Chapter 46 - Chapter 46

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 46

Chapter Title: Stealth Zombie Encounter

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'If I seriously raid their hideout a few times later...,

they'll start hating my guts and wanting to tear me limb from limb. Heh heh heh...'

After checking out their weapons and manpower, I decided to just ignore them for now.

They didn't even have guns anyway, and my body was already at quasi-superhuman level.

With specs on par with the most elite special forces veterans, I was confident I could take on that group of male survivors four-on-one with my bare fists without breaking a sweat.

They weren't even worthy opponents to begin with.

These guys were far less scary than zombies.

In fact, they were just cannon fodder.

To me, they were like four zombies without any infection risk.

The real terror of zombies was getting bitten and turning into one yourself.

Four zombies with no infection risk? They were nothing more than target practice for me now.

'...Things might change if they get their hands on a bunch of guns later.'

What if they luckily scored some guns?

The best they could hope for was a beat-up revolver like the ones Korean cops use.

By then, I could snipe them from way outside their line of sight with the long-range sniper I got from Battlegrounds 2, using a high-magnification scope.

If I set up a few sniper points at 800-1000 meters—within effective range for the M24 or Kar98k—and kept repositioning for long-range shots, what could those punks do about it?

'They'd get absolutely wrecked, just like getting farmed by a pro Battlegrounds sniper.'

I parted ways with the male survivors and kept clearing zombies with the UMP45, forging ahead.

The streetlights on the four-lane road hadn't gone out yet since the power was still on, so they automatically lit up bright as night fell.

Basking in the LED streetlight glow, I stowed away the bulky four-lens night vision goggles taking up space on my head back into my Subspace Storage.

I could pull them out again if I hit a dark stretch without lights.

- Tung! Tung! Tung! Tung! Tung! -

Walking along and spotting zombies, I'd stop, line up a shot, and gift the ones in front of me some .45 ACP rounds. It was kinda fun.

Zombies dropping one by one with holes punched through their heads wasn't a bad sight at all.

'Hm?'

Then I spotted a weird zombie off in the distance.

It had this semi-transparent vibe, flickering in and out of view.

'An evolved zombie!'

I immediately opened fire on it.

- Tung! Tung! Tung! Tung! Tung! -

'Did I hit it? Looks like I did, but...

the range was too far. With .45 ACP..., unless I nailed it dead center in the head, it might not have gone down...

I need to finish that thing off here if I can.'

Unfortunately, the zombie rounded a corner into an alley, cutting off my line of fire.

Plus, the moment I spotted it, I panicked thinking I had to kill it right then, so I sprayed with the UMP45—but at that distance, my accuracy sucked.

I couldn't be sure if I'd killed the evolved zombie.

'System! Did I just kill that evolved zombie?'

'You fucking idiot system. Can't you get the gist? I need to know if that evolved zombie is dead or not. Check if I just killed an evolved zombie! Even if no alert popped, there should be a kill log. Or tell me how many evolved zombies I've killed so far!'

This thing was just a frustrating machine.

I had to give up.

It should pick up on context clues.

Like a parrot repeating the same crap if you input the command wrong.

Sometimes it seemed to understand nuance and respond cleverly, but other times it was stubbornly dense.

Were it doing this on purpose because I cussed it out last time?

Whatever. From what it said—"The number of evolved zombies killed so far is 0"—I got the info I wanted.

I still hadn't killed any evolved zombies.

The kill count was zero.

'It might mess with my focus a bit, but no helping it.

To avoid repeats of that, I should turn zombie kill alerts back on.

Now I get why they're on by default.

Hey, System. Turn that alert back on. The one for zombie kills.'

Hearing the system's reply, I opened my Subspace Storage, stowed the UMP45, and pulled out the M416 that used 5.56mm rounds.

My favorite assault rifle from Battlegrounds 2.

After this, I liked the SCAR, then the AKM.

Its real name was HK416, but due to licensing costs or whatever..., anyway, anticipating situations like this, my M416 was always fully kitted with a suppressor and parked in Subspace Storage.

I approached slowly, aiming where I'd shot the stealth zombie earlier.

'That was probably a stealth zombie, so watch the shadows. If it seems like it's lurking in a dark spot, don't go in. Too risky.'

Among Project Zombie World's evolved zombies, there were ones that turned semi-transparent and muffled their presence.

Players nicknamed them 'stealth zombies' or 'stealth zombies.'

They were faintly visible in daylight,

but at night, you could be 10 meters away and not notice them—extremely troublesome.

In low-light areas, they were like a cloaked Ghost from Starcraft.

'One of the top three most annoying zombies as voted by players.'

Project Zombie World didn't have evolved zombies originally.

It was added later as endgame content for veteran players once the game went old-school.

It also served to explain why the military and police collapsed so easily in the story,

providing narrative plausibility.

Even if armed groups like the military and police took heavy hits early on,

it made sense why everything fell apart so helplessly into a zombie apocalypse.

A device for that buy-in.

Stealth, sensory, command, tanking, flying—evolved zombies specialized in those wiped out the military and cops..., something like that.

- Thud. Thud. -

I advanced cautiously, M416 aimed ahead, scanning my surroundings.

Even walking slowly and carefully, my boots thudded on the ground.

Might just be my heightened tension amplifying the sound.

Maintaining tactical firing stance, I reached the spot where I'd shot at the stealth zombie.

It had ducked around the alley corner into my blind spot from there.

'Deep into this alley is pitch black. Dangerous. Not going in further.'

The inner alley barely got any streetlight, shrouded in darkness.

I peered in, pulled night vision goggles from Subspace Storage, equipped them, and powered on.

- Beep— -

The goggles hummed to life, brightening my view of the alley.

Thankfully, about 60-70 meters in, a stealth zombie with one arm blown off was shambling around.

Without night vision, I'd never have spotted the flickering, semi-transparent bastard.

'Guess my UMP45 took off one arm earlier.'

I lined up the M416 for a headshot.

The suppressed M416 let out a muffled, smooth thwip rather than a boom, spitting a bullet.

- Thwip! -

"Whew~ Headshot."

One shot punched a hole clean through its skull.

Evolved zombies were just zombies with gimmicks—except tanks—and a bullet to the brain dropped them like anything else.

Clearing out a stealth zombie that could've screwed me over later or if I got careless felt damn good.

I stowed the M416 back in Subspace Storage, grabbed the UMP45, and headed for Hye-jeong's sister's place.

Nothing else noteworthy happened on the way.

Ah..., I burned through a ton of .45 ACP blasting zombies, dropping from 4,000 rounds to 2,000.

Nothing else worth noting.

'This the place?'

I arrived safely at the target area Hye-jeong told me about.

It was a villa complex.

Hye-jeong's family lived in Building 101, Unit 401.

'No guns here—sweep the zombies with grenades first, then head to her family's place. It's not my home, so I can go wild with frags. Even if nearby zombies hear and swarm the complex, not my problem. Just rescue Hye-jeong's sister and bounce. This ain't my turf.'

I figured I'd killed enough zombies with guns today.

Way fewer than with the VSS and SLR, but still...

Blasting away carefree from a safe high-rise apartment versus...

staying vigilant on the ground where one slip could be fatal, shooting while marching steadily to the objective—it was worlds apart in exhaustion.

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