2―4. Cable Car
Seo Sihan got on the cable car first to check its safety, then called Jeong Minha.
“There’s a safety device with chain mesh at the bottom, but… since there are no windows, it’s dangerous either way. Don’t push yourself to shoot.”
“Okay!”
Creeeeak— The cable car carrying the two began to move, making old metallic sounds. Accordingly, the zombies scattered on the streets reacted immediately. Each one twisting their limbs, they chased after the cable car.
“Huk, I didn’t expect the zombies to build towers with each other?!”
The zombies that gathered at the sound became entangled with each other, forming a tower shape. Despite being at a high position, when the zombies approached closely, Jeong Minha hurriedly shot. Since the distance was short, a scope wasn’t necessary.
Hitting all of them, the centipede-like tangled zombies disappeared one by one. When Jeong Minha shot five rounds, Seo Sihan would change the bullets next to him. When the tower zombies disappeared and only the zombies scattered on the streets remained, from then on he shot while looking through the scope.
“Ah….”
However, shooting while looking through the scope took more time to hit the zombies running in a scattered state. Eventually, Jeong Minha removed the scope and aimed the gun again.
“Can you see without that? Isn’t it too far?”
From Seo Sihan’s perspective, the zombie heads in the air looked like multiple dots.
“I can see well.”
Answering calmly, Jeong Minha adjusted his VR helmet and fired headshots at the zombies on the ground. When he got to the point of shooting almost vertically, Seo Sihan held Jeong Minha’s body with both arms as he seemed about to fall.
“Ah, my eyes sting.”
Though not visible because it was covered by the helmet, Jeong Minha was continuing to shoot zombies with both eyes wide open without even blinking. Eventually, while he paused briefly because his eyes stung, Seo Sihan changed the bullets and then held his body with both arms again.
“……!”
The posture was almost like a back hug, so Jeong Minha became newly embarrassed. He hadn’t realized until just now because he was concentrating on shooting, but they were in such close contact? Seo Sihan, who had been tightly holding Jeong Minha’s body with both arms, finally even leaned his head in, making complete contact. Isn’t this not holding me so I don’t fall but just interfering?!
Jeong Minha calmed his pounding heart while continuing to shoot, then froze because of a low voice that suddenly could be heard. Hearing Seo Sihan’s words that followed, he almost dropped the gun.
“Minha-ya… you’re so cool I’m falling for you every moment….”
“……!!”
Being embraced from behind and whispering like that, Jeong Minha screamed internally—whether it was a cheer or a scream—and shot even more enthusiastically. Shooting with his eyes absolutely on fire, the zombies decreased at a faster pace.
Despite the situation where he had to shoot with the naked eye while moving himself at the dots moving on the ground, Jeong Minha didn’t make a single mistake. All of them were perfect headshot bulls-eyes.
How slow must the cable car have been—half a day had already passed. In real terms, they had been doing aerial shooting for 30 minutes.
When they arrived at the mountain destination, only a few remained, so Seo Sihan swept them away with the axe. Seo Sihan thought Jeong Minha was amazing for shooting perfect scores in any situation, but from Jeong Minha’s perspective, killing those disgusting things right before his eyes seemed even more amazing.
When walking through the mountain, it was already the middle of the night. Seeing the flashlight flickering, it seemed like it wouldn’t last long.
“But why did they set this as the destination? I can’t even tell if we’re going the right way because of the trees.”
“Looking at the compass, it’s right though….”
The compass given as an initial item was held by Seo Sihan. The safe zone was to the south, and the compass was currently pointing south. The direction was right, but somehow the situation itself had an unavoidable feeling of being stranded.
“Is there no shelter here? There really is nothing but forest. We’re out of bullets now too….”
Jeong Minha, who had cleanly emptied the ammunition in the cable car earlier, trudged along holding only an empty gun.
Walking about 10 more minutes like that, a small campsite came into view. The two let out sighs of relief and entered the campsite.
Seo Sihan sat sprawled on a chair drinking bottled water and resting, while Jeong Minha, who had been searching every nook and cranny of the surroundings, fell into shock.
“Hyung…. This is bad.”
“Why…?”
Seo Sihan caught his breath while turning his head toward Jeong Minha. Jeong Minha flailed his arms while speaking with a horrified face.
