The stone steps came into view.

I’m on the right path.

Still, I had no idea what might be waiting at the top. Gripping the steel pipe with both hands, I climbed the stairs, my eyes wide and alert.

When I reached the top, a thick, gray fog obscured everything.

I could tell I was in the open dormitory complex, but I had no sense of direction.

It felt like I was drifting in a vast sea without a compass.

Grooooaaaar!!

Behind me, the sound of zombies pounding on the iron door and their howls pierced the air.

The almost agonizing cries made me swallow nervously as I steadied my breathing.

Focus.

Don’t look too far ahead—focus on escaping this place first.

I kept moving, following the grooves between the paving stones on the ground as if my life depended on it.

Is the sun already setting?

The fog grew denser by the second.

As my vision dimmed, my hearing, smell, and touch sharpened unnaturally.

The pounding in my head and the faint ringing in my ears made my vision blur.

I blinked hard and shook my head vigorously.

Stay focused.

I tightened my grip on the steel pipe.

Squish.

A soft sensation under my foot made me glance down.

Mud?

Narrowing my eyes, I spotted the faint outline of a pond’s edge ahead.

A pond?

The dormitory complex was arranged with seven buildings surrounding a large central pond.

I thought I’d been following an obscure side path, but I had somehow wandered into the middle of the complex.

That saying about ignorance being bravery wasn’t wrong.

Still, reaching the pond meant I was only 300 meters away from escaping the complex.

Grooooaaaar!! Kahaaak!!

But as if to stop me, howls echoed from all directions.

Were there zombies outside the buildings too?

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

The sound of multiple footsteps approached from nearby.

Judging by the volume, it was clear I’d be surrounded long before I could cross the 300 meters.

With the sun setting already, reaching the clubroom tonight was impossible.

I needed to find shelter in a nearby building and survive until morning.

The closest building to the pond would be…

Grooooaaaar!!

A deafening roar from my left made me flinch. Through the fog, I caught sight of a blurry figure just 10 meters away.

Splash! Splash!

The zombies couldn’t distinguish the ground from the pond and began falling in one by one.

Without the pond, I would’ve been caught before I could even resist.

Before they could climb out, I bolted toward the nearest building.

More than ten splashes sounded behind me.

Even with the steel pipe, there were too many for me to handle.

If they caught me, it would be over.

I sprinted through the fog, and after what felt like forever, I spotted the dark outline of a building’s exterior.

Kahaak!!

As I approached the building, a guttural growl came from my right.

My eyes darted to the side, and through the fog, a zombie’s hand emerged toward me.

Twisting my upper body, I barely dodged the grasping hand and used the momentum to swing the steel pipe.

Thud!

The awkward angle of the swing meant I hit the zombie’s chest instead of its face.

I heard the crunch of breaking ribs, but the zombie didn’t seem fazed. It lunged at me, baring its yellowed teeth.

With no time to dodge, I fell backward, landing hard on my rear, and jabbed the monkey wrench in my left hand toward its face.

Kahaak!!

The wrench pierced through the zombie’s mouth.

But since it didn’t reach its spine, the zombie didn’t die. Instead, it bit down on the wrench with a sickening crunch.

The weight of the wrench pressing against my hand made my arm tremble violently.

I kicked the zombie’s abdomen, causing the wrench to dislodge from its mouth and sending a spray of blood across my face.

The warm blood made my heart pound as if it were echoing inside my chest.

It’s… hot.

A sudden wave of fear gripped me, drowning out my rational thoughts and plunging me into chaos.

I’d heard that extreme fear leads to two reactions: freezing or instinctively acting.

I was the latter.

Pushing off the ground, I rose and brought the steel pipe crashing down on the zombie’s head.

The jarring impact reverberated through my hand, and the sensation reawakened my primal instincts.

Survival instinct.

If I didn’t kill, I would die.

Grooooaaaar!!

More zombie growls and squelching footsteps echoed from behind.

The ones who had fallen into the pond had climbed out and were running toward me.

Without pausing for breath, I sprinted into the building.

Unlike the dormitory I had just escaped, this building’s main entrance was wide open.

Is that why zombies came out of the dorms?

It seemed that dorms with open doors had allowed the zombies to spill outside.

I raced up the stairs without stopping to catch my breath.

Countless thoughts buzzed in my head, but one dominated above all.

I need to get out of the fog.

Running like a madman, I finally reached the fourth floor, where the number 4F was written on the wall.

I was out of the fog now, standing in a long hallway stretching left and right.

Groooaaar…

The sound of a zombie growling alerted me to its presence in the hallway. It turned toward me, drawn by my footsteps.

The moment I spotted it, my body reacted on instinct.

I dashed toward it and swung the steel pipe at its face.

“Die, die, die!”

With my eyes wide and bloodshot, I repeated the thought to myself:

If this thing howls loudly, the nearby zombies will swarm.

Thump-thump-thump!

Kahaak!

The chilling sound of a zombie’s cry sent a sharp jolt down the back of my neck.

In this heightened state of awareness, I could estimate the distance of the zombie just from its cries.

Before I had time to look, I twisted my upper body and swung the steel pipe. The charging zombie’s jaw cracked against the pipe, and it collapsed to the side.

Was it hiding in the bathroom?

At the same time, I noticed a naked zombie at the end of the hallway.

