23

Chapter 23

Before leaving the second floor, Lee Gaon approached the director’s office.

Lee Seon was hidden behind the obstacles and could not be seen. Though even if she could see him, it would not have meant much.

The dim emergency lighting fell across Lee Gaon’s face.

In a tiny voice, she whispered,

“I’ll be back.”

The zombie growled when it heard a human voice.

Lee Gaon turned away without any further hesitation.

To join Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk, we headed to the laboratory’s fifth floor.

We did not take the stairs, instead choosing a method similar to before.

However, since Lee Gaon was with us, we refrained from breaking the window and opened it properly.

Je Hyuno unfolded the metal wings he had tucked away.

When Lee Gaon saw them, she went blank.

She had somehow managed to understand the goggles and metal hand as auxiliary weapons, but the wings seemed to lie far beyond the limits of her common sense.

It would have been nice if she had accepted the wings while she was at it, but since things had come to this, I conscientiously explained them to her.

“It’s a new weapon the military secretly developed.”

Lee Gaon still did not look entirely convinced, but gave a clumsy nod.

“I-I see.”

Zombies roamed the world now. What did a pair of wings on someone’s back matter?

Give her a few hours, and Lee Gaon would adjust soon enough.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

I picked Lee Gaon up. She awkwardly placed an arm around my shoulder.

Je Hyuno stared at me.

‘He isn’t going to throw us again, is he?’

Because I had no trust in Je Hyuno, I swiftly sent him a Message.

I am currently holding both the vaccine and the cure.

Je Hyuno clacked the fingers of his metal hand in response.

It looked like the gesture of someone disappointed that he could not throw me….

Fortunately, Je Hyuno quietly carried Lee Gaon and me up to the roof.

Once we landed, I set the trembling Lee Gaon down and checked the ventilation system again.

The ventilation system was a critical device that prevented the viruses inside the laboratory from escaping.

If it shut down, all manner of viruses would spread outside, immediately triggering a Bad Ending.

Because maintaining it was essential, most of the emergency power was used by the ventilation system.

Developing the vaccine would therefore require an additional power supply.

At present, the laboratory’s emergency generator was broken, so its operating capacity was probably around twenty percent.

We needed to repair the emergency generator and restore its full capacity.

We had gathered almost all of the delivery items.

We were still missing a few items from the Yellow Zone, Red Zone, and Dead Zone, but I could ask Je Hyuno to farm those for us.

‘It won’t take long if he flies.’

Zombies were easy for Je Hyuno to handle, so there was nothing to worry about.

The most urgent problem was repairing the emergency generator.

As I considered what we should do, Lee Gaon uttered a soft sound of surprise.

When I turned toward her, she smiled awkwardly and said,

“The sun is rising.”

The sky was growing pale. A day had passed.

Lee Gaon lost herself in the first sunrise she had seen in a very long time, while I became slightly more anxious.

Our second day inside.

One day had passed since the infection, so Mo Haein’s aggression would have intensified by now.

I took Lee Gaon down to the fifth floor.

I did not forget to hold the door open for Je Hyuno.

He had currently removed the Crow Glove, leaving him able to do nothing but break doors.

When we arrived on the fifth floor, it was full of zombie corpses.

Their heads looked as though they had been smashed in with a powerful blow. It was undoubtedly Kwak Hanmuk’s handiwork.

Thinking once again how strong he was, I approached the laboratory’s sealed entrance with Lee Gaon.

The airtight sliding door was designed to open only after recognizing an ID card.

Lee Gaon looked at me, and I nodded.

With a trembling hand, she took out her ID card and scanned it.

The researchers inside the laboratory startled at the sound of the opening door and rushed out.

The moment they saw Lee Gaon, they began to laugh awkwardly as though embarrassed that they had been so tense….

“…….”

Then they saw Je Hyuno and me and quietly closed their mouths again.

I checked the names on the ID cards hanging from their necks.

Tak Jucheol. Paeng Sangdo.

I knew both names. They died early in the game, so it was rather remarkable that they had survived this long.

When I stared at them with mild curiosity, Paeng Sangdo spoke haltingly.

“Are you… soldiers? Are you with those people from before—I mean, on the same team…?”

“Yes.”

There was no reason to engage them in a long conversation. I immediately stated my objective.

“Help Lee Gaon make the vaccine.”

I deliberately said nothing about the cure.

The instant I issued the order to the researchers, a System Window appeared.

