A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 74

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 10. RUN HIDE FIGHT
I earn my own money and feed and clothe myself with it.
That’s what it means to be a working adult.
As someone who participates in society, I possess at least basic social intuition.
‘If you can’t tell whether a boss pretending to be a kind senior is genuinely a good person or just someone who’s being inappropriate with you, you’ll end up regretting it later.’
Of course, Praha is a genuinely good person, qualitatively different from those sinister types.
Still, with the social intuition I possess, what I’m observing in Praha’s current demeanor is…
‘Affection.’
…Why?
What did I even do?
‘No, Yusara. Don’t get ahead of yourself.’
He might simply be the type who treats his own people exceptionally well.
You don’t know how Praha behaves toward his ‘colleagues.’ You’ve never been one of Praha’s colleagues.
Besides, this isn’t the time for such thoughts anyway.
And I…
‘Am going back to Earth eventually, after all.’
I bit the inside of my cheek lightly and regained my composure.
I looked around my surroundings.
The Prison I’d emerged into was far longer than I’d anticipated.
Inside cells packed as tightly as a chicken coop, zombies wandered in groups of two or three.
Vacant, murky eyes. Behind them, corpses that hadn’t even become zombies yet, sprawled across the floor. Blood smeared in handprints on the iron bars, flesh scraps rolling across the ground. Bodily fluids splattered on the walls.
In the cell directly adjacent to the Prison cell from which Praha and I had escaped, I spotted a zombie with blood smeared around its mouth.
It wore simple, durable clothing and had leg guards wrapped around its knees.
The zombie that sensed me reached out its arm.
“…Ugh…”
I turned away from the Unlucky Adventurer, whose face I was now seeing for the first time.
I pressed myself against the opposite wall as much as possible, trying not to direct my gaze toward the side lined with cells.
“Walk on the inside. I’ll stand on the outside.”
Praha spoke as he swatted away the arm of a zombie attempting to grab my elbow.
At the sound of his voice, the zombies began thrashing about even more violently.
Clang, clang, clang…
“Urrgh…”
The maximum noise those who had lost their tongues could produce.
Tongueless zombies reaching their arms toward us in the dim Prison, their movements frantic.
A small child who appeared to be about five years old, an elderly woman, a woman around my age…
Praha too didn’t spare them a glance, but I understood what he must be feeling right now.
Even though he’d said he wouldn’t concern himself with it, he must surely be experiencing guilt.
I gently grasped Praha’s elbow as he stared ahead with a solemn expression.
When Praha turned to look at me, I offered him only a slight smile.
“It’s nothing.”
Would it help with visibility if I detached this torch from the wall and carried it with us? I asked, pointing at the wall torch that had nearly singed my hair moments ago.
Praha nodded and removed it from the wall with one hand.
“Please, let me carry it.”
“I’ll carry it.”
“Your Highness, it’s better if your hands remain free for our escape from here.”
“…Very well. Tell me if it becomes too heavy.”
“Yes.”
I tugged at Praha’s elbow and spoke to him whenever his gaze drifted toward the zombies.
We arrived at the Staircase.
The door leading outside was unlocked.
It seemed that dwarf Thug had forgotten to lock it in his angry haste to leave, or perhaps he simply didn’t have the key.
Creak.
“Grrrgh!”
The moment I opened the door and stepped out, I came face to face with a zombie wandering the Corridor.
It heard the door open with uncanny precision and turned toward us.
Before I could say anything, Praha grabbed the zombie’s neck with his bare hands and snapped it.
Thud.
Praha brushed his hands off lightly, then glanced at me and offered an excuse.
“I had no weapon.”
“….”
Your entire body is a weapon….
“You’ll see a lot of blood. Are you certain you can manage?”
“I’m fine. I see it once a month anyway.”
“….”
The torch proved unnecessary—the Corridor was already bright. Lights hung throughout, illuminating the surroundings clearly. There were no windows, however.
“So this is indeed the basement.”
“The Mansion appeared modest from outside, but I’m uncertain about the extent of the basement.”
“How many basement levels do you think this is?”
“Likely the second, I’d estimate.”
“How can you tell?”
“When I was dragged down earlier, I counted my steps and observed the ceiling height.”
“I see.”
“We’ll ascend two more levels and find the exit.”
Praha explained while searching the zombie he’d just killed for anything useful (there wasn’t much).
“There will likely be several magical security mechanisms along the way to the exit.”
His words naturally reminded me of when I’d found the Portal entrance using the Head Chef’s head back at the Villa Kitchen.
“Will we need to use facial recognition or fingerprints to get out this time?”
“It’s possible, or it may not be.”
“Hmm.”
One obstacle after another.
Fortunately, reaching Basement Level 1 proved manageable.
There weren’t many zombies wandering about, and I was able to wash my hands and face briefly at the washbasins lining the Corridor, even drinking some water.
I extinguished the torch I’d been carrying and set it down carelessly somewhere.
The locked door leading to Basement Level 1 was handled by Praha.
How, you ask?
‘Hmm.’
Let’s just say I witnessed firsthand the devastating power a human body honed to its absolute limits could unleash.
