Chapter 148: Following Byeol
Only then did he head outside together with Byeol and Hwi.
Although the apartment was already protected by a layer of spider silk, there was no reason not to make use of the bodyguards he already had inside the house.
More importantly, they possessed intelligence.
Anything intelligent could eventually be influenced by emotions.
As long as Bomi subconsciously began to regard the place where they all lived together as its home, Joo Joowon would not need to do anything further.
It would naturally choose to remain by his side.
At present, aside from launching its spines outward to attack enemies, Joo Joowon still had no idea what other abilities Bomi possessed that might prove useful to him.
Even its spines were disposable weapons.
Once fired, they were gone from its body.
Even so, Joo Joowon felt it was far too early to make such a simplistic judgment about the cactus.
After all, he remembered that cacti supposedly possessed medicinal properties such as reducing internal heat, relieving coughs, reducing swelling, and easing pain.
Perhaps the reason its offensive capabilities seemed relatively weak was because it had evolved in that direction instead.
Whether that guess was correct or not, Joo Joowon had no way of knowing.
At the moment, he still had not discovered any method of communicating with the cactus.
After leaving the apartment together with the two cats, Joo Joowon began considering where he should go hunting today.
His Mental Power had not yet fully recovered, so he did not dare act as recklessly as he had yesterday in case he accidentally ran into several elite monsters at once.
Generally speaking, elite monsters behaved much like territorial lords.
Just like the saying that one mountain could not accommodate two tigers, it was extremely rare to see elite monsters moving together unless they all served under the same superior.
When Joo Joowon acted yesterday, he had observed the situation carefully beforehand.
Unlike low level zombies that wandered aimlessly through the streets, elite monsters rarely behaved like street vagrants roaming around without purpose.
If they did, he would never have dared attempt what he did yesterday.
Elite monsters were not stupid enough to fail to notice that the number of zombies around them was steadily decreasing.
Elite monsters never lacked food.
They possessed initiative and subjective motivation.
Unlike low level zombies that simply wandered around waiting for prey to appear like hunters waiting beside a tree stump for a rabbit to crash into it, elite monsters would actively go out in search of food when they became hungry.
Although Joo Joowon did not know whether they secretly divided territories among themselves and ruled over separate areas, judging from what he had observed yesterday, they at least maintained a certain distance from one another.
Otherwise, they would not have only arrived after the psychic zombie had called for them.
Because of that, Joo Joowon gave up on the idea of simply going out onto the streets and hunting zombies directly.
Even if he avoided encountering another psychic zombie, all it would take was for an elite monster to let out a single roar.
The other nearby elite monsters were not deaf.
Once they heard the sound, it would not take much effort for them to rush over.
There was a fairly large supermarket nearby, but supermarkets in the middle of the night usually did not contain many people to begin with.
Most of the players heading there now were doing so to gather supplies, and Joo Joowon was not particularly lacking in supplies at the moment, so there was no need for him to go there.
As for places such as food streets or bars, those were even worse options.
Too many people had gathered in such places before the apocalypse.
There might not only be elite monsters there by now. Boss monsters could very well have already appeared too.
After thinking it over from every angle, Joo Joowon still could not make up his mind.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally looked toward Byeol and asked, "Byeol, where did you go hunting yesterday?"
The movement patterns of cats and humans were vastly different from one another, so it was entirely possible that places Byeol and Hwi considered suitable hunting grounds would not be suitable places for Joo Joowon to farm monsters.
Still, no matter what, it would not hurt to take a look first. If it turned out to be unsuitable, he could always choose somewhere else afterward.
Byeol sat on the spot and immediately understood that Joo Joowon was speaking to it.
Tilting its head, it made a serious effort to understand what he meant.
After a short moment, it finally stood up, let out a meow toward Joo Joowon, and then began walking off in a particular direction.
Having already seen Joo Joowon climb walls before, Byeol had no concerns that he might be unable to follow the route it chose.
It simply followed its own instincts and headed straight toward paths that would be difficult for humans to traverse.
For a cat whose footsteps made almost no sound at all, such routes were more than enough to help it avoid attracting the attention of zombies.
Even if it failed to avoid them entirely, ordinary zombies were incapable of catching it anyway.
Joo Joowon, however, was a completely different story.
He was a living human over one hundred and seventy centimeters tall.
His body was far too conspicuous.
On top of that, because his clothes had become rather torn and damaged yesterday, he had changed into fresh clothes today.
As a result, the "human scent" clinging to his body was almost impossible to conceal.
It was extremely easy for monsters to notice him.
However, Joo Joowon was not afraid of being surrounded by only a handful of zombies.
He dealt with them quickly and efficiently.
The wandering range of ordinary zombies was limited.
In old residential districts like theirs, many streets were completely deserted after midnight.
Because of that, even if zombies happened to wander into the area, their numbers would remain very small.