episode_0008

In normal times, this would have been a pleasant hour for a happy commute home.

But the scene before my eyes was far from pleasant.

Cars haphazardly filled the roads.

A burning car, wrecked and emitting acrid smoke.

Bang-!

Flames shot up with the sound of something exploding.

The flickering, burning fire, not the streetlights, illuminated the view.

The flames, momentarily brightening the surroundings, revealed bloodstains on the ground.

The smell of burning flesh was mixed with something foul, making me instinctively wrinkle my nose.

Screams of the living from all directions pierced through the surrounding noise and struck my eardrums.

The zombies’ roars, whether of hatred for the living or joy at finding prey, were thunderous. In just a few hours, the streets had become a scene of utter chaos.

I almost lost myself for a moment at the city’s drastically altered appearance, which felt utterly out of place.

“Wow… I’m getting PTSD. Goddammit.”

I vigorously shook my head at the terrible memory.

I quickly moved my feet, adapting to the rapidly changing situation.

It was right to prepare more quickly. I couldn’t afford to be slow yet.

My urgent gaze caught a single character visible ahead.

[ Medicine ]

A small, round sign hanging there. The moment I saw it…

“No, goddammit, how could I have forgotten this? What a glutton I am!”

I scratched my head vigorously at my own foolishness.

Food is important, but medicine is too. Because I don’t know what might happen.

Without hesitation, I moved immediately.

The building was located just 2 meters from the wall of the gosiwon building.

It was the gukbap restaurant building where I had my first meal after returning.

It wasn’t large, but it was always a busy place.

In other words, there were many zombies.

There were easily more than ten individuals visible right away.

‘I’ll strike and go!’

Maintaining my stride, I pulled out the crowbar and lowered my stance slightly.

I exhaled a short breath and tensed my thighs.

From my bulging thighs, the elasticity of my knees extended through my calves to my toes.

Whoosh!

Like an arrow released from a bowstring, I shot towards the zombie horde.

The zombie horde hadn’t noticed me yet.

I added a slight attack to an acceleration that a regular person wouldn’t even be able to properly see.

One of countless repeated trainings. It was natural because it was etched into my body.

The result.

CRACK-!!

With one perfectly timed swing, the zombie horde flew into the air.

Though the power wasn’t what it used to be, the series of movements was unhindered.

It was a single blow that made the memories and sensations etched into my body slowly resurface.

I surrendered my body to the surging feeling of combat that was reviving with the same momentum.

The crowbar, swung with a fierce whistle, instantly smashed the zombies’ heads.

One of the zombies that had flown into the air and fallen did not die and got up.

But it seemed like it didn’t recognize me, or perhaps didn’t understand why it had been sent flying.

‘Looking at it this way, they seem stupid too, don’t they…?’

I immediately launched myself towards the pharmacy inside the building.

Approximately 10 meters from the entrance to the pharmacy.

The moment I saw a zombie lingering in the hallway, I threw the crowbar like a javelin.

The hallway was only wide enough for one person to pass, so there was no way I could swing it anyway.

Soon, three zombies charged forward, roaring.

Thud-!

I threw a right straight punch at the first zombie charging at me.

Two more zombies, squeezed together, rubbed against the narrow hallway walls as they amicably charged.

SMASH-!

I simultaneously struck them with a devastating hook that sliced through the air.

Crunch.

The two zombies’ heads turned to mush as they slammed into the wall in the direction of my punch.

Leaving the zombies twitching and sliding down the wall, I walked into the pharmacy.

I stomped on the head of the zombie that had flown to the pharmacy entrance, where the crowbar was still embedded, and lay rolling on the floor, bursting it.

At the same time, the glass door, which must have been automatic, opened.

Whirrr-

As soon as the door opened, three zombies burst out from the dispensing room inside.

A zombie in the form of a blood-soaked elderly man with one arm torn off.

Two female zombies, perhaps pharmacists, wearing white lab coats.

Had the elderly zombie attacked them?

The pharmacist zombies had bite wounds on their faces, necks, and chests.

They charged, spraying dark crimson blood that was still fresh and flowing.

A narrow space.

