The True Ending's Hidden Condition

I was dazed, but a sharp sound from Je Hyeon-o snapped me back to my senses.

His metal hand moved lazily, waiting for my answer.

I blurted out what I had to say.

“…I can clear it.”

Je Hyeon-o’s head tilted sideways. He seemed puzzled that I was still claiming to clear it.

It was a response with a high probability of being a lie, like his suspicion.

But what did it matter? When my lie was exposed, we would all have become zombies anyway.

Of course, Je Hyeon-o wouldn’t be infected, so he’d be fine alone.

I imagined the scene of him carving up the zombie version of me.

“Zombies can’t feel pain, so it should be okay.”

My mind calmed a bit, and I returned to the basics.

I thought about how the vaccine developer might be injured.

But unlike Mo Hae-in’s worry, I didn’t think the vaccine developer might die.

Because trials basically followed the game’s framework.

My idea of trials was this:

1. Trials are virtual spaces based on the Archive games I had played.

2. Games have a minimum framework for progression.

Given these premises, the conclusion was one:

3. Trials also have a minimum framework for progression.

It was natural for the player to encounter a researcher who dies during progression.

“That’s a bad ending.”

However, the situation where the vaccine developer dies before even meeting the player deviated from the game’s framework.

It was no different from an NPC dying alone in a side quest.

In short, it was an impossible situation.

Je Hyeon-o, who had entered first, couldn’t have met the researcher.

Je Hyeon-o also knew the clear condition and had no reason to touch the researcher.

At that time, perhaps he killed one more zombie.

Suddenly, another question struck my head.

Je Hyeon-o hates trials.

He hates staying long in trials and always aims for the shortest clear time.

But even though we were in a situation where we couldn’t even clear it now…

Je Hyeon-o seemed too normal.

Given his personality, he should have done something crazy, but instead he was acting like it was fun.

“I can’t follow Je Hyeon-o’s thoughts because I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

I couldn’t figure out his train of thought at all.

For now, I set aside my doubts about Je Hyeon-o and looked back at the zombie researcher.

What I hadn’t seen earlier caught my eye.

The zombie was repeatedly slamming its head against the glass door.

Even while I and Je Hyeon-o were talking right nearby.

It meant there was already a target set.

I looked beyond the glass door. At first, it was dark, but now a person came into view.

A woman was covering her mouth, hiding and crying, and she looked at me with trembling eyes.

Her face wet with tears looked about my age.

An ID card hung around her neck, wearing the researcher’s clothes.

Lee Ga-on

She was the essential condition for the true ending I was looking for: the researcher’s sister.

Now I understood what had happened.

The true ending of DZD is the vaccine production ending. Other general endings only obtain the clue to vaccine production and end there.

A researcher who survived alone would worry about her brother’s life while developing the vaccine with the player’s help.

And while doing so, she would tell the player stories about her brother.

Her brother had entered the research institute as a research intern and worked together, and her parents had passed away early, so she raised him alone, and various trivial stories.

However, she never gave a quest to find her brother, which was the trap.

The player had to find the brother by themselves using the researcher’s stories as hints.

It was a so-called hidden quest.

If you bring the surviving brother, you can proceed to the true ending route.

If the brother died or became a zombie, you could only proceed to the general ending.

Since Je Hyeon-o had entered DZD some time ago, I had been feeling uneasy that her brother might have died in the meantime.

But instead of the brother, the researcher had become a zombie.

Perhaps when Je Hyeon-o cleared the zombies in the research institute, the researcher had gone to find her brother.

In the process, other surviving researchers would have been met, and so on.

Then, she found her brother but was abandoned by the other surviving researchers after being bitten by zombies.

“Even the seemingly useless brother would have been abandoned together.”

The researcher who was left alone with her bitten brother would have had to make a choice. The result of that choice was what we see now.

She pushed her brother into the research director’s office, which is the safest place in the research institute and not too isolated to handle the outside situation.

She tied her own limbs and put a gag in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her mouth.

