I Became a Game Character in the Apocalypse

Chapter 25

The two sat down in the hallway to catch their breath after clearing all the classrooms on the third floor.

As Seol Ye-won said, there were zombies hiding on the third floor as well.

Even though there was a commotion on the second floor, it seemed they didn’t hear it.

Jeong Jin-young took out a water bottle he had put in his bag.

Seol Ye-won also pulled out the water bottle from her bag to take a sip, hoping to refresh herself.

For a while, only their breathing echoed in the hallway.

Jeong Jin-young carefully observed Seol Ye-won’s expression and raised an eyebrow, asking, “Do you, by any chance, like Jae-hyung?”

At Jeong Jin-young’s sudden question, Seol Ye-won frowned and replied, “Why?”

“It seems like your mind is all on Jae-hyung.”

“Do I have to like someone to worry about them?”

“Ah, I didn’t mean anything bad. I’m sorry if I upset you.”

“If it weren’t for Jae-hyung, we wouldn’t even have come near the engineering building. It’s only natural to be worried.”

“…….”

Jeong Jin-young bit his lip, realizing too late how foolish his question had been, as every word Seol Ye-won said was completely correct.

He scratched his brow and spoke, “It’s good that you’re worried about Jae-hyung, but… I think we should focus on dealing with the zombies right now. If your mind is elsewhere, you might get hurt.”

“…….”

Feeling the sincerity in Jeong Jin-young’s words, Seol Ye-won nodded instead of replying.

However, the image of Park Jae-hyung leaving to distract the zombies lingered in her mind.

She couldn’t shake off the heavy feeling that this might be the last time she saw him.

Tap—tap—tap—

At that moment, the sound of footsteps began to tickle her ears from beyond the window.

Faint footsteps echoed from a distance.

Seol Ye-won walked to the window and gazed at the parking lot shrouded in thick fog.

Narrowing her eyes, she scrutinized the silhouettes visible in the mist.

Since Seol Ye-won had a good line of sight in the fog, it didn’t take long for her to spot the owner of the footsteps.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she hurried down the stairs.

Jeon Wan-soo, who had been checking the equipment in the practice room, looked tense when he saw the urgent expression on Seol Ye-won’s face and asked, “Where are you going? What’s wrong?”

“He’s arrived.”

Jeon Wan-soo put down the equipment he was holding and grabbed the katana that was resting nearby.

It seemed he thought zombies were approaching.

A shadow slowly drew nearer.

Seol Ye-won raised both hands and waved them side to side at the approaching figure.

The man, who had been cautiously approaching, hesitated for a moment but then began to approach with lighter steps.

The man returned covered in blood.

Breathing heavily, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced back and forth between Seol Ye-won and Jeon Wan-soo as he spoke.

“Everyone seems to have made it safely.”

His bland first words were enough for Seol Ye-won.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she walked up to Park Jae-hyung and suddenly smacked his arm.

When Park Jae-hyung looked surprised, Seol Ye-won frowned and continued, “Didn’t I tell you not to overdo it alone?”

“No… I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of another way.”

“Try overdoing it again. This time, know that you’ll be in trouble with me.”

“…….”

“Who told you to play the hero? Do you think people here would be happy if you end up dead?”

As Seol Ye-won frowned and asked, Park Jae-hyung became like a mute who had eaten honey.

Then Seol Ye-won’s complaints could be heard.

“Don’t make me worry again.”

***

Jeon Wan-soo was modifying a vehicle, while Jeong Jin-young and Seol Ye-won were clearing the remaining zombies in the building.

Jeong Jin-young checked my condition and let out a sigh of relief, saying, “You’ve got quite the luck to still be alive.”

“My goal is to live long and well.”

I answered with a light laugh, which made Jeong Jin-young chuckle in return.

“You still have energy for jokes, huh?”

“I don’t have much left. Let’s rest a bit and move together.”

“No, Seol Ye-won and I will handle the cleaning. You rest here.”

