episode_0130

I confirmed that there were living humans inside the disaster prevention room.

I immediately approached the steel door.

‘…No, that’s not right.’

I stopped my hand that was reaching for the doorknob.

I felt like I was rushing too much.

I wanted to have a calm conversation with the guys inside.

Leisurely, without being disturbed by anything.

I moved my flashlight, sweeping my gaze along with it.

The corridor I had walked through and the one extending ahead were filled with traces of battle.

It would be good to clear out any potential distractions.

Whether it was a zombie, a person, or anything else.

‘And there’s still an unpleasant feeling.’

Being in the dark, I hadn’t counted the number of zombies I had cut down.

I had come crossing the dark and spacious food court.

It was true that I had annihilated quite a few zombies.

But the aftertaste wasn’t clean.

I hoped it was just an overactive sense of caution, but the lingering unpleasant feeling wouldn’t disappear.

Finishing my thoughts for a moment, I subtly retreated from the steel door.

For now, I planned to finish looking around this immediate area.

A conversation wouldn’t be too late even if it happened a little later.

I decided to take a moment of pause, like waiting for freshly cooked rice to finish steaming.

Suddenly, an interesting thought crossed my mind.

I opened my inventory and took out an item.

A cable tie, something I thought I would rarely use.

It was a product with an unusually thick diameter and long length.

*Whirring sound!*

I bound the two doorknobs together with the cable tie.

The distinctive zipping sound of the tie echoed multiple times in the corridor.

The cable tie, tightly binding the two doorknobs, wouldn’t be easily broken.

‘Because they shouldn’t be able to escape.’

The guys inside couldn’t come out now.

On top of that, I intended to make them not even dare to think about coming out.

Had they heard the sound of the cable tie being fastened?

Just then, faint murmuring sounds leaked out from inside.

I twisted my lips.

I immediately clenched my fist.

*Bang! Bang-! Bang!*

“Wh-what was that?!”

“Shut up!”

‘Yes. This is it.’

I got the reaction I wanted from inside.

I repeatedly struck the steel door, gauging it so that it wouldn’t fall off.

The steel door, dented to the size of my fist, swayed precariously.

Inside the quiet corridor, only the sound of the steel plate crumpling could be heard.

Seeing the precarious state of the hinges, I stopped punching.

And the people’s reaction came immediately.

Inside, it had already become quiet.

The murmuring stopped instantly, and it seemed they were holding their breath.

I decided to add one more thing and took a deep breath.

The moment my peaceful, quiet lungs expanded to their limit.

“Grrrrrraaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!”

I put strength into my abdomen, expelling breath and sound as if pulling it up from deep within my body.

The monster’s roar echoed throughout the entire corridor.

The horrific sound, scraping not only my vocal cords but my entire throat, was produced by a human throat.

I expelled all the stress, annoyance, and resentment I had accumulated with my entire body.

The targets, of course, were those Daehan bastards hiding inside the disaster prevention room.

I roared long and to my heart’s content.

It was similar to a zombie’s shriek, but more accurately, it imitated the roar of a wild beast.

Second installment of miscellaneous skills, following first aid.

Howling.

I unleashed a technique of a man I had learned from the beastfolk, one overflowing with power and intimidation.

After a long roar that lasted several seconds, I let out a low growl.

And then I slowly began to walk.

But not just any walk.

I possessed the monster until the very end, giving it my all.

To finish, I put all my strength into my fingertips and scraped down the steel door.

*Scraaaaaape! Screeeeeeeech!*

A grating sound, worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, prolonged agonizingly.

It wasn’t just unpleasant to listen to.

‘…They wouldn’t dare to think of coming out now.’

It was as if I had warned the guys inside.

“If you guys come out, you’ll be shitting blood, won’t you?”

I instilled a sense of caution and fear that something worse than zombies was outside.

Now, those guys would put aside any thoughts of crawling out for the time being.

