A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 33

Chapter 33

 

As soon as I stepped into the supply area, I held up the ticket. The moment I did, a doll that had been sitting in a corner suddenly stood up, walked over step by step, and swallowed the ticket.

Then it collapsed onto the floor with a thud, and from that point, things poured out and instantly transformed the supply area.

 

—

[Welcome to the weapon supply depot!]

—

 

There was a time limit. I pressed down firmly on the shoulders of Lee Hoin and Cha Hyeongseo, who flinched and tried to back away. Don’t run. Don’t panic. First, we had to find weapons that suited us.

“Each of you, take a look at the weapons. You might have to take them outside.”

As if snapping back to their senses, they each started examining the weapons. They were definitely in better condition than the ones in the regular supply area. I grabbed an axe and a few daggers.

Hoin picked up a hammer with a head as big as his forearm and spun it lightly in his hand as if it weighed nothing, testing whether he could handle and swing it properly.

 

—

[The narrator is writhing in a sense of deprivation. (bursting into laughter)]

[He could never do that even if he died.]

—

 

Now that I was starting to see the truth, that bastard’s mockery seemed to be getting worse.

And Cha Hyeongseo… picked up a decent machete. Just in case, I stuffed a few more axes into my bag.

 

—

[A lumberjack? (scoffs)]

—

 

Damn it, this is getting old and annoying.

I hate dealing with sulking bastards the most.

I turned my gaze away and examined the place more carefully. Was there something else we could get? They went through all the trouble of creating a space like this, and there’s nothing?

I searched every corner thoroughly. In the original story, Cha Hyeongseo had never come here, and Sa Jaeheon had abandoned this route, so while I knew of this place, I had never visited it.

At that moment, something in a corner caught my eye.

 

—

[Ah, this is why I hate passive skills.]

—

 

I walked over and immediately pried off a wooden panel with my axe. …Nothing. Just as I felt a brief sense of emptiness, there were still spots that kept catching my eye… ‘suspicious’ spots.

‘Never thought I’d end up understanding Sa Jaeheon, who acted like he’d die if he didn’t suspect everything.’

Things others couldn’t see.

But things that irritated me so much I had to tear them apart. I dug into the space, ripping and splitting things open, searching.

“What are you doing?”

Hoin asked, sounding puzzled. Without much thought, I replied while prying up a floorboard, anyone would think this looked hysterical.

“Something’s bothering me.”

My ‘intuition’ was telling me so. There had to be a hidden piece here. And to find it, I had to tear apart everything suspicious.

Time passed. The ten minutes we had were now down to three. In that time, the number of things that shimmered in my sight kept increasing. Beyond what I had already torn apart. Or…

 

—

[Wouldn’t it be faster to just smash the entire floor?]

—

 

Like a madman, I kept digging.

Eventually, unable to watch anymore, Hoin and Cha Hyeongseo followed my instructions and started tearing up the supply area as well.

With only 30 seconds left…

Bang!

When I slammed the hammer down hard, a gap opened… and for a split second, I saw an eye. Like a reptile’s eye.

‘…Found it.’

And at the same time…

“Hey! There’s something here, too? Looks like… a snake eye or something. It’s green.”

Cha Hyeongseo said.

“What is this? There’s another snake eye here. This one’s red.”

Hoin added.

 

—

[Ho, a twist of fate.]

—

 

Damn it. What am I supposed to do?

My eyes darted rapidly. 20 seconds left. I had to choose. Only one out of the three was correct.

‘One out of three.’

But then…

‘…What if there is no correct answer?’

Something surged up.

‘Doubt.’

Reptiles…

Reptiles…

There was no reptile mask among the “Eternal Pleasure Seeker” avatars. I immediately turned my head. Doubt. I even doubted what I was doubting.

‘I don’t even trust ‘myself.’ I doubt even my ‘doubt’.’

 

—

[Yes, do go ahead. You have 5 seconds left, by the way.]

—

 

When I doubted my ‘doubt,’ everything I had been seeing sank away.

Ha.

