Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 143

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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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Player of the Ruined World – Episode 143
As Lee Kwanghyun swallowed hard, Hong Yeonhui spoke with cold precision about their current situation.
“Without Baek Doyun… we essentially cannot clear this. There isn’t even a 1% chance of success.”
“….”
“So stop spacing out and start killing zombies.”
“Who said I was spacing out?”
Bang! Bang bang! Bang!
Lee Kwanghyun pulled the trigger relentlessly.
Thanks to the two buses blocking the collapsed outer wall, the number of charging zombies had decreased significantly.
With the buses running, no zombies were climbing over them.
Before the zombies could even step onto the buses, they were being shredded by the spinning saw blades.
“Why did you bring the children here?”
When Hong Yeonhui asked, Park Youngsu spoke up instead.
“We had our reasons. We couldn’t hold out at the Shelter any longer.”
“Even with the Safe House effect?”
“Mutants can enter the Safe House anyway. We thought it would be better to join forces and fight together… but I’m not sure if there’s a place for the children to hide here.”
There were no safe places in the Brain Research Institute.
Right now… our best option was to trust the vaccine development team and endure.

* * *
Thunk! Thud thud! Thunk! Thunk!
Park Sangil climbed the stairs, driving bolts precisely into the heads of zombies.
“Uncle Sangil!”
At the sound of that voice, he turned to see Kim Suhan, Han Hye-ri, and Kang Haneul running toward him.
“What are you three doing here? The back entrance?”
“The back entrance is blocked by a mountain, so not many zombies are coming through. Kim Hanna’s subordinates are there too.”
“….”
“But we heard the building collapsing, so we came to check. What’s going on here?”
Kim Suhan asked in confusion, seeing children who should have been at the Shelter present here.
From the Experimental Animal Center, the entrance to Building B wasn’t visible.
Kim Suhan, Han Hye-ri, and Kang Haneul had felt the sound and impact of the wall collapsing and came here to resolve their confusion.
“Krraahhh!!”
“Krrr… Kack!”
Seeing the zombies descending the stairs, they all turned without hesitation.
Thud thud! Thunk! Thunk!
Han Hye-ri’s bolts were already piercing through their foreheads.
“Follow me. There’s the safest place in this area.”
At Han Hye-ri’s words, Kim Suhan’s expression became bewildered.
“There’s a safe place here?”
“The rooftop between Building A and the Experimental Animal Center.”
“What’s so safe about a rooftop?”
“It looks like a rooftop in name, but there are walls on both sides, so it’s not visible from outside.”
“Huh?”
“We just need to block the stairs. Any mutants approaching can be sniped in advance.”
Since it was the safest option available, Park Sangil nodded and spoke.
“Show us the way.”
“Yes. But where is Chulmil Grandfather?”
“He’s guarding the research laboratory.”
“That won’t work. All the Shooters should head to the rooftop, and it’s better to have the Maker or Healing Factor—those without clear sightlines—guard the research laboratory.”
Most of the Healing Factor and Maker members were middle and high school students.
Could we really entrust the research laboratory’s defense to children?
It was unsettling in multiple ways.
“Huh?! Mom!”
At that moment, Jeong Siyun, who was among the children, turned around and shouted.
Kim Hanna’s daughter, Jeong Siyun.
Just as Siyun said, I could see Kim Hanna rushing up the stairs.
Kim Hanna, who had been focusing on recovery after being attacked by the Ninth-Tier Mutant, had begun moving again.
Kim Hanna first checked Siyun’s condition, then looked at her husband beside her.
Her husband’s eyes were glistening with moisture.
Seeing his wife bleeding from her forehead, his expression was filled with worry.
Instead of other words, Kim Hanna brushed down her husband’s arm and spoke.
“I’m asking you to look after Siyun.”
“Don’t worry about our daughter. But you….”
“I’m fine. I’ll be back soon, so please stay with Siyun.”
“….”
Kim Hanna’s husband bit his lower lip as he looked at his wife, then soon embraced her and squeezed his eyes shut.
“You need to be careful.”
“….”
Kim Hanna kept her eyes closed, feeling her husband’s warmth, and before long, she looked at Park Sangil and spoke.
“Sangil, I’ll take care of the research laboratory, so everyone head to the rooftop.”
“If the Ninth-Tier Mutant appears….”
“If that thing comes, there’s no safe place here anyway.”
“….”
“Right now, the Ninth-Tier Mutant seems focused on Baek Doyun. That means it’s treating him as a threat.”
At Kim Hanna’s words, Park Sangil’s expression grew somber.
“Can you confirm Baek Doyun’s condition? If it’s you, wouldn’t it be visible to the naked eye?”
“I’m not sure either. The speed is too much for me to keep up with.”
“….”
“I can’t determine Baek Doyun’s condition, but… judging by the current situation, the mutants don’t seem to have the leisure to attack here.”
As Kim Hanna finished speaking, Kim Heejoo observed the outside situation and spoke.
“First… let’s move quickly. The stairs could collapse at any moment.”
Kim Heejoo was right.
The outer wall had crumbled, taking part of the staircase with it.
Park Sangil hurried upward, ushering the children ahead, while Kim Hana watched the departing group and spoke.
“When you meet Elder Chulmin, tell him to head for the rooftop!”
“Yes! Thank you!”

