Season 2: Chapter 24. Customer (3)
Almond received Hyun-Ah's expectant gaze and reflected on her words.
“We've now formally introduced ourselves. We're a real team now, right?”
True to Hyun-Ah's words, they were now a team. For better or worse, they were in this together.
Almond opened his mouth, "I was bullied."
Soo-Hyun and Hyun-Ah stared blankly at Almond, seemingly startled by this sudden confession.
Almond continued, "Every day, I was beaten up by a guy named Kim Woo-Jung, Baek Joon-Soo, and his girlfriend Yoon So-Hee. I ran errands for bread and I was ridiculed."
Hyun-Ah and Soo-Hyun still couldn't say anything.
Almond calmly carried on as usual, "That's why I can't properly fight when I face them. I thought you should know now that you're my teammates."
The first to respond was Hyun-Ah.
"... That's terrible."
She looked up at the ceiling as if in shock and an indefinite amount of time passed.
'Her response doesn’t look so good...'
He wondered if this was how people typically reacted after hearing from those who had been bullied.
"It's okay, Soboro Bread. It's okay. I'll think of something," Hyun-Ah said while grasping Almond's shoulder.
"I'll figure something out. Don't confront them. I'm an adult, after all."
She smiled, seemingly trying to reassure him.
"I'll show those guys what an adult can do."
This promise, though filled with resolve, was not very credible. With her abilities, she couldn't possibly handle Baek Joon-Soo's gang. However, her words seemed to resonate differently with Kim Ju-Hyeok.
Ding.
[Affiliation → Bond]
[Bond]
[Your endurance, patience, fighting spirit, and positivity have increased. Upon the death of a team member, your depression and negativity will massively increase.]
Their relationship had evolved into a bond.
— Noooo...
— Ju-Hyeok is moved ??
— Wow...
— But it seems risky...
The increased stats were quite beneficial, but losing a team member led to significant drawbacks.
‘It's still necessary.’
In these times, having someone to trust and rely on was invaluable. It didn't make sense to give up those stats for fear of future loss.
"There will be a way, Almond."
Soo-Hyun added, "I don't think you're the kind of person who deserves to be bullied."
"Alright, let's put aside the plan of Soboro Bread beating them all up. Next plan."
Suddenly, Hyun-Ah stepped in front of the whiteboard.
— Is there a plan?
— Is it a real plan now? LOL
— What are they going to say this time? Hahaha
Hyun-Ah wrote down a big operation name.
[Siege]
A siege was the strategy of holding out inside while waiting for the enemies to tire and leave.
"They'll definitely try to break through to this snack bar, won't they?"
"That's what they said," Soo-Hyun answered.
Indeed, Baek Joon-Soo's gang mentioned clearing some zombies and returning later.
"So, we just build barricades here and hold out."
Hyun-Ah pointed to the snack bar’s door and then to the boxes, ropes, and tables.
"Tie things like ropes and tables to block only the snack bar’s door."
"But why the snack bar door? If we block the corridor, we can secure the bathrooms too..." Soo-Hyun asked again, seemingly skeptical of Hyun-Ah's plan.
"We need to block both the west and east staircases to block the corridor. That's impossible. The snack bar can be blocked with just one barricade."
"What about the bathroom?"
"Hmm... There's a solution for that too."
Hyun-Ah began explaining a different plan from what she mentioned earlier.
"Remember when we thought the zombies were recovering?"
"...?"
***
The next day arrived.
"He's awake, right?"
"Yes."
"Me too."
The three of them almost simultaneously woke up at 7 A.M. They couldn't afford to oversleep since an attack could occur during the day.
They rechecked the barricades they prepared the previous day and headed toward the music room. After climbing up a chair, they peeked through a small window at the top to check inside.
"How is it?"
Soo-Hyun asked from below. Almond signaled okay to them.
"They’re healed. It wasn't a coincidence."
"Right, their wounds seemed to have recovered overnight."
It wasn’t a coincidence or a mistake that the zombies could move a bit more the next day. The zombies inside the music room could now crawl using their arms. Some even managed to stand.
However, they showed no response in the darkness and absence of light. It seemed they would only react to loud noises.
"Then, this part is done."
Next, they initiated their subsequent plan.
"Almond, wait in the middle of the corridor since you're the fastest."
They didn’t know whether the enemy would come from the east or west staircase.
Almond positioned himself in the middle of the corridor while Soo-Hyun and Hyun-Ah prepared to barricade the snack bar from the inside.
They had thoroughly prepared. Despite all this, it would be embarrassing if the attackers didn't show up today.
"If they don't come today, it'll be really laugh─"
Almond was about to crack a joke to the viewers when suddenly─
Boom!
A loud noise came from the right side in the direction of the east staircase.
Almond swallowed nervously.
"Now! Do it now!"
Hyun-Ah and Soo-Hyun shouted from the snack bar.
"What, what to do! Almond!"
"Why aren't you coming!?"
They originally planned to open the locked music room and hide in the snack bar.
"Just wait a bit longer. Then I can hit them properly."
Almond thought that releasing the zombies too early would make them too easy to handle.
Boom!
He waited for the fire door at the east staircase to break.
Bang!
Eventually, something exploded and broke. Then a hand reached through the broken latch. This would have been impossible if it were a modern fire door, but the school's fire door was quite old.
Click.
The hand pressed the inner latch to unlock the door, which opened astonishingly easily.
"Ah. Done. Damn it."
Baek Joon-Soo's gang appeared in the corridor carrying dangerous weapons.
