I Became a Game Character in the Apocalypse

Chapter 29

Lee Jung-woo frowned and muttered to himself, “The rainy season is starting soon; this is a big problem.”

“That’s something we’ll think about later,” I replied.

“By the way, what about the corpses here?”

“I was planning to experiment a bit and then rest, but it seems a few of them got in because there’s no glass door on the first floor.”

“You brought them all the way here?”

“At night, the fog rises to the second floor. I just dragged the ones that came up with the fog to this level.”

“Still, you shouldn’t act unilaterally like that.”

“Yesterday, nobody kept watch, right?”

Lee Jung-woo fell silent at that remark, looking as if he had been struck dumb.

He sighed and continued, “I was planning to stop halfway through too. But then I realized I didn’t remember setting a watch. So, I just kept experimenting under the pretext of standing watch.”

Only then did Lee Jung-woo apologize and pat my arm.

Everyone was so tired yesterday that they had gone to sleep early.

Because of this, nobody set a watch, and everyone fell into a deep sleep.

Since we couldn’t go up to the club room with zombies on the third floor, I had stood watch alone and continued my experiments until dawn.

Once everyone got a grasp of the situation, they all apologized to me.

Seol Ye-won also seemed hesitant, then took the mop from my hand and said, “Go upstairs and rest. We’ll clean up down here.”

“No, there’s something we need to take care of first.”

At my mention of work, Lee Jung-woo tilted his head and asked, “What is it?”

“We need to clear out the Department of Social Sciences first.”

“Department of Social Sciences? Now?”

Lee Jung-woo raised an eyebrow in surprise, and I nodded in response.

“As you said, Jung-woo, when the rainy season starts, we’ll have more things to worry about. It’s better to complete the Department of Social Sciences quest before we have more headaches.”

“That seems a bit sudden…”

“The ones in the Department of Social Sciences probably noticed that Kim Hee-yeon is missing, so we don’t know how they’ll react. We need to strike first before the situation worsens.”

If the back is not secure, we cannot move forward.

It’s somewhat risky, but it’s right to deal with the obstructive elements first.

We also need to start paying attention to the leader zombies from the dormitories.

Time has passed, so it’s likely that the leader zombie has already cleared out the dormitory.

We need to finish clearing the Department of Social Sciences  and complete the quest before modifying the vehicle.

“Do you think the ones in the Department of Social Sciences will come out? They’re the type that fear finding food and end up eating each other.”

When Lee Jung-woo asked this, Seol Ye-won, who was next to him, spoke up.

“Why don’t we wake up Kim Hee-yeon first? If she came from the Department of Social Sciences, she might have some information.”

Everything is a race against time.

When I played Last Ark, wasting even a single day often resulted in everything falling apart.

The more options there are, the more we need to prioritize and focus.

I agreed with Seol Ye-won’s suggestion and said, “Let’s wake up Kim Hee-yeon.”

“Jin-young, go up to the fifth floor with Hye-ri and wake up Kim Hee-yeon,” Lee Jung-woo instructed.

As Jin-young went up to the fifth floor with Yoon Hye-ri, Lee Jung-woo scrutinized my face and asked, “Do you have a plan?”

“What plan?” I replied.

“You said we should go to the Department of Social Sciences. It might not end safely.”

“We have to be prepared.”

I answered calmly, and Lee Jung-woo closed his lips tightly without arguing further.

It seemed he had a lot on his mind.

Killing zombies and killing people are two entirely different matters.

I fully understood what Lee Jung-woo was worried about.

But I didn’t have the energy to worry about the murderers in the Department of Social Sciences, and we needed to complete the Department of Social Sciences quest before clearing the first episode.

So today, we have to finish at least one thing.

How much time passed?

Kim Hee-yeon, supported by Yoon Hye-ri, came down to the third floor.

She still looked weak, but she appeared more clear-headed than yesterday.

Kim Hee-yeon looked around at our group on the third floor with a tense expression.

