‘Damn.’

When he followed Jessie up to the fourth floor, she had already attracted the zombies and broke down the door.

Blood was gushing from one of her legs and she collapsed, unable to stand. Almond had slashed her while she forced her way to the fourth floor.

‘She’s already dead.’

Losing a leg in a situation like this was as good as death. She had no chance of survival and could no longer fight.

Almond turned away from Jessie and focused on the zombies.

‘Even if I kill Jessie, it won’t affect the outcome.’

Right now, Jessie wasn’t the issue. It was them.

“Grrrr!”

“Raaagh!”

A massive swarm of zombies packed the corridor. Some of them collided with each other and burst. Several special zombies, at least five, could be seen at a glance.

There were so many that even the combat class character felt fear toward them.

[Fear]

His body became noticeably sluggish, but he held his ground.

‘If they get in, it's over.’

If those zombies managed to get through and proceeded into the stairwell, Class 3 would be wiped out. There was only one way for Class 3 to secure victory here.

“If I stop them, we win.”

Almond had to stop them all here. Even if the odds were low, what other choice was there? He would fight until the end.

Almond took a step toward the zombies. He would fight as far from the stairs as possible.

Shuffle. Shuffle…

He forced his trembling legs to move. At that moment—

[Fear → Resolve]

Even Almond hadn’t known about this feature.

[All Stats +30%]

[Immunity to all Abnormal Statuses]

[Immunity to Weapon Durability Loss]

Various buffs appeared.

[Time Left: 00:59]

He was given a one minute time limit.

***

On the ground, Jessie’s mouth was slightly open and her eyes were fixed on one spot. Although they seemed vacant, her eyes were intensely shining. She wasn’t just staring blankly, but was fixated as if entranced. The emeralds in her eyes shone like real gems, looking only at one place.

She was staring at a bloodstained back and beyond that back laid a hellscape.

“Raaagh!”

“Grrrr!”

Countless zombies tore at their own flesh in their frantic attempts to kill that one person, their eyes burning red. It was a despairing situation, pessimistic enough that even Schopenhauer would concede defeat.

Despite this, Jessie felt convinced that if an artist painted this scene, the title would be Hope.

***

“Almond! Is he trying to stop the zombies on his own?”

“This is the only way, but will it work…?!”

‘They’re coming.’

The lead zombie lunged at Almond, baring its teeth. A sharp blade slipped between those teeth.

Slash—!

The upper jaw of the zombie vanished.

“Graa… Ack!?”

The zombie was unable to stop, tripped, and rolled on the floor. Almond lightly sidestepped and avoided the collision. Then, he slashed the next charging zombie.

Slash!

He cut that zombie clean down the middle.

Pop!

Blood erupted like fireworks and the zombie fell forward.

[Time Left: 00:53]

Blood pooled in the corridor.

Splash.

Almond’s white sneakers stepped on it and pushed down harder.

“Grrrrrr!!!”

Splash!

A powerful blade cut through a charger’s massive body horizontally.

Fwoosh…!

Blood sprayed from the severed body, creating a dark red mist that spread out.

[Time Left: 00:42]

Blood splattered across his face. He only squinted his eyes and never closed them. If he closed his eyes now, he would close them forever.

A drop of dark red blood clung to his eyelashes and fell into his field of vision before dropping to the floor. He lifted his sword again.

“Even special zombies are taken down in one hit!?”

Slash!

The heavy zombie split and collapsed. It was impossible to tell what kind of zombie it had been.

“He’s landing all the slashes! They’re all severing the zombies apart! This isn’t easy!”

If the blade pierced the skin and slashed through to the end without faltering, it would count as the zombies getting

[Severed].

This was a standard feature of most game engines that valued realism.

The same applied in

Civil Empire

, so he could use the swordsmanship he had learned there.

“Another one down!”

Slash!

The path of the sword was painted red.

“One after another!”

Slaaaash—

The corpse fell, carving a path through the pool of blood.

“From above, this looks like a rhythm game, right?!”

“Yeah! The zombies are like notes! How does he not miss once?!”

With the right music, it really could look like a rhythm game. Almond split the rhythm, wielding his sword as zombies exploded with perfect precision.

[Time Left: 00:25]

By now, Almond himself didn’t even know how he was swinging his sword. Perhaps he was just moving to the rhythm.

“This is a blender! A zombie blender!”

Like a rhythm game reaching its peak, the sword strikes became faster and faster. Numerous red sword paths crisscrossed, blocking the corridor.

Slash!

Slaaaash!

“Graah…”

“Grrr…”

[Time Left: 00:12]

As the commentators had said, zombies weren’t being cut. They were being ground down. Most zombies fell without even flailing their limbs. Only the catcher

kept a distance and survived the longest.

“Almond is advancing instead!”

“Is this even possible…”

Surprisingly, Almond stepped forward. To everyone else, it looked like he was charging into the jaws of death.

Even the zombie that kept its distance couldn’t hold out.

Slaaash!

“Keeek!”

It collapsed. More corpses piled on top, one after another…

Thud!

“Grrrr…?”

Thud!

A mountain of corpses piled up to the point that it could be called a hill.

[Time Left: 00:06]

A barricade made of corpses appeared.

