**Chapter 4: Yuna’s Escape**
*Translated by Vine | Proofread by Lust*
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—
Choi Yuna, a citizen of Gyeongju, was currently running up the mountain path of Namsan.
With a large backpack slung over her shoulders and a hiking knife gripped tightly in one hand, she might have looked like a regular hiker at first glance.
But Yuna hadn’t come to Namsan for a leisurely hike.
“*Huff, huff… they’re still chasing me!?*”
Yuna cast a quick, panicked glance behind her, seeing the grotesque figures that were relentlessly pursuing her. Out of breath, she cursed her situation under her breath.
What followed her wasn’t some wild animal common in the mountains, nor was it a gang of debt collectors hunting her down for unpaid loans.
In fact, neither Yuna nor her family had ever taken out a loan. They were model citizens, so the mere idea that someone might be chasing her would’ve seemed absurd under normal circumstances.
But in the current apocalypse, where chaos reigned, it wasn’t uncommon for the weak to be hunted down.
Her pursuers were monsters—creatures that could only be described as goblins.
With green skin, wearing nothing but a ragged cloth to cover their loins, they wielded crude clubs and makeshift wooden shields. These short, squat creatures matched the typical fantasy depiction of goblins.
Yes, the goblins that people only ever read about in fantasy novels had now appeared in the real world. They had invaded Yuna’s life, and right now, they were chasing her with lecherous grins on their faces, their eyes locked onto her with disgusting intent.
As their gazes fixated on her small frame, especially her backside, Yuna felt a cold shiver of dread. She could feel their filthy desires aimed at her, and that spurred her to run even faster.
“*If I’d known this would happen, I never would’ve run into the mountains!*”
Panting heavily, Yuna regretted her decision and reflected on the events of two months ago, when everything had started.
—
Yuna had once been an ordinary student.
It wasn’t just a figure of speech—she was truly ordinary. Born into a normal family in Gyeongju, loved by her average office-worker parents, and attending a typical local school, Yuna lived a life as unremarkable as any other.
With her pretty but not overly remarkable appearance, Yuna didn’t possess any special talents or skills. She simply enjoyed her school life and spent her free time indulging in subculture hobbies with her friends.
To put it bluntly, Yuna was the very definition of an “extra” in the story of life. She even joked about it herself, admitting she was just a background character in her own existence.
But it didn’t take much to shatter Yuna’s peaceful, ordinary life.
“Eh? Eh…? What the…?”
A zombie apocalypse—the kind you only saw in movies and novels—had swept across South Korea.
That one sentence summed up the disaster that had struck her world.
The day before she had come to Namsan, Yuna had gone to school like any other day. She had gone to bed as usual that night. But when she woke up the next morning, Gyeongju was overrun by zombies.
Yuna, who had left her home early to head to school, was completely unprepared for the sight that greeted her.
Zombies filled the streets.
“Wh-What the hell is that…!?”
“Dad?!”
Riding in her father’s car on the way to school, Yuna froze in terror as she saw hordes of zombies shuffling down the streets. Her father, sensing the immediate danger, quickly turned the car around to head back home.
It was a father’s instinct to protect his family, to return home and save his wife, who was still unaware of the unfolding chaos.
But when Yuna and her father arrived back at the house, what they saw was…
“Grr… ahhh…”
“Honey…? No… no, no…”
The sight of her mother, who had turned into a zombie.
In the mere minutes it had taken for them to return home, Yuna’s mother had already been transformed into one of the undead. The shock left Yuna’s father momentarily frozen in disbelief, and in the chaos of the apocalypse, such a moment of hesitation was fatal.
“Stop! It’s me! I’m your husband! Aaaaaaaahhh!”
“Grrr…”
Yuna’s zombified mother lunged at her father, biting into his neck without mercy. Blood and flesh splattered across the doorstep as Yuna’s father screamed in agony, begging his wife to stop.
But the woman who had once been his wife no longer recognized him. She tore into him relentlessly, indifferent to his desperate cries.
“………!!!”
Yuna’s mind blanked out in sheer horror. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Tears streamed down her face as she silently screamed, watching her father being devoured by the person who had once been her mother.
“Grr…”
“Dad…?”
And then, right before her eyes, her father turned into a zombie as well.
It was an utterly nightmarish scene, one that threatened to break her sanity. Both her zombified parents now focused their hungry eyes on her. Pale-faced, Yuna ran for her life, locking herself inside the master bedroom.
“This is a dream… it’s just a nightmare…”
She muttered to herself, desperately clinging to the hope that she would wake up.
“It hurts! It hurts so much… why won’t I wake up!?”
She pinched her cheeks, slapped her legs, doing everything she could to jolt herself awake. But the pain was real, the sounds of her zombified parents pounding on the door were real. Reality was inescapable.
“Aaaaahhhh!”
If there was any luck to be found in Yuna’s situation, it was that her father had once prepared a weapon for emergencies—a baseball bat that was stored in the bedroom.
