[
AN:
-Guys, don't bother giving me spirit stones. If you want to see me continue writing this fanfiction, I need UNLIMITED COMMENTS from you guys. Us authors live off those comments
- How were the previous chapters? I read through them myself and found several grammar mistakes that I commented on.
- By the way, check out Deepwoken on Roblox sometimes, though it cost 400 Robux. If you don't have money, don't feel obligated to buy it. You can either watch someone play or read this fanfiction :D
- Enjoy the chapter!
-"{}" signify speaking English
- current [Status]:
]
***
"I have a great idea."
Standing in line to dump their leftovers, I-Sak was coming up with ways to get her best friend together with the class bad boy.
"Just ask Cheong-San," suggest Cheong-San.
On-Jo, not wanting to talk more about the subject, shook her head. Besides, it felt weird to bring Cheong-San into this.
"Seriously," badgered I-Sak, "he and Su-Hyeok are close. They're in the same friend group."
On-Jo rolled her eyes at that. "It's better to say that Cheong-San hangs out only with Gyeong-Su. It just happens that Gyeong-Su has other friends."
"Why don't you just ask Cheong-San how he feels?"
"No."
"On-Jo," said I-Sak as she placed a hand on her shoulder, "you have to listen to me. Who else do you trust more to ask for you than Cheong-San? Please tell me you're not talking about Gyeong-Su?"
"It doesn't matter," evasively, "he's not even here."
"Fine. Be that way. And have an agonizingly painful time playing Animal Crossing as you wait for Su-Hyeok's answer, hmm?"
On-Jo groaned. "Did Cheong-San tell you that too?"
I-Sak only gave her a nod.
I-Sak left for class earlier, leaving On-Jo alone in the cafeteria. Dumping her tray into the sink, she made her towards the entrance. Suddenly, On-Jo heard the screams of students and the pounding of hundreds of footsteps outside the cafeteria.
Seeing the people begin to amass against the glass wall and doors, On-Jo was stunned by the fear present on all their faces as they banged harder and harder on the glass, cracks forming where they hit.
***
With his body lowered to the ground, Cheong-San crouched beside the stairs, hidden by the corner of the walls as he held his modified spear. The music from before played louder than before; the sound of falling sand mixed with the clanking of chains.
In the storeroom, Cheong-San used anything that could add more protection to his body. Using tape, Cheong-San attached old magazines and practice books around his forearms and protected his hand by double layering with rubber gloves. And with copious amounts of tape, his torso was protected by a metal dissection tray attached to his chest. Safety goggles covering his eyes, Cheong-San wore a construction hat he had he found laying back in the storeroom, no doubt stolen by some student. And finally, his magnum opus, the modified spear.
Surprised, he had found kitchen knives in the storeroom, he guessed if Mr. Lee was willing to engineer a virus, then he would have no qualms breaking school policy. Cheong-San had made a spear with a knife jutting out between the taped gape of the two-meter sticks.
After, using up all the tape, Cheong-San walked outside the Life Science class and quickly down the stairs. It wasn't until the second floor that he saw many students run up the stairs, most definitely being chased by someone who had already turned.
Cheong-San could feel his heartbeat thumping widely in his chest, his breath slightly erratic as he prepared to thrust his spear upward. The sound of snarling got closer and closer as rapid steps echoed louder on the stairway. A figure crawled up the stairs, its appearance was disfigured and bloody. By the skirt, he assumed the zombie used to be a girl.
"Ragrah-Ugh!" As soon as the former student-cum-zombie was in range, with all his might, Cheong-San rose up and stabbed the girl in her throat with his spear. With a roar, he pushed the zombie violently back against the wall, stunning it for a moment.
Without a moment to lose, Cheong-San pulled out another kitchen knife as he closed in. While the zombie was stunned, its arms continued to swipe at his chest, only to scratch the metal tray and hard hat. He started viciously slashing the zombie's throat, only stopping once it no longer moved. Panting from stamina used to kill the zombie, he looked down at his bloody gloves which had started to tremble a bit. Staring at the brutally murdered girl - no, Zombie. Cheong-San knew he couldn't keep a guilty conscience when killing these things. As the videos said, they were no longer human, but a host for a voracious parasite.
