Chapter 1

The Apocalypse Game I Created Became Reality Chapter 1

Our game is on the verge of shutting down.

“Haah...”

Click. Click.

The sound of the keyboard rang unusually loud through the office.

Code and a log window were open on the monitor at the same time.

[Error: SpawnRate_OverLimit]

[Warning: InfectionSpreadValue not defined]

“Why the hell is this happening again?”

I sighed and closed the window.

Why was I still worrying about crap like this long after work hours were over?

Well,

‘Because I’m a powerless working-level employee.’

Yeah.

The game I participated in as the lead planner.

A survival open world game known as Last Protocol.

An apocalypse game littered with rotting corpses.

We had ambitiously prepared and released it, but only a year after launch, the number of concurrent players had plummeted below 100.

“Damn it.”

There were probably many reasons, but there were two main causes.

Collapsed balance, and an explosion of bugs.

Naturally, the blame also fell on the planning team I belonged to.

“At this rate, I’m going to die before my time.”

I muttered as I leaned back in my chair.

Second year as a manager.

An awkward position in the hierarchy, no authority, and an absurd amount of responsibility.

- Manager Kim, you were in charge of this, right?

That was all it took.

Even parts I had never touched, like the zombie spawn logic, infection spread values, and difficulty curve.

Before I knew it, they had all somehow become my responsibility.

Thanks to that, I was now being treated as the main culprit behind the trash game.

“Yeah, I’m the criminal. It’s all my fault.”

Scrape.

Having roughly finished my work, I got up from my seat.

Before I knew it, it was nearly midnight.

Naturally, I was the only person left in the office, and about half the office lights had been turned off.

“This is kind of creepy.”

The hallway was even darker.

Only the CEO’s office beyond the glass door had a faint light leaking out.

“Is the boss still here?”

Up until then, I didn’t think much of it.

“Hm...?”

I stopped while walking toward the break room.

Creak, creak, creak.

Because at some point, a strange sound had started coming from somewhere.

At first, I thought it was a chair squeaking.

But it wasn’t.

Quiet, leaking breaths.

A man’s low chuckle.

‘...What?’

My mind instantly went blank.

Because I had the instinctive feeling that I’d heard something I wasn’t supposed to hear.

I should have turned around right then.

I should have quietly gone back to my desk.

People really are strange.

After all, once you know you absolutely shouldn’t look at something, human instinct only makes you want to check even more.

Slide.

I slowly walked in the direction the sound was coming from.

The door to the CEO’s office was open just a crack.

Inside.

“...!”

Papers scattered across the desk.

A woman’s shoe lying on the floor.

A familiar cardigan, a familiar voice, a familiar face.

‘Assistant Manager Lee from Accounting?’

The man in front of her was Bae Young-jun, the CEO of our company.

“...!”

I stopped breathing.

My entire body stiffened.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heart pounded absurdly loudly.

As though I were the one who had been caught doing something wrong.

Rustle!

At that moment, I stepped on something.

It was an empty paper cup.

“...!?”

The sounds from inside the CEO’s office stopped.

‘Damn it!’

I squeezed my eyes shut.

I was screwed.

Seriously.

“Who’s there!?”

The CEO’s sharp voice rang out, and a moment later, the office door flew open.

“...Manager Kim?”

At the same time, my eyes met the CEO’s.

A half-unbuttoned shirt.

Disheveled hair.

A flustered face.

And behind him, Assistant Manager Lee hurriedly straightening her clothes.

“Uh...”

I ended up frozen in place like a statue.

______________

I never had any grand dreams.

I just wanted to live as an ordinary salaried worker and play games.

『OrdinaryHuman has logged in.』

- PeninsulaPrince: You’re here?

- VegetableCracker: You’re late. We’re taking down that damn boss today.

- DemonKingLucifer: Since we’re talking about it, wanna raid right now go go go go?

I blankly looked around.

The VR game I created.

A blood-soaked city center, collapsed buildings, even screams coming from far away.

‘It’s this realistic.’

And there were hordes of zombies scattered all around.

- PeninsulaPrince: Ah, this fucking garbage game. Ghoul King’s movements are weird again.

- VegetableCracker: Another bug again again again?

My heart suddenly sank.

“...No way.”

I immediately switched to administrator mode and checked the logs.

And then.

Bzzzt—

The screen glitched.

[Warning]

A single line appeared, then vanished.