* * *
“Please, please, please…!”
Meanwhile, Song Junhyeok, who remained in the Research Laboratory, observed the vaccine’s effects through a microscope.
The completed antibody-based vaccine.
The System Message had delivered this notification to Bae Hyeonseok and Song Junhyeok, designated as senior researchers.
Virus neutralization successful, it said.
This meant the vaccine was effective.
But the main episode hadn’t ended.
“Junhyeok, still no reaction?”
When Bae Hyeonseok asked in an anxious voice, Song Junhyeok swallowed hard and replied.
“Not yet. Are you doing okay?”
“I’m fine. But just in case, tie my limbs tighter.”
Bae Hyeonseok, bound with thick rope around his limbs.
Why was the Research Laboratory in this state?
The answer lay a few minutes in the past.
Before reaching this verification stage, both Bae Hyeonseok and Song Junhyeok had needed to make a grave decision.
They had successfully developed the antibody-based vaccine, and the No Way Home System had recognized it.
But since the main episode hadn’t ended, they interpreted this to mean the vaccine had to be administered directly to a human.
Someone had to receive a vaccine that wasn’t yet certain to work.
So they proceeded with human trials themselves.
The test subject was Bae Hyeonseok.
To be safer.
To be more certain, they administered the completed vaccine to lab mice at the Experimental Animal Center and exposed them to the X-virus.
Only after confirming the lab mice survived the virus did Bae Hyeonseok receive the vaccine.
They would have preferred to test on primates, but where would they find primates in the current situation?
The lab mice had succeeded, and the system said virus neutralization was successful, so they trusted that statement implicitly and used themselves as test subjects.
If it failed… Bae Hyeonseok might become the Ninth-Tier Mutant or even the Tenth-Tier Mutant.
That’s why they had bound his limbs.
“Ugh… why is this taking so long…!”
Song Junhyeok stared at the microscope with anxious anticipation.
The X-virus’s infection rate was beyond imagination, yet now it was eerily silent.
One could argue it was because they’d successfully developed the vaccine, but the complete absence of any movement was far from good news.
It suggested there might be an incubation period.
Song Junhyeok peered through the microscope at a cell culture dish.
After administering the vaccine to Bae Hyeonseok and drawing his blood, I had isolated the serum containing antibodies.
I mixed the serum with the virus, then placed the mixture into the cell culture dish to observe the results.
If the cells were infected or not—that alone would tell us whether this vaccine truly worked.
The problem was that the cells and virus weren’t mixing; they coexisted perfectly intact.
Either the cells should have been destroyed or the virus should have been destroyed, yet they remained separated like oil and water, coexisting in parallel.
Writhe—
In that moment, a subtle movement was detected through the microscope.
The antibodies gradually aggregated the X-virus, forming it into a single mass.
Following that, I could visibly confirm the aggregated X-virus dissolving away.
“What?! What, what?!”
As Song Junhyeok excitedly bounced on his feet, Bae Hyeonseok—his limbs still bound—watched him with an anxious expression.
“What is it? Why? What’s happening? What is it!”
“Success. It’s a success!! It’s successful!!”
“Success?! We succeeded?!”
“Yes!! Neutralization successful!!”
Ding—!
[Congratulations! You have successfully developed the vaccine!]
Simultaneously, a System Message appeared before their eyes.
It wasn’t a message visible only to Bae Hyeonseok and Song Junhyeok.
The same message also displayed before Elder Chulmin’s eyes, who was guarding the research laboratory.
Until now, messages related to vaccine development had appeared only before the eyes of Bae Hyeonseok and Song Junhyeok, who were designated as lead researchers.
The fact that it now appeared before Elder Chulmin’s eyes meant nothing less than the completion of the main episode.
“It’s over, it’s finished! We did it!!”
As Bae Hyeonseok cried out in jubilation, Song Junhyeok approached him with tears streaming down his face.
I untied the rope binding his limbs, and the two of them embraced, shedding tears of joy.
At last, Bae Hyeonseok and Song Junhyeok had succeeded in developing the X-virus vaccine.

