Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 67

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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 067
There’s a Parking Lot Entrance, and a Barricade in front of it?
Something feels off about this.
If they were going to install a Barricade, it would make more sense to place it deeper inside the Parking Lot.
What if Zombies or other Survivors enter through the Parking Lot and breach the interior of the Barricade?
The current position is far too ambiguous.
Or perhaps… they built it that way intentionally?
I turned to the man behind me and asked.
“That Parking Lot Entrance over there—isn’t that a trap?”
“It’s not a trap. They built it that way deliberately.”
“Deliberately?”
“Yes, that’s where people wait if they want to join The Great Dominion.”
“A waiting area?”
Ah, that makes sense then.
The Parking Lot provides shelter from heavy rain, and even if Zombies swarm in, those inside the Parking Lot would be in danger while those behind the Barricade remain safe.
The man continued speaking.
“Being right in front of the Barricade gives people a sense of psychological security. They collect the weapons they brought and wait there.”
“What are the conditions for joining The Great Dominion?”
“They test whether you fear Zombies.”
“How?”
“They make you fight a Zombie one-on-one.”
One might call it cruel, but in this mad world now, whether you can eliminate Zombies or not was an important criterion.
When I accepted my own group, I too demanded they prove they could fight Zombies, so I had no room to complain.
Feeling oddly guilty, I asked with a dry cough.
“So basically, they test whether someone is suitable for The Great Dominion there and accept them if they pass?”
“That’s right.”
“What if they fail?”
“If they fail, it means they got bitten by a Zombie, so that’s the end.”
Failure means death.
So only those who pass the verification are in The Great Dominion?
They might be on a different level than the ones I’ve dealt with so far.
Could I get blindsided if I underestimate them?
“The Survivors in the area wanted to join The Great Dominion, didn’t they?”
“At first they did, but not anymore. Rumors spread throughout the area that The Great Dominion practices cannibalism.”
Ah, so that’s how the order works.
The man stepped forward slightly and pointed ahead as he spoke.
“Over there—see that Hill going up toward Bongeunsa Road? The Hill leading up toward Sinnonhyeon Station.”
I don’t see it.
I looked at Park Sangil, and Park Sangil nodded and answered.
“I see it. Why that one?”
“If you go up that hill, there’s a side entrance to the apartment that I can access alone. We can enter the apartment through that side door.”
“There’s no guard posted there?”
“No guards, but they’ve blocked it off with all sorts of junk to keep people out.”
“That seems awfully careless.”
Yes, it was careless—suspiciously so.
Park Sangil and Park Sanghun appeared to share my exact thoughts.
But the man continued with a hollow laugh.
“It’s outside the barricade, after all. If someone’s going to stand guard, they’d want to do it inside, not outside the barricade.”
“Then guide us.”
“Me? You want me to?”
“I kept you alive to guide us.”
“…Will you let me live after I guide you?”
“We’ll see.”
“Ugh, then I won’t do it.”
The man dropped to the ground, spouting defiance.
I drew my curved blade and pointed it at him.
“I never said you had a choice.”
“…If I scream right now, wouldn’t you all be finished too?”
“Did you forget I took down 1,400 zombies alone?”
“….”
The man stared at my face intently, then suddenly jumped up with a grin.
“Ah, come on! I was just joking. Of course I was planning to guide you.”
“….”
“My legs were just hurting, so I sat down for a moment to rest.”
The man flattered me as naturally as breathing.
He was the type I’d never want to be with under any circumstances.
Right now, I was keeping him around because he knew the way, but once I had all the information I needed, I’d dispose of him.
“Go ahead.”
I pushed the man forward, and he gave a bitter smile while glancing furtively around the corner.
Checking to see if anyone was watching this way, he quickly crossed the street.
Park Sangil gestured to Park Sanghun and me while looking at the barricade.
“You two cross first. I’ll go last.”
“Understood.”
Park Sanghun and I crossed the street, and finally Park Sangil crossed as well.
We quickly passed the hill and moved toward the side entrance of the apartment, where junk was indeed piled up blocking the entrance, just as the man had said.
