Season 2: Chapter 22. Customer (1)
Thump...!
The fire door closed and echoed out.
"Done over here."
"Okay. And here too!"
They successfully closed the fire doors at both ends of the corridor, the west and east staircases. With this, no one could reach the corridor unless they opened these doors.
Only the snack bar clerk, Almond, and the shaggy-haired boy remained in this place along with numerous zombies.
"Grrrr!"
"Argh!"
The zombies weren't dangerous. Properly neutralized, they were merely clicking their teeth and were no more threatening than decorative fish in a tank.
However, the trio had to be careful not to let those blind teeth catch their ankles.
"Careful. Careful..."
The trio cautiously walked as if crossing stepping stones, returned to the snack bar, and locked the door.
Clang.
As soon as the door locked, the shaggy-haired boy and the clerk collapsed.
"Phew. This snack bar feels like home now."
"I, I thought I was going to die."
It was 2 A.M and certainly the time to be tired.
Almond was an exception. He lived in a different time zone from the others and easily stood in front of a whiteboard.
"Now we have the bathroom, snack bar, and even the music room all to ourselves if needed."
Almond began coloring over the blueprint he had drawn earlier. He colored the corridor, snack bar, bathroom, and even the music room in one color. Now, these areas were their territory. They had secured food and their basic physiological needs.
Surviving this well in a zombie apocalypse was certainly a huge blessing, but could humans ever be so easily satisfied?
"But..."
The snack bar clerk lifted her bloodstained clothes as if contemplating.
"... Laundry is out of the question, isn't it?"
Almond's expression hardened.
‘Laundry...’
— LOL LOL LOL LOL
— Do we have to do laundry too!?
— Just go to heaven and get it all sorted noona.
— We'll send you up there! Everything's available there!
— Don't be too harsh on the clerk LOL It's her role LOL LOL
If they had soap, they could manage that in the bathroom. Was it a pressing matter? Almond decided to check his status window. In this game, knowing his condition was becoming increasingly critical.
[Hunger]
[Fatigue]
[Discomfort]
These three statuses continued to progress. Feeling refreshed had disappeared and was replaced by discomfort.
'I understand being hungry and tired...'
What could he do about discomfort? Almond pressed it to find out more.
[The blood and sweat feel sticky. I want to wash up.
Being annoyed may affect your mental state.
(*If your mental state is greatly reduced, you may suffer a fever and face hallucinations, dizziness, and reduced stats.)]
Until now, he hadn’t experienced any significant debuffs. He only felt a slight displeasure.
'The biggest risk is mental deterioration.'
However, symptoms like reduced stats when his mental state deteriorated... this seemed hard to handle once it occurred.
The future risks and present conveniences... Almond made a decision.
"Today, I'll sleep. Tomorrow morning, I can wash my clothes in the bathroom with soap, right?"
"Oh. Right, but... what will you wear while they're drying?"
The convenience store clerk seemed worried because she was the only woman.
Almond scratched his head.
'Now that I think about it, I need clothes. Given the nature of this game, not wearing clothes could be disadvantageous.'
Although had a fun thought to slay zombies in just his underwear like a true veteran. However, it seemed there would be no benefits to that in this game.
‘Wait, just in my underwear?’
Almond had a bright idea.
"Why don't I first wash my outer clothes, wear my underwear while waiting for them to dry, and then wash the underwear?"
It seemed embarrassing, but it was a reasonably logical method. After all, everyone was almost in their underwear at the beach anyway.
The convenience store clerk nodded in agreement, seemingly convinced.
"... It's a bit awkward, but there's no other choice."
Almond proudly glanced at the chat window, feeling satisfied with his solution. The shaggy-haired boy had been dozing on the table and lifted his head.
"Hey? They sell gym clothes here."
"Ah! Damn! How could I be so foolish?"
Gym clothes? Were those available?
Almond felt slightly disappointed.
"I only thought of them as items for sale, not as clothes!"
The convenience store clerk jumped in excitement.
— LOL Rolled the nut for nothing
— What? There were clothes???
— The convenience store sells gym clothes? Damn, what a concept
— If my school did this, I would have been hit 20 times less by the PE teacher
— LOL
The convenience store clerk rummaged under the counter and pulled out a dusty box.
"This. It hasn't sold well, so it's gathered some dust."
The 20,000 won gym suit wasn't as poor quality as its price suggested. It was essentially sold at that cost for the students.
"Let's find your size."
Shortly afterward, the three all changed into new gym clothes. Fortunately, the scene of them changing was skipped.
— That's disappointing
— Ah, this is like real survival!
— He won't be fooled twice, lol
The viewers tried to trick him again, but Almond wouldn't be fooled a second time.
The convenience store clerk tied her hair up and looked refreshed.
"Ah. This is much better."
"Right."
"We can wash all of what we wore tomorrow."
"Yeah."
They placed a box filled with their old inner and outer clothes at the door and looked forward to the next morning.
"Uh. But it's a bit rough."
The bushy-haired boy felt uncomfortable without underwear and kept pulling at the gym clothes. The convenience store didn't sell underwear.
The clerk also seemed uncomfortable and constantly looked down at her clothes. Given the circumstances, they had to be grateful for even this much. At least, that was what Almond thought.
'The discomfort is gone.'
Just changing clothes was enough to remove the discomfort status. Instead, another status took its place.
[Contentment]
Almond saw the new status and faintly smiled.
