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Season 2: Chapter 58. Impossible to Cross (2)

The school was like an egg and the students were unborn chicks. For these unborn chicks, the egg was the whole world. However, everyone had to eventually break out of this egg. Whether they wanted to or not, the egg would crumble on its own when the time came. It would mean the collapse of everything they knew.

Sometimes, birds born in harsher times had to break through themselves. These were such times when most life had perished and those who refused to die wandered like spectres.

The fledglings had to shatter the world they knew. They stood on mountains of corpses that weren’t just zombies. Perhaps these children were already more grown up than the adults themselves.

They decided to break the egg on their own and stepped into a different world. It was a fearful, yet exhilarating experience.

"There must be people out there," a voice laden with those two emotions echoed.

It was Ji Do-Hoon leading at the front.

"We can't be the only ones in this vast world," his voice trembled with nervousness and excitement. He was also filled with hope and fear.

"Yeah."

The students following nodded in agreement.

"There must be. Definitely," Almond also chimed in.

They had survived this long within the school. If not for their internal conflicts, perhaps many more would have survived. The outside world was much larger than the school. Surely, there were more people.

'But can they be trusted?'

Meeting people in a zombie apocalypse was both a blessing and the most dangerous thing. The students he came out with all applauded and cheered when he took out the delinquents. The other students probably also shared Almond's thoughts.

"Do you remember the first rule?"

"Yes, never ever bring people back."

They reminded themselves of the most important rule and slowly moved forward.

***

Now, they were outside the school.

Whoosh.

The wind felt refreshing, but the scenery was desolate. The usually bustling school route was devoid of life. The tents in the traditional market behind the school had all collapsed. The stationery shop had its glass windows all shattered and the inside was blackened. Had someone set a fire?

Gulp.

Do-Hoon swallowed hard at the front and even Almond could hear it.

— No one's around...

— D:

— So bleak;

The viewers were unprepared for such a grim sight too and commented on the landscape.

"Guys, something's weird..."

Thud.

So-Young, the only girl on the exploration team, stopped walking. Her position was neither at the very front nor back, but in the middle where she had the broadest view.

"... There aren’t any zombies either."

She had been diligent in her task and identified the source of unease that everyone else had missed.

"!"

All the students flinched after realizing she was right. The most frightened one was So-Young.

"Th-the absence of people is one thing, but why aren't there any zombies...?"

Her pale legs trembled slightly.

[Anxiety]

"I’m probably right," Gil-Soo, the one covering the rear, responded. He had a slender physique and looked agile, giving off the feel of a rear guard. "We killed all the zombies that came whenever we made noise at the construction site."

"Is that so...?"

It seemed plausible. Maybe Gil-Soo's guess was about seventy percent correct. No one here could give a one hundred percent answer to this question now.

Almond reassured So-Young, "We have no choice but to go further to know for sure."

"... Ju-Hyeok, aren’t you scared?" So-Young clung to him and her eyes trembling pitifully.

— :O

— Do the NPCs also recognize faces? The mood feels weird.

— Scared by the boss monster who plays golf?

— Here we go again... Face ID...

— Face ID activated again?

Almond coldly detached himself from So-Young, who slightly leaned on him. A leader couldn't be lenient toward just one person.

"I’m scared. Scared of being trapped and starved in the school."

"!"

— XD

— Expert at setting boundaries

— That expression

"We have to move forward," Almond spoke again and emphasized each word with clarity.

The students nodded and faced forward once more.

As they walked further, they saw that not all the shops had been destroyed or burned. At least there were no signs from the outside that someone had already ransacked them.

The exploration team had gone about one bus stop away from the school when So-Young brought up another point.

"... Ah, a snack bar? It's intact."

She pointed out a snack bar that indeed looked unharmed.

"Shouldn’t we collect food too?"

Collecting food was one of the exploration team's objectives. Establishing waypoints to the government shelter was good, but food was the most important thing.

However, Gil-Soo countered back. "Is that really food? It needs to be cooked. A sandwich shop would be better."

"Would sandwich ingredients have stayed fresh until now? Rice cakes, on the other hand, are frozen and mixed with sauce. Even sundae and fish cakes are mostly frozen."

"How are you going to cook that here? Set up a snack bar...?"

"Hey, hey. We need to stick to the exploration plan. Why are you arguing?" the largest student, Kyung-Ho, interjected. He had a tank-like presence with his hefty build and heavy armor.

"Right, the exploration leader decides."

"Yeah, the leader."

Ultimately, everyone turned to Almond for the decision. It was his call to make as the leader. Almond began pondering.

'It happened right after lunchtime.'

The initial zombie outbreak at the school occurred right after lunch during gym class.

'Then the ingredients would have been prepared...'

At the time, the rice cake shop would likely have been preparing for the evening, which was usually busier than lunchtime. What happened then? Did the owner turn into a zombie? Was the fridge still running?

Gil-Soo asked about cooking, but So-Young had a point. Rice cake ingredients were mostly long-lasting frozen items and the dish was simple to prepare if electricity or gas was available. Sundae and fish cakes were practically ready to eat, but...

