A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 

It wasn’t particularly difficult to deal with mutants in the game.

Basic mutants had slow reaction speed and attack speed, and they didn’t even do anything on their first attack turn.

Since the player always got the first move, you would attack on the first turn, then take a defensive stance or evade from the next turn onward.

Even so, many players got wiped out in the early stages because blocking always chipped away at HP, and evasion could fail based on probability.

Of course, later on, you could brute-force them with raw damage or avoid taking hits entirely with high defense and evasion…

‘…But this isn’t a game.’

I took a deep breath again. Reality… yeah, hard to believe, but this is my reality now.

“Kiieeek….”

As claws rushed toward me, I instinctively ducked. The long nails sliced through the air above my head.

I have to stay focused.

I slammed my hand onto the stop button at the end of the moving walkway.

Bang!

With a loud crash, the walkway stopped. The mutant’s pale eyes rolled rapidly as if excited.

A rag that looked like a middle school uniform fluttered around its body.

Whoosh, whoosh.

I stepped back, dodging the claws that kept slashing at me.

Then, pressing the steel pipe tightly against my body, I retreated halfway down the walkway.

There wasn’t much space. Not even enough to properly swing.

Dragging it all the way down to the second floor didn’t seem like a good option either.

Unlike me, who was trying to stay quiet, the mutant wouldn’t hold back its screams.

And if that happened…

‘It’ll draw aggro.’

I already knew there were other mutants nearby. There could also be more lurking in unseen corners.

I had to consider every possibility if I wanted to live.

The moment the mutant raised its arm, I thrust the pipe forward and pushed it back.

“Kiieeek!”

Startled by the sudden strike, the mutant flailed for a moment before violently swatting the pipe away.

I let the force slide off and exhaled the breath that kept building in my chest.

As it charged again, I briefly looked away and glanced down the walkway.

‘If I shove it sideways…’

There was enough space for it to fall.

But that wasn’t the problem.

‘The elevation difference.’

The mutant was taller than me, which put me at a disadvantage. It would take more force, and the chance of failure would increase.

If I could just change positions somehow…

I turned my head and spotted a slightly protruding space on the upper left side of the walkway.

‘Looks narrow…’

I stepped onto the handrail and climbed up.

“Ugh…”

My stomach felt a bit crushed, but…

I managed to get up.

Now comes the hard part.

I glanced at the mutant’s fingertips that barely could reach me, then looked forward.

“Kiieeek! Kiiieeek!!”

Damn it, the space is narrower than I thought.

 

—

[Below, the mutant is screaming nonstop, and this space is so narrow that one wrong step could make you slip and fall.]

[There isn’t much time to think…]

[You’ll have to make a decision.]

—

 

The narrator’s urging was irritating, but not wrong.

Feeling the weight of the pipe in my hands, I tightened my grip again.

Then, as the mutant approached with both hands outstretched, I knocked aside the claws of its right hand with the pipe.

I didn’t miss the opening as its arm dropped, I followed through and swung with all my strength at its head.

Thud!

Something caught at the end of the pipe.

An unfamiliar sensation ran through my entire body.

My fingertips tingled.

But I didn’t loosen my grip.

No, I couldn’t.

 

—

[!]

—

 

The pale eyes no longer looked at me, instead groping aimlessly in the air.

Its upper body tilted far outward from the walkway.

I seized the chance and shoved its lower body, sending it completely off.

Thump!

The heavy body crashed down.

“Kiieeek!”

Bang!

“Kiiieek!!”

Thud!

“Ki…eek…”

The sounds faded away.

Only after the echo disappeared into the empty space…

 

—

[You have killed a basic humanoid mutant. You have succeeded in your first kill!]

—

 

The narrator praised me.

The tone made me feel uncomfortable, despite how familiar it was from the game and the novel.

Soon after, as if rewarding me, an item called a ‘Story Stone’ dropped into my hand.

…That’s not what matters right now.

I needed to get out of here before sunset.

I stuffed the stone into my pocket…

And a window appeared before my eyes.

 

—

[Hmm, why the gloomy mood?]

[This is your first kill! The narrator has finally become part of this apocalypse and taken the first step toward a better tomorrow and self!]

[You should praise yourself.]

—

 

The mocking intent was so obvious that I couldn’t even laugh bitterly.

“Praise….”

A ‘Story Stone’ was, as the name suggested, an item that meant a stone of narrative.

 

—

[Lowest-Grade Story Stone]

Contains the lowest-grade apocalypse.

Looking at the swirling vortex at its center, you feel as if you might be drawn in.

