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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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[The apocalypse has begun.]
?!
A…
Apocalypse?!
I stared wide-eyed at the message.
I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.
Apocalypse?
That Apocalypse?!
The world crumbling, that one?!
My eyes saw it and understood, but my mind couldn’t quite grasp it.
My cramped goshiwon room, the bed.
The bed I was lying on.
The window next to the bed.
Birds were flying, chirping peacefully.
Cars were staying in their lanes, people walking down the street with placid, or perhaps bored, expressions.
…Apocalypse?
I stared blankly out the window, watching the cars stop at the red light and start at the green light, and felt a sense of emptiness.
…Is this a joke…?
I flopped back down.
“…”
The panic I’d felt moments before vanished as if it were a lie. Come on, what kind of apocalypse has everyone following traffic laws and traffic lights?
…No.
What was wrong with me?
Had my brain gone haywire?
That couldn’t be it.
Why this sudden escapism?
Had the messages ever lied to me, not even once, in my entire 25 years of life?!
I jumped up and searched for my phone.
Damn it, why could I never remember where I put it at times like this?!
I rummaged around the bed, checked the desk where my laptop was, even searched through the box where I kept my clothes.
Not there!
“Ah, shit! Where is it?!”
Someone lived next door, and the goshiwon wasn’t exactly soundproof.
So I shouted in a whisper.
After circling the room about three times, I found my phone behind my laptop.
Things like this always turned up in places I’d already looked, damn it.
I called my mom first.
Was she busy selling fruit?
Were there a lot of customers at the store?
Damn it! She wasn’t answering!
I called my dad.
He didn’t answer either!
Was he out delivering fruit? Driving?
Pick up, dammit!
I had no choice but to call the bitch.
[Bitch]
I pressed the call button, and within seconds, the bitch picked up.
“What, asshole? Why the hell are you calling? Did you finally become impotent?”
This bitch, seriously.
Where’s the hello?
Whose daughter is this, for fuck’s sake?
I’d record this and play it on giant speakers at her wedding.
…Patience. Sigh.
“Hey, where are you? At home?”
“What’s it to you, asshole? Why’d you call?”
This damn girl, really.
I should grab her and spank her ass five hundred times to teach her some manners, damn it.
“Ah, you bitch! A question requires an answer. Are you at home?!”
“I’m out with a friend. Oh, thank you. Hey, asshole, my tteokbokki is here. If you don’t tell me why you called, I’m hanging up.”
Tteokbokki with a friend?
…Was everything alright?
“How are Mom and Dad? Are they okay?”
“I don’t know, asshole! They’re probably at the store! Bye!”
Click.
The line went dead.
That bitch, never failing to disappoint.
“…Ha…”
I put down the phone and looked out the window.
…Was everything really okay?
The message had long since disappeared.
The Apocalypse has begun…
What did it even mean…?
What kind of apocalypse…?
“…This won’t do.”
I couldn’t believe the message had lied to me.
It had shown me all sorts of things throughout my 25 years of life, but not once had it been false or deceitful.
After showing me only truthful messages my entire life, it was going to start lying right after the countdown ended?
No way.
Absolutely no way.
I quickly put on my jeans, slung my bag over my shoulder, and left the goshiwon.
All I had in the room were textbooks for when I returned to school, some cup ramen, and bottled water.
It wouldn’t be a problem if I left them, no one would steal them.
My beloved Adidas backpack.
All it held was my wallet, but I never went anywhere without it.
With the light and almost empty backpack slung over one shoulder, I went down the stairs.
The road in front of the goshiwon.
…Bus?
…No.
“Taxi!”
I raised my hand at the taxi parked up the street and walked up the incline.
“Welcome. Where to?”
The older taxi driver asked kindly as I got in.
“Incheon Airport.”
“Yes, sir. Please fasten your seatbelt. Are you going abroad?”
“Ah, yes. Sort of.”
Annoying.
Did I look like I wanted to answer these questions right now?
Perhaps the driver was experienced enough to recognize my mood because he didn’t say anything else as he started the car.
I looked out the window.
The alleyway leading past my goshiwon, the convenience store, and the apartments passed by leisurely.
…Apocalypse?
Really?
Cars were sticking to their lanes, and at the samgyeopsal restaurant across the street, a couple was laughing and enjoying a late lunch, wrapping grilled meat in lettuce.
That’s when it happened.
A message appeared before my eyes.
[The tutorial for the Chosen One’s awakening will now begin.]
…?!
Tu…
Tutorial?!
What…
What the hell.
What?!
I quickly looked around.
The taxi had just turned towards a gas station and was entering a larger road.
