Webcomic / Sweet Home (2017)

Sweet Home (stylised as Home sweet home in the comic) is a horror Webcomic written by Carnby Kim and illustrated by Youngchan Hwang.

It's about Hyun Cha, a boy who recently moved after his entire family died, and was unlucky enough to have all this happen during the Apocalypse, an event where people are suddenly turning into monsters. But don't feel too sorry for him, as he's a bit of a Jerkass. ^note Fortunately, Character Development kicks in soon enough. He and several others take shelter inside an apartment building and try to survive. Eventually, a gang of criminals led by Joon Shin break into the apartment and causes trouble for the survivors.

This series has the same author as Bastard, something that helped it quickly gaining a good readership in a relatively short time.

The comic ran from October 12, 2017 to July 2, 2020 on Naver with a total of 140 chapters, with the English version running on Webtoon from January 15, 2018 to August 23, 2020. A miniseries adaptation aired on Netflix in December 2020.

A prequel series Shotgun Boy was made on March 17, 2021, telling the story of another troubled youth and his efforts for survival.

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This webcomic provides examples of:

A-M

• Abhorrent Admirer: Yuri doesn’t seem to appreciate Hyuk dubbing her “Yuri the Goddess”.
• Accentuate the Negative: Hyein does this in the backstory. In her job at an advertising firm, her contributions mainly consist of pointing out the (completely legitimate) flaws in everyone else's ideas without ever adding her own.
• Action Girl: Jisu and Yuri are both more than capable of holding their own in a battle.
• Action Survivor: Justified. Once you run into a monster you can either run or fight. The former is the usual option, as the monsters themselves are often Made of Iron and come with a strong Healing Factor.
• Aerosol Flamethrower: Eun uses one as her weapon.
• Affably Evil: Ihyun is the nicest of the criminals by a long shot. While the others act polite until it’s not needed, he actually is willing to put his life on the line for others. That said, he’s still loyal to Joon, and his monster side is just as crazy as the others.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Many times, there's a stark reminder that the monsters used to be people.
  • The security guard's Sanity Slippage is portrayed sympathetically.
  • The Blob used to be a child and ultimately turns out to be non-threatening, making Joon suddenly overruling everyone and lighting it on fire genuinely tragic.
  • Seon cries upon killing her former husband, especially after he actually apologized for what he did to her.
  • After realizing that Jay's monster form is actually a threat despite his harmless appearance, Hyun is forced to kill him, at which point he has memories of what the monster was like as a person and starts crying.
  • Hyun actually begs Wook to not kill Dusik because they've finally found the happiness they never found in life, but despite his clear sadness, Wook does it anyway. He makes it clear that from his perspective, it's a Mercy Kill, and both he and Hyun are incredibly shaken by it.
• All for Nothing: All of the moral compromises Hyein makes in a desperate attempt to stay alive end up meaning nothing when she's attacked and killed by the flying monster while she's zip-lining down from the roof.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear if Ihyun's Sanity Slippage is the result of the damage he took from the fight with the Tentacle Monster in the lobby or if his monster split personality has temporarily taken over.
• An Arm and a Leg: Dusik Hahn lost his leg at some point, which is one of the reasons why he's so depressed in the present day. Apparently, he lost his leg saving a little girl's life, which he remains conflicted about because of everything it led to but he ultimately doesn't regret. It turns out that regaining his leg was his greatest desire, as all that happened upon his monster infection is his leg returning.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Seok Kim, Myeong-Ja Lim, the security guard, Jay, Gapsu, Dusik, Hyuk, and Joon have all turned into monsters over the course of the story.
• Anti-Hero: Hyuk may not be the nicest person around and he is willing to make some morally ambiguous decisions, but he is firmly on the survivors' side and is only the way he is because he has to look out for the whole group.
• Anti-Villain: Ihyun may be firmly on Joon's side and his monster personality is the most vicious character of all of them but he remains a perfectly reasonable person, has several Pet the Dog moments, genuinely puts his life on the line for the group, and doesn't take joy out of the heinous acts the rest of his team commits.
• Anyone Can Die: Major characters like Jayhun, Seop Ahn, Dusik Hahn, Hyuk, and Hyun and supporting characters like Seok Kim, Seon, Jay, Hyein, Hyunshik, and Ihyun have all bitten the dust over the course of the story. At this point, it is clear that no one is safe.
• Apocalypse How: Due to the monsters it's implied to be at least regional - South Korea's society has completely collapsed. Due to a lack of communication ability it is possible that the virus has spread further, but at this point it has not been confirmed.
• Apocalyptic Log: The final chapter reveals that Hyuk made one on a video camera twenty days after the infection started.
• Apologetic Attacker: Both Hyun and Wook say they're sorry to the monster form of Dusik before they try to fight it.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Byeong-il believes that there's no way a flying monster exists after witnessing a humanoid glob of jello take over a person's body, a real-life Abomination, and two different half-monsters who can change form at will. Hyun simply tells him he should keep an open mind.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • After Hyun begs Wook to not kill the monster form of Dusik because they've finally found happiness, Wook quickly gives him a counter argument that quiets him completely.
  Wook: If you think that's happiness, then why are you still in this shithole?
  • Hyuk's hallucination of his father gives one to him that leaves him an emotional wreck after he's done.
  Hyuk's father: Did you abandon Eun? Like I abandoned you two?
• Asshole Victim: Gapsu and Joon deserve every bit of the torment they receive from the monsters they kept feeding people to to save their own asses. Gapsu's death in particular is almost cathartic.
• Attempted Rape: Hyein is attacked by the recently monsterised Gapsu, who intends to make use of his "last moment of humanity" by raping her, but Yuri attacks him and gets him off of her before he can go too far.
• Attention Whore: Jay turns out to be one. It carries over to his monster form.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Hyuk manages to deduce that one of the criminals is a monster stronger than Hyun just by poking the one hole in their story. He also spends his nights in the lobby watching the monsters outside to see their general behavior.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • No matter what the infected's wish was, the monster form seems to be designed to kill everyone they meet. The only monsters thus far who have not attempted to kill everyone they see are the Blob and Myeong-Ja Lim.
  • All of the criminals are this, but Gapsu takes it up to eleven by trying to kill the others with absolutely no provocation and Joon is more of the Dissonant Serenity type. Ihyun initially subverts this, but his monster personality is actually the most insane out of everyone there and freaks the others out.
