Slapdash
An emergency announcement will be delivered shortly. Survivors, please direct your attention to the notification window.
Cold water always gets dumped on you at the happiest moment, doesn't it?
"An announcement?"
The hand that had been about to take a sip from a beer can froze mid-motion.
Everyone nearby who'd been chatting fell silent, unable to hide their bewilderment as they turned their eyes toward empty air.
"What the hell was that just now!?"
"...It's a notification window. They're putting up another announcement?"
"Didn't one go up yesterday?"
"Something about this feels... off."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
Anxiety surged among the residents, as expected. The barbecue party that should have been filled with nothing but joy suddenly felt forcibly ruined.
Just yesterday they'd stolen everyone's time to announce an update that would take over three weeks — and now they were crashing the one moment people were supposed to be enjoying themselves. If the mood had stayed cheerful after that, that would have been strange.
Of course, looking at this alert, I already had a pretty good idea what the sudden announcement was about.
"It's because of the dungeon clears, isn't it?"
"Most likely. We cleared the dungeons today, and there hasn't been a single additional notice since."
At some point Kim Seyeon had drawn up beside me, whispering an answer to what had been half a question to myself.
And then the notification sprang open.
Greetings, survivors. We apologize for issuing yet another emergency announcement following yesterday's. As of May 10th, there is news we simply cannot delay delivering to you, and so we convey it urgently by voice.
That inorganic voice. Hearing it again after only a day... honestly, I was already sick of it.
On May 10th, both dungeons located in Seoul, the former capital of the Republic of Korea, have been fully cleared. The individual who cleared both dungeons is one and the same, and that survivor's name is 'Jeong Hoon'. Congratulations, Jeong Hoon. You have achieved the feat of being the first to clear two dungeons.
Clap, clap, clap...
Applause came from beside me. Every eye snapped toward the source in an instant. Jung Yun, her face flushed red, hurriedly hid both hands behind her back.
"H-huh! I-I'm sorry! I absolutely wasn't trying to mock anyone — it was just unconscious...!"
Alcohol definitely made people a little too honest.
Anyway, I half-tuned out Jung Yun's excuses and refocused on the new administrator's voice (not that I had a choice — it drilled straight into my ears either way).
Concurrently, ownership of both dungeons has been transferred to Jeong Hoon, who has cleared every dungeon within the Sanctuary. The transfer is effective immediately, and as of 00:00 on May 11th, a 'Dungeon Operation & Management' menu will be added to the System window. Through this menu, you will be able to adjust dungeon difficulty and utilize various additional functions. Please check the System window updated tomorrow for further details.
Ah, just as I thought! That actually felt good.
A smile of relief tugged at the corner of my mouth. Unlike everyone else, I could finally take this voice in stride. The silence after the dungeon clears had been unnervingly complete — this put that unease to rest.
Everything I'd said about being sick of it, about it being annoying — all cancelled. It had scratched the exact itch that needed scratching. Just for that, this guy was already worlds apart from that previous administrator bastard. Damn right he was!
In addition, there is an urgent change to the update that we wish to convey — and apply — at this time.
...Come again? An urgent... update change?
Yesterday, May 9th, we informed you that a new type of zombie was scheduled to appear in June. However, given that both dungeons have fallen to a single survivor — creating a fracture in the overall balance — we have concluded that significant alterations must be made to the June update in order to restore equilibrium.
Balance is... what, exactly?
"That... doesn't sound good."
"Restore the balance...?"
Park Seeun and Yun Mina's muttered words dug into my ears.
Hearing them, a sudden dread seized me. Right. Restore the balance, they'd said. Don't tell me...
Had I gotten so ridiculously strong that they were about to reclaim this system from me entirely!?
In an instant, the smile of relief vanished from my lips.
Therefore, concurrent with the update announced yesterday... we will implement a new content update. This update will take effect starting tomorrow — at 00:00 on May 11th.
But the contents of the administrator's voice went in a direction completely different from the prediction that had been driving me toward despair.
"Huh?"
Which is why a dumbfounded breath slipped out of my mouth.
First Update — identical to yesterday's announcement. Going forward, when survivors and monsters die, they will not simply perish. They will rise once as zombies from their corpses and wander the land. Inheriting a portion of their pre-death stats, they will become what are commonly called 'Super Zombies' or 'Elite Zombies', posing a significant threat to survivors. Exercise caution.
Second Update —
The moment I heard those words, a shocking sight from not long after the collapse flashed before my eyes.
Rumble—!
A building had crumbled, and the thing that caused the collapse had been floating in the sky.
It had probably been some kind of skeletal monstrosity. I'd barely seen one since then, so the memory was hazy.
Until now, only a tiny number of 'Flying Monsters' have been able to take to the skies or intervene on the ground. However, beginning at 00:00 on May 11th, the Flying Monsters that have soared through the heavens, nested on plateaus and high mountains, and hidden their bodies among the clouds will descend upon the earth. And without a moment's hesitation... they will try to snatch your heads and drive their talons into your torsos.
Clunk!
The shocking new information was enough to make several people, myself included, drop their beer cans to the ground.
Please note that this update will not immediately apply to Clean Zones and Sanctuaries. In those areas, the update will not take effect until the duration or recovery period ends. In particular, for the Sanctuary, this update will apply starting June 1st when the recovery period concludes. Survivors residing within the Sanctuary need not worry.
Once I'd heard that last piece of news, I could no longer just sit there listening to the new administrator's voice.
I urgently sought out Kim Seyeon and told her we should head west — toward KP Airport, on the border between Seoul and Incheon, at the outer edge of the city.