Thud…!

Another corpse climbed on top of it.

Zombies that tried to climb over and push through also perished.

[Time Left: 00:03]

The zombies began to be blocked by their own corpses.

[Time Left: 00:01]

“Graaaagh!!!”

Thud… Thud…

Only the sound of zombies bumping into each other could be heard beyond the mountain of corpses.

[Resolve Ended]

When the resolve effect ended, the zombies could no longer advance.

“He… Did he… Did he hold them off!?”

“He stopped them!?”

“He didn’t kill all of them, but they’ve been blocked!”

— Crazy, really

— Wow…

— I thought I’d die from not being able to breathe.

— Wow, he stopped them??

— Zombies: Ugh, this game sucks!

“Unbelievable!! Almond made a mountain of zombies!! Almond!!!”

“I couldn’t breathe! Almond blocked them off!”

It seemed Almond was also breathing heavily.

[Hyperventilation]

As soon as his status immunity disappeared, he began hyperventilating.

“Huff… Huff…”

Splash…

Almond’s knees hit the blood-soaked corridor floor.

“Huuuh…”

His rough breathing gradually changed to a death rattle.

“Almond!”

A voice came from behind.

Splash. Splash.

Someone was approaching, but he couldn’t see with his blurry vision. Everything looked red. The floor, his clothes, even his head… What? His head too?

“Here!”

It was Jessie. She crawled over, tore off a strip of her skirt, and pressed it against Almond’s mouth. She lifted his head onto her lap.

“Slowly.”

The basic response to hyperventilation was rebreathing carbon dioxide through slow breathing.

“Huff… Huff…”

Almond’s breath became more regular. Even so, he looked at Jessie with curiosity. After all, they were trying to kill each other just moments ago.

Jessie noticed his gaze and shrugged.

“I already lost, right? You should get the challenge reward. They don’t give anything to those who die.”

He knew he wouldn’t receive anything if he died. Even so, he fought knowing he could die because the challenge’s purpose was to win with Bubblegum.

Jessie had no way of knowing that.

Almond responded to Jessie’s words, “But… did you lose?”

“Yes. Look.”

Jessie pointed behind her.

After a while, members of Class 3 slowly climbed the stairs and emerged. Class 3 had won the stairwell fight from the looks of it.

“What is this? Collusion, Almond?” the class president asked in disbelief.

“Uh… Hmm…”

Well, he couldn’t make any excuses when he was lying on the enemy leader’s lap.

“That guy! While we were fighting for our lives, he was flirting with the enemy!?” Dae-Hyeok suddenly shouted angrily.

“Oh, don’t worry.”

Jessie neatly dispelled the misunderstanding by quitting the game.

“I’m leaving. I’m bleeding out, so I’m done…”

Thud.

It was hard to tell if she logged out or died for real. With that, Class 3 no longer had any enemies.

Then, someone behind them hit the class president and Dae-Hyeok.

Smack! Smack!

“What? What’s this?”

“Ah! What the fuck!”

It was the snack bar lady. She scolded them as if they were being ridiculous, "Collusion? That's love, you fools."

Dae-Hyeok and the class president responded with frustrated tones.

"Love? What kind of… She almost killed us all. Is that the whip of love?"

"Well… if you think about the whip of love that you guys get during detention, dying could also be the whip of love... No, no, that's not it! If it’s love, isn't it real collusion?!"

No one bothered to respond.

— Hahaha, seriously.

— Right, Hyun-Ah whipping them around hahaha.

— Right, if it's this much, it's true love.

— Fact: Everything Hyun-Ah says is right.

***

Screeeeech.

From the Danish team's capsules, one opened last. From there, a woman with red hair walked out. Although she looked more mature than she appeared on the broadcast screen, her face was still recognizable.

"Jessie, you finally came out. Why couldn’t you open the door?"

"Ah, I told you. Someone was blocking it."

These kids were still harping on about the door.

"Besides, I opened it in the end. The guy blocking me stopped all the zombies."

Oote was astonished.

"Stopped the zombies? There seemed to be a lot of them."

"Yeah."

To this, NerdKing objected, "What have you been doing all this time?"

"Me?"

Jessie fiddled with her hair nonchalantly and spun a story.

"My leg was cut off."

"… Really?"

"

Ugh…

Shit."

Oote shook his head as if horrified and muttered regretfully, "Ah, it's a pity. We were so close."

"Close? Our strategy was completely exposed," NerdKing criticized him.

"Trying to win in that condition was greedy."

"By the way, who's the brain on that team? A professional gamer? Definitely a Korean, right? They were no joke."

Jessie told them to stop.

"That's enough~ At least it was fun."

They quickly agreed.

"True. It was fun."

"That's right. I've only seen Korean zombie school stuff on Netflix."

What they really needed to win was a different game.

"We just need to win the national competition. Let's enjoy today," Jessie muttered while looking at the broadcast screen featuring Almond and Class 3.

"Will they make it to the main competition?" Oote chuckled and asked back as if he thought it was a joke.

"Korea? It's a bit hard to say... Wouldn't it be difficult?"

"Yeah. That's right."

Jessie looked at the broadcast screen wistfully.