episode_0080

Two days had passed since the rain stopped.

The sky, which had been capriciously pouring rain, was now high and blue, as if reflecting the clear colors of autumn.

Though early, one could already feel the distinct trace of winter, which had taken a big step closer.

The cold wind made one hunch their shoulders, and the static atmosphere settled the mind.

In the past, one might have dressed up, enjoyed the autumn ambiance, and spent melancholic hours, but now it had turned into a survival season.

Instead of fashion, clothing was faithful to function.

Instead of an enjoyable atmosphere, it was a time of anguish, recognizing the stark reality.

Now, every action of those who breathed pointed towards survival.

I was floundering in the sea of the internet for most of my time.

With no proper connections or information, all I could rely on was searching the internet. I searched for information so relentlessly that I couldn’t think of anything else.

My eyes, reading the screen, and my hands, operating the smartphone, moved mechanically.

Endless repetition of the same action.

I was, literally, doing grunt work that wasn’t grunt work.

‘…There’s nothing useful to salvage…’

I started with a vague expectation that there might be some clues.

The crumbs of information, seemingly there but not, were hard to find.

Thanks to this, my current mood felt like walking on a road without signposts.

It was similar to how Hansel and Gretel felt lost when the animals ate the bread crumbs they’d scattered on their way home through the forest.

Though in my case, I had to follow the crumbs in reverse.

‘No sane people around.’

The various posts on the internet were truly overflowing with madness.

Posts requesting rescue or searching for people kept increasing.

Amidst this, some posts denied the current reality and expressed despair, while others unleashed aimless rage.

Posts declaring surrender to an unbearable reality were met with a hail of ridicule.

In a collapsing world, people were forgetting norms and moderation.

And that void was being filled by things that normally would have remained mere thoughts.

Deep aggression and sordid desires.

And reason, slowly going mad.

The internet, called the sea of information, was growing in scale as emotional garbage floated like debris.

In this chaos, pinpointing and finding only the content I wanted was incredibly difficult.

‘Even in this situation, the clickbait is insane. Are these people crazy?’

If I found a catchy or tempting title and checked it, it was all garbage.

If it was just hearsay, that was lucky.

A feast of provocative nonsense and brutal videos that triggered PTSD.

If these were truly aimed at getting views in this situation, they were truly extraordinary bastards.

‘Instead of doing this kind of crap, they should be preparing to survive… what is this…’

Clicking my tongue, I still couldn’t stop searching.

Because what I’d done so far wasn’t entirely fruitless.

For one, Korea wasn’t the only country that had become a mess due to the zombie outbreak.

Nearby, China and Japan. Farther away, the US and Russia.

If anything, their situations were no better, and perhaps even worse, than ours.

‘Right. It would be unfair if only I suffered.’

…It truly was the wicked heart of Nolbu.

China seemed to have lost control over information, as its much-boasted censorship had collapsed.

Unlike Korea, it seemed they couldn’t even partially salvage their facilities, as post updates were extremely slow, and often didn’t even appear.

Japan tried hard to pretend nothing was wrong, but before anyone knew it, high-ranking officials and relevant personnel were bowing deeply, shouting apologies.

Russia was flooded with memes of people getting screwed after showing off.

As expected of a country of attention-seekers, America was rampant with all sorts of crazy antics.

Getting bitten and dying after messing around, oblivious to the danger, was basic; they truly risked their lives to express a strong desire to get attention.

Among them, there were some impressive things.

Videos of people attacking various body parts to find zombie weaknesses were interesting.

There was also content reminding viewers of the time it took for a person attacked by a zombie to transform.

Although I already knew the results of the content, finding out there wasn’t much difference from what I knew was a decent harvest. It was proof that I hadn’t been completely pointless in my actions so far.

There was another harvest as well.

The four countries mentioned earlier had slightly different patterns from Korea.

In Korea, Gangnam was known as the origin point.

It was also judged that it began simultaneously in major domestic cities at almost the same time.

…This is a personal tangent, but it was information Lee Deokgyu blurted out in despair, unable to bear the pain.

Gangwon Province, which he insisted was the initial origin point.

However, the three countries excluding Japan generally started in one region.

In Russia, the incident broke out in Moscow.

In America, in Minnesota, and in China, in Wuhan, known as the origin of COVID.

In Japan’s case, it was unknown.

What was thought to be a playful zombie prank quickly escalated into a national apology amidst a surge of accident reports, and that was all that was known about the Japanese zombie incident.

The dates of occurrence also varied slightly, but were generally similar.

These were details I learned after sifting through countless posts.

Of course, their reliability was low as there was no accurate verification.

It was simply the result of compiling commonly mentioned points from various sources.

Beyond that, it was just that it was rapidly spreading beyond the borders of those countries.

