episode_0241

It didn’t take long to get from Seunghak Campus to Gijang-eup.

Bicycles were a much faster means of transportation than I thought, and I, who pedaled, was no ordinary human being.

Noh Chang-hoon said it would probably take at least two to three hours, but no.

After pedaling for about an hour and a half, I could see the city turning green.

“There… Is it a millet?”

I pedaled slowly, paying close attention to the signs nearby.

Until now, there was nothing that could be called a zombie, so I ran fast, but not now.

Since you never know when and where zombies might pop out, you had no choice but to be careful.

Because one car accident is enough.

“… Hmm.”

It was not clear whether this was Gijang-eup or Gijang-gun.

No, I thought it was Gijang-eup. Gijang-gun has to go a little further from here.

Anyway, what is your first impression of Gijang-eup? It was all green.

It would be nice to say it was like a jungle. It seems like there was only moss when I came there before, but not anymore.

I slowly rode the Ochu on the road and looked at the detailed scenery of Gijang-eup.

First of all, the plants growing abundantly around seemed to have their advantages and disadvantages.

Usually, some of those plants bear fruit.

Of course, it would be very easy to get food.

All you have to do is go to a place where there are enough fruits, taste them, and eat them.

On the other hand, if it was full of plants like that, it would inevitably become vulnerable to surprise attack.

Moreover, it seemed like there would be a lot of bugs and such.

Normally in an environment like that, there would be a lot of mosquitoes.

Of course, there were a lot of things to worry about, and it was obvious that it would be a hassle.

“Well, I can’t help it.”

I said that and pedaled slowly.

I had no intention of going back just because I was afraid of bugs or surprise attacks.

And if you go a little further, there is a road leading to Gijang-eup, and I thought I could go there.

“Why are there so many cars, really.”

There were quite a few abandoned cars on the road.

It wasn’t that it couldn’t be driven at all, it was just annoying.

Still, I was able to get out between the cars.

Even so, it was annoying.

In my heart, I wanted to just grab my weight and run, but I couldn’t lose my strength over something like this.

In the end, I had no choice but to keep pedaling slowly and find a way out.

Still, it wasn’t long before I saw a road leading to Gijang-eup.

There aren’t many cars there, so I thought I could go out here.

So I pedaled there.

How long did it take to ride the Ochu like that?

I let out a long sigh as I looked at the city that looked more and more like a jungle.

“Is it possible to conquer a place like this?”

For a survivor like me, there was no problem.

There were a lot of plants and it seemed like there were a lot of zombies nearby, but I was able to destroy them all.

But not other survivors.

A single surprise attack would put your life in danger, and fighting against bugs would be extremely exhausting.

I briefly wondered what would happen if I set the city on fire.

The plants that grew after the incident were plants that had been transformed by the zombie virus.

Of course, it would have some of the characteristics of zombies, and burning it could have yielded meaningful results.

So, if you burn it, it burns inside rather than spreading, or something like that.

“I guess I should grab a base and light the fire first.”

Whatever it was, I didn’t think there would be anything bad from just experimenting.

So I kept pedaling and moving around, looking for a suitable spot.

Since I was going to use it as a base by myself, I thought a suitable commercial building would suffice.

I think it would be better if it were higher than the 5th floor so that you can see the surrounding geography.

“… What on earth are those street trees?”

What do street trees say?

The size had become considerably larger.

I’m not kidding, I could have just gutted it and made a house or something out of it.

It had grown so much that I felt an inexplicable sense of intimidation.

After looking at those street trees for a while, I realized one thing.

The outskirts of the city were relatively fine, but the further into the city you got, the less roads there were.

It was all bumpy and tangled with roots and debris.

Of course, there was no way I could drive the Ochu on a road like this.

It was clear that not only Ochu but all other means of transportation would be useless.

“I need to remember this.”

If Gijang-eup was like this, it would be difficult to even walk in Gijang-gun.

It was no exaggeration to say that it would be quite an arduous march.

