Chapter 57
The most terrifying catastrophe always strikes at the moment when tomorrow is being promised.
The quiet dawn when the end and beginning of a day overlap.
What arrived in the Capital Area beneath a blanket of thick darkness was not peace or rest.
Inside the temporary shelter the White Night Guild had prepared to house ordinary people.
Traces of a scene of chaos that had already swept through once remained here.
“Fuck... what the hell is all this.”
White Night Guild Master Kim Mu-jin held a cigarette between his lips and stared impassively at the scene.
The infection outbreak that had occurred inside the White Night camp moments after they finished admitting people.
The ordinary people had transformed into Walkers and Runners in an instant.
Mu-jin and the guild members had barely managed to calm the situation after cutting down the ordinary people and their infected comrades.
“Guild Master. We've finished counting the casualties. We treated the injured with potions.”
After hearing the report, Mu-jin quietly nodded.
Thanks to the potions they had bought in advance, they had been able to save the injured.
‘If this continues... hope...’
What lay ahead of them was clear.
Destruction.
That was the fate they had to face.
“Guild Master. I just checked the Gallery. They say Ares and... Ironclad are collapsing too.”
“...I saw it too.”
“Zombie hordes are appearing throughout the safe zones... The insects are infecting not only ordinary people... but Awakeners too. More importantly...”
The deputy guild master swallowed dryly and continued his report in a desperate voice.
“They say the wave is spreading in every direction... and it's heading here right now.”
At those words, White Night Guild Master Kim Mu-jin took out a cigarette reduced to little more than a butt and put it between his lips with bloodied hands.
Hiss-!
The match flame briefly illuminated the darkness before going out, and Mu-jin inhaled the smoke deep into his lungs before exhaling slowly.
“Farming teams, patrol teams, and the rest of the guild members, listen up.”
“Yes?”
“Take as many of the ordinary people here as you can and run.”
The words that finally sprang from his open mouth.
“...Yes?”
“B-But where?”
Mu-jin answered the flustered deputy guild master's question impassively.
“Somewhere safe.”
“...?”
After saying that, Mu-jin suddenly shook his shoulders and laughed.
“Puhahahaha!!”
A hearty burst of laughter erupted as though he could no longer hold it in.
Somewhere safe, huh.
Yeah. Somewhere safe.
Where in this world that had already fallen apart could such a place exist?
But at least it was better than sitting here and being slaughtered while the wave closed in.
If they ran, they might survive a few minutes longer.
“That's enough. Go.”
Mu-jin stopped laughing, exhaled a faint stream of cigarette smoke, and looked back at the officers standing beside him.
“If you want to live too, run. I won't stop you.”
But the White Night officers planted their weapons into the ground and gave dry chuckles.
“Guild Master. Do you think we're going to leave?”
“Trying to be the only cool guy? Not a chance.”
“We'll stay. Let's hold them back once.”
At their resolute replies, a faint smile appeared at the corners of Mu-jin's mouth.
“Sigh, you stupid bastards. At least your romantic spirit passes.”
Rumble-rumble-rumble-!
Beyond the hill where the darkness of dawn lay thick in the distance.
Pitch-black darkness was surging and rolling toward them.
A wave made up of the most basic mutants.
Most of them were Walkers and Runners, but their numbers were too great to see where they ended.
They were probably ordinary people who had been rejected by other shelters, wandered outside, and been infected by insects.
The enormous zombie wave was pouring down toward the White Night Guild.
But even after seeing that sight.
“They're coming!!!”
“Get ready!!!”
“Let's buy time until the very end!!!!”
Neither Mu-jin nor anyone else retreated.
Whoooosh-!
Dense, pure-white smoke began bursting from all over Mu-jin's body as he stared at the wave.
Before long, a white curtain surrounded the area.
And so, the final words that came from Mu-jin's mouth.
“It's a perfect day to die.”
******
The streets are hell.
“Aaaaah!!”
“Get out of the way! I said get out of the way!!!”
Infected people were appearing everywhere.
Wail-wail-! Buzz-buzz-!
The screams of ordinary people fleeing in search of somewhere to live mingled with the sounds of insects, creating a horrifying harmony.
The entire slum was beginning to become infected.
“If we stay here... we'll be safe.”
“Let's pray... Pray...”
“The System-nim gave it to us... The System-nim will protect us.”
Some people crawled into tents, lit mosquito coils, and offered futile prayers.
“Heehee... fuck... hehehe. I knew it would turn out like this.”