• Bait-and-Switch: While trying to talk Hyuk out of killing Joon, Hyun says that once the crisis is over they can all find the film reel for the last "Maria From the Sky" movie series and watch it together. Hyuk responds after a few moments.
  Hyuk: What are you talking about? Who uses film reels anymore?
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Once infected, one's mutation will be based of their strongest, deepest desire.
• Berserk Button: After her boyfriend committed suicide in the past, Jisu has one for anyone thinking of killing themself, either intentionally or through a Heroic Sacrifice. It's this determination to stop these events that drive a lot of her heroic actions.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Trapped in the basement with the monsters closing in and the knowledge of his own infection, Dusik puts his gun under his chin and apologizes to Byeong-il for lying when he said he would fight. It ultimately ends up subverted when he succumbs to his monster infection anyway.
• Big Bad: Joon Shin, the leader of the criminals, becomes the main antagonist of the story as soon as he arrives. He holds the position until the final chapter, at which point his monster form becomes the Final Boss.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Hyun slowly develops this with the two kids he rescues as he starts to worry more and more about their safety.
  • Hyuk's first action after every major development is to make sure his sister is okay.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • After being a victim of Party Scattering, Hyuk returns to the lobby to bash Joon over the head with Jisu's bat and save her from him.
  • Yuri saves Hyein from rape at Gapsu's hands by shooting him in the back with a dart.
  • Hyein gets saved from Gapsu yet again from Jisu whacking him over the head with her nailed baseball bat.
• Bittersweet Ending: As of the final chapter, Wook, Jisu, Yuri, Byeong-il, Eun, and the children have managed to get away from the apartment alive with an uncertain future waiting for them. However, everyone else is either dead or monsterized, with Hyuk and Hyun having to transform to ensure everyone could escape, and there's no telling if there's anyone else who managed to survive. The Stinger also reveals that Hyun has come out of the monster cocoon with some of his emotions intact.
  • Ultimately defied with the epilogue chapter, as Hyun reuniting with the survivors at a military base with his personality intact drives this to a much more happy and hopeful ending, demonstrating that it's possible for the Monsters to become human again or at least live peacefully, and Hyun finding his true desire after everything, a sweet home in Jisu and company, makes for a rather joyous ending if not somewhat ambiguous towards the nature of the Monsters themselves.
• Blatant Lies: It turns out that the criminals didn't have food or a generator after all.
• Body Horror: Every monster is horrifying in its own way.
  • The girl next door looks normal until she starts asking for food, at which point her face starts to stretch and blood pours out of her nose.
  • The Blind Monster is incredibly thin and its arms can sprout branches like a tree to attack. Also, it’s missing the top half of its head.
  • “Beefcake” is an 8-foot wall of muscle that calls The Abomination to mind. It also almost never stops smiling.
  • The monster in the lobby is also incredibly tall, has a large head, and has a tongue coming out of its throat.
  • The Blob is nothing but a gelatinous humanoid. Green, gooey, and see through...except for its human eyes.
  • The “eye monster” has a head that is nothing but a humongous eye. It also is able to stretch its head at least 14 stories high and can regenerate its head if it's lost.
  • The Tentacle Monster is carried upside down by a mass of tentacles coming out of its back, which is also uses for movement and attacking. Furthermore, looking at it upside down reveals that it’s smiling. After its “evolution”, its skin is hard as rock and it now appears as if it is a giant spider.
  • A large amount of monsters can’t even be described as humanoid.
  • One monster encountered would look like an average person...if its arms weren’t able to stretch at least thirty feet and its hands not able to grow big enough to crush another person’s arms with just a grasp.
  • Once Myeong-Ja Lim gives in to her monster transformation, she becomes a giant human fetus big enough to cover an entire room.
  • The fast monster has its knees backward like a velociraptor and has three eyes.
  • The security guard’s skin has been morphed into an almost leathery looking substance, its eyes are mostly empty sockets, and its head is able to turn all the way around. After it’s killed, it’s revealed that it absorbed its victims, and their faces are still visible on its body.
  • The Flying Monster is easily one of the more unique of the bunch, resembling a bat with raptor legs and a heavily deformed face that looks like a mix between a human skull and a demonic arthropod. Then it transforms and grows a leaner body, long neck, a second pair of wings and much larger talons, resembling a ghoulish wyvern moreso than a deformed human.
  • Jay’s entire body becomes a massive face that, while objectively attractive, is still creepy.
• Broken Ace: Hyun used to be popular, smart, athletic and an all-around good guy. Then another classmate came and made everyone else in the class beat him up and cut him off, making him what he is.
• Brutal Honesty: One of the main reasons why Hyuk is disliked is that he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He tells Hyun right off the bat that he is going to go on dangerous missions or be kicked out, doesn’t hesitate to refer to the kids as dead weight, and tells Hyun that he is going to be bait in their next mission. It almost serves as a deconstruction, since while honesty is usually a good thing in a leader, Hyuk is too honest and makes everyone hate him in the process.
  • Later on, as a result of this honesty, the other flat survivors are more willing to believe the lies of the criminals who arrived on the bus.
• The Brute: One of the monsters simply called "Beefcake" is the Logical Extreme of this trope. Also a case of Dumb Muscle.
• Call-Back:
  • During the fight against Beefcake in the parking lot, Beefcake recognizes Jayhun’s sword as the one that hurt him previously. Just before that, Hyun encounters the dead body of the father he saw fall to his death a few days prior, decomposing but otherwise unbothered.
  • Chapter 128 features Ihyun referencing the time he gave Yuri his inhaler over 60 chapters prior.
  • Chapter 132 features flashbacks to Hyein's fights with Seon, Gapsu, and Yuri.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Downplayed with Hyuk. While he’s a teenager and thus older than how this trope usually applies, it’s noted that the older members of the group are not happy to be taking orders from someone so young.
• Character Development: As the plot advances, Hyun gradually becomes more courageous and even develops something of a Big Brother Instinct for the two younger kids who have the rotten luck of getting stuck in the whole mess.
• Choke Holds: After conforming that Gapsu is both a rapist and infected, Hyein begins to choke him on the floor. She lets go far too early and is almost raped in retaliation.
• Cliffhanger: Every single chapter ends with one.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Byeong-il is strongly convinced that the leadership and the heavy hitters of the group are hiding the food away from everyone else and taking it for themselves. He gets laughed off by everyone else he tries to convince, and when he confronts Wook about it, he gets a punch in the face for his attitude.
