Chapter 21

I snapped back to my senses.

It was because of the sharp sound coming from Je Hyuno.

His metallic hand moved slowly, waiting for my answer.

I said what I had to say.

“…We can clear the Trial.”

Je Hyuno tilted his head slightly.

Apparently, he found it strange that I was still saying it with such confidence.

Just as he suspected, there was a high chance my words would end up being a lie.

But what did it matter?

By the time it was proven I was wrong, we’d all probably have turned into zombies.

Well, everyone except Je Hyuno.

He couldn’t be infected in Dead Zone Delivery.

For a moment, I imagined Je Hyuno tearing me apart after I had become a zombie.

‘They say zombies don’t feel pain, so I guess it wouldn’t be that bad.’

That helped calm me down a little.

I started thinking about the problem again from the beginning.

I had considered the possibility that the researcher responsible for developing the vaccine might be injured.

However, unlike Mo Haein, I had never thought he might have died.

Because the Trials generally followed the structure of the game.

My theory about the Trials was as follows.

The Trials are virtual spaces created from the World Archive games that I played.

Every game has a minimum structure necessary for gameplay to progress.

Based on those premises, I could only reach one conclusion.

The Trials also possess a minimum structure necessary for them to function.

During the game, it was entirely possible for the researcher to die after encountering the player.

‘That was a Bad Ending.’

But for the researcher responsible for developing the vaccine to die before even meeting the player completely broke the game’s structure.

It would be the same as Smiley, the NPC from HAZPAC, dying on his own.

In other words, it was an impossible situation.

It was also unlikely that Je Hyuno had found the researcher first.

He knew the conditions for clearing the Trial, so he had no reason to interfere with the researcher.

He would have preferred spending that time killing another zombie.

Then another question crossed my mind.

Je Hyuno hated the Trials.

He also hated staying inside them for too long, so he always tried to clear them as quickly as possible.

And yet.

Even though the current situation seemed to make clearing the Trial impossible.

Je Hyuno was far too calm.

Knowing his personality, he should have been causing some kind of disaster.

Instead, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

‘Je Hyuno can’t know something that I don’t.’

It was impossible to understand how that perfectly sane madman thought.

I set that question aside for later.

I looked at the researcher who had turned into a zombie again.

Then I noticed something I had overlooked before.

The zombie kept relentlessly smashing its head against the glass door.

And it was doing so while completely ignoring us, even though Je Hyuno and I were talking right beside it.

That could only mean one thing.

It had already locked onto a target.

I looked through the other side of the door.

At first, the darkness had prevented me from seeing her.

But there she was.

A woman covered her mouth with both hands as she cried silently.

With tear-filled eyes, she looked at me while trembling.

She looked to be about my age.

She was wearing a researcher’s lab coat.

And hanging from her neck was an ID card.

Lee Gaon

She was the indispensable condition for achieving the True Ending.

The researcher’s younger sister.

Now I finally understood the entire situation.

The True Ending of Dead Zone Delivery consisted of developing the vaccine.

All the other endings simply ended with discovering the clues needed to create it.

While developing the vaccine with the player’s help, the sole surviving researcher constantly worried about his sister.

Throughout the process, he talked about her all the time.

He said she worked as a research intern at the laboratory.

That the two of them had lost their parents at a very young age.

And that he had practically raised her by himself.

Little stories like that.

However.

He never gave the player a quest to search for her.

And that was precisely the trap.

The player had to interpret those conversations as clues and find his sister on their own.

It was a hidden quest.

If you managed to find her alive, you could access the True Ending route.

But if the sister had died or become a zombie, only a normal ending was possible.

Since Je Hyuno had been inside Dead Zone Delivery for quite some time, I had been worried that she might have died during that time.

But the reality was different.

The one who ended up turning into a zombie was the researcher himself.

Most likely, after Je Hyuno exterminated the zombies in the laboratory, the researcher went out to look for his sister.

During that search, he must have reunited with the other surviving researchers as well.

Eventually, he managed to find her.

But afterward, he was bitten by a zombie, and the other researchers abandoned him.

‘And they probably abandoned his sister too, because they thought she was no longer of any use.’

After being bitten and left alone with her, the researcher had to make a decision.

The result of that decision was the exact scene before me.

