POARW 04

Chapter 4

When I turned toward the sound, I saw over a dozen figures gathered together.

There was no time to be surprised.

Instinctively lowering my body, I silenced my footsteps and slipped straight into the first floor of the villa beside me.

Situations like this were common in No Way Home.

Because the fog was so dense, even the zombies had trouble distinguishing friend from foe.

They mistook each other’s footsteps for prey and gathered together.

One or two would group up, then three or four, eventually forming a horde.

‘What should I do?’

My home was only two more minutes away.

Still, I should give up on going there.

There was no reason to spend the next seventy-two hours inside my own apartment.

Besides, judging by how the nearby stores and buildings looked different from what I remembered, there was also the possibility that the villa I used to live in no longer existed.

A dozen zombies clustered at the entrance of the alley.

If I used them well…

‘They could become a shield.’

They could hide my safe spot and prevent other survivors from approaching.

I shoved the 3D map deep into my pocket and climbed the stairs while gripping the baseball bat tightly.

A four-story villa.

The first floor was too dangerous, and the second floor wasn’t ideal either since zombies could catch my scent or hear my footsteps.

The third floor would make escaping in an emergency difficult…

‘The villa next door was the same height.’

It would be best to settle on the fourth floor, where I could flee to the rooftop in emergencies and jump across to the building opposite.

Suppressing my footsteps, I carefully checked each floor while climbing.

Before long, I sensed movement on the third floor.

“Grrr… khak! Khk—!”

The zombie on the third floor had noticed me too.

Carefully peeking over the stair railing, I saw it sniffing the air while looking around.

‘Damn it.’

Did it catch my scent?

I couldn’t let a commotion happen here.

If the zombie on the third floor screamed, the ones outside would swarm in too.

I didn’t hesitate long.

Staring directly at the zombie, I rushed up the stairs.

Hearing my footsteps, the zombie opened its mouth wide and charged at me.

“Ka…! Khk!”

Before any sound could escape its mouth, I thrust the baseball bat straight forward and jammed it into its jaws.

A baseball bat fitting inside a human mouth?

Impossible for a human, sure.

But this thing wasn’t human anymore.

The aluminum bat shattered its teeth like brittle twigs.

The creature struggled with its mouth blocked.

I drove it all the way into the wall.

Bang!

I slammed it hard enough to crack the back of its skull against the wall, but instead its jaw dislocated.

Didn’t even feel pain, huh?

The creature desperately flailed both arms, trying to grab my clothes.

“Hup…!”

Holding the bat with both hands, I crushed its head against the wall and slammed it to the floor.

Crunch!

Its eyes rolled back with a sound like a watermelon exploding.

No matter how much zombies became beasts driven only by violence, they were still fundamentally human bodies.

Disturb their balance slightly, and they could be subdued easily.

Without stopping, I continued smashing its face until it was completely ruined.

Ding!

[Zombie eliminated.]

[1 Point awarded.]

A system message appeared before my eyes as the zombie’s pupils lost focus.

Why hadn’t these messages appeared before?

‘Was it because I didn’t kill them properly?’

Until now, I’d only knocked zombies away and pushed through the rain while running.

Apparently, I only earned points when I completely finished them off.

I stared at the zombie’s cold corpse.

“Ugh…!”

Goosebumps spread across my body, and my stomach churned violently.

“Blegh…!”

Unable to hold it back, I vomited everything inside me.

When I’d thought of this like a game, it didn’t feel real. But seeing a mangled corpse up close…

It felt like something inside me was collapsing.

Morality?

Humanity?

Whatever it was, those shallow emotions weren’t going to help me survive.

After several deep breaths, I calmed my racing heart and gripped the baseball bat again.

Then…

‘Time to clean up.’

I opened every apartment door in the villa to check for more zombies.

Maybe because everyone had been summoned all at once?

Every residence still showed signs of people having lived there, yet there were no zombies inside.

What puzzled me was that every front door was unlocked.

Did the Gaia System interfere with that too?

There was no point thinking about it now, so I focused on the present.

The stairs connecting the third and fourth floors were blocked with iron bars.

Though thankfully, the latch had been left unlocked.

The fourth floor seemed to be the owner’s unit, since there was only one entrance.

Gripping my baseball bat, I opened the door and stepped into a cozy living room filled with a pleasant scent.

Air freshener.

I checked every room, but again, there were no zombies.

Were zombies only appearing in shared areas and not private spaces?

To know for sure, I’d need to inspect other villas or apartments.

Using a towel from the bathroom to dry my soaked hair, I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

Somehow…

It felt strangely like everything I’d experienced so far had been a dream, and I’d simply returned home.

Was it relief?

Or had the tension finally loosened?

Only then did I realize both my arms were trembling violently.

I clasped my hands together tightly.

The moment I smashed the zombie’s head flashed through my mind.

I shut my eyes hard and let out a deep sigh to stop myself from shaking.

First…

I needed to organize my thoughts.

After drying myself off, I entered the study beside the living room.

I opened a random notebook and summarized the current situation with a pen.

An emergency episode had appeared.

That wasn’t part of the No Way Home information I knew.

After surviving this episode, the real main episodes would probably begin.

The first episode was Safe House.

Since I’d been designated as a Seongdong-gu survivor, a safe house would likely appear somewhere within Seongdong-gu.

Once I arrived there, meeting other survivors would be inevitable.

I needed to think in advance about how I should handle that.

After the first episode ended, there would be a short rest period before the second episode began.

