4. Choi Yu-na (1)
Choi Yu-na, a citizen of Gyeongju, is sprinting along the mountain path of Namsan right now. A massive backpack weighs down her shoulders, and she clutches a hiking knife in one hand—anyone glancing her way might mistake her for just another visitor out for a climb. But she's not here for a wholesome hike in the pure sense of the word.
"Huff... huff... They're still chasing me...!?"
Dashing toward an abandoned hiking trail devoid of visitors, Yu-na steals a glance back at the grotesque horde pursuing her. She pants heavily, lamenting her plight. Trailing her aren't your typical wild animals from the trails or loan shark thugs come to collect a debt. Her family had never even touched high-interest loans; as upstanding citizens, it would be absurd in modern society for Choi Yu-na to be on the run from anyone in the first place.
But in this era, it was everyday routine for the powerless to be hunted. The creatures chasing her could only be called monsters.
Green-skinned, clad only in a scrap of cloth barely covering their crotches, wielding brutal clubs in one hand and small wooden chunks as shields in the other—these pint-sized land goblins were straight out of classic fantasy tales. Yes, in this modern world, the imaginary beasts from fantasy novels, those goblin monsters, had materialized in reality and were now hunting Choi Yu-na.
With lecherous grins plastered on their faces, their eyes locked obscenely on the back of her head... no, more precisely, her small rear. Sensing the threat to her chastity in those filthy gazes, Yu-na pours every ounce of strength into her flight.
"If I'd known it'd come to this, I never would've run to the mountains!"
She groans in regret, her mind flashing back to the events two months prior, when the disaster first struck.
Choi Yu-na had been an utterly ordinary student. No exaggeration—she was born into a typical Gyeongju household, doted on by her average salaryman parents, attending a run-of-the-mill local school. Just your garden-variety girl, pretty enough but without any standout talents or powers, breezing through high school life and chilling at home with friends over subculture stuff like anime and games.
To put it bluntly, Choi Yu-na was Extra A from a novel incarnate! She'd nod along if you declared it outright. That's how profoundly mundane her life was.
And shattering that boring routine? A piece of cake.
"Wh-what...? Huh?"
The so-called zombie apocalypse had engulfed the entire Republic of Korea. If you summed up the situation right before she fled to Namsan in one line, that was it.
Heading to school as usual, she slept a night away, and woke to find Gyeongju overrun with zombies. Trying to live her normal day, Yu-na and her family—early risers on their way to school and work—were caught completely off-guard and dumped into the heart of the catastrophe.
"Wh-what the hell is that...!"
"D-Dad?!"
Riding to school in her commuting father's car, Yu-na panicked at the zombie hordes filling the streets. Her father quickly sensed something was wrong in Gyeongju, yanking the wheel to head back home instead—fleeing the mob to rescue her defenseless mother.
But the sight that greeted Yu-na and her father upon arrival was...
"Grraaahhh..."
"H-Honey...?"
Despair: her mother, perfectly fine before he left for work, had turned into a zombie. In mere minutes, the wife he loved had become one of them. The mental blow froze Yu-na's father for a fatal instant.
"St-stop! It's me! Me! Aaaaaaahhh!"
"Grraaahhh..."
Oblivious that the man before her was her husband, Yu-na's mother sank her teeth mercilessly into her vulnerable spouse. Flesh tore from his neck, blood and chunks splattering the entryway as he screamed in agony, begging his wife for mercy.
But she devoured his hot blood and meat without pity, ignoring his desperate pleas.
"...!!!"
The horrific scene shattered Yu-na's mind; she could only stand frozen, shedding silent tears as she watched her father get eaten alive by her mother.
"Grraaawwwr..."
"D-Dad...?"
And then Yu-na witnessed her father turn before her eyes, thanks to her zombified mother. It was a madness-inducing nightmare, but realizing she was next snapped her pale face into action—she bolted to a room and barricaded the door.
Fleeing to the master bedroom and locking it, Yu-na muttered that this was all a dream, desperately escaping reality.
"It hurts. Hurts so much...! Why won't I wake up?!"
She pinched her cheeks, her thighs, bruising herself black and blue in a frenzy to jolt awake. But the pain wracking her body and the chilling pounding on the door screamed that this was cruel, unyielding reality.
"Aaaahhh!"
Luck favored Yu-na in one way: the master bedroom held a baseball bat her father had stashed for self-defense. And...
"If I don't... I'll die...!"
Her resolve formed with shocking speed. She accepted this wasn't a dream—it was real. To survive, she had to take down her zombified parents. Maybe it was sheer desperation. But there was no time to ponder why the world had gone zombie overnight.
Grabbing the weapon from the bedroom, Yu-na...
"Dieeee!"
...smashed the monsters wearing her parents' faces as they broke through the door. She swung wildly until they couldn't move, pulverizing their bodies into pulp. Only when the room was drenched in her parents' blood and gore did she finally stop.
