Zombie.

Even people not interested in zombies know their general characteristics due to their fame from the annual flood of games, novels, dramas, and movies. In fact, Yuseong was very interested in zombie content.

“Let’s go!”

“But someone’s hurt…”

“What does that have to do with the bus? An ambulance will come take care of the injured person, so hurry up and drive! Hurry!”

Though harsh, it was technically correct.

After hesitating briefly, the bus driver finally started driving.

Some zombies began chasing but once the bus gained speed, it reached a level impossible for humans to catch up to by running.

After confirming the last persistent zombie charging at people on the road, Yuseong tilted his head at a strange feeling.

‘Do you know what a zombie is?’

-Zombie? Never heard that word before. Is it an abbreviation?

“Haah.”

He had felt something was off seeing people trying to stop or calm others down rather than running away even after seeing people biting and tearing at each other, and bitten people biting others.

Zombie stories broadly fall into two categories – worlds where the concept of zombies exists and worlds where it doesn’t.

Either way they both end up post-apocalyptic, with the only difference being using other terms like monsters or corpses instead of zombies, but there’s still a big difference between knowing about zombies versus having no concept of them.

‘Damn, early response is impossible. By the way, how exactly does infection spread?’

If this was following common zombie story clichés where a few test subjects accidentally escaped and attacked people, it wouldn’t be quite so hopeless.

While creative works show it spreading instantly like dye in water, in reality there would be limits to how many one person could bite and infect.

‘Even in a densely populated big city nothing changes. No, a big city would make it even harder for infection to spread.’

Big cities have more people for zombies to infect but also many more places to hide.

Just getting inside a house or any nearby building and locking the doors creates a shelter made of rebar and concrete.

Though food limitations mean you can’t hold out long, buying even a few days’ time would let the military equipped with modern weapons come in and potentially resolve the situation quite easily.

However, Yuseong had overlooked one fact.

If this quest could end so easily, it wouldn’t have been B+ rank in the first place.

Screech!

“Kuk!”

The bus suddenly braking hard.

Looking ahead with a twisted expression, Yuseong saw dozens of cars tangled together blocking the road.

The sides and back were also completely filled with cars, leaving absolutely no space to move the bus.

“Aaargh!”

“Mister, I’ll get off here. Please open the door.”

Whether that scream was from someone injured in the traffic accident or bitten by zombies was unclear, but one thing was certain – hesitation leads to death.

If surrounded by zombies in the middle of the road like this, there would be no way to escape.

“This is the middle of the road?”

“Hurry and open the door.”

Under Yuseong’s fierce glare, the bus driver avoided eye contact while opening the door.

Though he heard grumbling from behind, there was no time to worry about such trivial things.

‘How long to get home from here?’

-About 30 minutes walking.

‘Too far. Is there an absolute reason we have to go home? Don’t tell me you want to go for money or belongings?’

-…I need to save my father but I don’t know exactly where he works. I need to go home to find clues about where he is.

Choi Gangsik’s father’s whereabouts were tied to one of the additional conditions.

Moreover, the research facility where his father worked was almost certainly related to this situation.

This left no room for choice.

Looking around, Yuseong chose a route that seemed to have the least people and started jogging lightly.

He could arrive much faster running at full speed but judged it better to conserve energy since anything could happen on the way.

Gruk, gruk!

It took less than a minute to realize that thinking was wrong.

A young man who noticed his presence and came charging madly to close the distance despite being quite far away.

Running at a moderate pace would just mean getting caught.

Forget stamina and whatever else – without moving at a speed exceeding zombies, running was meaningless.

‘Deal with this one first.’

Red bloodshot eyes, blue bulging veins, mouth covered in blood charging with jaws open.

Up close, the zombie had exactly the appearance that comes to mind at the word “zombie”.

Reflexively throwing a jab at its jaw, Yuseong clicked his tongue seeing the zombie continue charging.

While a normal living being would faint from the brain impact, zombies were an exception.

If there’s no reaction from hitting the jaw, striking techniques are essentially meaningless.

Withdrawing his fist, Yuseong skillfully avoided the zombie’s teeth while placing his hand on its neck.

Shadow Moon Style 16. Dead Tree Twist.

Crack!

The twist with strength and weight behind it easily snapped the zombie’s cervical vertebrae.

Even for a zombie, damage to the cervical spine seemed unavoidable as it twitched a few times before going limp like death.

-Y-you just killed someone?

‘Not a person. A zombie.’

-That’s what I’m asking – what’s a zombie?!

Ignoring Choi Gangsik’s screams, Yuseong looked down at his hands.

While Shadow Moon Style 16 was a versatile technique that could be used regardless of internal energy or magic power unlike martial arts, it had very poor compatibility against this type of enemy.

These zombies infected people through saliva.

Joint techniques would work against zombies, but if skin gets scratched by teeth or blood and saliva get into mouth or eyes, you instantly become a zombie.

‘Need a weapon for fighting at range.’

A gun would be best.

But regardless of power or range, it had the fatal flaw of attracting zombies’ attention with noise.

[Spending 10 karma points to withdraw Aluminum Bat(E)]

Though he had various melee weapons and futuristic ones like plasma axes, Yuseong chose a common baseball bat.