After a few moments, Cheong-San heard the sound of a large bell ring. Following that, his body felt refreshed, as if he had woken up from a pleasant nap.
Out of thin, half dozen cards appeared. Two floated in front of him as the other laid face down in a stack on his hand. Cheong-San was able to catch their titles - [The Sound from Below] and [Thundercaller] - before they faded into motes of light.
As Cheong-San was about to look at his fold of cards, several roars emanated from further down the stairs. Stuffing the cards into his pocket to look at later, he did some light jumps in place to get hyped.
Returning a roar of his own, Cheong-San charged downstairs.
***
"Help!" shouted an obese boy, hobbling on one leg because he had stupidly put in his other inside a cone. Tripping over, the boy was about to be pounced on by three zombies when a figure jumped from the ceiling.
It was Cheong-San.
After he tried to push through the ground floor to the cafeteria, he realized that there were too many people and zombies running amok. So he traveled across the school by scaling buildings and hopping barriers. How was he able to do this?
[Your sleight of hand and nimbleness. Improves Parkour and Stealth.]
He wall-climbed. It was how Cheong-San was able to record Son Mwyung-Hwan and Yoon Gwi-Nam as they bullied the two students; he'd climbed quietly up the wall, right outside their floor. He also wanted to test out if the game mechanics like wall-climbing or charisma worked, so who better to test it on than the non-believers of the great Cheong-San's? No doubt things would've gone south if his racial bonus didn't give him high starting charisma.
In the game, Cheong-San had focused on leveling up agility solely for its ability to climb or sneak away from danger. Paired with the [Night Child] talent, he was able to climb almost 10 meters vertically with max agility before losing grip and falling. Of course, with his current stats in agility, it would be roughly less than half that height.
Jumping and scaling from the smaller school building attached to the main one, Cheong-San made his way deeper inside the school to the square building called the cafeteria. It was on his journey that he had spotted the idiot who had a construction cone stuck to his leg. Jumping down, he decided to kill those three zombies that had left the main mob.
After his first kill on the stairway, Cheong-San had gone on to kill five other zombies by either sneaking up behind a stray zombie or using his original tactic of waiting for them to charge themselves onto the spear; the same method people used to hunt boars. And with every kill, motes of light floated over the corpse before flying towards and into his body. Cheong-San presumed that was EXP.
With a dash forward, Cheong-San targeted the closet zombie. Pulling on the distracted zombie's hair with a quick jerk, his arm came around to the front, the knife digging deep into its neck as he slashed the throat.
Pushing the dead zombie aside, Cheong-San quickly grabbed his spear from his back, the spear aimed at the other zombie that had now rushed him. From the corner of his eye, he saw the third zombie still grappling with the cone boy.
Cheong-San felt himself be pushed back from the force of the zombie rushing forward onto the spearhead. With all his might, he used the spear to force the zombie on the ground, stomping its head until it caved inward. Now, seeing the familiar specks of light flow to him, he then moved on to the third zombie.
With a yank of hair and a slash of a knife, the zombie fell dad to the side, blood spilling onto Cheong-San's rubber gloves and cone boy's frightened face.
Cheong-Sal saw in the distance the crowd of people that formed in front of the cafeteria, consisting of people seeking shelter inside and zombies seeking the people inside.
Jumping fences and the court walls, Cheong-Sal made it to the cafeteria sidewalls. With a jump off the ground, he scaled up the sidewalls and into an open window.
Landing feet first onto a lunch table, his foot in someone's food, Cheong-San scanned the room, looking for either On-Jo, I-Sak, or Gyeong-Su. But seeing the scared faces of everyone else as they watched the glass walls of the cafeteria begin to crack, he gave a taxi whistle to get their attention.
"THERE IS A SHOOTER ON CAMPUS! EXIT THROUGH THE BACKDOOR! I REPEAT, THERE IS A SHOOTER PRESENT ON CAMPUS!"
