For convenience, he even gave the ability a name.
‘Sure-Kill Eye.’
An eye that killed without fail.
Following the guidance of the Sure-Kill Eye, he threw the kitchen knife he had taken from his Inventory at the zombie charging toward him.
“......!!”
The zombie should have ignored an attack of that level and continued charging.
Instead, it collapsed where it stood and stopped moving.
It was an ironic word to use for a zombie, but it had died.
‘Confirmation complete.’
After that, he swung the sledgehammer.
Inside the Zombie Burst dungeon, where the zombies were numerous, a sledgehammer with a long reach and wide attack range was far more efficient.
Wouldn’t its weight and difficulty of use be a problem?
Of course not.
『Skill, Heavenly Strength Axe Art (1-Star), acquired.』
Before his Regression, he had been the God of War.
***
Joo Do-gyeom deliberately smashed the iron door leading to the apartment rooftop with his sledgehammer.
The tremendous noise drew aggro and gathered the hordes of zombies from the stairwell as well.
Not that it mattered.
No.
Joo Do-gyeom had wanted exactly that.
Holding only a sledgehammer, he swept away the endlessly surging waves of zombies atop the rooftop as though he were dancing.
To Joo Do-gyeom, a sledgehammer wasn’t a crude weapon that relied solely on its heavy head.
The handle in his grip.
The shaft connecting the handle to the hammerhead.
Even the wind released whenever the sledgehammer swung.
Everything became a weapon in Joo Do-gyeom’s hands.
Before long, zombie corpses had piled up in every direction.
Even excluding the zombies that had been struck, sent flying, and fallen to their deaths on the ground floor, he had dealt with that many bodies.
Near the end of the battle.
Joo Do-gyeom flicked his index finger, infused with internal energy, toward the final zombie that had luckily approached through an opening created while he swung the sledgehammer.
SHRIEEEEK—!
Immediately after the sound of the air splitting rang out, the zombie’s chest caved inward at the exact center.
It collapsed where it stood and met its death.
『Skill, Shadowless Finger Flick (1-Star), acquired.』
Without even checking the message, Joo Do-gyeom lowered the sledgehammer to the ground.
THUD—!
『Strength Grade increased: E- => E』
『Skill, Heavenly Strength Axe Art, advanced to 2-Star.』
The heavy sound echoed through the silent night.
However, no more zombies charged from nearby.
He couldn’t even hear anything racing up the stairs.
He didn’t know about the spaces between the building’s floors or the individual apartments.
At the very least, every zombie on the rooftop and in the apartment stairwell was dead.
Joo Do-gyeom opened the System’s dungeon information and checked how many zombies he had killed and how much time remained.
『276/1,000』
『69 hours 53 minutes 28 seconds...... 27 seconds.......』
Perhaps it was because the battle had continued without pause.
He had killed more zombies than expected in such a short time.
‘Which is why my internal energy is empty.’
Even so, after taking several breaths, his internal energy recovered all at once.
Part of the reason was that Joo Do-gyeom still possessed very little internal energy in his dantian.
The greater reason was that Heaven Formula Qigong was such an efficient Inner Cultivation Method.
Meanwhile, Joo Do-gyeom gulped down the water he had brought in his Purification Water Bottle.
Water spilled between his lips.
He wiped it away with the back of his hand, lifted the sledgehammer with one hand, and placed it back into his Inventory.
Was it because his Strength had increased by one grade?
It felt much lighter than before.
‘I probably won’t need it for a while once I head downstairs.’
It would become useful again after he went outside.
With that thought, Joo Do-gyeom retrieved the kitchen knife he had thrown, picked up, and swung during the battle.
Holding it in his hand, he stepped beneath the shattered rooftop door and descended into the dark stairwell.
The surroundings were filled only with zombie corpses that could no longer move.
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG—!
Joo Do-gyeom hadn’t even descended half a floor from the rooftop when the noise struck his ears.
A cold smile crossed his lips.
‘I thought I killed them all.’
One of the bastards must have been trapped somewhere.
It had probably stopped moving for a while after the surroundings grew quiet.
Then, after sensing Joo Do-gyeom’s movement, it had started causing a commotion again.
Finding its location wasn’t difficult.
The twentieth floor.
Beyond the closed iron door on the apartment landing marked with that exact number.
A still-living(?) zombie was making a tremendous racket.
Joo Do-gyeom approached the door and raised his foot.
Without employing any particular technique, he filled it solely with physical strength and internal force before kicking the iron door hard.
CRASH—!
The door collapsed and crushed the three zombies that had been pounding against it from behind.
Even in that state, they were still zombies.
Unable to feel pain, the bastards released inhuman cries and struggled to crawl free.
GRAAAAAH—!
GRAAAH—!
Joo Do-gyeom quietly approached them and lightly stabbed each red point with his kitchen knife.
He didn’t use internal energy.
Nor did he add any physical strength.
He stabbed lightly.
That was enough.
The zombies that had continued struggling beneath the iron door stopped moving completely.
After finishing that additional battle, Joo Do-gyeom entered one of the apartments on the twentieth floor whose front door stood open.
GRAAAAGH—!
