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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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“…What? Apocalypse?”
The middle-aged officer stopped fiddling with his phone and looked at me, suspicion etched on his face.
“Sir, do you know something?”
It wasn’t a question.
His face held a certain intuition.
This guy knows something.
I opened and closed my mouth, looking at the middle-aged officer.
What should I say?
That I saw it in a message window?
As the middle-aged officer and I locked eyes, a crashing sound erupted from inside the police station.
The middle-aged officer whipped his head towards the station and rushed inside.
“What! What’s going on!”
I followed him in.
I didn’t know why.
If anyone asked me what state of mind I was in right now, I might just punch them in the face.
I didn’t know what I was doing, or what I should be doing!
And why wasn’t the message window showing up?!
It had appeared before my eyes my entire life, telling me what was going to happen!
Why wasn’t it showing up now?!
Damn it!
“Ha… ha…”
Inside the police station, two officers were grappling with each other, grabbing each other by the collars.
“You son of a bitch, leaving Young-mi behind like that! Huh! Why didn’t you radio in! Radio in!”
“Fuck, I didn’t have time! Radio in, my ass! With that riot going on, cars being smashed, did I look like I had the time to fucking radio in?!”
The other middle-aged officer rushed in and threw himself between the two.
“Stop it! Both of you! Do you want to get disciplined?! Huh?!”
I saw it.
When the two were grappling, collars gripped, arms rising and falling.
I saw it.
I took a step back.
“Y…You.”
Terrified.
Chilled to the bone.
“…You were bitten.”
The officer who was breaking up the fight, the one who had been grabbed, and Officer Park all froze at that moment.
The middle-aged officers lifted Officer Park’s arm.
Blood was streaming down his forearm.
The wound, no matter how generously I looked at it, looked like a bite mark. If it wasn’t that, then someone had stamped him with an oval teaspoon.
The officer who had been grabbed said,
“You… what is this. Were you really bitten? Was Young-mi really bitten by a person?”
I guess he hadn’t believed it when he heard it earlier.
Officer Park clutched his arm and turned sharply. The hand gripping his collar let go.
“What’s the big deal about one arm being bitten?”
Officer Park glanced at his seniors and me, then turned and struggled to open a locker.
W…
Was he okay…?
Would just a bite on the arm not turn him into one of those beastly things…?
That thought calmed me down a little.
A locker.
There must be some kind of weapon inside.
“Do we really have guns?”
If there were guns.
If there were guns, things would be much…
The middle-aged officer who had been breaking up the fight glanced at me.
“Just tasers and batons. They don’t issue guns to small neighborhood police stations like this. Use your head.”
What the hell was with his tone?
I wasn’t a cop, how would I know that?
I almost felt like filing a complaint.
Wait.
So, Officer Park was looking for a gun that wasn’t even there? He must have been really panicked.
The locker opened.
Officer Park grabbed a taser and a baton, then let out a deep sigh.
“…Shit, how are we supposed to… Did you contact headquarters?”
The officer who had been breaking up the fight pointed at the computer monitor.
“We’ve been getting tons of reports since earlier. Even the president probably knows by now. It’ll be on the news tonight.”
“It might be on the news right now.”
The middle-aged officers exchanged words and began arming themselves with batons and tasers.
Damn, at least there were people with something in their hands, which was slightly reassuring.
That’s when it happened.
“Ugh!”
Officer Park grabbed the locker tightly and arched his back.
The two middle-aged officers shouted at the same time.
“Officer Park! What’s wrong!”
“What are you doing again! This isn’t the time to be in pain! Let’s go! To Young-mi!”
Officer Park trembled, his whole body convulsing.
The veins in his neck bulged.
He was in immense pain.
“Groan, Groooan! Uwaaagh!”
“O-Officer Park!”
Officer Park collapsed.
The two middle-aged officers immediately bent over him.
That’s when it happened.
One of the middle-aged officers screamed.
“Kyaaagh! Aaagh!”
Thud, thud!
Along with the sound of tearing raw flesh, something splattered.
Blood.
“Officer Park! Hey! You bastard!”
The other middle-aged officer, startled, tried to pull them apart. The next moment, he also screamed.
“Ugh! Gah!”
Crack! Crunch!
The sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones came at the same time.
“Groan!”
He…
He bit his neck.
I thought the blood spurting like a fountain was a cinematic effect.
It wasn’t an effect.
Blood really did spurt like a fountain.
Reaching all the way to the ceiling.
Move.
M…Move.
R…Run.
Move…!
In front of me, the two officers lay sprawled, blood splattered everywhere, screaming and writhing.
This insane scene unfolded right in front of me.
My legs…
My legs wouldn’t move.
Why wouldn’t they move?
S…
Scared…?
M…Move.
…Move!
My leg muscles screamed.
It felt like hot stones were pressed against them.
I had run too fast, too much.
I managed to take one step back.
Thump.
Officer Park abruptly lifted his head.
