“Oi! Sung-ho! This isn’t the time for this!”

The first year complained. I looked out the window and saw that it was getting dark. Down below there were dozens of them. The blueish creatures that tore off the Snake’s wrist. They were just walking about mindlessly.

This caused me to pause for a moment. A helicopter flew over towards the rodeo street, which was where I lived.

I heard an explosion come and one of the buildings was on fire. I didn’t know how, but I could see a large amount of people falling from the sky. That was very confusing, since it wasn’t even from a tall building, but from the sky.

‘W-What the hell?’

Another helicopter flew by the school, but this time something flew through the helicopter, leading to a massive explosion which pushed me back into the classroom. I fell on the ground heavily, skidding to the end of the class.

I coughed a bit, then slowly struggled to sit up.

‘What the hell?’

I got up and saw that the window was shattered and everyone was in a sort of defensive posture. Everyone except the first year. That guy was fearless or should I say reckless?

It didn’t matter.

“Ok, now you guys.” He called out to everyone. “We will take turns climbing out to the corridor using the thin ledge over there.”

He pointed out the window.

“What? Are you insane?” Park Chul crossed his arms and his lackeys remained behind him. “Didn’t you see what just happened? If we go out there whatever destroyed that helicopter might come for us!”

“No it won’t.” My junior said something interesting. Everyone’s face changed into one of shock. How the hell did he know that?

“What makes you so sure?”

Were we about to hear something interesting from this kid’s mouth?

“I’m not sure. It’s just that it’s the only option we’ve got at the moment. The Dark King had a good idea which took me a while to understand. However, after the explosion, I realized what he wanted to do.”

‘This brat…’

“Eh? What is that?” Park Chul asked.

“The plan I just came up with. I’m sure the Dark king was going to move, expecting us to follow his lead if it worked out.”

The kid glanced at me and soon all eyes fell on me. I looked away, avoiding their weird gazes that were mixed with hope, surprise and determination.

My eyes fell on the girl next to me, who was simply sitting quietly in the corner of the room, completely oblivious to the happenings of the class. That was when I realized that her hoodie might have been a bit too big for her body. I drew closer to her, then tapped her shoulder.

“Are you ok?”

I asked her.

She looked up at me with a bit of distrust. She nodded her head quickly. She probably wanted me to just leave her alone.

‘I’m sorry, but I’ve been a virgin long enough. I want you!’ Of course I didn’t shout this out loud.

“You really should join in on the discussions or everyone will leave you to die.” I told her.

“I’ll just follow whatever they are doing.” She responded quickly after glancing at them.

“Hmph. That’s not enough, you know? You should at least let them know that you are around so that they try protecting you or keeping a head count.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“My name’s Kwon Sung-Ho. What’s yours?”

“None of your business.”

“So Lee Young-Soon, how’s your day been?”

She glared at me after I called her by her name. That deadly gaze was quite sexy. This girl really possessed sex appeal.

“You won’t talk? Ok, then I’ll describe mine to you. It started out with me meeting this strange girl on this bridge, yeah?”

I began narrating my day in earnest, not leaving a single detail out. Hopefully that would help narrow the gap between us. Maybe she could trust me a tiny bit.

“Could you please leave?” She asked.

“Nope. I’m not leaving till I see you smile at least once for me.” I put my hand on her head while looking out through the window. There was a beautiful sun set ongoing which was ruined by the up rise of smoke and sounds of explosions and people screaming.

The others gathered around the window. It seems they were done discussing their plan. The first year walked out the window. After sometime, he seemed to confirm the safety for them and they began to leave in a single file, one by one. Till it was left with just the two of us.

I stood up and offered her my hand. She slapped it away though and stood up by herself. We both walked over to the window. The compound had been overrun with monsters. If we fell, we died. I looked at her and I could see the shock in her eyes.

“Ladies first.” I told her.

BAM!

The door to the room was been pushed slightly. Youngsoo wasted no time in climbing unto the ledge and slowly crossing it.

BAM!

I looked back and the monsters were still forcing their way through. I sighed then jumped onto the ledge. After a few minutes we managed to crossover safely. When we did, the others weren’t there, meaning they had already gone up ahead.

We decided to quickly head in the direction of the auditorium. After about 5 minutes, we safely made it there no problem, where we saw the others. They stood there with confused expressions and I could see them sweating.

I wanted to inquire further, but then I got a message that said something that made me pause in my tracks.

A screen popped up before me, telling me some bullshit.

----------------

Oops! Did we say your safe zone is the auditorium? We meant the gymnasium. Good Luck!

----------------

“The gymnasium?! But that’s all the way across the school! How are we supposed to get there!?”

