After walking about 200 meters along the back road of the supermarket, the sound of footsteps began to echo nearby.

I raised my right hand to signal a halt and asked Seol Yeo-won, who was beside me, “Do you see anything?”

“Wait here.”

Seol Yeo-won hugged the right wall, quieting her steps, and crept toward the corner. She peeked around cautiously, then quickly retreated behind the wall and gestured to us.

She pointed repeatedly toward the building with her index finger.

Does she want us to go inside?

I motioned for the others to follow and entered the first floor of the villa ahead of them.

Dust that had settled undisturbed on the floor rose with every step, mingling with the mist and filling the dimly lit interior.

It didn’t seem like there were any zombies inside.

Seol Yeo-won, the last to enter, wore a troubled expression as she spoke.

“We can’t get through that way.”

“How many are there?”

“There’s no room to even step.”

That many?

After struggling to find even a single zombie until now, they must have all congregated in that alley.

Choi Hyun, standing nearby, tilted his head in confusion. “Why only in that alley? The path we came through was clear.”

Zombies naturally drift aimlessly in the mist, but if they were clustering together as Choi Hyun suggested, there had to be a reason.

Adjusting my grip on the hunting knife, I said, “Let’s check it out from the roof.”

The villas in this one-room apartment area were mostly five stories tall.

Although the visibility from the roof wouldn’t be great due to the mist, we could at least figure out why the zombies were gathering.

Fortunately, the rooftop door was unlocked. Without hesitation, I headed to the railing.

As Seol Yeo-won and Jeon Wan-soo peered into the mist, their jaws dropped in shock.

“What is it? What do you see?”

Unable to suppress my curiosity, I asked.

Seol Yeo-won answered with a bitter expression. “Corpses.”

“Corpses?”

“Human corpses… piled up.”

Jeon Wan-soo, standing nearby, ran a hand through his hair. “There’s gotta be over 200 of them. It’s stacked up like a mountain.”

Choi Hyun furrowed his brows, baffled by the situation, and asked, “They piled up corpses like that? Was it used as some kind of incineration site or something?”

“There’s no proper burial site nearby, so it’s not impossible,” Jeon Wan-soo replied with a troubled look.

Still unconvinced, Choi Hyun pressed on, “Then what about the corpses we saw in the streets earlier? Why were those just left out there?”

“How should I know? Maybe they had to flee in a hurry and didn’t have time to clean up or something.”

Jeon Wan-soo and Seol Yeo-won seemed deeply disturbed by the sight of zombies feasting on the corpses.

I recalled the hologram I had seen when the second episode, Wanderer, began.

When this episode started, zombies had gained a new passive skill: Corpse Consumption.

The zombies over there were eating corpses to repair their damaged bodies.

This likely meant that most of the zombies in that area were injured. It seemed certain that the survivors here had fought fiercely against them.

Choi Hyun, looking disheartened, asked, “The convenience store is just ahead, but I guess we’ll have to give up on it, right?”

“It’s not just the convenience store. If the zombies are clustering like that, reaching the supermarket will be impossible, too,” Jeon Wan-soo added grimly.

The mood grew somber as the gravity of the situation set in.

I stroked my chin, thinking.

The number of zombies exceeded expectations, and the path to the supermarket was blocked.

We still had to go another 500 meters to reach the supermarket…

Wait, 500 meters?

Suddenly, I had a thought and scanned the surrounding rooftops.

Before the world changed, I remembered a conversation among friends who used to live in one-room apartments like these.

—“My place barely gets any sunlight. When I open the window, all I see is the wall of the building next door.”
—“Dude, I was showering when I realized a classmate lived next door. We locked eyes—it was so awkward.”
—“Was it a girl?”
—“No, it was a guy, you perv. We could’ve passed items back and forth if we stretched out our hands.”
—“No way. That close?”
—“I’m serious. With a long umbrella, we could probably make a bridge.”