She probably couldn’t say to her brother to kill herself. That would be too cruel a request for her brother too.

“Grrrr…”

The zombie with the gag in its mouth bit into the flesh with its smashed head and slammed into the glass door again.

The story the researcher had told me in the game came to mind.

“Gunbam-nim, it’s my brother. He’s really annoying. He doesn’t call me oppa, he calls me by name. If I’m in a bad mood, he yells ‘Yah!’ and shouts.”

“Because of me, I entered the research institute as an intern… If it wasn’t for me, I might have been in a slightly safer area.”

“He’s smarter than me. I already got his signature in advance.”

“I hope he just lives. As long as he holds on until I make the vaccine…”

I thought it would naturally end in a happy ending, like in the game.

I wanted to start over, but I couldn’t.

There was no time to retry, and if I cleared it by another method and left, Mo Hae-in, the infected one, would be killed.

“If it had been a game.”

Then I would have ended it and started over from the beginning.

While thinking of an unattainable thought, a sudden chill ran through me.

Je Hyeon-o, standing next to me, raised his metal hand to deal with the zombie.

“Lieutenant Colonel, please wait a moment.”

I moved my body in front of Je Hyeon-o. I said, blocking the view of the person looking at me with frightened eyes.

“This female researcher is an important NPC for clearing. She is the sister of the vaccine development researcher.”

Looking at my appearance reflected in the black goggles, he continued.

“Even if you’ve become a zombie, killing your family in front of you might create an adversarial relationship.”

Fortunately, Je Hyeon-o listened to me.

It wasn’t that he believed my judgment, but he seemed more like he was watching how I navigated this crisis.

With Je Hyeon-o’s cooperation, I tied up the researcher zombie more firmly.

And I knocked on the reinforced glass door.

Knock knock.

The skinny body jumped up startled.

“I’m a soldier. I’ve come to help, so please open the door.”

But the wariness remained. After hesitating for a moment, I said the name.

“…I know Se-on-ssi.”

The name of the zombie researcher.

As soon as he heard his older brother’s name, Lee Ga-on’s eyes changed.

She jumped up and immediately unlocked the lock on the reinforced glass door.

I pulled the door. A voice full of exhaustion and cracks leaked through the opening gap.

“O, oppa… do you know? How… our oppa has no friends…”

“I met him briefly because of work and had a conversation.”

“Ah…”

I took Lee Ga-on out and took out a drink and chocolate bar from my backpack.

“Wait here for a moment over there.”

After sending her to the corner, I isolated the zombie Lee Se-on in the research director’s office.

And I stacked cover objects in front of the glass door.

The research director’s office is quite sturdy, so she won’t be able to escape until I remove the cover from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠outside.

“Grr, hup…”

In the meantime, Lee Ga-on was gulping down the chocolate bar and drink with tears and snot.

She must have been locked up alone for a considerable amount of time, and surviving until now was amazing.

“Thank you…”

Lee Ga-on thanked me.

Then she tried to thank Je Hyeon-o too, but as soon as she saw the metal hand, she froze in fear and couldn’t say anything.

I looked back at Je Hyeon-o and understood Lee Ga-on’s heart deeply.

^^

Even if I hide the metal hand, it didn’t solve the appearance.

Of course, the goggles displaying emoticons, the harsh combat uniform, and the gas mask.

Even I would avoid meeting someone like that on the street.

…Actually, I still wanted to avoid it. It’s not that I can, though.

“Can you explain what happened?”

As soon as I asked, Lee Ga-on burst into tears again. New tears added over the dried tear stains.

I handed her another bag of jelly. Lee Ga-on ate the jelly and cried loudly.

“Oppa… hugh… oppa…”

The following explanation was as I expected.

The surviving researchers used Lee Se-on well.

Using the excuse that they overlooked her brother, a mere intern, being in the secret research lab together, they pushed Lee Se-on to the most dangerous place.

Lee Se-on forcibly obtained food and supplies.

