-The air raid alarm went off. A nuclear bomb will soon fall. Everyone must evacuate to the shelter!
“Is that so?”
-This is not the time to be chatting casually. There are only 60 seconds left. Gather all the necessary items and get into the shelter!
“That’s too short…”
It’s the moment I turned on a new game. Maybe because I’ve been playing Eo War too much lately, but even if I win today, it just doesn’t feel fun. I wanted a game that’s light and easy to play, and just in time, a viewer posted a suitable game on the game recommendation board.
Surviving a nuclear war. It’s a survival simulation game that can be enjoyed comfortably alone. Since it started overseas and spread to the domestic market, the reactions in the chat were not bad either.
[Nuclear war ㄷㄷㄷㄷ]
[This person seems to like survival, considering their appearance.]
[They seem to be a survival expert.]
[wow, nuclear survival? lol]
[Even the Yangbongs say it’s good.]
“So I just have to save this family, right?”
I knew of the game’s existence, but I had never seen a live stream or played it before, so this was my first experience.
It’s composed of a four-member family: a father, a mother, a daughter, and a son. It’s a typical nuclear family—a perfect setup for surviving a nuclear war.
Before starting, I learned the gameplay through a short tutorial.
“So, it’s about gathering necessary supplies to survive as either the father or the mother. But is there any difference between the two? The father can carry more items, right?”
[Yeah, the father can carry up to 4 items at once.]
“What about the mother?”
[The mother is faster than the father.]
“Oh…”
I thought about it for a moment. Still, wouldn’t the mother be better? To quickly grab and stash things within the 60-second time limit. Even if the father can carry more items at once, it’s still going to be the same since he has to go back and forth anyway.
“I’ll go with the mother.”
Thinking that, I switched my playable character to the mother.
“What? They’re the same?”
Contrary to what the viewers had said, the mother could also carry 4 items at a time, and there was no difference in moving speed compared to the father.
[They’re tricking you, lol]
[Did you really trust the viewers, lol]
[This is too much.]
[It’s been a while since I could trick someone; when else would I get a chance like this?]
“I’ll let it slide this time. No mercy next time.”
It was partly my fault for taking their suggestions at face value. There’s an old saying in the broadcasting world.
Half of those giving advice hadn’t even played the game, while the other half were too busy chatting to pay attention to each other. It was a well-known saying about not trusting the viewers.
After realizing there was no difference between the father and mother, I switched back to playing as the father.
The reason was that family members have to be carried directly by the player, and if I moved the mother with the father, it would take up 3 inventory slots, while moving the mother would occupy only 2 slots. Therefore, playing as the father seemed more advantageous.
“But why are they so calm when a nuke has fallen? They’re reading books and playing while I seem to be the only one busy.”
[Ah, it’s just a game.]
[Maybe they’ve given up thinking since the nuke fell.]
[But I’d probably be dazed too if a nuke fell.]
[We don’t even have a shelter in the first place.]
[Making a big decision might be better…]
[Not everyone survives an apocalypse.]
I lamented briefly as I packed supplies and took care of my family.
Canned food and water. The most essential items. A gun? That would be nice to have. Also, an axe and a gas mask. I have no idea what I would use them for, but there must be stuff like that at home.
In addition, I packed items like a radio to keep updated with outside news and a flashlight. Now I just had to toss my family in.
[Usually, people toss their family into the shelter first and then gather items, but this person is doing it in reverse.]
[Haha, if things go sideways, they can just abandon the family.]
[Seriously, what’s up with the family sitting there leisurely when they’re not packing anything? Why bother helping?]
“I’ll take care of the wife, grab the son… Where’s the daughter? Wait, why is she so heavy? She’s the same weight as dad!”
[Oh!]
[Wow!]
[She’s quite sturdy.]
[She’s a commander material.]
[Wow, she takes up 3 slots by herself. She must be heavy.]
[Guess she has a big build, lol.]
[You shouldn’t say that these days.]
[Thud thud thud.]
[They might cause a ceiling collapse…]
[Coordinates might have been locked in?]
“I’m just saying that heavy things are heavy. It’s hard to say anything. The world is dangerous enough that any little thing can become a controversy, you know? Nowadays, variety shows are getting boring because everyone is being cautious. The old shows were funny because they said whatever came to mind.”
After gathering everything, I jumped into the shelter.
Surviving a nuclear war, Day 1 began.
