Chapter 12 : Companions (2)

Chapter 12: Companions (2)

Variant Zombie.

Excluding boss monsters, it was a monster that boasted the highest practical danger level in the tutorial.

There were a total of three types of Variant Zombies.

One of them was the Muscle Zombie, Alpha (α), wandering about in the distance.

“Grrr……!”

An appearance like a gym rat who looked capable of easily benching 500 for 3 reps turned into a zombie.

True to its brutish bulk, it possessed an extremely aggressive disposition and monstrous strength.

‘100P for that one alone, huh…….’

On top of that, including the first-hunt achievement for Variant-Alpha, he would gain an additional 100P.

‘No wonder it’s hard not to get greedy.’

Dohyeong curled up the corners of his lips and took a step forward.

“I’ll take that one.”

Suho’s eyes widened as he tried to stop Dohyeong.

“Eh? Hyung, isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

To Suho, a newbie, Alpha was naturally a dangerous existence.

But to Dohyeong, who knew its strategy inside and out, it was a familiar opponent he could take down even without using [Giga Checkron–Manifestation].

‘Convincing this guy might actually be harder.’

Dohyeong met Suho’s gaze and spoke calmly.

“That thing’s all alone and wide open right now. You never know when it’ll start moving around with other zombies. Rather than running into it like that later, it’s better to clash now.”

For something made up on the spot, it was a fairly plausible justification.

At those words, Suho wore a worried expression, but he didn’t try to stop Dohyeong any further.

“……Understood.”

There was no justification for him to hold back someone as skilled as Dohyeong.

“Don’t worry.”

Dohyeong let out a faint chuckle.

‘Good thing it worked.’

In truth, even though he had made that excuse, Alpha, unlike ‘Beta’ and ‘Delta,’ did not form packs with other zombies.

In other words, wandering alone like that was its normal behavior pattern.

However, there was no need to go out of his way to point that out, so Dohyeong immediately turned his back to Suho.

“…….”

There was no further conversation.

He merely looked down at the ‘Giga Snail Spear’ in his hand.

‘I just need to land one hit.’

A weapon that was practically an instant-kill cheat key against monsters level 6 and below.

Since all tutorial monsters, excluding ‘Bosses’ and ‘Hidden Piece Monsters,’ were fixed at level 1, Dohyeong could be even more confident.

“For now, you wait a bit farther back. You might get caught up in it for no reason.”

“Hyung, be careful.”

After giving a single nod, Dohyeong looked for the thickest tree nearby.

Then, with his back against it, he pulled out the ‘Kobold Hunter’s Lever Crossbow’ from the duffel bag.

Click, clack.

Recalling the memory of activating 【Giga Checkron–Manifestation】, he pulled the lever and loaded a bolt.

“Phew…….”

After taking a short deep breath, Dohyeong aimed the crossbow at Alpha.

Unaware of that fact, the creature merely heaved rough breaths as its body twitched.

“Grrr, grrk!”

Calmly aiming for the creature’s head, Dohyeong held his breath.

For a moment, it felt as though the pounding of his heart echoed close by his ears.

And then.

Thunk……!

The bolt flew with force.

Swoosh! Thud!

It had been an attack aimed at the head, but the bolt lodged itself into a nearby tree instead.

Sure enough, without activating ‘Giga Checkron,’ both accuracy and power dropped significantly.

“Grrk?!”

Sensing hostility, Alpha’s head snapped around.

Soon after, upon spotting Dohyeong, it let out a loud roar.

“Graaaah!”

Then, kicking off the ground powerfully, it began charging forward like a brute.

Papak, pak!

Thud! Crack!

The ground gouged and the branches in its path snapped.

The monster charged forward, smashing through everything in its way with sheer brute force.

‘As expected, is the crossbow still a bit too much?’

Click, thunk!

As the creature closed the distance, Dohyeong fired the crossbow once more.

Thud!

“Grrrk!”

A bolt embedded itself into the chest of the charging creature.

Paying it no mind, it thrust its head forward and barreled straight in.

“It’s dangerous!”

Suho’s shrill shout rang out from behind.

But Dohyeong had already prepared for the creature’s charge.

‘When it takes the [Charge] stance, because of those massive muscles, it can’t change direction. So……!’

At that instant, he kicked off the ground and hurled his body to the right.

Thud!

Almost simultaneously came a powerful impact.

Koooom……!