Was it bitten mid-shower? Its intestines were spilling out of its side.

The naked zombie spotted me and, dragging one leg, started hobbling toward me.

Springing to my feet, I raised the steel pipe high and brought it down like a guillotine on its head.

With a heavy crunch, its skull caved in against the force.

I didn’t stop there. I relentlessly struck the collapsed zombies, swinging the steel pipe over and over again.

Like a man possessed, I kept swinging the pipe as if driven by pure rage.

The hallway was clear, but my hypersensitive senses wouldn’t let me calm down.

These things are like cockroaches—one might still come back to grab my ankle.

Clatter. Thud. Clatter.

The doors to the fourth-floor dorm rooms began to rattle.

The zombies trapped inside must have sensed my presence.

This building was located near the dormitory complex’s entrance.

If I remembered correctly, this was a two-person dormitory building.

Even if there were zombies in each room, there would only be two per room.

I approached Room 401, where the rattling was the loudest. Through the glass pane at the top of the door, I could see the faces of two zombies.

I needed a secure hiding spot, which meant I had to clear out at least one room.

Taking a step back, I swung the steel pipe at the upper glass panel.

Crash!

The glass shattered, and the trapped zombies began pushing their faces through the opening.

Even as the shards tore into their faces, they kept lunging forward, undeterred.

They were like rabid wild beasts.

I jabbed the monkey wrench into one of their eyes, and the zombie thrashed violently, shaking its head in a frenzy.

Some shards of glass lodged in my left hand during the struggle, but I felt no pain.

Consumed by the desperation to survive, I didn’t even register the injury.

After piercing its eye, I shoved the door open with all my strength, forcing my way inside.

The zombies tumbled onto the floor, flailing like overturned cockroaches.

The sight made my stomach churn, a visceral disgust rising from within.

Gripping the steel pipe tighter, I struck their heads without hesitation.

Even as their skulls collapsed, some of the zombies’ fingers twitched, their optic nerves still active.

Not yet.

I can’t rest yet.

Dragging the two corpses out into the hallway, I piled them at the top of the stairs to block any scent from spreading, then returned to the room.

From my bag, I pulled out sheets of newspaper and covered the broken glass. Tearing duct tape, I sealed the gap tightly.

Finally, I moved the shoe rack to block the door and collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air.

In the desperate struggle for survival, I hadn’t noticed the toll it had taken on my body. My heart and lungs felt like they had reached their limits.

A metallic taste filled my mouth, and my breathing refused to stabilize.

With dizziness creeping in and my strength draining, my limbs trembled uncontrollably.

As rationality returned to my body, the pain in my bones and muscles screamed back to life.

Groooaaar… Gruuuu…

I heard guttural zombie cries coming from the next room.

I had no strength left to resist. Shutting my eyes tightly, I tried to ignore their noises.

Please let them lose interest, please let them give up hunting.

After about ten minutes, the hallway finally fell silent.

---

I had no idea how much time had passed.

I vaguely remembered eating two chocolate bars I had stuffed in my pocket, intending to take a quick nap.

Contrary to my plan, morning light was already spilling through the window.

Exhausted, I had slept for ten hours.

Sitting up slowly, I groaned involuntarily.

My whole body ached.

I’d lost a lot of weight, and my strength wasn’t what it used to be.

If only I’d eaten better…

Recently, the only food I’d had was snacks and chocolate bars.

Slapping my cheeks with both hands, I forced myself to wake up, massaging my stiff shoulders as I opened the player information display.

---

-Character Name: Adam White
-Ability: Enhancement
-Stats:

• Strength: 5
• Stamina: 5
• Reflexes: 5
• Dynamic Vision: 5
• Mental Fortitude: 10
  -Eliminate zombies to earn points.
  -Current zombie kills: 10/20
  -Available points: 0

---

I’ve already killed ten?

Killing zombies was good, but I needed to avoid situations like yesterday.

I had to plan more carefully.

Looking around, I noticed a notebook and pen on the desk.

First, let’s organize.

Sitting down at the desk, I started jotting down everything I had experienced the day before.

Understanding the current capabilities of the zombies would help me quickly identify any changes as they evolved.

For example, the zombies’ hearing wasn’t as sharp as I thought.

The noise I caused on the fourth floor hadn’t drawn any zombies from the third floor.

Their sense of smell only worked within the fog, so as long as I avoided being seen, I should be safe.

When I played Last Ark, I hadn’t paid much attention to these small details.

I’d just assumed all zombie games were the same—once I got a rifle, I’d gone on a shooting spree.

The one thing I remembered about the zombies from the game was that they evolved as each episode progressed.

For now, I had time. My priority was to focus on survival and leveling up.

It was about a kilometer from this dormitory to the clubroom in the new student center.

Before going outside, I needed to kill 20 zombies to earn my enhancement ticket. But how?

My eyes fell on the section I had taped over with newspaper.

Right… this dorm only has two-person rooms. If I use the upper glass panels of the doors like I did yesterday, I could kill the zombies safely.

Resolving my plan, I picked up the steel pipe resting on the floor.

It might seem reckless, but if I hesitated now, I’d lose my chance to grow stronger.

Hadn’t I learned this from the 128 deaths in Last Ark?

That Adam’s weakest first episode was actually the best opportunity to become strong.

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