I'm a Young God, so Please Raise Me - Chapter 14

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

Chapter 14
I stared at him with wide eyes. Gwak Han-muk furrowed his brow.
“Captain Mo Hae-in might look that way, but she’s actually incredibly rigid about rules. There’s no reason she couldn’t have reached the Green Zone unless she was infected.”
Gwak Han-muk’s words made immediate sense.
Mo Hae-in was the type who valued protocol, and Sidaecheong prioritized reuniting with team members above all else upon entering a trial.
Therefore, she would have made joining us her primary objective.
Even if she’d encountered civilians caught in the trial, the probability was high that she wouldn’t have acted alone.
Unless the situation was truly unavoidable.
When I considered the possibility that Mo Hae-in had a reason fatal enough to prevent her from entering the Green Zone, zombie infection did cross my mind.
But a Sidaecheong team leader’s position was never one earned cheaply.
She was more than capable of escaping even if she encountered Dead Zombies in hordes.
Gwak Han-muk seemed to have arrived at the same question, lost in thought.
I asked carefully.
“Could it be possible that she encountered Major Je Hyeon-o?”
A confrontation might have occurred between Mo Hae-in and Je Hyeon-o, who was aggressive toward suitable candidates.
At my suggestion, Gwak Han-muk let out a pained groan.
“That’s… it could happen, but probably not? Major Je tends to look out for us in his own way.”
“What do you mean by ‘look out for us’?”
“He doesn’t attack us.”
“…I see.”
Indeed, in the game, Sidaecheong personnel never attacked us.
In any case, if she’d actually been bitten by a zombie, things had gotten complicated.
In DeZomDeal, being bitten by a zombie turns you into a Dead Zombie. Since it’s extremely dangerous, the protocol for infected individuals in DeZomDeal was immediate termination.
‘If it’s the true ending, it would be resolved, but Je Hyeon-o is a variable…’
Since I didn’t know what he’d done here, I couldn’t be absolutely certain of the true ending.
Just as I was organizing my complicated thoughts, an angry voice rang out.
“Do you have no intention of talking?”
I’d forgotten about the people standing in front of me. I belatedly turned my gaze toward the middle-aged man.
The Green Zone housed approximately thirty people, including non-combatants like the elderly and children.
But they were all people who valued their lives too much to risk venturing outside the Green Zone.
Given that food procurement was difficult, the fact that I’d arrived with a backpack full of supplies must have been shocking.
I pulled out a salmon mayo triangle kimbap—the one I’d felt most uneasy about—and tossed it over the iron gate.
At just one kimbap, people rushed forward like a pack of dogs.
The kimbap wrapper burst completely, separating the seaweed and rice entirely, but that wasn’t a concern for them.
Everyone was desperate to get even a single grain of rice into their mouths.
“This is real food.”
The middle-aged man, who had been maintaining some dignity, couldn’t hide his excitement at the words spoken through mouthfuls of rice.
If Gwak Han-muk and I had even unwrapped a hot bar here, they would have fainted from shock.
I patted my backpack in front of them, my eyes gleaming.
“If you let me in for just a moment, I can show you where to find food. There’s far more than this.”
After exchanging glances for a long moment, they finally opened the iron door.
However, the situation didn’t unfold peacefully. A middle-aged man who could be called the leader of this Green Zone let out a deliberate cough.
“Ahem, we’ll accept you into our safe zone as well.”
Just as Gwak Han-muk let out a hollow laugh at the condescending tone, the leader spoke again.
“But first, share that backpack with us.”
The gun barrels trained on us remained steady.
He was betting that Gwak Han-muk and I had only secured provisions but failed to obtain firearms.
Since I’d already anticipated this, I looked toward Gwak Han-muk.
He remembered the request I’d made before entering the Green Zone and had executed the task brilliantly.
Gwak Han-muk thrust his hand into the pocket of his baseball jacket and cursed.
“Damn it.”
“What did you just say?”
“Oh, my apologies. Your hearing must not be great.”
Gwak Han-muk reached the leader in just a few strides and bowed deeply.
Tall and broad-shouldered, Gwak Han-muk cut an imposing figure.
Intimidated without realizing it, the leader unconsciously hunched his body.
Looking down at him, Gwak Han-muk repeated his statement.
“I said it’s damn ridiculous.”
“…W-what, you insolent bastard!”
The leader’s face flushed crimson as he suddenly roared.
