20

Chapter 20

I froze for a moment with the cloth in my hand, then awkwardly thanked her.

“Thank you.”

Looking back over everything I had done, I supposed I really had been charging ahead without pacing myself.

But I did not feel as though I was pushing myself too hard.

If anything, I was actually having a little… fun.

Of course, a peaceful daily life without a single incident or accident would be best.

Even so, this was not all that bad for me either.

Perhaps it was because I had been given the chance to explore the world of a game I loved in reality.

‘And I’m learning things I never knew from the game….’

I would have enjoyed it even more if not for the quests where people lost their limbs.

If I voiced thoughts like these, Mo Haein would probably look at me even more like I was insane, so I kept them to myself.

Instead of telling her how I honestly felt, I diligently wiped my face with the scrap of cloth she had given me.

Seeing the red smearing the fabric, I could understand why Mo Haein had regarded me as a lunatic all this time.

While I cleaned myself up from a state worse than a zombie’s, Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk also ate some food.

No, Mo Haein ate some. Kwak Hanmuk ate quite a lot.

After endlessly stuffing snacks into his stomach, Kwak Hanmuk smacked his lips.

Even after eating that much, he did not look particularly full.

“You can eat more. There are plenty of places to find food.”

“No…. I need to go on a diet….”

Muttering whatever came to mind, Kwak Hanmuk crunched up one last lollipop.

I glanced away for a moment, then looked back to find that only the bare stick remained.

Squatting there and blankly holding the lollipop stick between his fingers, Kwak Hanmuk met my eyes, grinned, and stood up.

Then he tossed the stick onto the ground and ground it beneath his foot.

It was not even a cigarette, so I had no idea what he was trying to do with a lollipop stick.

While the three of us replenished our hunger and thirst gauges, Je Hyuno sat atop the jeep.

Because he was already infected with the BT-Z Virus, many of the Trial’s rules did not apply to him.

In DZD, he did not need to replenish his hunger or thirst, and even being bitten by a zombie would not infect him.

If he had entered HSF, he probably would not have been able to equip toy limbs.

That was why Je Hyuno was waiting for us to finish eating.

Watching him sit above us and stare down in silence made me feel a little like an animal at the zoo.

‘I hope the show is entertaining.’

Having thoroughly enjoyed the convenience Je Hyuno provided, I sincerely wanted to stay in his good graces.

But the instant our eyes met, Je Hyuno clattered the fingers of his metal hand as though playing a piano, so I immediately lowered my gaze.

It seemed best to stay out of his sight as much as possible.

After our brief meal and recovery, we packed only the supplies we would need right away into our backpacks.

Once I had put mine on, I checked the rooftop ventilation system.

Fortunately, it was undamaged and running properly on emergency power.

I began the briefing for our entry into the laboratory.

“Our first objective is to find the surviving researchers.”

The DZD laboratory was a long, low building with two basement floors and five floors above ground.

Unlike the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, where the Trial had hatched, this facility was not divided into multiple research buildings. Everything was housed in a single structure.

The fifth floor was the most important, as it contained the high-risk pathogen laboratory.

The Biosafety Level 4 laboratory—the BSL-4 lab—was the crucial site where the vaccine for DZD’s zombie virus had to be developed.

“Under the original scenario, the surviving researcher would be hiding on the third floor. But the situation has changed now, so there’s a good chance they’re somewhere else.”

In the game, the laboratory’s last surviving researcher was discovered hiding inside a cleaning-supply closet on the third floor.

The player gave the dying researcher food, eliminated the zombies, and helped them reach the fifth-floor laboratory.

The researcher then unlocked the sealed lab and began developing the vaccine.

That was when the delivery quests truly began.

Now, however, there were no fewer than four surviving researchers.

It would be difficult for all of them to hide together in that cramped cleaning closet.

“My guess is… they’re probably already inside the laboratory. On the fifth floor.”