◆Ma?in??! Que?st!: Develop a vaccine and a cure.
Once again, you challenge an impossible achievement!
You believe that a vaccine alone cannot make the zombie world happy.
Thus, you wish to develop a cure and advance toward a new!new thing!new! world.
Even the attempt at such a reckless challenge is astonishing.
But sometimes, choosing the safe path is not a bad thing.
Perhaps that is what true courage actually is.
You believe it is not too late to change your choice.

It was openly showering me with dire warnings not to do it.

I dismissed the System Window blocking my view and looked at the researchers.

Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo were typical villain characters from zombie stories.

The sort of villains who prioritized their own survival above all else and never hesitated to sacrifice others for it.

In the game, those two researchers had died because they threw Lee Seon to the zombies and fled elsewhere, only to encounter the boss zombie.

‘But they survived this time.’

Since things had turned out this way, I wanted to put them to good use.

I intended to wring them dry to the marrow and force them to contribute to DZD’s world.

Perhaps my thoughts showed in my eyes, because Paeng Sangdo’s expression steadily worsened as he glanced at me.

I brought out the bait that would let me handle them effectively.

“I know the location of a survivor shelter.”

“…!”

Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo held their breath and focused on my words.

“It has plenty of food, and zombies almost never appear there. But it’s quite a distance from the laboratory.”

There was no chance these powerless researchers could reach the Green Zone shelter on their own.

The laboratory itself was already crawling with zombies.

Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo knew that perfectly well.

“If this research is successfully completed, we’ll escort you to the shelter.”

Threats alone would not win wholehearted cooperation.

And because we would have to leave them with Lee Gaon, we needed to keep them from getting any foolish ideas.

They were men with a strong desire to survive. If I offered them the shelter, they would lose their minds and throw themselves into producing the vaccine.

Sure enough, though they had been openly uncooperative only moments ago, even the look in their eyes changed.

Paeng Sangdo’s nose twitched as he exchanged several glances with Tak Jucheol.

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Then he cautiously began to speak.

“W-well, naturally we want to make the vaccine too. Who wouldn’t? But the core ingredient….”

“We have the meteorite.”

At my words, Lee Gaon flinched and clutched the pocket of her lab coat.

‘So she put it in there.’

Having confirmed the meteorite’s location, I turned back to Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo.

In a cracked voice, Tak Jucheol asked,

“You know about Pandora?”

DZD’s virus began with a meteor shower that fell upon Earth one day.

A novel virus was discovered inside one of the fallen meteorites, and the researchers named it “Pandora.”

Pandora was a zoonotic virus capable of infecting both humans and animals, but because it was vulnerable to heat, the researchers determined that there was no chance it could infect mammals with high body temperatures.

That conclusion, however, had been reached through a rushed study.

The meteorite had fallen inside a development district, and pressure had come from every direction.

In the end, the laboratory failed to warn anyone about the virus’s potential danger and produced the answer the corporation wanted.

Development proceeded as planned. In the meantime, Pandora evolved at an unbelievable speed and adapted to high temperatures.

Then a worker at the development site was bitten by a stray dog infected with Pandora, and the Calamity began.

Lee Seon was the researcher who had repeatedly warned of Pandora’s danger.

He had secretly taken a fragment of the meteorite slated for disposal and hidden it in his home.

That very meteorite—the one Lee Gaon had traveled all the way to the Yellow Zone to retrieve in hopes of saving her Oppa—was the vaccine’s core ingredient.

“How did you know?”

Before I could answer Tak Jucheol’s question, Lee Gaon cut in.

Her body shook even more violently than it had when she was afraid of Je Hyuno.

“That the meteorite caused the virus… and that Oppa and I had it….”

Before the trust we had worked so hard to build could waver, I gave her a simple answer.

“The truth is, I’m not an ordinary soldier. I belong to a secret government agency.”

“Ah…!”

Lee Gaon let out an exclamation as though everything finally made sense.

“Like the National Intelligence Service… I understand.”

‘It’s close enough.’

There had not been a single lie in what I had just said. Having spoken nothing but the truth, I nodded.

While Lee Gaon arrived at her own understanding, Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo also whispered busily among themselves.

Tak Jucheol stood with a dignified air and his hands clasped behind his back, while Paeng Sangdo stepped forward to do the talking.

“We have conditions for our cooperation. If you obtain the supplies we require for our research….”

The rest was not worth hearing. He merely meant that they wanted to live in luxury throughout the research.

I looked back at my reliable superior, and Je Hyuno resolved the matter appropriately.

“Waaaaagh!”

“Urrrrgh!”

He seized both researchers by the backs of their necks, one in each hand, and lifted them off the floor.

