Chapter 1
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 001
Chapter Title: The Day of the End (1)
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“Mr. Lee Min-jun, it’s a brain tumor.”
As the doctor in the white coat opened his mouth, Min-jun stared blankly into space.
‘What did the doctor just say?’
Lately, he hadn’t been feeling well, with severe nausea plaguing him, so he had visited an internist a while back.
There, they said there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with his body.
They suggested that if the nausea persisted, he should consider seeing a neurosurgeon, and recommended this place.
He had wondered why he needed to go to neurosurgery for a stomach issue, but since it was the doctor’s advice, he figured he had no choice and came.
So, he should have been muttering to himself that it was a wasted trip after hearing there was nothing wrong.
“It’s glioblastoma. We’ll need a biopsy for the details, but the location isn’t good. The headaches and nausea were all likely due to this.”
“Ah….”
‘Is this a dream?’
He pinched his thigh hard.
A sharp pain shot through his nerves to his brain.
“So, if I get treatment… it’ll be fine, right?”
“…”
“Ah! Do I need surgery? It’s scary, but if that’s what it takes to get better, there’s no choice. When should we schedule it?”
“Surgery… yes, we’ll have to do it. Remove as much of the tumor as possible, followed by radiation therapy.”
“…Doctor?”
“Mr. Lee. I’ll do everything I can. It’s not a disease with zero chance of a cure—”
“…”
“You need to stay strong. Clinical trials are active, and there are cases of full recovery with proper management—”
The doctor couldn’t bring himself to say that glioblastoma patients had an average remaining lifespan of just over 12 months.
Maybe he thought I wouldn’t understand the English on the chart showing other patients’ statistics, or perhaps this was his way of handling terminal patients.
His consciousness felt like it was floating away from his body into the air.
“…One year.”
Raised as an orphan, Min-jun had studied relentlessly so he wouldn’t pass on the poverty and hardship he’d endured to his own children.
Outside of his part-time job hours, he forgot day and night, devoting himself utterly to studying.
That’s how he graduated college on a full scholarship, and he had only recently become a fresh graduate entering society.
‘What the hell….’
Even as the doctor prattled on, he staggered to his feet and left the examination room.
Vrrr—
As he closed the door, his fairly new smartphone—still on installments—buzzed in his pocket.
“Yes, Manager Kim.”
[Oh, Min-jun. Did things go well at the hospital? Pick up some paper clips and pens on your way back to the office. You have the company card, right?]
“…Manager Kim. I have a brain tumor.”
[Yeah, got it…. What? What did you say?]
“They say it’s hard to last more than a year…. So, could I take today off and rest at home?”
[Uh, uh… yeah. I’ll let the Director know…. Get some good rest, and we’ll talk tomorrow.]
Click.
He listened to the dial tone for a moment before shoving the phone into his pocket.
His head was spinning.
He desperately needed sleep.
‘If I sleep and wake up, it’ll surely turn out to be a dream I’ve shaken off, and I’ll feel great.’
He arrived at the parking lot somehow, not even remembering how, and pressed the button on his car key.
The old used light car he’d bought to celebrate getting a job blinked its lights in welcome.
He opened the door, got in, pulled out of the lot immediately, and turned toward home.
Screeech—
The window rolled down with a strained sound, letting in a warm breeze.
On the Olympic Expressway, he saw green sprouts budding here and there.
Outside, winter had passed, and spring was arriving.
‘Who the hell decided it’s terminal? Tell them to fuck off.’
His life, too, was emerging from a long winter into spring.
No. He had mistaken it for spring arriving like a damn fool, unaware that it was a one-year terminal countdown.
Half out of his mind, Min-jun’s hands still instinctively turned the wheel toward Garak Market, where his little nest was.
As he got onto Songpa-daero, Seoul Tower stood tall against a cloudless, bright sky.
“My dream….”
He had worked hard, dreaming of one day building a happy family and living up there.
That’s why he had chosen his tiny one-room in the Garak Market area, where he could see Seoul Tower from anywhere.
Of course, it seemed God had no intention of granting that happiness.
“Fuck…. At least give me a heads-up. I was just drinking kimchi soup alone like an idiot.”
Thud!
He muttered through gritted teeth and slammed the steering wheel hard.
His vision blurred like fog had rolled in.
He swallowed his runny nose and wiped the tears from his eyes.
“I’m going to live no matter what. I’ll get surgery, treatment, and survive for sure. Do you know how much I suffered just to stand at this starting line? Fuck…. I absolutely won’t give up.”
He drove forward, eyes blazing fiercely ahead.
That’s when Jamsil Station intersection loomed ahead.
Psssh—
The dashboard went dark, and the engine of the perfectly running car cut out.
“Huh? What? What’s going on?”
Blaaare! Honk! Honk!
At the same time, harsh horns and impact sounds erupted from ahead as the car in front slammed to a stop.
