EPZ 4

Chapter: 4

[Sob… the radio you’re holding—it’s mine. I lost my own, so I ended up taking yours, Captain… hic… and then zombies suddenly started swarming…! Ngh—ugh! P-please, Captain, help me! Because of me, you’re—!]

“…Okay. Stop. Slowly, please.”

[Huh? Slo—oh, you mean slowly? Sniff.]

Damn it. He was talking too fast—I couldn’t understand a single word.
So… he was crying and asking me to help the captain, right?

With a pained groan, Jigu spoke again.

“Where are you?”

[Th-that’s… I’m not really sure. The Captain was carrying me while running.]

“The captain. Where is the captain?”

[That… I don’t know either…]

“Hah.”

Jigu let out a dumbfounded sigh and stared hard at the radio.

Perhaps flustered by Jigu’s silence, the man hesitated for a while with the transmit button pressed before suddenly exclaiming as if he remembered something.

[Ah! I do remember going underground.]

Of course. The radio signal was coming from underground.

Jigu, her face drawn, let out a long breath.

Failing the tutorial quest meant failing the game itself.

For a moment, the thought crossed her mind that if the game ended, she might return to her original world—but she quickly erased it.

Somehow, that feels like it wouldn’t end well.

Lost in thought, Jigu pressed the transmit button again.

“Are you safe right now?”

[Huh? Ah, you mean if I’m safe? Yes… there are zombies outside, but I’m safe for now. The problem is, the door inside won’t open.]

Where on earth was he trapped?

Jigu looked at the radio with a puzzled expression, then shook her head.

At least he was safe—for now. That was a relief.
The bigger issue was the other survivor who had lured the zombies away.

He had to still be alive. The quest failure notification hadn’t appeared yet.
But there was no guarantee he’d stay that way.

“…But how do I get out of here?”

The biggest problem was that she was trapped too.

Heavy pounding and frantic screams echoed from beyond the door.

There were at least ten zombies outside. To fight them, she’d have to deactivate the Safe Zone—but if the zombies poured into this tiny storage room all at once, she’d die. No question.
Or worse—she’d become one of them.

Biting her lip hard, Jigu slowly scanned the storage room.
But aside from boxes and mannequins, there was nothing useful.

Then—her eyes lit up.

Behind a shelf, she spotted a ventilation duct covered by a metal grate.

“Bingo.”

She tore off the grate, and just as expected, a passageway appeared.

It was extremely narrow, but for a small-framed woman like Jigu, it was just wide enough to crawl through.
Narrow, filthy, and hot—that was the downside.

“Ugh—ah… achoo!”

Dust tickled her nose, and Jigu hurriedly covered her mouth, holding her breath.

Thankfully, there was no movement inside the duct. Only then did she relax slightly and begin crawling forward.

…But where am I supposed to go?

Escaping the storage room was one thing, but she had no idea where she was—or where she should be heading.

She hoped she’d find another exit, but no matter how far she crawled, there was only endless darkness.
Warm, stifling air pressed against her skin, and thick beads of sweat rolled down the back of her neck.

It was narrow.
And dark.

It felt like being trapped inside a coffin.

“Sniff… hnng.”

Jigu sniffled and rummaged around before pulling out the radio.

“Mayday, mayday.”

[G-gah! W-what is it?!]

“My nose itches.”

[……]

Only static crackled from the radio, with no response—but that was enough for Jigu.

Thump. Thump.

Her heart pounded with pleasant excitement.

If she cleared the tutorial quest and then the game-clear quest, she could go home.
But that wasn’t why her heart was racing.

I’m finally going to meet another living person!

What should I say when we meet?
Hi? Oh, right—this is an English-speaking place. Hello?
Hmm… how do you say “Have you eaten?” in English again?

Koreans live on food—maybe I should feed him first once the tutorial’s over.
He’s a foreigner, sure, but food is universal, right?

Despite her excitement, her tense body was soaked in cold sweat.

The further she crawled, the more her vision was tinged red—warning her of danger.

Still, wiping the sweat dripping from her chin, Jigu flashed a toothy grin.