Recalling that, I shifted my gaze to the left side of the rooftop instead of the corpse-filled area ahead.

Just as I thought.

The villas were packed tightly together in a row.

The distance between buildings couldn’t have been more than 2 meters.

With this setup… we could jump from rooftop to rooftop.

The others, noticing my movements, gathered around me.

Jeon Wan-soo scratched his sideburns and turned to the group. “I think I know what Jae-hyung’s planning. What do you all think?”

Seol Yeo-won sighed, shaking her head incredulously, before replying, “We don’t really have another option, do we? Let’s do it.”

Choi Hyun snorted. “Why not? If we can’t even jump this, we’re not human.”

Seeing their agreement, I slid my hunting knife back into its leg holster and climbed onto the railing.

Taking a deep breath, I leapt toward the building across.

Thud!

Back when I attended a sports academy, I could jump 285 cm from a standing position.

With my increased strength now, the jump was effortless.

Looking back, I saw the others following suit, leaping over one by one.

While Seol Yeo-won looked slightly nervous, Jeon Wan-soo seemed to be enjoying the situation immensely.

---

The defense team finished their patrols and gathered in the second-floor study café.

Jung Jin-woo entered the café and asked Yoon Hye-ri, “Nothing unusual happened, right?”

“It’s been so uneventful it’s making me nervous.”

Hearing her reply, Kim Hee-yeon added, “We checked everything from the rooftop earlier. It’s just like when we were at school.”

“School? When, specifically?”

“After Jae-hyung oppa lured the leader zombie away from the College of Arts. It was the same back then—no zombies, no survivors… just like now.”

As a reward for clearing the first episode, Kim Hee-yeon had gained player status.

Having originally had 20/20 vision, her acquiring Gabriel’s abilities was a stroke of luck.

From the rooftop, she had scanned the area thoroughly, but not even an ant, let alone a zombie, could be seen.

The only sounds were the occasional caws of crows and the relentless chirping of cicadas.

Jung Jin-woo and Jung Jin-young, who had been out scouting, returned with similar reports—nothing to be found.

Without any clear stimuli to provoke action or thought, the eerie stillness left them feeling directionless.

Kim Hee-yeon sat in a chair, interlocking her fingers as she spoke.

“It seems likely… that the leader zombie we evaded at the College of Arts has moved into the city.”

“So, are you saying this happened because of the leader zombie?”

“I can’t think of any other explanation. The absence of zombies nearby… it suggests the leader zombie turned the street zombies into its subordinates and moved them somewhere else.”

Everyone nodded, agreeing with Kim Hee-yeon’s hypothesis.

Jung Jin-young, glancing around the café interior, tilted his head and asked Yoon Hye-ri, “Where are Jae-woo and Deok-rok?”

“They should be in the next building.”

“The next building? Why are they there?”

“They went to look for blankets and clothes to wear.”

“Why would they go out without telling anyone? That’s dangerous.”

“They took a walkie-talkie. It’s right next door, so if something happens, we’ll hear it.”

Tap-tap-tap.

At that moment, footsteps echoed from the stairs.

Jung Woo pushed Yoon Hye-ri and Kim Hee-yeon back, gripping his hand axe while staring at the café entrance.

Jung Jin-young positioned himself by the wall next to the door, ready to attack from the side.

Yoon Hye-ri and Kim Hee-yeon split up, each grabbing an old spear or a steel pipe.

Even without verbal instructions, everyone instinctively took their positions, their roles ingrained in muscle memory.

The teamwork of Sorigyeol was steadily improving.

A tense-looking Jung Woo exhaled in relief and lowered his hand axe as two men entered through the café’s glass door.

It was Park Jae-woo and Hwang Deok-rok.

Jung Jin-young clicked his tongue and muttered, “Speak of the devil.”

Park Jae-woo, noticing the group’s reaction, scratched his head awkwardly and said, “It’s, uh, it’s just us. You can lower your weapons.”