The first year screamed, but it was overshadowed by the coming wave of monsters from behind us. I turned around, bating my breaths, looking around for any possible escape route. There were the windows, but those led outside where there were more of those creatures and even with my speed, it would be next to impossible to get to some form of shelter. There were the stairs, but those weren’t an option. I mean, one of the monsters just fell from there. I could always play dead. Nope, that was the dumbest idea.

I gulped then looked back at the window. It was my only choice. If I could run out there, maybe… just maybe I could make it to across the school compound to the seven feet tall brick wall that surrounded the school.

My heart beat got increasing louder, drowning out the monstrous cries and thundering footsteps. Time seemed to slow to a halt and my mind was getting flooded with violent images. I wasn’t able to move. All I could hear were screams and the sound of something being ripped apart.

Red flashed before my eyes and I was curious to know what that red was. I wasn’t able to find out because something tugged at my back, pulling me back into this now insane joke called reality. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for me, I wouldn’t know.

Behind me was Lee Young-Soon, she had been calling my name in a quiet voice. Her eyes looked a bit bothered, but there was a sort of cold look in them.

Lee Young-Soon. I had completely forgotten about her in my attempt to escape. It was probably for the best though. She might not have been able to keep up with me while running.

“Young-Soon? What is it?”

She pointed towards the swarm of monsters. My eyes darted towards their direction and they widened with shock. Why? Well the answer was quite a simple one.

“All the monsters are frozen?”

Park Chul said what I believed were the thoughts of every single person who was present. As if to dispel the growing disbelief, the purple screen showed up yet again.

[Fret not! We have put a freeze order on the monsters. You can get to your destination safely now]

‘Eh? These guys are getting more annoying by the second.’

The admins were becoming a real pain in the butt. I didn’t know if they could read minds. If they could, it meant I would most likely die at the hands of the Aingeni or the admins themselves, because I had quite a few… comments about this all thing.

Still, no one trusted them. This was probably a ploy to feed us right to the monsters. Once we got to the middle, they would just swarm us.

“Come on! What are you guys waiting over there for? We need to get to the safe zone!”

Obviously, the first idiot to take a step was none other than the first year.

“Are you crazy? We can’t trust the screen!”

One of the girls shouted. She had blonde-dyed hair tied into a pony tail and wore her clothes like a Japanese gyaru – Blazer tied around her waist, shirt with top buttons undone, short skirt, make up on her face like a Barbie doll and piercings in her ears. To be honest, it wasn’t a good look on her. I would have suggested that she go for the more relaxed and tamed North Korean woman.

“What else can we do?!”

“I-I don’t know… but we can’t trust the screens.”

“If we can’t trust the screens, why the hell are you even here?! Isn’t it because you decided to follow the screen’s advice?”

“Uh… B- um…”

Her face was red with embarrassment now and she was reduced to a muttering tomato, so to avoid further disgrace she piped down.

Her girls were giving her worried looks. They probably hadn’t ever seen her barked down before since she was most likely one of those at the top of the social ladder. Of course they were all beneath me.

“If no one else will complain, let’s go!”

Before he left, another screen appeared before us all. I didn’t even need to look at the screen to sense the drastic mood change - like an aura of pure doom pressed down on the entire room.

-------------

Oh! You guys are really boring! It’s been a whole 30 seconds and you haven’t moved? You need some motivation, huh? The monsters will unfreeze in 4 minutes. Is that enough motivation now?

-------------

 “HUH?!”

They all screamed. Normally, there should have been a moment of confusion for all, but that wasn’t the case. They all looked to the first year who was running away towards the gymnasium.

Had he abandoned the rest?

“If you don’t want to die! Run!”

He couldn’t abandon them. This guy was unbelievably heroic. Too heroic to be true in fact. For some reason though, I couldn’t suspect him of being a worker of the admins. That was quite weird.

“I really don’t like that brat.”

I made to walk away, but Young-Soon tugged at my shirt again.

“What is it?”

Her face was red like a tomato and she was huffing. Her eyes couldn’t meet mine, as they were pointed straight to the floor. Was she coming to confess to me? Now? I wouldn’t say it was the appropriate time, but I also couldn’t possibly bare to make her even more embarrassed. I could deal with her. She was quite beautiful. She could have easily been in the school’s top three if she took better care of herself. With a feint and stupidly innocent voice, she whispered something into my ear.

“M-My leg hurts… I think I twis- OH!.”

I didn’t have time to listen to her finish her sentence once it wasn’t a confession. I hoisted her off the ground and onto my back. Without wasting another second, I sprinted down the hallway. The other students had completely disappeared.

That didn’t make sense to me. I guess the fear of death really got into them and caused them to move faster.

“What is this?”

The dark haired beauty pointed at something floating above her.

2:49

I could tell it was a timer as soon as the digits changed.

2:48

‘Shit!’

