Chapter 3 – 3. Facing the Girl Next Door (Sujeong)

“Oh, hello…”

“Ah, yes…”

The girl next door greets you a little shyly. It was the first time I had talked to the woman next door while living in this apartment, except for the first day I moved in.

The woman was wearing sleeping pants and a pink zip-up. She has a small build and doesn’t have much flesh, so her body type can be called a slender person.

Her hair was not tousled, it seemed to have been washed today, and it smelled nice.

“Lol…”

The way he looks at me seems like he’s frightened.

However, I held the baseball bat tightly in my hand without relaxing. Though I inadvertently confronted her with the thought that there was still someone alive in her. It is only after meeting her face-to-face that he is reminded of all sorts of bad futures.

Maybe the other person is an Awakener like me.

According to what is written in the text, almost one out of a hundred people will become an Awakener, but you can’t blindly trust the text.

It’s even been three days since the end of the world, so this woman might be an Awakener like me.

‘Looking at her reaction, she just looks like a frightened woman.’

It is impossible to immediately determine whether the opponent is an Awakener or not based on appearance alone.

If, like me, a human sacrifice or a class with such a unique skill was caught, it could be very dangerous.

He might be trying for his life while I’m asleep.

Uneasy in many ways. It would be best if she had the means to bind her with something powerful, but the problem is that I don’t have the means to do that.

Moreover, he has not yet acted hostile against me, and if I attack him first, he may be killed in reverse.

Right now, this woman must be quite wary of me too.

But what does it mean that you invited me into the room?

It could be that she’s as confident as she is, or maybe she’s just scared to be alone.

‘What if I’m not an Awakener? So what if you didn’t make the assumption that there could be a strange skill like me? Maybe she just wanted my protection. Her face is quite pretty She could be a strategy to use the beauty world…’

The worst of the many assumptions is that this woman has awakened with crazy skills just like me and she’s setting a trap to make me her victim…

‘Anyway, if you’re an Awoken person, there’s a high probability that you’ll be stronger than me. It is better to try to maintain a friendly relationship than immediately take hostile action.’

I still can’t quite figure out anything. So, I need to explore a little and have a conversation.

Maybe he doesn’t have any ill feelings towards me, but I can’t just swing a baseball bat and knock him out by misunderstanding myself.

‘If you have enough skills to overwhelm me, my unfriendly behavior might cause your affinity to go downhill.’

First of all, let’s not think that the other person has blind malice towards me. Since she was right next door to her anyway, she could break through this lightweight wall at any time and come over. She might have had several chances to kill me while I fell asleep while immersed in the game.

“Would you like to come in?”

“Excuse me, can I ask you a few questions before we go in?”

“Ah yes.”

I questioned the girl next door who still looked a little uneasy.

“If. Have you tried killing zombies?”

I don’t think I’m going to answer only the facts, but I asked first.

“Oh, no. I haven’t stepped out of the house for the past three days…”

“Aha. That’s right…”

He said he had never killed a zombie.

Believe it or not, the mention of zombies made her sick.

“I’m sorry for asking like an interrogation. Are you really at home for the past three days?”

“Yes… Because the soldiers are coming…”

It must have been waiting patiently according to the instructions in the text. Hard to believe for sure though. It didn’t sound like she was lying.

Still I didn’t let go of my guard. First, I followed her inside to see the traces left in her house.

Maybe because I was overly vigilant, the woman made a slightly uncomfortable expression.

The woman’s house was relatively clean. It was full of a sense of life, but I didn’t even smell the rotting zombie corpses flowing outside, as if she had sprayed her perfume.

“Hey, would you like something to drink? Put down that baseball bat and…”

“Oh, sorry. After seeing the zombies, I felt relieved to have to hold this.”

The woman brought apple juice from the refrigerator. I didn’t drink apple juice. If you take sleeping pills, it’s over.

“Shall we briefly introduce ourselves?”

“Yes. My name is Eunji Lee, who lives next door. I am twenty-six this year.”

“My name is Jojun Jang. I am thirty this year.”

Twenty six. He’s only four years older than me.

“Wow. Then can I call you brother over there?”

“Yes? Ah. Yes. Uh, then can I speak plainly too?”

“Yes, brother.”

