Night came.
Donghoon left the base. An ax in his right hand, a flashlight in his left. He didn't turn the flashlight on. Light was just as dangerous as sound. In the novel, Crawlers relied on hearing, but Howlers used sight as well. Turning on a light could call a Howler.
There was no moon. Clouds covered the entire sky. The black of the rift and the gray of the clouds were indistinguishable. The city was in total darkness.
Donghoon walked slowly, minimizing the sound of his footsteps. Every time his sneakers stepped on concrete debris, they made a small noise. It bothered him.
But something was strange.
He could see.
It was dark, but he could see. Not perfectly clearly. He could make out outlines. The corners of buildings, the edges of roads, the shapes of debris. When he'd looked outside through the window last night, he hadn't been able to see anything. It had been complete darkness. But now, with no moonlight, he could see outlines.
Donghoon stopped and touched his eyes. Nothing had changed. They weren't bigger, and they weren't glowing.
His senses had sharpened.
It was one of the changes the protagonist experienced in the novel. An expansion of the senses. Sight, hearing, smell. The more monsters a person killed, the broader the limits of human perception became.
And this was after killing only one Crawler?
Donghoon shook his head. This wasn't the time to analyze it. Being able to see was a good thing. He could make use of it.
Donghoon started walking again.
He had already chosen his target. Yesterday, he'd seen traces of Crawlers near the supermarket. Scratches on the ground. Evidence that several had passed through. Crawlers were nocturnal and traveled in groups. They would appear near there once night fell.
He had no intention of taking on a group. One at a time. He would target one that had fallen behind. The protagonist in the novel had done the same thing early on.
The supermarket came into view. Donghoon went up to the second floor of the building across from it. The windows were broken, giving him a good view outside. He leaned against the windowsill and looked down.
He waited.
About thirty minutes later, he heard something.
Scraping. Multiple feet. The sound of something crawling across the road.
Donghoon held his breath and looked down.
Four Crawlers were crossing the road. In a line, following the one in front. They were slow, moving carefully, almost as if they were patrolling.
Four. He couldn't take them all at once.
Donghoon waited for the group to pass—and for one of them to fall behind.
It happened.
The one at the very back was slower. The gap between it and the other three was widening. It was limping on one leg. Injured.
Donghoon watched it.
The three in front turned the corner and disappeared. The injured one hadn't reached the corner yet. It was alone.
Donghoon stepped away from the window and went down the stairs. He made no sound. He checked outside from the first-floor entrance.
The Crawler was passing in front of the building, about five meters from Donghoon.
Donghoon grabbed his ax and sprinted out.
This time was different. It wasn't like yesterday.
He was fast. He hadn't known he could move this quickly. He closed the five-meter gap in two steps. Before the Crawler could react, he brought the ax down. The back of its neck. A perfect strike.
The ax blade split the carapace. It was on another level compared to the hammer. It didn't crush—it cut. Black liquid erupted like a fountain.
The Crawler collapsed. It couldn't even scream. It died in one blow.
Donghoon stopped and scanned his surroundings, checking whether the other three were coming back. There was no sound. Since it hadn't been able to scream, it hadn't been able to call its companions.
Donghoon exhaled.
It was too different from yesterday. Yesterday, he'd needed to bring the hammer down three times to kill one. Today, it had taken one strike. The ax's performance was part of it, but not all of it. Donghoon's strength had changed. His speed had changed.
And then he felt it again.
That sensation. A warm current beginning at his fingertips and traveling up his arm. This time it didn't stop at his arm. It passed through his shoulder into his chest, then from his chest into his legs. It spread through his entire body.
Donghoon stood still and felt it.
It wasn't adrenaline. He was certain of that. Adrenaline didn't flow like this. This felt like something entering his body. Something that had come from the Crawler.
He couldn't remember what the novel had called it. No—he couldn't even remember whether the novel had given it a name. The protagonist had only been described as having a changed body.
Donghoon clenched and unclenched his hand.
There was power in it. More than before. Definitely.
Donghoon looked down at the Crawler's corpse, then at the corner where the other three had disappeared.
The more he killed, the stronger he became.
Clutching his ax, Donghoon walked toward the corner.
The three were two blocks ahead, still moving slowly. They didn't seem to realize their trailing companion was gone. They relied on hearing. If there was no sound behind them, they didn't care.
Donghoon approached the one at the back.
The same method. Approach without making a sound, then strike the back of its neck.
The ax came down. The carapace split. The Crawler collapsed, again without a scream.
The other two stopped.
