1. Tutorial

Day 168 since the incident.

There was a thud, followed by the sound of someone collapsing, as if their legs had given out. I stifled the breath that threatened to escape my lips., trying my best to act unfazed, but my trembling legs could barely keep me upright.

“…Huh.”

The others weren’t much different from me. Even though we had completely wiped out the zombies in the district, not a single person sighed in relief or shouted with joy. Too many people had died, too much had been lost, and the end was still nowhere in sight to feel any sort of pure happiness.

“Lieutenant.”

With squelching footsteps, someone called out to me. I didn’t even want to acknowledge who it was. Forcing my gaze not to drop toward the ground, I couldn’t muster the strength to square my sagging shoulders but opened my mouth nonetheless. Unlike my slumped posture, my voice came out surprisingly steady.

“Begin checking the squad’s condition. Prioritize those in need of urgent care, and make sure they can be moved or transported quickly.”

“Yes, sir.”

Before I could even finish, one of the squad members who had approached closely gave a quick nod and stepped back. At his signal, the footsteps of those nearby echoed all around.

Squish, squish.

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and no rain had fallen today, yet the ground was damp. And under that clear sky, a squad member who had been laughing and chatting just a few hours ago now lay still. His face, still smiling as if unaware of his own death, had half of it blown off by a zombie’s punch.

I staggered toward him and knelt. I pulled the dog tags from around his neck and stared down at the smiling face. I was jealous. I was madly jealous of this dead squad member. The fact that he had escaped this hellish reality filled me with envy I could barely contain.

The dog tags in my hand were soaked with blood. I wiped them clean with my sleeve in silence and stood up. It had already been 168 days since the zombie outbreak. Depending on how you looked at it, it was either a short or long time, but in that span, many things had changed.

The first 30 days after the zombies emerged were manageable. Though chaotic, the government and military managed to control the situation more quickly than expected. Citizens, unlike what you saw in dramas or movies, remained calm and endured the crisis. Over time, the zombies’ muscles turned mushy and limp, making them unable to move properly, which helped significantly.

That’s why the world expected everything to end in 90 days, at the latest. Yes, that was the expectation, but I don’t know where it all went wrong.

I swallowed back the tears that threatened to pour out and walked toward where the rest of the squad had gathered.

On the 90th day, like a lie, the mutants appeared. No symptoms, no warning signs. They just showed up one day, suddenly.

Unlike the original zombies, who were slow, dumb, and ruled by primal instincts, the mutants knew how to think. Their bodies were far superior, and their regeneration speed was extraordinary. Even if one of their arms was cut off, it took less than five minutes for it to grow back.

I remembered the now-defunct media that once gushed over their terrifyingly miraculous regenerative powers, and a crooked smile tugged at my lips. The world was ending—what good was any of that now?

“Out of twenty in total, ten are dead. One is severely injured and likely can’t be transported. Of the remaining nine, two have leg injuries. Fortunately, the other seven only have minor burns or scratches…”

I quietly raised a hand to stop him. The one who had been speaking must not have wanted to say more in front of someone dying and obediently closed his mouth.

Lying among the squad members was a boy who had only just become an adult. In the ‘normal’ world, he would’ve been someone still drinking with friends, attending classes, and studying.

With a blank expression, I looked down at him, then slowly knelt on one knee. “Severely injured” was just sugarcoating it—he was as good as dead. Though he was barely breathing and his eyes met mine, I lowered my head, swallowing a groan.

“Hyung…”

“Ji-hwan.”

“At last…”

He trailed off, a faint smile forming on his lips. They say extreme pain can dull the senses.

His bones were shattered, limbs twisted grotesquely, his body crushed flat like someone had slammed it down with force—but his face looked peaceful. It was unnatural. He looked less like a person and more like a botched clay doll.

“To be h-honest… I-I was… jealous, of the others… the ones who died first…”

“…”

“Y-yeah, so… I… I’m okay… now…”

He smiled brightly, oblivious to the people whose hearts were breaking around him. The sound of his laughter was replaced by a rattling in his chest, but no one dared offer false hope by telling him he could survive. Those words were as good as a curse, even to the living.

I quietly held his hand and listened closely for his final words.

“Ah…”

His eyes, which had been fluttering with effort, began to glaze over, distant. Though his gaze was still directed at me, it felt like it was seeing something else entirely. From his slack lips came a rambling whisper.

“I-I liked oranges… when I was little… Mom used to… b-buy them a lot… We said we’d eat… more together… once this was all… over…”

He was seeing the past. His voice, weak and trailing off, gradually faded, and the way he flickered out like a dying ember seemed, ironically, peaceful. All I could do was pray that in his final moments, he was only faced with happy memories from his life.

Only after confirming that the light in his eyes had completely dimmed did I silently reach out and cover them with my palm. Someone let out a quiet sigh at that moment, but no one dared to cry.

“All remaining squad members, return immediately…”

As I moved my hand away and opened my mouth, a crackling radio signal sounded not far off. I had assumed all comms were down, but it seemed one was still functioning.

I immediately stood and headed toward the sound. Not far away, a black radio blinked red and beeped softly.

— Team 2, what’s your status?

Through the unstable static came the voice of a young director. I rubbed my tired eyes and picked up the radio.

