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Chapter 7
When they arrived at the fourth floor villa where his wife and child had been hiding, Park Sang-il dropped the long kitchen knife he had been clutching and began to tear up.
After confirming that his wife and son were safe, it seemed his emotions finally overflowed.
A family embracing each other and crying tears of relief.
Only then did Park Sang-il seem to relax as he turned toward me and spoke.
“Thank you. Really… thank you so much.”
“You can thank me later once we get back. This place isn’t safe.”
At that, Park Sang-ha, who had been standing behind him, tilted his head and asked,
“Is there somewhere safe?”
“There’s a place where I already cleared out the zombies. Let’s head there.”
Instead of explaining further, I led them through the rain toward my hideout.
After about three minutes of walking—
When they saw the dozen or so zombies wandering around the first floor, they immediately became wary.
I pressed a finger to my lips, signaling for silence, then motioned for them to follow me.
Suppressing even their footsteps, they quietly entered the villa behind me.
As soon as we reached the owner’s unit on the fourth floor, I tossed my soaked padded jacket toward the veranda and checked outside the window.
No other survivors or zombies were visible.
Still, just in case, I drew the curtains shut.
The books I had taped around my forearms and shins for protection were completely soaked and limp.
They only got in the way now, so I ripped them all off.
Only then did my arms and legs finally feel lighter.
When I removed my gloves and checked my fingers and the backs of my hands, I saw that my skin had swollen red.
Good thing the gloves hadn’t torn.
“Now tell us.”
A man’s voice came from behind me.
When I turned around, I saw Park Sang-il staring at me.
Just moments ago, he had been crying with gratitude, but now there was a cautious tension in his expression.
He was clearly on guard, suspecting I might have ulterior motives.
Had he already had bad experiences with survivors?
I wasn’t particularly good at talking, but everyone was tense right now, so I needed to ease the atmosphere a little.
After taking a deep breath, I asked calmly,
“Is he your son?”
As I pointed at the child, the man instinctively moved the woman and child behind him before nodding.
Why was he being that cautious?
Then again, seeing me smash zombies apart probably had been pretty shocking.
“I’m not planning to attack you, so relax. Right now, we need to work together.”
“……”
“You all checked the episode notice, right? There’s not much time left. The first main episode will begin soon.”
“How can you stay so calm?”
“Do I look calm to you?”
I showed him the blisters covering my palms and gave a bitter smile.
My lips had turned purple from standing in the rain for so long, and my face looked utterly exhausted.
That was what I looked like right now.
The man scanned me from head to toe before swallowing dryly.
“What’s your name?”
“Baek Do-yoon. You’re Park Sang-il, right?”
“…Yes.”
“And the people behind you are your family.”
Park Sang-il glanced at Park Sang-ha beside him.
Park Sang-ha gave a bitter smile and said,
“I told him. You didn’t just save hyung and Sang-hoon—you saved me, my sister-in-law, and Gyeong-seo too.”
“……”
Yeah, I understood Park Sang-il’s position.
He was terrified I might hurt his family.
Sighing softly, I spoke evenly.
“If you want to protect your family, listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
I explained that this world was based on a game, and that the game’s name was No Way Home.
I only gave them the broad outline and avoided detailed explanations.
I needed some insurance, after all.
I explained only enough for them to roughly understand the situation.
Park Sang-il raised the corner of his eyes skeptically.
“You expect us to believe something that ridiculous?”
“And us suddenly getting summoned into the streets makes sense?”
“……”
“What about the zombies?”
Park Sang-il ran a hand through his hair, looking conflicted.
Then Park Sang-ha, standing beside him, spoke up.
“Hyung, I don’t think he’s wrong.”
“…Based on what?”
“What he said matches the messages we saw on our phones.”
As he wiped rainwater from his glasses, Park Sang-ha looked at me.
“You said your name was Baek Do-yoon?”
“Yes.”
“Could you explain what you told us earlier in more detail?”
“What part are you curious about?”
“So… are you saying this is inside a game?”
“Not exactly inside a game. It’s more like reality has been terraformed using the game as a template.”
Park Sang-ha stroked his chin quietly as he organized his thoughts.
After a moment, he sniffed and asked,
“Then… does that mean you know about the episodes that’ll happen next too?”
“Yes.”
“How much do you know?”
“Enough to survive until the end.”
Enough to survive until the end.
That was my roundabout way of saying I’d seen the ending.
After hearing my honest answer, the man standing farthest to the right suddenly spoke up.
The youngest brother.
Park Sang-hoon, was it?
“If you survived until the end… doesn’t that mean you cleared the game? Then do you know how to end this situation too?”
“If things progress according to the game scenario… yes. I know how to end it.”
Park Sang-hoon looked back and forth between Park Sang-il and Park Sang-ha.
“Big bro, second bro, I think it’d be better if we stick with this guy.”
Park Sang-il stared directly at me.
“Aren’t you revealing that information way too easily?”
“There’s nothing to gain from hiding it.”
“……”
“I can’t clear every episode alone anyway. I need your help.”
“……”
“To progress through the episodes, I need party members. And if we want to survive until the end, we’ll eventually need reliable teammates.”
Since I had chosen Buster’s abilities, I genuinely needed capable companions to raise my survival chances in the early episodes.
More importantly…
Later on, there would be episodes that absolutely couldn’t be cleared alone.
Episodes that required party play.
Still eyeing me suspiciously, Park Sang-il asked,
“We only met ten minutes ago. What makes you think we’d become reliable party members? Honestly… this is more burdensome than reassuring.”
“You brought a kid with you.”