• Content Warnings:
  • Chapter 115 opens with a warning that there is violence within that may make people uncomfortable. Since the last chapter ended with Gapsu, a known rapist, confronting Hyein in the stairwell, it's clearly a warning that sexual abuse is ahead.
  • Every chapter since 125 has featured a similar content warning for an unclear reason.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Jisu’s boyfriend committed suicide at some point in her past. She was the one to find the body.
  • Hyuk and Eun's mother died, their father left them in an orphanage, and after swearing he would quickly return, he died as well, leaving them both alone.
• Deader than Dead: Myeong Ja-Lim. First she was infected, then she succumbed, then she become a giant fetus. Then she mutated into a cocoon-like structure, which Jisu then lit on fire, ensuring that there's absolutely nothing left of her anymore.
• Deadly Nosebleed: The first and most obvious symptom of monsterization is a nosebleed, usually followed by the victim passing out.
• Death in the Limelight:
  • Seok Kim is given more of a backstory and becomes slightly more sympathetic in the same chapter that he transforms and is killed.
  • Jay goes from a nameless background character to a supporting character with a clear motivation just before he turns into a monster.
  • Hoyeon is shown to have standards and a willingness to question his boss three panels before he's stabbed by a monster and left on the first floor.
  • Hyein is given a backstory, a surname, and a desire to redeem herself in the same chapter that she's killed by the flying monster.
• Death of a Child: Hyun’s little sister died in the car accident at the beginning alongside their parents.
• Death Seeker: Hyuk has become this due to his monster infection, hoping to simply do as much as he can for the remaining survivors and eventually die before his infection takes him over.
• Destination Defenestration: Wook finishes his fight with Joon by grabbing him and throwing him out a window to the monster infested parking lot.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Hyun cradles Dusik as he lays dying from his injuries.
• Dirty Coward:
  • For all her posturing and ranting, Hyein is a massive coward when push comes to shove. The only instance in which she willingly gets into a fight is against a sleeping woman and when that encounter goes wrong she immediately blames the victim. Her Attempted Rape at Gapsu's hands briefly causes this trait of hers to disappear at the expense of her sanity, but it returns with a vengeance afterwards when she is perfectly willing to leave Jisu at the hands of the monsters.
  • Two of the survivors flee on sight of the security guard and lock themselves, as well as Hyun and Jisu, in a room and refuse to let the other two out. This gets Jayhun killed. One of them even later tries to claim that she can be very brave when she wants to be, only to immediately hand off her weapon and run when another monster makes a noise.
  • Jisu accuses Joon of being one when he takes Jisu hostage to stop Hyun from attacking him. He counters by pointing out that since Hyun is infected, fighting him one on one would be suicide.
  • For all his posturing as Joon's Number Two, Hyunshik does absolutely nothing to help his boss as Wook fights him, wins, and chucks him out a window.
• Dissonant Serenity: After hitting Joon in the head with a bat, Hyuk simply tells all the stunned witnesses "Good evening" and "you should keep better track of your stuff."
• Dramatic Irony: As the group uses the zipline from the roof to the ground, Hyuk says that Dusik is "something else". He speaks in the present tense, unaware that Dusik is already dead in the basement.
• Driven to Suicide: At some point in the past, Jisu's boyfriend committed suicide.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • While he is only a supporting character at best, Sangsu getting his neck snapped by Joon comes out of absolute nowhere.
  • Just after Joon is revealed to have become a monster, Hyunshik gets swatted off of the roof with very little fanfare.
• Dub Name Change: Most of the characters' names are shortened to single syllables in the English translation.
• Dwindling Party: Between the security guard, Beefcake, and monster infections, the amount of survivors has only continued to shrink.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Hyein killing the Mysterious Girl and attacking Yuri are very quickly ignored by the other survivors. It's justified since they have much more important things to be worrying about.
  • Ihyun doesn't even blink when Hyuk confirms Hoyeon and Gapsu are dead and goes straight to getting ready to defend everyone's lives. It's again justified by the fact that there's many more important things to deal with.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Hyun, as an infected who has resisted his transformation, is much stronger than the average person and has a Healing Factor. While both of these pale in comparison to the actual monsters, it gives him a noticeable edge when fighting them.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Despite Wook having just killed his boss, Hyunshik and him still work together to escape the bus and take down Dusik.
  • Ihyun is still willing to protect the others despite the recent deaths of Hoyeon and Gapsu.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Hyun is introduced lecturing his dead family for not leaving him enough money, and he decides that he's going to see the next installment of his favorite movie series and then kill himself.
  • Jisu and Jayhun are introduced helping out Myeong-Ja Lim with her "baby", with Jayhun briefly speaking about his religion and Jisu happily listening.
  • Wook gives off an impression of being a gangster or otherwise tough guy, but he gets along just fine with a child.
  • Seok Kim overrides the group consensus and opens the shutter, only to immediately deflect the blame when this gets someone killed.
  • Dusik calmly saves Hyun's life by shooting the Eyeball monster right in the neck, then silently encourages Hyun to save the orphaned children on the next floor.
  • Seop Ahn and Yuri are first seen casually kicking a monster's ass while playfully bickering with each other about his old age.
  • As the monsters are breaking in, Hyuk, one of the youngest people there, keeps everyone calm and leads Wook through getting them outside and locking the door. Later on, he holds a hearing for the group to decide if Hyun can stay or not, only to reveal that he would've rigged the vote had it not gone his way.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Even the spirit of the monster infection itself is disgusted by how hypocritical and stupid Seok Kim is, telling him that he's so easy to manipulate into feeling sorry for himself that he's genuinely not worth the effort it would take to infect and transform him.
  • All of the criminals are uneasy around Ihyun once his monster side comes out even when they know they're in no danger. It's implied but not directly stated that the sheer amount of bloodlust he has freaks all of them out.
  • Hoyeon tries to talk Joon out of killing Jisu, pointing out that there's no purpose behind it and they've already made their point.
  • Gapsu says that even he never killed anyone after Hyein shoots the mysterious girl in the head with a crossbow, but it's clearly meant to be more mocking than a genuine standard.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even after everything her husband did to her, Seon can’t bring herself to actually kill her husband. At least, not until they’re both monsterised, and even then she still has a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
• Evil Orphan: Downplayed with Hyun being a Jerkass rather than evil.
• Evil Versus Evil: The monsters tend to take each other out as much as the heroes do.
  • The Blind Monster attacks Beefcake and gets absolutely pulverized for his efforts.
  • The security guard is only killed once he's fed to the tongue monster outside the building.