“…Zone 3 has been cleared. The situation is confirmed to be fully under control.”

— Good work. What’s the status of your team?

“The area entered by Team 1 was lost to an explosion. Team 3’s zone collapsed, and all members are presumed dead. As for Team 2, out of twenty members…”

Large shadows began writhing and gathering together. I trailed off mid-sentence and slowly turned my head. The corpses of zombies, which had moments ago been nothing more than limp flesh with shattered heads and blown-out hearts, were twitching as if drawn by magnets, pulling themselves into a single mass.

My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t speak. The sight of bones and muscles reattaching, melted skin gluing itself back together in a thick, sticky paste to harden—was so grotesque it was nearly divine, like witnessing the act of creation.

— …Is return currently impossible?

They no longer even looked like zombies. From the swollen mass of regenerating flesh, numerous arms suddenly sprouted, slapping against the ground. A massive hole, possibly a mouth, yawned open, revealing tightly packed remains of countless skulls inside.

— Team 2, do you copy? Team 2!

My mind went completely blank. I couldn’t think about running. I couldn’t think about raising my gun. That lump of flesh, now a single form, stretched out its limbs like something freshly born, as though waking from a long sleep.

And from its center, a single massive eye, nearly a meter in size, suddenly emerged, squirming to life. I could hear the sound of it rolling—clack, clack.

“Team 2 is…”

Just as I forced my unmoving lips to open, as if that had triggered something, one of the squad members standing in front of me raised his gun and shoved it into his mouth.

There was no time to stop him.

Bang! A loud explosion echoed as hot liquid splattered violently across my face.

The headless body collapsed without strength. The pooled blood on the ground splashed outward from the impact, hitting everyone around, but no one moved to avoid it.

That thing was opening its gaping maw to swallow the body whole. A massive shadow loomed over us, pressing down on our existence.

“All members are presumed dead. None of the twenty can return.”

As I finished my report, an inappropriate laugh escaped me.

Ha… ha. Now I finally felt at peace. This was how it should’ve been from the start. I dropped the buzzing radio and quietly lifted my head. The sky—the sky was unbelievably clear.

Ah, what perfect weather to die in.

A bright smile spread across my face just as a massive wave of pain crushed my entire body like a landslide. And yet, the joy was overwhelming—I couldn’t stop smiling. I trembled with delight at the thought that I was finally escaping this reality.

Then, I was swallowed by pitch-black darkness.

---

It felt like I was floating deep underwater. Warm, soft. Like all the peace of the world had gathered here, and I just wanted to rest, do nothing, and stay like this forever. My mind was hazy, like someone was gently kneading my brain.

Letting my body drift along the slow-moving current lasted only a moment.

Suddenly, I felt the water forcing itself into my mouth and nose, my chest tightening, breath stolen. The place that had been so peaceful just moments ago turned unbearable, dragging me downward. Instinctively, I thrashed with my whole body and reached upward.

Tap. The sensation of someone grabbing my hand was followed by a rush of cold air into my nose and mouth. Gasping—like I’d been yanked out of the water—I sucked in deep, desperate breaths and snapped my eyes open.

What greeted me was a blurry sky and the pounding of heavy rain striking my entire body.

“Gasp—huff… huff…”

It took only a moment to grasp the situation.

What is this? How am I alive? Didn’t I die? Or is this the afterlife? Is the afterlife supposed to feel this vivid?

In the chaos that slammed into my mind, I barely managed to lift my upper body. No wonder I felt cold—I was practically naked, clothed in nothing but shreds of my torn uniform.

The rain was so heavy that I couldn’t see even a step ahead, and blood flowed down the slope like a river. I glanced around again with dazed eyes. I had definitely felt pain. I was sure I had died. And yet—I was the only one alive. Only me.

“…Why?”

There was no way it had been a dream. It was more vivid than anything, and in the moment just before death, I had never felt more clearheaded since the zombie outbreak began. It couldn’t be. Maybe I had somehow survived by sheer luck—but not even a scratch? That was the part I couldn’t make sense of.

Staggering to my feet, I approached the nearest corpse. I didn’t even have the mind to recognize who he had been in life. His limbs dangled limply, soaked like a sponge full of water. I tripped and fell several times before I finally reached him. I stretched out my hand and pulled the handgun from his chest.

The next two steps were easy. Release the safety. Pull the trigger. Nothing could be more straightforward.

My lips trembled as I shoved the gun into my mouth just like someone else had done. The metallic tang tasted just like blood. I closed my eyes and moved my finger.

Bang!

There was no hesitation. Pain flared in my head like fire, and I closed my eyes again. This time, I prayed I would die for real.

But as if mocking my wish, I woke up again.

It was deep night. I could smell the stench of rotting bodies, and above me was a sky full of stars.

With the world collapsing under the zombie crisis, nature was recovering at a startling pace. The economy had fallen so far that you could sometimes see the Milky Way from the middle of a city—and I was one of the first to feel that reality most vividly.

My eyes should’ve been drawn to the Milky Way, packed so densely it looked like it could pour from the sky at any moment. But instead, like a madman, I picked up the gun that had fallen nearby and pressed it to my temple. Yeah, I was halfway insane. I’d been waiting to die for so long, and now that I finally had the courage to end my own life—I couldn’t.