A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 29.0

Chapter 29

 

“Ah, fuck!”

Instead of covering Cha Hyeongseo’s mouth as she shouted, Lee Hoin swung his hammer once in a wide arc, swallowed a breath, and sprinted forward again, eyes fixed ahead.

It had been a doomed plan from the start. In truth, it wasn’t even much of a plan. There was only one thing in Lee Hoin and Cha Hyeongseo’s “strategy.”

‘Run toward a single destination.’

With two people who weren’t exactly great at using their heads, there was no room for anything sophisticated. They could only push forward with their bodies.

Surprisingly, both Lee Hoin and Cha Hyeongseo were quite athletic. Cha Hyeongseo came from track and field, and Lee Hoin from baseball. They hadn’t known each other because they were focused on their own fields, but they figured they must have crossed paths at some point.

In the end, their plan, completely transformed into a physical battle, fit them perfectly. Since they were used to exercising, they even knew how to pace themselves and take “appropriate” breaks while running.

“They never said this many would come!!”

Cha Hyeongseo screamed into the air as she ran like mad.

At this point, telling her to be quiet was pointless. There were already nine of those things chasing them. Silence wasn’t the issue anymore.

A metallic taste rose in his throat. He was really at his limit now. Lee Hoin glanced back and then up briefly, took a deep breath, and shouted:

“Cha Hyeongseo, get to higher ground!”

“Higher ground? Wh– what are you talking about?!”

If all they had was their bodies, then they had to use them to the very end. He unwound the rope he had wrapped tightly around his hand so he wouldn’t drop it.

He tied the rope to the head of the hammer and stood still for a moment.

A thick, dense tree, with sturdy branches sturdy enough to hold his weight without issue. No matter how much they ran along the ground, they couldn’t escape those things’ line of sight. No matter how quietly they moved.

 

— 

“Don’t just think in one straight line… try thinking in different ways. You take after me, great athletic sense, but why didn’t you inherit your mom’s brains… I’m sorry, son. I passed on my lousy genes…”

“But it’s okay, Hoin.”

“If your body is strong, your brain doesn’t have to suffer. That’s how we live, got it, son!!”

If you ever meet someone smart and kind enough to show you different paths instead of letting you brute-force everything, never let them go! From my life experience, I only flourished after meeting your mom!

— 

 

“Hey, what are you doing?!”

The answer was above.

Gripping the hammer’s head, he pulled it beside his ear, then spun his body and hurled it upward.

“You think that’ll work?!”

Cha Hyeongseo looked up with shock.

The rope that had been coiled on the ground unraveled rapidly as it shot upward. The hammer, which she thought would fall short of even reaching a branch, unbelievably wrapped around a thick branch two or three times and secured itself.

“…That actually worked?”

“Climb!”

Leaving the still-stunned Cha Hyeongseo behind, Lee Hoin threw off his baggage and sprinted with full force.

Beep beep beep beep beep—!!

He turned on an alarm on his phone as he ran. Behind him, Cha Hyeongseo climbed the tree, but the mutants chased only Lee Hoin single-mindedly.

After running far from the tree where the rope was tied, he quickly turned off the sound and, before he could lose track of the path, immediately turned back and returned to the tree.

“Haah–ugh.”

Standing beneath the rope, Lee Hoin caught his breath once, then looked up at Cha Hyeongseo, gripping the rope tightly and began climbing.

His lungs felt like they were collapsing, like he might die. He’d avoided this kind of extreme endurance training ever since deciding not to pursue baseball in college…

Finally reaching the top, Lee Hoin leaned against the tree and spent a long moment catching his breath.

“…It’s definitely better up here, but what now?”

After drinking from his canteen, he exhaled deeply and spoke.

“We can’t go down. Even if we do, we’ll just keep running and dodging. We’re both at our limit.”

“Then I guess we have no choice but to move along the branches?”

Their gazes swept the surroundings, dense trees everywhere, sturdy branches that easily supported their weight.

“…You good at climbing trees?”

At Cha Hyeongseo’s question, Lee Hoin shook his head.

“I’m not cut out for climbing.”

“You can at least keep your balance, right? Don’t tell me you never trained in balance?”

