Chapter 29: Dead Man Treasure Chest
Before leaving home today, Joo Joowon had already chopped several small pieces off using a kitchen knife.
As for whether doing this would cause the energy inside the crystal to leak away, he honestly did not care.
At this stage, Zombie Core could not really be used anyway.
Originally, Joo Joowon’s plan had been to capture a zombie alive for experimentation.
However, zombies were already a completely different species from humans, so using them as test subjects did not feel reliable enough.
Now that someone foolish had delivered himself directly to him, Joo Joowon simply decided to make practical use of the opportunity.
Joo Joowon did not know whether these two people originally intended to kill him or merely rob him.
But did that even matter?
No matter how many times things restarted, he would still make the same choice.
Rather than allowing others to threaten him, it was better to become the one threatening others.
Less than a minute after swallowing the Zombie Core fragment, changes immediately began appearing throughout the man’s body.
Something beneath his skin seemed to be writhing and squirming violently, creating an extremely horrifying sight.
His originally dark skin tone also turned bright red as though the capillaries beneath his flesh had all burst open simultaneously.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
The man screamed uncontrollably in agony and even began rolling around wildly on the floor.
This situation continued for several minutes before he finally collapsed weakly onto the ground without moving.
Dead?
Joo Joowon cautiously approached.
"GO TO HELL!"
In the blink of an eye, the man suddenly exploded upward violently.
However, the only thing he saw was Joo Joowon’s calm and emotionless gaze the entire time.
Did fear make him freeze up?
That thought had only just flashed through the man’s mind when he finally realized the suffocating sensation coming from his throat.
Instinctively, he reached toward his neck.
An ice cold bolt was firmly embedded there.
His eyes widened in disbelief, his expression twisting into something grotesque and ridiculous as his unwilling body collapsed backward onto the floor.
Only moments later, the corpse rapidly turned bluish black, fully resembling a body mutating into a zombie.
Looking at the twisted and horrifying corpse before him, Joo Joowon could not help removing his helmet and dry heaving violently.
There was no place for naive kindness in the apocalypse.
Joo Joowon understood that clearly.
If he showed mercy toward others, others would not necessarily show mercy toward him.
Because of that, he had already mentally prepared himself to kill people after the apocalypse began.
He simply never expected that day to arrive so quickly.
This was completely different from the feeling of killing zombies.
Zombies were no longer human beings.
Although they still resembled humans on the outside, anyone could tell at a glance that they were fundamentally different from normal people.
Humans, however, were different.
Those two men had died at Joo Joowon’s hands while still completely human.
The disgusting nausea twisting inside his chest refused to fade away.
Although he did not regret what he had done, he still could not suppress the instinctive psychological reaction.
But killing others was still better than being killed himself.
Back when he first entered society, Joo Joowon had already suffered enough from trusting people too easily.
He had no intention of sparing anyone who posed a threat to him.
All negative emotions could wait until after the enemy had been dealt with.
When danger stood directly in front of him, he absolutely would not hesitate or become soft hearted.
Only after suppressing the nausea slightly did Joo Joowon immediately put the helmet back on.
Ever since the man swallowed the crystal, Joo Joowon had been carefully observing his condition.
At the beginning, the man showed no obvious abnormalities.
He clearly looked extremely painful, but there were no visible signs of zombification on his body.
However, once he suddenly stopped struggling, as though he could no longer feel pain, his eyes instead began gradually changing in the direction of a zombie’s.
Joo Joowon frowned deeply in thought.
Could it perhaps be understood this way?
To some extent, Zombie Core were actually similar to the crystal cores found in novels?
If someone survived consuming one, they might become some kind of supernatural being with extraordinary powers.
But if they failed, they would transform into zombies instead.
Unfortunately, in order to avoid the man evolving into something troublesome like the Chimera Zombie, Joo Joowon had attacked without hesitation the moment signs of zombification appeared.
Because of that, he had no idea how different such zombies would become compared to ordinary zombies.
Furthermore, perhaps because the transformation had not fully completed yet, killing the man did not grant Joo Joowon any experience points.
Still, he did not regret his decision.
Taking appropriate risks while fully equipped was acceptable.
But there was no need to gamble on completely unknown dangers.
Fortunately, although there was no experience reward, something else dropped from the man’s corpse.
Unlike the pillars of light produced after zombies died, what appeared after his death was a mass of red light.
And at the center of the glow was not a card, but a treasure chest.
Joo Joowon bent down and picked up the chest.
It was very small, only about the size of a palm.
[ Ding! ]
[ You have obtained a Dead Man Treasure Chest. After opening it, you will randomly receive the deceased player’s experience points and carried belongings ]
[ Every Dead Man Treasure Chest opened will grant you 1 point of Killing Intent ]
Hearing the sudden system notification, Joo Joowon fell silent.
This mechanic immediately gave him several unpleasant thoughts.
Since no beginner village, safe zones or system structures had appeared yet, he still had no idea how much Killing Intent would affect players during normal gameplay.
However, there was one thing he could confirm with certainty.
The appearance of Dead Man Treasure Chests would absolutely create a group of people who abandoned hunting zombies and instead chose to hunt other players.
Comments