Chapter 3
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 003
Chapter Title: The Day of the End (3)
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[Title ‘First Apostle Slayer’ Acquired!]
[Achievement Unlocked: Strength, Agility, and Vitality levels increased by 3.]
[You can equip the ‘Title’ in the Status Window.]
[Title slot is empty, so the acquired title is automatically equipped.]
A barrage of messages popped up in front of his eyes, but there was no time to read them closely.
All around him was a slaughterhouse crawling with bugs.
He grabbed the fallen “Bicycles Only” sign with his left hand and stood up. Then he slammed his tomahawk against it hard and shouted.
“Fuck it, I’m dying from a brain tumor anyway—let’s do this! Come on!! You bastards.”
He’d been called a weirdo his whole life, but he’d never been one for exercise.
Even so, his body was moving exactly as he willed it now.
Whether it was natural athleticism or the effect of those level-up messages, he didn’t give a damn.
If he didn’t kill those things, they’d kill him. That was the only thought in Min-jun’s head.
‘Hup!’
He lunged forward, right foot first.
In that instant, a hook shot out from sixty degrees to his left, but with half his attachment to life already cast aside, he didn’t dodge—instead, he charged straight at it.
Before the hook could even graze him, he smashed the larva’s head with the axe. Emerald-green fluid burst out like a popped water balloon, splattering everywhere.
‘…!’
As if deeming the rampaging human a threat, several larvae came charging from all sides.
Min-jun used the triangular head of the sign like a buckler to deflect two incoming ones, then swung his axe at the larva that had jammed a straw into his calf.
And just like that… one, two, and before long, ten.
He’d lost count with his fingers by the time he hit double digits.
All around him now was an endless wave of larvae.
No matter how many he killed, more kept coming.
‘This is… seriously hopeless?’
He’d been charging ahead blindly, but the larvae showed no fear, refusing to back off.
They just kept trying to jab their straw-like mouths into him from every direction.
As the heat in his head cooled, every sense screamed warnings.
The initial bravado of wiping out all the monsters had been fine, but there were just too damn many larvae.
If he didn’t find a way out, he’d really die. Pushing back the incoming ones, he desperately scanned his surroundings.
A short time passed, as fleeting as his shortened lifespan…
‘Oh?!’
Behind the larva whose head he’d just split open, an apartment building came briefly into view through a gap in the swarm—people were gathering there.
‘Even if the apartment can’t hold off the larvae, it’s gotta be better than out here with all these people holed up.’
He’d still have to carve through the larvae, but at least now he had a direction.
‘….’
Stopping meant death.
Min-jun pressed on, trampling monster corpses once more.
One, two… past ten again, smashing incoming larvae heads dozens of times until he lost track.
Finally, he reached the entrance to Jamsil Golden Apartments.
* * *
Golden Apartments sat right above Jamsil Station.
Dozens of people were already gathered there.
And while he’d been racing toward it, the crowd had only grown—no one had left.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Please open the door! Let me in!”
“Help us!”
“Please, save us.”
Just like he’d planned to do, people clustered at the apartment entrance, pleading desperately for someone to open up…
“Go somewhere else!”
“The monsters are coming! Get lost!”
“Y-yeah! Don’t bring those things here—scram!”
But through the glass walls of the building, not a single person inside looked willing to help those outside.
Far from helping, they were yelling at the pleas, telling them not to drag monsters over…
It hit him like a gut punch: he’d been way too naive about this hellish situation.
Yeah, this was human nature. To survive, he couldn’t rely on anyone else’s help.
Just like before, he had to claw his way through with his own strength alone.
“Huff… huff…”
He got it on an intellectual level, but the rising fury was hard to swallow.
Catching his breath, he pressed his back against the glass wall at the apartment entrance. By now, dozens of larvae had swarmed here too, encircling the area.
“…What, you’re not rushing in right away because there’s so many people up front? …Fuck. Thought you idiots had no brains.”
Even as he muttered at them, the larvae multiplied one by one, completely sealing off the entrance… and another quest appeared.
[Quest Arrived!]
「[Tutorial - Linked]
Difficulty: F
Clear Condition: Escape danger and reach a safe location.
Time Limit: 0.5 hours
Reward: 100 hours
Failure: Death」
‘Time limit of 30 minutes… What kind of tutorial quest pushes you to die from the start… Ah!’
He turned to look at Jamsil Station Exit 7.
‘The difficulty looks bullshit, but would the System really give a quest I can’t clear?’
Plus, the quest difficulty was F.
That had to mean there was some safe spot nearby he could reach in 30 minutes.
