Chapter 24: Forced Hunting Training
"Since you’ve already vented your anger, then later we’ll go hunting together again. If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as agreement. Come on, give me a high five!"
Joo Joowon lifted one of Byeol’s paws and clapped it lightly with his hand.
Byeol: "..."
I may not truly be human, but you are genuinely a devil!
Seeing Byeol still looking absent minded and half asleep, Joo Joowon did not mind at all.
He mercifully released the cat so it could continue sleeping, though he had absolutely no intention of changing his decision.
Before the apocalypse, Byeol naturally could have remained a carefree house cat forever.
But now things were different.
This world would not spare any living creature.
Joo Joowon did not expect Byeol to evolve or mutate, but at the very least, the cat needed to adapt to this dangerous world full of threats.
It needed to stop screaming whenever it encountered zombies and learn to remain quiet instead of panicking and running around recklessly whenever it heard suspicious noises.
When cats encountered danger, their instinct was to hiss and make warning noises toward the threat.
Those instincts were no longer suitable in the apocalypse.
Fortunately, stray cats were experienced creatures that had seen all kinds of situations before.
Their courage was naturally much greater.
Joo Joowon had not yet seen Byeol truly suffer from stress reactions.
Pretending to be stressed, however, he definitely had seen before.
Unfortunately for Byeol, it always forgot to keep pretending whenever food appeared, making it very easy to expose.
This was simply its natural personality.
Joo Joowon hoped it could maintain those same traits after the apocalypse, staying calm instead of becoming stressed because of sudden accidents.
And if possible, it would be even better if the cat could occasionally act as a scout and help him identify dangers ahead of time.
After getting dressed, Joo Joowon picked up his phone and checked it.
He discovered that the internet had already stopped working.
The communication networks built by humanity had only managed to survive for a single day after the apocalypse before completely failing.
Joo Joowon then tried turning on the lights.
Nothing happened.
Star Hill Residential Complex was not some luxurious high end community, nor did it possess backup generators.
Once the power stopped, there was basically no possibility of it being restored again.
He walked over and tested the faucet next.
The water pressure had weakened somewhat, but water still flowed out, causing him to finally let out a sigh of relief.
Although he had scavenged some drinks yesterday, water was the kind of resource people could never have too much of.
Unfortunately, the game did not provide any inventory storage system.
Otherwise, storing survival supplies inside a personal inventory would have been far safer.
If he left everything at home and someone raided his apartment while he was outside killing zombies, he could easily end up facing starvation and dehydration.
Because of that, Joo Joowon had already put considerable effort into hiding his important supplies.
He hid resources throughout all sorts of concealed corners and secret spaces.
That way, even if someone robbed his apartment, at least some supplies would remain behind instead of leaving him to starve to death.
After pouring cat food into Byeol’s bowl, Joo Joowon boiled two eggs for breakfast.
Then, standing in the living room, he tried performing several stretching movements from memory.
For someone who had never cared about losing weight and possessed absolutely no interest in exercise, merely remembering a few stretching exercises already represented the absolute limit of his effort.
After finishing breakfast, Joo Joowon got fully dressed and picked up his phone, which only had 80% battery remaining.
Modern people were like fish without water once separated from their phones.
Yet after the apocalypse began, there had simply been no time to even think about them.
Right now, Joo Joowon only regretted not buying a wristwatch before everything happened.
Once his phone battery ran out, he would not even know how to check the time anymore.
None of the zombies he killed yesterday had been wearing watches either.
The family with the child had no phone watch or anything similar because the child had still been too young.
Joo Joowon could only hope that today he would get lucky enough to encounter a zombie wearing a watch.
After all, the personal status panel did not display the time.
Once all the preparations were complete, Joo Joowon immediately scooped up Byeol, who was still sleeping.
Byeol’s soft body hung limply against him, looking completely trusting and unwilling to even open its eyes.
However, perhaps because the bloody smell from the clothes placed near the entrance was too strong, Byeol instantly woke up the moment it got close to the doorway and instinctively tried to run away.
Joo Joowon had already prepared for this and gave it absolutely no chance to escape.
"Meow~"
Byeol let out a miserable scream as it watched the front door open.
What was wrong with being a stay at home cat?
Why did hunting have to involve it too?
It could not fight prey that big!!!
Byeol desperately clung onto the doorframe and refused to let go.
It was the first time Joo Joowon realized the cat was actually this strong.
Wearing leather gloves, he forcefully pried its claws off one by one and dragged it outside with a firm attitude.
Its nose turned red and tears filled its eyes as it looked at Joo Joowon pitifully.
Joo Joowon coldly ignored it.
Cats really did shed tears when emotionally overwhelmed.
The most common situation was while eating.
Some sentimental people believed animals cried because they were touched emotionally by humans, but in reality, it was similar to certain humans who naturally teared up easily.
Some cats simply could not control their tears once they became too emotional.
However, that did not truly represent anything.
The downstairs area had already been cleared out.
Even so, Joo Joowon still tossed Byeol out first to check the surroundings, just in case he encountered danger later and found his retreat path blocked.
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