Episode 4.
* * *
‘Should I have confronted them?’
I reproached myself for thinking too carelessly.
But if I was going to deal with these bastards, I couldn’t use my points the way I’d planned.
‘Sigh, I didn’t want to use points because of these bastards.’
That was why I was holding back, but they didn’t know that.
Showing no emotion, I kept a blank face and opened my mouth.
“I’m resigning.”
Jinwoo began to snicker.
“Yeah. A bastard like you is a waste of rations. But you know….”
Jinwoo’s eyes turned ice-cold.
“Who said you could quit? If you want to quit, you need my permission. Choe Minjun, spit out what you’re hiding, you bastard. Then I’ll let you go peacefully.”
“…….”
Jinwoo holding a kitchen knife, and four colleagues holding steel pipes.
The only way to kill a zombie with a kitchen knife was to get close and stab its eye.
‘But there’s a risk of getting bitten.’
To kill a zombie with a pipe, you had to hit its head until the skull broke. It was hard for an ordinary person to shatter a moving zombie’s skull with a single precise strike.
‘And if you can’t smash it, you end up grappling with the charging zombie.’
Therefore, their armed state wasn’t for dealing with zombies.
Responding to zombies with kitchen knives and pipes was inefficient and too dangerous.
“I’ll give you five minutes. After that, I won’t use words.”
Judging by his demeanor, he didn’t seem to have any intention of letting me go freely.
‘But five minutes is more than enough to prepare.’
Without a word, I sat down on the chair.
‘Store.’
For the past ten days, I hadn’t just been hunting.
Even while hunting, I had constantly spent my spare time making plans.
The largest part of those plans was, of course, weapons.
At first, I had planned to buy a K2 rifle that I’d handled in the army.
But I figured I’d be fighting in urban areas a lot, so I switched my focus to assault rifles.
While torn between a K1A and a P90, I scrolled down and discovered a futuristic assault rifle.
[K1A Assault Rifle] 10,000P
[P90 Assault Rifle] 10,000P
.
.
[PX1 Assault Rifle] 50,000P
“Damn, it’s expensive….”
It was a weapon costing as many points as a personal shelter.
Curious why it was so expensive, I clicked on it, and I understood.
[PX1 Assault Rifle] 50,000P
Personal defense assault rifle.
Comes standard with a scope, night-vision goggles, a laser designator, and a suppressor, with easy attachment of additional equipment via rails.
Guaranteed performance optimized for various combat situations.
Uses rifle rounds.
Ammunition can be substituted with POINTS. (1 round = 10P)
“Wow….”
There was no way I couldn’t buy this?
Ammunition was sold in the Miscellaneous section—30-round magazines for 100 points.
An automatic rifle could empty a 30-round magazine in about three seconds if you held the trigger down.
If you ran into a zombie horde at close range, you had no choice but to spray.
But the real problem was that even if you wanted to shoot like that, you might not have time to change magazines.
If ammunition was replaced via point payment in a dire situation where there was no time to reload, it was no different from an effect that saved my life.
‘The ammunition replacement option is like having an extra life.’
If I hadn’t seen the PX1 I wouldn’t know, but since I’d seen it, I had resolved that I absolutely had to buy it.
If things had gone according to plan, I would have leisurely purchased the weapon on the day the special period ended, looking at points that exceeded my target.
‘Sigh, as soon as I get out, I’ll start building the hunting ground.’
All my plans had gone awry.
I looked at the bastard who’d made my plans go awry.
“Have you decided?”
Seeing Jinwoo sneering with the corners of his mouth raised, the decision was made automatically.
‘Yeah, fuck. I can’t get out like this. Purchase PX1.’
The PX1 materialized before my eyes.
Click.
I grabbed the gun.
“A gun?”
“Fuck! What is that!”
“What is that!”
At the sight of the gun, Jinwoo’s group faltered and fell into panic.
“I’ve thought it over, you see.”
Click.
I bought a magazine, attached it, and aimed the muzzle at Jinwoo.
“You should give me severance pay, shouldn’t you?”
“What?”
“Severance pay, you bastard. I told you I’m quitting.”
“You’re asking for money?”
As if money mattered in this situation?
He couldn’t accept the change in circumstances.
“Hand over food and drinking water.”
I’d overspent. If I was going to save even a single point, I needed to take food and water at least.
At my words, Jinwoo hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“I’ll give you what you want. In exchange, tell me how your body got better, and where that gun came from.”
This bastard still hadn’t come to his senses.
Bang.
I fired one shot at Jinwoo’s thigh.
‘Fuck, 3.3 points.’
Thud.
“Kuaaack!”
Jinwoo, hit by the shot, collapsed to the floor and began screaming.
The blood pooling on the floor with a patter turned the colleagues’ faces pale.
Looking at them, I opened my mouth again.
“Food. Water.”
“…….”
Jinwoo’s face flushed red and blue.
“Fuck, if you had that kind of power! If you had a gun, why did you hide it!”
Is that even something to ask? Isn’t it obvious?
What would make me reveal it openly?
Let’s say I’d saved up points and bought a gun when I got the Store. Could I really have hunted with that gun?
‘Would these bastards have left it alone?’
They would have seized the gun under all sorts of pretexts. No, rather than being likely to do that, they would have kept demanding something.
Since I hadn’t yet resolved myself to kill, I would have tried to compromise on everything.
I didn’t want to go through that tiresome process.
‘I have no loyalty to this company to uphold.’
I only paid now because I needed to get out of here for sure.
I raised the muzzle and aimed at Jinwoo’s arm.
“Want a bullet in your arm too? You plan on moving?”
“Huek….”
“J-Jinwoo. Let’s give it to him and send him off.”