* * *
“Did you all see it?! Did you check the message?!”
Lee Kwanghyun, defending the collapsed wall of Building B, shouted upon seeing the System Message.
“We cleared it?! We actually cleared it?!”
Hong Yeonhui beside him asked with wide eyes.
No one answered their questions.
Everyone stared at each other in bewilderment, their minds reeling from the sudden System Message that had materialized.
“Grrrrr….”
“Kack…! Kack-hack!”
In that instant, the zombies rushing toward the Brain Research Institute froze in unison, their entire bodies beginning to convulse violently.
Soon they collapsed one by one, becoming as motionless as deactivated machines.
It was a reaction strikingly similar to the Safe House activation episode from before.
When the Safe House activation had completed back then, the zombies inside had disintegrated into dust and vanished.
Similarly, with the vaccine development completion message, the zombies who had been given coordinates lost their purpose and fell into a state of complete incapacity.
Park Sangha, having regained consciousness after receiving treatment from Jo Yunhwan, approached the fallen zombies and spoke with narrowed eyes.
“These things… are still alive.”
“They’re not dead?”
As Park Sanghun approached, Park Sangha placed his fingers on the zombies’ carotid arteries and spoke.
“They’re breathing, and their hearts are still beating.”
“Then why are they like this?”
Park Sangha fell silent in thought instead of answering, and after a moment, he crossed his arms and spoke.
“Perhaps… the zombies are also under the System’s influence?”
“You mean the zombies are part of the System?”
“Whether they’re part of it or not, I don’t know, but just as we enhanced our bodies thanks to the System, the zombies were also constrained within the System’s framework.”
….
Park Sanghun nodded slowly instead of answering, then lifted his head and began looking around.
“Hey? Older brother, older brother!”
At Park Sanghun’s voice, Park Sangha lifted his head and gazed around with a startled expression.
The thick fog that had blanketed everything.
The dreary landscape they had witnessed every single day for months was disappearing.
The fog gradually lifted, and they could now see the zombies scattered across the landscape.
Park Sangha gazed out at the now-open world, spreading both arms wide, and drew a deep breath into the depths of his lungs.
“Ahhhh….”
Park Sangha exhaled slowly, gazing at the now-clear world.
A world where everything had crumbled, where corpses lay scattered in all directions.
Yet in this world where everything was now visible with clarity, he felt an inexplicable surge of emotion welling up inside.
“Older brother, can you see Baek Doyun?”
“We need to find him. It looks like Baek Doyun moved in that direction….”
Thud-! Thud-! Thud-!
In that moment, a familiar sound of footsteps reached the group’s ears.
A sound I no longer wished to hear.
“Get in! It’s not over yet!”
Lee Kwanghyun’s voice calling from beyond the bus.
I turned toward the source of the sound and spotted an enhanced Giant Zombie advancing toward us.

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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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