“This appears to be the floor where they primarily reside.”
Praha spoke while inhaling the lingering scent of meat still hanging in the air.
Indeed, the entire floor was permeated with the aroma of warm soup.
Meat, pepper, cream, mushroom.
Those fools had no idea what flesh they were boiling, cackling away like pigs before gorging themselves into undeath.
‘They say humans are more terrifying than zombies.’
Honestly, they brought this upon themselves.
Should I even pity them?
“They must have all turned while dining together. They’d be clustered in one location then.”
“I share that assessment.”
“Then we avoid that room.”
I gestured toward the largest door visible ahead.
Praha moved swiftly, dragging a chair from the Corridor to barricade the door. Then he pressed his face against it, paused for a moment, and turned back to me.
“I detect the scent of humans inside.”
“You can sense that?”
“Yes.”
….
Dog-nosed bastard….
“Should we explore elsewhere first?”
“That would be preferable.”
The problem was that this floor had no staircase leading back to the surface anywhere.
“…In the end, we’ll have to open that door….”
After searching torture chambers, corpse disposal rooms, and countless other horrors for a staircase, I spoke with a pallid face. Beside me, Praha nodded impassively.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes….”
I couldn’t tell if the rooms were originally that reddish-brown or if they’d been stained that way by blood. After touring several of them, my stomach churned.
What in the world were those coffins with dozens of sharp blades jutting from their inner lids used for?
“If I had my way, I’d slit the throats of every zombie and everything else….”
I stared coldly at the large room—our final option.
They wouldn’t be swarming right at the door, would they?
“Should we crack it open and close it again if things look bad?”
At my hesitant suggestion, Praha’s lips curved upward in a smirk. I stared blankly at his full lips, prominent even beneath the grime, then turned away.
Praha spoke.
“I’ll open the door and signal you. If I cross my fingers and wave, advance. If I clench my fist, stay where you are.”
“Understood.”
Praha, who had pushed a chair in front of me and told me to stand behind it just in case, carefully opened the door.
First his face appeared, then his upper body, and finally his entire form slipped through the doorway.
I furrowed my brow and concentrated, terrified I might misread the signal.
Soon, through the silently reopened door, an unmistakably handsome hand emerged.
Fingers crossed.
‘Advance.’
I held the door with one hand to keep it silent and hurried toward Praha. I tried to peer into the room over his shoulder, but when that proved impossible, I pressed my face through the gap between his ribs.
“….”
“…Ugh….”
The room was far larger than I’d expected.
A shabby sofa that looked salvaged from somewhere, a billiards table, and scattered furniture filled the spacious room, which reeked of mustiness.
On the wall hung a picture of a naked woman with darts embedded in her face, and dirty food plates and beer glasses lay scattered across the floor.
Even a ship that had drifted at sea for months would have been cleaner than this.
Behind an overturned sofa in the center, I could see the zombies.
Their backs to us, heads bowed….
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
“….”
“….”
They were consuming what had once been their comrade.
A severed hand visible from our vantage point twitched.
Praha gently covered my mouth to prevent my surprise from turning into a scream, then gestured with his eyes toward the opposite side of the door where we stood.
There was another door.
Praha mouthed the words.
‘We should remove our shoes.’
‘Understood.’
I would have done it even if he’d told me to crawl.
Though my adventurer’s boots were excellent for climbing rough mountains and hiking, their hard heels made noise against the floor. I held them one in each hand.
I alternated my gaze between the bunched-up carpet, the exposed wooden floor beneath, its glossy grain, the broken dishes scattered across it, spilled liquor, and my thick socks.
‘I’ll go first.’
‘Understood.’
Praha moved ahead, quietly pushing aside broken glasses and dishes that might be in my path as he walked.
Following Praha, I too moved silently, carefully….
“Gurgle….”
Crunch crunch.
“….”
“Ugh….”
Crunch.
“….”
I’d be better off running away instead.
Any moment now, the zombies would catch the scent of the living emanating from my body and slowly turn their heads to stare at me.
My blood ran cold.
If they swarmed me here, even Praha wouldn’t be able to save me.
‘And I don’t even have a weapon right now.’
Saliva pooled in my mouth from the tension.
I couldn’t even swallow—afraid the sound would give me away.
I suppressed the urge to scream and bolt, moving my feet with the utmost care instead.
‘Why is the floor so slippery?’
If I stepped wrong and made a creaking sound, or slipped on something, I was done for.
That was when it happened.
“Grrrgh….”
My eyes locked directly with a zombie scanning the room.
“….”
“….”
Only after the zombie tilted its head and looked away did I remember that zombies had no sight.
‘Phew.’
This would be the perfect moment to let out a long sigh of relief, but I couldn’t make a sound.
This is insane.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘Nothing at all.’
Praha, who had paused ahead and turned to look back at me, saw me shake my head to indicate it was nothing, and I took another step forward.
“…!”
And I stepped on a piece of broken pottery that Praha hadn’t managed to clear away.
[Mount Prome: Basement Level 1 Recreation Room]
– Yusara, Praha (Alive)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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