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"The traditional market area would be easier to find food, but there are too many places there where zombies could suddenly pop out. It's not suitable for auto-hunting either. Wouldn't it be better to create an auto-hunting ground in the Seongsu-dong riverside area, where there are many houses?"
Zombies don't respawn like in a game, but they keep coming up from the Han River, so it can feel like respawning. The continuous replenishment of zombies is never a good thing for humanity, but for me, who needs points, the Han River seemed to be the optimal environment for creating an auto-hunting ground.
To realize point duplication, I packed the remaining water and food into a large backpack and went outside in the morning.
Thanks to the increased visibility in night/fog as the level of 「Clairvoyance(lv.1)」 rose, it seemed like the fog had receded about 5m away from me. 10m and 15m are only 5m apart, but the difference felt quite significant.
Moreover, the eyesight of 「Clairvoyance(lv.2)」 not only allowed me to see things far away, but also included dynamic visual acuity, making it much easier to deal with zombies.
Because the zombies still had a longer visibility range, they would spot me first in open areas, but I could now handle one or two zombies without much difficulty even if I encountered them suddenly. Therefore, I could move along narrow paths without much burden.
As I slowly moved forward, I began to see high-rise apartments. I could only see the lower floors due to the short visibility range, but even just the lower floors felt different from the buildings I had seen before.
'I wanted to live in a place like that someday. I just have to wait 20 years, but the world went to hell before that.'
I'm not interested in Han River views. I don't particularly crave a large, nice house either. I'm always cooped up in my room in front of the computer, so what use is a large house?
Just seeing how the leisure of the pedestrians and the pleasantness of the streets were clearly different in a place only one stop away from where I lived, I had thought that I wanted to live in such an environment.
But the world went to hell before I could realize my dream.
The place I wanted to visit so much now looked no different from the front of an officetel. Instead of leisurely pedestrians, the streets were littered with coldly dead bodies, and the pleasant streets were stained with red and blue blood.
It even looked more miserable than the front of the officetel. It seemed that many people who were close to the Han River were caught off guard and helplessly succumbed.
The scenery seemed to say that no one could afford to be leisurely in a world shrouded in fog. Regardless of where they lived before or how much money they had.
Lost in useless sentimentality, a zombie walked out of an alley. The zombie didn't see me, and just walked out of the alley and stood there blankly.
'Why is that a zombie?'
Because there was only one, I was about to deal with it immediately, but I couldn't help but pause when I saw something floating above the zombie's face.
『☆☆☆』
Trait : 「Nimble Feet (lv.2)」
The zombie had a status window attached.
"Shhh..."
The zombie with the status window let out a long, characteristic groan and turned its head.
"Shriek?"
Then it spotted me and straightened its slumped posture. The listless appearance of walking out of the alley was nowhere to be seen. I could see it tensing its entire body, ready to pounce at any moment.
'Is it observing me right now?'
But it was different from the zombies I had met so far. Even after finishing its preparation to pounce, it didn't rush in immediately but waited for an opportunity. Like a hunter waiting for the optimal timing before a hunt.
It was an action I couldn't see from the zombies that rushed in madly as soon as they saw you.
Naturally, the tension rose throughout my body, just like when I first faced a zombie at the convenience store.
"Shriek!"
Still, a zombie is a zombie, and the status window zombie couldn't wait long and rushed in first.
What to think about the zombie with the status window was something for later. Right now, I had to think only about smashing its head in time with the moment it stuck it out, just as I had been doing.
'What the hell, this bastard?!'
But unlike the guys who had invariably stuck out their snouts first, this zombie showed off an unconventional attack, a front kick. As someone who had prepared to smash its head in as I had practiced hundreds of times, I couldn't help but be taken aback.
However, I couldn't just get hit dumbly, so I quickly jumped to the side and swung the crowbar I had raised at its ankle.
The status window zombie tried to evade the crowbar by nimbly moving its feet left and right.
Crack—
But whatever it was trying to do, it was hit in the shin by the crowbar as it was, and sat down, splitting its legs straight like a ballerina.
"Shriek!"
It sat down so perfectly that it couldn't even get up.
I was dumbfounded at the thought that there was even such a stupid zombie, but I couldn't miss the perfect opportunity. I took a step towards the zombie that was still sitting and smashed its head.
"...What?"
The victory was so easy that it was absurd, making all the tension I had felt seem pointless. It even felt easier than an ordinary zombie without a status window.
I looked down at the corpse of the status window zombie, which was dripping blue blood, and suddenly had a thought and opened the status window again.
