Mental Caretaker In An Apolcalypse Game

Episode 31

In the end, the situation escalated to the extreme.

“What the hell. Isn’t that that crazy woman? Why is she here?”

“Who?”

“Hey, that’s the woman who went crazy after her brother died.”

“Ah, that woman? Didn’t they say she completely lost it after that? They said she kept causing disturbances and kept everyone on edge, didn’t they?”

Listening to their conversation, she finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and exploded. She threw the person she was just grappling with to one side and tried to rush at them. Startled by her appearance, I had to quickly jump out and restrain her.

“Ms. Ga-eun! Stop! Come to your senses! That’s insane!”

“Let go of me! I need to kill those bastards right now….”

“A knife! They have knives! If you rush at them with your bare hands, it’s just suicide!”

Please listen to me! I didn’t go through all this suffering just to end up like this. If I was going to die anyway, I would have ignored helping anyone and just focused on looting food and killing zombies from the start!

“Please, I’m begging you. Calm down. Instead of those guys, why don’t you start by killing the person you just grabbed! That guy is the actual murderer who killed Ms. Ga-eun’s little brother!”

“…What did you say?”

“Ms. Ga-eun’s brother was originally unharmed and could have easily escaped, but he got hurt while helping that guy just now. That guy hurt your brother to draw his blood and ran away to save himself. He’s the worst, so let’s get him first!”

Sigh… I really missed Do-yoon. I’d been trying to stop her since a while ago, but I was overpowered and could only pitifully be dragged along. Especially because she was absurdly strong, there was no way I could stop her alone. With that thought in mind, I blurted out anything that came to mind, and suddenly she stopped.

Then, she grabbed me and asked if it was true, so I shouted that it was true and that we should catch that guy who ran away instead of these people. At that, she looked in the direction where the person she had just let go had fled with a fierce expression, then left me behind and ran off in that direction.

In an instant, I was left alone, drained. I sat on the ground in exhaustion. Ah… I wasn’t alone.

“Ha, ha….”

I forced my heavy body to stand up and headed towards the side I’d temporarily thrown the bat to to stop her. Then, with a forced smile, I tried to let the other people know I was harmless.

“We were a bit rude. Ha-ha… so we’ll just get out of here now….”

“Wait a minute. If you leave like this, we’ll suffer a great loss.”

“Huh?”

“Because of the noise from your side, the zombies are swarming over here.”

When I looked at the spot they were pointing to, the gathered clumps were already wriggling.

Those things didn’t respond to sound, so it couldn’t be because we were noisy.

“Either take responsibility and clear those things out before you leave, or we’ll have to do it. You’ve caused us trouble, so you should pay the price, shouldn’t you?”

“….”

They began to openly threaten me, each brandishing a knife in their hands.

Wow, just look at those icy-sharp blades. Getting stabbed by one of those would be troublesome. I felt a cold sweat breaking out.

“We like you, so if you come over to our side, we might treat you specially.”

“Everyone wants to come in here, so consider yourself lucky.”

They were spouting nonsense. Were they crazy? Why would I go in there? Ah, I would eventually go in to loot food, but not now. And if I were to go in, it would be with Do-yoon; I absolutely had no intention of going in alone. I quietly picked up the bat that had fallen to the ground and then raised one hand. To be specific, I raised my hand with the middle finger extended.

“Yeah, I’m definitely not going in. Overconfidence is a bad look.*”

With that, I ran like crazy without looking back. I could hear them shouting at me from behind, but I ignored them. Afraid they might chase after me, I used all my might to only run forward.

***

“How did I… ugh, manage to avoid that monster and get down to the first floor….”

After running recklessly in the direction she had gone, dodging those little guys, I finally found her and the man who was half-dead from her beating. Only then could I catch my breath.

“They said they take me in as long as I brought food to them…. Ugh. It hurts, stop!”

“Shut up, you filthy bastard.”

“You… if you kill me like this, you’ll end up being the same as me. You called us all murderers, but you’ll become one too!”

At those words, she hesitated. The trembling in her eyes seemed to reflect a slight wavering in her heart. Thinking that his words were having an effect, he tried to shake her further by saying things that would prick her conscience even more. However, the hesitation was brief; she raised her hand again and started hitting the man.

“AGH!”

“Is that something you should say to me? To me! Those words should never come out of your mouth!”

“Ugh…. Please… Someone… Help me..”

As she continued to beat him mercilessly, it seemed like he might actually die. After a long while, she finally stopped hitting him and looked down at the man writhing on the floor. Her face was a mess from tears.

I couldn’t bring myself to intervene at such a moment, so I watched from a distance. To be honest, I was a bit scared too. I was worried she might actually kill him. From her perspective, the man had done more than enough to deserve death, but from mine, it was different. Watching one person kill another wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight… And murder, no matter how you dressed it up, wasn’t something to be viewed positively.

“….”

As I stood there looking at her with anxiety, she finally turned away from the man after staring at him in silence for a long time. I watched her solitary figure leave for a moment, then slowly approached the fallen man.

