A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 

Destruction.

My life had always been close to destruction.

“Destruction” meant to be ruined and erased. My life was more than qualified to be defined by such a word.

[16:49]

Tick, tock. 

I bit my lips tightly in the midst of the hallucinated sound, then let out a sigh.

There was still no acceptance notification for the school counselor position, even though it was supposed to arrive today.

“…It’s not coming, is it?”

I already knew.

“There weren’t many openings to begin with.”

Even general teaching positions were scarce, so how many openings could there be for school counselors, who usually only had one or two positions per school?

Instead of facing reality with such thoughts, I averted my gaze from this self-destructive day.

Today as well, my life was quietly, unnoticed by anyone, falling into ruin.

 

[While you were asleep, your companion mistook you for an enemy…]

[You have died…]

[You have collected the ‘Betrayal’ death ending.]

[This is an ending you already possess.]

 

Staring blankly at the text announcing my death ending, I instinctively loaded a new game.

[Ruined World]

As I loaded the new game, the title briefly flickered on the screen before disappearing.

A text-adventure roguelike game.

A game where all that was required was luck and judgment… reading the text and selecting choices to keep my character and companions alive.

Up to that point, it seemed like a normal choice-based game… but there was one problem.

Mental strength.

“…What an annoyingly troublesome stat.”

Mental strength was the most important element in this game.

All characters were affected by their mental stat in every action they took.

The first thing it influenced was the choices. Sometimes, only extreme options would appear, to the point where it became impossible to choose at all.

For example:

 

[There is little food left. It is time to decide your next action.]

[〉 Starve]

[〉 Loot passersby]

 

Things like this. There was no option to acquire items normally.

And it wasn’t just my character I had to manage, I had to manage all my companions’ mental states as well.

Otherwise, like earlier, they’d smash my character’s head in while I was asleep.

‘It’s not like there’s any great solution, either.’

Mental depletion could only be handled with a few items or by receiving blessings from statues you happened to encounter.

Which meant there was also a time attack; you had to reach the ending before your mental state ran out.

‘It’s not like I’m lucky enough to always get good events.’

I was generally unlucky. Actually, very unlucky.

And that applied to this game as well.

I had never once reached the main story of this damned game. I always died in the prologue, murdered by companions whose mental states had hit rock bottom.

So, the character I had just revived would likely meet one of the many destructions caused by my bad luck.

 

[You have decided to save companion ‘Kim Taekjin’.]

[Companion ‘Kim Taekjin’ has low mental strength. He has entered a <Panic> state.]

[Companion ‘Kim Taekjin’ runs away.]

[Debris from a collapsing building falls overhead.]

[You have died…]

[You have collected the ‘Betrayal’ endingⅠ]

 

I stopped reading midway, irritably closed the ending screen, and let out a deep sigh.

Betrayal again. These insane traitors.

“Are they seriously not going to balance patch this?”

That guy was always at zero mental strength. It’s not like he even did anything.

After choosing to hide in a nearby alley car due to the mutant wave and rain, he just… lost it.

‘Among the early companions, he has the highest potential related to skills.’

But because of his mental state, I couldn’t even use him.

Maybe I had triggered some kind of trauma in him with that earlier choice.

They say if you raise him well, he’s as good as ten supports. But raising him well is the problem.

He betrays and runs away at every little thing… what am I supposed to do?

“This is so frustrating, I could go crazy… What the hell is he so absorbed in that he’s draining his mental energy like that? At least say something….”

At this point, I might as well recruit a counselor. Maybe I should submit a résumé.

<Ruined World>, this game was based on a fantasy web novel.

It was a story that began with the destruction of the world by some kind of invasion. The protagonist, Sa Jaeheon, regressed hundreds of times to save the world.

‘Eight years….’

Before I knew it, I had been following the serialization for over eight years.

I spent my entire twenties in Ruined World, so I couldn’t just quit… it wasn’t easy to let go of that attachment.

Damn it.

Dragging my exhausted mind, I exited to the title menu, where a notice caught my eye.

[“It was the beginning of an utter destruction.”]

A small pop-up notice quoting the first line of Ruined World.

It was definitely not the balance patch I had been hoping for. If it were, it would have neatly said [Patch Notes 1.13].

