Chapter 5 – 5. Mart Seoribeom
Because we were so tired, we spent the night without much interaction. Saeyeon, who had been tossing and turning for a while as if she was having a nightmare, soon fell asleep, and I too fell asleep from exhaustion.
After spending the night in our separate places, we woke up at 6 a.M. And decided to go downstairs as planned.
Before leaving the front door, my sister and I armed ourselves with clothes as much as possible. The higher the exposure of the body, the higher the chance of being bitten, so the body was covered with clothing as much as possible to hide it without hindering movement.
I packed only the one bag I could carry. For Saeyeon, a small side bag to carry a notebook and pen was enough. Because we have infinite inventory.
“Here, take the hammer.”
“Oh… This is heavier than it looks. “It’s my first time hearing a hammer.”
“Is it so? Hehe. Be careful not to hurt your wrist when swinging it. And zombies must be hit on the head at all costs. There’s no use hitting anywhere else.”
“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Also… If you are started by a zombie, never scream. Zombies are particularly sensitive to speech and screams. Did you know? “If you scream, we can’t go together.”
“Yes, I’ll be careful.”
Saeyeon nodded at my words. I could have screamed unconsciously, so I begged for relief. The moment you scream, it’s over. If you want to commit suicide, just scream.
“Then.. I’ll check below before I go down..”
“Yeah.. I’ll listen to see if I can hear any noise on the stairs.”
“Yes.”
Before going down, I stuck my head out under the railing to check for zombies near the entrance. Saeyeon didn’t know if there might be zombies on the stairs, so she went to the fire door of the stairs.
‘It’s decreased a lot.. Did it all go somewhere else..?’
Certainly, the number of zombies gathered on the first floor or near the apartment entrance has decreased significantly compared to yesterday.
“The stairs are quiet.”
“There isn’t much downstairs. Let’s go down.”
“Yes..!”
Even when I walk up the stairs, I feel like I can hear less zombies crying than yesterday. They probably moved in large numbers to a noisy place during the night.
‘If aggro is drawn to one side, all nearby zombies will flock there…’
As time passed, zombies were more likely to move around in groups. Due to the nature of zombies chasing sound or light, they will flock to places where there is a lot of noise.
“Still, there might be some guys running around, so you have to be careful.”
“Yes. Running zombies… Let’s be careful.”
A zombie with particularly good physical abilities that my sister saw yesterday. From the looks of it, the number of such variants was not that large.
Even if I immediately checked under the railing, I couldn’t see a single zombie running. I think it would be like one in a hundred or so. Maybe one in a thousand or ten thousand.
Honestly, if there were zombies with that much athletic ability, they would all have died long ago. It’s not that I let my guard down, but I didn’t think there was any need to be too scared.
“I will take the lead.”
“Yes..”
First of all, the goal is to get to the supermarket without attracting the attention of zombies as much as possible. If you kill a lot of zombies, your survival level may increase, but you can’t risk your life for that.
“Wow…”
“Wow…”
There were no zombies until the 5th floor. Even the 4th floor was relatively quiet. However, from the third floor, zombies began to appear one by one. Most of them had already had their arms or legs torn off. Looking at the severity of the damage, it looked like the residents of the lower floors had been eaten by zombies last night.
As expected, the downstairs weren’t able to survive last night and was completely robbed. I never thought I could have lasted even one night. It was clear that the screams heard in the early morning were from the residents of this apartment complex.
That’s a good thing. Because these crazy zombies didn’t come up to the 7th floor.
“Sigh..!”
I hit the zombie’s head, which was crawling on the floor with its legs torn off, with a bat.
– Puja!!
“Wow…”
I struck down with all my might, and the zombie’s head split in one blow and it stopped moving. I immediately kicked the head of a zombie creeping from the third floor hallway to stop it moving, then hit it with a bat.
Next, a zombie with both arms torn off staggered out, perhaps having difficulty maintaining its balance. He immediately kicked him in the stomach, knocked him down, and then hit him in the face with a baseball bat.
I tried hitting it moderately to reduce unnecessary movements. Because I had to get a feel for how much I had to beat to kill him with one hit.
-Pow! Pow! Pow!!
“Haa.. Haa..”
Perhaps due to lack of exercise, I am already out of breath and exhausted. As she moved constantly and violently while being nervous, her ankle and wrist ligaments hurt as if they would break. This is why your father always told you to exercise..
Fortunately, the zombie babies didn’t have a very good sense of balance, so they fell easily and when hit on the head, they stumbled for a moment as if they were stunned. At this level of difficulty, you can easily catch and kill them all. As long as there are no running zombies.
“Ugh..!”
-Pow!!
“Uuuuu..!!!”
