Chapter 25
Chime—a System Window appeared. It was the sound of the Quest updating.
◆Ma?in!! Que!st?!: Repair the emergency generator within fifteen minutes….
I dismissed it without even reading the first line.
There was no time to waste reading an unhelpful System Window.
‘The emergency power shouldn’t be running out already.’
Something seemed to have gone wrong. I was worried about Lee Gaon, but there was no way to go back up and check on her.
If we failed to repair the emergency generator within fifteen minutes, it would be an immediate Game Over.
I had to trust that Lee Gaon was safe and deal with the repairs first.
“We’re f*cking screwed right now, aren’t we?”
“I think we can manage somehow.”
Then I broke into a run and shouted,
“Let’s move first!”
We sprinted through the cafeteria between overturned tables and chairs.
Our footsteps rang out quite loudly, but the zombies merely glanced at us.
Every last one of them was reaching toward the speakers broadcasting from the ceiling and howling.
It was fortunate that all three of us had become zombies.
Otherwise, finishing the repairs in fifteen minutes would have been nearly impossible.
As I ran at full speed, I calculated the time in my head.
‘At least five minutes for the repairs.’
Six minutes to enter the second basement level from here and reach the emergency-generator facility. If there was a boss-battle event scene, that would add another minute.
That left approximately two minutes to spare, but only if every event meshed like clockwork and unfolded perfectly.
More than anything, Kwak Hanmuk’s role in handling the boss would be crucial.
I glanced back at Kwak Hanmuk running behind me.
He easily vaulted an overturned chair with his long legs, met my gaze, and raised an eyebrow.
I threw open the cafeteria door and shouted as we entered the corridor.
“Captain Kwak! How’s your condition right now?”
“Better than usual! Maybe it’s because I’m turning into a zombie?”
“Understood.”
We raced down the long corridor as I checked the signs. The layout was identical to the game, so we would not need to waste time exploring.
The sign for the sleeping quarters caught my eye, and my stomach twisted slightly.
The sleeping quarters were a temporary place for researchers conducting round-the-clock work to stay when they could not return home.
An old journal hidden there contained references to the cure.
I remembered everything it said.
Delusional Researcher’s Journal #1
Developing a cure for a virus requires a long, agonizing search for a candidate compound.
Even so, humanity has always fought viruses that threatened its survival and found cures.
But if the virus came from beyond Earth…. What would happen then?
Delusional Researcher’s Journal #2
The conventional process for developing antiviral drugs is merely a record drawn from the narrow tank known as “Earth’s ecosystem.”
If a virus from outside invaded, humanity would never find a cure.
Adapt—or be annihilated.
No one understands my thoughts, but I am always afraid.
Delusional Researcher’s Journal #3
At last, I have met those who share my fear.
Delusional Researcher’s Journal #4
Countless voices whisper inside my head.
Why did I ever fear something as insignificant as a virus?
Before this overwhelming terror and dread, it has no meaning at all.
Yes!
I have awakened!
Delusional Researcher’s Journal #5
The writhing pulse of dimensions!
The audacious wonder of that disorderly void!
Formless chaos!
All things are but a trivial entertainment for that great being!
As might be expected of the Delusional Researcher’s journal, it contained a great deal of nonsense, but it did mention the cure.
That was why I had planned to search near the journal in case there was an item like the portable cassette player—something that had not been discoverable in the game….
Part of the underground zone would be sealed after the emergency-generator facility was repaired.
This was our last opportunity, but I had no choice except to turn away.
We tore down the long corridor in an instant, turned left, and reached the freight elevator.
The silver stainless-steel doors shone ominously.
The elevator ran on emergency power and could be used only once.
Afterward, it would not move again until the emergency-generator facility was repaired.
Not long after I pressed the down button, an electronic ding sounded, and the heavy doors split apart to either side.
“Urgh….”
“F*ck.”
At the sight revealed beyond them, Mo Haein groaned under her breath, while Kwak Hanmuk immediately pinched his nose and cursed.
The elevator was already packed to capacity.
Researchers in bloodstained, tattered lab coats and ordinary office employees stood motionless in grotesquely contorted poses.
Their unfocused eyes turned toward the open doors in unison.
“Can’t we lure them outside? Make some loud noise or something?”
