Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 17

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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 017
“That thing?”
“You know, something like a map.”
“This?”
The 3D terrain map the size of a smartphone I’d kept in my pocket.
The moment I checked the map, I found myself slapping my forehead with a sharp crack.
“So that’s why we couldn’t find it.”
Park Sangil let out an exasperated snort and spoke as if he couldn’t believe it either.
We’d only thought of the ground level and each individual building and unit number because the apartment was supposed to be a Safe House.
But there was one place that couldn’t be overlooked when it came to apartments.
“The Underground Parking Lot.”
It would be stranger if such a vast District didn’t have an Underground Parking Lot.
Without hesitation, we moved straight toward the Underground Parking Lot.
Following Park Sangil while examining the 3D terrain map, it wasn’t long before the Underground Parking Lot appeared, packed with parked vehicles.
“Grrrrrr….”
The Zombies’ voices echoed through the space.
“Everyone, be careful not to scatter.”
Lee Kwanghyun and the high school students pressed close behind Park Sangil and me.
Thud-!
At that moment, the sound of a fire extinguisher falling came from somewhere in the Parking Lot.
“Caaaaaack!!”
“Haaack!! Cahaack!!”
Then the Zombies rushed toward the source of the sound in unison.
“Come behind me!”
“Brother! We’re taking the right!”
At the same time, the voices of Park Sangha and Park Sanghun reached my ears.
The other teams must have also learned there were no Zombies on the ground level and descended into the basement.
Park Sangil gripped his curved blade and looked at my face.
Words weren’t necessary.
Without anyone needing to say it first, we headed toward where the commotion was coming from.
Slash-! Thud! Crunch!
I swung my curved blade relentlessly at the Zombies’ backs and cervical spines, carving a path through them.
“Sangha! Sanghun!”
When Park Sangil shouted, Park Sangha and Park Sanghun standing by the emergency exit looked this way.
“Behind you, brother!”
At Park Sangha’s voice, Park Sangil hurriedly turned his head.
“Cahaack!!”
A single Zombie, grinding its uvula and charging like a rabid dog.
Park Sangil’s eyes widened in panic as he hastily changed direction.
But in the process, his foot caught, and he lost his balance, tumbling to the ground.
A shadow of death looming over Park Sangil’s head.
Crack—!!
I kicked away the Zombie lunging at Park Sangil and shouted at him as he lay sprawled on the ground.
“Get up, quick!”
“…!”
Park Sangil, snapping to awareness a beat too late, scrambled to his feet and gripped his curved sword.
Drawn by the commotion, at least thirty Zombies came rushing in.
Before, I would have fled without hesitation, but with my current stats, I could handle them easily.
Eyes wide open, I relentlessly severed the Zombies’ necks one after another.
Showered in Zombie blood spraying like a fountain, I kept monitoring the positions of the high school students and Lee Kwanghyun.
I thought they’d hesitate, but they were gripping clubs and smashing Zombie skulls.
‘They’re useful.’
The people who had gone outside and dealt with Zombies while I slept.
Everyone was pulling their weight.

* * *
[Remaining Zombies: 1/1,000]
The moment only one Zombie remained.
“Where is this thing?”
I’d searched the entire Underground Parking Lot, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find that last one.
It felt like lying down to sleep only to have a mosquito slip inside.
The kind of feeling where it vanishes like magic the moment you turn on the light to catch it.
Park Sangil sheathed his curved sword and asked.
“Doyun, can’t you track the Zombie using your 3D terrain map or something?”
“If I could do that, I would’ve done it long ago.”
Park Sangil scratched his head with a troubled expression.
Park Sangha and Park Sanghun approached next.
“Fortunately, no one got bitten, and everyone’s fine.”
“A lot of people are exhausted physically, so we should probably head back now.”
At their suggestion, Park Sangil smacked his lips with a dissatisfied expression.
“We just need to catch one more, and yet… this is frustrating….”
I also opposed leaving like this.
It might seem like just one Zombie, but that single one could cost me the initial clear reward.
