Episode 1.
“Oh, it’s over.”
Finally, I saw the ending of this long, arduous game. The time I spent striving to clear it by shortening my sleep somehow passed by like a moment. I watched countless strategy videos and even joined forums to find guides. Even now, tears welled up when I thought back to those moments.
“Ugh, I just wanted to beat this thing…”
As a result, the ending scene was unfolding on my laptop screen. While I was staring blankly at the protagonist who was looking right at me, our eyes met, and I snapped back to reality.
“You did a great job too. You had to deal with a lousy player like me and suffer a lot.”
The screen then turned white, emitting a bright light. Soon, the ending credits would roll out, signaling the end of the game.
Still staring at the screen, I rubbed my tired eyes. The exhaustion from gaming without sleeping for days hit me all at once. Now that the game was over, I laid down on my back and thought about sleeping right then and there.
“Ah, I should move the laptop and table under the bed….”
If I fell asleep like this, I might wake up the next day with my laptop having fallen off the bed. I didn’t have any particular bad sleeping habits, but you never know.
However, unlike what my mind intended, my eyes kept closing, as if my body was unwilling to get up.
***
“Ah… how long did I sleep?”
As my groggy mind cleared, the surrounding sounds became sharper. The intermittent thudding noise coming from the distance made me wonder if someone had come to visit.
Come to think of it, my mom said she was coming over this week. Was today the day? But why was she knocking instead of just coming in? She definitely knew the passcode for my house…
I felt too lazy to get up. I wished she would just open the door herself, but mom kept knocking as if she had no intention to do so. The sound was starting to annoy me, and I worried the neighbors might complain about us being too loud, so I eventually decided to get up.
I forced my wet-rag-like limp body to raise itself, swept down my face with my hand and slowly opened my eyes properly.
“…Huh?”
Was I still sleeping?
The sight before me made me think I hadn’t yet woken from my dream. What I saw as soon as I opened my eyes was the red-stained interior of what seemed like a crumbling building… cafe?
At first glance, I thought I was in an abandoned building on the verge of collapse. Everything was broken, including the walls and ceilings. I could only guess this was a cafe because of a menu board attached on what appeared to be a counter.
I didn’t know why I was here, but seeing this sight as soon as I opened my eyes was bewildering. The paint-smeared walls and floors made my spine shudder and I felt somewhat nauseous. It felt like I was in a closed off psychiatric ward.
“What kind of madman sprayed red paint all over the place like this…?”
Ugh… my stomach wasn’t feeling great, and my head was throbbing.
“Of all things, why am I dreaming about this…?”
Oh, was it because I’d been playing that game for a long time recently?
“But then what’s that sound?”
I thought it was mom knocking on the door until now, but now I wondered about the source of the sound. Maybe it wasn’t even someone knocking on the door.
As I looked around to check, I soon found the sound and my breath hitched.
“…!”
Clearly human, yet definitely not a human being… Something like a zombie was banging its head against a windowpane.
When did it start doing that? The impact had created a deep dent, blood oozing from the point of contact. With each hit, the glass gradually stained red, and something squirming in crimson peeked out from the dented part, contorting grotesquely.
How long had it been doing that? The impact had created deep dents that oozed blood from its head. With each hit, the glass was gradually stained red, and from the dented, bloodied part of the head, something wriggled and squirmed grotesquely in a crimson hue, a sight I wished I hadn’t seen.
“Ugh….”
I hurriedly covered my mouth because I felt like I was going to vomit.
‘What on earth is that? Is it really a zombie?’
With trembling eyes, I peered through the glass. He wasn’t the only one. There were more people who looked zombie-like roaming the streets, bodies covered in blood, some parts mutilated.
No one seeing them would consider them human beings. If that was the case, then they must really be zombies….
Wait a minute. Come to think of it, the interior of this cafe was dyed red.
‘No way….’
Only then did I understand the source of the strange, putrid smell that had been tickling my nose. What I had thought was red paint all along was actually blood.
“Haah, haah….”
As this realization sunk in, I couldn’t stop the vomit coming up from my inside. At last, having emptied my stomach on one side, I sat down and leaned against a wall, closing my eyes and taking slow breaths to try to settle down.
What the hell was this? Why was I here, and how were there zombies outside? To accept this surreal situation, I had no choice but to think of it as a dream.
“But were my dreams always this vivid?”
My thoughts spiraled into negativity, and in the end, I crouched down, trembling in a rush of fear.
At that moment, a sharp, ear-piercing sound suddenly echoed nearby, snapping me out of my thoughts.
