Scavenging in the Corner Shop and Dodging the Biker Gang
The shantytown had come into view.
Of course I ignored the zombies shuffling along the path ahead.
“Heh, weather’s nice. Keep it up.”
Even walking past them openly, they didn’t so much as twitch. I felt like the stealth-maxed rogue from some old RPG.
I reached the corner shop.
“As expected, nothing edible left here.”
Empty chip bags littered the floor along with dusty magazines.
“Didn’t expect anything.”
Well, honestly, a little. After all, even the smallest places hide one or two things. This place just turned out tiny, so I’d emptied it out clean.
But today’s goal wasn’t food.
“Sure enough, it’s still here.”
A spotless pile of detergent in the corner. Hardly worth calling it a corner. Only a few detergent bottles and a wax can.
Still, cleaning tools were worth grabbing.
“Toilet brush, dust buster… damn, no floor wax. Maybe pick up the garden broom too.”
Yeah, if it’s not there, I can just improvise.
With the house and the scam skill already secured, I wanted to haul back stuff I’d normally have left. I shoved whatever caught my eye straight into the backpack.
“…?”
Just as I was about to head out, the pack wouldn’t lift.
Warning: Overloaded (cannot carry)
Current weight: 14.2 kg / Carrying limit: 8.0 kg
※ Cannot lift or move items over the carrying limit.
The carrying level 1 limit. Using skills apparently still hit reality’s physical rules.
“Who the hell said carrying capacity was 8 kg.”
The broom alone weighed 2 kg. The big wax can 3 kg, cleaning tools 2 kg, shampoo and detergent 1 kg.
I dumped everything out. Most were dispensable, but some nagging guilt lingered.
“Huh? Picking up the broom made the weight vanish.”
It disappeared from the total. So what if I put it in a plastic bag?
“Nope.”
◇ Cannot be equipped in weapon/armor slots. Adds to backpack weight.
It wasn’t recognized as a weapon, like the broom. Whatever, it wasn’t useful for anything. Worse than nothing.
Out of curiosity I tried equipping the gloves I’d had on.
Old leather gloves (F-grade armor)
“Whoa.”
Slotting them into the equipment slot made everything feel weightless, like I hadn’t even put them on.
So what about multiple pieces? I slid the rubber gloves over the leather ones. The extra weight was noticeable.
Per body part the armor slot only wiped one piece of weight. Still, the important thing was I could wear something.
“So everything I can equip, I’ll wear.”
I started sifting through the junk I’d classified to trim backpack weight.
While sorting, a thought hit me.
I’d been using a pot back then. Early on I’d carried one everywhere. Memories came flooding back. I tried it on.
[Pot Helmet - Misc]
Not recognized.
“What about this?”
I grabbed the rope lying around and tied it tight to the pot’s handles. It looked pathetic, but under the chin it stayed put.
Clumsy Pot Helmet (F-grade armor)
Equip slot: Head
Defense: +2 (minor blunt resistance increase)
Special effect: Slightly lowers nearby lifeforms’ guard due to ridiculous appearance. (Minor effect)
“Hah.”
The corners of my mouth curled up without me noticing.
…
…
Just before Nam Ju-hyeok reached the superstore, at the start of the shantytown alley.
A rough scraping sound rang out and something tumbled across the ground. The ownerless motorcycle slammed straight into the wall.
-KWAK!
Smoke rising behind it, a black motorcycle approached. A middle-aged man in a leather jacket and red hood.
“Stop, you brats! Stop!”
Creak—
The man raised his hand high and the following motorcycles all halted.
Something rolled under his feet. The severed head of the subordinate who had been leading earlier. The wired trap had taken his neck.
The man nudged the rolling head away with his foot.
“See? Just keep your distance. I told you not to ignore me. You idiots.”
The red-haired subordinate behind sighed.
“Leader. This is going to get us all killed.”
Already three gone. Four including the one just beheaded.
“Why is that woman so important? There are plenty of women in the hideout anyway. Why go to all this trouble?”
“So you have a complaint?”
The leader pulled a cigarette from his mouth and glared.
The red-haired man’s spine chilled and he immediately lowered his head.
“No, no, Leader.”
The leader’s teeth clicked. He was furious at the underlings who had refused to join his territory. Even after he’d personally granted them the honor of becoming his woman. Then they ran?
