Episode 28
She seemed to be trying to compose her emotions, bowing her head, while I was watching her in cold sweat. I earnestly prayed for this moment to pass quickly.
“…By the time everything inside was sorted out and everyone was relieved, another problem arose. There were others who’d been bitten by zombies aside from my brother. Among them were people who had led the charge in telling my brother to leave. They were bitten too, but they chased out only my brother.”
“….”
“I despised them so much. My brother died in agony surrounded by zombies, but those bastards died without pain after turning into zombies… I really hate them. I want to kill them all!”
“….”
“I just hate everything. Everything! I feel so disgusted I could vomit!”
In the end, she tore at her as if having a breakdown.
“I want revenge so badly, I want to kill them all! But there’s so many of them. If I just charge in recklessly, I won’t get my revenge; I’ll just end up dead. Haha… I’m afraid to die. I hate it all. I hate everything!”
“Wait a moment, Ms. Ga-eun. Calm down…”
“Aaaah—!”
As if to expel all the pent-up emotions she had accumulated, she kept wailing. When I thought I should stop her and hurriedly approached, she collapsed on the spot like a doll whose strings had been cut. It seemed she had fainted after exhausting her energy from crying and screaming. I moved her to the bed with Do-yoon’s help and sat on the floor.
“I didn’t think it would be this hard…”
“Are you okay, noona?”
“…I just feel a bit drained. What about you?”
“To be honest, I was a bit shocked.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing, noona?”
“I forced you to come, didn’t I? You didn’t like the idea of bringing Ms. Ga-eun here in the first place, but because of me…”
I felt exhausted. I didn’t know what had swept over me. The woman in the game wasn’t this emotional, so… the shock must have been significant.
“It’s true that I don’t like her. I’m afraid she’ll take you away from me.”
“Take away how? I’m not an object.”
“But I understand why she’s acting that way.”
I turned my head to look at him, wondering what crazy thing he was about to spout.
“Have you ever lost someone precious?”
“…Me?”
Someone precious? I couldn’t think of anyone. My family would be fine in the real world, and none of my friends had died.
“No, I haven’t.”
“I have lost many. That’s why… I understand. How sad it is.”
He looked me in the eyes eyes and said that softly.
“….”
“….”
I slowly turned my head away, avoiding his eyes. Why was he bringing up such a heavy topic all of a sudden? The mood had become so heavy that my chest felt stuffy.
[ The conditions have been met. The stage will be opened. ]
[ Stage 2: Supermarket ]
[ Congratulations on entering the second stage! ]
“Huh?”
Then, a bluish screen appeared in front of me, who’d turned my head, and my eyes widened.
It was starting already? But we hadn’t even gathered food yet!
“Noona… You see this too, right?”
He pointed to the air, asking. It seemed the system window had appeared for him as well.
“Yes…”
“Stage 2… What does it mean by ‘conditions have been met’?.”
“Who knows. But one thing is for certain: it’s not going to be good.”
Unlike stages that start immediately upon entry, like the first stage, there were also conditional stages that require certain conditions to be met before they opened. However, the opening conditions for this stage were not as clear-cut as others.
According to the official information from the developer, the conditions were met when human selfishness, greed, and other negative emotions exceeded a certain level. I did not understand why they made it that way. The conditions were so abstract that it was impossible to estimate when the stage would open if you just waited.
Therefore, if you wanted to progress the story quickly, you had to cause a big commotion. For example, releasing zombies like last time or causing a fight over food… There were various
methods, of which I planned to use to provoke them by stealing food. I could steal food, meet the conditions to open the stage, and even take revenge—kill two birds– no, three birds with one stone.
However, currently, the stage was opening too early. I wanted it to be opened at least after we had gathered all the food… If it opened now, people would be too busy running away, causing chaos everywhere. Moreover, with zombies running amok, when would we have time to gather food? Even the food we’d manage to gather would likely be trampled and be in poor condition.
“…!”
