Mental Caretaker In An Apolcalypse Game

Episode 14

My wish seemed to have come true; fortunately, the sixth period passed without us seeing even a shadow, let alone the variant specialized in strength.

-Ding~Dong~

[The seventh period has begun. Teachers in charge, please find the students hiding within the school.]

[We are announcing again. The seventh period has begun. Teachers in charge, please find the students who are not attending class.]

And so, the seventh period began. If we could just get through this, all we had to do was hide during the supplementary class, and then it would be night study. There would be a mountain of problems to follow, but for now… the most important thing was to hold out during the present.

 

***

 

-Ding~Dong~

[Night self-study has begun. Supervisors, please find the students hiding within the school.]

[Let us inform you once again. Night self-study has begun. Supervisors are requested to find the students who are not studying.]

It finally began. As soon as the broadcast came on, the variant zombies rushed out of the main building as if they had been waiting for it, with some heading to the new building and others to the gym.

“What should we do? Should we stay here or move?”

“The variants coming this way are specialized in hearing and strength. I think it’s better to stay here.”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

Indeed, those two variants could be avoided as long as one stayed hidden. Earlier, we had quietly stayed in one place, and hadn’t encountered the strength variant. The hearing-specialized variant could hear even the sound of breathing when focused, but unless it detected a loud noise first, it would just pass by. Those two had clear avoidance methods, making them less difficult compared to other variants.

“The speed and intelligence-specialized variants have gone towards the gym. That means the main building is visual and transformation?”

“We’re lucky. If they rotate every hour like this, the next hour should be easy to get through.”

“That’s true. It would be nice if it continues like this…”

It was a good composition indeed. During night study hours, the variant zombies placed in the main building, new building, and gym were all switched, and this composition was always random. With good luck, it could become an easy-to-clear combination, but it was important to pre-identify because the variants in the main building went to the new building, and the variants in the new building went to the gym, rotating every hour.

Among the strategy videos I’d seen before for surviving the night before, there was one that said, ‘When the zombies rotation is made, rotate with it.’

‘As if it’s easy moving with the zombies.’

According to the layout of the school building, the main building and the new building were connected by a bridge, but to get to the gym, you had to cross the open playground. In other words, this method was unreasonably dangerous. The most realistic approach was to go back and forth on the bridge connecting the main and new buildings and buy time while hiding. That’s why the place we arrived at was the second-floor corridor of the new building where the bridge was located. Judging by the way Do-yoon was leaning against the wall and looking out the window like me, he seemed to have come up with the same idea.

The moment I thought of that, I felt a strange gaze sweeping over my body. It wasn’t from outside the window, but from nearby.

“What is this? It’s giving me goosebumps….”

I quickly turned my head to find the source of the gaze. The direction from which I felt the gaze was at the end of the bridge. The school’s structure was shaped like ‘ㄱ’, with the main building being horizontal and the new building vertical. The bridge that connected this ‘ㄱ’ shape was straight from the corridor of the new building. Therefore, from my current position, the inside of the bridge was clearly visible, but something round was protruding from the wall where the main building turned inward. I stared intently at it, and when I soon realized what it was, I bit my lip.

“Do-yoon, we might be screwed.”

“We got caught, didn’t we?”

“Huh? How did you know….”

He seemed to have grasped the situation without even turning his fixed gaze out of the window. He must have felt the monster’s gaze like I did.

“It doesn’t seem to be specialized in vision.”

“Then it’s specialized in transformation.”

“Probably.”

“If it’s a transformation type, we should be safe at this distance.”

“I know that, but it’s somehow unsettling….”

The transformation-specialized variant zombies were literally specialized in transforming their appearance. For example, they disguised themselves as ordinary zombies and mixed in, and when humans got close, they suddenly opened their large mouths with their enlarged heads and bit off their heads and upper bodies in one bite. Moreover, when transformed, the aura unique to the variant zombies also disappeared, making them even more indistinguishable. They were truly abhorrent things.

“Shall we do it in, then?”

Only then did he turn his gaze away from the window, calmly drawing his bowstring and aiming at the creature.

“Transformation mutants are definitely dangerous. If it transforms into a regular zombie and hides, it’ll be a pain, so let’s get rid of it early.”

Saying so, he casually shot an arrow without any hesitation. It swiftly cut through the air and flew, hitting the creature’s eye in an instant. At that moment, the creature, which had only shown its face, twisted its body and revealed its entire form. As if he had been waiting for this, Do-yoon took out a new arrow, hung it on the string, and quickly shot three more arrows.

Woah… wasn’t this crazy?

Even if he had the protagonist’s buff, this was still amazing. It seemed like he’d had years of training with the bow… Instead of the zombie screaming loudly, my attention was more on the sight of him shooting the arrows.

After he shot three more arrows into the creature’s body as it charged towards us, I finally swung the bat and blew off its head. Then, with a stunned expression, I stared down at the transformed, mutated variant that lay dead with its head blown apart. Was it dead? Really dead? This easily? Seven arrows and a smashed head with a bat should be enough to kill it, but it was hard to believe because it happened so quickly.

“And I see it yet again. You’re crazy. Really. I didn’t expect to kill it like this… But it is really dead, right? I’m having trouble believing it, seeing that it died so fast for a mutant zombie…”

“Unlike other variants, this one only changes its appearance. It’s easy to be beaten by it because it hides so quietly… But apart from that, it doesn’t have any other abilities.”

“I see… Now that you mention it, this one is kind of like a sniper, hiding somewhere and aiming for just one shot. Other than that, it’s not particularly strong…”

“Bows are certainly good. It’s long-range, so it puts us in less danger… But since arrows are consumables, I don’t think I can use them for long.”

