CTLI — Chapter 14

The pain was so intense, I couldn’t even make a sound. I wanted to say I was fine, that I’d come back—but only the sound of air wheezing from my mouth came out. The monsters that had just attacked us turned away, sniffing in the corners of the room as if they couldn’t see us anymore.

‘It’s okay. I’m here.’

Choi Dohyun’s whisper was steady. He seemed a little surprised, but showed no fear or sorrow. I nodded and turned my gaze. In that short time, Yoon Seohwa had burst into tears and was trembling as she clutched my hand tightly.

‘This is strange… something’s wrong…’

It didn’t seem like such a bad death… I thought to myself. My body was getting heavier, but that was all. Choi Dohyun stared into the air as if hesitating about something, then ran his hand over his face. When he asked, “Hyung, does it hurt a lot?” Yoon Seohwa glared at him fiercely.

And then, I stopped moving. I didn’t breathe. Yoon Seohwa’s sobs grew louder. I realized I had died, but this was the first time I was seeing what happened after death. That had never happened before.

At the same time, the monsters that had been looking elsewhere lunged at us again. Naturally, Yoon Seohwa and Choi Dohyun died, and once more, time began to rewind slowly, like a film being rewound.

I was running again. Then I died again. Then I came back. I was repeating it over and over, so much that I wondered how I could have forgotten this.

Maybe around the seventh time.

This time, my legs had been torn off, and I was crawling when Choi Dohyun approached, gripped my hand tightly, and let out a deep sigh. For someone experiencing such a horrific situation repeatedly, he didn’t look sorrowful at all. He just seemed tired of it all.

‘I’m sorry… I…’

And I was apologizing, my voice filled with misery. Even while dying, I was worried about Choi Dohyun and Yoon Seohwa… I was observing everything as if someone were strangling me, burning the scene into my mind.

As my breathing grew rougher, Choi Dohyun tightly shut his eyes. When he opened them again, I was already dead, and Yoon Seohwa threw her arms around me with a scream. Since she couldn’t remember anything each time the clock turned back, she was experiencing my death for the first time again and again.

Wait—did I remember time being turned back?

That was strange. As my fingertips tingled, Choi Dohyun reached out into empty air. Click. I heard the sound of a button being pressed from a place where nothing could be seen. In an instant, my field of vision was filled with bright red letters. I tried to read them, but the letters moved too quickly, constantly changing.

It didn’t feel like time was rewinding. Rather… it felt more like something was being erased. As if this event had never occurred, like a giant pair of scissors had cleanly snipped the film.

When I came to, I was standing behind Yoon Seohwa. She took a few determined steps forward, then suddenly came to a stop. Uneasy for reasons I couldn’t explain, I raised my lantern and swept the area with light, checking to see if anything was there.

‘Are you all right?’

Worried by her stillness, I gently tapped her shoulder and asked cautiously, but Yoon Seohwa didn’t so much as flinch. A chill ran down my spine. I remembered this moment clearly.

‘Yoon Seohwa?’

I softly called her name. When I grabbed her shoulder and turned her toward me, she stared blankly at me, expressionless. Her eyes blinked slowly, her breathing was shallow, and she stood there stiffly, as if awaiting a command… lifeless, like a doll.

Alarmed, I turned around and looked at Choi Dohyun. He was sitting on the floor, poking at the air with his fingers. He seemed focused on something, muttering under his breath. But I couldn’t take my eyes off whatever it was that he was looking at.

I still couldn’t make out the red text, but I had a sense of what he’d been staring at this whole time.

‘That’s strange. What counts as an error? Is the load function not working? I can’t even test it.’

‘…’

‘First I’ll disable hyung’s system… The difficulty level is way too brutal. What’s going on here?’

‘…Choi Dohyun?’

As I approached and laid a hand on Choi Dohyun’s shoulder, a spark flared before my eyes. With a sudden pop, the sensation startled me, and I recoiled to see the scenery distorted before me. The space felt strangely dissonant, like the world had come to a stop—a thin veil darkening my vision, like another realm just beyond.

A new save point is being recorded. You may move here later.
A critical error has occurred.
Error in progress: 10%
At 99% progress, deletion will be executed.

