Episode 28
As I lifted my foot from the brake, the car inched forward.
Yeo Wook kept looking back at the approaching zombies while loading his gun. His eyes were filled with determination.
With my heart pounding, I pressed hard on the accelerator. Perhaps I pushed too hard in my unfamiliarity, as the car lurched forward abruptly.
Yeo Wook, who was half-turned, hastily grabbed the seat. After barely managing to steady himself, he asked loudly,
“Sun-woo, are you sure you really know how to drive?”
“I am. I’m just a novice driver.”
The convertible raced down the road without hesitation. The harsh wind and loud music intertwined, pounding our ears.
Glancing up, I saw a drone camera hovering in the distance.
Real-time communication becomes impossible if it gets too close due to the monsters. Probably for live broadcasting, the drone was flying while avoiding the sky that was gradually turning red.
-Bang!
A flash of light so strong it completely blocked our vision for a moment burst in front of us. It was bright enough that I couldn’t see the drone camera darting through the sky for a while.
「Tito draws the car running on Cheongdam Bridge, then adds a broadcast station logo and subtitles at the top to make it look like a news scene.」
Tito, seemingly without any sense of decency, kept drawing me with a grimace. It was worse than an oncoming car with high beams on. It was hard to see the lanes properly to drive.
“Damn it.”
Muttering softly, I stretched my arm upward. As I fumbled with the overhead console above the rearview mirror, my fingertips found something I’d hoped might be there.
Yeo Wook frowned in disbelief as he saw me grabbing the steering wheel with my left hand and putting on sunglasses with the other.
“Sun-woo, what are you doing?”
“It’s too bright.”
I answered briefly while swerving to avoid an abandoned passenger car. Yeo Wook gaped, apparently unable to believe what he was seeing.
“Don’t tell me… you’re trying to look cool…”
That’s not it, you idiot.
I figured there was no point in trying to explain. I silently tried to increase the car’s speed, but the abandoned cars scattered across the bridge prevented us from going as smoothly as I’d hoped.
Moreover, even though they were zombies, they seemed to move twice as fast in Tito’s world. The monsters, despite their decaying bodies, leaped and bounded as they chased after us.
Seeing the noticeably closer horde of monsters compared to when we started, Yeo Wook took a firing stance. He had wrapped his seat belt around his thigh to avoid being thrown from the car.
-Bang!
Even amidst the wind, I could smell a faint scent of gunpowder. In the side mirror, I saw a zombie with a bullet lodged in its eye howling as it fell backward.
The sound of gunfire rang out continuously. The deafening gunshots mixed with the upbeat background music was disorienting.
After a brief period of unfamiliarity, I started to get the hang of it. I decided to completely forget about the me from the past who had to worry about speed limits.
We had smoothly passed about a third of the bridge when a narration box appeared, piercing through my sunglasses.
「Tito grins sinisterly as he moves his tablet pen.」
“Damn it, the bullets…”
Yeo Wook frantically pulled the trigger. But the gun only made a clicking sound as it dry-fired.
I looked up at Yeo Wook in alarm, but only for a moment. In that brief instant when I took my eyes off the road, the open door of a passenger car suddenly appeared in my view.
-Screeech!
I slammed on the brakes and tried to change direction, but the bumper hit the door squarely, making a horrible scraping sound. A black skid mark was left along the trajectory, accompanied by the strong smell of burning rubber.
“Sun-woo! Behind us!”
In the moment we hesitated, three lead zombies had latched onto the car’s trunk, stretching out their arms. The sleek body of the car was stained with saliva and blood dripping from the monsters’ gaping mouths.
Sung Kyung-min’s going to be pissed.
I quickly adjusted my sunglasses while shifting the gear into reverse.
“We’re going to crash, grab onto something!”
Hearing my words, Yeo Wook wrapped his arms around the backrest and braced himself.
A monster with its skin peeled off, revealing yellowish fat layers, reached out its hand right up to my face.
I turned the steering wheel all the way to the right and slammed on the accelerator.
To kill a monster, I had to explicitly involve my ability. A faint blue light intertwined over the back of my hand gripping the steering wheel.
-Crash!
The strong impact from behind nearly made me slam my forehead into the steering wheel. Fighting off dizziness, I checked behind us to see the lower bodies of three zombies wedged tightly against the concrete wall at the edge of the bridge.
“Die, die, die!”
As I applied force to my right foot, the car’s rear wheels spun in place with an ominous sound. Even with their upper and lower bodies separated, the zombies showed no concern, opening their mouths to make threatening noises.