At that moment, the ground began to shake. No, it wasn’t just shaking; there was a roar as if the ground was splitting apart.
“What’s happening all of a sudden… Is it an earthquake?”
“…I’d rather have it be an earthquake.”
Damn it. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have come down to the basement. Of all times, it had to happen while we were here…
The main zombie mutant of this stage appeared from the ground. Literally, it broke through the concrete from the floor and invaded the underground, then grew in size by breaking through the ceilings of the first and second floors. To be honest, it was inaccurate to even call it a zombie. It was just a monster… The mid-boss and final boss of the previous stage were also closer to monsters than zombies.
“Should we go outside?”
“No, let’s wait a bit. It’s dangerous to go out rashly when we don’t know what’s happening out there.”
Unfortunately, being underground meant that all the shocks and vibrations were transmitted to us, but there was nothing we could do about it. Going outside now would mean getting caught in the chaotic scramble of people panicking at the sight of the main zombie. Moreover, since the stage had already started, invisible barriers had formed at the windows and doors leading outside, so it’d be impossible to leave. So, imagine how crazy the people would be.
I definitely didn’t want to get caught in the middle of that. That was when the woman who had passed out woke up. I thought she would sleep a bit longer, but it seemed the noise had woken her.
“What is this sound?”
“We’re not sure either. It just started suddenly…”
She had just woken up from her sleep and seemed to be in a daze, huddling her body as if anxious at the vibrations and noise shaking the ground.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. More than that… I’m sorry. I get carried away and lose my senses whenever I talk about my brother. I know I shouldn’t, but I keep doing it…”
“Accepting death is never easy, especially the death of someone close to you. It’s natural to have such a reaction, so there’s no need to feel sorry.”
“…Thank you. But with all this commotion, something big must have happened outside, right? It sounds like the ground and walls are shaking… Is the building collapsing?”
She looked around anxiously, her eyes darting back and forth. If you didn’t know why this was happening, just hearing the noise could make you think the building was collapsing. Well, the building was collapsing in a way, since the ceiling was crumbling. But it wasn’t going to collapse entirely. The game didn’t show that happening. Besides, it wouldn’t make sense for the setting of this place to collapse when we hadn’t even cleared the stage yet.
“I doubt it. Nothing that could cause the building to collapse could’ve happened.”
Right? It wouldn’t collapse, would it? But… I became a little uneasy myself when the loud shaking continued…
Realistically, if the ceiling and floor collapse, the balance supporting the weight would be lost, and there was a high chance the building itself would crumble. If that happened, we’d be buried alive down here… But trying to escape outside wouldn’t help. The doors and windows were all blocked by invisible barriers, making escape impossible anyway. Staying here was the best option for now, but the constant anxiety of the people around me started to make me anxious as well.
“….”
The deafening noise and vibrations were giving me a headache. On top of that, dealing with her had drained my energy, and the anxiety of the building possibly collapsing was eating me up inside… Everything was just the worst. I never thought things could be this bad. I felt like sighing involuntarily. I forced my eyes closed and tried to calm down. While I was slowly inhaling and exhaling, I felt someone grab my hand.
“Noona, are you okay? Are you in pain?”
“Ah…”
When I opened my eyes and checked, he was looking at me with a worried expression. For some reason, my anxiety lessened a bit at the sight of him.
“I’m fine. I just have a bit of a headache. I think it’s because of the noise around us.”
“Is it very painful? Do you want to lean on me?”
“It’s not that bad. You don’t need to worry too much. I’m really fine.”
Even so, he forced me to lean on him. Then, he patted my shoulder and whispered that everything would be okay, which made me laugh. He didn’t need to go this far… But his actions were cute, so I just leaned against him quietly and closed my eyes.
Feeling a bit better, I waited for everything to quiet down. After some time, the loud noises and vibrations finally subsided, and only the faint screams of people could be heard from a distance. Relieved that the building hadn’t collapsed, I slowly stood up from my seat.
Lolol do-yoon’s so cute