He pushed his sister into the laboratory director’s office, the safest place in the entire building and, at the same time, close enough to the outside to respond to any situation.

Then he tied up his own hands and feet.

And gagged himself.

He probably couldn’t bring himself to ask his own sister to kill him.

It was too cruel a request.

“Grrr…”

The zombie, its head completely mangled from repeatedly smashing it, hurled itself against the glass door once more.

I suddenly remembered something the researcher had told me in the game.

“Mr. Gunbam, my little sister is really impossible. She doesn’t even call me ‘Brother’; she always calls me by my name. And whenever she gets angry, the first thing she does is shout, ‘Hey!’ at me.”

“She only became an intern at the laboratory because of me if it hadn’t been for me, at least she would have been working somewhere much safer.”

“It’s much smarter than I am. In fact, I already asked for its autograph in advance.”

“I only hope it stays alive. That it can hold on at least until it finishes making the vaccine…”

Naturally, I thought we could still reach the Happy Ending, just like in the game.

For a moment, I wished I could start over.

But that was impossible.

There wasn’t enough time to re-enter the Trial, and besides, if we cleared it by another method, Mo Haein, being infected, would be executed.

‘I wish this were just a game.’

Then I would simply leave and start over from the beginning.

As I thought about something impossible, a chill ran down my spine.

Je Hyuno, who was standing beside me, had raised his metallic hand to finish off the zombie.

“Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno, please wait a moment.”

I stepped in front of him.

Blocking the young woman’s view of us, I said,

“That researcher is an important NPC for clearing the Trial. She’s the sister of the researcher who’s supposed to develop the vaccine.”

Looking at my reflection in his black goggles, I continued.

“Even if he’s a zombie now, if you kill her brother in front of her, she might become hostile toward us.”

Fortunately, Je Hyuno listened to me.

Not because he particularly trusted my judgment, but because he seemed curious to see how I would resolve the situation.

With his help, I tied up the researcher who had become a zombie even more securely.

Then I knocked on the reinforced glass door.

Knock. Knock.

The young woman’s emaciated body flinched.

“We’re soldiers. We’ve come to help you. Please open the door.”

But she was still suspicious.

After hesitating for a few moments, I spoke a name.

“…I know Mr. Lee Seon.”

The name of the researcher who had become a zombie.

The name of her brother.

The moment she heard his name, Lee Gaon’s expression changed completely.

She immediately stood up and unlocked the safety latch on the door.

I opened the glass door.

A completely exhausted, trembling voice escaped through the opening.

“Y-You know… my brother? H-How…? My brother… didn’t have any friends…”

“We met through work some time ago and talked for a little while.”

“Ah…”

I helped Lee Gaon out.

Then I took a drink and a chocolate bar out of my backpack and handed them to her.

“Please wait over there for a moment.”

I sent her to a safe corner.

Then I locked the researcher who had become a zombie inside the director’s office.

Afterward, I piled several pieces of furniture in front of the reinforced door.

The office was extremely sturdy.

As long as no one removed the barricade from the outside, he wouldn’t be able to get out.

“Sniff… Hic…”

Meanwhile, Lee Gaon cried as she devoured the chocolate bar and drank the beverage.

She must have remained locked in there completely alone for a very long time.

It was incredible that she had managed to endure it.

“Thank you very much…”

She thanked me.

Then she tried to thank Je Hyuno as well.

But the moment she saw his metallic hand, fear left her completely frozen.

Looking at Je Hyuno, I understood exactly how she felt.

^ ^

Even hiding the metallic hand didn’t improve the situation very much.

The emoticon goggles.

The intimidating combat uniform.

And the gas mask.

Even I would avoid crossing paths with someone dressed like that on the street.

…To be honest, even now I wanted to keep my distance from him.

I simply couldn’t afford to.

“Could you tell us what happened here?”

The moment she heard my question, Lee Gaon broke into tears again.

Fresh tears flowed over the ones that had already dried.

I offered her another bag of gummy candies.

As she ate them between sobs, she began to speak.

“My brother… h-hic… my brother…”

Her explanation was exactly what I had expected.

The surviving researchers had exploited Lee Seon as much as possible.

Using the excuse that they would allow his sister, merely an intern, to remain sheltered inside a restricted laboratory, they constantly sent him into the most dangerous areas.

