From far away, starting with a crashing sound, he could hear the sound of running footsteps. Soon after, he could even hear a voice shouting loudly.
“One-three-zero-one-six―!”
Seo Sihan immediately picked up the phone and turned the dial. One, three, zero…… zero? Seo Sihan, who had been in an anxious state, hesitated for a moment. Seo Sihan was someone more familiar with English, and in Korean he had mainly used ‘yeong’ rather than ‘gong.’
At the fact that he forgot a simple word at an important moment, his mind started going even blanker. Time kept decreasing. Before he knew it, it had decreased to 30 seconds.
Just when he was panicking and hesitating even more at this, what Jeong Minha had said once while eating snacks in the living room suddenly came to mind.
—Hyung has things he gets confused about too? That’s interesting…. Then how about memorizing it like this? Gong… it’s literally shaped round like a ball (gong).
Seo Sihan put down the phone, lifted it up, and turned the dial again.
[1, 3, 0, 1, 6.]
When he properly turned the five numbers, the “beep, beep” sound from the phone stopped. Soon, a mechanical guidance voice could be heard from beyond the phone.
[Rescue request has been completed and the helicopter has arrived. Please immediately come up to the rooftop.]
At the same time, a warning alert also rang on the device screen.
[Caution: 20 seconds remaining until explosion.]
He began to clearly see Jeong Minha running from the long corridor. Jeong Minha, who had only heard the warning alert, shouted while running.
“Hyung! Did I hear it right?! So one-three-zero……!”
“I called! Just climb this ladder and it’s over!”
Seo Sihan climbed up the short ladder first and opened the ceiling door. Sunset light poured down. In the game, it was 5:36 PM on Day 5.
When he came up to the rooftop, a helicopter was standing there. All they had to do was get on it and it would be over. The countdown sound began to be heard in real time.
[10, 9, 8]
Seo Sihan sat on the rooftop and stretched his arms down below the ceiling. He could see Jeong Minha running with all his might.
[7, 6, 5]
Jeong Minha jumped onto the ladder in one go, then clasped Seo Sihan’s hand. Originally he had planned to kick off the ladder with his feet along with the force of Seo Sihan pulling, but Seo Sihan momentarily pulled hard and lifted him up in one go. Making a “huk” sound, Jeong Minha came up onto the rooftop with a surprised face.
[4, 3, 2]
The two ran toward the helicopter at full speed. However, it was a slightly insufficient distance for the remaining 1 second. Were they going to get game over right before this? After coming all the way here……!
At that moment, Jeong Minha’s gaze turned to the lower left. It wasn’t the rooftop scenery, but a button visible only on Jeong Minha’s device screen.
[Hidden Achievement Reward: Stop the world for 3 seconds]
Jeong Minha quickly used the button on the side of his wristwatch to operate the device screen and pressed the corresponding button.
[1…]
When Seo Sihan inhaled and Jeong Minha exhaled, the countdown display that seemed about to change to 0 stopped.
And soon it began operating again.
[3]
Hearing the countdown voice, Seo Sihan looked at Jeong Minha as if he’d realized. Jeong Minha nodded his head quickly and stopped his steps in front of the helicopter door.
[2]
With Jeong Minha having opened the helicopter door and entered, he quickly turned around, grabbed Seo Sihan’s arm and pulled.
[1]
At the sudden force, Seo Sihan fell almost as if collapsing on top of Jeong Minha.
[0]
Seo Sihan rolled to the side and lay down side by side next to Jeong Minha. He closed his eyes while exhaling overwhelmed breaths.
[2 rescue requesters boarding confirmed, rescue helicopter taking off.]
[Time limit over, entire area exploding starting from the north.]
Conflicting guidance voices were heard one after another. Jeong Minha was catching his breath, then spoke while laughing as if it was absurd.
“So is this an escape or a failure…. Here, ha…. Since it’s the southern end, won’t the helicopter be faster?”
Seo Sihan also laughed weakly and said.
“I think so too…. Or… let’s complain.”