Cars were following the lanes, those with red lights were stopped, and cars on our side, with a green light, were moving forward.
What tutorial?
I was in a taxi!
“…Why is the traffic so heavy? It’s not rush hour…”
The taxi driver muttered and turned on the radio.
Traffic broadcasting.
“-So, I’ve enjoyed reading the story you sent in. Reading stories from people living such interesting lives really warms my heart… Ah, we have breaking news.”
Ah, mister.
The volume was a bit loud, could he turn it down?
“It seems a patient has escaped from a hospital. Currently believed to be in a hallucinatory state, the patient is running around regardless of sidewalks or roads. This is causing congestion in parts of Seoul.”
…No, don’t turn it down, mister.
“Police are currently on the scene. We will continue to provide updates on the situation to our drivers. Let’s move on to the next story.”
…A patient in a hallucinatory state…
I looked further ahead.
The traffic was quite heavy.
I couldn’t see the crazy person running around.
…Guess it wasn’t around here.
The radio host was reading a boring story and chuckling to themselves.
I picked up my phone.
It said the tutorial had started.
There had to be something more.
I put in my earphones and opened YouTube.
Live news channels.
Anything?
…Breaking news was flashing across the screen.
“A serious assault has occurred in Gwangju. A man in his 50s, presumed to be intoxicated, grabbed a passerby and bit their wrist. The perpetrator was arrested at the scene. Police are conducting drug tests-“
…Bit their wrist?
Another news channel.
“Now for news from Busan. A woman in her 20s reportedly bit a man’s shoulder at a cafe in Haeundae. Immediately after the incident, the woman jumped from the second floor. Surprisingly, she escaped the scene without any injuries. Police are currently on the scene-“
…Bit…
Bit…?
Wait…
Hold on…
I closed YouTube and opened the portal news tab.
All kinds of news updates were listed.
Scrolling through diet news, celebrity news, and political news, something caught my eye.
-New infectious disease with extremely high contagiousness reported.
…Updated 2 seconds ago.
I clicked on the news.
—
A homeless woman in her 60s attacked a woman in her 20s waiting for a bus at a bus stop in Daejeon.
The victim displayed the same symptoms as the attacker and attacked another person.
People are currently evacuating.
Police and paramedics are on the scene.
—
Short.
A true breaking news report.
Sometimes, very short articles caught the eye.
True breaking news.
This…
This…
Could I be the only one seeing this?
Were these news stories only visible to me?
Seoul…Busan…Gwangju…Daejeon…
Major cities…!
I looked around.
Traffic was jammed.
Peaceful.
The sun was warm.
Birds were chirping.
And then, I heard a scream.
A piercing, chilling scream.
It was more like a death rattle.
The driver and I were startled and turned our heads to the side at the same time.
Across the road, on the sidewalk.
A street lined with coffee shops, McDonald’s, and convenience stores.
People were running around in a panic.
No, they weren’t just running.
They were chasing!
Chasing and being chased!
A college student?
A young woman frantically ran and tackled a middle-aged woman carrying a shopping basket.
They tumbled and fell together.
Onions and green onions flew into the air.
A very old man, who looked like he could barely walk, ran like a beast and jumped on a well-built young man.
Like a huge dog attacking.
The young man, surprised and flustered, stumbled backward and fell with the old man.
A bloodcurdling scream.
People scattered in all directions in terror.
Most ran onto the sidewalk.
But some desperately ran into the road.
Screech-
With the sound of sudden braking, a car hit a middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man who had run into the road in a panic.
The man flew several meters and crashed into a street tree.
I saw it.
I saw it.
That man’s neck snapped completely as he hit the tree.
Instant death.
The driver, a young woman, jumped out of the car in shock.
Immediately after the female driver got out, the housewife who had dropped her shopping basket pounced on her.
The man whose neck was broken against the tree was trembling and convulsing.
The convulsions stopped.
The middle-aged man slowly got up.
His neck was twisted backward.
…Impossible.
It was impossible for him to get up!
I doubted my eyes.
But the man was definitely standing up.
With his back to me, facing me.
His face was half smashed, his jaw twisted.
The man opened his jaw wide, made a strange sound, and ran off somewhere.
Screams.
Pandemonium.
Chills ran down my spine.
This…
This was what the message had shown me…
…the beginning of the…Apocalypse…
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[Translator Notes]
doki doki
I was guessing between goblins(or some other fantasy monster) or zombies appearing and it seem so be a zombie apocalypse so far.
Yes but this resident evil zombies the one that not only has numbers but bullshit physical compatibilities and infinite stamina