“...What a mess, seriously.”

I’d have to fix this when I went to work later.

In true small-company fashion, there was no such thing as proper division of labor.

Even a good chunk of the development team’s work had to be handled by our planning team.

- VegetableCracker: Human, hurry up and come over. Everyone’s waiting.

- OrdinaryHuman: Nah, I’m gonna rest today.

- DemonKingLucifer: What, did something really happen?

Plenty had happened.

Not that I could exactly tell them outright that I’d caught the CEO and the company accountant doing that in the office.

- DemonKingLucifer: You seem sick. Just rest.

- VegetableCracker: You have been pushing yourself lately.

- DemonKingLucifer: See you tomorrow. Or should I give you some deep counseling?

A snort of laughter slipped through my teeth.

Because a few trivial lines of chat somehow made me feel comforted.

To think I felt closer to gaming friends whose faces I didn’t even know than to my coworkers in real life.

- OrdinaryHuman: See you tomorrow.

I turned off the game.

At the same time, the monitor went dark.

Wooooong!

The only thing left in the room was the sound of the computer fan spinning.

“Haah.”

I threw myself straight onto the bed.

Then I quietly stared at the ceiling.

I didn’t want to go to work tomorrow.

Seriously.

_______________

Our company was a small-to-medium-sized company with about 40 employees.

It was called a small-to-medium-sized company, but from the outside, it looked pretty respectable.

The building was fine, the website looked polished, and the job postings were packed with phrases about benefits, a horizontal organizational culture, and growth potential.

Of course, once you actually looked inside, the atmosphere was completely different.

‘That’s what makes it a shitty small company.’

The mood of the entire company depended on the CEO’s feelings.

The executives, for all their airs, only watched the CEO’s mood.

Naturally, the team leaders only watched the executives’ moods.

And the employees below them were all simply ground down together.

A shitty small company where the pay was slightly below the industry average and the workload was definitely above the industry average.

‘Horizontal organizational culture?’

Bullshit.

The only thing horizontal was responsibility.

Authority stayed at the top, while responsibility flowed downward.

That was our company.

“Haah.”

The next morning.

I arrived at work 20 minutes earlier than usual.

Because if I was late, I felt like they might use it as an excuse to pick at me.

I deliberately avoided looking toward the CEO’s office.

Just seeing the glass door on that side vividly brought back the scene from last night.

Thud!

I set my bag down at my desk and turned on the computer.

As though nothing had happened.

That was how I intended to act.

But then.

“Manager Kim.”

A voice came from behind me.

I slowly turned my head.

“Ah.”

Startled out of my skin, I shot up from my seat.

Because CEO Bae Young-jun was standing there.

In a neat suit, with tidy hair and a solemn expression.

“Yes, sir.”

“Come to the conference room for a moment.”

I could feel the employees around us looking this way.

Because it was extremely rare for the CEO himself to get directly involved in anything.

“Yes...”

The moment the conference room door closed, the atmosphere changed.

The CEO didn’t even sit down.

He simply tossed a file onto the table.

“About Last Protocol.”

“...Yes.”

“There were internal opinions that the reason it failed was because of you, Manager Kim.”

“What do you mean...?”

“Actually, I’ve been calling people in one by one recently for meetings with me. And wouldn’t you know it, every single one pointed to you as the reason the game failed.”

I couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

All of a sudden?

“What do you think, Manager Kim?”

“Last Protocol is...”

“Do you feel wronged? Then who do you think is the problem?”

“...”

Did I feel wronged?

Of course I did.

The department head who forced in paid loot-box items despite my vehement opposition, driving the users away.

The team leader who pushed us to release because we couldn’t miss the timing even when I said we had to fix the bugs first.

And all the other moments when our opinions clashed over every little thing.

And the trigger for this whole shitty situation was probably...

‘I tried so hard to make it work...’

I raised my head.

“We lost hundreds of millions of won. Someone has to take responsibility, don’t you think, Manager Kim?”

It felt unfair for no reason.

‘What the hell did I even do wrong?’

The ones who were wrong were the managers who tried to crush me with their authority.

And you’re the one who did something filthy at the company, aren’t you?

“...!”

At that moment, my eyes met the CEO’s.

There was confidence in his eyes.

The certainty that I wouldn’t be able to say anything.

The belief that a salaried employee would bow his head in the end.

The delusion that one word from him could end my career in this industry.

I could see all of it.

