I Became a Game Character in the Apocalypse

Chapter 9 –
The flames that stretched from the side path formed a wall.
What the hell?
Did someone pour oil or something?
Who?
Though I didn’t understand what was going on, the zombies rushing from the art department
suddenly hesitated at the sight of the flames.
It was the first time they had ever seen fire, and they were visibly uncertain.
Thump!
Then I felt a hand grab my shoulder.
Just as I was about to swing my pipe thinking it was a zombie, the hand on my shoulder
gripped my elbow.
I quickly raised the monkey wrench I had in my left hand, thinking it was to bite me, but…
…Huh?
Her skin wasn’t pale like a zombie’s.
Through the brim of her hat, I could see her wide, startled eyes.
It was a woman I didn’t recognize.
The monkey wrench stopped right in front of her eyes.
She stared at the wrench in surprise, swallowed hard, and then suddenly grabbed my arm and
pulled me.
My brain momentarily froze, and I followed her in a daze.
She was heading towards the flower design building.
As soon as we entered the building, she blocked the entrance and covered the windows with a
black cloth.
“Let’s go to the 4th floor.”
I didn’t sense any hostility from her.
Without saying a word, I followed her up to the 4th floor, where I found a barricade made
from desks and chairs piled high.
While looking around to find an opening in the barricade, the woman tapped my back and
pointed toward a small hole with her finger.
Following her, I crawled into the hole and found a tent set up in Room 407.
As I was about to enter Room 407, the woman grabbed the collar of my shirt and pushed me
into Room 408 instead.
My body, already at its limits, couldn’t resist the sudden force, and I collapsed onto the floor
of Room 408.
When I turned to look at her, she locked the door of the classroom without hesitation.
I stared at her in shock and asked,
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to unlock it?”
“I don’t know.”
Don’t know?
What does she mean?
I looked at her with confusion, and she bit her bottom lip, continuing.
“You might have been bitten.”
“I wasn’t bitten.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Do you want me to take off my clothes here?”
“I’ll open it in 30 minutes. Wait.”
When a person is bitten by a zombie, their mind usually lasts no longer than 20 minutes.
She was locking me up for her own safety?
It was unfair, but at the same time, I understood her position.
There were no zombies in Room 408, and it didn’t seem like she had anyone else with her.
There was only one tent in Room 407, and I couldn’t sense anyone else around.
I sat down cross-legged and said, “Let’s talk again in 30 minutes.”
***
As zombies gathered in front of the dormitory convenience store, the men inside stared at the
zombies with tense expressions.
The zombies in front of the store only stared at the two men, not attacking right away.
It was as if they were waiting for a command.
Thud— Thud—
Footsteps sounded between the zombies, and the ones in front of the store parted to make
way.
A leader zombie emerged from the crowd.
The man hiding in the store’s warehouse swallowed nervously upon seeing the leader
zombie.
The leader zombie stared at the two men and then wrote something on the glass door with its
finger.
• Survivors.
“That… he was here just a moment ago…”
The leader zombie didn’t write anything else, and the man in the warehouse hastily began to
explain.
“W-We couldn’t help it, that guy had a pipe! And he wouldn’t even listen, what were we
supposed to do?”
• Where did he go?
“He went towards the art department.”
The leader zombie silently stared in the direction that Park Jae-hyung had fled, swept its
bangs aside, and slowly closed its eyes.
It then took a deep breath and, with a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard, it spoke.
“I… I told you… if you found any survivors… I told you to catch them, right?”
“Jo Seong-hoon, you can talk now?”
“You missed the woman last time…”
As Jo Seong-hoon frowned, Lee Ha-jin raised his hands in a calming gesture and spoke.
“There are still survivors in the dorm. I’ll find them, so calm down.”
“Bring me… their brain.”
Lee Ha-jin nodded vigorously.
Seong-hoon gritted his teeth, as if he was in excruciating pain.
“Find them… quickly… or… everyone dies.”
“Don’t worry. No matter what happens, you won’t turn into someone like Hyuk-jin. I’m
here.”
Lee Ha-jin spoke in a soothing tone, and Seong-hoon pressed his temples, trying to suppress
the raging zombie instincts inside him.
Lee Ha-jin swallowed nervously and quickly changed the subject.
“Did you talk to Min-hyung?”
“Min-hyung… still hasn’t… made a decision.”
“What are you going to do? If he keeps refusing to eat people, he’ll end up like Hyuk-jin.”
“I’m just… observing him.”
“Make a decision as quickly as possible. If you don’t, we’ll all be dead…”
Bang!
Jo Seong-hoon slammed his fist into the glass door, trembling violently, his mouth foaming,
and veins bulging from his forehead.
“I can’t… take it anymore…!”
Lee Ha-jin stepped back in fear.
At that moment, the man at the counter looked back and forth between Lee Ha-jin and Seong
hoon, asking,
“Hey, what’s wrong with your friend? Why is he acting like that?”
Lee Ha-jin nervously licked his cracked lips and hesitated for a moment before opening the
tightly closed store door.
He turned to the man at the counter and shouted,
“Quickly, go grab Seong-hoon’s arm! I’ll go get the syringe!”
“Uh? Uh… okay!”
The man at the counter quickly grabbed Seong-hoon’s arm and asked Lee Ha-jin, who was
behind him.
“I’ve got it! What do we do now?”
Click.
Lee Ha-jin locked the door just as if he had been waiting for this moment.
The man, now suddenly kicked out of the store, looked at Lee Ha-jin in confusion,
awkwardly smiling as he asked,
“Hey, stop messing around. Hurry up and get the syringe…”
“You dumbass. This isn’t the flu, where’s the medicine?”