I kicked off the ground at full speed. Those bastards didn’t think to tell us before they left. The nerve on them. I’d kick all of their asses if I had time.

The creatures were all stuck in place, but I could hear groaning. That was when I realized that they hadn’t stopped moving. They had just drastically slowed down to this point.

Still, that wasn’t important. The gymnasium was still some distance away. Normally I might have been able to make it on my own, but this time, I was carrying Young-Soon. Why the hell was I carrying Young-Soon?!

That was the most confusing aspect of it all. I was supposed to be thinking of a way home. This was weird.

It didn’t take long for me to appear on the hallway leading towards the gymnasium, but there was also bad news.

00:10

00:09

‘9 seconds more?! H-How?! Tch.’

The creatures’ movements were starting to get faster, but that didn’t matter. Nine seconds was more than enough time for me to make it to the gymnasium. I could see some of them running towards it. If anything, I might have even been able to pass one or two of them.

‘These bastards are really slow.’

I passed them no problem. They were some unmemorable people. The bottom feeders of society. I almost laughed, but then –

“EH?!”

At this point, it was a home run, right? Right?! But no! I just had to be messed with here. As if carrying Young-Soon wasn’t enough, one of the creatures grabbed my shirt and yanked me as hard as I thought it could.

Still, I wasn’t someone who would go down so easily. This was going to be tricky though, since the girl on my back was more like a hindrance to me at the moment. I needed to get rid of her. Luckily for her, we were really close to the door.

“WHA- ?!” She screamed as she levitated off my back and found herself in my arms. Well not levitate per say. Something much rougher than that.

With all my strength, I grabbed Young-Soon and threw her towards the door. In her flight, some blood from her bleeding palm ending up splashing on my face, a tiny bit of it entering my mouth.

That wasn’t my concern though.

After flying her, air filled the space between her bare stomach and hoodie. I could see her pale skin and what appeared to be a tiny wound. She may have been beaten earlier on by somebody. Was she being bullied? That was probably the reason why I hadn’t seen her in school before. She was most likely avoiding whoever did that to her.

[Qualification 1: Take in blood… Met]

A black screen with red letters appeared before me, putting me in a state of confusion.

That was my first mistake for the day and unfortunately, my last in my life.

The doors shut before my eyes and before I could process my next thought, the creatures swarmed me and I fell.

[Qualification 2: Excitement after taking in blood… Met]

I could feel their cold limbs touching my body. I really hated the cold.

[Qualification 3: Individual has died… Not met]

I wanted to feel warm. I seriously didn’t like their creepy touches. Was this what a corpse felt like? It was disgusting. I closed my eyes and winced in pain when I was bitten on the wrist by one of the monsters. Damn it! Still, I wouldn’t scream. That would be a pathetic death.

[Error! Error! Geno Tree Activation will not take place without qualifications being met]

No one liked guys who died pathetically.

TING!

[Solution!]

[Target will be killed by Order 66 of Progenitor]

Order 66? Was this star wars?

[Ceasing all living functions of Target]

[Your heart has ceased to work]

[You have died]

Was the last thing I heard before my heart suddenly stopped and my mind went blank.

Lee Young-Soon POV

I fell on the plastered ground of the school’s auditorium with a huge thud and skidded on the floor for a while before I hit one of the chairs.

“Ack!”

I spat out a bit. I slowly opened my eyes and saw them closing the door and a surprisingly calm look on Kwon Sung-Ho’s as he ran towards the door.

I was horrified as the various blueish arms grabbed his body whole. They were like a wave, swallowing him whole. I didn’t hear a single scream or utterance.

Not wanting to let him die, I forced myself off the ground and ran towards the door, but I fell instantly. My ankle was still twisted and it hurt so movement was practically impossible for me. I skidded on the ground towards the door and hit it with a thud.

CLACK!

The sound of the door being locked resonated throughout the entire gym.

I looked up and saw the hooligans from earlier. They just locked the door. Now they had put themselves against the door, hoping their weights could prevent the monsters from coming in.

“W-Where is the dark king?” the first year looked around, his eyes shaking violently.

“H-he got stuck. He didn’t make it.” Park Chul said in a calm tone.

No… that wasn’t calm. Although not everyone would have noticed, he seemed distressed. More confused than anything.

He was probably wondering why he had thrown me instead of abandoning me.

Even if that was what he was thinking, I couldn’t bring myself to get angry. I really wanted to get angry. I had to get angry or else tears would flow. Crying was a sign of weakness. A sign I swore I would never show to anyone ever again. So why, was it that even now, tears were flowing from my cheeks, for a person I shouldn’t care about? A total stranger.

Damn it!

How could I? How could I get angry at the stranger that saved my life?

How could I to the person who saved me, be it accidental or intentional?