Episode 6
What a fool I was…
Just because I’d relaxed a little, I let my guard down too much. Even though I knew the outside was teeming with zombies, because I couldn’t see them, I wasn’t cautious enough. I should have at least prepared a proper weapon in advance… It was all because of the complacency of thinking I knew the future. I should have considered that the story could deviate now that a new variable had appeared…
But still, even with all that, this was too much. Why did that thing that started appearing from midnight when transitioning from Day 2 to Day 3 suddenly show up when transitioning from Day 1 to Day 2?
You might think it’s not a big deal for there to be a difference of just one day, but the difference mattered too much here. A game gives the players time to prepare. Especially when survival is at stake like this, it provides several opportunities and experiences in the beginning to learn survival tactics and then gradually increases the difficulty. But throwing a boss-level challenge at a newbie who could barely walk? What kind of balance was this? If it was like this in the future as well, how terrible would the next stages be…
Oh, damn it, what do I do now? It was uncertain if I could even clear this stage right now.
“…”
Maybe because the situation was so despairing, I couldn’t even muster the motivation to do anything about it.
I looked at him lying still. Though I couldn’t see clearly because of the darkness, I could sense that he was struggling in pain. Guilt, frustration, fear, disappointment – a whirlwind of emotions swept through my heart. Swallowing back the emotions threatening to overflow, I turned away and sank next to the sofa beside me. Leaning my back against the sofa, I pulled my legs close and bowed my head. It was terrifying. Too terrifying. Would I die like this?
‘Just, just… I wish none of this was real.’
Now that the situation had come to be like this, I felt sorry for him for some reason. All this time, whenever he easily became scared over trivial things and acted foolishly when his mental stability collapsed when I was playing the game, I would curse at him in frustration.
But now that I experienced it firsthand, I realized that his reactions were quite understandable. Facing grotesque zombies trying to devour you when you’ve lived a normal life and acting nonchalantly was the actual unreasonable thing. It seemed it was true that people truly had to experience things to understand them.
‘Ha, ha… What’s the use of having these thoughts now? It looks like I’m gonna die now.’
I closed my eyes and inwardly broke into a self-deprecating smile, lamenting my situation with a mix of self-pity and laughter.
***
Before I knew it, the darkness disappeared, and the sun began to rise. Slowly, I lifted my head towards the bright light streaming in through the window.
I was alive.
I somehow managed to hold out in this darkness. The time of trembling at the sound of zombies approaching from the outside was over. I quietly got up from my spot and made my way to the window. Carefully placing my hand on the window, I took in the brightening scenery outside with my eyes. The darkness receded, and the bright light illuminated the world.
“Ha…”
It was then I finally felt like I could breathe. As I fell away from the window and turned back, the view of the room that had been obscured by the darkness emerged. It was a beautifully decorated space. A table and a small refrigerator on one side, a cozy-looking sofa with various colored cushions next to it. On one side of the wall, neatly organized with various board games and books were arranged, while another wall had a nicely decorated bulletin board.
“It’s a counseling room…”
Looking at the clean space, my tense body seemed to relax a bit. After taking a few deep breaths, I carefully approached him and checked his condition. There were blood stains around his mouth, so I got worried about the possibility of an internal injury. As I cautiously lifted his shirt, dried blood that oozed out of the torn flesh and bruises everywhere revealed itself. Just looking at it hurt, and I winced.
“There’s a big bruise on his stomach…”
I was at a loss. External wounds could be treated with medication somehow, but internal issues were beyond my control. Gently placing my hand on his abdomen, I lightly pressed on the bruised area, causing him to grimace and groan. What should I do…? It seemed severe.
This might require him to be taken to the hospital, but that was in no way possible under the current situation.
‘What should I do… Should I abandon him? But… this happened because of me…’
Loyalty wouldn’t feed me, but even while trying to think rational things like ‘the living must survive, at least’, my heart kept wavering.
After a brief moment of contemplation with eyes lowered, I finally came to a conclusion. I couldn’t abandon him. If I left him and he died, I would undoubtedly be haunted by guilt and wouldn’t be able to sleep properly.
I searched for a first aid kit just in case, but there wasn’t one. Maybe because the infirmary was nearby… No, no matter what, wasn’t this too careless of the management? There could be an emergency or something.
I clicked my tongue, tidied up his clothes and walked towards the small refrigerator. Upon opening it, I found a 1L bottle of water and one orange juice. It seemed like these were prepared for the counseling students.
“At least we have some water for now…”
Closing the refrigerator, I glanced at him for a moment before turning my head to look towards the door.
I should go to the infirmary, right…? It was close by, so it wouldn’t take long, but…
The nightmarish events from dawn flashed through my mind. I couldn’t believe I had to go back to that horrible place again. But the mid-boss had probably moved to another location. He was always on the move, never staying in one place for long. Despite knowing this well, I somehow hesitated to go back. But I couldn’t just leave him like that… and we needed supplies anyway…
It was a bit easier to deal with the zombies when the sun was up since they moved slower. So, I needed to do something right away. First things first, I had to find a weapon. It would be insane to go out barehanded.
A weapon… a weapon.
“Damn it, there’s nothing usable as a weapon at all.”