"Let's check it on our way back. We don’t have to decide now."

Almond chose to defer the decision.

"Alright."

It was close to the school. Close enough that the students left at school could come out and fetch it if they decided to.

"Still, let's leave a note in the chat. Rice cake plus a potential food source."

"Okay."

Gil-Soo nodded in satisfaction and So-Young puffed her cheeks. They had no choice. Prioritizing further exploration on the first day was essential. They continued walking, passing the usual bus stop and even the closest subway station.

They had walked the distance of about three bus stops. Again, they never encountered any zombies on the way. Now, they left the commercial area and entered a residential zone with apartment complexes.

"...”

Almond's mind became preoccupied as he saw all the apartments.

'Is there really not a single survivor among all these homes?'

Many apartments appeared, yet not a single light was on. Maybe the interiors of these apartments weren't fully realized since this was just a game.

"Huh."

Do-Hoon's hand trembled. Being at the front made him nervous.

They stood at a pedestrian crossing and crossing it meant leaving the familiar school route into unfamiliar territory.

"..."

"There's no one."

"Let's cross."

Do-Hoon suggested waiting for the green light, but no one heeded his naive remark. They all began to jaywalk across the road.

"There's not a single car."

"Except the parked ones... just none."

Usually, one would expect to see a few abandoned cars on the road in an apocalypse. However, there were none. They were two-thirds of the way across the crosswalk when...

Vroom!

A rough engine sound echoed from a distance.

"!?"

The students froze and their eyes widened in surprise.

"What... what's that?"

"A car?"

They instinctively wanted to ask for help from the person in the car, but what if that person was dangerous? Should they run? Was there even time to escape? Their minds went blank.

"Run! Hide!" Gil-Soo shouted from the back. He decided that adhering to their rules was more important.

Everyone immediately agreed. Without any further words, they all ran and hid under the bushes near a row of trees across the street. Their elbows got scraped and the knees of their trousers were torn, but they didn't care. The fear of the approaching engine overpowered any pain.

"Haa... haa..."

Their faces could be seen through the bushes as they gasped for air.

'It's coming.'

Rrrrrrumble.

The engine slowed as it approached. A large SUV, no, a pickup truck appeared from around the corner. This type of vehicle was commonly used in suburban America and was ideal for surviving in such times. Several muscular men could be seen on the truck's open cargo bed and they didn’t look very friendly.

Ssshhh.

The pickup truck stopped at the crosswalk. Did it stop because of the red light?

Whoosh.

Words carried by the wind reached them.

"Why did you stop?"

"I thought I heard something."

"?"

The men in the truck were having a conversation.

"Did you hear something?"

"Maybe the wind?"

"No, not really..."

A man on the cargo bed gestured to indicate their misunderstanding.

"Probably just heard something wrong because of the engine noise."

"Sounded like people though..."

"Probably birds. And even if it was people, what are we supposed to do? We've got a long way to go."

Almond pondered at this point.

'Should we take their truck? It would make things easier.'

They could quickly eliminate everyone in the driver's seat and the cargo bed. The bow was quiet, especially this compound bow. He could handle them in a flash. The men had no idea where they were and didn't seem to have any long-range weapons.

'No, that's not right.'

Attacking these men and hijacking their truck would be acceptable in a typical open-world game, but the NPCs in this game likely wouldn’t cooperate in attacking morally neutral characters.

As if by chance or a signal, the truck started moving again.

"Haah... haah...! Thought I was going to suffocate."

"We barely survived."

The students each sighed in relief and lay on the ground for a moment, loosening their tense muscles. A gust of wind blew. The green leaves danced and added a chorus to the moment.

Then, Almond noticed something amid those sounds with his heightened senses. He could hear a very faint tearing noise and quickly turned around. Then, he froze.

"... Where's So-Young?"

The girl had vanished. The other students were stunned and looked around in confusion.

Gil-Soo muttered suspiciously, "Maybe the snack bar?"

"Nah, she must be hiding somewhere else."

In that instant, a hole burst open in Gil-Soo's torso. He looked down at his perforated body in a daze.

"Uh...?"

Something black slithered out through the gaping hole. It wriggled once and emitted a strange high-pitched sound. Gil-Soo's body began to deflate like a giant balloon losing air.

"Ughhh... erk...!"

His complexion turned ashen. In fact, everyone's did.

"Wha-What is that?!"

"Gil-Soo! Gil-Soo!? What the hell is this?!"

Their pupils shrank as their eyes followed the long hose-like thing attached to Gil-Soo that extended up to the giant tree. There, they saw the owner of this hose or tongue.

"!"

Everyone panicked.

'It attacked without any sound?!'

Almond was no different.

[Panic]

[All stats reduced by 90%. You will faint if this status lasts more than 30 seconds.]

'This is bad.'

However...

[Responsibility → Fighting Spirit]

[All status abnormalities have been cleared. Your stats will increase by 20% for 30 seconds.]

His position was different from the rest.