Season 3: Chapter 6: You Had a Plan (3)
Thud. Thud.
Zombies, smeared with bright red blood, rubbed their bodies against the door. These zombies could not open the sliding doors, so the students had hardly any need to lock them as it was nearly impossible for the zombies to open them.
Was it just the zombies who couldn't open these sliding doors? Ironically, the humans couldn't open them either.
Even though they weren't locked, they couldn't open them. And each time a sliding door closed, they grew more isolated. With each door that closed, a small society formed.
This was the case for Bubblegum, who was trapped in the classroom next to the bathroom on the first floor, next to Grade 3 Class 1’s room.
As soon as the sliding door closed, he was forced into a society against his will just like a child did not choose the country they were born into of their own will.
"Hey. Why don't you have a name tag?"
In this society, he was the lowest of the low. Those who trusted and followed him also became the lowest of the low.
"..."
"Kid... did you lose it? Whatever. Come here."
The upper class of Class 5. Among them, Kim Jin-Hyeok ruled as a predator.
Bubblegum had no choice but to approach.
Kim Jin-Hyeok tossed a lighter to Bubblegum and said, "Light it up."
He waited with a cigarette between his lips.
"..."
Bubblegum hesitated.
[The morale of the class is dropping.]
The morale of Class 3 was decreasing because of his actions.
— Fucking humiliating.
— Damn bastard.
— Even NPCs have their own personalities.
This was Kim Jin-Hyeok's way of humiliating the enemy's leader. He knew that by subjugating Bubblegum, he could control all of Class 3. The young kid was only astute in such matters.
'At least my name isn't out there.'
Bubblegum consoled himself with the fact that at least his name hadn't been discovered. They had no chance of winning if they fought here.
Class 5 had three players on guard observing the situation coldly from the window. If a fight broke out, it would only give them a reason to attack.
Class 3's Bubblegum squad would be defeated since they lacked the numbers, strength, and strategy.
Click.
The flame of the lighter flickered on.
"Sssss..."
Kim Jin-Hyeok took a deep drag as the end of the cigarette glowed red. He sprawled across the desk and exhaled the smoke.
"Haah. Sweet. Sweet."
The expressions of the Class 3 children became unusual. Depression, frustration, despair...
Although Bubblegum lit the cigarette, his single action affected everyone.
The stylish students behind Kim Jin-Hyeok laughed.
"Kim Jin-Hyeok has watched too many movies. You think you're Lee Jung-Jae?"
"Ah~ stop trying to act so cool~"
Kim Jin-Hyeok pointed outside to them.
"Hey. Look outside. Our lives are more of a movie than Lee Jung-Jae."
"Damn, he talks well."
"Ah. But."
Swoosh.
Kim Jin-Hyeok straightened up. Waving his hand holding the cigarette, he called to Class 3 standing before the door.
"Class 3, all of you, come here. It seems like you don't get the situation."
Kim Jin-Hyeok knew now that he could control all of Class 3 after humiliating their leader, Bubblegum.
"Hey. Aren't you coming? Quickly!"
The Class 3 kids, feeling awkward, slowly got up and came forward as he commanded.
"Hey Class 3. You guys are just tag-alongs, you know? But chatting away and attracting zombies?"
Most of the kids couldn't say a word.
Only Ji-Hoon seemed ready to protest.
"That, that is..."
Thwack!
Another student next to Ji-Hoon struck him on the back of the head.
"You jerk. What do you mean by that? What is that?"
“Hahahaha.”
The girls nearby laughed.
"Lee Sang-So. Take it easy."
"Hey, if we leave them alone, they'll start trolling again, right?"
As Ji-Hoon was silenced, Jin-Hyeok spoke again while puffing out smoke.
"Hey. You. Try saying something. Do you have anything to say? When we were finding weapons and blocking the door, where were you guys? Huh? Trying to come in with us when you did nothing? Does that make sense?"
Oh Ji-Hoon could not respond. He wasn't very bright to begin with, and who could speak uprightly in such an atmosphere?
"From now on, listen well, okay? If you don't want to die."
He turned his head and blew smoke toward Bubblegum as he finished speaking.
"Especially you, you jerk. I don't like the look in your eyes. It's too na?ve."
The hazy smoke was irritating.
Bubblegum squinted and muttered to himself in a channel only the viewers could hear, "Kim Jin-Hyeok. Lee Sang-ho. Park Ji-Yeon. You won't die pretty deaths..."
— Aren't you supposed to say that to them LOL
— My own personal Death Note LOL
— Lol, that's hilarious LOL
— He's like a private memorizing his superiors' names~
— Shuddering
— Classic nerd LOL
— Bubblegum Stark LOL
***
The eyes in the peephole widened.
"Huh?"
Almond felt puzzled.
"Where did they go?"
The zombies that had been clustered like clouds in front of the bathroom suddenly disappeared. Their aggro was pulled somewhere else.
"Guys. Where did all the zombies just go?"
From the perspective of only seeing through the peephole, it was difficult to determine where the zombies went.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Can we make it to the infirmary then?"
"Uh..."
He wasn't sure. If the zombies ran toward the infirmary, that would be problematic.
"No. We might not be able to go straight to the infirmary. It should be fine just to enter a classroom."
In fact, Almond's first choice was a classroom rather than the infirmary. They didn't necessarily need a bed as good as those in the infirmary. Just avoiding the chill of the floor would be sufficient.
'The problem is...'
Almond had suffered multiple injuries.
[Scratch - Right Arm]
[Scratch - Left Leg]
[Ligament Injury - Right Foot]
It wasn’t worsening yet.
