked him to write it down. Even while grumbling, he said he'd do it.
After that, neither of us spoke. We didn't have anything more to say, and we were both tired. Then the same boring routine repeated. I went out to find food and useful materials while Noh Changhun modified the cart and made weapons. Those dull but safe days.
Surprisingly, the reorganization period wasn't that long. It only took four more days to finish. So we spent the next two days moving toward Busan with the cart. It should've taken just one day, but loading all the things we needed along the way made it take longer.
And now we'd arrived at the Western Intercity Bus Terminal. I could see the terminal between the half-destroyed express buses, so there was no doubt. I felt uneasy because there weren't any zombies around—what kind of variants were causing trouble here?—but it was fine. I'd be alone again, but I had more experience than before.
"Hey, Changhun."
"Yeah."
"This is where we split up, right?"
"Yeah. Don't forget to get a map from the community center or somewhere like that."
"Come on, of course I know that. Did I read the novel for nothing?"
"Good."
Noh Changhun headed toward Haeundae carrying just one hiking backpack and a pair of solid steel knuckles. I waited a long time, watching the direction he'd disappeared, then started pedaling too. I needed to move more before night fell. I'd been to Busan a few times before anyway. It was for anime events. So I roughly knew where Sasang and Seomyeon were. I'd just go for a while, and if I got lost, I could look for a map then.
But thinking about it again, several years had passed since my last visit to Busan. No wonder. I'd been pedaling all day, but the damn university still wasn't appearing.