‘About 70 meters to there.’
The larvae blanketing the path ahead… too many to count at a glance.
But no matter how he thought about it, Jamsil Station was the only safe bet around.
‘Then…’
He needed to gather people.
It didn’t matter if no one nearby had a weapon.
Even those who’d ignored him and fled earlier were fine.
In a survival crunch, he couldn’t be picky about allies.
The more bodies together, the better the odds—obvious as that was. Min-jun stepped in front of the bewildered crowd.
Staring down the twitching antennae, he shouted to them.
“Everyone see the explanation window saying you can buy weapons at the ‘Space Market’? No weapons, you can’t kill those things. First off—”
“To buy that stuff, you gotta hand over almost all your survival time though—”
“Kill those bastards, and you get the time back. We can earn more time.”
His words eased the crowd’s agitation a bit.
“The closest decent spot from here is Jamsil Station! I’ll clear the path—follow if you wanna live!”
He finished speaking and hurled a fist-sized concrete chunk at one larva.
Empowered by his boosted strength, the rock whistled through the air.
Crack—!!
The larva’s body exploded like a burst watermelon.
That sparked it—a desperate brawl erupted.
He didn’t dodge every attack, using his shield-arm as bait.
From experience, a straw jab didn’t kill instantly.
‘They gotta drain all my survival time with those straws before I die.’
Whenever a straw or hook hit the shield, the larva’s head split in two without fail.
Some jabbed his legs or back, sucking his time, but he offset it by killing even more.
Until his whole body was caked in larva goo, broken hooks and straws lodged in his limbs…
‘….’
He alone reached Exit 7, swarming with larvae.
* * *
‘Damn… not here?’
The larvae poured from the black rock embedded in the building above, so he’d figured the “safe place” meant underground…
But staring at the teeming entrance, it sure didn’t feel safe.
Just as he thought he’d guessed wrong and turned to leave—
- Hold the line there!
- Hang on! Just a bit longer!
Voices echoed from below.
Drawn like a moth, Min-jun smashed a larva’s head with his tomahawk and descended the stairs.
At the subway entrance, he spotted about ten people locked in bloody combat with larvae.
The fight had dragged on—their clothes were soaked in green blood.
“Mister! Now!”
“Ugh… hold on! …Got it!”
While others pushed back the larvae, a middle-aged man in a shirt strained to close the fire shutter behind them.
Smart move, since they couldn’t fight all night, but if that shutter dropped now, no getting into Jamsil Station.
“Hey! Wait!”
At his urgent shout, a short-haired woman holding the line up front spotted him and yelled.
“Mister! Someone outside! Don’t close it yet!”
“What bullshit! If we don’t close now, we all die!”
“We can’t just abandon people?!”
“The rest of us are at our limit—can’t hold any longer!”
Despite her pleas, the middle-aged man hit the shutter switch.
Whirr—
It rumbled down slowly.
“You’re insane?!”
“Then what?!”
“Ten minutes ago, you were in that spot. Now you wanna ditch him?”
“This is me repaying the favor! I’ll play the bad guy! Take all the hate—just let us live!”
“Mister!!”
As they argued, the shutter kept descending steadily.
His heart raced in proportion, but larvae blanketed every step, blocking the way.
‘Shit… at this rate, the shutter’ll close first.’
The quest said death if not safe in 30 minutes.
Time to here left no other options once he’d descended.
Schluck.
Yanking the tomahawk from a larva’s head, he gauged the stair height to the basement.
‘Can I make it in one leap?’
Impossible normally, distance and height-wise.
But now, for some inexplicable reason, his physical stats were way up.
‘If I fail, I die anyway.’
No choice when standing still meant certain death.
Decision made, he acted fast.
Whoosh—
He kicked off.
His body soared through the air.
Crunch!!
Landing crushed larvae and hit the floor, jolting vibration up his legs to his skull.
‘Fuck, that hurts.’
No time to stand still though. He jammed the tomahawk handle-first into the nearly closed shutter.
Grind—
The motor whined and stuttered.
Head-first into the green-fluid floor, he shoved through.
“Get out!”
“You fuck, would you go out?!”
The shirt-clad man kicked at him, but Min-jun forced his way in with strengthened power.
In this fucked world, he wasn’t dying easy.
“Hey, you fucker, let me live too!!”
Straws grazed his half-in body. Desperately, he grabbed legs inside the shutter and yanked.
The ploy worked—they feared dragging them out if he fell.
The pushing weakened noticeably.
Bang!
Finally, Min-jun and his axe tumbled fully inside.
The straws snapped, and the shutter sealed shut.