Others, unable to withstand the sight, threw themselves toward the zombie horde.
“Fuck... it's over anyway! It's the end of the world!!!”
“Aaaah!!!”
“Give me everything!! I said give me all your food!!”
Some took advantage of the chaos to rob others, abandoning reason and becoming looters.
But even amid the horrific pandemonium, there were people trying to survive.
People who had failed to enter a guild shelter but had no intention of giving up on life.
People possessed by an obsession with surviving even one minute and one second longer.
“Fuck... fuck, I can't die like this.”
“I want to live!!!”
That obsession blossomed into selfishness.
“That building! They said it's safe inside that building!!!!”
“I saw Awakeners heading there!”
“Nobody can get in there!!!”
“Medicine won't help... we'll be infected the moment we're bitten.”
A group of roughly one hundred ordinary people armed with clubs, steel pipes, and firearms.
Driven by a single determination to live, they sprinted madly toward the restroom installed by the System.
But they were not the only ones targeting it.
“Gather all the mana stones you have! How much is there!”
“About five thousand mana stones!”
“Fuck. That's enough to last three days inside. We'll seize the restroom and hold out no matter what!!!”
Another party made up of Stalkers who did not belong to a guild.
Awakeners clutching pouches of mana stones gathered at the risk of their lives took up positions in front of the restroom and raised their weapons.
The ordinary people rushing toward the Cube came into view.
“Move!! I said move, you bastards!!!”
“Are you going to use it all yourselves?! We're people too!!”
“Where do you think you're crawling in, you bastards without any mana stones!!”
“Block the restroom entrance!! Tear apart anyone who approaches!!!”
The two groups began fighting as though on cue.
- Rat-a-tat-tat-!
- Crunch!! Crack! Thud!
Ordinary people trying to enter the restroom to survive, and Stalkers trying to protect it.
“Aaaaah!! You fucking bastard!!!”
“My leg...! My leg!!!!”
“We should have killed them all from the start!!”
“You useless bastards who couldn't even Awaken!!!!!”
Amid the chaos that erupted, one Stalker grabbed the pouch containing all the mana stones and then.
“You fucking bastard!! Those mana stones are mine!!!!”
“Sorry, boss! I want to live too!!!”
“You son of a biiitch!!”
Suddenly disappeared into the restroom.
“Ah... aah...”
“Goddamn it...”
Those left outside just like that were faced with.
- Graaaah...
- Grrrraaa...
A horde of zombies was approaching, and it was impossible to tell where they had come from.
*****
Starplex, second floor. Gardening Garden.
“...”
A man stared at a Gallery post with a dead expression.
Title: The whole idea of dividing up zones is already meaningless;;
Normally, a Heavy that should have emerged from the uncharted areas of the Orange Zone is in the Yellow Zone right now lol
Insects << These bastards are just fucking terrifying;;
Should we just... call it -the end-?
Yeah... Stalker bro... you've suffered enough ㅇㅇ
ㄴ You've suffered enough ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Everyone did their best; let's be reborn as insects in our next lives
ㄴ Infect everyone without any sense of responsibility ㅇㅇ
No, there's still hope!!
ㄴ The guilds haven't all been wiped out instantly
ㄴ They're holding out at each branch, so can't they rally and combine their forces?
I'm just saying that's what things look like right now
ㄴ There aren't overwhelmingly many special variants
ㄴ There are actually fewer than in the last wave!!
Most of the zombies that multiplied inside the safe zones are Walkers and Runners
ㄴ You're all scared because of the sheer numbers right now!!
ㄴ The Head Mod is still sweeping up all the mutants, so it's not over yet ㅇㅇ
ㄴ If we hold out through today's numbers, it's manageable ㅇㅇ
? Do you think those numbers are a joke?
ㄴ Have you forgotten why the military couldn't suppress hordes made up only of Walkers and Runners in the early days of the apocalypse?
ㄴ Why do you think being overwhelmed by sheer numbers is scary lol
ㄴ A hundred Zerglings are the scariest thing of all
Wait until dawn passes and morning comes ㅇㅇ
ㄴ There'll be twice as many as there are now
ㄴ You guys fight them
ㄴ I'm just going to hide in Eunseon Shelter
ㄴ What do you mean, combine forces lol
ㄴ I'm going to try another region ㅇㅇ
“God fucking damn it.”
It's me, Speedrun.
The Gallery's mood had been in shambles for a long time.
Fuck!! You bastards!!! Stop fighting over the restrooms!!!!
ㄴ If you fight, the System will take the restrooms away again!!!!
