“Woo! Young Miss you really know how to scrap!” Mr. Sung congratulates Yin as she decapitates a second zombie. The other men help him use the trash can lid to wrestle the last zombie to the ground. Standing over it, five men just barely manage to hold it down with hands and feet. While it struggles, he quickly talks to Yin. “Hey Miss, it’s a bit embarrassing, but do you mind forming a party with us? We’re a bit new to the System, so we could use an experienced Hunter such as yourself. How about it?”

“Of course I’ll help!” Yin gracefully accepts his invitation and I resist the urge to facepalm. Kneading my temples, I grit my teeth. This…girl…will…be…the…death…of me! Obviously, he just wants to party up so he can share more of the experience with a skilled Hunter! No one in their right mind would party with newbies so readily when they’re not high enough level to survive this dungeon themselves. However, there’s nothing I can do. I never entered a party with Yin to begin with because I didn’t want to accidentally share in her experience. This way when we get a kill only our contributions to damaging the enemy count. But since she’s part of their party now, a greater share will be split.

“UGH UGH UGH!” A sour taste erupts in my mouth as I watch Yin dispatch the last zombie for them. “Yin…I swear to the System, I…I’ll…make you…” My brain furiously searches for a suitable punishment, but in the dungeon, I don’t dare assign anything like brutal military exercise or tough disciplinary punishment for fear of lowering her physical status. “ARGH! Damnit! I’ll figure it out after we get out of here!”

“Hot damn! I’m Lvl. 3 already!”

“From Lvl. 1 to Lvl. 3 this is really too awesome!”

“I feel stronger already!”

While Mr. Sung’s men marvel at their newfound levels, I just continually roll my eyes in the back. Yin finally remembers I exist and looks my way, only to start jumping up and down and waving frantically. It’s obvious she’s trying to get my attention.

“Relax…I know already, Dummy.” I mutter to myself as I spin around and bend forwards at the waist while kicking backwards. My left heel catches the incoming Daemonic Undead sneaking up on me and throws it into the concrete. Quickly jogging away, I make a half-hearted attempt to appear scared. “H-Help! It’s going to eat me! Can someone kill it!”

“Hei?” Yin’s shocked expression is almost worth the humiliation of my number one disciple partying up with a bunch of Lvl. 1 noobs. “Are you…okay? What are you doing!”

“I’m scared, can you kill it for me!” I make up some stupid reason for why I’m not hunting zombies and make it seem like the kick was an accident. After staring at me for a while, Yin gets it and dashes off to finish off the undead before it can get back up. A second later, a small bit of experience fills up the bar in the corner of my vision.

Well, at least there’s one good thing. Now that Yin’s in a party, I get even less experience than before.

I’m not too far off from Lvl. 8 but even the Daemonic Undead which was slain is not enough to push me through the gap. Yin returns, introducing me to her new friends. Of course, most of them already have seen me before outside the city.

“Hi guys, this is Hei! He’s my…uh my friend!” She says and I almost choke on nothing as she hides her expression with a hand.

Really? I teach you all that, protect you through multiple painful deaths and that’s all I get introduced as? A friend??

Woman we’ve slept together before! I mean nothing happened but that has to count for more than friends!

“Heh. Y-Yea, I’m Yin’s friend! Sorry, it seems we got off on the wrong foot earlier. Anyways, I’m not much of a fighter, so I’ll be in your care, everyone!” I greet them, making sure not to expose any signs of the cleaver in my coat. Sighing, I prepare myself for a really annoying time until I can convince Yin to leave these losers behind. I just hope she remembers not to reveal anything she shouldn’t. I was worried I scared her too much last night but now she does this. “Maybe I should have told her more…”

“Uhm hi, I’m Penelope.” Someone approaches me from behind while I’m busy trying to figure out how to punish Yin for her sins. Quickly shutting my mouth, I paste on a generic smile.

Come on, Hei, act for the camera now. Look scared, that’s right. You’re a weak lamb. A newbie Hunter.

“Hi, I’m Hei.” Sticking out my hand awkwardly, I’m hoping to end the conversation quickly. However, this new girl, one of only two women in the group before Yin, surprises me. She tries to give me her club, a wooden baseball bat with nails driven into the head.

“Um, I just though you looked pretty cool back there and um…” She trails off as I quickly push the bat back to her. “Well, I’m not really much of a fighter myself. Surely if Mr. Hei had a weapon, you’d be better suited to fighting these things than me. So, I’d be really happy if you accepted this!”

“Oh.” I scratch my head awkwardly. Examining Penelope more closely, I take some time to actually get a look at her. Caucasian, a little older than me by the look of it. Also, a little taller than Yin, but that’s probably because she’s already fully grown. Short blonde hair pulled back into a bun. “Actually, I already have a weapon, I’m just not very good with it. If that zombie hadn’t walked into my foot I definitely would’ve been in big trouble.”

I take out the handle of my cleaver just barely and Penelope turns a bit red.

