Season 2: Chapter 37. A Summary of the Incident (1)
Five hours before Baek Joon-Soo was shot.
Soo-Hyun and Hyun-Ah pushed the cart while Almond led the way and observed the situation. They had just arrived on the second floor where it was dead quiet.
"There's no one here."
There was nothing. Why? Only the sound of their footsteps echoed in the corridor. The absent signs of life felt eerie.
"Isn't this strange?" Soo-Hyun voiced his doubts first.
"It was definitely during class hours when the zombie outbreak happened. There are a lot of classrooms here, so there must be more zombies."
"That's right..." Hyun-Ah agreed.
It was class hours during the zombie outbreak. Except for the physical education classes, all the students were in their classrooms.
The second floor was filled with classrooms and should have more zombies than the first floor with auxiliary facilities.
"Did they evacuate in advance?" Hyun-Ah speculated, but Almond shook his head.
"They were still in class when I was escaping. There wasn't any time for that."
Even when students screamed and ran around the sports field, there were still students in classes with their teachers. They didn't have time to evacuate.
Soo-Hyun inspected the floor, "There are a lot of bloodstains."
Dried blood was smeared everywhere. The classroom desks were also scattered around. Blood was splattered on almost every desk and some classroom doors were even torn off. These were all signs of massive chaos.
"Where did the zombies go then?"
There should have been zombies around if they fought, but there weren't. The zombies couldn’t be hiding like trained soldiers. It was too mysterious.
"It's a bit creepy."
Soo-Hyun nonchalantly continued walking despite the bizarre phenomenon.
"But it's probably nothing."
— Seems like you guys shouldn’t just ignore things like that, lol.
— ??? We have Almond
— From Pizza Bread's perspective, it really doesn't matter lol. As long as Almond is there, even ghosts will be captured lol.
— Too suspicious.
— ??? The feeling of boarding a fast bus is AMAZING!
"Was it Class 1-8?" Hyun-Ah asked Almond.
Almond nodded after checking the mini-map.
"Yes, it's closest to the construction site."
"Over there."
Hyun-Ah pushed the cart toward the class marked 1-8 and suddenly stopped.
"But... why is the door locked?"
Both Soo-Hyun and Almond stopped and looked at each other.
"Yeah... you’re right... Why?"
"What the heck?"
Someone definitely locked the fire door on purpose. No way it could’ve just closed on its own.
— Seriously, what is this?
— Is someone inside?
— Are there survivors inside?
The viewers speculated that there could be survivors inside, which seemed plausible. It seemed possible that the door wasn't closed by Baek Joon-Soo's gang, but by someone else inside.
"Did someone inside lock it?"
"But they don’t have any food inside, right? How would they survive?"
"Maybe they took the Choco Pies from the group that did the blood donation...?"
They tried to guess what happened, but finding food here seemed difficult. Anyone here would be starving. It hadn’t been a week yet, so surviving without any food wasn't impossible. However...
"It's complicated. Let's just go."
Hyun-Ah didn’t want to think any further and took the lead.
— General Hyun-Ah is on fire lol
— Girl crush!!
— Yeah, just go, lol. Almond will handle everything, lol.
Hyun-Ah pushed the cart and headed toward Class 1-8.
“I’m gonna tie up curtains starting there.”
"Alright."
They planned to establish a base in Class 1-8 and planned to make a rope by tying curtains together. The annex building had been built a long time ago, so the height of each floor wasn’t very high. It was about 2.4 meters, which was quite low for a school.
If one descended just about 2.5 meters out through the window, they could head outside the first floor without being noticed by Baek Joon-Soo’s gang.
Getting to the construction site would be easy since this class was closest.
Rattle.
Hyun-Ah opened the door to Class 1-8 and pushed in the cart.
"Phew. We finally arrived."
"Ugh, we dragged this thing for so long. My arm hurts."
Hyun-Ah and Soo-Hyun sat on chairs for a moment to catch their breaths. Even though it was just bread, the sheer quantity made the boxes quite heavy over some time.