The cause of the zombie outbreak was, literally, a free-for-all of speculation.

As for countermeasures, it was to not leave one’s home or a safe place.

It was truly a consistent government measure.

While there were videos that captivated attention in such ways, there were also people with extraordinary ideas.

– World’s first! I’m going to have sex with a beautiful zombie.

A zombie-f***er video that recorded high views, going beyond freewheeling to insane sexual desire. Of course, the video’s protagonist, unlike his virile approach, ended up deflating.

I was simply dumbfounded.

While I respected personal preferences, as a perfectly normal human, it was difficult to respect such deviant sexual desires.

But the world is wide, and there are many crazy people.

There were quite a few videos with similar content, and among them, there were even ‘successful heroes’.

Naturally, the first ‘hero’ was Japanese.

As expected of a nation prolific in adult entertainment, where hero stories abound, perhaps…

Who would have thought that in this chaos, a talent surpassing Shimiken would emerge.

I shook my head in disbelief at Japan’s boundless potential.

Separately, there was also something I wondered about.

‘…So, infection doesn’t happen?’

It was a very curious detail, and upon checking, it seemed that sexual intercourse alone did not cause infection.

Inferring from that, I concluded that one probably didn’t need to worry about turning into a zombie unless directly bitten.

For twisted and vulgar videos, they were surprisingly useful.

And quietly, I confirmed one fact.

I had never been bitten or scratched while fighting zombies so far.

However, I had been drenched in an enormous amount of zombie bodily fluid.

Even though I tried to cover myself, it had splashed into my eyes and even slightly into my mouth.

While there was also my physical condition, which far exceeded normal levels, it seemed the means of infection transmission was limited to biting.

I thought it was quite a significant speculation.

Additionally, there was another commonality among other countries, including Korea.

『The cause of the zombie outbreak is unknown.』

No matter how much I searched and looked, there was no useful content.

Most were just nonsense that sounded like doomsday theories about God’s curse or something from a game tutorial.

…Just dizzying content kept appearing endlessly.

Even after discovering a few facts, I delved a bit deeper into the internet.

What exceptionally piqued my interest were videos from survival experts.

Content that added a zombie theme to simple camping and survival was worth watching. There was a lot of realistic and useful knowledge.

But it didn’t hold much meaning for me.

My inventory was already overflowing with stockpiled supplies.

Most of them were food and daily necessities, but they were very useful for sustaining life immediately.

While they had to differentiate edible things outdoors and create potable water, I only had to take things out and eat or drink.

I also had a shelter that perfectly matched the conditions for a safe zone they recommended.

Currently, in many ways, I held an advantageous position regarding maintaining my livelihood.

Watching people struggling to survive worldwide in real-time, I felt a little relieved. In a way, it was truly a wicked thought.

Along with that, a single realization made me laugh.

I was fed up with the colossal blunders of the higher-ups, so I was enduring the hassle.

Ironically, realizing that the reason this hassle was even possible was due to their colossal blunders, a self-deprecating laugh didn’t stop.

‘…I feel somewhat disgusted.’

Posts that gradually caught my eye, perfectly timed, made my already foul mood even fouler.

Hunters who hunted zombies, and lunatics who hunted humans.

Those who enjoyed it and criminals were gradually increasing.

Freaks who splendidly committed acts in a situation where everyone uniting might barely be enough.

Since the world was in this state, functions like censorship were paralyzed, and rampaging humans were overflowing.

Videos no different from pornography, or brutal videos that might even bring the FBI knocking.

People who were thrilled by a situation where no one was stopping them or could stop them.

‘How easygoing they must be. Damned bastards…’

Sighing, I twisted my stiff neck.

Crack- crackle-

The crisp sound of bones twisting was incredibly refreshing.

Just as I was about to stop, a post caught my eye.

– The Burning Villain Appears in Seoul

Out of curiosity, as I checked the video, I felt my body slightly freeze.

I was appearing on the screen.

The quality wasn’t sharp, but I couldn’t deny that the person on the screen was me.

And of course…

A scene where I unintentionally made a mistake was playing without omission.

The sight of me leaping from the rooftop of a building to the opposite side was also clearly captured.

It was a short video, and even though it was obscured by surging flames, all the core content was there.

Countless comments ran beneath the video.

Many comments denied the content, claiming it was a composite or a hoax.

However, there were also comments that linked to the video Dong-woo had shown me, attaching links.

And one comment that received countless likes.

└With zombies around, isn’t it fine to have one human like that?

I was speechless.

Not all of it, but my actions so far had become conspicuous.

Who on earth uploaded this kind of video—

“No, seriously, which bastard!!”

@Yangjae Police Station, Traffic Division

…It was the police.