‘Like magic or health points in a game, I thought it’d replenish on its own soon.’

But even after what felt like a good thirty minutes since he first used it, there was no sign of recovery. It seemed that the cooldown was longer than he had anticipated.

‘If I encounter three or more zombies at once next time, it could get dangerous.’

Letting out a sigh deep enough to sink the ground, Seongho went back to the zombies.

‘Better collect my spoils.’

Removing the backpack from a fallen zombie lying face down wasn’t difficult. He unzipped it, and inside…

“Water!”

The sight was so gratifying that he couldn’t help but exclaim. Thankfully, no zombies came rushing in response, but he reminded himself to be cautious.

Closing his mouth tightly, Seongho rummaged through the bag’s contents.

Two 500 ml bottles of water and a crushed package of bread, too mangled to recognize.

“Ugh…”

With a grimace, he tossed the mystery frozen bread aside, then grabbed one of the sealed water bottles. After waking up to a nightmare, he was parched.

*Click.*

*Gulp, gulp.*

The icy water flowed down his throat, chilling him to the core. Seongho quickly downed half the bottle.

Putting the rest back in the bag, he then removed the zombie’s shoes and outerwear.

The shoes were a bit small, so he had to flatten the backs to get his heels in.

‘Still better than going barefoot.’

Once he finished gathering his spoils, he resumed his journey through the harsh, desolate world.

---

The journey was surprisingly smooth.

He encountered very few zombies along the way. The area was filled mostly with those already dead, mere lifeless bodies scattered around.

On a whim, he even tried using his power on the corpses, but no virus was extracted.

His special ability’s usage count didn’t go down, either.

He briefly considered hunting down more zombies, but confirming his timeline and treating his wounds took priority.

Fortunately, it wasn’t as if zombies had disappeared entirely.

While navigating the ruined city, he managed to kill another one and then stumbled upon another, this time wedged helplessly under a car tire.

“Should I call this luck or not…”

With a bemused sigh, Seongho reopened his status window.

---

**Special Ability: 1/5**

---

After using his ability one more time, he was down to just one remaining charge.

‘With only one charge left, I’m feeling oddly sluggish too.’

He debated whether to use his last charge on the immobilized zombie.

The decision didn’t take long.

‘If there were no other zombies to hunt, maybe I’d save it, but it’s right here. Might as well take the risk and level up.’

He only needed one more virus orb to advance his level. Rather than leaving things in the unknown, he decided to take the risk and push forward.

Seongho approached the zombie, who thrashed harder as he drew closer.

Its efforts were futile.

*Flash.*

Suddenly, a wave of weakness washed over him, and his knees buckled.

With a thud, Seongho collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.

“Gasp… what… what the…?”

He had no strength left. His limbs trembled weakly, and his vision began to dim. Staggering, he eventually toppled onto the asphalt.

It didn’t end there. Even as he lay on the cold ground, his surroundings spun dizzyingly.

Just as he began to panic, one thought struck him.

‘Could this… be power exhaustion?’

In the novel, awakened ones would experience severe fatigue after depleting their power.

‘I… I think I’m going to…’

Lying on the asphalt, Seongho felt himself slipping further into unconsciousness.

He thought he would pass out when suddenly, it was as if a drop of water had fallen onto dry ground. His vision cleared, and he could breathe more easily.

“Ugh…”

Groaning, he pushed himself up and looked around, muttering with a hollow voice.

“Almost died right here on the road…”

He was fortunate there were no nearby zombies. Had one appeared while he lay helpless, he would have been a sitting target.

‘I need to be more careful when using my last charge.’

With a newfound sense of caution, Seongho reached out and easily found the virus orb nearby. Before consuming it, he checked his status.

---

**Level: 1 (4/5)**  
**Physical Ability: 4**  
**Special Ability: 1/6**

---

He was surprised.

‘Why did my special ability count increase…?’

After pondering, he recalled the sensation he’d felt earlier—a feeling akin to breaking through a limit, like a drop of water soaking into parched earth.

‘I don’t have to level up to grow stronger.’

Perhaps his ability advanced by pushing it to its limits, which was similar to how awakened ones in the novel strengthened their powers.

If his guess was correct, it wasn’t a bad thing.

Satisfied with his discovery, Seongho put the virus orb into his mouth.

*Ding.*

「You have leveled up!」

A clear chime echoed in his mind, and his body felt lighter than ever.

The changes were obvious in his status window.

---

**Level: 2 (0/25)**  
**Physical Ability: 4**  
**Special Ability: 11/11**

---

As expected, he had leveled up, and his special ability count had also increased significantly.

