Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 16

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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 016
After analyzing the terrain with a 3D topographical map, I discovered that the buildings facing the main road were serving as natural barricades.
The structures behind the district had been leveled and their foundations raised during earthwork, creating a defensive advantage.
Building 118 seemed like the ideal location—easy to slip away through side streets and excellent for defense.
Our current numbers stood at thirty-eight, including myself.
More than half consisted of minors and elders.
If a significant group of survivors with malicious intent joined us, those in our safe house would struggle to survive.
In a world without law and society, humans were far more terrifying than zombies.
The Elder understood this too.
Park Sangil and I accepting those who came later with children required tremendous courage.
So when we insisted on bringing everyone along, he showed his full cooperation.
Though I initially opposed their joining, a sense of responsibility I couldn’t quite explain had begun to take root in me.
It wasn’t some grand reason like humanitarianism.
A world where those who do their best could smile.
A world where survival became the reward for such people.
The hope that we could finally see light.
I wanted to show them that hope.
After asking the Elder to oversee the barricade construction, I grabbed my curved sword and headed to the shoe cabinet.
The combat team gathered at the entrance of Building 105.
Ten high school students, a middle-aged man, three brothers, and myself—fifteen in total.
This was our combat force.
“Those of you with Shooter abilities, could you raise your hands?”
Park Sangil, the middle-aged man, and five high school students raised their hands.
Perhaps due to the thick fog, many had indeed chosen the Shooter ability.
Since Shooter abilities remained useful even in the rear, more was always better.
“Since the search area is wide, I think splitting into groups of five would work best.”
“We did that before. Should we keep the same teams?”
As Park Sangil looked around and asked, everyone nodded.
Park Sangil turned to me again and spoke.
“You’re on our team.”
“Who exactly?”
“Me, Lee Kwanghyun here, two high school friends, and you.”
So the middle-aged man’s name was Lee Kwanghyun.
“Understood. How far did you check last time?”
“We covered the Central District, so this time I think we should follow the perimeter of the entire district.”
“Park Sangil and I will lead, while you and the students follow from behind.”
We assigned search locations for each team and discussed future rendezvous points.
“Let’s meet at Building 118 in four hours.”
“Building 118?”
Park Sangha asked, and I nodded in response.
“Yes, that will become our main base from now on.”
The Unnamed Female Student raised her right hand slightly and asked.
“If we encounter a new group of survivors, do we guide them to Building 118?”
Bringing an unfamiliar group to the main base where only children are present was naturally a dangerous move.
A wise question, student.
“If you encounter a new group of survivors, guide them to Building 105.”
“Ah, yes!”
“Even if an Episode Clear message appears during your search, please gather at Building 118.”

