Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 41

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

Player of the Ruined World – Episode 041
Park Sangil scratched his eyebrow as he read the System Message and asked.
“A giant Zombie? Are there Zombies that are just… bigger?”
As I stood there dumbfounded, Park Sangil swallowed hard and asked.
“Wait… do you know what a giant Zombie is?”
“….”
“What kind of creature is it?”
At Park Sangil’s question, everyone’s attention focused on me.
Right, to avoid repeating the same mistakes as before, I shouldn’t keep secrets from those who joined the League.
It was time to stop hiding and reveal the truth to everyone.
“There’s something I need to tell you all.”
Speaking with utmost seriousness, everyone turned their attention to me.
“The truth is… I was a player of No Way Home.”
I told them honestly that I had been a player of No Way Home and had seen countless endings, even the true ending.
When they heard this… I couldn’t predict what kind of reaction they would show.
Would they resent me?
“I thought that might be the case.”
But contrary to my expectations, Han Hye-ri’s response came out as if it were no big deal.
Starting with Han Hye-ri, all the high school and middle school students began to nod in agreement.
“If reality became the setting for the game No Way Home, then naturally there would be people who played it.”
“Weren’t there players among the five who died at the Safe House last time?”
“Just by watching how you move, you seemed like someone who played the game.”
As I stared with a bewildered expression, Kim Suhan asked with an awkward smile.
“Were you… hiding it all this time?”
“What?”
“Wow, you really shouldn’t lie. It’s so obvious.”
“….”
“When you were with us, you kept mentioning things like ‘the first episode’ or ‘the second episode’ in between. Isn’t that proof you played the game?”
Really?
Was I the only one worried about it?
I didn’t know what to say.
As I blinked stupidly, Park Sangil opened his mouth with a cough.
“You should have been more careful with your words.”
“Your older brother was obvious too. You two were always whispering together with Doyun, so of course people would get suspicious.”
“….”
“You’re so careless. Goodness.”
As Park Sanghun shook his head and spoke, Park Sangil glared at him with displeasure.
Park Sanghun shrugged as if asking what I was talking about.
But one person, Lee Kwanghyun, asked as if he had no idea.
“Then… Doyun, you know everything that’s going to happen from now on?”
“That’s not it. Games and reality are different.”
“How are they different?”
“In the game, Mutants first appeared in the third episode. But in reality, they showed up in the first episode.”
“….”
“I have information, but there are too many variables. That’s why I told you before that I don’t know everything.”
“Is that what you meant? I thought you were telling me to stop asking questions.”
As people age, they interpret the same words differently.
The students heard it as me having played the game, while Lee Kwanghyun heard it as a command to stay silent.
Park Sangha, who had been listening quietly, scratched the bridge of his nose and asked.
“Then… Doyun, do you know what a giant Zombie is?”
“Yes, I do.”
With everyone’s attention on me, I brushed back my bangs and spoke.
“A giant Zombie should be considered another type of Mutant.”
“If it’s a Mutant, it’s a Mutant. What do you mean by another type of Mutant?”
I answered Park Sangil’s question with a bitter smile.
“People who played No Way Home had the same reaction. Then the game developer posted an announcement.”
“An announcement?”
“They asked us to consider it a distinctly different classification.”
“….”
“There are Zombies, there are Mutants, and there’s something in between Zombies and Mutants. That’s what they said.”
Was my answer unsatisfying?
Everyone looked uncertain.
Then Park Sangha spoke up.
“Shouldn’t we think about it based on the creatures we’ve actually encountered?”
“The creatures we’ve encountered?”
“Zombies were literally the kind of Zombies we commonly see in media.”
“That’s right.”
“Mutants were… just monsters.”
“….”
“Then if there’s another type of Mutant between Zombies and Mutants, that would mean it has the characteristics of both.”
At Park Sangha’s words, Lee Kwanghyun scratched his sideburns and asked.
“If it has both characteristics… for example?”