They'd heard it. The sound of the ax splitting the carapace. The sound of the corpse hitting the ground. The noises were small, but enough for a Crawler's hearing.
The two turned toward Donghoon.
Donghoon didn't back away.
They charged simultaneously. They were fast. They weren't injured. This was the speed of a healthy Crawler.
Donghoon moved to the side. One passed him. The other swung a foreleg at his legs. Donghoon jumped over it. As he landed, he brought the ax down. Not on the back of its neck, but on its back, where the carapace was thickest. The ax bounced off.
The Crawler twisted and lunged at him. Donghoon retreated while swinging the ax horizontally. It struck the Crawler's foreleg and severed it. The Crawler lost its balance and fell onto its side.
Donghoon drove the ax into the back of its neck.
It died.
The fourth and final Crawler—the one that had come back—was charging at Donghoon from behind.
Donghoon didn't look back. He didn't need to. He could hear it. Feet scraping the ground. Direction, distance, speed. He could hear it all.
Donghoon lowered his body and turned. The Crawler passed overhead. It had leaped. Donghoon thrust the ax into its underside as it went by. There was no carapace on its belly. The soft flesh tore open. Black liquid poured out.
The Crawler hit the ground and rolled. Donghoon approached and delivered the final blow to the back of its neck.
It was over.
Donghoon lowered the ax and panted.
Four. He had killed four Crawlers. Including the one from yesterday, that made five in total.
And the sensation came again. Stronger this time. Maybe because he'd killed three in a row, the warm current surged like a wave. His entire body grew hot. It felt as if his bones were vibrating. As if his muscles were swelling. It didn't hurt. If anything, it felt good. Dangerously good.
Donghoon dropped to one knee. His body trembled. It was a tremor close to pleasure.
After about a minute, the sensation subsided. Donghoon slowly rose.
He had changed.
He had definitely changed. More than before. His vision was clearer. In the darkness, he could see every brick in the walls of the buildings. He could hear better, too. He could hear something moving three blocks away. He didn't know whether it was a Crawler or something else, but he could tell its direction and distance.
Donghoon looked at his hand.
He could see the lines on his palm even in the dark. And his hand felt different. The visible appearance hadn't changed, but the density of its strength was different when he clenched it. It didn't feel like gripping so much as crushing. If he struck concrete with this hand, he felt as though the concrete would break.
Donghoon smiled.
Only after smiling did he realize what he was doing. He was smiling in this situation. In the ruined world, standing alone in the middle of the night, covered in monster blood and smiling.
It was insane.
But he couldn't stop.
Donghoon had imagined something like this all his life. How would he survive if the world ended? In those fantasies, Donghoon was always strong. In reality, he had been an ordinary man discharged from the military, but in his imagination, he was a survival expert.
Now that fantasy was becoming reality.
Donghoon stopped smiling, caught his breath, and returned to the base.
He entered the fourth-floor office, closed the door, set down the ax, and sat on the floor. He took out a sheet of paper and added to his record.
'Five Crawlers killed. Strength, stamina, speed, vision, and hearing greatly improved. Secured night vision. Secured long-range hearing. The changes are cumulative. The more I kill, the stronger I become.'
Donghoon set down his pen and looked up at the ceiling.
The protagonist in the novel had grown this strong and eventually became capable of fighting even high-level monsters. The physical enhancement had been added on top of the knowledge and experience of fifty rounds.
Donghoon had the knowledge from the novel. All of it, right up to the ending. But he didn't have the protagonist's practical experience from fifty rounds. Reading about something and living through it were different.
He was walking the same path as the protagonist of the novel. But he didn't have the same conditions.
Donghoon closed his eyes.
Then he heard something.
It was far away, but clear to Donghoon's enhanced hearing.
A human voice.
Donghoon opened his eyes and went to the window. He listened closely.
A voice. Definitely human. The direction was south. The distance... four or five blocks? He couldn't be exact. He still wasn't used to judging distance with his enhanced hearing.
Then he heard something else between the words.
A cry.
A Howler's cry.
The human voice and the Howler's cry were coming from the same direction.
Donghoon picked up his ax.
Should he go?
A survivor was being chased by a Howler. Should he go help? Donghoon had never fought a Howler before. In the novel, Howlers were on an entirely different level from Crawlers. They stood on two legs, were fast, and called their companions with their cries.
Could the Donghoon of today take one on?
He didn't know.
But he could hear it. A human voice. The voice of someone who had survived in the ruined world for three years.
He needed information. How this world worked, what the survivors in Zone 3 were like, what differed from the novel—these were things he couldn't learn alone.
Donghoon left the base.
