"Kya!!! Asterin, have you played through the 9th male lead's route yet? He is so dreamy!"
"Nope, not yet. I'm barely finishing the 8th male lead. The yandere vibes are amazing!"
"You have to try out his route! He is by far the hottest!"
"Yes, I will!" Asterin said waved bye to her friend, continuing to walk back home. Opening the app on her phone, she excitedly stared at the cover of the game as it loaded.
Ten handsome guys appeared on the screen, each in a unique pose and staring towards the camera. However, flowers took up one part of the screen, covering the last guy entirely and leaving him with a mysterious aura around him.
Love me in a Zombie Apocalypse was a dating stimulator that had caught on fire extremely quickly. It featured nine routes that you could play, each leading to a different ending with a different guy. It was a hit game among the players, as it featured a different system from other dating games where you could pick any route from the start.
In this game you had to do the routes in progression, each route getting harder and harder. There was also a mysterious route, which could only be unlocked once you had finished all the routes possible.
This led to many players trying to guess who this tenth character was, but to no avail. All that was known about the character was that he wore a simple necklace which had a small purple gem on it.
Asterin had been trying for months to get to this final character, drawn in by the mystery behind him. As of right now, she had managed to nearly finish the 8th character's route.
"Whew, thank god for holidays. I'm going to binge the entirely of the game and finally find out who he is!" As she collapsed on her bed, she started off from where she left off, playing in game with wide open eyes.
"I… I finally made it…" Looking at the screen with renewed excitement, she chowed down a sandwich. After an entire week of focusing on the screen, she managed to make it to the end of not only the 8th character's route, but the 9th's as well.
Looking at the now unlocked 10th route, she stared intensely at the flowers, clicking on the route with badly concealed excitement. As it loaded, a strange pop-up appeared.
'Do be warned. You cannot stop playing this route once you start. Are you willing to continue on? LMZA is not responsible for any loss of life or potentially life threatening dangers.'
Asterin looked at the warning, confused. It was just a dating game, what was the use in placing such a weird warning sign. Ignoring it, she pressed yes, staring at the screen in anticipation.
As the pop-up disappeared, Asterin was suddenly overcome with a feeling of tiredness. Her eyelids began drooping as she stared at the screen. "Weird… I feel… sleepy all of a sudden…" Dropping her phone on the bed, she collapsed, sinking straight into a deep sleep.
"Miss? Miss! Wake up!" An incredible headache hit Asterin as she slowly opened her eyes. Looking at the worried person in front of her, she gave her a weak smile, pressing a hand to her hand in annoyance. 'Goddamn these headaches… where's my phone… ugh.'
As that thought crossed her mind, she looked around. Realising that this wasn't her room, she suddenly felt extremely awake.
'What the… where am I?' Thinking to herself, she looked around the room, and finally at the worried lady that stood in front of her. Elegant furnishings surrounded Asterin, who laid on silky sheets.
The lady in front of her, upon closer inspection, didn't look worried at all, instead looking impatient and angry. Recoiling a little bit, Asterin glanced at the lady cautiously.
"I'm… fine. Where are we right now?"
"My lady now is not the time to be confused! We're at your manor. Listen, a major crisis has broken out outside, and all the servants have already left while you were having your fever.
Now that you're awake, I'm leaving as well. I can't believe that I stayed for such a long time. Goodbye." The lady hurriedly walked away, leaving behind a pitying look.
Asterin glanced around, extremely confused. A big window was positioned at a very convenient spot, allowing her to look outside, which also allowed her to see a rather horrifying sight.
The streets were entirely deserted, with the exception of a few strange looking humans. As Asterin watched on, she saw some humans rush at these weird looking humans.
As they both engaged in a fight, one of the strange humans bit a human. The bitten human fell onto the ground, groaning. Seeing this, his companions seemed scared and ran away.
The bitten human was surrounded by these strange humans and was constantly bitten into while screaming until he died.
Asterin watched it all with a stoic expression. With the amount of gore she had seen in LMZA, it would be a strange thing if she flinched at such a scene. In fact, if it weren't for the handsome characters, most people would just classify LMZA as a horror game.
"…so… have I transmigrated? Into a zombie game? Perhaps LMZA?" Still with a stoic look on her face, she quietly registered her surroundings, staring down at her hands and strands of conspicuously red hair.
These definitely weren't her hands or hair, and this definitely wasn't her room, and she was in a zombie apocalypse. Gathering her knowledge on novels about transmigration and isekai, Asterin could only conclude that yes, she was in another world.
…and that it was probably the exact same world from YMZA. Breathing in, she held her breath, exhaling after a while. Feeling an intense urge to curse loudly, she held it in just barely.
"This is… the absolute worst. Sure, it would be fine if it were another dating game, but why YMZA? Why must it be the game where even the heroine has a chance of dying? Are you joking with me?! And given my bright red hair, I'm probably not even the heroine!"
Asterin sighed heavily. Right now, the most important thing was food and water, and as a former sad student with no abilities at all, this was probably the worst situation ever.
As she rummaged through the drawers of the house, she suddenly remembered something. A warning had popped up right before she died and transmigrated, telling her about the risks. Suddenly overcome with rage, she whisper-shouted.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME???"