Shovel Duty and Uncontrollable Super Strength
I ended up inside a zombie apocalypse novel. Turns out, once you get a taste for manual labor, it's actually pretty fun. I'd drive the shovel blade into the dirt, step on it to push it deep, then heave the soil out and dump it into the wheelbarrow. It wasn't like I was digging a proper trench, so I didn't need any real technique. I was basically just scraping the surface layer and tossing it in. As I kept at it, a flood of thoughts hit me.
The first one was pure resentment. Yeah, okay—I admit I was a total piece of shit before getting sucked into this novel. I'd spam "kill yourself" on the community boards, cause chaos with multiple accounts and alt IDs, never paid for a single chapter, and just kept pirating everything... Oh right, and whenever a "juicy" scene popped up, I'd scream about BL drift and spam that too. So yeah, I had a record. But I'd cleaned up my act a long time ago!
After getting dragged into the story, I'd been living like a model citizen. I saved Lee Yeji, rescued her father, and even volunteered to act as bait so Han Daewi and his troops could retreat safely. And that wasn't all—I took down two Generals and a Spider King. On top of that, I helped Noh Changhun kill the Baron and cleared out most of the zombies at the airport. At this point, shouldn't I count as a contributor to humanity? How long was I supposed to keep getting treated like a criminal and running errands under Kang Siwoo?
Actually, fine. I could deal with the errands. After all, if Siwoo succeeded, I'd have a better shot at returning to reality. But even so, did he have to call me out and work me to the bone every single day? And if he was going to do that, at least keep the heroines away from me. At this rate, I'd get killed by the heroines before any zombie could touch me. My insides were literally boiling with frustration.
"You're getting pretty good at shoveling, Yeji."
"Ah, ahaha... It's just, it won't go in properly."
"You only need to scrape the surface. Take it easy."
"Y-yes... Okay..."
His situational awareness was annoyingly sharp. Still, I could see the end in sight, which was a relief. The plaza floor was dirt anyway, so we wouldn't need that much soil. Plus, we had no idea how well the plants would grow. Figuring Kang Siwoo wouldn't waste effort on something pointless, I glanced over at him quietly.
But the bastard didn't look like he was planning to head back anytime soon. No way. Was he seriously using me as zombie bait while we worked? Since it was too much hassle to scour the mountain for them, he was just going to lure them all here and clean house in one go? If that was the case, I was genuinely about to lose it.
And if any dangerous variants showed up, there was a living biological radar right here. Whatever. If they came, they came. If not, fine. I didn't volunteer to be bait, so using me like this was pretty damn shameless, wasn't it?
"Ah."
"Grrrrrr.....!"
"Get lost, you bastard!"
I was already pissed, and now two regular zombies were shambling over from the distance. I figured Siwoo would handle them, but when he didn't even twitch, I knew exactly what was going on. The asshole wanted me to take care of them myself. Good thing I had a shovel in my hands.
"Ugh, seriously!"
"Grrrr...?"
"Gack."
"Huh."
I'd just swung the shovel sideways like I would with Beopbong, but the upper bodies of both zombies exploded in sequence. I hadn't even put that much force into it, which made it even more shocking. I'd only planned to knock one down and kill the other before calling it a day.
Suddenly, strength surged into my shoulders and my chest puffed out naturally. In my head, I wanted to strut around yelling "This is what a real man looks like," but Kang Siwoo was right there. So I tried to just savor the feeling and get back to shoveling, but...
"Siwoo. You have plenty of shovels, right?"
"There are a few more, but..."
"It's okay if I break one, yeah?"
"As long as you repay me with your body."
"Yeah, yeah."
He was clearly planning to work me half to death anyway, so what was this crap about repaying him with my body? Whether I did or not, he'd keep calling me "Yeji" every single day like clockwork. I channeled all that rage into picking out a reasonably thin tree and swung once.
"Whoa."
With a loud crack, the tree snapped clean in half. I'd put in more power than before, but it shouldn't have been enough to break a tree. I quickly checked the shovel blade and let out a sigh of relief. The edge wasn't damaged and the handle hadn't broken, so I was spared having to "repay" him with my body.
More than that, the whole thing was so fascinating that I couldn't help getting excited. I'd always been capable of this kind of monstrous strength, but only when I was genuinely convinced I was going to die. Since regeneration wouldn't save me if I got killed, the only real healing was switching to "kill the enemy first" mode. Naturally, I couldn't use that kind of power in everyday life.