  • Beefcake's monster kill count is at least 4 - the Blind Monster, the Eyeball monster, the Fast monster, and (presumably) the Tongue monster.
  • Ihyun, who is later revealed to be the most insane monster encountered, is the one to finally take down Beefcake and the Tentacle monster.
• Expy: It's rather easy to compare Joon's monster form to Nemesis, with how large, strong, and fast both of these monsters are as well as their similar Madness Mantras.
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Knowing that she can't escape her fate, Seon simply stares Joon in the eyes and tells him to get it over with. He goes through with it, but he seems genuinely impressed by her courage.
  • Played for Drama when Dusik complains that Hyun coming back for him when even his wife and son never came back for him is making him cry and he doesn't want to die crying.
  • Upon realizing that transforming will be the only way to stop Hyun, Hyuk simply walks towards him and tells him to attack. He's thus able to trap Hyun's body with his own and kill him for good.
• Failed a Spot Check: Yeong is somehow the only one of the group on the rooftop to notice that Jisu is no longer with them.
• Female Rockers Play Bass: Downplayed; Jisu is the bassist in her and her boyfriend's music group, but it's never clarified if it's just the two of them or if they're part of a larger band.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Hyun was excessively bullied by his classmates for literally no reason while his family either told him to shut up and take it or pretended he didn’t exist.
  • Hyuk had no friends his age due to his lack of social skills, leaving him isolated except for his sister.
• Forced Transformation: Übermensch have the power to induce monsterization on normal humans, as demonstrated by a female übermensch infecting Joon Shin.
• From Bad to Worse: After having a fatal struggle with Beefcake, the group is saved by a bus with survivors who finish Beefcake off for them. Unfortunately, the bus in question is a prison bus, and their "saviors" turns out to be a group of hardcore, unreformed, criminals, looking for loot and trouble.
• The Generation Gap: Played for Laughs in this episode.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Hyunshik slaps Hyuk and drops the trope name to snap him out of his infection-induced hallucination.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Hyun is so freaked out by the possibility of Jisu dying that he's willing to risk giving control of his body to his Superpowered Evil Side in order to stop it.
  • The monsters managing to break into the lobby drives Hyuk and Dusik to hitch a plan to escape into the mountains surrounding the apartment. The problem is that they're completely out of options and their only plan is to form a zipline to the mountains out of rope and clothes, which they fully admit may get everyone killed if they try it.
• Good Feels Good: Hyein notes that she feels surprisingly good after saving Yuri's life from a monster.
• Go Out with a Smile:
  • As Jayhun is about to die, his last thoughts are of Jisu's smiling face, causing him to let out a small smile before his head is crushed.
  • Dusik manages to let out a smile imagining his wife and son returning to him just before he finally dies from his injuries.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Out of everything that we have to see in this comic, we're spared the sight of Jayhun's crushed head.
• Harmless Villain: The Blob turns out to be one. While it does attack Hyun on sight, it leaves him alone after throwing him around. It even later appears to pull a Grand Theft Me on one of the survivors, but as soon as it's discovered it leaves. It's revealed that it was originally a child who just wanted to remain hidden, explaining why it isn't Ax-Crazy like all the other monsters are. It's notable that the other survivors get genuinely upset after Joon kills it, since it genuinely was harmless.
• Hate Sink: It really says something about how horrible Seok Kim is as a person that not only does his wife attempt to kill him, not only do other survivors encourage that, and not only does the virus in his brain not even think he’s worth the effort, but becoming a monster actually makes him a better person.
• Healing Factor: All the monsters and infected have one, to the point where entire limbs can regenerate almost instantaneously. This is why Kill It with Fire is necessary, since they are able to recover from just about everything that doesn’t completely destroy them.
• Heartbroken Badass: Dusik has been mourning his family leaving him behind long after he's forgotten what their faces actually look like.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Hyein is in the middle of accepting that the moral compromises she made to survive weren't acceptable no matter the circumstances and deciding to become a better person right before she's killed by the flying monster.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Jayhun goes down trying to stop the security guard from killing anyone else.
  • Seop Ahn pushes Hyun out of the way of one of Beefcake’s punches and gets crushed in his place.
  • Jisu stops Hyun from pulling her away from the flying monster to stop him from being dragged along with her, even telling him to finish her song lyrics for her, but he manages to grab her again and drive the monster away before she's out of his reach.
  • Dusik blows himself up while taking multiple monsters with him.
  • Jisu pulls another one later on; as the survivors are trying to escape from the roof, she sneaks away to her room and starts blaring her bass guitar to draw as many of the monsters away from the others and towards her. Hyun comes out of nowhere to save her yet again.
  • Both Hyun and Hyuk end up giving in to their monster infections to ensure Wook and Jisu can escape - Hyun transforms to destroy Joon once and for all, and then Hyuk transforms to take Hyun's monster form down with him.
• Heroic Suicide: After helping the other survivors escape from the rooftop, Hyuk intends to blow his own brains out to prevent his own infection from taking him over.
• Hero Killer: Joon's monster form kills a reformed Hyunshik and Ihyun while also ensuring both Hyun and Hyuk have to become monsters themselves to keep everyone else alive.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Myeong-Ja Lim makes it clear that she's fully aware that her "baby" is a hallucination, but she would rather live in a hallucination than accept that her baby is gone forever.
  • Beefcake turns out to be much smarter than he looks when he manages to successfully recognize Jayhun's sword as the one that hurt him before, a feat made more impressive by the fact that Jayhun wasn't the one wielding it the second time.
  • Not that it takes away from his personality at all, but it turns out that Seok Kim's greatest desire was to become a better person.
  • Not only does it turn out that Wook used to be a police officer, he's shown that he's more than capable of Undying Loyalty when he has a reason to be loyal.
  • Dusik is driven by the pain of his wife and son walking out on him even though it was so long ago that he can't even remember what they look like. It's hinted that he sees Hyun as a second chance.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Dusik gets put down once and for all by the flaming shield he created.
• Hold the Line: After the group makes it to the roof during the monster invasion, Ihyun and Yuri (and eventually Eun and Hyein) are left to the task of trying to hold all of the monsters back from killing everyone else. Jisu manages to distract most of them by blasting her bass guitar from her room, but they are still left with three monsters coming for them.
• Humans Are Bastards: The story pulls no punches showing how the humans sometimes manage to actually be worse than the monsters they’re fighting.
• Hypocrite:
  • During the vote to expel Hyun, Seok Kim goes on a long rant about how his infection makes him a threat to the entire group and he should be thrown out immediately. During this speech, his nose starts bleeding, and he immediately tries to backtrack everything he just said so the group doesn't throw him out.
