A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse – Chapter 2

Author: Cireng

Chapter 2

The first event of [Ruined World] was fixed.

The moment the ‘player’ recognizes that destruction has arrived.

—

[Chapter 1, Apocalypse ▼]

—

Blink, blink.

The grand title announcing the first event passes, and below it, lines of text appear.

—

[▼]

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.

—

And then, the final sentence appears deliberately slowly.

—

My day…

—

A blinking cursor.

—

My day has gone…

—

As if each letter is being pressed in and engraved one by one.

—

My day has gone wrong somewhere.

—

The final sentence.

And beneath it, as if giving a warning, without delay, the choices and a bright red line of text appear.

—

[Chapter 1, Apocalypse ▼]

[〉 Rush at the monster.]

[〉 Quietly step back.]

[〉 Help the people.]

※ This choice will have a significant impact on your future.

—

……Not a single word differed.

This was, without a doubt, the first event of [Ruined World].

A forced, first event.

As if it were mocking me.

It was blinking.

***

Before I could even chew on that fact, the student standing next to me let out a short scream, vomited something dark red, and collapsed onto the floor as if having a seizure.

“Excuse me!”

It wasn’t just that student who collapsed. The teacher on the stage, the parents standing behind, even nameless others… one by one, they toppled over where they stood.

Soon, dark red blood splattered everywhere.

Between those vomiting blood and those shouting to call emergency services, I was struggling against a sense of unreality.

In a situation where I didn’t even know what to choose, everything around me once again began to spiral into chaos.

Because of the appearance of the teacher on the stage, who had been vomiting blood, the scene began to change.

Crack.

A sound that shouldn’t be heard rings like a hallucination.

The rounded tips of the hands and feet stretch out long, and like necrotized skin, the ends turn black and dead.

The pupils turn white like those of a dead fish, and with a creaking sound, the joints twist, and the body grows larger than before.

Black blood smeared around the mouth, pale skin, and even blue veins protruding across that skin.

At that grotesque transformation, people stepped back with horrified eyes.

Before they could even take a few steps away, the eyes that had been staring into empty space began to turn.

Those eyes…

“……What is this….”

Soon, their gaze locked precisely onto someone.

And then…

“KYAAAH!”

A scream of a completely different kind rang out.

Even within that unreal terror, my gaze followed.

A hellscape… and within it, something caught my sight.

It was the name tag of someone passing by.

As if I had received a revelation, that name tag stood out strangely.

[Sa Jaeheon]

The name tag that seemed to be the only thing shining… caught my gaze.

At the same time…

A sentence that felt familiar came to mind…

—

[Sa Jaeheon did not know why he kept repeating his destruction. Now, he wanted to end it.]

—

The surname “Sa” was unfamiliar… I had never seen it before.

Though it didn’t exist in my reality, it was a name I encountered every day.

‘Ruined World.’

The protagonist of <Ruined World>, the one I read every single day.

***

The cause of destruction in <Ruined World> was the ‘Third Parties.’

Among the many unique concepts that made up the ‘Third Parties,’ if one had to pick the most peculiar…

‘Narrator.’

—

[I am your only understander and companion, and the one who will narrate everything about you… the ‘Narrator.’ The sole narrator of your apocalypse.]

—

(T.L note; might change ‘understander’ later)

In the setting, the ‘Narrator’ was a central force among the ‘Third Parties’ that invaded Earth.

Even so, unlike the other ‘Third Parties,’ it did not directly participate in the destruction or the story. It was merely observed from the position of an onlooker.

What the ‘Narrator’ wanted was not some absurd resource.

It was something fundamental.

A story.

An intense and gripping story that held attention… it was anything except dull.

For that one thing, the ‘Narrator’ even willingly granted traits and skills. Simply because indiscriminate destruction was not interesting.

Thus, this story contained the process of overcoming destruction using what the ‘Narrator’ provided and the rewards obtained from defeating the ‘Third Parties.’

—

[The narrator has encountered their ‘protagonist’!]

—

And ‘Sa Jaeheon’ is the protagonist of that story.

***

My hand shot out reflexively and grabbed Sa Jaeheon’s forearm. Then I pulled him strongly toward me.

Sa Jaeheon lost his balance from the sudden force, and his body tilted toward me, and behind him, long claws tore through the air with a ripping sound.

—

[You have chosen to help people. The narrator of this apocalypse has a somewhat ‘righteous’ personality!]

—

Hearing the narrator’s nonsense only made the sense of unreality even more… strange.

There was no way this was reality.

Even with that thought, instead of my sense of reality loosening, it sharpened instead.

Along with that, my heart was pounding like crazy… everything felt as though it was shouting at me that this moment was reality.

Even though I clearly knew all of this was false.

‘Is this a dream?’

Recently, my sleep had been restless. I must have fainted in that brief moment.