“...Sir.”

At that moment, something surged up from inside me.

“Is this basically you telling me to leave?”

The CEO’s expression hardened.

As though he knew what I was thinking right now.

“Manager Kim, think carefully before you speak from now on. You’re not planning to end your career with this one company, are you?”

“I’ve thought carefully enough, and I’m speaking accordingly.”

“And you’re still acting like this?”

“Anyone would act this way if this happened to them.”

For a moment, it went quiet outside the conference room.

The employees were clearly listening.

I knew it, and the CEO knew it.

But.

“This is exactly why people keep calling places like this ‘shitty small companies.’”

“You, are you really not going to watch your mouth?”

“Why should I be the one watching my mouth?”

“What?”

Snap.

At that moment, something inside me broke.

What I had been forcibly suppressing since last night.

What I had barely swallowed down on my way to work.

What I had endured until the very end even after entering the conference room.

All of it surged up at once.

“You got caught doing that at the office, so why the fuck are you taking it out on me?”

“...!”

At that moment, the air outside the conference room froze.

The CEO’s eyes widened.

“...”

Complete silence descended.

A horribly long silence.

“Gasp!”

I heard someone outside suck in a breath.

“M-Manager Kim, you, you crazy bastard...?”

The CEO’s face turned red in an instant.

“Enough.”

I got up from my seat.

I didn’t want to sit there any longer.

Nor did I want to keep showing courtesy in front of this man.

“This place disgusts me. I quit.”

“W-What, what kind of bastard are you...!”

I opened the conference room door.

The employees outside all looked at me at once.

Step, step, step.

I walked back to my desk with all those stares on my back.

Then I opened my bag and roughly swept my personal belongings from the desk into it.

Bang!

Not long after, the CEO came straight out after me.

“Manager Kim! You think you can keep working in this industry after pulling this!?”

His loud shout drilled into my eardrums.

‘Ah.’

So it ends with a threat after all.

“...Kuh, hahahaha.”

Suddenly, I laughed.

It had been so frightening until yesterday.

But now that I’d actually done it, how should I put it?

‘It’s nothing special, is it?’

Yeah.

I’d already come this far.

“Go fuck yourself.”

“...!”

The CEO’s face twisted beautifully.

I spoke clearly.

“I’ll figure out how to make my own living.”

This time, I took a step toward the CEO.

“And stop hitting on the female employees. There’s practically a truckload of people who quit because of you, isn’t there? The company’s reputation is already bad enough. What are you going to do if rumors really start spreading?”

“Y-You, you...!”

“An old man acting shamelessly at your age. That’s what it is.”

After saying everything I wanted to say, I stood in front of the elevator.

Ding!

A moment later, the doors closed.

「11」

「10」

「9」

The numbers dropped one by one.

“...”

At the same time, I quietly looked up at the ceiling.

“Haah...”

Only then did a long sigh finally escape me.

It was over.

My shitty life at that company.

At the same time, I also felt lost.

‘I’m already worried about next month’s credit card bill.’

They say finding another job these days is hell, too.

“...Still, I feel refreshed.”

When I stepped outside the building, dazzling sunlight was the first thing to greet me.

10:37 a.m. on a weekday.

The world was carrying on far too normally.

People had gone to work, cars drove along the roads, and office workers lined up in front of cafés waiting for coffee.

“...”

I stood blankly among them.

An unemployed man who had lost his job.

No, a lunatic who had just stormed out of his own workplace.

That was the situation I was in.

Still.

“Well... I’ll manage somehow.”

At that point, I never imagined it.

No, I probably couldn’t have imagined it even in my dreams.

That the world would end like that.

The Apocalypse Game I Created Became Reality

Author │

Teacher Jo

Publisher │

Choi Won-young

Editorial Director │

Lee Ho-jun

Editor │

Choi Jong-geon

E-book │

Kim Ji-su

Published by │

D&C Media Co., Ltd.

Registration │

April 25, 2012, No. 20-260

Address │

1301-8, Kolon Digital Tower Villant 1st, 30 Digital-ro 32-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul

Main Telephone │

(02)333-2513 Fax (02)333-2514

Email │

papy_dnc@dncmedia.co.kr

Website │

blog.naver.com/gnpdl7

UCI G720:N+A092-20261014029

*This book was published by D&C Media Co., Ltd. (Papyrus) under a contract with the copyright holder, and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and the author.