‘Moderate doubt awakens the mind, but deep doubt becomes a disease.’

So I thought again. A key that could change space. Space. Space. To change a space, it’s better to make it empty. Easier to start from nothing than to overwrite something full.

But physically overturning everything wasn’t possible in the time left.

Then…

Don’t define the space.

To not define it…

In that instant, I grabbed a dagger from a nearby stall and stabbed the sign that read “Weapon Supply Depot.”

‘Name.’

Whether it’s a space, a human, or an animal… ‘a name’ defines it. If that disappears, its ‘definition’ disappears.

With a click, the sign broke.

And at the same time…

“What, what, what, what, what is this!? You uncivilized human!!”

A shrill voice rang out. The space slowly turned black. From where the sign had fallen…

“Baa–! I didn’t request remodeling!! You damn human!”

A sheep walked out.

A palm-sized sheep stepped forward, and the space ‘shifted’, into shelves filled with countless books. A strangely familiar sheep. Palm-sized, that peculiar speech habit, and “space.”

‘…Jackpot.’

That was an agent of the “Eternal Pleasure Seeker.” The most famous, and cheapest, agent. The pessimistic sheep. It functioned as a kind of ‘archive’.

And just finding it meant passing the test. If you found the pessimistic sheep hidden somewhere, it rewarded you for it.

So this agent stored ‘stories’. Of course, it kept the important ones itself, but even here there were countless stories, a kind of collection.

“Five minutes. I’ll give you five minutes, baa–. If there’s something you want, take it. I will help you ‘read’ it! You foolish humans!”

“What? What is this palm-sized sheep ba–”

I immediately covered Cha Hyeongseo’s mouth before she could finish. There was nothing to gain from insulting the sheep. It frowned briefly, then turned its head as if letting it slide.

“Five minutes. There are only books here… and it said it would help us ‘read’ them. That means these aren’t normal books. And not normal ‘reading’ either.”

“…What?”

“Just find something. Anything that looks decent. There’s no time.”

Five minutes.

I immediately split up with them. As I skimmed through titles at high speed, I had to find something I could handle.

Low risk, high practicality.

What I lacked right now was combat power.

So, I didn’t go deep. I grabbed the nearest thing: “998 Ways a Cowardly Assassin Commits Suicide.”

When we regrouped in front of the sheep, each of them held a book. Cha Hyeongseo had “The Success Story of an Underdog Boxer,” and Hoin had “The Success Chronicle of Intuition and Prediction.”

The sheep looked at each book and sneered at theirs.

“There is no such thing as a ‘success’ story among finished stories. Baa– foolish humans. And can you even understand those? Baa– stupid humans.”

Still, as if to help us “read,” the sheep stood up, walked through the air, and took the books.

The moment they entered its grasp, they turned into bottles filled with shimmering liquid.

Thick, blood-like red liquid filled each bottle, each labeled accordingly. With a snap of its fingers, the bottles were tossed into our hands.

“Drink them, baa. But ‘when’ you drink them… that’s up to you, baa. And fully absorbing them is also your responsibility. Inferior humans.”

Then the sheep kicked us out.

“Now leave. Rude humans.”

Whoosh

With that sound, everything disappeared.

Everything.

At the same time, we were thrown back into the normal supply area.

While the others stood there in a daze, I quietly gripped the bottle and put it into my bag.

‘Not now.’

We didn’t have proper safety measures yet. Every story had its own length, and the time required to absorb it depended on that.

“Don’t drink it yet.”

Of course, if we got kicked out before fully absorbing it… Well, we might get ejected in five seconds.

‘And the ones they picked…’

There was a reason the sheep mocked their “success stories.”

“Success” was vague. Especially in this world.

If it had become a ‘story’, then it wasn’t truly a success story. Those who truly succeeded became “third parties,” so they didn’t become stories.

Calling a loser’s tale a success story was either mockery… or praise.

I didn’t know whether their books were mockery or praise.

If mockery, then we’d need to brace for mental damage.

If praise, then we’d need to prepare for overload.

‘Success.’

It sounded damn good.