Confirmed Kill

“Kyaaaah!”

After striking the middle-aged woman’s head with a bat as she let out a scream-like roar, Yuseong adjusted his posture and charged toward the zombie horde.

He had to pass through this corridor anyway to get home.

If a fight was unavoidable, better to end it quickly.

There were seven zombies in total.

Yuseong, who had extended his perceived time with Asura Perception Way and enhanced his overall physical abilities using the Enhancement Procedure skill, raised the bat above his head.

Shadow Moon Style 16. Wood Splitting.

A simple motion of swinging a weapon down from above like chopping firewood.

Simple, but devastating in power as it concentrated the body’s entire strength into a single point.

Thunk!

Passing by a zombie with bulging eyes, Yuseong swung his bat mindlessly in the slowed time.

Unless facing martial artists or knights.

Against simple-minded zombies, there was no need for flashy or profound movements.

All that was needed was power and speed.

Heavy impact sounds rang out followed by blood and flesh scattering everywhere.

Kuhek!

After lodging the bat into the face of the charging final zombie to shatter its teeth, Yuseong mustered his last remaining strength to strike its head.

-…My life is over now. It’s over.

“Not over, it’s just beginning.”

-Shut up! You murderer! You’ve completely ruined my life!

Yuseong gave a bitter smile at Choi Gangsik’s voice dripping with resentment and anger.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand Choi Gangsik’s position.

A world where the concept of zombies didn’t exist.

The people of this world could only see zombies as riots by mentally ill people or seizures by those infected with something like rabies.

Given the situation, they might understand and overlook killing one or two as self-defense, but brutally beating over ten people to death with a bat was a different matter entirely.

Even an uninvolved third party would be horrified, let alone Choi Gangsik who would be framed as a serial killer.

“Where should I even begin explaining this.”

Thunk!

“…Huh?”

The sound of flesh being pierced by something.

A faint pain from his ankle.

Looking down, Yuseong saw a zombie with a caved-in temple biting his right ankle.

Normal teeth wouldn’t have pierced through the fabric.

But the zombie biting his ankle now had developed shark-like sharp teeth from the impact of being struck in the face with the bat.

Crack!

Swinging the bat like hitting a golf ball to shatter the zombie’s skull, Yuseong hurriedly rolled up his pant leg.

Blue veins were spreading from a wound about the size of a finger joint.

The veins were expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At first it had only spread slightly around the ankle, but now it had already climbed up to his calf.

“Confirmed kill.”

A scene from a famous zombie movie flashed through Yuseong’s mind.

If you can’t tell whether something is alive or dead, you must confirm the kill.

To make such a mistake at the very end after finally reaching his destination.

Regret washed over him belatedly, but as always, regret comes too late no matter how quickly it arrives.

‘…It’s not over yet. Can’t end like this, it’s too unfair.’

Bang!

“Kuk!”

Yuseong lost his balance and fell as he tried to stand up.

He couldn’t feel anything from the leg that had been bitten by the zombie.

Barely managing to stand by leaning against the wall, Yuseong staggered forward.

“What’s the password?”

-Like I’d tell you that?!

“Fuck! What’s the damn password!”

Perhaps startled by the sudden swearing.

Choi Gangsik ended up blurting out the password.

-5, 5315.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

After opening the front door and entering, he collapsed onto the sofa in the living room.

The paralysis that started from his ankle had spread through his leg and now reached his upper body.

For now it was just his left side that wouldn’t move, but soon his entire body would stop responding.

‘After that I’ll become a zombie.’

Biting his lip hard, Yuseong reached into his subspace.

[Spending 300,000 karma points to withdraw Arkon Handcrafted Supreme Status Recovery Potion(B-)]

[Insufficient karma points]

[Receiving penalties is possible if karma points go negative. Still withdraw the item?]

Though he hesitated briefly at the unfamiliar message, Yuseong went ahead and withdrew the item.

Negative karma points could be refilled later, but a failed quest couldn’t be undone.

Pop.

Along with the sound of the cap opening, a subtle refreshing fragrance spread out.

A miracle potion that could even alleviate radiation contamination and mutations.

If even potions made following recipes had that level of effect, a supreme potion he made himself should definitely be able to stop zombification.

No, it had to work.

Yuseong drank half the contents and poured the remaining half on his wound before lying down on the sofa.

He could no longer maintain consciousness due to the sudden terrible headache and dizziness that started washing over him.

-Hey, hey! What exactly is going on here? Explain something!

Using his last remaining strength to reach for the remote on the table, Yuseong responded to Choi Gangsik’s confused voice.

-Currently, riots are occurring nationwide. The government is advising people to avoid contact with those showing excessive aggression and to stay home…

Yuseong tried to sleep with the urgent announcer’s voice as background noise.

* * *

He remembered regaining consciousness several times.

His surroundings repeatedly darkened and brightened, and slightly different content played on TV.

He wanted to get up but his body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton, and before long he had no choice but to lose consciousness again to the overwhelming drowsiness.

“Ugh…”

But this time was different.

Beyond the haziness where he couldn’t tell if this was reality or dream, he felt terrible thirst and hunger.

Staggering to his feet, Yuseong approached the refrigerator in the kitchen.

After emptying a bottle of cold water, he started searching the fridge for anything edible.

Even after quickly devouring bread, jam, drinks, ice cream, and sausages, it wasn’t enough, so he even ate ramen with tuna before finally letting out a sigh.

‘Just how much time has passed?’

He took out his smartphone but it wouldn’t turn on, perhaps due to a dead battery.

Fortunately, Yuseong had another way to assess the situation besides his smartphone.

“Choi Gangsik.”