Gwak Han-muk pressed a pistol against his head. At the cold sensation of the barrel pressing firmly against his skull, the leader froze solid.
I opened my mouth with a calm voice.
“We’re already carrying multiple firearms. I’d rather not waste time unnecessarily.”
Zip.
I opened the duffel bag wide at its mouth.
After displaying the pistols, submachine guns, ammunition, knives, axes, and more packed densely inside, I asked.
“Will you continue?”
“N-no, I, I’m sorry about that. I think I was just a bit hasty….”
The leader stammered out an awkward apology.
Since I had no intention of taking over the Green Zone, I accepted his apology and let the matter drop.
Gwak Han-muk turned and came to my side, taking the duffel bag from me.
During our journey here, he’d been dealing with zombies while I carried the luggage alone. Now he picked up the duffel bag while also carrying his backpack and whined.
“Making me carry all the bags like this.”
Hearing someone seven years my senior constantly call me “sir” was unbearable.
I told him to just call me Go-yo, then informed him of our purpose in entering the Green Zone.
“There are items we need to acquire here.”
The Special Task Force’s temporary base was planned to be established in the Yellow Zone.
The goal was to minimize travel time to the Research Facility by placing the base as close as possible to the Dead Zone.
To achieve this, we needed to gather the necessary items from the Green Zone in advance.
“Let’s split up and farm.”
I need to find Mo Hae-in as well, so I’ll have to move faster than planned.
I told Gwak Han-muk which items I needed and where to find them.
As Gwak Han-muk listened to the item list, one of his eyebrows shot up at a particular item.
“That’s the most important one.”
To be honest, even I could understand why it would sound strange to someone who didn’t know the full context.
But it was truly a crucial item for the true ending.
“I’m counting on you.”
“Yeah, if you’re asking, I’ll do it.”
“…Just call me Go-yo, please.”
“If Go-yo’s asking, I’ll do it.”
“Yes….”
Gwak Han-muk would check the Elementary School, which served as a survivor shelter, while I would verify the Broadcast Station located within the Green Zone.
Since the Broadcast Station wasn’t far from the Elementary School, I could make the trip alone. Besides, the Green Zone was safe anyway.
I sent Gwak Han-muk, laden with a backpack and duffel bag, into the Elementary School and headed toward the Broadcast Station.
The city wasn’t large, so the broadcast building was modest.
If not for the tall transmission tower rising above the structure, I wouldn’t have known it was a broadcast station.
The atmosphere peculiar to abandoned buildings mingled with the darkness of night, creating an eerie feeling.
I stepped inside at a brisk pace.
Ding—a system window appeared.
◆Main Quest….
…It started to materialize but then stopped.
What was this now?
I waited for the system window for a moment.
The box kept flickering on and off, as if engaged in some invisible struggle.
Then suddenly, with a sharp crack, the system window burst into full view.
★Event Quest: Exciting Broadcast Station Exploration!
You have visited the Broadcast Station!
The Broadcast Station is the minion of ■■ ■■■! A tool of mass communication!
Amid the flood of infodemic, do you truly possess the media literacy of a ■■ ■?
■■ ■■■ will continue to watch over you!
…The tone was different somehow?
The content was strange too.
‘So what’s the actual quest?’
I wondered if it was just exploring the broadcast station, but that seemed odd in its own way.
It was a quest that didn’t exist in DeZomDeal.
I enjoyed discovering new parts of the game I hadn’t known about, but this felt unsettling.
For now, I decided to ignore it, assuming the system window had momentarily lost focus.
I didn’t have time to dwell on such things. I needed to quickly gather the items and find Mo Hae-in.
The Broadcast Station hadn’t escaped the zombie catastrophe either, so its interior was in complete disarray.
I passed through the silent lobby and entered the corridor. The building, with no moonlight filtering in, was shrouded in darkness.
The Broadcast Station had a complex internal layout, but since I’d wandered through it so many times in the game, finding my way wasn’t difficult.
Relying on a single flashlight beam, I fumbled my way toward the emergency stairwell.
I was just about to turn a corner in the corridor.
“Grraaahhh!”
A zombie with tattered flesh burst out at me.
I wasn’t easily startled by jump scares like this. I calmly swung the baseball bat I was holding.
Crack!
The zombie hit by the bat flew backward.
Since it was a Green Zone zombie, even at night I could handle one without much trouble.
I left the writhing creature behind and found the emergency stairwell.
“…Hmm.”
