2―2. Survival Begins
Both of them peeked their heads out from the building wall to check. At the end of the road, a group of about 10 zombies was gathered. They were all staggering with their necks or limbs twisted at strange angles.
“It’s more disgusting than I thought? I think I need a gun quickly. I don’t even want to get close.”
“Me too…. I think there might be something that could be a weapon inside this building….”
“Hmm….”
Jeong Minha put his ear close to the old door of the building. He didn’t hear any particular sounds. So he carefully grabbed the doorknob and turned it, then looked through the slightly opened gap. Inside the building, it seemed like one floor of a shopping arcade had collapsed—there were objects scattered around and broken fragments visible, but no strange creatures.
Just as Jeong Minha, reassured by his check, was about to step inside first—
Suddenly, a light fixture hanging from the building ceiling fell to the floor with a crash. At the same time, he could hear the zombie horde that had been gathered outside earlier running toward them. Huk, what kind of zombies even run? Weren’t they supposed to walk slowly?! He finally felt the reality of hard mode.
He hastily grabbed Seo Sihan’s arm, who was still standing outside, pulled him inside, and closed the door. Then he grabbed furniture marked in blue around them and placed it by the door. Seo Sihan, understanding the situation, also dragged a table nearby and brought it to block the front of the door.
Although he didn’t know exactly how the zombies, which were just illusions, would actually open and enter the door, since it was hard mode, they couldn’t ignore the zombies’ intelligence. It seemed to be a system where if the zombies kept hitting with force, the door would automatically open.
After setting up a barricade in front of the door, the two confirmed the zombies couldn’t open the door, then hurried around inside the building searching for weapons.
“I don’t think there’s anything on the first floor.”
“Right. Should we try going to the second floor?”
The elevator was flickering its lights as if obviously broken. Therefore, Jeong Minha immediately found the stairs and went up. Seo Sihan just followed Jeong Minha around.
After arriving on the second floor, an office appeared with flickering lights.
“Oh, there it is!”
Far away by the window, an axe marked in blue was visible. The sharp axe blade covered in blood was creepy, but thinking it was better than bare hands, he was about to head forward.
“……Huk!”
Jeong Minha was squeezing through the desks scattered in the office when he accidentally hit what appeared to be a monitor and dropped it to the floor.
Seo Sihan, who had been similarly searching around the office for weapons, quickly raised his head at the crash.
“Minha-ya, are you hurt?”
“Y-yes, yes…. Is this really a computer?”
“It’s just a model. Isn’t the weight light too? Still, you could get hurt, so be care… Minha-ya!”
“Yes?”
Seo Sihan pointed behind Jeong Minha with a rarely urgent voice. More startled by that voice, Jeong Minha tensely glanced behind him.
A zombie was popping out from a cabinet in the corner of the office. Its intestines had all burst out.
“Ugh, disgusting!”
“They come looking for sounds. Quickly come here quietly.”
“There’s an axe over there, so I’ll just grab that and go…!”
“That’s….”
Because of the approaching zombie, Seo Sihan stopped speaking. Jeong Minha held his breath and diligently moved his steps toward the axe in the corner, avoiding the office clutter. The zombie stood by the initially dropped monitor, staggering. It seemed like it couldn’t chase unless there was sound.
‘Got it….’
The moment the relieved Jeong Minha grabbed the old-looking axe with his hand—
[Warning: Unusable item.]
With a snapping, breaking sound, the axe that had appeared blue changed to a colorless shade. The zombie that heard that sound began running while crazily bumping into office desks.
“Wh-what?!”
Greatly flustered, Jeong Minha immediately rolled to the side and barely avoided the zombie. The desks were knocked over, making it difficult to move freely. What’s more, right after, his back touched a space blocked by a wall. There was no more space to run. His body even froze because of the zombie with burst intestines running right at him. At least for this moment, it was too real—he felt like his life might actually flash before his eyes.
Just as he was about to squeeze his eyes shut without realizing it, the zombie’s hand that had approached right in front of him suddenly stopped.
“……?”
When he slightly opened his eyes, he saw the huge zombie struggling with its neck caught. Then soon, a hand holding what looked like a kitchen knife suddenly popped out from behind and stabbed the zombie’s forehead. The zombie convulsed, then smoothly lost strength and disappeared while collapsing.