-You, you bastard! Why weren’t you responding when I called?! I was terrified thinking my voice couldn’t reach you anymore.

“I was too hungry to even speak. How long has it been since I collapsed?”

Unlike himself who just lay there blankly during his brief moments of consciousness before falling back asleep, Choi Gangsik who shared his vision and hearing would know what had happened.

-I’m not entirely sure but about ten days.

“Impressive that I’m still alive.”

Food was one thing, but to think he survived ten days without water intake.

He was curious whether it was due to the status recovery potion’s effects or if the humans of this world were special, but there were more important issues right now.

Ten days.

A time that felt both long and short.

He was unbearably curious about how the world had changed during that time.

‘Since electricity is still on, it can’t be the worst case scenario.’

“No, it is the worst.”

Though he plugged in his smartphone charger to check the internet, the screen only showed a page not found message.

TV was no different.

Nothing but static-filled screens showed as if no signal was being received, and the one channel that barely came through just kept replaying content telling people not to go outside and wait for rescue.

After turning off the TV, he approached the window and looked outside.

A gloomy sky, broken and abandoned cars, blood stains covering roads and walls everywhere, smoke rising from various places, occasional strange screams.

It was enough to get a good idea of what had happened.

Carefully stepping away from the window, Yuseong sat on the sofa to organize his thoughts.

First priority was clear.

“You said you were curious about what zombies are?”

Repairing the relationship with the client.

Simple quests like hunting monsters, securing items, or escaping might be doable, but complex quests like this couldn’t be solved without the client’s cooperation.

Given how Choi Gangsik had acted before he lost consciousness, it wouldn’t be easy, but it was a problem that had to be overcome.

-…No, it’s fine.

However, surprisingly, Choi Gangsik’s reaction was very calm, contrary to Yuseong’s expectations.

-I roughly learned what zombies are from watching the news. A virus that removes reason and induces aggressive and cannibalistic urges. Right?

“Hmm. More or less similar.”

-Enough about zombies. What I’m curious about now is you as an entity. At first I thought you were like a split personality from stress, but after seeing you pull out baseball bats, grenades, and even zombie cures from thin air, I knew that wasn’t it. What exactly are you?

“A problem solver who traverses dimensions.”

Yuseong carefully explained to Choi Gangsik about the existence of users.

Though it was unbelievable content, given the situation, he couldn’t not believe it either.

“Can’t believe it?”

-…Haah. Whether I believe it or not won’t change anything, so what can I do. Anyway, you’ll definitely return to your original world once you achieve your goal, right?

“I’ll go back even if you beg me to stay, so don’t worry. More importantly, I have something I want to ask too.”

-What is it?

“Tell me about your father. Not things like personality or preferences, but his job and what he did.”

The key to this quest was Choi Gangsik’s father.

For one, he himself was an additional clear condition, and based on Choi Gangsik’s testimony, there was a good chance he was related to this zombie outbreak.

After a brief silence at the unexpected question, Choi Gangsik soon collected himself and spoke.

-My father is an incredible scientist.

“That’s too vague.”

-He won the Nobel Prize five times. Physics twice, Chemistry once, Medicine twice.

“…That is incredible.”

It was surprising enough that this world had Nobel Prizes, but winning them five times was even more surprising.

-Of course it’s incredible. If it wasn’t for my father, humanity might have gone extinct.

“Human extinction?”

-Before I was born, about 20 years ago, a virus that originated in China spread worldwide. At first they thought it would end quickly, but mutant viruses kept appearing and new viruses emerged from China, causing the situation to drag on indefinitely and casualties to increase.

“…This situation sounds very familiar.”

Yuseong let out a small laugh.

It was an extremely familiar story.

Though it had been reduced to the level of a mild cold thanks to new medicines using monster materials and the efforts of recovery-type ability users including new shamans, before that the whole world had suffered from the China-originated virus.

There had been ominous rumors about never being able to return to the world before the Chinese virus emerged, or humanity possibly going extinct due to mutant viruses, and it seemed this world was one where such concerns became reality.

-Then a truly lethal virus emerged. Called the Omega virus. As the name suggests, it was a virus capable of ending everything.

Terrifying infectivity, long incubation period, no symptoms, 99% mortality rate.

Humanity could only despair when the Omega virus appeared, seeming like it had been maliciously created to eliminate the human species.

Choi Gangsik said it was his father who found the solution in that situation.

-Judging that vaccines couldn’t solve the mutant viruses and Omega virus, he invented nanomachines that physically destroy viruses.

Yuseong was about to ask if that was possible but closed his mouth.

The fact that humanity in this world was still alive proved it had been done.

Moreover, the Basic Nanomachine skill in the status window was definitive evidence.

The superior physical abilities of this world’s people could also be explained by the nanomachines’ effects.

“You don’t know what he does at Hansung Group?”

-…I heard he was researching the origins of all viruses that emerged after the initial Chinese virus. I don’t know more than that.

“The origins of the viruses.”

After thinking briefly, Yuseong shook his head and stood up.

Though it was an important issue related to the second additional clear condition, no amount of pondering here would reveal anything.

“Where’s your father’s room?”

-Over there.

Opening the door, a musty smell of books assaulted his nose.

Books were densely packed in a bookshelf occupying one wall, and piles of papers covered the floor and desk with incomprehensible equations written on them.

Though even Choi Gangsik couldn’t help but groan at the overwhelming sight, Yuseong calmly began searching the room without panicking.

This was easy compared to fighting for his life.

After thoroughly searching everywhere including the bookshelf, paper piles, computer, and drawers, before long Yuseong found something in the trash can.

“Could this be it?”

Severely crumpled envelopes.

They all had the same address written on them.