The Challenger's Impossible Quest

While Speedrun and the System’s Swift stared so intently at the gallery, waiting for news from the slums, the clock turned back a little. We return to Cha Dohee.

“The shop… what do you mean, the shop…”

After hearing the full story from the children, Dohee’s heart remained heavy. She lay sprawled weakly across the floor.

“...”

The zombie wave that had descended on the Orange Zone this time had swallowed the defense line, the relief shelter, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slums all at once. Dohee had genuinely planned to stake her life on protecting all three locations. She felt no regret or hesitation in that choice.

“Because there was no one else but me…”

But it had been too much for her alone. As expected, she had slammed into her limit. The situation had never been hopeful.

“...”

She had essentially failed this challenge. Had the system not intervened, the Orange Zone would never have endured.

“Several residential districts must have been deleted…”

Even if she had somehow held the line, the danger zones across the Orange Zone—including the unexplored regions—would have expanded beyond control. But the system had refused to let events play out that way.

At the three bases facing absolute crisis, it had dropped meat from the sky, scattering the zombies’ attention and drawing them away.

Thanks to that, not only Dohee but the children, the soldiers, and everyone at the relief shelter had survived.

“It saved me… No… It saved all of us.”

Yet the reason Cha Dohee remained in shock was something else entirely.

“Just what… is this…”

In her hand was the post-it note the system had given the children hiding in the shelter. She had peeled it from their snack.

The note carried several lines of hurried, handwritten scrawl. It couldn’t have been machine-printed, nor was it a system window message.

“A person. It was definitely written by a human…”

The human trace in the handwriting. The desperation and urgency felt in every stroke. From it, Dohee understood. She could feel it.

“They wanted them to live… They truly wanted the children to be safe.”

She didn’t know why the note had been sent only to the children, but she was certain of one thing. The entity the users called the System—the shop—was not merely a mechanical system that reacted to conditions, nor was it some divine being performing miraculous reversals.

This being called the shop could feel emotions. It possessed them. And depending on those emotions, it could make impulsive decisions and take impulsive actions.

In other words…

“It’s a person. Just like me…”

That was why Cha Dohee clutched the post-it note, filled with pure emotion, and whispered softly.

And one more thing.

Just as a hot tear slipped from the corner of Cha Dohee’s eye and rolled down her cheek—

“Dohee! Are you all right?! I’m here!!!”

Director Kang Won-jang from the relief shelter had come looking for her.

****

“Ow, ow, ow… Grandpa… that really hurts.”

“Stay still. I need to concentrate.”

“That’s weird. You said healing with skills doesn’t hurt.”

“It’s still external wounds being repaired. Of course it hurts.”

It wasn’t her first time running around outside and receiving his treatment, but the severity this time was on another level.

“Aaaah!! Aaaaaah!! It really hurts!”

“Hey now!”

“Ughhh!! My bones! You’re breaking my bones!!”

“It’s the opposite! I’m setting them!”

“Holy crap!! Insane! I’m broken! My bones are broken aaaah!! This is crazy!!”

With no uninjured spot left on her body, she couldn’t help but scream.

“That should do it for now. Still, you shouldn’t push yourself for a while.”

“…Of course. You just told me my entire body was broken.”

“It would be strange if anything was fine. When you said you’d protect all three places, I nearly had a heart attack.”

Director Kang wiped the sweat from his shiny forehead and let out a sigh of relief.

“So. Is it true? The system really… sent that note?”

Having already heard the story from Dohee, Director Kang asked again.

“Yes. From the circumstances, it definitely only sent it to the children.”

“I can’t… I can’t believe it. I could only think a miracle had occurred.”

“I didn’t believe it at first either.”

Dohee carefully folded the post-it note and tucked it inside her coat before answering.

“Then what do you plan to do now? Will you tell the gallery?”

“Hmm…”

“That the system you all worship and blindly cling to might actually be a person?”

At Director Kang’s question while he gazed at her steadily, Dohee gave a small laugh and replied.

“No way. We still aren’t certain yet.”

“Then? Are you thinking of telling the Moderator?”

“That’s not it either.”

At Dohee’s words, the director looked completely lost, but—

“A challenge. I’m going to take on a new challenge.”

At her following answer, Director Kang spoke as if he understood exactly what she meant.

“I guess there’s no stopping you this time either.”

“What can I do? It’s a challenge only I can take. Keep it a secret from everyone, Director.”

“Understood.”

Director Kang said he still had patients left to treat at the shelter and hurried away.

“Thank you, Dohee. If it weren’t for you, we would all have been finished.”

After watching Director Kang disappear into the distance following his farewell, she steadied her breathing.

“All right. Let’s do this.”

The rewards Dohee had received for successfully completing the previous hell-mode challenge with a mere one percent success rate—thanks to the shop—were two.

One was an overwhelming stat reward.

“No wonder I felt so full of power.”

The other was—

In this ruined world where communication between regions had been completely severed, it was an extraordinary reward that defied imagination.

