Chapter 8. Chaeyeon.
Chapter 8. Chaeyeon.
(Told from Lee Chaeyeon's point of view.)
I first met you in middle school.
I'm not sure what drew me to you, but I think the first thing I felt was pity.
You threw yourself into everything — sports, studying, whatever it was — like something was chasing you.
Are your parents that strict? Is that why you act so much more grown-up than everyone our age? That's what I used to think.
But you'd been thrown into the real world far sooner than the rest of us, so you probably didn't have a choice.
Of course, since I kept following you around, the other kids made fun of me right alongside you.
It was hard, yeah, but I couldn't leave you alone — not when you were trying to push me away by saying cruel things you didn't mean.
When the teacher told my parents about the situation, they carefully suggested I transfer schools.
But between Father's business trips and my own stubbornness, I held out to the very end — until I finally had no choice but to transfer during my crucial senior year of high school.
Once we'd both become adults, Father started stepping back from his work a little, and I got a place of my own in Seoul. The time I spent with you gradually grew.
Do you know that's when my feelings for you started turning into love?
Honestly, once you became an adult and got into a good university, you could've taken it a little easier. But you just kept pushing yourself.
I'd watched that side of you for years, so I knew better than anyone. Instead of confessing, I was too busy hiding how I felt.
And when your job was finally locked in, I was happier than anyone.
It's a dreary little fantasy, I know, but I even used to imagine us living together, just the two of us.
Then one day, a global virus appeared, and the world started falling apart.
* * * * * * * *
I'd never seen monsters like those in my life.
Well, not exactly.
Dead bodies coming back to life and devouring people — "zombies" are a pretty common subject in media, aren't they?
The first time I stepped out into the shopping district and saw it with my own eyes, I ran all the way home so hard I thought my heart would burst.
Just as I was almost there, I ran into a monster — what looked like a zombie.
When it came rushing at me with its eyes glowing blood-red, I froze up completely.
— Whack!
"You, snap out of it!!!"
He grabbed me while I was still dazed and slapped my cheeks a few times. That's when I finally came to.
"Mr. Chu... what's going on? Sniff..."
"For now, get inside and stay hidden! And if a stranger asks you to open the door, you do not open it!"
If it hadn't been for the building owner, Mr. Chu Seong-geun, I'd have died right there on the spot.
I took off my bloodstained clothes and showered, still trembling.
And before I even called my parents, I thought of you, Sihu. I tried calling, texting, sending KakaoTalk messages — every way I could reach you.
'Please... I don't care what you say, just leave me a message. Anything.'
Only then did I call my parents.
"Sweetheart, you're safe... Where are you right now?"
"Mom, I'm at home. Are you okay? Where's Dad?"
"Oh... thank goodness. I'm with your father in a safe place right now. There's more than enough here for the two of us to last several months, so don't worry too much... Hold on, your father wants me to put him on."
"Chaeyeon, are you hurt anywhere? You're alright?"
"Yes, Dad, I'm hiding in my studio apartment. I don't have much food, but I've got some."
"Chaeyeon, always plan for the worst. If this situation drags on, ration your food — eat the perishables first. You never know when the power and water might get cut off, so prepare for that too."
"You and Mom stay healthy too. I'm going to hang up now."
"Alright. Keep your phone charged at all times, just in case. And send one text message every day."
I ended the call and turned on my laptop to check every major portal site, trying to get a handle on the situation.
With the sudden outbreak — no one knowing who was a carrier — most military units were losing functionality, and the police were collapsing too.
That's how it went — assessing the situation day by day, surviving on whatever food I had left.
* * * * * * * *
I'd been holding out, keeping careful track of my food and water, when it happened.
[ The Awakening System has been updated. ]
[ The user may now use the Status Window. ]
"What on earth...?"
A hologram-like message materialized in midair.
I honestly thought I'd finally lost my mind from enduring everything.
But if this could help me survive, whatever it was... I had to try it.
"Status Window..."
No one was around to hear. I was alone. But I was so embarrassed my face still turned bright red.
<< Status Window >>
Name: Lee Chaeyeon
Class: Mage
- Stats -
[ Vitality - 15 ]
[ Strength - 10 ]
[ Agility - 10 ]
[ Mana - 20 ]
Points: 0
- Trait -
[ Novice Wizard - LV. 1 ]
- Skills -
[ Aqua LV. 1: Creates water. ]
[ Fire LV. 1: Creates fire. ]
I stared at the Status Window for a long while, thinking.