Charging without properly looking ahead, the creature smashed its head squarely into the tree behind Dohyeong.

“……Guaaah!”

Suffering a tremendous shock, the creature clutched its head with both hands and writhed in pain.

The moment he had been waiting for arrived.

‘Stun judgment, now!’

Eyes gleaming, Dohyeong didn’t miss the opening and swung the Giga Snail Spear in a wide arc.

Swoosh! Spurt.

Slash, fzzzt……!

A wound was embroidered across the creature’s back.

And from the embroidered wound, bubbles surged violently, rapidly melting that area away.

Fssshhhk!

Corrosion damage exceeding 300 per second began to sink in.

“Guaaaargh!”

The creature screamed, flailing its limbs in agony.

That pain would continue until its movements completely ceased.

And then…….

Ding!

「You have solo defeated the Variant Zombie–Alpha for the first time in the tutorial」

Acquired Achievement Points 200P

One of the most dangerous creatures in the tutorial met its end.

‘Variant Zombie or not, as long as they don’t move in packs, I can beat them all.’

Looking down at Alpha’s corpse, twisted grotesquely in death, Dohyeong smiled.

Suho, who had been running over thinking Dohyeong was in danger, froze upon seeing the scene.

“You won……? Really?”

Time flowed quickly.

It was already the third day since Dohyeong and Suho began traveling together.

During that time, Dohyeong devoted himself to hunting Variant Zombies, pushing his achievement points past 6,000.

‘That means I’ve secured at least one item from the VIP Shop.’

Just thinking about the sweet reward he would receive in a few days made Dohyeong’s heart race.

The Essence Absorption for the Hidden Piece was also progressing very smoothly.

‘If things keep going like this, it’ll be fine.’

After nodding once to himself, Dohyeong looked at Suho.

A torn school uniform shredded here and there and a grimy face, vividly showing the hardship of the past three days.

‘This guy’s become pretty decent too.’

Perhaps because he had thrown himself into zombie hunting together with him.

At first, even a single enhanced normal zombie had been too much for the kid, but now he could handle about two without much trouble.

‘Even if it’s thanks to [Mental Armament], his adaptation speed is pretty fast.’

It was then, as he looked at Suho with interest.

“Oof, my back’s killing me. Hyung, we’re sleeping on the ground again today, right?”

“Why, tired?”

“Yes, no matter what else, I don’t think I’ll ever really get used to this. I keep worrying because you never know when zombies might come rushing in…….”

Just as Suho said, over the past three days, the two who had been sleeping rough had found it difficult to get proper sleep.

Suho thought it was simply something unavoidable.

But in truth, all of this was something Dohyeong had deliberately planned.

Ding!

「An achievement has been completed」

「Five hours have passed since accepting another player into your party. You have formally acknowledged the current group and have been selected as the ‘Leader’」

Reward Achievement Points : 200P

「You successfully camped safely without being attacked even once by zombies * Leader only」

Reward Achievement Points : 150P

「You volunteered to stand guard for your party members * Leader only」

Reward Achievement Points : 100P

「You spent the night safely atop a tree * Leader only」

Reward Achievement Points : 50P

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.

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Up to now, Dohyeong had obtained a total of around 600P solely from achievements related to sleeping rough.

‘I’ve finished all the achievements I can get from roughing it, so from now on I should look for a proper place to rest.’

Even now, he was moving under the pretense of securing edible Green Fruits for Suho.

But his true objective was to find the resting place he had already marked beforehand.

‘It should be around here…….’

While gauging the location he had confirmed atop a giant tree on the first day, he moved his feet.

At that moment, a sound accompanied by a presence came from ahead.

Fusss…….

“!”

Dohyeong instinctively signaled Suho, then hid behind a nearby tree and took a combat stance.

Was it a zombie?

No, if it were a zombie, howling would have been heard first. Which meant…….

Rustle.

A yellowed face and sunken cheeks.

The dark circles hanging heavily under the eyes looked similar to a zombie’s, but—

What emerged from the bushes was an ordinary middle-aged man with a scraped forehead.

At the man’s appearance, Suho’s eyes widened.

“Uncle Jihwan?”

“Huh?! W-who……?”

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.

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The Jihwan group that encountered Dohyeong’s party numbered three in total.

Among them, Jihwan, who had been acquainted with Suho before, wiped the dry sweat from his forehead and stepped forward.

