But the neck didn't break.

Looks like the stick isn't enough.

Kim Haru quickly pulled out a metal pipe.

He had found it in the room he had just come from.

The reason he hadn't used it from the start was because the pipe was only about half a meter long—much shorter than the stick.

If he could take down the zombie from a distance, that would always be his first choice.

But with the pipe in hand, it only took one hit to smash the zombie's head open.

Those two strikes had drained all of Kim Haru's energy.

Panting heavily, he supported himself by resting his hands on his knees, staring at the lifeless body on the ground.

Just then, a crisp "ding—" echoed in his mind.

...

Morning sunlight streamed through the window.

On the bare wooden bed, a young man rolled over, accidentally knocking the metal pipe by the bedside.

It fell to the floor with a sharp clang.

The young man jolted awake!

"Ah, it's the third day already."

Kim Haru glanced out the window and sighed.

It had been three days since he arrived in this apocalypse world.

Aside from the half bottle of water, he'd found at the start, the only other thing he managed to scavenge was a tiny can of pet food he found in the corner of a supermarket.

Barely the size of his palm, it was just enough to take the edge off his hunger, but far from enough to sustain him.

In fact, it only made him feel even hungrier.

Besides the lack of food, there were plenty of other problems.

Kim Haru still hadn't slept on anything resembling a proper bed—no mattress, no sheets, just a lonely wooden board.

Even his pillow was made by bunching up his jacket.

God knows how sore his back and waist were after these two nights.

Oh, and his quality of sleep?

Far from great.

Understandable though—suddenly transported into a post-apocalyptic world with such a terrible environment, who could sleep soundly?

You'd need nerves of steel to get a peaceful night's rest here.

In addition to all that, over the past two days, Kim Haru had heard several "ding" sounds.

The effect was very familiar.

After thinking hard, he finally realized it was the same sound you'd hear in a game.

Like when a skill levels up, when there's a system notification, or when a goal is reached, for example.

Kim Haru began to suspect that he must have brought some kind of cheat or golden finger with him when he came to this world.

It's just that the conditions to unlock it haven't been met yet.

What made Kim Haru even more certain of his theory was the fact that every time he heard that "ding" sound, it was right after he killed a zombie.

Speaking of which, not everything Kim Haru learned over the past few days was bad news.

After carefully testing it several times, Kim Haru discovered that zombies didn't actively attack him.