Chapter 571
* * *
Tak Jeongyun moved like a professional.
At the same time, she laid the child flat and turned his head to the side to secure his airway.
“When the seizure started, which direction did his eyes roll? Did both arms shake, or did only one side stiffen?”
“I-I only saw him from behind, so I couldn't tell about his eyes. And both arms!”
Tak Jeongyun sprinted to the nurses' station right beside the terrace.
“Seizure patient on the terrace!”
Running alongside the child, who had been loaded onto a mobile cart bed, Tak Jeongyun questioned the crying guardian.
“Did he eat anything unusual? Was there anything different from normal?”
“He had to fast, so he didn't eat anything...”
“Fasting?”
“Yes. Before the injection.”
“...What injection?”
Screams echoed in the distance.
It had just passed four o'clock.
The announcement came over the speakers.
—Attention please. Code Gray. Code Gray situation in front of the emergency center on the first floor. All security personnel and guard teams, proceed to the emergency room immediately.
The child entered the treatment room and was fitted with an oxygen mask.
Tak Jeongyun stared at him.
“It hasn't been commercialized domestically yet... but it's highly regarded in America. The waiting list is enormous, and t-the cost... over a hundred million won... But the hospital knew about our circumstances, and a designated donor appeared. They told us to keep it secret....”
The young father spoke.
His shirt was old and cheap.
“What's the name of the injection?”
“They said something about stem cells. I don't really know. They just said... it's incredibly good.”
Everything clicked into place.
“They said not to worry because the director would be receiving it too.”
The Strategic Planning Office director arrived.
He looked strangely anxious as he checked on the child.
He opened the boy's eyelids and examined his hands and feet.
The screams in the distance grew louder.
The child slowly opened his eyes.
—I can feel it. He believes that nothing has gone wrong.
The director met Hyunmok's eyes.
—Otherwise, while the hospital director has fallen and countless medical staff are being injured because of delirium, while all this chaos is happening, he wouldn't be able to look at a child completely unrelated to me...
The corners of his mouth lifted.
—He wouldn't be able to smile so brightly.
As soon as he confirmed Hyunmok's condition, the director removed the oxygen mask.
Then he picked up the child and ran.
The father panicked and chased after them.
Watching the boy's limp hand sway in his arms, Tak Jeongyun became certain.
—It's that child.
The one who will end all of this.
—That child is...
The only key.
BOOM!
Something exploded again in the distance.
The Strategic Planning Office director and the child fell.
The screams were getting closer.
Terrified, the father called out.
“Hyunmok! Hyunmok...!”
The scene slowed down.
The inevitable destruction arrived.
Tak Jeongyun ran forward like a madwoman.
To buy even a second more.
More precisely—
To witness it.
“Aaaah!”
The director was bitten.
The child was bitten.
Tak Jeongyun turned while running.
She was still alive.
But—
Beep-beep-beep.
Time rewound.
“Are you okay? Are you okay?”
At that moment, Tak Jeongyun became certain.
—I found it.
Standing on the stairs, she smiled brightly.
Magnificent music completely unsuited to the situation began playing.
The elegant melody of oboes and violins filled the air.
For the first time—
Hope had appeared.
* * *
The very next loop.
Tak Jeongyun rushed to the terrace, found the child, hugged him, and fled the hospital like a madwoman.
Beep-beep-beep.
The child wasn't bitten.
Just as she sighed in relief—
Time rewound again.
—Do we have to survive inside the hospital?
Next loop.
Tak Jeongyun carried the child to the rooftop.
But the door was locked.
The child cried.
The zombies followed the noise upstairs.
Beep-beep-beep.
Next loop.
She evacuated with the child and his guardian.
The rooftop door was still locked.
She smashed it with a fire extinguisher over and over, injuring her hand.
Other people followed the noise.
They fought and shoved one another.
The child fell down the stairs.
Beep-beep-beep.
She explained the stabbing incident to the child and guardian.
Told them to hide on the roof and went to find something to break the lock.
They reached the roof safely.