“Doyun said it. The Walking Daddy that appears in the fourth episode is a leader Zombie that commands other Zombies.”
“That’s right.”
“I think that might be another type of Mutant. It’s a Zombie-based ability user.”
At Park Sangha’s explanation, the people in the living room let out short exclamations of understanding and nodded.
He really does speak well, being a writer and all.
I know this, but I can’t explain it properly.
Park Sangha looked at my face and asked.
“Doyun, is it okay to think of it this way?”
“Yes, you can think of it that way. Thank you for clarifying.”
“So what are the characteristics of a Giant Zombie?”
“Literally, it’s enormous. Its body should be around 5 meters tall. Its entire frame is covered in muscle, and there are no areas that could be called weak points.”
“We have to hunt something like that? Within 15 hours?”
I shared that same doubt.
In the current situation, there’s no one who could hunt a Giant Zombie alone.
Multiple parties—no, multiple leagues would need to combine their strength to hunt it.
‘Did Gaia think humans would cooperate with each other?’
If Gaia believed humans would cooperate to hunt a Giant Zombie, that would be a miscalculation on her part.
In a world where all laws, morality, and rules have collapsed, few people maintain their humanity.
Did this episode appear because we formed a league?
“Giant Zombies appear when a Zombie consumes the corpse of a Mutant. Originally, they’re creatures that appear in the fifth episode.”
“Since a Mutant that should have appeared in the third episode showed up in the first, it’s not strange that the Giant Zombie episode is appearing now.”
“Yes, what’s puzzling is that all Mutants in the vicinity of the Safe House are already dead.”
Because of the blood from five corpses torn to pieces, all Mutants in the area had already attacked the Han Apartment.
The Resonance Species, which lack aggression, wouldn’t have come here, so if one had consumed a corpse, it wouldn’t have been impossible.
“I burned all the Mutant corpses.”
Park Sangha said he had burned all the Mutant corpses in the underground parking lot while I was gone.
If that’s the case, there’s only one answer.
“It seems we’ll need to leave the Safe House and hunt in a different area.”
“How do we hunt something when we don’t even know where it is?”
At Park Sangil’s blunt question, I pulled out the 3D terrain map I’d kept in my pocket.
On the way from the Shelter to the Safe House, I’d noticed red dots flickering at the top of the 3D terrain map.
It was just like how certain computer games or mobile games show the location of specific monsters.
Red dots were marked every 2 kilometers in radius.
2 kilometers.
Wasn’t that roughly the distance between the locations originally designated as Safe Houses?
Since it’s currently impossible for Zombies to hunt and consume Mutants, it’s highly likely that some players who played No Way Home hunted Mutants and didn’t clean up afterward.
The Zombies must have dug up and eaten those corpses.
Since most users quit at the fourth episode’s Wall of Lamentation and wouldn’t know the conditions for the Giant Zombie’s appearance in the fifth episode, it’s entirely plausible.
I pointed to the red dot marked on the 3D terrain map and explained.
“That mark is probably the Giant Zombie.”
“The map shows the location?”
“I’m not certain. This mark wasn’t there before, and it suddenly appeared, so I’m just guessing that it might be the Giant Zombie’s location.”
Elderly Grandfather Gwak Cheolmin, who had been listening quietly, looked at the text written in the System Message and asked.
“Say, Doyun.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“It says here that if we fail, we can never awaken. What happens if that occurs?”
If it simply said failure, there would be no need to undertake the Giant Zombie hunt.
There’d be no reason to bear the risk.
But that word “permanent” attached to the clear failure condition.
If I don’t awaken this time, I’ll never be able to awaken, and being unable to awaken means….
‘I can’t survive.’
The further back I fall, the lower my survival rate becomes.
Advancing ahead wasn’t purely beneficial.
If I keep progressing faster than other survivors like this… I’ll face greater trials and restrictions.
Surpassing that would allow for more explosive growth, but realistically, it wasn’t easy.
This is reality, not a game.
Keeping that in mind, I looked at the Hunting Dog League Members.