Since Je Hyuno had swept away the zombies at the beginning, they would likely have gathered food then and built a barricade to defend the most important laboratory.

Someone had probably been injured after encountering a zombie hidden somewhere during the process.

But that was only a hypothesis.

“Then if we don’t find them on the fifth floor, we should check the third floor too, right?”

Mo Haein immediately offered her opinion.

“Yes. Just in case. Confirming the researchers is important, but we also need to find out as soon as possible whether the conditions for the True Ending are being met….”

Since I had to verify that myself, I put forward the most efficient suggestion.

“How about splitting into two teams and carrying out both operations at the same time?”

“Sure. We ought to listen carefully to Goyo Hyung.”

Following Kwak Hanmuk, Mo Haein also nodded in approval.

Riding that momentum, I tried to casually decide the team assignments as well.

‘Put Captain Mo and me on the same team!’

I had the perfectly plausible reason that we had already worked together in HSF.

Besides, Kwak Hanmuk had a means of subduing Je Hyuno should he try anything, making the two of them a suitable pair.

“In that case, the teams will be—”

But I could not finish my sentence.

Screeech!

The horrible sound of scraping metal rang out. Je Hyuno was raking his metal hand across the jeep.

His black wings moved slowly.

The feathers folded together with a rippling rustle, and the wings disappeared from behind his back.

He hopped down from the jeep, approached me, and stood at my side.

o o

Apparently, he meant to come with me…….

I looked at Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein. The two of them were already discussing how they would conduct the search together.

They seemed convinced that, now Je Hyuno had regained his senses and accepted me as a teammate, he would no longer attack me.

They must also have judged him the best person to protect me, unlike the two of them with their reduced stamina.

There was only one thing the captains did not know.

I had brought up to Je Hyuno.

I had carelessly prodded at something no different from his reverse scale, but I could not confess that fact to Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk.

I was already drawing attention to myself with abnormal behavior, such as mentioning Trial strategies and items.

If I stood out any more, their tacit decision to overlook it might fall apart.

At least there was one silver lining: I did not need to worry that Je Hyuno might tell them about or the System Window.

Je Hyuno was a being whose refusal to speak even when necessary was a problem in itself.

He would not go to the trouble of announcing that “Han Goyo” was an alien presence here.

Read only on MUGEX

‘He’ll simply deal with me himself the moment he decides I’m a threat.’

Now that he recognized me as a teammate, he would let most things slide, but if I irritated him beyond a certain point, he would dispose of me at once.

The fact that he made no effort to hide his desire to kill me drove that home well enough.

Even now, he might only be accompanying me to find an opportunity to do it.

‘I really hope I won’t have to use Execution on Lieutenant Colonel Je….’

Carrying all those worries with me, I joined Je Hyuno’s team.

We designated the fifth-floor laboratory as our rendezvous point.

Oblivious to my feelings, Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk opened the rooftop door and disappeared down the emergency stairwell to carry out their mission.

Only Je Hyuno and I remained on the roof.

I turned toward him. The round-eyed emoticon was still displayed across his goggles.

He did seem willing to follow my lead.

“…We, uh, need to go to the second floor.”

Fighting our way through the Dead Zombies from the roof down to the second floor would have taken quite some time.

But with Je Hyuno here, there was no reason to travel on foot.

I had not even brought it up, yet Je Hyuno appeared to be thinking the same thing.

He pulled a leather glove from his Inventory.

When he laid the black glove over his left metal hand, it emitted a brilliant light and transformed into the shape of a human hand.

‘So that’s the Crow Glove.’

With the Crow Glove covering one hand, Je Hyuno looked slightly less threatening.

Grab.

Without warning, he seized me by the back of the neck. Then he sprinted across the rooftop and….

Leaped off without the slightest warning.

The sensation of plummeting made my head spin.

Je Hyuno dropped rapidly and drove his metal hand into the wall precisely at the second floor.

