……Fuck. Why This Shitty Dream of All Things.
……Fuck.
Of all the shitty dreams, why'd I have to get this one?
"……Da-hee. What do you wanna eat for dinner?"
Two days ago.
Choi Jisoo spoke cautiously to the young woman before her, looking at her with pity. She'd been rescued by the shelter's main hunting team—the elite group led by its leader, Na Ho-guk—while they were out farming and hunting far from base.
"……I'm fine, unnie. I, I ate…… a lot, just two days ago. I can hold out……."
The girl sat blankly on the mattress laid out on the floor. Shin Da-hee, who had desperately tried to protect herself against raiders just two days prior, only to lose her beloved older brother in an instant. She gave Choi Jisoo a faint smile in response.
Over the past two days, Shin Da-hee had consistently shown this attitude. Choi Jisoo let out a quiet sigh at the girl's unchanging, emotionless reaction.
'Sigh…… I get it, but…….'
The party she'd been in with her own brother. Those scumbags who were supposedly her brother's best friends from school days before the apocalypse—they'd turned on her in a heartbeat right in front of her eyes…….
Her brother had died fighting off those transformed raiders. Da-hee had fled desperately and been miraculously saved by Na Ho-guk's main team just before they could catch her. That was only two days ago.
Da-hee was still a minor…… no, not even that anymore. Her birthday was just days away, as Choi Jisoo knew from checking her possessions—including her ID—during the rescue.
"It's okay, Da-hee. Our shelter's got more supplies than you'd think……? We can get you whatever you want. And your birthday's coming up in a few days anyway."
"……Really, I'm fine, unnie. I'm just some…… outsider who rolled in from out there…… How could I have the nerve, sob, sob……."
Da-hee struggled through her words before breaking into sobs. Choi Jisoo cursed inwardly and pulled her into a hug.
"Sorry, sorry! Unnie wasn't being thoughtful. Sigh…… Still, uh…… Da-hee. Can you look at unnie's eyes for a sec? I wanna talk while looking at your pretty face."
The reason those raiders—her brother's so-called best friends—had suddenly turned was simple: supplies were getting harder to scavenge with each passing day, and they were tired of sharing with Da-hee, who contributed nothing to the party.
In the early apocalypse days, they'd all been buddy-buddy, cheering each other on. Farming was easy back then, zombies weak. Every guy in the party had tried to show off for their friend's pretty little sister.
But now, five—no, six months in—the pent-up resentment had exploded.
They'd demanded that if Da-hee wanted supplies, she pull her weight somehow. Her brother, a notorious fist-fighter back in the day, had kept her safe with his rep as a top delinquent girl. But post-apocalypse? She couldn't even kill a single zombie properly—a classic case of all bark, no bite.
Da-hee's level was still 1. Pathetic. She couldn't even finish off a zombie her brother had downed before dying.
For someone like her, there was only one way to be "useful" to the party. And that's exactly what the suddenly feral men had demanded.
"Sob, sob…… Do I have to…… give my body? Then at least…… let me start next week. Like you said, unnie, I'll be an adult in a few days……."
Even after being rescued by Na Ho-guk and brought to this shelter, Da-hee had watched her one reliable anchor in this apocalypse world—her brother—die protecting her right before her eyes.
Now she just feared how she'd be treated going forward.
At the rescue site, Na Ho-guk and the main team guys hadn't laid a hand on her despite the chaos. She'd even started suspecting something fishy about being brought to this safe shelter.
Everyone here—the rescuers, everyone she'd met—was impossibly kind and warm in this terrifying world. Unbelievably so.
'Back then…… there were other women around…… But this woman, this Choi Jisoo unnie…….'
Choi Jisoo was the shelter's de facto manager, handling internal affairs. One glance told Da-hee she held the power of life and death over her.
The clean water, warm meals, brand-new sealed clothes, even feminine products she'd been given over the past two days—what did this useless outsider have to offer in return……?
Slap!
"Wha—what……? U-unnie?"
Da-hee had steeled herself to offer what those previous party men had so blatantly demanded—the only thing she figured she could do.
But Choi Jisoo, hearing it, didn't coddle the emotionally shattered girl who'd lost her brother overnight. She slapped her cheek fairly hard.
"……."
"……Ah, ah? S-sorry! I'm sorry, unnie! I-I was wrong!"
As Choi Jisoo stared at her with a frozen expression after the slap, Da-hee's anxiety spiked. She bowed her head, clasped her hands, and begged.
Choi Jisoo looked down at the pitiful girl with mixed feelings, then pulled her into a gentle, sisterly embrace, patting her back.
"……Da-hee."
"Y-yes…… U-unnie. Sorry…… Mmph?"
Choi Jisoo pressed a finger to Da-hee's lips as she kept repeating her apologies, her face more serious than ever.
"Unnie doesn't fully know the pain Da-hee went through overnight. I've never experienced it."
"……Sob."
"Of course, my parents and family back home…… maybe…… Nah, no. They're definitely alive and well like me…!"
Choi Jisoo shook off the dark thoughts creeping in while comforting Da-hee, then locked eyes with her intently once more.
"It's only been two days since you got here, and you've been through something huge—your heart's gotta be a mess. I get it. I do. But……."
She trailed off softly, giving Da-hee time to calm, then continued slowly.
"Don't let it make you think bad thoughts, okay? The living have to keep living…… And the people left in this shelter? They're nothing like those human scum you dealt with. Unnie can say that with absolute confidence."
Choi Jisoo herself and the shelter's rock-solid leader Ho-guk…… no, Ho-guk. Na Ho-guk.
Only those two knew about Choi Jisoo's Day 100 Awakening skill: the ability to perfectly read people's minds. They'd purged all the human trash with it.
In this fucked-up apocalypse world, Na Ho-guk and Choi Jisoo's shelter might just be the safest, most trustworthy place around.
Anxious Da-hee didn't know it yet, but she'd realize soon enough how incredibly lucky she was.
She was already feeling it from Choi Jisoo's reaction right in front of her.
"……Sob, sob. Y-yes…… Unnie. Th-thank you. Thank you……."
"Good. Take your time getting used to the shelter. If it's tough, you don't have to do a thing. You saw all the kids here, right? Just play with them as the pretty big sis, and the aunties will love you for it. Oh, you don't hate kids, do you?"
"N-no! Sniff, I l-love them. Love 'em tons! My dream was to be a…… kindergarten teacher……."
"Really? Perfect. The little ones have been so hyper lately—we're short on playmates."
The shelter housed hundreds of survivors, all busy in their roles. But the heavy lifters were the external teams: hunters and farmers.
Securing supplies to keep the shelter stable and killing zombies for levels—that was priority one. No way around it.
In that mix, a pretty young thing like Da-hee was bound to be adored by the innocent kids. Especially since she was just barely an adult herself.
"Everyone's got their own role that fits them perfectly. You get that, right?"
Choi Jisoo's kind words erased the half-resigned thought Da-hee had voiced moments ago—that she'd have to sell her body to survive here.
Her grieving heart, adrift from losing her brother, cracked wide open. She burst into tears.
"……Y-yes. Sob, unnie…… Yes……. Sob, sob……."
"……Fuck. Of all the shitty dreams, why'd I have to get this one."
Let's see. Back before regression, that was him in his prime high school days, right?
Shin Cheol-su…… Something like that? Kinda fuzzy.
Well, we only hung out for about a year in high school, so whatever.
Still, if you're gonna show up in my dream, fine. But why her? That bitch with no manners?
"That fucking cunt, to my sky-like big bro's friend…… What? An orphan?"