The Perverted God's Dark Scheme
Even though it was marked with question marks, I already knew exactly what that ??? stood for.
The protagonist’s party had received a quest with the exact same penalty early on.
And even the protagonist—stacked with every buff imaginable—had failed that quest and been hit with the “??? Growth Acceleration” penalty.
Of course, that failure was nothing more than a plot device to force a change of heart that made him stronger afterward.
But I wasn’t the protagonist. Just like I’d stopped Yang Jaeyeol from turning dark, I needed to avoid this penalty if at all possible.
No—I absolutely could not take this penalty.
Across all 283 chapters, the single most absurd balance break was early-game protagonist—who hadn’t even properly grown yet—killing that thing.
So the author had piled on every forced situation and melodrama just to give it some kind of justification…
“You guys all have it too??”
“Yes.”
“Hyung doesn’t have one?”
“I don’t!! Why am I the only one without it!!”
“……”
I turned my head toward the noisy voices. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Gihun’s face, twisted with pure injustice.
So that’s why you brought him here?
To put me through the same trial as the protagonist?
“Give me a Status Window too!!! Quest! Quest!!!”
“……”
Gihun’s starting point had been completely different. He’d entered this world ten days late. Even after escaping the car that was his first spawn point and making it all the way here, he still had no Status Window.
No—he hadn’t even received a quest.
And I’d been able to tell him that this place was the world inside a webtoon. No restriction had kicked in—no voice vanishing, no inability to write it down. Nothing.
There had never been any need for it in the first place.
No need to grant him a quest so he could get a Status Window.
No need to gag him so he couldn’t hear the “heavenly secret” that this was a webtoon world.
Because Gihun was…
“Hey! Why won’t you give me a quest?! I want a quest too!!”
“Because you’re going to die here.”
“What?? Die? Who? You??”
“……”
Won Gihun… that’s you.
That fucking pervert of a god had sent me a message while I was locked in the holding cell.
If you die here, you really die.
If I died in this place, the me who had lived his whole life in the original world would die too.
So what about Gihun?
If he died here, would he really die as well?
Or, unlike me, would he simply return to the world he’d come from?
“So… if you don’t kill me, I’ll turn into a monster and slaughter everyone here?”
“Probably.”
“Including you?”
“No.”
“That’s not it??”
“Yeah. I’ll kill you first and get stronger.”
“You little shit…!!!”
“Sorry. Be happy over there.”
“I’m not dead yet, you bastard!!”
In the original story, the protagonist’s closest friend sacrifices himself to save him—taking a bite to the arm in his place. With no antidote and no treatment, there’s only one option left.
Don’t let him turn into a monster. Kill him with your own hands.
End the pain as quickly as possible.
But the protagonist can’t bring himself to do it. He runs.
If the friend had just become an ordinary zombie, it wouldn’t have been that big a deal. But the protagonist’s closest friend doesn’t become an ordinary zombie.
A Mutant.
Early game, mid game, late game—whenever one appears, it’s a catastrophe.
Unlike regular zombies, they keep a fully human form, retain high intelligence, and possess absurd physical power that keeps growing no matter the stage of the apocalypse. They turn survivors’ lives into hell.
Later on, evolved Mutants start showing up, and those things are on a completely different level.
My friend Gihun had an extremely high chance of becoming one of those monsters.
So why not just eliminate the possibility entirely?
“Mmmph!!!!! Mmmmmph!!!!! Mmmph!!! Mmmmmmmph!!!!!!!”
“You’re loud.”
“Hyung… is this really okay…?”
“It’s fine. Better than dying by my hand.”
“Huh??”
“……”
“Hyung…?”
As expected, it didn’t work. I tried to tell Yang Jaeyeol the webtoon content, but my voice vanished like it had been erased. Not a single sound came out.
Anyway, this should be enough.
How was he supposed to turn into a monster like this?
“Mph!! Mmmph!!! Mph!!!!!!”
I’d wrapped him from shoulders to ankles in packing tape so tightly he could never free himself alone. I planned to keep him locked in this room, so there was no chance of him thrashing around and getting infected.
