Chapter 10. Farming

Chapter 10. Farming

Ughh.

As I cleared away the zombie corpses blocking the entrance, I couldn’t help but gag. The Auntie Zombie and High Schooler Zombie were heavily disfigured. In contrast, the Uncle Zombie and Young Woman Zombie were relatively intact. I speculated that these two must have turned into zombies first and attacked the others.

People who suddenly transformed into zombies. People infected after being attacked by the transformed zombies. And then there were Seonyoung and I, who gained a Status Window and some abilities. The world had changed, for reasons unknown. It was a world where a single bite meant the end.

“Team Leader, I’m going to use the Restroom for a bit.”

We descended the stairs together and opened the Restroom door. I had already checked it once, but I didn’t let my guard down when opening the door this time either. I couldn’t forget Schneider’s Cat. Fortunately, we were able to open the door and use the Restroom without incident.

Ugh, ugh, blech!

After a round of retching and the sound of flushing water, Seonyoung emerged. I had been forcing myself to hold it in, but it seemed Seonyoung couldn’t.

“I’ll go take care of business too and be right out.”

After taking care of business and roughly wiping off the splattered blood, I entered the Drum Academy. Only after checking every room and confirming there were no remaining zombies did the tension finally ease. Being too tense isn’t good either; this is a problem. My stamina is draining too quickly.

“Aren’t these bags pretty good?”

Seonyoung brought four bags from a Cabinet in the corner. Two were rectangular, and two were round. They had straps to wear over the shoulder, and upon inspection, they seemed to be bags for drum equipment.

“Perfect. Convenience Store bags rustle too much, and it was a pain trying to fit everything into my pockets.”

Seeing the bags made me think of an Inventory from a game. I wondered if I might have gained such an ability, so I started listing various words.

“Inventory, bag, storage, keep, ‘i’, sub-space, open sesame?”

“Hehe… I tried all sorts of things too, but nothing worked. But what’s ‘i’?”

“Oh, the letter ‘i’. Usually, ‘i’ is the shortcut key for Inventory in games. Honestly… I don’t know if there’s another way or if we just don’t have that ability. I wish someone would give us a tutorial.”

I had quietly mumbled that to myself while watching Seonyoung crouch and fidget in front of the Cabinet, but it seemed she heard me. Seeing her give a small laugh made me feel a bit relieved. After our skirmish with the zombies, her face had been utterly pale, which worried me.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anything else worth salvaging besides the bags. Could these sticks be used as weapons?”

“The range is too short, so I don’t think they’d be great… but let’s take them for now.”

I packed the energy bars, water, and towels from my pockets into the bags along with the sticks, then prepared to leave again. I wore the rectangular bag as a crossbody bag and secured the round bag tightly to my back like a backpack. After that, we exited the building.

Stepping outside, the chaotic road was still there, unchanged. The corpses on the road were also untouched. I worried about decomposition. With no one to clear them away, if they were left like this, it would be difficult to walk the streets even without zombies.

‘I’ll worry about that later. For now, let’s focus on crossing the street.’

The situation was the same on the road near the Apartment Complex. What’s more, the road we crossed yesterday was two lanes, but this one was four. I’d need to observe it more carefully before crossing. We hid behind a bus stop on one side of the road and quietly surveyed our surroundings. The heavily tinted cars made it hard to see inside, which made me a little uneasy. Looking at the silent road, I wondered if there was anyone left in the world. Were they all just hiding somewhere?

‘Shall we go?’

After exchanging hand signals with Seonyoung, I stood up. As I headed towards the crosswalk at the intersection, I felt a tug on my collar from behind. I turned around to see Seonyoung pointing at the road directly in front of us.

‘Oh, right. We don’t need to use crosswalks anymore.’

No cars are driving around anyway. Ignoring the red light, we crossed the street via the most open path possible.

“Team Leader, there are people watching us from the balconies on the second and fourth floors over there.”

As we approached the Commercial Building section of the Apartment Complex, I saw people on the balcony of Building 301 next to it. They must have been watching us cross the road. It had only been a day, but it felt like ages since I’d seen other people, and a sense of welcome washed over me. They could have turned into zombies, but since they were waving at us, they must be human. We waved back and entered the Commercial Building.

“I don’t think they were greeting us; it looks like they were telling us not to go in there.”

I looked up at the person who had been waving from the second floor, and they were still vigorously waving both hands. Did that mean this building was dangerous? I nodded in acknowledgment and then re-examined the entrance to the Commercial Building.

“Looks like there are zombies inside. Let’s not get too tense and check carefully.”

Having taken down zombies once at the Drum Academy, I felt confident we could do it again. Seonyoung had only used her Shield once, so we still had reserves. As long as they didn’t swarm us, we should be fine.

“I hope we don’t overdo it.”

“Of course not. If there are too many, we’ll just retreat.”