At the same time, a zombie lunged from the darkness.
Joo Do-gyeom killed it by driving the kitchen knife into it.
Once that was done, the apartment fell completely silent.
The lights were off.
Joo Do-gyeom released his internal energy outward, spreading it through the apartment like sound waves.
『Skill, Ripple Perception Qigong (1-Star), acquired.』
He sensed no presence.
Neither the dead nor the living remained inside the silent apartment.
Its interior was clean.
Joo Do-gyeom quietly entered the living room and opened the refrigerator.
There were several bottles of water.
He also saw expired ready-to-eat food.
When he opened the cupboards, he found more of the same.
“Hmm.......”
Joo Do-gyeom let out a brief hum before smiling again.
***
There were four apartments on each floor.
Joo Do-gyeom went through them, entering by smashing the doors or picking their locks.
He cleared out the zombies and gathered all the food and supplies he needed before returning to the twentieth floor.
The apartment whose door had already been open was the cleanest and in the best condition.
He repeated the process several times.
Before long, the apartment contained enough food and drinks to sustain one person for quite some time.
Afterward, Joo Do-gyeom used heavy and thick pieces of furniture to completely block both the entrance to the stairwell and the elevator doors.
He did the same with the windows inside the apartment.
As a result, not even the faintest moonlight entered the apartment.
Its interior became so dark that it resembled pitch-black ink.
In any case, Joo Do-gyeom had succeeded in constructing his own fortress inside the Zombie Burst dungeon.
Why?
As he had stated from the beginning, it was so he could restore and train his martial arts.
To an outside observer, doing such a thing inside a dungeon with a time limit would appear extremely dangerous.
However, looking at it another way, no dungeon available at this early stage offered a more comfortable place to train martial arts.
That was especially true because the cultivation of Inner Cultivation Methods was extremely sensitive to external disturbances.
“This is good.”
Joo Do-gyeom murmured with a satisfied expression.
He sat in one corner of the dark room and began controlling his breathing.
Following the formulas of Heaven Formula Qigong, the dungeon’s Mana entered through his breath, circulated through his body, and accumulated within him.
The process was fast.
***
『Skill, Heaven Formula Qigong, advanced to 2-Star.』
『Skill, Earth Formula Qigong, advanced to 2-Star.』
『Skill, Ripple Perception Qigong, advanced to 2-Star.』
『Skill, Five-Senses Qi Circulation Art (1-Star), acquired.』
『Skill, Golden Blood True Art (1-Star), acquired.』
『Skill, Body-Protecting Warm-Qi Art (1-Star), acquired.』
.......
.......
.......
『Skill, Clear-Eye Art, advanced to 3-Star.』
『Skill, Heaven Formula Qigong, advanced to 3-Star.』
『Skill, Earth Formula Qigong, advanced to 3-Star.』
『Skill, Five-Senses Qi Circulation Art, advanced to 2-Star.』
『Mana Grade increased: E- => E』
『Stamina Grade increased: E => E+』
『Strength Grade increased: E => E+』
『Agility Grade increased: E- => E』
***
RUSTLE.
Joo Do-gyeom crumpled the wrapper from the last triangular rice ball and tossed it aside before rising to his feet.
At the same time, a flash erupted from his eyes.
The light was twice as intense as it had been when he first entered the dungeon.
His eyes could now see completely through ordinary darkness like this.
Clear-Eye Art had reached 3-Star.
He had also made considerable progress in many other martial arts.
Except for the techniques that would advance more quickly in a larger area or through actual combat, everything had improved.
Even this alone was literally a tremendous leap in growth.
How much time remained?
『16 hours 11 minutes 20 seconds...... 19 seconds.......』
There wasn’t much.
Considering the results, however, it was satisfactory.
The Joo Do-gyeom of this period before his Regression couldn’t even have dreamed of achieving this much.
That satisfaction lasted only briefly.
Joo Do-gyeom’s eyes instantly grew cold.
He still had a long way to go.
And with good reason.
‘I’ve only just taken the first step.’
Compared to the time immediately before his Regression, when he had fought the Demon King of Annihilation, this was all the strength he had managed to recover.
Considering the future that awaited him, he couldn’t allow himself to be satisfied with so little.
‘So I need to keep moving forward.’
Zombie Burst.
The foremost reason he had wanted to enter this dungeon.
It was time to obtain ‘that.’
***
As stated earlier, the Zombie Burst dungeon was an open world.
There was nothing unusual about encountering other Hunters inside the same dungeon.
That alone wasn’t a problem.
The problem was a special rule that applied only inside the Zombie Burst dungeon.
『Users who die inside Zombie Burst drop every collected item in their Inventory.』
Normally, when a Hunter died, the collected items inside their Inventory didn’t drop.
Because of that, robbing a Hunter required forcing them to voluntarily eject the items from their Inventory.
However, a Hunter who died inside Zombie Burst automatically vomited out the contents of their Inventory.
And as repeatedly stated.
Dungeon items obtained inside Zombie Burst were traded for considerable sums on Earth.
That was why some Hunters said.
The frightening things inside Zombie Burst weren’t the zombies.
They were the people.
