Chapter 18

Out of the five new arrivals, not one took his threats seriously.

Most either ignored him or scoffed as they walked past.

One of them even drew a weapon on him, fully intending to kill him—though, of course, the system prevented any actual bloodshed.

“These bastards are all looking down on me…!”

“Calm down, pig. Keep this up, and you’ll be fully cooked soon.”

“Shut up! You’ll be the first to die, you hear me?!”

“You should shut up instead. Do you really think anyone here is afraid of you?”

Smirking, he tilted his head at the fuming tattooed man.

This guy really had no clue how much the world had changed.

“Every single person here just fought their way through goblins. They cracked skulls open with their own hands. They’re combatants. And you think you can intimidate them?”

“So what?! You think I haven’t killed anything?! You think I won’t kill a person?!”

“Oh, so that makes two combatants, then.”

His grin widened.

“If a fight breaks out, both sides will have weapons. And no one here is going to bow their heads just because you bark at them.”

“….”

The realization finally hit.

The tattooed man clamped his mouth shut.

After making it this far, every survivor had already grown accustomed to killing.

Their moral boundaries had shifted.

Their survival instincts had sharpened.

Threats wouldn’t work.

Not when they had weapons in their hands and had already used them.

And to make matters worse, every single one of them carried a mountain of pent-up frustration.

Loved ones lost.

The uncertainty of the future.

A deep-seated resentment toward the unfairness of the old world.

They were a powder keg waiting to explode.

Threatening them was like begging to be killed.

“Honestly? You’re not gonna last long. Not because of monsters, but because someone’s going to cave your skull in.”

“D-Damn you!”

“Oh, and just a reminder—I’m keeping my eye on you. The moment I see you leave the safe zone, I’ll be right behind you. And I will kill you.”

“…!”

The tattooed man’s face was drained of color.

Satisfied, he turned away and shut the door behind him.

Right now, there were no active quests.

But that could change at any time.

Might as well rest while he could.

“…Only ten new arrivals?”

He had woken from a nap and counted the new survivors.

Fifteen in total, including the five from earlier.

For such a massive city, only fifteen had made it to the safe zone in one piece.

Even considering the existence of other safe zones, that was shockingly low.

Most of the survivors had already claimed the best houses, yet two still remained unoccupied.

That alone spoke volumes.

“I didn’t expect so many people to just sit still all day.”

Even in the height of summer, when daylight stretched unnaturally long, there had been at least ten hours before nightfall.

Yet by the time the sun dipped below the horizon, only fifteen survivors had reached the safe zone.

That meant most people, instead of moving, had chosen to hide.

“Understandable, but… is that really the right choice?”

The World Breaker he knew was never kind to those who remained passive.

And today wasn’t just any day—it was Doomsday.

Would a grand event bearing such a dramatic title really end with nothing more than a few goblins?

Something felt off.

More than anything, the fact that goblins were the only enemies so far was suspicious.

Goblins are weak enough that even an ordinary person can take them down.

If the system had truly intended to unleash the apocalypse, why would it send out the weakest possible monsters?

There was only one answer.

This wasn’t the real apocalypse.

This was a test.

A preliminary selection.

A small crisis meant to filter out those with the will to act.

To ensure that those with the potential to climb higher wouldn’t die meaninglessly.

And all of those people—the ones who had chosen to move—were now inside the safe zone.

“As for the ones who stayed behind… the system has probably already given up on them.”

But that didn’t mean they’d be left alone.

Human capital was still an essential resource for rebuilding civilization.

Even if those people refused to move, they’d be forced out eventually.

And the method wouldn’t be gentle.

The system had already completed its selection process.

The ones who had failed to act?

They were now disposable.

As the crimson sunset faded, the sky darkened to an eerie shade of violet.

And then—

《A certain amount of time has passed since the beginning of Doomsday.》
《Main Quest: “Find a Sanctuary” has exceeded its time limit and has been deleted.》
《All individuals who failed the quest have been forcibly afflicted with “Curse: Sloth.”》
《As of this moment, periodic Monster Waves will begin.》
《The cursed constellations have awakened the dead. The “Undead Wave” is commencing.》

“…!”

His stomach twisted.

Everything he had suspected was now confirmed.

The system messages came rapid-fire, and before anyone could fully process them—

Rattle.

All around them, bones erupted from the ground.

Pieces of skeletons, scattered like debris, began to rise.

They floated in the air for a moment, then seamlessly assembled into humanoid forms.

No flesh. No muscle. No organs.

Just bones, moving unnaturally like puppets on invisible strings.

“S-Skeletons!”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!”

“What the hell is this?!”

Panic erupted as survivors scrambled to pull out their weapons.

A few seconds ago, the streets had been empty.

Now, they were swarming with armed, animated skeletons.

Tension crackled in the air—

But then something strange happened.

The skeletons didn’t move.

In fact, the moment they got too close to the safe zone’s perimeter, they retreated.

“What the…? They’re not attacking?”

“Oh, right! This is a safe zone!“

“Jesus, scared me for nothing.”

A wave of relief swept through the survivors as they slowly lowered their weapons.

But that relief lasted only a few seconds.

Because then, from beyond the town—

— “AAAAAH! HELP ME! SOMEONE HELP!”

— “RUN! GET OUT THE DOOR AND RUN!”

— “N-NO! STAY BACK! DON’T COME HERE, YOU MONST—GHHK—!”

— “DAD! YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! AAAAGH!”

Screams.

Real, dying screams.

Unlike the earlier goblin attack, this wasn’t just fear or panic.

These weren’t the cries of people running away.

These were the final, agonized screams of people being slaughtered.

“Huff—Huff—HELP ME! PLEASE, SOMEONE—!“

A man came sprinting toward the safe zone from the distance, gasping for breath.

He must have spotted the village from afar—his best and only chance at survival.