And the second episode was probably…

‘Recruiting allies.’

An episode where survivors gathered at the safe house formed parties.

There was no need to team up with everyone.

I only needed useful allies.

Personality mattered, but what mattered more were their abilities.

There were five character classes in No Way Home.

Having at least one user of each ability would greatly improve survival and future growth.

The Buster ability I chose became powerful later on, but it was hard to shine in the early stages.

A Shooter—someone who could maintain vision even in heavy rain and see in pitch darkness like daylight—was essential.

A Healing Factor user who could heal all injuries except virus infections was also necessary.

And since weapons crafted by Makers possessed special abilities, I needed someone with the Maker ability too.

Whisper might seem relatively useless, but starting from the third episode, it became indispensable.

It allowed party members to communicate regardless of distance.

To find them and form a party…

‘I need to become strong.’

Civilization had collapsed, and the law no longer functioned.

Zombies roamed the streets, and humans distrusted each other.

A world ruled by the survival of the fittest.

The strong naturally held influence.

Buster started weak, but I’d received the first-clear reward, the closed beta reward, and the reward for clearing all games.

I needed to exploit that advantage as much as possible, gather points aggressively, and grow stronger.

Closing the notebook, I stood up.

I wanted to rest, but wasting the precious seventy-two hours like this didn’t seem wise.

I replaced the magazines and notebooks wrapped around my arms and legs with fresh ones and secured them tightly with packing tape.

My body was shivering too, so I rummaged through the closet and put on a padded jacket to fight the cold.

I changed into fresh socks and searched the shoe rack for comfortable footwear.

There were several pairs of boots that protected the ankles, so I chose one.

Finally, I tightly wrapped bandages around the hands gripping the baseball bat and reinforced them with packing tape so they wouldn’t loosen in the rain.

Determined not to return until I’d killed one hundred zombies, I steeled myself and stepped outside.

“Kahaaaak!!”

“Grrrrr…!”

“Kak! Hahk!”

Three hours after starting the hunt, I encountered three zombies around a street corner.

Without hesitation, I swung the baseball bat and smashed the temple of the one in front.

Crack!

I felt the skull shatter through my fingertips.

Maybe because I’d been hunting for three hours already?

My stomach no longer churned, and I’d reached the point where I could estimate the damage done to zombies just from the vibrations in my hands.

‘Ten seconds.’

The zombie I’d just struck in the temple wouldn’t be able to attack for at least ten seconds.

Zombies couldn’t feel pain, but fundamentally they still had human bodies.

A hit to the temple blacked out their vision momentarily and destroyed their sense of balance.

“Kahak!!”

Ignoring its fallen companion, the zombie on the right lunged toward my trapezius muscle with its jaws wide open.

I’d just swung with full force, so it was difficult to reverse the momentum and attack again immediately.

A baseball bat wasn’t just a swinging weapon.

Gripping the handle tightly, I jabbed the narrowed section near the grip straight into the zombie’s philtrum.

Thud!

Its upper lip caved in as it toppled backward.

“Kahk!!”

One left.

The zombie rushed at me with both arms stretched out.

It grabbed the barrel of the bat and tried to overpower me through brute force.

Fighting zombies with raw strength was stupid.

I redirected the bat lightly and swept its legs out from under it.

Instead of matching their strength, I focused on disrupting their balance.

That way I could conserve my stamina and continue hunting longer.

Before the three fallen zombies could stand back up, I gripped the bat with both hands and brought it down like a guillotine blade.

Crack! Crunch! Thud! Crack!

Their skulls burst open, brains mixing with the rainwater flowing across the ground.

Chunks of brain matter spilled out in grotesque pieces.

[Zombie eliminated.]

[1 Point awarded.]

[1 Point awarded.]

[1 Point awarded.]

Watching the consecutive system messages appear, I breathed heavily.

Even though I’d hunted while conserving stamina as much as possible, moving nonstop for three hours had exhausted me.

I exercised regularly after work, but fighting continuously in the rain had limits.

‘I can’t push further.’

Continuing the hunt would just be greed.

I needed enough stamina to get back safely, so returning now seemed wiser.

Relying on the 3D map, I safely retraced the cleared route back.

Without the map, wandering the streets like this would have been impossible.

Judging by the occasional sunlight peeking through the dark clouds, it was probably around noon.

“Show me my current points.”

[Current Points: 158]

I’d promised myself not to return until I killed one hundred zombies, but I’d managed to kill far more than expected.

“Invest in stamina.”

[100 Points consumed.]

[Stamina increased by 1.]

In the early game, focusing on agility and stamina was the right choice.

Strength only needed to be high enough not to get overpowered by zombies, while stamina was necessary to extend hunting time.

Agility was also essential for reacting to zombie attacks or escaping dangerous situations.

Grrrlll—

Maybe because I’d been moving nonstop since morning, but my stomach was screaming for food.

Unable to ignore the hunger, I opened the kitchen cabinet and spotted instant ramen and a portable gas burner.

‘Jackpot.’

I cheered internally and moved to cook ramen, but there was a problem.

No water.

All electronics were dead now, and the water supply had been cut off.

Still, it was fine.

Nowadays, more people ordered bottled water than used water purifiers.

Looking around the kitchen, I found bundles of bottled water stacked in the lower cabinet.

As for showering…

Rainwater would do.

I thought there were eggs in the refrigerator too—maybe I should add one.

The moment I opened the fridge and picked up an egg—

‘Huh?’

The egg looked… strange.