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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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At the back of the pharmacy, I found a container for storing medicine and put together a simple first-aid kit. Bandages, adhesive bandages, medical tape, ointment, antibiotics… I closed the lid of the small container and tucked it into the utility pocket of my Adidas backpack.
While assembling the kit, I realized pharmacies sold all sorts of things these days. They even had fitness supplies. I stared at a lifting belt, thinking it might be useful. I could adjust the size, attach some straps or rings, and use it to carry my weapons. Perfect for a utility belt.
Weightlifting gloves… wrist support? Hmm.
And a jump rope. I didn’t need that.
What was this pharmacy? It had a lot of useful stuff.
I grabbed a bottle of Bacchus, various medicines, and the sanitary pads Ye-eun had requested. My backpack was full again. It was heavy.
I had spent quite a bit of time shopping. Hmm… if I waited another hour, I could recharge another Accelerate…
I’d just go. There were only two of them in the chicken restaurant, anyway.
I left the pharmacy and set my bag down in front of the chicken restaurant. I peeked inside…
…There were three now.
…And their positions had changed.
The man who had been in the kitchen was now standing at the entrance to the kitchen, and another man, probably a delivery person with a beer belly, was looking at the menu. And a woman was standing by the kitchen, probably near the bathroom entrance.
…Where had the woman come from…?
Were they the owners?
Had she been lying down before?
Damn it.
…Three.
…One Accelerate charge.
…No.
I shouldn’t take the risk. I was stronger than before, but still weak. I needed to get stronger.
I carefully turned and went back to the pharmacy. I grabbed a bottle of Bacchus from the drinks section, popped it open, and sighed.
…Damn it.
I wanted to be stronger. Ambushing them was fine, but I wanted to just barge in and wipe them all out.
“Ha…”
I was weak.
I had to remember that. I didn’t know what would happen if I was bitten.
I grabbed another bottle of Bacchus, cracked it open, and went behind the counter. I had left my bag in front of the chicken restaurant. No one was going to steal it anyway.
Time to wait.
An hour passed, and Accelerate recharged. Two charges.
Good.
I grabbed my sword and left the pharmacy.
Shing—
The street was quiet. A quiet night, illuminated by the streetlights.
I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the chicken restaurant.
“Grrrr?!”
The chubby delivery guy.
The woman.
The man in the kitchen.
Accelerate.
[Auto-cast: Accelerate]
“Graaa—aa—aa—”
I lunged forward and thrust the sword into the chubby guy’s head.
Too—oo—oo—
Thwack!
I yanked it out and took two steps, piercing the woman’s head.
Thwack!
—Thud!
“—Aa—raagh!”
Accelerate.
[Auto-cast: Accelerate]
Beyond the collapsing woman…
The man.
I sidestepped and thrust the sword with all my might.
“Hah!”
Thwack!
He’d been peeking out from the kitchen entrance when the sword pierced his temple and exited through the back of his head. I yanked it out with a grunt.
“…Hoo!”
I took two steps back.
Everything was slow. The blood droplets moved like slime in the air. Wobbly, jiggly.
“—Aa—raagh!”
All three collapsed simultaneously.
Thud! Crash!
Blood sprayed everywhere.
“Ugh.”
Damn it, I got some on my face.
[Leveled up 3 times.]
Done.
I wiped the sword on the woman’s pants and looked around. A chicken restaurant… was there anything worth taking? …Should I grab some frozen chicken? Grandma had asked for meat.
“…Hmm…”
I went into the kitchen, opened a large freezer, and saw bags of frozen chicken piled inside. Some bags had only wings, some only legs… a variety.
I grabbed four bags of whole chickens. They were quite heavy—maybe seven or eight kilos.
Would we have chicken for breakfast tomorrow?
Time to go back.