“Haha, student! To think we’d meet again like this here. Looks like nothing dangerous happened, thankfully?”

“Huh? Ah, well…….”

“No, seriously, what on earth happened? Do you know how worried I was about you back then? I was so shocked, thinking you might’ve been done in by zombies.”

He spoke while slightly furrowing his brows as if worried, but—

To Dohyeong, it sounded nothing more than an excuse to justify abandoning Suho.

Dohyeong quickly understood what kind of person Jihwan was.

‘A hypocrite who values his own safety above all else while still watching how others perceive him.’

It was a rather harsh evaluation, but Dohyeong didn’t particularly see him as a bad person.

‘In a way, he’s just an extremely ordinary person.’

In Dohyeong’s view, most people were exactly like that.

Seeing Suho subtly increase the distance between them, Jihwan smacked his lips and turned his gaze toward Dohyeong.

“That aside, who might you be……?”

“My name is Jin Dohyeong. I ran into Suho by chance, and we’ve been traveling together.”

“Ah, I’m Manager Lee Jihwan from Saseong Fire & Marine Insurance. By the way, is it just the two of you in your party?”

After briefly looking back and forth between Dohyeong and Suho, Jihwan continued with a smile.

“Well, if you two are okay with it, how about joining our group? We’ve got a total of twenty-three people now, so if you join, most of the people who were at the Seogyo-dong Community Center will be gathered together.”

“……Twenty-three?”

Suho’s eyes widened in surprise at the unexpectedly large group size.

Meanwhile, Dohyeong carefully observed Jihwan’s party.

All of them, looking utterly haggard, were carrying bags.

Inside every one of them were bags filled to the brim with Yellow Fruits.

‘Haggard faces and bags full of Yellow Fruits, huh…….’

Misinterpreting Dohyeong’s gaze, Jihwan smiled and replied.

“A lot of people, right? At first there were only about ten. But people kept joining, and before we knew it, it became like this. Ah! And it might be hard to believe, but zombies don’t come to the place where our group is staying.”

Zombies don’t come.

Anyone who had lived even briefly in this forest would find that impossible to believe.

However, Dohyeong, who knew more about the Strange Forest than anyone else, understood exactly what Jihwan was talking about.

‘Since it’s only day three…… if they were near the ruins, it really would’ve been quiet up until now.’

Just then, Suho asked in a slightly urgent tone.

“Sir, by any chance, is there someone named Na Yeri in your group?”

“Hm? Na Yeri?”

Though he hadn’t shown it over the past three days, it seemed he had been quite worried about his older sister.

Moreover, with such a large group, it was natural to hope she might be among them.

‘With that woman’s skill, it’s not like she’d be in much danger anyway.’

Having already heard about her from Suho, Dohyeong wasn’t particularly concerned about her safety.

“Na Yeri, Na Yeri? Uh, come to think of it, I feel like there was someone with a similar name……? I think I’d have to actually go check to be sure.”

As Jihwan tilted his head uncertainly, Suho swallowed dryly.

Then he began glancing at Dohyeong, seeking his reaction.

Dohyeong wrapped an arm around Suho’s shoulder, signaling that it was fine.

“Yeah, we might be able to find your sister, so let’s go together.”

If Suho’s sister really was there—

They needed to get her out of that place as soon as possible.

Dohyeong briefly glanced at the setting sun and muttered inwardly.

‘Once midnight passes today, that place will turn into a living hell.’

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Just as Dohyeong had thought, the group had settled in a stone ruin steeped in an ominous aura.

And after checking each of the people gathered there in small clusters—

“Haha. Looks like it wasn’t Yeri, but Yeji.”

The person Jihwan had been confused about was not Suho’s sister.

And instead…….

“Hey, Na Suho! You were alive?”

“……”

Someone with a twisted history with Suho was mixed in among the group.

“Damn, since you disappeared for so long, I was worried something might’ve happened to you.”

A vicious presence reminiscent of a carnivorous beast, paired with a menacing face.

The bulky figure who approached with a sneer was a student from the same school—the one who had used Suho as bait and fled in front of the Seogyo-dong Community Center.

Though he didn’t know the full details, Dohyeong guessed that Suho had probably been bullied by the guy.

And Suho, who had shared hardships and survived together with Dohyeong over the past three days—

“Yeah? I thought you’d have turned into zombie food a long time ago. You sure got lucky staying alive.”

Was no longer the herbivorous animal the guy once knew.