Gritting my teeth, I shifted the gear back to drive. As I pulled the car out, I heard something falling with a thud. It seemed the severed upper bodies of the zombies had tumbled to the ground.
Gear back to reverse, then accelerator.
“Sun-woo, this isn’t a bumper car!”
Yeo Wook shouted at the top of his lungs, his face panic-stricken. The veins in his long neck were bulging prominently.
I paid no attention and stepped on the accelerator to grind the half-zombies into pulp.
I focused energy through my fingertips, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
As I struggled to envelop the entire car body with my insufficient energy, my head spun.
With a roar, the car reversed again. The body shook violently as the tires ran over something.
[SYSTEM: 3 F-grade monsters have been terminated.]
After confirming the system message, I changed the car’s direction, mentally recalling the T-shaped parking, the highlight of the practical driving test.
Meanwhile, during all this chaos, the rear of Sung Kyung-min’s foreign car was completely crumpled.
Perhaps because it had been transformed into a state just short of being scrapped, even when I pressed the accelerator, it just rattled without moving forward.
“Sun-woo…!”
Yeo Wook, standing on the fully reclined seat, called my name in a panic-stricken voice.
Amidst the thundering heartbeat in my ears, I heard an unpleasant scraping sound. Monsters were approaching us, baring their teeth.
While we were dealing with the ones clinging to the car, a group of about thirty monsters had completely caught up with us. The zombies, screaming with mindless eyes, surrounded the car as if to encircle it.
-Kyahaa!
One monster seized the opportunity and lunged at me aggressively. As I barely managed to push away its slimy body, Yeo Wook slashed its neck in one swift motion.
-Ding!
A clear sound rang out as a system message appeared in front of Yeo Wook. After kicking away the monster’s head that was stuck to the car body, Yeo Wook shouted at me.
“I just awakened a skill!
-Woong woong-.
A whirlwind of wind enveloped Yeo Wook’s entire body as he activated the skill. Soon, in both his hands appeared a large harpoon gun, faintly emitting a blue light.
With his lips tightly pressed, he stood up on the seat. In the midst of this, Tito captured a shot of Yeo Wook’s entire body as he materialized his weapon.
I repeatedly turned the ignition on and off, grunting with effort. After several attempts, the engine finally started. In the side mirror, I could see the reflection of the zombie horde, utterly oblivious to our situation.
“Hey! You’re all dead!”
Ready to depart at any moment, I shouted at the zombie horde as if taunting them.
-Kyaaak!!
A zombie with a tattered lower jaw screamed at me. Its empty eye sockets, devoid of eyeballs, rolled wildly.
“Ugh, damn… You scared me.”
As I was calming my startled heart, a blue harpoon tip fired from the muzzle of Yeo Wook’s gun. The sliced air ruffled his fine hair.
The sharp harpoon pierced through the shoulder of a zombie trying to climb onto the car.
As the monster screamed, Yeo Wook forcefully yanked the line attached to the harpoon. The monsters fell like autumn leaves.
As expected of an A-grade. I couldn’t help but be impressed. I supported him by occasionally stabbing monsters trying to sneak up behind Yeo Wook with my dagger.
Yeo Wook fired another shot while skillfully dodging the monsters’ wild swings. The harpoon skewered through the hearts of several overlapping monsters like a kebab. Before long, zombie corpses were piled up like mountains around the car.
However, in the distance, we could see a second horde approaching, black as night.
Yeo Wook didn’t have an area-of-effect skill yet. We’d shown enough prowess; fleeing would be the wiser choice now.
Just as I thought this and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands…
-Boom! boom!
Something unexpectedly fast for its massive size came running towards us, reflected in the rearview mirror.
It was a zombie, grotesque enough to be a field boss, standing over 2m tall with split, rotting fat all over its bloated body like a ball.
“Huh…”
As the giant monster leaped at our about-to-depart car, a startled breath escaped my lips.
-Boom!
The weight that landed on the trunk was enough to lift the front of the car momentarily. The monster, gripping the crumpled trunk, opened its decaying maw to reveal sharp teeth.
It was just as Yeo Wook, muttering a small curse, raised his upper body. He must have accidentally touched something, because with a ‘zing’ sound, the car’s roof started to close as we had so desperately wanted earlier.
The problem was that the monster on the trunk was dragged to the front seat along with the car’s frame, which moved like a Transformer.
-Screech!
As I hurriedly turned the steering wheel to change direction, half of the fallen monster’s body tumbled into the front seat.
-Kyaaaa!