“This is actually insane…”

Every region and location that would have required risking her life to explore blank spaces on the map was now clearly marked.

The deleted city of Daegu, only heard about through notes, had truly become a sea of abyss. The Gangwon Province area, cut off since the early days of the apocalypse and left as unknown territory, was covered in an eerie white.

And if she simply set a destination, the optimal survival route would be calculated and displayed. It was quite literally the eyes and map of a god.

“This can’t be real…”

If it had been the usual Cha Dohee, she would have immediately tested the thrill of her new two-hundred-percent stat boost by charging into the dangerous unexplored zones or heading toward other regions. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠But that was not her goal now.

“System… where are you?”

If it was a person, it had to exist somewhere. Her vision focused on the capital region where the locations of other Awakened appeared as glowing dots. In the safest place—the Green Zone behind the massive barrier—and the relatively safer Yellow Zone, the dots clustered together like the Milky Way.

In the Orange Zone further ahead, the dots were scattered more sparsely around defense lines and bases. In the extremely dangerous Red Zone, five or six dots moved together, apparently out farming while staking their lives as usual.

“Not here…”

Soon Dohee’s gaze rose upward and fixed on the area painted in deep black.

The Black Zone. The origin of the apocalypse and land of death where not a single hunter had set foot since the early days of the collapse.

“…!”

Dohee’s eyes, which had been quietly staring at it, suddenly sparkled with curiosity and certainty. Because in the middle of the Black Zone, a single dot was shining alone.

“N-no way.”

Dohee hurriedly dug through her backpack and pulled out the old paper map she had been updating since before the apocalypse. She overlaid it on the holographic mini-map.

“…!!!”

The instant the paper map and hologram perfectly overlapped, a gasp escaped Dohee’s lips.

“Yeouido… Starflex.”

What she could tell from overlapping the two maps was clear. In the middle of the Black Zone, at Yeouido’s Starflex, a single Awakened was alive.

“...”

Dohee gently stroked the crumpled post-it note she had kept so carefully in her chest.

“It’s you… You’re the one who… saved us…”

She didn’t even know if the person was a man or a woman, or what kind of life they had lived.

“How lonely you must have been…”

But one thing she felt with painful clarity: that person had endured terrible solitude, watching over them alone and helping them.

“Was receiving this… so I could meet you?”

What kind of twist of fate was this?

“Wait for me.”

She brought up her trait window in the air.

After the familiar message, Dohee entered her quest.

Tap.

“As expected…”

After a brief wait, the message that appeared was shocking.

After reading the message, Cha Dohee murmured.

Even after receiving an overwhelming ability reward, the death quest still showed a zero percent success rate. She brushed herself off, stood up, and looked ahead.

“The dopamine rush when I succeed is going to be insane…”

Beyond the ruins of the slums in the distance, the sun was rising to brighten the dawn. An astonishingly beautiful sight.

“Someday… someday I will find you…”

The nightmarish night had passed. A new day was beginning.

“I’ll definitely meet you and say thank you in person. And…”

After gazing at the scenery for a moment, Dohee turned her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes to the system window and whispered.

“Yes!!!!”

Without the slightest hesitation, she made her decision and took her first step.

Pop—!

Dohee’s figure vanished in an instant, already racing through the air.

“This challenge is seriously going to kill meeeeeee!!!!!”

At the same time, she posted on the gallery.

****

Reading Speedrun’s post that had received enough upvotes to reach the concept board, I muttered.

“Nice. Thank goodness.”

It looked like the children in the slums had survived safely too. Good thing Speedrun arrived in time.

Reading the posts that followed, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness.”

I scrolled through the flood of user posts with a smile, then paused.

“Hmm?”

One of Speedrun’s posts, buried quietly without receiving any attention, caught my eye.

It was the post where Speedrun declared she would find me. It had been buried under the constant stream of new posts without any upvotes, but—

“…Friend, huh…”

I felt something stir.

“Hmm. There’s definitely something here…”

She wants to come find me. I’m honestly touched. This time I only helped because a BBIP customer requested it. Just as my eyes were about to grow misty—

“Nope.”

This isn’t like me. Getting emotional is beneath an unemployed high-school-grad troll.

“Come find me!!! Speedrun!”

I suddenly shouted.

“I left all the swiftness in the world right here!! In the Black Zone!!!”

Even though I said it like that, I knew even this seemingly powerful Speedrun would find it impossible.

“Because this is the Black Zone.”

I know what this place is. And having grown used to it, it actually feels more comfortable now. Still, there’s no need to refuse goodwill.

“Heh heh.”

After that simple exchange, I turned my gaze away.

“…Looks like now’s the perfect time.”

I hammered the upgrade button repeatedly and posted the announcement at the same time.

“Twenty times Kaioken!!!!!”

The gallery was already on fire from the meat bait, and now a whole Bremen musicians’ orchestra had formed…

I poured gasoline on the flames and muttered.

“Time to get some sleep.”

I sat down on a chair in the disaster prevention room and peacefully drifted off.