Season 2: Chapter 38. A Summary of the Incident (2)
Four hours before Baek Joon-Soo got shot. Almond had already killed the boss on the second floor. In fact, he thought the game would end soon since the boss died. Games usually ended like that.
"Um, everyone. It’s been fun."
Although it wasn't time to end the stream yet, when had Almond ever cared? He often ended his streams to thank viewer donations. By his standards, ending the stream here was quite appropriate if the game was complete.
"This game is well-made."
— It was well-made (for me to leave earlier)
— Are you really done now?
— No, it's not over yet... LAMEEEEE!
— Wow.
— No conscience LOL
Almond discovered the boss in an absurd way and it died a ridiculous death. Then, the stream ended. Only a few viewers could endure this triple combo.
Ding!
[PlayKingdomRN has donated 10,000 won!]
[No! Stop him from ending the stream!]
Ding!
[Omae has donated 5,000 won.]
[He’s... so quick, quick...]
They donated in a frenzy to prevent the stream from ending.
[EggPlant has donated 2,000 won.]
[Hold the line! Hold it!]
The donations acted like barricades.
— Mad Cash is blocking it, LOL.
— Are you still ending the stream? Even now? Are you still ending the stream?
— You said you'd kill Baek Joon-Soo, didn't you? You said you'd kill Baek Joon-Soo, didn't you? You said you'd kill Baek Joon-Soo, didn't you? You said you'd kill Baek Joon-Soo, didn't you?
— Please shoot an arrow at least once for me...
— Is this that retirement donation system?
It seemed like their donation barricades worked.
"......?"
The game didn’t end yet. Aside from getting an achievement, nothing else happened.
[Confidence]
Only a status called confidence appeared.
[You have gained confidence. You feel like you can do anything well.]
That was all for the explanation. Whether or not he could overcome his fear against Baek Joon-Soo was unknown.
"Why isn't this ending? Should I turn it off?"
— LOL If you turn it off, it obviously ends LOL!
— Stubborn walnut, LOL.
— Just continue!
Typically, such survival games didn’t have a definitive ending or it ended when the player escaped somewhere. This wasn’t a raid game about hunting boss monsters. With little experience in such games, Almond couldn't understand why they didn’t want him to end it.
However, the viewers understood the situation and got into a festive mood.
— Epic, the survival god game.
— LOL, this is it, LOL. Trap Almond in the eternal struggle for survival!
— Well done, Kim Yi-Seo!
The NPCs could be heard from behind.
"... What's this? Is it dead?"
"What on earth was that just now?"
Soo-Hyun and Hyun-Ah looked dumbfounded and stared at the window where the head flew out.
More surprises should have occurred, but the game was bugged because Almond dealt with it too easily.
"Uh... uh..."
"Uh...?!"
The two NPCs briefly lagged.
— What's with them? Did they lag? LOL.
— LOL.
— Wow LOL.
They lagged because of the conflict between overreacting at having killed the boss or simply conforming to the current situation of having dispatched it so easily. Nevertheless, they were programmed to react most appropriately to the present situation.
"I don't know. Anyway, it's over since he's dead."
"Yeah."
They moved on without much expression.
— Quick acceptance, haha.
— Seems like that zombie really was the boss, haha. That lag was hilarious
— This is going to be another reel, for sure.
— I really like this duo, haha.
— Attractive duo!
"The game is still going?" Almond asked again in disbelief.
— The nut guy still can't give up, lol.
— It's not over until you escape, haha!
— Newbie sigh...
"Oh well.."
— Oh well, I'll turn it off.
"Let's continue."
— Yay~~~
— Almond! Almond! Almond!
— Sigh...
The game resumed again.
***
Hyun-Ah, Soo-Hyun, and Almond began tying the curtains again in Class 1-8 and quickly made a rope.
"Where should we tie this?"
All they needed to do was secure it properly somewhere. They grabbed the golf clubs after thinking for a while and shattered the windows on both sides.
Crash! Crash!
Only the window frames remained. Hyun-Ah tightly wrapped the curtain around the frame and tied it securely. It was an important knot, so she tied it multiple times.