I got off Ochu for a moment and checked the road conditions again.

“… As expected.”

I don’t know if I’m going to sit here for a long time.

Otherwise, I thought it would be best to just wander around on foot.

Collapsed building. abandoned car. Broken asphalt fragments. Plus tree roots and moss.

It was all so tangled together that it seemed like it would be very difficult to clean it up.

Unless you start a fire, it won’t be possible.

In the end, I had no choice but to touch Ochu’s saddle.

Then I pulled out the handle hidden there and slowly lifted it.

No matter how much you need to carry Ochu, you cannot carry it on your shoulder.

So I added a sturdy handle, and it was quite useful.

So I started walking, carrying Ochu like a burden.

Then I noticed one more thing: I couldn’t feel any gaze here.

It’s called gaze. To be precise, it could be said that there was no sign of anything.

Usually, in a place like this, you would feel some kind of presence.

There will be not only zombies but also small animals.

But this place was really strange.

There was no sign of anything.

It seemed like the only thing alive was me.

So I started walking around more carefully.

You know the saying that fear comes from the unknown?

It didn’t really matter as long as I could beat it.

However, it was not possible to beat the things here.

So, I thought it would be better to take a closer look at the situation before moving on, so I hurriedly walked towards the building I had seen earlier.

It was a very large commercial building.

It was large enough to occupy almost an area, and was eight stories high.

Since it was this large, it seemed like there would be no problem using it as a base.

There may be a lot you can gain inside.

So I tried to go straight into it.

However, the door did not open even when pushed.

“… Hmm.”

I kicked the moss-covered door a few times and it fell out in an instant.

As I went inside with the Ochu, I looked around.

I was planning on kicking it once something came out and seeing it.

Fortunately, when I put down the Ochu and looked inside, nothing appeared.

I grumbled while continuing to look around for a while.

At first glance, it looked like there were a lot of bugs because I thought it would be annoying.

Of course, it wasn’t that no preparations were made.

Noh Chang-hoon also gave me medicine for bug bites.

But that and this were different.

I thought it would be a hassle just to look at it, so I got nervous and searched inside.

So, I was planning to go into the largest building possible.

If we go inside and set fire to the inside, it will become a suitable shelter.

“Let’s see… ”

I grabbed the vines with my hands, tore them apart, and looked at the signs indicating each floor of the building.

It seemed like there was everything inside the building.

Starting with cafes, gyms and all.

There was a convenience store, an academy, and a clothing store.

There was also a three-story stationery store there, so it seemed like there would never be a shortage of supplies.

“You can do it here.”

There may be other buildings besides this one, but I couldn’t think of any in particular.

I thought it was too far out of town, but whatever.

Now I was here to scout.

If the situation is bad, you have to run away quickly, but then the outskirts wouldn’t be so bad.

So I decided to make this my base and wandered around the building for a while.

I tried to deal with the zombies if there were any, but strangely, there were no zombies in sight.

Instead, there were only useless plants, and it was a pain to clean them up.

Still, after cleaning up to a certain extent, there was space.

So I settled down in the math academy on the 5th floor as my base.

“Okay, let’s start with the experiment.”

I roughly threw the moss and vines I had ripped off the floor onto the desk.

Then I took a lighter out of my pants pocket and turned it on.

The first thing to do was to burn the moss.

Since this was only mentioned in the original work, it was essential to look into it in detail.

Although I couldn’t do a professional experiment, I thought it would be good to know what would happen if it burned.

So I lit a fire, but the moss didn’t burn well.

No, it seemed like it was burning. But it didn’t seem to work well, perhaps because of the moisture.

It felt like I was burning a zombie full of water. There seems to be a lot of smoke.

On the other hand, the vines burned inside at a rapid rate.

“Then, this… ”

All the plants here could be said to be mutants infected with the zombie virus.

But when it caught fire, it burned inside and quickly turned to ashes.

I thought this might come in handy, I laughed.