Surviving Every Worldview

Chapter 12: Unwritten Rules (1)

The morning of the day the episode begins with cloudy weather, a continuation of yesterday.

I woke up and saw the time ticking away.

Every time I looked at it, I thought, “There’s still a lot of time left.”

Time really does fly.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one nervous about the time left.

I wondered what would happen when 72 hours passed.

Will we have to evacuate?

If so, where would we go?

Shouldn’t someone higher up tell us what to do?

These are all opinions that are being expressed in real time on messenger apps.

I can’t pretend to know any of this.

Well, let’s just ignore it and prepare as usual.

[Your actions have become known to an unspecified number of people.]

[Awareness has increased, but some settlement has been withheld.]

First of all, the Awareness rose again today without fail.

However, even though awareness has increased, changes in the body are not easily felt.

It’s probably because everyone has already seen the news.

Now I had to create a completely new incident to gain recognition while hiding the fact that the incident three days ago was my doing.

Something big enough to make national news and be in everyone’s conversation.

That was the number one goal that I had to accomplish over the next few weeks.

[0:59:21]

After that, I cleaned up my inventory until the remaining time was close to an hour, then I left the house I wouldn’t be returning to for a while.

* * *

Time: 11:55:18.

Five minutes to go.

I found a nearby place where a slot machine had come down and headed there.

In the middle of a busy street, a 10-minute bus ride away. People in fluorescent clothing controlled traffic, centered around slot machines.

People crossing the street and entering various shops seemed to have gotten used to it and didn’t pay any attention to the machines.

They even forgot that the episode was about to start.

So, what happens now?

Reality is transformed into a fantasy world.

Reality becomes a game for a moment.

The races that appear in the episode are hostile to humans, and you have to either run away or fight them.

The episode ends only if you somehow survive and find a way to clear it.

Depending on the setting, this process usually takes about two weeks.

If you’re unlucky, you’re looking at a month.

That means I’ll have to be prepared to live with the undead for a while.

So the general public should evacuate or hide in their homes whenever possible…….

Especially around slot machines, which are the most dangerous place to be…….

“Are those cops still out there?”

“That’s right. Isn’t it because today is that day?”

“Oh.”

In reality, people were walking around the city as usual, oblivious to anything.

Some saw the mysterious timer and prepared, but most didn’t.

… I wouldn’t call them completely careless because I would have done the same thing if I didn’t know anything.

It’s all Dreams’ fault, not those people.

‘Thirty seconds.’

I stood in the crosswalk, ready to run at a moment’s notice.

The episode begins as soon as the timer ends.

Today’s goal is twofold.

To look around the world and see if anything has changed.
To find a way to end the episode as quickly as possible.

The clock strikes 12.

As soon as my thoughts were organized, the timer ended.

[Episode 1 has begun.]

[Find a ‘cliffhanger’ to end the episode while dealing with the undead outbreak.]

The door of the slot machine, which hadn’t moved in three days, opened.

Coins rained down and soaked into the floor, and soon the ground as far as the eye could see was stained a murky color.

Then, a corrupted hand rose up from the blackened ground and grabbed my ankle.

“…!”

I quickly withdrew my right foot and trampled hard on the raised arm.

The ‘undead’ on the ground struggled, green blood splashing onto my pants, but I ignored it and continued to push it away with my foot.

Unable to climb any higher, it dropped its arms limply.

[Your story begins.]

I looked around, using my expanded vision from the story.

Perhaps because all the visible ground had turned murky, people were running away to buildings that were not affected.

If they keep their doors locked and don’t make too much noise, they’ll be safe for a while.

On the other hand, some people couldn’t escape.

“Hey, what the hell!”

“Stay still! Don’t panic!”

The most dangerous people were the cops next to the slot machines.

One of the cops was grabbed by the ankles, but they calmly slammed their batons down on their raised hands.

“Ugh……!!”

But it didn’t work.

No matter how many times they struck the hands with the batons, they didn’t even flinch, and the cops couldn’t disperse the undead.

And this is near a slot machine.

A location where even if they attacked, they would eventually be surrounded by the swarming undead.

I hastily whipped out my baton to help them-

“Run! Run!”

“There’s a lot of people over there! Hurry!”

…just as I was about to leave.

I heard people’s voices, and soon a fireball flew behind me, blowing away the hand that was holding the policeman’s ankle.

That was just the beginning.

A group of about ten people of all kinds gathered around and confronted the zombies and skeletons that were slowly walking towards them.

Some were even wielding long tools as weapons.

Even the police, who had been called in to help, were too stunned to say anything.

“……?”

I was just as confused as they were.

I was pretty sure this was going to go the way I expected, at least for the first episode.

I just didn’t expect so many people to be so proactive.

“You’ve awakened the story, haven’t you?”

One of them said,

It was a man in a long puffer coat who looked to be around my age.

