Chapter 13

Kwak Hanmuk opened his mouth.

“…Wow.”

He sprinted toward me in a single leap and threw an arm over my shoulders with a solid thump.

“I’ve been called crazy everywhere I go, but I’ve never met a real one before.”

Showing his sharp teeth, Kwak Hanmuk grinned broadly.

“Goyo, you’re completely insane.”

“Thank you.”

When I thanked him, he even burst out laughing.

I also picked up a baseball bat for Kwak Hanmuk and handed it to him.

Encouraged by his enthusiasm, I explained my plan.

“There’s a group that has taken over a convenience store.”

The guys who had occupied that large convenience store had committed every crime imaginable in an apocalyptic world murder, arson, looting, and more.

They were a group of five or six people who, if left alone, would keep causing trouble for players until the very end of Dead Zone Delivery.

To the point that the zombies seemed like better people than they were.

In an apocalyptic world where authority had collapsed, sometimes it was necessary to dispense justice yourself.

The fastest way to move forward was to eliminate them from the beginning.

“Let’s go.”

After hearing a superficial explanation, Kwak Hanmuk didn’t even ask any further questions and tucked the bat under his arm.

I guided him while he casually walked behind me until we reached our destination.

The name of the large convenience store was incredibly straightforward.

Dead Convenience Store.

Through the clean front windows, the interior was perfectly visible.

The zombies in Dead Zone Delivery had impaired sight and smell, reacting only to sound, so there was no need to cover the glass.

The moment I recognized the store, a system window appeared.

◆ Main Mission: Drive out the group that has occupied Dead Convenience Store.

You have decided to attempt a reckless strategy to speed up the playthrough.

The occupants of the store, always filled with anger, are powerful enemies and wish to turn you into zombie food.

However, you think the adventure might succeed if you have a strong companion.

The system window was right.

If I were playing alone, I would never have attempted something like this.

But now I had someone I could rely on.

“It’s there.”

The moment I pointed at the store with my finger, Kwak Hanmuk shot forward.

Crash!

The bat swung powerfully and shattered the large front window.

Kwak Hanmuk jumped inside together with a shower of broken glass.

The men who had been sitting around joking near the shelves hurriedly stood up and grabbed their weapons.

One of them even had a pistol that who knows where he had gotten.

But in front of Kwak Hanmuk, that meant nothing.

BANG!

The gunshot echoed throughout the store.

The bullet ended up hitting an innocent bag of snacks.

The poor chips exploded beyond recognition.

Immediately afterward, the bat came down on the shooter’s head.

THUD!

The man collapsed to the floor instantly.

The pistol slipped from his hand, but Kwak Hanmuk caught it effortlessly.

He tucked it into his waistband and swung the bat at the others again.

One of the men took a direct hit and flew through the air like a baseball, knocking over a shelf.

A shower of Buldak-flavored instant ramen fell on top of him.

Kwak Hanmuk stepped on the fallen shelf and jumped.

A flawless kick sliced through the air and struck a man who was awkwardly holding a knife.

The difference between a professional soldier and a bunch of twenty-somethings who hadn’t even completed military service was enormous.

So enormous that it was embarrassing to even mention it.

I watched comfortably from the back.

My only contribution was hitting anyone with the bat who tried to get back up.

The first man who had been struck by Kwak Hanmuk spoke through groans of pain.

“Damn it, who the hell are you people…?”

Ah!

I immediately ran over to him.

And rescued a cup of Buldak-flavored ramen that was about to be soaked in his blood.

A valuable food source had almost been ruined.

After carefully checking that it was intact, I answered him.

“And why does that matter to you?”

The man’s eyes widened.

I tilted my head and continued.

“Even if you knew who I was, it’s not like it would prolong your life.”

“What…? Agh!”

He tried to shout something else, so I hit him with the bat.

The man closed his eyes and obediently passed out.

Kwak Hanmuk was still having fun.

While I organized the supplies scattered across the floor, I waited quietly.

Soon afterward, the only thing left inside the store was the groaning of unconscious men.

