Episode 9
After screaming my lungs out, I felt a little relieved, but nothing had changed.
Those guys had already fled, and I no longer had the strength to escape, not to mention my physical condition was a mess.
And the most terrible thing was that the gatekeeper was coming after me from behind.
“Ha….”
It was too absurd and frustrating. I had struggled desperately to survive, clinging to life with all my might, yet why did I keep facing death? In truth, someone had sent me to this world to kill me and they didn’t like that I kept surviving? Perhaps they thought, “This should kill her,” and sent all sorts of mutant zombies after me, but I managed to dodge them like a rat and survive. If that person could read my thoughts now, they might even say, ‘Yes, you know well. Just die already.’
Did I really have to die?
“Why the hell do I have to die? If you wanted to kill me, you shouldn’t have sent me to this world in the first place, you bastards.”
What did I do wrong to deserve death? What right do you have to kill me….
Now I felt more angered than aggrieved. Why were they so anxious to not be able to catch and eat me? It was only the first stage, it was supposed to be passed with ease. Unless they have such a dirty mind that they can’t stand seeing others do well, how could they set up such malicious arrangements?
From the mid-boss to the mutant zombies with the advance sense of smell, and now the gatekeeper. All of this happened in just one day, from early morning until now, at noon. Was it even possible to encounter so many creatures in such a short time? The first stage is supposed to be a smooth progression to give players a taste of what the game is like, so the first or second day was just skipped over. On the third day, players might face a couple of mutant zombies and have a taste of being chased by a mid-boss, but why now…
“Damn it. If I ever meet the guy who sent me here.”
I won’t let it go. It won’t end with just questioning why they’re doing this to me, if it’s because of some twisted pleasure. First, I’ll grab them by the collar….
But my thoughts were cut short. I felt a presence behind my back and threw myself to the side, hitting the floor.
I rolled on the floor.
Swoosh!
The spot where I had been just a moment ago was melting away due to a strange liquid. The fact that I could have melted like that sent shivers down my spine. I felt another presence above my head and quickly dodged backward, clicking my tongue. A stream of liquid poured down right in front of me, blocking my path forward.
Damn it… I should have dodged forward instead.
Feeling despair at the realization that I could no longer move forward, I hastily turned around to see the gatekeeper standing in the distance, looking in my direction. The gatekeeper’s characteristic was long-range attacks. It stood in the middle of the bridge connecting the main building and the new building, spitting acid to melt anyone it saw coming.
Its health bar was low, so it could be easily killed with a few critical hits, but getting close was dangerous. That’s why everyone who met it on the bridge would quickly turn tail and run away from the acid it spat out for danger shots.
Fortunately, the gatekeeper didn’t bother chasing after those it had scared off. It always stayed in its spot. However, if someone got too close, it would target them and chase after them, doing so until it killed its target. If it encountered someone else along the way, it might switch targets.
And I seemed to have become that new target….
“Anyway, to think those crazy bastards actually thought they could cross the bridge even after seeing that acid.”
If it were me, I would have run away without looking back the moment I saw the melting caused by the acid. But those idiots, despite seeing this, charged forward, passing the gatekeeper and reaching the main building.
I would give them a round of applause for their bravery, but they probably used someone as a meat shield to get through.
Sickening bastards.
But more importantly, I had a bigger problem. The path ahead was blocked, and the gatekeeper was standing firmly behind me.
“If only my legs were strong, I could have jumped over this distance.”
I frowned as I looked at the floor, which was melting away to reveal the first-floor hallway.
Jumping down to the first floor through that hole would be too risky, right…?
It was obvious that my ankles would break if I attempted that when my legs were in this condition. Choosing a method that would prevent me from walking in this situation was tantamount to choosing death. I had no choice but to grab my tripod and bag and enter a nearby classroom. There was no other way. If I went towards the gatekeeper, it would be like volunteering to be shot openly.
“What should I really do? Should I use a desk as a shield?”
But in my weakened state, it was absurd to even consider lifting a heavy desk. Moreover, the desk would melt instantly if hit by the acid.
Please, just go back to the bridge.
Another characteristic of the gatekeeper was that if the target it was chasing disappeared from view for a certain period, it would give up and return to its original position. By entering the classroom, I had disappeared from its sight, but…
Swoosh!
“For God’s sake….”
It seemed this wasn’t going to work. A hole appeared in the back door, revealing the gatekeeper.
‘Damn it. I was just going to leave, but it’s following me again.’
I threw my bag to one side and adjusted my grip on the tripod.
Using this for close combat was really insane….
If I maintained a proper distance from the gatekeeper, I could see and dodge its acid spit, but if I got too close, there wouldn’t be enough time to dodge, resulting in instant death. While someone with exceptional reflexes might be able to dodge even at close range, that didn’t apply to me.
‘No, why do I have to go through this when I don’t even need to catch that thing?’
If I didn’t cross the bridge, I shouldn’t meet the gatekeeper in the first place. Why was I suffering like this? I cursed the scum once again in my mind and kept an eye on the gatekeeper. It entered through the back door, scanned around the classroom, and spotted me, spitting acid. I ducked and dodged to the side, protecting my head under the desk. Fortunately, this classroom had so many desks that if I dodged well, I wouldn’t be hit.
However, simply dodging wouldn’t solve anything. And no matter how many desks there were, they would eventually run out.
“Whoo… let’s get it together.”