Fires and school shootings. Those three subjects were the only thing that people understood above all else as realistic and posing a real threat to a school. If Cheong-San said it was a fire then rather than the student leaving the campus, they would go to their assigned fire drill spots. School shootings, while unknown in such an anti-gun country like South Korea, was still a very real threat, the last incident happening over four years ago when a boy brought his dad's pistol to school and shot four people, to which he then used the last bullet to kill himself.
Now that people thought that there was a shooter on campus, they would now keep a distance from other people and either find a place to hide or run. It was a better reason than saying that there was a zombie outbreak. If horror movies taught him anything, people were stubborn to the end. Cheong-San hoped that this was enough.
As he made his way to On-Jo, who he had found standing still in the aisle. Cheong-San had already seen that some had already started to move, heading towards the kitchen. But a majority had remained seated. Cheong-San cursed in his head.
"On-Jo," he said, grabbing the girl's arm. "We need to leave, now."
"What the hell is happening?" asked On-Jo, "Why are you covered in blood? Is that a knife taped to a meter stick?"
He didn't have time, Cheong-San could see the cracks expanding on the glass walls as more and more people appeared to pound on it. Without giving the smaller girl an explanation, he threw on the other side of his shoulder before making his way to the window he came in through.
"What the hell are you doing?! Not again! I thought you said we had a truce!" screamed On-Jo as she hammered his back.
As Cheong-San dropped the girl through the window outside, the glass wall finally broke and shattered into hundreds of pieces. People rushed inside the cafeteria, pushing tables and people to get away from the zombies. The students present, unsure of what was going on, decided to not wait and see themselves as they ran alongside the students.
Jumping out of the window, Cheong-San saw that On-Jo had tripped and landed on her butt. Rushing towards the helpless girl was a zombie that was missing a significant portion of her face.
Running up to the zombie, Cheong-San tackled its side before backhandedly slashing at its neck.
Standing up, he panted as he used the zombie's shirt to wipe the blood off. Instead of the usual white specks of light, what came back in him instead were yellow ones.
Meaning he wouldn't level up until all the [Investment Points] were used up.
"Cheong-San! Did you just kill that girl?" asked On-Jo horrified.
"I'll explain later," said Cheong-San, seeing both entrances a the front and back of the alley begin to be swarmed with more people. "But she was already dead."
Seeing On-Jo confused and shocked face, Cheong-San used this opportunity to throw the girl back on his shoulder.
"How are you doing this! You just climbed at least 3 meters! That's not possible! Hey, Cheong-San are you listening, you bastard?!"
***
"What the hell is happening out there," said Oh Joon-Young, staring through the window to the outside of the classroom, pushing up his glasses as his sweat caused it to slide down his nose.
"Damn, it's hell out there," said Gyeong-Su, who was crouching against the sliding door with another classmate to prevent anyone from entering.
Bang! Bang!
Everyone inside classroom 2-5 flinched sudden noise. Turning around, I-Sak gasped, putting a hand to her cheek as she pointed at the window facing the outside. Lo-and-behold, sure enough, there was a person banging on the window, "Cheong-San?! Is that On-Jo, too!"
"Don't open the window, Don't open it up!" said Lee Na-Yeon, hiding behind one of her friends, "we don't know if they're infected!"
Gyeong-Su, seeing his friends outside the window, left his post at the door to slide the window open. "Are you ok?"
Jumping in, Cheong-San placed down On-Jo, whose been hanging on his shoulder the entire time. "We're fine."
"On-Jo," shouted I-Sak, running to hug her friend. "Are you okay?" The girl nodded in I-Sak's hug.
Gyeong-Su walked up to him. "How are things outside? Is it the same?" Cheong-San nodded. Gyeong-Su cursed at that.
Bang! Bang!
Standing outside the classroom door was a large boy who was knocking rapidly on the door. "It's Dae-Su, let me in!" Once inside, Dae-Su leaned collapsed on the ground, panting. "What's going on outside?"
"It's the Jonas virus."