Boom!
Without even turning on hazard lights, Min-jun had no choice but to rear-end it, but the airbags deployed simultaneously, protecting him.
“Ugh…. What the hell….”
Smoke rose from the hood.
He barely came to his senses and moved his hands and feet.
Thankfully, no serious injuries.
“You bastard! What the fuck, stopping suddenly!”
“Son of a bitch? A kid who hasn’t even dried the blood on his head talking shit to an adult—don’t half-ass it!”
“Whatever! Call the insurance company!”
From the commotion outside, it seemed more than one or two cars were involved in the accident.
Following some advice that in an accident, you should grab the back of your neck first, he opened the door, got out, and groaned.
“Hey, if you’re going to stop suddenly like that….”
Grabbing the back of his neck as he looked at the intersection, Min-jun couldn’t finish his sentence.
“No way….”
Jamsil Station intersection was a tangle of all sorts of cars spewing smoke, with a dozen or so drivers who had gotten out yelling at each other.
While Min-jun stood stunned by the larger scale than expected, the door of an SUV at the center of the intersection opened, and a middle-aged man tumbled out.
The people around, busy yelling at each other, didn’t seem to care whether the man was bleeding or not.
“No, still. A person’s down.”
He rushed over quickly, laid the man bleeding from his head in the proper position, and checked his condition.
“Uncle! Are you okay?”
He was conscious, fortunately, but his condition looked critical.
“Ugh…. I’m… fine. Just my head a bit… urk!”
He grabbed the man’s trembling hand and pressed 119, but there was no ringtone at all.
‘In the middle of Seoul, why….’
Not just the phone—his smartphone was completely dead.
Sure enough, some drivers trying to call insurance were frowning and tapping their phones repeatedly.
No one’s phone worked, regardless of carrier or manufacturer.
And so… amid the surrounding chaos.
Rumble—
‘Huh? What was that just now…?’
A sudden strange sound grated on his ears.
“Uncle, hold on a sec.”
Rumble—
‘…?’
Ruuuuumble—
‘Something collapsing…?!’
The moment he thought he’d pinpointed the unidentified sound.
The ground shook violently, rattling the accident vehicles left and right.
“Ea… earthquake!”
“Wh-what…. Wha!”
“Kyaaah!”
Min-jun shouted too, shielding the injured driver.
Screams echoed from everywhere. People on sidewalks and roads grabbed nearby objects to keep from falling, crouching low.
Roadside buildings groaned low as their massive frames shook, while high-rises bent wildly above, soon spewing shattered windows and furniture outward.
“Come out! Get out!”
“Uhhh…!”
A burly man walking the sidewalk shoved an old lady aside to flee, and a desk fell on the fallen elder.
The driver next to him shielded his head with fragments of a desk soaked in the old man’s blood, while a child was trampled to death by panicked adults’ feet.
A chain of such events unfolded one after another.
Protecting the weak and elderly?
Morality?
Such soft values were useless in the face of natural disaster.
Crushed by the crowd, a pregnant woman fell, and casualties began multiplying at an absurd rate beyond her. Jamsil Station intersection plunged into chaos.
Crack.
To make matters worse, the earthquake moved faster than human consciousness, greedily gaping its maw one step ahead.
The asphalt cracked, swallowing cars and people’s legs.
Traffic lights shook wildly before snapping, sparking fires.
People struggled to escape the inferno, but their trapped legs held them fast…. Objects falling on them relentlessly claimed tragic lives.
He clutched his phone, frantically clicking emergency numbers.
“Please…! Fuck, please just work! Why won’t this thing connect!”
He needed to call for help.
Someone had to know about this crisis soon.
Already, uncountable deaths had occurred here alone, with big and small injuries scattered everywhere his eyes could see.
* * *
The quake he thought had stopped returned once more, pushing people not toward improvement but deeper into despair.
The second tremor was stronger than the first.
“A second one? Damn…. We need to run….”
Main shock.
A line from his high school earth science textbook he’d studied hard for came to mind belatedly.
Kaboom!
Starting with Seoul Tower, which had shaken fiercely but finally snapped in half, the high-rises collapsed one by one, unable to withstand the quake.
By luck, no collapsing debris fell where Min-jun stood.
That was only because he had come to the center of the intersection to rescue the driver…. Relatively safer than the roadside where things were dropping.
Dust from nearby crumbling buildings clouded visibility here too.
Amid the relentless disasters, he couldn’t get his bearings at all.
About to die in an earthquake before his illness could claim him, he was utterly powerless against the massive disaster replaying before his eyes.
The successive quakes left Min-jun unable to act.
It felt like the ground was tilting vertically, making it hard just to steady his shaking body.
That’s how powerless and frail humans were before a massive natural disaster.
The collapsing buildings devoured people’s screams like a starving demon, slaughtering them indiscriminately regardless of age or gender.