Lee Seon was forced to go out again and again to gather food and supplies.

And the moment he was bitten by a zombie.

They immediately abandoned both him and his sister.

Lee Gaon did everything she could to save her brother.

The researcher Mo Haein had encountered was none other than her.

She had gone all the way to Yellow Zone in search of medical supplies.

But when she returned, Lee Seon’s zombification had already become irreversible.

After failing again and again.

She had no choice but to watch her brother transform into a zombie before her very eyes.

I waited until she had calmed down a little before asking another question.

“Did Mr. Lee Seon ever tell you anything about the vaccine?”

“……”

“I know this is an extremely difficult moment, but…”

“I don’t know!”

Lee Gaon suddenly raised her voice.

She immediately realized what she had done and apologized.

“I’m sorry… But I really don’t know.”

“I understand.”

“Even if I did… what good would it do?”

The tears she had barely managed to hold back filled her eyes once more.

“My brother has already become a zombie.”

I looked at her silently.

Countless thoughts crossed my mind.

Then I remembered the mission I had seen at the television station.

‘Media literacy…’

The ability to distinguish whether information is reliable or not.

It didn’t take me long to reach a conclusion.

“Miss Lee Gaon.”

“Sniff… Y-Yes?”

“You know how to make the vaccine, don’t you?”

A deep silence filled the room.

Even Je Hyuno, who had been watching as though none of this concerned him, leaned forward slightly with interest.

Lee Gaon answered, completely bewildered.

“I really don’t know… Besides, I’m not even an official researcher. I’m just an intern…”

I interrupted her.

“You do know.”

What had struck me as strange was that she had gone all the way to Yellow Zone to obtain medical supplies.

The laboratory specialized in viruses.

It had top-of-the-line medical equipment.

There was no reason to risk her life by going all the way to Yellow Zone.

There was only one explanation.

“You went there to get the materials needed to make the vaccine.”

Lee Gaon’s face turned pale.

I opened the quest again.

◆ Main Quest: Explore the laboratory and find the survivor capable of developing the vaccine.

The quest already made it clear.

I had to find the person who could develop the vaccine.

It didn’t matter whether they were a researcher or an intern.

As long as they were capable of developing the vaccine, they fulfilled the condition.

At that moment, a ding sounded.

The system window updated.

You have found the survivor capable of developing the vaccine!

The window confirmed that my deduction was correct.

‘You could’ve told me sooner.’

It had waited until I reached the conclusion on my own before congratulating me as if I had just solved a puzzle.

More than a system window.

It felt like nothing more than a notification.

You.

I closed the window before it could display another message.

Then I looked at Lee Gaon.

She didn’t say a single word.

She simply remained deathly pale, her fists clenched tightly.

She had the expression of someone who wouldn’t reveal a single thing about the vaccine even with a knife at her throat.

But I had no intention of threatening her.

I simply asked a question.

“Aren’t you angry? Your brother ended up turning into a zombie.”

“……”

Lee Gaon, who had been staring at the floor, slowly raised her head.

“I’ll help you get your revenge.”

Her pupils trembled.

“…How?”

There was fear in her voice.

It was obvious that the other researchers had treated her quite badly.

Since she seemed to regard those surviving researchers as extremely dangerous people, I extended my hand and pointed beside me.

She followed my gesture with her eyes.

And slowly parted her lips.

Standing there was someone capable of dealing with them even if, instead of two researchers, two entire companies of fully armed soldiers showed up.

Je Hyuno.

“I’ll do whatever you want with them. Kill them, spare them, or turn them into zombies just like they did to your brother. Whatever you decide.”

I thought I might have sounded a little too cold.

So I forced the kindest smile I could manage.

Lee Gaon stared at me for quite a while.

Finally, she asked,

“So all I have to do is make the vaccine?”

The True Ending of Dead Zone Delivery was to develop the vaccine.

But.

I didn’t want to clear the Trial that way.

I glanced sideways at Je Hyuno.

His black goggles were fixed on me.

If it had been Kwak Hanmuk or Mo Haein, I might have hesitated before saying it.

But with Je Hyuno, there was no need.

I told her the ending I truly wanted.

“I want you to develop a cure as well.”