[Bleeding: 32%]
The bleeding level was steadily rising though. If it reached 100%, they would have to apply a tourniquet. Otherwise, he could die from excessive bleeding. Even now, it was at a dangerous level.
[Anemia]
[Visual disturbance and slowed reaction time.]
[Limping]
[Movement speed has been reduced and landing causes pain.]
[Exhaustion]
[Strength has been reduced and accuracy has decreased.]
[Hunger]
[Strength has decreased and wound recovery has slowed.]
These injuries were affecting his actual combat ability. It appeared the fight with Class 1 caused quite a strain on him.
'It's time to move.'
Almond sensed that it was time to leave this bathroom.
"We’re going to move soon. Everyone, use the bathroom while the zombies are gone. We might not be able to come back here again," he spoke as he opened the bathroom door himself.
— An experienced person's advice, take it to heart.
— Indeed, the king of bowel movements LOL
— LOL, reminds me of early access.
***
Sssssss.
The sound of water flushing came from everywhere.
The children, with eyes signaling their readiness, emerged from the bathroom.
"Then..."
Almond cautiously opened the sliding door.
"Let's do some recon first."
The time to leave was now. The problem was which direction to take. It was crucial to know where the zombies had gone.
'The classroom in front is bustling.'
Almond confirmed that the zombies were swarming in front of the nearest classroom.
'In that case...'
Almond's expression brightened. This was a good opportunity. The stairs leading to the basement were unmarked.
Heading to the basement could open a route to the canteen, which was much more important than the classrooms. Of course, there was no way to know what was there.
Given the current situation, heading to the basement seemed like the best option.
Tap.
Almond closed the door again and explained the situation to the children, "... We're going to the basement."
All the students agreed. They were starving to death since more than fifteen hours had passed in game time. Given it was summer, the sun would rise in a few hours.
The students naturally felt extremely hungry due to their growth spurts and running around so much.
[Hungry]
Almond felt no different. It had been a while since his status changed from peckish to hungry. The moment it turned to starvation, all sorts of debuffs would set in.
"Let’s move."
Almond took one last drink of water to moisten his throat and grabbed the doorknob again.
"One. Two..."
Drzzzz.
He pulled open the door.
The route was straightforward. After opening the door, they just needed to head straight to the stairs visible in front.
However, they had to move as quietly as possible.
"Quietly."
Almond, gripping a sledgehammer, gestured to the other students following in a line. They all stooped low and stuck close to the wall to minimize their exposure.
Step. Step.
Only their very faint footsteps echoed. In fact, the zombies in front of the classroom were much louder and made suppressing their own noise more successful.
They continued down the basement stairs and rounded a corner.
"The canteen... Ah... finally..." someone from Class 3 murmured as if spellbound.
It was a rather chubby boy who seemed very hungry.
"Dae-Hyuk, shut up."
"..."
A girl in the middle shushed him.
The whispering likely wouldn't reach the zombies in the distance. They had moved quite far away by now.
However—
"?"
Thump.
Suddenly, the students bumped into each other like dominoes.
"Don't push."
"Why aren't we moving?"
"I don't know."
Almond, who was leading them, had stopped. He slowly stood up and turned back to them.
"... It's locked."
Creeeak...
Almond tried to turn the fire door handle, but it wouldn't budge.
— Dddddd
— OMG, did the canteen lady lock it already? LOL
— We're screwed...
— Quick, back to the bathroom…
Someone had already blocked the passage leading to the basement.
Almond looked down at the sledgehammer in his hand.
'Should I smash it?'
He recalled when Baek Joon-Soo and his gang forcibly opened a fire door. It wasn't impossible with a sledgehammer, but the zombies would surely swarm their way if Almond used it now.
Then, they would have to fight with their escape route blocked.
'I could break through before that.'
Theoretically, it would take less than a minute to smash the door handle with the sledgehammer and break in. They could get through the door before the zombies, alerted by the noise, reached them.
"I'll break through. Everyone be ready for the zombies," Almond simply said and raised the sledgehammer high.
"What, what?"
"Hey, don't—"
Clang!!!
The tremendous noise of metal striking metal echoed out.
"Damn, we're screwed."
"Hey, hey, we’re already blocked. We have to break through here!"
The armed students looked toward the top of the stairs. The zombies would obviously come to swarm them. It was a race between breaking through the canteen fire door and the zombies’ arrival.
Clang!
Clang!
Almond struck the handle with terrifying speed.
"Whaat?"
"Kyaahhh!"
The zombies gathered in front of the classroom started reacting to the noise.
Clatter...
From afar, the sound of running footsteps in the corridor could be heard.
"Quick! Quick!" the student at the back sobbed as he spoke.
Then—
Clang!
The round metal handle fell to the floor and rolled.
"!"
The handle had broken off at an unprecedented speed. It hadn't even taken fifteen seconds, which surprised the students.
"Already?"
"Shit... we made it."
— Quick!!
— Phew...
— Oh, my heart...
Almond quickly inserted his hand to unlock it and pushed the door.
"!"
Creeeak...
Only the faint scraping of metal could be heard. However, the door wouldn’t open.
"Hey! Shit, what are you doing!? Why won't it open!?" the fierce-looking Park Eui-Jun yelled.
"Are you trying to get us all killed!? The zombies are right on us!"
Who would deliberately not open it? No matter how hard they pushed, the door wouldn't budge. Only after looking through the gap in the door did they understand why.
"A barricade...?"
Numerous desks and bookcases barricaded the door from the other side.
"It's blocked."
***
[Beginner's Tip: Did you know? There is a saying in the Bible, "He who has not shown hospitality to others will not be shown hospitality himself." Sounds just right for your situation, doesn't it? Well, there's no such verse in the Bible. The producers made it up! Haha!]