T7RFHE 10

Chapter 10

Everything in Bank-dong’s cultural street was frozen over, like a glacier.

At the entrance, Jang Sunam tilted his head back to stare at Daejeon’s iconic landmark — the Sky Road.

“So… after a hundred days, they finally added stairs. Back then, you had to climb the poles with a ladder.”

Once, it had been a lively cultural hub where crowds gathered. But now, its role had shifted into something else entirely — a place of refuge.

Above the Sky Road lay a safe zone, a stretch where no monsters would ever respawn.

The moment he climbed the stairs and stepped onto the Sky Road, Sunam found himself in the middle of a sprawling settlement.

For over 200 meters, the entire walkway was packed with tents and hunters.

Not just because it was safe, but because it was cheap.

In this world, every trace of civilization was sealed away.

Facilities in particular were sealed with peculiar rules — you had to pay the “usage fee” to the system per night.

If you refused, the only other option was to buy the building outright — for hundreds of millions, even billions of coins. A laughable waste.

“Not every facility charges, but still…”

Some public facilities like outdoor toilets were free. But most commercial ones — even supermarkets — demanded daily fees.

When Sunam stayed in a hotel for seventy days, he’d been forced to pay one coin every single day.

So, hunters who couldn’t afford it chose instead to camp on the Sky Road, living in tents.

“…But why the hell are there so many sick people here?”

No matter where he looked, there were coughing, wheezing patients.

It didn’t feel like a safe zone — more like a quarantine ward.

“It’s not just because of the cold, is it?”

Sunam quietly pulled a mask from his inventory and slipped it on beneath his crow mask.

If it was some contagious disease, this could get ugly.

A simple cold could be treated by reading product manuals and buying over-the-counter meds. But anything requiring a doctor’s prescription? Regular people had no way of telling.

“And if everyone here’s sick, then those bastards must be having the time of their lives.”

Right then—

“Everyone! If you need cold medicine, come to our White Authority basecamp! We have medicine we can hand out for free — no coins required!”

Men in white coats, dressed like doctors, shouted their lure, beckoning patients toward their camp.

“Speak of the devil.”

The White Authority.

As the name implied, they wore doctors’ coats and ran like a pharmaceutical guild.

Their executives were actual doctors and pharmacists; the rest were combat units.

Though they all wore white, their positions were marked with name tags.

“Disgusting scum. I can’t stand the sight of them.”

When others hoarded food during the early days, the White Authority swept up medicine and medical equipment, monopolizing the entire field.

That left patients with no choice but to rely on them, allowing the guild to grow overnight into a major power.

“If only they’d stopped there.”

But they hadn’t.

The reason Sunam hated them ran deeper.

They had crossed a line no one should ever cross.

Hundreds of years ago, by Sunam’s time-sense. The First Cycle.

On the rooftop of a massive building, a bloodied Jang Sunam faced down a group of heavily armed men.

“Ha… damn. What a hopeless world.”

The greatest threat of that first cycle had been the zombie plague.

It started in Daejeon, spreading outward like wildfire. Hunters couldn’t contain it; humanity had been forced to unite just to survive.

Sunam had barely escaped death countless times in his search for a solution.

Finally, he found one: a vaccine.

He had given the White Authority a sample on the condition it would be mass-produced and distributed freely.

But instead—

They broke their promise. They sold the vaccine for obscene sums.

Even in a collapsing world, there were still survivors. And the White Authority intended to reign above them all.

“Damn bastards.”

And it wasn’t just greed.

“You spread the zombie virus even further? That’s not something a human should do.”

A man in his sixties smirked at him, his voice dripping with contempt.

Lightning flashed, illuminating a massive device behind them — something like an oversized air purifier.

On its surface gleamed an emblem shaped like a toothed seed.

But the light faded too quickly; Sunam couldn’t fix it in memory.

“The hearts of men? We’ll discard them gladly, if it’s for our great dream.”

His name was Pi Gwang-seok.

Guildmaster of the White Authority.
Architect of the zombie apocalypse.

“If you resent it, you should’ve been stronger, Jang Sunam.”

Sunam gritted his teeth.

In this twisted world, strength was law.
Only the strong claimed power, justice, and survival.

“You’re bleeding out badly. But if you become my subordinate, I might just let you live.”

Sunam had stormed their headquarters in search of the vaccine. He was dying now, riddled with wounds.

“…Get lost.”

Staggering, he moved toward the edge of the rooftop.

A hundred White Authority guards raised their guns in unison.

Pi Gwang-seok chuckled.

“What, trying your luck with a gamble?”

The city outside was crawling with zombies. Even if Sunam resurrected from the fall, he’d be bitten instantly.

Yet he laughed.

“…Heh. Hahaha.”

“Something funny?”

He dragged himself onto the railing and sat.

“You think I came here unprepared? Why do you think I smashed all the CCTV cameras?”

From his coat, he pulled out a small device.

“Because I could plant bombs without you knowing.”

It was a detonator.

“Let’s make a bet. Which of us turns into a zombie first — me, or you bastards?”

Since their HQ had been built after the Trials began, it wasn’t protected by the system’s seals.

It could be destroyed.

“Don’t just stand there! Take it from him!!”

Beep.

KWA-BOOOOM!!

Explosions ripped through the lower floors. Holes gaped wide across the structure.

The thunder of it lured countless zombies, a horde numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

“Arghhh! That lunatic! Seal the lower floors!!”

“G-Guildmaster! The power’s out — the systems won’t run! Even the generators are gone!”