I appreciated their consideration, but I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing.

After running around, I took a moment to catch my breath, refreshed my throat with some cool water, and stood up.

“Let’s go. I’ll help.”

“Ha… if a person is too diligent, they’ll end up suffering.”

“Only diligent people survive.”

“You never give up an argument, do you?”

Jeong Jin-young snickered as he rolled his eyes.

I began to help the rest of the team clean the building, excluding Jeon Wan-soo.

We cleared the whole building of the engineering department and dealt with all the zombies within a 150-meter radius, including the parking lot.

It seemed most of the zombies were concentrated around the humanities department, music department, dormitory, library, and student union building.

Surprisingly, there weren’t many zombies near the engineering department.

After finishing the cleanup of the surrounding area, I returned to the practice room and asked Jeon Wan-soo if he needed any help.

Jeon Wan-soo tapped on a vehicle that had come from Germany and said, “Everyone, take this apart.”

“What? You want to take off the front bumper?”

When Jeong Jin-young asked back, Jeon Wan-soo nodded nonchalantly.

Then Jeong Jin-young sighed and muttered, “How much is that worth if we take it off and sell it?”

In a world where money had become useless, I instinctively started calculating.

Jeon Wan-soo showed a thick steel plate and continued, “We’re going to take off the front bumper and attach these frames and plates here.”

It looked like a thick steel plate that was at least 15 mm thick.

With such a considerable weight, would the car even be able to drive with that on?

When I looked at him with a doubtful expression, Jeon Wan-soo noticed and chuckled lightly.

“Don’t doubt it. It’ll work.”

“Can you attach this there?”

“For a mid-sized car, we’ll have to use different parts. This is strictly for a bus. The mid-sized cars and vans will usually weight around 5 to 10 tons.”

“Are you really modifying three vehicles?”

“Do you think we’re just carrying people? We need three to carry the luggage too. We will attach steel panels that will be shaped like a triangular prism and attached to the bus for clearing paths.”

“Do we really have to take off the bumper?”

“It’s all plastic. He have  to reinforce it from the frame for it to hold.”

“Will the car even be able to drive  with that much weight…?”

“Hey, these BMW engines were not created by humans. It was accidentally created by  god,” Jeon Wan-soo excitedly explained.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but it was pointless for someone like me, who knew nothing about vehicles, to interject.

Wan-soo eagerly carried various parts, removing the wheel from one of the vehicles and mumbling to himself as he placed different metal plates against the front windshield.

Well, I figured he must have a plan.

As I looked over the vehicles in the practice room, I asked, “Wan-soo, are you talking about the bus over there, the tourist bus?”

“Yeah, there’s even a refrigerator in there. As long as you fill it up with enough fuel, it can run a refrigerator too.”

“You can modify that?”

“A person who works well thinks first and then answers.”

Right, that’s just Wan-soo.

Among our group, he’s the most driven.

In a good light, you could call him a go-getter; in a bad light, he might come off as reckless.

Not everyone is the same, after all.

For every type of person, there’s another type to balance it out.

Still, it’s always better to have someone who shows positive reactions than someone who’s constantly negative.

I patted Wan-soo on the shoulder and told him to just give the orders.

The sun was high in the sky, and we had to get back to the club room before sunset.

Once night fell, visibility would be completely blocked, so we hastened our work.

As the western sky turned red, we prepared to leave the practice room and head back to the student union.

Jeon Wan-soo locked the practice room door and turned to our group, saying, “Great job, everyone.”

“This is no small task. I think I need to find some work gloves at the convenience store,” Jung Jin-young said, rubbing his sore palms.

Carrying metal plates and tearing things apart with bare hands had taken a toll on his palms.

Even Wan-soo had pinched his fingers and was sporting a bruise.

I pulled out the hunting knife I had stashed in my leg holster and asked, “How long do you think it’ll take to finish the modifications?”