It is a very pleasant thing for a woman to call her oppa, but she doesn’t like it very much right now.

Today’s oppa could be tomorrow’s zombie, and she wouldn’t trust me just because this woman called me oppa.

Right now, it’s just a meeting between the same survivors. Survivors who might be able to kill each other…

If you come across a survivor like this, probably about a month after the demise, you’ll point guns at each other. Or did you just shoot and then face it?

It’s still in the early stages of destruction, so awkward situations like this happen.

‘I need to find traces left in the house.’

If you kill a zombie, there may be bloodstains left behind. So let’s check the bathroom.

“Can I use the bathroom over there?”

“Ah yes!”

Grabbing a baseball bat, I hurried into the bathroom.

“Hmm…”

I looked at everything from the washbasin to the corners that I might not have noticed, but there was only a sanitary pad in the Piragon trash can.

“There is no trace…”

Did you thoroughly erase everything?

I even checked the sewers, but there was no trace of blood or traces.

In order not to be suspicious, I flushed the water once and even washed my hands before leaving.

The woman was still sitting at the table with a slightly awkward smile.

“Hey… Has your brother awakened?”

Eunji first asked me if I had awakened.

I decided to lie. It’s about looking at the other person without letting them know whether they’re awakened or not. If Eun-ji is an awakened person, she might react differently than now when she finds out that I am a non-awakened person.

“I didn’t wake up. Nothing opened.”

“Oh, I see…”

Eunji looked gloomy with a very disappointed expression.

“What’s the matter?”

“Oh, no. Sorry. Just in case… I thought it would be nice if my brother was an Awakener..”

“Okay?”

“Ah, yes… It will be easier for the Awoken to survive than for the non-Awakened. I guess I wanted to rely on you a little bit. Sorry. It’s not your brother’s fault that you didn’t wake up. I was so disappointed…”

“Well, that could be…”

“Thank you for understanding… So now me and my brother are both non-Awoken… Hehe. But let’s work hard together to survive.”

She reached out to me with an awkward smile.

She might have a skill that would activate if she held her hand… But I couldn’t help but hold her.

Her eyes look so sad She couldn’t help but think that this woman was an Awokener with hidden powers.

Although this was just my intuition. I grabbed Eunji’s hand that was reaching out to me.

However, contrary to my anxiety, nothing happened. Only warm warmth was transmitted.

“Okay. Let’s try our best.”

When I held her hand and shook it, Eunji smiled a little, but the anxiety disappeared.

Just the fact that he has someone to rely on makes his face look happy.

I still don’t know if he had any ill intentions against me. I decided to trust this smile a little bit. Because you can’t just stand by me forever.

After all, you won’t be able to survive in this world alone.

“Eunji, but maybe. Do you have a family to support?”

This is a pretty important question. This is because if you have a family, you are more likely to try to find one.

‘If it’s too far away, I’ll give up… But if it’s in the right place, I might try to find it.’

That’s a bit tricky I’m busy making a living, but I can’t even look for my family. I have no choice but to split it up or throw it away.

“No… It’s been a while since I cut off ties with that family… I don’t even want to see you, now I’m practically worse than anyone else.”

Fortunately, she didn’t miss her family or want to find them.

Seeing that he was taken to his parents’ house even on New Year’s Day, I wondered if there must have been some circumstances, but that seems to be true.

“I see. Me too. I don’t have a family at all. Then, is there a precious person I need to go find? Like friends. Like a lover or something.”

Again, this is an important question. After family, I’m trying to find relatives or lovers. If she didn’t have her family, she might try to cling to her even more.

“A friend… Doesn’t seem to be in a situation to be found right now. My boyfriend just broke up with me…”

“Aha. I see I’m sorry for asking this. If you say you want to go find it… I wonder what to do. As you can see, circumstances are circumstances.”

“That’s right…”

She was in a similar situation to me. No family, no friends, no lovers right now. She is a survivor left alone.

It is an opponent who has a gap to dig into. Maybe he will become my precious colleague in the future.

“It’s Eunji. Shall we kill a zombie? Maybe you’ll wake up.”

“Yes? Come on, you can’t go outside… No. Then you die, brother…”

Eunji is holding on tight to my sleeve and not letting go.