While sending the bug report, maybe an error occurred, and my rising blood pressure, unable to endure it, made me faint?

And this is a dream formed from the accumulation of all my stress until now.

…Yes, that must be it.

An absurd dream where [Ruined World] has fallen in front of me as if it were reality.

There was evidence of it everywhere.

‘Seonggwang High is the alma mater where I graduated. And there is no “Sa Jaeheon” there.’

No, in the first place, there is no one with the surname ‘Sa’ among the students. When the reality I know and the unrealistic story I know mix, that’s usually a dream.

This is a dream.

While I was denying reality, people in panic ran past me and out the door. Sa Jaeheon’s confused face looked somehow familiar.

Ah, come to think of it, Sa Jaeheon regresses on the second day after destruction arrives…

‘Since this is before the regression, that reaction is accurate to the canon.’

Because of these subtle details, it felt even more like a dream.

‘I will wake up soon.’

Just as that thought passed through my mind…

“Move!”

Someone shoved me roughly.

The direction I was falling toward…

—

[Even if the narrator of this story chooses to help people, someone else may choose differently.]

[Unfortunately, this is the result of that choice.]

—

…was the front, the direction I was looking.

Which meant…

within the attack range of the ‘monster’ that had swung its arm at Sa Jaeheon.

‘This works out better.’

As I fell, I thought that. This works out better. Because I wanted to get out of this place filled with screams as soon as possible.

If I die, I’ll wake up.

—

[In this world, such things will be commonplace.]

[I wonder whether the narrator of this story can remain ‘righteous’ even after experiencing such things countless times….]

—

A window that seemed to be smiling somewhere swept past my vision, and faded eyes moved as if they had recognized me falling.

Immediately, the attack followed. Long claws cut horizontally through the air and rushed at me.

Before I could do anything about my falling body, only after being cut by those rushing fingertips, a massive shock struck my head.

‘……It hurts.’

It hurts. ……A dream shouldn’t hurt.

At that moment, an overwhelming sense of reality wrapped around my entire body, and the pounding heartbeat I had tried to ignore consumed me along with anxiety.

Crash!

My body, having lost its center, fell in the direction the monster’s claws had swung, collapsing over already fallen chairs and something strangely soft.

Even as I was thrown among things I didn’t want to identify, I reflexively brought my left hand to my neck.

A burning heat and pounding throb were transmitted directly through my hand. That sensation was vivid within my hand. Right now, in my hand.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

Thump-thump, thump. Thump-thump, thump. Thump-thump, thump. Thump-thump, thump. Thump-thump, thump.

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump.

The heartbeat was vivid.

It’s a dream.

It definitely should be a dream.

But the heat filling my hand… felt as if it was saying otherwise.

…That this is reality.

‘……No.’

If this isn’t a dream…

Then..

Stagger.

The hand I had stretched out to support myself as I tried to step back slipped straight into a sticky puddle.

‘…Could I… die like this?’

A certain assumption crossed my mind.

I die. Here. Suddenly. Like this.

My mind, which still hadn’t grasped the situation, was filled only with an unfamiliar fear.

It was a kind of fear I had never experienced even once.

Even when my head was split open from being beaten as a child, I had never felt this kind of fear.

My mind, which had been escaping reality however it pleased, began to spin fiercely.

Meanwhile, the mutant that had turned toward me moved step by step with slow motions.

—

[However, I already know most endings.]

[They are unbearably cliché.]

—

Leaving the consecutive windows behind, I looked straight at it.

‘…Basic mutant.’

In [Ruined World], it was a creature that appeared in the very early stages.

Despite its size and savage appearance, in terms of other games, it was only at the level of a goblin, so users called it a ‘Mutant Goblin.’

They mainly targeted the injured or the weak, and once they chose prey, they never let it go. Not until it completely disappeared from their sight.

“Ha…….”

A hollow laugh mixed with a sigh escaped me without realizing it… lamenting that I might become ‘an extra who dies stupidly without even understanding the situation.’

At the same time, I understood them to the bone.

‘Who would believe this damn situation is my reality?’

If destruction were to come, I thought it would be something like an ice age on Earth. I never imagined I’d suddenly become younger and get possessed by something like this. No, isn’t this even less likely?

Gritting my teeth, I firmly planted my hand on the floor again.

There was no time to lament. I had to run before the mutant attacked again.

Anywhere… somewhere without the mutant.

Drip, drop.

From its hand, what was probably my blood fell.

Watching the mutant take its attacking stance once more, I chose a direction.

‘Left……!’

Avoiding the claws that lifted briefly and then slammed down toward me, I rolled diagonally to the left.

Bang! Crash!

Chairs and desks tangled with my feet collapsed all at once.

Perhaps I hit it wrong… my foot throbbed, but I pushed harder through it, forcefully kicking away whatever caught at my toes.

There was no time to care about the pain. I had to stand up.