Kwak Hanmuk asked nasally through his pinched nose.
“They probably won’t react.”
These zombies had been placed here in the game to prevent the player from using the freight elevator.
No matter what the player tried, they could not be lured outside. Anyone who used the elevator had to ride with the zombies.
‘Unless the player becomes a zombie, the freight elevator can’t be used.’
Sure enough, though Kwak Hanmuk picked up a large stone and threw it to create a racket, the zombies merely twitched and did not emerge.
Watching Kwak Hanmuk struggle, Mo Haein asked,
“Is there another route?”
“If we don’t use the elevator, we’ll have to take the ventilation ducts. We don’t have enough time, and I don’t think Captain Kwak can fit inside.”
Given Kwak Hanmuk’s size, his shoulders would become wedged immediately.
Kwak Hanmuk squeezed his eyes shut and accepted reality.
“Let’s go….”
I stepped into the elevator first.
Squelch.
Instead of a footstep against the cold metal floor, I heard the sticky sound of fallen chunks of flesh and pools of blood being crushed beneath my shoe.
As I squeezed into a narrow gap between the zombies, the sagging flesh of the one beside me dragged wetly across my shoulder.
The stench rising from the rotting corpses was horrific.
I forced myself as far inside as possible and signaled to Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein with my eyes.
They followed me into the elevator.
Mo Haein was just about to press the button for the second basement level.
Then the siren rang out.
At its earsplitting wail, the zombies that had stood motionless until then opened their eyes wide.
“Attention. All researchers must proceed to the evacuation shelter immediately.”
The siren was followed by a prerecorded announcement, and the noise provoked the zombies into a full frenzy.
“Kraaaah!”
The short Mo Haein was swallowed among the zombies in an instant.
Before she could press the button, the doors closed.
“…Quarantine shutters will activate throughout every zone, sealing the building. Once again, all researchers must….”
The cramped space descended into chaos.
The lights inside the freight elevator were out, leaving it nearly pitch-black.
Only the glow of the floor buttons dimly illuminated our surroundings.
The frenzied corpses crushed me against the wall.
“Urgh….”
A groan escaped me at the pain, like a blunt object pressing into my body.
The zombie pinning me from the front growled and thrust its face toward mine.
Its teeth were stained red with something I did not want to imagine it eating.
I wanted to shove it away at once, but I could not.
Becoming a zombie was not a universal solution. It only prevented them from attacking first.
The instant my actions were judged as an attack against the zombies, they would begin attacking me in return.
If a fight erupted in this cramped space, it would be a true catastrophe.
Cold arms reaching from every direction compressed my chest with crushing force.
My vision suddenly spun.
“Krraaagh!”
Fortunately, the zombies shoved one another, dislodging the ones that had been crushing me.
I had nearly lost consciousness, but as I barely came to my senses, I felt a hot body nearby.
“Captain Mo…!”
I pulled Mo Haein away from the zombies that were about to crush her to death.
While I held her against me, Kwak Hanmuk clenched his teeth and reached between the zombies.
His fingertips narrowly missed the button.
One failed attempt, then another.
On the final swipe, he just barely depressed it.
The letters B2 lit up.
With a jolt and a vibration, the freight elevator began to descend.
I fought to secure whatever space I could while suppressing my breathing as much as possible.
Every breath made the stench of corpses feel as though it were crushing my lungs.
Inside that sealed box, hemmed in on every side, we struggled not to lay so much as a fingertip on the zombies.
The journey down a single floor felt endless.
It truly was slower than an ordinary elevator because it was designed for freight.
Ding!
At last, the sound announcing our arrival rang out.
The elevator doors slowly opened.
The clamoring zombies poured outside in a flood.
“Haaah!”
Mo Haein and I hurriedly gulped the air we had been holding back.
Kwak Hanmuk, who had somehow withstood the collapsing zombies without being swept away, frantically searched for us.
After confirming we were unharmed, he sent Mo Haein outside first.
Then all three of us collapsed in front of the elevator and panted for a moment.
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I genuinely thought I was going to die…….
Being crushed had been terrible, but the clinging rotten flesh and the stench of death were especially agonizing.
I found myself thinking that people with mysophobia would have a very hard time becoming zombies.