I needed to reduce its health, even by a little. Since it had low health, attacking it a few times would quickly kill it. With that in mind, I kept my eyes on the creature, looking for an opportunity. After dodging its attacks by rolling on the floor several times, my chance came.
Now!
I grabbed the bottom of the desk in front of me with both hands and stood up, throwing it as if to block the creature’s view of me.
It quickly melted away and became useless, but that was enough. I seized the brief moment between the creature spitting out acid and preparing to spit again, gripping the tripod tightly and swinging it to hit its head.
This caused the creature’s head to turn to the side, spitting acid in a different direction. Seeing another chance to strike, I lifted the tripod to swing again, but my breath caught, and my strength gave out, causing me to drop the tripod and stagger backward.
“Cough! Gasp….”
Fuck… this bastard could kick with its legs?
No, it should’ve been obvious it could kick, but… Damn it. I was too focused on the acid and neglected everything else. It was a mutant zombie, so of course it was stronger than a regular one.
I rolled on the floor, clutching my stomach as a terrible pain spread throughout my body. The moment my stomach was kicked, all my strength left me, and I couldn’t breathe. The pain was so intense that it was hard to straighten my waist.
I was screwed. I tried to hit it, but instead, I was the one who got hit, and it had to be one of the vital points, my stomach….
Fortunately, since I hadn’t eaten anything, I only threw up a little bile. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and glared at the creature. It grabbed its twisted head with both hands, nonchalantly turning it back to its original position, then opened its mouth to spit acid again. I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to move my body to dodge somehow.
“Aaah!”
The acid that grazed my leg, which I couldn’t fully dodge, melted through my jeans and touched my skin. It felt like a burn, peeling away flesh and drawing blood.
It was too painful. I wanted to just cut my leg off. If even a graze was this bad, if it had hit properly… it might have melted through to the bone.
The pain was so intense that my vision blurred, and I couldn’t breathe properly. I gasped for air and clutched at the floor. That’s when my fingertips touched an overturned chair. …Now it was really a do-or-die situation. There was nowhere left to retreat.
‘Either you die, or I die. This has to end.’
I grabbed the chair and moved with all my might, throwing it at the gatekeeper. The recoil caused me to throw up bile again and clutch my stomach, but I had no regrets. I crawled on the floor and grabbed the fallen tripod, striking the creature’s leg with maddening force. Each time, I had to shudder at the acid pouring down just over my head, but fortunately, it didn’t hit me. Now, the creature’s concentration was waning due to accumulated pain, and it couldn’t aim properly. As a result of me relentlessly targeting one leg, the creature finally knelt down.
I took advantage of this moment and, as the creature’s head lowered, I struck it from below, slamming it to the floor.
After that, to ensure it couldn’t spit out anything like that from its mouth again, I jammed the tripod into its mouth and put my weight on it.
The tripod was broken as a result, but it didn’t matter. I continued to put my weight on it, striking it like hammering a nail into a wall, intending to drill a hole right through.
When I tried to slowly distance myself from the creature after inserting the tripod into its mouth, it, which had been lying lifelessly, suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me towards it.
My vision flipped upside down in an instant. It pinned me to the floor, climbed on top of me, and tried to punch me in the face. Startled, I tried to kick it off with my feet, but it clung to me stubbornly. We rolled on the floor, engaging in a long and intense struggle until I finally managed to break free from the creature. I struggled to stand up and toppled the nearby desks onto it.
…Was it over? Was it really dead?
I sat nearby, staring blankly at the pile of collapsed desks. The creature showed no signs of movement; it seemed truly dead.
“Ha, I survived… I survived….”
Overcome with relief at having survived, I finally let the sorrow wash over me and burst into tears.
My whole body ached so much that it was hard to move a finger, and my heart was still pounding like a drum.
If only those guys hadn’t crossed the bridge, I wouldn’t have had to go through this. Even if they had crossed, there were so many of them; how could they not deal with it on their own? They could have easily killed it with a few hits each. And they left it to me? What was this?
Here I was, sitting through a tearful shit show, cleaning up someone else’s mess. The situation was so miserable and pitiful that the tears didn’t stop pouring out.
As I sobbed and cried in sadness, I suddenly heard the sound of the door slam open. Forgetting the pain, I reflexively sat up and looked towards the source of the sound. If it were zombies barging in, I was ready to accept my fate and die. I couldn’t fight anymore. If it were the survivors who had run away, I would have mustered every ounce of strength to grab them by the hair and unleash a torrent of curses at them.
However, the person standing there was completely unexpected. The person who had opened the front door and entered was none other than him. He stood there, eyes wide with surprise, panting heavily.
“You….”
The moment I saw his face, my tension dissipated, and my pulse slowed.
Why was he here?
“Noona.”
“Lee Do-yoon….”
He slowly entered the classroom and approached me, suddenly pulling me into a hug.
“Noona… I’m so relieved. Really, I’m so glad.”
And then, holding me in his arms, he cried like a child.
“Hey, you… why are you crying?”
I was the one who should be crying instead, but he was crying so pitifully like he was sadder, so much so that the tears that were about to fall were sucked back in, and a sigh mixed with laughter escaped from me weakly. Eventually, I lowered my head and buried my face in his shoulder.
SHE’S SO BADASS AND STRONG AND ALSO LOVABLE AA
Also I fancasted the ml as Byeon Woo Seok in my head and now I can’t unsee it