I returned to the boarding house, knocked on the main house door, went inside, and dumped everything onto the floor. Frozen chicken, sanitary pads, pain relief patches (both adhesive and spray), digestive medicine, cold medicine, birth control pills, bandages, adhesive bandages… all sorts of things spilled out of my bag. I had brought back clothes during the day, and now chicken and medicine at night. I’d also leveled up quite a bit. The women’s faces lit up. Ye-eun glanced at me, her face flushing slightly, and grabbed a few packs of sanitary pads. So-eun, seeing her sister do so, also grabbed a few. Soo-hyun praised me and gave me a shoulder massage. Grandma seemed especially pleased. “Oh, my knees have been bothering me so much. Thank you, young man.” She immediately tore open a pack of joint pain relief patches and applied them to her knees, beaming. “S…Sung-hoon.”
Ye-eun called out to me, glancing at Soo-hyun.
“Oh? Why?”
“How… how are things outside?”
Outside… They must have noticed the bloodstains on my clothes. They knew what I was doing. I scratched my chin and said, “Well, I’ve cleared out a few of the smaller stores around here. The clothing store, that supermarket down the street, and the pharmacy are safe. The streets are quieter than you’d think. But across the main road, it’s still pretty dangerous.”
“…Ah…”
Ye-eun nodded. I smiled. “Why? Do you want to go out?” Ye-eun shook her head. So-eun’s eyes widened, and she also shook her head. After what they had experienced at the convenience store, they seemed to have developed a bit of a trauma.
Soo-hyun spoke up, “I want to go out. I want to go to the hardware store. How about you?” I shook my head.
“That area is dangerous. There are more of them than you think. Just stay put for now. I’ll let you know when it’s safe.”
Soo-hyun stuck her tongue out and didn’t say anything more. She hadn’t been outside since the apocalypse started. She wasn’t afraid. I couldn’t risk letting her go out and get herself killed. I tore open the lifting belt packaging and handed it to Soo-hyun.
“Could you take a look at this?”
Soo-hyun took the lifting belt and tilted her head, puzzled. I explained, “I want to attach my swords and other things to it. Is that possible?” Soo-hyun hummed thoughtfully, then nodded.
“All we need to do is attach some rings, right? I have some thick wire left over, so it should be possible. We just need to attach the scabbards. Give it here.”
“Thanks.” She was taking care of all the annoying tasks. I could have attached the rings myself, but I was grateful she was willing to do it. It seemed like she was single-handedly fortifying the house. She was a valuable asset. I went back to the rooftop room, washed off the remaining blood, and lay down. I still felt like I smelled of blood.
“Status.”
Oh… Six points. Where should I allocate them? I put 3 points into Spirit, securing 4 Accelerate charges. Hmm… Four Accelerate charges… I needed to think about this. My current tactic was hit-and-run. I could wipe out small groups, but against larger hordes, I had to get in and out quickly. I needed at least one charge to escape and that left three charges for the attack. Assuming 2-3 seconds per kill… I could kill five or six human beasts in fifteen seconds. So, 7 Strength should be enough for now. I put 3 points into HP, bringing it to 26. Once my HP reached 30, my stat recovery would match my HP recovery rate per hour. That would give me a lot more leeway. I wished the stat recovery was faster or greater, but this was the best I could do for now. 30 HP, then some points into Strength, and the rest into Spirit to maximize Accelerate charges.
Done.
Time to sleep.
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Breakfast was quite good. Grandma and Ye-eun made braised chicken with two whole chickens, and the five of us ate our fill. Ye-eun seemed to have inherited Grandma’s cooking skills. Feeling full and satisfied, I left the boarding house. Soo-hyun had taken the lifting belt and one of the swords, so she should have it ready sometime today. Today was going to be a good day. I walked towards the supermarket, thinking that… but he wasn’t there. The large man hadn’t arrived yet? What the hell? He was the one who wanted to go. The morning sun was already scorching. Damn summer heat. I grabbed a chocolate bar from the ice cream freezer in front of the supermarket and took a bite. The bodies of the old thugs were still lying there, and the smell was pretty bad, but the breeze made it bearable. If he didn’t show up by the time I finished this, I was leaving.
