Episode 61
“Ji-ah!”
As soon as he recognized me, he called out to me urgently, as if he had found a savior. But when he saw the mermaid banging on the tank as if trying to break it, he froze in fear. I didn’t have the luxury to wait for him to regain his senses, so I led Do-yoon and ran towards him.
“You’re really…! How could you act alone? We need to stick together especially in times like these!”
“I’m sorry… Ga-eun noona suddenly ran off by herself… At first, I thought I could catch up to her, but the distance kept widening, and eventually, I lost her.”
“How could you catch up to an athlete by running? You should have given up from the start and come back.”
“I tried to go back belatedly, but I forgot which way I came from…”
“I knew it. I bet you just looked ahead and ran without paying attention to your surroundings. Ga-eun Unnie can survive on her own if she’s alone, but you can’t. You don’t have that ability–.”
“I’m sorry…”
As I felt relieved to have found him, I couldn’t help but vent my frustration, pouring out the words that had been building up inside me. But then I realized, too late, that I had gone too far. He must have been terrified and struggling alone, and I had been too harsh on him. I closed my mouth, feeling guilty. But perhaps it was too late, as he shrank into himself even more.
“…It’s okay. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No…”
“Can you move? Let’s go find Ga-eun Unnie. Ha… I wonder how far she went…”
At that moment, amidst the banging sound of the tank, another faint sound was heard. Curious, I turned my gaze towards it and saw that a fine crack had appeared on the tank that had been fine just moments ago. As the mermaid pounded its fist, the crack became more clear and grew larger.
A crack already? I hurriedly checked the time and bit my lip when I realized it had already been 30 minutes since we entered.
Damn it. In the game, cracks would start appearing on the tanks from the 30-minute mark… We needed to find Seo Ga-eun as quickly as possible and head towards the entrance before time ran out. If the tank broke when we were deep inside the aquarium…
Shuddering at the worst-case scenario I didn’t want to imagine, I led Do-yoon and Jun-woo.
“Let’s go quickly. The tanks might break.”
“What? The tanks breaking? Isn’t the glass in places like this usually strong? It’s made to withstand even whales or sharks bumping into it, right?”
“Do you still think that after seeing this?”
I pointed to the cracking tank. As his gaze followed my finger, his eyes widened and his face paled when he saw what was at the end.
“Now that you understand, move. We need to find her and get out of here quickly.”
“Ah, okay…”
I asked Jun-woo to take the lead, worried that he might fall behind if he followed us instead. Do-yoon and I followed closely behind.
“Noona, where’s the zombie that’s the clear condition here? Shouldn’t we take care of it before the tank breaks?”
He whispered softly so only I could hear him. I glanced at Jun-woo running ahead for a moment before replying quietly.
“That zombie appears after the tank breaks.”
“What?”
“It shows up when the time is up.”
That’s right. The main zombie here only appeared after the hour had passed. When the tanks fully broke and the water inside flooded the aquarium, it would appear. Along with it, other zombies would emerge, all in fish form. Unlike us, who had limited mobility in the water, they could swim freely, making the situation very disadvantageous for us.
If those zombie fish even slightly bit you, the smell of blood would quickly spread through the water, attracting them in swarms, leading to a terrible and cruel death. So, we had to be careful of the surrounding fish while dealing with the main zombie.
But was it really that easy? If the water only rose to our waists, it might be manageable, but in a situation where we were almost completely submerged and struggling to just breathe, those zombies wouldn’t even be on our radar.
‘Sigh… That’s why we need to face the main zombie as near the door as possible.’
That way, we could go outside to breathe as soon as we killed it. The tank, which started cracking gradually from the 30-minute mark, would begin to leak a small stream of water at the 40-minute mark. By the 50-minute mark, the water would rise to our ankles, and by the time an hour had passed, it would reach our knees or even higher.
When the main zombie appeared at this point, the water would rise rapidly, submerging us completely. We had to defeat it and get out within that brief moment. If you had good lung capacity or were used to being in the water often, you wouldn’t need to worry so much, but I wasn’t like that.
Excluding a brief period in elementary school when I learned to swim, I had no contact with water at all. I didn’t even like water to begin with… The sea? A swimming pool? A stream? I had never gone to any of those places on my own. I had only been to such places a few times when I was taken by my family for summer vacation or by school. Even then, I just looked around or dipped my feet in the water. Since I didn’t particularly like water, even though I was curious about aquariums because they were said to be pretty, I had never actually gone to one myself.