But this time was different. I hadn't been in any life-threatening danger, yet the super strength had still kicked in. So I thought back on the two incidents. The common factor was that I'd been angry. And I'd been holding a blunt weapon both times. ...Well, I'd used the tree like a weapon earlier, but still.
That meant the condition might be "when I'm really pissed off." I set the shovel down quietly and observed Kang Siwoo, who was now standing on a rock. His relaxed stance as he scanned the surroundings. His right hand resting on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw at any moment. His left hand on his chin like he was deep in thought. And that face so handsome it could make another guy stare in awe.
Yep. Rage fully charged.
"Lee Yeji Punch!"
I threw a punch at a suitable tree, but I immediately realized the super strength hadn't activated. Because I'd swung without thinking, my wrist throbbed and my knuckles hurt. In the end, I had no choice but to clutch my hand and shake it pitifully. Of course, everyone around me gave me looks of pure pity.
I wanted to protest how unfair it was, but even I could tell I looked like an idiot, so I had nothing to say. Still, it was genuinely unfair. I'd cleanly taken out two zombies with that power earlier—why wasn't it working now? If there was some condition, fine, but the anger factor was exactly the same. That tree should've snapped with a loud crack. Or at least my fist should've smashed through it dramatically. The fact that it didn't even have a scratch made me even angrier.
Come on, give me a break. I needed to earn some points with the students if I wanted to be more than just a figurehead with authority.
Thinking about it again just made me madder. "Wait, what?!"
I clearly remembered kicking the tree with all my might, but suddenly I lost my balance. The tree was falling over. From the circumstances, it looked like I'd kicked it, triggered the super strength, and completely shattered the trunk. Actually, "shattered" wasn't enough—it had punched straight through like it was tofu.
That part was fine. The problem was what lay behind it—a steep slope. I was relieved it wasn't a cliff, at least. I curled up to protect my head and face as I tumbled down. Thankfully there were no zombies nearby, and aside from my whole body aching, I didn't seem to have any serious injuries.
"Ughhh....."
But something felt wrong with my leg. When I tried to stand, a groan slipped out and sharp pain shot through me. What hurt more was that no one was coming down to help. One student had peeked over the edge, saw I was fine, and just left. Even if my regeneration was good, a person had just rolled down a steep hill. Shouldn't a normal person come check on me?
Whether it hurt or not, I climbed back up the trail in one go, ready to give Kang Siwoo a piece of my mind.
"........Sigh."
"You have nothing to say for yourself, do you?"
"No, that's not..."
"Even you can tell it was pretty stupid, right?"
"Shut up..."
"If you just kept your mouth shut, you'd be halfway decent."
"I said shut up! And you over there, stop laughing! Ow!"
All the students were cracking up. It was nice that the tedious labor had brought some energy back to the group, but I hated that I was the punchline. Still, there was nothing I could do about it. The moment I quietly picked up the shovel again, Kang Siwoo beckoned me over. Wondering what chore he was going to dump on me this time, I approached. He suddenly sat down and told me to take off my shoes and socks. Then he started stretching my leg for me.
"Looks like swelling doesn't heal easily with your regeneration."
"W-wait a second. Ow, ughhh..."
"It's going to hurt a bit. Though it's honestly impressive you rolled down a slope and came out this fine."
"So you were worried about me after all? Ah, ow...!"
"Huh. It's going down faster than I expected. Did it hurt that much?"
"M-my wrist too..."
"Give it here."
Before long, all the swelling had completely subsided. It was honestly amazing. Having ten years of experience under his belt really showed—he was good at this kind of thing. With that, I threw myself back into the work with renewed vigor. As we carefully carried the wheelbarrow full of dirt back down to campus, I realized something.
Did I really need to work that hard? Did I really need to feel happy just because he showed me a little care? Honestly... not at all. This was the guy who constantly exploited me and kept his sword sharpened in case he needed to kill me horribly. And yet my body had already been trained by the carrot-and-stick routine. Before I knew it, I was spreading the dirt and leaf mold from the wheelbarrow across the plaza. We also scattered some zombie corpses around and transplanted the plants Kang Seonghwa had dug up with a trowel. Plants that had grown from zombies on the mountain. Luckily, several of them were actually usable.
By the time we finished, it was already well past lunchtime. I wanted to go back to sleep, but that didn't seem possible. Thanks to my damn body's rapid regeneration, I wasn't physically tired. There was mental fatigue, sure, but since my body felt fine, falling asleep wasn't going to be easy. Still, I figured resting was fine, so after eating lunch in the cafeteria, I went straight back to the dorm and lay down. But only a few minutes after I did, I got called again.