“Hmm… That’s true. Anyway, I’ll pull out the arrows stuck in it.”

I expressed my gratitude to the transforming variant that had delivered itself to us like a target board while receiving all the arrows and making it convenient for us to collect them in the process. I pulled out the arrows that were stuck in it.

“It would be great if the next zombie also came all the way here from the main building, across the bridge. Isn’t it perfect if you shoot your arrows and I hit it a few times to kill when it’s almost here? Plus, they automatically deliver the arrows to us for us to collect them back.”

He chuckled at my full of self-interest words.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Automatic delivery, what a cute thing to say.”

I didn’t understand how that was cute, but I had to put that aside for the moment. I heard the sound of the bell and signaled to him with my lips that it seemed to be coming from the stairs. He nodded to say that he understood and turned his gaze towards the stairs with me.

Trink.. Trink…

This was the sound of a bell, one of the characteristics of the hearing-specialized mutant zombie. The creature wore a bell around its neck like a cat, and it made a sound every time it moved. So when it got close, you could know and deal with it.

I tried my best to breathe quietly, taking in and exhaling as little air as possible to avoid making any noise. The zombie, which had climbed to the second floor, began to slowly make its way down the hall towards us. Although there was quite a distance between the zombie’s position and ours, we couldn’t hit it with arrows like before.

This was due to another characteristic of the hearing-specialized mutant zombie. Although it couldn’t see ahead, it was incredibly agile. It usually walked slowly, but as soon as it heard a sound, it would rush over in an instant to kill. Therefore, even if we shot an arrow, by the moment we drew and released the bowstring, it would surely hear the sound and be upon us in no time. Rather than attacking rashly, we had to wait for it to pass by. Before we knew it, the distance between us and the hearing-specialized mutant zombie was about the length of one classroom.

Wiiiiing!

At that moment, from behind—or rather, from the direction of the bridge connecting the main building and the new building—a siren-like sound echoed.

‘Shit.’

It was from a mutant variant zombie specialized in vision. After that, I heard the sound of the creature’s footsteps as it madly rushed towards us. I rolled my eyes to meet Do-yoon’s gaze. There was no way out. Trapped between zombies from both sides, the only way to survive was for each of us to take down one. I would handle the hearing zombie, and he would deal with the visual one.

While he was shooting arrows in succession, dealing with the visually specialized zombie that was relatively farther away, I swung my bat at the hearing zombie that had heard the movement and was suddenly right in front of me. Fortunately, there was a window next to me, and I intended to hit it as hard as I could to smash its head against the window.

This worked better than I thought, and as the glass shattered, about half of its upper body was thrust outside. I thought it was a chance to push the creature out of the window and make it fall.

However, this was a mutant zombie. It wasn’t going to be so easily beaten. Even with half of its upper body pulled outside, it launched a sound attack that made me think my eardrums would burst for a moment. Because of the high-pitched ringing in my ears, I lost my balance, and faltered for a moment. The zombie pulled me as if it’d been waiting for this.

Fuck!

In that instant, I almost bounced out of the window due to the force. That is, if he hadn’t caught me. I don’t know how he’d handled the visually specialized variant, but he grabbed my waist and held me to prevent me from falling.

“Really, why do you like windows so much, noona?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Let’s push this guy out first instead of talking about useless things.”

I safely returned to the inside of the building and then pushed the lower half of the zombie, which was hanging from the window, causing it to fall outside. Thud! I heard the sound of it hitting the ground. I thought it would be dead by this point, so I looked down. However, contrary to my expectations, the creature was moving intact despite its tattered body. I muttered a curse at the sight of it.

“It didn’t die from that? Hell. Was the second floor too low?”

“Noona, we need to run now.”

“Huh?”

At that moment, the siren sound was heard again. I was surprised and checked to see the visually specialized zombie pulling out an arrow stuck in its mouth and howling madly.

“I thought its weakness would be the eyes since it’s visually specialized, but it turned out to be the mouth that makes that sound. I shot a few arrows into its mouth to save you, and it stopped for a moment.”

I thought he had come to help me after killing the visually specialized zombie, but he had only attacked its weakness to immobilize it for a moment and then came to me. But how did he know the weakness? Even I didn’t know that…

“Noona, let’s run for now. Now that we’ve caused such a commotion, the other zombies will come.”

“Yeah… Now that our position has been definitely discovered, those guys won’t rotate anymore and will just rush to catch us…”

Damn it. I thought we could clear it by hiding well, but in the end, we were back to running again. He’d helped me by massaging my leg, so it loosened up a lot, but I hadn’t completely recovered — it was going to be hard.

But there was no other way. Now, running was the only way to survive.

 

***

 

“Haa… Did time always pass so slow..?”

“Ugh… We have two minutes left.”

Damn! Please, just a little more! We had been chased by those creatures for hours. My stamina had been depleted long ago. I ran so frantically that I couldn’t even tell how I was moving; I had completely lost my mind.

Please, let it end. Please, quickly…

Chased by the creatures, we ran like mad around the playground and were eventually driven to the front of the main gate. Blocked by an invisible barrier beyond the gate, we collapsed on the spot. When I looked back, I reflexively closed my eyes in fear at the sight of the zombies that had almost caught up to us.

However, the pain I expected to come did not come. Curious, I opened my eyes slightly to see…

 

「Congratulations. You have cleared Stage 1 – School.」

 

The long-awaited clear message came.

After realizing that we had survived, my body completely relaxed on the floor. Only after confirming that the zombies that had been right in front of me had all disappeared could I close my eyes again in relief.

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Woah so intense