A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse – Chapter 52

Author: Cireng

Chapter 52

In situations like this, everything ultimately turns into a matter of results. If you die in the end, then you did something that led to death.

It means you failed, and you’re a failure.

—

[That’s a correct statement.]

[Will you stop because you think it’s correct, or continue because you think it’s something you’re getting beaten down with?]

[Is this a skill worth risking your life for?]

—

“Appraisal” was useful. It definitely was useful. The commentator didn’t add anything more, but it felt like he was looking down on me.

A moth to a flame.

Just a moth.

“You act like you’ve got three lives or something. Where does that confidence even come from?”

Lee Hoin poked me, looking completely unable to understand.

Confidence? Not really. It’s more like…

“…Desperation.”

I admitted quietly. I was desperate. Because I wanted to go back. Because I wanted to end this damn situation as quickly as possible and return.

Because none of this is my reality. My reality is in that tiny one-room apartment. It’s in that phone filled with rejection messages from job applications.

Lee Hoin stared at me for a moment. At just that one sentence, the look in his eyes changed… not confusion, but a hint of shock.

Eventually, he shut his mouth and turned his head, as if to say do whatever you want. In the end, he and I were the same. We all wanted to escape this damned reality.

‘It’s just that… the way we escape is different.’

We endure it. We just run like mad to turn everything back. Escapism itself is my greatest growth point.

Quietly, I injected the suspicious liquid.

“Ugh…!”

The pain that rang through my mind instantly choked my breath.

It felt like my brain was being smashed with a pork cutlet hammer, my bones crushed under an eight-ton truck, my muscles tearing apart, and my ligaments snapping with a twang.

My heart beat erratically. In my ears—

—

[Now, get a hold of yourself.]

[Mental strength has decreased by 1.]

—

My hearing dulled. I could even hear the sound of blood flowing… a hallucination, perhaps. The sound of blood moving through my veins. I had never heard it before, yet I was certain that was what it sounded like.

Pareidolia. A psychological phenomenon where unrelated patterns are perceived from stimuli like images or sounds, triggering a mental response.

To turn my attention away from the pain, I forced myself to think of something else, like a defense mechanism. I believed this would pass.

Something kept rising in my throat. I felt like I might throw up. I didn’t know if it would be food or blood.

The sound of blood in my ears faded, replaced by a piercing ringing.

“Ugh.”

—

[Mental strength has decreased by 1.]

—

A notification told me my mental strength was down to half. I struggled to steady my breathing. My head spun.

As my “Mental Strength” kept dropping, my trait began to flicker.

[Amateur Counselor (1)]

Staring at that flicker, I forced myself to hold on. I couldn’t let my mind collapse. My mind was the last line of defense.

It would be better if my stamina dropped instead.

The moment I thought that, my stamina began to decrease.

Tststst… tststst…

By the time I noticed the bar dropping, the intense pain slowly began to subside.

—

[So, how is it? Does anything feel different?]

—

I checked my skills first.

—

[Skills] Shabby Counseling Center (1), Suspicion (-), Character Encyclopedia (2), Beginner Daggersmanship (2), Definition (1)

—

…

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

—

[Well then, you’ve gained nothing and lost quite a lot.]

[You trust yourself too much. That delusion that everything will work out has brought you here.]

[Are you happy?]

—

He was right. I couldn’t even argue back.

—

[Even though you carry misfortune, things have gone well for you so far, so you’ve become quite arrogant.]

—

A hollow laugh escaped me. Next to me, Lee Hoin was grabbing me and saying something, but I kept staring at the unchanged status window like it was my enemy.

Drip. Drip.

I knew something was steadily running from my nose, but nothing entered my mind except the thought that I had failed.

I could feel something warm running down, and I knew Lee Hoin was shaking me, but the emptiness controlling my body was stronger.

Then, in my dazed vision…

“Ah, fuck!”

Lee Hyun, whom I didn’t even know had been staring for how long, was standing outside the driver’s window, looking straight at me.

