EPZ 7

Chapter: 7

“Waaah—! C-Captain!”

The man crying through the radio, who had introduced himself as Private Edwin Moore, was trapped on the basement level of the supermarket—inside the freezer at the butcher’s section.

As for why he was trapped there… the handle on the outside of the freezer door had been crushed, like soft clay.

Who on earth had done something like that?

No matter what they tried, the mangled handle wouldn’t budge, so in the end they had to rip the entire door off.

Fortunately, the freezer—its power long since cut—wasn’t cold, but with no ventilation, Edwin would have died if he’d been stuck there much longer.

As Edwin shed fat, chicken-dropping-like tears, Jigu glanced sideways at Caliph, who stood next to him with a blank expression, then awkwardly scratched her cheek.

‘Looks like he doesn’t remember anything… right?’

After quite some time had passed since that mortifying kiss, the man had opened his eyes and—contrary to how rough he’d been earlier—calmly led her here with a completely indifferent face.

It seemed she was the only one feeling embarrassed.

‘Maybe it’s better if he doesn’t remember.’

No matter how she thought about it, she clearly hadn’t been in her right mind earlier. Otherwise, how could she have done something like that with a man she’d just met…?

Jigu pressed her lips together, then inhaled sharply—exhaled slowly—taking a deep breath.

No matter how she looked at it, this had to be the system’s doing.

Shaking her head, Jigu forced herself to ignore that addictive sensation that had left her whole body tingling.

‘That was just a quest.’

If you put it that way, it was practically a medical procedure. The man didn’t turn into a zombie—good. She completed the quest—also good.

And now, she was on the verge of completing another quest.

The most important quest of all.

[You have completed the tutorial quest ‘Rescue a Survivor.’]
[The Game Clear Quest has been unlocked.]

At last…!

Jigu clenched her fist as she stared at the stream of system windows floating before her eyes.

She had been trapped in this godforsaken zombie land for 444 days.

And now, she had finally found a way back to her original world.

Her heart began to pound with anticipation and excitement.

Clenching her trembling lips tightly, Jigu swallowed her dry saliva and opened her status window.

Won Jigu (20), Stamina 82%, Infection Rate 0%… Skip that. Who cares about infection rates right now? What mattered was—

[Game Clear Quest]
– Find the vaccine (0/1) and deliver it to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Right. Find the vaccine!

…Wait. What?

A vaccine?

“Gyaaah! This goddamn zombie land!”

“W-What is it?!”

As Jigu screamed and grabbed her hair, Edwin flinched in surprise and asked. Jigu stared back at him with hollow eyes.

“Where’s the vaccine?”

“Pardon? H-How would I know that…? M-More importantly, th-there is a vaccine?”

As if.

Judging by the fact that he was asking her instead, it seemed going home anytime soon was out of the question.

Haha. Ahahaha.

Jigu’s hollow laughter echoed weakly through the supermarket.

“Uh… are you alright…?”

After laughing emptily for quite some time, Jigu snapped back to her senses at Edwin’s question. She saw deep wariness settle into his clear, glass-bead-like blue eyes.

Mm. Yeah, I’ve definitely been branded as a crazy woman.

After finally meeting another survivor for the first time in forever, she couldn’t let that be her lasting impression.

Finding a possible way back to her original world was exciting—but the survivor standing right in front of her was just as indescribably comforting and joyful.

At least now she didn’t have to talk to zombies who couldn’t understand or respond!

“Hey. Why are you here? Spill it. Now.”

“…Excuse me?”

At Jigu’s sudden aggressive tone, both Caliph’s and Edwin’s faces twisted oddly.

They had already realized she wasn’t very good at English. But this went beyond just “not good.”

“…Why would you speak like that…?”

“Huh? That’s not right? Um… uh… May I inquire as to the purpose of your visit here, sir?”

An utterly unpredictable way of speaking.

Edwin stared at her, completely at a loss for words.

One moment she talked like some lowlife punk, the next like an elegant lady—and then she casually tossed out slang that had already gone extinct.

She was just blurting out lines she’d picked up from watching countless foreign dramas, but Caliph and Edwin had no way of knowing that.

Still, they more or less understood what she meant.

When she even started using courtly speech that sounded like it belonged in an 18th-century palace, Edwin hurriedly cut in.