The monster, its chest caught in the car roof, thrashed about and let out a terrible scream. Every time its overturned legs rolled, the entire car shook.
This was the closest I’d ever been to a monster, close enough to feel its breath. The interior was so cramped that just avoiding the monster’s wildly swinging arms was a challenge.
Holding the steering wheel with one hand, I kept fending off the zombie that kept reaching out from the front.
And just as Yeo Wook hurriedly aimed his harpoon gun at the zombie, the monster’s thick arm, compelled to attack me first, grabbed my collar.
Both my hands came off the steering wheel, and in the instant I felt myself being pulled, the car completely lost control.
Beyond the windshield where the monster was thrashing, a small truck parked in the middle of the road was getting closer.
-Crash!
Our car suddenly became airborne. As the car flipped and rotated about twice, the scene of me, Yeo Wook, and the monster tumbling like laundry seemed strangely slow.
When I came to my senses, the car seemed to be completely overturned, with the roof touching the ground. My crumpled body ached terribly. I had no idea where my sunglasses had flown off to.
Amidst all this, the monster, somehow still not dead, continued to wheeze and thrash its upper body. Avoiding the monster’s massive arm, I checked on Yeo Wook, sprawled in the seat next to me. His eyes were closed, making him look as if he were just asleep.
…He’s not dead, is he?
I quietly placed my finger under his nose. To check if he was breathing. It seemed like I could feel something, but maybe not.
-Crash!
While I was uncertain, a fist broke through the driver’s side window. That hand felt around inside and tore off the entire broken window.
Through the now empty window frame, I saw Sung Kyung-min with a complex expression.
He first dragged me out of the driver’s seat, then broke the passenger side window to rescue Yeo Wook as well.
After briefly checking the still-living zombie, Sung Kyung-min seemed to decide he needed to deal with us first.
He silently laid Yeo Wook and me down on the asphalt, far from the car. In the distance, the sound of an ambulance could be heard.
「Tito ponders how to wrap up this episode. Ending it with other hunters and civilian forces arriving on Cheongdam Bridge seems a bit bland, so Tito’s hand hesitates to move.」
Always making things complicated.
I painfully raised my upper body and took out the slime I always carry in my tactical uniform’s front pocket.
“Nemo, can you make just one flame?”
◉‿◉
The slime’s smiling expression wasn’t very reassuring. Sensing this himself, Nemo even gave me a thumbs up. I had no choice but to trust him.
Oil leaking from the overturned car had formed a small river. I placed the slime at the edge of the oil stream flowing across the asphalt.
The purple flame Nemo created between his arms instantly spread to the oil. And then, boom!
An explosion far louder than any gunshot shook the bridge.
「Tito is satisfied that he can finish the episode in Michael Bay style.」
A piece of the car’s bumper, thrown up by the explosion, fell with a loud clatter. I raised my right arm to shield my face from potential shrapnel.
[SYSTEM: 1 D+ grade monster has been terminated.]
Oh… it died.
I was slightly surprised by the unexpected achievement. Additionally, I learned that I could use the slime’s ability to kill monsters.
“Nemo, you’re unexpectedly useful, aren’t you?”
What had been a perfectly fine car just tens of minutes ago was now engulfed in roaring flames. Black smoke rose above the licking flames.
-Bang!
Tito captured one last shot of Sung Kyung-min’s back as he stood blankly, staring at the burning car. After confirming that, all my energy drained, I collapsed onto my back.
In the sky mixed with black smoke, clear sounds rang out in succession as system messages appeared.
[SYSTEM: Your abnormal status has improved.]
[SYSTEM: A buff has been generated due to the improvement in your abnormal status.]
Tito, that bastard, must have really liked this episode. I couldn’t help but grin as I opened my status window.
Affection Ranking: 8th place (↑5)
Unexpectedly becoming the protagonist of the episode, plus jumping up five ranks at once. At this rate, it didn’t seem impossible to actually secure the main character position.
Hoping for a good buff, I looked for the [Buff] section.
[Buff] Double Double: The experience points accumulated so far are calculated threefold. (This is used automatically and will disappear after use.)
Experience points…?
As I was repeatedly reading the puzzling message content, with a ‘woong’ sound, a blue energy seemed to wrap around my palm.
[SYSTEM: You have accumulated sufficient experience points…]
[SYSTEM: An additional skill has awakened!]
‘This buff is killer…’
As I grinned, more system messages appeared in my view.
[SYSTEM: You have accumulated sufficient experience points…]
[SYSTEM: A hidden skill has awakened!]
Two of them?