  • Hyein lectures Seon for not being able to kill her abusive husband, then breaks down crying when she thinks she’s killed someone herself. Seon calls her out on this.
  • Joon despises the monsters with a passion, but when faced with monsterization or death, he chooses to transform just so he can survive a little longer.
• Imagine Spot: While zip-lining down from the roof, Hyein imagines herself making it to the bottom, apologizing for everything she'd done, and asking the group for their forgiveness (which she receives). In reality, this takes place as she's falling to her death after being attacked by the flying monster.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • Every monster desires human flesh no matter their original wish.
  • After discovering chopped up body parts in the criminals' bus, Wook posits the idea that they may be cannibals. Hyuk shoots this down by pointing out that the flesh they've kept is too decayed for them to have been eating it.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Hyuk manages to shoot a harpoon from the rooftop and have it wrap perfectly around a tree branch on the very first shot.
• Internal Reveal: Episode 112 has the others learn that Hyuk is infected.
• Irony: Seok Kim, the man most passionate about kicking Hyun out of the group for being a monster, starts showing the symptoms of becoming a monster during his speech.
• Jerkass: Hyun yelled at his own mother for asking him to come with them during his introduction. He also shows up at his parents' funeral complaining about how they have not left him enough money. He gets better over time.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Seok Kim is a complete Jerkass (and, as we later find out, a hypocrite as well) but he isn’t wrong that keeping Hyun around could prove to be dangerous to the group.
  • Joon has a valid point about the monster infected: just because they're sympathetic doesn't mean they're not going to eventually be a problem when they inevitably turn into monsters, so killing them now is not such an evil strategy if it means ridding the group of future things to kill.
  • Pre-Character Development Hyun is an absolute dick - and his parents and sister were even worse, with his parents telling him to deal with the bullying he was dealing with on his own and his sister calling him an embarrassment to her friends.
  • Most of the time that Hyein suggests leaving someone to die, it may be entirely because she's a Dirty Coward but she's still usually objectively correct.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Hyein's Sanity Slippage was always visible from the beginning, but after shooting the mysterious girl, she proceeds to instantly murder Gapsu and then attack Yuri for no reason, making it clear her mind is completely gone.
• I Just Want to Be Special: In episodes 20-21 Hyun's Superpowered Evil Side claims that this is what is really motivating him.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Jayhun uses one as his weapon.
• Kill It with Fire: Thus far, fire is the only method shown to actually kill a monster.
• Knight of Cerebus: As soon as the criminals show up, all of the funny moments that were present in the early parts of the comic disappear completely.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When the monsters drive the survivors from the first floor, Hyuk and Dusik devise a plan to escape into the mountains and take over another vacant apartment building, knowing full well that they have no way of fighting all of the monsters that are breaking in.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • The woman who drove the security guard insane is the first one killed upon his return.
  • Gapsu gets his throat slit by the woman that he tried to rape five minutes prior.
• Last Request: Subverted - Jisu tries to ask Hyun to finish her song lyrics for her, but he manages to save her.
• Leave No Witnesses: Hyein's rant just before she attacks Yuri implies that this is why she is attacking her - Yuri can't tell anyone what she did to Gapsu if she's dead.
• Let's Get Dangerous!:
  • Hyuk, while a good leader, is not a fighter, which is why it's surprising when he hits Joon with a bat and points a gun at him.
  • The first time Wook and Joon fight, it's a Curb-Stomp Battle in Joon's favor. The second time they fight, Wook's gloves come off, and he beats Joon senseless before throwing him out of a window.
  • After shooting the mysterious girl, Hyein's moral compass is shattered, and she immediately slashes Gapsu's throat.
• Lightning Bruiser: Joon's monster form is not only one of the strongest monsters thus far, but also one of the fastest. Among other things, he manages to catch both Hyun and Ihyun out of the air when they try to attack.
• Like a Son to Me: He doesn't outright say it, but Dusik pointing out that his son is about Hyun's age (assuming he's still alive) as he lays dying gives off this vibe.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Hyuk deliberately does not tell his sister that he's infected. It finally comes out when she's out of the building and he's staying behind, so she does not take the revelation well.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Each infected person is tempted with this by their Superpowered Evil Side, who creates a world based on their greatest desire.
• Love Makes You Evil: Hyun's care for Jisu alongside Jisu's proclivity towards Heroic Sacrifices eventually leads to Hyun slipping further into the monster's personality, costing him more and more of himself as time goes on.
• MacGuffin/Living MacGuffin: Each small story arc is driven by one specific goal or person.
  • The kids in need of rescue serve as this for Hyun, while Dusik Hahn is one for everyone else. Hyun needs to rescue the children, while the lower floor eventually learns of Dusik's skill and focuses on finding and saving him.
  • Once the group unites, they spend most of their time focusing on either finding the security guard or fixing the elevator. As it turns out, he was in the elevator the whole time.
  • Yuri quickly runs out of inhalers, meaning a team has to assemble to leave the building and go to the hospital, drawing them into a fight with Beefcake that the criminals have to rescue them from.
  • After the criminals arrive, they demand that the group kill the monster form of Myeong-Ja Lim, who they previously left unharmed, forcing Hyun and Jisu to leave the group to kill her. Hyuk and Wook, meanwhile, end up looking for the prisoners bus to see if they really have a generator and food, leaving them stuck outside with monsters.
• Made of Iron: All of the monsters are, but the security guard takes it up to eleven, being so muscle dense that he actually singlehandedly tops the weight recommendation on the elevator and every weapon used on him breaks without harming him.
• Manly Tears:
  • Dusik and Hyun both cry as Dusik dies — Hyun because he's dying and Dusik because of Hyun coming back for him when his family never did is too much for him.
  • Wook cries after leaving Hyuk and Hyun behind to their monster transformations.
• Mercy Kill: Wook views putting down the monster form of Dusik Hahn as one of these, knowing that despite the fact that they're happy inside they'd prefer to be dead instead.
• Mirror Character: For all her talk about how much she hates him, Hyein and Seok Kim are very similar people. Both are loud and controlling Jerkasses, as well as hypocrites and cowards willing to kill others if it will save themselves. They also both firmly believe in Never My Fault and throw other people under the bus while trying to justify themselves with I Did What I Had to Do. They even have the same victim in Seon.