"This... should be enough, right?"
"Hmm. Let's adjust this knot here. Falling from the second floor would still hurt."
"Okay."
While the NPCs worked hard, a text message arrived.
Zzzing.
It came from the phone they snatched earlier.
[Disaster Alert Notification]
[Temporary shelters are being made in various air-raid shelters. We are limiting entry to only ten immune individuals per entrance.]
— Wow, is this the next hint after killing the boss?
— Awesome
— Finally!! Something's unfolding now.
— But who’s immune?
— Only ten can enter?
'... Ten immune individuals?'
Was immunity that common? In typical zombie games, only one person in the main group usually had immunity.
The nuance of this disaster text seemed entirely different.
Thud.
Almond grabbed the curtain rope without hesitation.
"I’m going first."
Without waiting for the others' responses, Almond jumped out of the window.
Thud!
His arms felt a bit strained, but...
Creak...!
Almond safely landed on the ground after a few creaking sounds from the window frame.
"Wow...!"
"Nice..."
The others peeked out of the window and marveled at the success.
Soo-Hyun followed next. Then Hyun-Ah slowly grabbed the rope and descended, safely emerging outside the annex. They raised their arms and softly cheered. Unfortunately, their joy was short-lived.
"Grooaar..."
They heard a familiar sound after a long time.
— Zombies! Welcome back! It’s nice to see you again! Haha.
— These are normal zombies.
— You guys, your boss is dead~ Game over~
Almond, as well as Soo-Hyun and Hyun-Ah behind him, didn't show much reaction anymore. Taking on two or three zombies with a golf club or hammer was no big deal.
"Grooaar!"
"Grrr!"
Six zombies approached them.
Wham!
Bang!
Wham!
Each swing with their blunt weapons brought down three zombies already. The zombies would have lost morale and fled if they were humans, but they kept attacking.
The trio neatly finished off the remaining zombies and headed toward the construction site.
"Grooar..."
"Grrr!"
There were zombies everywhere and they kept fighting as more came. They continued defeating all the zombies.
"Pant... pant..."
"There's too many..."
Hyun-Ah and Soo-Hyun felt exhausted. So did Almond.
[Exhausted]
Almond had faced that strange boss alone earlier. Fighting continuously after the boss stage made him tired.
He pulled out a chocolate bar from his pocket.
'This will temporarily relieve it.'
He had seen this strategy on Takoyaki and Bubblegum’s stream. Eating a chocolate bar recharged the sugar levels, reducing the exhaustion score.
Chomp. Chomp.
The abnormal status disappeared.
Soo-Hyun and Hyun-Ah also ate chocolate bars. They moved toward the construction site while consuming more sugar.
— Is this really how it's done?
— Zombies have become mere mobs, haha
— Why are the NPCs so good at fighting?
— Did the NPCs learn from watching Almond?
— Team Bubblegum was totally trolling, haha
Players were supposed to avoid zombies in the game, but they easily broke through in a direct confrontation. All it took was one chocolate bar and a dozen zombies went down. This was a losing business from the zombies' perspective.
Moreover, Hyun-Ah and Soo-Hyun didn’t fear the zombies anymore and fought quite well. Both of them became a fairly reliable force.
Almond didn't fully understand why, but it was probably due to the bond buff. Seeing and learning from each other's abilities. As their trust increased, so did their combat power.
"Over there!"
Finally, they arrived at the construction site.
***
Inside the construction site, an old fabric covered the floor and they could see the exposed iron bars underneath the floor. Only a few zombies appeared.
“Grrrrr...”
“Grrr...”
Most of them couldn’t climb out of the deeply sunken floor and the reinforced bars had pierced through them after they fell. The dangers of a construction site were too difficult for zombies to navigate.
“Oh, look at this.”
Soo-Hyun showed them a bat.
“There’s still one left.”
They already acquired one bat and a golf club. Finding another bat here was certainly good news, but Almond was looking for another weapon.
“What can we use to make arrowheads?”
“Um, with this.”
Soo-Hyun rummaged around the construction site and picked up something that looked like a hook.