But the zombies eventually climbed up and smashed open the barricaded door.
Beep-beep-beep.
She sent the child and guardian to the rooftop.
She recruited several security guards by claiming bombs had been planted.
She succeeded in sealing the door.
But heavy rain began at seven o'clock.
The child developed a high fever.
The seizures returned.
Beep-beep-beep.
Instead of heading straight to the roof, she moved to the upper floors.
She asked Resident Kang Hyeonwoo, who was headed to the emergency room, to lower the shutters before the chaos spread.
It failed.
He had probably been bitten too severely to reach the control room.
She spent the night with other survivors.
A fight broke out.
Beep-beep-beep.
Same plan.
This time she avoided joining the survivors and hid quietly.
11:45 PM.
She had never survived this long before.
She emerged from hiding and tried to reach the roof.
The shutters were closed.
Without a security keycard, they wouldn't open.
Beep-beep-beep.
This time she began with a stolen keycard.
She finally reunited with the child and guardian.
But the Strategic Planning Office director followed them.
She couldn't overpower him.
The struggle escalated the situation.
Failure.
Beep-beep-beep.
They escaped safely to the roof.
The child wasn't sick.
The rooftop door remained intact.
Lowering the shutters immediately had been a godsend.
But surviving on the roof wasn't enough.
Escape itself seemed to be the condition.
Beep-beep-beep.
The hospital appeared below.
The number in the top-right corner climbed endlessly.
Peaceful people screamed.
Zombies appeared.
Time rewound.
Again.
And again.
A hell beyond words.
But the more Tak Jeongyun suffered, the more exhilarated the viewers of became.
—Hell yeah, this is it.
—Poor girl's getting worked to death but this is so damn good TT_TT
—I'm staying up to finish this tonight.
—More Myeong Jeha closeups please... ///
—As a nurse, this hits too hard, fuck...
—Saving Hyunmok + escaping from the roof with him. She has to do both? The difficulty is insane.
—So that's why they showed the helicopter at the beginning... to explain the director's fall and show the escape route TT_TT
Because it was a hospital, all the buildings were interconnected.
Many people had mobility issues.
Infection spread easily.
And she wasn't alone.
She had to survive while protecting a child.
An absurdly difficult condition.
Tak Jeongyun recruited a helicopter pilot as an ally to help Hyunmok escape.
But just before takeoff, she fought with survivors who had reached the roof.
“Take me too! Me too!”
“Another helicopter is coming. Everyone, please wait here—”
“Bullshit!”
In the next loop, Tak Jeongyun recruited a member of the National Assembly.
“Another helicopter is coming! He'll call one for you! Please believe me!”
“But he's leaving too!”
“...That's not what you said earlier!”
“T-Then I have to get out first and solve this! Do you know who I am? I know the Minister of Defense personally! Move! Get out of my way!”
In a world that had become hell—
Nobody wanted to sacrifice their life for someone else.
Nobody.
Thus came the 333rd loop.
Having learned the fastest route to the rooftop, Tak Jeongyun abandoned survivors over and over again.
Heavy guilt spread across her face.
This time, the sprinklers exploded overhead.
Water flooded the stairs.
Evacuating people slipped and tumbled down.
“It hurts...”
“Please save me...”
“Mom...”
But these were people she had to abandon again.
Completely soaked, Tak Jeongyun clenched her teeth and cried as she hugged Hyunmok tightly.
The sounds of the zombie horde approached.
“Ah... please...”
Once again, death arrived.
—TT_TT I'm crying.
—Her acting is fucking terrifying...
—I would've gone insane too. How do you stay sane after watching people die over and over?
—Save them and die. Save them and die. What are you even supposed to do T_T
Hiding inside a changing room, Tak Jeongyun thought,
—This won't work. I need stronger allies.
“Senior... of everything we saw earlier, do you know what made the least sense?”
“...Lower your voice. Don't say anything.”
Ignoring Do Gyeoul, Tak Jeongyun buried her face in her hands.
“How does a patient who was pronounced dead start moving?”
