Chapter 113: Zombie Birds
At least in the short term, there probably would not be many people capable of doing it.
Even so, the situation still left Joo Joowon feeling rather irritated.
If this really was the game’s built in appraisal system, then honestly it felt far too primitive.
If he had the choice, he would much rather possess the kind of appraisal skill that existed in games, the sort that could instantly reveal an enemy’s level and health bar at a glance, instead of this awkward method that still relied heavily on personal judgment and observation skills.
Although energy fields could not lie and simply determining whether an opponent was stronger or weaker without taking equipment bonuses into account did not require very much time, it was still nowhere near as convenient as throwing out an appraisal skill and immediately understanding the entire situation.
Furthermore, the current usefulness of this method was probably influenced by the fact that most players had not yet obtained classes.
Once players eventually acquired classes, the effectiveness of this observation method would likely decrease significantly.
After all, classes themselves possessed varying levels of strength.
Some classes would become the favored children of future game updates, while others would sink into complete irrelevance.
At that point, evaluating an energy field would also require taking the target’s class into consideration.
At the moment, Joo Joowon did not even know whether these energy fields were generated by talents or by attributes.
Unfortunately, there was nobody around who could answer these questions for him.
As a result, Joo Joowon could only continue exploring and experimenting on his own.
After resting for a while, he looked outside and noticed that the sky was still bright.
The thought of going back out to hunt zombies immediately surfaced in his mind.
After all, spending half the day fighting and the other half resting felt like a complete waste of time.
However, after standing by the window and carefully observing the distribution of zombies throughout the surrounding streets, he quickly gave up on the idea.
Only two or three hours had passed since he had slaughtered such an enormous number of zombies.
Yet the streets that had previously become almost completely empty had already been occupied by new zombie hordes once again.
After thinking about it more carefully, Joo Joowon realized that this situation was not strange at all.
Sabi City had always been one of the primary economic centers in the south.
The permanent population combined with the number of temporary residents had remained above thirty million for many years.
Even if only one third of those people had become zombies, the resulting number would still be staggering.
Not to mention that there was no reason to believe the number of zombies was limited to merely one third of humanity.
Thinking about it this way, perhaps the advice he had given to that group earlier might actually end up getting them all killed.
Joo Joowon considered the possibility seriously for a while.
In the end, he decided the chances were probably fifty fifty.
If the group leader was clear headed enough, then they should have left people behind to monitor the surrounding environment while the others searched for supplies.
If that was the case, then the moment the number of zombies in the area began increasing, anyone with decent awareness would immediately sound the alarm.
Under those circumstances, the group probably would not hesitate for long before deciding to retreat.
However, if they had not arranged for anyone to keep watch and gather information, then the outcome was much harder to predict.
Should he go outside and take a look?
To be honest, even if they had only remained outside for ten or twenty minutes, that would still have been enough time for them to gather at least some supplies.
There was no reason for Joo Joowon to feel personally responsible for what happened to them.
Going outside had always involved risks.
Just as he was hesitating, a new message suddenly appeared in his system notifications.
[ Ding! ]
[ Your pet has killed a Level 4 Zombie Bird! ]
[ Since your pet is unable to collect the drops, ownership of the drops has automatically been transferred to you! ]
[ Would you like to pay 10 Copper Coins for transportation fees? ]
Joo Joowon froze for a moment.
Only then did he suddenly realize the problem.
Without wasting another second, he immediately jumped out the window and rushed outside.
A zombie bird!
Not a mutated beast!
When Byeol hunted birds, there was no way he would avoid biting them with his mouth, right?
Although in Joo Joowon’s memories, Byeol had always been extremely cautious and careful.
Back when he had still been a stray cat, he had never approached humans casually and never ate random things lying around.
Even so, for animals like cats and dogs, it was extremely difficult to catch prey without biting it.
As intelligent as Byeol was compared to ordinary cats, there was no guarantee he understood concepts like infection and viruses.
What if he really had bitten it.
Joo Joowon immediately looked toward the Zombie Virus Immunity Serum stored inside his inventory.
This serum was only of rare grade item.
It could only neutralize viruses originating from elite zombies and below, while granting a certain level of immunity afterward.
Even then, the immunity only lasted for one or two years.
Fortunately, according to the system notification, the creature Byeol had encountered was not an elite monster.
It was merely a higher level zombie.
Before Joo Joowon had even finished running downstairs, several additional kill notifications appeared in his system messages.
Under normal circumstances, Byeol never wandered around recklessly.
Even after leaving Joo Joowon’s side, he would usually remain within the vicinity of the apartment complex.
Back in the past, Joo Joowon had once attached a tracking device to him, so he was well aware of Byeol’s usual routes.
The cat had become so experienced that he almost seemed supernatural.
He never entered apartment complexes where stray cats were treated badly.
Joo Joowon suddenly remembered the zombie birds he had seen while hunting zombies earlier and tried recalling the places where those birds usually gathered.