In a sense, it was an environment perfectly suited to a dungeon set in a zombie apocalypse.
***
Silently.
With what they believed to be considerable stealth.
Several gazes watched Joo Do-gyeom as he moved alone in the distance.
The group called ‘Hellhound.’
The three members, who took great pride in the name they had chosen themselves, each possessed at least one stat at D-Grade.
At first, they had been ordinary Hunters.
The three of them had decided to loot Zombie Burst, an easy-money dungeon.
With a little luck, even low-level Hunters like them could rake in money.
However, the fortune of a lifetime didn’t come easily.
Since Zombie Burst had been introduced as an easy-money dungeon, it always rewarded them with more than enough to compensate for their efforts.
Yet they had never obtained anything beyond that.
Nothing capable of satisfying the ugly greed within them.
Then came a turning point.
The three men had accidentally encountered another group of Hunters and argued with them over a single item.
The dispute ended with them slaughtering the entire opposing group.
It opened a new world to them.
The moment the Hunters died, the contents of their Inventories poured onto the ground.
Taking those items outside.
It was easier and more convenient than exploring the dungeon themselves.
It also earned them incomparably more money.
They only needed to kill people and take the most valuable items.
From that moment onward, the three became raiders.
Nothing held them back.
Their Villain activities inside the Zombie Burst dungeon were a secret known only to the three of them.
The outside world knew nothing about their crimes.
That was Hellhound.
Among the three same-aged friends, Baek Jung-hoo ran his tongue over his lips.
Watching Joo Do-gyeom’s back had made his mouth water without him realizing it.
“From the way he looks, he’s probably been inside for quite a while. And he’s alone.......”
The man was probably fairly skilled.
That must have been why he had entered the Zombie Burst dungeon alone.
Baek Jung-hoo guessed that at least one of his stats—perhaps even two or more—had reached D-Grade.
However, he also considered the man arrogant.
“The Hunter industry is vicious. He’s got no fear.”
“Tsk, tsk.......”
The possibility that Joo Do-gyeom’s stats were slightly higher didn’t frighten them.
Joo Do-gyeom was alone.
They had three people.
Im Jeong-yeol loaded a bolt into his crossbow and spoke.
“My mouth’s watering. What do we do? Sneak up on him and attack together?”
“Is that necessary? Let’s kill him before he even realizes what’s happening. I’ll go draw his attention. Jeong-yeol, put a bolt between his eyes.”
The one who answered was Kim Dok-su, the final member of the Hellhound trio.
With his sharp features, his Class was Thief.
He was fast on his feet and skilled at deception.
The other two nodded as they looked at the confident Kim Dok-su.
“Get ready.”
Leaving those words behind, Kim Dok-su revealed himself and walked forward.
Joo Do-gyeom appeared to have stored all his equipment inside his Inventory.
Other than the Infinite Rope and Purification Water Bottle hanging at his waist, no special equipment was visible.
Kim Dok-su raised both arms in a harmless gesture, smiled at Joo Do-gyeom, and spoke.
“Wow, meeting someone in a place like this.......”
Kim Dok-su never finished his sentence.
A kitchen knife he hadn’t even seen coming had buried itself directly between his eyebrows.
Blood streamed from the top of his head to beneath his chin.
Kim Dok-su toppled sideways and collapsed.
The items he had concealed inside his Inventory spilled onto the ground.
Unable to immediately comprehend what had happened, Baek Jung-hoo shouted.
“F*ck, shoot!”
The crossbowman, Im Jeong-yeol, raised his arms to aim at Joo Do-gyeom.
At that moment, Joo Do-gyeom, who had clearly been within his field of vision, disappeared.
‘He’s fast......!’
He was faster than expected.
No.
Considering Zombie Burst’s entry restriction, such speed should have been unimaginable.
Im Jeong-yeol was an archer with excellent eyesight, yet he had completely lost track of Joo Do-gyeom’s movement.
“Where is he?! Where did he go?! Jeong-yeol, hurry!”
Baek Jung-hoo desperately searched for Joo Do-gyeom as he shouted.
THWACK—!
The sledgehammer struck his head and burst it apart.
The stolen items he had collected rained onto the ground.
As for Joo Do-gyeom, the one who had attacked him?
‘I-I can’t see him again!’
Now alone, Im Jeong-yeol sprang to his feet and began running.
‘I’m f*cked.’
They had chosen the wrong target.
He had once heard about this from his older brother, who possessed a higher Rank.
Even among people of the same Rank, there were occasionally monsters beyond anything one could imagine.
They were beings who had pushed the microscopic value known as Stat Utilization Efficiency to its absolute limit.
The person they had chosen as prey was one of those monsters.
He had to escape.
He needed to run fast enough to tear open the soles of his feet.
No matter how efficiently Joo Do-gyeom used his stats, it shouldn’t be easy for him to catch a genuine sprint from an archer.
‘If I’m lucky......!’
That was the final thought Im Jeong-yeol left in this world, his face drenched in terror.
The moment an eerie red light flashed somewhere within his vision.
THWACK—!
The heavy sledgehammer struck Im Jeong-yeol directly in the torso.