A Good, Bad Idea

I almost didn't recognize her. Judging by the look on his face, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠neither had Gwak Han-muk.

"Whoa, fuck, I almost hit her..."

Gwak Han-muk muttered the curse under his breath. He'd been a heartbeat from ramming her, certain she was a zombie, and had only just managed to stop.

Mo Hae-in let the thumb she'd been holding up drift slowly back down.

She hadn't been bitten long, so most of her human appearance was still intact. Soaked in blood as she was, though, the instant the headlights caught her in the dark, she had looked like the real thing.

Gwak Han-muk and I hurriedly unbuckled and climbed out of the car. He stared at her, his face twisting.

"Captain Mo..."

At the tremor in his voice, Mo Hae-in's eyes widened a fraction. Gwak Han-muk whispered with grave sincerity.

"This is the first time someone I know has turned into a zombie."

Same here...! I privately agreed.

"You think I wanted this?"

Mo Hae-in said it like she couldn't believe what she was hearing, and Gwak Han-muk ducked behind me. Then he cackled and made a machine-gun firing motion at her with both hands. I quietly raised my own in a gesture of surrender.

The sight drew a deflated little laugh out of her. She muttered, bitter around the edges.

"Still. I'm glad we met before I turned all the way."

Gwak Han-muk stopped his imaginary spray of gunfire and asked,

"What's your condition?"

"Bite site is the left forearm. Fever started the moment I was infected. No pain. Aggression is... manageable."

Even in the dark, Mo Hae-in's eyes gleamed the color of blood. Bloodshot whites. Skin so pale the blue veins showed through underneath. Every classic sign of zombification.

In three days, she would be a full zombie. Protocol said we should put her down. Neither Gwak Han-muk nor I raised a gun at her.

If we just clear the True Ending.

Everyone gets out alive.

Gwak Han-muk gave her a brief rundown of what we'd been through. When she heard about Je Hyeon-o's rampage, Mo Hae-in shuddered and swore.

"That psychopath..."

"How'd you end up getting bitten, Captain Mo? Was it Lieutenant Colonel Je?"

"About half of it was Lieutenant Colonel Je. The other half wasn't."

Gwak Han-muk, who had been dead certain it was all Je Hyeon-o's fault, hiked an eyebrow.

Mo Hae-in hesitated. The uncertainty sat strangely on her.

"There are... four researchers."

That was impossible. In Dead Zone Delivery, there was only ever supposed to be one last researcher left to develop the vaccine.

Mo Hae-in laid out the full story.

"I woke up on the Yellow Zone border, right up against the Red Zone."

While she was moving to find Gwak Han-muk and me, she had spotted a survivor being chased by zombies in the Yellow Zone. She had doubted her own eyes.

"He was wearing a researcher's lab coat."

An ID badge even dangled from his neck.

Mo Hae-in pulled the researcher out of the zombies' reach. Then she heard something astonishing: there were more researchers still alive at the Research Institute.

She had memorized the entire strategy guide. She knew there was only supposed to be one. She set the incomprehensible situation aside and tried to bring the researcher to us first.

"But he begged me. Said he had to get back to the Institute right then and there."

There was another injured researcher inside, in such critical condition that this one had risked coming all the way to the Yellow Zone for medical supplies. Mo Hae-in had no choice but to wrestle with it.

What if the injured one back at the Institute was the vaccine researcher? The man she had rescued didn't match the vaccine researcher's profile from the Dead Zone Delivery guide. There was no telling how long a reunion with us would take. If the vaccine researcher died in the meantime, they were finished. If he died, forget the True Ending — they couldn't even clear the Trial.

She had no choice. Without even a proper chance to scavenge, she headed for the Research Institute with nothing but the Black Moon Blade in her hand.

She made it through the Red Zone without incident. Then the Institute's boss zombie caught her in the Dead Zone. She managed to draw its attention and get the researcher inside safely, but the effort drained her dry. On the way back, a zombie bit her.

"Which is how I ended up looking like this."

Mo Hae-in assessed her own condition with a dry sneer. She had no reason to put herself down. Quite the opposite.

Insane.

Knowing the game's difficulty, all I could think was that what she had done was incredible. She had protected a survivor, entered the Research Institute, and gone up against the boss zombie — alone, with nothing worth calling gear. Even with the Black Moon Blade drawn, it shouldn't have been possible. This was something only Mo Hae-in could have pulled off.

"Captain Mo. That was truly incredible."

The swell of feeling spilled out before I could stop it. At the raw sincerity in my voice, Mo Hae-in eased back a half-step. Then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she looked at Gwak Han-muk.

"Goyo didn't get bitten, though."

Even after Gwak Han-muk confirmed that my brain was still working, she didn't drop the suspicious look. Having those bloodshot eyes fixed on me was a little terrifying, honestly.

"How did the researchers survive?"

Thankfully, Gwak Han-muk's question pulled me out from under zombie-Mo Hae-in's stare.

"Lieutenant Colonel Je was the cause."

Je Hyeon-o had entered Dead Zone Delivery ten days ahead of us. Ordinarily he would have followed a standard clear route. This time, for some reason, he had started slaughtering zombies the moment he arrived. The Red Zone, the Dead Zone — he had even gone inside the Research Institute and killed every last one.

