A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

Bang!

The fingertips that struck down with fierce force barely grazed past the tips of my feet.

Before those pale eyes could fix on me again…

Thud!

A door shut in front of me.

“Ha, haa.”

At the same time, the sound of heavy breathing overlapped from behind me. Someone sprang up, locked the door of the small room we were trapped in, and drew the curtains tightly.

With the sound of the curtains being drawn, the light that had been spilling into the small room faded away. At the same time, the screams grew distant, and the sounds of ragged breathing and pounding heartbeats filled the space.

Amidst that, I picked up my phone and opened the message tab first. I needed to grasp the situation.

Where this was, who I was, what year it was… things like that. The kind of thing that was like the fate of a ‘possessor.’

‘Seems like I know where this is….’

It was written plainly. Then it was time to check the rest.

 

—

[010-XXXX-XXXX]

Muyeong, I heard today is your graduation ceremony, but something came up, so I can’t go. Congratulations on your graduation. I sent you a little allowance. Buy something good to eat. Don’t skip meals.

—

 

A message the orphanage director had sent on the day of the graduation ceremony. Not a single word was different.

And seeing that the last call was from my landlord…

This really is when I was 20. But… why 20?

I blinked both eyes and pressed the lower part of my palm against my eyelids.

‘Of all times, why….’

My head soon brought up my last memory of ‘reality.’

‘Winning the Ruined World café collaboration.’

That web message I checked, and when I tried to turn off the game, the message that appeared on the screen…

 

—

[When was your most brilliant moment?]

—

 

That bug-like prompt. I pressed 20 years old and wrote a bug report.

That’s the last memory.

Even asking “why me” is exhausting. Because it’s full of clichés I’ve seen somewhere before.

‘Even almost dying at the start because I acted clueless… it’s all cliché.’

A cliché that can’t be escaped.

I tried to sigh, then closed my mouth.

Yeah. No wonder I won.

‘Reality.’

The wound, cut by the mutant’s sharp claws and still throbbing, is telling me. That this is reality.

That my damn luck has arranged things up to this point.

Why?

‘Because I kept muttering that my life was ruined?’

So it really led to my ruin because of that?

 

—

[Hmm, where should you go? Or perhaps, should you not go?]

[〉 Outside the auditorium]

[〉 The playground]

[〉 Stay.]

—

 

Choices that seemed to be telling me to stop thinking useless thoughts and just choose.

“…Sorry, in a situation like this, but is there anyone seeing a strange window?”

I turned my gaze in the direction the question came from.

There were a total of eight people in the room, including me. In this small space, the one who drew everyone’s attention was Sa Jaeheon.

‘Why him?’

Is this a coincidence or inevitability? Usually, in moments like this, it’s inevitable.

‘Me and Sa Jaeheon?’

It would be faster to just delude myself that I’m the protagonist of a web novel.

“I see it too.”

“…Me too.”

When the question, after going around, finally reached me, I slightly nodded my head. There was no reason to lie.

If it’s a ‘strange window,’ it must be referring to that.

“For now, mine says where I should go. Is it the same for you guys?”

At the girl’s calm question, most of the people nodded.

“Then is there anyone who wants to go out right now?”

Only the sound of eyes shifting filled the room. We had just run away… if told to go out again, no one could.

“If you’re going to go, it’d be good if you go now.”

“Yeah. Anyone going out, go quickly. Don’t make a fuss about it later.”

While listening to those words, I crawled over and leaned my back against the wall. I have no intention of going out.

Most users did not recommend going outside the building on Day 1 of [Ruined World]. Streets and roads were crawling with mutants.

‘And going out while bleeding this much….’

It’s no different from shouting for someone to kill you.

In the end, since mutants also move, it was recommended to leave the building on the second day if it was a quiet area, or on the third day if it was in the middle of the city.

Well, that’s only if food and safety are secured. At least two meals a day had to be secured.

‘If you eat at least two meals a day for about five days, you get the satiety buff.’

The satiety buff makes you get injured less and gives you more action capacity. That’s how it was in the game.

It was one of the useful buffs that was relatively easy to obtain early on.

If you don’t have food, it’s better to go out and secure some.

‘But right now….’

I quietly turned my eyes. I roughly knew where this was.

A small side room was used whenever there were events in the auditorium.

A space that also functioned as a broadcast room while storing various supplies.

On one side of the room were bundles of 200ml bottled water and a few bags of snacks brought by broadcasting club members.

That was all.

Far too little for eight people to share.

‘Securing food is out of the question….’

At that moment, someone suddenly stood up.

“I-I can’t do this. My parents are outside….”

Muttering that, they stood up, and a few others followed.

No one stopped them. Everyone bears their own responsibility.

“No one else?”

Leaning against the wall, I let out a shallow breath. Going out now is practically suicide.

Even if there’s no food, we have to endure here until night.

 

—

[You have chosen to stay. Was it the right choice?]

—

 

It’s probably a somewhat right choice.

The narrator speaking like that meaningfully doesn’t matter much, since it’s the same no matter what you choose.

Anyway, since Sa Jaeheon is here, we won’t die immediately. The protagonist doesn’t die right away.

If Sa Jaeheon had tried to leave, I would have gone too.

‘Tomorrow might be different, though.’

Right now, he’s just a 20-year-old boy experiencing destruction.

But tomorrow, he becomes someone who has gone through everything and even regression.

Would that really be a good thing for me?

‘Depending on which regression number….’

The difference would be as vast as the creation of heaven and earth.

According to recently revealed settings in the original work, regression erodes mental strength.

Though revealed recently, it was a hidden setting that existed from the beginning. So it must be reflected in the game to some extent.

The problem is that mental strength is the only thing Sa Jaeheon carries over.

And ‘mental strength’ was one of the settings that made survival the hardest.