At the same time, he kicked through a window and hurled me inside.

“Urgh…!”

I nearly went tumbling across the floor among the shards of glass, but just managed to regain my balance and stand.

Je Hyuno, one human hand and one metal hand hanging at his sides, calmly climbed through the broken window into the corridor.

Emergency lights glowed here and there along the hallway.

A long shadow stretched out from Je Hyuno’s feet.

“Krrraaaah!”

Alerted by the shattering window, the Dead Zombies came charging toward us with gleaming eyes.

He beckoned to me with the human hand covered by the leather glove. It meant they were in his way, so I should stand back.

The instant I flattened myself against the wall, Je Hyuno swung his metal hand sideways.

Whoom—the air split, and five lines appeared across the zombies’ bodies.

A series of wet splats followed. The charging zombies collapsed into pieces.

I immediately forgot the disrespectful thoughts I had harbored after being thrown onto the floor.

“Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Je.”

His strengths and weaknesses were remarkably clear. Perhaps he was like a superior with a rather awful personality, but such outstanding competence that he let you leave work early.

Delighted with the superior who had eliminated the zombies in seconds, I attended to him with utmost devotion.

“This way, please.”

Our destination was the director’s office.

On the way there, I quietly stopped outside one of the offices.

“Would it be all right if I asked you for one very minor, extremely small task?”

Je Hyuno stared at me as if telling me to speak. I beamed at my superior and said,

“Food farming.”

From the third floor upward, the building consisted mainly of research facilities such as analysis rooms and laboratories, so the greatest amount of food was usually found on the first and second floors.

Now that the number of researchers to feed had increased from one to four, it made sense to secure the food we would need to deliver while we were already on the second floor.

Je Hyuno’s goggles lit up.

O K

Those can display letters too…?

I had never known, since Je Hyuno almost never spoke in the game.

Wondering privately whether they could display longer words as well, I entered the office with Je Hyuno.

Unlike the corridor, the office had no emergency lights and was pitch-dark, but that posed no real problem.

I knew where all the food was, and Je Hyuno could see objects even in the dark.

“Third desk from the left, bottom drawer. There’s a chocolate bar. And if you move the flowerpot on the desk beside it, there’s a bag of gummies.”

All I had to do was call out the coordinates, and Je Hyuno swiftly farmed everything himself and tossed it into the backpack.

My only job was to follow him through the dark while holding the backpack open.

‘This is so convenient.’

I had been nervous when the two of us were left alone, but things proceeded smoothly thanks to his being far more cooperative than expected.

I diligently took advantage of Je Hyuno’s convenience.

We had finished looting the office and were nearing the director’s office when it happened.

Krrk, krrrk….

The faint sound of a zombie reached us. It seemed to have awakened at the crash of breaking glass, but strangely, the noise was muffled as though it were trapped somewhere.

‘But there shouldn’t be any trapped zombies on the second floor.’

I had no idea how the situation had become so twisted.

Since the sound came from the direction of the director’s office, I quickened my pace for the moment.

As we drew closer, the zombie’s growls became mixed with the dull thuds of something striking a surface and the sound of a person crying.

Then I reached the director’s office and…….

“…….”

“Goyo.”

Je Hyuno called my name.

Amusement colored his voice, hoarse and rough like a beast’s.

“Can you clear it?”

I should have answered yes at once to prove my usefulness.

But this time, I could not respond.

Thud, thud, thud….

A zombie was repeatedly smashing its head against the reinforced-glass door.

Both arms and both legs had been bound, and a gag had been stuffed into its mouth.

As the zombie continued slamming the only free part of its body—its head—against the glass door, a researcher ID card swung from its neck.

I stared blankly at the zombie, then slowly lowered my gaze.

The ID card, printed with a name and photograph, came clearly into view.

Lee Seon

There was no mistake.

He was the researcher who was supposed to develop the vaccine.