The current goal wasn’t killing zombies but avoiding them to reach Choi Gangsik’s home.

The situation called for stopping power rather than lethality.

Gruk! Gruruk!

Kieek!

As strange screams echoed from all around, he saw several zombies charging toward him.

Hastily tearing his shirt to make a temporary mask, Yuseong looked around before climbing onto a car and starting to cross the chaotic road by stepping on roofs.

The road was a mess with overflowing vehicles making proper movement difficult.

Some zombies managed to climb up onto car hoods and roofs but failed to overcome jumping between cars and fell to the ground.

Clang!

After smashing the bat into a charging zombie’s head, Yuseong ran in the direction Choi Gangsik indicated while scanning the surroundings.

People running with expressions of terror and confusion, and zombies chasing after him while screaming.

As if proving this was a world without the concept of zombies, some people seemed to view the zombies as just mentally ill or having seizures, trying to physically block them or help those bitten.

Of course, such people couldn’t hold out long before becoming zombies themselves and attacking others.

Watching this, Yuseong felt a strong sense of dissonance.

‘Though the zombies are aggressive and infection spreads fast, isn’t this speed strange?’

At first he thought infection spread from a few test subjects escaping the lab and running wild, but this speed couldn’t be explained by just that.

The world changed instantly as if someone had flipped a switch.

‘Is there another infection source? Air? Water?’

Either way, it wasn’t something he could figure out right now.

The one fortunate thing was that since zombies spread so quickly, people still lacking information were unintentionally drawing zombie aggro by screaming and running in all directions.

If aggro hadn’t been split up, he would have been reduced to shreds by the wave of zombies before getting halfway.

-Over there! My home is on the 9th floor of that apartment!

The joy of reaching the destination was brief as Yuseong was struck speechless by the scene before him.

Though unclear what had happened, around 100 zombies were gathered around the apartment.

After briefly scanning the area, Yuseong could understand what had occurred.

The car theft alarm sounds blaring from vehicles parked near the apartment were the cause.

Zombies drawn by the loud noise hit other parked cars creating more noise, drawing more zombies in a vicious cycle.

They couldn’t wait for car batteries to die and didn’t know when that would happen anyway.

‘Need to divert their attention.’

An ordinary incident wouldn’t do.

It would just be drowned out by the theft alarms from dozens of cars and the zombies’ screams.

While considering what kind of item would work, Yuseong took out a grenade from subspace and threw it toward the parking lot of the opposite apartment complex.

The explosion didn’t end with one.

One car near the grenade’s blast center exploded after a delay, spreading hot heat and thunderous noise that drew the zombies’ aggro.

BANG!

The moment a gap appeared in the encirclement, Yuseong launched himself without hesitation.

Soon this place would be packed with zombies drawn by the explosion.

If not now, there would be no chance.

Using Flash Step’s acceleration to pass through zombies, he created space by lightly pushing aside ones blocking his path with the bat instead of striking them.

The process was so fast and skillful that the zombies only noticed Yuseong’s presence after he had completely passed through their encirclement.

Kieeek!

Starting with one zombie’s scream, nearby zombies also began screaming and charging toward Yuseong.

But Yuseong had already finished responding and calmly entered the passcode Choi Gangsik recited into the entrance doorlock.

Thud!

He heard something falling behind him.

He didn’t need to look to know what happened.

While passing through the encirclement, Yuseong had created Thorny Vine to bind some zombies’ ankles.

Zombies aren’t jiangshi.

Zombies with bound ankles inevitably lost balance and fell while trying to run, and like dominoes falling in sequence, other zombies tripped on the obstacles and fell too.

Though the time gained wasn’t much, it was more than enough to open the doorlock.

Wing!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Looking at the zombies rushing against the closed door, Yuseong got up and headed for the stairs.

Though unclear how strong the reinforced glass was, it probably couldn’t withstand the charge and weight of dozens of zombies.

To guarantee safety, they needed to get into a space protected by solid metal doors – inside the house.

Clang! Clang!

While climbing the stairs, Yuseong regularly hit the wall with his bat.

‘In a narrow space like this, it’s over if zombies swarm.’

This was know-how gained fighting Deep Ones in [Unidentified Organism. Highly Hostile to Humans].

No technique matters against enemies that fill the entire space while charging.

If there were that many zombies in these stairs, he would have to either quickly break into any nearby house or climb out a window to hang on the apartment exterior.

Clang! Clang!

“Haah…”

Confirming no zombies appeared, Yuseong let out a relieved sigh and relaxed his tension.

Even with physical abilities several times that of normal people, escaping a city center packed with zombies could never be easy.

Staying constantly tense quickly drained stamina and naturally concentration dropped too.

He hadn’t let his guard down.

Yuseong had chosen the best option within his knowledge.

However, the best choice doesn’t always bring the best results.

Kiek!

After checking nothing was inside by hitting the wall, Yuseong started opening the door to the 9th floor before freezing.

Kruk?

There were zombies in the 9th floor hallway.

In that instant, seeing the earphones in the zombies’ ears and grasping the situation, Yuseong gave a hollow laugh.

“…Never imagined this possibility.”