I reassured a nervous Seonyoung, and we entered the building. The lights in the hallway were brightly lit, making the interior clearly visible. Straight ahead, there were stairs, and to the left of the stairs, a Real Estate Office and a Convenience Store. To the right, there was a Restroom sign and a Nail Art Shop. Looking through the glass windows, the inside appeared completely empty.

“It’s a bit messy, but it’s clean, isn’t it?”

“Indeed. For the warning from the woman on the second floor, there isn’t a single bloodstain.”

Feeling a little strange, I went inside and examined it closely, but there wasn’t even a hint of a zombie. The Restroom was locked, so I pressed my ear to the door, but it was silent. The clean first floor of the building felt cooler, as if the temperature inside was lower than outside.

From the signs outside, I’d seen that the second floor housed a Hair Salon and a Fitness Center. We went up the stairs and carefully checked the hallway from the corner. There were scattered bloodstains visible in the second-floor hallway. The Fitness Center had opaque colored paper pasted on its windows, blocking the view inside, but the Hair Salon’s transparent windows allowed us to see in. Inside the Hair Salon, there were two zombies that looked like staff members, wearing aprons. I quickly ducked down below the opaque part of the window and waited. Relieved by the quiet, I pondered how to check the areas where our view was blocked. We were lucky this time, but it would have been dangerous if a zombie had seen me.

I saw Seonyoung, tense and frozen behind me, so I held up two fingers and pointed towards the Hair Salon. Seonyoung approached, head bowed. She quietly pulled out her Cell Phone, opened the camera app, and handed it to me.

‘Oh, what a clever idea.’

I crawled to the door, extended the camera lens, and on the screen, I could see zombies moving slightly. Seonyoung pressed close beside me, and together we peered at the Cell Phone screen. A pleasant scent emanated from Seonyoung, who was pressed right against me.

‘How come we both got splattered with blood, rained on, and sweated, but she smells different?’

So, Seonyoung and I sat side-by-side, pressed together, and waited for a moment. Before long, both staff zombies turned their bodies towards the interior. This was the moment we’d been waiting for. I turned my head to give the sign, and Seonyoung happened to be looking at me too. At such close proximity, I held my breath for a moment, and we quietly stood up together.

Thwack! Thwack!

We crept up behind the zombies and swung our Baseball Bats almost simultaneously. It was a perfect ambush. After silently dispatching the two zombies and closing the door, we took a moment to relax our tense muscles.

“The Fitness Center is the problem now. How many are inside?”

“We can check through the door, so let’s rest for a bit and then go. By the way, Seonyoung, your idea was great. Using the Cell Phone camera.”

“Oh, it reminded me of how they checked with a mirror in a movie. You know, that movie about saving a private. Bullets were flying everywhere, so they stuck a small mirror to a knife with gum to check the enemy’s position.”

If I can find one, I should get a hand mirror and carry it around. As long as I don’t break it, it could be very useful. Since this was a Hair Salon, I looked for mirrors, but there weren’t any small enough to carry around. I diligently looked around, but there was nothing else worth taking.

“Team Leader. I’ll just grab a few hair dryers, gowns, and dyeing capes. It would be great if they’re waterproof… When we take down zombies, blood keeps splattering on our clothes, so if we can modify these a bit to wear over our clothes, it would be good.”

I thought there was nothing worth taking. Seonyoung really does have good ideas. After finishing our scavenging in the Hair Salon, we headed to the Fitness Center.

This time too, we first checked the inside using the camera app. We saw shoe lockers and an information desk that looked like a counter. Further inside, there was another closed sliding door.

‘The shoes in the shoe locker are one, two, three, four… How many are there, exactly?’

No zombies were visible, so we went in to check, and found eight pairs of shoes. Seonyoung, who had been counting shoes with me, looked at me and shook her head. That meant this place was a no-go. There might not necessarily be eight zombies inside. But there was no safe way to open the sliding door and check. We decided to abandon our greed and quietly retreat.

‘It’s more manageable than I thought.’

The last remaining floor was the Rooftop. I wondered if there would be anything worth taking on the Rooftop. I really wanted to find some spare clothes to change into, and I felt disappointed that we hadn’t found any. It would be great if I could at least change clothes when I sleep.

‘Still, just in case.’

The Rooftop door might be locked like yesterday, but since we’d come all this way, it seemed best to check. I turned to tell Seonyoung that we should check the Rooftop too. We were in the hallway leading from the Fitness Center to the stairs. As I turned around, Seonyoung, who had been following closely, bumped her face right into my chest.

‘Oh dear, she must have hit her nose. That must hurt.’

At that thought, I heard a startled gasp, and Seonyoung dropped the Baseball Bat she was holding.

Thud… clatter, clatter… Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Baseball Bat rolled all the way down the stairs, clattering loudly as it fell.

KWAHHH!

Soon, the echoing roars of zombies reverberated from the top of the stairs. Seonyoung’s face, pale and aghast, stared up at me. Crisis arrived in an instant.