Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 18

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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 018
Park Sangil pressed his lips firmly together, his expression clouded with deep contemplation.
The word “difficult” fell short—a profound frustration welled up from within him, visible in his eyes.
Anger directed at whom, exactly?
Obviously at Gaia, who created this absurd system.
“You said there are six types of mutants, right?”
“Yes.”
“Is the initial mutant that appears also random?”
“Yes. It’s a matter of luck.”
“Are you serious?”
“That’s why the No Way Home creator received a lot of criticism too.”
“….”
“When a character dies, you have to start from the beginning, and in the early episodes, some stages are left entirely to chance.”
Park Sangil stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then suddenly thrust his middle finger toward the sky.
One finger wasn’t enough—Park Sangil extended both middle fingers toward the heavens.
“What are you doing, hyung?”
“To that Gaia system or whatever. Go to hell.”
“Do you think the system will respond to that?”
“Whether it responds or not, who cares? This makes me feel a little better. You try it too.”
“I’d rather not….”
“You damn bastard!!”
Park Sangil suddenly glared at the ceiling and unleashed a torrent of curses.
Not directed at me, but pouring out all the profanities he’d been holding back toward the heavens.
When I looked at him in shock, Park Sangil spewed every obscenity imaginable while throwing punch after punch into the air.
For nearly a minute straight, Park Sangil cursed without pause.
Then Park Sangha and Park Sanghun joined in, unleashing their own barrage of profanities.
What is wrong with these people?
They seem insane. I’m scared.
“Phew! Now I feel a bit better.”
“Hyung, you seem… insane.”
“How many stressful things happen in life? If you hold it in, you’ll develop anger sickness. If something’s messed up, you have to let it out.”
“But the other party isn’t even listening. What’s the point?”
“What does the point matter? If I feel better, that’s all that counts.”
“….”
“If you’re curious, try it yourself. It really does feel good.”
Park Sangil urged me to curse as well.
Then Park Sangha and Park Sanghun also encouraged me to join in.
I’ve never openly cursed at someone before.
Muttering curses to myself is one thing.
Of course, I’d never developed a deep enough relationship with anyone to exchange insults like that.
“F… F-word.”
“That’s a curse? Come on, let it out!”
“F-word!”
“Louder! Put your heart into it, scream it out!!”
“Ahhhhh!! F-wooooord!!”
“That’s it! Well done.”
I screamed so hard my vocal cords burned.
An indescribable sense of liberation washed over me.
Was this the catharsis that came from guilt?
‘This really does relieve stress.’
As I grinned widely, Park Sangil beside me smiled with satisfaction and spoke.
“Now you need to show it through action too.”
“Through action?”
Watching Park Sangil throw punch combinations, I threw some as well.
As I moved violently and unleashed curses, the mental debris inside me seemed to wash away cleanly.
Ah, that feels good.
“Um…”
At that moment, I turned my head in surprise at the voice coming from behind.
“What are you all doing?”
The Unnamed Female Student was staring at us with a bewildered expression.
The very same girl who had discovered the egg sac.
She looked at the three brothers and me with strange eyes.
“…Who are you cursing at?”
“Oh, well…”
“Are you cursing at dead zombies?”
“No, not zombies exactly…”
I tried to make excuses while waving my hands frantically, but the Unnamed Female Student simply made a dismissive sound and got to the point.
“Grandfather said to tell you the barricade construction is almost done.”
“Oh, oh yeah. Thanks for your hard work.”
“It looks like Kim Heejoo found candles and matches too, and we’ve gathered most of the necessities.”
“Good work.”
“I’ve delivered everything, so I’ll head back inside. You guys… keep throwing those punch combinations and come in later.”
The Unnamed Female Student laughed softly as she left the underground parking lot.
I stood dumbfounded, mouth agape, watching her disappear into the distance.
Coming to my senses belatedly, I looked at Park Sangil, and he shrugged.
“What? People curse sometimes, that’s just how it is.”
“No, this is all because of you…!”
“But didn’t it feel good? How refreshing was that?”