For now, the door was tightly bound…

‘I’ll see them in a bit.’

It would be icing on the cake if they were trapped in the dark space, hugging each other and trembling.

It was unlikely they would answer obediently if asked.

There was a high probability they would fire bullets first, as they usually did.

This was just being a nuisance.

“Go screw yourselves! Hehehe~♬”

That was exactly the feeling.

Of course, there were other reasons too.

For now, I hoped they would be consumed by fear, imagining an unknown monster indefinitely inside the disaster prevention room.

Waiting for them to soften up and simmer, I began walking through the corridor.

The flashlight, emitting a violent beam, was doing its job perfectly.

Thanks to it, there was no discomfort in observing the surroundings.

‘…….’

The scene within my sight was no different from what I had seen so far.

Corpses littered the corridor.

The floor was covered in sticky blood of an odd color.

Blood dripped down the walls, and fragments of organs were splattered there.

Due to the lack of ventilation, a terrible stench filled the corridor.

In the artificial light, dust motes, neither floating nor settling, revealed themselves as they caught the rays.

It was clearly a physically and mentally disturbing sight.

Just as I wondered if I should wear a double mask.

*Rustle-*

The sound of something moving brushed past my ears.

It was a subtle sound, barely audible.

And that sound was precisely coming towards me.

I held the flashlight straight ahead and shone it directly.

*Halted-*

*Chew, chew- Crunch, crunch-*

Something human-sized was stuck to the corridor ceiling.

Its two eyes, catching the light, glowed a murky red.

And the gaze of those grotesque red eyes met mine precisely.

*Slithers- Thud-*

It seemed to turn its body, then gently dropped to the floor.

Even then, its mouth ceaselessly chewed.

Long, matted hair.

A small, frail body with slender limbs.

Legs covered in wounds and small feet bruised all over.

The fingers of one hand were missing, as if bitten off.

Instead, the vicious bite marks and torn scars showed what it had been through.

Half-covering its small face was an arm, seemingly from an adult.

The child, appearing to be about ten years old, was chewing on a human arm.

If not for the dark blue veins bulging all over its body, one might have mistaken it for a child simply enjoying a delicious piece of meat, so expertly was it tearing at the arm.

‘…….’

I stared blankly at the zombie, which had once been a ‘girl,’ for a moment.

The child, who had been continuously meeting my gaze, now seemed bored and dropped the arm it was holding.

“Gurgle… Gurgle…”

Individually searching for any remaining zombies would be troublesome.

So, I roared to draw them all out at once.

And what was presumed to be remaining now appeared before me.

“I can’t believe something like this showed up.”

Had my words annoyed it?

“Screeeeeech!!”

The child’s peaceful face contorted like a demon’s as it moved.

*Thump! Thump! Whizz!*

The child didn’t rush forward immediately but displayed bizarre movements.

It sprang off the left and right walls of the narrow corridor, seeming to vibrate.

Not content with that, it even stepped on the ceiling and floor, leaping up.

Its movements were frantic, like a super bouncy ball thrown with all one’s might.

An ordinary person would have difficulty following it with their eyes.

It bounced with such speed that it was hard to believe it was a zombie.

And slowly, it closed the distance with me.

‘No space. Swinging is…’

I took half a step forward with my left foot and twisted my right shoulder slightly back.

I tilted my upper body slightly forward, loosening the tension in my knees.

The arm holding the sword was gently and naturally bent.

I relaxed my wrist and let the sword hang towards the floor.

*Whoosh-*

The moment I lightly tossed the flashlight from my left hand above my head.

*CRUNCH-!*

Cracks appeared on the wall where the child had landed, and the child’s body shot towards me.

I swung my sword with even greater speed.

I slashed upwards with explosive force and speed.

Without breaking the flow, I used my body’s flexibility to forcibly redirect the power from an upward to a downward motion, slicing straight down.

*Slice-! Slice-!*

It felt like cutting through a soft chunk of meat.