While I was in the middle of killing the zombies that were coming out of the 3rd floor hallway, Saeyeon was dealing with the zombies that were walking up from the 2nd floor.
She swung her sword at the zombie’s face with all her might. As a result, her teeth and pieces of her her torn off tongue her she came flying out, but the creature only stumbled for a moment and did not stop her walking, continuing to climb up and try to grab her.
“Ugh…!”
“Oh my..!”
I quickly hit the head of the zombie that was still alive with the bat, pulled Saeyeon back, and then hit the head of the zombie that was trying to grab her.
-Kang!
-Puhwaak!
Even though I swung roughly with one hand, I swung so hard that the bat cleanly hit the right side of the zombie’s head.
As soon as the bat hit his head, the guy’s right eyeball popped out halfway and he died instantly.
I kicked the guy in the stomach. Then the guy fell backwards, and even the two zombies that followed him got caught up and tumbled down to the second floor landing.
In the process, one guy hit his head repeatedly on the stair railing, and his head was broken and he died instantly, and only the one at the bottom struggled and cried.
“Whoa.. Let’s go down.. There’s blood on the stairs, so be careful not to fall.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I quickly went down and stomped on the zombie’s head before he could cry any louder. After a while, he became limp.
I felt very uncomfortable because the zombie’s blood had soaked into my shoes and they seemed to be a little damp.
‘I think I should change my shoes to something a little harder…’
Perhaps because the shoes I had were all well-ventilated and comfortable walking shoes, the zombie blood soaked in very easily. I’ll have to go out later and buy some Gore-Tex hiking shoes from a mountaineering clothing store.
My father said it was good because it blocks wind and rain well and is sturdy… I should have bought it a long time ago. These days, I regret not listening to my father.
“Inho.. There are no more zombies on the second floor..”
“Then let’s go straight to the first floor.”
“Yes..”
Anyway, we continued to kill the zombies and eventually reached the outside of the building. After killing more than a dozen zombies, there were no more zombies to be seen.
Yesterday there were twice as many as this… It was noisy all day long and it seemed like everyone had moved somewhere else overnight. The timing was good.
“Then…”
We headed to where the supermarket was. I saw a few zombies on the way, but they were all hitting cars with their horns honking. Thanks to their habit of bunching up where noise comes from, I was able to go to the supermarket with ease. I will have to use this later.
“Huh…Fuck…”
“It won’t work.. Right..?”
“I see… I didn’t know it would be this bad…”
The front of the supermarket was a mess. It seemed like all the zombies in this neighborhood had gathered at the supermarket. Or maybe the people who gathered at the supermarket all turned into zombies. Anyway, hundreds of zombies were buzzing inside and outside the supermarket.
Perhaps, a few zombies were attracted to people who were trying to rob a supermarket like us, and the noise they made attracted the surrounding zombies to unite one by one. In any case, the supermarket seemed hopeless. It would be better to go somewhere else.
“Shall we go back?”
“Huh. Oh, wait a minute, can you see someone on the rooftop over there?”
“Yes..? Ah.. They seem to be isolated..”
When Saeyeon looked in the direction she was pointing with her finger, she saw three black heads.
They were three men and women standing on the rooftop of a supermarket. It seems they are trapped, unable to come or go because of the zombies.
Everyone is looking down with a despairing expression. I guess there’s no way to escape.
‘Hmm..’
I observed them for a while. No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look like the supermarket employees are trapped. Judging by the fact that he came out carrying a large bag, it looks like he came to confidently rob the supermarket and got into trouble… Could it be that there is an awakened person among those three?
‘Seeing as they came out to rob the supermarket while it was full of zombies, I think there must have been something to believe… If there is at least one awakened person among them… If you don’t want to die to the zombies, just die for me…’
As I was thinking such psychopathic thoughts, one of the men on the rooftop suddenly stood up and started yelling.
“Wow!!! Shibaaaaaraaa!!! Come on!!!! You bastards!!!!!”
Saeyeon and I were so surprised that we kept our distance from the supermarket. I didn’t know that other zombies in the neighborhood might hear that shout and come rushing in and run into us, causing trouble for no reason.
“Is that person… Crazy..?”
“Uh.. Isn’t that a penalty or handicap of that person’s abilities?”
“Ah.. I guess so.”
We widened our distance and looked to see what kind of abilities that man had that he could use to do such a crazy thing.
‘Skin hardening..? No, is it metallization?’
The body of the man who shouted at the zombies gradually began to change. Soon his skin became shiny silver and his whole body turned into metal.
As soon as his skin changed to metal, the man immediately jumped off the rooftop and ran into the middle of the zombies. Seeing that I could just jump from that height and still be fine, I felt like my overall physical ability had improved significantly.
“Uuuuu!!!!”
“Kyaaaaa!!!!”
“Come on!! You bastards!!!!!”
