First Impressions
No way. Why is it always just me?
EP.8 “Uh…”
People say first impressions are incredibly important when meeting someone for the first time. In school, a single stupid thing you did in front of your friends could lock in a nickname that haunted you for years. As an adult, you start sizing someone up from the very first greeting. But I clearly hadn’t realized that this only applied when you had some mental stability or room to breathe.
The moment I set foot on the first floor, the only thing I felt was pure bewilderment.
“The atmosphere is… not great.”
Namgung Cheonho scanned the dimly lit first floor—only the emergency power was still running—and I nodded awkwardly in agreement. People always said that in an apocalypse, humans were the real danger. But now that the lid had been ripped off, it felt like that was all just cinematic exaggeration. Artistic license, if you will.
Overwhelming despair. From what I could tell, most of the building’s occupants had gathered on the first floor, yet the emptiness and silence refused to settle in my mind.
We really were the weird ones, huh.
Thanks to the Quick Understanding skill I’d acquired, I didn’t have much trouble processing the current situation. The three people beside me seemed to have been influenced by my attitude as well; they looked like they were starting to get a handle on their nerves.
“Anyway…”
I looked around, searching for anyone who still seemed relatively composed. Even if everyone’s condition was terrible, I doubted the person who had made the earlier announcement would be sitting with their face buried in their knees, muttering nonsense.
And just as I’d predicted, I spotted a single shadow walking toward us.
But…
“Hello.”
It was definitely the same voice I’d heard over the broadcast. What caught me off guard, however, was her appearance. She was a little shorter than my shoulder, with a youthful face that made her look like a student. Her hair was bleached and dyed so many times it was nearly blonde, and a torn sleeve revealed a pink flower tattoo on her shoulder that immediately drew my eye.
“I’m Han Gamin. I’m the one who did the broadcast earlier.”
Her voice still carried some life in it, as if she hadn’t screamed too much. She extended a small hand for a handshake, and I accepted it somewhat awkwardly.
“Uh… I’m Kim Siin. I work in the HR team.”
The moment I introduced myself, her gaze flicked to the sword fixed at my side. I had worn it openly on purpose to establish dominance when we first reached the first floor, but given the circumstances, it suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. My plan had been to intimidate the typical post-apocalyptic thugs that always showed up in clichés—not to threaten a kid like this.
“……This sword is a tutorial reward. I’m not a dangerous person or anything, so…”
Before I knew it, I was blurting out information she hadn’t even asked for, defending myself. Park Jocheol later told me that after I said that, I looked far more dangerous than before.
“You don’t have to worry about it. I saw you coming down the stairs, and you didn’t seem like dangerous people, so I came over to say hi.”
But my concern had been unnecessary. The reason Han Gamin had looked at the sword wasn’t because she was wary of me—she was simply curious.
“By the way, that message about defeating the monster… Was that you, ahjussi?”
A question that cut straight to the point. I nodded in confirmation and glanced back at the three people behind me.
“Technically, we all took it down together.”
“I figured.”
She nodded quietly at my answer. She fell silent, as if lost in thought. Once the conversation paused, my surroundings finally came into focus. Fire extinguisher powder was scattered everywhere from the chaos on the first floor, and countless cold, stiff corpses lay strewn about. This was the place where the most deaths had occurred—and for that same reason, the most unsettling place of all.
Yet this girl, who looked no older than twenty, didn’t seem to pay the slightest attention to the horrifying scene around her.
“So what brought you to the company?”
I asked first, since she had been staying quiet. She answered in a completely unexpected, off-the-wall way, as if it were no big deal.
“For a school assignment.”
“Sorry?”
Her unexpected reply made me react with pure bewilderment without thinking.
“I said I came for a school assignment. I may not look it, but I’m a college student. Well, a freshman, technically.”
Today—no, to be precise, yesterday—had been the new employee interview day at Sky Games. Somehow, the girl who had just turned twenty began telling us the ridiculous story of how she had fought her way into a massive corporation crawling with people, all to land an executive interview.
“Looks like we all have a lot of questions for each other. Why don’t we sit down and talk? My legs are killing me.”
With that, Han Gamin took the lead and walked toward a brighter area lit by the emergency lights.
The conversation continued for a while after that. The more she talked, the more I realized something. This kid… aside from being calm, she had a rather peculiar personality.
Tick. Tock.
Remaining Time: 01:00:00
As we talked, time flew by in the blink of an eye. Once our conversation had warmed up, people who wanted to shake off their negative emotions began gathering around us one by one.
This is getting a bit overwhelming.
Somehow, I had naturally ended up at the center of the survivors. It was probably because Han Gamin had subtly spread the rumor that we were the ones who had killed the monster. People needed a focal point right now, after all.
I decided to take this opportunity to lead the people who had gathered and move the corpses from the first-floor lobby into another room. At first, I had simply thought it would be bad for people to keep remembering what had happened here. But as the bodies were carried away one by one, the task gradually turned into a funeral to mourn the dead.
And now, back in the present.
After finishing the cleanup, I sat at the information desk and began calling people over one by one, sorting out those who might be useful for survival.
“What can you do?”
The world was wide, and there were many capable people. Especially among the employees of Sky Games—there were so many that I wondered if this many people had had their dreams stolen by career and reality.
“I trained in kendo for a long time as a kid, so I know how to handle a sword.”
“Oh, how long did you train?”
“About fifteen years.”
“That’s impressive. Once we’re done here, could you teach me a bit?”
“Sure.”
