I Became a Game Character in the Apocalypse

Chapter 3: The Will and the Quest
When I first met Jang Byeong-cheol, we spent hours talking about Seoul, because we were
from the same hometown.
Jang Byeong-cheol and I had a lot in common.
We both dreamed of becoming physical education majors, but neither of us had been able to
pursue that dream.
He had to give it up because of a shoulder injury, and I because of both my shoulder and
ankle.
With tears in my eyes, I read the final lines of his will.
[My always logical and righteous Jae-hyung, I sometimes feel sorry for you not being
able to adjust to life away from home, but at the same time, I want to look after you
because we have so much in common.]
[I want you to live. Please live, and deliver the gift on my desk to my parents for me.]
I carefully opened the drawer, just as Byeong-cheol had said. Inside was a letter and a box.
The letter was for his parents, congratulating them on their wedding anniversary, and the box
contained two wristwatches.
I bit my lower lip and gripped the box tightly.
Such a kind person, such a good person… And yet, he had left so suddenly, so helplessly.
I wondered if my parents were safe.
The fog must have spread to Seoul by now.
For so long, I had been consumed by fear, desperately waiting for outside help.
But I couldn’t keep acting like a child, trapped in my dorm room, whining.
The rescue team wouldn’t come.
No one would save me, and nothing would change unless I moved.
I clenched my teeth, my fists trembling as I made a painful resolve.
If I were to die, I wanted to be buried back in my hometown.
No matter what, I had to go to Seoul.
I would go to Seoul, check on my parents, and fulfill Jang Byeongcheol’s last wish.
Ding-
At that moment, a familiar sound echoed in my ears.
The notification sound I had been hearing every day for the past year of gaming.
I raised my head at the strange sound and saw a hologram in front of me.
• A quest has been created.
[Parents’ Safety: Difficulty S]
• Clear Reward: Ark Admission Ticket.
• Clear Condition: Confirm your parents’ safety.
• Time Limit: None.
I couldn’t believe my eyes as I stared at the hologram.
The familiar border, the familiar text.
It was the notification from Last Ark.
With a dazed expression, I studied the hologram, and another message appeared.
• The abilities of your last character will be transferred to you.
• Character Name: Adam White
• Abilities: Enhancement
• Stats: Strength 5, Stamina 5, Reflexes 5, Dynamic Vision 5, Mental Strength 10
• Kill zombies to earn points.
• Zombies killed: 1/20
• Remaining points: 0
• You have cleared the Beta test. Adam’s Easter egg will now activate.
Adam’s Easter egg will unlock through continuous enhancements.
It all clicked.
The appearance of the floor manager as a zombie, the thick fog covering the world, the
reason the game creator was labeled as GOD, and why the game felt so unnervingly real.
It was all a practice run, a tutorial.
This really was a game made by God.
Only one person in the world knew how this insane world would change and how to survive
in it.
• A main quest has been created.
[Last Ark: Hell Mode]
• Join your allies and reach the Ark.
• Clear Reward: Ending
• Clear Condition: No active quests remaining.
• Time Limit: None.
I stared at the hologram and took a deep breath to calm my frantic thoughts.
I couldn’t keep crying and lamenting.
It was a chaotic time, but I had to pull myself together.
I gazed at the box containing the wristwatches.
My parents were in Jamsil, and Jang Byeong-cheol’s hometown was in Apgujeong.
I would check on my parents first, then deliver Byeong-cheol’s will and wristwatches to his
parents.
In the upper right corner of my vision, a yellow light blinked.
I had seen this phenomenon in the game before.
Whenever a quest was created or new information appeared, the yellow light would blink.
I placed my right hand over the yellow light, and another message appeared.
• The Arks in South Korea are located in Seoul and Busan.
They’re telling me this from the start?
Normally, in Last Ark, only one Ark is revealed early on, and the final Ark is introduced in
the fourth episode.
But for some reason, the game was telling me the final destination from the very beginning. It
felt like a divine cheat.
I clenched my teeth and made a firm resolve.
I won’t be swayed by you any longer.
My current location was Gyeongsan City.
The closest Ark was in Busan.
As much as I wanted to head straight to Busan, I couldn’t complete the main quest until I had
finished all the quests I had.
In other words, I had to check on my parents in Seoul before I could complete the final
ending.
The system window displayed player information, quests, and clear objectives.
If this world operated according to Last Ark’s rules, new quests would appear based on the
situation and conditions.
I checked the clear objective, and a hologram appeared before me.
• To clear the first episode “Safe House,” you need to find players who have played
Last Ark.
[Minimum required players for the first episode: 6 players, or any combination of
classes.]
As expected, to reach the final goal, I needed to gather the main characters from the game.
Rachel, Gabriel, Denny, Rose, Adam.
To clear the episode, we needed these five characters, or six people, even if the classes were
duplicated.
It seemed that people like me who had played Last Ark were now endowed with abilities
from the game.
It was like searching for a needle in a desert, but for me, it was good news.
My club members.
Since anyone who had played Last Ark would have received abilities, my friends who played
the game with me would have gained abilities as well.
I needed to find them.
If they had received the abilities, they would have also checked their quests and episodes.
The first episode, Safe House, was the starting point for reaching the Ark.
The mission involved building a safe house to fend off zombies and prepare transportation.
Where would my club members, who were the first to get this episode, think to go?
A place where we could all meet without having to communicate.
A place that was the safest and best for gathering supplies.
It didn’t take long for me to come to a conclusion.
The club room.
***
I carefully packed the things I would need into my bag.
Just in case, I stuffed a newspaper, a 3-meter LAN cable, tissues, clothes, tape, scissors, and a
cutter knife into it.
Using the 1.5 cm thick books on my desk, I wrapped them around my arms and legs for
protection, and grabbed a wooden club from the corner of the room.