A feeling, both familiar and impossible to adapt to, was transmitted raw to the hand gripping the sword.

The zombie rushed past, grazing my face as it had been charging.

*Thump-*

*Splat-*

As I snatched the thrown flashlight, the child-shaped zombie tumbled across the floor, split into three pieces.

“Screeeeeech! Hack-! Hack-!”

The mutated variant, cut in a V-shape, thrashed with only its torso and head.

It shed some fluid from its eyes, whether pus or bodily fluids, I couldn’t tell.

Its distorted face crumpled even further, as if a malevolent fiend had manifested.

Its writhing form rolling on the floor resembled an earthworm.

An earthworm heavily sprinkled with salt.

I slowly approached and plunged my sword into the writhing variant’s forehead.

Pierced through the head, the variant immediately quieted.

Only after confirming its movements had completely ceased did I withdraw my sword.

*Swish! Clink-*

After swinging the sword once in the air, I put it into my inventory.

And after a brief hesitation, I also collected the fragmented corpse of the variant.

At that moment.

‘It increased?’

I felt and confirmed that my inventory capacity had increased.

It felt like getting an extra backpack in a game.

The feeling that I was nearing my limit had also disappeared.

It seemed an upgrade had occurred without my knowledge.

“No… why?”

An upgrade to my abilities was a welcome event.

However, there was no change in my body, and I hadn’t even noticed it.

Looking only at the result, it was a good thing, but not knowing the reason was frustrating.

I racked my brain since I couldn’t understand the reason, but no answer came.

If I had to suspect something…

‘By killing zombies?’

That was the only obvious condition to suspect.

The feeling now was different from when I had opened my inventory before entering the mart.

The only thing that had happened in that short time was killing zombies.

“…A good thing is a good thing, I suppose.”

…Since I couldn’t pinpoint the cause, I decided to just accept it as good for now.

In any case, I happily accepted the increased inventory capacity.

I put away my brief contemplation and gripped the flashlight firmly again.

‘…I’m not a collector, but….’

So far, I had collected the corpses of a total of three variants.

I wasn’t a perverted collector, but it might be useful later.

After all, in movies and novels, they sometimes research zombies and create something.

I planned to only take the ones I had defeated if possible.

Because I wasn’t a crazy corpse collector.

Organizing my thoughts, I shone the flashlight around and surveyed the surroundings.

No other particular unusual things were visible.

Moreover, the lingering unpleasant feeling that had been bothering me had disappeared.

With a much lighter heart, I turned around and headed towards the disaster prevention room.

‘Things were good until the Yangjae branch….’

Every time I had looked for a ‘Holy Sale,’ there had been good results.

I met Dong-woo and acquired plenty of supplies.

It wasn’t a wallet, but how great it was to have a bulging inventory.

Of course, things can’t always be good for people.

But experiencing such a hellish scene at a brand where I had some memories (?) left a bad taste in my mouth.

My mood sank at the needless bitterness I felt on the tip of my tongue.

Still feeling unresolved, I roughly tore off the tie that was binding the disaster prevention room’s doorknob.

*Rip! Rip!*

Along with the sound of the plastic tie breaking, the door rattled.

Immediately, a reaction came from inside.

Faint sounds of hurried movement could be heard beyond the thick door.

Whispers that sounded like muffled shouts.

And the metallic click of guns being loaded and handled.

Listening to those sounds, I gripped the doorknob and turned it.

The moment I slowly pulled the door.

*Bang! Tatatatatatat!*

*Ping! Clink! Clink! Ping! Thud! Thud! Clink!*

Multiple firearms began to spray bullets wildly.

Bullets struck and embedded themselves in the thick steel door.

The impact was transmitted through the doorknob I was holding.

An overwhelming hail of bullets, a barrage of chaos.

At the violent welcome, I curled my lips.

It was, of course, a smile with a completely different meaning.

And my smile lasted until the prolonged gunfire finally ceased.