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Chapter: 8
“Hmm. Not as many as I thought.”
Since people’s habits tend to be similar, the grocery section looked emptier than expected. Still, it was in better condition than the Little Rock village’s store.
Of course, that was just from Earth standards—there was still no way anyone could carry all of it in a normal backpack.
But I have an inventory.
A 144-slot inventory, capable of holding 999 of each item!
“Oh, onion soup!”
Earth squealed in delight at a soup can she had never seen before.
Pea soup, tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, even canned smoked salmon! The shelves were stacked with an array of canned foods she had never seen before.
As Earth’s eyes sparkled and she reached out to grab a can, the soups began to vanish into thin air as if by magic. They were all going straight into the inventory.
As she swept the cans up at near-mindless speed, Edwin, who was putting a single can into his bag nearby, gawked.
“W-what are you doing right now?”
“Huh? Farming.”
“Excuse me? Farming…?”
What? She didn’t know what “farming” meant? How should I explain this…
Earth scratched her forehead, pondering.
“Um… so… collecting items?”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant! What is that ability of yours?”
Edwin pointed at Earth’s hand. Just as he did, a can of Spam vanished from thin air. Edwin’s jaw dropped.
‘Ah… Edwin doesn’t have an inventory?’
Earth felt awkward at his strong reaction and wiggled her fingers.
Right. NPCs in the game wouldn’t have inventories. This must be a privilege granted only to players. To them, this place would be reality.
Earth nodded in understanding but still had no idea how to explain it.
“This is a game, and I’m a player. That’s why I have this ability.”
If she said that, she’d surely be labeled a complete lunatic.
What on earth should I say…? Earth hesitated. Then, seeing Edwin seem to understand, he cautiously asked:
“C-could it be, Earth… are you a Sentinel?”
“Huh?”
A Sentinel? What’s that?
Earth vaguely remembered seeing the word “Sentinel” in the Guiding Skill description. She didn’t really know what it was, but since Edwin seemed convinced, it might be best to just go along and call herself a Sentinel.
But that hope was shattered by Caliph’s firm denial.
“No. Earth is not a Sentinel.”
Damn it.
Earth pouted.
“Calling me a Sentinel… it’s just…”
The energy was different.
Caliph stopped mid-sentence. How should he explain this?
Each Sentinel had a unique resonance. Like a fingerprint, every Sentinel’s frequency was different, but there was one common trait: an untamed, violent wave or a sharpness like a thorn. That made it difficult for Sentinels to get close to one another; their frequencies would clash even just by being nearby.
But Earth was different.
Her frequency was so subtle that, if not observed carefully, she could easily be mistaken for an ordinary person. Yet when one touched her skin, it was like being swallowed by a vast, deep ocean wave.
Inside it was astonishingly calm and gentle—like the primordial amniotic fluid, a place one never wanted to leave.
“Then… what is that ability?”
Edwin blinked at Caliph’s firm denial. He was not the only one left speechless.
‘What now…?’
She had used the inventory carelessly as usual and now found herself cornered. Yet a rebellious thought surfaced.
‘So what if I just insist I have this ability?’
It’s an NPC’s virtue to turn a blind eye to a player’s privileges, isn’t it? Still, this game was frustratingly realistic in unnecessary ways.
In times like this, it was best to just brazenly push forward.
Just as Earth resolved to speak, a sudden BANG!
A gunshot pierced the silence.
Followed by urgent footsteps and the groans of a horde of zombies.
Someone—or something—was coming this way.
The three of them quickly assessed the situation and ducked beneath the display shelves.
“Are there other soldiers?”
“Uh? N-no… we didn’t see any survivors besides the two of us.”
“Shh. They’re coming this way.”
At Caliph’s warning, they held their breath and watched the entrance.
“Bastards!”
Click! Click! The firing pin misfired as Maya ran out of bullets.
Cursing, she lunged forward, drawing a knife.
But it was nearly impossible to fight off dozens of zombies with a knife only a handspan long.
Thunk!
The knife struck an eyeball precisely and pierced deep into the skull. Luckily, it had gone through the brain, and the zombie stopped flailing.
But that was just one of many.
“Ugh…!”
A blind hand swiped past her arm. Thankfully, only her thick leather jacket was scratched, but it still sent chills down her spine.
Yet could this really be called fortunate? Even while exhausted, zombies attracted by the gunshot were swarming in relentlessly.
‘Something was off the moment those idiots recklessly pushed forward!’
Regret washed over her. Despite the world being in ruins, she had naively trusted them. She felt like a fool.
About a month ago, the Shelter, where she had served for half a year as a Sentinel, was completely destroyed by mutated Sentinels.
Only about thirty survivors had made it out alive from that horrific hell. Then, on the grueling journey to Rickford village, the number was halved, and then halved again.
The threat to human survival wasn’t only the zombies. Over five had starved to death.
Finding relatively intact Rickford village was a huge stroke of luck. At least compared to those bastards that could chew you up.
“Peggy! The exit?”
“There isn’t one! Those damn bastards locked it!”
Peggy wept in rage at Maya’s question. The endless selfishness of humans was maddening.
The only exit they had found was an employee parking lot at the back of the mall. The entrance was partially blocked by vehicles, which initially kept zombie influx manageable. But the real problem came afterward.
On their way to the supermarket, some idiots panicked at a sudden zombie and fired, awakening the horde.
And now, this was the result.
While Maya struggled to hold the zombies back, they had escaped to the parking lot and locked the door in case zombies followed.
The mall’s main entrance was blocked by others who had come down from above, forcing them to run underground.
CRASH!
The fragile glass doors of the supermarket finally broke under pressure. They hastily shoved a nearby display shelf to block the entrance, but zombies were already squeezing through. It was only a matter of time before they broke through.
“Damn it!”
Maya dodged the writhing zombies and ran backward, while Peggy carried the injured child on her back and followed.
Yet the zombies that had entered the store were tracking the blood droplets from the child’s feet.
It couldn’t get worse than this.
No bullets remained, and the zombies kept coming. Only two exhausted women and an injured child remained. And there was no exit.
Still, they couldn’t give up here.
‘I’ve survived this long!’
Clenching her teeth, Maya grabbed a hand axe from the shelf. It would at least be better than a one-span knife.
WHACK!
Sure enough, the hand axe struck the temple of a zombie that leaped from the corner. Its head flopped to the ground, with thick, foul-smelling fluid dripping from the skull crack.
Stepping on the zombie’s collapsing head, Maya drew her axe out. Peggy, running ahead, pointed behind her.
“Maya! They’re coming!”
“Run!”
A few fast zombies were already closing in. Clenching her teeth, Peggy sprinted between the shelves, trying to evade them. She needed somewhere to escape, but where could they go?
“ARGH!”
“AAH!”
“Mommyyy!”
“Peggy!”
As Peggy dodged between shelves with the child on her back, a zombie lunged from the left and fell on her.
THUD!
Entangled with the zombie, her thin body slammed into a shelf. The wobbly shelf groaned ominously, then CRASH! THUD! collapsed in a chain reaction.
“Ugh… R-Ryan…!”
Peggy, crouching under the falling debris, gasped as she muttered the child’s name. Her back struck hard against the fallen objects, making it hard to breathe and her vision spin.