‘Ha… I really can’t swim… If there’s no floating board like the ones used in swimming pools, I would just sink…’
I kept glancing at the tank in anxiety, checking in real-time as the cracks formed.
“Huh…?”
“What’s wrong, noona?”
“Wait, it’s not been 40 minutes yet, has it…?”
“Yes…? I think not.”
“Damn it…”
Even though it clearly hadn’t been 40 minutes yet, water was already starting to pool on the floor. I stopped in my tracks when I heard water splashing with my hurried steps and soaking my feet.
‘Why is this happening already… It shouldn’t be like this. If the water fills up like this…’
I didn’t have claustrophobia, but in this moment, I felt like I was being suffocated under the pressure of being trapped in this place.
Or maybe I had a phobia of water… Trying to calm down somehow, I hurriedly took deep breaths in and out. Noticing that something was wrong, Do-yoon came closer to me.
“What’s wrong? What’s bothering you?”
“…”
Gathering my thoughts for a moment, I watched Junwoo running ahead alone, unaware that we had stopped. I grabbed his hand and told him to keep going again.
“No, it’s nothing. Whoo… Let’s go.”
Then, I tried not to focus on the water rising beneath our feet as much as possible.
“Let’s go quickly. We might lose track of Jun-woo like this.”
“…Your hand is cold. Are you really that nervous? To the point you’re shaking?”
At that moment, I realized my hand was trembling badly in his own strong one.
“…The water is already rising. It’s going too fast compared to my plan.”
The reason for this was probably because of those mermaids. In the game, the glass would crack on its own when the time came. But now, because those mermaids were going on a rampage, the cracks were forming faster, and the water was leaking out like this. At this rate, the tanks might break completely before the hour was up, and the water could rise to our heads.
Just like in the hospital, things here were different from what I knew.
“Where exactly does that zombie appear?”
“…Are you talking about the main zombie? You don’t need to worry about that. When the time comes, it will come towards us on its own.”
That was one piece of good news. If the main zombie had a specific location where it appeared and we had to go there, I would never have been able to clear this stage. Fortunately, it would automatically detect our position and come towards us. Compared to the other main zombies I had encountered, this one was… let’s say, considerate?
No, if it were considerate, it wouldn’t try to bury us alive in the water. A zombie being considerate? Impossible.
In any case, we didn’t need to go around looking for it, and thanks to that, I could make the strategy to wait at the entrance, kill it, and immediately go outside.
“Then let’s go to the entrance.”
“What?”
“There’s no guarantee that we’ll find that person within the remaining time. It’s better to wait at the entrance than to wander around inside. The water has already risen this much, and by then, it will have risen even higher. It’s better to kill the zombie at the entrance and go outside immediately.”
I knew that. But I couldn’t just leave Seo Ga-eun like this.
“You never know. She might already be waiting at the entrance. Unlike him, she might have remembered the way back and gone there.”
“…”
I hoped so, but in all the times I’d played this stage, that had never happened. She was always found at the innermost part of the aquarium. So, having such hope was pointless.
Maybe it was because he’d noticed that I wasn’t in good shape that he was saying this. I appreciated his concern, but I couldn’t accept it.
“I’m really okay. There’s still some time left, right? Let’s look around a bit more.”
“…”
“Hik! What is this? When did the water get here…!”
At that moment, the guy who had been running ahead of us finally realized that the water was rising and stopped. Then, looking around in a fluster, he turned back and looked at me.
“What should we do, Ji-ah? Is this okay? If the water rises too much…”
“…”
“…We’ve come quite deep into this place. It will take time to go back. And by then, the water will have risen even more and get in the way of moving.”
“…”
“Going back is the right choice now.”
Do-yoon was right. Considering the distance to the entrance and the increased time it would take to move with the rising water, we should turn back now. But…
Jun-woo, who was as scared as me in the ankle-deep water, clung to my side. Do-yoo, who was holding my hands tightly, stood firmly, drawing a line. My mind became even more complicated thinking about Seo Ga-eun, who was somewhere in this place.
But one thing was certain.
‘I have to make a decision.’
