Chapter 10: Phase 2 (1)

The newly acquired skill, Inventory.

Over the course of two days, Han-seong repeatedly used the Inventory, learning various applications and information.

Among these was a quite convenient function, which he realized while killing a zombie about 80 meters away from the officetel.

[You have killed a Wandering Zombie.]

[You acquire 1 Coin.]

[Loot has been dropped.]

[Skillbook: Turn Undead]

“Huh? Loot?”

The first loot obtained while hunting thousands of zombies. Han-seong’s eyes sparkled as he tried to use the Inventory’s storage function.

But there was no need.

[Remote: Inventory activated]

[Loot detected within collection range]

[Loot automatically stored]

“…What?”

Thanks to the Inventory opening on its own and swallowing the skillbook that had fallen to the ground. Witnessing this sight, Han-seong’s eyes widened in surprise.

A little while later, he realized.

That the automatic storage function is activated only for ‘loot’ among all items existing within the collection range.

“I didn’t know it had such a function…”

Moreover, this function is not affected by the cooldown of Inventory: Storage. Feeling satisfied, Han-seong grinned.

“Then…”

If he lured zombies within a hundred meters and killed them, he could easily collect loot. Having finished this thought, Han-seong immediately opened the shop.

There was a skillbook he had been eyeing for a while.

[Skillbook: Decoy Dummy]

▷Installs a doll that emits a magical magnetic field, confusing and luring all targets that enter the disruption range.

▷Cooldown: 30 minutes

▶Acquisition Condition: [2nd Tier]

▶Class Restriction: Mage

▶Price: [600 Coins]

A skill to lure enemies.

It’s a skill he thought he’d have to learn someday to maximize the efficiency of area-of-effect skills.

Of course, he knew it would be cheaper if it appeared in the auction house rather than the shop. However, there was no sign of the item being registered even as time passed.

So he just bought it.

[You have acquired Decoy Dummy.]

[Acquisition Target: Remote Support Mage]

[The skill is modified to fit your class.]

[Remote: Decoy Dummy (Lv.2)]

-Install a doll that lures enemies.

▷Effective Range: Up to 500m

▷Disruption Range: 250m radius

▷Mana Cost: 5 per 10 seconds

▷Activation Time: 4.8 seconds

▷Cooldown: 28 minutes

The range is wide, and the cooldown is short.

The only problem is the mana cost. Like Tinder, it consumes mana at regular intervals.

‘Still, it’s a useful skill.’

Unlike Tinder, where you have to wait until the enemy is completely burned, this skill can be immediately canceled after luring and killing the enemies.

Han-seong decided to test it right away.

“Open Map.”

While searching for zombies beyond a hundred meters on the unfolded map, he noticed a particularly large number of zombies in the direction of the post office.

Han-seong chose a point where he could lure as many zombies as possible and activated the skill.

[Skill activated.]

[Remote: Decoy Dummy]

[Be cautious of loud noises.]

Hmm? Loud noises?

As he tilted his head at the puzzling message, the Decoy Dummy was installed. And Han-seong realized what the message was trying to convey.

《Keeeeee! Keeeee! Keek!》

A bizarre and unpleasant sound, like scratching a blackboard with nails or blades, resonated loudly from the Decoy Dummy.

But the effect was certain.

“Grrrroooaaar!”

“Graaaah!”

All zombies included in the disruption range began charging towards it with monstrous cries.

The zombies that quickly gathered tried to bite and tear at the Decoy Dummy, but to no avail. The Decoy Dummy was clearly made of steel.

Before long, the area around the dummy was teeming with a considerable number of zombies. Realizing that a sufficient number had gathered, Han-seong activated a follow-up skill.

[Remote: Call Lightning]

Rumble! Kwaaaang!

A powerful lightning bolt struck the center.

All zombies within the impact range turned into charcoal, and those on the outskirts pushed in again to attack the Decoy Dummy.

Han-seong continued activating skills.

