We're Screwed

An impact strong enough to make his head spin hit the moment the train derailed.

Yuseong barely managed to hold onto his fading consciousness by biting his tongue and drank a recovery potion he pulled out.

Though he vomited more than half the contents due to pain that felt like his insides were being wrung out, the remaining amount was enough to improve his condition.

The train car was a complete mess.

All the windows were shattered and one side of the wall was torn apart like it had been chewed on by a massive beast.

After listening for a moment to confirm no zombie sounds could be heard, Yuseong unfastened his seatbelt and checked on the soldiers’ conditions.

Thankfully, while some were on the brink of death, none had died.

Looking silently at the soldiers with deathly pale complexions, Yuseong gave a bitter smile and pulled out recovery potions.

‘I wasn’t expecting much, but this time I’ll have to completely give up on a high rank clear.’

Even using the same items, the artifact usage rate varies each quest depending on various factors like Civilization Grade and type.

Though this quest’s high difficulty and Civilization Grade suggested the artifact usage rate wouldn’t increase easily, he had used enough items to more than offset that.

Various potions, all sorts of guns and bombs, the plasma axe.

Add to that the newly mastered skill tentatively named Puppet Skill, and whether skill usage or artifact usage, it was almost certain the rates would be significant.

“Ugh, where is…”

“Are you alright? How many fingers do you see?”

Alex, who had been wearing a dazed expression like he’d just woken up, finally came to his senses at the fingers waving in front of his face.

“…Three?”

“You’re fine then.”

“Ugh, what exactly happened?”

“There were Heavies blocking the tunnel so I just rammed through them.”

The shocking content didn’t match the calm voice.

Alex stared blankly at Yuseong before shaking his head.

Though he had much to say, now wasn’t the time for conversation.

After feeding potions to recover the others, Yuseong went outside through the torn wall.

“Urp!”

Someone dry heaved but no one scolded them.

They were just desperately holding it in – anyone would want to vomit at the sight of blood stench and masses of flesh mangled beyond recognition.

“…Let’s get out quickly.”

Though they’d seen all sorts of sights, good and bad, over the past ten days, this was on a completely different level.

The people carefully moved their feet to avoid stepping on flesh.

Fortunately the distance to the station wasn’t far and no more zombies appeared.

The group relaxed slightly upon seeing the quiet street after exiting the subway.

Being on the outskirts, unlike downtown there were hardly any cars parked on the roads and no zombies in sight.

‘I was worried about how to escape the city but this is fortunate at least.’

If they could just find one abandoned car, they could escape the city without much difficulty.

They were well-armed, had companions, and had an escape plan set.

Now only one problem remained.

‘…He must be here, right?’

Though they came here following the address on the only clue – the envelope – there was actually no guarantee Choi Gangsik’s father was here.

If after all this hardship they encountered a situation like “wrong mountain?”, this quest could become a record deficit with various penalties from negative karma and low rank clear while using up items.

No, clearing it at all would be fortunate.

If the soldiers felt they’d been deceived, he might end up getting shot full of holes and fail to clear it.

‘That must be it, right?’

-Yeah.

A building located at the foot of an isolated mountain.

About to give the order to enter immediately, Yuseong belatedly recalled something and quickly stopped the soldiers.

“Wait. Before we go in, does anyone here not know Dr. Choi’s face?”

“…Doesn’t seem like it. But why do you ask?”

“If Dr. Choi is safe that’s good, but there’s a chance he’s turned into a zombie. In that case we can recover him with the vaccine, but if he takes a bullet to a vital spot there’s no way to save him.”

“You’re saying we should check zombies’ faces before pulling the trigger?”

“As you saw earlier, I have emergency medicine that can recover considerable injuries, so you don’t need to go that far. Instead, aim for areas that will immobilize them like thighs or feet to subdue them first, then confirm kill.”

Though better than checking every face, it was quite a dangerous method considering the environment where enemies could pop out anywhere and zombies’ aggression.

But everyone just nodded with grim expressions – not a single person showed any objection to Yuseong’s words.

If they got bitten by zombies they could be cured with the vaccine, but they couldn’t revive the dead.

Even if they got bitten by zombies, even if they died, they absolutely had to save Choi Hyunseong to return the world to normal.

“Let’s go.”

Led by Yuseong, the soldiers advanced toward the building while watching in all directions.

Whether they’d all moved elsewhere, not a single zombie existed around the building.

Instead, the moment they opened the door, a zombie jumped out as if it had been waiting.

Graaaah!

Blood spurting from its thigh, the charging zombie rolled across the ground in an ugly manner.

After confirming the face of the struggling zombie, Yuseong put his gun to its forehead and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Everyone tensed to the extreme, prepared for zombies that might gather at the gunshot.

However, even after 10 seconds passed, then 30 seconds, over a minute, not even an ant appeared, let alone zombies.

Puzzlement showed in Yuseong’s eyes.

