ESMLT 03

Chapter 3

“Ugh… my head.”

I shook my head and got up, looking around.

Just like in the original story, there was a single cabin and a man lying on the ground.

“Kueeeek!”

At that moment, a piercing scream tore through my eardrums, and I spun around in alarm.

“Kieeeek!”

Skeletons—no, to be precise, countless “zombies”—were swarming like waves around the cabin, pressing against the fences from all directions. The sheer number of them made my hair stand on end.

“This is… a real apocalypse…?”

Before coming here, I had practiced killing zombies countless times. I trained so hard that my skin blistered and bled, so I was confident I could survive.

But imagination and reality were worlds apart.

“F*ck…”

Zombies here. Zombies there.

Zombie. Zombie. Zombie.

It was literally a living hell.

As I stared blankly at the fence that towered above me, I suddenly felt a tug at my waist.

A skeletal hand had torn through the wire mesh and was yanking at my pouch belt.

“Sh*t! My DoX… pocket!”

I hastily pulled out the hammer hooked to my belt.

Reciting the amplification spell inscribed on the handle, the hammer instantly grew massive. I swung it, smashing the skeleton’s hand bones.

Clack—clatter, thud!

The bones seemed to bounce away, only to land on their fingertips like a spider holding on.

“Disgusting!”

I smashed them repeatedly with the hammer until they crumbled, then panted heavily as I scanned my surroundings.

Everything that had felt abstract until now hit me with brutal clarity.

This was a zombie apocalypse.

“Kieeeek!”

A skeleton that had climbed over its companion toppled onto the fence, then clattered its bones back together and advanced toward me.

“Wow, this one’s tall. Really big!”

I swung the hammer at its skull.

Thump, thump, thump…

The separated skull bounced across the ground. I followed it up, smashed it completely, and looked back.

The bones of the now headless skeletons were collapsing into a heap. But just as I felt relief, the fence wobbled, making me bite my lip in anxiety.

“No good… I need to get that man to safety first.”

I hooked the hammer to my waist and grabbed the man’s arm, who was sprawled nearby.

At first, he didn’t move, but then he started sliding forward with a shlick-shlick sound.

“Heavy…!”

It felt like dragging a huge boulder.

Thunk, thump!

As I dragged him up the cabin stairs, the back of his head bumped against a step.

I checked him in alarm, but thankfully, he was still unconscious.

Bang!

Finally, I dragged him into the cabin, tossed him into a corner, and quickly shut the door.

Haah…

I leaned against the wall and sank down, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

“Kueeeek!”

Just as I started to catch my breath, the eerie sounds of the zombie horde pressed against the door.

The bizarre noise, which I could never get used to, made me frown—but then I noticed fragments of bones stuck on my hammer.

I lifted it slightly, brushed the bones off, and let out a manic laugh.

“I’m definitely crazy… I really came here.”

I sighed.

“Maybe I should have just run away alone.”

Only five minutes had passed since I regained my senses in front of this cabin, and I was already regretting it.

But there was no going back.

I made my choice, and this was the situation I had to deal with.

I brushed a few strands of hair from my face and fumbled for my waist.

“Stop whining and let’s see the situation.”

I opened the pouch on my belt, plunged my hand into the pocket dimension, and searched for the telescope.

Normally, if the pocket dimension is kept tidy, the item I want appears in my hand when I think of it…

“Should’ve organized it.”

Oh well, organization has never been my thing.

Fortunately, I soon found a telescope no bigger than a finger.

Placing it in my palm, I muttered the spell written on it, and it instantly grew.

I hung the strap around my neck, tied my hair up again, and moved to the window.

“Kueeeek—!”

I gently pulled aside the curtain. In front of the wire mesh, a horde of skull-like zombies pressed together aggressively. Luckily, no additional zombies had crossed over besides the one that had already come.

“One, two, three, four… phew.”

I stopped counting the meaningless numbers.

What’s the point of counting hundreds of them? Total waste of time.

I spent some time surveying the terrain and situation through the telescope, when suddenly my eyes widened.

Their violent advance was causing the fence to tilt dangerously toward the cabin.

“Damn it, the fence…!”

Thunk!

At that moment, a dagger flew sharply, cutting a few strands of my silver hair and embedding in the wall.

I couldn’t even scream. Turning my head, I saw the royal insignia engraved on the dagger.

“No way…”

I stared at the flying dagger like a creaking wooden puppet.

A man in a pristine white uniform stood there.

A handsome man with wine-colored hair and golden eyes: Richard Deon Haizen, Crown Prince of the Empire and one of the male leads in the original story.

I was momentarily captivated by his elegant aura.

I had heard how stunning he was every time he appeared in the original story…

“…Yeah, he is handsome.”

I muttered unconsciously, and he scowled.

“What?”

“…Nothing.”

I closed my mouth and swallowed my words. After all, there wasn’t really time to critique appearances.

Unlike typical fantasy romances where one would bow to the empire’s “little sun,” there was no time for that here, so I skipped it.

I bowed formally first.

“It’s an honor to meet you. I am Redria Arios of the House of Arios—”

“Hey.”

The Crown Prince cut me off, frowning as he approached.

“Why am I here when I attended the prayer meeting?”

Caught off guard, I wanted to stay silent, but his gaze was so piercing it felt like he could slice my neck at any moment.

I reluctantly spoke.

“Don’t you remember? The ground split open during the prayer meeting, and the altar collapsed.”

“…What?”

The prince’s pupils flickered with confusion. He quickly felt around his body.

Looking for his communication artifact, most likely.

He must have lost it when the ground split and people were swept away.

“Damn it. It’s gone.”

He sighed, rubbed his forehead, and swept his sharp yellow gaze around.

Me. Himself.

The strange, ear-piercing noise.

The hordes of bizarre creatures pressing against the fence.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as if recalling something, and he muttered a dry curse. Everything just before fainting came back to him.

“Can I really get his cooperation to escape from here?”

Cooperation? With his temper, I’d be lucky if I didn’t just end up playing marbles with my own head.

Just coming to this zombie zone—or rather, entering this novel—was already a mistake.

“No, wait.”

I gritted my teeth at the name that came to mind.

“Kim. Deok. Su…”

This was all his fault.

If he hadn’t made me read this novel, I wouldn’t have ended up in this worst-case possession.

Possession only happens with novels you’ve read, after all.

I calmed my anger with a sigh and tossed the telescope to the prince, who seemed to have finished assessing the situation.

“Use this to check the outside situation.”

He caught the telescope easily and moved to the window.

I calmly summarized our current predicament for him, adding a few minor lies.

Ha.

Then he looked back at me, letting out a dry laugh.

“So, to summarize what you’re saying… An earthquake occurred, these unknown things awakened, the altar and portal collapsed, separating us from the empire, and we’re trapped here, facing imminent death?”

“Let’s call them zombies, not ‘those things.’”

“Right. Zombies. And if they bite you, you turn into mindless beasts too?”

“Yes. I saw a rabbit from the Sacred Forest get bitten and turn into a zombie.”

I couldn’t explain it through the original story, so I fudged the details.

The prince continued, looking exasperated.

“Moreover, you have a five-person warp scroll to move to the capital portal, and there may be other survivors besides us, so the plan is to find them and escape. Did I get that right?”

“Perfectly. That’s right.”

Technically, they weren’t survivors—it was the male leads.

According to the original story, only the male leads and I are trapped in the zombie zone.