That single appearance instantly shattered the destructive thoughts. It was shocking… no, more like startling as hell.

Lee Hoin, who had been shaking me, also screamed in surprise. I mean, sure, I was startled… but why was he screaming?

Lee Hyun looked at our reactions for a moment, then knocked on the window and spoke.

“Could you open the back seat door?”

He was absurdly calm, almost ridiculously so.

Lee Hoin opened and closed his mouth a few times. The inside of the car was full of confusion and shock, while outside looked like a peaceful spring day.

In the end, I opened the door. As Lee Hyun got in, he said:

“I didn’t expect you to be this close.”

It sounded like an excuse. Or maybe not.

“You should wipe the blood. Is it heavy bleeding? Did you cut your neck or an artery?”

He handed me a towel from the back seat.

“…No. I’m fine.”

I was about to ask why he came, but Lee Hyun spoke first.

“I wanted to talk. Inside, it wasn’t an environment where we could have a conversation.”

At that moment, a window appeared.

—

[A client has appeared.]

[The ‘Shabby Counseling Center’ skill is activated.]

—

The counseling center skill activated instantly.

…It felt unfamiliar.

It had only ever been activated for Lee Hoin until now. It felt like receiving a new customer for the first time. Like a shop that had only one regular finally getting its first new visitor.

“…This is.”

Lee Hyun paused for a moment.

“It’s a counseling center. I have a skill… whenever a client appears, it activates automatically.”

At this point, I had no choice. I sat down and gestured for him to sit across from me.

“Are you a counselor?”

“…What?”

“I was a police officer, so I obtained skills like ‘Marksmanship’ and ‘Deduction.’”

“I’m 20 years old.”

He was indirectly asking if I had been a counselor, since a place like this existed.

Even after I said my age, Lee Hyun didn’t waver. He wasn’t wrong, though.

“I was planning to study psychology.”

I didn’t create any information gap with Lee Hoin. I wasn’t ready yet. I wasn’t ready to say the insane truth that I was a transmigrator.

Of course, even if I tried, the commentator would step in and kill me first.

“What did you want to talk about?”

Lee Hyun calmly sat down and said:

“I wanted to ask about ‘inevitable sacrifice.’”

Inevitable sacrifice?

“After hearing what Mr. Nam Muyeong said, I started thinking. As a police officer, I was given the duty to ‘protect’ people at the mart. But… I wondered if I didn’t protect them, but instead used them as shields…”

Lee Hyun folded his hands on the desk as he spoke.

He wasn’t looking at me as “Nam Muyeong,” “student,” or “just turned adult,” but as a counselor.

Naturally, I listened seriously.

“I thought if I fired my gun, the situation would worsen. And since there wasn’t much of a central figure at the mart, I had to survive… and prevent things from getting worse. So I thought the gun should be a last resort. You said so, too. But after thinking about it, Mr. Nam Muyeong was right.”

After what I said that day, Lee Hyun truly thought about it.

He ‘thought’.

I pondered for a moment. What diagnosis could fit him? Of course, a proper diagnosis would require tests and a hospital.

I’m not a psychiatrist, just a counselor.

Quietly, I reviewed his behavior.

‘Inability to make decisions without advice or reassurance from others.’

In the original story, he left all decisions to Do Yoseol. He needed someone else to take responsibility for his life. When Do Yoseol disappeared, he desperately searched for a new center.

He didn’t see his life as his own. He feared making choices. Even negative actions… if his “center” told him to do them, he would comply willingly.

In the novel, it was described as loyalty and obedience.

But now, I wasn’t reading text.

I was looking at Lee Hyun.

As a counselor, looking at a client.

‘If he had come in reality, I would’ve started with psychological tests.’

There could be mood disorders. Depression, anxiety. Possibly separation anxiety.

But setting that aside…

His likely diagnosis was Dependent Personality Disorder.

Simply put:

‘A good son raised under overprotective parents,’

‘A subordinate who only does what he’s told,’