I Became a Game Character in the Apocalypse – Chapter 1 Part 1

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T/N: Hi There! Note, I’m not picking this up. Someone already has ~57 chapters translated for this. I was just bored and wanted to try translating a zombie novel lol. Enjoy?

#Prologue

—Mission Clear.

“Finally!”

The game I invested a whole year into, starting from the summer of my 20th, into the summer of my 21st.

Last Ark.

It was a zombie game that boasted extreme difficulty, and it was considered one of the most difficult roguelike games of all time. ^[1]

I’ve played all sorts of zombie games, but I’ve never found one so detestable.

The further you go, the stronger the zombies and mutants become, and all sorts of abominations start to appear.

It was to the point where you start asking yourself if this is a zombie game or a giant monster game.

Last Ark didn’t even have a checkpoint system, so if you died once, you had to start all over from the beginning.

Even Koreans, who are said to be second to none in ‘time attack’, clicked their tongues and gave up on this game. ^[2]

But who am I?

I am Park Jaehyung, the man who has to see things through to the end once I start!

After countless plays, I got my name into the Hall of Fame, just one year after the game’s release.

—Player: Park Jaehyung

—Character: Adam White

As the game’s ending cinematic began, the main characters of the game came together as a group.

A total of five main characters.

Gabriel, who could see through fog. Rachel, who could heal. Denny, who could read minds. Rose, who could understand all the equipment.

And then there was Adam, also known as the trash.

Yeah, everyone called him trash but I insisted on playing Adam.

After killing a certain amount of zombies, Adam gets a physical enhancement ticket.

“And that’s the irony.”

The essence of the game was survival from zombies.

When it comes to survival, the better your physical abilities, the better off you are.

The other characters depended heavily on weapons, so they inevitably became weaker as the episodes progressed.

On the other hand, Adam had an insanely difficult start, but if he could grow to a stable point without dying, he could become the strongest character of them all.

I say that but it took 128 deaths and 6 months to get Adam to a stable point.

I watched the game’s outro with my arms crossed.

The video ended with the five main characters entering the Ark.

I was so focused on clearing the game that I skipped the end-of-episode clips and skipped through the entire story.

Thanks to that, everything I knew about the game’s setting came from the quests.

The setting was that a mysterious fog covered the world, and a virus in the fog infected humans, causing zombies to appear.

Survivors who were immune to the virus moved to a safe zone called the ‘Ark’ to take refuge, and the game depicted the story of Gabriel, Rachel, Denny, Rose, and Adam, who had special abilities.

“Whoever made this must be insane.”

At first, I thought it was ridiculous because it was a one-person game, but it boasted amazing detail.

The character’s stats for the day changed depending on their strength, stamina, emotions, mental power, fatigue, etc.

In a world where survival was a struggle, I had to make sure he was eating well, then I had to make sure he was chatting with his companions or playing minigames so that he wouldn’t get depressed.

And then there was that stupid cold he kept catching, then he would die like a sunfish.

If the balance is even slightly disturbed, the character would become extremely anxious.

And when that happened, they would either spiral out of control, kill their companions, or commit suicide.

—Producer: GOD

The producer’s name was listed at the end of the video.

They put their name as ‘God’ of all things.

Yeah, I admit the game has amazing detail, but they were bragging too much.

Last Ark had approximately 900,000 Korean users.

Many people enjoyed the game when it first came out, but a lot of them gave up and switched to other games because of the extreme difficulty.

The only people playing it now were people like me who wanted to see the game’s ending before they die so Last Ark was a ‘rotten’ game now.

In fact, if you log on to the Last Ark’s ‘Inven’, the last post is from 3 months ago.^[3]

“It’s been fun playing you for a year and you’ve disgusted me for a whole year too.”

That was my one-line review of the game.

It was refreshing but it also felt bittersweet.

Well, I should be satisfied with the fact that I saw the ending of a game that no one else in the world has cleared.

I stretched and got up from my seat.

I was in a dark 4-person dorm room.

The ‘biggest hyung’, the 4th year student went to bed early, while the 3rd year and freshman applied for leave and went to a PC cafe.

I had a 9 o’clock class tomorrow, so I better go to bed before it got too late.

I lay down on the bed and thought about my schedule for tomorrow.

Actually, you can’t even call it a schedule.

After my 9am and 3pm class, I planned go to the club room to prepare for my final exam.

With a blissful smile on my face, I fell into a deep sleep.

Bzzzt—bzzt—.

Completely unaware.

Bzzzzt—crackle—.

Unable to imagine that my current bliss would turn into despair.

Ping!

—All episodes have been cleared.

—Beta test is now complete.

—Restarting the game.

—Resetting difficulty.

—New difficulty: Hell

—First episode: Safe House

An unknown amount of time flew by.

I woke up to the sound of rustling.

I cracked my eyes half-open and looked around. The view outside the window had descended into a pitch-black darkness.

And the ‘biggest hyung, the 4th year student was sitting beside my bed.

“B-Byungcheol hyung, what are you doi…”

“Shh.”

Jang Byungcheol abruptly covered my mouth.

The only thing that caught my eye was his green shirt, which looked like it was yellowing around the collar.

When is he planning to change that thing…?

The moment I started frowning because of Jang Byungcheol’s inexplicable behavior…

Guoooooo…gurgugu!

A strange sound rippled in from the hallway.

Who’s making so much noise this late in the night?

I raised a brow and started to stand, then I felt Jang Byungcheol grab my arm.

