Chapter 47: Mihuku’s Stage 5 Collapse

The progress of “Zombie Survival” was going smoothly.

Honestly, up until Stage 4, it could be considered nothing more than a warm-up.

Almost like a tutorial, perhaps?

It was just there to help players understand the game’s system.

The real beginning started at Stage 5.

“Hahaha. Zombies are powerless before my sword!”

Mihuku grinned confidently.

Right now, he wasn’t doing anything else—only summoning units and reinforcing them.

And even among the upgrades, he was only investing in one thing: “Sword Enhancement.”

[No, Mihuku! You won’t make it to the later stages like that!]

[You need to boost health, defense, and movement speed too…]

[What the—he’s putting everything into attack power…]

[Swords are melee! You need movement speed buffs!!]

“Nothing else is necessary. Only the sword! The sword! You must believe! The sword is supreme! If you strengthen the sword, you can accomplish anything!!”

He shouted like some kind of fanatical cult leader.

The viewers shook their heads at his outburst.

[He’s doomed already…]

[This is Stage 5, right? Can he even hold off the wave??]

[Swordsmen do have good attack power, but they’re slow. You have to increase movement speed…]

“Hahaha! No matter how many zombies there are, they are meaningless before my swordsmen. Witness how my swordsmen will slaughter them!!”

Mihuku was already like a runaway train.

He would never listen to the viewers’ advice.

All he desired was a stronger sword.

To gaze upon beautiful swords—that was his obsession.

The reason he joined this collaboration stream was simple.

“I heard the special units wield incredible swords. And if you clear Stage 20, you can summon a hero, right? Since it’s a hero, of course the sword must be amazing… gulp!”

A collab born purely of greed!

He didn’t even bother to hide his desires.

It was truly the choice of a sword fanatic.

“Swords are the best!!”

***

[Beep beep]

[Stage 5 has begun.]

[A zombie wave is incoming. Survivors, prepare for the horde!!]

[This wave will not end until every zombie has been eliminated.]

Stage 5 had begun.

This one didn’t have a ten-minute time limit.

It was kill or be killed.

Only by wiping out the enemy could the stage end.

That was the defining trait of zombie waves.

“It begins!!”

The moment Stage 5 started, Mihuku’s camp descended into hell.

“Gasp!”

Mihuku was startled.

The red dots on the map weren’t dots at all—they were practically a solid sheet.

A massive swarm of zombies was approaching.

“How many are there…?”

[Another streamer counted once—it was over a thousand, right??]

[Yep.]

[This isn’t easy. Starting from Stage 5, ranged zombies begin mixing in too…]

“Hmph. No matter how many zombies there are, they are powerless before my loyal swordsmen!”

Mihuku picked up his radio.

Since Exitra had chosen the Cyborg class, he could command them directly through a communicator. But Mihuku’s swordsman class had to rely on a radio.

“Attack! Kill every zombie that comes near!”

“Uooooh!!”

“Kill the zombies!”

“You bastards!!”

The swordsmen moved forward at his command.

Mihuku underestimated the stage.

He thought, ‘These zombies won’t be much different from the earlier ones.’

But he didn’t realize.

The tutorial was over—the real game had begun.

“Kill the zombies!”

“Cut them down!!”

“Hahaha! These guys are just scarecrows! So weak!!”

There were enough zombies to make the world spin, but individually they weren’t that strong.

So killing them wasn’t much of a problem.

Especially with their massively boosted attack power—thanks to Sword Enhancement—early-stage zombies fell after just a few strikes.

“This is easy! So easy!!”

The swordsmen shouted boldly as they cut down the horde.

But the real problem came right after.

Splat!

A red liquid flew from a distance!

One swordsman didn’t have time to dodge and was struck.

Ssshhhhh!

“Argh! Hot! What the hell?!”

The red liquid seemed acidic—it burned on contact, and his health dropped drastically.

“That—over there! That weird zombie is spitting!!”

The injured swordsman pointed.

Among the regular zombies was one that looked a bit different.

Its mouth jutted forward, built to spit long distances—an unusual zombie variant.

Splat!

Another glob of red liquid flew.

This time the swordsmen were ready, so dodging wasn’t difficult.

“That one’s a real pain. Take it down first.”

“Got it.”

The swordsmen moved to intercept the spitter.

But there was a problem.

Unlike normal zombies, this one was a little faster.

And because of that—

“W-we can’t keep up…”

Splat!

“Dammit! It spits and runs away!”

“Catch it!!”

Splat! Splat!

“Arghhh!!”

One swordsman’s HP ran out, and he fell.

The first casualty.

And it was only the beginning.

“We have to take that one down!!”

“Get him!!”

The swordsmen tried everything to catch the spitter, but their movement speed was only around 30.

The spitter zombie had a speed of 50.

Not exactly fast, but that 20-point gap was enough to keep the distance forever.

If Mihuku had invested even a single upgrade into movement speed, they could’ve caught it.

But the swordsmen had no such advantage.

“D-dammit… we can’t catch up…!”

Splat! Splat!

“All it does is spit from a distance! What a coward!!”

“Shit…!”

Their desperate cries echoed across the camp.

“Catch it! I said catch it!!”

[Step step.]

[The slow ones can only weep.]

[Don’t bully the slow walkers…!!]

“No!! Grab it already! Why can’t you catch it?!”

[Ah… melee characters shouldn’t challenge ranged enemies…]

[They can’t even get close lololol]

[That’s why you needed movement speed buffs lolol]

[That zombie’s kiting is insane—spit, run, spit, run lolol]

[Is this balance trolling? lol]

[Isn’t that a Kokkumo? It spits like crazy lol]

A single zombie.