The lab coats impaled by his metal hand tore with a long riiiip.

After thrashing and drooling, the researchers dropped to the floor one by one with heavy thuds, the backs of their coats ripped wide open.

Just as I was extracting their oath of loyalty to become slaves to vaccine development, the captains arrived.

“Wow, Goyo Hyung. You’re doing something fun without me.”

Kwak Hanmuk hurried closer with shining eyes. He clearly wanted a piece of the action, but there was none to give him.

If we threatened them any further, they would be too terrified to conduct the research.

I calmed Kwak Hanmuk down and approached Lee Gaon.

“Lee Gaon, can you do it?”

As she surveyed the laboratory, Lee Gaon appeared momentarily overcome by thoughts of Lee Seon, but she did not cry.

She merely answered with determination.

“I have to.”

Clutching the pocket of her lab coat, Lee Gaon cautiously looked up at me.

“There are things we need for the research….”

“We’ll obtain all of them today, and we’ll repair the emergency generator before the day is over. You don’t need to worry about food either.”

When I answered before she could even tell me what she needed, Lee Gaon faltered, then looked as though she understood.

I could practically see the letters “NIS” passing through her mind.

“Thank you! The emergency generator was really urgent. Thank you so much.”

After thanking me repeatedly, Lee Gaon suddenly took hold of me and pulled me along.

Once she had led me outside the laboratory and far away from Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo, she whispered,

“The vaccine—Oppa already finished designing it, so if we have the necessary materials and power, we can make it within three days. It uses molecular synthesis rather than culturing, so once we have power, we can extract the base material from the meteorite and immediately run the sequence. Of course, we’ll have to skip clinical verification.”

Lee Gaon studied my reaction.

She had lied that she knew nothing about the vaccine, and the fact that it was actually on the verge of completion seemed to trouble her.

But I already knew.

In the game too, Lee Seon had nearly completed the vaccine research by the time he met the player.

The siblings were exactly alike.

Just as Lee Gaon had, Lee Seon saw no reason to develop the vaccine while his younger sister might already be dead.

He continued to leave it unfinished and would produce the vaccine only after the player rescued his sister, Lee Gaon.

“You said you’d gather the materials and repair the emergency generator today, so I’ll finish setting everything up in the meantime. The problem is the cure….”

Lee Gaon sighed as she continued in a level voice.

“I researched it before, but the screening results for effective candidate compounds that could serve as the key ingredient were poor. There was no reaction at all even when I used the meteorite as a control, and the same was true of existing antiviral compounds. I had no idea where to begin….”

“Please focus on the vaccine for now. I’ll look for a candidate compound.”

Lee Gaon looked at me in disbelief.

This time, I lied.

“I have some relevant information. It isn’t certain, but I believe it’s worth investigating.”

I did not know what the candidate compound was either.

However, there were several clues I had seen in the game that resembled Easter eggs, and I planned to trace them.

Lee Gaon looked up at me for a long time, then whispered,

“I’ll trust you.”

After sending her back into the laboratory with Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo, I stepped into the corridor with Je Hyuno and the captains.

“They’ll begin producing the vaccine now. Lieutenant Colonel Je, please farm the remaining items we need. Captains, I think it would be best if you repaired the emergency generator with me.”

Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk each responded to my briefing.

“Recruit. I’ve never repaired a machine in my life.”

“I’ve fixed cars, but I don’t know anything about generators.”

“I know how to repair it.”

If we followed the repair process from the game, it would not demand anything extraordinary.

“The problem is the underground-zone boss zombie guarding the emergency generator.”

Two people had to repair the generator while one fought the boss.

In the game, the siblings Lee Seon and Lee Gaon had repaired the generator while I dealt with the boss.

But Lee Seon was now a zombie, and Lee Gaon had to create both the vaccine and the cure.

Excluding Je Hyuno, who had to retrieve the research materials, that left me, Kwak Hanmuk, and Mo Haein to handle it….

Mo Haein’s increasing aggression was the problem. There was more than enough chance that she would suddenly attack us during the operation.

When I explained the method, Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk appeared to reach the same conclusion.

Mo Haein’s gaze darkened. Even now, she was expending a great deal of effort suppressing the aggression rising within her.

“I do have a plan.”

I did not immediately explain it, instead pausing for a moment. I could already picture Mo Haein calling me a lunatic again.

In fact, Mo Haein was already staring at me as if I were one.

‘Captain Kwak, I’m counting on you.’

Hoping desperately that Kwak Hanmuk would support my plan, I spoke.

“Captain Mo.”

“Tell me.”

“Please bite me.”