Even after going down, the man continued to shout and attract zombies around him. Then, the zombies got excited at the man’s shout and rushed at them, drooling blood-mixed saliva.
Soon, the man began smashing the gathered zombies by smashing their heads and upper bodies. It felt like his whole body had become a weapon.
-Puhwaak!!!
-Pajajak!!! Ppajik!!!
‘The teeth don’t even sink in… ‘
It was completely immune to the zombies’ bite attacks. If it’s that durable, wouldn’t it be able to deflect bullets?
Of course, the penalty of having to yell to attract aggro from zombies is ridiculously large, but even taking that into account, it was a useful ability.
However, waiting on the rooftop without using it until now means that there is some kind of limitation.
For example, you can only use it for one hour a day or something like that.
And as if my prediction was correct, the man who turned into steel shouted at the two men and women waiting on the rooftop.
“The effect will wear off soon!!! No time!! Come down quickly!!! Wow!!”
At the man’s desperate cry, the man and woman who had been hesitating on the rooftop began to hastily climb down the wall.
‘You’re coming down carrying that big bag..? Shiba… I’m going to fall like that…’
The local matra was only about three stories high, but even so, it seemed a bit difficult for an ordinary person, not one who normally enjoys rock climbing or parkour, to come down with a bag full of luggage.
Of course, in order to come down normally, you had to go through the zombies gathered on the second floor, so it was inevitable…
“Kya!!”
Sure enough, the woman who was coming down let out a scream and she fell down.
“Ah.. Damn…”
“That woman… She’s going to die…”
“Sure.. Haha..”
The woman’s ankle appeared to have been bent in a strange direction after the fall. After trying several times, the woman finally managed to stand up, but it seemed like it was difficult for her to walk properly.
In the end, when the woman motioned for help, the man who followed her didn’t know what to do and ran away in the opposite direction of the direction the steel man was aggroing.
The bag of the running man looked quite heavy. Since I got everything I could, I guess I went my own way. To some extent, I understood that man’s actions. He must have decided that it would be impossible to move with a woman who had a broken ankle, even though he had a lot of baggage.
“Hey!!! Seokhyun Kim is a bastard!!!! Take care of my little brother!!! We agreed!!! This!!! Shibaal!!! Hey!!! Kang Ah-hyeon!!! Run quickly! ! Run even if you die!!! Run away quickly!! Because my brother will drag all the zombies and go in the opposite direction!! Run away quickly!!! “Something!!!”
The woman who fell is probably the younger sister of the steel man. And it seems that the man who ran away decided to take care of that woman, her younger sister her her, on the condition that the Man of Steel sacrifice himself … I think he just quickly got rid of her because he thought it wouldn’t work.
In the end, I thought that her siblings would have different fates here.
The Man of Steel continued to shout, attracting zombies and going in the opposite direction from where his sister was. It seemed like she was struggling to save her younger sister… But it seemed like her abilities would be released if there was something that seemed difficult. There were so many zombies everywhere that it seemed like they couldn’t get out.
“Ah..”
Meanwhile, several zombies stumbled and approached the woman who was running away. If I leave it like this, I’ll die. Of course I have no intention of helping. Saeyeon was just lamenting and didn’t seem to have any intention of going to help.
Honestly, there’s no need to get involved in that damn place and get killed. Neither Saeyeon nor I have abilities directly related to combat. Just wait for them to remove the aggro from the zombies in the supermarket and then go in later. That’s the best.
“Kyaaa!!! Kyaaaaa!!!!”
The woman surrounded by three or four zombie heads soon began to be bitten.
At the sound of the screams, all the zombies that were wandering out of the supermarket approached the woman. In an instant, the woman, surrounded by dozens of animals, died as they bit her entire body.
“Huh.. Fuck..”
“Wow…”
“Sister. Please be patient.”
“Ugh… Wow…”
Saeyeon, who had been feeling unwell earlier due to the smell and sight of the zombies, started to gag as if she couldn’t take it anymore as people started to bleed out and die in real time.
Of course, I didn’t have time to throw up here, so I patted my sister’s back and told her to hold on.
I watched the situation like that for about 5 more minutes.
“Whoa.. Looks like almost all the zombies have left the supermarket, right?”
“Yeah.. I think everyone followed that psychic from earlier.”
Steel Man dragged all the zombies to the apartment complex next to the supermarket. Perhaps because so many zombies were rushing in that direction and making all kinds of noise, the rest of the zombies also flocked there.
All that’s left are about a dozen that are eating Steel Man’s younger sister.
“Whoa…”
After making sure there were no other zombies around, Saeyeon and I quickly approached the mart.
I’ll have to kill those dozen and then rob the supermarket. It seems like almost all the zombies on the first floor of the supermarket have come out.
