episode_0002

A considerable amount of time has passed since I was saved by the old man.

After a great deal of bloodshed and sacrifice, a few survivors created strongholds, large and small.

They called this place a shelter and were busy running around trying to survive each day.

And I was resting in the shelter…

“I can’t walk any longer. I’m tired.”

“Don’t whine and follow me quickly. You never know when they’ll barge in.”

This old man’s stubbornness has its limits. Who the hell dragged the people who were supposed to be resting in the shelter out of there?

Die, you tactless, inconsiderate, conscientious old man.

The man who was trying to drag her away forcefully glared at her as if he was going to kill her and showed signs of collapsing at any moment, causing the man armed with the 3 No’s spirit to show his frustration.

“Danhwa, don’t do that…”

“If you can’t do it, you can’t do it. It’s the old man who is being stubborn.”

I drew the line again. If you don’t stop right now, I’ll throw away all your requests and everything. Besides, I wasn’t asking for anything too much. Where we are now is a shopping mall located in the heart of the city.

To get here from the shelter we started from, we had to walk for two full hours through a sewer system that smelled so bad it would make your nose twist.

Since this frail and weak girl had endured that forced march, if this old man had not yet completely worn out his inner triangle of compassion, he should have answered, ‘Okay, let’s rest.’

“Okay… Okay. Let’s take a break.”

“Ah, I’m tired, I’m tired.”

I laid down on the lounge chair without hesitation and took off my shoes.

“Shorts…”

The old man gave me a hint as to what I was doing, but I just ignored him.

“My feet feel like they’re on fire. They’ve been hot since a while ago.”

I wiggled my toes, trying to expel the heat trapped inside my thigh-high socks.

Contrary to what the old man was saying, objectively speaking, my actions were not so absurd or insensitive as to warrant criticism.

Because it’s a shopping mall, the first floor and the parking lot were filled with people trying to run away, but inside the shopping mall, there weren’t as many zombies as you’d think.

I was also acting under the judgment that I had enough time and leisure to waste time forgetting about the canned food I brought.

“Give it to me quickly.”

Freed from my stuffy combat boots, I decided to immediately ask for the items I had left in the old man’s backpack.

I tapped the old man’s shoulder with the sole of my foot, which still felt warm.

“My feet stink.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t happen with pretty girls’ feet. If you have any complaints, give this poor girl some tasty canned food and talk to her.”

A can of food that a foul-tempered person gave me as a reward for successfully completing the last mission.

As difficult as it was as a request, the number and quality of canned goods received at that time were neither small nor low.

Moreover, since I was the one who had taken the canned food instead of being dragged out of the shelter, what I would get in my hands would naturally be sweet and refreshing canned fruit.

‘Corn Chocolate Bread.’

“…?”

What, I didn’t bring this…?

It was only then that I realized that the color of the backpack I had packed and the backpack the old man was carrying were subtly different. No, did they… switch backpacks…?

“What is this?”

“There’s not much canned fruit left. I packed up all the leftovers, so I packed them again.”

“I told you this doesn’t taste good… It smells weird…!”

Click.

With the sound of canned food being opened, a chocolate bread with pitch-black flesh appeared, but before long, half of it disappeared into the old man’s mouth.

Well, I guess he wasn’t born to disappear like that. I opened the lid while praying for the soul of the guy who might have been the brother of the chocolate bread in my hand.

Cancel, the lot number is different.

The lot of the can that just fell out of the old man’s hand was D-21082355033 and mine was T-21090247544.

If we only consider the date of manufacture, they might be considered brothers, but unfortunately, even in this world of tinned food, such bean powder blood relations were not a concept. Since they were manufactured in different factories, they were clearly strangers, not even half-siblings.

Let’s use the peace I just prayed for as a gift for the chocolate bread that will soon disappear into my stomach.

“When did we ever eat so much delicious food? And it tastes so good.”

“Old man, number nine, bald-headed, possessor of a destructive sense of taste.”

While I was taking light revenge with words that exposed someone’s personal information, the other half of the chocolate bread disappeared into the mouth of the 4050 dream tree uncle.

As I realized that the only thing I could eat was canned bread, I began taking countless steps to get this unimaginable monstrosity called Corn Chocolate Bread into my body.

“I’m not an old man or a bald person, so just eat your bread quietly.”

“I admit that you have a destructive sense of taste.”

I blurted out, looking down at the black bread I had just taken out of the can.

“In this shitty world, being able to eat anything delicious isn’t a factor that deserves the adjective “destructive.””

