I Became the One Who Takes. 38

## Chapter 38 - (6)

I took a leisurely shower before the water got cut off, then headed up to the academy where the ladder team was working.

"Oh..."

The ladder was being built faster than I'd expected.

They were breaking down desks and connecting them one by one, trying to keep the original shape as much as possible.

They were making a sturdy ladder, even if the distance between the buildings was short.

Since it was a ladder made from desks, it looked like it would weigh quite a bit.

"You guys are working hard."
"Oh, Oppa! Sua! You two are already here?"
"...Yeah..."

Actually, we'd finished hunting a long time ago, but I didn't bother mentioning it.

Sua looked at Soyoon with a complicated expression before answering.

"Let's eat first."

I bought meat, vegetables, a frying pan, a gas burner, and a set of butane gas canisters from the store in advance.

Buying from the store made the items pop out of thin air.

"Oh! Samgyeopsal!"
"Y-You bought all of this? It must be expensive..."

Soyoon shouted as she looked at the meat.

As Soyoon said, the meat was a cut that wasn't quite samgyeopsal.

It had less fat than samgyeopsal, probably pork neck.

Minhyuk was happy too, but he seemed worried and quietly asked me.

Of course, it was expensive.

It used up almost all of my hunting points for the day.

Even so, there was a good reason to do it.

First of all, I didn't want to just break up and eat raw ramen.

I'd used up a lot of stamina from hunting and the incident with Sua.

I had the stamina skill, so it wasn't that bad, but raw ramen wasn't going to solve my hunger and fatigue.

Besides, buying a frying pan and gas burner would be useful in the future.

Most of all, I could see the energy and goodwill in the three of them.

"Eat a lot, tell me if you need more..."
"Wow!"
"Hyung, are you really okay with this?"
"..."

Soyoon even clapped her hands and cheered, and Minhyuk looked worried but his lips were slightly raised.

Sua didn't look at me because of what had happened earlier, but she nudged my leg with her foot.

I guess that was her way of complimenting me.

At least, I decided to think of it as a compliment.

To them, who had been surviving on raw ramen and water for days, meat was a big deal.

"I'll grill it."
"Then Sua and I will wash the vegetables and the frying pan! Let's go, Sua!"
"Huh? Okay..."

The three of them were excited about being able to eat meat soon, and they quickly divided roles and started acting without anyone telling them to.

I thought it was a good investment.

Thanks to that, I had some free time, and since Sua had disappeared, I took the opportunity to go down the stairs.

And I headed straight for the back door.

Without hesitation, I opened the door and took out the axe from my inventory.

"I spent a lot, so I need to replenish it."

Now that Sua wasn't watching, I started fighting using all of my abilities.

I swung the fire axe and smashed the heads of two zombies at once.

If there was anything I hadn't shown the three of them, including Sua, it was my skills.

I didn't use my inventory or strength skills in front of them, even if I used weapon or stamina skills.

Because those two skills were definitely a bit strange.

If I showed them that I could take out weapons from thin air or smash a zombie's head with my fist, Sua would be even more wary.

Now was the time for the synergy of strength and weapon skills, which had crushed even the arm of a villain with a body as hard as rock, to shine.

"Hoo!"

Seeing the zombies rushing in, I took a step forward and swung the axe.

As I put more strength into it, I naturally held my breath.

With one swing of the axe, two or three zombies were scattered into pieces of meat.

It was a brutal sight, but at the same time, I felt a sense of exhilaration.

This was it.

It felt so good to go all out for the first time in a while.

Even the noise wasn't that loud.

Riding the momentum, I jumped into the zombie horde and swung the axe almost in a full circle, and this time, the zombies in the area were swept away like fallen leaves.

Most of them lost their upper bodies and fell.

After repeating that a few times, the back door was filled with the remains of what used to be zombies instead of zombies.

Perhaps because I took care of them so quickly.

The zombies from the front door didn't even rush in until I had finished dealing with the zombies at the back door.

[You have defeated a variant.]
[You have gained 5 points.]

And just as I caught the last zombie, a message window appeared.

The message window said it was a variant zombie.

[Hidden quest completed.]
[First variant zombie defeated.]
[Strength skill becomes lv.2.]

This time it was the quest board window that I was familiar with.

"...Which zombie was it?"

The problem was that I didn't have time to distinguish the variant.

Anyway, as expected.

There were variant zombies in this world.

And at the same time, one question was also solved.

100 points for one skill. Wasn't that too harsh a price for ordinary people without skills? But variants existed.

Variants gave a whopping 5 points.