On the pretext of verifying whether the announcement was true.
"...Understood. Seeun, Sora! And Mina! Into the van, quickly!"
Kim Seyeon agreed with a serious expression and entrusted her daughter, Seo Minji, to Jung Yun and Jung Miju.
As I listened to the three of them exchange parting words, I looked up at the sky.
At last, that day had come.
Even the sky itself would no longer be kind to us. The moment when it would instead deliver nightmares had finally arrived.
And then...
May 11th. 00:00.
"Ha..."
"H-how could this...!"
"Shit...!"
"Hoo... what the hell is this...!"
"I'm normally a woman who doesn't swear if I can help it... but today I really want to let it rip without holding back? This is fucking disgusting, honestly?"
Near KP Airport, on the border between Seoul and Incheon... the instant the clock hit 00:00 on the 11th, just as the administrator had said, pandemonium erupted.
"KYAAAAAAK!"
"KURURURURUK!"
Bizarre shrieks that went beyond strange and threatened to split eardrums — screams, almost.
Letting them loose, the flying monsters began hunting humans outside the Sanctuary. In the dark night sky, their forms illuminated by moonlight needed no description beyond a single word: horrific.
And they hunted people mercilessly, indiscriminately.
"Y-you goddamn bird-brained bastards... AAAARGH!"
"Somebody help me, please... somebody save meeeee! GYAAAAAAH!"
The people — the countless people who'd been camped out beyond the Sanctuary's boundary line — were slaughtered unilaterally without even a chance to fight back.
To those of us accustomed to life inside the Sanctuary, the sight was shocking. The people who lived in this territory, who had become my residents, would never have gone down like that.
Rather than scattering and dying helplessly one by one in the monsters' grasp, they would have somehow banded together and struggled.
But outside this boundary line, it was as if an entirely different world existed... people fled in every direction, unable even to counterattack, simply being ravaged one-sidedly.
A difference in levels, maybe. Yeah, that was probably the biggest reason. Just looking at those bird-brained monsters flying around up there—
Lv.35
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—they boasted considerable levels and health. Outside, no matter how many people banded together, survivors who'd mass-hunted at the insane speed we had were vanishingly few.
But more than those practical factors... I had the feeling that the most decisive element was something we possessed and they completely lacked.
Hope.
In everything beyond this Sanctuary's boundary line, something called 'hope'... simply could not be found.
The moment that thought settled in... a wave of powerlessness seemed to wash through my entire body. For an instant, an emotion called despair took hold of every inch of me.
One month. In the span of a single month, through painstaking effort, we had managed to create a safe zone called the Sanctuary in Seoul — even if it was only a recovery period. We had gathered residents, raised the territory's rank, and even restored electricity, reclaiming some of the comforts of civilized times.
But on this vast expanse of earth called the planet, it was a truly trivial achievement — not even a handful of sand.
So then, on this Earth where updates that would continue driving people into terror and despair kept rolling out... how much time would it take to light a spark of hope across the entire world and attempt reconstruction from ruin?
And more than anything — could I even do it? Me, who until just moments ago had been swelling with dreams of becoming that kind of person... only to taste despair at the brutal reality right in front of me?
Me, whose hesitation was already flowing through my hands and feet the instant the mental shield called Lawful Good was gone, interfering with every movement?
"What do we do!? Those people — what are we supposed to do about them!?"
"If we leave them like this, they'll all die!"
"Ugh, I feel like we should save them, but at the same time I have to wonder if we really need to go out of our way for those people? And more than anything, even if we do save them, we can't bring them into the Sanctuary...!"
Beside me, I could hear my companions wrestling with the problem.
Everyone was floundering. You could feel the conflict of people who couldn't decide how to dig into the reality before them and push forward.
And so, with everyone trapped in their own thoughts, staring at the cruel reality before them and hesitating — that was the moment.
The moment when hesitation had flowed through every limb, freezing us in place, unable to move an inch.
"Multi Shot!"
Someone burst forward — right in front of me — and loosed arrows at the monsters.
Thwip, thwip, thwip!
Thud, thud, thud!
"KYEEEK!?"
"KWEEEEK!?"
"KURURURURURU...!"
Several flying monsters took arrows mid-assault on humans and died on the spot. One by one, they plummeted and slammed into the ground.
Thud, crash!
And the one who had created that scene was...
"E-everyone? J-Jeong Hoon oppa? Seyeon unnie? Seeun? Mina? A-are you all... hesitating right now? Second-guessing yourselves? W-when right there in front of us... people are suffering... and you're watching it happen in real time!?"
It was the most introverted, the most timid woman among us.
"W-we... we didn't gather here to... to just watch a fire on the other side of the river! W-we didn't come together just to enjoy our comfort while... w-watching other people's pain from a distance... d-did we? A-at the very least, to save the people suffering right in front of our eyes... i-isn't that why we came together...? J-Jeong Hoon oppa... w-we... weren't we... those kinds of people?"
Han Sora, her voice and expression burning with indignation... her eyes piercing our consciences, her resolve hardened to steel...
She glared at the rest of us standing there like pathetic cowards and delivered her rebuke.
"...Of course not."
Those words washed the hesitation clean out of my hands and feet.
"As if I'd just stand here and watch the carnage caused by this goddamn, slapdash update..."
Carefully, I reached into my coat.
"There's no way I'd just sit and watch, Sora...!"
What I drew out was the very pistol I'd obtained clearing the dungeon today.
Click — I racked the slide back.