[Remote: Tinder]

Furthermore, he used Wind Cutter on zombies that were about to collapse while burning from Tinder.

If you definitely cut off their breath with Wind Cutter, sometimes you’re lucky enough to charge the blade.

[Killed an enemy with Wind Cutter.]

[30 mana is consumed.]

[One blade is charged.]

Just like this.

After killing as many zombies as possible and using up all of Magic Arrow.

All the zombies lured by the Decoy Dummy had fallen. An impressive achievement in less than 10 minutes.

Soon after, a massive reward was given.

[You have acquired 206 Coins.]

[Skillbook: Shadow Doppelganger]

He had obtained about 200 Coins along with a skillbook. The loot was stored in the inventory through the automatic storage function, just like before.

However, Han-seong couldn’t examine the skillbook’s effect in detail.

“Ugh! Blegh!”

A strong headache accompanied by nausea.

This was a symptom that appeared when mana fell below 30 percent. Repeatedly dry heaving, Han-seong closed his eyes tightly and steadied his breathing.

It was to focus on meditation.

[Meditation begins.]

[10 mana is recovered per minute.]

Fortunately, once he entered meditation, the headache and nausea reduced to a bearable level. Afterwards, Han-seong immersed himself in meditation until his mana was fully replenished.

Some time later.

Han-seong’s condition improved.

“Haa, I almost died.”

Although it was for a short time, using Decoy Dummy while simultaneously using skills in succession consumed an incredible amount of mana.

‘I had secretly hoped that killing that many zombies would raise my level…’

Han-seong’s expectations turned to bubbles.

It seems the experience was a bit lacking.

Meanwhile, Han-seong suddenly recalled one fact he had learned about experience. It was about the rank experience accumulated through meditation.

[Rank Experience]

▷Acquisition Condition: Use of Unique Skill

▷Unique Skill: Meditation (Lv.2)

▶Acquisition Amount: 0.1% per 10 minutes

▶Current Experience: 6.3%

After promoting to the 2nd Tier.

The amount of experience gained was reduced to 1/10 of what it was when going from 1st Tier to 2nd Tier.

It took a full three days last time to promote, so this time it would take a month.

The road ahead seemed bleak, but there was no choice.

‘I have to do it anyway.’

Because currently, meditation is the only way to accumulate rank experience. Unless he finds another method someday, meditation is the best option for now.

After about an hour of additional meditation.

Han-seong suddenly felt hungry.

Come to think of it, he remembered skipping meals to test the performance of the Inventory.

“Let’s eat first.”

He then took out canned ham, stir-fried kimchi, and instant rice from the Inventory.

At some point, the power supply had been cut off, so he couldn’t use the microwave, but it was quite edible even without heating. In this situation, he should be grateful just to be eating rice at all.

Along with the late meal, Han-seong examined the two skillbooks he had obtained as loot today, one by one.

▷Inflicts massive damage to a single undead-type target with the power of holy light. The attack does not work on non-undead enemies.

▷Cooldown: 15 minutes

▶Acquisition Condition: [1-Star Rank]

▶Class Restriction: Healer

First, the loot he had obtained earlier.

Turn Undead was an attack skill used against a single target. Unfortunately, it had a class restriction, so Han-seong couldn’t learn it.

That’s when a noticeable description caught his eye.

“Undead-type enemy?”

Does that mean there are other forms of monsters besides zombies?

It wasn’t just speculation, but certainly true.

There was a warning that the attack doesn’t work on non-undead enemies.

‘I should keep that in mind.’

After engraving this newly acquired information in his mind.

Han-seong looked at the second skillbook.

▷Summons 1 clone from the shadows that copies 50% of physical abilities. Rewards obtained from entities killed by the clone become the owner’s property.

▷Duration: 15 minutes

▷Cooldown: 2 hours

▶Acquisition Condition: [2-Star Rank]

▶Class Restriction: Assassin

This too was quite a useful skill.

Of course, Han-seong couldn’t learn it.

