Let’s go back to the situation from a few dozen minutes ago.
Seo Sihan, who only had an axe, and Jeong Minha, who had a meaningless kitchen knife plus an empty pistol and incompatible bullets. As expected, this time too, Seo Sihan swept away zombies while Jeong Minha diligently led the way and ran away.
They wandered around several abandoned buildings, but they all only had close-range weapons. They briefly considered a baseball bat they found along the way, but the baseball bat was abandoned as-is due to the shooting athlete’s comment that he was worried his shoulder might dislocate if he swung it hastily, and the office worker’s remark that the axe was better anyway.
While continuing to run away and search for weapons like that, the first injury occurred. While running away from zombies, Seo Sihan was injured on his back, unable to avoid flying debris in time.
He was just walking when, along with Jeong Minha’s shout of “Hyung!”, a slight tingling electric shock came from his back. Only then realizing he’d been hit by building debris, Seo Sihan looked at the device notification visible before his eyes. It said his back was torn and he needed to hurry and find treatment. He read the visible text aloud.
“If not treated within half a day, unable to move….”
“Then we need to hurry and find a hospital!”
Jeong Minha, who had been heading toward the safe zone for a quick escape, changed direction and headed toward where the hospital building was visible.
After that, when they arrived at the hospital entrance, the sun was already setting again. The abandoned hospital with its lights off was creepy just to enter.
“It seems scarier than a haunted house.”
“Looking at the information board, the treatment room is on the third floor.”
“Okay.”
Thanks to Seo Sihan quickly figuring out the route by looking at the map on the entrance information board, the two found their way at once even in the hospital with the lights off.
Jeong Minha also picked up a flashlight that had been dropped at the information desk and lit the way. Because it seemed like a zombie might pop out at any moment, the two walked slowly while holding their breath. While doing so, Jeong Minha whispered.
“They won’t come chasing the light, right? Zombies can’t see.”
“Yeah…. They’ll only come chasing sounds.”
Right after, when the two arrived on the third floor, they entered a room labeled treatment room.
“Hyung, try lying down there.”
“But I’m not really hurt?”
“No, it’s because of your height….”
The treatment room was smaller than expected. It was like a storage room used in hospitals. Because of the ceiling that wasn’t much different from Seo Sihan’s height, Seo Sihan looked uncomfortable moving. Eventually, following Jeong Minha’s words, Seo Sihan lay down on the bed placed in the middle of the room.
While Jeong Minha rummaged through drawers alone diligently searching for treatment, he finally found a syringe glowing blue.
“But if his back is torn, will it get better from getting an injection?”
“Isn’t it something like antibiotics?”
“Should I really stick this in?”
“Ah, no, you just put it against….”
When Jeong Minha said it with flashing eyes as if he’d really stab him, Seo Sihan hastily lifted his waist and sat up. Jeong Minha, with a suspicious expression, lightly put the needle part against Seo Sihan’s back. Then a clear notification sound rang out.
“How is it?”
“Yeah. It says treatment is complete. Thank you, Minha-ya….”
“Not at all.”
Seo Sihan smiled and expressed his thanks. Jeong Minha, who could only see the lower half of his face and just saw his smiling mouth, turned his head while answering, somehow feeling more embarrassed. He must have said it while smiling with his eyes too. It was regrettable he couldn’t see it.
Similarly, Seo Sihan, who only saw Jeong Minha’s mouth shape no different from usual, also thought. That was because when he turned his head like this, his cheeks or ears were usually reddened. But since he answered bluntly while hidden by the helmet, it was quite a different feeling. That was cool in its own way, so it didn’t particularly matter.
“Oh, Minha-ya.”
“Yes?”
Suddenly Seo Sihan got up from his seat and approached in front of Jeong Minha. At the close position, and in a confined space at that, Jeong Minha stiffened in embarrassment. When his face approached right in front of him, he unconsciously covered Seo Sihan’s mouth with both hands.
“Mm?”
Seo Sihan, blocked by the gloves, expressed doubt with his mouth while opening the drawer behind Jeong Minha with his hands.
“Wh-why?”
At the sound of the drawer opening, Jeong Minha realized he’d misunderstood by himself and hastily lowered his hands back to his waist. Because of Jeong Minha, whose voice had gotten louder unnecessarily, this time Seo Sihan covered Jeong Minha’s mouth with his hand. Then he whispered quietly.
“Minha-ya, look at this.”
“Mmph… mmph?!”
