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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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While unscrewing the bolts, I thought,
Could this box cutter be used as a weapon?
…The thought vanished after 10 seconds.
The blade snapped.
Damn it.
This would only scratch the skin.
I needed to crush heads, I couldn’t mess around with a broken box cutter.
I put the box back on the shelf and continued unscrewing the bolts, racking my brain.
Think.
Think.
This metal pipe was probably stainless steel, or a similar metal.
Meaning, it was light.
It wasn’t a solid, heavy metal pipe.
Then how should I attack with this?
Swing it at their heads?
This was light.
Would it be even weaker than the baton?
Could I really inflict fatal wounds with this?
The more I unscrewed, the less confidence I had in this metal pipe.
…No.
There was a way.
Not swinging, but thrusting.
Using it like a spear.
This pipe was about 1.5 meters long.
The length was decent, and if I thrust it properly, it probably wouldn’t bend or break.
The baton would just collapse if I thrust it, so it couldn’t be used as a spear.
It could only be used as a blunt weapon.
Right.
Let’s make a spear.
With this.
I finished unscrewing the bolts.
“Hoo…”
The shelf was half disassembled.
I only needed one pipe.
There was no need to disassemble the whole thing.
I held the pipe and looked around.
…Ah…
This was a bit difficult.
If my hands were sweaty, it might slip.
It had a powder coating, but I needed to prepare for the worst. I wanted to wrap something around it…
“…Hmm.”
I immediately took off my belt.
I used the box cutter to rip the holes for the buckle.
Damn, it was tough.
After cutting a bit from the front and back, the opening was wide enough to insert the loosened screws.
I placed it against the pipe, inserted the screws into the holes, and tightened them.
…A belt handle.
Made of cowhide, it fit snugly in my hand.
Because the holes on the pipe were spaced far apart, 0.5 meters of the 1.5-meter length became the handle, but whatever.
It was better than nothing.
The belt seemed firmly attached.
Now…
I had to take care of the tip of this pipe spear…
Ideally, I’d sharpen the metal tip like a proper spear, but I had neither the tools nor the time.
…Should I step on it?
No.
Unless the soles of my shoes were made of metal, stepping on it with soft sneakers wouldn’t make a dent.
Ah, damn it.
It was just a convenience store storage room.
What special tools would there be?
This was all there was, shit.
I put the boxes back on the shelf, sat down, and leaned against the wall.
“…Ha, Status…”
…I’d have to wait a while to recover.
Using this as a spear was a good idea, but with only 3 Spirit, I couldn’t move recklessly.
It was better to conserve Accelerate.
I held the spear and leaned my head against the wall.
“…I’m Han Sung-hoon. What are your names?”
The woman in casual clothes looked at me with a hoarse voice.
“Kim Ye-eun… and this is Kim So-eun. My younger sister.”
Ye-eun, So-eun.
I see.
I nodded and glanced at the status window.
How long would it take for my Spirit to recover to 5?
I was too panicked after waking up earlier. I didn’t even know how many hours I had slept.
I glanced at the girls.
Ye-eun had long, straight hair in a ponytail.
So-eun had short hair.
I hadn’t seen So-eun’s face properly, so I didn’t know if they looked alike, but Ye-eun was quite pretty.
As for her figure, well, I hadn’t looked closely, but it wasn’t unpleasant to the eye.
Better than ugly, but more importantly than pretty or ugly was whether they would act like attention-grabbing idiots.
Please, listen carefully to what I was about to say. Don’t even think about attracting attention.
“About getting out of here.”
Ye-eun looked at me.
So-eun flinched.
“I’m going to stab those things to death with this.”
I pointed at the spear.
They probably understood what I meant.
Ye-eun’s face paled.
I said quietly,
“Now’s not the time to be thinking about how horrible this is. Surviving is what matters. You saw what those things did to other people.”
I looked at each of them in turn.
Only Ye-eun’s face was visible.
“We’ll rest a bit and then get started. When we do, don’t scream and try to help me.”
Ye-eun said, trembling slightly,
“H-How… how can we help you…”
I glanced at the door.
Let’s try to remember.
How many were there?
How many of those things poured in?
I remembered at least four.
There could be more, or it could be just four.
“Hoo…”
I nodded and said to Ye-eun,
“…When I open the door, those things will probably try to rush in. After I stab them, we need to close the door again.”
It would be best if I could handle it on my own.
“I’ll try to do it myself, but if I need help, I’d like you to help me close the door. That’s all. Can you do that?”
Ye-eun’s face was filled with fear as she slowly lowered her head.
There was no answer.
So-eun also remained motionless.
Ah… for fuck’s sake.
I wished there was just one guy here who had some experience fighting.
If the two of us worked together, with Accelerate, we could probably handle four of them, shit.
Of all people, it had to be girls… ha…
Well, I shouldn’t get my hopes up.
Telling them was enough.
If they helped, it would be lucky, otherwise, I’d just have to manage on my own.
Shit.
“I’m going to rest.”