“If I don’t fight, I’ll die…!”
Despite the overwhelming fear, Yuna made a quick decision.
She accepted that this was real, and if she didn’t fight, she would die. Her survival instincts kicked in.
Perhaps it was desperation, or perhaps she had already accepted her fate. Either way, Yuna didn’t have time to dwell on why the world had turned into a zombie apocalypse overnight.
Grabbing the baseball bat, she prepared herself.
“Dieeeeeee!”
When her zombified parents broke through the bedroom door, Yuna swung the bat with all her strength. She shattered their skulls, ensuring they couldn’t hurt her anymore. She kept swinging, destroying their bodies until they were nothing more than lifeless piles of flesh.
By the time she stopped, the room was drenched in her parents’ blood and gore.
“Aaah… aaahh…”
Only after the deed was done did the full weight of her actions hit her.
The despair, the guilt, the overwhelming sorrow of having killed her own parents—zombified or not—came crashing down on her.
“I… I killed them… I killed Dad… and Mom…”
Tears of anguish flowed as she realized she had been forced to kill her parents to survive. The mental toll was unbearable.
【 You have awakened. 】
A blue holographic window suddenly appeared in front of Yuna’s tear-filled eyes, as if to mock her grief.
By killing her zombified parents, Yuna had “awakened” and gained access to a status window, much like the ones often seen in hunter novels.
But to Yuna, who had been clinging to the hope that this was all just a dream, the sudden appearance of the status window pushed her over the edge. She fainted on the spot.
It wasn’t until a full day later that Yuna managed to process what had happened.
—
“A zombie apocalypse…”
Yuna, having regained consciousness, used her smartphone to check the internet. All the online forums were flooded with discussions about the zombie apocalypse that had engulfed South Korea.
It wasn’t just South Korea, either. The entire world seemed to be experiencing its own version of the apocalypse, though each country was dealing with it in different ways.
As Yuna calmly read through the posts, trying to make sense of the situation, she also discovered the reason for her own “awakening.”
—
**[Title: You Can Awaken by Killing a Zombie]**
Literally, if you kill a zombie, you’ll awaken and get a status window.
This isn’t clickbait—it’s real. Kill a zombie, and you’ll get a status window just like in those novels.
Earlier today, I killed a zombie, and boom, I awakened. Got a status window and everything.
You even get a skill, too. I got elemental magic.
It seems like the skill you get varies from person to person, but you can check other posts for more info.
I’m just letting you all know, so don’t say I didn’t warn you later.
No comments. Judge for yourself.
P.S. Here’s proof.
**[GIF of the user summoning a fireball in their hand.]**
—
The post confirmed what had happened to Yuna. She had met the conditions for awakening by killing her zombified parents.
But knowing the reason behind her awakening didn’t ease the guilt. In fact, it only made things worse. Yuna had killed her own parents—whether they had been zombies or not, they were still her mom and dad. And now, because of that, she had become something else… an “awakened” person in this horrific new world.
Her mind was still reeling, but Yuna pushed through her despair. She knew she couldn’t just sit around and wallow in her misery. She had to survive.
Determined to live, Yuna followed the information she had found on the internet and called up her own status window.
“Status Window!”
—
**[Status Window]**
**Name:** Choi Yuna
**Race:** Human
**Gender:** Female
**Age:** 16
**Alignment:** Neutral Good
**Level:** 1
**Traits:** None
**Class:** None
**Strength:** 8
**Stamina:** 12
**Agility:** 14
**Wisdom:** 21
**Magic Power:** 19
**Luck:** 6
**Skills:**
– Holy Magic (Beginner)
—
The ability Yuna had awakened was holy magic—a rare and powerful skill often associated with healing. In a world now dominated by the undead, where medical supplies were becoming increasingly scarce, Yuna’s power had the potential to make her invaluable.
In this zombie apocalypse, where resources were dwindling, a person who could heal without needing medicine or equipment would be a precious asset to any group.
“I can’t stay here anymore.”
Yuna quickly realized that staying in her blood-soaked home, surrounded by memories of her parents, would drive her mad. So, despite her grief, she grabbed the baseball bat she had used to defend herself and ventured out into the world. She convinced herself that she needed to train her new abilities to survive. But deep down, she knew the real reason she was leaving: she couldn’t bear to be in the same place where her parents had died by her own hand.
As she ventured out, Yuna began clearing the zombies around her neighborhood. Using her bat and newfound abilities, she managed to fend off the undead. It was during this time that she encountered other survivors—people who, like her, had awakened to special powers.
Yuna soon joined up with a small group of survivors. Together, they made their way to a larger camp that had been set up by others like them—people who were trying to make a safe haven in the midst of the apocalypse.
—
Yuna’s ability to heal made her a critical member of the camp. She quickly became known for treating the wounds of the other survivors, using her holy magic to heal without needing scarce medical supplies.
“Thank you, miss,” a survivor said, his arm fully healed after an injury.