You have defeated the occupants of Dead Convenience Store!

It was impossible to achieve a cleaner victory than that.

Kwak Hanmuk read the system message and clicked his tongue.

“Already over?”

He sounded disappointed.

He even swung the bat through the air a couple of times out of pure frustration.

“Captain Kwak, you’re amazing.”

I gave him two thumbs up.

Captain, I hope I can take advantage of you many more times in the future.

Faced with my sincere flattery aimed at the future, Kwak Hanmuk grinned broadly.

He rested the bat on his shoulder and said,

“That was damn fun. Goyo, should we do something like this again?”

I had plenty of plans for him in Dead Zone Delivery.

Smashing zombies.

Crushing zombies.

Sending zombies flying through the air.

And many other similar activities.

While I was glad to have found someone so suited to that kind of work, a system window appeared.

You have continued hesitating about registering ‘Mo Haein’.

However, registration is an indispensable process for growing as a System.

You think it might not be a bad idea to take a small risk and register ‘Kwak Hanmuk’ first.

Would you like to register ‘Kwak Hanmuk’?

While I continued refusing to register Mo Haein, the system had already started looking for compromises on its own.

Since I had already gotten used to ignoring the system windows, I picked up a backpack that was lying on the floor.

You have obtained a backpack.

The amount of items you can carry has increased.

Dead Zone Delivery did not have a basic inventory system, so obtaining a backpack was mandatory.

It was a mechanic designed to increase realism, but having to personally carry all your luggage was extremely annoying.

I began storing supplies inside the backpack.

While picking up a cup of Buldak-flavored ramen, I suddenly looked at the packaging.

Buldak flavor born from the grave of flames that consumed ■■■!

Although it looked like ordinary Korean ramen, the description on the packaging was quite strange.

When I played the game, items only displayed a brief explanation of the flavor.

This was the first time I had seen the actual packaging, so I looked at other nearby foods.

Tuna with mayonnaise caught from the boiling River of ■

Salmon with mayonnaise caught from the foaming River of ■

The descriptions on the rice triangles were just as horrible.

If I weren’t in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, I wouldn’t have wanted to touch them with a ten-foot pole.

“Goyo, what’s wrong?”

Kwak Hanmuk asked as he opened a bag of chocolate candies and dumped them all into his mouth.

“The descriptions are pretty weird.”

“Trials are always like that.”

Come to think of it, item descriptions had always been rather strange.

While I packed away food, Kwak Hanmuk tossed some snacks into my backpack and then carefully restrained the store occupants, piling them up in a corner.

When he finished, he cracked his knuckles.

“So, should we kill them?”

“No need to bother, Captain. They’re still useful.”

With that amount of food, three people could eat for quite a long time.

I slung the backpack over my shoulder and looked out the window.

“Grrr…”

The zombies that had heard the gunshots were shambling toward the store.

At a glance, there were several dozen of them.

“Let’s leave them dinner before we go.”

I gave them exactly the same thing those men had done to the survivors of Green Zone.

I used them as bait.

Kwak Hanmuk and I escaped without any trouble while the zombies swarmed over them.

Kwak Hanmuk whistled as he watched the feast.

“Now we should head to Green Zone and meet up with Captain Mo.”

“Yes.”

He answered obediently while walking behind me.

Then he suddenly asked,

“You’re twenty-four?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re seven years younger than me.”

Clack.

The sound of a pistol being cocked rang out.

I stopped.

And slowly turned around, hoping I was mistaken.

“No matter how much you know this Trial is an illusory space that repeats endlessly, it’s different when it’s right in front of your eyes.”

But the gun was pointed directly at me.

Kwak Hanmuk continued.

“Even Compatibles trained by the Trial Response Agency usually hesitate before acting.”

Then he mimicked the sound of gunfire with his mouth.

“Bang. Bang.”

“And you fed people to zombies without even blinking.”

Thinking about it, it was a reasonable suspicion.

I had only done it because this was a Trial.

If it hadn’t been, I would have also—

Hm.

I remembered Park Seonggyeon’s head turning into brilliant golden fireworks.

