Episode 69

“Is this believable now?”

Instead of answering, he nodded.

“But why did the girl tell you about this, Noona? To warn you? Or to tell you to run away from here?”

“Both. And to help her out.”

“Help her? how?”

“Yeah, take her with us when we go.”

—Please take me with you. I don’t want to stay here anymore.

“She asked you to take her with us?”

“Confusing, right? I felt the same way. At first, I thought she’d want me to take revenge for her brother or something, but then she simply said she wanted me to take her away.”

“Did you get an answer to why that is?”

“No. Tried to, but couldn’t.”

-Why ask to be taken away, of all things?

-That’s…

If it hadn’t been for the woman who came to see us and insisted on touring us around the building before dinner, I might’ve gotten answers. But she spotted Ji-woo in the room and scolded her and told her to go back, cutting our conversation short.

“Will you agree to it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Taking her would create problems. The world’s not like before. We’re already having a hard time by ourselves—adding a kid to take care of on top of that would be too much.”

“True.”

He was right. This was a world swarming with zombies. Bringing that child meant exposing her to constant danger to her life again and again. Could a child endure that? And could we protect her while fighting to stay alive in the first place…? Even so, leaving her among these lunatics also bothered me.

“We’ll decide that later. Let’s focus on our plan to escape first.”

“Can’t we just walk out?”

“I’m sure you saw it when we came here—this is the only building for miles. We’re isolated.”

Returning to the Stage 5 Aquarium required a vehicle. Then we’d most definitely need a car to reach the populated areas beyond it. The problem? The only transport here was the tour bus we’d arrived in. If we had someone who could drive the bus, we could steal it to run away—but since we didn’t, we’d have to flee on foot.

Even if we set aside the zombies we’d meet on the way and time we would waste while walking, the cult obviously wouldn’t just watch us leave quietly. They’d try to stop us somehow, so we’d have to shake them off or fight our way through in the end.

“Well, it’s humans we’re dealing with, not a main zombie. With your abilty, no matter how many there are, we can handle them and run away.”

It’d be grueling and tiresome, but there was no alternative as of now, was there?

“And once Ga-eun unnie wakes up, she’ll help…”

[System Alert: You have been poisoned.].

…?

I suddenly stopped speaking as my mind blanked at the sudden screen that popped up before my eyes.

Poisoned? Poison?

Absurd. No—the word absurd couldn’t even begin to capture the chaos in my head at this moment.

Poison?

“Do-yoon. Have I finally lost it? Hallucinating now?”

The system that rarely appeared outside stage entries or clears suddenly appeared here, giving a weird, cryptic warning.

Even if it had warned about a zombie ambush or an earthquake, I might have been startled but would’ve understood. But poison? Where did that even come from?

Was I dreaming? Maybe I never actually cleared Stage 5 and was still unconscious underwater, drowning. Maybe this was a strange dream as I slowly died.

“If it were food poisoning, fine. But poison…?”

I let out a hollow laugh and tried to explain the message I’d just seen to him. But his eyes, which had been fixed on me moments ago, now stared past me into empty space in the air.

“What are you looking at?”

“…Noona. You just said ‘poison,’ right?”

He kept his gaze trained elsewhere as he spoke.

“Did… a weird screen pop up for you too?”

Wait—him too?

I wiped the smile from my face, expression hardening, my voice taking on a more serious tone.

“So it showed up for you too, huh? We’ve been poisoned, apparently.”

***

I couldn’t sleep at all. My body was exhausted to death, yet my mind remained razor-sharp.

Poison…

This wasn’t a dream. This was reality, and I was currently poisoned.

But when? When had I been poisoned?

Did I eat something strange? Or inhaled toxic fumes somehow that were harmful to the body?

Neither. I’d done nothing of the sort.

That left only two possibilities.

First: It was from Stage 5. Given how much had diverged from the game, maybe the mermaid was venomous. The creature hadn’t been in the game, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it had new abilities that I didn’t know of.

Second: The cult had poisoned us.

We were sacrifices. Maybe they’d drugged us to weaken us slowly, so as to prevent us from escaping and make it easier for them to kill us.

But this felt too far-fetched. Poisoning people? That was so old-fashioned.

‘…Wait. Killing humans and offering them as sacrifices is archaic too…’

Poison and sacrifices. It was fitting. Let’s let that idea pass for now.

If the mermaid’s venom was the cause, there was no clear solution. It’s not like I could go to that mermaid, who I couldn’t even communicate with, grab it by the collar, and demand an antidote. Moreover, just surviving the journey back to the Aquarium without dying would be a miracle.

“Ugh. I don’t feel any pain or discomfort. Am I really poisoned?”

If I were vomiting blood or trembling, I’d think, ‘Ah, so I’m truly poisoned’. But there’s nothing like that…

Restless from the tangled thoughts, I rolled onto my side.

At least Do-yoon had been cured—that was a relief.

After realizing we were both poisoned, I’d tried using my ability on him. Instead of my nose bleeding for once, a screen popped up saying he’d been detoxified. He’d panicked at that and hovered over me protectively again.

If my healing ability worked on myself, I could purge this poison instantly.

The thought that my body still held a ticking time bomb naturally drew a sigh from me.

Alright, let’s not be too negative. Let’s focus on what I can do now.

“First, what I can do…”

Probe these people.

I was going to the go with the assumption that the poisoning originated here, not from Stage 5. I couldn’t return to Stage 5 immediately anyway, so my only option was to find answers while trapped here.

A part of me wanted to grab a passerby and scream, ‘You poisoned me, didn’t you? Give me the antidote!’

Or use Do-yoon’s ability to paralyze them and force the truth out. They’d resist, requiring torture… which was hard.

Do-yoon couldn’t handle that. His power had mostly killed zombies, not humans. The few times he’d used it on people, it was to stall—never to injure. He couldn’t do this either.

Furthermore, witnessing such a cruel scene might shatter his already unstable mind. Mine too. I refused to use such a terrible method.

Even if I did resort to torture, they’d stay silent—they’d know that I’d die eventually as long as they kept their mouth shut anyway. So instead of confronting them directly about the poison, it was better to work in the shadows and catch them off guard.

But would there even be an antidote? If they’d used poison purely to kill, why keep an antidote? They never intended to let anyone live.

So I was anxious. I couldn’t help but be afraid I’d die from being poisoned here.

“So I can’t return home. I’m poisoned. Probably going to die while being trapped in this den of cult fanatics. How can such terrible things happen one after another? Am I really cursed with the worst luck?”

I was muttering bitterly in lament when I felt choked up, so I clenched my eyes shut as a hot swell of tears threatened to spill.

***

In the end, I stayed up the whole night worrying.

Damn. Should’ve at least shut my eyes for a minute… I’m exhausted to death.

I pressed my eyelids with both hands, willing even a sliver of fatigue to fade.

Maybe it was because I was too tired, but I had no appetite either. My whole body felt heavy, like waterlogged cotton.

Knock-knock.

The sound of the door. I stayed curled on the bed, silent, hoping they’d leave. Another knock.

For a moment, I wondered if it was Ji-woo again, like yesterday.

“Are you still asleep? Breakfast is ready—I’ve come to escort you.”

Good thing I didn’t get up.

Breakfast? As if I’d be able to stomach eating anything while sharing a meal with the lunatics here first thing in the morning.

I burrowed deeper under the blanket, plugged my ears, and shut my eyes.