That was the price of five ordinary zombies.

"Hyung, the meat's all grilled~ Where are you?"
"Oppa~"

Hearing Minhyuk and Soyoon calling me, I hurriedly put the axe back into my inventory.

I didn't forget to go to the bathroom to wash away the traces of the battle.

When I went up, there was a decent scene unfolding.

Because it was an academy, there was plenty of paper, so paper was spread out on the floor like a mat to prevent oil from splattering.

Somehow, they had found well-grilled meat and washed vegetables and put them in decent-looking bowls.

"Where did you get the bowls?"
"Ah, these are lunch boxes that some kids bring."
"Ah..."
"Oppa, try it quickly!"

All three of them were looking at me.

It seemed like they were giving me the first bite because I had provided the food.

I didn't refuse and put it in my mouth.

"Hmm..."

It's delicious.

That was all.

It was delicious, but I wasn't that impressed.

It's just meat. That's all.

But the expressions of the three people who quickly followed suit after seeing me eat were different.

"Wow..."

Soyoon was speechless.

She put meat and vegetables in her mouth without saying a word, and looked at the dwindling meat with a desperate look, as if she regretted it.

Anyone would think she was in love with the meat.

Sua also covered her mouth with her hand, but she stuffed her mouth full of meat and vegetables.

I felt a little sorry for them, so I ordered more meat from the store and put it down.

I had some points to spare because I had hunted secretly.

"There's a lot. Eat more."

The three of them had their mouths full of meat, so they couldn't answer me, but instead nodded vigorously.

I wondered if I had bought too much, but looking at the three of them, it seemed like they could eat it all.

And they succeeded in eating it all, leaving only one piece.

Was it the privilege of the person who bought the meat?

I was excluded from cleaning up and told to rest, so while the three of them were cleaning up and making the ladder, I had some free time again.

On a whim, I went up to the roof and looked around.

And I decided to look at the zombies, thinking about the variant zombie that I had unknowingly taken care of earlier.

"Hmm..."

Honestly, I couldn't tell them apart just by looking at them.

Maybe there weren't any variant zombies among those zombies.

But if there were, it meant that I couldn't distinguish them by their appearance.

"...Huh? Something's strange."

As I watched them, I noticed some zombies acting strangely.

At first, I didn't notice what was strange, but after watching them for a while, I could finally tell.

Unlike other zombies, there were some that didn't bump into walls or other zombies.

As they staggered, if a zombie approached from the opposite side, they would swerve and avoid it.

In addition, they would occasionally raise their heads and look left and right.

That appearance wasㅡ

"...Can they see?"

The identity of the variant zombie seemed to be a zombie that could see.

"I need to lure them much further away."

I had a feeling that it was going to be a bit of a hassle.

This time, I turned my attention to the surrounding buildings instead of the zombies.

Since luring them was my role, I had to check the layout and location of the surrounding buildings.

"There are a lot of restaurants... and there's a clothing store, a movie theater building..."

Luring them was important, and it would be even better if I could acquire items or food from inside the buildings in the process.

I couldn't buy food with points every time.

After roughly thinking about the route in my head, I went back down the stairs and joined the three of them.

And I told them about what I had discovered.

"There are zombies that can see?"
"Yeah."
"I thought we finally had a chance to escape..."
"Don't worry too much, we can just lure them a little further away."

When I told them about the variant zombies, the three of them looked a little gloomy, so I deliberately acted like it wasn't a big deal.

It wasn't a big deal in reality.

Even if they could see, they still reacted to sound, and it didn't seem difficult to lure them.

Then I just had to lure them to a place where they couldn't see us escaping.

Rather, the appearance of the variant zombie was good news for me.

After all, it felt like there was a being that gave five times more points than other zombies.

However, I didn't know if other variants besides the ones that could see would appear in the future, so it seemed like it would be good to prepare to escape quickly.

"Did you already finish making it?"
"Yes."

Is the main character the main character?

A decent-looking ladder was made in just one day.

The ladder made using desks was heavy, but it looked sturdy.

It looked safe, seeing as how it didn't budge even when the three of them stood on the ladder side by side.

"Shall we go then?"
"Huh? Now? It's going to be night soon..."

I tried to go to the next building right away since the ladder was made, but Soyoon stopped me in a fluster.

Sua also added a word.

"It's too late today..."
"That's right, we should go tomorrow."

When I emphasized tomorrow on purpose, Sua blushed and glared at me.

Soyoon, who was in the middle, looked at Sua strangely, and then looked back and forth between me and Sua.