His eyes…
Not even beastly, those eyes…
His face covered in blood, those eyes…
At me…
“Kraaagh!”
Officer Park leaped onto the desk.
He…He’s coming!
He’s coming!
“Kaaaagh!”
Officer Park lunged at me.
Arms outstretched, pouncing.
Officer Park’s blood-red face loomed larger.
Shit…!
I’m going to die…!
I have to get out…!
Quickly…! Quickly!
Faster!
My mind knew it was already too late.
But my body was moving on its own.
A desperate struggle to survive.
If this continued, his face and mine would collide.
My neck would be in his hands!
I crouched down with all my might.
Something grazed my hair.
And then, Crash! the police station door shattered.
I looked up at the door.
Officer Park had crashed into the glass door, his waist stuck in the handle.
“Huff, huff, huff!”
Crazy.
Fucking crazy!
My hands trembled with shock.
[Tutorial: Chosen One’s Growth Path. Complete.]
What?!
[As the growth path has been determined, new specializations, skills, and achievements are granted.]
Specialization? Skills?!
[Say the keyword ‘Status’ to view.]
[Say the keyword ‘Achievements’ to view.]
What was this!
“Status?!”
A screen immediately appeared before my eyes.
Wh…What was this.
What was this!
What the hell, this was so complicated!
What was all this?!
“Kraaagh! Kraaagh!”
While I was staring at the status window that had suddenly appeared, Officer Park, who had crashed into the glass door, thrashed and got up.
Shatter! Crash!
The glass shattered, sending shards flying.
Officer Park glared at me.
“Crazy!”
“Kraa!”
A beastly roar, clawing at his throat.
Officer Park lunged at me.
Blood…!
I have to dodge!
At that moment, the status window disappeared, and a message popped up.
[Auto-casting: Accelerate]
Officer Park stopped abruptly in mid-air.
“Kra-a–a—a—-a—–”
What?!
How could he suddenly slow down like that in mid-air?!
H…
His hand, shit!
It was getting closer!
His blood-covered mouth!
His crimson maw!
With a jolt, I ducked.
Officer Park moved slowly above me.
“…Is this real?”
Officer Park slowly passed over my head.
His chest, his stomach, and then his waist.
His waist!
What was in front of my eyes…
…a baton!
I instinctively grabbed the baton.
There was no time to think.
I quickly pulled it from its loop and immediately ran towards the glass door.
At that moment, the sound sped up dramatically.
“—-a—a-aagh! Kra!”
Crash!
The sound of something collapsing came from behind me.
I pushed open the glass door and looked back.
Officer Park lay face down on the desk, his head smashed against it. His neck was bent at an unnatural angle.
But his limbs twitched, as if trying to get up again.
I turned my head and ran out of the police station like a madman.
I started running towards the alley.
My bag in one hand, the baton in the other.
“Crazy! Shit, crazy! Huff, huff!”
My legs felt like they were going to fall off!
I kept running, turned the corner, and ran again.
“Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!”
Holy shit, how much further did I have to run!
What was going on!
What was all this!
My thighs burned.
My calves ached.
My whole body was in pain.
“Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!”
I ran and ran like crazy, not knowing where I was going, just running and running.
There was no time to speak, no time to complain.
“Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!”
I didn’t know how many alleys I had run through.
I didn’t know how long I’d been running.
I tried to run, but my legs wouldn’t listen.
Neither walking nor running, I continued to move between the single-family houses.
It was quiet.
Was this neighborhood always this quiet?
Ah… No.
I couldn’t walk anymore.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp.”
I was dizzy.
I had run too much.
I didn’t even know if the police were chasing me.
I needed to find a safe place.
But where the hell was that?
I walked and walked until I finally left the residential area.
A road stretched out before me.
Right next to it, an underpass.
Too exhausted, half out of my mind, I entered the building right next to me.
I didn’t know what kind of building it was.
I didn’t even know where I was.
It didn’t seem like my neighborhood.
Somewhere on the stairs…
Just sit and rest.
Just for a little while.
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So far this novel is nice in interpreting a more realistic emotional response then other novels I’ve seen, but having the “not recognizing it’s zombies” cliche is a let down. Still enjoying it though XD.
Dunno why the author went down this path.
pretty sure any person above 12 can tell you what a zombie is and what they do.
Brings me out of immersion to many times.
It cause we see it so often we desensitized to it that in our subconscious we long accepted this situation would never happen and we wouldn’t make the same moves as the characters. Cause of that if the apocalypse did come so suddenly we definitely be like chickens with our head cut off. Basically haphazardly running in all directions with no plan just outright panic desperately trying to live and escape.
Why the mc so dumb the countdown is from he is child but he never experiment on it or try the possibility other then dying when the countdown over, I mean he live in modern era with so many fantasy fiction from novel game to film but with those brain cells of him he never do suspect other one possibility really dumbest and I really don’t understand why author make it countdown from mc child if he doesn’t do anything really number one blshit