He ran in the direction of the sound. He was fast. Faster than before. The value of five Crawlers was being carried in his legs.
He passed three blocks. The sound grew closer. The woman's voice became clear.
"Please! Is anyone there?!"
It was a woman's voice. Young. Terrified.
Donghoon turned the corner.
And saw it.
In the middle of the road, a woman had fallen to the ground. And in front of her stood—
A Howler.
It was his first time seeing one. It was completely different from a Crawler. It stood on two legs and was over two meters tall. Its body was covered in a black carapace like a Crawler's, but its shape was different. It was closer to human. Two arms, two legs. But its arms were unnaturally long, reaching down to its knees. It had a head, too. Unlike a Crawler, its head and torso were distinct. There was a mouth on its head, a mouth stretched wide open. And eyes. It had eyes—four small, red ones.
The Howler opened its mouth.
And cried out.
That sound. The sound he'd heard every night. A spine-chilling cry that sounded sad and hungry at the same time. Hearing it up close was something else entirely. It reverberated through his bones. Donghoon's enhanced hearing amplified it. His head rang.
Donghoon clenched his teeth.
The Howler reached toward the woman. Its arms were long, and its fingertips ended in black, sharp, claw-like things.
Donghoon ran.
His body moved before he could think. He charged at the Howler's side with his ax and swung at its arm.
The ax struck the carapace.
It bounced off.
This carapace was different from a Crawler's. It was harder. The ax blade slipped, and the impact traveled up his arm. His hand went numb.
The Howler looked at Donghoon. Four red eyes turned toward him.
Then it swung its arm.
It was fast. Donghoon stepped back, but not far enough. The tips of its fingers grazed his chest. His hoodie ripped, leaving a shallow cut on his skin. It stung.
Donghoon widened the distance and watched the Howler.
Hard. In a different league from Crawlers. He couldn't pierce its carapace with the ax. What was its weakness? Donghoon searched his memory for the Howler's weakness in the novel.
Inside its mouth.
That was the Howler's weakness in the novel. The carapace couldn't cover the inside of its mouth. When it opened wide to cry, he had to attack inside.
Inside its mouth. With an ax.
It was insane. He was supposed to thrust an ax inside the mouth of a two-meter monster the moment it opened?
The Howler cried again. Its mouth opened. He could see inside. Unlike the black carapace, the inside was red. Flesh showed through.
It was calling its companions. There was no time. He had to finish it before another Howler arrived.
Donghoon shifted his grip on the ax, bringing the end of the handle forward instead of the blade. He needed to stab.
The Howler charged at him. Donghoon charged too, straight at it.
The Howler swung its arm. Donghoon lowered his body and slid beneath it. Rising from the ground, he thrust the ax upward. Beneath the Howler's jaw. Its mouth was open. The handle of the ax entered its mouth, and Donghoon shoved it in with all his strength.
The ax blade pierced the roof of its mouth.
The Howler convulsed. Its whole body trembled. Its cry cut off. Black foam bubbled from its throat.
Donghoon twisted the ax, driving it deeper.
The Howler collapsed. Its two-meter body crashed onto the road. The ground shook.
Donghoon pulled out the ax and stepped back.
It was dead. He had killed a Howler.
Then the sensation surged over him.
It was incomparable to what he'd felt from the Crawlers. This wasn't a warm current but a blazing flood. It felt as if his entire body had been submerged in fire. As if his bones were melting. As if his muscles were tearing apart and knitting themselves back together. Donghoon dropped to one knee and held back a scream, clenching his teeth so tightly that no sound escaped.
Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.
The sensation subsided.
Donghoon slowly stood. Sweat ran down his entire body. His breathing was ragged.
And then he felt it.
He had changed. More drastically than after all five Crawlers combined. The higher the monster's level, the greater the change. That was how it had been in the novel, too.
Donghoon clenched his hand. Power overflowed through it. When he'd struck the Howler's carapace moments ago, the ax had bounced off. What would happen if he struck it again now? He felt like he could pierce it.
"...Are you okay?"
A voice reached him. Donghoon turned.
The woman was sitting on the ground, looking up at him. She appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six. She had short hair, and dust and blood streaked her face. Her eyes were large, filled half with fear and half with wariness.
Donghoon looked at her.
A person, after three years. No—for Donghoon, this was only the second person he'd seen in two days. But she was the first person he'd met in this world.
"Are you hurt?"
Donghoon asked. His own voice sounded strange. He hadn't spoken to anyone except himself in two days.
"My ankle... I fell."
The woman was clutching her right ankle. It was swollen.