* * *
Whoosh—
I pushed forward through the rain, relentlessly eliminating zombies without pause.
[Remaining Zombies: 212/1,000]
Nearly three hours had passed since I began the cleanup, yet a considerable number of zombies remained.
I’d covered almost the entire district… where were the rest hiding?
“Doyun.”
Park Sangil beside me called out.
When I turned my head, he glanced back at the group behind us and spoke.
“I’m curious about something. Can I ask?”
“Is it about the Safe House?”
“How did you know?”
“It was obvious since we were in the living room. Your lips kept twitching whenever you mentioned the Safe House.”
Park Sangil moved closer beside me with a slight cough, then whispered his question.
“The Safe House will… eventually disappear, right?”
The sound of rain would prevent those behind us from hearing.
I glanced back slightly before answering.
“Yes. It will disappear.”
“Why? Is it because of the Zombie King in the fourth episode?”
“No. It’s because of the third episode.”
“The third? What is that?”
“Mutants will appear starting from the third episode.”
Park Sangil’s expression hardened at the word mutants.
Since it was good to inform him of what to be cautious about, I continued calmly.
“There are various types of mutants. In the game, each player encounters different mutants early on.”
“Just tell me about the important ones. The ones we need to be careful about.”
“If I had to name the most dangerous mutant to watch out for early on….”
What could that be?
There are roughly six types of mutants that exist in No Way Home.
If I had to pick the most dangerous one early on… there’s exactly one mutant that comes to mind.
“You must be careful of the Water Demon.”
At the mention of the Water Demon, Park Sangil tilted his head in confusion.
“Water Demon? A vengeful water spirit?”
“Yes. It’s a variant that users call the ‘Water Demon,’ and if you encounter one, you must flee without question.”
“What are its characteristics? What makes it so dangerous?”
“It causes mental derangement. You lose your sense of balance and spatial orientation.”
“….”
Park Sangil’s expression grew grave as he pressed his lips together.
He seemed tense at the revelation of a mental attack capability.
“If it causes mental derangement… how are you supposed to know about it and avoid it?”
“You’ll hear a sound.”
“A sound?”
“A weeping cry. A woman’s weeping cry.”
The sound of a woman sobbing.
Whether from that description or something else, Park Sangil’s upper body trembled with a chill.
“If you hear that cry, don’t even look back—just retrace your steps immediately. If you keep hearing that sound, the derangement will set in.”
“Is it stronger in combat than zombies?”
“Far more violent than zombies, and its movements are faster.”
“Huh….”
“Its fingers are abnormally long too. Think of it as wielding ten blades.”
“This is… now I understand why it gets harder the deeper you go.”
“You just need to grow steadily. You can definitely do this.”
Park Sangil wore a conflicted expression and said nothing more.
It was meant as encouragement on my part, but it didn’t seem to land.
Park Sangil scratched his forehead and smacked his lips, then looked directly at my face and spoke.
“Thanks to you, I can know about dangers in advance… it’s like reading an instruction manual.”
“…Is that so?”
I asked back with a thin smile, and Park Sangil nodded.
“I’ll steel myself and move forward, so if you need anything, just say the word. I’ll prepare as much as I can according to what you tell me.”
My heart warmed.
I didn’t know what this feeling was.
It wasn’t a burdensome or uncomfortable emotion.
It was gratitude and reassurance.
So this is what it feels like to have someone who believes in you.
Feeling oddly bashful, I rubbed the back of my neck and averted my gaze.
“You believe in me too.”
Park Sangil’s words followed.
When I looked at him, Park Sangil smiled faintly and met my eyes.
“I’ll try to persuade the Zombie King somehow. So let’s trust each other. Until the end.”
I nodded at the conviction in his gaze.
Having lived a life of reading others’ moods since childhood, I could discern certain things from people’s eyes and expressions.
I could tell from someone’s eyes whether they’d stab me in the back or not.
Park Sangil’s gaze held no deception.
I could do this.
With knowledge of how this would end, and with people who believed in me, confidence surged through me that I could succeed.
“Let’s clear out the remaining zombies in the Safe House first, then move to the next episode.”
“Okay, let’s pick up the pace.”
We accelerated our zombie-clearing efforts.