Mo Haein held a hand to her head, apparently a little dizzy.
I wanted nothing more than to lie there for a while longer, but every second counted, so we could not rest any further.
Zombification….
I dismissed the emerging System Window and stood.
“We’re moving again.”
The second basement level was packed with mechanical facilities and housed both the electrical room and the generator room.
Because the hum of engines formed a constant background noise, the zombies here never slept and remained perpetually active.
The generator room could be entered through the electrical room, so we needed to find the latter first.
The narrow corridor bore the desperate traces of those who had attempted to escape.
Zombies hid amid toppled and scattered furnishings, forcing us to run as though crossing an obstacle course.
A zombie missing its lower body growled as it crawled along the floor and reached out.
It was not trying to attack us and was merely reacting to the noise, but it was still troublesome because we had to avoid catching our feet and falling.
Others suddenly appeared from blind spots or burst through doors at our sides, blocking the path.
Here, I was the only one who needed to worry.
There was no need to be concerned about Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk’s physical abilities, so I focused sharply on avoiding the zombies.
Fortunately, because I knew what would appear and precisely where, I evaded them without difficulty.
System Windows repeatedly appeared along the way to announce the progress of my zombification, unexpectedly obstructing my vision, but I dismissed each one immediately.
“Stop for a moment!”
The instant they heard me, Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk halted.
A television resting atop a mountain of furnishings from a failed defensive line fell directly before us with a crash.
Its screen flickered on through static.
“Waaaaah!”
Cheers and applause burst from it. We ran again to escape the zombies converging on the noise. After running for a while, we finally saw a sign.
Electrical Room
The moment we entered, I shut the door.
It was to prevent the zombies outside from coming in.
Only a few seconds after the door closed, something struck it with a thud.
That was followed by an unbroken series of thunderous crashes.
The zombies that had pursued the noise kept slamming into it.
A hill of zombies was probably forming on the other side of the door.
Kwak Hanmuk offered a brief assessment.
“Wow, getting out is going to be a bitch.”
“It really is….”
I tapped my foot against the removable panel beneath the enormous control board covering the electrical-room wall. It provided access to the cable channel.
The panel rattled open, revealing a small key lying atop a dusty bundle of thick cables.
I took the key and stood before the soundproof door connected to the room on the right.
Generator Room
The engine noise that had tormented our ears since we entered the second basement level came through the door with even greater force.
Mixed among it were the irregular bangs of something striking a surface.
“We have seven minutes left. The boss battle begins the moment I open this door. As briefed, Captain Kwak will handle the boss while Captain Mo and I make the repairs.”
Before entering the underground zone, I had explained the boss battle and the repair procedure in advance.
“Okay. Take these.”
Kwak Hanmuk pulled three pairs of work gloves and a can of rust-removal spray from his sling bag.
They were some of the items I had asked him to bring from the Green Zone.
Work Gloves: Beware of the smell of rubber! Disposable.
Rust-Removal Spray: Spray, then wipe away after one minute.
Mo Haein took the spray, and we divided the work gloves among us, each putting on a pair.
I inserted the key into the locked door.
“I’m opening it.”
When I opened the electrical room’s thick soundproof door, an overwhelming wall of noise pounded mercilessly against my entire body.
An enormous diesel generator towered inside the generator room, at the deepest point of the second basement level.
Countless hydraulic hoses and fuel lines tangled intricately beside the engine block, making it seem somewhat out of place in a cutting-edge laboratory.
I once again felt the peculiar sensation the old jeep and portable player had given me.
I looked at the being staggering in front of the engine.
It was the underground zone’s boss: the Cook Zombie.
The zombie wore a cafeteria cook’s uniform, an apron, and a sanitary cap.
It swayed, then slammed one hand against the generator.
It rampaged through the generator room in a fit, returned to hammer the generator again, and repeated the cycle.
The generator emitted an unstable noise with each blow of its fist.
Chime—a System Window appeared.
It seemed to contain information about the Cook Zombie, so this time I tried to read it, but something was strange.
Zombification is receding. (Current zombification progress: 1%)
Another System Window appeared immediately afterward.
Zombification is receding. (Current zombification progress: 0%)
You have fully recovered! Returning to human form.
“Grrrr….”
My eyes met the Cook Zombie’s.