The red text flickered before my eyes, then disappeared.

Gasping, I inhaled sharply and staggered back a few steps. A chilling air wrapped around my body from the tips of my toes. I looked around in a panic—this wasn’t the damp, dark sewer anymore. I was standing still in front of the train station where I had been talking to a zombie just a moment ago.

“…….”

How long had I been standing there? My whole body trembled with chills. The zombie that had been melting away in red liquid was long gone. I forced my stiffened body to move and lifted my head, only to see glowing letters flashing brightly, as if demanding to be read. My eyelids quivered.

Error in progress: 25%
At 99% progress, deletion will be executed.

I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t just a sense of suffocation—it felt like I had genuinely forgotten how to breathe. Like a fish flung out of water. I just stood there, blankly staring up at the letters.

Error. Error.

Such an unfamiliar and bewildering word. Just those glowing words themselves felt completely disconnected from reality. And what about everything I’d just seen? I barely managed to raise my hand to wipe my face, then moved my stiff legs and took one step forward.

As I moved, the letters vanished in an instant. My legs gave out, and I collapsed to the ground, bowing my head. Huff, huff. My vision swam. Memories I didn’t recognize, save points, errors—all of it filled my head, making everything feel tangled and chaotic. I buried the rising thought: could it be?

No, that can’t be it.

That thought brought a throb to my forehead, and I pressed my palm against it as I stood back up. What was it I wanted to deny so badly? Rubbing my cold, numbed hands, I roughly wiped the rain from my face and stepped into the train station.

The station was silent. There should’ve been some sound, anything, but instead, there was a stillness so complete it made me feel like I was the only one left. As I took a few more steps forward, I saw a convenience store in the distance and quickened my pace. My throat was parched; I felt like I had to drink something.

Fortunately, the store inside wasn’t locked, so I easily opened the door and went in. There was a zombie employee inside, drooling as he sat in a chair, but he wasn’t much of a threat. I helped myself to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and drank. Surprisingly, the water was cold.

The zombie blinked and looked up at me with a dumb expression. Its tilted head made it seem like it saw me as a stranger. Well, I suppose in a world full of zombies, a lone human would look strange.

It moved its lips as if trying to speak to me, but only black saliva dribbled out. If I could feel nothing toward something as repulsive as a zombie… did that mean something was wrong with me?

I placed the empty bottle on the counter and left the convenience store. The train station, which had been silent just moments ago, had grown a little noisy. Though calling it “noisy” might be too generous. The gurgling moans of zombies echoed from various corners, followed by bursts of gunfire and the sound of things breaking.

And at the center of it all stood Choi Dohyun.

I saw him from a distance, standing among the zombies, shooting them one by one with an annoyed expression. I should have run to him and asked if he was okay, made sure he wasn’t hurt—but for some reason, my legs wouldn’t move.

Ah, the world is revolving around that man.

“Hyung!”

A voice rang out like a scream from far away. The moment our eyes met, the scowl on his face melted into a bright grin. He waved both arms above his head as if to say hello, then punched a zombie in the face and ran toward me.

“Are you okay? It wasn’t too hard, was it?”

He showed no signs of relief, as if my survival was expected. He grabbed my arm and smiled mischievously, like someone who thought they were just a little late for an appointment. That playful smile, his clothes soaked and covered in zombie remains—yet he acted like none of it bothered him.

“…I’m glad you’re safe.”

The voice that slipped out from between my lips didn’t feel like my own. Choi Dohyun smiled and reached out, wiping the remaining water from my cheek. His hand was cold. He was completely drenched too, surely chilled by the downpour—but that coldness felt so unfamiliar, I instinctively took a step back.

“Ah… sorry. I was just happy to see you…”

Maybe he thought I recoiled because he touched my cheek so suddenly. Scratching his head with an embarrassed smile, he laughed it off. We had only the briefest moment of peace before zombies charged at us again, forcing us to steady our weapons and pull the triggers one after another.

Bang, bang, bang. I saw the heads of zombies exploding.

“Hyung, about Yoon Seohwa…”

Yoon Seohwa? I turned my head reflexively at the mention of her name, but upon seeing the zombies gathering and writhing behind Choi Dohyun, I quickly reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling him toward me.