『☆☆☆』
Trait : 「Nimble Feet (lv.2)」
「Nimble Feet (lv.2)」[R]
☐ Foot Sensation +30%
☒ Can be evolved to 「Delicate Nimble Feet (lv.1)」[SR+] by using a mid-grade evolution stone upon reaching level 10
▶Level Change : 4p
▶Transfer to Storage : 4p
As expected, trait information was attached to the status window zombie's corpse as well. And it was also possible to take the trait from there.
'This is possible?'
It was good news that there was something more than points to gain from the zombies I had to kill anyway.
However, I couldn't just be happy. The fact that the status window zombie had appeared in itself was a problem.
Until yesterday, I thought that anyone could face a zombie as long as they had minimal physicality and courage. In fact, even I, who was a skinny weakling, was able to hunt two zombies at the same time without traits when I got used to zombie hunting.
Even in the community, the saying that you should now know how to confront zombies was gaining traction. Along with the saying that it's more manageable than you think if you prepare well.
But from now on, zombies might not be manageable opponents anymore.
It was terrifying to imagine not a stupid zombie with a trait like 「Nimble Feet (lv.2)」, but a group of zombies with body ability-enhancing traits like 「Special Iron Man (lv.2)」 or even bizarre traits rushing in.
'We're really screwed.'
In fact, I secretly had some hope that the current situation might end. Because the zombies were weaker than I thought.
If the army moved belatedly after saving all the people who needed to be saved and preparing everything that needed to be prepared, could the zombies really withstand the firepower of an army armed with tanks and guns?
But now I knew. That the apocalypse wouldn't end easily.
And if the levels of the traits that zombies had were even higher, the end of the apocalypse might be forever out of reach.
'Should I be happy about this, or not?'
The advantage that the status window zombie gave me wasn't just that I could get traits. It was also the fact that it gave me 0.25p points. Five times as much as an ordinary 0.05p zombie.
Until now, I thought that you got more points for killing people, but now it seemed that you got points according to the trait. Regardless of whether it's a person's or a zombie's.
If you think of 0.05p as the points of ordinary zombies without traits, the numbers roughly matched.
In other words, if I could massacre status window zombies, I could sweep up a lot of points.
Therefore, the appearance of status window zombies might be bad news for other people, but it was also good news for me, who can kill zombies and collect points.
Of course, strictly speaking, it's not right now, but after I become strong enough to massacre any zombie with any trait.
Currently, I was in an old commercial building between Jayang-dong and Seongsu-dong. It was because I wasn't sure if I should try auto-hunting after learning about the status window zombie.
'It's a shame not to do it, but it's scary to do it. It's so ambiguous. What should I do?'
My head told me to be careful of the status window zombies, but I couldn't give up because the points were tempting. My heart was urging me to try it, whether it worked or not.
Moreover, my intuition was telling me that I had to start sprinting now to prepare for the status window zombies armed with high-level traits.
"Let's do it. How long are you going to keep killing ordinary zombies?"
In the end, I decided to follow what my intuition told me.
Fortunately, there were rows of detached houses across from the commercial building, so I walked along the road and looked for a suitable place.
I didn't grandly call it an auto-hunting ground, but in fact, all I had to do was find a building that had stairs that zombies could climb, had a gap that I could cross but zombies couldn't, and had a height that would make it impossible for zombies to move when they hit the wall and fell.
"What, what is it?"
"What a crazy bastard..."
I ignored the survivors and searched the neighborhood for about an hour, when I was able to find three buildings that were separated by the gap I wanted, as if measured with a ruler.
There was a slight hill behind them, and the Gangbyeonbuk-ro was across the street from the trees.
'This is perfect.'
I also liked the fact that only the building at the end had external stairs. Since they could only come up from one side, there was no need to worry about being surrounded from the front and back, and if necessary, I could cross over to the third building and escape.
It was as if the place was telling me to do auto-hunting here.
When I went up to the roof through the external stairs, my eye level became similar to that of the Gangbyeonbuk-ro, and the road came into view just barely.
On the road, there were cars stuck together as a mass and cars with doors wide open, as if there had been a traffic accident. And in between, zombies were constantly appearing and disappearing beyond the fog.
I couldn't see the entire road, so I couldn't know for sure, but at first glance, there seemed to be quite a few zombies.
'I don't have to worry about zombie supply.'
I was smiling contentedly, thinking about the points those guys would give me.
"Who are you?"
A man was staring at me from the roof of the building in the middle, hiding a baseball bat behind his back.
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