Chapter 17
I nearly failed to recognize her. Apparently, the same was true for Kwak Hanmuk.
“Wow, f*ck. I nearly ran you over….”
Having barely stopped himself from plowing into her under the assumption that she was a zombie, Kwak Hanmuk immediately began swearing.
Mo Haein slowly lowered the thumb she had been holding up.
It hadn’t been long since she was bitten, so much of her human appearance remained.
But she was drenched in blood, and in the brief instant when the headlights illuminated her through the darkness, she had looked like a real zombie.
Kwak Hanmuk and I hurriedly undid our seat belts and climbed from the jeep. Kwak Hanmuk stared at Mo Haein with a distorted expression.
“Captain Mo…….”
Mo Haein’s eyes widened slightly at his trembling voice. Kwak Hanmuk whispered gravely,
“This is the first time someone I know has become a zombie.”
Me too…!
I secretly agreed with him in my heart.
“Do you think it’s happened to me before?”
When Mo Haein spoke in disbelief, Kwak Hanmuk hid behind me.
Then, cackling, he mimed firing a machine gun at her.
I obediently raised both hands to signal my surrender.
At the sight, a deflated laugh escaped Mo Haein. She muttered bitterly,
“At least it’s fortunate you found me before I became a complete zombie.”
Kwak Hanmuk stopped miming machine-gun fire and asked,
“Your condition?”
“The bite is on my left forearm. The high fever began immediately after infection. No pain. The aggression is still manageable.”
Mo Haein’s eyes gleamed bloodred even in the darkness.
Bloodshot eyes, pale skin through which blue veins were plainly visible—both were representative signs of zombification.
In three days, she would become a complete zombie.
Protocol required her to be killed. But neither Kwak Hanmuk nor I aimed a gun at her.
‘As long as we clear the True Ending.’
Everyone could leave safely.
Kwak Hanmuk briefly explained what had happened to us first. Hearing of Je Hyuno’s atrocities, Mo Haein ground her teeth and swore.
“That perfectly sane lunatic….”
“What was Captain Mo-ing around at to get bitten? Was it Lieutenant Colonel Je?”
“Lieutenant Colonel Je was responsible for about half. The other half wasn’t him.”
Kwak Hanmuk, who had been firmly convinced Je Hyuno was responsible for everything, slowly raised an eyebrow.
Mo Haein hesitated. She seemed slightly uncertain, which was unlike her.
“There are… four researchers.”
That was impossible.
There was supposed to be only one final researcher left alive to develop the vaccine in DZD.
Mo Haein explained the events to us in detail.
“I woke near the boundary of the Yellow Zone, close to the Red Zone.”
While moving in search of Kwak Hanmuk and me, she had discovered a survivor being chased by zombies in the Yellow Zone.
Mo Haein doubted her eyes.
“The survivor was wearing a researcher’s coat.”
There had even been a researcher ID card dangling from the person’s neck.
Mo Haein rescued the researcher from the zombies. Then she heard something astonishing.
There were other surviving researchers inside the facility.
Mo Haein had memorized the entire walkthrough and knew there should have been only one.
Setting aside the inexplicable situation, she first tried to bring the researcher with her and join us.
“But the researcher begged me to return to the facility immediately.”
Another researcher there had been injured, and the condition was so severe that this person had risked traveling all the way to the Yellow Zone in search of medicine.
Mo Haein couldn’t help hesitating.
What if the injured person at the facility was the researcher meant to develop the vaccine?
The researcher she had rescued didn’t match the biographical information of the vaccine researcher recorded in DZD’s walkthrough.
She had no idea how long reuniting with us might take. If the vaccine researcher died in the meantime, it would be a disaster.
If that researcher died, forget the True Ending—even clearing the Trial would become impossible.
Left with no choice, Mo Haein had headed for the research facility wielding only the Black Moon Blade, without even farming properly.
She safely passed through the Red Zone, but the facility’s boss zombie blocked her in the Dead Zone.
She succeeded in drawing the boss zombie’s attention and getting the researcher safely inside. But she exhausted her strength in the process and was bitten by a zombie during the return journey.
“And that’s how I ended up like this.”
Mo Haein assessed her own condition with a sneer.
But she had no reason whatsoever to belittle herself. The opposite was true.
‘That’s insane.’
Knowing the game’s difficulty, I could only think how astonishingly impressive it was.
She had entered the facility alone, protected a survivor without any decent items, and even fought the boss zombie.
It was absurd even with the Black Moon Blade. This was something only Mo Haein could have accomplished.
“Captain Mo. You’re incredible.”
My swelling emotion escaped before I realized it.
At my heartfelt words, Mo Haein leaned slightly away. Then she looked at Kwak Hanmuk.
“Goyo wasn’t bitten.”
Even after Kwak Hanmuk assured her that my brain was intact, she didn’t withdraw her suspicious gaze.
Having her stare at me with bloodshot eyes was a little frightening.
“How did the researchers survive?”
Fortunately, Kwak Hanmuk’s question rescued me from the zombified Mo Haein’s gaze.
“Lieutenant Colonel Je was the cause.”
Je Hyuno had entered DZD ten days before us.
Ordinarily, he would have proceeded along a normal Clear route. For some reason, however, this time he began slaughtering zombies the moment he entered.
He killed every zombie in the Red Zone and Dead Zone, then even entered the research facility and eliminated all the zombies inside.
As a result, four researchers survived when all but the final one should have been massacred.
One of them left the facility before the zombies regenerated, reached the Yellow Zone, and encountered Mo Haein.