“Don’t move.”

“I’m just going to tell the floor manager and come back.”

“Don’t bother, just sit down.”

When I tilted my head because his behavior was getting even more baffling, Byungcheol licked his chapped lips and spoke.

“The floor manager’s the one making that sound.”

“What? Then we should tell the housemaster. What kind of floor manager makes so much noise in the middle of the night…”

“Haa…Follow me.”

Jang Byungcheol grabbed my arm and took me to the door.

I pressed my eyes to the glass pane at the top of the door and looked down in the hallway.

And I saw a sight that made me doubt my eyes.

The floor manager was bleeding.

He was sitting on the floor, soaking his hands in the blood flowing from his own body.

Seeing that, I instinctively tried to open the door, and Jang Byungcheol hurriedly twisted my arm to stop me.

I’m not sure if it was because he was a police administration major or because he had learned judo before, but his restraining skill was top-notch. I had to frown at the pain in my shoulder and arm.

“Fudge…Hyung, my arm—.”

“Shh.”

Jang Byungcheol glanced at the door and remained still.

Guhk—gurgle—kaak.

The eerie groaning continued echoing through the hallway then the sound of footsteps followed.

The sound of blood-soaked feet stepping onto the cold floor.

Swallowing dryly, I turned to Jang Byungcheol.

“Hyung, let’s call 119 first.” ^[4]

“They’re not answering.”

“Huh?”

“Come here.”

Jang Byungcheol grabbed my arm and pulled me to the terrace.

“Look.”

I looked down in the direction Jang Byungcheol pointed to and saw a thick fog covering the sky and the ground.

The school I went to was located in a high-altitude neighborhood in a rural area, so it was always foggy every morning.

The fog was definitely thicker than usual, which surprised me, but it wasn’t enough to make me panic.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“You know the floor manager in the hallway right now? He came in after smoking a cigarette on the first floor then he suddenly started vomiting blood.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know anything either. At first, I panicked, and I wanted to ask the floor manager if he was okay. But then suddenly…”

Jang Byungcheol frowned and bit his lower lip.

Then he showed me the words that appeared on his phone screen.

[Out of Service Area]

There was no way to contact anyone.

When I checked my phone on the desk, it showed the same message.

How’s that even possible?

Out of service in 21st century South Korea.

While I fiddled with my phone with bewilderment on my face, Jang Byungcheol continued speaking with a complicated look on his face.

“Someone’s turned it off on purpose. This can’t just happen out of nowhere.”

“Can you even cut power to a cell tower? Wait, you said you called 119 earlier.”

“That was the last time. It’s been like this for an hour.”

“What about the news? Have they said anything?”

“I haven’t heard anything since the emergency alert text an hour ago.”

“What did it say?”

“Just that there’s an unknown fog spreading and not to come out of the house.”

An unknown fog?

Suddenly, my mind flew to the setting of the Last Ark that I played before going to bed.

This was…exactly like the Last Ark’s setting.

I scratched my head and asked.

“Then what about the floor manager? If we leave him there like that, he’ll die.”

Jang Byungcheol rubbed his face and covered his mouth with his right hand. Then, with a troubled expression, he continued in a low voice.

“I think he might already be dead.”

“Huh?”

“The kid in the room next door came out and both of us were trying to help the floor manager. But then the floor manager suddenly attacked the kid.”

“Come on, there’s no way.”

I snorted, thinking he was joking.

But when the next words came out of Jang Byungcheol’s mouth, I couldn’t help but doubt my ears.

“Floor manager bit the kid’s arm. He bit him so hard that the flesh came off. Do you think that’s possible if he’s in his right mind?”

Confusion flickered in Jang Byungcheol’s eyes.

His trembling arms told me just how shocked he was at the situation.

When I didn’t respond, Jang Byungcheol spoke again, sounding unconfident.

“I don’t know how to explain it…haven’t you seen those scenes, like in the movies?”

“You mean… zo, zombies?”

Instead of answering, Jang Byungcheol gave a slow nod.

Am I supposed to believe that?

Someone turned into a zombie because of some fog that suddenly appeared?

I couldn’t bring myself to believe it, so I asked with somewhat doubtful tone.

“Does that even make sense? Then what, the kid who got bit changed into a zombie too?”

“He changed.”

“…What?”

“The kid. After he got bitten by the floor manager, about 20 minutes later, he turned just like him.”

I didn’t expect him to actually say ‘he changed’.

My mouth opened and closed like a fish then I asked.

“W-Where is that kid now?”

“I don’t know. Damn it, he suddenly jumped at me, so I pushed him into the break room.”

The moment I heard Jang Byungcheol’s words, I reflexively took a step back.

I opened my eyes wide, and I scanned him from head to toe. Seeing that, Jang Byungcheol took off all his clothes and stripped down to his underwear.

“Look. I’m fine. I didn’t get bitten.”

“…”

“You and I are the only ones who know what’s going on right now.”

Translator’s Corner:

^[1] Roguelike games are a type of RPG that usually have randomized dungeons (usually auto generated), dungeon crawling, perma-death mechanics, etc. (Source: Wikipedia)

^[2]Time attack is a game mode where the goal is to complete a level/task as quickly as possible. Essentially, you’re fighting against time.

^[3] ‘Inven’ is a gaming forum in Korea. Sometimes called the Korean Reddit (If you want to check it out: https://www.inven.co.kr)

^[4] ‘119’ is the Korean ‘911’ aka their emergency line.

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