-Day 1
We all entered the shelter just before the explosion. Since we all got in safely together, we should be able to navigate ahead well. We will survive.
“Is this a diary? It feels like Anne’s diary. It’s written a bit like a survival log.”
-The shelter was full of disorganized supplies. There was no place to unpack the bundles I brought. Normally, I would have regretted my laziness, but not this time. This laziness was going to help me!
Chessboard +1
“A chessboard? It doesn’t seem that great. What am I supposed to do with this? Oh, it helps manage mental well-being. True, if we’re living only in the shelter, we might need something like that. I hadn’t thought of that.”
[Survivors live in the shelter every day, haha.]
[Is a chessboard really necessary? They could just scratch their bellies while watching the stream without needing to step outside.]
[If you give me the internet and food, I could live for years without going outside.]
[How can you expect the internet to work after a nuke has fallen, you idiots?]
-It’s time to distribute the meals. Fortunately, we still have plenty of canned food and water.
“I guess I need to distribute this well. What if we can’t eat after day 100 or 200?”
Currently, we have 5 cans of food and 6 bottles of water. If I were alone, I could probably make this last a month, but for a family of four, it’s an incredibly insufficient amount.
[We can go out later to find more.]
[Just need to explore.]
[What if we go out and can’t come back or end up dead?]
[It’s random.]
“I can explore for supplies, but there’s a chance I could lose family members… There’s more luck involved than I thought. But that’s also oddly realistic.”
How much of life doesn’t involve luck? Just being born required beating incredibly low odds.
Even in this game, with nuclear war breaking out, it’s all about luck: wandering outside to forage for food, or meeting a robber on the road and losing your life.
<The irradiated Yuksu donated 1,000 won!>
-Teacher, please open the door, I’ve brought food.
“Please just leave it at the door. Thank you. I’ll have a good meal.”
Not on your life. If an apocalypse situation truly arises, I already have a mental manual in my head about what to do. Not opening the door to an unidentified person is a basic rule.
Even outside of such circumstances, even a kindergarten kid knows that you shouldn’t just open the door for strangers.
-Day 2
It’s time for an exploration on the surface. Exploring is a dangerous search operation. We could gather supplies, but we might also lose the person we send out forever. It’s best to send someone healthy and not starving, right?
Shall we send someone to explore? (Choose personnel; skipping is possible.)
“Just like what I said before, it’s come up again. Since there are four of us, it seems efficient to send one person… Who should I send?”
I quietly scanned the candidates. It seemed like anyone would do. We have gas masks too.
“I’ll send the daughter. Commander, go forth! Bring back lots of food!”
[Our little girl is very strong.]
[Haha, she’ll have no worries for real.]
[She’d probably beat any robber, lol.]
[So reliable!]
[Almost like food-level support.]
With supplies distributed, another day has dawned.
-Day 3
An unidentified creature was found in the shelter. A small furball resembling a rat was scurrying inside the shelter when it got caught by the son. Yes, it was a hamster. The son was delighted. Surely, there’s no better playmate for kids than that. And you were also pleased. Isn’t food coming to us on its own?
What should we do? Should we eat the hamster?
[We should, haha. There’s no food; whether it’s a hamster or a dog, we should eat it all.]
[That’s absurd.]
[Just imagining it makes me feel sick.]
[Wouldn’t eating it affect the son’s mental health?]
[It’s not just for fun; during a nuclear war, you have to eat even if you don’t want to.]
Opinions among the viewers were split down the middle. After pondering for a moment, I continued speaking.
“I don’t think the hamster would be clean. You say we can wash it and eat it? No way, that’s still dirty. It would be troublesome to wash a hamster in this situation. I can see us getting food poisoning if we eat it. Plus, if we get sick now, we can’t even go to the hospital. If it really comes down to starving to death, that’s when we can eat it. For now, we still have food.”
Having said that, I added one more comment.
“If we keep it well, it might gain weight and plump up. It might actually be more beneficial to eat it later.”
[Oh!]
[That’s too cruel, boohoo. How can you eat a cute hamster?]
[Is this person a psychopath?]
[It’s scary how serious they sound.]
[It makes sense, though. It wouldn’t be wrong if the moderator said something during a nuclear war.]
[Still, a hamster is a bit…]
Ignoring the whines of the viewers, I chose not to eat it for now.
It’s uncertain whether I will eat it later.