Kim Suhan seemed to have something on his mind as he asked with a tense expression.
“Doyun hyung, can I ask just one question too?”
“Go ahead and speak freely.”
“If I undergo a second awakening… what happens after that?”
“That’s… let’s focus on the giant Zombie for now, Suhan. We need to catch it before today ends.”
“Ah, yes!”
First, I need to catch it before anything else matters.
Not wanting to raise false hopes, I decided to explain the second awakening later.
I looked at the League Members and asked.
“Except for the Maker, the rest of you haven’t used your points yet, right?”
The League Members nodded.
“Before we engage in combat, I’ll tell you what’s necessary. Everyone except the Maker, please open the Point Shop.”
Following my instructions, everyone except the Maker opened the Point Shop.
“First, please purchase three flares each.”
“Flares? But it’s raining outside?”
I smiled weakly at Park Sanghun’s question and explained.
“There are many regular Zombies around the giant Zombie. We’ll move when night falls.”
“If we move at night… won’t we be in danger too?”
“When night comes, Zombies sensitive to light will rush toward the flares.”
“And then?”
“We’ll only target the giant Zombie. First, you’ll find stakes in the Point Shop. Buy two of those. Everyone else, please purchase two each as well.”
The League Members checked through the Point Shop, found the stakes I mentioned, and flinched.
“Why are these stakes so expensive? 200 points each?”
“Where are the stakes?”
“Right there at the bottom. This one.”
“Ah, this is a stake?”
Some of the Middle School Students didn’t even know what a stake was.
The price was certainly burdensome.
But the stakes sold in the Point Shop weren’t ordinary stakes.
Stakes with durability excellent enough to be used as weapons.
If I hadn’t been with Park Sangil’s Family… I definitely would have purchased stakes.
Among the twenty League Members participating in combat, the ability users excluding the Maker each purchased two stakes.
“Wow, these are heavy. And pretty long too.”
At Park Sangil’s comment, Park Sangha picked up and set down a stake as he spoke.
“Each one must weigh around 8 kilograms? And they’re about 25 centimeters long.”
“Can we really call these stakes?”
“The item classifications are up to the game creator, after all.”
Everyone wore expressions of surprise at the weight of the stakes.
“Is there anything else we need to purchase?”
At Park Sanghun’s question, I checked the Point Shop and spoke.
“We need rope.”
“We have rope already.”
When Elderly Grandfather showed me the rope in his bag, I shook my head and spoke.
“That rope will be difficult to use for restraining a Giant Zombie. It could snap.”
“This is far sturdier than it looks. It would only break if heavy machinery dragged it.”
I examined the rope’s condition and spoke.
“There are already many frayed sections, and here—this part has a cut. It will break.”
“When did this… I see.”
“Items sold at the Point Shop are far more durable than real-world materials. They last much longer.”
“How many meters should we buy for the rope?”
“Let’s go with 10 meters for now. We can purchase it for 100 points.”
Everyone purchased the rope while letting out exclamations of amazement.
Their expressions of surprise weren’t about the rope’s durability, but rather its price.
100 points was what you’d earn from processing 100 zombies.
“Right, Doyun.”
When Park Sangil called out, I turned to face him, and Park Sangil checked the zombie elimination notification before asking.
“Now zombies give 2 points each. Does that mean they’ve gotten stronger?”
“Yes, if the settings are the same as No Way Home, they should be about 1.3 times stronger than before.”
“1.3 times… so the zombies’ strength is approaching 20?”
“That’s right. The zombies’ strength should reach somewhere between 17 and 20.”
“Then have the Mutants gotten stronger too?”
No matter how the Gaia system worked, it wouldn’t strengthen Mutants during the second episode.
“Since Giant Zombies have appeared now, the Mutants will probably be strengthened only after the second episode ends.”
“Why is that?”
“In the game, Mutants were only strengthened after the fifth episode ended.”
The reason was simple.
A relationship of predator and prey.
What served as the foundation for Mutants to grow… was the Giant Zombie.

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