At the suggestion to just throw a tantrum, Jeong Minha smiled saying “that sounds good” and raised his body. Looking through the helicopter window, he could see the terrain collapsing from the north. Even knowing it was a VR effect, it was quite a creepy landscape. But the helicopter had already risen high into the air.
“I think we’re right after all? Look at that!”
“Huh?”
Jeong Minha grabbed and shook the arm of the lying Seo Sihan. Eventually, Seo Sihan also slowly raised his body and looked out the window. From the helicopter that had risen high in the sky before they knew it, grand background music was flowing out.
At the notice that the game had ended, the two took off their helmets. The scenery outside the window instantly changed to an ending credits screen.
[―Escape Success―]
[Player 1: Seo Sihan-nim]
[Player 2: Jeong Minha-nim]
[Shortest Time Achieved: Day 5, 17:36]
[Highest Score Achieved: Player 2-nim achieved 100% accuracy rate.]
[Achieved the first hard mode clear accomplishment.]
“We’re the first to achieve hard mode? No wonder it was really hard….”
“Minha, 100 percent accuracy…. As expected, so amazing….”
The two were surprised at different points and laughed. Then at the screen that followed, they couldn’t help but be even more surprised.
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked! Eliminated the researcher and ended the zombie crisis.]
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked! Recovered a player who became a zombie back to human.]
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked! Escaped the laboratory’s secret room.]
[Since you cleared it through a hidden route different from the basic route, additional points are awarded.]
“Eh?! There was a different route?!”
“I guess we cleared it through a route the development team specially made….”
“No wonder it was really complicated!”
As soon as the ending credits finished, both of them got off the helicopter. After that, when they returned to the waiting room, not only the person in charge but also people who appeared to be development team employees were gathered together.
“Thank you for your hard work!”
“This is really… you’re the first people we’ve seen who actually cleared this! See, it’s not that we made it wrong! How was it, did you enjoy it?!”
The employees asked various questions with even more excited expressions. Seo Sihan and Jeong Minha, whose energy was all drained, sat in chairs and answered one by one while taking off their equipment. And Jeong Minha also asked what he was curious about.
“What we cleared was the hidden route? Then what’s the normal route?”
Hearing those words, the team leader adjusted his glasses, then explained excitedly with an expression as if holding back wanting to shout right away.
Listening to the explanation, this game was made by directly bringing in film directors and writers to diligently craft every single story and direction. The story was as follows:
In XX District of Seoul, there was a national research institute that specialized in biological research. That was the giant building that had been in the safe zone located at the southern end.
The researchers who were secretly conducting biological experiments one day ended up creating a virus fatal to humans. Infected humans lost their will and transformed into a zombie state, and if given electrical signals, even bodily control was possible.
The researchers who realized this situation tried to freeze the substance, but one researcher who had harbored malicious intentions toward the world stole it. In the process, he turned all the researchers into zombies too, but only one of them survived and escaped while killing zombies with a sniper rifle.
Having escaped to the western forest, he climbed up to terrain where the back of the research institute could be seen. Since the traitor researcher normally mainly used the stairs at the back of the research institute, he guessed he would be there this time too and planned to shoot him with the gun to stop this situation. He thought that if he just killed that person, there would be no one to control the zombies, so he could prevent this situation from progressing further.
However, the moment the researcher looked at the back of the research institute through the scope, he judged that with his skills, he couldn’t hit it from that distance. Since he only had one bullet remaining, the researcher who thought there was no probability of success hid the gun and note in that spot and escaped to another place. Hoping that someone else would stop him and end this situation…….
The traitor researcher controlled the zombies while simultaneously going back and forth to the laboratory through the emergency stairs at the back of the research institute, luring survivors. Using the announcement broadcast device in the research institute, he called the research institute a safe zone to make survivors come directly, then when they approached beyond a certain distance, he released zombie hordes to infect them. When more time passed, he made false broadcasts saying the area would be closed off, forcing even the remaining survivors to inevitably come.
However, zombie control also required quite a lot of strength. In the process of repeatedly releasing zombie hordes all at once, every five cycles he went to the back of the research institute to restore his stamina.
“……So, when I shot that traitor? researcher, it was exactly at that five-cycle timing?”