With everything prepared, I took a deep breath and thought to myself.
Just be careful in the beginning.
If there’s one weakness with Adam, it’s that he starts with no abilities at all.
I cautiously removed the newspaper that covered the window, and the hallway came into
view.
Two zombies were wandering down the hallway.
I didn’t know where the others had gone.
The zombies in the hallway were moving in the opposite direction of the stairs, so if I moved
quietly without making any noise, I could probably sneak past them.
I cleared the shoes by the door and closed my eyes, taking another deep breath.
This isn’t a game.
It’s not like a game where you die and respawn; once you die here, it’s over.
This situation is real.
I steadied myself and carefully opened the door.
Screech.
The door creaked, having not been used in a long time, echoing down the hallway.
Shit…
I felt my blood run cold.
The two zombies in the hallway immediately turned toward the sound.
“Grrraaaaaah!”
The situation had already gone wrong.
It was impossible to handle two zombies with nothing but a wooden club.
In a panic, I quickly locked the door again and barricaded the entrance with the shoes.
“Grrrrr!”
Thud! Crash! Thud! The zombies pounded on the door, their growls filling the room.
Soon, zombies from other rooms started to gather, drawn by the noise.
How long could the door hold up?
If the door breaks, it’s over.
I replayed the 128 deaths I’d experienced while playing Last Ark in my mind.
This was a one-time chance, one life.
I needed to think.
Don’t panic—come up with a solution.
I’d been terrified for the past fifteen days; I wouldn’t just wait for death anymore.
As I looked around the room in desperation, my eyes landed on the four beds.
Yes, the bed covers.
In a hurry, I ripped off the bed covers and tied them into a rope.
I securely fastened one end to the balcony, then glanced nervously at the door.
The door was made of wood, and it opened inward, meaning the hinges could easily be
ripped off.
I had no time to waste.
I swallowed dryly and moved to the balcony.
I gripped the bed cover tightly and moved slowly, careful not to fall.
I had to be cautious.
Without any safety harness, any sudden move would result in a fatal fall.
My body trembled, and my muscles strained from the lack of food and exercise over the past
two weeks.
When I reached the balcony of the 301st room, I saw zombies through the glass door.
“Grrrrrraaaaah!”
The zombies inside 301 noticed me.
If they broke the glass, I would be helpless, and they would tear me apart without any
resistance.
I started to panic and my legs began to falter.
I had to keep the bed cover tied to my legs and arms, but with my legs faltering, all my
weight shifted to my arms.
The tension in my arms increased as they began to lose strength.
The stress was too much.
BANG!
Suddenly, I saw a group of zombies emerging onto the terrace from the fourth floor.
Had they already broken through the door?
They ran onto the terrace, leaning over the railing and gazing down at me, waving their arms
in the air.
The sound of the railing creaking echoed in the air.
As dozens of zombies applied pressure, the railing could barely hold up.
The bed cover I was clinging to shook violently.
I struggled with all my strength, trying not to fall like a cicada clinging to a dead branch.
Clang!
“Grrrrrraaaaah!”
At the same time, the glass door on the third floor shattered, and zombies began to rush out.
I knew falling would likely mean death, but the threat of zombies rushing at me made me
instinctively lose my grip on the railing.
Huff—
The zombies on the third floor reached out toward me, but by a hair’s breadth, I avoided their
grasp.
Avoided?
I didn’t dodge on purpose.
I had automatically evaded while falling.
In midair, I desperately clung to the bed cover, and the friction on my palm caused a burning
sensation.
“Grrrhh!”
I winced in pain as I felt the heat from my palm rubbing against the fabric, and my teeth
clenched.
The zombies on the third floor stretched their arms out toward me, trying to grab me, but I
dodged them by sheer luck.
How long could the railing hold?
Then, suddenly, one of the zombies in front of me stared at the bed cover that was swaying in
the air, slowly reaching out to grab it.
Thud.
The zombie took hold of the bed cover and began to pull.
“Let go, you bastard!”
I struggled in the air, shaking the bed cover violently.
But the zombie gripped it as if it were a game, pulling harder and harder with each tug.
It was so strong—every time it bent its arms, the rope moved up by 20 cm.
If it were an ordinary zombie, it would be flailing around like the others, but this one… had
some intelligence?
Impossible. Zombies with cognitive function only appear after entering the Safe House
setting in Last Ark.
Could it be because of the difficulty change?
The zombies’ rate of evolution might be different.
The only thing I could do was… keep going down, hanging on for dear life.
“Wait? Huh?”
As I kept struggling downward, I soon reached the end of the bed cover.
There was nowhere else to go, and above me, zombies were pulling on the rope.
The anxiety, the trembling limbs, the relentless pressure.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the terrace on the second floor.
There was no other choice.
In this situation, there was no “best” option.
I could only avoid the worst possible scenario.
I rocked my body back and forth and, with all my strength, jumped toward the second-floor
terrace.
Thud!
I crashed into the glass door on the second floor with my forehead, but miraculously, I
managed to land on the terrace.
Thud!
Then came the sound of the railing breaking, followed by the zombies from above falling
onto the ground.
The zombies who had been leaning over the third-floor railing collided with those falling
from the fourth, snapping their necks or tumbling to the ground together.
I stared at the zombies falling to the ground below me, my back pressed against the glass
door of the second-floor terrace.
Even as they fell upside down, their eyes still locked onto me.
I shivered in horror at the cold chill running down my spine, and the sight of the zombies felt
like an unbreakable wall, sending a chill through my body.
Crash! Bang! Smash!
The awful sounds of breaking bones and flesh echoed from the ground below.
I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut.
With trembling arms, I prayed for this situation to end soon.
Could I… survive this?