Red Dot - 1

Chapter 1

Day 1
Kang Junseong, who prided himself as a gaming enthusiast, particularly disliked first-person shooter (FPS) games.

He preferred to view his character from a distance as if he were a god and be able to see 360 degrees around without any restrictions. He found comfort in being able to calmly respond to enemies jumping out from behind or menacing threats coming from the sides.

Moreover, even though it was called “my character,” he knew that, since he was viewing it from above, it wasn’t really himself. So, there was no great excitement even if he got hurt or killed by monsters or other characters.

But playing a first-person game where he had to immerse himself in the character from that perspective was an entirely different feeling.

The limited field of vision, the harsh weapons that felt like they were in his own hands, relentless bullets and projectiles flying to kill him, and even the vivid splashes of red blood right before his eyes—all of it felt too much like “reality.”

This was the main reason why Junseong, who had enjoyed numerous games consistently since childhood, turned away from first-person games.

Yet, why…

“Ugh!”

I don’t know if I’m dreaming such absurd things.

“Kuh, urgh!”

A middle-aged man who had been making unfunny jokes just a while ago was now being held down by four blood-soaked people and struggling. From his struggling mouth came ceaseless agonizing screams and moans, along with vivid splatters of red blood.

Krrrk!

From the mouths of the people who were ruthlessly tearing apart the flesh with their teeth while burying their faces in the man’s flesh, there came growls resembling monsters. The one filled with both the man’s blood and their own was making a grumbling sound, like a person suffering from phlegm.

With his eyes half-turned and spewing blood, the middle-aged man reached out his hand toward Junseong.

“Sa… save me…”

Junseong couldn’t even bring himself to speak due to the man vomiting blood in agony and the “corpses” devouring him, just taking a half-step back from them.

But what was behind him was only a high wall.

There was nowhere to escape.

“Is this route also a failure?”

Although he had succeeded in finding the moving route with the fewest zombies, they hadn’t expected him to leap down from the nearby two-story building, near the wall. Because of that, they lost the middle-aged man who had been helpful with his cheerful personality and various knowledge.

Kruk!

One zombie, which was constantly wriggling and devouring the middle-aged man with disgust, suddenly turned its head to look in Junseong’s direction. Its strange pupils, completely covered by a red film, rolled around as if searching for another prey.

Anyway, zombies couldn’t recognize what was in front of them well due to the red film over their eyes unless it was very close. So, recognizing Junseong, who was about 10 meters away, was almost impossible.

Junseong stealthily stepped back with a tense expression on his face.

If he just waited with his back to the solid wall, the dull zombies would eventually find their way. Then, if he went back to the escape route he had fled down, he could somehow reach “that place.”

Thinking that, he leaned against the solid wall.

Then, plip, plump.

Something lukewarm fell on Junseong’s forehead.

It was a creepy sensation, enough to send chills down his spine. Junseong brought his hand to his forehead with a stiff expression.

A disgusting, gooey liquid was on his fingers. There was no need to think about what it exactly was.

As he raised his head, he saw a female zombie, who had been crouching on the wall he had leaned against and was now intently gazing down at him. Unshed tears of blood still clung to her eyes covered by a red film, and the blood, as thick as what had fallen on his forehead, continued to flow from her widely open mouth and to her red lips.

At this close range, even if her vision was obscured by the red film, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize her.

Kyaah!

The female zombie screamed with her mouth wide open. With both arms outstretched, she leaped backward, knocking Junseong down and climbed on top of him.

As Junseong fell on the hard ground, he didn’t feel pain apart from the shock transmitted to his back. It was as if his character on the screen was being attacked, but he was only feeling the vibrations of the gamepad in his hands like a console game, where his senses were fully functional but his tactile sensations were paralyzed.

Kaeng, Kyaak!

There was no way to block or evade.

As soon as she climbed on top of him, she immediately attacked, sinking her teeth into his neck. His tender skin was torn apart, and breathing became difficult. If he were to scream, it seemed like the sound of boiling blood, similar to that of the zombies, would mix and come out from his own throat.

The sensation of her hot, vivid blood, different from that of the zombies, gradually staining his throat and jaw became vivid. The strange, crunching noise as his skin was torn away and the woman’s growling as she gnawed on his flesh were too disturbing.

Kwaaah!

Other zombies that had been feasting on the middle-aged man, who was already dead, reacted to the sounds coming from the tussle between Junseong and the female zombie. Due to their reduced vision caused by the red film over their eyes, they were that much more sensitive to sounds.

Watching the other zombies rushing forward with their screams, Junseong felt a strange sensation as if his blood was rapidly coagulating. Subsequently, he felt his vision growing dark, just as it would quickly darken as usual. He closed his eyes. His own strong scent of blood and the putrid stench of the corpse, which he thought he would never smell in his life, gradually faded away.

Being engulfed by complete darkness happened in an instant.

When he opened his eyes again,

Junseong was lying properly in his room’s bed, welcoming the morning.

The distinctive clean and white wallpaper of a new one-room apartment, a large window through which sunlight poured in abundantly, a spacious queen-size bed that he had bought with a generous heart, and the faint scent of the aroma diffuser he had received from a junior whose name he couldn’t even remember.

It was a completely different scene from the alleyway that had been covered with bloodstains and the stench of corpses wherever he looked.

Nevertheless, Junseong didn’t show a hint of surprise, other than blinking his eyes while lying on the bed. In fact, he was quietly recalling the horrifying scenes from a little while ago.

Especially what caught his attention was the sight of zombies jumping down from the second-floor window of a low-rise building, covering him and the middle-aged man. He hadn’t expected that there would be a zombie looking outside from the second floor of that building.

“When I move tomorrow, I should stick to the building wall as much as possible and crouch so that the second-floor zombies can’t see me…”

As Junseong recalled the situation from earlier and provided feedback to himself, he fell deep into thought. Junseong got up from the bed only after a considerable amount of time had passed since then.

Dreaming about a game scenario during his lifetime was not uncommon. Since he had played various types of games since he was a child, it happened frequently and didn’t bother him.

However, encountering a “daily reset game” like this, especially a game in the FPS genre set in an apocalyptic background that he didn’t even enjoy, was very unusual. Moreover, he could freely move within the dream, fully aware that it was a dream, and interact with people one by one.

It was a well-made game where the future changed depending on what words he spoke and what actions he took. It was so full of freedom that it might even be overwhelming.

In reality, he just wanted to believe this strange dream was a “game.”

“But even reality has its limits.”

What Junseong experienced in the dream was too realistic. The intense smell of blood and the stench of walking corpses that he had smelled to the point of nausea in the dream automatically furrowed his brow. The appearance of the female zombie crushing his body and its weight was still as vividly horrifying. He could write a full page with a 10pt font on an A4 sheet of paper about the sensation of flesh tearing and the warm blood bursting.

Junseong had been having this lifelike dream for over a month.

Whenever he fell asleep, he was always standing in the center of this one-room apartment.

Shortly after being captivated by the perfect household scenery that felt almost like a dream, the world would soon turn into a scene of brutal apocalypse. Zombies, which he had only seen in movies or games, overflowed everywhere, and the nauseating stench of blood made him feel like vomiting. He would then scream at the horrifying sensation of being torn apart if he happened to collide head-on with a zombie. After that, he would wake up.

And then, he would fall asleep again, back in the middle of the one-room apartment.

It was as if time had been rewound to the starting point, and everything that followed was exactly the same.