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Before the water supply was cut off, I leisurely finished showering and made my way up to the school where the ladder team was supposed to be.

“Oh…”

The ladder was being built faster than I had anticipated.

They were breaking desks and connecting them one by one, trying to maintain a circular shape.

Despite the short distance between buildings, they were making sturdy ladders.

Since they were using desks to make the ladders, they seemed quite heavy.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Oh, oppa! Sua! Did you two already arrive?”

“…Uh…”

In reality, we had finished hunting long before, but I didn’t feel the need to mention it.

Sua looked at Soyun with a complicated expression before replying, “Let’s eat first.”

I had purchased meat, vegetables, a frying pan, a gas burner, and a butane gas set from the store in advance.

As soon as I made the purchase, the items appeared out of thin air.

“Wow! It’s pork belly!”

“Did you buy all of this? It must have been expensive…”

Soyun exclaimed as she looked at the meat.

The meat was not easily distinguishable from pork belly, but it seemed to have less fat, probably pork neck.

Minhyuk seemed happy, but at the same time, he subtly asked me if it was okay.

Of course, it was expensive.

We had used up almost all of today’s hunting points.

But there was a good reason for it.

First of all, I didn’t want to just eat instant noodles.

I had consumed quite a bit of energy due to the hunting and the incidents with Sua.

Although I had stamina skills, the hunger and fatigue were not something that could be solved with instant noodles.

Moreover, having a frying pan and gas burner would be useful for future use.

Most importantly, there was a lively and friendly atmosphere among the three of us.

“Eat a lot, let me know if you need more…”

“Wow!”

“Hyung, are you sure it’s okay?”

“…”

Soyun clapped and seemed genuinely happy, while Minhyuk seemed worried but his smile betrayed his concern.

Sua didn’t look in our direction due to what happened earlier, but she lightly kicked my leg with her foot.

I took it as a form of praise.

For them, who had been surviving on instant noodles and water for days, the meat was a welcome sight.

“I’ll start grilling.”

“Then Sua and I will wash the vegetables and frying pan! Let’s go, Sua!”

“Oh? Okay…”

Without anyone asking, the three quickly divided the tasks in anticipation of eating the meat soon.

I felt that investing in this was a good decision.

Thanks to that, there was some spare time, and Sua seemed to have disappeared. I took this opportunity to go down the stairs.

And headed straight for the back door.

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

“I need to replenish my supplies because my expenses are high.”

With Sua not watching, I used all of my abilities and started fighting.

Swinging the fire axe, I smashed the heads of two zombies in one blow.

If there was one thing I hadn’t shown to the three, it was my skills, of course.

I didn’t use my inventory or strength skills in front of them.

Because it would have been too strange to see me summoning weapons from thin air or smashing zombie heads with my fists.

The synergy between my rock-solid body and strength and weapon skills was about to shine.

“Huup!”

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

With a strong force, their breath was naturally cut off.

With one swing of the axe, two or three zombies turned into pieces.

It was a brutal sight, but at the same time, it felt satisfying.

This was it.

Releasing all my power after a long time made me feel refreshed.

There wasn’t even much noise.

Rushing into the zombie horde with momentum, swinging the axe in almost a full circle, the zombies in the range were swept away like fallen leaves.

Most of them lost their upper bodies and fell.

After repeating this several times, the area in front of the back door was filled with the remains of the zombies that used to be zombies.

Perhaps it was because I had cleared them out so quickly.

Even until all the zombies at the back door were dealt with, the zombies at the front door did not come rushing in.

[Eliminated a variant.]

[Acquired 5 points.]

And as I finished off the last zombie, a message window appeared.

The message window indicated that it was a variant zombie.

[Hidden quest completed.]

[Eliminated the first variant zombie.]

[Strength skill level increased to lv.2.]

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

“…What kind of zombie is this?”

The problem was that there was no way to distinguish the variants.

Anyway, as expected.

There were variants in this world.

And at the same time, one question was resolved.

One skill for 100 points. It seemed like a harsh price for ordinary people without skills, but variants existed.

Variants gave a whopping 5 points.

The price of five regular zombies.

“Hyung, the meat is all grilled~ Where are you?”

“Oppa~”

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

I didn’t forget to wash off the traces of battle in the bathroom.