Without losing an ounce of tension, I put all my speed into my punches.

Pop-!

With three blows and three bursts of sound, the zombies were immediately dispatched.

It wasn’t intentional, but all three had the backs of their heads blown open.

“……My apologies.”

It was the first time I had killed someone I knew. A zombie, technically, but still…

I didn’t have a deep friendship with them; they were just the pharmacy owner I’d see when I caught a cold.

Still, they were someone who treated me with a warm smile.

『We love you! Customer!』

It might have been the same context as a call center employee shouting, “We love you, customer!” but now, seeing the death of someone I knew and confirming it with my own hands, my mouth felt strangely bitter.

Mourning the death of the kind pharmacist, I began to put the items into my inventory.

Since no one had touched them yet, the shelves were full of medicine, but…

It felt entirely different from when I had excitedly packed meat.

***

『 You have to maintain your equipment whenever you get the chance! You never know when, where, or how things will go wrong, and if your equipment isn’t in perfect condition? Then you’re dead! Ugh! No matter how skilled you are, oh, you’re not doing it like that. No! No! You’ll break it! You ignorant brute who’s only strong… huh? Huh? Wait, stop! Put your fist down… Ack! Ow! That hurts!』

“…that’s what happened. They were such a nag, it was annoying, but I did learn a little something. So I just hit them a few times. But even then, they wouldn’t shut up.”

Scrape scrape-

I was carefully scraping off the rust from the crowbar, which I had washed with water, using sandpaper.

The movements were rough, but perhaps due to past experience, it soon became clean.

Early morning. A quiet rooftop.

The crowbar was covered in rust, so I decided to clean and maintain it. Since I liked how heavy and sturdy it was, I carefully polished it as if it were a partner.

As I was cleaning it, old memories briefly came to mind, and I chatted with the crowbar.

“Since we’ll be going together from now on, should I give you a name?”

Several nouns came to mind, but they all sounded like chuunibyou, so I passed on them.

Claw hammer, crowbar…

“How about Missuru? Miss. It’s good. It rolls off the tongue.”

『Allow me to introduce you. This is , my partner.』

‘…I have no sense, and what am I even doing?’

I let out a silly laugh, then picked up the crowbar and examined it.

Since it was solid iron, there were no dents or bends yet.

It seemed I could rest easy until I found something else suitable to use as a weapon.

I put it in my inventory, shook my hands clean, and looked down from the rooftop.

The messed-up streets were filled with debris, bloodstains, and bits of flesh everywhere.

Compared to yesterday, the streets were teeming with even more zombies.

After briefly surveying the surroundings, I descended to my gosiwon room.

“I should probably move somewhere else soon.”

Originally, I had planned to stay a little longer and secure supplies from the vicinity.

And observe the developing situation.

But last night, an annoying incident occurred.

After thoroughly looting the pharmacy, I tried to explore the surroundings further, but there were more zombies than I expected.

I didn’t know if they had been hiding inside the buildings or targeting the people hiding within.

What was certain was that as the sun set and the streets grew noisy, they poured out.

It seemed dangerous at night with limited visibility, so I immediately returned to the gosiwon.

The problem arose right there at the gosiwon.

Since I had beaten down zombies, getting somewhat covered in blood was unavoidable.

However, the people I encountered screamed in terror, causing a commotion.

“You! What are you?! What’s with all the blood!! Were you bitten?! This person was bitten!”

“Me? No, I wasn’t.”

“Th-this bastard needs to be kicked out! He was bitten! He’ll turn into one of *them* and kill us!”

“…What the hell are you babbling about, you bastard?”

Since he was treating me like some kind of plague-ridden invalid, I grabbed him by the collar and shook him vigorously.

Among the people whispering with hateful gazes beside me, there was even someone who tried to stop me.

But he kept acting like an annoying lunatic, so I lifted him up by his collar.

Lifting up a lump of flesh that must have weighed over 100kg, he finally shut up.

I took off my sunglasses and neck warmer, showing my face.

Only then did they recognize who I was, and everyone coughed awkwardly and averted their gaze.

Before, we had lived quietly and exchanged greetings.