“Ugh…. Help me….”

That was the first thing he said when he saw me, as if he still had the strength to speak.

“Why, so you can push me towards the zombies to save yourself, just like you did with that kid?”

“No…. That was, unavoidable….”

“Come to think of it, when that kid asked for help, you didn’t help, did you? You ran away alone, and the kid was bitten by a zombie…. In the end, it all came full circle. I just wish that kid wouldn’t have helped you back then..”

“Ah, no…. Ugh…. Please…!”

I left the man behind and headed in the direction she had gone.

Sigh… Why was she wandering around alone like this? I was so tired from just following her around. I sighed inwardly. Nevertheless, I had no choice but to follow her.

“….”

“…Ms. Ga-eun.”

Fortunately, she hadn’t gone far, so I was able to catch up with her soon.

She was picking up a long pipe that had fallen to the ground.

Where the hell did that pipe come from? Was it mixed in when the ceiling collapsed?

“In the end, I’m no different from them. I’m a murderer too.”

“Huh?”

“I killed someone, after all.”

“If you’re talking about that guy just now, he’s not dead yet. He’s still alive….”

“For now. But if he stays there like that, he’ll get eaten by zombies. I killed him indirectly.”

“…You don’t have to think of it that way. He should have died that day, but thanks to your little brother, he lived a bit longer….”

“You seem like a really kind person, Ms. Ji-ah.”

Caught off guard by her sudden comment, I was momentarily embarrassed and couldn’t say anything.

“You’re really kind. You’re so good to someone you’ve just met….”

“Well, not exactly….”

“The first sport I learned since I was young was Kendo.”

“Hm?”

When she brought up a different topic again, I was at a loss as to which rhythm to follow.

“I enjoyed it so much that I started doing other sports too…. But still, I never quit Kendo. It’s my favorite.”

“Oh, I see… That’s nice.”

“When I did sports, I could pour out all the emotions I had inside me. I’ve been told since I was young that I’m emotional. I tended to explode even when slightly irked…. But I improved through sports.”

This was the first time I had heard this story. I’d definitely not seen anything like this in the game…

“You said it was dangerous to go without weapons earlier, right? It’s okay now. This is enough.”

“Don’t tell me… You’re going to fight with that?”

“Although it’s quite different from a sword, this is enough.”

“No, wait a minute. Are you saying you’re going in there alone?”

Was this woman really crazy? How many people did she think were there? And she was going to charge in alone? Was she really hoping to get herself killed?

“The people on the first floor took the lead in driving my brother out. Several of them threatened him with weapons and pushed him out.”

“I understand that you want to take revenge, but that’s too dangerous. We were going to go there anyway. So let’s go together. Le’ts find Do-yoon first… With his abilities, we can take revenge more safely and easily….”

“It’s okay. You don’t need to help me anymore. To be honest, I know you’ve been worried about Do-yoon since earlier. You two seem very close, so go find him.”

“Huh…?”

“And you were planning to go in there because of the food, right? If that’s so, I’ll go first and turn everything upside down. Find Do-yoon and take your time coming there.”

“No… That’s…”

She didn’t give me a chance to say something in return and just left me behind again.

What the hell was this? What?

“Wait… Wait a minute, Ms. Ga-eun!”

I called out to her desperately, but she didn’t look back. I thought about chasing after her and stopping her, but I finally gave up. Her gaze was too determined. It didn’t seem like she would listen even if I tried to stop her, like before. In the first place, I had merely turned her attention somewhere else instead of actually stopping her.

“What is all this… What’s going to happen now…?”

Everyone was scattered. I wasn’t sure if one person was still alive or not, and another was on their way to die on their own.

“Ha, what do I do now… This isn’t it. I never thought it would turn out like this…”

Should I follow her and try to help? But how? I wasn’t a great fighter to begin with, and this would be my first time fighting a human being. All I’d ever done before was fight with my younger sister… Apart from that, the only other thing was playfully fighting with friends by grabbing each other’s hair.

In the end, I could only stand there helplessly, staring blankly at her back as she walked away.

---

*the actual idiom used is 김칫국 마시다 which means: drink kimchi soup

It’s like the korean version of ‘don’t count your chickens before they hatch’

It’s literal meaning would be: If you eat a rice cake too quickly, you may choke. To prevent this, you should drink some water first, or in this case, Kimchi broth.

Basically, Ji-ah is telling them not to be too brazen and think too highly of themselves that they forget to safeguard themselves due to arrogance. Don’t count your chickens didn’t really fit, however, so I went with ‘Overconfidence isn’t a good look’ to preserve the sentiment.

AND LIESSS, JI-AH! YOU’RE A GREAT FIGHTER! But fighting humans is def different 🙁 it sucks bc they’re vermin

I went with Ms. Instead of -ssi so readers who don’t read the notes don’t get confused, but I read a comment that liked -ssi more, so now I’m confused T-T, if you wake up and notice it’s been switched to -ssi one of these days – well, don’t be surprised!