Almond closed the door while glancing down the corridor. As expected, there was no sign of anyone.
"I wonder if the curtains will hold. I don’t even know how old they are..." Hyun-Ah mumbled and looked dubiously at the curtains.
"Hey, we won’t get hurt too badly even if we fall at this height. Whatever," Soo-Hyun said while stepping on the desk and reaching for the curtain rings.
A curtain suddenly fell as he released one ring after another.
Whoosh.
He seemed quite adept at removing the next one too.
— As expected, manual labor is easy peasy. LOL.
— Truly fit for a rogue class!
— Huh, what’s that?
Hyun-Ah began tying them while Soo-Hyun removed the curtains.
In the meantime, Almond was on the lookout for anything unexpected.
Whoosh.
All the curtains fell and Almond had no choice but to stare at one particular spot. His gaze didn’t shift as if it had been nailed down.
A person stood there with their back turned. Someone had been standing behind a curtain.
"...!?"
Soo-Hyun, who had been removing the curtains, finally noticed and became startled. It was said that people couldn’t even scream if they were too shocked.
Soo-Hyun simply gasped and stepped back because they never even considered the 1% possibility that someone would be behind a curtain.
Hyun-Ah also noticed that thing and stopped tying the curtains.
"...!"
Everyone held their breath and stared intently at this strange scene. A survivor? Judging by their non-aggressive demeanor, it was clearly a survivor.
Why did this person hide behind a curtain like a dead rat as if waiting for something? Could it be a survivor targeting another survivor? Or maybe...
"Sob... sob..."
The figure started sobbing with its back turned. His shoulders shook. Maybe he had been sobbing from the beginning, and Almond and others just didn’t notice. The sobbing was so quiet that it could only be heard in such dead silence.
Thump. Thump.
It was as audible as one’s own heartbeat.
"Sob... sob..."
More than five seconds hadn’t even passed since they discovered this person. In this brief moment, many assumptions crossed their minds and no one said a word.
"Hello...?" Hyun-Ah spoke first.
The crying figure turned around.
They couldn’t remember what the face looked like. Just that a white light streamed from his eyes. That was all they could recall.
He suddenly kicked off from where he stood.
Crash—
The floor rippled like liquid and he disappeared. The white glow and afterimage stretched out. The white light flew toward Hyun-Ah.
Soon, it converged into a single point and aimed for Hyun-Ah's neck.
"Kyaahahaha!"
Laughter could be heard and the figure's nails would have pierced Hyun-Ah had Almond not stepped in faster.
Clang...!
"Phew."
Almond deflected the figure's attack and took a breath.
'That was close.'
His hand holding the golf club tingled.
The figure paused, surprised that its attack was deflected.
Silence followed their brief standoff.
— Woah.
— WTF.
— Lol, what?
— What the hell???
— ??
— What's that?!
The viewers expressed their shock in the chat.
The figure laughed and his glowing white eyes squinted.
"Kyaahahaha!"
Boom!
He disappeared again. He moved at an incredibly fast speed and left an afterimage. This one was the fastest among all the zombies they had encountered. It maintained the same speed and launched another attack with its nails.
Clang...!
However, Almond blocked him with the golf club again as if he anticipated such a speed.
— How did he block that?
— Wow.
— Can't even understand.
— I only hear sounds, damn it.
— Wow.
The viewers couldn't keep up with the speed either. Even Almond wasn’t entirely calm.
'What? I thought zombies were slow.'
Almond was also inwardly taken aback. This situation felt unexpected for him too.
Yes, they had encountered a fast zombie. However, it wasn’t fast enough. Almond's reaction speed was much faster than the enemy's.
"Kyaaaaahahaha!"
The zombie made a strange noise and swung his arms consecutively this time.
Bang! Clang!
Almond blocked both attacks as expected.
Boom!
Out of the four attacks, Almond blocked three and evaded one.
Bam!
Multiple attacks and multiple evasions followed.
