There were a few routine close calls while coming down the mountain.
We ran into a handful of monsters that had strayed from their horde, and we also came across a cleverly hidden booby trap.
I avoided the monsters based on behavioral patterns inferred from their appearance, and I spotted the trap in time to steer clear of it.
Of course, I handled all of that myself.
All the physiognomist did was raise both hands in the air and give silent applause every time I overcame an obstacle.
Is this guy seriously going to be useless forever?
After making our way down the mountain, we finally reached Incheon.
The physiognomist recognized the scene in front of us instantly.
“Incheon Grand Park!”
He seemed to have regained his energy at some point.
Things had been calm and quiet since we parted ways with Mr. Kim, which I preferred, but now his energy was back up again.
“Look at that crowd. It really feels like a proper park.”
“Right? Want to go mingle with them?”
“Go ahead. I’ll be on my way.”
“You really don’t get jokes, little brother.”
The park was packed with zombies.
They were once humans with warm blood flowing through them, just like me.
After being bitten by monsters, their bodies had grotesquely transformed.
Apparently, there used to be creatures called “zombies” in movies and novels from the old world, and these things look similar to them.
So people just naturally started calling them zombies.
In those movies, getting bitten by a zombie would turn you into one, but our “real zombies” don’t have that ability.
Only monsters can turn humans into zombies.
Zombies simply attack and devour any animals they see to gain energy and prolong their lives.
If there’s nothing to eat nearby, they just stand still, conserving energy as if frozen in place.
In that state, they don’t move at all. They look just like statues.
If you’re not paying close attention, you might not even realize there’s a zombie there.
“Just asking to be sure.”
“Go ahead, ask gently. Here!”
The physiognomist rolled up his sleeve and held out his arm.
It was covered in thick hair.
“…Do you know a decent route from here to AAA?”
“When your destination is hell, isn’t every route the worst one?”
Useless.
At this rate, it’s no different from having some stray dog or cat trailing behind me.
“You just thought I was useless, didn’t you?”
“Did you read that from my face?”
“That’s called mind reading!”
Very versatile, aren’t you.
The so-called mind reader, who had been following behind me the whole time, suddenly moved ahead.
“Watch closely. I know how to repay a favor.”
He lowered his stance and began approaching a cluster of zombies standing frozen like statues.
Normally, I would’ve stopped him, but I decided to watch for now.
A thought crossed my mind.
Physiognomist, mind reader. What’s next?
Zombies hunt by relying on sound.
Their rotted eyes can’t see anything, and it seems they can’t smell either.
They often gather in large numbers, but as long as you disrupt their sense of hearing, they’re manageable opponents.
…At least, that’s how it’s usually explained.
And whenever trainee hunters hear that, they tend to underestimate zombies.
With no real combat experience, they grow increasingly arrogant during safe training, and that complacency ends up costing many rookie hunters their lives.
For those who had just gained abilities and become hunters, full of confidence, the most dangerous thing was that very complacency.
That’s why combat instructors would add all kinds of horrific stories to instill a sense of caution about zombies.
Stories about hunters who were torn apart alive and eaten.
And it would always end with the same message: stay alert and fight carefully.
But in my case, the teaching method was a bit different.
I was in charge of survival training.
“At this point, I assume you have a general understanding of zombies. Any questions?”
“Instructor!”
“Min Yeo-jin, if it’s something pointless again, that’s 300 push-ups.”
“Aw…”
“I-I have a question!”
“Go ahead.”
“So, Instructor… are you saying we should avoid zombies?”
“In short, yes.”
“Wouldn’t it be inefficient to keep detouring every time? And what about unexpected variables that come up on unplanned routes?”
“Trainee, what do you think is the most important thing in survival?”
“Uh… your awakened ability, or the resources you have?”
“Wrong. The most important thing in survival is—”
The mind reader, who had been approaching the zombies, suddenly stopped.
If he went any closer, they’d hear his footsteps.
The way he controlled the distance so precisely made it clear this wasn’t his first time.
A pot-bellied man who didn’t look like he could win in a fight against zombies.
But he definitely had plenty of experience dealing with them.
Whoosh.
He threw something into the distance.
The object that landed in the middle of the zombie horde—
Hiss. Ssssss. Tsk tsk tsk.
—was a crude, homemade noise generator.
“Little brother! Let’s move, quick! The battery won’t last long!”
While the zombies were drawn toward the noise, we quietly made our way across the park.
Whenever we encountered a group too large to avoid, the mind reader tossed another noise generator.
