Level Up With the Gods
Chapter 3

The sound of roaring mingled with the high-pitched ringing in Yuwon’s ears.

He turned and followed the sound, listening to the messages that came in.

[Survive the Zombies.]

[All Zombies will disappear after thirty minutes.]

The mission itself was no different from ones Yuwon had experienced before.

If there was any difference to speak of, there was just one thing.

That’s a lot of zombies.

An immense number of zombies started to appear all over the streets.

The difficulty level of each tutorial depended on location. Specifically, it correlated to the number of people in the area, and it increased as the population did.

It would be fair for the monsters to be stronger and the missions more difficult when there were more people that could cooperate.

That would be a reasonable assumption.

This is nonsense.

The first screams pierced the air.

“Aaaaagh!”

“M-monster!”

“Zom... bies? They’re zombies!”

Yuwon saw people beginning to run away from the zombies.

That was all they could do.

The population in Hongdae was too dense compared to what the streets could accommodate.

Other areas had emptier streets where people could easily run away. Besides, the number of zombies would have been much less, making the difficulty level much lower.

But there are too many people in this area.

There weren’t enough places to run to.

The streets of Hongdae would be filled with the blood of people eaten by zombies.

If there was no way to escape, then you would have to fight.

You cannot survive that many zombies just by running away.

The options for hiding spots were already restricted based on the “area,” and there would be zombies anywhere you run to.

But...

That’s to be expected.

Yuwon was equally restricted.

It was only a little while after the tutorial started that he began to actively try to adapt and survive the changed world.

[You can check your status with the command, “status window.”]

[You obtained a basic weapon - Old Sword.]

Weapons like a knife, hammer, or sword appeared in each person’s hands.

It seemed they were given the weapons they could best wield. Yuwon was given a sword.

Yuwon threw it on the ground with a clang.

It was a broken item, not a proper weapon.

I can’t catch zombies with something like this.

This old sword was little better than bare hands; it was no different from a mere metal stick if it couldn’t be wielded efficiently.

And because of its age, the weapon could break even more at any time.

On the other hand, the objective of the first tutorial was “survival.”

The zombies would keep appearing no matter how many he killed.

“Aaagh!”

“D-don’t push!”

“Go away! Fuck!”

Unfortunately, the people who had been closest to the zombies had already either been bitten or were pulling and pushing other people.

They didn’t hesitate to sacrifice others to survive.

That was human.

“‘Survive’...”

Yuwon opened his backpack and opened the lid of a small bottle inside.

“That alone isn’t enough.”

Yuwon couldn’t accept doing the bare minimum to pass the tutorial anymore.

It would’ve been enough to just survive before, but his goals had changed.

Instead of relying on the old sword, Yuwon had brought weapons of his own.

Yuwon applied the contents of the bottle to the sashimi knife to finish his preparations.

“Now...”

When he finished, Yuwon opened his eyes wide.

He didn’t even need to check his status.

He was able to feel what the basic stats were through his body.

“...Let’s go.”

Yuwon dug into the crowd of zombies approaching him.

Zombies were slow and weak, but they didn’t feel pain and didn’t die easily.

You couldn’t kill them with regular power. There were not many people who would be able to kill a zombie in the first tutorial.

But...

[You killed the first Zombie in the area.]

[You obtained 100 points.]

[Your EXP increased substantially.]

[You leveled up.]

[Your strength increased by 1.]

[Your agility increased by 1.]

[Your HP increased by 1.]

The sashimi knife in Yuwon’s hand sliced off a zombie’s head effortlessly, heralding the messages.

Nice.

Yuwon smiled.

His preparation was paying off.

The reward for killing the first zombie was quite large for the effort. A hundred points were difficult to obtain at the beginning of a tutorial, and the increased stats that came with the level would be a huge help.

He felt more power in his limbs.

That was due to his strength stat.

Zombies seemed to be moving slower, and his body felt lighter.

That was due to his agility stat.

He felt more energetic, and his breathing felt more stable.

That was due to his HP.

Yuwon continued to advance. He didn’t slow, and each strike was punctuated by the wet sound of a blade tearing into flesh.

Swinging his knife, Yuwon quickly sliced through the zombies.

[You leveled up.]

[You leveled...]

In the early stages, it was typical and even expected that one would level up quickly. Of course, Yuwon’s rapid leveling was also due to the quickly increasing numbers of zombies he was beheading.

The pleasant messages kept appearing one after another.

Good.

Yuwon smiled as he looked at the zombies all over the place.

It was the entire reason he’d chosen Hongdae as the first tutorial location, and the proportion of zombies to population was everything he had wanted.

It would stay like this until the tutorial moved on to the next area.

Looking at Yuwon, who had already killed dozens of zombies on his own, the onlookers began to change their attitude.

“L-look...”

“Maybe the zombies aren’t that strong...!”

“It looks doable.”

There are brave people everywhere.

Slowly, some of the onlookers started fighting against the zombies themselves.

The rewards for the early tutorials were important. Some of those that moved fast would survive and make it up to the top floors.

Although...

It won’t be easy.

“Aaargh!”

“Wh-what the...!”

“Why aren’t they dying?!”

Others were struggling. No matter how many times they struck, the zombies didn’t die as they did when Yuwon struck them.

Beheading zombies with the old weapons they’d been given was not an easy task to begin with. Among those who struggled to kill zombies, many ended up getting bitten.

Zombies’ death poison would be critical to participants of the first tutorial.

Yuwon struck again, and the sensation of the blade striking home changed.

It felt as if the blade had gotten dull.

But that wasn’t the real reason.

Yuwon kicked the stuck zombie off his blade, clicking his tongue. It seemed as if the effect had worn out.