And corrected my thoughts.

“I think I’m just a pretty cold person.”

“Pretty?”

“Well, I want to survive too.”

Kwak Hanmuk burst out laughing.

My answer didn’t seem to have displeased him.

But since it was Captain Kwak, I couldn’t be sure.

He was the type of person who could laugh like that and pull the trigger the very next second.

“I just have my priorities straight.”

As I spoke slowly, I walked toward him.

I stopped right in front of the barrel of his pistol.

“And you’re one of my priorities too, Captain.”

Kwak Hanmuk stared at me.

His gaze asked why.

I answered.

“We’re a team.”

We’re on the same side.

So stop being suspicious of me.

I couldn’t say it that directly, but Kwak Hanmuk understood exactly what I meant.

He immediately burst out laughing and tucked the pistol into his jacket.

“There’s no dealing with you, hyung Goyo.”

I didn’t understand why he insisted on calling me hyung, but I responded immediately.

“Thank you for trusting me.”

Fortunately, things ended there.

If he had kept pointing the gun at me, things would have become quite troublesome.

I didn’t want to blow up Kwak Hanmuk’s head.

After that, I took him to an armory.

In the game, that armory was a hidden location whose whereabouts could only be discovered after completing an enormous number of side quests.

But I guided him there as if it were my own home.

And Kwak Hanmuk looted the items as if it were his as well.

Watching him follow me without asking questions gave me a strange feeling.

I had never explained anything to the Trial Response Agency.

Only Samra knew that I had experienced the Trials and their characters through the game.

And yet, after the Special Mission Team was formed, nobody questioned me again.

Not even Kwak Hanmuk.

Even though I was revealing strategies and even the locations of rare items, nobody said anything.

‘I guess as long as I can close Trials, they don’t care what I am.’

It was an attitude that made it clear they were willing to use me as a tool.

I knew the Agency valued results above all else.

But even so, it felt unlike a government institution.

By the time we finished looting the armory, the sun was already setting.

With an additional duffel bag slung over my shoulder, I headed toward Green Zone beneath the reddish glow of the evening sky.

Zombies were slow during the day.

But at night they became much faster.

If you didn’t want to participate in a chase with running zombies behind you, you had to reach Green Zone before sunset.

Dead Zone Delivery was divided into four areas.

Green Zone.

The safe area where the survivors lived.

Only a few zombies appeared occasionally.

Yellow Zone.

The starting area where players began.

Zombies appeared frequently, and at night their numbers doubled.

Red Zone.

A region infested with zombies both day and night.

And finally…

Dead Zone.

A place where it was always considered nighttime even under sunlight.

In addition, so-called Dead Zombies appeared there.

Zombies that were much stronger and faster than normal ones.

The laboratory that was our destination was located precisely in Dead Zone.

Following the normal route, players had to become much stronger before attempting the delivery.

Of course, I had no intention of following the normal method.

Before entering Green Zone, I asked Kwak Hanmuk to do something he was especially suited for.

He gladly agreed.

Once we entered Green Zone, the number of zombies dropped drastically.

The survivor camp had been established inside an elementary school.

The guards stationed at the entrance, protected by barbed wire, watched us with obvious suspicion.

Being aimed at by two people with guns no longer affected me.

I opened my backpack.

The guards’ eyes widened when they saw the enormous amount of food.

“Pass information about food to a woman named Samrae. She should have arrived here today.”

Faced with that much food, suspicion stopped mattering.

One of the guards ran inside.

Shortly afterward, a man in his fifties appeared accompanied by several subordinates.

“Where did you get all this food?”

Mo Haein wasn’t there.

Kwak Hanmuk and I exchanged glances.

There was no way a handful of men that mediocre could have stopped Mo Haein from getting out.

And if she hadn’t appeared despite all the commotion, there could only be one explanation.

She had never reached Green Zone.

Why?

There was no reason for that to happen.

Kwak Hanmuk frowned slightly.

Then he stepped closer and whispered quietly to me.

“Captain Mo… I think a zombie bit her.”