Though it was a large building, two gunshots were definitely not quiet sounds.

Even if they couldn’t find the source of the sound echoing through the building, they should at least hear zombies running or screaming, but it was too quiet.

“Seems like there are no zombies.”

Yuseong shook his head.

There was a possibility they couldn’t hear, like the zombies wearing earphones they’d met on the first day of the quest, or they could be somewhere sounds didn’t reach.

“Let’s split into two teams to search. I’ll take the left.”

“Then I’ll take the right.”

The first floor consisted of convenience facilities like a convenience store and lounge, restaurants, etc.

But they couldn’t find any zombies in all those rooms and spaces.

A strange situation where traces of zombies remained in the form of wrecked furniture and bloodstains here and there, but no actual zombies.

Tilting his head at the incomprehensible situation, Yuseong finished searching the first floor then met up with Alex in the lobby before heading to the second floor.

The atmosphere of the second floor was completely different from the first.

While the first floor felt like an ordinary company, the second floor had a laboratory-like atmosphere with pure white ceilings and walls despite being stained with blood here and there.

‘Seems we found the right place at least.’

Given his profession as a scientist, there was a very high chance Choi Hyunseong worked here.

Though his worry decreased somewhat, new questions took its place.

“None here either.”

“Seems like there were zombies though… Maybe they went elsewhere after hearing commotion nearby like when they flocked to the crashed helicopter?”

“Even so, there couldn’t be this few zombies. They don’t know how to open doors and don’t understand the building’s structure.”

While lucky zombies near the entrance might have gotten out, those in rooms or upper floors were unlikely to have left the building.

Unless they threw themselves out windows.

Even then, there should be traces left – but they couldn’t find any broken windows or corpses with broken necks around the building.

“Let’s continue searching for now.”

The third floor, fourth floor, and fifth floor were all no different from below.

And when they went up to the sixth floor, the group finally found the zombies they’d been looking for.

More precisely, zombie corpses.

Finding dead zombies itself wasn’t strange.

Even ordinary people could handle normal zombies if they didn’t freeze up in fear.

But the zombies’ wounds were very strange.

‘What killed them?’

There was a fist-sized hole in the chest area but no traces of bleeding.

Examining the wound while lifting the clothes, Yuseong’s eyes lit up at what he found.

Melted flesh and blackened clothes.

Traces that seemed familiar from somewhere.

‘Plasma weapon? It definitely got hit by something extremely hot at least.’

“Sergeant Alex, do you have any idea about this wound?”

“Looking at the hole size, it was definitely stabbed by something, but the lack of bleeding is strange. The skin seems to have melted and covered the wound… but I don’t know what kind of weapon did this.”

“Could it be something like a laser?”

“There’s no way laser weapons with this kind of destructive power exist in reality.”

“I was joking.”

While Alex seemed to have no idea, Yuseong thought such destructive weapons wouldn’t be strange in a world where science had developed enough for nanomachines to be commonplace.

‘For an amazing scientist, he could probably make weapons like this easily.’

That thought grew stronger the higher they went up.

The increasing zombie corpses and diverse wounds proved it.

Melted wounds, shredded wounds, clean wounds.

None were wounds that could be inflicted by ordinary weapons.

“Seems there are or were survivors up above.”

While Yuseong focused on the zombies’ wounds and weapons, Alex and the soldiers focused on the increasing corpses.

More zombies as they went up meant humans who were the zombies’ targets had been up there, and them all being dead meant the humans had repelled the zombies.

Whether they were hiding from armed strangers or had gone elsewhere was unknown, but reaching the conclusion that Choi Hyunseong was likely alive, the soldiers wore relieved expressions.

Of course that was just the soldiers’ perspective – Yuseong, whose goal was rescuing Choi Hyunseong, could only wear a rotten expression.

If Choi Hyunseong had really gone elsewhere, there was no way to find him anymore.

While tracking based on traces left behind wasn’t impossible, that would make the quest too long.

‘I’ve already spent over ten days and used quite a few items. Continuing this quest any longer would clearly be a loss.’

If they couldn’t find Choi Hyunseong here, Yuseong planned to just escape the city to satisfy the basic condition and end the quest.

Wearing an expression mixed half with expectation and anxiety while going up, Yuseong blinked upon finding a barrier blocking the way to the top floor.

A metal wall that looked sturdy enough to withstand bombs.

Watching the soldiers wandering around trying to open the door, Yuseong pulled out the plasma axe tucked at his waist.

Zzzzing!

Everyone’s attention focused at the sound of the purple blade forming.

Yuseong ignored the soldiers’ gazes demanding explanation and focused on cutting through the wall before him.

Thunk!

As part of the barrier was cut away, the interior was revealed.

Rotting stench assaulting their noses, bloodstains everywhere, zombies staring this way having heard the sound just now.

And seeing the futuristic-looking weapons in the zombies’ hands, Yuseong unconsciously muttered.

“We’re screwed.”