Chapter 136: Gone in the Night
None of the detection threads placed near the plants’ doorway or window had been triggered at all.
If that was the case, then that could only mean...
"Byeol?"
"Hwi?"
Although Byeol was not the type of cat who would respond to every single time it was called, Byeol also wasn’t the sort of mischievous cat who would silently watch from the sidelines while its owner anxiously searched for it.
Besides, with Joo Joowon’s current level of perception, if Byeol were still somewhere inside the apartment, no matter what hidden corner it was hiding in, Joo Joowon would definitely have sensed it.
Under these circumstances, there was only one possible conclusion.
Byeol had really gone outside.
Joo Joowon couldn’t help pressing his fingers against his forehead in frustration.
What were they doing running outside in the middle of the night?
What if they encountered danger?
He stared toward the door for a while before ultimately resisting the impulse to run outside.
Nighttime was completely different from daytime.
Even if he went out searching, he wouldn’t possess any particular advantage.
On the contrary, rushing around in a panic would only increase the chances of making mistakes.
Considering the luck buff that naturally surrounded Byeol, one night outside probably wouldn’t be enough time for anything dangerous to happen to them.
Rather than going outside blindly, it was better to stay home and wait for them to return.
Even so, Joo Joowon couldn’t stop himself from worrying.
Whenever he was home in the past, Byeol had never run outside without permission.
Over countless years, its daily schedule had gradually synchronized with Joo Joowon’s own routine.
Why had it suddenly decided to go outside now?
Had Hwi corrupted Byeol?
Or perhaps all those recent trips outside had made Byeol too wild and adventurous?
Joo Joowon still remembered that in the past, Byeol could practically be taken outside for walks the same way people walked dogs.
It was never afraid of strangers and never feared large dogs either.
Its courage was astonishing.
If not for the neutering surgery Byeol underwent later to avoid uterine infections, it probably would still have maintained the habit of going outside every day.
Back then, however, Byeol had always worn a leash, and Joo Joowon had always been watching it carefully.
Naturally, there had never been any danger.
Although Joo Joowon knew that Byeol was no longer the same as before, that it had already stepped into the realm of the supernatural and had probably become even smarter than it already was, he still couldn’t stop worrying.
The more he thought about it, the harder it became to sit still.
At the same time, he understood perfectly well that rushing outside impulsively was not a good decision.
In the end, he could only pace back and forth around the apartment while making up his mind that next time, before going to sleep, he would use spider silk to seal the door completely and prevent them from sneaking out again.
After all, cats had no way of understanding just how dangerous the outside world had become.
The only thing he could do was be more careful on their behalf.
After worrying for what felt like ages, Joo Joowon suddenly felt another headache beginning to form.
He glanced at his status panel and discovered that his Mental Power had somehow stopped recovering.
Based on his previous observations, nearly one or two hours had already passed.
By all rights, at least a small amount should have recovered by now.
After a moment of thought, he quickly arrived at an explanation.
The interruption was probably caused by staying awake too late and by his emotional state.
Although with his current Physique, staying awake for an entire night wouldn’t cause significant physical damage, doing so while his Mental Power was in the middle of recovering clearly had a major impact.
Without hesitating any further, Joo Joowon rationally carried a thin blanket over to the sofa and lay down with his eyes closed.
Every single day during the early stages of the apocalypse was precious.
There was no room for waste.
He couldn’t afford to exhaust himself for no reason and then lack the means to protect himself while hunting for experience outside the next day.
Even though he understood this logically, Joo Joowon still found it difficult to fall asleep immediately.
He tossed and turned for quite a while before finally settling down.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Byeol and Hwi were moving through the darkness like fish returning to water.
For creatures the size of cats, even if zombies discovered their presence, escaping was relatively easy.
They could simply slip through places that humanoid zombies were physically incapable of entering.
Cats were not animals with strong body odors to begin with.
Unless one got very close and deliberately sniffed them, there was usually no scent to notice.
Compared to humanoid zombies, their bodies also sat much lower to the ground, placing them outside the normal smelling range of ordinary zombies.
They moved silently when they walked, and the occasional roars of zombies in the distance weren’t enough to frighten them.
As a result, the pair encountered almost no trouble along the way.
Although Sabi City never seemed to stop repairing roads and there was always construction noise echoing from somewhere during a month or two each year, the roads themselves barely changed at all.
Byeol skillfully led Hwi across rooftops and through green belts, quickly arriving at an area where the smell of blood was unusually strong.
This was a place Joo Joowon had brought it every six months for medical checkups at the nearby hospital, so its memory of the surrounding area remained very clear.
Standing at the entrance, Byeol sniffed carefully.
There was a fishy smell here that was almost impossible to wash away.
After confirming that Byeol hadn’t come to the wrong place, it glanced back at Hwi and signaled to it before leaping upward, bypassing the locked iron gate and jumping inside.