Prologue
In the end, the world was destroyed.
Earlier than scheduled.
Splat.
My shoe stepped into a pool of blood.
“…Blood?”
Kyaaaaak!
A horrific scream rang out from somewhere nearby.
“Aah! Help me! Please, someone help me!”
The desperate cries of people begging for their lives overlapped chaotically.
Only then did the scene before my eyes come into focus.
The village had become absolute pandemonium. People in the streets were fleeing in all directions, panic-stricken.
Just yesterday, this place had been lively enough to hold a market.
Thud—
I was knocked over in the middle of the road by people running past me.
Behind their retreating backs, grotesque creatures lunged forward.
Yeah. As unbelievable as it sounded—
Those were monsters.
Kwaaak!
What vaguely resembled a human opened its mouth unnaturally wide. In an instant, a person was swallowed whole between rows of densely packed teeth.
“Damn it.”
Countless people were bitten to death by the monsters—
And those who survived began to turn into monsters themselves.
And amid that chaos, something caught my eye.
“…Why is that man here?”
In the middle of the street, a man wearing a police uniform was helping civilians escape while fighting the monsters head-on.
I jumped to my feet and ran straight into the center of the village.
A weapons shop with shattered glass doors came into view.
Dodging the fleeing crowd, I rushed inside and grabbed an axe—the weapon I could handle most easily—then ran back out.
I swung it mercilessly at the monster charging toward me.
Slash—
Green blood splattered across my face.
Krrk?
The monster beside it lifted its head.
Its face had four eyes, each one as large as my fist.
I froze the moment our gazes met, careful not to provoke it.
The four pupils repeatedly contracted and expanded as it stared at me.
I didn’t blink either.
I was waiting for it to let its guard down—so I could bury the axe in its skull.
That was when—
Heavy black combat boots stepped straight through the pooled blood.
Bang!
A gunshot thundered in my ears.
A tall man entered my field of vision.
With a single shot, he killed the monster in front of me.
“Damn it. There’s no end to them.”
After scanning the area, the man—Eden—clicked his tongue and turned toward me.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
I lifted my head and looked closely at him.
No one else knew yet.
But I did.
That man absolutely could not die here.
‘Eden Duncan Lancaster.’
The heroine’s older brother.
The man with antibodies to the virus.
A perfectly tailored navy police uniform clung to his body, blond hair neatly slicked back, a cap adorned with a golden star insignia.
Despite his crisp appearance, Eden’s face and clothes were splattered with blood.
Our eyes met.
His irises were a piercing blue—so cold it sent a chill down my spine.
‘This isn’t the time.’
I grabbed his hand urgently.
Eden’s brows shot up in confusion.
“Come with me. Outside the village.”
“I know this situation is completely screwed,” he replied, “but there could still be survivors left.”
Of course he’d say that.
He was a man with an unwavering sense of duty as a police officer.
‘That’s exactly why I came all this way.’
Kwaaak—
The number of monsters was steadily increasing, and survivors were becoming harder to spot.
There were several times more monsters than people now.
They had begun to take over the village, blocking most of the roads. Escaping to the outskirts was becoming nearly impossible.
If we didn’t leave now, we’d be trapped.
“I’m sorry.”
Thud!
I struck the back of Eden’s head with the handle of the axe, knocking him unconscious.
Thump.
Stronger than most people, I slung his limp body over my shoulder and ran.
I ran, dodging monsters as they lunged for us.
I ran and ran.
After breaking free of the village and sprinting up a hill in one breath—my lungs burning, breath caught in my throat—
I finally arrived before a massive iron gate.
Bang!
I rushed inside, slammed the gate shut behind me, and practically threw Eden onto the ground.
Only after locking the bolt did I finally let out a breath of relief.
Kraaak! Krrk! Kwaaak!
The monsters’ howls filled the air outside.
Dull thuds echoed as their bodies slammed repeatedly against the gate.
I cautiously peered through the gap.
“Shit… we can’t get out.”
The monsters that had followed us swarmed outside the gate, their numbers steadily increasing.
Thanks to the sturdy defensive walls built in advance, it didn’t look like they could break in.
But the problem was—
Neither could we get out.
Eden and I were trapped inside this estate.
When Eden woke up, he might very well try to kill me over this ridiculous situation…
‘Whatever. For now, I just saved the world.’
Well—technically, I kidnapped the man who would save the world before he could die.
To explain how things ended up like this,
We need to go back about three weeks.