ㄴ What a fucking idiot
ㄴ We're about to die right now, so who gives a shit?
ㄴ If we divide up the mana stones there, we can hold out for a week
The idiots fighting to occupy restrooms right now are fucking hilarious lol
ㄴ Nobody has come to the restroom I'm in yet
ㄴ I've set up a ton of bear traps so anyone who comes here to avoid the others is fucked ㅇㅇ
ㄴ What a fucking demon lol
ㄴ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Not only that, but users stirring up trouble in the real world were also appearing in droves.
“...”
Title: So I fucking told you!!!!!!!
I knew this would happen! I knew it, that's why!!!!
I said we should kill all the ordinary people in advance!!!!
Why didn't you listen to me??? You knew the answer too, didn't you?
If we'd burned all these burdens, this wouldn't have happened!!! You bastards!!!
You deserve to perish, ㅇㅇ
The massacre guy was right ㅇㅇ
ㄴ For real, this is right;;
ㄴ The day finally came when the hardliners were right
Fuck, we should have done this from the start
ㄴ We insisted on protecting ordinary people out of some ridiculous sense of superiorityㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ For real, I'm saying we should just kill them all and try to survive, at least us
ㄴ Some idiots feeling needless guilt made a fuss about it;;
It was truly a hopeless situation, to the point that even the argument that they should have massacred the ordinary people as a preventative measure was gaining strength.
[Head Mod] Stop spouting bullshit
ㄴ [Head Mod] It's not over yet
ㄴ Bullshit? You're the one who fucked up
ㄴ You went out of your way to accept ordinary people even though we didn't have the infrastructure or administrative power for it
ㄴ People who normally wouldn't have been infected all got infected ㅇㅇ
For real, you can only indulge in a sense of superiority when you have the luxury to do so;;
ㄴ Did you think the pharmacies and restrooms meant we'd gone back to the pre-apocalypse?
ㄴ Head Mod << This bastard was just abusing his authority in the end ㅇㅇ
ㄴ But now the result is that we're fucked ㅇㅇ
You think getting through today will be enough?
ㄴ Are insects not going to be active tomorrow?
ㄴ It's obvious they'll infect ordinary people the same way and everything will go to hell ㅇㅇ
The users were even demanding that someone be held responsible for this incident, as though the world had truly ended.
‘What should I have done?’
I felt as though I could hear the Head Mod's inner thoughts.
Why?
Because I felt the same way.
“What... what else should I have done?”
I hadn't known things would turn out like this. Probably no one among us had.
That was why I had done everything I could to prevent it, if only to soothe my anxiety.
But it hadn't been enough.
“Fuck... wasn't that my best?”
Yeah, my best. What else could I have done here?
No, let me rephrase the question.
“What could I have done in the first place?”
This incident was a standard patch carried out by the real System, not me.
And in the face of this patch carried out by the real System, I wasn't the omnipotent System everyone worshiped.
“Fuck...”
I was nothing more than one survivor thrown into a helpless situation.
So the emotions surging over me now were only natural.
Fear. Despair. Helplessness.
Those emotions spread from the users and were passed on to me as well.
“...Fuck, is it really over...?”
No, fuck!!! A Red Zone mutant showed up in the Orange Zone, I'm telling you!!!
ㄴ Fuck, don't relax just because you have infection resistance!
ㄴ If the saliva of a Red Zone zombie is transmitted, you'll all be infected too!!!
The boundaries between zones were collapsing, and the situation might become even more serious tomorrow.
The Green Zone!! Go to the Green Zone!!!!
ㄴ That's our only hope!!
ㄴ You idiots!! You'll all die if you go there!!
ㄴ What?
ㄴ ??
The Hunters have come out and are killing every bastard who approaches!!!!
ㄴ (A rough verification video)
ㄴ Th... this fucking hell...
ㄴ ?!!
Those bastards aren't even human!!!!
ㄴ Then are you saying we should all die out here just like this??
In the Green Zone, the only safe zone, they were outright refusing entry and carrying out massacres.
[Capital Area Survivors Gallery (Current users: 89,285)] ▼ 1,821
The user count was falling rapidly. The damage among ordinary people, who were not even included in the count, must have been far worse.
[Current Shop Members: 7,411 / 8,000]
The membership count had also plummeted. Perhaps it would never recover.
Buzz-! Bzzzzzz-! Bzz-!
I turned my gaze and saw a swarm of insects, black as night, covering the window, as though every mosquito in the Black Zone had come to me.