“Ugh… seriously…”
As I shook my head and grumbled, Park Sangil raised the corners of his mouth and spoke.
“Now you’re starting to look like a real person.”
Park Sangil grinned warmly and draped his arm across my shoulder.
Park Sangha and Park Sanghun were both wearing pleasant smiles.
What is this?
I felt embarrassed and awkward, yet strangely a sense of belonging washed over me.
Flustered by the feeling, I brushed Park Sangil’s arm away and spoke.
“That’s heavy. Put your arm down.”
“You’re getting shy now, aren’t you?”
“I’m not.”
“Ha! Alright, alright.”
Park Sangil patted my shoulder and continued speaking.
“So, now that the barricade construction is finished, shall we take care of it?”
In an instant, his playful expression turned serious, as if he’d never been joking at all.
I gripped my scimitar with both hands as I watched the squirming egg sac.
“Just in case, everyone step back.”
“If it looks dangerous, I’ll handle it. Don’t resent me for stealing the points.”
“That won’t happen.”
I smiled flatly while keeping my eyes fixed on the egg sac before me.
Once I burst this egg sac, Episode 1-1 would be complete.
Whatever happens after that, I will survive to the end with the people here now.
I will make it so.
Swoosh—!
From upper right to lower left, I drew my scimitar diagonally with all my strength.
Dark crimson blood poured from the egg sac, and from within it, shapeless lumps spilled out.
“Kiiieeeek…!”
Something writhed and let out a single piercing shriek.
I couldn’t give a definitive answer, but this was….
‘An Eye Monster.’
A mutant commonly called an Eye Monster among No Way Home users.
It resembled human form but stood only one meter tall, with a face composed entirely of a massive eye.
In No Way Home, making eye contact with an Eye Monster for five seconds or longer would cause a character to become paralyzed.
In reality, I didn’t know how it would work, but anyone encountering this creature for the first time would be helpless against it.
To defeat an enemy, you naturally had to look at it.
If you couldn’t eliminate the Eye Monster within five seconds, you’d simply fall victim to its gaze.
“Kiiieeeek….”
Its body was still unformed, no different from a fetus, yet it clung to life even as the egg sac split open.
Without hesitation, I unleashed a relentless barrage of slashes.
Ding—!
[You have eliminated the mutant!]
[500 points awarded.]
[You have hunted a mutant for the first time! An additional 500 points are awarded as a first hunt bonus.]
Ding—!
[You have successfully eliminated all zombies within the Safe House!]
[Clear reward of 1,000 points is awarded.]
[An additional first clear bonus of 1,000 points is awarded to the player belonging to Han O Apartment, who has successfully stabilized the Safe House!]
Ding—!
[Safe Houses that failed to eliminate zombies will not receive Safe House effects in the future.]
[All zombies across the nation will now be released from hibernation.]
Ding—!
[First Episode Safe House Construction (#1-1) is updated to Safe House Activation (#1-2).]
[Currently, only players belonging to Han O Apartment in Seongdong-gu, Seoul are able to proceed with the main episode.]
[All regions’ main episode progression is suspended until Han O Apartment’s Safe House activation is complete.]
[Players in other regions whose main episode progression has been suspended will proceed with the emergency episode ‘Survival of the Fittest’ while the Han O Apartment survivors progress through the main episode.]
Ding—!
[#1-2 Safe House Activation]
[Attack coordinates are input into the zombies’ minds until activation is complete.]
[Current coordinates are Han O Apartment in Haengdang-dong.]
[Coordinate transmission to all zombies within a 1km radius of the center has been completed.]
[Survive until activation is complete.]
[Time remaining until activation: 4 hours]
[Clear reward: 2,000 points]
[Failure: Safe House destruction]
System messages continued to pour in one after another.
Park Sangil looked at my face the moment he confirmed the system messages and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
Soon enough, this place would become a hell where zombies swarmed like cockroaches.
But before that, there was something I needed to take care of, so I hurriedly searched among the parked vehicles for one with an accessible fuel door.
“What are you doing over there? Aren’t you coming?”
“The fluid that leaked from the egg sac needs to be burned.”