Donghoon checked his surroundings. The Howler had cried out. It had called its companions. He didn't know how much time they had.
"Can you move?"
"I... I don't think I can manage alone."
Donghoon hesitated briefly. Then he tucked the ax into his waistband and crouched in front of her.
"I'll carry you. We can't stay here long."
The woman climbed onto Donghoon's back. She was light. Maybe because of his enhanced strength, maybe because she was thin. Probably both.
Donghoon ran. He was fast even while carrying her. He ran toward the base.
As he ran, Donghoon thought.
He could get information from this woman. How this world worked. Who the survivors in Zone 3 were. What had happened over the past three years.
And the things Donghoon still didn't know. Whether this world was exactly the same as the novel, or whether there were differences.
He reached the base and climbed to the fourth floor. He set the woman down, closed the door, and reinstalled the chair alarm.
The woman looked around the office. The window blocked by filing cabinets, the backpack and supplies on the floor, the hammer propped against the wall.
"You've... been staying here alone?"
"For two days."
"Two days?"
The woman wore a strange expression, as if she couldn't understand what he meant.
"I've been in this world for two days."
Donghoon said it. An explanation was necessary, but not right now.
"Let's look at your ankle first."
Donghoon took out the first-aid kit he'd brought from the fire station. It contained bandages and anti-inflammatory medicine.
He examined the woman's ankle. It was swollen, but didn't seem broken. A sprain. Donghoon wrapped it in a bandage, using the first aid he'd learned in the military. He'd never expected to use it in a place like this.
"Thank you."
The woman spoke, then looked at Donghoon.
"Back there... did you kill that monster by yourself? The Howler?"
Donghoon nodded.
The woman's eyes widened.
"By yourself? With nothing but an ax?"
"Yes."
The way she looked at Donghoon changed. The fear and wariness faded, replaced by something else. Surprise. And something that seemed calculating.
"What's your name?"
"Han Donghoon."
"I'm Seo Yoonah."
Yoonah introduced herself.
"Mr. Donghoon, can I ask you one question?"
"Yes."
"You said you've been in this world for two days. What does that mean?"
Donghoon thought for a moment. How much should he say?
He couldn't mention the novel. Knowing everything about this world was a card in his hand. The moment he showed it, it would no longer be a card. If he revealed the source of his information, Donghoon would either be exploited, treated as a madman, or put in danger. None of those outcomes was good.
"I woke up two days ago, and the world was like this. I was living in 2024."
Yoonah studied Donghoon for a long time.
"2024."
"Yes."
"Do you know what year it is now?"
"I saw a calendar. 2027."
Yoonah nodded. She didn't look at him like he was crazy. If anything, she looked as though she'd confirmed something.
"You're not the first."
Donghoon's eyes opened wide.
"The first what?"
"The people who suddenly appeared. You're not the first. There was someone before you, someone who suddenly crossed over here from the time before the ruin."
Donghoon's heart began to race.
"Where are they now?"
Yoonah's expression darkened.
"Dead. Three days after crossing over."
Silence fell.
Donghoon looked outside the window at the city in darkness. Far away, he could hear the scraping of Crawlers.
"Did that person... know something, too?"
Yoonah asked.
"Know what?"
"About this world. About the monsters. Like you. You know something, Mr. Donghoon. You've only been here two days, but you killed a Howler by yourself, secured a base, and knew its weakness."
Donghoon looked at Yoonah.
He couldn't tell her. He couldn't tell her about the novel.
"I received a lot of survival training in the military. And I've always been interested in this kind of thing."
It wasn't a lie. It was half the truth.
Yoonah looked straight at him. She didn't seem to believe him, but she didn't press further.
"...I see."
Yoonah bit her lip. She seemed to start saying something, then stop.
The night deepened. The sounds of Crawlers came from outside, along with a Howler's cry in the distance.
Donghoon rested the ax on his knees and sat against the wall.
Yoonah leaned against the opposite wall and closed her eyes. He couldn't tell whether she'd fallen asleep or was simply keeping her eyes closed.
Donghoon looked at Yoonah.
This woman didn't believe him. His claim that he'd received survival training in the military was half the truth, and Yoonah seemed to sense that. But she hadn't pressed him. In this world, perhaps respecting each other's secrets was considered basic courtesy.
Donghoon looked into the darkness outside the window.
This world was like the novel. But there were things he didn't know. The novel had been the story of the fiftieth round. Was this world really the fiftieth round, or was it another one? And if there were differences between the novel and this world, what were they?
Donghoon still didn't know what those differences were.
Not yet.