Surviving Every Worldview

Chapter 17: Surviving the Undead (3)

“Guys! Are you okay!?”

I put my options on hold for now.

First, I had to get the rescued members back to the clubhouse.

As we approached the entrance to the main building, Hyunseok came out to greet us.

He must have been waiting for us on the first floor.

The other members were also worried, and the three of them started talking around him.

“We’re fine. What about the other members?”

“Uh, I’m the only one who’s at school, and I’ve contacted everyone else, so don’t worry.”

“If I knew this would happen, I would have believed you yesterday…….”

Didn’t sister tell the members not to go out, but no one listened?

She should have been offended, but instead, she was smiling from ear to ear, as if she were relieved.

“You two have saved me a lot of worry, really.”

Hyunseok’s words drew the attention of the other members to us.

As if she didn’t want to show her drunkenness, sister’s expression had returned to its usual calm.

“You should have listened to the club leader. What would you all have done without her?”

“Honestly, how can I take that at face value? She’s telling me not to go out all of a sudden.”

“No one got hurt, thank you so much.”

Hyunseok thanked me, especially sister, with his words and actions.

Then, we all smiled in relief as we watched the dormitory building light up one by one, a normalized atmosphere that we would never have seen if even one person hadn’t been safe.

It’s my job now to make sure this atmosphere doesn’t change.

“Come on.”

I grabbed Lee Min-seo by the shoulder and dragged him through the crowd.

All eyes turned to me at the same time, probably because they knew this wasn’t going to end well.

I was just about to decide which of the three options I had to choose.

“Oh, right. What do you want me to do?”

“Listen, we need to get everyone’s input.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m going to take everyone on campus and get them out of here, as fast as I can.”

I pointed my finger at the back gate of the campus.

It was close to the stop where the school’s shuttle buses stopped or gathered.

“You’re leaving the school right now? How?”

“I’m sure the bus drivers are hiding, I’ll try to convince them.”

The campus is built on the outskirts, but it’s not too far from the city.

At this point, we don’t even have to stop at traffic lights and it’s only about a 15-minute ride to safety.

The buses might not be able to transport everyone on campus.

We can’t even afford a round trip, so we’ll have to use people’s personal cars to get everyone there somehow.

“It’s going to be me, you, and sister leading the way there.”

“Wait, the three of us?”

“Yeah, but if there’s someone else who awakened their story, we’ll be four.”

“…… Are you serious?”

I nodded.

Of course, I realize it’s a risky proposition.

And [Choices] has already given me two options that are definitely not risky.

But isn’t that always the case with options?

The risky, seemingly wrong answer is often the right answer and the selfish option isn’t even worth considering.

I have to act with the conviction of a protagonist, even if I’m an asshole.

Otherwise, the unwritten rules can really warp the outcome of my choices.

“And…you know what?”

I turned to a junior who had been listening from the sidelines.

“Why don’t you all go get some people? At least the ones in the dorms will follow right away, because there’s an unwritten rule.”

“Unwritten rules…? I get it.”

“Also, Hyunseok, you have a car, right? I think we could use that…Is that okay?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“And Min-seo, you come with me. We’re going to fix the bus.”

I asked for everything that needed to be done and was the first to run toward the stop.

Min-seo followed me, and the others scattered to do their jobs.

……Sister Seorin didn’t say anything, but followed me quietly.

* * *

“Have you used your story?”

“No…I didn’t know what I could do, so I didn’t do anything.”

Shortly after arriving at the stop, I gave Lee Min-seo a quick lesson on how to use his story on the fly.

Luckily, he picked it up faster than I expected and started using his powers as I told him.

“Now, can you make something to add to the bus like I explained? If you make it close to the bus, it will stick to it.”

Somehow, I ended up asking him to do something similar to what I had asked Seol Do-yeon to do.

Unless you use a painting as a medium, like she did, the materialized object will disappear in a few minutes, but it’s enough time.

“I’ll try.”

Lee Min-seo closed his eyes and concentrated.

His story tags are crime and noir.

There are hundreds of movies and games about crime, and there are hundreds more scenes in which illegal modifications to cars are used in operations, so it shouldn’t be a difficult task.

“Will this work……?”

As expected, Lee Min-seo’s modified bus was exactly as he imagined.

The sides of the bus are lined with different colored steel plates, and the front is equipped with a metal blade.

“You know, the movie chase scene where the car in front of you is crushed and you’re stuck in a dead end, and you drive through it with a modified car? I thought of that and made something like this…….”

“…….”

I’m speechless while he sounded embarrassingly excited.

“Oh, do you want to redo it? Does it need to be stronger?”

“No, no, no, you did great, do the other bus like this.”

I waved my hands to placate him and let him get on with the other buses.

At this rate, it would take about ten minutes to modify every bus in sight.

There’s nothing else to do while I wait.

[Your actions are spreading through word of mouth and the community.]

I keep getting notifications that I’m getting recognized, but I can’t just look at it.

While I’m waiting, I decide to check on sister.

“Sister?”

“…Why.”

“Are you awake?”

“A little? I feel better than I did earlier.”

It took her a while to respond.

She had seemed out of place a few minutes ago, but now she seemed genuine enough, though she hadn’t woken up yet.

“Why did you follow me? Couldn’t you have stayed home?”

“I can’t pretend to be sober in front of the kids anymore…….And I’m not exactly sleeping.”

“Isn’t one of those kids over there?”