Amidst the awkwardness, I firmly stated that I had no injuries or problems whatsoever.

Still, people remained uncomfortable and kept looking at me as if I were something dirty. The pig-like man continued to scream loudly from among the crowd, debating whether to kill me or not.

…I chased after him and slapped him across the face, and only then did he shut up.

If it had ended there, it would have been fine.

This time, a problem arose while I was preparing to cook some instant noodles.

“Kid. Where did you get that food?”

The pig bastard, who I had just grabbed by the collar, appeared in the kitchen and abruptly asked.

Even after being grabbed by the collar and hit just now, he was utterly shameless.

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t speak politely.

“Who are you calling kid? Get lost.”

“Are you really going to be like this? I even let you in!”

“My being here is obvious because I paid to stay here too, and there’s no problem because I wasn’t bitten or injured. What’s your problem? Anyone who doesn’t know would think I trespassed or something.”

“…You seem young, but your words are excessive.”

“Mister, your appearance and your thoughts are both too much. Why are you like this?”

“……”

Seeing his half-bald head with veins popping out and his face turning as red as a tomato made me lose my appetite. However, I didn’t want to escalate the situation further, so I tried to ignore him, but…

“Enough. Hand over some of that food you have. People here have been starving since yesterday.”

“…What? Did you entrust it to me? Why are you so brazen?”

Just as the atmosphere was about to turn hostile again, a familiar face tried to mediate.

It was an older man I would usually greet with a smile when I met him.

Once I calmed down for a moment, he began to ramble on about the situation without giving me a chance to speak.

His explanation was long and detailed, but the gist was simple.

The owner hadn’t been contactable for several days, so there was no food in the gosiwon.

They had belatedly tried to go outside to find food, but zombies appeared.

Everyone was starving, and then they saw that I had food.

In other words-

“You’re scared of zombies if you go outside, and I’m a pushover?”

“That’s not what I meant-”

“Then what is it?”

Making it abundantly clear I didn’t want to talk anymore, I took my food and returned to my room.

Of course, a barrage of curses flew, but I tuned them out.

Seeing them create such a fuss after just one day of hunger, they seemed utterly hopeless.

Of course, I had quite a bit of food now, but feeding it to those kinds of people felt less meaningful than scattering it as dog food.

This was what happened last night, and it’s why I want to leave quickly.

I could go out and hide in a suitable place like a motel.

Since things had come to this, I decided my destination would be Holy Sale, the closest place.

A large mart located in Gocheok.

“The distance is roughly 5km. Is that right?”

For now, I decided to travel on foot.

I could try to get a car, but the roads were a mess, so I’d put that on hold.

Just picking up a discarded motorcycle or bicycle on the road was also an option.

A normal person would have to walk for an hour.

But if it’s me now, I can significantly shorten that time.

As for the troublesome zombies…

‘Avoid them as much as possible, and if I can’t, run to shake them off….’

Fighting is sufficient only when truly blocked or in danger.

I decided on my destination and quickly packed my clothes.

I discarded all the clothes stained with grimy blood.

I casually put on my remaining work clothes and covered my face with a neck warmer.

Although it was autumn, the midday sun was intense and stinging.

‘I have to take care of myself.’

I gathered what I needed and completed my preparations.

I was hungry, but I planned to eat somewhere quiet outside.

I didn’t want to run into those annoying people and get into a confrontation.

I put on my hat and briefly looked around the empty room.

It was a space I had lived in for quite a long time, but I felt no particular emotion.

I was finally leaving this cramped space that I had so desperately wanted to escape.

…Though it was because of zombies and annoying people….

On my way out, yesterday’s annoying people were camped out in front of the elevator, so I ignored them and left. They tried to grab me and say something, but I didn’t look back.

If they had any sense, they’d come down and procure supplies themselves.

Of course, it wouldn’t be easy.

I had cleared out a large mart by myself, but I didn’t feel particularly sorry.

Now that the world had begun to collapse.

It was finders keepers.

I left the building and headed towards Guro.

My destination this time was Holy Sale, Gocheok Branch.

Hoping for another big haul, I moved, avoiding the zombies on the streets.