"Hey, Pizza Bread. What do you think about dismantling this box and sleeping on top of it?"
"Yeah, like homeless people."
Initially quiet, the bushy-haired boy was now chatting quite well with the clerk. They spread out the box on the convenience store floor and created individual spaces to sleep.
Luckily, this place was underground and it was summer. The coolness underground, combined with the summer warmth, formed a reasonably comfortable temperature.
[Sleep: 7 hours]
Almond set the sleep timer for seven hours and went to sleep.
***
To Almond, it felt like just a moment. In terms of the location, seven hours passed.
Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.
Birdsong came through a small window above the convenience store as sunlight streamed in. Sunshine...
Almond suddenly looked toward the door at the box for laundry.
"Now it's time to do laundry."
Doing laundry reflected the current level of living. In just one day, Almond had secured quite a bit of infrastructure.
"Uh..."
The clerk woke up from the sound of her phone alarm and so did the bushy-haired boy.
"Sigh. This hard floor..."
Sleeping on the hard floor felt terrible.
"How about we take over the infirmary next? There's a bed there."
"Oh! That's a great idea, Pizza Bread!"
— LOL
— Talking like they're going to do the work, LOL
— Are they signaling Almond to do it? LOL
The viewers teased the NPCs, but Almond nodded.
'Infirmary. Right, the next target is the infirmary.'
It seemed correct to advance to the infirmary if they could get a bed.
"The infirmary is actually on the first floor of this annex."
“Right! The path is perfect!”
Shortly afterward, the two NPCs spoke as if they wanted Almond to hear. It seemed the next target would be the infirmary.
"First, let's do the laundry. Follow me," Almond said while carrying the laundry box and opening the door.
"Aaaargh!"
"Kaargh!"
As the door opened, the zombies who couldn’t move their limbs still screamed. Almond didn’t show much reaction and walked to the bathroom with the box.
Thump! Click!
The zombies tried their hardest to bite his ankles, but not a single tooth touched him. Was it because the zombies couldn't move?
No, the zombies could wriggle around. Moreover, they could likely bite at least an ankle due to their numbers. That was why the NPCs hesitated to come out.
"Hey! Soboro! What if you just go out alone like that?!"
To this question, Almond scratched his head.
"Just dodge when a zombie tries to bite."
"What? How do you do that? It's over once you get bitten!"
"... Then, what should I do if I can't avoid the zombies?"
— Hahaha! You're the weird one
— It's too dangerous, isn't it?
— If the timing is off, you'll get bitten
— It's a trap!
"Hey! Do you think we’re all monsters like you!?"
Eventually, Almond set the laundry box in the bathroom and came up with a plan.
***
Some time passed.
Tap-tap.
Almond dusted off his hands and asked, "How about this?"
The zombies in the corridor had been neatly cleared away. He moved them individually into the music room.
"Oh...! You're smart!"
The clerk was pleased to see the corridor clean except for some bloodstains.
"Then, shall we start our work? I'll do the laundry. You two clean the corridor."
"Huh? You're going to do all the laundry alone?"
The amount of laundry seemed a lot for one person.
"Yeah, I'll do it alone. There's more work in the corridor."
The laundry actually seemed like more work. However, the clerk insisted on doing it alone because of her underwear. What could they do? Naturally, Almond and Pizza Bread agreed to mop the corridor.
"Okay. We'll help you if we finish first."
"Yeah. Okay."
***
Thud.
The wet mop fell onto the corridor’s cheap marble.
Swish, swish.
The mop glided across. It was unclear whether this was really cleaning or not.
"It's been a really long time."
It felt like Almond was truly back in school as he mopped the corridor. Wiping up copious amounts of blood did feel a bit different though.
Had around ten minutes passed in real-time?
Almond finally cleaned up all the bloodstains at the east stairwell's fire door.
[Refreshed]
Then, he felt a refreshing state come over him again. Maintaining this state for a long time not only increased his mental strength, but also helped heal minor injuries faster.
"Wow. It's all done."
Pizza Bread was seemingly exhausted and leaned over at the end of the corridor.
"Now, to help with the laundry─"
As Almond thought about helping the clerk with the laundry...
Boom!
A loud noise echoed out. It came from the direction of the fire door.
'What is it? Which side? I don't know.'
Again...
Boom!
It echoed once more.
It clearly came from the east side this time, the farthest fire door from the snack bar. They held their breath and approached the west fire door.
'How many zombies could there be?'
If there were too many zombies, the door might break. In that case, they might have to open the opposite west fire door and run away.
Boom! Thoom!
The door kept pounding and they heard voices.
"Was this always closed here?
"No? What's this? Isn't this a fire door? Why is it closed?!"
"Ah, damn it. Can't go to the snack bar?!"
It sounded like students.
Almond turned to look at Pizza Bread. Pizza Bread's eyes widened.
'They’re people.'
Almond placed an index finger to his lips and signaled for Pizza Bread to be quiet.
Boom! Thoom!
They pounded on the door again. Then a girl spoke. It was a voice he couldn't forget.
"Hey, Baek Joon-Soo. Try breaking this. You can do it, right?"
It was Yoon So-Hee.
"Hmm. How to..."
The one who responded was Baek Joon-Soo.
"Is someone on the other side?"
The one with a sharp deduction was...
'Kim Woo-Jung.'
Boom! Boom!
This wasn't the sound of the door. It was the sound of Almond's... Kim Ju-Hyeok’s heart beating.