“Let’s do that. Jinwoo comes first….”
The colleagues persuaded Jinwoo.
Then Jinwoo, reluctantly, took their support and got to his feet.
With them leading, I headed down to the cafeteria.
“Huk…… huk…….”
“Haa…… haang…….”
When I entered the kitchen where the food was stockpiled, a group of beasts was panting. Looking closely, it was the President and Manager Bak.
“Unbelievable.”
“W-what! Huk, a gun?”
“Kyak!”
The President, flustered as people crowded in, grabbed clothes and then spotted the gun. And Manager Park, screaming and cowering.
‘So the three of them are in on it together.’
The President, Choe Jinwoo, Manager Bak. I didn’t know when they’d become like that, but it was clear the three of them were no longer strangers.
‘Well, it’s none of my business now.’
For some reason, a hiking backpack was visible where the food was gathered, so I picked it up. Opening it, there was food and water inside, as if someone had packed it to escape in a hurry.
But it wasn’t the food I wanted.
The expensive food in the Store was strangely all canned goods.
They cost a whopping 3 points each. Therefore, if I wanted to gain even a little from this place, I had to take mostly cans.
I flipped the bag upside down and shook it empty, then threw it toward the group and ordered.
“Pack mostly cans. Two plastic bottles of water.”
At my gesture with the gun muzzle, one of the colleagues moved, packed the food and water, and handed it over.
I slung the backpack over my left shoulder, backed away to put distance between us, and when I’d gotten far enough, I turned and ran.
‘Get away quickly.’
The escape route was toward the fence behind the main building.
I chose this route because it was the only way to escape the company without running into zombies, and because there was space beyond to build a hunting ground and shelter.
The front of the company was practically an open field of some twenty meters due to the sidewalk and main road.
And to the left and right, there were other companies across the road, so even if I crossed over, I’d be in the same situation as the current company.
A residential area had formed only behind the company, and among them, I had chosen a two-story single-family house as my escape route.
I reached the fence, jumped, grabbed the top, and pulled myself up.
And I opened the Store to purchase a concrete fence.
‘Please….’
I had summoned the fence for two reasons.
One was to check if the fence could be summoned in the orientation I wanted.
The other was that if it could be summoned according to my will, to lay it across like a bridge over the company’s fence and the house’s fence on the other side, then escape.
But the summon failed.
“Ah…. I guess I can’t lay it down.”
Using it as a bridge was a failure.
‘I have no choice but to use the next method.’
I walked along the fence, moving toward the corner near the house.
‘Install.’
If I couldn’t lay it down, I just needed to connect it.
Fortunately, the connection method worked, and the fence summoned.
I walked across the fence, reached the house’s fence, and this time checked if reverse summon was possible.
‘Dismantle.’
The fence disappeared, and Fence(1) appeared in the Store’s inventory.
“Hail the Store.”
Now it begins.
It had deviated a lot from the plan, but it wasn’t all bad.
Fortunately, I had gathered the minimum points I had in mind, and if I thought of it as the schedule simply moving up a bit, a loss of about a day was something I could make up and then some.
‘Now I don’t need to walk on eggshells.’
If I just secured the hunting ground quickly, it would rather become an opportunity to gather a large amount of points.
Thud. Thud thud.
I dealt with the zombies wandering in the street and began moving quietly.
Thud-thud. Thud.
I had thought I would feel light once I got out, but the first thought that came to me as I put distance between myself and the company was fear.
The fear of having to traverse an unknown place all alone.
“Graaaack.”
“Gwaaah!”
Thud. Thud.
But that fear didn’t last long either.
“Kyahk! Kyaaa!”
“Ugeeeek.”
Thud. Thud.
Because even fear began to feel like a luxury.
‘I can do it. I’ve made enough plans.’
The situation where nearby zombies flocked even to the small sound from the gun’s suppressor didn’t give me even a moment to think of anything else.
‘Let’s stick to the plan.’
Though honestly, the plan had already deviated a lot.
Originally, the plan was to quickly deal with approaching zombies and find a house surrounded by roads on at least three sides to install a safe zone.
But there was no place nearby suitable as a safe zone.
‘Houses standing apart on their own aren’t common these days….’
I avoided places where, even if there was a fence, it was too low, or another house was attached right beside it.
‘It needs to be open on all sides.’
“Graaaah.”
“Gyaak!”
Thud. Thud thud.
Click-clack.
As soon as I entered an alley, I dealt with a zombie that spotted me and charged, and when I ran out of bullets, I quickly pulled out a magazine, reloaded, aimed forward, and quickened my pace.
‘Being exposed outside for a long time is dangerous.’
I looked around hoping a suitable place would appear, but of course, a place I couldn’t find when looking from the company wasn’t going to appear just because I came outside.
An area hidden by buildings so it wasn’t easily visible.
I pinned my hopes on an area beyond the residential district and moved quickly.
“Graaack.”
“Aaaack!”
“Ah, fuck. Why is everyone screaming.”
What’s the point of maintaining the stealth I learned in the army.
The zombies are the ones screaming and breaking the silence.
Thud. Thud thud.
I quickly cleared away the screaming zombies and left the area.
At this rate, I was going to get surrounded.
‘No other choice. For now, it’s Plan B.’
The second safe zone I had thought of in case I couldn’t find a house I liked.
It was a house that should be around a road corner.
And fortunately, in the distance, at a place where the alley split, such a house was visible.
Thud. Thud thud. Thud thud thud.
I quickly dealt with the nearby zombies and walked quietly but swiftly toward it.
And arriving in front of the house, I climbed over the fence and went inside, where I saw a human silhouette flash past the window.
‘So there’s an owner.’
Ah, of all places, did it have to be an occupied house.
Just my luck.