And with his men stripped too, if word spread they’d been taken out, other forces would laugh at him.
He couldn’t allow that.
“Tch, bastard. When we catch you, we’ll chop off your limbs…”
The underlings chuckled at the words.
“Heh, lightweight toilet brush. Good, Leader.”
In this ruined world, the leader had survived by slaughter and plunder. But it wasn’t just brute force.
When faction splits appeared among the men during the fear-politics phase, his ability awakened.
An awakener who could use points to secure gasoline. In an apocalypse where oil meant power and survival, his words became law.
Heard the leader’s warning and slipped back. The red-haired man muttered to himself.
“Uh, that doesn’t feel right…”
The subordinate beside him patted the red-haired man’s shoulder and laughed.
“Hey, it’s because you couldn’t see her figure. Body’s all… wow, she’d be so soft.”
He touched his swelling crotch as if imagining it alone.
The leader exhaled smoke and pulled out a handgun. He aimed it down the alley and gestured with his chin.
“From now on, search everything. They’re definitely hiding somewhere in a building corner.”
He divided the group as if he’d done this a hundred times.
“You three, take the motorcycles and block the outer road.”
“Yes, Leader!”
“You, take those two and sweep the left buildings. You, take the other three and clear all the buildings and shops over there. Grab everything you can.”
“Understood!”
The rattling shutter and shattering door echoes filled the shantytown.
A tightening siege.
-KWAK!
“Nothing here either. Check the next room!”
Loud noise echoed through the small shophouse. In a corner room, Yu-hyeon and Yu-jin held their breaths.
The voices outside drew closer. Outnumbered, already badly wounded. But thanks to the maze-like layout of the shophouse, they were still holding on.
“Painkillers… no painkillers. What now, oppa.”
“Yu-jin, I’m fine, calm down.”
Lie. The abdominal wound had already lost too much blood. He’d tied it off tight, but every rough move reopened the cut.
Even half-conscious he kept his senses sharp.
“Shh.”
He signaled his sister.
-DOK!
A moment later the iron door in the yard opened and three searchers entered.
In the blind spot beside the door, Yu-hyeon appeared like a ghost. In his hand, a special-warfare combat dagger.
-FWOOSH, SWOOSH!
He drove the dagger into the first man’s chin and yanked it free, slicing the next man’s throat in the recoil.
“Kk, ugh…”
One second. The two men collapsed in a fountain of blood without even screaming.
“This… this crazy…”
The man at the back tried to fire his modified tac gun. His hand was severed clean off.
The modified tac gun on the floor shattered. He clutched his bleeding hand and fled.
-SHWISH! PLINK!
But the man didn’t make it three steps before falling. Yu-jin’s compound bow waited inside. The arrow struck the man’s back of the head perfectly.
“Hah…”
As soon as the situation cleared, Yu-hyeon squeezed his body to the limit and collapsed to the floor.
“Oppa! Oppa, stay awake!”
Yu-jin supported the bleeding Yu-hyeon and moved. But the whole shophouse was already surrounded by the raider group.
They pressed from all sides, driving the siblings toward the center. Perfect rabbit drive.
He handled a few more along the way, but it changed nothing. No matter how many they killed, the outcome was decided.
Still, he couldn’t stop running. The siblings fled through the maze.
“Those bastards… those bastards…”
No place to run, no strength left to fight. Yu-jin walked carrying her brother, yet tears streamed from her eyes.
“What’s the point of surviving like this?”
Instead of dying cleanly when the zombie apocalypse started, all the year of grinding survival had been pointless.
While wandering in despair, a broken-window corner shop caught her eye at the dead end.
She hadn’t expected anything. It was instinct.
After all, there was nowhere else.
Her throat was dry. She was too exhausted to drink, too empty to care. How pathetic she was.
But she forced a smile.
“Oppa, hang on. There’s probably something to eat there.”
“…”
Yu-hyeon’s eyes had already lost their light. But he couldn’t die here. At least after his sister.
At that moment, the siblings met eyes with someone inside the shop.
“…?”
After calculating every variable, this one he hadn’t anticipated at all.
Yu-jin raised her bow and aimed at something shining brightly.
“Don’t move.”