Auntie Min-jung, Crushed by Worry for Me — and That Absolute Bastard Park Do-chul Squeezes In [Kim Min-jung's Heart for Geum Tae-yang] [3]
What the hell? I killed twenty-five of them!!!! So why didn't a single point go up!!!!
Geum Tae-yang's expression shifted from pure bewilderment into something closer to sheer, speechless absurdity.
On the way from the house to the barricade, he had taken down six zombies. Just now he had wiped out a cluster of nineteen more. That made twenty-five in total. He had fully expected roughly six unapplied Growth Points to have piled up. Even accounting for probability variance, he had figured on at least five.
Not a single one had registered.
Are you fucking kidding me? Sure, the Status Window has the odds plastered right there in black and white, but this much of a swing? Does that even make sense?????? This is a total scumbag Status Window!!!!
The next emotion that tore through Tae-yang was pure rage. It felt exactly like playing a game that advertised a twenty-five percent enhancement rate, then watching all twenty-five pieces of gear explode one after another. His mental state had completely checked out.
Huuuh... calm down... Still, this is the same Status Window that told me about the murderer's identity... First stretch of odds was absolute garbage, so next time it'll hand them out at a higher rate, right...?
But Tae-yang had no choice except to accept reality. There was nothing else to play but this scumbag game. No alternatives. In the end he even dragged out his Combat Mental Master trait and worked hard to smother the rising fury.
Fuck...
That hope was pure delusion. Afterward, with mad eyes, he killed another twenty-five zombies — and once again, not a single Zombie Point accumulated.
Haaah... what the hell is this crap...!
Thud!!
Fifty zombies, hunted under the early-summer sun while pouring sweat, and he had not earned a single Zombie Point. Tae-yang clutched his head and sank into a squat like a man on a traditional toilet.
"Hmm... so that 'definite purpose' your Status Window mentioned was that kind of meaning, huh."
"You can't obtain them if the act of stacking Zombie Points itself is the goal."
"In other words, only zombies you take down for some other survival purpose have a chance of awarding Zombie Points — that's how we should read it, right?"
That despair was enough to make him go crawling to Park A-young — the girl who might as well have been his sworn rival — for help. Once he returned to the bunker, Tae-yang sought out A-young working on the second floor and told her everything that had happened that day. She delivered a clean, razor-sharp interpretation.
"So... that's how it is...?"
Nod...! Nod...! Nod...!
Listening to A-young's analysis, Tae-yang slowly nodded with a hollow expression. Of all people, he had never wanted to consult his rival Park A-young about anything related to his Status Window. Between the two of them and their constant low-level sniping, he had drawn a Maginot Line of sorts. But an entire day's labor had gone up in dogshit smoke. His self-esteem was already shredded to ribbons. With no dignity left to protect, he had poured out the situation to her with a pitiful face — and then came A-young's ice-cold, refreshing analysis. For Tae-yang, the reality check hit from every angle at once.
"Ahem... looking at the Status Window's mechanics so far, A-young, what you're saying is pretty damn persuasive. So the Zombie Points I got on day one must have stacked because I was killing them with the purpose of getting back to the bunker after the mission."
"After that it was the mart-looting purpose, then the purpose of clearing zombies around the bunker — that tracks."
Scratch...! Scratch...! Scratch...!
Convinced, Tae-yang organized the situation based on A-young's analysis, scratching his head with a heavy feeling. Understanding it was a relief; the content itself was anything but. Truly a finicky Status Window mechanism.
"You should've come to this noona for advice beforehand. All that swagger, and look where it got you."
After that, Tae-yang paid the full price for his SOS. A-young wore a subtle little smile as she tore into his cocky past few days. She had played it cool about not having a Status Window of her own — but the way Tae-yang had swaggered around had been more than enough to poke her temper. That subtle smile now carried the full nuance of see, Tae-yang, you were always going to end up as my meal ticket.
