Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: The Found Shelter
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He pulled out the magazine and quickly reloaded the spent rounds. His speed was astonishing. By the time the new beast appeared, Yuseong had already inserted the magazine and finished chambering a round.
‘Fortunately, no black beasts like that one.’
They were relatively manageable foes. Now that he could set aside his worries about ammo to some extent, even more so.
There were two beasts. One burst out from another room on the first floor, while the other appeared at the base of the stairs leading to the second floor.
Yuseong opened fire. Bullets hammered into their heads.
Even without instant kills, the rounds embedding in their skulls were enough to slow them down considerably. And the more they slowed, the more bullets flew toward their heads.
Thud!
The last beast collapsed.
Yuseong finished confirming the kills before hurrying to the room’s window.
‘No more coming?’
He checked if any others were rushing over after hearing the commotion. Fortunately, none were in sight.
Yuseong thoroughly searched the house for any other threats. There were no more beasts inside, and no signs of new ones approaching from outside.
Only now were the minimum conditions for claiming the shelter met.
Yuseong approached the basement entrance. Debris was piled high starting from midway down the stairs to the basement.
‘Gotta clear this fast.’
From here on, it was a race against time. Lingering too long could draw more beasts, which would be dangerous. Yuseong began removing the debris.
Rustle!
With the powered exoskeleton’s strength, he lifted a massive chunk of rock, sending dust cascading down. Thanks to its superhuman power, the debris started vanishing in moments.
‘How much more do I need to clear?’
He suspected the shelter was down here, but he didn’t know its exact location.
It was possible he’d clear everything and still not find it easily. With a prior collapse on record, the basement’s condition worried him too.
‘Need to find it quick…’
“Strategy Guide. Can’t you pinpoint the shelter’s location?”
【No information available.】
Even the Strategy Guide was no help this time.
He moved debris to the first floor and checked outside for approaching beasts. If all clear, he’d clear more from the basement. He also kept an eye out for further collapses.
That’s when it happened—he’d cleared enough debris to fill two rooms.
As he pulled out one large rock chunk, fragments of rotted and shattered wood poured out, along with glass shards.
Likely a display cabinet that had once held glass bottles of food or drinks. But its original purpose didn’t matter now.
‘Found it!’
Yuseong clenched his fist at the iron door revealed amid the rubble. The now-rotted cabinet had apparently served as camouflage covering the door.
Yuseong hurriedly cleared all the debris around the iron door.
‘Stay calm first.’
He forcibly suppressed his pounding heart. It was a moment of pure elation, but times like these demanded a wide field of view.
Yuseong went back up to the first floor and checked once more for approaching monsters or beasts. The surroundings remained quiet.
After finishing his vigilance, Yuseong stood before the basement iron door again. He gripped it and pulled. It wasn’t locked.
‘Guess the owners didn’t make it to the shelter.’
But he felt no particular sympathy for the shelter’s former owners. With the world ended anyway, their deaths were just a matter of time.
The room inside was pristine. There was some dust buildup, but that was it—no collapses or damage anywhere. It seemed reliably built as a shelter.
Several shelves lined one wall. Yuseong hurried over.
Small pills filled in transparent glass bottles greeted him.
‘Nutrient pills!’
Yuseong rejoiced at the faded-to-almost-illegible label on the bottle. Clearly, one pill provided the full nutrition of an entire meal.
He could now buy black bread via the Purchase Window, but a large stockpile of food was still more than welcome. Being in an intact shelter, all of it was in perfect condition.
The shelves held more than just nutrient pills.
‘Water!’
Clean, untainted water, sealed and plentiful.
He could buy food with black bread via the Purchase Window, but he’d still been stuck drinking contaminated water—now here was sealed, pure water.
And the gains didn’t stop there.
‘It appeared!’
Seeing the nutrient pills and water newly listed in the hastily opened Purchase Window, Yuseong clenched his fist. This completely eliminated his worries about sustenance.
Finding these two alone made the shelter hunt entirely worthwhile.
But the shelter’s gifts didn’t end there.
‘Generator and batteries!’
A metal box in one corner held neatly stored solar generators and batteries, boosting his elation even higher.
Not just one each—two batteries and no less than three generators.