“Generators?! No… damn it! Do you know how long it took me to build that!?”

Pi Gwang-seok turned, horrified, to see his massive machine dead, smoke curling from its shell.

“Too bad. You should’ve guarded it better.”

Sunam grinned and raised his middle finger.

“You little—!!”

Furious, Pi leveled his gun, but Sunam hurled himself off the rooftop before the trigger could be pulled.

Bullets whizzed through empty air.

“Serves you right, bastards. Go rot in hell.”

As he plummeted, Sunam unfurled a parachute from his inventory.

The burning White Authority headquarters vanished behind him as he glided over a sea of the undead.

That was how the First War between Jang Sunam and the White Authority began.

“……”

For a brief moment, Jang Sunam recalled the first round—when the faction known as White Authority lured in patients like merchants hawking their wares.

In the end, White Authority had been annihilated, but he had never managed to uncover a new zombie vaccine. Even now, he could not forget the humiliation of standing alone in a world overrun by the undead, forced to watch the ending message in solitude.

‘Haa…’

In truth, he wanted nothing more than to slaughter them here and now.

But a single reckless move could ripple into the future in ways he couldn’t predict. He had to hold himself back—for all he knew, in this cycle, they might not even be villains.

And so, he decided.

“Find the evidence.”

Jang Sunam would infiltrate their base camp and uncover their plans. The method was simple: locate their command orders inside the file storage. With that, he would know whether they were enemies or allies.

The problem was that ordinary methods wouldn’t get him past their security.

‘Then I’ll use an extraordinary method.’

He sprinted up the building adjacent to the Sky Road and approached the animal-shaped NPC stationed on the rooftop.

“Looking to use the shop?”

The raccoon-like NPC tilted its head.

“Yeah. I heard you sell something… interesting.”

“Oh-ho… I never thought someone would actually try to buy that.”

The shop seemed stripped bare of useful items by other hunters, but when Sunam scrolled to the very bottom, he found it:

[Random Box]

A pitch-black, ominous-looking container with no description whatsoever. Its price was an outrageous fifty coins—so steep no one had ever touched it.

“I’ll take this.”

“Keheheh… You must have coins rotting away to waste them like this.”

The raccoon NPC chuckled and made the trade. Thanks to Sunam’s title, he received a ten percent discount, purchasing it for forty-five coins.

‘Alright. Let’s see what fate brings.’

Truthfully, he already knew what would emerge. After six regressions, he had discovered the random box always spat out the same item:

<Cloak of Invisibility> (F).

When worn, it concealed the user for a short duration. The effect was brief, the durability poor—almost certainly a dud. Still, it was exactly what he needed for the job.

But the moment he cracked open the box—

[The Blessing of Extreme Fortune has activated.]

A brilliant flash. Purple motes drifted upward like smoke as the box slowly unfolded.

‘Wait—that color!’

In past loops, it had always been green. This time, however, it shimmered violet.

With a whoosh!, the particles coalesced into a new form.

Not a cloak. Something else entirely.

<Bracelet of Invisibility> (F+)

• Conceals a chosen target based on charge time.

• Dispels and discharges upon receiving light impact.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me?!’

Sunam’s eyes flew wide. He had expected the shabby cloak, but instead he received an upgraded version. A tool that could hide not just himself, but any designated target.

“Life really is all about timing… Looks like fortune finally smiled on me.”

He slipped the bracelet on. Its fully charged energy promised thirty minutes of concealment—triple the cloak’s duration.

‘Time to move.’

Crossing back over the Sky Road, he slipped between the tents. Taking advantage of a blind spot in their line of sight, he activated the bracelet.

Fssshh—

His body melted into the air, vanishing without a trace.

‘Careful now…’

He threaded through the camp, wary of bumping into other hunters.

“Alright, gentlemen, the marks are here! Get the medicine ready!”

“This way, please. Consultations first.”

When Sunam reached White Authority’s base, a long line of coughing patients awaited treatment. Those who entered looked half-dead, and those who emerged seemed bitter and unsatisfied.

‘As expected. They’re fleecing people with outrageous consultation fees and useless medicine.’

He pressed deeper, guided by memory. After defeating White Authority in countless cycles, he knew their camp’s layout like the back of his hand.

But then, something unexpected caught his eye—

‘…A tent I haven’t seen before?’

Cautiously, he slipped inside.

Masked guild members were there, stirring viscous black liquid into water under dim light.

‘What the hell are they making?’

He turned away. Evidence first. The command orders would reveal their true purpose. He began to step outside—

When voices stopped him.

“This idea really is brilliant, isn’t it?”

“Right? Who would’ve thought of something like this…”

They chuckled over their work.

“Diluting goblin venom and vaporizing it to mimic flu symptoms—now that’s genius.”

‘…What?’

Sunam froze.

‘Vaporize? They’re dispersing it like a poison gas?’

Slowly, he turned his gaze back to the line of patients outside. Every one of them wheezed, hacking their lungs out.

Seventy days had passed since he last checked them. In that time, they had concocted this abomination. And now he remembered—

In the first round, there had been an odd, inexplicable flu epidemic.

‘So that’s how they spread it…’

Sunam rubbed his forehead, disbelief etched on his face.

‘I underestimated these bastards.’

No butterfly effect, no excuses. White Authority was filth. Garbage that never changed.

He let out a bitter laugh, eyes narrowing on the poison-brewing guild members.

‘Now… how should I deal with this trash?’

His clenched fist trembled with quiet fury.