“Th-there’s nothing to eat at all. This doesn’t make sense!”
“Uh…. This is just a small campsite so that’s probably why? I think I heard that there’s only food in the initial shelter and from then on you have to find it yourself.”
Hearing Seo Sihan’s explanation, Jeong Minha finally plopped down onto the floor.
“Then you’re saying to starve now? After working for days?!”
“Calm down, Minha-ya…. In reality only three hours have passed for us….”
“Aren’t you hungry, hyung? After running around like this?”
“For me, as long as I have water… I’m only a little hungry?”
“I feel like I’m dying of hunger right now….”
“This won’t do. Should we go out now?”
When Jeong Minha made groaning sounds, Seo Sihan hurriedly tried to take off his helmet. Then Jeong Minha jumped up and stopped him.
“Hyung, are you really struggling right now?”
“Huh? Not me, but you Minha….”
“I’m fine. I was just saying it. As for food, we can just go out and find a restaurant or convenience store. That’s the fun of it.”
Because Jeong Minha suddenly changed his words and turned his head, Seo Sihan eventually got up from his seat and approached Jeong Minha.
“Minha-ya.”
“Yes?”
“Just take it off.”
“Uwot.”
Seo Sihan immediately reached out and lifted Jeong Minha’s helmet. Unlike when only the lower face could be seen, Jeong Minha’s breathless face was fully revealed. His eyes were also in a tense state.
Seo Sihan sighed and took off his own helmet too. The dark forest instantly transformed into a mechanical forest under soft lighting.
“Ah…. All the tension is gone.”
“That’s why I did it. You’ve been chased around continuously for almost three hours, you need to rest…. Originally you’re supposed to rest every hour, but we kept going because you said you were fine….”
“Yes….”
It was like becoming an elementary school student getting scolded for playing games too long. Jeong Minha made a pitiful expression while looking up at Seo Sihan.
Seeing Jeong Minha catching his breath with his hair roughly swept back while sweating, Seo Sihan closed his mouth. ‘…Did it have to be a helmet form? Is it not okay for the face to be visible?’ It was too regrettable that he couldn’t see his face while shooting until now. Of course, the head needed to be covered for safety, and an eye mask form was necessary to see the VR screen. Then couldn’t it recognize and show the other person’s face from when viewing in VR? Seo Sihan thought to himself something that would make the development team horrified if they heard it.
After that, while resting in reality, Seo Sihan urged him to at least eat, but Jeong Minha requested just some protein. It was because he really wanted to find and eat real food in the game world himself.
Therefore, after drinking as requested, Jeong Minha, who had regained some energy with the protein supplement, asked about something he suddenly remembered.
“By the way hyung, last time you said you get motion sickness when riding in the back seat of a car. Is this okay?”
“…Uh, yeah. It’s okay.”
Realizing he had lied before to make Jeong Minha comfortable, Seo Sihan made excuses as much as possible. ‘This honestly isn’t like viewing a completely different game world either, it’s just graphics applied to real terrain… It feels like wearing glasses….’
At Seo Sihan’s explanation, Jeong Minha was convinced too. ‘Well, I’ve never played a game like this either. For VR, the set itself is already complete from the start? Your company is really so great, hyung.’ When Jeong Minha praised him, Seo Sihan resolved to give more support to the VR department in the future.
“Ah, and the most important thing is stamina…. Hyung, aren’t you tired?”
“I was just sitting still in the cable car…. Are you okay, Minha?”
“I’m fine. I can do it until evening.”
“……That’s a bit….”
When Seo Sihan averted his gaze, Jeong Minha smiled and answered that he’d finish quickly. Then did that mean they would finish it today rather than doing it over several days after all? If they succeeded without dropping out in the middle, it was confirmed to take about 5 hours. Seo Sihan suppressed his desire to go home and smiled back.
After resting for about 15 minutes like that, the two put on their helmets again.
Seo Sihan just wanted to lie down on the bed and rest quickly, but at the same time he also wanted to keep watching Jeong Minha’s active performance, so he endured. Jeong Minha also got fired up saying he would definitely escape today.
“If you want, you can escape right now though….”
“Ah, I told you not to say things that break immersion!”
“Sorry….”
The game that restarted after the pause was released was the morning of Day 4. It was the third hour of play time.