And as soon as he was bitten by a zombie, he was abandoned with his sister.

Lee Ga-on did everything she could to save her brother who was turning into a zombie.

The researcher who met Mo Hae-in was Lee Ga-on.

Lee Ga-on went to the Yellow Zone to obtain medical supplies, but there was no way to reverse the already progressing zombie transformation of Lee Se-on.

All methods failed, and she eventually watched her brother turning into a zombie right in front of her.

I waited for the sobbing Lee Ga-on to calm down a bit and asked.

“Hasn’t Lee Se-on left any messages about the vaccine?”

“…”

“It’s really tough. Sorry. But…”

“I don’t know anything about that!”

Lee Ga-on raised her voice. Then, surprised at her own action, she immediately apologized.

“Sorry… But I really don’t know.”

“I see.”

“Even if I know, what does that mean?”

The tears that had barely stopped welled up again.

“Already our oppa has become a zombie.”

I stared at her. Thoughts raced through my head.

The content of the quest window I saw on the broadcast station came to mind.

“Media literacy…”

The ability to filter the reliability of information.

It didn’t take long to make a judgment.

“Lee Ga-on.”

“Hic, hugh, yes?”

“Do you know how to make the vaccine?”

A momentary silence fell on my question. Je Hyeon-o, who had been watching like it was someone else’s business, leaned in with interest.

Lee Ga-on answered with a panicked face.

“I really don’t know… And I’m not a formal researcher, I’m just an intern…”

This time, I cut her off.

“You know, don’t you?”

What made me feel alien was that Lee Ga-on had gone to the Yellow Zone to obtain medical supplies.

Since the research institute deals with viruses, it had high-level medical supplies.

There was no need to go to the Yellow Zone, but Lee Ga-on had gone there risking her life.

There could be only one reason.

“I went to the Yellow Zone to get vaccine materials.”

Lee Ga-on’s face turned pale.

I recalled the quest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again.

The quest clearly indicated it.

“Find the ‘vaccine developer’.”

It didn’t matter if it was a researcher or an intern in the research institute. As long as it was ‘the person who will develop the vaccine’, the condition was satisfied.

At that moment, along with a ding sound, the system window updated.

It was a system window informing that my judgment was correct.

“I should have told you earlier.”

I waited until I was confident, and now it was announcing the quest success like congratulating the correct answer.

This is why the system window is just an alarm, really.

“You are….”

I closed the system window before it could display an additional message. Then I looked down at Lee Ga-on.

She couldn’t say anything. She was just clenching her fists tightly with a deathly pale face.

Her face was resolute, as if she wouldn’t give any information about the vaccine even if a knife was pressed to her throat.

But I wasn’t particularly planning to threaten her. Instead, I simply asked.

“It’s unfair, isn’t it? Your brother turned into a zombie.”

“…”

Lee Ga-on, who had been looking at the floor, slowly raised her head.

“I’ll help you so you can take revenge.”

Her pupils were trembling.

“…How?”

The voice asking back had fear in it. It seemed the researchers had tormented her quite a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bit.

Since Lee Ga-on seemed to regard the surviving researchers as incredibly great and dangerous beings, I spread my hand and pointed to the side.

Lee Ga-on’s lips opened as her eyes followed my hand.

An existence that even two heavily armed military units couldn’t handle, let alone two researchers.

It was Je Hyeon-o who was there.

“I will process it as you wish. Kill it, save it, or turn it into a zombie like you, or anything.”

I pulled up my mouth as much as possible to make it softer, thinking my expression was too stiff.

Lee Ga-on had a dazed face. After staring at me for a while, she opened her mouth.

“If you just make the vaccine, is that it?”

The true ending of DZD is vaccine production.

But I didn’t want to close the trial in this state.

I glanced at Je Hyeon-o. The black goggles were looking at me.

If it were Gwak Han-muk or Mo Hae-in, they would have hesitated in speaking, but since it was Je Hyeon-o, it should be fine.

I stated the ending I wanted.

“Make a cure as well.”