“We’re supposed to break through this and get in?”
I asked, looking at the man, and he replied with an uncomfortable expression.
“There wasn’t this much when I was here last….”
“When was the last time you came?”
“Five days ago.”
“Why did you come back then?”
“Huh? That was….”
The man trailed off.
When I grabbed his collar again, he spoke as if trying to calm me down.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down. I’ll tell you.”
“….”
“You said The Great Dominion guys come out to dump garbage once every three days, right?”
“So?”
“I saw several of them heading toward Sinnonhyeon Station. People dressed nicely.”
Sinnonhyeon Station?
When I asked why, the man gave a bitter smile and spoke.
“Could we talk about this without holding my collar? And you keep grabbing me—even if I’m a hostage, I have my pride….”
“You’re the one who shot at me.”
“….”
“Don’t test my patience.”
When I stared at him with unfocused eyes, he lowered his gaze and offered no rebuttal.
I was barely suppressing the urge to kill him right here, yet this bastard still couldn’t read the room.
“Just answer. Why did you move toward Sinnonhyeon Station?”
“I thought there might be another group of survivors, so I followed them too. But I kept losing them halfway.”
“Lost them?”
“Yes. Whenever I looked away because of the zombies, they’d disappear.”
“….”
“Five days ago, I came for the same reason. To figure out where they were going.”
I couldn’t shake the suspicion in my eyes.
Narrowing my eyes as I glared at him, he spoke as if aggrieved.
“I’m serious. We may have lost to you guys… but we were still a powerful faction in this neighborhood.”
“….”
“Assessing enemy movements is basic. There could be groups allied with The Great Dominion—how could we just sit around without tracking them?”
“Where was your hideout?”
“Hakdong Park. The park next to the military base I mentioned earlier.”
The man had said a deserter came with a rifle.
It seemed the group had acquired firearms when the deserter joined the faction encamped in the park.
Park Sangil, who had been listening to the story, then asked the man.
“Hey, was N Elementary School the Safe House for Gangnam District?”
“Huh? Yes, how did you know?”
“For that many people to gather in one place, it had to be designated as a Safe House.”
“Ah….”
“But that’s strange.”
Park Sangil brushed back his rain-soaked bangs and asked.
“This place is too far from the station. There’s no competing Safe House?”
“A station?”
“There’s an apartment near the station that’s been designated as a Safe House.”
“That’s how it was in Seongdong-gu?”
Was the situation different in Gangnam?
As I listened to the man’s explanation, he told me everything he knew.
Gangnam had five Safe Houses designated in total.
Apartments on both sides of Apgujeong Station were each designated as Safe Houses, along with one near N Elementary School, another near Severance Hospital, and finally an apartment in Gaepo-dong.
Five in total, he said.
The man alternated his gaze between our faces, then asked with a bitter smile.
“It seems the situation was different in Seongdong-gu?”
“Do you know what happened to other places?”
“Didn’t you see Apgujeong when you came?”
“We came across the Seongsudaegyo Bridge—how would we have seen Apgujeong Station?”
“Ah, that’s true.”
The man chuckled weakly and continued.
“We had a survivor who came from Apgujeong, and according to him, things were chaotic there too.”
“Where isn’t chaotic? Anyway, why did it fail?”
“I heard they fought each other after failing to secure the Safe House designation. They destroyed themselves in the process.”
“There are so many apartments around there that securing food should be easy—why would they need to fight?”
“Do you remember the requirements for establishing the First Episode Safe House? Exterminate every zombie within the Safe House.”
Of course I remember.
We hunted zombies relentlessly because we were afraid others would complete it first.
“The Apgujeong survivors apparently agreed to handle it simultaneously.”
“Simultaneously?”
“Yes. The players there were clever. They thought if they cleared both simultaneously, both could become Safe Houses.”
Just like how the three brothers and I entered the Safe House simultaneously before forming our party and received the initial rewards.
They were aiming for that same effect.
“So.”
