Chapter 27. Encounter

Chapter 27. Encounter

Seonyoung’s words cast a chill over the atmosphere.

Minsu broke the silence, addressing me again.

“What should I do? If I go out like this, I’ll surely die.”

Seonyoung clearly wasn’t pleased with Minsu staying in this building.

But I couldn’t force him out, nor was it a good time to just clear out all the supplies through Farming.

We weren’t yet cornered enough to act so ruthlessly.

“Minsu. Is there a reason you’ve piled up these Zombie Corpses?”

“They were starting to decompose inside, so I thought I’d clear them out. Team Leader, if you’re going to keep passing through this way, I’ll make sure to keep it tidy so you can rest whenever you need. So, I’m asking if I can manage this place as a sort of temporary base.”

“Could you tell me about your Ability? And how much Acquired you have?”

“Hmph… My Ability isn’t useful for combat. It’s called Observation. I can examine any place I want in more detail. It’s like a telescope. To be honest, I observed you, Team Leader, entering this building from the street stall tent yesterday. I also saw you come out unharmed. My Acquired is 0. Are you a combat-type Ability user, Team Leader?”

“I see. Thank you for telling me. My Ability is Reinforcement. It increases my strength. In that case, I won’t take all the supplies right away, so please manage them, Minsu. Eat perishable food first, and conserve what can be preserved. Also, if you observe anything unusual around here, please let us know.”

“Thank you, truly. Please tell me if there’s anything else you need me to do.”

I parted ways with Minsu, who kept bowing deeply, and turned into an alleyway.

He only bowed to me, right until the end.

He kept glancing at Seonyoung out of the corner of his eye, but never directly faced her or spoke to her.

A strange feeling of unease settled over me, but with no other immediate option, I felt frustrated.

I pulled out the printed map from my Sling Bag, marked the four-story building with “ms,” and continued on my way.

“Oppa, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Hmph… But we can’t just kick him out. And it’s not like we live there, so what can we do…?”

“That’s true… But he only spoke to you, Oppa, until the very end, didn’t he? He’s been glancing at me since yesterday, and it makes me uncomfortable, but he keeps ignoring what I say.”

“That too. And we don’t know his Ability for sure, so let’s be careful for a while. If he was honest, he wouldn’t be a big threat, but I did get the feeling he was hiding something.”

“Yeah… Maybe we should just loot the Pharmacy and then avoid the area entirely.”

It was a tricky situation.

He hadn’t done anything to threaten us, but we couldn’t exactly relax and coexist with him either.

Maybe I was overreacting, but I felt strangely uneasy.

Unable to reach any clear conclusion, we eventually arrived at the intersection where the Hana Trade Building stood.

I paused for a moment, scanning our surroundings.

“Seonyoung, just a moment. I’m just marking the Zombie in the car.”

I pulled out the Zombie Map and marked the intersection with “Red Compact Car Z.”

While I had it out, I also noted “Z: At least 50” at the location of the J Broadcasting Station Building.

“Oppa, we’re going to the Pharmacy first, right?”

“Yeah, let’s just pass by for now and come back to Farm it later.”

I tore my gaze away from the Hana Trade Building and started walking again.

For a fleeting moment, I thought I saw a shadow pass by a window halfway up the building, but when I looked again, there was no movement.

Instead of cutting through the alley, we circled around via the road and arrived at the Pharmacy.

Midway, a Zombie burst out from a side alley, letting out a grotesque shriek.

Thanks to that, it drew the aggro of the surrounding Zombies on the street, and I ended up fighting eight of them in one spot.

As soon as I took one down, two more would rush forward, and then another Zombie would come sprinting from somewhere else.

After fending off waves of Zombies like a defense game, we faced no further attacks on our way to the Pharmacy.

“Oppa. That’s moving, right?”

The Pharmacy we arrived at was a wreck.

A 1.5-ton truck had smashed into the front, shattering all the display windows.

A Zombie was slumped in the driver’s seat, and I could see it twitching.

“Oh, it’s a Zombie alright. Let’s go.”

Seonyoung easily dealt with the Zombie in the truck, and then we entered the Pharmacy.

With all the glass shattered, there was no door to speak of; we just walked right in.

The few chairs that had been there were scattered everywhere, likely thrown by the impact.

Display shelves lined the walls, and directly ahead, I could see the reception desk and counter.

Behind that, a door covered by a cloth seemed to lead to the Dispensing Room.

Even if there were Zombies gathered in the Dispensing Room, I didn’t think there would be many, so I called out.

“Is there a Zombie Vaccine here?”

*KWAARGH!*

It seemed there was no Zombie Vaccine.

Two Zombies, splattered with blood and wearing white gowns, burst out from inside.

One had lost an eyeball, and half its face was caved in, suggesting it had been attacked and infected by a Zombie.

Seeing its horrific state, I couldn’t help but feel pity, even for a Zombie, wondering how much pain it must have endured.

All I could do was grant it a swift release.

I gave the struggling creatures, who had tripped over the waist-high counter desk while rushing out, the gift of eternal rest.

“Oppa, what now? Should we start Farming?”

“Let’s do that. First, let’s gather some medicine, move it aside, and then slowly organize everything.”

“Alright~ But I don’t know what to grab first…”

“You know, the over-the-counter medicines. The ones on the display shelves out here. Grab those, and some nutritional supplements, things like that. I’ll go check the Dispensing Room.”