Everyone turned to Cheong-San who spoke up. Joon-Young stood up. "Wait, are you telling me this Jonas virus is-"
"-turning people into zombies, yes. And it's all Mr. Lee's fault."
"I knew it!" spoke Na-Yeon. "I knew he smelled like a rotting corpse."
Pulling out the laptop from his backpack, he opened up a video and played it for his classmates. It showed Mr. Lee inside a bedroom, looking unusually tense. The date at the top showed it was October 8th, 2021.
[My son died...] The man paused, before continuing on, [I put a mouse and a cat in the same box. Most of the mice sat in a corner and were frozen, trembling in fear. But once in a while, there would be a mouse that would lose all reason due to the overwhelming fear and attack the cat. When this happens its testosterone level shoots up. I extracted that hormone and refined it. For all the mice in this world trembling in fear. I thought that if fear turned into rage, he'd become stronger than anyone. Hans Jonas once said, "Blind nature will nearly always select the most probable, but man can let the most improbable become actual," and this virus - the Jonas virus - does that. I've brought the improbable to life...]
The camera was now showing Mr. Lee's son, Lee Jin-Su. The boy was chained to his bed, looking exactly like the zombies that ran outside. Several people in the room gasped at the realization. [He bit his mother. 17 days after infection, I've stopped administering haloperidol and gave him benzodiazepine again. He'll be awake in less than ten minutes...]
Shutting down the laptop screen, Cheong-San was about to speak up again when he saw a hand grab onto the window sill.
"It's Bare-Su!" Someone said. Several boys rushed over to drag the boy in. Already near the window, Cheong-San saw that they used a ladder to get up here. Su-Hyeok quickly stood up, looking out the window. "Nam-Ra! Come in, it's safe!" And sure enough, the class president soon followed up the ladder, kicking it over to prevent any zombies from climbing in.
Exhausted, Su-Hyeok collapsed on the ground, panting as he rapidly blinked his eyes. "It's that, isn't it? Zombies."
***
As everyone else explained to Su-Hyeok and Nam-Ra about Mr. Lee and the Jonas virus, Cheong-San was looking at the four cards in his hand: [Hardened Nerves], [Excavator], [Scaredy Cat], and [Harvester].
[Hardened Nerves] gave a +2 to posture, meaning that it would increase how much he could block against an opponent. Because Deepwoken was a parry-based game, if a player decided to block instead, they would lose posture. Cheong-San assumed that would be the case if he blocked a zombie as well.
While he couldn't see any real use of the [Excavator] card, it gave decent stats: +2 Ether, +7 Reservoir, +3 Health. Ingame, it would've been useful for mining ores to sell or make armor, but not so much in real life.
Cheong-San was almost tempted to immediately pick the [Scaredy Cat] because of the speed boost when attacked by a zombie but stopped short as he looked at his last card, [Harvester]. It gave the same stat increase as the [Excavator] talent, but the description was different.
[Chance to receive two sets of ingredients when harvesting]
"Would that mean if I scavenged for food, there's a chance that I might find double the amount?" The [Harvester] talent referred to ingredients like fruits, fungi, meat, and wheat that could be found throughout the game. Using those same parameters, would that mean if Cheong-San, say stumbled on a water bottle, there would be a chance that another would appear as well?
Glancing back at Gyeong-Su who was holding the door shut and On-Jo that was being comforted by I-Sak, he made up his mind. Because he played the game by himself, Cheong-San always chose the talents like [Scaredy Cat] to boost his self-survival.
"Looks like I'm not going down the solo-progression route this time..." he chuckled. Taking the [Harvester] card, he placed it on the scroll. As soon as the [Harvester] talent touched the scroll, all the cards, including the ones he didn't pick, disappeared.
Cheong-San then took a look at the magic scroll.
It worked.
The training vest he had underneath his white dress-shirt had actually increased his fortitude by four points, leaving only one [Investment Point] left. Now, that he was 'Power' 2, he wanted to test something out.
Putting his backpack on the ground, Cheong-San used his finger to flick a piece of flesh stuck to the zipper. Searching through his backpack, he found what he was looking for: the electric plasma lamp.