"Ah... ahhh...!"
Then came the crashing wave of despair, regret, and guilt for surviving alone. For a young girl, their sudden deaths were trauma enough. But to smash the zombies in their likeness... with her own hands... until they were unrecognizable meat.
"I... I killed them...! I killed Dad! Mom!"
Realizing she'd slain her zombified parents to save herself, the psychological shock was too much for young Yu-na to bear.
You have awakened.
As if to hammer home that she'd killed her parents with her own hands, a blue holographic window popped up before Yu-na's eyes. Amid the surreal sight—thinking it all a dream—she fainted dead away at the system message. She only grasped the situation properly a full day later.
"Zombie apocalypse..."
Via her smartphone, Yu-na accessed online communities, all buzzing with the zombie outbreak across Korea. It wasn't just Korea—the world faced apocalypses of various stripes.
She pored over posts calmly, piecing it together, and learned why she'd awakened.
This post revealed the status window from fantasy hunter tales. Per it, you needed to kill one zombie to awaken. Yu-na had met the condition by slaying her zombified parents.
She pieced together the crisis but sank into deep depression over killing her own family. Still desperate to survive, she summoned her status window based on community tips.
"Status window!"
Her awakened power was holy magic—the classic healer archetype from fantasy worlds. In this apocalypse short on meds, a priestess who could mend wounds and illnesses without supplies was invaluable.
"I can't just stay holed up here."
Grabbing the bat, she ventured out. Sure, she rationalized it as training her new powers for survival, but deep down, guilt over killing her parents made staying home unbearable.
Using her abilities, Yu-na cleared zombies around the house. In the process, she found trustworthy allies. Together, they headed to a survivor camp for safety. There, she shone, healing all comers with her skills.
Perhaps it was self-flagellation for her family's death.
"Thank you, miss."
"No, this is my reason for living."
Yes—she took everyone who came. Tormented by guilt, she clung to the vain hope that her efforts could restore normalcy for all Gyeongju survivors.
And her dedication paid off. Survivors from other camps, even loners, sought her out for treatment. She pushed too hard, ignoring her hair bleaching white from the strain.
"Eh? Don't heal me?"
"Right. Unawakened normals go last. Awakened ability users first. And outsiders pay up."
"In this situation, charging will kill them!"
But her altruism bred resentment among her camp's ability users. In the zombie apocalypse, zombies and scarce supplies were threats, but humans were far scarier.
Logically, banding together aided survival, but history's social experiments showed what happens when masses gather.
Naive Yu-na, whose "society" was just school, balked at the leader's harsh order but wanted to protest.
"Then what about us fighters?! If your healing's late, we're dead!"
"Th-that's..."
In the camp, it was obvious: Prioritize combatants over useless civilians. As the apocalypse dragged, ability users' status soared.
"We ability users need to use the unawakened properly! You weaklings, reflect!"
"I... I don't think that's right..."
Chosen-people ideology crept in. They preached ability users dominating the weak. Yu-na opposed it, healing all comers despite warnings.
"Yeah, it'll be fine. The government's coming."
Clinging to faith that the government would save them if they held out. A common refrain among civilians, and Yu-na believed it hard—proud Korean forces would liberate Gyeongju.
News from outside hadn't fully cut off; internet worked fine, with official posts declaring the crisis and urging resolution. Grounds for hope.
"If we endure, we'll see the end."
Even amid rifts, normalcy would return. Plus, as time passed, regular zombies were no match for ability users; Yu-na handled multiples solo. No way the military with heavy weapons lost.
...So she believed. But reality betrayed her.
"Wh-what's that!?"
Rifts widened; the breaking point was powerful variant zombies.
"So many ability users dead overnight..."
The camp suffered massive losses to the variant raid—users and their civilian aides alike.
"Everyone fend for yourselves."
"Th-that's dangerous!"
"You wanna take responsibility for these deadweights? No? Then shut it."
"That's..."
Half the camp gone in a night; user-civilian divide exploded. They scattered to survive. Yu-na pleaded unity was safer, but her ordinary nature lacked charisma. Her plea was shot down; the camp disbanded.
"Wh-where do I go...?"
Losing her camp left Yu-na adrift.
"Can't go home..."
Back to the corpse-filled house? Power and water cut; zombie gauntlet en route; one variant and she'd be done. Terror gripped her.
"R-right, the mountains! No zombies there...!"
So, remote mountains. Inconvenient sans modern amenities, but edible plants aplenty—no starvation. And no terrifying zombies. Hikers might be zombified, but easier than city hordes.
Packing her gear, she fled to nearby Namsan.
"I'm such an idiot!"
Namsan had no zombies, as predicted. No zombie threats, that is.
Except it teemed with fantasy monsters. Cursing her past naive hopes, Yu-na kept running from the goblin pack.