Chapter 17: Leveling Up
Starting tomorrow, killing zombies would probably require competing with other players for kills.
Because of that, he needed to raise his level as much as possible tonight.
Even if he could not stand among the very first group of top players, he at least could not fall too far behind.
Moreover, who knew whether the zombies themselves would level up tomorrow?
Joo Joowon absolutely did not believe zombies would remain permanently stuck at Level 1.
If humans could level up by killing zombies, then there was no reason zombies could not level up by killing humans.
Joo Joowon twisted open the peephole cover.
That tiny bit of movement immediately attracted the zombie nearby.
However, he did not open the door right away.
Only after the zombie gradually calmed down again did he quietly open the door before turning around and running toward the stairwell.
Actually, moving tables around was rather troublesome.
Not only was it exhausting, but the biggest issue was that zombies could still push tables aside.
Only the apartments located at the far ends of the corridor could truly maximize the effectiveness of blocking doors with tables.
For most other apartments, tables often became more of a burden instead.
Because of that, Joo Joowon did not move any tables this time.
Instead, he directly headed upstairs.
For a ranged weapon like a hand crossbow, shooting downward from above was naturally the most advantageous position.
Moreover, all his previous zombie kills had relied heavily on tricks and opportunistic methods.
Joo Joowon also wanted to practice his movement techniques properly.
Of course, he had no intention of placing himself in real danger.
If an apartment contained two zombies, he absolutely would not provoke them.
He only lured out a single zombie while retreating and fighting at the same time.
Because this was his first time using the crossbow in actual combat, Joo Joowon failed to kill the zombie with a single shot.
However, he did not panic.
He cocked the crossbow, loaded another bolt, took aim, and waited.
Only when the zombie approached within nearly ten meters, close enough for him to vaguely smell the rotten stench coming from its body, did he finally pull the trigger again.
One shot straight through the head.
[ Ding! ]
[ Level 1 Zombie has been killed ]
[ EXP +1. ]
[ Copper Coin +1 ]
[ Ding! ]
[ You have been level up! ]
He leveled up!
Joo Joowon immediately placed the free attribute point gained from leveling into Strength.
After running a short distance to test it, he confirmed that once Strength and Agility combined together, his speed became much faster than before.
Only now did the improvement finally feel natural.
However, after glancing at the experience requirement needed to reach Level 3, Joo Joowon could not help feeling troubled.
[ Joo Joowon ]
[ Level ]: 2 (0/20)
[ Strength ]: 5
[ Physique ]: 4 (+1)
[ Agility ]: 7
[ Mental Power ]: 8
[ Equipment ]: Beginner Shirt
[ Items ]: Modern Compound Crossbow ×1, Crossbow Bolts ×20
[ Money ]: 4 Copper Coins ]
The required experience had doubled.
Level 0 to Level 1 required five experience.
Level 1 to Level 2 required ten.
Now Level 2 to Level 3 required twenty.
Following this pattern, would reaching Level 4 require killing forty Level 1 zombies?
Although Joo Joowon already knew leveling up would become increasingly difficult later on, he still had not expected it to become this difficult.
Was this even reasonable?
Then again, if he viewed it from the perspective of normal games, it actually was fairly reasonable.
After all, what game did not require players to step over the corpses of thousands of weak monsters in order to level up?
However, once games became reality, settings like this that strictly followed game logic became maddening.
Joo Joowon felt slightly troubled by this realization, but he quickly calmed himself down again.
Star Hill Residential Complex contained eighteen floors in each building, with seven apartments per floor.
Because the rent was relatively affordable compared to nearby areas, the apartments remained fully occupied almost all year long.
Most apartments were even shared rentals.
Even if he estimated only seven zombies per floor, eighteen floors would still contain one hundred twenty six zombies.
That alone was enough for him to level up several more times.
Of course, this represented only the most ideal situation.
He was definitely not the only survivor in the residential complex.
Other people also needed to level up.
But no matter what, this at least proved that in the short term, he did not need to worry about running out of zombies to kill.
Naturally, Joo Joowon could also guess that higher level zombies would definitely provide more experience.
However, while he could challenge stronger zombies, there was no real need to.
If he could safely stack levels by farming Level 1 zombies, then why would he risk his life challenging high level zombies?
After his Strength increased, Joo Joowon’s speed improved significantly.
Because of that, he began trying to kill zombies without relying entirely on traps anymore.
Repeating the same method as before, he lured another zombie from one of the apartments into the stairwell and killed it there.
Aside from those two apartments, the remaining apartment contained more than one zombie.
Joo Joowon naturally did not dare act recklessly there.
He moved over a table carefully and used a mop to stabilize it in place so it would not slide around.
At such close range, Joo Joowon could not even be bothered using the hand crossbow.
Instead, he directly picked up the fire axe and killed the zombies one by one.
Although increases in Strength were related to Physique, adding points into Strength alone still provided improvements.
Just like Agility, the issue was simply that a single attribute could not fully display its complete potential without support from related attributes.
Joo Joowon was no longer struggling as much as before when using the fire axe to kill zombies.
Most importantly, after repeated battles, his courage had grown considerably.
Instead of aiming for the hard skull, he began striking toward the neck.
Compared to the head, the neck was actually the easier target to attack.
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