“Ugh… It stinks…”

Regardless of what the old man said, rather than saying that it was delicious chocolate, the smell of it pursuing extreme cost-effectiveness and preservation hit my nose straight away.

I took a big bite of the bread, because the pungent smell was proof that the food was edible.

“If I hadn’t followed you, I wouldn’t have been eating this to fill my stomach.”

While chewing and swallowing the bread full of artificial sweetness, I spoke to the old man without hesitation, and since the old man was not a man without a conscience, an apology came out immediately.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“That’s enough to know.”

You could tell that it had a lot of calories from the ridiculously strong sweetness, but the saying that calories don’t lie is unfortunately not true in the canned food industry.

The same goes for combat rations.

Well, it’s the same even after eating it for a long time. It’s a taste that makes you never want to eat it again.

I really don’t like the fact that I have to keep eating it even though I get that feeling.

“This guy is really…”

“Did you hit him? Old man, nine-year-old, balding, possessor of a destructive sense of taste, current child abuser, and aspiring home wrecker.”

I don’t know if it was because he was going through a late puberty, but in the moment I took my eyes off him, his future aspirations had increased by two or three.

“Let’s stop talking… Let’s rest for about 5 minutes and then leave. No complaints, right?”

“Would you like some career counseling?”

“Should I do it?”

As is customary with adolescent students, I suggested counseling, but as expected, the old man was no different from other adolescent students and ended up refusing.

It was also my way of saying that 5 minutes was too short, but as expected, the old man was stubborn during his puberty and it didn’t seem to work.

What can I do? Just like pets that are picked up follow the person who picked them up, calling them their master, I, as someone who was picked up, have to follow them even if I don’t like it.

“So what was our goal?”

“You weren’t listening at all when I explained it to you earlier…”

“I was under the covers at the time. I think I should be grateful that you even told me when and where I was going.”

I shrugged my shoulders and stared at the man making this ridiculous request.

“Ha… This is a request to bring back the remains of a dog that was left behind in a shopping mall when chaos was at its peak.”

“That’s surprising. Why did you take that kind of request? I thought you’d take a request like, ‘I left my colleagues behind and ran to the shelter alone. Can you save me?’ ”

“First of all, the commission fee wasn’t bad. Above all, the client’s earnestness…”

Since I couldn’t sit still and listen to the rest of the story, I decided to cut him off.

“Ah~ The client’s earnestness was more important than Uncle Nana’s life. Well, our bodies are made of steel, so we don’t mind getting bitten by zombies. In fact, since we’re androids that run on internal combustion engines, we can operate without any problems even if we’re isolated for days! I didn’t know that it was that important…!”

“No, Danhwa. I told you to listen to the end…?”

“Yeah, I heard the whole thing. They said they received a ridiculous request to pick up something like a leash from the corpse of a dog that had already been dead for a long time. Did you hear the whole thing? Oh! Correction. I doubt the corpse will be intact. You’re saying we should just grab a leash from one of the dog cages we see around and go back? The zombies might have developed a special diet that makes them unable to resist chewy dog meat if they’ve received the Korean patch. Isn’t that right, sir? ”

I felt like my balls were twisted and about to burst, so I shouted out my frustration.

“Woof~ The cyborgs came looking for you!! Come out quickly…woof woof!!”

“Use it…! Short-sleeved shirt, there’s a limit to how much you can yell in a situation like this…!”

The man covered my mouth with a thick leather glove.

As expected, I wonder if he’s a current or former lolicon and a sex offender. He’s so talented that even the Terminator would cry.

I looked at the old man who was busy covering my mouth with an indifferent look. I wondered if the zombies had heard. My heart was relieved a little when I saw him anxiously waiting for the zombies to come rushing in.

“Huh… It’s okay…ugh!”

Of course, covering my mouth was a separate matter. I opened my mouth and bit the old man’s finger, and the old man let out a groan that he rarely let out, as if he had been hit with a decisive blow and had been caught in a good spot.

“Unfortunately, it seems that the pretty girl who was being held by the criminal blinded by sexual desire was a zombie. Wow, good triumphs over evil.”

“Ugh…”

The old man glanced at his fingers. There were faint bite marks and saliva on his leather gloves. He had bitten her quite hard, so his fingers beyond the gloves must have turned bright red.

“5 minutes have passed, let’s go.”

“Cheet.”

What the heck, that’s not fun. I thought I’d rest a little longer… Anyway, I’m telling you, this person doesn’t have even a shred of consideration.