“How much time is left...?”
[Current Ownership Time: 56 days 32 minutes]
Fifty-six days and thirty-two minutes. But as you know, if they disappeared, I could not exist either.
If they kept disappearing like that, then someday, my ownership period would start shrinking too.
[5 days 6 minutes]
...
[56 hours 32 seconds]
....
[56 minutes]
....
[56 seconds]
...
[5.6 seconds]
...
Ding-!
[Ownership period has expired]
[Releasing ownership of all tiles]
Grrrrrr-!!!!!!!
“Fuck. No... It can't be!!”
I screamed and slapped my cheek.
Smack-!
I looked at the status window again.
There was no red warning window. Only the original blue status window entered my field of vision.
[Current Ownership Time: 56 days 32 minutes]
I knew. There was still plenty of time left on the ownership period.
[Capital Area Survivors Gallery (Current users: 89,285)] ▼ 1,821
It was true that the number of survivors had decreased, but it had not decreased catastrophically.
No.
On the contrary, it was a dramatically higher number than when I had first come to the Gallery.
[Current Shop Members: 7,411 / 8,000]
The number of members had not fallen much considering how utterly fucked-up the situation was.
This, too, was a number far higher than at the beginning.
What was driving the survivors, myself included, insane right now was fear.
The despair that made us think there would be no future.
So there was still hope.
“Well, fuck, at least there's half a cup of water left.”
There were at least slightly more reasons not to give up than reasons to give up.
So.
So let's try not to give up. I'm not the protagonist of a shonen manga, and this doesn't suit me, but.
There was one reason I was doing this.
“...I don't want to die. I want to live.”
I'm no different from them. I want to survive.
Not as some carefree System, but.
As a survivor who wants to make it through this shitty apocalypse that has befallen us all.
“Let's think... Think...”
I smacked my head hard and sat down.
“Wait, was this patch actually designed so we could survive it in the first place?”
Whatever I was—or whatever the real System was—it had caused the apocalypse and then awakened people as though to flaunt it.
As if it had given us just enough power to resist.
“I... am alive because of that, too.”
But this patch was different. Its content was malicious, and the difficulty was not merely fucking awful—it was downright unfair.
If this were a game, people would have cursed it as a garbage game until the service was shut down long ago.
“An insect infection...”
The difficulty was so fucking absurd that this patch even felt impossible to solve at our current stage.
As though a patch that should have been applied later had been moved forward.
Huh?
Huh???
“Wait... could that really be...?”
Really...? Could it be?
What if a patch that should have been implemented in the future had been brought forward?
[Regular Patch 2 is being synchronized in real time]
[Applicable Area: Integrated Capital Area]
Looking back at the patch details, the area affected by this insect infection was clearly limited to the Integrated Capital Area.
I didn't know what was happening in other regions, but at least it meant this patch had not been applied elsewhere.
Then why only us? Why was it applied only to us?
Could it be?
“...A balance patch...?”
If this really was being run like a game with an administrator.
It would make sense that they had deliberately applied a malicious patch to close the gap between users who had advanced too far and the others.
If the survivors in the other regions, whose news had been cut off, were the users who had pulled ahead of us...
“It kind of makes sense...”
It wasn't certain. It might just be a delusion or merely a hypothesis.
But if a patch that should truly have happened later had been moved forward, and it was only natural that we at this point couldn't handle it.
How the hell are they holding out?
The Green Zone. Those Green Zone bastards.
“Yeah, the Green Zone!!!!!”
Just who the hell were those bastards that they weren't even flinching in a crisis this severe?
I found a comment thread already filled with talk of the Green Zone and left a comment.
Fuck, I can't die like this!! We're forcing our way into the Green Zone!!!!
ㄴ Let's go lie down there!!
ㄴ Surely they won't kill all of us?
ㄴ We just have to get in somehow!!
[Troublemaker NEET] ㅅㅂㅅㅂ
ㄴ [Troublemaker NEET] What the fuck are those Green Zone bastards that they're doing so fine? What are they?
ㄴ Dunno?
ㄴ If I knew, don't you think I'd have entered the Green Zone long ago?
ㄴ I do know that the Hunters are guarding it ㅇㅇ
ㄴ NEET! NEET!!! Come with us too! Let's go lie down there!!!
ㄴ Join us
ㄴ Join us
Just then, as comments with no real information were appearing.
The Head Mod's comments began appearing one after another.
