Chapter 8: Hell Difficulty
In truth, it had only chosen to deliberately cling to Joo Joowon later because it had been injured while fighting other cats over territory.
Since the wound had not healed properly for a long time and survival became difficult, it finally decided to approach him on purpose.
It was a very scheming cat.
At first, it never actively begged for help.
It only ate the food Joo Joowon gave it a few times because it could no longer hunt properly.
Later, it gradually began following behind him.
Eventually, Joo Joowon could not bear seeing it sick and still wandering outside, so he took the initiative to invite it home.
The cat simply followed behind him at neither too close nor too far a distance all the way back to his apartment door.
At the time, there had been no tempting cat treats or canned food involved at all.
It had voluntarily followed Joo Joowon upstairs step by step.
That was what finally made Joo Joowon decide to adopt it and take it to a pet hospital for treatment.
The medical expenses alone had cost nearly two months of his salary.
Because of its stray cat instincts, the little cat could actually be taken outside for walks like a dog.
It recognized all the nearby roads.
Until one day, it carelessly followed Joo Joowon outside and ended up getting neutered.
After that, it started staying indoors as a house cat.
But that did not mean it had become useless.
For the first few days after the surgery, it truly had been frightened.
Later on, however, it simply discovered that acting pitiful and easily startled would make Joo Joowon give it food, so it intentionally continued pretending.
The cat had no idea that human society possessed such sinister inventions as surveillance cameras.
Everything it did alone at home had been recorded clearly and completely.
Because of this, Joo Joowon came up with the idea of using the little cat as a scout.
After all, it could automatically patrol around, and even if the apartment door was open, it would not recklessly run far away.
Even if it did run out, it would return on its own.
Moreover, cats were faster than humans and possessed greater agility.
Against zombies that were not particularly agile, its chances of escaping were very high.
Its small size also made it an excellent reconnaissance unit.
Of course, doing this naturally carried risks.
But what in this world did not carry risks?
If he died, the little cat would also have a hard time surviving alone in the apocalypse anyway.
The little cat was a white cat with a bit of long haired bloodline mixed in.
Aside from winter, however, only its fluffy tail usually revealed that trait.
At this moment, its tail was swishing left and right, a clear sign that it was in a bad mood.
"Hehe, good little kitty~"
"Meow!"
The little cat clawed at Joo Joowon’s pant leg and climbed upward.
At eight pounds, its weight was not heavy but definitely not light either.
It meowed furiously the entire way up.
After finally climbing onto his shoulder, it immediately punched Joo Joowon’s helmeted head twice with its paws.
Joo Joowon instinctively felt that the cat was probably cursing him viciously, but as long as he could not understand it, he would just treat it as praise.
After taking a short rest, Joo Joowon once again brought the little cat downstairs.
Reality was still different from what novels described.
Joo Joowon had originally believed that the zombies created by the game would only be interested in the flesh of creatures that had once been their own kind.
But now, it seemed they were interested in any living creature at all.
That made things even worse.
Especially outdoors.
The situation there might actually be even more terrifying than inside the city.
As he gripped the fire axe and headed downstairs, Joo Joowon had already mentally prepared himself to encounter other survivors.
After all, everyone was an adult.
Nobody was stupid.
There would always be people capable of overcoming fear and coming outside to kill zombies.
Considering the huge commotion earlier, there was a good chance someone might come investigate.
Joo Joowon carefully tossed the little cat out again.
After it ran back, he switched to the staircase on the opposite side and repeated the process before finally checking the footage recorded by the camera attached to the cat’s collar.
Humans were far more dangerous than zombies.
Although he did not know whether players gained experience from killing each other, being cautious was always the right choice.
A cat’s field of vision was limited.
Fortunately, the hallways were equipped with motion activated lights.
Even though some had been damaged, a number of bulbs had still survived, preventing the corridors from becoming completely dark.
Joo Joowon examined the footage frame by frame before finally relaxing.
As a reward, he gave the little cat a can of cat food before continuing his zombie hunt.
The residents on this floor seemed to have been completely wiped out.
Joo Joowon chose to attack the apartment directly facing the elevator first.
This way, if anything unexpected happened, he could immediately escape through either staircase located beside the elevator.
The apartment layout of Sweet Home Residential Complex was shaped like a concave structure.
The elevator sat in the middle of the concave area, directly facing one apartment unit, while the remaining six units were distributed along both sides.
This apartment contained two zombies.
One wore pajamas, while the other wore a padded winter coat.
The latter clearly had not been directly infected at the beginning of the game.
Instead, he had likely tried to fight back against the zombie inside the apartment and ended up infected afterward.
Joo Joowon believed this kind of situation definitely was not uncommon.
These zombies were not the slow moving undead from novels that ordinary adults could easily deal with as long as they overcame their fear.
This was a hell difficulty dungeon.
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