"Lee Cheong-San," nagged Na-Yeon, her arms crossed, "don't you see everyone busy at searching for a phone, huh? Do you think this is the time to be playing with toys?"
"Hey, Cheong-San," said Gyeong-Su, keeping the door closed so that no one could enter the classroom, "I know that you like my gift, but could you please help me at the door?"
"Give me a moment," he said. Cheong-San pulled the lever, making the electric lamp buzz to life. Strands of electricity coursed inside the glass ball, the violet strings sporadically glossed the entire surface of the glass orb.
Silencing the sound of his classmate's yells, Cheong-San put both hands to the glass orb, focusing his eyes on the metal orb in the center.
Na-Yeon, who had enough of Cheong-San not doing anything marched straight to the boy who was holding a plasma lamp. But suddenly, a strong smell of metal invaded her senses. "Eh, why do I smell metal?"
Yang Dae-Su, who was helping look for a phone, turned after he saw flashes of bright light. "Huh? What is Cheong-San doing?"
But just as everyone was turning to look, I-Sak shouted, "It's here! I found one." Everyone but Cheong-San moved to crowd I-Sak, who held the phone.
"Whose phone is it?" asked On-Jo.
"This is Yeong-Ju's desk," said I-Sak, trying to unlock the phone. "Oh, no. We need the passcode."
"Do something," urged Na-Yeon, who was tugging on I-Sak's sleave.
I-Sak just gave the girl a look as if she was stupid. "I just said we need the passcode!"
As everyone tried to find a way to get the phone unlocked, Cheong-San had finally unlocked the ability to manipulate electricity! After a couple of minutes of concentration, all of the electricity inside the plasma orb turned from violet to neon yellow. And soon came the familiar sound of a bell chime, signifying that Cheong-San was now a 'Power' 3, with only four cards dropping neatly into a stack on his hand.
Flipping the cards over, Cheong-San once again got the [Evacator] and [Scaredy Cat] card, with the new additions being [Health Pack] and [Pack Mule].
Looking at the description of the new talents gave the ability to carry more objects or health. Seeing no need for either of those two, Cheong-San went with his 2nd pick in the previous fold. "Who am I deny faith if it wants me to pick [Scaredy Cat]?"
If anyone paid close attention to Cheong-San, they would've found it a bit strange that he was staring at the empty ground. But because everyone was surrounding I-Sak as she made the phone call, no one did.
***
As they waited patiently for help to come from the police, the zombies that were banging at the classroom doors and walls suddenly started to leave after a girl screamed outside.
"What?" said Dae-Su, standing up from the ground.
"Where are they going?"
"Why are they leaving?"
Opening the sliding door, Gyeong-Su took a peek outside carefully. He watched as the zombies ran down the hall and towards the stairs.
"What are you doing, moron? Close it," said Su-Hyeok, dragging Gyeong-Su back inside the classroom.
"Okay," complied Gyeong-Su, quietly closing the door.
"Does anyone know where the tape or glue is?" Cheong-San said, looking around the classroom.
"In the back cabinets," said Nam-Ra, "but why do you need it?"
"To cover the windows, right?" spoke up Joon-Young. "So they don't know we're here."
"Will that really work?" someone spoke up, "can some paper really stop them from knowing we're here."
"It will," spoke Su-Hyeok, "I saw them use it in a movie once."
"But that was a movie," pointed out Na-Yeon, "this is real life, we can't just bet our lives on this."
"Let's do it," said On-Jo, "it's better than sitting on our asses and doing nothing."
"Yeah," said Cheong-San, "we need to hurry, they may come back at any minute now. I already told them there was a fire at school, so they should be coming soon."
Everyone started working, scavenging paper from their backpacks and notebooks to the cabinets; they used it all. With Gyeong-Su and Jang Woo-Jin blocking both doors, the class began working on taping on the first layer of paper on the window before applying the second layer of glue for safe measures. Then they barricaded the entire wall of class 2-5, living a small gap on each side for someone to hold the door. Finished with their task, the students peered outside their windows, watching the students down below munching each other.
Now all they could do was wait.