"Yeah... damn... every single day is critical timing right now, and I just blew one..."
Normally he would have flared up and thrashed around for some kind of counter. But Tae-yang had been burning with massive drive to overcome the threat Do Min-chul had created. Today he had wanted to produce results through Zombie Point hunting. Failing that, his disappointment ran deep.
"It's not like that, Tae-yang... thanks to this we got new information, didn't we... so calling it wasted effort isn't quite right..."
Kim Min-jung, standing a step behind, comforted him. From the moment he returned to the bunker, Tae-yang's expression had been off. His behavior was the same as always — hugging her, talking warmly — but his energy level had dropped hard. Naturally, Min-jung wanted to know why. So even though she usually avoided eavesdropping on the two of them, she had come all the way up to the bunker's second floor to listen.
"Yes, Auntie... what you're saying makes sense too..."
Tae-yang's disappointment seemed truly enormous. Normally he would have melted at the comfort of the next-door auntie he loved, laughing hahaha! But the tone and expression behind that "makes sense" were heavy with gloom. This was the same man who, after his first kill yesterday, had forced down even his trembling hands by hammering his sense of responsibility. He had thrown himself into hunting zombies today as a way of fighting that off. The current situation was shaking his mental state far too hard.
"...."
Kim Min-jung watched him in silence, pity written across her face. But showing that expression too openly would only make Tae-yang worry, so she was clearly managing her features as carefully as she could.
"Does Tae-yang not say much else to you? He talks about the apocalypse situation with you more than he does with me, after all."
Afterward Tae-yang went downstairs to the first floor to wash up. The moment he left, Kim Min-jung asked her daughter Park A-young, who was hard at work on the computer.
"Roughly that kind of stuff. When he thinks the full apocalypse will really kick off, how bad the military wipeout looks, whether other countries have any cases of successfully suppressing the zombie virus, why the Goryeo Special Police seem slower than expected and what he thinks the reason is — those kinds of questions."
A-young answered her mother's question with a flat expression. Tae-yang had not told A-young about the Kim Man-bok incident either, nor about Do Min-chul's movements.
There's something more... it doesn't feel like he's under this much pressure just from that...
Forty-two-year-old Kim Min-jung's maternal instincts kicked into high gear. Tae-yang clearly seemed to be under a lot of pressure right now.
If even A-young doesn't know... should I ask him directly...? Would that put Tae-yang in an awkward position if he can't answer easily...?
But Tae-yang fretted a great deal whenever Min-jung worried about him, so asking outright felt delicate. That was why she had asked A-young first — and even her own daughter knew nothing. Min-jung felt the difficulty settle deep in her chest.
Ahem... five points. This isn't going to cut it. So do I need to push even farther outside? Then maybe I'd pick up a Special Quest like last time?
The next day — Day Eight — Tae-yang hit Ondol Mart for supplies again and returned at dusk. After washing up and eating dinner, he sat on the living-room sofa and checked his Status Window. At least around Ondol Mart over the past two days, twenty zombies had gathered. Taking them down had earned him five new Growth Points. Not long ago that number would have satisfied him. But Tae-yang now carried a hunger for growth that made the old days look like nothing — so five points barely scratched the itch.
"....."
Kim Min-jung, tidying the refrigerator, watched him from a distance. Worry filled Tae-yang's face, and her own heart was anything but at ease.
Haaah... hey, Geum Tae-yang. What was your biggest strength again?
Slap! Slap!
In that moment Tae-yang lightly smacked both of his own cheeks.
Positive mental game! If the right hand gets hurt, train the left. If the left gets hurt too, hit the lower body! Think the same way right now!
The setup for Status Window growth was clearly not ideal. That did not mean there was nothing to do. Tae-yang reminded himself of that and delivered a stern scolding to himself.
"Yaaah~~ Park A-young~~~! You busy~~~????"
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!!
Something having clicked, Tae-yang finally bolted upstairs toward A-young.