One they could’ve caught if they had only invested in speed—

Mihuku’s swordsmen were completely humiliated by it.

And surprisingly…

“Gasp!”

Zombies had broken into Mihuku’s command room.

Mihuku’s face went pale at the sight of them.

“N-no! This can’t be happening!!”

[Wow, Mihuku. Is this how it ends?!]

[Instant elimination!]

[First blood!]

“No, I haven’t even seen a special unit yet! No!!”

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The zombies ignored Mihuku completely and rushed straight at the crystal, clawing and smashing at it.

Maybe it was because of their overwhelming numbers?

The crystal’s durability was dropping at an alarming rate.

“I… I have to stop them…”

But there were no more swordsmen left to fight.

Every last one of them had been killed by a single ranged zombie.

[He went all-in on swords…]

[In the end…]

[If only he had handled it just a little better…]

If Mihuku had reacted just a bit earlier, he could have taken down the ranged zombie.

Even if his units were slow, he had the numbers. He could have surrounded it.

But he reacted too late, and by then it was impossible.

And after only a short while, Mihuku’s crystal reached zero durability… and exploded.

BOOOM!!

[Game Over]

With that one message, his run came to an end.

All because of a single ranged zombie that tore him apart.

***

“Damn it… If only I had a longer sword… I could have cut it down… Ugh…”

[Wow…]

[That’s Mihuku the sword freak, alright.]

[Instead of thinking about increasing movement speed, he wishes he had a longer sword…]

[He’s the real deal!]

“Tch.”

Mihuku clicked his tongue.

There was still a lot of time left before the collab stream ended.

But his run had ended far too quickly.

Who could have expected this?

That someone would get eliminated at Stage 5… when the game had 21 stages in total.

No one had ever imagined it.

Not even Dogry, who had organized this collaboration.

“So… what do I do now?”

With nothing left to do, Mihuku quietly faded into the background like a decoration.

“Phew, I’m holding out somehow.”

Dogry was doing his best to fend off the incoming zombies.

Dogry had chosen the “Soldier” class.

The Soldier used guns to attack from long range.

That made it much easier for him to hold off zombies compared to other classes.

[Oh, come on. Why are you pretending it’s hard?]

[Isn’t Soldier completely broken in Zombie Survival?]

[Wow, such bad manners…]

“No, I’m serious, this isn’t as easy as it looks.”

Dogry tried to defend himself.

But whenever he argued, the backlash grew stronger.

[Booo!]

[We just saw you slaughter zombies without breaking a sweat!]

[When the wave came, all you did was say ‘Attack,’ then sat back and watched!!]

“That’s just how my class works! And Soldiers do have a hard time too. You guys know that, right? I mean, sure, Soldier’s good, but the ammo costs are brutal.”

Soldiers could attack from a distance, but they had to replenish their ammo after every stage.

A 40-round magazine cost 100 gold.

Every stage required anywhere from 7,000 to 15,000 gold just for ammunition.

That meant there was hardly any left to invest in unit upgrades.

Every strength came with a weakness.

And for Soldiers, the weakness was ammo consumption.

[He’s dragging a newbie along but still sweating to win…]

[Unbelievable…]

[Does he even have a conscience?]

“Still, I have to give it my best! I mean, if I lose, I lose my eyebrows! Just think about it! Imagine this head without eyebrows—what do you think will happen?”

[It would be hilarious.]

[Comedy gold.]

[You’d be a superstar in Hongdae instantly.]

[Please sign an autograph for us~]

Dogry looked at the chat with a baffled expression.

“You guys are unbelievable. It’s easy to talk when it’s not your problem…”

[Exactly. It’s not our problem.]

[True.]

[This has nothing to do with us.]

“It’s YOUR problem, not ours.”

“Wow! The audacity! You’re even worse than me when it comes to attitude!”

Dogry bickered with the chat for a while.

But then…

“Huh?”

The viewer count suddenly spiked.

Just a moment ago, he had around 8,000 viewers.

Now, it had jumped past 10,000.

“What? It just went up by 2,000? What happened?”

[Mihuku got eliminated.]

[Instant death.]

[Mihuku… ㅠㅠ]

“Huh?! But I just cleared a zombie wave! You’re telling me Mihuku already died?!”

Dogry was shocked.

The Swordsman class wasn’t bad at all.

It had decent defense, health, and attack power.

Sure, being melee meant you had to boost movement speed—but anyone with common sense would’ve done that.

And yet Mihuku was already out?

[User ‘Sword Maniac’s Last Moments’ has donated 1,000 won.]

<See for yourself…>

A viewer sent in Mihuku’s final moments.

The footage showed exactly how he died.

“Ah…”

[Ah…]

[Ah…]

[This is…]

Everyone reacted the same way.

[Look at that insane kiting…]

[Did zombies always kite like that?]

[No, the Swordsmen were just too slow to keep up.]

The ranged zombie spat from afar, and Mihuku’s swordsmen were helpless.

They tried to chase it, but their movement speed was so slow it was pathetic.

“Wait a second… Aren’t swordsmen way too slow? Don’t tell me… No… He wouldn’t have done that, right?”

Surely Mihuku hadn’t done something that insane?

Even if he was obsessed with swords, he still had to have some common sense… right?

But then…

[He ignored us and put everything into sword upgrades.]

[He said, ‘My sword cuts the sky itself.’]

[Didn’t put a single point into movement speed.]

[ㅠㅠ]

Flooded with chat reports, Dogry voiced what everyone was thinking.

“He’s insane.”