episode_0033

[The quest will end in 3 weeks.]

It was longer than I thought.

I had hoped that Hannah would be able to finish this schedule on time, but it seemed like it would be a close call.

She had gone overseas for a shoot with a famous sports brand.

“Overseas…”

If Hannah were to come back, it wouldn’t be so bad to go on my first overseas trip in my life.

Somewhere peaceful, unlike this harsh world.

“Sigh.”

The world of a zombie apocalypse novel.

That’s how the quest defined this world.

My first impression of this world was ‘fortunate.’

I chuckled to myself and slowly looked around the unfamiliar living room.

“What kind of house is this?”

The house was spacious.

And it was heavily fortified to a suspicious extent.

Just looking at the living room, it didn’t seem normal.

There were no typical living room items like a TV or a sofa.

Instead, the walls were lined with axes, machetes, jungle knives, and other tools, and on the other side, there was a large shelf with a water jug, large cans of food, and what looked like an oil drum.

With the food and water here alone, I could easily survive for two weeks on my own.

It seemed like a house prepared long ago for a zombie outbreak.

I raised the jungle knife, which didn’t fit in with a modern apartment, in my hand.

The sharp and well-maintained jungle knife looked like it could cut just by looking at it.

It wasn’t just the living room.

In the small bookshelf in the bedroom, there were various survival books mixed in, including one on how to survive during a zombie outbreak.

The small room used as a dressing room had military-style clothing, including combat uniforms and motorcycle helmets, and there were even two medicine boxes.

“There’s electricity and water too.”

This might be the early stages of a zombie outbreak.

There were two reasons why I accepted this dangerous quest in the world of a zombie apocalypse.

First, my weapon skill, and second, the fact that the enemies were zombies.

At least the zombies in my head weren’t stronger than villains.

With the number of zombies not being too high, and with just weapons, even an ordinary person could handle them, so my opponents, with weapon skills and strength, couldn’t be a match for me.

Except for mutant zombies or survivors, I was confident that I could easily slaughter them with just my weapon skills.

That’s how much I trusted my weapon skills.

I did have worries about not being able to find a suitable weapon, but as soon as I saw the hand axe and jungle knife on the wall, those worries disappeared.

I put the weapons in my inventory, and at that moment, I found a carton of banana milk.

“Oh.”

Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

The true purpose of the inventory wasn’t for storage.

‘I can bring items from the quest into reality.’

And conversely, it was also possible to bring items from reality into the quest.

I thought the space was a bit limited, but this function existed.

If this skill had been available in a hero quest, it would have been possible to bring that huge gold bar into reality.

No, it was possible even in this quest.

There wouldn’t be many people collecting gold during a zombie outbreak.

If done right…

I quickly started preparing to leave.

Even at this moment, somewhere, zombies would be increasing their numbers, and survivors would be gathering supplies.

I needed to move quickly and gather various items.

Although there was already enough food in the house…

“I won’t be alone anymore.”

I will find the protagonist of this novel.

And to join his group, there was no way I could refuse.

Thinking like that, having an abundance of food was not a bad thing.

I put on the combat uniform and helmet.

I had filled my inventory with weapons.

Even if the jungle knife I was carrying broke, I could quickly pull out a replacement.

And I strapped the largest bag onto my back.

“Zombies…”

Regardless of their strength, zombies were terrifying beings.

I stood in front of the entrance after all the preparations were done, feeling my lips dry with tension.

“…Let’s go.”

The apartment interior was quiet.

“4th floor.”

It wasn’t too high, thankfully.

It was better that it wasn’t too high, considering the possibility of a power outage.

There didn’t seem to be any zombies inside the apartment.

It was as quiet as a mouse.

In the silence, only the echo of my footsteps reverberated.

3rd floor, 2nd floor, 1st floor.

And only after reaching the entrance of the apartment did I finally discover it.

A decaying corpse stumbling.

“That’s a zombie…”

It felt like a corpse that had been dead for a week was moving.

It was unpleasant and eerie.

Nevertheless, I cautiously approached the zombie.

Even if it was unpleasant, I had to fight now.

I didn’t know when another moment like this, with just one zombie, would come again.

The first thing I noticed was that the creature didn’t notice me even when I was almost right in front of it.

Perhaps its eyesight was poor.

But on the other hand, at the slightest cough or throat clearing sound, it sharply turned its head in my direction.

It seemed to be sensitive to sound.

I closed the distance while holding my breath.

And raised the hefty machete.

The machete, capable of cutting down even the vines of the tropical rainforest, swung towards the zombie’s head.

And then.

Thud.

With a dull sound, the zombie’s head burst so easily.

I don’t know if it was the effectiveness of the weapon or the low durability of the zombie.

It could be both.

Thanks to accurately adjusting the distance, the zombie’s debris didn’t splatter on me.

As I confirmed that I could fight zombies, a message appeared to me.

At first, I thought it might be a hidden quest for killing zombies, but it was even more surprising.

[You have gained 1 point.]

[The store is unlocked.]

It was a window with a different appearance from my quest board.

This world.

It seemed like it wasn’t an ordinary zombie apocalypse novel.

There were novels like this.

Novels where you could hunt zombies to become stronger.

When I opened the point store, a list of items for purchase began to appear.

With 1 point, you could buy a packet of instant noodles or a bottle of 500ml water.

And with about 10 points, you could draw a random item, which could include an antidote or a weapon.

I don’t know if an antidote could stop zombification.

With 50 points, you could designate your residence and turn it into a safe zone for a week.

Zombies couldn’t invade, and electricity and water would work again.

The most expensive item was acquiring one random skill for 100 points.

One skill for defeating 100 zombies.

If someone who hadn’t experienced a skill saw this, they might think it was expensive, but I had a different opinion.

Depending on the skill, of course, but most skills had tremendous efficiency.

Even though my strength level was 1, I could swing the heavy machete quickly.

So, I felt like it was a reasonable price for me.

Of course, it might be because I already had a skill.

The characters in this novel probably couldn’t even think about it.

In the first place, killing 100 zombies without a skill wasn’t easy.

“This might be the hidden quest of this quest.”

Thanks to the existence of the store, the burden of food and electricity was reduced.

Of course, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t go to the convenience store or supermarket to get food.

Since I wanted to use all the points to buy skills, it was better to get as many as possible on my own.

“I can’t go too far.”

As it was a new place, I had to carefully remember the way.

Later on, as I get more accustomed to this, even if I go further, today is the first day, so I decided to walk around near my house.

Fortunately or unfortunately, there were countless shops crowded outside the apartment.

It seemed like a bustling area near the university.

But with that came a lot of zombies.

If I made a wrong sound, I felt like I would be caught by the tsunami-like number of zombies.

Watching the countless zombies coming and going on the street, I found a building where a particularly large number of zombies were gathered.

The strange thing was that the building wasn’t anything special.

If it had been a building with a lot of supermarkets, convenience stores, or even restaurants, I would have thought that someone had been caught by zombies while trying to get food.

The building was a cram school building where math academies and private academies were gathered.

Feeling suspicious, I slowly looked at the building.

And I noticed one strange thing.

There were clothes hanging on the rooftop of the building.

White clothes were tied to a pole, fluttering in the wind.

At first glance, it looked like a sign of surrender, and it also looked like a signal for help.

Although it wasn’t clearly visible from a distance, it seemed like a silhouette of a person passing by the window of the building.

“Should I go?”

I didn’t want to go to where the zombies were gathered, but unusual situations were often connected to main quests.

Perhaps the protagonist party might be inside that building.

“Anyway, I have to get the points.”

With a tight grip on my jungle knife, I began to move.