Life Kit
“Suho. Haven’t you noticed anything strange while living in the shelter?”
Around the time I’d gotten somewhat used to shelter life, an awakened brother I’d grown close to asked me that question. The awakened who ruled the shelter didn’t treat ordinary people as human beings, but this guy had started talking to me because I resembled his dead younger brother.
“Strange? What do you mean?”
“The world’s gone to hell, yet we still have clean water and electricity.”
He was right. Here, we could shower and use electricity—though ordinary people were only allowed enough to survive.
“Maybe they have generators? Or solar panels or something…”
“There’s nothing like that here. Even if there were, there’d be no one to run them, and the capacity wouldn’t let someone like you use them anyway.”
“I guess not. And if there wasn’t enough, the leader sure as hell wouldn’t share.”
The leader, a former gang enforcer, had a rotten personality and was ridiculously greedy. The only reason that bastard would show mercy to ordinary people was if there was plenty to spare.
“I heard a rumor. Apparently there’s a skill that produces water and electricity.”
“Really?”
Skills that appeared after awakening were secrets even among the awakened. They were both a person’s value and something to be traded. Naturally, ordinary people had no way of learning about skills, but this brother, who thought well of me, occasionally shared such information.
“Let me think… Right, it’s called Life Kit. It’s a production-type skill, and apparently pretty rare. It can create things necessary for survival.”
Word had spread that the shelter treated awakened well, so quite a few skilled people had joined under the foul-tempered leader. Among them were production-type awakened, and the shelter’s infrastructure apparently ran around them.
“That leader bastard is apparently amazing in bed. Some of the production-types are women who got hooked on his dick and decided to stay.”
I’d thought the leader was only good at fighting, but apparently his nighttime skills were no joke either.
“Even in this fucked-up world, we’re still getting discriminated against over sex. Goddamn… makes you lose the will to live.”
He said that while puffing on a cigarette he’d worked hard to obtain.
“What’s your skill, hyung? Ah, I probably shouldn’t ask that.”
“Physical Enhancement. It was really useful in the early days of the shelter. Definitely stronger than my level would suggest.”
“Isn’t it still useful now?”
“It’s useless now. You know that priest who keeps coming and going?”
He was a high-ranking priest of the Doomsday Church, the largest pseudo-religious group. He got along well with the leader and visited the shelter often under the pretext of giving blessings.
“That bastard’s completely fallen for one of the leader’s women. Looks like the leader gave her up.”
“The leader gave up a woman?”
The guy would snap someone’s neck just for glancing at his women. And he was giving one away?
“He’s a production-type who makes Enhancement Capsules. With those, even ordinary people can use enhancement abilities. That’s why the leader’s obsessed.”
There weren’t many awakened to begin with, and they tended to band together to form their own factions. If they could enhance ordinary people and use them as private soldiers, there was no reason to refuse.
“There are side effects, but do you think the leader cares about that?”
After chatting for a while, he said it was time for a raid, tossed me two cigarettes, and left. That was the last time I saw him.
A few days later, I heard he’d been eaten by a wolf-like mutant while scouting a new farming route. All I could do was pray for him to rest well after all his hardships.
Life Kit referred to the infrastructure necessary for survival. Producing water and electricity were the main functions, and higher-level versions could even create shelters. Each required the appropriate attribute, but all I had to do was find slaves with the right aptitude and awaken them. Sex would be ideal, but I’d find a way regardless.
Whether or not you had a production-type skill drastically changed the difficulty of surviving the apocalypse. I was even more thrilled by the fact that I could create multiple awakened rather than just turning people into slaves. After all, each awakened only had a limited number of skill slots, and the types were restricted. In my case, the remaining slots would probably all be filled with slave-related skills. Yet I desperately needed production-type skills.
That was why I needed an awakened who could equip Life Kit in their skill slot. I just had to make that awakened my slave.
‘I could build an elite shelter.’
If I drew the right skills, I could create a shelter of slaves who would obey me and never betray me. No—there would only be women, so a slave harem would be more fitting.
With that thought, I waited anxiously for the system’s response.
Searching for slave candidates that meet the conditions. Estimated search time: 24 hours 12 minutes.