Lee Jung-woo gazed into Kim Hee-yeon’s eyes and asked, “Do you remember what happened yesterday, Kim Hee-yeon?”

“…Yes,” she replied, hunching her shoulders.

“Do you remember how you got here?”

When Lee Jung-woo asked directly, Kim Hee-yeon’s lips trembled as she lowered her head.

As I frowned and took a step closer, Yoon Hye-ri suddenly told me to calm down.

I let out a sigh, feeling awkward, and Kim Hee-yeon swallowed hard before speaking.

“I-I’m really sorry, but… my memory is… not very clear.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“The last memory is…”

I knew she was scared and anxious, but from my perspective, it was frustrating.

Feeling exasperated, I asked bluntly, “What we want to know is where you came from and how you got here. Please tell us that first.”

Kim Hee-yeon closed her eyes tightly, furrowed her brow, and touched her forehead.

I patiently waited, and Kim Hee-yeon licked her lips and spoke.

“I was… in Room 302 of the Department of Social Sciences.”

When she mentioned the Department of Social Sciences, complicated emotions crossed the faces of my companions.

Our direction would depend on what Kim Hee-yeon said next.

I crossed my arms and listened attentively to her story.

Kim Hee-yeon sipped lukewarm water and continued, “We were… talking about the second semester festival in an empty classroom.”

“How many people were in the Department of Social Sciences besides you, Kim Hee-yeon?”

“There was the student council president and the vice president…”

It seems she’s from the student council.

According to Kim Hee-yeon, there were nine men and twelve women.

With trembling hands clasped tightly, Kim Hee-yeon continued her story.

Her account of when the fog spread was no different from ours.

She expressed fear, anxiety, and an inability to accept reality.

Due to a drastically insufficient food supply, they considered going outside the fog after three days, during which four men and seven women turned into zombies.

The five men and five women who had immunity to the fog returned to the classroom to wait for a rescue team, and that’s when the discord began.

***

After hearing the story, my eyes instinctively twitched.

‘Is it true that so many people have immunity?’

I didn’t know the reason behind it, but how could one determine right or wrong in a probability problem?

I set aside my distractions and focused on Kim Hee-yeon’s story.

The situation at the College of Agriculture and Social Sciences was dire.

They had not a single food supply and were surviving only by drinking water from the bathroom.

After two weeks without rescue, fights began to break out among the men, and as time passed, they became increasingly violent.

Initially, the women tried to intervene, but they gradually became too exhausted to even attempt to stop them.

Each day felt like an eternity.

Then, a few days ago, a triggering incident occurred.

Conflict arose between the vice president and the president, and the typically hot-headed vice president finally lost control and punched the president in the face.

In the process of collapsing, the president hit the back of his neck on the edge of a desk and died, frothing at the mouth.

From then on, the vice president lost his mind.

Having gone days without food, he dragged the president’s corpse to the roof and began to eat his flesh.

The smoke we saw rising from the roof of the College of Agriculture and Social Sciences was from the president’s body being burned.

Isn’t there a saying that after three days without food, you can tell which house in the neighborhood cooks best?

The smell of roasting meat wafted from the roof, attracting other students.

Kim Hee-yeon shuddered at the memory of that day’s horror.

Lee Jung-woo handed her a 500ml bottle of water he had placed on the floor.

“Drink slowly while you talk. Calm down.”

“……”

As Kim Hee-yeon drank the water, she took several deep breaths and steadied her troubled mind before continuing.

“Then… punches were thrown among the men.”

“Did they fight over the meat?”

“No, it was a fight between the treasurer, who was still sane, and others who couldn’t stand their hunger anymore.”

Swallowing hard, Kim Hee-yeon continued her story.

The treasurer, who had maintained his reason, died on the spot.

He was beaten to death like a dog.

The men who had succumbed to madness filled their bellies with flesh, and the women who witnessed this in horror fell into a state of panic.

In response to the terrified women, the vice president said:

“Eat, you want to eat too, don’t you?”

