I Reincarnated Into a Healing Game… and It’s a Zombie Apocalypse?! - Chapter 53
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 53
“Manager Kim. Did you hear? That experienced new hire who just joined is marrying the chairman’s granddaughter?”
Nana felt her body freeze involuntarily at the whispered conversation between team members she happened to overhear in the company corridor.
“Oh, I heard, I heard. That granddaughter, turns out she’s Team Leader Song from the Research and Development Team?”
“Wow, the one who’s supposedly tougher than the male employees? But isn’t our team leader’s surname also Song?”
From the fading conversation of the team members, Nana felt an ominous premonition.
News of another team leader’s marriage who shared the same surname as her. And the affectionate man who had approached her for no reason.
Just as suspicions about his intentions began to sprout, she happened to find out by chance.
“One of the two must be the chairman’s granddaughter.”
It was a phone conversation she accidentally overheard while heading to the bathroom during a company dinner. The voice speaking as if telling a success story was not the gentle voice Nana had been hearing all along.
“What about the other one? I just pretended to be friendly with her a bit…”
The man continued his phone call, unaware that Nana was behind the corner.
“How was I supposed to know there would be two Team Leader Songs? It’s not like I openly hit on her, I just greeted her and pretended to be friendly since we seemed to go in the same direction. What can she do about it? If she gets angry over that misunderstanding, wouldn’t that make her the crazy one?”
The voice mixed with mockery gradually faded away. He probably left the area.
After learning the whole truth, the emotion she felt wasn’t betrayal from being strung along or anger at being toyed with. It was relief.
‘Thank goodness. That it was all my misunderstanding. That I found out the truth before developing deeper feelings. That could have been a disaster, right?’
Despite trying to reassure herself with these thoughts, the tears that had been welling up fell down Nana’s cheeks to the floor.
“I must have drunk too much.”
She couldn’t understand why tears were suddenly flowing, why she felt so suffocated.
“I should have drunk more moderately…”
She sat crouched in that spot for a long time, holding back her sobs in silence.
The sound of trees swaying in the wind pulled Nana from her reminiscence back to reality.
“An unnecessary memory came to mind.”
It was an old memory that no longer stirred any particular thoughts when recalled. But that didn’t mean it was the kind she wanted to deliberately dig up and examine.
“Anyway, I never want to make that kind of mistake again.”
A belated dark history. That’s how Nana dismissed that memory. Once was enough for dark history.
The thought that Ishanka might like her was nothing but a delusion.
So she mustn’t let her heart waver at a momentary passing breeze.
Right. Like this wind blowing now, it’s just an emotion that will pass by.
* * *
Preparations for departure to the capital finished faster than expected.
The journey there was long and treacherous. Even driving the carriage non-stop, it would take a full two months.
Moreover, now that the zombie apocalypse had struck, the difficulty of the journey was beyond imagination compared to the peaceful past.
Nevertheless, they decided to pack only the bare minimum, one backpack each.
“Carrying unnecessarily much luggage could make us targets for bandits. We can obtain necessary items along the way as needed.”
“But wouldn’t it be better to have as much food as possible?”
Nana questioned.
The land was already blackened and rotted to death, and villages had long been in ruins. In such a world, obtaining food or daily necessities wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
Brody nodded as if expecting her doubt and said.
“Lord Warren and I came here by train. It took about ten days. The return trip should be similar, so a few days’ worth of food will be sufficient.”
Nana couldn’t hide her surprise.
‘Trains are already available?’
In the game world—no, let’s just call it this world for convenience. Anyway, according to the story flow Nana knew, trains first appeared at the very end of the story.
Nana guessed they were currently in the early-to-mid part of the story. Because that’s around when the world would have been destroyed and stopped due to zombies.
So had the setting gotten mixed up?
Had the progression been moved up too much?
After pondering briefly, Nana soon reached a conclusion.
“Well, that’s good. Considering the thought of suffering in a carriage for two months, a train is much better.”
Regardless of how the story flowed, what mattered now wasn’t plausibility but how to travel more comfortably.
Time flowed on, and finally the day approached to depart for this country’s capital and the main quest’s stage, Coron Maures.
Having finished washing her face lightly, Nana looked at the several pop-up windows floating before her eyes.
“Nothing’s missing, right?”
Let me check once more.
First, the automatic harvest sales function added in this update?
The word “ON” was glowing in blue light.