“It’s no trouble. This… this is why I’m alive.”
To Yuna, healing others became her purpose—perhaps as a way to atone for the guilt she felt for her parents’ deaths. She threw herself into her work, healing anyone who needed her help. It didn’t matter how much it drained her; she felt it was the only way to make up for the life she had taken from her family.
“Maybe… if I can help everyone here, I’ll make up for what I did,” she whispered to herself.
As time went on, word spread about Yuna’s healing abilities. Survivors from other camps and even solo wanderers would come to her for treatment. Yuna’s dedication earned her respect from many, but it also began to take a toll on her.
She was overworking herself to the point where her once-dark hair began to turn white from exhaustion. But Yuna ignored her body’s warnings, continuing to heal everyone who came to her. It was her way of atoning.
“Wait… you’re telling me not to heal them?”
One day, the leader of her camp—a powerful awakened fighter—gave her a new order.
“That’s right. Stop healing the regular survivors. Prioritize the awakened. And make sure to charge anyone from outside the camp for treatment.”
“But if I charge them, they’ll die! They don’t have anything to pay with!”
Yuna’s eyes widened in disbelief. How could the leader be so heartless in this situation?
“If they can’t pay, then it’s not our problem. We need to save resources for those who can actually fight.”
“This is wrong… those people need help!”
The selfishness and cruelty of the camp leader infuriated Yuna. But in a world where zombies roamed, it wasn’t just the undead that posed a threat—human greed and power struggles were just as dangerous.
In any apocalypse, the real danger often came from the people trying to survive in it. Though common sense dictated that sticking together was the best chance for survival, human nature had a way of complicating things.
“We’re the ones fighting out there! If you take too long to heal us, we’ll die! Do you want that on your conscience?”
“I… that’s not…”
The leader’s words carried weight, and the other awakened survivors nodded in agreement.
The camp had begun to shift into a hierarchy where the awakened were treated as superior to the ordinary people who lacked powers. And as time passed, the awakened survivors—drunk on their newfound power—started to develop dangerous ideas.
“We, the awakened, should be in charge. It’s only right. We fight, we protect, and they… they should serve us.”
“I don’t agree with that at all…” Yuna quietly protested.
Despite her protests, the camp’s leader and other awakened members started to treat the regular survivors as expendable, even going so far as to hoard resources for themselves. Yuna, on the other hand, continued to heal anyone who came to her, ignoring the camp’s new policies.
“Everything will go back to normal. The government will come and save us, I’m sure of it.”
Yuna kept telling herself that help would eventually arrive. It was the same belief many of the regular survivors clung to. They believed that if they could just hold on a little longer, the government or military would rescue them.
There was still internet access, and government agencies were issuing emergency broadcasts, assuring the public that they were working on solutions to the crisis. Yuna believed that with the strength of the Korean military, the zombies wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.
“Just a little more. We just have to endure a bit longer.”
But Yuna’s belief in a rescue was shattered soon after.
—
“What the hell is *that*?!”
One day, a new threat appeared at the camp—a mutated zombie far more powerful than anything they had encountered before. The camp, which had survived so long against ordinary zombies, was decimated in just a single night.
“So many awakened… dead in just one night?”
The mutated zombie attacked with terrifying strength, killing both regular survivors and awakened fighters alike. Half of the camp was wiped out before they even had a chance to fight back.
“Every man for himself now.”
“You can’t be serious… that’s dangerous!” Yuna tried to reason with them.
“So what? Are you going to take responsibility for those useless people? No, right?”
“I…”
The death toll and the appearance of the mutant zombie caused the remaining survivors to fracture even further. The camp split, and people began to abandon it, seeking their own ways to survive.
Yuna desperately tried to hold the group together, insisting that they were safer in numbers, but no one listened. She didn’t have the leadership skills or the charisma to make them follow her. In the end, the camp disbanded.
“I… I don’t know where to go…”
Yuna stood there, alone and directionless, after her camp dissolved. She had no place to return to.
“I can’t go back home…”
The thought of going back to her house, where her parents’ blood still stained the walls, made her sick. Even if she did return, there would be no electricity, no running water, nothing. The roads were crawling with zombies, and if she ran into another mutant, she wouldn’t survive.
“I-I’ll head to the mountains! There shouldn’t be any zombies in the mountains, right…?”
In her desperation, Yuna made a rash decision to head into the mountains. She thought she could survive off the land, finding edible plants to sustain herself. More importantly, she thought the mountains would be free of zombies.
And indeed, there were no zombies in the mountains.
But there were *other* dangers.
The moment she arrived at Namsan, she found herself being hunted—not by zombies, but by goblins.
“I’m such an idiot!”
Now, as she ran for her life from the goblin horde, Yuna cursed her naïve decision.
Sure, there were no zombies on Namsan. But in their place were fantasy monsters that were just as deadly—goblins, orcs, and who knew what else.
Fueling her regret with every step, Yuna could only keep running.
—
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