"Alright, alright~ Just hand over the bread and milk, and there won't be any bloodshed~"
Kim Woo-Jung led the group and smugly grinned. He looked overconfident for a reason.
"A sledgehammer... They really did go to the construction site."
The massive hammer workers used at construction sites was good enough to be a lethal weapon in medieval times, capable of crushing even knights wearing helmets.
Kim Woo-Jung dragged the massive sledgehammer on the floor as he approached.
"Now's the time."
Almond sensed it was the right moment, opened the music room’s back door, and ran away.
Tap, tap, tap.
The plan had gone smoothly up to that point.
"Ah? Hey! Aren't you Kim Ju-Hyeok!?"
They seemed to recognize Almond from his back and called out his avatar’s name.
"Ahahaha! What? Is that really Kim Ju-Hyeok?"
"Hey, man! Shouldn't you greet your seniors?"
"Wait, has that guy been eating in the cafeteria this whole time?"
"Look at that. True to his reputation as a bread shuttle, he headed straight for the snack bar, huh?"
Their loud and casual chatter suggested that they already cleared out the zombies on their way here. Kim Woo-Jung was covered in blood and laughing heartily while dragging the sledgehammer. He looked like a murderer straight out of a movie.
A problem suddenly arose.
[Fear]
The fear status activated again, which made sense. Kim Woo-Jung had always been a figure of terror for Kim Ju-Hyeok. Now, the bully was following him all bloody and with a weapon. It would have been terrifying even if someone else followed him in that state.
Almond focused solely on running away. Though he slowed down, he could still run as long as the panic status didn’t occur.
‘Just get inside the snack bar room and we'll win.’
He only focused on that thought.
Fortunately, the enemies seemed to think they had Almond cornered like a rat and slowly walked toward him.
"Hey! Are you still delivering bread in this kind of world, huh?!"
‘I'm almost there.’
Squeak.
The door to the snack bar room opened and Hyun-Ah gestured for him to quickly come in.
"Soboro Bread! Hurry!"
"Just, just wait a bit!"
Almond's unusually slow pace made Hyun-Ah grow increasingly anxious. When he had only about ten steps left to the snack bar...
"Be careful─"
Hyun-Ah’s face turned to horror.
"Ah. What's this? Were you guys all cozied up at the snack bar?!"
Almond had a rough idea of what was happening and tilted his body to the right as he sprinted.
Whoosh─
A wrench whizzed past with a menacing sound and struck one of the doors to the snack bar.
Bang!
The impact created a noise unlike any they heard before and left a scratch on the metal door.
"Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill me?!"
Hyun-Ah shouted at Kim Woo-Jung who threw the wrench, but her words were in vain.
"Noona! Should I pretend to kill you then!?"
Only then did Almond enter the snack bar room.
"Goal!" Soo-Hyun cheerfully shouted as he pushed the barricade they prepared.
Rumble!
The barricade was extremely heavy, but they quickly pushed it with a cart underneath.
Boom!
After blocking the door, they removed the cart. Hyun-Ah did the same with the other door.
The three quickly tied both barricades with ropes and even tied them separately to pillars in the room.
‘It's done.’
They finished preparing for the siege. It was the start of a battle of whether or not the enemies would break through or they would hold them off.
Thud!
Kim Woo-Jung kicked the steel door and announced the beginning of this battle with a shout, "What's going to change if you go in there?"
No one bothered to reply. They understood that there was no need to waste energy on such psychological warfare.
***
Kim Woo-Jung raised his sledgehammer when no response came from inside.
"No answer? Should I come in and find out?"
Boom!
The doorknob rattled.
"One more time!"
Boom!
The doorknob pathetically fell off on the second attack.
"It would be great if you just opened the door when I’m asking nicely. Were you planning to eat all the store's food among yourselves? How selfish."
Kim Woo-Jung, as he did with the fire door, inserted his hand through the broken doorknob's place and fiddled with the lock.
Click.
As expected, it opened easily.
"Let's go!" he shouted and pushed the door, but...
"?"
The door didn’t open.
"What's going on?"
Puzzled, he placed his hand back on the doorknob.
Click. Click.
"Why isn't this working?"
"Maybe you're not turning the handle right?"
"Do I have to turn it again?"
***
Meanwhile, they watched with grave expressions from inside the store as Kim Woo-Jung's bloody hand moved around.
Hyun-Ah and Almond's eyes met.
“We just need to avoid facing him directly, right?”
Almond recalled Hyun-Ah's words and picked up a box cutter from the floor.
He squeezed through the barricade with the box cutter in his mouth and climbed like he was navigating jungle gym bars until he reached the door where Kim Woo-Jung's complaints sounded even clearer.
"Ah, what the hell? Why won't it open? Did these guys block it from inside...?"
His hand moved back and forth in front of them.
“When he tries to open the door, his hand will be exposed.”
Swoosh.
The box cutter’s blade jutted out about seven centimeters and flashed in the light just like Almond's eyes, which gleamed as they preyed on a target for the first time in a while.
“Stab him then.”
Swoosh—
The blade cut through the air and rapidly thrust forward.
Even if the box cutter was a flimsy weapon, it could still penetrate a human hand with enough force. This was useless against zombies who didn't feel any pain, but what about Kim Woo-Jung? He was human and humans felt pain.
Thud!
Kim Woo-Jung screamed in agony as the box cutter deeply pierced his hand.
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!"
Ding!
[Thrill]
The emotion of thrill surged from within him and engulfed his entire being.
***
[Beginner's Tip: Zombies will recover from injuries over time. It is recommended to kill them in one go.]