I'm a Young God, so Please Raise Me - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 21
My scattered thoughts snapped back into focus.
It was the sharp metallic sound emanating from Je Hyeon-o.
His metal hand moved with deliberate slowness, waiting for my response.
I spoke the words I needed to say in that moment.
“…I can clear it.”
Je Hyeon-o tilted his head to the side. He seemed puzzled that I still insisted on clearing it.
It was an answer with a high probability of being a lie, much like his suspicion.
But what did it matter? By the time my answer was revealed as false, we’d all likely be zombies anyway.
Of course, Je Hyeon-o wouldn’t be infected with DeZomDeal, so he’d remain perfectly fine.
I imagined the sight of him carving up my zombie form.
‘Zombies can’t feel pain anyway, so it should be fine.’
My mind settled slightly, and I returned to the fundamentals.
I had considered the possibility that the researcher who would develop the vaccine might be injured.
However, unlike Mo Hae-in’s concern, I hadn’t considered that the vaccine researcher might die.
This was because Trial fundamentally follows the framework of the game.
My understanding of Trial was as follows:
1. Trial is a virtual space created based on the Archive games I had played.
2. Games possess a minimum framework necessary for progression.
Given these premises, the conclusion was singular.
3. Trial also possesses a minimum framework necessary for progression.
Cases where the researcher dies during the player’s progression after meeting them naturally exist.
‘That would be a bad ending.’
However, the situation where the researcher who would develop the vaccine dies before even meeting the player deviates from the game’s framework.
This was no different from the NPC Smiley dying alone in Haspack.
In short, it was a situation that couldn’t possibly occur.
There was no possibility that Je Hyeon-o, who entered first, had met the researcher beforehand.
Je Hyeon-o also knew the clear conditions, so there was no reason he would touch the researcher.
He would have just killed another zombie instead.
Suddenly, another question struck my mind.
Je Hyeon-o despises Trial.
He hates lingering in Trial, always aiming for the fastest clear time possible.
Yet now, even though he’s reached a situation where he can’t clear it….
Je Hyeon-o seemed far too composed.
Given his nature, he should be doing anything necessary, yet instead he was acting as though he found this amusing.
‘There’s no way Je Hyeon-o knows something I don’t.’
I couldn’t begin to follow the logic of a madman.
Setting aside my questions about Je Hyeon-o for now, I turned my attention back to the researcher zombie.
I noticed a detail I hadn’t seen before.
The zombie continued to slam its head against the glass door.
Even as Je Hyeon-o and I conversed mere steps away, the creature paid us no mind.
It meant the target had already been selected.
I looked beyond the glass partition. A figure emerged from the darkness—barely visible at first, now distinct.
A woman, her mouth clamped shut, trembling as she wept, her eyes fixed on me with terror.
Her tear-streaked face appeared to be around my age.
An ID card hung from the neck of her research facility uniform.
Lee Ga-on.
She was the essential condition for the true ending I had been searching for—the researcher’s younger sibling.
Now I understood what had transpired.
DeZomDeal’s true ending is the vaccine creation ending. All other standard endings simply grant clues toward vaccine development and conclude.
The sole surviving researcher, with the player’s aid, develops the vaccine while constantly worrying about their sibling’s fate.
Throughout this process, they share stories about their sibling with the player.
Trivial details—how the sibling had joined the research facility as an intern researcher and worked alongside them, how their parents passed away early and they had raised their sibling alone.
But the researcher never actually issues a Quest to find the sibling—and therein lay the trap.
The player must discover and locate the sibling themselves, using the researcher’s stories as hints.
A hidden Quest, in other words.
Finding the surviving sibling allows progression toward the true ending route.
If the sibling is dead or has become a zombie, the game proceeds only through the standard ending.
Since Je Hyeon-o had entered DeZomDeal some time ago, I had harbored the anxiety that the sibling might have already perished in that interval.
Instead, it was the researcher who had become a zombie.
Likely, when Je Hyeon-o swept through the facility’s zombies, the researcher had ventured out searching for their sibling.
They must have encountered other surviving researchers in the process.
They found their sibling, but afterward, bitten by a zombie and abandoned by the other survivors.
‘They probably discarded the seemingly useless sibling as well.’