※ Can be absorbed or exchanged.

Current amount: 3

—

 

All living beings in this world, which had been invaded by a ‘third party,’ were given an ‘apocalypse’… a story.

Death marked both the end and completion of that story.

Which meant that in my hand right now was the life of someone who had once been human, then turned into a mutant, and was killed by me.

And this was also currency for transactions with the narrator.

A person’s life had been recorded, trampled, and turned into money.

The Story Stone was a device that very clearly showed what the narrator wanted.

 

—

[Don’t tell me… You feel guilty?]

—

 

It felt like the narrator was sneering at me.

As if to prove it, the window moved closer.

As though the narrator were right in front of me, an overwhelming presence pressed down on my entire body.

My fists clenched.

…Can this even be called guilt?

This flimsy emotion?

 

—

[Well, since you aspired to be a ‘teacher,’ I do somewhat ‘understand’ your character…]

—

 

Then it drifted away, hovering above my head.

A disgusting, tearing sound followed…

Riiip.

The window split apart.

 

—

[-]

—

 

At the same time, something began to appear in the middle of it.

What had been a short line…

 

—

[─]

—

 

Grew longer with each step I took.

With a sticky, unpleasant sound, like peeling off melted adhesive flooring, something opened.

And what appeared…

‘…An eye.’

Pitch black, no light within it, with something like blood dripping from its torn edges.

Every time it blinked, strands of black thread stuck and peeled away, accompanied by a slow, viscous sound.

A tearing, stretching sound.

 

—

[However, trying to understand even your ‘enemies’ will become poison to you.]

—

 

Below that eye, a new window formed, and the narrator spoke through it.

 

—

[This is advice for you. I want to complete this special apocalypse.]

—

 

Special?

Yeah… I guess it is.

Not many people… maybe one in a million, have an innate trait like mine.

I tore my gaze away from the eye looking down at me and kept walking forward.

The sticky, tearing sounds lingered for a moment, then slowly faded.

 

—

[This is why protagonists who want to be ‘teachers’ have such a hard time.]

[They always choose the difficult path over the easy one. Is it because of an obsession with having something to teach?]

[Haha, someday that righteous nature of yours will hold you back.]

[I’m looking forward to that moment!]

—

 

Hearing something that didn’t even understand what “righteousness” meant whisper about it didn’t really resonate with me.

In the first place, I wasn’t doing this for justice.

I was hiding behind the grand, almost ridiculous goal of turning everything back…

Just to go home.

 

***

 

As I turned toward the corner with burners, someone suddenly ran into me.

“Ah– Aaaagh!”

The moment I saw him panic, I quickly covered his mouth and looked into the corner.

I didn’t want to attract mutants with unnecessary noise. I was already in a hurry.

“Mmph… mmph…”

Inside the corner, people were collapsed on the ground.

‘…Hoin’s not here.’

The tension that had briefly risen dropped.

Fortunately, none of them was wearing school uniforms.

That meant Hoin was still…

Safe.

So far.

Once the man calmed down, I removed my hand and asked,

“Where’s the guy wearing the same uniform as me?”

“Huff… haah…”

The man kept gasping for breath, so I pressed him again.

“A tall guy in a school uniform. Haven’t you seen him?”

“Th-that kid… went with the police… over there…”

I turned my head in the direction he pointed.

Seems like he went with Lee Hyun.

I was about to move…

“W-wait!”

The man grabbed my arm tightly.

“Are you… going there?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s just go back, okay? There are at least five of those mo-monsters chasing behind!”

I looked down at him without even turning my body.

“Then go back.”

“N-no! I mean… let’s go together! Together! How can you go alone?!”

“Why should I?”

“…What?”

I shook his hand off.

“I came to find my friend. Not you. Or do you want to come with me?”

The man stared at me with wide eyes, as if I were insane.

Maybe I was.

I knew that too.

So I didn’t ask anything more and turned my back on him.

“Hey, hey!”

He tried to shout, but in the end, he cursed and ran in the direction I had come from.

His footsteps faded away.

“Kiieek, kiiieeeek!”

I lightly swept a display of ceramic dishes with my steel pipe.

The sound of pottery shattering echoed loudly.

Mutants hiding nearby reacted immediately, screeching.

I smashed through other displays as well, creating as much noise as possible.

Then, before they could swarm in, I ran in the direction Hoin had gone.

The mutants, drawn by the noise, rushed past me toward the chaos I had created.

Step, step.

Step.

Kiieeek.

That should be far enough.

I took a deep breath.

“Lee Hoin!”

I shouted.