And it erodes that mental strength.

In the novel, he has regressed nearly 500 times… so would his mental strength even be… normal?

‘It depends on which round, but….’

The last described mental strength of Sa Jaeheon was [0/?]……

If that’s true, then there must be some other hidden mental setting for him.

Because once mental strength hits 0, maintaining thought itself becomes impossible.

If mental strength drops below 50%, there is a chance to gain mental debuffs like [Confusion], [Panic], and [Depression].

If it drops below 10%, [Mental Collapse] is applied with certainty.

‘If Mental Collapse is applied.’

Friend-or-foe recognition and normal thinking become impossible.

The player character is no exception.

Below 10%, choices cannot be selected properly and are chosen randomly, taking away control.

‘Even in the original, a mentally collapsed character tried to take Sa Jaeheon’s head.’

So [Mental Collapse] exists in both the game and the original.

But Sa Jaeheon, even at mental strength 0, did not have [Mental Collapse], and could think on his own.

‘That’s why it’s strange.’

From his actions, it can’t be 0… yet it’s described as 0. So something must be hidden.

‘…This kind of reasoning was only fun when this was fiction.’

Now that this has become my damn reality, everything is revolting.

This kind of thing is my reality.

‘…Even rolling in a pile of shit, the living world is better.’

I never thought the day would come when I’d long for my reality.

My gaze naturally rose.

I saw the narrator’s empty window.

I saw the communication channel of the being I need to secure as quickly as possible to return to my reality.

He is the ‘Narrator.’ The being that ‘narrates’ everything.

He knows that irregulars like this exist.

He probably… also knows how to return.

And if I ask to be sent back right now, it’s obvious he won’t grant it.

‘A channel is just a channel.’

It can avoid it if it wants, and cut off if it wants.

‘In the end, I have to reach the real thing.’

To get there, the most important thing is ‘me.’

More precisely, the status window.

Even a glance tells whether this is a talented character or not.

Life and mental strength are all random.

 

—

[Life] 6/8

[Mental] 10/10

—

 

Life is average, and mental… is high.

Not bad.

My gaze moved downward.

 

—

[Status]

[Traits] Unlucky(-), Possession(-), Amateur Psychological Counselor(1)

[Skill] Shabby Counseling Center(1)

—

 

The moment I saw the traits, I froze.

Not a single one was normal.

Were there even traits and skills like these?

Pressing my tightening brow, I checked them one by one.

Who knows. They might help.

 

—

[Unlucky (-)]

You slipped on cow dung and ended up face-first in dog shit. You’ve lived like that your whole life.

 

[Possession (-)]

Congratulations. You have possessed your favorite work.

—

 

Skipping the useless descriptions, the strange part first…

There were no levels shown.

In [Ruined World], traits had levels. At 5, they evolved.

No level means only one thing.

It’s already at the highest rank.

‘……Unlucky, Possession.’

Possession aside, Unlucky being high rank doesn’t sound good.

I checked the next trait.

That at least had to be my savior.

 

—

[Amateur Psychological Counselor (1)]

In this world, you may be the only psychological counselor.

Let’s save the people who have gone mad!

—

 

Looking at it, I pressed my brow again.

This doesn’t exist.

I’ve never seen this trait even once.

Maybe this created the skill?

 

—

[Shabby Counseling Center (1)]

For 15 minutes, you can conduct counseling with a client in a soundproof space.

Counseling affects the client’s mental strength. It’s better to succeed, right?

※ Activates automatically when a ‘client’ appears.

※ Exclusive to [Amateur Psychological Counselor]

—

 

After reading to the end, I swallowed.

The core of clearing this game is managing ‘mental strength.’

But it’s not easy.

Because…

‘You have to rely on very few traits and items.’

It’s hard to raise, and ridiculously easy to lose.

I slowly covered my mouth and inhaled.

With this… definitely…

‘…there is merit.’

In a way, it’s basically a supporter.

And in this game, supporters are treated like nobles.

Because there are too few of them.

And even if they exist, they’re almost unusable. Too hard to manage. Like ‘Kim Taekjin.’

‘There are countless characters I had to abandon because of mental strength….’

A truckload.

But the problem is… You must travel with others.

‘Then the most helpful person would be….’

My gaze slid toward Sa Jaeheon sitting in the corner.

If I follow him, I won’t have to worry about that.

He’ll gather survival resources faster than anyone.

But another problem is… if I follow him, I’ll inevitably have to reveal my hand.

Even if I don’t, someone with instincts like a beast won’t miss it.

‘That I’m an irregular.’

I recalled how Sa Jaeheon treated irregulars in the original.

He squeezed them dry, brainwashed them, made them spill everything, then discarded them.

…That could be my future.

‘Sa Jaeheon’, aside from being the protagonist, is not someone to cling to.

He sees people as tools.

I understood.

Even someone human would break after over 500 regressions of betrayal and death.

If anything, going mad would be more human.

‘I understand, but.’

Fear is a separate matter.

That irregular could be me.

When reading, I liked his pragmatism.

Now that it’s my situation, nothing is more terrifying.

“Are you okay?”

I flinched and turned at the voice beside me.

There was Sa Jaeheon, looking at me with sparkling eyes, full of concern.

The Sa Jaeheon on the cover has dark circles and dead fish eyes, but this one…

“…Yeah.”

Forcing out an answer past the dissonance, Sa Jaeheon spoke with a distressed face.

“I couldn’t react earlier. I should’ve held on tighter… Are you hurt badly?”

Over the living Sa Jaeheon’s words, the speech pattern of the dead-eyed Sa Jaeheon overlapped and replayed.

 

—

“You getting hurt is my fault? Your stupidity is disgusting. Die quietly.”

—

 

…Regression really.

Really… ruined him completely.