“……”
“I like responsible people. I hate selfish bastards. Doesn’t that prove enough already? Your combat ability, guts, mentality, even your character.”
“You’ve probably noticed already, but we’re family. In a dangerous situation, we might abandon you. Aren’t you worried about that?”
Park Sang-il narrowed his eyes and stared straight at me.
Honestly, I liked that he openly said it.
It meant he doubted me.
Doubt was good.
It meant he wanted to understand the other person.
If someone truly didn’t care about understanding you, they wouldn’t even bother doubting you.
Blind trust and blind faith were the truly dangerous things.
So I smiled faintly.
“I know. That’s exactly why I like it.”
“You like it more?”
“Because I know you won’t.”
“You think we couldn’t?”
“Yeah. Because I know the ending.”
“……”
“Why do you think I told you all this?”
“……”
“I need you, and you need me if you want to survive.”
“……”
As I spoke calmly with my arms crossed, Park Sang-il swallowed dryly again.
“How are we supposed to believe that? You have no proof that you know the ending.”
“First episode: Safe House.”
“…What?”
“That’s the name of the episode starting tomorrow morning.”
I shrugged casually.
At my calm attitude, the second and youngest brothers began glancing nervously at the eldest.
Park Sang-ha grabbed Park Sang-il’s arm and spoke.
“Hyung, I get being cautious, but… he saved us.”
“……”
“Do we really need to doubt him more? It’s like demanding payment from the person who rescued us.”
“I’m not demanding anything from him. But if we’re going to keep traveling together, there can’t be lies between us.”
“It’s not about trust or distrust. It’s a symbiotic relationship.”
“……”
“We’re a party that has no reason to betray each other, and he has the information to guide us safely.”
When Park Sang-il didn’t respond, Park Sang-ha tilted his head.
“You saw him smashing zombies too.”
“……”
“Does that look like something an ordinary person could do? He’s decisive because he has information and knows where we need to go.”
“……”
“And if he really intended to hurt us, he wouldn’t have saved us in the first place.”
After hearing Park Sang-ha’s explanation, Park Sang-il slowly nodded.
Park Sang-ha continued,
“Even if things get dangerous, we can’t abandon him because of the information he has.”
“……”
“And he knows that too, which is why he only told us the broad outline.”
“……”
“Don’t you get it? You won’t find a better symbiotic relationship than this.”
Yeah. Exactly.
That was why I revealed that I’d seen the ending.
Whether they believed me or not was their problem.
If they couldn’t trust me, then they could leave.
That was my style.
Park Sang-ha neatly summarized the situation.
Park Sang-il hesitated for a moment before letting out a long sigh and rubbing his face.
The reason he was especially wary and hostile was obvious without even asking.
‘Because he has a wife and child.’
And as the eldest son, the burden of responsibility on him must be even heavier.
I liked that sense of responsibility.
I liked his cautious nature too.
If he became an ally, he’d definitely make a good companion.
But the person who interested me the most was…
‘The second brother is smart.’
He was quick to grasp situations.
Someone who could stay calm and make rational decisions without panicking.
Exactly the kind of person necessary for survival.
And there was even Park Sang-hoon, the youngest, who could mediate between the eldest and second brother.
When I stared blankly at Park Sang-hoon, he noticed my gaze and smiled brightly.
“Ah, I introduced myself too late. I’m Park Sang-hoon.”
“Baek Do-yoon.”
“How old are you, Baek Do-yoon?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Huh?! Same age as me.”
“Really?”
Apparently, Park Sang-hoon was the same age as me, the second brother Park Sang-ha was thirty-three, and the eldest Park Sang-il was thirty-five.
They had gathered at Park Sang-il’s house for a family trip when all of this happened.
From the way they talked, it sounded like their parents lived outside Seoul.
Well, there was no reason to pry into someone else’s family matters, so I just nodded casually.
Then the woman standing behind Park Sang-il finally spoke.
“Gyeong-seo, you should say hello.”
“……”
The child looked terrified of the unfamiliar stranger.
But when his mother gently smiled and patted his head, the boy stepped forward and greeted me.
“…Hello.”
“What’s your name, little guy?”
“Park Gyeong-seo…”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Uncle Baek Do-yoon.”
When I smiled warmly at him, the boy’s cheeks turned red and he quickly hid behind his mother again.
A shy kid, huh.
Gyeong-seo’s mother gave an awkward smile.
“I’m Kim Hee-joo.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“I heard you say earlier… that you know how to end all of this?”
“Yes.”
“And once the emergency episode ends, the first main episode starts? The Safe House?”
“That’s right.”
“Is it really safe there?”
“We’ll need to make it safe ourselves. Since reality is being used as the setting, there’ll probably be differences from the game.”
Her question carried both innocent curiosity and lingering doubt about whether I truly knew the future.
Since we’d decided to work together, there was no reason to hide things.
I shoved both hands into my pockets and said,
“The reason I want to work with you all is because of the second episode.”
“The second episode?”
“The second episode is about recruiting allies.”
“……”
“Once survivors gather at the Safe House, the next episode becomes recruiting companions.”
“Then… we should be able to clear the second episode quickly too.”
At that point, Park Sang-il looked at me again.
“Mind if we speak casually now?”
“Sure. Everyone can speak comfortably.”
“What character did you choose?”
“Buster.”
“Bus… what?”
“Buster.”
“There was a class like that?”
They didn’t know Buster?
It was definitely listed in the character descriptions.
But none of the people here had heard of the Buster class.
‘Wait.’
Could it be…
People who knew nothing about No Way Home simply weren’t allowed to choose Buster?
Anyone ignorant choosing it would obviously die early on, so maybe the system itself prevented them from selecting it.