Bitten and left alone with their sibling, the researcher would have faced a choice. This moment was the consequence of that decision.
They pushed their sibling into the Director’s Office—the safest location in the facility, yet accessible enough to respond to external threats.
Then bound their own limbs and gagged themselves.
They could never have asked their sibling to kill them. Such a request would be far too cruel to burden them with.
“Grrrrgh….”
The gagged zombie slammed its mangled head against the glass partition again.
The researcher’s words from within the game echoed in my mind.
“You know, my sibling. They’re really rude. Won’t even call me oppa, just uses my name. And whenever they’re in a bad mood, they just start yelling ‘hey!’ first thing.”
“They came to the research facility as an intern because of me, honestly. If I hadn’t been here, they’d probably be in a safer zone.”
“They’re even smarter than I am. I already got their signature in advance.”
“I just hope they survive. If they can just hold on until we finish the vaccine….”
I had naturally assumed it would end in a happy ending. Like in the game.
I felt the urge to restart, but I couldn’t.
There was no time to re-enter, and the moment I cleared it through another method and exited, Mo Hae-in, being infected, would be executed.
‘If only this were a game.’
Then I could simply quit and start over from the beginning.
While entertaining an impossible thought, I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine.
Je Hyeon-o, standing beside me, was raising his metallic hand to dispatch the zombie.
“Colonel Je Hyeon-o, please wait a moment.”
I stepped forward in front of him, blocking the terrified gaze of the woman staring at us.
“That female researcher is a crucial NPC for clearing this stage. She’s the vaccine developer’s sister.”
I continued speaking, watching my reflection in the black goggles.
“Even if she’s become a zombie, killing her family right before her eyes could create a hostile relationship.”
Fortunately, Je Hyeon-o listened to me.
Though it seemed less like he trusted my judgment and more like he was curious to see how I’d navigate this predicament.
With Je Hyeon-o’s cooperation, I bound the researcher zombie more securely.
Then I knocked on the reinforced glass door.
Knock, knock.
The skeletal figure flinched and jumped.
“I’m a soldier. I’ve come to help, so please open the door.”
But her wariness remained. After a moment’s hesitation, I spoke a name aloud.
“I know Lee Se-eon.”
The name of the researcher who had become a zombie.
The moment Lee Ga-on heard her brother’s name, her eyes transformed.
She bolted upright and immediately unlocked the reinforced glass door.
I pulled the door open. Through the widening gap, a voice poured out—hoarse and fractured from exhaustion.
“You… you know my brother? How…? My brother doesn’t have friends like that…?”
“I met him once for work and we had a brief conversation.”
“Ah…”
I led Lee Ga-on outside and pulled a drink and chocolate bar from my backpack, handing them to her.
“Wait over there for a moment.”
After sending her to a corner, I isolated the zombified Lee Se-eon in the Director’s Office.
Then I stacked barriers in front of the glass door.
The Director’s Office was sturdy enough that he wouldn’t escape until someone removed the barriers from outside.
“*Cough*, *sniff*…”
Meanwhile, Lee Ga-on was sniffling and crying as she wolfed down the chocolate bar and drink.
She must have been trapped alone for quite a long time, yet she’d managed to survive this far—it was remarkable.
“Thank you…”
Lee Ga-on thanked me.
She then attempted to greet Je Hyeon-o as well, but the moment she saw his metallic hand, fear seized her and she froze in silence.
Looking back at Je Hyeon-o, I found myself deeply understanding Lee Ga-on’s reaction.
^ ^
Even hiding the metallic hand wouldn’t solve the problem.
There was the emoticon-displaying goggles, the menacing combat suit, and the gas mask.
If I encountered someone dressed like that on the street, I’d probably avoid them too.
…Truth be told, I wanted to avoid him right now as well. I just didn’t have the luxury.
“Can you explain what happened?”
The moment I asked, Lee Ga-on’s tears burst forth anew, fresh streams cascading over the dried tracks of her previous anguish.
I handed her another packet of jelly. She ate it between sobs, her body shaking with grief.
“My brother, *hic*, my brother….”
The explanation that followed unfolded exactly as I had anticipated.
The surviving researchers had exploited Lee Se-eon ruthlessly.
