🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 1
[Find the exit.]
I ran like a madman. Behind me, something swooshed violently, and the screams of people erupted.
I didn’t look back. One wrong move, and I’d die. Gritting my teeth, I focused only ahead and ran. In my rapidly passing view, a translucent window persistently followed me.
[Find the exit.]
I knew what this was. A status window. My friend’s game used to display these prompts.
It was a survival game where cosmic monsters ran rampant, with damp, dark backgrounds and monsters slicing people apart with blades attached to their arms—exactly like the current situation.
[Find the exit.]
So, I had fallen into a game. The problem was that I had never played this game myself. All I’d done was watch my friend play over their shoulder.
[Find the exit.]
Which meant I didn’t know where the exit was.
Of course, as soon as we fell here, some kids had red eyes and were shouting things like, “Finally, I’m the protagonist of a game I know so well!”
They were the first to die. They had no stamina.
No matter how smart you are, if your legs are slow, it’s useless. In the end, only the fast ones remained.
But this wouldn’t last long. If I just kept running without doing anything, we’d all be wiped out.
[Find the exit.]
Instinctively, I sensed the monster had come right behind me.
I stopped running for a moment and threw myself sideways with all my strength. My shoulder hit the rocky floor with a painful oof, but this kind of pain was nothing. It was a hundred times better than having my body torn in half.
Sure enough, the monster’s blade sliced through the spot I had been occupying with a crunch. I immediately got up, backing away while sitting and frantically moving.
The monster approached me but staggered when it was struck by a person’s arm flying from beside it. It crouched down and began devouring the arm.
[Find the exit.]
The scene behind the arm-eating monster was grisly. Monsters that looked like gigantic mantises. A space completely blocked off. People running in utter chaos.
Corpses were everywhere. There had initially been over a hundred people, but now even half were gone.
I pressed my back against the wall, frantically scanning my surroundings. There had to be someone who knew this game well. Someone still alive.
Someone smart, athletic, and sharp-minded—whose strong reflexes would keep them alive anywhere… someone like Baek Ihyeon.
A bitter laugh escaped me. Even in this situation, I thought of Baek Ihyeon. I had ended up here because I couldn’t forget them.
Someone already dead. Someone I should let go of. Yet, why did I keep thinking of them?
I gritted my teeth and looked around again. Surely, someone knew the exit. I had to follow them.
[This is the exit.]
Suddenly, the status window flickered with a new message. At the same time, I noticed a man crouched in a distant corner.
At first glance, he seemed to be cowering from the monsters, but he was desperately feeling between the rocky walls and the ground.
Through that, a faint gap appeared. A spot that couldn’t have been noticed without prior knowledge.
The exit.
I immediately pushed off the wall and sprinted. I ran solely towards the man.
He slipped his hand into the gap and lifted with all his might. To my astonishment, the wall rumbled as it rose.
Just as I glimpsed the dark night sky outside, a child clung urgently to the man from behind. The man shoved the child away with a fearful face.
‘He’s trying to leave alone!’
I had recognized it from the start, when he had been hiding in the corner. This man had no intention of sharing his knowledge with others. I didn’t know why, but one thing was certain:
If the exit closed now, people would die.
I gritted my teeth and ran. Fortunately, the man didn’t leave immediately and paused briefly, as if waiting for something.
He then wrapped his hand in his sleeve and hastily pulled something from the floor. A sparkling gem.
The man, gripping it tightly, moved outside. Just before the door closed, I managed to slide my hand into the gap. Placing my elbow on the ground, I pushed the wall upward with all my strength.
The wall slowly rose with a heavy sound. As soon as enough space for a single person was secured, I squeezed my upper body through.
Fresh air hit my nose. It was night outside. The dark sky was dotted with countless stars.
I stopped for a moment before fully exiting.
If it were Baek Ihyeon… what would they do?
I knew the answer. Baek Ihyeon wouldn’t escape alone. They would save people.
They had indeed done so. They had saved me at the cost of their own life.
My heart pounded with tension. I pulled my half-pushed body back, bracing the wall with my shoulders and pressing my back to the edge of the exit.
I looked inside. Amidst the chaos, the child who had been shoved by the man crouched, frantically retreating from monsters.
Then:
[Stand by. The orb will regenerate in 1 minute. Orb creation is suspended while people are passing through. Please wait until the orb is fully formed.]
Orb? Regenerate?
I looked down. Sure enough, the spot where the man had pulled the gem glowed faintly. Something was sparkling and solidifying.
Placing my hand above it made the glowing mass disappear. Taking it away, it reignited from a small light.
I instinctively understood. I had to wait here until something was fully formed and then grab it.
The man had grabbed it desperately before, and the status window told me to wait. This gem—or orb—was evidently valuable. But…
I turned inside. People were dying.
The decision was easy. I gritted my teeth. Bracing the wall with my shoulder to prevent it from falling, I reached in and grabbed the nearest child’s hand.
The child flinched, startled. Our eyes met.
“Quickly!”
I pulled the child with all my strength. They scrambled to their feet and came toward me in a panic.
I pushed the child outside. Simultaneously, the faint light forming below vanished. Ignoring it, I shouted inside:
“This way!”
Some of the fleeing people noticed. So did the monsters. I shouted urgently:
“Everyone, this way! Quickly!”
People surged toward me. I pressed myself further against the edge. They passed frantically and exited.
Soon, with the crowd pressing, I was stepped on and shoved, but it didn’t matter. I barely supported the wall with my shoulders and kept my eyes on the monsters beyond the people.
When one monster swung a sickle-like arm toward the crowd, I pulled myself away from the wall and escaped outside.
Before I could even realize there was nothing beneath my feet, I fell sharply. Impact hit my whole body immediately.
Gasping, I tried to regain composure. Under my hands, I felt fresh soil.
Dewy grass of the night. Peaceful surroundings. Somewhere, faint insects chirped. No monstrous growls.
I was alive.
Somehow, I had made it out. I breathed a sigh of relief, lifted my head, and instinctively flattened myself to the ground, scanning the area with just my eyes.
The situation was clearly not good.
The people who went out first, about thirty of them, lay face down on the ground.
Beyond them, several tall men were visible. Jet-black uniforms, relaxed expressions, chuckling laughs. Thin cigarettes in hand. Guns at their waists. Swords and bows slung on their backs.
And someone was dead in front of them. A soldier kicked the corpse, revealing the face.
Empty eyes stared at me. It was the man who had grabbed the gem first.
The soldier pulled a single glove from his waist, put it on his right hand, and retrieved the sparkling gem from the blood slowly spreading under the corpse.
He wiped the blood off the gem with his uniform and whistled, glancing at me.
“Wow, so many survived?”
“This batch is amazing, huh?”
“Two, four, six, eight… thirty-two? Wow, has this ever happened before?”
“Never. It’s hard for even one to make it out.”
The soldiers chuckled.
“It’s no coincidence. In special cases like this, there must be a leader.”
The soldier flicked the gem into the air, grinning like a madman with blood on his face.
I pressed myself even flatter. I had to stay hidden until I understood the situation.
“Come out. The one who saved so many.”
I didn’t move. In situations like this, staying low was the best…
Somehow, a chill ran down my spine. I lifted my eyes slightly and flinched.
Everyone was looking at me.