That was why four researchers had survived, when originally all but one should have been wiped out. And one of them had gotten out of the Institute before the zombies respawned, made it all the way to the Yellow Zone, and run into Mo Hae-in.

I figured Je Hyeon-o was up to something weird...

I just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn't expected him to be causing this much large-scale chaos. If he was going to go berserk, he should have kept going and given us a zombie-free world. Why stop halfway and leave us with this mess?

The worst part was that he might have blown the True Ending conditions entirely.

Mo Hae-in looked at me, a faint edge of anxiety showing through. Gwak Han-muk stared at me in silence too. I took both of their gazes and opened my mouth slowly.

"We need to check the Research Institute. As fast as we can."

We had to get inside immediately and confirm whether the vaccine researcher was still intact — and whether the rest of the True Ending conditions were still in place. The problem was how to get in.

Given the team's current stamina and what little gear we had, even getting through the Yellow Zone wasn't a sure thing. Even if luck carried us through the Yellow Zone and the Red Zone, the Dead Zone would stop us cold. We were all thinking the same thing. The mood dimmed.

There was a way to solve all of it, though. In theory, it was a perfect method.

"I do have a good... well. A bad idea."

I explained the method I'd come up with. Mo Hae-in answered from the heart.

"Trainee. Have you lost your mind?"

It had the same unfiltered overflow I'd just shown her — a feeling she couldn't hold back. That made twice now she'd called me insane.

I did my best to sound as un-insane as possible — calm, collected — and laid out the case to her and Gwak Han-muk.

"We don't have another option. I want to try ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it."

Gwak Han-muk nodded like he felt that in his soul, then said something completely off-topic.

"Captain Mo. From now on, let's call him Gwangbam."

"Haaaah..."

The sigh that left Mo Hae-in seemed to go on forever. Even so, she knew. There was no better play than this, and if they delayed any longer they could all end up infected.

"Fine. Let's try it."

In the end, they went with my idea.

I wasn't doing this without a card up my sleeve. Of course, I hadn't been able to tell Mo Hae-in and Gwak Han-muk everything, so from the outside the plan looked completely unhinged...

As long as the results are good, that's all that matters.

I stood in the middle of an eight-lane intersection, scraps of newspaper and trash swirling around me. Wind funneled between the collapsed buildings. The night air was cold enough that my body shivered on its own. My stamina was running low.

A little more and I'd start hearing my own heartbeat, and my vision would go dark. Still, no critical-condition warning had popped up, so I could hold on for now.

I need to manage hunger and thirst, too.

In Dead Zone Delivery, going too long without food and water meant death. You had to keep on top of it. Once I finished this, I needed to get something — anything — in my mouth.

I drew a deep breath. And I shouted with everything I had.

"Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyeon-o!!!"

The quiet street rang with my voice. A couple of leftover zombies came scrambling toward me, but before they could get close, a flashing spear-blade separated their heads from their bodies.

Not long after, a chill crawled over me. Killing intent so sharp it went past tingling and into a sting against my skin. I clenched the prayer beads wrapped around my waist like a lifeline.

Somewhere in the quiet night street, a metallic sound began. The light clink of metal on metal, cold as ice. I focused my hearing. The slow, measured sounds drew closer.

A little closer. Then a little closer still.

The sound cut off cold — and a blast of wind slammed into my face. The beads at my waist jerked. I squeezed my eyes shut on reflex, then opened them and flinched.

A pair of black goggles had been shoved right up to my nose.

An emoticon with one eye blown wide filled my entire field of view.

I reflexively felt for my neck. Fortunately, it was still attached...

Gwak Han-muk's prayer beads hadn't yanked me back, so apparently there had been no intent to kill. I shifted my eyes just enough to look past the goggles. Every pointed metal feather-tip was aimed at me. One sweep of a single wing out of the six, and my arms and legs would go flying like nothing.

"I called you because I wanted to talk."

"Let me introduce myself first. I'm Han Goyo. I enlisted with the Era Bureau as a Trainee."

I said whatever came to mind out loud while my inner voice raced to type out a Transmission. A system window appeared in front of Je Hyeon-o.

It was a Transmission dressed up to look exactly like a quest window. I fired the quest name first to lock down my safety, then hurriedly typed out the rest.

"Lieutenant Colonel, I believe you may have some kind of misunderstanding about me. If anything is incorrect, please tell me. I'll correct it immediately."

I shaped the Transmission to roughly match the way a system window would ramble, and sent it.

I was supposed to be the System. Shouldn't I be able to issue real quests...?

I just don't have the power for it yet.

Hence the fake quest window. Honestly, fake or real — who was going to know? A system window was chiming into existence right in front of his eyes. No Adaptor would look at that and think it was fake.

I snuck a glance at Je Hyeon-o. The lights on his goggles had gone dark, as if he were turning something over carefully in his mind.

After a stretch of silence, question marks surfaced on the goggles.

I froze, unsure what they meant.

A sound came — viciously low.

"It's you, isn't it?"

A rough bass so deep and low it was hard to believe it belonged to a human being. It took me a few seconds to even recognize that the thing — closer to a monster's growl — was a voice.

I went rigid at the bone-deep chill pounding against my eardrums. Je Hyeon-o spoke.