He rushed to open his backpack and took out the next bottle.

He smashed it against the blade, ignoring the sound of breaking glass.

The contents, and the effect, were applied to the knife again.

The savory, fishy smell stung Yuwon’s nose.

It’s definitely gonna work.

Yuwon thought of one friend’s comments shortly after they had passed the tutorial and entered the tower, a long time ago.

“I’m not talented like you. Not just you, but compared to anyone.”

“But you survived,” Yuwon had said.

“I was lucky. I found something amazing in the first tutorial.”

“The first one? Wasn’t that just about surviving zombies?”

“Do you know what my job was?”

“Huh? Why are you changing the subject…? What was your job?”

The man he had met on the first floor of the tower was quite lucky.

And he would probably be killing the zombies much more easily than others right now.

“I was managing a salt evaporation pond. Those zombies that came out in the first tutorial… They have a weakness to salt.”

The sashimi knife took another zombie’s head off effortlessly, thanks to the dose of salt water Yuwon had just applied.

[You defeated 100 Zombies in 10 minutes.]

[You reached an unbelievable achievement in a tutorial.]

[You obtained 3 bonus stat points.]

[Bonus stat points are calculated when the tutorial ends.]

Yuwon’s eyes sparkled with delight. Even he hadn’t anticipated such a reward during a tutorial.

Bonus stat points were a rarity.

Each level would increase stats, but only at random. Bonus stat points could be allocated however one chose to place them.

Leveling up also became more difficult in later stages. Bonus stat points remained unrelated to the level.

Should I save them?

Mana wasn’t accessible yet. It would be unlocked in the middle stage of the tutorial.

The most efficient stat, and the most difficult to increase, was mana points (MP).

He could save it for MP, but it could be better to increase other stats first to maximize efficiency.

After thinking about it briefly, Yuwon made a decision.

I’ll save them for now.

Investing the bonus stat points just to kill some zombies would have been a waste in the long run.

Moreover, Yuwon wasn’t planning to continue hunting with simple hack-and-slash tactics.

Ten minutes.

The zombies would start to pour out soon.

Yuwon had to start moving fast.

The best location is...

Yuwon took a moment to get his bearings as he cut a path through the zombies.

The streets were a mess of people and zombies.

Yuwon’s gaze stopped.

There.

***

“Aaargh!” Myeonghoon cried as he swung the old sword in his hands.

The zombie’s head didn’t get cut off on the first swing or the second.

Damn! Why doesn’t it work?!

He couldn’t figure out why.

Yuwon, who was the first to kill some zombies, had no trouble slicing their heads off with his knife on the first try.

Everyone else’s weapons on the other hand, including his own, were barely able to get through one zombie with multiple strikes.

Is the blade too dull?

Yuwon’s knife was different from the one he carried.

He was using the sashimi knife he’d taken out of his suitcase.

Damn it. If only I had weapons like his...

A zombie with half of its head missing roared, interrupting Myeonghoon’s thoughts.

A disgusting smell stung his nose. Myeonghoon kicked the zombie’s chest in surprise.

“Shit!”

The zombie quickly got up from the ground as if it didn’t even feel pain. Myeonghoon watched in revulsion.

“Myeonghoon!”

“It feels like... their numbers keep increasing, doesn’t it?”

His friends began to approach him right when he was getting tired from the constant exertion.

Myeonghoon clenched his jaw. He’d also noticed.

The amount of zombies keeps increasing rather than decreasing.

He couldn’t think of a way to deal with so many zombies.

The zombies had them completely surrounded, and their moans and groans filled the air.

He didn’t have a way to escape, and he didn’t have the energy to block their attacks.

Block them? Survive to escape this situation? How?!

“Yuwon! Where did Yuwon go?” one of his friends asked.

Myeonghoon realized the answer.

That was the only way to survive being surrounded.

He just needed the help of Yuwon Kim.

Yuwon had been cutting through them like tofu not long ago with remarkable speed.

“No!”

“Fuck! Where did he go?!”

“Th-they’re coming!”

The zombies began to close in on them.

Myeonghoon clenched his jaw and swung his sword.

The blade shattered in his hands, a piece falling to the ground.

Myeonghoon’s eyes widened. “Shit...”

Regardless of how dull it was, the sword was his only defense and protection, and it had just broken.

Now there was nothing he could use to defend himself against the zombies.

A zombie right in front of Myeonghoon opened its mouth wide at him and prepared to bite him.

The smell coming from the rotting teeth and mouth was disgusting, and other zombies were approaching from the left and right.

Myeonghoon started to scream back at the zombies, but he quickly trailed off.

Suddenly, the zombies had stopped moving.

“Wh-what?”

“Why are these bastards…?”

There was still some time remaining. There was nothing he could see that explained why they had stopped.

Myeonghoon didn’t have a chance to find an explanation before the zombies began to move again. They didn’t advance any closer, though.

Instead, the zombies began to writhe where they stood, their hungry groans turning into shouts of rage and pain as they clutched themselves.

None of the zombies had reacted like this to any of their attacks. They had been completely unaffected by pain, even when their limbs were cut off or their bones were broken.

But now their rotting flesh was starting to melt as if acid was pouring over them.

“What’s going on...?”

“Something’s falling from the sky!”

“What?” Myeonghoon looked up at the sky to try to see what his friend had noticed.

He had missed it completely in the midst of danger and his own confusion.

Something like rain was falling from the sky.

Myeonghoon extended out his palm and collected some of it.

The texture looked familiar.

He tried a taste to satisfy his curiosity, and he was met with something familiar.

“It’s salty...”

“...Salty?” someone asked.

Myeonghoon looked up once again.

Salt was falling from the sky like rain.