But something seemed off about the area around the emergency stairwell entrance.
Several emergency exit guide lights with green pictograms of running humans were lined up in a long row along the corridor.
But the direction they were running was strange.
They were pointing away from the emergency stairwell, not toward it.
It was an unsettling sight, but there was nothing I could do about it. I walked against the direction of the green pictograms.
As I entered the emergency stairwell, unusual floor markings caught my eye first.
⇧2
⇩B1
The smiley face mark indicated the current floor was 1. The live studio, my destination, was on the 6th floor.
I climbed the stairs diligently and checked the signage again on the 6th floor.
⇧99
⇩5
I’d been smiling the whole way up, but now on the 6th floor, the face had turned to a frown. Even worse, the next floor was marked as 99.
I examined the signage carefully.
‘This is another element that wasn’t in the game.’
In the game, it was just a normal emergency stairwell. There were no reversed guide lights or strange smiley face signs.
Of course there weren’t.
‘Because it’s a zombie game.’
These kinds of things don’t fit the zombie worldview. They’re not elements you’d see in DeZomDeal.
Unless it was something like Happy Smile Factory….
I grasped the baseball bat and carefully opened the emergency stairwell door.
The flashlight beam extended long into the corridor beyond the door. There was nothing particularly unusual.
I cautiously entered the 6th floor.
And I found the news-specialized studio among the three studios located on the 6th floor.
The door was wide open, and the interior was a mess. Signs of a hasty escape.
News scripts scattered about had dried bloodstains clinging to them.
I stepped over a fallen broadcast camera on the floor and headed toward the monitoring area.
I needed to find the security USB among the multiple large and small monitors clustered there.
Just as I was about to shine my flashlight, the surroundings suddenly brightened and an anchor’s voice flowed out.
“An unidentified virus is breaking out simultaneously across the entire nation.”
“The Disease Control Agency has announced that infected individuals are exhibiting high fever, extreme aggression, and temporary cognitive dysfunction.”
The monitor powered on by itself, displaying the news broadcast.
I watched the screen without surprise.
In the game, monitors activated the same way to reveal DeZomDeal’s worldview.
“The government plans to announce specific countermeasures during an emergency briefing at 6 PM this evening.”
“We urge citizens not to be swayed by unconfirmed information and to verify accurate details through official announcements.”
Beneath the composed voice lay a faint tremor—fear and dread.
The screen changed. The anchor’s premonition had been correct.
“Citizens. We are transmitting an emergency disaster order from the government.”
Now the anchor’s voice bordered on a scream.
“The unidentified infection crisis currently spreading nationwide has exceeded controllable limits. The government is issuing an immediate nationwide evacuation order effective 6 PM today…, no, please help, aaahhhhh!”
The broadcast ended with both anchors being torn apart by zombies.
I left their screams behind and retrieved a USB drive from the drawer.
After pocketing it, as I tried to exit the studio, everything turned red.
I looked at the monitors. They all displayed the same image.
A bright red breaking news screen.
Breaking News!
In that moment of being overwhelmed by crimson, the screen changed.
The newly displayed image was….
Me.
My face reflected on the screen—slightly pale, looking up at the monitor.
Could it be Samra?
But Samra couldn’t enter the trials, nor could he exert influence within them.
I tensed at this incomprehensible situation.
Boom!
A tremendous crash shook the building.
Staggering, I barely managed to stay on my feet.
Cracks spider-webbed across the ceiling and floor.
The monitors that had been displaying that strange image were all shattered, their panels glowing in a rainbow of colors.
‘That impact came from above.’
After a moment’s consideration, I abandoned the damaged monitors and rushed toward the emergency stairwell.
The building could collapse at any moment.
But instead of fleeing downward, I headed up, taking the stairs two or three at a time until I reached the rooftop.
It was marked as the 99th floor, which made me wonder if anomalies would occur, but fortunately I reached the rooftop level safely.
Though the floor numbering was slightly odd.
I pushed open the rooftop door.
‘…Insane.’
A curse escaped my lips at the sight that unfolded beyond the open door.
The broadcast antenna that had towered high on the rooftop was bent in half.
The grotesquely warped transmission tower, its upper section driven into the rooftop, looked less like steel infrastructure and more like a child’s toy.
Someone stood atop the folded broadcast antenna.
This was someone I absolutely could not afford to meet alone right now.
Je Hyeon-o has been discovered!
Je Hyeon-o is a registrable character. Would you like to register?

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————