• The Mothman: One of the monsters, a pale headless torso with wings and red eyes in its chest, carries an eerie similarity to a eyewitness-sketch of the alleged "Point Pleasant-cryptid" itself. Fittingly, as it appears right after the extermination group triggers a disaster by burning a cocoon of unknown origin and great importance to the monsters, within and outside the apartment complex.
• Mundane Solution: During the Hold the Line moment on the roof, Ihyun's strategy to get rid of one of the three monsters coming at him is to grab it and throw it off the roof.

N-Z

• Neck Snap: Joon performs one on Sangsu and threatens to do it to Jisu.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • "Hero" may be stretching it, but by being so persistent about raising the shutter, Seok Kim lets a monster in the building and gets another person killed.
  • By electrocuting the Tentacle Monster in an attempt to kill it, Hyun instead triggers its evolution and it becomes much harder to kill.
  • Dusik Hahn fixing the elevator allows the security guard to return and kill several people, including Jayhun.
  • Jisu burns Myeong-Ja's cocoon, which throws all of the monsters around the building into an Unstoppable Rage and leads to the group losing the first floor.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Despite how tough the monsters are, there are two known ways to kill a monster permanently:
  • Fire is the monster's biggest weakness. Although the monsters are vulnerable to electricity and brute force, fire is the only method shown to keep the monsters down for good.
  • If a person has been infected but has not turned, killing the person will prevent them from transforming. Joon tragically confirms this weakness with Seon as his test subject.
• Nightmare Face: The author's trademark style shines through with the monsters and the monster infected, giving them one of these anytime anyone of them does anything evil. The criminals also get it sometimes, to a lesser degree, as well as Hyein after her Sanity Slippage and Hyun when the monster side takes over.
• No Kill like Overkill: Justified, since overkill is literally the only thing that works.
• Nothing Is Scarier: One of the most terrifying things about this outbreak is that no one has any idea how it actually started. At the beginning of the comic several people are shown introducing theories, but not all of them make sense and none of them can properly explain everything we see. The fact that the infection is also completely random and has no known transfer method only adds to the fear.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Jay's monster form seems easy enough to deal with - just tell him he looks good and he'll walk away. Unfortunately, that need for attention is constant, and so much as running away when his back is turned is enough to set him off, and when he's set off, he unleashes a psychic headache on his victims. Despite trying to get him away peacefully, Hyun is forced to kill him.
• Not Worth Killing: The virus inside Seok Kim's head finds it so easy to manipulate him into feeling sorry for himself that it legitimately decides that he's not worth the effort it would take to infect him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: One of Hyuk’s tactics against outsiders is to pretend he’s a complete moron so that his intelligence catches them off guard once he chooses to reveal it.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: During her moment of insanity, Hyein refers to Yuri as a wimp. This is coming from the woman who has had that absolute snot beat out of her three times in rapid succession two minutes prior, talking to the woman who saved her life.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • After their fight with the tentacle monster during Hyun's rescue, the group somehow manages to get away from it and trap it in the elevator shaft.
  • After Wook knocks him out inside the prison bus, Hyuk somehow manages to sneak past the few monsters left behind from Wook's distraction and get back inside the building. It's heavily implied that he came in through a window.
  • Joon manages to survive against (and take down) the four or five monsters he's trapped outside with, though he's near death by the time it's all over.
• Oh, Crap!: Whenever a monster shows up (which is almost every other chapter), this is the first reaction.
• Once More, with Clarity: At one point, Hyun passes out for two days. After he wakes up, flashbacks explain what happened to the other characters during that time.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Hyuk makes it clear that he's done playing games with the criminals when he hits Joon in the head with a bat. Considering how he tried to resolve all their conflict without bloodshed, either Hyuk's impending monsterization or witnessing Sangsu's murder has driven him over the edge.
  • Gapsu going from smug and confident to terrified out of his mind when he sees the mysterious girl behind Yuri and Hyein makes them realize that it must be a threat.
  • Hyuk telling his sister farewell tips off to her that something is wrong. She's right, considering he's infected, but by this point there's nothing she can do.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: The Monsters are all formerly human, transformed by an unknown condition (with in-universe ideas ranging from a virus and all the way to the supernatural). The monsters come in a variety of shapes, behaviours and abilities, which are determined by the person's desires. Among the traits they share in common: They eat human flesh, have increased resistance to injury and a Healing Factor, and can be killed by fire or extreme physical trauma.
• Orphan's Ordeal: One of the main drivers of the storyline.
• Party Scattering: The arrival of the criminals sends the group all over the place: Dusik and Yuri to the garage, Wook and Hyuk outside, Jisu and Hyun upstairs, and everyone else in the lobby.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Hyein slashing Gapsu's throat is incredibly brutal and Yuri is rightly disgusted by it, but it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person.
• Pet the Dog: Ihyun gives Yuri his inhaler when he notices hers is out. Based on dialogue from the other criminals, there’s no ulterior motive behind it.
• Plot Armor: The Tentacle monster kills everyone it sees (even destroying corpses it comes across), except for Hyun, whom he merely throws around until someone else ends up in its grasp and dies in his place.
• Police Brutality: Wook beat up a drug dealer and got fired from the police department as a result.
• Posthuman Nudism: When the monsters have been active for long enough, their desire to roam disappears and they enter a cocoon-like state. When they emerge as an übermensch, they choose to forego clothing. Hyun, as a half-monster, stands out in this regard because he chooses to dress himself after his evolution.
• Pragmatic Villainy: When Joon tries to talk Hyuk out of shooting him, he argues that he fully believes that Hyuk can go through with it, but he knows that Hyuk's not stupid enough to fire a gun and attract all the nearby monsters back to them.
• The Psycho Rangers: The criminals that arrive in chapter 85 are a direct contrast with the A-team.
  • Joon Shin is the leader of the group who isn't afraid to slap around the others if they disobey him and will lie to achieve his goals, such as lie that his group has food and a generator on their bus. This contrasts him with Hyuk who despite his No Social Skills is a moral person that wants to lower the amount of causalities and will lie to motivate his team to do better.
  • Ihyun Jo is also half-monster like Hyun but while Hyun fights off his monsterization with Heroic Willpower, Ihyun lost one of his personalities to his monster self. This means that Ihyun is stronger than Hyun but also far more cruel when his monster personality is in control.
  • Hyunshik Lim is a cruel conman that happily uses a few sentences to seed distrust among the survivors. Dusik is a kind engineer that makes the weaponry and devices of the survivors while also handing out genuine advice to those who need it.