She shook her head and begged me not to leave.

“I don’t want to be alone anymore. Oppa… Don’t go out for nothing… If you die… Can’t you just hold out a little longer until our soldiers come?”

It is unclear whether the soldiers will ever come.

First of all, I decided to open my heart a little more at her earnest request.

It was hard to find a lie in the way he grabbed me with tears in his eyes.

‘Of course, there is a saying that tears are a woman’s weapon…’

I no longer thought that she was an Awakener with strange skills.

Until this point, there seemed to be no reason for her to lie to me while hiding her Awakened identity.

“I am actually an Awoken. There are ways to avoid getting caught by zombies, so you don’t have to worry too much.”

“Yes? Oh, if it wasn’t earlier…”

“Sorry. I couldn’t help but wonder We met for the first time today. Because I just can’t believe it.”

“That, that’s all…”

She immediately understood my words and nodded her head.

I can’t help but believe it

Especially in the case of me, it is difficult to blindly trust others after seeing the skill called ‘human sacrifice’.

“I will knock one down. You smash his head That’s all you need.”

“Uh…”

Eunji still looked scared. Well, it would be scary to tell a normal person to beat a zombie.

But in such a state, you can’t live in this crazy world. You have to be strong to survive in this goddamn world where laws and morals are pretty much broken.

“It’s Eunji. How much food do you have at home?”

“That’s… Uh, there’s a bag of rice. There is kimchi. Actually, if we eat together, it’s not a huge amount.”

“So is our house. Food is also scarce. If the military can’t come to rescue us… We’ll have to take our own lives, right?”

“Right..”

“So it will be easier for you to survive while helping each other if you become an Awoken too.”

Since we have become such a friendly relationship, it will be more advantageous for Eunji to survive if he wakes up and helps and cooperates with each other.

“Surely my brother is right. I must have been too scared.”

Eun-ji said to give it a try, strengthening her resolve.

“But how to not get caught by oppa zombie? Is that a zombie repellent or something?”

“Uh. Do you know?”

“I saw someone posting a photo on the Internet.”

“Aha..”

She seems to have heard what the reward for completing the challenge is through the internet.

Since the Internet has not yet been completely cut off, information is being exchanged relatively briskly.

For example, there must be quite a few people who brag about being awakened.

Eunji seems to have heard information about the reward for completing the challenge among those posts.

“Your brother chose it with a spray.”

“Uh. I thought the spray was good to get around or move right away.”

“I think so too… If you get bitten by zombies, you’ll die before you can escape. She won’t have time to use the antidote. Inventory doesn’t let you avoid zombies.”

“Right. I can only put five. Just carry your bag and go.”

“That’s right.”

“Anyway, I’ll go out quickly with this. Because it’s 2 hours long. You must be quite busy to pick up something useful in it.”

I have to get medicine from the pharmacy, I have to visit the hardware store, I have to take care of food and drinking water, and I have to rob Daiso once in the middle, so I am very busy.

“So when I go out, I’ll kill half a zombie, so you kill that. Got it?”

“Yes, brother. I will try.”

Good. I would have been a little disappointed if I didn’t do it here or if I couldn’t do it, was scared or whined.

Even though Eunji hesitated, she didn’t say that she couldn’t do it. After announcing that I was an Awakener, he even expressed his enthusiasm to become an Awakener himself.

She is a very likable woman. Her face is pretty too Wouldn’t this be enough for her to be with in the post-apocalypse?

She was a little thrilled with her plaintive expression when in fact she grabbed her sleeve to tell her not to go.

I would say that her cold heart was lightly ignited. So I want to protect more. She came from the desire to make it mine.

Right now, that’s what I think.

Of course, she doesn’t know what her future will be, but her boss decided to survive with her. I want to.

“Whoa…Then let’s go.”

Acquire!

Sprayed her face and went outside. I set an alarm on my phone to go off in an hour and a half. She doesn’t want to go after her because she missed the effective time by doing something else.

Eun-ji is not affected by the spray, so she hastily closes her front door and enters.

I won’t come out until I leave one. I set the words in advance to move like that.

“I don’t really touch…”

The effect of the zombie repellent was clear. Even when they saw me, they didn’t take any action. It just keeps knocking on the front door of my house according to inertia.