Jung Woo, now seated in a chair in the middle of the café, replied, “Why didn’t you radio us? You startled us coming in like that.”

“Didn’t have the hands for it, as you can see.”

Both Park Jae-woo and Hwang Deok-rok were carrying piles of blankets, pillows, and clothes in their arms.

They set the items down on a café table. Stretching to ease his stiff back, Park Jae-woo asked, “Any word from the scouting team?”

“Not yet. The supermarket isn’t far, but I hope nothing’s happened to them.”

Jung Woo’s concern was evident. Jung Jin-young patted his shoulder to reassure him.

Park Jae-woo cleared his throat, surveying the group before capturing everyone’s attention.

“Well, listen up. More importantly, I found something interesting.”

“Something important? Like what?”

Jung Woo showed interest, prompting Park Jae-woo to pull a notebook from his back pocket.

“Tada! This.”

“…That’s the important thing?”

Jung Woo frowned, but Kim Hee-yeon leaned in, scrutinizing the cover, and asked, “Is that a diary?”

Park Jae-woo nodded, and at last, the group showed genuine interest.

He opened the diary on the table and said, “This might explain what happened here.”

---

How far had we traveled across the rooftops?

Initially, the jumps had been easy, but before long, Seol Yeo-won, Jeon Wan-soo, and Choi Hyun began showing signs of exhaustion.

“Are you all okay?”

I looked back at the group. Choi Hyun wiped the sweat off his forehead and replied, “This is harder than I thought. I’m feeling a bit dizzy.”

Every time I pushed off the railing to jump, it sent a rush through my senses.

One misstep, and it would mean instant death.

A slip? Death.

Even if someone survived the fall, the zombies below would tear them apart.

The situation was enough to induce a fear of heights in anyone.

Jeon Wan-soo collapsed onto the rooftop, rummaging through his bag to pull out a bottle of water, which he drank in long gulps.

The slight tremble in his hands as he closed the bottle cap betrayed his nerves, despite his calm demeanor.

When I checked on Seol Yeo-won, her condition was no different.

Her legs had given out, and she was sitting on the ground, breathing heavily.

Running 500 meters on flat ground would be hard enough, let alone leaping across rooftops.

I turned to Jeon Wan-soo and asked, “Can you see the supermarket from here?”

“It’s still about 300 meters ahead. We’ve been taking too many detours.”

Had we moved through the alleyways, we’d have already reached our destination. But the tight gaps between buildings had forced us to take a roundabout path.

With only 300 meters left, continuing like this might lead to someone making a critical mistake.

“Wan-soo, are there still a lot of zombies below?”

Jeon Wan-soo squinted down at the street before shaking his head. “Not too many.”

“Let’s move to the first floor, then.”

“Why? We can keep going on the rooftops.”

“Someone’s going to fall at this rate.”

Pointing to the rest of the group, I explained. Jeon Wan-soo glanced at Choi Hyun and Seol Yeo-won before clicking his tongue.

“Man, so weak. So weak.”

“Stop shaking your leg and just talk,” Choi Hyun shot back, frowning.

Feigning innocence, Jeon Wan-soo rubbed his thigh.

Stretching my wrists and ankles, I addressed the group.

“We’ve been too tense for too long. Someone could get muscle cramps. Let’s loosen up, then head down to the first floor. Sound good?”

After everyone took a moment to recover, they signaled their readiness.

Descending to the first floor, I was once again met with the humid mist clinging to the air.

Sniffling, I glanced back to see the others holding their weapons and keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings.

“Let’s move.”

Grooowl…

As Seol Yeo-won and I exited the villa’s front door, the guttural sound of a zombie growling reached us.

Left.

Turning toward the source of the noise, I spotted a figure moving toward us through the haze.

Without hesitation, I lunged forward, pushing off the ground.

I had to silence it before it could make a racket.

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