I put down my bag, used it as a pillow, and lay down.
I should recover a bit after an hour or two.
However, it took four hours for my Spirit to recover to 5.
Since I had just woken up, I had plenty of time to look at the status window.
And I figured out how the recovery worked.
10 percent per hour.
Health recovered by 10 percent, and the other stats recovered based on Health.
Since my maximum Health was 6, it recovered by 0.6 per hour. And if my Health exceeded 4, 1 Health point was consumed to recover other stats by 1 point each.
It took 10 hours to fully recover Health from 0.
It would take at least 15 hours to fully recover all other stats as well.
…Damn it.
I had to rest a lot.
I needed to raise my stats quickly to increase the recovery rate.
Spirit was the priority, to increase the number of times I could use Accelerate.
And then Health.
I didn’t know what Strength and Senses were for.
They seemed to decrease along with Health when I was active, but their exact purpose was still unknown.
I got up and sat down.
As I sat up, the girls stirred and raised their heads.
They were dozing off too.
They were sleeping well in this situation.
“Hoo…”
As I got up, Ye-eun looked at me and asked,
“…Are you going to do it?”
“I have to.”
I placed the baton on the shelf next to me.
It was bent, so it wouldn’t retract.
I had no choice but to leave it like that.
I gripped the spear in my right hand and grabbed the doorknob.
I left the shelf blocking the door in place for now.
The door would only open enough for me to thrust the spear.
Ah… shit, I was nervous.
“…Opening.”
I heard Ye-eun gulp.
I slowly moved my hand from the doorknob to the lock.
And turned it.
…Click.
…Silence.
My heart was pounding.
If things went wrong, we would all die.
“…Hoo…”
I gently turned the doorknob.
It was well-maintained and didn’t make a sound.
Not bad, convenience store owner.
I slowly opened the door a crack.
I could see the inside of the convenience store.
The triangular kimbap display, beyond that, shelves lined with coffee and hot bars, and I could also see the refrigerators beyond the shelves.
But there were no beast-humans.
Where did they go?
I looked down.
“…!”
The bastards were lying on the floor.
I couldn’t tell if they were lying face down or sprawled out.
Why were they like that?
…It was too dangerous to go out and check.
What should I do?
My vision sharpened.
My heart pounded.
Extraneous thoughts vanished from my mind.
I licked my lips.
And then I pursued them and whistled.
Whew!
“Grrrr!”
With growls, the sprawled figures sprang to their feet. They whipped their heads from side to side.
The college student in the checkered shirt, the office worker in a suit, the young guy in jeans, the high school student.
Four of them.
All men.
They seemed to be searching for the source of the sound.
They hadn’t spotted me yet.
With the door only slightly open, that was understandable.
Just watching them wouldn’t get me anywhere.
I whistled again.
Whew!
“Grrr!”
The four human beasts turned their heads towards me.
Their faces were fucking disgusting.
Chunks of flesh were missing from their necks, their shirts were torn, their noses and cheeks ripped off…
“Kraaagh! Kraaagh!”
They charged!
Shit, Accelerate!
Quickly!
[Auto-casting: Accelerate]
The checkered shirt guy leaped onto the counter, the suit guy grabbed the counter and lunged, the jeans guy slammed into the wall, and the high school student was about to burst into the storage room.
Time stopped.
No, their movements slowed down.
Again.
This distance again!
Time always stopped at the same distance!
I raised the spear and aimed for the high school student’s head.
Sorry, not sorry, you little shit!
“Hraa!”
I thrust the spear into the high schooler’s forehead with all my might.
Crack!
Shit!
The spear wouldn’t go in!
He wouldn’t die like this!
I immediately pulled the spear back.
And thrust it in again with all my strength.
“Kra!”
Squish!
An unpleasant sensation traveled up the spear and into my hand.
The spear pierced the high school student’s head.
His eyeballs bulged.
This was horrifying, shit!
I immediately yanked the spear out.
“—a–a-aagh!”
Accelerate wore off!
I immediately slammed the door shut.
Bang!
The force of closing the door collided with the force of them slamming against it, creating a tremendous noise.
Screams and cries erupted at the same time.
I immediately locked the door.
Click!
“Kraaagh! Kraaagh!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Huff, huff, huff!”
Shit!
I took a step back, spear in hand.
My… my heart felt like it would explode.
This was the first time I had killed someone with the intention to kill.
“Huff, huff, huff!”
So-eun was crying, and Ye-eun was comforting her.
My spear was sticky with blood and hair, and I felt sick.
I had just killed someone.
My jaw trembled.
“Kra! Kraaagh!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I could see the door vibrating.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo.”
No.
That wasn’t a person.
Killing it was the right thing to do.
I gritted my teeth and took deep breaths.
[Level Up.]
A message appeared.
I closed my mouth, gritted my teeth, and took a deep breath in and out.
I would kill them all.
From now on, and forever.
I would kill every last one of them.
Apocalypse?
Fuck that, shit.
Like I was going to die.
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