  • Hoyeon Baek is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy that acts as the groups muscle while Wook is Hyuk's Number Two and will disagree with Hyuk if he finds the plan immoral.
  • Gapsu Seo is a sociopath whose only action thus far is attempting to murder Dusik despite Joon ordering Gapsu to befriend Dusik. Jisu is one of the more moral members of the A-Team and will disobey orders to save lives.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: As if Gapsu wasn't despicable enough, he's also a confirmed rapist. If it weren't for Yuri, who makes a point to make clear she doesn't see him as a human, Hyein would've been his next victim.
• Redemption Equals Death: Hyunshik and Ihyun spend a fair amount of time helping the survivors - Hyunshik by taking out Dusik Hahn with Wook and Ihyun by protecting the survivors on the roof - only to both be completely annihilated once Joon transforms and comes after them.
• The Reveal: As a blanket statement, every time someone is revealed to be infected counts as one of these.
  • The security guard was trapped in the elevator since the beginning of the outbreak.
  • Wook used to be a police officer before he was fired due to use of excessive force.
  • The origin of the monsterization phenomenon is the result of human souls rebelling against their hosts and taking control of their bodies. Or, at least, that's the only explanation we ever get, but Hyun's "soul" makes it very clear it was hoping to find "proof" of something like this before claiming to realize, so he's a fairly unreliable narrator.
• Sacrificial Lion: While several minor characters had already died by this point, Jayhun’s death established that no one is safe. If there was any doubt, it was followed up by Seop Ahn.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Hyein goes more and more crazy as time goes on, from a confident if a little bossy woman to a raving lunatic who tries to burn someone else alive in their sleep with a Slasher Smile. After almost being raped by Gapsu and then believing that she'd killed an innocent woman, she completely loses any remnant of sanity she had left.
  • Ihyun starts as an Affably Evil follower of Joon who, despite his loyalties, seems nice enough. Then he kills the Tentacle Monster and makes it clear he may be the most insane one out of all of them.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The security guard was stuck in the elevator when the power went out, leaving him trapped in there until he was accidentally freed by Dusik Hahn.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Wook considers this of the man who died during Hyun’s rescue.
• Sequel Hook: In the final scene of the comic, Hyuk's monster form collapses to reveal two cocoons, out of which comes Hyun with his emotions drained. After wandering to the lobby of the apartment, he finds a phone still functioning and starts playing music. Despite every other cocoon victim becoming completely emotionless, Hyun cries while listening to the phone, implying there's some part of him still left in there.
• Ship Tease:
  • Jisu and Jayhun have have been working with each other since the start of the crisis and are loyal to each other. In Jayhun's last moments, he imagines her face with a smile before he is killed by the security guard.
  • Despite a rough start Jisu and Hyun get close fast. Jisu becomes incredibly protective of him and the idea of anyone abusing him becomes her Berserk Button. It's also stated that Jisu looks a lot like Maria, the main character of Hyun's favorite cartoon that he has a crush on. In chapter 129, as Jisu attempts a Heroic Sacrifice, she closes her eyes and sees Hyun instead of her dead boyfriend, much to her surprise.
  • Wook and Yuri have some teasing the moment they meet, with Yuri giving Wook her phone after his was destroyed, causeing him to blush heavily. Wook is infuriated when Hyuk refuses to visit a pharmacy when Yuri needs a new inhaler. Chapter 128 heavily implies they have mutual feelings; when Ihyun asks if Yuri has a boyfriend, she states he's too late though she doesn't exactly have a boyfriend. The panel then cuts to Wook as he worries about Yuri's safety.
• Split Personality: Ihyun suffers from multiple personality disorder, which is how he and his monster are coexisting - one personality was taken over but another remains.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Each infected person develops these. They serve as a means of determining exactly how those that were infected will end up mutating. Hyun's is in particular very eager to play mind games with him.
• Super Spit: One of the monsters outside the building ends up having the Acid Attack variety of this.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Byeong-il decides that he's not going to be a coward any more and decides to go on the mission to the hospital with the others. As it turns out, becoming brave is not like flipping a switch, and he flees the second a fight breaks out.
  • Similarly, no matter how much of a badass someone is, getting in a fight against someone like Beefcake is not good for someone who does not have speed on their side, as Seop Ahn sadly demonstrates.
  • After preventing Jisu from suffering a Heroic Sacrifice to protect him from the flying monster, Hyun embraces her on the floor and they have a moment. Talking Is a Free Action is promptly averted when the monster immediately comes back.
  • When the monsters try to get into the lobby, the shutters stop them before Wook quickly manages to lead them away. The next chapter reveals that their shaking and pushing through the shutter knocked the inside barricade over and the group has to scramble to get it back up.
  • As karmic as Gapsu getting his throat slashed by Hyein really is, Yuri is still terrified of her afterwards, which is not helped by her holding a knife, wearing a Slasher Smile, laughing at the body of the man she just killed, and slowly walking towards her.
  • One of the criminals claims to be a martial arts expert and believes this to be enough to overpower Wook. Instead, he gets completely slammed because of one key reason; Wook's huge compared to him. Your level of skill doesn't matter in a fight alone, especially not if your opponent can just simply outmuscle you.
• Take Our Word for It: The cut up human body parts inside the cooler the criminals have are pixelated, so all we have to go off of is Wook's horrified reaction.
• Taking You with Me:
  • Several times, Hyun pulls a non-fatal version of this (without knowing he would survive) by stabbing the monster grabbing him with his electrified spear and turning it on long enough to drive the monster away.
  • After succumbing to his monster infection, Dusik blows himself up along with the monsters that are invading the garage.
  • Hyuk gives in to his monster infection after Hyun transforms with the specific wish to stop Hyun. To that end, he ensnares Hyun's arm and then explodes in a cocoon of flesh that takes up most of the rooftop, entombing him so the others can escape.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Averted. Every time characters stop to talk in the middle of a fight or tense situation, it's only because the action is currently happening somewhere else. These side conversations also have a tendency to be interrupted.
• Tap on the Head: When Sangsu pieces together that Hyuk is infected, Wook knocks him out with a single punch to the head.
• There Is Another: Turns out Hyun is not the only person that is a half-monster - Ihyun, one of the criminals, is also a half-monster.
• Token Good Teammate: "Good" may be a stretch, but Ihyun is noticeably more moral than his teammates, willing to sacrifice his life to protect the other survivors. At least while his personality is in control - when the monster's in control, all bets are off.