No, even if he could learn it, it would have been useless to him. Han-seong looked at his immobile legs and smiled bitterly.

“If both are skills I can’t learn…”

Their fate was already decided.

It was to register them in the auction house and dispose of them.

Han-seong opened the auction house to check if skillbooks with the same effect were already registered.

And as a result.

While he couldn’t find a skillbook similar to Shadow Doppelganger, he did find another skillbook exclusive to healers.

[Item for Sale]: Skillbook-Healing Aura

[Acquisition Condition]: 1-Star Rank

[Initial Bid]: 300 Coins

[Immediate Purchase Price]: 900 Coins

A skill that only healers can learn.

But the comments were something else.

-Wow, you got something good. I’m really envious.

-Ah haha, but the class restriction haha

-Seller, this won’t sell.

-True. Healer is an extremely rare class.

Instead of reactions about it being expensive, the comments were mainly about the healer class.

-More importantly, do healers actually exist?

-Yeah. I haven’t seen one even once.

-To begin with, caster classes are rare, aren’t they?

At some point, the topic had shifted from the skillbook to the class. Suddenly curious, Han-seong entered a question.

-Is it rarer than mages?

↳ No, it’s probably about the same?

↳ Mages are definitely rare too.

↳ I’ve seen a necromancer, but not a mage.

↳ Ah, I’ve seen a mage before.

↳ They use magic from a long distance, and we call them the Mage of Fire Thunder.

↳ Haha, Mage of Fire Thunder haha

↳ Is it perhaps North Korea’s Rocket Man?

↳ But what really happened to that guy?

Han-seong chuckled.

Mage of Fire Thunder. What kind of magic did they use to be called that?

After watching this for a while, Han-seong eventually came back to his senses. Then he decided to register the Turn Undead skillbook.

“Should I set the price similar to that one?”

Originally, he was going to refer to the shop, but sadly, the shop doesn’t sell Turn Undead.

Han-seong set a similar price to Healing Aura and registered the item. Next, he tried to register Shadow Doppelganger, but…

[No more registrations possible.]

[You can only register one item.]

“You can’t register simultaneously?”

If so, they should have told me in advance.

Han-seong wore a bewildered expression but couldn’t do anything about it. There wasn’t even anyone to complain to. After pondering, he finally left the auction house.

“I’ll have to upload it later.”

Thinking he’d have to register it after the Turn Undead skillbook sells. After finishing his meal along with browsing the auction house, Han-seong immediately unfolded the map.

The cooldown on his skills would reset soon, so he wanted to scout out hunting spots in advance. Then something suddenly occurred to him.

“Ah, right. The survivor group.”

The observation area, which was once limited to a 500-meter radius, had expanded to 2.5km with his promotion.

Thanks to this, he could now see the situation across the station and beyond the Han River. And the map showed far more survivor groups than before.

Among them, the two places with the largest population were:

‘Kangil Girls’ High School, and the underground shopping mall.’

First, Kangil Girls’ High School had gathered over a hundred survivors at a glance. On the other hand, the underground shopping mall consisted of about forty people.

Of the two groups, Han-seong’s interest was drawn to the underground shopping mall. Of course, he was curious about the situation at Kangil Girls’ High School, but he was more concerned about the internal situation of the underground shopping mall, which was closer to the officetel.

‘Moreover, the survivors in the underground shopping mall…’

They’re generally not good people.

They’re the kind who wouldn’t hesitate to use violence against others for food.

If the size of the group grows larger, all the survivors in this area will become their prey.

‘That needs to be stopped.’

There’s no guarantee that he won’t become their prey someday. So, to monitor and check them, he decided to look at the underground shopping mall first.

[Precise Observation activated.]

[Vision is shared.]

Soon a translucent screen appeared.

Following that, he saw a scene of three or four men kicking someone curled up in a corner.

Thud! Thwack!

Violence that was clearly serious at a glance.