Time remaining: 24:11:59
The counter appeared and the time began to decrease. It was taking longer than expected. It wasn’t even capturing them—just searching—and it was going to take over a day.
“Isn’t this taking too long?”
This duration accounts for your rest time. You have not rested once since awakening until reaching Level 3, so there is concern regarding stamina depletion.
It would be best to rest for at least a short while until your level increases. Since 24 hours have not yet passed since awakening, a minimum of 6 hours of rest is recommended.
It is recommended to raise your level to 5 or higher before capturing the first slave candidate. Unexpected variables besides zombies are anticipated.
Your Agility and Sense stats are sufficient. Invest in Attack and Defense until you move to the capture location.
Recommended weapons: golf clubs, steel pipes, and crowbars over aluminum bats.
It felt like receiving a briefing before carrying out a mission or quest in a game. Awakening didn’t just grant abilities. It wasn’t about pushing through with brute strength alone. This invisible something constantly coached me on how to survive.
‘Worth awakening for.’
I decided to follow the system’s advice to rest. After showering and lying down on the bed, I heard sounds coming from beyond the ceiling—things I couldn’t hear before awakening. Zombie moans like nails on metal, things breaking, sobbing, howling, even screams. Before awakening, I’d been too busy trembling under the covers to realize how noisy my surroundings were.
‘After I wake up, I’ll start searching from the sixth floor.’
I needed 25 more experience points to reach Level 4. At Level 4, the experience cap would increase to 40. To reach Level 5, I’d have to kill 65 zombies.
*
“You bastard. What, what are you?! You’re here to kill me, right? Fuck, you came to kill me, didn’t you?”
The moment I started farming the sixth floor, I encountered a madman in the first apartment I entered. His entire body was covered in blood, and blood dripped from the kitchen knife in his hand. On the floor lay a dismembered corpse, scattered everywhere. His unfocused eyes suggested he’d either taken drugs or gone insane from the terror.
I’d seen plenty of people like him before regressing, but seeing one again right after returning put me in a foul mood. When he charged at me with a shriek, I snatched the knife and slit his throat. There was no need for words with someone who’d lost their mind.
I continued opening doors one by one and clearing the interiors. After investing 2 points into Attack upon awakening, tearing off locked door handles was no trouble at all. I didn’t bother farming anything except items that could serve as weapons. My goal was to reach Level 5 before the counter hit zero.
Time remaining: 16:29:31
I showed no mercy to those who charged at me in madness or those whose killing intent I could sense. In this shitty world, the first to die were those who showed unnecessary compassion or humanity. That didn’t mean I’d completely abandoned my capacity for pity, though.
“I’m… done for now, aren’t I?”
On the fifth floor, I found a woman dying while clutching her child. From the torn wound, it was clear she’d been bitten by a zombie. The child in her arms was already dead.
“Can I… ask you for a favor…?”
“Speak.”
“I don’t want to… turn into a monster. If I become a monster, I’ll… eat my child, won’t I?”
The woman’s breathing grew ragged.
“Kill me… and bury me with my child… Please… I’m begging you.”
“I will.”
“Thank… you…”
I drove the knife into the neck of the woman whose veins were turning dark red.
*
I’d cleared everything down to the first floor, but I still hadn’t filled my experience bar.
‘Twenty-nine zombies. Looks like I’ll have to go outside.’
Following the system’s advice, I invested 2 points each into Attack and Defense.
I dug a pit in the empty lot behind the studio apartment building and buried the woman and child. I didn’t know if they had any religion, but I took a cross that had been hanging on someone’s wall and planted it there.
Time remaining: 02:13:58
In two hours, the location of the first slave candidate would be identified. I packed some bottled water and energy bars and left the building, just in case the candidate hadn’t eaten anything. I planned to hunt zombies nearby and move immediately once the capture location was revealed.
*
Dongshin Middle School — A middle school not far from Choi Suho’s studio apartment. Zombie corpses and dismembered bodies were scattered across the playground. Black smoke rose from several classrooms. A dog wandered the field, gnawing on an intact corpse. Its body was far too large to be called a stray dog. From a third-floor classroom, someone watched the scene with anxious eyes. Despite her pretty appearance, she was covered head to toe in filth.
“What do I do… Even a scary dog got in…”