Frantically opening my eyes and scanning my surroundings, I saw that the glass window that had been fine just moments ago had now been shattered. Seeing that a hammer was lying beneath it, it seemed like that was what had flown in and broken the glass.
‘A hammer? Who the hell threw something like that in here?’
Caught off guard for a moment, I fell into thought, but my confusion quickly turned to terror, and my mind went blank. There were zombies outside. They were known to react to noise, and with such a loud sound, it was clear that they’d come rushing this way.
Some zombies had already gathered here because of the zombie banging its head against the glass. But with an even louder noise and a window shattered, the situation was sure to escalate.
“Fuck…”
I somehow managed to get up from my spot with my shaking hands on the floor and hurriedly searched for an escape route.
‘Where should I run to? Is there anywhere to escape to?’
The exit door was near the broken window. I couldn’t go out using that because zombies were already flocking in that direction.
‘Then? Where do I go then?’
That’s when I noticed the bathroom. Without a second thought, I rushed into the bathroom right then, locked the door, and then I stamped my feet and trembled in fear. Amidst the sound of glass breaking outside, I felt movement. It seemed like the zombies had entered.
“Damn it…”
Now what? Was I going to be stuck here and starve to death? No, I might lose my mind before that.
Frustrated by the negative thoughts that consumed me, I instead searched through the bathroom stalls, holding back tears that threatened to pour out while biting my lips.
I couldn’t die like this. Even if I were to die, I felt like I had to break a few of their skulls before I could peacefully close my eyes. Frankly, it was too unfair to die alone.
There were no weapons to speak of, given that this was a bathroom. Just a mop… If only there was something sharp, even a nail to scratch them would do. That hammer from earlier…
“But who on earth threw that hammer over here?”
Were they trying to run away themselves while luring the zombies to this side? Was it because they knew I was here from the beginning, or did they not? If they knew and still did that, they were truly a bad person.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, and my grip holding the mop handle tightened. After looking down at the mop for a while, I pulled myself together and raised my head. And Just as I was about to head towards the door, something caught my eye.
“…!”
It was a window. Though small, it was big enough to squeeze through somehow. There was a glimmer of hope. Even though there were definitely many zombies outside, escaping to a place where I could run was better than staying in this narrow space with nowhere to run.
Having made my decision, I threw away the mop, grabbed a bucket, flipped it over, and climbed on top. First, I slided the window open a little and looked outside. By peeking out as much as possible without sticking my head out, I saw no zombies on this side.
‘Okay. This is your chance. Let’s get out of here quickly.’
I managed to shove my body through the window while struggling and finally succeeded in getting outside. I made a mistake while landing and slightly twisted my ankle, but this was minor compared to my life.
‘Now, where should I go….’
Judging by the fact that the streets were filled with buildings I had never seen before, this was not my neighborhood. Thinking first to move away from this cafe, I glanced back and saw the chaos the cafe had turned into with zombies swarming inside, then quickly turned around and ran. Fortunately, there were no zombies on the street, as if they’d all flocked to the cafe.
But I couldn’t let my guard down. I didn’t know when or where zombies might pop out. After running for a long while without looking back, I was eventually forced to stop in my tracks due to an object that appeared in front of me.
[Stage 1: School]
[Congratulations on entering the first stage!]
“What is this…”
I had just entered the school that appeared before me as I ran like crazy. Unlike the chaotic buildings I had seen while running on the streets, this place looked relatively decent. However, as I crossed the school gate, this thing appeared in front of me.
‘Stage? School?’
As I titled my head and stared at what seemed like a hologram in front of me, familiar scenes flashed through my mind for a moment.
“Huh? Could it be… No way? But that’s… there’s no way. It can’t be.”
The current situation mirrored exactly the progression within the game I had been obsessively playing. As soon as a character fleeing from zombies like me entered the school gate, this message appeared signaling the end of the tutorial and the start of the actual game.
Come to think of it, the name of the school, which was the background for the first stage, was Seongwol High School… I stepped outside with a sense of disbelief and checked the school name written on the main gate.
[Seongwol High School]
“…”
I was wondering if I saw it wrong, so I blinked my eyes and checked again and again, but nothing changed.
Could I be remembering the name wrong? Maybe it wasn’t Seongwol but another name… Ridiculous. I’d spent so much time on this game; how could I forget that one detail? Moreover, there was an episode related to the name, so there was no way I could have confused it with another.
This meant that my situation right now was going the same way as the game…
“That’s insane.”
The hypothesis that came to mind immediately escaped my lips.
“Is this the game?”
Hello guys, Ami here! I’m back with another post-apocalyptic novel that seems really fun! It’s concept and suspense is really interesting, so let’s enjoy it together 🙂