The chocolate bar was cold and sweet. As I finished half of it, I heard footsteps approaching. I tossed the rest of the chocolate bar onto the street and placed my hand on the hilt of my sword. I looked towards the source of the footsteps—it was the large man. He was walking slowly. Why was he so late, and why was he walking like that? …His face was dark. He looked like he had just woken up after chugging ten bottles of soju. And why wasn’t he carrying the axe I had given him? What was up with this guy?
“…Ah… hello.” The man greeted me awkwardly with a bow.
“You’re late.”
“…Yes… I… there was a suicide…”
…What?
“…A suicide? Who?”
“The…” The large man started to speak, then his face crumpled, he covered his eyes with one hand, and began to sob.
…What? What was with the sudden melodrama? He needed diapers, didn’t he?
The man said through his tears, “This… everything… it’s all too much…”
…This was crazy. “Look, mister, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Do you still need diapers? If not, I’m leaving.”
“S-Sir…” The man grabbed my wrist desperately. His face was streaked with tears and snot, eye boogers still clinging to the corners of his eyes. His hair was matted and greasy, his beard unkempt. He looked like a homeless person. And he smelled, too. Damn it. Couldn’t he at least wash up?
“What?” I pulled my hand away and asked. The man pleaded, “C-Could you please come with me for a moment?” …Sigh… …Damn it, I needed to level up.
“Please, please, I beg you, sir. Please? Please?”
I looked up at the sky, then at the house next door, then down at the ground. I was rolling my eyes. This was annoying. The man was practically on his knees, begging me. He not only looked unwashed, but his face was also pale and gaunt; he probably hadn’t eaten either. What was so urgent?
“…Fine. Where do you want to go?”
“Th-Thank you. Thank you, sir.”
The man’s face brightened slightly, and he led me into the alleyway. We passed a few houses down the alley next to the supermarket, and then we arrived at his house. The layout was similar to our boarding house—two units on the first floor, one on the second. No rooftop room. Typical for these neighborhood houses.
Creak. He opened the gate, and a stench immediately assaulted my nostrils. …The smell of a corpse. No, there was another smell mixed in. The smell of feces and urine? “Did someone die here?” I asked, wrinkling my nose. The large man looked down at the floor with a grim expression, then slowly opened the door to one of the first-floor units—the one that would correspond to Soo-hyun’s room.
…A woman was hanging from the doorknob of the bathroom, a rope tied around her neck. She must have tied the rope to the doorknob, put it around her neck, and then sat down, and there were feces and urine on the floor beneath her.
“…She… she was… assaulted by those bastards every day… after you killed them all, she was finally free… but last night… I found her like this…”
…This was messed up.
The large man continued, “…A few days ago, when it all started, they begged me to open the door, and I… I opened it. That night… the old man and his grandson who lived here were beaten to death. This college student… she was captured by them, and day and night…”
…I didn’t want to hear this.
Seeing my silence, the man looked at me cautiously and continued, “I… I have a wife and a baby… I was afraid they would hurt them. I told them I would do anything they asked, just leave my family alone…”
…Ah, so that’s why he had been alone at the supermarket with a monkey wrench.
The man opened the door to the other unit. Another wave of stench hit me. Inside, a haggard-looking woman was holding a baby. Used diapers, some with feces still on them, were scattered around the room and in the kitchen area. The woman looked at me. …Even a corpse would have looked more lively than her. Her eyes were unfocused, her face devoid of expression, like a black-and-white photograph. The man sobbed, “…It’s… it’s too much. I… I can’t take it anymore. Sir… sob…” The stench of death and excrement, the sobbing man, the haggard woman… I stood there between them, feeling like I was going crazy.
So what the hell did he want me to do about it?
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