Entering the Dispensing Room inside, I saw bloodstains, but no more Zombies.

I had called out from outside, thinking it would be better to lure them out than be ambushed when pulling back the curtain, and it seemed to have worked out safely.

On one side of the Dispensing Room stood a large blue machine reaching the ceiling, and a slightly smaller one next to it. The walls were densely covered with numerous storage compartments and display shelves.

The large machine had many drawer-like attachments, and the smaller one resembled a large printer.

Since I wouldn’t be using them, it seemed better to examine the display shelves and storage compartments instead.

As I slowly looked around, I found an enormous quantity of medicine bottles, syrup containers, and packets.

They were neatly arranged, perhaps alphabetically, but one section was completely disheveled, and the display shelves had collapsed.

There was also a refrigerator, and when I opened it, it was full of medicine bottles.

I had no idea what to take from here.

If I just grabbed anything, I wouldn’t know what it was, and I couldn’t just take it without knowing. Taking the wrong thing could make things worse…

“Oppa, do you understand any of this?”

“No, not at all. They’re tagged, but there are no instructions for dosage or usage.”

“Oh, you’re right. That’s a shame. There’s so much medicine…”

“Here, there are antibiotics. From here to here, the powdered ones are antibiotics, and these solid ones are also labeled as antibiotics. Let’s take all of these.”

“Okay, let’s just grab them for now and we can look them up later.”

Discussing as we went, we packed various medicines until our Backpacks were full.

We managed to pack as many nutritional supplements as possible, but couldn’t take everything in one go, so it looked like we’d have to make several trips.

“Oppa, look at this. It seems to be for dogs. Can we eat it? *Chuckles*”

“I don’t think anything serious would happen if we ate it, but let’s stick to human food first.”

Seonyoung quietly put down the box with a dog illustration on it.

I opened a container of vitamins, sucked on one, and slung my bag over my shoulder.

I wished I could find a car and drive around, but pondering if there was a way, we set off again.

Returning home, Gayoung was delighted to see us back for lunch, exclaiming that we had returned quickly.

She seemed to be busy organizing, but I wondered if she felt lonely being by herself.

The more I saw her, the more she reminded me of a loyal dog wagging its tail at its owners’ return.

First, we laid out the supplies we had Farmed in the living room.

“These are anti-inflammatory painkillers, these are antipyretic painkillers, cold medicine, digestive aid, anti-diarrheal…”

Gayoung also tended to talk to herself quite a bit. Her mouth never rested.

“Wow, we could open our own Pharmacy!”

“*Chuckles* Last time it was opening a Convenience Store, now it’s a Pharmacy? Gayoung, we’re bringing back more this afternoon, by the way.”

Seonyoung and Gayoung chatted together as they organized the medicines and nutritional supplements.

Suddenly, seeing the compression bandages they were organizing, I realized I needed to pack Emergency Medicine in my Survival Bag.

The streets were dangerous; we could get hurt anytime, even without being bitten by a Zombie.

“Are there any spare pouches at home?”

“Oh, a pouch? Why? Should I find one for you now?”

“That would be great, thank you. Seonyoung and I want to pack some Emergency Medicine in our Backpacks to carry with us.”

“Ah, then please go ahead and eat. I’ll get them ready.”

“No, let’s eat together. And just separate the medicines for now. We’ll organize them together after we get back.”

Gayoung seemed to be growing more self-conscious.

I felt like she was trying to prove her usefulness.

Seonyoung seemed to sense it too, and treated her with even more warmth.

Being left alone, waiting only for us, she must be having a lot of anxious thoughts.

But it was hard to comfort her, and ultimately, she had to reassure herself; there was nothing else to be done.

“Stop that and let’s eat. Gayoung, don’t try to do everything by yourself. We need to know where things are too. Just leave it for now.”

We ate together, lost in thought.

My concerns weren’t about Gayoung, but the practicalities of the supplies we had Farmed.

There wasn’t enough space in the house.

It wasn’t that there was no room to move, but the house was already cluttered to a suffocating degree.

It felt like we were living to serve our belongings. And that, surprisingly, was a source of stress.

I’d heard somewhere that in extreme situations, how well a person managed stress significantly impacted their health.

In the long run, it could either aid or hinder survival.

Considering our daily lives, I felt we were definitely in an extreme situation.

At home, we should be able to relieve stress and rest comfortably, but my worries only deepened.

It made me wonder why there used to be TV shows helping people organize their homes.

“Oppa. What are you thinking about? Just enjoy your lunch for now.”

“Oh, just thinking about something.”

“We don’t have much more food like this left. Let’s worry about that later, together. For now, let’s just enjoy our meal.”

Looking at the two sitting opposite me, I noticed Gayoung was also now looking at me with a worried expression.

Had I shown my worries too much on my face?

“Haha, you’re right. Seonyoung, you’re much better than me.”

“*Hehe*, right? This bean sprout salad is delicious. Gayoung, should we try growing bean sprouts?”

Feeling that they were worrying because of me, I smiled and let go of my thoughts.

Not only were the supplies piling up, but I was almost carrying my worries like a burden too.

An ironic situation, stressing myself out by thinking about “stress management” and all that.

I decided to tackle the bothersome issues together later and picked up some of the bean sprout salad Seonyoung had mentioned.

It really was delicious.

Thanks to it, I felt somewhat relieved.