The "Stats" part probably referred to my physical abilities. And "Mana" — was that like the MP you see in games? And what on earth was a "Novice Wizard"...?
"A...qua!"
As I spoke the word, a blob of water — just a little bigger than a fist — formed at my fingertips.
'What the—? It just appeared out of nowhere.'
Without really thinking, I thrust my hand toward the window. The water coalesced, then shot outside and burst.
'So I can choose not to fire it? That means I can solve our drinking water problem... Fire will let me make fire... and my Mana dropped by 5...'
Using a skill once consumed 5 Mana, and the skill's level increased.
I still didn't know exactly how Mana recovered, but I'd have to time it carefully and figure that out.
* * * * * * * *
I kept telling myself I was in a better position than most people, and I kept surviving. But eventually, my food started running out, and the electricity and water got cut off.
A studio apartment for one person only holds so much food, no matter how well you've stocked it.
Still, from using magic here and there, I'd noticed that the more I used my skills, the higher their levels rose, and the more proficient I became at wielding them.
'Still... judging by what I've seen, I've got enough firepower to take down one or two zombies...'
Having steeled myself, I opened the door and stepped outside — and ran straight into the building owner on the first floor.
"Thank goodness you're alive... You never came out at all, so I was afraid something terrible had happened... I kept thinking, what if you'd turned into one of those things out there? That's why I couldn't bring myself to open your door and check..."
"Mr. Chu... are you an Awakened too, by any chance?"
"If you mean that superpower nonsense they keep yammering about on the news, then yeah, I suppose I am."
"I'm a Mage... What are you, Mr. Chu?"
"Hmm... I got something called a Blacksmith, but I've got no idea what I'm supposed to do with it right now. Anyway — a Mage, you said? So you're telling me you can shoot light out of your hands and all that?"
I explained exactly what I was capable of to the old man, and then I explained why I was trying to head out.
"In that case... I do have a master key, for emergencies. You're the only person who's come out of this building alive. Instead of wandering out there without a plan, how about we gather supplies from the other apartments?"
So we took the old man's advice and slowly cleared out the building, one apartment at a time.
That's when I learned something new: killing zombies gave you Points, which you could then invest into your Stats.
Naturally, my skill levels went up too. The level on my Trait also rose bit by bit, though not as fast as the skills did.
Still, thanks to the old man — who used to run the hardware store on the first floor — we were able to make at least some basic equipment to protect ourselves.
For the old man, making things seemed to raise his skill levels and Points.
As we survived day by day and pieced together all the information we'd gathered, a clearer picture emerged: over in the Seocho area, a large group of survivors was holding out. And there were also looters — people who killed others to steal their supplies.
As things stood, the government had collapsed. After the power went out, I lost contact with my parents, but they'd said they had enough to last several months, so they were probably still safe.
Thanks to using my skills constantly, I'd gone from Novice Wizard to Apprentice Wizard, and I'd even picked up skills that let me fire ice or flame in the shape of arrows.
Also, it looked like Traits capped at level 5 and skills capped at level 10.
As my Trait level rose, my Mana consumption seemed to decrease a bit, too.
And it didn't look like everyone started with the same base Stats.
Put simply, the old man — being a man — had a higher Strength stat than me, a woman.
Now we were planning to leave this building behind and head toward Seocho.
Right before we set out, I checked my status one last time.
"Status Window!"
<< Status Window >>
Name: Lee Chaeyeon
Class: Mage
- Stats -
[ Vitality - 20 ]
[ Strength - 15 ]
[ Agility - 15 ]
[ Mana - 30 ]
Points: 0
- Trait -
[ Apprentice Wizard - LV. 2 ]
- Skills -
[ Aqua LV. 10: Creates water. ]
[ Fire LV. 10: Creates fire. ]
[ Fire Arrow LV. 3: Creates arrows of fire. ]
[ Ice Arrow LV. 1: Creates arrows of ice. ]
Up until now, I'd survived by going outside and scavenging small amounts of food. But now, it was time to leave this place behind for good.
We faced some dangerous moments along the way, but thanks to how close it was, we still arrived quickly.
Life in the shelter turned out to be better than I'd expected.
The old man kept busy in his own way, crafting and repairing things. And for my part, I patrolled the nearby area, gradually thinning out zombies and bringing back food.
Two months after the virus broke out — that was when I heard the unbelievable news that someone named Cheon Sihu was looking for me.
I'd had things I wanted to say to you, things I'd rehearsed in my head for when we finally met. But when I finished my work and came back to the shelter, none of them came to mind.
And so, after about two months, we met again in a place neither of us could ever have imagined.