“We’re soldiers from the Rangers Shelter. We were unable to regroup with our unit during a mission and were trying to return to the shelter when—”

Edwin trailed off awkwardly. Only now did he fully grasp their situation.

They’d been dispatched to the central-northern region to gather supplies, but became isolated mid-mission and failed to rejoin their unit.

They couldn’t contact their unit or the shelter—but unless they were dead, returning to the shelter was mandatory.

And while attempting to gather supplies on the way back, they’d once again ended up in danger.

The one who saved them was this small woman.

‘This is unbelievable.’

Edwin muttered inwardly.

Yes. It really was unbelievable. This couldn’t be explained away as simply “she saved us.”

Edwin’s gaze drifted to Caliph’s wrist.

A watch-like device that displayed a Sentinel’s mutation rate.

The last number Edwin remembered was 95%. But now, the number displayed was significantly lower—89%.

Countless people had studied Sentinel mutation rates, but no method to halt mutation had ever been found. None.

So he’d thought this time, they were truly done for.

And then, like a miracle, that woman appeared.

“Your unit? A shelter? Then there are other survivors?”

Her youthful face—matching the youthful voice from the radio—looked at him with goodwill, trust, and an inexplicable expectation.

“Y-Yes. Of course.”

At Edwin’s answer, Jigu’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

With absolutely no information about the vaccine, gathering clues was the priority. And the best place for that was a shelter where people gathered.

That was the biggest reason—but not the only one.

“I’m going too.”

“…What?”

“I’m coming too. To the Rangers.”

I miss it. Civilization.

As Jigu’s eyes burned with fervor, Edwin unconsciously took a step back.

“B-But the Rangers Shelter prohibits outsiders—”

Just then, Caliph cut him off.

“She can come with us.”

“W-What? No, outsiders—!”

“It’s possible.”

Caliph held a fairly high position in the shelter. Bringing in one woman was entirely doable.

Still, something bothered him.

At the time of their deployment, Caliph’s mutation rate had already exceeded 80%. Sentinels above 80% were classified as high-risk. And when they became isolated and sent a distress signal, their unit never responded.

The implication was clear.

‘They want us to die on our own.’

Even if he returned to the shelter, his ending wouldn’t be a good one.

Before the zombie virus spread, the Rangers Shelter had been the command headquarters of Sentinel units stationed on the front lines.

It was the shelter with the highest number of Sentinels in existence.

The reason it was still considered safe—despite housing so many virus carriers—was simple.

Any Sentinel with a mutation rate over 90% was immediately “disposed of.”

Even knowing his end would be death, Caliph still intended to take her with them.

‘I owe her my life.’

And more than anything, he wanted her to be safe.

He didn’t know how to describe this feeling.

They’d met only hours ago, yet from the moment their eyes met, all his senses had been drawn toward her.

Every gesture. Every breath she exhaled.

It felt as if her very existence had been engraved into his senses.

“Thanks, Captain.”

“Caliph.”

“Huh?”

“Caliph Roxburgh. Not Captain.”

A sudden introduction? Jigu blinked rapidly, then broke into a wide grin.

“Okay. My name is Jigu. Family name Won, given name Jigu. Just call me Jigu.”

“Jigu.”

As Caliph murmured her name in a low voice, her heart suddenly thudded heavily.

Hearing her own name spoken by someone else felt strangely unfamiliar.

Won Jigu.

As if chewing and swallowing stale, hardened bread, the way he pronounced it made her roll her eyes slightly.

All he did was look at her and say her name—yet absurdly, her nose stung.

Days that felt like yesterday. Yesterday that felt like today. Time that made even moments feel eternal.

Four hundred forty-four days of merely enduring, one day at a time.

At last, Jigu’s clock hand began to tick forward.

The Rangers Shelter was said to be located in Albuquerque, about 1,000 miles from the town of Rickford.

Even by car, it would take at least four days—and given the state of the roads, probably several times longer.

‘This is going to be a very long journey.’

But her inventory was completely empty.

So why had she come to the shopping mall, knowing full well how dangerous it was?

Farming.

Looting.

And this place was a massive supermarket.

Normally, she wouldn’t have dared try. The basement—and even the first floor—had been swarming with zombies.

But a large number had burned to death in the underground parking lot, and Caliph had taken care of the remaining ones inside.

Which meant—

“This is all mine, right? Hehehe.”

Jigu slowly surveyed the vast supermarket stretching endlessly before her and let out a sly laugh.