“…Yeah.”

“Really? That’s weird, I didn’t see you earlier…Would you like to move around with us?”

Moving together?

They just awkwardly appeared at the same time.

…I’ll have to figure something out while the others are smashing skeletons.

“That’s… a little abrupt, what are you guys doing?”

“Huh? Oh, we just met on the spot! People who came out because they were awakened were obviously doing something, so I gathered them by asking around.”

The man explained with his body that the eyes of the Awakened were all focused on the slot machines.

Even so, impatience set in, the man’s eyes turned to the undead being swept away one by one.

“So, what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re here to level up and get clear rewards to get a head start on this stuff, but since you all know nothing right now, why don’t we work together?”

These people are all here to get a head start.

Really, just for that one thing?

You didn’t know what happens when the countdown ends like I did?

Even if they could look around now and see that their lives could be in danger?

Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn’t have said that…….

At least I know who these people are that just popped up out of nowhere.

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what to do, and then I answered.

“No…not really.”

“Really?”

The man’s expression changed subtly, as if he wasn’t expecting a rejection.

“Well, you’re only hurting yourself……….”

But he soon lost interest in me, leaving me with a condescending glare, and went back to hunting the undead.

They were all eager to kill one more undead.

I guess they didn’t hold on for long since even if I refused, there wouldn’t be any more competition.

[※ Story completion level 0 → 1]

A strange status window appeared on the man’s back as he turned and left.

…A brief conversation with a stranger whose name I don’t even recognize? This?

What the hell is going on?

I watched them for a moment, and when they weren’t looking at me, I tiptoed away.

The undead are just a nuisance anyway.

Catching them won’t raise my awareness or my story skill.

There are other things to aim for.

“Wow, how high is it going to go!?”

“Isn’t that great, get them all!”

The undead continued to appear while I was gone, as did the Awakened who joined the hunt.

At this rate, the city would be safe for a while.

Those people, whose purpose was to grow, had unwittingly volunteered for the slaughter.

They believed they were getting ahead until the end.

* * * *

An unwritten rule that is tacit, but in creative writing it’s a slang term, like a cliché or a rule of state.

But in this world, it was as real as the laws of physics.

Police attacks didn’t work on the undead.

The fact that Do-yeon and ordinary people quickly adapted to the changes and didn’t question them.

The first event of the Cognitive Revolution appeared before me and I was overly calm.

The power to bend the laws of physics and human thought ‘slightly’ so that the unrealistic events of a work of fiction can be reproduced in reality.

The phenomenon of scenes and places that are intentionally ignored for the sake of dramatization.

That was the setting of the unwritten rules that created this world.

The clichéd thoughts and events of the creation could happen in every moment.

How is that possible when the slightest change in the laws of physics would bring disaster to the world?

The laws of physics can change without that happening.

“Hey, it’s coming up from under you!”

“Uh. Thanks!”

Looking around, it became clearer.

A normal person would not act recklessly, even if they awakened the story.

They must have been like that too, but they are being guided by unwritten rules.

They would be acting as if they were the hero or heroine of one of the many stories.

…I must not be like that.

I must not allow the Unwritten Rules to sway my thoughts, but rather allow the Unwritten Rules to flow in my favor.

That’s the best resistance I can offer now.

First, let’s get to the point and not think about anything else.

[NEW GAME]

I remembered playing a game of Dreams.

When the episode begins, various creative works are realized in reality, separate from the invading worldview.

Androids are found in America, yokai appear in a Japanese shrine, or a hero’s secret base is discovered.

TLN: Yokai is a catchall Japanese word for ghosts, demons, monsters, shapeshifters, tricksters, and other kinds of supernatural beings and mysterious phenomena.

Popular urban legends and creations come to life.

Naturally, these things grow into life-threatening threats if not quelled early but it’s also an opportunity.

Just as you can be attacked by a yokai, you can also tame it.

It is such an anomaly that I am looking for now.

[Your story begins.]

I focused my attention on what I could see and hear.

It happened to be a familiar place, one I frequented often.

With the senses awakened by the power of the story, it wasn’t too difficult to find the place that felt ‘out of the ordinary’.

“I found it.”

Looking carefully around, there was a spot where the undead were unnaturally unwilling to approach.

This is abnormal.

The area around slot machines is, without exception, a dangerous place that the general public shouldn’t approach.

Still, there is only one reason why there is a safe place.

There’s something that needs to be done there, something that needs to be done without the undead interfering.

Obviously, I knew.

Crossing the road where the others had cleared the undead, I set out to find the ‘event’ that must have happened somewhere.

* * * *

-bzzzzz.

Just before arriving at my destination, I heard the incoming call sound that I had intentionally changed from silent to vibrate.

I took my cell phone out of my pocket and checked to see who it was from.

[Seol Do-yeon]

It was from her, who must be hiding at home, just like I said.