‘They should patch the balance instead.’

What kind of money grab was this now?

Clicking it with a sigh–

 

[Ruined World Collaboration Café Announcement]

—

Hello, dear narrator, working tirelessly day and night to complete the one and only apocalypse!

The previous collaboration café shone like a brilliant constellation thanks to the participation of so many narrators.

This time, another collaboration café is coming to Seoul!

—

 

Collaboration?

It was a simple announcement featuring a small “commentator” character. My hand, which had been casually scrolling, stopped at the final sentence.

 

—

[Guess the blank for ‘Ruined Seoul, 00 Arc’! Winners will receive admission tickets!]

[〉 Hongdae]

[〉 Jamsil]

[〉 Gangnam]

※ First 300 participants only.

—

 

I didn’t particularly want to go. I didn’t have the time either.

‘Are they selling guaranteed goods this time? If they’re charging admission, at least sell guaranteed merch.’

Knowing this company, they’d probably sneak in some random gacha anyway.

Still, if I didn’t click things like this, it felt like I was losing out.

And since the notice had just been posted, it only had 13 views.

‘These things go to whoever picks first.’

Feeling ridiculous for even hesitating, I sighed and just picked anything.

What meaning does this even have for me right now…

 

—

[Winner!]

—

 

“Holy–!”

I reflexively clenched my fist, then flinched and loosened it.

‘…I actually won something like this?’

Last time, I rolled the gacha 20 times just to get one Sa Jaeheon weapon keyring. And the egg tarts I ate for those pulls still hadn’t digested.

There were probably still five sitting in my freezer, too.

While I was thinking that, the page automatically changed.

 

—

[Web Message]

This is a confirmation message for winning the Ruined World collaboration café event.

—

 

Instead of a job acceptance message, I stared blankly at the winning confirmation.

‘Seriously….’

I won.

As I dazedly stared at it, I finally snapped out of it and pressed the exit button…

And then, a familiar line appeared.

 

—

[When was your most brilliant moment?]

—

 

The moment I saw that line, I let out a sigh so deep it felt like my stomach might come out.

‘This doesn’t feel like something that should come after a collab café.’

Forget balance patches… just fix the bugs, please. This game was not well-made.

It was like rowing a boat full of holes, patching them with tape as I went, and only reinforcing them with planks once the tape came off.

 

—

[〉 Age 11]

[〉 Age 18]

[〉 Age 20]

[〉 Age 25]

—

 

I casually selected [Age 20], scrolled down, and pressed the bug report button.

 

—

[▶ Send]

—

 

The moment I hit send, the screen suddenly turned black again.

As soon as I pressed send, the screen went black… probably another error.

I blinked once after seeing it.

A fleeting moment, too brief for anything to even happen.

In that moment.

In that single, fleeting moment.

It was as if the lights had been turned off; the world fell completely into darkness.

 

***

 

Not long after, a blinding light made me instinctively frown.

‘What is this…?’

A humid heat wrapped around my cheeks. Tilting my head at the warmth, I raised my hand…

Rustle.

The distinct sound of a padded jacket.

Padding…

‘…Padding?’

As my hazy vision began to focus, information slowly came in. Looking down at my hand… There was nothing in it, but…

The rustling sound unmistakably came from a padded jacket.

There was only one reason this was strange.

‘It’s summer right now.’

My gaze slowly dropped further down, toward the floor.

A wooden floor.

A strangely familiar wooden floor.

“We will now proceed with the diploma presentation following the national ceremony.”

At the words “diploma presentation,” two things entered my view.

One was…

 

—

[42nd Seonggwang High School Graduation Ceremony]

—

 

A graduation banner.

And in front of it…

 

—

[Chapter 1, Apocalypse ▼]

—

 

Something I had definitely seen somewhere before…

 

—

[▼]

This is your apocalypse and the only record that documents you.

I am the sole narrator of that apocalypse. Though we may be separated by centuries, I will be your only friend.

Some apocalypses, I hear, begin like this.

—

 

At the same time, a piercing ringing filled my ears.

Beeeeeeep–

A sound tearing apart reality and unreality.

Thinking back on it now, that was the sound of my day, grandly, dramatically… being destroyed.