Han-seong frowned. While those inflicting violence were around his age, the victim was clearly an elderly man.

As the brutal beating continued. A voice was heard from not far away.

「Keep your eyes wide open and watch carefully. If you don’t meet the quota, you’ll end up like that too.」

A man wearing a somewhat tacky suit.

The man in his forties pointed at the beaten elderly man with his arm covered in tattoos. As he looked at him, information appeared at the bottom of the screen.

[Name: Bae Hyeon-seok]

This was a new function added to Precise Observation after promoting to the 2nd Tier. The ability to confirm the other person’s name.

Hyeon-seok raised his hand only when the old man was about to breathe his last, and only then did the violence stop.

「Hey, old man over there.」

「Cough! Ugh, ugh…!」

「This is really your last chance. If you want to save your only granddaughter, somehow meet the quota next time. Understand?」

The old man desperately nodded.

The men dragged the old man into the underground shopping mall. At that moment, Hyeon-seok called over a man with a burly build.

「Jeong-tae.」

「Yes, boss.」

「Take the newbie and explain everything in detail.」

「Understood. Hey, follow me.」

The man called Jeong-tae grabbed the newbie’s nape and turned around. Just as he was about to walk into the mall, Hyeon-seok suddenly spoke up.

「Ah, and…」

「Yes?」

「What about the healer? Did you catch her?」

The sudden mention of a healer.

Unlike Hyeon-seok, who asked leisurely, Jeong-tae’s face hardened instantly.

「Th-that’s still… Gack!」

「You bastard! Didn’t I tell you to catch her no matter what by today? Does my word sound like a joke to you?!」

「Sorry, I’m sorry. There’s an incredibly strong guy near that girl… Ugh!」

He desperately tried to explain, but Hyeon-seok didn’t withdraw his fist. After punching his cheek until his lip split, he asked with a fierce gaze.

「…So what? You’re saying you can’t do it?」

「N-no! I’ll catch her!」

「Tomorrow is the last day. If you can’t catch her by tomorrow, you’ll end up like that old geezer.」

「Yes, sir!」

Jeong-tae disappeared, hurriedly scurrying away with a terrified expression. Left alone, Hyeon-seok put a cigarette in his mouth and turned towards the mall.

Han-seong followed Hyeon-seok while moving his viewpoint, and at the same time, he went over the conversation once more.

‘A girl. And a healer.’

Two clues obtained from the conversation.

Han-seong knew one person who fit all the clues. The survivor group that was with Seo Ha-eun, who had escaped from the officetel not long ago.

Among them, a girl wearing a Kangil Girls’ High School uniform.

‘Her name was definitely Kang Min-ji.’

While observing Ha-eun’s whereabouts, Han-seong had accidentally learned that Min-ji was a healer.

Then Han-seong was filled with questions.

‘But why are they trying to capture a healer?’

There were many speculations that came to mind.

To heal those injured from beatings, or perhaps to make combat with zombies a bit easier.

‘But whatever the purpose….’

Min-ji must not be captured by them.

Han-seong didn’t want the underground shopping mall group to grow in size. Meanwhile, by that time, Hyeon-seok had arrived inside the mall.

There were about a dozen men and women gathered there, and as he was carefully examining them one by one.

Beep! Beep! Beep beep beep!

Suddenly, a sound like a warning alarm was heard.

The signal that had been short and intermittent suddenly quickened, turned into a long wave, and disappeared.

A message appeared before his eyes.

[Notice]

▷Ten days have passed since the upheaval.

▷Phase 2 will begin soon.

Huh? Phase 2? What’s that?

Just as Han-seong was wearing a puzzled expression, a sudden change occurred. Out of nowhere, the room was suddenly filled with a red light.

Startled by the sudden phenomenon, Han-seong reflexively looked out the window, and his eyes widened.

“Wh-what?”

The cloudy sky that had been full of dark clouds was now stained red.

An inexplicable ominous feeling. Han-seong’s expression quickly hardened.