I’d also stuffed a clean sock in his mouth and taped it shut, so there was no chance of him eating something stupid and getting unlucky either.
Now all I had to do was clear the quest before the time limit ran out.
If I cleared it cleanly, Gihun wouldn’t get infected, and I wouldn’t have to kill an infected Gihun.
By the way, why did it keep giving me rewards like this?
Recapture the Underground Mall
(Time Limit: 70:15:38)
— On Success —
▶ Trust of the apartment residents
▶ Random Box granted
▶ Stat Points +2
— On Failure —
▶ ??? Growth Acceleration
Trust of the apartment residents.
I’d received the exact same reward before—Yang Jaeyeol’s trust.
But while reading the webtoon, I’d never once seen the protagonist get a reward like that.
Why was it only showing up for me?
No idea.
First things first—clear the quest.
“Jaeyeol.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“You got the quest too, right?”
“The underground mall one, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes, I received it.”
“What are the rewards listed… no, just share the quest.”
“Okay. Quest share.”
Everything was identical—except the “trust of the apartment residents” reward was missing from his success list.
So that one really was exclusive to me.
I’d think about it later. Right now I needed to get a handle on the underground mall situation.
“I’m going to go talk to Kwon Suhyeok for a bit.”
“I’ll come with you, hyung!”
“Then we should—”
“Only Jaeyeol comes with me. The rest of you stay here. Especially make sure that bastard doesn’t leave his room.”
“What if he says he needs the bathroom?”
“……Just don’t let him go for now.”
“Got it.”
I hadn’t thought about the bathroom. I’d have to punch some holes front and back when I got back.
“Kwon Suhyeok.”
“Ah, you look clean now.”
“Thanks to you I got a proper wash and a change of clothes. Appreciate it.”
“Not at all. We’re just lending out a place someone else used to live in. But why aren’t you resting…?”
“I want to know about the underground mall.”
“……”
What was that? His expression darkened again.
“Did you… receive a quest as well…?”
“A quest to recapture the underground mall. Did you get the same one, Kwon Suhyeok?”
“Yes… we received it too. The same quest.”
Not just us—every survivor in the apartment had gotten the same quest. And that had been the seed of the conflict.
Kwon Suhyeok’s group here insisted they had to clear it for the Random Box and stat points.
The opposing side said there was no reason to take the risk. If they screwed up and the barricaded stairwell got breached, the entire apartment would be in danger.
“But honestly… we weren’t divided from the start.”
“Then what happened?”
“Well… just like the first quest, if someone else cleared it, everyone still got the rewards. So the younger people who volunteered decided to go clear it themselves. The older folks opposed it, of course, but we pushed hard and eventually got their agreement.”
“You failed.”
“……Yes. We failed. And a lot of people never made it back to their families… That’s why they hate us even more now.”
So that was why, when the whole group had come yelling yesterday, he hadn’t even tried to talk back.
He was a sinner who couldn’t lift his head.
“That’s also why we posted the rescue video. Getting stronger so we can protect the people who are left is the only way we can atone to the ones who lost family and the ones who died.”
“Don’t make me laugh…!”
“Ah—ma’am…”
“You kids got lost in some delusion about games and killed my son!!!! Bring my son back…! Bring my son back!!!!!!! *sob*… *sob*…”
“I’m sorry…”
It wasn’t just the middle-aged woman clutching Kwon Suhyeok’s clothes and collapsing into sobs. Adults who hadn’t been visible a moment ago came pouring in, staring at me, Yang Jaeyeol, Kwon Suhyeok, and his group with eyes full of raw resentment.
“I’ll say it one more time—if you cause trouble, we won’t just sit still. So don’t even dream about going downstairs.”
“Mister…”
“Please think again! Yes, we failed, but the zombies have gotten faster and stronger than they were a few days ago!”
“He’s right! The zombies keep getting stronger, and no rescue is coming! We’re just going to starve to death here!! We have to do something!”
“That ‘something’!!!!!!!”