Similarly, the skill reservation function updated this time?
It was set for after everyone left the farm. The skill use she had reserved was a command to give to the zombies hidden in the eastern forest.
Then what about the inventory?
It was packed full with food, vegetables, fruits, and other items she had made. Thanks to the inventory being upgraded as her level increased, allowing up to 100 of the same items per slot, the inventory was abundant with food.
Of course, this was possible due to the advantage that time doesn’t pass within the inventory.
There were a few more things to adjust besides this, but those could be done right before leaving the farmland, so there was no need to do them immediately.
‘Any more preparations needed?’
None.
All preparations were perfectly complete.
Now let’s go out.
When she changed into the most comfortable clothes for movement and came out with her backpack, her companions greeted her from outside.
“Everyone’s sure they haven’t forgotten anything? Since we’re going a long way, once we leave it’ll be hard to come back, so there shouldn’t be anything left behind by mistake.”
“Yes, sister! I’ve taken care of the cat and packed all the cat food too!”
Wina answered energetically.
Right, well. That’s all good, but…
“But Wina, are you planning to carry Tan-bbang like that the whole way?”
Though Nana hadn’t raised cats in her previous life, she had enough knowledge to know that cats should be carried in travel carriers for safety. But Wina had nothing resembling a travel carrier and was just holding Tan-bbang tightly in her arms.
“We can’t ask a cat to walk that whole long distance. Cats are small, so they’ll get tired if they walk for too long.”
“What about the travel carrier I made for you before?”
“You want to put a cat in such a small space? Sister, that’s abuse.”
No, you little… Taking a territorial animal like a cat to unfamiliar places is abuse. For humans, it’s like going to catch zombies barehanded without any protective equipment.
But looking at Wina staring at her with innocent, puppy-like eyes, her fighting spirit was greatly diminished. Well now. Was I someone weak to puppy-dog eyes?
“That cat won’t be afraid or run away just because it left the farm.”
Ishanka, who was nearby, spoke up.
“How would Isha know that?”
“Let’s call it the intuition of someone who’s been hunting for a long time.”
Unable to say outright that Tan-bbang was actually not an ordinary cat but a beastman and his blood relative, Ishanka gave a vague excuse.
“Don’t worry. On this trip, the cat will become closer to me and always stick by my side. Right, kitty?”
Wina rubbed her face against Tan-bbang’s fur in her arms and smiled brightly. Tan-bbang sent a desperate look that meant ‘Butler, please help me,’ but unfortunately it didn’t reach Nana.
After confirming that all preparations were complete, the group began walking toward the village entrance that Nana had shown them before.
Step by step.
The group walked without a single word of conversation and soon arrived at the village entrance.
Everyone exited the village entrance, and Nana, who had been following at the back, suddenly stopped in front of the village entrance. She quietly turned around to look back.
‘I won’t be able to come here for a while. I’ll return someday, but this scenery and this tranquility will probably be different then too.’
It was a place so familiar she could walk around with her eyes closed. Nana resolved once again to quickly resolve the main story and return before she started missing this familiarity, and called up the settings window in her mind.
【You are now ready to switch your current farm settings to sleep mode. Sleep mode is an effective method that minimizes farm activity to reduce resource consumption and lower management requirements.</p】
Feature: Suspension of biological time for living beings.
All living beings within the farm, except for crops, will fall into deep sleep.
This preserves their energy and allows them to quickly resume activity when needed.
Would you like to change the settings of Adrienne Rogueton’s first farm: Sweet Little Village to sleep mode?>
This was also a feature that had been added with this update. They probably updated it together, anticipating that she would be undertaking the main quest.
Otherwise, how could the timing of this update be so perfectly precise?
【Sweet Little Village is entering sleep mode. All living beings within the farm except for crops will fall into deep sleep.</p】
However, zombies are excluded as they are not living beings.>
‘Ah, I should set this up too before leaving.’
【Adrienne Rogueton has changed the access settings for Sweet Little Village farm to ‘Entry prohibited except for farmowner.'</p】
Entry to the farm is strictly restricted for all living beings except Adrienne Rogueton.
Enhanced security: Farm boundary and access management has been strengthened to effectively block unauthorized entry.>
Having done this much, unless something unexpected happened, there would be no one trespassing on Nana’s farmland.
She stepped outside the village entrance without hesitation. It was the beginning of a long journey.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————