The Horizon of a New World

It was a little reckless — the whole attempt was based on nothing more than a hunch. If it failed, it would just be a ridiculous way to die.

But I'd die either way if I just sat here.

I drew the military knife without much hesitation and slashed my forearm. A sharp sting bloomed, and my arm went slick in an instant. Blood ran down and pattered onto the floor.

I looked down, tense. If even a small gap opened, I planned to aim for it and try to escape.

What happened was far bigger than I'd expected.

"...!"

I'd figured a little blood would open a crack, nothing more. The moment it touched the wall, the inner surface began to melt away. The slick lining decomposed, revealing a zombie's torso and a massive television — returned to the shapes they'd had before being absorbed into the boss.

I knew my blood was a cure, but I never imagined it would work this dramatically. Since the cure was a substance that had never existed in the original game, it seemed to be exerting an even more abnormal effect.

The instant I saw the blood-struck area come apart, another thought occurred to me.

I might be able to take this thing down myself.

In some endings, you could take items out of a Trial. Generally, the higher your contribution, the better the grade and the more items you received. But they only went to the top contributor, or at most the top three. As far as I knew, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Dead Zone Delivery only let you take items if you placed in the top two.

Right now, the top contributor would be Je Hyeon-o. He'd gone and accomplished something they had specifically told you not to do.

I'd built up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠decent contribution fighting the Cook Zombie, but I hadn't landed a single hit on the final boss, Nothing. I'd played a major role developing the cure and the vaccine, but that probably wasn't going to be enough to keep me from slipping in the rankings.

I have to be the top contributor.

I had no idea how things would play out from here. I needed to prove to the Era Bureau, even a little more, that I was useful. Becoming the top contributor even though I'd entered alongside Je Hyeon-o? That would be the strongest proof of all.

And after all the hours I've put into this game...

Being the top contributor was the least I deserved.

I took the military knife and slashed my right forearm again. A chill was creeping in with the anemia. I'd already given blood once today, so I was probably right on the edge physically.

I was carefully gauging what stamina I had left through a blurring field of vision when the ground beneath my feet went soft and gave way. It was a strange sensation — not quite like something decomposing.

I looked down at my feet and couldn't believe my eyes.

Every eye that had been stuck to the walls had gathered beneath me. Whenever blood touched those writhing pupils, they returned to their original shapes and broke apart. The moment the decomposed flesh crumbled, new eyes surged in to take their place. The way they packed themselves in, desperate to touch my blood, was almost frantic.

I looked at the countless eyes pooling with blood. They looked as if they were weeping tears of blood.

All at once, I thought I understood what they wanted.

They want to go back to the way they were.

If I could, I wanted to give that back to every last one of them. The blood I'd spilled so far wasn't going to be enough to take down the boss anyway.

Just until I'm on the brink...

A warning would pop up when I hit near-death status. I could stop the bleeding then, and I'd be fine.

I slashed my left leg. Blood pattered down, and the eyes' reaction grew even more violent. They writhed, looking ready to climb my legs.

Maybe it was the blood loss. I barely felt the pain — just a hazy, drifting feeling. The other strange thing was that the near-death warning still hadn't come.

I still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seem okay?

I slashed my right leg too. Blood poured out.

Nothing came apart at speed, and the tiny space I'd been trapped in kept widening. And at last, I could see the outside.

I staggered forward. My vision was too blurred to make out what was in front of me, but I could at least see the silhouettes of the people watching. Voices were saying something, but the ringing in my ears was too loud to catch the words.

Captain Mo's probably about to call me a lunatic again...

After being trapped in those guts for so long, the outside air felt incredibly fresh. I drew a deep breath — and a system window appeared.

Top contributor. Confirmed.

And yet, even though I wasn't in near-death status, my consciousness was fading. Pain I'd forgotten came crashing back all at once, and my body swayed.

In the middle of that, Je Hyeon-o caught my eye. The sight of him bound in the Thunder-Struck Peach Wood Prayer Beads made me laugh without meaning to.

Just before I collapsed to the floor, someone ran over and caught me. I couldn't tell if it was Mo Hae-in or Gwak Han-muk, but even as I was dying, I didn't forget to ask.

"Please grab Lieutenant Colonel Je by the collar for me..."

And then I blacked out completely.

When I opened my eyes, several system windows were floating in front of me.

I made it.

Relieved to be alive, I read through the system windows one by one. The institute defense had succeeded, and Lee Ga-on had apparently developed the vaccine safely as well.

No cure yet?

I tried to sit up, and someone was looking at me from the side. My vision still hadn't recovered — everything was hazy — so I blinked a few times. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠After blinking for a while, I realized the person watching me was Lee Ga-on, and that I was lying on a cot in the lab.

"......"

Lee Ga-on didn't say a word. She just looked at me.

I moved my lips. I wanted to speak, but my throat was too parched. Lee Ga-on laid a wet gauze over my lips. After taking in a little moisture, I could finally make a sound.

"The cure..."

"I made it."