“Sir.”
At that moment, a woman’s voice came from behind me.
At first I thought she was calling someone else, but then someone poked my back repeatedly with her finger.
When I turned around, it was the Unnamed Female Student who had asked me a question before we departed.
The one who’d asked if I should guide any survivors to Building 118.
“…Me?”
“Yes, sir.”
Uncle?
Me?
I’m only twenty-eight years old….
As I scratched my forehead with a bitter smile and looked around, the female student pointed toward a direction in the parking lot and spoke.
“There’s something strange over there.”
“Something strange?”
“Please speak comfortably.”
“Ah… right. What’s over there?”
“There’s something that looks like a strange egg sac. Quite large.”
At the mention of an egg sac, my heart dropped with a shocking impact.
‘An egg sac? In the first episode?’
An egg sac was… something that shouldn’t exist at this point.
Noticing my expression was grave, Park Sangil gripped the hilt of his sword and asked.
“Is it serious?”
Without even answering Park Sangil’s question, I asked the female student.
“Guide me to where the egg sac is.”
Following the female student, I discovered a bizarre egg sac adhered to the inner wall of the parking lot.
“…What is that?”
Park Sangil moved cautiously, his brow furrowed.
Like an insect caught by a spider, a 2-meter egg sac clung to the wall.
“What is this….”
“Don’t touch it!”
As Park Sangil reached out to touch it, I urgently grabbed his arm.
Park Sangil’s startled expression.
“Geez, you scared me even more, damn it.”
“Why is this already….”
“What is this.”
The three brothers’ gazes turned toward me.
I approached the egg sac, felt the pulsing emanating from within, gripped my sword in hand, and spoke.
“This is… a mutant egg.”
“M-mutant? You said that appears in the third episode.”
“I don’t understand why it’s here either. This is supposed to be a safe house….”
In that moment, I belatedly realized the reason.
#1-1 The risk that occurs upon episode failure.
Safe house destruction.
It wasn’t simply that the safe house lost its original function, but rather it became a place where humans could no longer survive.
Because of the existence within the egg.
After organizing my thoughts, I called to the female student behind me.
“Student! Go to Building 118 and inform the elders. Tell them we must block the entrance to Building 118.”
“W-what is that?”
“No time to explain. Hurry!”
The Unnamed Female Student then led the group back to Building 118.
However, one person—Lee Kwanghyun, a Middle-aged Man in his forties—approached my side.
“What is this?”
“It’s a mutant egg.”
“A mutant?! No, then… before it hatches, we need to hurry…”
“If we burst this egg, a zombie wave might start.”
“A, a wave? You mean zombies will swarm us?”
“There’s a strong possibility of that.”
Lee Kwanghyun stood dumbfounded, his expression confused as his mouth hung open.
I placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke.
“Kwanghyun.”
“Uh, uh? Yes?”
“Speak comfortably.”
“Ah… yes.”
“Please go help the Elders. We need to set up barricades on every floor.”
Lee Kwanghyun nodded vigorously and headed toward the emergency exit.
“Let me know when the work is done! I’ll wait until then!”
As I shouted after the departing Lee Kwanghyun, he acknowledged with a response and quickly climbed the Stairs.
Park Sangil, who had been observing the situation, tilted his head and asked.
“What’s going on all of a sudden? You said this was a Safe House. Why is there a mutant egg in a Safe House?”
“It hasn’t been recognized as a Safe House yet. It only becomes a Safe House once the first episode ends.”
“Then… doesn’t that mean if we just burst that egg, it becomes a Safe House?”
“I wish it were that simple, but there are still variables. Two of them, actually.”
“What variables?”
“First, the episode name for 1-1 is ‘Safe House Construction.’ The clear reward doesn’t mention anything about confirming the Safe House.”
The clear reward only listed points—there was no mention of the Safe House effect actually occurring.
If all episodes were this subdivided.
If this was the Gaia System that destroyed the world overnight.
I couldn’t rule out the possibility that it would toy with us through such wordplay.