Seo Sihan smiled and showed him a long gun. Seeing that it even had a scope attached, it seemed to be a sniper rifle.
When Jeong Minha just opened his eyes wide and blinked, Seo Sihan lowered his hand. Jeong Minha, with his mouth open, whispered with an excited expression.
“I picked up several bullets earlier, and I think there’s one for this too…!”
“Oh, really?”
Jeong Minha hastily rummaged through his pockets and found and showed him a bullet for the rifle. Then he held it out to Seo Sihan proudly.
“Is it this? Minha knows so well, that’s cool….”
“Ahem. I just saw it in games too.”
Jeong Minha, who safely loaded the bullets, immediately adjusted the scope as well. At that sight, Seo Sihan also asked with curiosity.
“Can you shoot long-range too?”
“Yes. I tried using various guns before just for fun. I’m confident with all of them, but I just used a pistol because it’s cooler.”
“That’s really amazing…?”
Since only the lower half was visible, holding back his rising mouth corners was more visible. Seeing such Jeong Minha, Seo Sihan couldn’t hold back his laughter and kept praising him. At this, Jeong Minha, who had become completely proud, confidently opened the treatment room door.
And closed it again.
“……?”
“……We’re really screwed?”
“Why?”
“Outside, zombies are swarming. They seem to be connected all the way to the end of the hallway.”
“……How many bullets?”
“There are quite a few, but I need time to reload five at a time.”
“Hmm…. Then let’s try it for now. We have to get out anyway.”
“Yep.”
Seo Sihan quietly opened the door and picked up the axe again. Probably the moment he fired one shot with the gun, there would be a loud sound and the zombies would come rushing straight this way.
“You have to shoot while running. Is that okay?”
“I’ll try!”
Let alone a pistol, shooting a sniper rifle while running around was really inefficient. But it had to be done. Jeong Minha aimed at zombie heads with his bare eyes, ignoring the scope that wasn’t needed right now. Seo Sihan shone the light with the flashlight.
Bang, with a loud sound, one zombie that took a perfect headshot convulsed and fell. Following that, all the zombies in the hallway began rushing toward the treatment room while screaming strangely.
Seo Sihan ran while striking up zombies with the axe. Jeong Minha moved with quick steps while maintaining his stance from behind. He accurately shot only headshots of approaching zombies, excluding the moving Seo Sihan.
Then, because of zombies rapidly attacking toward the source of the sound, Jeong Minha rolled sideways while holding the gun. For the zombie’s head that had gotten closer than the gun’s length, he quickly pulled out the knife strapped to his thigh and stabbed its forehead. Without time to check the reaction, he hastily twisted his body and escaped, then immediately shot the head of a zombie behind Seo Sihan. All five shots were perfect scores.
As the zombies fell and disappeared, the surrounding scenery began to be more visible. The two hurried up the emergency stairs at the end of the hallway. As soon as they went up to the rooftop, they picked up a nearby pipe and hung it on the door handle to lock it.
While in the hospital, whether a day had passed, the sun was rising again. It seemed the playtime notification had rung while they were fighting zombies in full swing. No one had known a day had passed.
“Haa, ha….”
“Minha-ya…. Are you hurt?”
“Probably not…. What about you, hyung?”
“I’m fine too…. The problem is… it’s tricky to get down from here.”
“Right….”
Since they’d already blocked the way down the stairs themselves, to escape from the rooftop they had to just jump down. But fortunately, thanks to the development team that calculated all player actions, at the end of the rooftop, a machine that looked like a cable car was visible.
“If we ride that, it looks like we can move toward the mountain.”
“But that notice….”
On the cable car information board, precautions were written.
―Slow speed, loud noise
It seemed to go down very slowly and keep making loud continuous sounds. It was the worst.
“Is there another way?”
“Yeah…. Things visible in blue around here… it seems like that’s the only thing.”
Since the cable car moved in the air, zombies wouldn’t approach right in front of them. However, by making loud sounds for a long time and gathering all the zombies on the street, eventually when they got off, they would land in a zombie ballroom.
While Seo Sihan pondered, Jeong Minha reloaded bullets and said.
“Fortunately, I have quite a lot of bullets for this gun. If I hit them all, by the time we get off, not that many will have gathered.”
“The zombies will chase while tangled up with each other…. To accurately shoot only the heads from the air….”
“It seems like it’ll be fun.”
Though he was slightly worried, Jeong Minha leisurely adjusted the scope. Even though he was younger than him, he looked really dependable.
