Chapter 3
“Ugh… my head.”
I shook my head, groaning, then looked around.
Just like in the original story, there was a single cabin… and a man collapsed nearby.
Kuueeeek!
At that moment, a shrill cry pierced my eardrums, making me spin around in shock.
Kieeek!
Surrounding the cabin from all sides, countless skeletons—no, to be precise, hordes of “zombies”—were pressing in, swarming against the iron fence like waves. The sheer number of them was so overwhelming that my hair stood on end.
“This really is an apocalypse…?”
Before coming here, I had practiced fighting zombies countless times. I had trained in combat until my hands blistered and my skin tore, so I was confident I could survive.
But reality was completely different from imagination.
“Damn it…”
Zombies here. Zombies there.
Zombies. Zombies. Zombies.
It was a living hell.
As I stood there frozen, staring at the fence that was taller than me, I suddenly felt a tug at my waist.
A bony skeleton arm had torn through the fence and was yanking at the pouch belt on my waist.
“Shit! My Doraemon pocket!”
Panicked, I grabbed the hammer that was hooked on the metal clasp of my belt.
Chanting the enlargement spell engraved on the handle, the hammer instantly grew larger in my hands. I swung it hard, smashing away the zombie’s skeletal hand.
Clang! Clatter! Snap!
But instead of flying off, the hand latched on stubbornly, clinging with its bony fingers like a spider.
“Gross!”
I smashed it several more times with the hammer until it was crushed, then stood there panting as I looked around again.
Everything that had felt unreal until now was suddenly vivid and undeniable.
This was a zombie apocalypse.
Kieeeek!
Another skeleton climbed over its fallen comrades and finally managed to leap past the fence.
With a rattle of bones, it straightened itself and advanced toward me.
“This guy must’ve been tall when he was alive… he’s huge!”
I swung my hammer at its skull.
Thud, thud, thud—
The skull popped off, bouncing across the ground.
I quickly ran over and smashed it into pieces, then looked back.
The now headless skeleton collapsed into a heap of bones. Relief washed over me—but only for a moment. The fence rattled violently, as if about to give way under the relentless horde.
“This won’t do. I need to move that man to safety first.”
Hooking the hammer back at my waist, I grabbed the unconscious man lying nearby and began dragging him.
At first he didn’t budge, but then his body began to slide across the ground.
“So heavy…!”
It was like dragging a boulder.
Thunk, thud—!
As I pulled him up the cabin stairs, his head bumped hard against the edge of a step.
I froze, terrified I’d just hurt him—but thankfully, he remained unconscious.
Bang—!
At last, I dragged him all the way inside the cabin, shoved him into a corner, and quickly shut the door.
“Haa—”
Leaning against the wall, I finally let out a sigh of relief and slid down to the floor.
Kuueeek!
But before I could catch my breath, the grotesque cries of the zombies seeped in through the door.
The sound was unbearable no matter how long I listened. Frowning, I noticed bone fragments stuck to my hammer.
I lifted it slightly and flicked the pieces off, laughing bitterly.
“I must be insane… insane to have actually come here.”
A sigh escaped me again.
“Maybe I should’ve just run away alone.”
It hadn’t even been five minutes since I woke up in front of this cabin, yet regret was already setting in.
But it was too late. I had made my choice, and now the situation was unfolding.
“Haa…”
I brushed the strands of hair sticking to my cheek away and reached for my waist.
“No point whining. Let’s check the situation.”
I opened my belt pouch, stuck my hand deep into the subspace inside, and rummaged for quite a while.
If you kept your subspace neat and orderly, the item you thought of would usually come right into your hand…
“Should’ve organized this place.”
But I was never the tidy type.
Fortunately, after fumbling around, I finally found a small telescope.
Placing it in my palm, I recited the spell inscribed on it, and it grew larger instantly.
I slung the strap around my neck, tied my silver hair back up, and went to the window.
Kuueeeek—!
Peeking through a crack in the curtain, I saw pale, stone-like zombie skeletons packed tightly against the fence, thrashing aggressively. At least, other than the one that got through earlier, none had managed to climb over yet.