“So what? Even if we eliminate all the zombies, we’re still not safe?”
“Yes. There’s a high probability it will lead to episode 1-2.”
“That’s…”
“We need to complete episode 1-2 as well for the first episode to truly end and for the chances of being recognized as a Safe House to increase.”
“Damn it…”
Park Sangil clicked his tongue sharply, then swept back his bangs and asked.
“What’s the second one?”
In response to Park Sangil’s question, I checked my surroundings.
It would be problematic if anyone overheard our conversation.
After confirming no one was nearby, I swallowed dryly and spoke.
“Once the Safe House is activated, Zombies cannot enter.”
“That’s the Safe House’s ability?”
“Yes. The problem is the Mutants.”
“What about the Mutants?”
“Mutants aren’t Zombies, so they can enter the Safe House. Mutants are literally mutations—monsters.”
The three brothers simultaneously wore expressions of shock.
Park Sangha was the first to regain his composure.
“Wait, if what you’re saying is true, Doyun… are you saying Mutants are immune to the Safe House’s effects?”
“This episode was supposed to start with the third episode, ‘Mutant Intrusion’… I don’t understand why it’s already happening.”
“…”
After finishing his explanation, Park Sangil, who had been collecting his thoughts, opened his mouth.
“Then what do you mean by a Zombie Wave?”
“That’s just my speculation.”
“Speculation?”
“If we become the first clear party for this episode… it means the other Safe Houses failed.”
“That’s right.”
“Then all the Zombies in the other Safe Houses will roam freely searching for Survivors.”
Currently, due to the heavy rain, the Zombies were in a state akin to hibernation.
They wouldn’t attack first unless provoked.
One could think of it as giving Survivors who felt aversion or fear toward fighting Zombies time to adapt.
But once the main episode progresses… the Zombies within the Safe House will begin searching for Survivors.
Just as we hunted Zombies, they would hunt us in return.
When the hunter becomes the hunted, Survivors won’t be able to hunt Zombies as easily as they do now.
The difference in activity between a herbivore that only moves when stimulated and a starving carnivore is incomparable.
Park Sangil swept back his bangs and sighed.
“We have no remaining Zombies, so we’re not threatened by them, right?”
“Yes. But the Zombies in the Dae O Apartment across the way will rampage. If Survivors from there come here, they’ll bring Zombies with them.”
“Wait, so the Dae O Apartment also…”
“Yes, there could be Mutants there, and there’s a possibility one could come here.”
The situation was more serious than expected.
Regardless of what the Gaia System wanted, one could tell it wasn’t human survival.
“If the Zombies from the Dae O Apartment all come here at once… the commotion will draw Zombies from the surrounding areas.”
“The resonance effect you mentioned before?”
“Yes. That’s how a Zombie Wave forms.”
Park Sangil sighed and looked at the egg.
“Will the Mutant break out of the egg before the time limit?”
“It wouldn’t be strange if it came out right now.”
Then Park Sanghun, who was behind, cleared his throat and spoke.
“Doyun, are Mutants really that tough?”
“Honestly… I don’t know why it’s appearing now. With the stats of first episode Survivors, there’s no way we could win.”
“…Absolutely?”
“Yeah, absolutely can’t win. It’s gotten way harder than the difficulty I knew. If I run into a mutant now, I have no choice but to flee.”
“What a damned situation.”
It was a somewhat crude expression, but there was no more fitting way to describe the current predicament.
I nodded in agreement with Park Sanghun’s candid sentiment.
Still, if we receive the first clear reward and succeed in activating the Safe House… we can achieve more stable shelter and survival.
So no matter what happens, we must become the first clear users.
Park Sangil studied the egg sac intently, then crossed his arms and asked.
“This thing—can you handle it while it’s in egg sac form?”
“Yes. If I see signs of the egg cracking open, I’ll handle it. But we need to finish constructing the barricade first. That’s what keeps us safe.”
“If that thing inside the egg sac comes out… you can’t do anything about it either, right? Even with your stats, you’re not enough?”
“It depends on what’s inside.”

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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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