The enemy's nails didn't even touch his skin. Almond was even more wary of a possible infection.
Finally, he found the perfect opportunity to attack.
'Now!'
Because the zombie was so fast, Almond only had to slightly swing his golf club at that spot.
Bam!
The zombie ran straight into the blow.
"Kyaaaah... Huh?!"
The laughing zombie swinging its arms suddenly gasped.
— ???
— Did the zombie actor just make a mistake?
— He suddenly lost his act, lol.
— Lol, you’re lost, zombie.
— Since when do zombies feel pain? Lol.
It wasn't the pain. A sudden blow to his lungs caused the air to rush out.
"Kyaaaah!"
He twisted his body to regain his balance.
Whoosh!
Then he launched himself back.
"Huh?"
The zombie was running away. Almond was caught off guard by this.
"Is he running away?" Almond asked as he chased after it.
— Seriously, a zombie running away? Lol.
— Is that even a zombie? Gives me chills.
— Man, this is scary.
Was that even a zombie? He couldn't define the creature. It seemed to have some level of intelligence, a somewhat ominous entity.
Bang!
The door to the next class forcefully opened as it entered the 1st grade, 7th class.
Almond pursued it, but the sight he encountered made him pause. The creature was eating a corpse. It was consuming what appeared to be fragments of a zombie.
'So that's why there was none.'
Now he understood why no zombies could be found on the second floor.
"Kugh...!"
Crunch...!
The creature healed its injuries with grotesque movements. Then, it glared at Almond with pale eyes and grinned.
Smirk.
The creature smirked and disappeared again.
Bang!
Suddenly, it appeared right in front of Almond. It was undoubtedly fast, even faster than before, but Almond already figured out its attack pattern.
It was simple. If Almond could react, he could use that speed against this zombie.
He raised his golf club and recalled the advice from a golfer he once knew as he took his position.
‘I need to focus on the waist first...’
Grounding his feet, he prepared a perfect stance for the optimal power transfer from his feet to the waist and then to his fingertips.
A full swing would surely hurt the creature. It charged right into the swing.
Boom!
A massive impact echoed out and the golf club almost bent in half.
The creature's jaw rotated 230 degrees. No, 280 degrees. No, more than 360 degrees. Then, its head ripped off.
The head flew across the classroom as if Almond struck a real golf ball.
Crash!
It flew through the window.
— Lol, he played golf with it.
— Is this another showmanship act? Lol.
— What even is this? Lol.
— Damn, lol.
— Is he crazy, lol!
— Nice shot, boss!
Almond didn't expect the impact to be that great. Even he felt mildly impressed.
"Wow."
— What's even happening here? Lol.
— Something just exploded...
— Lol.
Then, a sound rang out.
Babam!
"Huh?"
Almond paused.
[Achievement 'Defeated the Boss on the First Try' obtained!]
It was an achievement.
"I thought it was a donation."
The trumpet sound of the achievement sounded similar to a donation.
— Lol, he thought it was a donation.
— He gets nothing? Lol.
— Lol, he thought it was a donation, ahahahhaha
— That sneaky Kim Yi-Seo. That sounded like a huge donation.
— What's with the sound? Lol.
“But... that must’ve been the boss. I feel like I messed something up again.”
— Was this... the boss? It feels off.
— Right? Lol. Was this the boss?
— Something... something's off.
— The story progression changed!
— Early access, so messy. Lol.
— They need a patch. Lol.
Even to Almond, who wasn't a game expert, killing the boss felt wrong.
— Lol, they normally show the original route.
— Something went wrong, lol.
— Kim Yi-Seo is crying, lol.
“Hmm. Doesn't matter. Let's head to the construction site."
Almond didn't know where things went wrong, but decided not to dwell on it.
"You can watch the normal route on Bubblegum's stream."
After all, Bubblegum would cover the standard route.
— That's some nice ad placement for Bubblegum omg.
— Was this discussed with our Gum bro? Lol.
— Seems set up, lol.
— Even that's not really 'normal'...
— TRUE.