The middle-aged man who had been speaking relatively calmly suddenly screamed, glaring at the young people trying to persuade him. Tears—the kind you rarely see from adults—ran down his face.
“My sons died trying to do that ‘something.’ Both of them. Right in front of my eyes.”
“……”
“……”
“I still have family left, so I couldn’t even die—I ran and left my kids behind!! Do you have any idea what that feels like?!! Living like this?!! Do you even know?!!!”
The heavy silence filled with muffled sobs from every direction.
The young people couldn’t lift their heads. The adults wiped their tears and delivered one final warning.
“We did it your way, and this is the result. This time, stop being stubborn… and just do what we say. If you still go off and do whatever you want after we’ve said all this… then you’ll be fighting us, not those monsters. We have to protect the family we have left.”
What a hopeless situation.
After words like that, even Kwon Suhyeok and his group had nothing left to say.
But there was no time.
70:04:11
Seventy hours.
This place had decent food and was relatively safe, so these people had no real reason they had to recapture the underground mall. At the very least, nothing that urgent would hit them inside seventy hours.
But if we failed the quest, we’d get the Mutant Growth Acceleration penalty.
Even if, as I hoped, someone else or a regular zombie turned into a Mutant instead of Gihun, the moment a Mutant appeared here the barricaded stairs would be torn open in seconds.
Then everyone here would die.
I wanted to explain that and persuade them, but Mutants and any information about them hadn’t been revealed in the quest itself. Talking about them would be spoiling webtoon content, so I couldn’t say a word.
I’d have to persuade them another way.
“So you’re just going to leave them like that?”
“What…?”
“I’m asking if you’re going to leave them as half-dead, half-alive monsters that chase the smell of blood and tear people apart for the rest of their existence.”
“Watch your mouth…!!!”
“You said it yourself—they’re the most precious children in the world to you. And you’re telling those children to keep living as those horrific monsters.”
“What the hell do you know to say that shit!!!!!”
“That’s right!! You evil bastard!!!”
“Do you know how we feel?! Do you know our hearts!!!!”
“If they’re that precious, isn’t it a parent’s duty to let them close their eyes in peace even one second sooner?”
“Shut up! You bastard!!!!!”
“Hyung!!”
Ah, that felt good.
The middle-aged man’s fist, packed with pure rage, connected. A metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
“Ptooey!”
I spat out the mix of spit and blood, pushed myself up off the floor, and stood in front of him again.
“If you can’t do it, I’ll do it for you. They’re someone else’s children, but I’ll send them off myself so they don’t have to live like that—so they can close their eyes in peace. So even if you can’t help, at least don’t get in the way. And stop coming in packs to yell at us.”
“……”
I rested a hand on the middle-aged man’s trembling, clenched shoulder as I walked past him.
One last line.
“I’ll take your thanks later.”
“……”
“Kwon Suhyeok.”
“Ah… yes.”
“Where’s the entrance down to the underground mall? Guide us.”
“Y-you’re going down right now…? There are more zombies than you’d think…! Ah… it’s more dangerous than it looks.”
“Just a quick taste. And we’re more dangerous than we look too. Right, Jaeyeol?”
“Yes. I’ll go grab the weapons.”
“Bring me an axe this time. Looks like we’re going to have to fight properly.”
So Yang Jaeyeol and I armed ourselves with a hand axe and a machete, then followed Kwon Suhyeok’s lead to the stairwell that led down to the underground mall.
“Looks like some kind of secret door.”
“There was no other way in, so we made this entrance ourselves.”
“Then open it.”
“Be careful.”
They had cleared away every piece of furniture and junk as quietly as possible. The last thing remaining was a massive wardrobe.
When its doors opened, the back panel was completely gone, revealing the stairs leading down.
“Alright. Time to loosen up a bit.”
“Let’s go.”
“KRAAAAH!!!”
“KRAAAAAAH!!!”
“KRAAH!!!!!”
“KRAAAAAAAH!!!!”
W-wait a second…
There’s more of them than I thought…?