“Let’s talk later.”

“Huh?”

“There.”

I nodded slightly in that direction. Choi Dohyun followed my gesture with a puzzled look, then flinched and shuddered. The zombies, which he had assumed were corpses, were squirming together like lumps of clay.

I wetted my parched lips and slowly backed away. I could have sworn something like that had appeared the first time I died.

“Can you run?”

“Of course.”

“There’s a save zone just nearby.”

Choi Dohyun’s voice rang clearly in my ears. Save zone. He said it like it was obvious, but this was the first time I had ever heard that term while traveling with him. He’d never said anything like that before. The moment I sharply turned my head, bright red letters flashed before my eyes.

Error in progress: 27%
At 99% progress, deletion will be executed.

I clenched my jaw and gritted my teeth. As the monster lunged, I immediately took off running after him.

Crash!

With a single swipe of its hand, the solid ground caved in. When I turned to check, the monster resembled something like a lizard. If not for the flesh melting off its body and the human body parts embedded in it, it could have been mistaken for a giant reptile.

“This way!”

From the stairs leading up to the second floor, Choi Dohyun shouted sharply.

Ah, this wasn’t the time to be spacing out. I shook my head quickly and kept running. The monster, unable to control its speed, crashed into the walls every time it turned a corner, wailing loudly.

[Grrrrrrrgh]

It was a pitch so high it felt like my ears would burst. As I flinched and covered them, Choi Dohyun grabbed my arm roughly, glaring fiercely.

“What are you doing?!”

“N-No, it’s nothing.”

The monster that had slammed into the wall shook off the debris and scratched at the floor. Screeech—at the piercing sound, I hesitated again. Choi Dohyun shouted at me in frustration.

“Hurry up!”

The air felt both eerie and heavy. Once pulled into the customer waiting room by Choi Dohyun, the monster that had seemed ready to pounce merely lingered around in frustration. It didn’t even try to break the thin glass door. The breath caught in my throat throbbed like it was made of my own heartbeat.

Choi Dohyun stood near the door, glancing at the lingering monster, then turned toward me with eyes filled with anger. He let out a deep sigh and relaxed the tension in his gaze.

“Are you okay?”

“…Yes.”

Maybe he thought I was just exhausted. Choi Dohyun carefully approached and held my hand. Cold. His temperature felt so unfamiliar that I cautiously pulled my hand away. His expression subtly stiffened.

“Hyung, right now you…”

“Anyway, why did you bring up Yoon Seohwa earlier?”

“…Ah.”

Sensing I was deliberately changing the subject, Choi Dohyun looked down at me for a moment, then scratched his head as if deciding to go along with it.

“I figured it out while I was alone.”

“Yes.”

At my quiet response, Choi Dohyun paused for a moment and slowly exhaled. Our eyes met awkwardly in the air. Despite having seen each other over the past few days, it felt like I was facing someone entirely different.

“It just… seemed like she used to work here.”

“Is that so.”

“…Yeah.”

That didn’t seem like what he originally meant to say. Instead of asking what he actually wanted to say, I simply nodded in agreement. He stood up and walked off to another part of the room. He was looking over the desks and picked up a neatly stacked A4 sheet, staring down at it.

I pressed my tired eyes and got up. The monster had wandered off somewhere else at a leisurely pace. For a moment, I wondered if we might be able to escape without confronting it. But that thought vanished the moment I heard him mutter under his breath.

“Still not working…”

What wasn’t working? I slowly approached. I caught a glimpse of the A4 paper in Choi Dohyun’s hand. Red letters and unknown numbers were written across it. Surely he was reading something more organized and cleaner than what I could see.

“Choi Dohyun.”

“Yes?”

I felt like I could ask now. Was it because I sensed he’d momentarily slipped from the grip of something controlling him? Or maybe because this was the first time his voice had sounded so clear.

I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time he’d said something like that today. It was instinct. He had likely spoken words like those again and again—and if I hadn’t heard them, that was entirely on me.

Like someone who had lost their memory.

“What does ‘save zone’ mean?”