‘I suspected Je Hyuno was doing something strange….’
But I hadn’t imagined he was causing chaos on this scale.
If he intended to run wild, he should have kept going and created a world without zombies. Why stop halfway and leave us in such an ambiguous situation?
The most troubling possibility was that he might have destroyed the requirements for the True Ending.
Displaying faint impatience, Mo Haein looked at me. Kwak Hanmuk also stared in silence.
With both their gazes upon me, I slowly spoke.
“I think we need to inspect the research facility. As quickly as possible.”
We needed to enter it immediately and check whether the researcher responsible for developing the vaccine was safe, as well as whether the other True Ending conditions remained achievable.
The problem was how to reach the facility.
Given the team’s current stamina and items, we couldn’t even be certain of crossing the Yellow Zone.
If luck carried us safely through the Yellow and Red Zones, the Dead Zone would still stop us.
Since everyone was thinking the same thing, the mood became slightly gloomy.
There was, however, a way to solve all of these problems.
In theory, it was perfect.
“I do have one good… Hmm, one bad method.”
I explained the method that had occurred to me. Mo Haein responded with profound sincerity.
“Recruit, are you insane?”
Like me earlier, she seemed unable to restrain her swelling emotions and blurted out her pure, honest feelings.
That made this the second time she had called me a madman.
In the calmest, most composed voice I could manage—one that made me sound as little like a madman as possible—I persuaded her and Kwak Hanmuk.
“There’s no other way. I would like to try.”
Kwak Hanmuk nodded as though he profoundly agreed, then said something entirely unrelated.
“Captain Mo, let’s call him Gwangbam—the ‘Crazy Chestnut’—from now on.”
“Haaaa…….”
Mo Haein released a very long sigh. But she knew it too.
We had no better option, and if we delayed any further, all of us might end up infected as zombies.
“All right. Let’s try it.”
In the end, they accepted my proposal.
Read only on MUGEX
I wasn’t doing this without something to rely upon.
Of course, I couldn’t tell Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk everything, so the method inevitably made me look insane….
‘As long as the outcome is good.’
I stood in the center of an eight-lane intersection, with scraps of newspaper and garbage blowing around me.
Wind swept between the collapsed buildings.
The night air was chilly enough to make my body tremble on its own. My stamina had fallen.
If I lost a little more, I would probably hear my heart pounding as my vision darkened.
But since no notification warning me of a critical state had appeared, I could apparently endure a while longer.
‘I need to manage my hunger and thirst too.’
In DZD, failing to consume food and water for a certain period resulted in death, so both required careful management.
After handling this, I needed to put something—anything—in my mouth.
I drew a deep breath.
Then shouted with all my strength.
“Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno!!!”
My voice reverberated through the quiet street.
Two or three zombies that still remained rushed toward me, but flashing blades separated their heads from their bodies before they could draw close.
Before long, I felt something chilling. It was killing intent so powerful that my skin went beyond tingling and began to sting.
I clutched the rosary wrapped several times around my waist as though it were a lifeline.
At some point, the sound of metal arose in the quiet night street.
The soft collision of metal pieces was cold and sharp.
I focused my hearing.
The slow sound drew nearer.
Closer, then closer still.
The instant it abruptly stopped, wind struck my face.
The rosary around my waist twitched.
I reflexively closed my eyes. When I opened them, I flinched.
A pair of black goggles had been thrust directly in front of my nose.
o O
An emoticon with one eye wide filled my vision.
I reflexively felt my neck.
Fortunately, it was still properly attached…….
Since Kwak Hanmuk’s rosary hadn’t pulled me away, Je Hyuno apparently had no intention of killing me.
I shifted my eyes slightly and looked beside the goggles.
The pointed tips of the metal feathers all faced me.
A single swing from one of those six wings could send my arms and legs flying with ease.
“I called because I wanted to talk.”
‘Message.’
“First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Han Goyo, a Recruit who enlisted in the Trial Response Agency.”
While speaking whatever came to mind aloud, I busily composed a Message inwardly.
A System Window appeared before Je Hyuno.
Event Quest: Protect ‘Han Goyo.’
It was a Message pretending to be a Quest Window.
For my safety, I sent the Quest title first, then hurriedly entered the contents that followed.
You have demonstrated astonishing martial strength.
You may be capable of ending this dreadful zombie world.
‘Han Goyo’ is the sole hope of creating the True Ending together with you.
You must protect him and bring about the True Ending.
“Lieutenant Colonel Je, I believe you may have misunderstood something about me. If I have done anything wrong, please tell me. I’ll correct it immediately.”
Reward: True Ending Clear.
However, the death of ‘Han Goyo’ will result in a Bad Ending.
I sent the Message after making it resemble the System Window’s rambling style.
If I was the System, shouldn’t I be capable of issuing a real Quest…?
‘My abilities must still be lacking.’
Therefore, I created a fake Quest Window.
Honestly, who cared whether it was fake or real?
No one among the Compatible would suspect a System Window was fake when it was chiming and appearing before their eyes.
I cautiously observed Je Hyuno.
The lights on his goggles were off, as though he were contemplating something deeply.
After a period of silence, question marks appeared across them.
? ?
I faltered, unable to tell what they meant.
Then I heard an appallingly low sound.
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
A rough bass so deep and resonant that it hardly seemed human.
It took several seconds to realize that the sound, closer to a monster’s growl, was a voice.
As I froze at the chill striking my eardrums, Je Hyuno said,
“You’re the one who told me to stay still.”