Lee Ga-on cut me off in a low, even voice, then bit down hard on her lip. I couldn't understand why the quest window for success hadn't appeared if she'd made the cure. When I looked at her in confusion, she brought up something else first.

"You've been asleep for two full days, Gunbam. Your teammates are clearing the area around the institute. Before that, they found Tak Ju-cheol and Paeng Sang-do and handed them over to me."

She said both of them had already turned into zombies, and that with the others' help she'd locked them up. Then she fell silent again.

I quietly read her face. Her eyes were full of resentment.

"They said you took down that enormous monster all by yourself."

"...Ah. Yeah."

"There's that really strong soldier, right? The one with all the latest weapons. Why didn't you ask him to take it down? Why did you get yourself hurt like this all alone?"

Well, he did shove me into the monster's mouth...

I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth. And I'd gotten hurt worse than I needed to because I'd been greedy about becoming the top contributor.

I gave an awkward smile and sat up. I was in better shape than I'd expected. My vision had come back a fair bit compared to when I'd first opened my eyes. There was an IV in my arm. Lee Ga-on pulled the needle out for me.

"The preclinical tests on mice were successful. I wanted to try it on my brother right away, but... I waited. For you to wake up."

So the quest success notification hadn't appeared because they still hadn't confirmed the cure's effect on a zombie. She held out her hand to me.

"I'm going to treat him now. Come with me."

I took the hand Lee Ga-on offered.

The Research Institute was quiet. Even after taking down the final boss, there should have been a few zombies left, but I couldn't sense a single presence.

Did Lieutenant Colonel Je and the Captains clean them up?

I walked down a strangely silent corridor with a Lee Ga-on who was, unlike usual, strangely silent herself.

We arrived at the Research Director's Office on the second floor. Tak Ju-cheol and Paeng Sang-do were tied up with rope in front of the office. Their zombification was quite advanced.

"Ga-on! Ga-on...!"

The moment they saw her, they went wild. They crawled on their bellies with the most pathetic faces imaginable.

"The cure? Still researching it?"

"Yeah, you're going to treat Lee Se-on, right? You two were so close. There's no way you'd give up on him."

In front of them clinging to hope, Lee Ga-on silently began clearing away the barricades blocking the Research Director's Office, one by one. I moved the barricades with her.

Reacting to the noise outside, Lee Se-on started making gurgling sounds. Once all the barricades were cleared, he looked much the same as when we'd first locked him in. Lee Ga-on let out a breath of relief.

She took out a case containing a syringe, then looked at me.

"I made this with you, Gunbam."

That was why she'd waited for me. Right there, in front of me and Tak Ju-cheol and Paeng Sang-do, she injected Lee Se-on with the cure.

Tak Ju-cheol and Paeng Sang-do started wailing.

"Ga-on! That's the cure, isn't it! That's the cure!"

"I knew you could do it! Look, see my arm? Just put it in here. Please? You want me to get on my knees?"

Leaving their groveling pleas behind her, Lee Ga-on pushed every last drop of the cure into Lee Se-on.

The moment the injection was complete, Lee Se-on went into convulsions. His whole body heaved, and then black tears of blood suddenly poured from his eyes. The pitch-black blood tears gushed so heavily that both Lee Ga-on and I stumbled backward in shock. He soaked his lab coat through and then some, until a pool formed on the floor, before the tears finally stopped.

Amazingly, from that point on, Lee Se-on showed no aggression at all. He hadn't recovered his reason yet, but color returned to his bluish face, and he looked at us with quiet eyes.

A system window announcing success appeared.

"Gunbam! I think it's working!"

Lee Ga-on shouted at me, her face flushed with excitement.

"We'll need to watch his progress a bit more, but I'm sure it succeeded. Oh — there's still one vial left, so if we inject your teammate right away...!"

"We're fine."

Once we cleared the True Ending and left, Dead Zone Delivery's virus would be cured anyway. There was no need to waste a precious dose of the cure.

"Instead, could you treat the zombie locked in the basement generator room? He used to be the cook here at the institute."

"Ah..."

Lee Ga-on suddenly went quiet. Behind us, Tak Ju-cheol and Paeng Sang-do wailed for the cure, but Lee Ga-on and I both let it wash over us like background music.

"You're too..."

Lee Ga-on let the words trail off. Her gaze fell on my arms and both legs, wrapped thick with bandages.

"We don't have anything we can give you."

I hadn't done anything that deserved those words. Feeling awkward, I answered.

"It's all right. Besides, Mr. Lee Se-on was a zombie."

Instead of agreeing, Lee Ga-on gave a strange little smile. She held something out to me.

"Take this."

It was the portable cassette player I'd given her. I took it with a small flicker of gladness and checked the item description without thinking much of it.

But the item description had changed.

The number of songs, originally six, had jumped all the way to six hundred and sixty-six.

"Lee Ga-on, did you by any chance..."

I was about to ask if she'd put in a new cassette tape when I stopped.

Lee Ga-on, who had been standing right in front of me just a moment ago, had vanished. In the place where she'd been, only a system window announcing the clear of Dead Zone Delivery remained.