Only then could he see the person who had been behind. Seo Sihan was holding the kitchen knife out toward him.
“U-ugh!”
“Minha-ya, are you okay?”
“Ah, you startled me, I thought you were going to stab me too….”
“Why would I stab Minha….”
“R-right? Ahaha.”
Jeong Minha shook off his goosebumps and laughed awkwardly. Seo Sihan just said he was sorry for not helping quickly enough. He tried it because they said you could even catch them barehanded, but since they’re illusions, he couldn’t really feel the actual distance…. But now he knows, so he can do it right away next time.
At those words, Jeong Minha was impressed. You’d catch that disgusting thing barehanded? As he was standing still in surprise, Seo Sihan held out the knife again.
“Minha, you use this. That earlier one seems like a trap. Weapons that look too old… you didn’t hear the explanation that it’s a trap that makes a loud sound while breaking the moment you grab it?”
“Um… um….”
Honestly, he hadn’t listened. Since it was a large-scale game, there were tons of rules—when would anyone memorize all that? It would take a whole day just to memorize them.
I’ll just figure it out as I go, Jeong Minha thought roughly, while Seo Sihan had memorized everything after hearing it once. Feeling embarrassed, Jeong Minha changed the subject while dusting off his legs and standing up.
“You use the knife, hyung. I really don’t think I can do close combat. It’s too scary.”
“Didn’t Minha play a lot of games like this?”
“Those are just games so they weren’t scary, but this is too realistic…. I really thought I was going to die, you know? My legs are still shaking a little.”
“Then should we leave?”
“No? This is fun, what are you talking about.”
“Right….”
In the end, Seo Sihan held the kitchen knife and continued following Jeong Minha as he searched for weapons.
As Jeong Minha wandered around inside the abandoned building, he felt fear in a different sense. Even though he knew it was actually rubber and a weapon to kill zombies, he couldn’t help but get goosebumps as a person taller than him followed behind holding a gleaming knife.
Especially since Seo Sihan’s first impression had been like that, it gave him a strange feeling. So he wanted to tell Seo Sihan to walk in front, but since he’d said he would protect him, he steeled his heart and forged ahead.
After a while, when they arrived on the third floor, he could see a long axe standing in the corner next to the bathroom.
“Is that a trap too…?”
“Seeing how clean the blade is, it seems fine.”
“Then hyung, switch to that instead of the knife. That looks easier to deal with.”
“Minha, aren’t you taking it?”
“I desperately want a gun….”
“Right….”
They said easy mode practically gave you a gun from the start, but in hard mode, no matter how much they walked around, no gun was visible. Having no choice, he gave Seo Sihan the axe and Jeong Minha temporarily took the knife.
Fortunately, this time it wasn’t a trap, but it was too soon to feel relieved.
As soon as they opened the bathroom door, zombies came pouring out.
“……!!”
Jeong Minha swallowed a scream and immediately grabbed Seo Sihan’s hand and ran in the opposite direction. But when they went up to the fourth floor, it was another zombie party. Why the hell are there so many zombies everywhere?! It was too late to go back down because the zombies from earlier were chasing them.
Combined, there seemed to be roughly 30 of them. It was too much for two humans to fight in close combat. Therefore, Jeong Minha grabbed Seo Sihan’s hand and kept running while dodging zombies here and there.
“Huk, huk.”
Even though it was a distance that normally would never make him out of breath, he kept getting winded. If they get caught, isn’t it really game over but actual death? Why did they make them so much like real people?! Jeong Minha, who wasn’t scared of ghosts but was scared of people, ran while gritting his teeth.
Seo Sihan pushed away zombies that approached closely with the axe while protecting Jeong Minha. As they kept running and there was nowhere left to go, Jeong Minha grabbed Seo Sihan’s left arm almost as if hugging it.
“We’re screwed, we’re trapped!”
“…Minha-ya, do you see the far right window at the end over there?”
“Where… ah, yes! Why is that…. Huh? It’s blue?”
“Yeah. I think we can break that and get out.”
“The distance is completely end to end though? Can we make it?”
“Otherwise, game over here….”
“Let’s go right now!”
Zombies numbering about as many as a class were blocking all directions. From here on, they really had to engage in a brawl.