The only thing that was barely usable was a thick book with a hardcover. But I wasn’t sure if it would be effective against zombies. It wouldn’t exactly crush their skulls by hitting them with its edge or flat side… Plus, it was small in size and uncomfortable to hold and swing.
Come to think of it, how tough were regular zombies? Um… in the beginning, the protagonist managed to knock a few down with a chair and they died… But that was because it was a solid metal chair. But this… I looked down at the book I was holding in my hand.
‘Fuck, will this work?’
With a sigh, I set the book down and scanned the surroundings once more. Then, my gaze stopped at one spot.
“…Should I hit them with a chair too?”
However, the chair here wasn’t the folding metal chair that the game protagonist used. I couldn’t fight the zombies with an unfoldable and bulky chair that I had to drag around. After swinging it once, I’d be completely drained and left vulnerable to be bitten by the zombies.
Back to square one once again. I was about to give into frustration when something caught my eye.
“Huh? Maybe this could work.”
What came into my hands when I reached for it was a tripod. I wasn’t sure why it was there, but it was made of metal, slender, and perfect for gripping and swinging. It had three legs, so when you gathered them together, it felt pretty stable and sturdy – I didn’t think it would be likely to break easily.
“Okay, let’s just go for it. If I want to survive in this world, I need to get used to it.”
Calming my trembling heart, I slowly approached the door. I cautiously turned the door handle, opening it just a crack to peer outside. I fervently scanned the surroundings, hoping there were no mutant zombies around.
Fortunately, there were only regular zombies. But I couldn’t let my guard down. Even though they were regular zombies, their numbers were overwhelming. They seemed to have gathered after the commotion from yesterday and hadn’t dispersed yet.
Up to this point, everything had gone as expected, so I calmly tried to pull myself together and took out a small, square object from my pocket. I found it while exploring the consultation room earlier and thought it might come in handy, so I kept it with me.
After manipulating the object, I once again took a silent deep breath. I opened the door slightly more and threw it with force in the opposite direction of the infirmary, as far away as possible.
Shortly after, beep beep beep! The consistent alarm rang out, and the zombies all turned their heads towards the source of the noise and flocked towards it.
This was my chance. Not knowing how long the stopwatch would distract the zombies, I had to move as quickly as possible. I swiftly exited the consultation room, closed the door, and sprinted down the empty corridor. Before long, I arrived at the infirmary.
“Wow… the door has been torn apart so skillfully…”
Although the sight of the devastated infirmary left me speechless, I gathered myself and stepped inside. The floor was littered with broken glass, so I had to be careful with every step I took. As I approached the shelf where the medicine was stored, I found it still in disarray from the chaos of last night
First, I’d need some medicine and painkillers to treat the wounds… but everything was mixed up, so I couldn’t tell what was what. After roughly checking the fallen medicines on the desk and the ones left on the shelf, I glanced down. Frowning for a moment, I crouched down to check the medicines scattered on the floor, one by one…
“…!”
The moment I crouched down, my eyes met with a zombie curled up under the desk. I instantly jumped back and stood up. It was a close call. As soon as our eyes met, the zombie lunged at me, trying to bite me.
“Oh no, darn it…!”
Gripping the tripod tightly with both hands, I swung with all my might towards the zombie emerging from under the desk. Then, with a puck-like sound, the zombie’s head flew off and rolled on the floor.
“Ugh, ugh…!”
I never expected the head to come off so easily. I had to suppress the scream that felt like it was about to burst out at what had suddenly happened in front of me. With trembling hands grasping the tripod, I tried to calm down my startled heart and check the medicine again. But one by one, I saw zombies staggering in the hallway. Hell. Come to think of it, I couldn’t hear the stopwatch alarm that was ringing until now. Was it over already? If that was the case, the zombies would start wandering the corridor again.
The problem was that both the windows and the door of the infirmary were smashed, making the inside visible from the corridor. Despite zombies primarily reacting to sound, they could still see to some extent. Their vision was blurry, but they could still make out shapes. They could especially find humans well.
“Oh no, darn it!”
I crouched down in a hurry and hid myself behind the desk. Although I had another stopwatch, I needed to save it to lure the zombies back when I returned to the consultation room. I held my breath and looked at the situation outside. The heads of the zombies visible through the window were increasing.
As I briefly considered being trapped in the infirmary, I started gathering the medicine while crouching down. Being conscious of the zombies, I hastily stirred my hands and couldn’t avoid the glass shards on the floor, so my hands were cut here and there, welling up blood.
“Darn it… What a mess.”
Despite tears welling up as I looked at my bleeding palms, I didn’t stop picking up the medicine.
“B, Blood.. It smells like blood..”
“!!”
I froze at the eerie voice that suddenly echoed through the corridor. When I turned my gaze towards the window in disbelief, I saw the zombies that had been wandering aimlessly suddenly rushing towards one direction in unison.
Oh, oh… No way, right? It couldn’t be…
“Smells like blood…. The smell of delicious blood. A human is nearby.”
Ah….
Combining the sudden reactions of the zombies and the voice ringing in the corridor, there was only one thing that came to mind.
Fuck…. It’s a mutant zombie.
Oh shit