As I went up, a somewhat decent scene unfolded before me.

Due to the nature of the academy, there was an abundance of paper, so papers were spread out like mats on the floor to prepare for oil spills. Well-grilled meat and washed vegetables were neatly arranged in decent-looking bowls.

“Where did you get the bowls?”

“Oh, these are lunchboxes from the students who pack lunches.”

“Oh…”

“Oppa, try it quickly!”

The three of them were all looking at me.

It seemed like they were trying to give me the first bite of the food I had prepared.

I didn’t refuse and took a bite.

“Mmm…”

It was delicious.

That was it.

It was tasty, but I didn’t feel a great excitement.

Just meat. That’s all.

However, after confirming that I was eating, the quick and eager expressions of the three who followed suit were different.

“Wow…”

Soyoon was speechless.

Even though she was putting meat and vegetables in her mouth without saying a word, she looked pitifully at the diminishing meat as if she was regretful.

Someone might think she was having a love affair with the meat.

Sua also covered her mouth with her hand and put a mouthful of meat and vegetables into her mouth.

After feeling a bit salty, she ordered more meat from the store and put it down.

Since I had hunted secretly, I had enough points to spare.

“There’s plenty. Eat more.”

The three of them couldn’t answer my words because their mouths were full of meat, but instead, they vigorously nodded their heads.

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

And, with only a small piece left, I succeeded in eating it all.

The privilege of the person who bought the meat.

I heard that I could rest comfortably in the back, and while the three were cleaning up and making a ladder, I had some free time.

Might as well go up to the rooftop and look around.

And as I recalled the variant zombie that I had unknowingly eliminated earlier, I decided to observe the zombies.

“Hmm…”

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

Maybe there were no variant zombies among those zombies.

But if there were, I wouldn’t be able to distinguish them by appearance.

“…Huh? That’s a bit strange.”

As I watched quietly, I noticed some zombies behaving strangely.

At first, I didn’t realize what was strange, but as I continued to observe, I could barely figure it out.

There were individuals who, unlike other zombies, did not collide with walls or other zombies.

Walking with a sobbing expression, I swiftly turned my body to avoid the zombie approaching from the opposite side.

Occasionally, I would lift my head and glance around.

And in that moment—

“…Can you see them?”

The identity of the mutant zombie seemed to be none other than a visible zombie.

“We need to lure them much further away.”

I had a feeling that it would become a bit troublesome.

This time, instead of focusing on the zombies, I turned my gaze towards the surrounding buildings.

As it was my role to lure them, I needed to confirm the layout and location of the surrounding buildings.

“There are a cluster of restaurants… and over there, a clothing store, a movie theater building…”

Luring was important, and if I could obtain items and food from inside the buildings during the process, it would be even better.

Since I couldn’t buy food with points every time.

After roughly planning out a route in my head, I descended the stairs again to join the three people.

And I informed them of what I had discovered.

“You saw visible zombies?”

“Yeah.”

“Just when I thought our chance to escape had finally come…”

“Don’t worry too much, we just need to lure them a bit further away.”

As I talked about the mutant zombies, the expressions of the three people darkened slightly, so I deliberately showed a nonchalant reaction as if it was nothing.

In reality, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Even if they could see, they still reacted to sound, and luring them didn’t seem too difficult.

So as long as I lured them to a place where they couldn’t see us escaping, that would be enough.

In fact, the appearance of mutant zombies was good news for me.

It felt like a presence that would give me five times more points than other zombies.

However, I didn’t know if other mutants would appear besides those that could see, so it seemed wise to prepare for escape quickly.

“Is it already finished?”

“Yes.”

Is the protagonist really the protagonist?

In just one day, a ladder that looked somewhat decent was made.

The ladder made using a desk was heavy, but it looked sturdy enough.

Seeing the three people standing on the ladder side by side without any hesitation made it seem safe.

“Shall we go then?”

“Now? It’s almost night…”

I attempted to go to the adjacent building as the ladder was made, but Soyoon panicked and stopped me.

Sua also interjected.

“It’s late today…”

“Right, we should go tomorrow.”

Emphasizing tomorrow on purpose, Sua blushed and glared at me.

Soyoon, who was in the middle, looked at Sua strangely and alternated between looking at me and Sua.