“They each captured one zombie from their respective districts and tied them up identically at the negotiation site.”
Surely not….
“One side broke the agreement?”
“Yes. As the number of remaining zombies kept decreasing, they both grew anxious. Then one side broke their promise and killed the zombie tied up at the negotiation site.”
“….”
“They fought intensely over who killed it, who did it. Then a message appeared saying all zombies in the district had been cleared, and both lost the Safe House effect.”
I glanced at Park Sangil, and he averted his gaze with a cough.
If we’d been even slightly slower, we would have lost the Safe House effect too.
The Apgujeong players seemed to have fought quite hard, but their plan crumbled to nothing because of a few loaches.
Human greed.
Anxiety.
Unease.
Such negative emotions cloud judgment and lead to poor decisions.
The fear that the other side might strike first.
That anxiety killed the zombie at the negotiation site.
“So what happened?”
“What happened? Hot-headed people raised their voices, drew weapons, made threats, and when one person died, everything fell apart completely.”
“….”
“I heard the people in Apgujeong now refuse to gather at all because of that trauma. They said there’s only a hideout with maybe 10 people at most.”
“In the current situation… that’s relatively safe. With fewer than 10 people, they won’t be recognized as a sanctuary.”
“That’s why we came all the way to Seongdong-gu. We couldn’t cross Hannam Bridge because it’s swarming with zombies, and Dongho Bridge is too risky because of the Apgujeong incident, so Seongsu Bridge was the only one worth attempting.”
That sounds plausible.
The details are too vivid to be a fabricated lie.
“I understand the north, but what about the south? Did you check the apartments near Gaepo-dong and Severance?”
“My hideout was near Hakdong Park, right? I discovered N Elementary School while scouting the south.”
“So… those guys who went out every three days from the elementary school could have connections with survivor groups in Severance or Gaepo-dong?”
“Exactly. We needed to grow our numbers for survival, so we looked for survivor groups to exchange with—anyone except The Great Dominion.”
I frowned at the man’s words and stared at him.
Noticing my gaze, he quietly stepped back.
“Why, why are you looking at me like that?”
“If you wanted to exchange, why did you attack the Haengdang-dong Safe House?”
“That’s… because of this episode. The points we’d get from taking the Safe House alone are huge.”
“Just for points? You never considered coexisting with us?”
“We really did plan to coexist at first. But when we actually arrived… it was so quiet.”
“….”
“How could we not get greedy when there’s barely anyone at the only Safe House in the entire country?”
“….”
“The Leader changed his mind at the apartment entrance. He thought there weren’t many survivors here. He couldn’t understand how this became a Safe House.”
“….”
“So… we just decided to take it for ourselves.”
So the Hakdong Park survivor group made the choice to coexist with groups of roughly equal strength, avoid stronger ones, and consume weaker ones?
From a practical standpoint, it’s the wisest approach.
They wouldn’t be able to negotiate with stronger groups, and they’d assume weaker groups are weak for a reason.
In a world of survival of the fittest… perhaps this is the standard.
Park Sanghun, who had been observing the situation, pressed his temples with both hands, then looked at Park Sangil and me before speaking.
“Let’s go inside for now. How long are we staying here?”
“What about the second wave?”
“Kim Miyeon contacted us 10 minutes ago saying they departed.”
The path we came through is already cleared, so it shouldn’t take long.
“Let’s go in first and check. Sanghun, can you contact Elder Chulmin?”
“Yeah, I can send but can’t receive.”
“Just tell him where we’ve set up our vehicle. Tell him to come on foot from there.”
“Okay.”
“Sangil, we’ll head in first.”
“Sounds good.”
Park Sangil crouched low, then launched himself upward in one explosive motion, soaring over the wall.
He had long since transcended the limits of human physical capability.
In a single leap, he seized the top of the four-meter wall and vaulted over it with a powerful thrust of his legs.
The man watching him stood frozen, his expression vacant with shock.
I grabbed the man by the nape of his neck and his buttocks, hoisting him up effortlessly as I spoke.
“Sangil, catch him.”

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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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