—Resident Kang Hyeonwoo is responsible. Three times out of ten he fails, but otherwise he lowers the shutters. Even after being bitten, if he can reach the control room, he'll fulfill his duty. But it'd be better if I gave him a reason not to go to the emergency room and kept him with me.
Tak Jeongyun thought endlessly.
—How far has everything progressed? How much time have I been given this loop?
...
—I need to decide my next move, but I keep returning to the same question. What exactly were the injections given to the director and Hyunmok? The director became the first zombie. Then why didn't Hyunmok become one? I don't understand. Maybe they didn't receive the same injection.
“Senior, why haven't you said anything since earlier? You're acting like you've lost your mind!”
“Quiet. Quiet. I don't understand anything either. My head's about to explode.”
—Three allies are missing.
—First. Someone who knows the hospital well enough to safely guide the others to me.
Do Gyeoul's frightened face appeared as noises rattled outside.
—Second. Someone who can become a symbol, someone who can make people believe the government will save them and convince them to wait for the next helicopter. Someone willing to sacrifice themselves.
At that same moment, Han Yeoreum appeared, cold sweat running down her face.
—Third.
The changing room door opened.
“Who are you?”
“Me?”
Myeong Jeha removed his helmet.
“Delivery guy.”
—Someone overwhelmingly strong. Violent enough that even those who oppose him wouldn't dare resist. Someone who can guarantee my plan succeeds.
Someone she had encountered countless times.
—Wait.
—Come to think of it...
A memory surfaced.
Myeong Jeha talking on the phone.
“Oppa, do you love Yujin or not?”
Tak Jeongyun asked,
“Yujin is your girlfriend?”
—I need to understand this man.
“What kind of bullshit is that? And how do you even know that?”
“Answer me.”
“Why should I tell you something like that?”
“Then something else.”
—Next loop, I need something that will make him trust me unconditionally.
“What's your phone number?”
—Should I call him right after the loop starts? What if he doesn't believe me?
“What's the biggest secret you've never told anyone?”
—Maybe I'll just blackmail him.
“Ha...”
Myeong Jeha's expression turned crooked.
“My number? My biggest secret? Why the hell are you asking that right now?”
Tak Jeongyun smiled emotionlessly.
“Well, obviously...”
—Because, annoyingly enough...
“We'll meet again next time.”
Tick.
Tick.
Tick—
The sound of time reversing echoed.
Back to the beginning.
Back to that moment.
—Tak Jeongyun's assembling a party LOL
—Honestly Myeong Jeha would be amazing on our side. Definitely the right-hand man.
—Healer (Do Gyeoul), melee DPS (Myeong Jeha), ranged DPS (Han Yeoreum). It fits perfectly.
—People being selfish and causing failures is so realistic T_T But honestly, I wouldn't wait either.
—The payoff for all the earlier foreshadowing is insane.
The screen changed.
The deepest separate building in the hospital complex.
The funeral hall.
“Boss, you're here!”
“Mm.”
A man wearing black gloves appeared.
Looking at someone's memorial portrait, he muttered,
“Ha, bastard...”
With a scar running across his face, he smiled.
“Even rolling around in a pile of shit is better than the afterlife. Why'd you have to leave so damn early?”
A new character.
The moment they saw his attitude—
His obsession with life far exceeding that of an ordinary person—
Everyone felt something close to fear.
An instinct.
The instinct that his appearance would throw the story into an entirely new phase.
—Fuck, he looks like he'll come back later and ruin the escape.
—TT_____TT
—I'm losing my mind.
—This is terrifying.
—How the hell is a normal person supposed to beat a gangster?;
—Hyunmok... maybe you should just learn to fly the helicopter yourself...
—Hyunmok: Me?
—TT_TT This is so nerve-racking.
The secret of the loops.
The conditions to break them.
The terrible environment.
New allies.
And perhaps—
The final chance.
A newly appeared villain whose goals and intentions were completely unknown.
Jegal Rok smiled.
Because now—
No one would be able to escape before the final episode.