When the women reacted with disgust, he flushed with anger and revealed his true colors:

“If you don’t want to die, come eat quickly.”

The women, who had been cautiously observing, eventually walked over to the vice president and ate with him.

However, Kim Hee-yeon and another woman, who refused to eat until the end, were treated like livestock right then and there.

Tears began to well up in Kim Hee-yeon’s eyes.

Yoon Hye-ri grasped Kim Hee-yeon’s hand and asked, “Who was it? Who was the one who didn’t eat in the end?”

“So-jeong…”

“So, So-jeong?”

Even if Yoon Hye-ri didn’t know who So-jeong was, it seemed she recognized the name.

With a confused expression, Yoon Hye-ri inquired, “Where is So-jeong now?”

At Yoon Hye-ri’s question, Kim Hee-yeon burst into tears and sank to the ground.

I felt like I understood without needing to hear more.

When I looked at Lee Jung-woo, he also gazed at me with a bitter expression.

It seemed So-jeong had been the first to become food, and Kim Hee-yeon was next.

Having witnessed everything unfold, Kim Hee-yeon lost her grip on sanity, trapped by an obsession to escape the College of Agriculture and Social Sciences.

But one thing lingered in my mind.

How did they get this far?

It was remarkable that they hadn’t been detected by zombies on the way here.

Lee Jung-woo seemed to be thinking the same thing, looking puzzled as he asked, “How did you think to come to the student union building?”

Wiping her tears with both hands, Kim Hee-yeon struggled to reply.

“I have a club I participate in too.”

A club in the student union as well.

She seemed to be a diligent person in many ways.

When I asked what the club was, Kim Hee-yeon said she was part of a volunteer group.

If it’s a club focused on volunteer work, it’s on the fourth floor.

It has a good reputation on campus and is known for doing whatever it takes to help those in need.

Feeling betrayed by her department, Kim Hee-yeon must have unconsciously sought out the club room.

Lee Jung-woo put his hands in his pants pockets and asked, “Do you remember how you got here?”

“My memory is hazy. I cried every day thinking I didn’t want to die… When I briefly came to my senses, I was in a forest, and then the next time I realized it, I was here, in the So-ri-gyeol club room.”

“A forest? Where was that?”

“I don’t remember it well… but I think there were a lot of ginkgo trees…”

The mention of ginkgo trees quickly drew a map in my mind.

Why did I only think about the basketball court?

When I rescued Lee Jung-woo and Jeong Jin-young before, the forest next to the large athletic field was the ginkgo forest.

If you cut through the ginkgo forest, there’s a vine path leading to the College of Humanities, and if you follow that path, you’ll come to the parking lot of the Business Administration building.

Having dealt with zombies there before, there shouldn’t be many left in that area.

It’s a longer route, but it would be much safer than going past the basketball court.

I scanned the faces of the group and said, “I’m going to the College of Agriculture and Social Sciences with Wan-soo and Ye-won. The rest of you stay here to guard the club room.”

Everyone looked taken aback by my sudden announcement.

The designated Jeon Wan-soo and Seol Ye-won stared at me with surprise.

Lee Jung-woo tilted his head and asked, “You three are going? That’s too dangerous. It’s better to move together.”

“No. I know the number of those in the College of Agriculture and Social Sciences and their level of armament. Moving together would be counterproductive.”

“There’s no need to take on unnecessary risks.”

“If we move together, we’ll likely get detected. The key is to enter the College of Agriculture and Social Sciences discreetly.”

Lee Jung-woo scratched his head, deep in thought.

Then, Choi Hyun, who had been behind us, asked with a sulky expression, “Why am I being left out? I want to go too.”

“I’ll accept your intentions.”

Choi Hyun looked sullen as he glanced at Lee Jung-woo and Jeong Jin-young.

Lee Jung-woo hesitated for a moment, sighed, and asked me, “You’re saying you’re that confident to go with just the three of you?”

“Yes, and I’ll be taking one more person.”

“Who?”

“Kim Hee-yeon.”