* * *
“One at the entrance of Building 120 Left.”
Following Park Sangil’s briefing, the Middle-aged Man Lee Kwanghyun tensed and stayed close behind him.
Park Sangil wiped away the rain obstructing his vision and gestured for us to follow.
As we moved toward Building 120 Left, irregular footsteps echoed from the stairwell.
A world where all electronics had ceased functioning.
Naturally, the street lights wouldn’t turn on, nor would the emergency lights on the stairs.
A world devoid of light was more than enough to paralyze human vision.
After dealing with the zombie at the entrance, I checked the stairwell where the footsteps came from.
Since we had to check every floor, I moved carefully.
By the time we reached the fifth floor, I could spot zombies staring at the wall.
The zombies in No Way Home tended to have more acute hearing and sense of smell than vision.
Park Sangil seemed to have learned this from experience, as he gave hand signals the moment the zombie came into view.
-I’ll take the left, Doyun takes the right one. Everyone else check the stairwell.
Just from the gestures, I could understand what he was saying.
I nodded, and Park Sangil spread three fingers, folding one down every second.
The moment all fingers were folded, I burst up the stairs.
“Grrrrr….”
“Kack? Kackaack!”
The zombies, reacting a beat too late to our presence.
Thunk!
Before the zombie on the right could even respond, my blade pierced straight through its vocal cords.
[Remaining Zombies: 203/1,000]
In the moment I turned my gaze left to help Park Sangil.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
I could see Park Sangil repeatedly stabbing the zombie’s carotid artery.
[Remaining Zombies: 202/1,000]
This wasn’t his first time doing this.
Having already hunted hundreds of zombies, it was natural he’d grown accustomed to it.
Tap-tap-tat- Tap-tap-tap-tap-
Multiple footsteps then echoed from the stairwell.
“Uh? Uh!”
The high school students rushed toward me and Park Sangil with their eyes wide as saucers.
“I hear footsteps from above!”
“Shh.”
I sent the high school students back and moved toward the stairs with Park Sangil.
Lee Kwanghyun had already used the emergency door to barricade the stairwell.
Lee Kwanghyun turned to look at my face and spoke.
“I’ll hold the door, so you handle them with your blade!”
My weapon and Park Sangil’s were the longest here.
Lee Kwanghyun’s idea was to use the length to dispatch the zombies.
A wise choice.
Then Park Sangil also pressed his back against the iron door alongside Lee Kwanghyun.
“You handle it, Doyun.”
Was he trying to funnel all the points to me?
If so, there’s no reason to refuse.
But could the two of them withstand the pressure from the zombies?
While I was thinking this, the high school students also quickly pressed themselves against the iron door.
The students were acting with good instincts.
“Kaaaahhhhh!!”
“Kraaahhh!!”
Twelve zombies came rushing down the stairs like madmen.
Zombies pushing each other as they descended.
One even tumbled down the stairs and got trampled.
Regardless, they were filled with nothing but the madness to bite us.
Boom—! Crash! Boom!
As eight zombies slammed their bodies against the iron door, my allies’ upper bodies swayed for a moment.
“Push!”
“Hold!”
While Park Sangil, Lee Kwanghyun, and the high school students exerted all their strength, I swiftly pierced the zombies’ throats with my curved blade.
[Remaining Zombies: 201/1,000]
Some zombies grabbed the blade, but they didn’t understand what it was.
Whenever zombies grasped the blade, I pulled with all my might.
Each time, their fingers snapped off like dried reeds.
Watching the fingers fall, I felt nauseated.
Fingers falling seemed more grotesque and cruel than piercing vocal cords.
But I couldn’t afford to stop.
[Remaining Zombies: 200/1,000]
[Remaining Zombies: 199/1,000]
….
….
[Remaining Zombies: 190/1,000]
I dispatched eight zombies in a flash and surveyed the staircase once more.
No more zombies descended.
“Let’s head upstairs.”
“Didn’t we get them all?”
“The rain could mask our sounds.”
“But you said zombies have sensitive hearing.”
“Precisely because they’re sensitive. The zombies on the fifth floor were staring at the wall, remember? The rain and thunder would have drowned out any commotion from the tenth floor and above.”
Building 120 extends up to twenty stories.
If zombies occupied the fifteenth floor or higher, they wouldn’t have heard the disturbance on the fifth floor, so I needed to check everything thoroughly.

* * *
[Remaining Zombies: 107/1,000]
I meticulously inspected Building 120, Building 119, and Building 121, but the remaining 107 zombies were nowhere to be found.
“Where the hell are these things?”
Park Sangil furrowed his brow while checking the System Message.
“Have you checked everywhere else?”
“I’ve checked everything. This is the last place.”
“There could be somewhere we missed….”
“I really did open every single entrance in the district while checking. There are no more zombies.”
Park Sangil wore an expression of difficulty, then snapped his fingers and looked at me.
“Doyun, that thing you have. Couldn’t we use that?”

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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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