“…Do track athletes run and then suddenly climb onto gym bars?”

“Isn’t that basic? Wow, you really skipped that?”

“…I’ve never done track, but do track athletes climb onto bars mid-run?”

Letting out a long breath, Lee Hoin stood up.

They were in the middle of the forest. All he could think about was finding Nam Muyeong as quickly as possible.

‘If I stay with her, it feels like we’ll just solve everything like this…’

Why did they have to reveal they were both athletes?

He quickly shook his head.

With her personality, her height, and her build, she probably wouldn’t have believed him if he said he wasn’t athletic. And if he kept denying it, she would’ve looked down on him for it.

“The branches don’t wobble much, even at the ends. I think we can jump that way.”

Having gone all the way to the tip of a branch, Cha Hyeongseo pointed to another branch across the gap… and before Lee Hoin could respond, she lightly leapt over.

“Hyup.”

Landing on the opposite branch, she turned to look at him.

At that moment, Lee Hoin realized that eyes could speak.

Her gaze said only one thing… no, one word.

‘Scared?’

‘…’

Suppressing the fatigue washing over him, Lee Hoin jumped and landed on the branch she had moved aside from.

“This route is good. Why didn’t we think of moving up here? It’d be way better for hunting those trash things. Maybe I should bring a bow next time.”

“…Yeah. Just live.”

“Yeah, I will. I’ll claw my way to survival.”

He swallowed the words ‘Sounds about right.’

 

***

 

— 

[You actually pulled it off.]

— 

 

Sticky blood dripped down his hand.

Pushing the heavy body aside, he dug up the canteen he had buried in the ground and let out a breath.

First, he pulled out the guidebook and approached the corpses sprawled in front of the ‘Home.’

He had no intention of describing how they’d been mutilated. He’d seen too many bodies killed by mutants already.

“…May you rest in peace.”

Closing the eyes of those who couldn’t, he collected their symbols.

The faded rabbit symbols on their wrists were quietly imprinted into the guidebook.

A total of eight. Five rabbits, one cow, one horse, one eagle.

The stamps at the back of the guidebook were now filled.

There were extra cow and horse symbols, but he didn’t bother collecting them. They didn’t stack, and he could just give them to Lee Hoin later.

 

— 

[‘Item: Guidebook’ is upgrading!]

[Hidden conditions have been fulfilled.]

[‘Item: Guidebook’ spits out ‘Item: Stamp Ticket.’]

— 

 

With the upgrade, faint images of each waiting room’s ‘Home,’ supply zones, and even hidden Homes became visible.

Only now did it become a complete guidebook.

And the stamp ticket, just as it said, the guidebook literally ‘spat it out.’

‘…Everything’s ready.’

When the sun rises, he’d head straight to the weapon supply area and replenish his weapons…

His slow train of thought abruptly stopped at the sound of something tearing through.

Someone was approaching the ‘Home.’

The tension that had been stretched taut snapped in an instant.

“What, standing there like that–you look like some kind of murderer.”

A ridiculous joke cut it off completely.

The first to show her face was Cha Hyeongseo.

“Why are you just standing there? Get in first.”

And behind her…

Lee Hoin.

 

— 

[Oh, your children have returned.]

— 

 

Letting out a breath like a sigh, he loosened his grip on the axe.

“…Let’s go in.”

He replaced all that relief with those few words and reached out to open the ‘Home’ door.

Thud thud thud thud thud

Something was rapidly approaching.

The sound of palms striking the ground.

Right behind him.

“Nam Muyeong!”

The axe slipped from his loosened grip.

In his hastily turned field of vision…

Something like a massive coffin.

Wrapped in cloth, split open at the center, with countless hands stretching out and moving in place of legs.

And those hands are partially covering its face.

He had never seen something shaped like that before.

‘An Imperfect Creator.’

An artificially created mutant… spawned by that damned creature.

 

— 

[You don’t have time to analyze all this–]

— 

 

The window cut off abruptly.

What burst through it…

Was a massive hammer.

Whooom–

As the heavy hammer swung wildly and flew straight toward the mutant in front of him, he realized one thing.

If this continued…

If he let Lee Hoin go to that mutant…

Lee Hoin would die.