“Ahh, so Mr. Hei was taken by surprise. I understand. Well, I guess we’ll have to watch out for each other. The rest of the group is struggling so hard to survive, I really don’t know why I came. If only I had the guts to accept the System Punishment, I wouldn’t be dragging everyone down like this…” The pretty woman turns her head to the ground.

Is this really okay? Should someone older than me be behaving like this? Well to be fair, I’ve already lived multiple lifetimes so I suppose I’m actually more mature than I seem but still. Have a little spine woman!

“You made the right choice.” I say and then immediately regret it. Hoping to cover up my mistake, I curse my careless mouth and make sure she isn’t thinking about how I would know whether or not she should accept the System Punishment. “I mean, Yin is a tough girl! And for a little while, I suppose we are traveling together so she’ll protect you! Just stay in the back here and watch out for zombies from behind. For people like you and me, that’s the best thing to do! You’ll even gain experience from the party without doing anything.”

“R-Right! Mr. Hei, thank you for your kind words.” Penelope sniffles, and clenches her small fists on the wooden bat. Due to the strain, one of the buttons on top of her stained blue business blouse pops off. “Oh oops! Don’t look!” She says while hastily zipping up her sweatshirt to contain her ample cleavage. “But what about you, Hei? Shouldn’t you join the party as well? Or you won’t get much experience…”

“Hey, how you…” Yin trails off as she comes by and sees Penelope zipping up her boobs in front of me. Smirking, I don’t clarify anything. With an angry huff, the beautiful girl flushes and speeds off to talk to one of the other guys in the group.

“Ohh…that felt good.” I crack my back, waiting for these idiots to get their affairs together.

“Y-You and her, what’s the relationship between you two?” Penelope stammers, clearly aware that Yin may have misunderstood something. Shrugging, I watch Yin out of the corner of my eye as she smiles and chats with the other guy.

“Oh, you heard her. We’re just friends-“

“Huuurk!”

Suddenly the noise of someone retching violently comes.

“Mitch, get yourself together!” All eyes turn to the two wounded men on the ground. One of them has risen, his face incredibly pale. Purple and violet streaks run all up from the wound on his arm and into his eyes which are beginning to glow distinctively in the dark light. “M-Mitch?”

“GRAAAWR!” Suddenly two teammates have become zombies. The man attending to them throws himself backwards, landing on his butt. Scooting away, he loses his balance and goes sprawling, bloodying his knuckles on the cracked concrete. Up above, the shadows of the skyscrapers appear to swing over us as the sun sets. In the ensuing darkness, the crimson gleam of their reanimated companions becomes clear.

“AAAAAHHH!” The would-be medic throws up his hands in fear as Yin whips around and draws her sword. However, she won’t make it. Shaking my head, I’m tempted not to intervene because I know it will only bring trouble.

“Hic…n-no! Mitch! Why?” Penelope cries out, her bat dropping onto the ground with a thud as she breaks down. “Someone h-help him! Help Dean!”

“Oh for crying out loud!” I know no one else can react in time if Yin is this far away. Bending down, I pick up Penelope’s bat and lob it at the zombified Mitch right as he reaches out to eat his former friend. The wooden bat sails through the air, flipping once, before bonking into the zombie’s head. It’s not enough to kill it, but the metal nails on the bat stick into Mitch’s face. The zombie howls, its vision blocked and falls over due to the awkward weight of having something stuck in its head. Then the second zombie rushes forward to take its place. On the ground, the man called Dean makes one last effort to escape. Sweat beads on his forehead as he tries to crabwalk backwards. But the Daemonic Zombie is already starting to gain unholy strength as the virus finishes the transformation. In an instant it dives down, clacking teeth spitting black gunk as it reaches for his neck-

*Shing*

Yin’s katana swings down like the divine sword of an angel. The decapitated head of the zombie falls into Dean’s lap. A second later, she doesn’t hesitate to rush over to the other zombie, Mitch, on the ground who is still trying to rip the spiked baseball bat from his face.

“Wait don’t kill him!” Mr. Sung desperately calls out, but he’s nowhere near close enough to stop her. For just an instant, Yin hesitates and looks to me for reassurance. However, when she sees me standing next to Penelope with a blank expression, her face tightens.

*Shing*

A second head drops to the ground. Though doubtless many of the group just leveled up, this time, there are no cheers. Just silence. The man with a zombie’s head in his lap trembles, kicking away his former friend’s face. Yin offers him a hand, which he doesn’t take at first. Only after a terrified glance at the beautiful girl’s face and bloody sword does he accept the offered hand and allow it to pull him up.

“T-Thanks. I owe you one.” Dean says. Mr. Sung runs over with his trash can lid as well as several men but the action is already over.

“I did what I had to.” Yin’s katana goes down and her shoulders droop sadly. This time when she looks my way, I can’t stay angry. She understands. Meeting her hesitant eyes, I nod gently. She stiffens her back and nods back. An unspoken message passes between us though we’re standing apart.

I understand.