“If we cut this hook properly and sharpen it, it can become an arrowhead.”
“Hands up,” a voice interrupted them.
Many students in school uniforms appeared.
— OMG, there are more kids at the construction site???
— Whoa;
— WTF is this?
— Holy... how many are there?
— Ah, they’re screwed, lol.
— Remake
Students started popping out from every direction, from beneath the construction site's tarpaulin, and from the openly exposed second floor.
“I said hands up,” the one in the lead growled.
Apparently, he was their leader and held a spear that seemed to have been made at the construction site.
The spearhead pointed at Almond.
“Kim Ju-Hyeok?”
He seemed to know Almond, but Almond looked confused.
“Who are you?”
— He’s shameless.
— It’s the class president, you idiot.
— Such bad memory.
— Isn’t that usually the question Almond asks? LOL.
— Asking who you are after breaking in, lol!
“What, what?”
The student's face turned bright red.
“I’m the class president!”
“Ah ha...”
Almond had an utterly unflinching reaction.
The class president found it annoying and absurd but nevertheless asked, “Why did you come here? Are you here for weapons?”
“Yeah.”
— Yeah, hand over the weapon.
— Yeah. Kid. “Hand it over”.
— LMAO.
Almond’s way of speaking made the class president adjust his glasses and ask again, “Do you think I’ll just let you have a weapon?”
“Seems like it.”
— Crazy, lol.
— Make a trade. A trade!
— ??? Seems like it? (Physically)
“What?!”
“You’ve got a lot of them. Just give me one.”
The class president deeply sighed.
Someone who appeared to be the second-in-command shouted as if he could no longer listen to them, “Hey! Did you come here to joke around?”
Almond examined their faces. They shouted fiercely, but it didn't seem like they would kill anyone. They all looked decent enough. Above all, they were clearly too tense.
“We’re going to shoot and kill you! Don’t you understand the situation!?”
Shoot? What would they shoot?
Almond’s gaze shifted to the second-in-command holding a bat. He probably wouldn’t shoot anything with that.
Almond’s gaze moved again and followed the second-in-command, who inadvertently glanced toward a corner on the second floor of the construction site.
“...!”
Someone drew a bow and aimed at Almond.
Almond also pointed at him.
“Give me that.”
— Lol, are you kidding?
— This is too much even if they are NPCs, hahhahaha.
— Hey, they’re humans too!
“This, this bastard is joking─”
“We’ll give you food.”
“!?”
The students who were about to attack hesitated for a moment. The reason for their hostility was obvious. They probably struggled to secure enough food in this place.
The class president audibly swallowed his saliva.
“... You expect us to believe that? I don’t see anything anywhere.”
“Don’t you see over there?”
Almond pointed at Hyun-Ah shivering in the distance.
— Suddenly off to get food, lol.
— Poor Hyun-Ah...
— Wow~ The official bread slave at school.
Hyun-Ah’s mere presence was enough to convince the students.
“The store clerk is on my side. Guess where I met her.”
The class president pondered momentarily at that statement. Then he retracted his weapon.
“... How much will you give?”
“Everything in the store will be shared.”
Hearing this, Hyun-Ah and Soo-Hyun’s faces stiffened because it was such an unbelievable lie.
— ???
— In the store?
— Are you entrusting a barbarian to a barbarian? LOL.
— Wow, Almond’s walnut brain is spinning hard right now.
— Damn Almond~
Baek Joon-Soo’s gang had obviously taken control of the snack bar store. Sending these students to the canteen meant they would encounter Baek Joon-Soo's gang. It was killing two birds with one stone.
“Alright. I see you have food.”
However, the class president wasn’t easy to fool.
“... But guess what?”
He smirked and his eyes changed.
“We saw you guys coming down from the second floor.”
Almond’s eyes also changed.
“He’s unnecessarily smart.”
— Ah~ This is boringggg.
— You’re all going to die~~~~
— ??? That’s why I hate kids who are too quick-witted.
— Almond is getting tired of spinning his brain, lol.
— (“Should I kill them? Bro?”.jpg)