There were semi-pro athletes who had trained professionally in sports.
“I know how to make Molotov cocktails.”
“Whoa! That’s actually huge. If you need anything, I’ll try to find it.”
“Ah, then do we have potassium chlorate, nitrates, and nitroglycerin…”
“Pass.”
People with strange hobbies.
“I can modify toy guns to be lethal.”
“We don’t have anything like real guns right now. But isn’t that illegal?”
“I’m aware.”
“……”
“I can also make homemade bombs.”
“…Why?”
“It’s a hobby.”
Yeah. There were some genuinely dangerous people too.
We sorted out those with skills necessary for survival. Whether it was because it was a game company or because a successful corporation had gathered so many elites, there really were a lot of people here with diverse and bizarre hobbies.
When there was less than an hour left until the break the Helper had mentioned ended, we gathered all the remaining food in the building in one place and finished organizing the other necessary supplies.
“This looks pretty well organized, right?”
Han Gamin handed me a sheet of paper summarizing the survivors’ skills and supplies. It was so neatly organized that if I were a professor, I would have given it an A+. Looking at the clean document, I once again realized how capable this kid was.
“Miss Han Gamin?”
“Hey. That sounds so stiff and cringey. Can’t you just call me casually like the other older sisters and brothers?”
She frowned at my formal address. I roughly understood how she felt. She had still been eating school lunches just last year, so having adults speak to her with polite honorifics must have felt incredibly awkward. Once I thought that far, I decided to go along with it and switched to casual speech.
“Are you really twenty?”
“Who said I was twenty?”
“Huh? You’re not?”
“Nope.”
Her answer made my head tilt sideways. I was sure she had said she came to the company for a university assignment…?
While I was lost in pointless thoughts, Han Gamin smiled faintly in front of me. She glanced around to check if anyone was watching, then leaned in close and whispered quietly.
“Actually, I’m thirty. So when it’s just the two of us, call me noona.”
A ridiculous joke from Han Gamin. But before I could even respond, Namgung Cheonho, who had been in charge of organizing supplies, approached us holding a sheet of paper.
“Siin, the supply organization is mostly finished.”
“Thank you. Good work.”
I bowed my head slightly as I took the paper from him. But Cheonho seemed to have something on his mind and asked me cautiously.
“By the way, what exactly are you trying to do?”
A somewhat abrupt question. I didn’t quite understand what he meant and asked back.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you asked people about their specialties, but aside from the kendo guy, you haven’t given any specific instructions.”
Only then did I understand Namgung Cheonho’s question. I glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then gestured for him to come closer.
“To be honest, I don’t know either.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m not sure what I can even do with these people.”
At my words, Namgung Cheonho stared at me with his mouth agape, and Han Gamin quietly scooted over, ears perked up.
“Cheonho, do you know what people need most to feel a sense of belonging in an organization?”
“What is it?”
He looked at me with a completely clueless expression. Exactly the reaction I had expected. I smiled faintly and continued.
“They need something to do. It doesn’t even have to be meaningful—just something to pass the time.”
I raised my hand and pointed at the people who, just a few hours ago, had been crouched down trembling in fear. Now they were learning kendo with blunt weapons wrapped in duct tape. Others sat near the lobby entrance, chatting and slowly regaining the smiles they had lost. The subtle anxiety about an uncertain future had vanished from their faces as they pushed fear aside and held onto small hopes.
“Well, it depends on the person, but for some people, just the thought that they’re doing something is enough to give them psychological stability. If we hadn’t given them anything to do, I bet one or two of them would be having full-blown panic attacks right now.”
From the moment Han Gamin gathered the survivors and created the fence called ‘us,’ the first-floor lobby had become a group that required control. My prediction was that if we had left these people alone for the remaining time, someone in a panic would have caused an incident.
“Um… is it okay to tell me this?”
“It’s fine. Assistant Manager Cheonho doesn’t seem like the type to cause problems.”
“Why not?”
“You can just tell by looking.”
I recalled the situation in the break room once more. Namgung Cheonho had immediately used the coin he bought to purchase a potion and fed it to Park Jocheol. He wasn’t the kind of person who would do something stupid out of fear—he had come up with an idea even Park Jocheol himself hadn’t thought of.
“It’s almost time.”
Remaining Time: 00:05:00
The view outside the lobby’s glass windows was still peaceful. Only five minutes remained. Tension was clear on everyone’s faces. We had all eaten together a little while ago to lighten the mood, but naturally, no one had been able to eat comfortably.
“Hoo…”
At some point, the atmosphere on the first-floor lobby had begun to revolve around me. The savior who had defeated the monster and rescued everyone the moment they had given up on hope. In my opinion, it was just an exaggerated and burdensome label, but the people seemed to think differently.
“Siin, would you like to say something?”
“……You mean like a pep talk?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
At Seo Seyeong’s words, I leaned against the information desk and looked around at the people. Their eyes suddenly sparkled. But at that moment, I couldn’t deliver any pep talk or speech to them.
Quest Received.
“Huh?”
A sudden alert. I lifted my head and looked at the people. I could see those around me clearly, but I couldn’t shake this inexplicable sense of alienation.
“Is something wrong?”
Seo Seyeong’s worried voice. And when I saw Park Jocheol standing with his arms crossed, head tilted, I was certain.
A personal quest has been issued exclusively to you. Please check the quest.
It was a personal quest meant only for me. And the moment I read the end of its contents, I had no choice but to run toward the emergency stairs without offering any explanation.