Each one looked slightly different, but all of them were equally crude.
How many of those is he carrying around?
Even having just one noise generator as an emergency item would be considered thorough preparation.
It’s useful, sure, but with the money those cost, it’d make more sense to just buy food and take a longer route around the zombies.
Still, thanks to him, we were able to cut straight through the park in a short amount of time.
He turned out to be helpful.
Thankfully.
“Well? That helped, right?”
“Yeah, definitely.”
“Ha! Your big brother’s pretty impressive, huh?”
“Runs in the blood, I guess.”
The path we took cut from higher ground down to lower ground.
It made it easier to get a sense of the terrain.
If we use this route again on the way back, it’ll be an uphill climb.
So on the way down, I made sure to memorize the terrain carefully to avoid trouble later.
“By the way, are you some kind of wholesale dealer for noise generators?”
“Oh, those? I made them whenever I had spare time.”
That explains why they look so crude.
Still, he’s got some skill.
“Where’d you get the parts?”
“Like those abandoned communication devices, you know? Ones that are broken and left behind. You just pick them up and swap out a few internal parts!”
So he’s an engineer type.
“Still, it’s a bit of a waste since you put effort into making them. Even if it took longer, we could’ve saved those consumables and just gone around the outskirts of the park.”
Well, not like I used any of mine, so I’m perfectly happy either way.
“You asked for a good route! Cutting through the park was the best option. The outskirts are crawling with raiders doing guerrilla tactics.”
That was new information to me.
If it’s true, then I definitely benefited.
“So you’re an old man who actually pulls his weight.”
“Thank Mr. Kim.”
“Mr. Kim? That Mr. Kim?”
“I heard it from him too. He said he got the info from a postman who had finished a delivery in Incheon and was heading back to headquarters.”
“Hmm.”
“What are you doing?”
“A moment of silence in gratitude.”
“You’re handsome.”
If you don’t know how to be grateful when it’s due, you’re not much of a human.
“Even with that info, it’s not an easy call to burn through all your consumables to push through like that.”
“What’s the point of saving them? You’ve got to survive right now.”
Physiognomist, mind reader, engineer.
Next up, a pretty solid survivalist.
“The most important thing in survival is that you only have one life.”
“Well, that’s obvious—”
“Unexpected variables from detouring around zombies? You deal with those when they come. But if you die now, there is no later.”
“Ah…”
“Of course, there are times when you have to take risks and think long-term. I’m not telling you to be short-sighted. But you only have one life. And people often forget that. They know they’ll die someday, but they think it won’t be today. Why do you think that is?”
“I’m not sure…”
“It’s simple. Because they’ve never died before. People learn the most from failure. But in survival, failure means death. You can’t learn from failing to survive. That’s why everyone remains ignorant.”
“Hmm…”
“But you’re different. You have something special. A special weapon. That is—”
Mr. Woo started trailing behind me again.
That said, it’s not like he wasn’t doing anything.
He kept feeding me information from behind and guiding me along safer routes.
All of it was information he got from Mr. Kim.
So every time I heard something useful, I had to pause for a moment of silence.
I wondered why he had gathered so much information about Incheon, but there was a reason.
It turned out this old man’s delivery destination was also Incheon.
A settlement located a bit away from AAA.
So it wasn’t a lie when he said Incheon was his destination.
We were almost there, but the sun had already set.
Night is better for moving around unnoticed, but when it comes to approaching a settlement, daytime is safer.
If you approach in the dark, a startled guard might pull the trigger without even going through proper identification.
We found the most run-down abandoned building we could and hid inside.
Even though the walls were mostly collapsed, the inside was pitch black.
The moon was hidden behind the clouds tonight.
As I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, the old man asked if I was having another moment of silence.
I didn’t answer.
Time passed like that.
“About Mr. Kim.”
Why is this guy suddenly lowering his voice again?
“You said he carried that core with a 98% failure rate as a last resort, right?”
“…If you can’t sleep, just stay up by yourself. I was about to fall asleep.”
“I thought maybe he didn’t have a chance to use it when the raiders showed their true colors, but that’s probably not it. He chose not to use it.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘so’? You know what I’m saying.”
“I don’t.”
“Mr. Kim was scared.”
I knew that too. Of course he was.
He was afraid of dying.
When he realized he had fallen into the raiders’ trap, he must have understood at least logically that he wouldn’t survive.
So he must have thought of the core.
But in that moment, fear took over.
It only takes an instant for a person to become irrational.