"...."
And Kim Min-jung watched him climb the second-floor stairs in silence.
"Haa..."
Shff... shff... shff...
For roughly ten seconds she stared at those stairs. Then she let out a quiet sigh and went back to organizing the refrigerator.
"You've got friends who hang with Do Min-chul's crew, right? One of them was named Hyeon-ji or something?"
Having found A-young, Tae-yang brought up Nam Hyeon-ji — the real full-delinquent friend of half-delinquent Park A-young. That was another reason A-young had been classified as a half-delinquent. She never did the actual delinquent work herself, but she had more than a few friends famous for it.
"....."
Still running the bunker's main computer in her underwear because the air conditioning was weak, A-young looked at Tae-yang in silence after he mentioned Nam Hyeon-ji.
"What, did you like Hyeon-ji or something?"
The reaction she fired off next was pure A-young. Whenever a woman's name came out of Tae-yang's mouth — Min-jung excluded — A-young always responded like this.
"Ah, seriously, Park A-young, you really... no, I did not??"
Tae-yang's face, after bringing up Hyeon-ji, looked considerably bright. He had high expectations. So even though he would normally have countered her flatly, his expression now said I'm trying to say something important, what kind of bullshit is this?
"Then why are you asking about Hyeon-ji. That's ridiculous. Mom's here and I'm here — are the two of us not enough women for you?"
But that sulky, clingy reaction was pure catnip for A-young. She latched on even more relentlessly.
"It's not that. Anyway, we're not far from full apocalypse entry now. And for some reason there's a guy who keeps bugging me. Do Min-chul — you know him."
A-young's eyes were full of mischief and pure chaos. Looking into them, Tae-yang decided his reaction had been a waste of energy, so he cut straight to the point.
"I know. Do Min-chul. So?"
Once Tae-yang severed the joke's momentum, A-young shifted her gaze back to the main computer with a bored expression.
"When I think about who the most visibly problematic human is going to grow into once the apocalypse hits, that bastard comes to mind. Figured it wouldn't hurt to set up a surveillance net in advance."
If Status Window growth was not going to come easy, then using a talent like Park A-young and the bunker's high-end equipment to wage an information war was another valid approach — that was Tae-yang's thinking.
If Kim Man-bok knew enough about Do Min-chul's awakening... then his real close friends have to know even more, right? At the very least we should be able to pull more varied intel than we have now.
Grin...!
The same Tae-yang who had been wallowing in frustration on the first-floor sofa now wore a smile of pure satisfaction. Call them the legendary top-tier underworld of Hanseong Metropolitan City all you want — at the end of the day they were still a pack of roughly twenty-one-year-old thugs. Their crew was sizable, so if A-young dug through their SNS and the rest, they ought to be able to dig up information on Do Min-chul's awakening ability and his recent movements.
"......"
Kim Min-jung sat alone on the bed in her room. Her expression looked faintly depressed.
"Huuu...!"
She let out a sigh.
Shff... shff... shff...
Then she began neatly arranging the bedding so she could try to sleep.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!
In that moment, her phone on the bedside table started ringing.
Who is it?
Grab...!
For the first time in the eight days since the zombie outbreak began, a call was coming in on Kim Min-jung's phone. She picked it up with a puzzled look.
Oh my! Seong-uk's mom? She didn't pick up that day — so she made it through okay?
The name displayed on the phone was Seong-uk's Mom. She was one of Min-jung's close acquaintances. On the first and second days of the zombie outbreak, Min-jung had called around to her nearest contacts to check on the situation. Some people had answered; some had not. Seong-uk's mom had been one of the ones who never picked up.
"Seong-uk's mom? It's me, Min-jung's mom. Are you okay? Are you safe?"
So Min-jung answered with a glad heart.
"You fucking bitch!!!"
But what slammed into her ear was a thick, familiar stream of male curses.
It was that absolute bastard of the world — Park Do-chul.