Chapter 30

Watching the battle, people gulped, overcome by the sight of the enormous zombie sabretooth tiger, more aptly described as a monstrous beast than a wild animal. Jun-sang left the regular zombies to the two wolves and Seo Yoo-mi, then slowly advanced towards the sabretooth tiger. The sabretooth tiger responded by growling lowly and approaching Jun-sang.

-Grrrrrr!

The sabretooth tiger moved first, rushing forward and swatting at Jun-sang with its massive paw. It was a blow powerful enough to snap an ordinary tree in an instant, but Jun-sang didn’t evade it. No, he even extended his own fist to strike the sabretooth tiger’s paw.

Crack!

The moment Jun-sang’s body-weighted hook connected with the sabretooth tiger’s paw, a violent impact resonated. The result was Jun-sang’s victory.

-Grrr…

The sabretooth tiger limped backward on the paw that had met the punch. But Jun-sang wouldn’t tolerate a beast that dared to bare its claws at him retreating. The sabretooth tiger, recklessly charging at him, opened its mouth wide to sink its sharp fangs into his body. However, before it could fully open its maw, Jun-sang’s fist flew in and struck the sabretooth tiger’s snout.

Thwack!

In an instant, the sabretooth tiger’s snout was utterly crushed, but already a zombie that felt no pain, it lunged forward, intent on savoring the blood flowing from Jun-sang, despite its face being smashed. Another one of Jun-sang’s fists flew at the sabretooth tiger’s jaw. The moment it was struck by an upward-swinging punch, the sabretooth tiger’s head was forcibly thrown back against its will, and when Jun-sang’s body-weighted uppercut exploded again, the sabretooth tiger’s massive body was lifted into the air.

“Ah…”

As its enormous body defied gravity and rose into the air, people briefly forgot the fight itself, their eyes following the magnificent spectacle. But while everyone else’s eyes remained fixated on this absurd feat, Jun-sang was taking an entirely different action.

“Open Crushing Blow.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Two-Hit Combo unequipped from the card slot, and Crushing Blow took its place. And as the card equipped, Jun-sang immediately began to gather power. One second, two seconds, and then three seconds. As all the power in his body converged into his clenched fist, Jun-sang unleashed all that force towards the sabretooth tiger that was now flying through the air and falling towards the ground.

CRASH!

With a thunderous roar, as if a massive amount of explosives had detonated, a powerful force erupted from his fist, literally pulverizing the sabretooth tiger’s body. In an instant, the sabretooth tiger’s upper body below its neck vanished without a trace, only its lower body and head falling lifelessly to the ground.

“Th-th-that…” For a moment, people thought they had seen an illusion.

“Wh-what was that just now?” Lim Seo-yoon, dumbfounded, stopped shooting arrows and murmured, but Jin Sea-ah didn’t even register that he had spoken beside her, her mouth hanging wide open. What more could be said when even Seo Yoo-mi was rubbing her eyes and pinching her cheek?

But Jun-sang himself, due to the ruptured muscles from the after-effects of using a full-charge Crushing Blow, was momentarily immobile, just waiting for his regeneration to finish. Jun-sang was able to move again after about five more seconds, but even then, heat shimmer and smoke continued to emanate from his body.

“Phew…” As he breathed heavily and looked around, most of the zombies were already down, and the remaining ones were also being dealt with by the wolves and Seo Yoo-mi. He turned his gaze back to the forest, but there were no signs of anything new appearing. Jun-sang slowly approached the sabretooth tiger’s head, which was lying on the ground, smashed it, and rummaged inside. Then, a seed was clasped in his hand. Jun-sang pulled out his phone from his pocket and checked the seed.

Item Information

• Name: Anti-Fire Seed
• Level Restriction: None
• Type: Seed
• Grade: Common
• Effect: Fire Resistance +5%
• Description: A seed that increases resistance to fire.
• Can be equipped to items or cards with Seed slots to enhance their abilities.
• A special ability ‘Separate’ is required to detach an equipped seed.
• [Click here to equip this seed to an item or card.]

“Hmm…” Jun-sang pondered for a moment where to put this seed. His Blood-Soaked (R) card and Spirit of the Mighty Bear card already had all their slots filled. But the answer wasn’t that difficult. Among the Berserker and Mad Dog combos, Rampage was the only card that overlapped, excluding Blood-Soaked.

After equipping the newly obtained seed to the Rampage card and standing up, the battle had already ended. Jun-sang patted the heads of the wolves who had returned to him, then slowly began to search through the zombies’ heads, with Seo Yoo-mi following suit. It was very easy to tell who had defeated which zombie. The zombies Jun-sang had defeated were broken or shattered somewhere. Seo Yoo-mi had mostly cleanly cut off their necks. The burnt zombies were Jin Sea-ah’s work, and the zombies with arrows in their heads were Lim Seo-yoon’s.

They had defeated a considerable number of zombies, but only one of the zombies Jin Sea-ah had defeated contained a seed.