Maybe I shouldn’t use the core, just in case. Maybe they won’t kill me.
It’s a common thing.
His survival instinct malfunctioned.
He avoided facing his inevitable death and instead chose the option that might prolong his life, even if only a little.
And in doing so, he missed the timing to use the core.
Mr. Kim’s faint hope didn’t end there.
– Mr. Drunkard…
– When I get back to headquarters, I’ll make sure this is reported.
– Is there really no way for me to live?
– …I’ll make sure it’s reported.
In the end, Mr. Kim’s attempt at survival failed.
If he were given a second life, he would never make the same mistake again.
But whether Mr. Kim knew it or not, he only had one life.
– But you are special. Because you have a special weapon. That is—”
– It’s an ability! An awakened ability obtained through the core! Proud Hunter Class 46 training—”
– Min Yeo-jin, 300 push-ups. Down.
– Gah! O-Okay, down!
– Your real weapon is the experience of having once been prepared to die. That is a far stronger weapon than any ability you got from some stone. Listen carefully—
No one who is living a normal life uses an ability core.
Because if you use it, most of the time, you die.
So it means all hunters are people who have been right on the brink of death.
They’ve broken through the very bottom of despair and glimpsed what lies beneath it.
Only when they are on the verge of starving to death or about to be hunted do they use the core as a last resort.
Most fall victim to the failure rate, and even if they’re lucky enough to succeed, it often turns out not to be an ability core at all.
Even if they do succeed and it really is an ability core, there’s still no guarantee they’ll live.
Because there’s no way to know what ability they’ll get.
Even if they obtain an ability perfectly suited to the situation, that can still be a problem.
If the conditions or method of use are complicated, they won’t be able to use it right away.
And then, despite gaining an ability, they die just the same.
That’s why hunters are so rare.
– Listen carefully, Hunter Class 46.
– Yes!!
– You haven’t died before. But you have made a decision on par with it. You used a core with an extremely low probability of success. Every one of you stands here after winning a life-or-death gamble. Don’t forget the moment you made that decision, the moment you didn’t give in to fear. That is the greatest weapon you possess.
– Yes, sir! Hahk.
– Min Yeo-jin, get up.
– Yes! Hah….
– How many push-ups did you do?
– Uh, that… 100?
– You did 79. Start over from the beginning….300. Down.
– O-Okay, down!”
Mr. Kim was far from being a hunter.
If he had just shut his eyes and used the core, what would have happened?
It’s only something one can imagine.
Would it even have been an ability core?
Unless we can find that core again, there’s no way to know now.
“If you don’t have anything else to say, go to sleep.”
“You don’t seem like an ordinary postman, little brother.”
“What makes you say that?”
“You’ve got a rare handgun, don’t you? I heard it’s incredibly powerful.”
My back scratcher.
I had been wondering when he’d bring it up.
“Just keep your mouth shut about it.”
“A postman with a hunter-grade handgun? Who would believe that even if I told them? How’d you get it?”
“What’s there to it? I picked it up.”
“You picked it up? The guy who lost it must’ve been seriously screwed.”
His voice made it clear he didn’t believe me at all.
“Yeah, probably.”
The original owner of this gun did get seriously screwed, though for a different reason.
And he got demoted to a soldier.
That would be me.
Being a hunter just wasn’t for me.
On my way out after turning in my hunter gear, I quietly pocketed just the handgun.
That’s how my second life as a soldier began.
The reason I quit being a hunter was that teaching didn’t suit me.
But once I got to the military, I realized I just wasn’t suited for group life in general.
And so began my third life.
Working alone as a postman suits me perfectly.
Though this delivery is unfolding a bit differently.
“So you’re really just an ordinary postman, little brother?”
“This ordinary me is heading out at dawn. It only takes ten minutes from here to AAA.”
Mr. Woo smacked his lips.
After scratching his head for a moment, he continued.
“My route overlaps with yours too. We’re sticking together, right? Don’t go ditching me and heading off alone just because we’re almost there!”
“Got it, so close your eyes, nose, and mouth and go to sleep.”
“As expected of my family! So handsome—”
“I know, I’m handsome. Yeah, yeah, let’s get some sleep.”
Keeping up with Mr. Woo’s chatter cost me some sleep.
He’s the kind of person who wears you out from start to finish.
Still, fortunately, for some reason I was able to sleep more deeply than usual.
It was probably thanks to the thick darkness without a moon.
And just like that, the day changed,
And when dawn broke and I opened my eyes,
I was alone inside the abandoned building.
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