“…What?”
“Just die, idiot.”
Realizing what was happening too late, the man’s face turned red and he shouted,
“You bastard…!”
Thud! Crunch!
Before the man could finish speaking, Jo Seong-hoon, who had been trembling like a reed in
the wind, bit into the man’s neck.
The sickening sound of cracking bones went on for some time.
Lee Ha-jin swallowed nervously and stared at the gruesome scene.
After Jo Seong-hoon had gnawed through the man’s brain, the terrible sounds stopped.
Seeing Seong-hoon calm down, Lee Ha-jin swallowed again and called out to him,
“Se-Seong-hoon?”
A wicked grin spread across Seong-hoon’s face, almost like it was pulling at his earlobe.
He looked at Lee Ha-jin with a much more relaxed expression, wiping the blood from his lips
as he spoke.
“Find survivors quickly. You’re next.”
Lee Ha-jin nodded eagerly, his neck straining.
***
The sounds of footsteps echoed down the hallway. I opened my eyes and saw the woman who had
pushed me into this room standing near the door. She gave me a quick once-over, then unlocked the
door and spoke.
“Sorry. I didn’t have much of a choice from my perspective.”
“It’s fine. I should be thanking you for saving me.”
I stood up and stepped into the hallway, where the faint smell of ramen drifted through the
air. My stomach growled as I rubbed my belly. The woman, noticing, tilted her head.
“…Are you hungry?”
About 170 cm tall, she led me to room 407 and, with an awkward smile, handed me a metal
pot. The noodles were gone, leaving only a red broth.
“If you look closely, there might be a little bit of noodles left…”
Without waiting for her to finish, I scooped up the broth, drinking it straight from the pot.
Even without the noodles, the taste was comforting. The sweet, aromatic broth felt like a
lifeline, reminding me that I was still alive. I finished the entire pot in one go and wiped my
mouth with my sleeve.
“Thanks.”
“Uh… sure…”
An awkward silence settled between us. Just moments ago, we had been on the edge of life
and death. The sudden shift in atmosphere was strange, and with my limbs still trembling, I
wasn’t sure how to respond. I slurped the remaining bits of broth, trying to regain some
composure. After a pause, she looked at me and asked cautiously.
“Did you come from the dorm?”
I raised an eyebrow, noticing her question.
“Did you see any strange men there?”
Strange men? Was she talking about the ones at the convenience store? How did she know
about them?
But before I could ask, I had something else on my mind.
“Let me ask you something.”
“Answer me first.”
“How did you know I was outside?”
The woman looked flustered for a moment, then evaded my gaze.
“I heard sounds…”
“You set the fire, didn’t you? How did you find me so quickly?”
She didn’t answer. The fog outside was so thick you couldn’t see five meters ahead, so for
her to pinpoint my exact location felt impossible. The timing of the fire, blocking the
zombies, seemed too perfect.
I stared at her, serious. “Are you a Last Ark player?”
Her eyes widened in shock, and she slowly asked, “How do you know Last Ark? Are you…
one too?”
I nodded. Her face lit up with surprise, and she grinned.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Seol Ye-won.”
“Park Jae-hyung.”
“Wow, you’re really a player!”
“Are you a Gabriel?”
Seol Ye-won nodded vigorously, letting out a sigh of relief.
Wait, why would she ask if I’m a real player? Isn’t that obvious?
I couldn’t help but ask, “Have you met other players?”
“No, but I’ve met people pretending to be players.”
“Pretending?”
In a world like this, no ordinary person would know about Last Ark, so why would someone
lie about being a player? It didn’t make sense.
Her earlier question came to mind.
“Did you see any strange men?”
Those guys at the convenience store. How did she know?
I stared at Seol Ye-won. She hesitated before speaking, her expression showing she wasn’t
lying.
“I met them… at the convenience store.”
Her reluctance told me everything. She wasn’t the type to lie. She probably saved me because
she still had some humanity left, and I could tell she cared. But she also locked me up in 408
to protect herself.
I sighed and started explaining.
“I almost got caught too. I was running when it happened.”
“You didn’t get followed, did you?”
“If they were following me, I’d be dead right now.”
“Ah… right.”
She scratched her head nervously, then began explaining her story. About a week after the
fog spread, she ran out of food and decided to venture out.
“I had to go out to survive. It was the only choice.”
I understood. When the food supplies ran out, you have to make a move. I did the same,
though it wasn’t easy.
“When I left the dorm… a hologram appeared in front of me.”
“A quest?”
“Yeah, a main quest, and an S-rank one to check on my parents.”
I had a similar quest—to check on my parents’ safety. Everyone worried about their family
first in this situation.
Seol Ye-won told me her hometown was in Hanam, Gyeonggi-do. I shared mine was in
Jamsil, and she was surprised. We both lived nearby, yet we met here, in Gyeongsan.
After some small talk, I asked how she survived.
She explained that after leaving the dorm, she’d been searching for a safe house. Her
advantage as Gabriel was the ability to see through the fog and avoid zombies early. Along
the way, she gathered supplies—food, pipes, a tent, a burner. Even her weapon was a pipe,
but unlike mine, it was thinner and sharper.
When I asked where she got it, she said she took it from a fountain in the dorm pond.
Her eyes sparkled as she asked, “How come we never met when we were both at the dorm?”
“We moved at different times.”
She had left the dorm a week before me. I had stayed, waiting for the rescue team. No
wonder we didn’t meet.
I felt a bit ashamed. Seol Ye-won had accepted the collapse of the world a week before I did,
and had been acting to survive.