“Noisy bastards.”

The number of zombies was about 8. Kill all of them except for one of them. The 2-hour count has already started, so let’s kill it quickly and go.

Huung- Kkong! Puck!

He hit the zombies’ heads nonstop. With the sound of skulls being crushed, the insignificant dead crawl back into hell.

Something cheerful It feels like the stress that has been suppressed by the absurdity of modern society for 30 years is relieved.

[I got 40 coins by killing zombies.]

Unfortunately, I couldn’t level up. Killing just 8 is not enough.

“Whoa…”

I should have exercised a little harder on a regular basis. I didn’t even swing it a few times, but my shoulders are sore. I must bring a pass when I come. Please don’t run out of pharmacies.

“It’s Eunji. I left one.”

Eunji carefully opened the front door and came out. A hammer was in her hand. She says she also kept her hammer for self-defense since she lived alone as a woman.

“Uh…?”

Eunji, who was about to swing her hammer, hesitated. What? Come on?

“Why?”

“Ah, me. That is. This zombie. That… She’s an acquaintance. It’s nothing. Seeing things I’ve only seen in movies in real life… It’s definitely a different feeling. Haha..”

The zombie crawling on her floor, which she looked at in bewilderment, was a man still in his twenties.

‘Could it be… Is this zombie ex-boyfriend…? I guess that’s the reaction.’

Maybe not. Somehow it feels like that.

Kwajik!

The head of the zombie crawling on the floor, distracted by the taste of my baseball bat, was shattered by Eunji’s hammer, and she stopped moving.

Even though Eunji was already a dead zombie, she hit the hammer several more times as if to vent her anger.

‘I think this zombie bastard’s ex-boyfriend…’

I don’t think we broke up very well, but this guy came all the way here to meet his ex-girlfriend and was bitten by a zombie.

I went back to my hometown during the Lunar New Year holiday, but I came to my ex-girlfriend’s house for no reason and got upset.

I laughed at the zombie Eunji killed. Then she asked Eunji.

“Have you awakened?”

She had to go soon, so she asked as if urging her a little. Actually, don’t expect too much.

It is said that it is not easy to awaken even one person out of a hundred, but she could not have awakened at once…

“Uh… Well, wait a minute. Something came to my mind…”

Really? You wake up so easily?

Maybe she was lying because she didn’t want to be abandoned by me, so I looked into Eunji’s eyes for a moment, but the rolling of her eyes seemed not to be a lie.

Just like me, she was reading the status window.

Could it be that my absurdly high and strange luck number of 666 worked here?

The lucky number is 666, so I don’t know if this is good luck or bad luck.

Seeing that Eunji woke up in an instant, she must be lucky.

“Then you decide the reward or skill yourself. I don’t have time, so I’ll be back soon.”

“Uh. Ah. Yes Come on! Please! You must come back alive! You can’t leave me alone!”

“Okay. Okay. Come in.”

“Yes!”

As if Eunji was begging me to trust her, she shouted, “I must come back and not die.”

She is also a woman at heart. I’ll have to go back and ask what kind of job it is.

I don’t think that’s going to happen, but it’s a big deal if I wake up, so I’ll have to raise my level a bit while I’m out this time.

You must always have the upper hand in power until you have something to completely trust your opponent.

‘Okay…Then let’s go…’

The route has already been determined.

First stop by the nearest convenience store, grab some cigarettes or something, and go straight to the pharmacy if you don’t have anything special.

Antibiotics and medicines will be valuable later.

Well, it wouldn’t matter if there was a healer among the awakened people, but right now there’s nothing.

I should also bring cold medicine. I just have to sweep everything I see in the pharmacy. It’s none of my business what happens to the other survivors.

After robbing the pharmacy like that, going straight to the mart, grabbing a cart, and then sweeping up canned food, edible food, toilet paper, and underwear, and stopping by a hardware store and Daiso on the way home is really perfect.

It would be nice to drive a car, but Eunji and I are people who don’t have our own cars, so we have to work hard. You don’t know if you use the car to attract zombies.

‘2 hour time attack…’

I hurried down the stairs, repeating the approximate route in my head.

I hope you can farm honey…!