Using the pretext of overlooking the fact that his younger sister—merely an intern—had sheltered in the classified Research Facility, they drove Lee Se-eon into the most dangerous locations.
He was coerced into scavenging for food and supplies.
The moment he was bitten by a zombie, he was abandoned along with his sister.
Lee Ga-on had done everything within her power to save Lee Se-eon as he transformed.
The researcher Mo Hae-in had encountered was Lee Ga-on herself.
She had ventured into the Yellow Zone to procure medical supplies, but by then, Lee Se-eon’s zombification was already irreversible.
When every method failed, she was forced to watch her brother transform before her eyes.
I waited for Lee Ga-on’s sobs to subside before asking my next question.
“Did Lee Se-eon happen to leave any information regarding a vaccine?”
“….”
“I know this must be incredibly difficult. But….”
“I don’t know anything about that!”
Lee Ga-on’s voice rose sharply. She seemed startled by her own outburst and quickly apologized.
“I’m sorry…. But I really don’t know.”
“I see.”
“What would it matter even if I did?”
The tears that had barely stopped began welling up again.
“My brother is already a zombie.”
I studied her intently, my thoughts racing.
The Quest window I had seen at the Broadcast Station came to mind.
‘Media literacy….’
The ability to discern the credibility of information.
It didn’t take long to reach a conclusion.
“Lee Ga-on.”
“*Sniff*, yes?”
“You know how to make a vaccine, don’t you?”
Silence fell. Je Hyeon-o, who had been observing dispassionately, leaned forward with sudden interest.
Lee Ga-on responded with a bewildered expression.
“I really don’t…. And I’m just an intern, not a proper researcher….”
This time, I cut her off.
“You do know.”
What struck me as odd was that Lee Ga-on had ventured into the Yellow Zone to obtain medical supplies.
The Research Facility, being a place that handled viruses, was equipped with high-grade medical supplies.
There was no need to risk her life in the Yellow Zone, yet she had gone there nonetheless.
There could be only one reason.
“I went to the Yellow Zone to gather vaccine materials.”
Lee Ga-on’s face went pale.
I summoned the Quest again.
◆Main Quest: Explore the Research Facility and locate the surviving vaccine developer.
The Quest was already stating it clearly.
Find the ‘vaccine developer’.
Whether they were a researcher or an intern at the facility didn’t matter. Anyone capable of developing the vaccine would satisfy the condition.
At that moment, a chime sounded and the system window updated.
You have found the surviving vaccine developer!
It was a system notification confirming my judgment was correct.
‘You could have told me sooner.’
It had waited until I was certain, and only now announced the Quest completion like a congratulatory message.
At this rate, calling the system window anything more than an alarm seemed generous.
You are….
I closed the window before the system could display any additional message. Then I looked down at Lee Ga-on.
She couldn’t speak. Her face had turned ashen, her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles whitened.
Even if a blade were pressed to her throat, her expression suggested she would never divulge information about the vaccine.
But I had no intention of threatening her. Instead, I posed a simple question.
“Isn’t it unfair? Your brother became a zombie.”
“….”
Lee Ga-on, who had been staring at the floor, slowly lifted her head.
“I will help you take your revenge.”
Her pupils trembled slightly.
“…How would you do that?”
Fear resonated in her questioning voice. It seemed the researchers had tormented her considerably.
Since Lee Ga-on regarded the surviving researchers as extraordinarily formidable and dangerous, I opened my hand and gestured to the side.
Following my hand, Lee Ga-on’s lips parted.
An entity capable of handling not two researchers, but two fully armed military platoons.
Je Hyeon-o was there.
“I will handle them however you wish. Kill them, spare them, turn them into zombies like yourself, anything at all.”
Realizing my expression had been too rigid, I lifted the corners of my mouth as gently as I could manage.
Lee Ga-on’s face was blank. After staring at me for a long moment, she opened her mouth.
“All I need to do is make the vaccine?”
The true ending of DeZomDeal is vaccine creation.
But I didn’t want to close Trial in this current state.
I glanced sideways at Je Hyeon-o. Black goggles gazed back at me.
If it had been Gwak Han-muk or Mo Hae-in, I would have hesitated before speaking, but with Je Hyeon-o, it seemed fine.
I stated the ending I desired.
“Please create a cure as well.”

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