At the end of the long passage, three branching paths finally appeared.

From somewhere, faint zombie moans echoed.

If he lured the zombies away, he’d be in the most dangerous spot.

She turned right—and her vision darkened into a deep, blood-red hue.

I’m going to die.
I’m absolutely going to die.

Cold sweat trickled down her back, but instead of fear, a thrilling exhilaration shot through her spine.

Then, just as she reached out to support herself—

Her body suddenly pitched downward.

It was a slope.

Crash! Bang!

“Ugh—!”

She curled up instinctively to protect her head, but as she slid down the slope, her head, arms—her entire body slammed repeatedly into the walls.
It felt like someone had stuffed her into a narrow tube and shaken it violently.

Boom! Bang! Thud!

After sliding endlessly, her body finally slammed hard into something and came to a stop.

I—I almost died…

Letting out a shaky sigh of relief, Jigu lifted her head.

But beneath the hand braced on the floor came an ominous sound.

Creeeak. Creak.

Her trembling eyes followed the sound, and Jigu sucked in a sharp breath.

Kyaaah!
Graah!

Beneath the dense metal grate below her writhed countless heads.
An immeasurable number of zombies were packed together.

Holding her breath, Jigu carefully tried to rise—but the grate, already screaming under the strain, finally gave way.

Snap! Crunch!

Her field of vision suddenly dropped.

If I fall like this, I’ll be torn apart by starving zombies!

“Ghk—!”

Thud!

Barely managing to grab the edge of the ventilation duct, Jigu hung there, a strained groan escaping her lips.
Below her dangling feet, dozens of writhing heads stretched upward hungrily.

Kyaaah! Grrk! Graaah!

A zombie struck by the falling grate spotted her and shrieked, prompting the others to erupt into horrifying cheers.

But Jigu’s gaze was fixed on one spot.

Beep— Beep—

A sharp warning alarm rang out.

The sound was coming from below—from a man.

Jigu smiled faintly and murmured,

“…Hello, Captain.”

At last.

They had finally met.

Beep— Beep—

How much time had passed?

The piercing alarm jolted Kalif awake.

As his mutation rate passed 90%, his bodily functions had gradually begun to fail.
Now, it felt as though blown fuses were snapping—his memories cutting out in fragments.

[Mutation Rate: 97%]

The rate had already exceeded 90% when he entered the city.
Now, it had risen to 97%.

That meant he was 97% identical to those walking corpses.

Could he even still call himself human?

Kalif tore the grasping hands of the corpses away from him and staggered back, letting out a self-mocking sigh.
His stiffened joints made even such a simple movement difficult.

The container in the underground parking garage where he lay was surrounded by a horde of drooling zombies.
In his usual condition, breaking through them would have been easy.

But his body, now little different from the infected, refused to obey his will.

Kalif realized that his end was right before him.

If only that end were death, it would have been better.

When the mutation rate reached 100%, a Sentinel turned into a zombie.

The origin of the zombie virus that had driven the world into ruin in just over three years was none other than Sentinels like him.

Before the fall, humanity had been divided into two major groups:
the vast majority living ordinary lives, and clone humans developed as weapons.

Clone humans who awakened supernatural abilities and physical power beyond human limits were called Sentinels.

A nation’s standing was determined by whether it possessed Sentinels.
Countries without high-performance Sentinels were invaded, plundered, and erased from the map without a trace.

A world where the strong ruled the weak.
A world governed solely by power.

And yet, the brutal order believed to be eternal collapsed overnight.

Sentinels who overused their abilities beyond their limits began losing their reason—and attacking people.

Because these deranged Sentinels were clearly weaker than before, both physically and in their abilities, people believed the incidents would be swiftly contained.

That was—until those killed by Sentinels began to rise again.

Walking corpses.
Zombies.

Those killed or wounded by deranged Sentinels began transforming into zombies, and the virus rapidly spread among ordinary people.

Only Sentinels were free from the virus.

Sentinels did not become infected when bitten by zombies.

Because they were already carriers.

To be precise—calling them infected was more accurate.