“C-congratulations on the acquisition…” Jin Sea-ah had to momentarily consider whether it was proper to accept the seed from Seo Yoo-mi, who was covered in the blackish-red zombie fluid and smiling faintly as she offered it. The villagers, who had been watching from behind the palisade, doing nothing, finally came out and began to gather the remains of the fallen zombies to burn them when Jun-sang and Seo Yoo-mi returned inside the palisade. Jin Sea-ah and Lim Seo-yoon waited by the palisade for a while to protect these people.

As Jun-sang settled back on the rooftop, Seo Yoo-mi, who had approached him at some point, handed him a wooden cup.

“…” Jun-sang stared at her, wondering what it was, and Seo Yoo-mi smiled faintly and said, “It’s… beer.”

“…” He took the cup, and it felt lukewarm, not very appealing. But Jun-sang, whose throat was quite parched from the after-effects of using Crushing Blow, gulped down the beer from the wooden cup.

“…” It tasted terrible. Aside from being lukewarm, it had also gone flat, making it almost embarrassing to call it beer. Jun-sang returned the empty wooden cup, but Seo Yoo-mi didn’t leave his side. No, she was fiddling with her chef’s knife and glancing at him, as if she had something to say. Why was this woman acting like this? Jun-sang, unable to bear his somehow troubled feelings, finally asked her, “Is there something you want to say?”

Seo Yoo-mi replied as if she had been waiting. “Um… if it’s okay…”

“…”

“Can I… pet the wolves?”

For some reason, Jun-sang couldn’t help but sigh in relief inwardly. When Jun-sang silently nodded, Seo Yoo-mi cheered and leaped off the roof, then approached the wolves crouching below.

“You’re pretty. Grrr… little one.” And she mumbled something unintelligible, carefully reaching out to the head of the red-furred Crimson Wolf. The Crimson Wolf looked at her with a somewhat annoyed expression but didn’t refuse her touch.

“Hehehehe…” Just the fact that the large, beautiful red-furred wolf didn’t reject her touch made her look ecstatic, as if she owned the world.

While they were messing around, the work of collecting the zombie remains continued, and by the time it was finished, the sun was already gradually setting. Jin Sea-ah, who had been waiting by the palisade, returned and spoke to Jun-sang, who was quietly observing his surroundings from the rooftop.

“The self-defense force commander says he’s prepared bathwater for us. What do you want to do?”

When Jun-sang glanced at her, her expression showed that she wanted nothing more than to go and soak in warm water. Indeed, in the world they originally belonged to, they never knew when a quest might activate, so it was difficult to even take a proper bath. It was a blessing that Jun-sang had an inventory with ample space, but for those who didn’t even have that, it was truly difficult to even take a shower, let alone a bath. That was why they couldn’t help but brighten at the news that the self-defense force commander had prepared bathwater.

“You go first.”

When Jun-sang readily gave up his turn, Jin Sea-ah looked very pleased. “Then the women will go first. You’ve worked hard.”

“Yes.” Seo Yoo-mi seemed reluctant to leave the wolves, but Jin Sea-ah, showing an incredible momentum he hadn’t seen before, dragged her away.

After the women went to bathe, Lim Seo-yoon, who knows where he got it from, brought Jun-sang a piece of warm bread and something like soup.

“Have some food.”

“Thank you.” Jun-sang took the bread and soup from him and tasted it lightly. The taste was lacking in many ways to satisfy the modern palate accustomed to spices, but it wasn’t bad for filling one’s hunger. Lim Seo-yoon sat beside Jun-sang, eating his food and looking around the village, then spoke again, “What kind of place is this, I wonder?”

“…” Of course, it wasn’t a question he expected Jun-sang to answer. It was more like a frustrated murmur. But Lim Seo-yoon ultimately couldn’t contain his curiosity and went down to grab villagers and ask them various questions.

It was quite some time later that the women returned from their bath. Their slightly moist skin and hair, and flushed faces, indicated it had been a rather satisfying bath.

“Alright, we’ll watch now, so you men go and wash up too.”

“Phew… I don’t know how long it’s been since I had such a luxury. Haha…” Lim Seo-yoon quickly got up, seizing the opportunity, but Jun-sang just pretended not to hear and kept observing his surroundings. Jin Sea-ah, seeing this, was about to say something to Jun-sang again, but… Jun-sang suddenly shot up and immediately began to sprint towards the palisade.

“Damn it…” Since his action could only mean one thing, Lim Seo-yoon, who had been about to go bathe, had no choice but to turn back and run to the palisade.

“Ugh… I just had a bath.” Jin Sea-ah grumbled and followed, while Seo Yoo-mi, even amidst all this, was still engrossed in clinging to the wolves and stroking their heads. As they ran towards the palisade, the villagers, who had been relaxed with the relief of safely passing the day without harm, also quickly gathered themselves and hastened their battle preparations.

The bell rang, and while the villagers were frantically arming themselves, Jun-sang slowly stepped forward to the front of the palisade. Thinking that tonight would be very long, Jun-sang slowly stretched his wrists. Then, from the forest, like phantoms, red eyes began to appear one by one before him.

At that moment, the villagers watching could only gulp. And no wonder, for the number of zombies that had appeared this time easily surpassed the triple digits, even at a rough glance.