“What?”
“The smell of the fluid from the egg sac attracts other mutants. We need to burn it all.”
“Wait… will that even burn?”
“In the game, the smell disappeared when we burned it together with gasoline.”
I extracted gasoline from the vehicle and poured it over the fluid, then asked the three brothers.
“Does anyone have fire?”
Park Sangha then handed me the lighter he had in his pocket.
Whoosh—!
Without hesitation, I threw the lighter and we rushed through the pouring rain toward Building 118.

* * *
“Oh? They’re here, they’re here!”
I spotted several people gathered at the entrance of Building 118 in the distance.
They waved me over urgently and asked me about the contents written in the System Message.
“What’s going on?!”
“You said there’s something like a compressed file?”
“Is it a mutant?”
“What suddenly got activated? What is that?”
“Zombie wave? Coordinates? What is all this!”
Questions poured out in complete chaos.
With no time to answer everyone’s questions, I gestured for calm and spoke.
“Everyone, please settle down.”
….
“No Way Home and every episode aren’t all the same. I don’t know everything either.”
The survivors fell silent instantly.
It wasn’t a look of hatred toward me, but rather each person seemed to be thinking through their own situation.
Before long, a question came from among the survivors.
“What should we do?”
The question came from among the survivors.
It was Lee Kwanghyun’s Wife.
It was the most necessary question for the current situation, and it was a question that could elicit the answer all the survivors desired.
Now that the zombie wave had begun, there was no way for us to escape.
The way to increase our chances of survival was to turn this place into a Safe House by any means necessary.
With that, I pointed to the upper part of Building 118 and spoke.
“Send all the children to the top floor, and anyone who can move at all needs to block the stairs.”
“We just need to block it? We can really survive just by holding out?”
Her expression sought certainty.
The expressions of the other survivors were no different from hers.
“I’m certain. If we just hold out for the next four hours, we’ll have some breathing room.”
It was the same in No Way Home.
The companion recruitment episode didn’t end simply with forming a party.
In the game, it was about sharing each character’s abilities, their positions, emotions, and psychological states, becoming trustworthy companions through that process.
If I apply that to reality?
It would be a time to confirm whether these are people I can trust, people I can entrust my back to, things like that.
There would be plenty of time to talk, and the survivors here would also roughly figure out what to do going forward.
So just four hours.
We just need to hold out for the next four hours.
“Me, me!”
Following that, a boy who appeared to be a middle school student raised his right hand eagerly and spoke.
“I can fight too!”
The middle school student’s friends around him glanced at the adults before raising their hands one after another.
“We’ll help too!”
Everyone needed to step up now.
Since I needed the strength of these middle schoolers, I nodded and spoke.
“Building 118 has 25 floors. We can’t use the elevators, so if we just secure the stairs properly, we can hold out for four hours easily.”
“Should we block the stairs?”
“There are steel doors separating the stairs from the common hallways on each floor. If we use those, it’ll be more than enough help.”
“Yes!”
As the middle schoolers answered enthusiastically, Park Sangil raised both hands and spoke to the people.
“Come on! Let’s move quickly!”
At Park Sangil’s words, the people gathered at the entrance dispersed in perfect order.
Everyone was burning with determination, thinking that if they could just endure four more hours, they could rest.
A barricade made by stacking various objects in front of the common entrance.
A narrow gap barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
It was somewhat crude, but since the purpose was to buy time, it should suffice.
The Elderly Grandfather then approached me.
“We made it in such a hurry that it’s almost embarrassing to call it a barricade. We don’t have enough materials either.”
“This is sufficient.”
“I set up some traps while preparing, so when I give the signal, just run without looking back.”
“Which direction should we go?”
“Head upward. I’ve built barricades like this from the first to the fourth floor.”
I would endure the zombies’ assault floor by floor, climbing steadily upward from the first floor.
I desperately hoped the Safe House activation would be complete before we reached the 25th floor.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—
An eerie sound resembling hoofbeats began tickling my ears.
A sound that pierced through the pouring rain to reach here.
The zombies were coming.

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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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