“Hard to say. We’ll remove all unnecessary parts and attach equipment suited for handling zombies. Shouldn’t take more than about two weeks.”

“What kind of equipment is suited for dealing with zombies?”

“Have you seen anything like it in movies or dramas? Zombie cars.”

“Is that actually possible?”

“We need to make it possible.”

Wan-soo stretched, loosening his stiff body, and said that he would start drawing up the detailed plans as soon as we got to the club room.

Jung Jin-young approached me, holding his hand axe.

“Jae-hyung, how did you manage to evade the zombies while you were running away?”

“They’re probably clustered in the library.”

“The library? That’s on our way.”

“Don’t worry. Most of the zombies are inside the library.”

The zombies that had chased me would likely be in the stairwell leading to the second floor and in the reading rooms.

A few had fallen out of the windows, but most were trapped inside.

Jung Jin-young seemed confused, tilting his head and asking, “What do you mean? Did you lure them to the library?”

“Yeah.”

“Then how did you get out?”

“I jumped out the window.”

The moment I mentioned jumping out of the window, everyone looked stunned.

Wan-soo examined me from head to toe, snorting and asking, “Are you superhuman? How is that even possible?”

“I used to do gymnastics. We learned how to roll when we fell.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“It wasn’t simple. The fog made me lose my sense of perspective.”

Hearing that I lost my sense of perspective, Wan-soo shook his head and said, “I would never be able to do that. Jumping down when you can’t see the ground? That’s insane.”

“Calling me insane? I calculated everything before I moved.”

“If you’re not smart, your body has to suffer, but this guy is must’ve eaten strategy for breakfast.”

“It’s not that if you’re not smart your body suffers; if you have a good body, your mind has it easy.”

I joked lightly, and everyone burst into laughter.

Thanks to regaining our basic stamina, the quality of our weapons was also much better than when we were trapped in the dormitory.

That boost in confidence made us act even more proactively.

I led the way, saying, “Ye-won and I will take the front, and you two, Wan-soo and Jin-young, keep an eye on the back.”

We formed a line and retraced our steps toward the student union.

Not asking for more or less, I just hoped we could proceed step by step, achieving everything we had planned.

The way back to the student union wasn’t as dangerous as when we headed toward the engineering building.

There were a few zombies jumping out from the fog, but thanks to Seol Ye-won and Wan-soo, who had identified their positions early, we managed to deal with them easily.

I was starting to get used to the sound of their footsteps.

It was like how I could easily recognize my parents’ footsteps at home while sneaking around reading comics during middle school.

The distinct shuffling of the zombies became a signal, allowing me to pinpoint their locations without needing to see them.

Though I still felt uneasy when I pierced through a zombie’s eye, I no longer felt nauseated or scared as I did before.

As we arrived at the back door of the student union, we spotted a zombie blocking our way.

Just as Jung Jin-young was adjusting his grip on the hand axe to smash its skull, I grabbed his arm and said, “Hyung, let’s capture that one.”

“Capture? That one?”

“We need to understand the characteristics of zombies.”

Jung Jin-young looked reluctant, but both Seol Ye-won and Wan-soo nodded in agreement.

I pulled out the 3-meter-long LAN cable from my bag and said to Jung Jin-young, “Hyung, distract it.”

“Me? How?”

“Just make it charge at you.”

Jung Jin-young grimaced, looking at me as if I were a bug.

But as everyone’s eyes turned to him, he eventually approached the zombie blocking the back door, hand axe in hand.

Crack… Crack!

The zombie, catching a whiff of Jung Jin-young’s scent, twisted its head oddly and lunged at him.

Seizing the moment, I sprinted forward, wrapping the LAN cable around its neck.

At the same time, I thrust it down into the ground with all my might, pinning it down so it couldn’t struggle.

However, the zombie flailed its arms wildly, twisting around non-stop.

It flopped like a fresh fish out of water.

If a fish is hard to catch when it flops, how much more difficult is it to catch a zombie trying to bite you?

This fish… would bite.