[Head Mod] The Hunters changed course in the early days of the apocalypse
ㄴ [Head Mod] They abandoned their initial goal of reversing the catastrophe and chose to survive among themselves
ㄴ [Head Mod] They gave all their mana stones to a few Hunters they judged to have potential
ㄴ ㅇㅇ
ㄴ I know that
ㄴ For real, the Hunter bros decided to live among themselves
Huh? It was like that...?
ㄴ You didn't know? That's what it meant when they said they poured mana stones into them ㅇㅇ
ㄴ They wanted to inflate their power like crazy among themselves
ㄴ That's why Hunter fanboys get so much shit ㅇㅇ
ㄴ They're jealous too
“They poured all the mana stones into them...?”
Is that even possible? That's an insanely broken playstyle.
[Head Mod] I can't explain everything because it's complicated... but I didn't agree with that approach
ㄴ [Head Mod] Because I didn't think it was right to abandon everyone else and live in luxury among themselves
ㄴ [Head Mod] As a Hunter and as a human... anyway... that's why I split off
ㄴ !!!
ㄴ ?!
ㄴ I didn't know this...?
ㄴ Me neither
What the hell... there was a backstory like that...?
ㄴ Sob... Head Mod...! (Bursting into tears!)
ㄴ ...!
[Head Mod] Honestly, I don't know how the Green Zone's infrastructure is being maintained or how they built a barrier large enough to surround the entire city either
ㄴ [Head Mod] But one thing is certain...
ㄴ [Head Mod] It was possible because they artificially broke through their stats in a short time by funneling mana stones to a few people
[Head Mod] Even though it was early in the apocalypse, I remember something one of them said when I last met them
ㄴ [Head Mod] One Hunter said they were clearing Main Quest Stage 183
ㄴ Main Quest Stage 183...?
ㄴ What the fucking hell...?
No, I'm only around Stage 30....?
ㄴ I'm at 41 now ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Didn't the Head Mod say he was around 70 too...?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ
Then how many mana stones did they funnel into them...?
ㄴ They really poured an insane amount into them ㅇㅇ
ㄴ About 100,000..?
ㄴ Gasp
ㄴ It really could be that much...
“So that's what it was?”
By funneling mana stones into just a few people, only a handful of Hunters had been enjoying the mana-stone inflation.
“That's such a fucking broken play...”
The Head Mod had refused and left because he disliked the idea of surviving among themselves using that method.
“The Head Mod's principles are something else.”
Anyway, I had gotten the gist.
“They say you can learn from your enemies too.”
I'll think about the Green Zone people later.
Okay. Then what I could do right now was clear.
“Thanks, you Green Zone bastards!”
I organized my thoughts.
If a patch that truly should have happened in the future had been brought forward.
And if it was only natural that most survivors at this point, excluding the Green Zone Hunters who had used a broken strategy, could not endure this situation.
There was only one way to overcome the situation now.
“Phewww...”
We had to go to the future.
I didn't mean time travel.
“All-in.”
The answer was a broken play that defied the administrator's intentions.
We had to go all-in on one Awakener and obtain right now the abilities and power they should naturally have acquired in the future.
Just as the Hunters in the Green Zone had done.
We would do it too.
I didn't know what the result would be. I didn't know whether it would succeed or fail.
But this was the sole way I could try now—the only thing I could bet on.
[Building Master Main Quest 9: Have 500,000 mana stones]
[Reward: ???]
[Mana Stones Currently Held: 486,223]
And at least, I wasn't the one being bet on.
It was only natural that I didn't know what reward I would obtain, and even though I was an Awakener from the Black Zone, I couldn't overcome this unfair patch with the abilities I had gained from merely a Stage 9 quest.
Then it had to be another Awakener.
One person I could power-level by pouring in the enormous quantity of mana stones and supplies I possessed.
Someone who was kind-hearted, could communicate with me, and whom I was certain would use their abilities for the public good.
“There is no other way.”
This was the only solution I could attempt for now.
I turned my gaze toward the deputy-mod group chat. In the middle of this chaos, I couldn't trust anyone else.
- [Head Mod] : Is everyone okay...?
- [Healer Union] : “No.”
- [Shop Wiki] : I cannot agree with that statement
- [Shop Wiki] : I'm taking as many people as I can and fleeing
- [Speedrun] : This patch doesn't respect me, so I will kill all the insects
- [Head Mod] : I'll somehow try to solve it...
The moderators were checking on one another.
“Phewww... fuck...”
I looked over them once.
Then, toward the one person I believed could solve this incident.
“I've chosen you.”
I made the bet of a lifetime.