“One, two, three, four… haaa.”
I gave up counting.
There was no point—there had to be hundreds of them at least. Counting was just a waste of time.
So instead, I used the telescope to carefully observe the terrain and situation outside. But then my eyes widened.
The fence was swaying dangerously from the horde’s assault, threatening to topple toward the cabin.
“Damn it, the fence—!”
Thwip—!
Suddenly, a sharp dagger flew past, slicing a few strands of my silver hair, and embedded itself in the wall.
Too stunned to scream, I turned my head and saw the dagger’s hilt—it bore the imperial crest.
“No way…”
Like a creaking wooden doll, I slowly turned toward where the dagger had come from.
Standing there was a man in a pristine white uniform.
Wine-colored hair, golden eyes, and strikingly handsome features.
The Crown Prince of the Empire—and one of the male leads of the original story—Rihad Deon Haiezan.
For a moment, I was mesmerized by his elegant aura.
In the novel, whenever he appeared, people constantly praised his beauty, so I had wondered just how handsome he really was…
“…Yeah, he is good-looking.”
At my unthinking remark, the man’s face twisted.
“What?”
“…”
I quickly clamped my mouth shut, pretending it had just been a mutter.
Now was hardly the time to be critiquing his face.
In a typical romance novel, this was the moment to greet the “Empire’s Little Sun” with flowery words, but… given the situation, I skipped the formalities and simply bowed.
“It’s an honor to meet you. I am Redria Arios, of the Count Arios family—”
“Hey.”
The prince cut me off, frowning as he stepped closer.
“Why am I here, when I was at the prayer gathering just moments ago?”
His sudden interrogation made me want to clam up out of spite, but the razor-sharp intensity in his golden eyes told me he might just cut me down if I stayed silent.
Reluctantly, I spoke.
“Don’t you remember? During the prayer, the ground split open and the altar collapsed.”
“…What?”
His pupils trembled with confusion. He patted himself down quickly.
Probably looking for his communication artifact.
But he must’ve lost it when the ground split and people were swept away.
“Damn it. It’s gone.”
He sighed, rubbing his forehead, then swept his piercing golden gaze across the surroundings.
Me. Himself.
The grotesque screams that rattled the air.
The monsters swarming against the fence.
Suddenly, realization dawned in his eyes. He buried his face in his hands, groaning. He was remembering everything right up until he fainted.
‘Can I really count on this guy to cooperate so we can escape?’
With that temper, I’d be lucky if he didn’t use my head as a toy instead.
Honestly, coming to this zombie zone at all—no, entering this novel world in the first place—was a mistake.
“No… that’s not it.”
Grinding my teeth, I cursed inwardly at the name that came to mind again.
“Kim. Deok. Soo…”
This was all his fault.
If that bastard hadn’t told me to read this novel, I wouldn’t have ended up stuck in the worst kind of possession scenario.
After calming my anger with a sigh, I tossed the prince my telescope.
“Here. Check the situation outside with this.”
He caught it easily and moved to the window.
As he looked out, I calmly explained our situation to him. With a few embellishments.
Ha…
He turned back toward me, a dry laugh escaping his lips.
“So, to summarize your story… An earthquake struck, those unknown creatures woke up, the altar and the portal collapsed, and we’re cut off from the Empire, trapped here and about to die?”
“Let’s call them zombies, not ‘unknown creatures.’”
“Fine, zombies. And if those zombies bite someone, they turn into the same mindless beasts?”
“That’s right. I saw a rabbit in the Sacred Forest get bitten and turn into a zombie myself.”
I couldn’t exactly admit I knew it from the novel, so I made up an excuse.
The prince stared at me incredulously, then continued.
“And on top of that, you happen to have a five-person warp scroll that leads straight to the capital, and your plan is to find any additional survivors to fill the quota and escape together. Is that correct?”
“You understood perfectly. That’s right.”
Of course, by “survivors” I actually meant the other male leads.
According to the original story, the only people trapped in the zombie zone were me and them.