For the first time, a smile spread across Seongho’s face. Although the experience points for the next level had jumped fivefold, his usage count had doubled, which gave him peace of mind.

Even better, his exhausted charges were fully restored.

‘I suppose this means my special ability really is a part of me.’

The fact that his body’s condition was tied to his special ability became increasingly clear.

Accepting this strange reality with a shallow sigh, Seongho then examined the rest of his stats.

The Achievement points were at 5, Dissonance was at 50, and his Physical Ability remained at 4.

‘Even after leveling up, my Physical Ability hasn’t changed.’

If there were stat points he could allocate like in a game, he would invest in it, but that didn’t seem to be the case here.

‘Is it possible that Physical Ability can’t be increased, only displayed?’

He frowned, lost in thought, but lingering on an unanswered question too long was pointless.

Rising with renewed energy, he resumed his trek toward Eunpyeong Hospital.

Along the way, he saw more dead zombie corpses on nearly every block, meaning there were no additional virus orbs to collect.

But he didn’t consider this a problem.

‘If anything, it’s a good sign.’

It likely indicated the presence of a survivor group nearby.

With that in mind, he moved quickly through the cold winter air, pressing forward.

After a long walk, Seongho arrived at a street lined with pharmacies near his destination.

Hoping to find medical supplies, he checked one out, but the inside was completely stripped. Nothing remained except broken glass and dust.

Upon closer inspection, however, he noticed something out of place.

‘Is that…?’

In a dark corner of the pharmacy was a small, hardened pile.

As he approached with a grimace, he confirmed his suspicion.

“Human feces.”

It was dried but didn’t look too old.

He recognized it from his experience on construction sites where workers often left similar traces.

‘There are survivors nearby.’

Since there wouldn’t be much reason for them to stay anywhere else, they were likely camped at the hospital.

‘Getting inside is the challenge.’

How could he obtain the medicine?

Even if he offered information from the novel, there was no guarantee they would trust him.

He also didn’t have any way to prove that his knowledge of the story was real.

And openly using his ability to negotiate didn’t seem wise either.

Even if they did believe him, he couldn’t be sure of his own safety.

‘They’re probably in a group.’

If he revealed his power and they tried to control him, he’d be in trouble.

Seongho stayed in place for a long time, lost in thought.

His musings were interrupted by a faint noise.

‘What…?’

The silence around him made the faint, humming sound stand out.

It sounded like shouting—loud, frantic voices.

After a brief hesitation, Seongho left the pharmacy and moved toward the hospital, where the sound seemed to be coming from.

But as soon as he rounded the building’s corner and saw the hospital, he froze, then quickly retreated back behind the wall.

‘What… what is that…?’

Pressing his back against the wall, he tried to catch his breath, his heart pounding.

The horrifying sight he had just witnessed left him paralyzed.

With labored breaths, he gathered himself and cautiously peeked around the corner again.

“This… can’t be…”

He hadn’t been mistaken.

The hospital building was covered in a dark red substance.

‘What… is that?’

At first, he thought it might be blood.

But no, the dark red mass was creeping upward along the building.

As he squinted to focus, he realized the truth.

‘It’s moving.’

Whatever was clinging to the building’s exterior was squirming.

Suddenly, another loud sound rang out, and the red mass surged skyward, exploding in mid-air like a burst water balloon.

What had covered the hospital’s walls was actually a swarm of liquid blobs.

Watching this, Seongho felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

‘Could that be…?’

After a brief hesitation, he crept closer to

 the hospital, and the shouting grew louder.

“Argh! It hurts! Help!”

“Damn it—watch out!”

“Hurry! Lock it all down!”

The panicked cries didn’t stop.

It sounded like most of the survivors were inside the hospital.

The noise of his footsteps was lost among the chaos, allowing him to move freely toward the building.

And finally, he saw it.

Amidst the mass of dark red ooze covering the hospital’s exterior, there was one spot near the hospital’s main entrance that was strangely clean.

“Why… why is that…?”

His voice trembled.

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

‘That creature… it shouldn’t appear until year three of the virus outbreak.’

As if responding to his shock, a system message appeared.

---

「The world has become aware of the Fate Pioneer’s existence.」  
「The world requests permission to use force.」  
「Use of force has been approved.」  
「To preserve the original fate, the apocalypse progression will be accelerated.」  
「In comparison to the original timeline, evolved zombies will appear sooner.」

---

Seongho froze as he processed the flood of information.

At that moment, an inhuman scream pierced the air, snapping him back to his senses. He sprinted toward the nearest commercial building, seeking cover as fast as he could.