I pointed to Lee Min-seo, who was hard at work renovating a bus in the distance.

“He’s one of the youngest, I can tell him not to talk.”

He didn’t hear, so he kept repeating what he was told.

Just like that, I was left with only sister.

It’s awkward since we haven’t really made up.

We just put aside our childish, petty conflicts for a while because our club members were in danger.

It was still hard to be as comfortable as before.

“It’s……Seon-woo.”

“Yes?”

“I have a question.”

Sister spoke first.

“What do you want to know?”

“You said that the more famous you are, the stronger your story will be, so I was wondering if we just sit still, wouldn’t more famous people come to help us?”

As soon as I heard the question, I was relieved.

I was subconsciously nervous that she was about to ask me something awkward.

“People like that don’t come forward, usually because they’ve been doing it for a long time, they’re older, or they need to focus on what they’re doing, and they prioritize protecting themselves.”

“…That’s realistic. In the movies, they always say that with great power comes great responsibility.”

“You can’t force someone to be responsible, that’s what makes them great.”

Now, I’m not here because I have any beliefs.

I’m sure there are some people out there who act out of pure altruism or responsibility, but they’re not the majority.

And that’s okay.

It’s not a reason to be disappointed in people or to criticize them.

“It’s okay, it’s not as bad as you think, and there are plenty of people who do help. Someone had to come to your aid eventually.”

“Do you think someone would have done something about it if we just stood there?”

I nodded. Then, Seorin asked while resting her chin on her hand.

“Then why do you need to solve it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Since we’re not even famous, shouldn’t we just wait for others to solve the episode?”

I thought for a while, unable to come up with an answer.

The reason, of course, is to find Dreams.

To find him, to ask him what happened to all of this…….I’ll have to figure out what to do next but I can’t tell her the whole story right now.

“Just because someone else can do it doesn’t mean I can’t, so.”

“You could die, and that’s the only reason?”

“Well…….”

But is that really all there is to it?

The truth is, there’s no evidence or certainty that resolving the episode will bring Dreams back.

I’m not even sure I’m the only one who can solve the episode.

It’s not like I deserve it, or that I’ve somehow gotten special information by accident and with low visibility.

Even with that in mind, I wonder why I’m hanging on to the episode.

It’s not out of a sense of responsibility, not out of good will, not out of a sense of superiority, and not out of desperation yet.

So, are the unwritten rules fueling my greed?

Did I want to be the only one with the information?

To move the conversation along, I could have sounded like a self-deprecating person but I didn’t want to.

I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t for that reason.

“I don’t know what else to say.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll tell you when I think of it. I really can’t think of anything.”

“…… Yeah, well.”

Squatting down and clenching her jaw, Seorin glared at me, her intentions unclear.

“……Can I ask you one more question, then?”

“Yes.”

“Yesterday, did you come to me just to tell me you needed help?”

She leaned over the railing to get eye level with me.

“Yes, I was just asking for help.”

“You left right after you said that.”

“I was going to talk to you properly again later.”

“really……?”

She made eye contact with me but her eyes, half-closed with fatigue, don’t show any intent.

I feel awkward averting my eyes, but I realize that she can see through it, so all I can do is stare back.

But soon enough, that thought is exhausted, and I try to shift my gaze to see how the modifications are going.

“Oh my God, did you-?”

Suddenly, she put her hand on top of my head and started ruffling my hair.

“It’s not like you’re going to live your whole life without talking to me, why are you so careful, junior-”

“Now, wait, what are you doing all of a sudden…….”

“I’m just saying, let’s stay on good terms-”

With an exasperated tone, she finally let go only after my hair was completely disheveled.

I actually didn’t feel bad.

I’ve been worried for weeks that we might never be this close again.

On the contrary, I was relieved.

* * *

“I’ve done everything you asked, can you take a look?”

Ten minutes later, Lee Min-seo called me to inspect the modified buses.

I didn’t know what he wanted to inspect since I didn’t have any knowledge of vehicles, but I just stood there.

Eventually, Seon-woo gave a positive answer, and Min-seo’s face lit up.

Another ten minutes passed.

“……What does that mean?”

In the distance, footsteps overlapped.

Lee Seorin ran in the direction of the sound first.

Could it be that the undead had reappeared on campus?

Lee Seorin checked Yoo Seon-woo’s reaction, but fortunately, it wasn’t like that.

He had a little smile and a look of trepidation on his face and soon enough, she realized why he had that look.

“We’re here! We found the bus drivers on our way to gather everyone!”

Lee Seorin heard the footsteps of hundreds of people gathering.

Kang Hyunseok, who was driving the car, was also surprised by the crowd.

If today wasn’t the last day of the exam period, there might have been more.

“Seon-woo… Are you sure you’re okay? Are you really going to take everyone and run away into the city?”

“Yes.”

Kang Hyunseok asked Seon-woo, but he didn’t change his mind.

After dozens of minutes of coordination, everyone was loaded into the vehicle, and after some persuasion from Lee Seorin, we were able to get the bus drivers to cooperate.

“Now, when I give the signal to go, this car will be the first to go out, and you two will come up.”

“You’re… really… serious about this?”

“I told you so. Seriously, not a single person believes me.”

Yoo Seon-woo climbed onto the bus.

As Lee Seorin climbed on board, Seon-woo tapped on the window with the hand holding the pistol to signal the bus driver.

The escape with hundreds of people began.

“Let’s go!”

…Wait, a pistol?

Is she still drunk?