• Two Lines, No Waiting/Three Lines, Some Waiting: The beginning of the outbreak follows Hyun's attempts to rescue the children and the ground floor group's attempt to lock the building down. Thanks to Wook and Jisu going back for Hyun, the lines merge together fairly quickly, but ever since the group became one they're still often split in smaller groups, which creates the second trope.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • Hoyeon is stabbed by a monster as they're breaking into the first floor. While he is shown to be alive in the next chapter, he isn't seen moving or getting off of the first floor as it's overrun by monsters, leaving his fate completely in the air. Hyuk later "confirms" his death, but we have yet to see any semblance of a corpse.
  • Several times since being left to the whims of the monsters outside the lobby, we have been shown that Joon is surviving the attack, leaving it ambiguous as to what exactly is happening to him. It's later revealed that he managed to survive, albeit just barely, and he turns into a monster before he dies.
• Unstoppable Rage: Jisu destroying the cocoon that Myeong-Ja Lim became causes all of the monsters in the area to start attacking the building in a rage, driving the survivors off of the first floor.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Byeong-il flees the battle against “Beefcake” in order to “find help”. The help he finds and brings back turns out to be a bunch of criminals, one of whom is a monster and one who has a grudge against Wook, making the situation even worse.
  • The woman who gave the security guard the rotten fish caused him to finally go insane and desire to kill everyone in the building.
• Weapon-Based Characterization:
  • Hyun has the electrified spear Dusik Hahn gave him.
  • Wook has his own fists and, should the situation be truly dire, a standard pistol.
  • Jayhun has a katana. Wook starts using it after his death.
  • Jisu uses a metal bat that is later enhanced by Dusik to have spikes.
  • Dusik has some sort of firearm he designed himself which he says fires nails.
  • Hyuk uses a fire extinguisher both as a melee weapon and to annoy the monsters.
  • Eun uses a makeshift flamethrower from a lighter and a can of aerosol.
• Wendigo: May be what the monster here was.
• Wham Episode: Chapters 120-126 all dealt with two stories at once: the death, resurrection, and permanent death of Dusik Hahn and the aftermath of Gapsu's Attempted Rape of Hyein. Accordingly, each and every one of those chapters bounces between being shit your pants terrifying and an emotional punch in the gut. Chapter 122 is the definitive Wham Episode of the entire comic, as this one (potentially) reveals the origins of the monsterization epidemic.
• Wham Line: The group gets help from other survivors in a bus. They all celebrate, except for Wook, because...
  Wook: That's a prison bus.
  • And much later on, after Hyuk points a gun at Joon.
  Hyuk: I thought about it, Hyun. Are these people really humans or monsters? Now I realize they must be monsters. Which means it doesn't matter if we kill them, right?
  • And when Hyein runs into a recently monsterised Gapsu in the stairwell:
  Gapsu: It's... a... girl...
  • After Dusik's death, a man approaches Hyun, notably having the same eyes as the mysterious girl.
  Mysterious Man: We've been waiting so long. Now our time has finally come.
  • As the second wave of survivors prepares to zipline down to the ground, the group hears a monster land on the roof. After turning around, Hyunshik realizes that they know this particular monster.
  Hyunshik: ...Boss?
• Wham Shot:
  • The girl next door turning into a monster is the first sign of the horrors to come in this story.
  • The prison bus coming out of nowhere and smashing Beefcake to pieces.
  • Ihyun revealing he's a half monster by choking Hyun with the monster arm.
  • Wook is led to a group of cocoons near the apartment building, none of which show any sign of life... until one of them starts moving.
  • Hyein finally sporting the author's trademark Nightmare Face, something that until her Sanity Slippage was limited to the monsters and the criminals.
  • Hyun attacking a monster with such strength that the ground underneath his feet breaks, hinting that his monster side is starting to gain control.
  • Anytime a character gets a bloody nose, since a bloody nose is the first sign of a monster infection. Special mention goes to Seok Kim (whose infection shows as he's campaigning for Hyun to be kicked out), Hyuk (who completely collapsed and left Wook with no plan), and Dusik (who revealed his monster infection as the monsters break into the garage).
• What the Hell, Hero?: Different kinds.
  • Subverted. After Dusik fixes the elevator, which results in the security guard killing several people, Byeong-il tries to say that it's his fault those people are dead. Dusik counters that he was one of many people who were all but forcing him to fix the elevator and he had no way of knowing what was in there, so as tragic as it is he can't be blamed for it.
  • Downplayed. After a scuffle with the flying monster, Jisu quickly tells Hyun that taking the time to talk to her in a fight like that could've gotten them killed, but with more pressing matters at hand it gets glossed over.
  • Played for Drama. Hyun coming back to try to save Dusik causes him to get emotional and cry, which he hates because he doesn't want to be the one who died crying. It's clearly meant to be funny, but in context it's absolutely tragic.
• Would Hit a Girl: Joon has so far killed Seon and threatened to kill Jisu.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: It's been shown that despite the monsters' healing factors there is a way to permanently harm them. The only known way is to destroy major body parts like the eyes or ears before the monsters fully transform. This is shown when Jayhun sliced off the upper half of the Blind Monster's head and it never regenerated.
• Wrecked Weapon: Joon's monster form manages to catch and break Wook's sword.
• You Are in Command Now: Knowing that he's going to die soon one way or the other, Hyuk tells Hyunshik to use the zipline, unite with the rest of the survivors, and take his place as leader to ensure their survival.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Hyuk tends to create plans that involve deliberately leaving others to die or never risking lives to save others in order to encourage the others to go out of their way to keep everyone alive out of spite towards him. It gets him hated by just about everyone, but his plans almost always work perfectly.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Fits the criteria: the monsterization spreads rapidly, the monsters are drawn to eating humans, and it has led to societal collapse. The monsters are different enough to get around the usual issues with a zombie apocalypse actually happening. First, the monsterization is seemingly random and it's stated the South Korean government and army was destroyed from the inside when various members became monsters (the president of Korea is actually witnessed transforming). Second, the monsters have an extremely potent Healing Factor that makes it borderline impossible to kill them; fire is the only effective method to truly kill them. Finally, each monster is different from each other. Thus, there is no standardized way to fight them and some monsters still retain some of their former intelligence.
• Zombie Infectee: There are just as many people confirmed to be monster infected as are not. Thus far, Hyun, Seok Kim, Seon, Jay, Ihyun, the security guard, Myeong Ja-Lim, Hyuk, Gapsu, and Dusik have all been confirmed to be infected, though not all have succumbed to the infection.

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