‘Now I can run the Virtual Reality Device much longer!’
He’d gotten exactly what he wanted most. A smile wouldn’t leave Yuseong’s face.
Yuseong continued rummaging through the shelter.
Nothing else substantial turned up after that. But Yuseong wasn’t disappointed. What he’d found already exceeded expectations.
‘Time to move it all.’
Yuseong lifted the metal box containing the batteries and generators with one hand. He swept nutrient pills and water into his brought backpack. But there was too much to take all at once.
‘Gotta make another trip.’
Yuseong gazed contentedly at the remaining piles of nutrient pills and water on the shelves.
But his joyful expression ended there. Tension hardened his face once more.
The path back to his hideout was full of dangers.
Losing his life to carelessness after such a once-in-a-lifetime windfall in his dogshit existence—how utterly ridiculous would that be? He’d never close his eyes in peace.
Yuseong moved back to his hideout, alert in all directions. Fortunately, the return trip had no clashes with monsters or beasts. He made a round trip, sweeping up the rest of the nutrient pills and water.
This time, a sharp-eyed beast spotted him on the way back, forcing a fight, but ample ammo turned it into Swiss cheese in seconds.
After confirming no pursuers, Yuseong shut the hideout door and emptied his provisions from the backpack onto the floor.
“Phew, heh heh heh heh heh!”
Laughter escaped him unbidden at the feast of food spread across the floor. This would save him food costs for a good while.
‘Oh, right—install the generators first.’
Extending Virtual Reality Device runtime was the top priority now, above all else.
Yuseong went outside and installed two more generators beside the original solar one. The new generators looked reassuringly sturdy.
Back inside, he swapped in the new batteries.
‘Good—they all work fine.’
He’d dodged the worst-case scenario of intact exteriors hiding broken internals. Yuseong checked the batteries’ charge status.
‘Nice!’
The charging speed was noticeably faster.
Yuseong plopped down with a bottle of nutrient pills and a bottle of water. He cracked open the sealed container, popped a pill into his mouth, and chugged water.
“Kaaah~!”
Just days ago, he’d been gnawing toxic meat and choking down polluted water amid gut pains. Now, a single tasteless pill provided full nutrition, paired with clean water and no post-meal agony.
“Uhahaha, Virtual Reality is the best!”
Praising the greatest stroke of luck in his life, he drained the rest of the water without leftover.
* * *
The batteries were fully charged. The speed was incomparable to before, when he’d had only the worn-out solar generator and battery.
‘About time to log in.’
Yuseong entered the Virtual Reality Device. Maybe because of his good mood, it felt unusually comfortable. He activated it and logged into the game.
‘This place really is better.’
His real-world situation had improved greatly, but it was still pathetically shabby compared to the game’s fantastical paradise.
‘Still, it’ll get better.’
The Purchase Window’s existence shone bright hope on him.
‘To make that happen, I need to raise attention and earn money fast.’
Yuseong walked along the path.
Today was the day to leave Green Plain Village. The Strategy Guide had advised there were no more important events here.
The breeze felt pleasant. Yuseong pulled out a piece of black bread and nibbled on it.
‘This really is nice.’
Attention and money mattered, but he couldn’t miss these leisurely moments either. It felt like all his recent stress vanished at once.
‘But... the stares feel a bit more numerous now.’
Yuseong glanced around. The sources were Player NPCs. The ones usually scattered across the plains, diligently hunting, were stealing glances at him.
He’d sensed it before, but now there were far more gazes than then.
‘Strategy Guide, what’s with them?’
【Fame from defeating the extra boss has spread, increasing people’s interest in you, Player.】
‘Because of attention, huh.’
Yuseong opened his status window and checked attention. It had only recently passed 1,000, but now it was over 7,000 and nearing 8,000.
‘Killing that extra boss had a solid effect.’
He was already excited wondering what items would unlock in the Purchase Window once it hit 10,000.
How long had he walked? The scenery began to change.
True to Green Plain Village’s name, the endless sea of vibrant blue-green grass thinned out, soon replaced by gray rocks.
Yuseong didn’t like the look of it. He preferred the game’s signature vibrant, lively environments.
‘Still better than reality.’
No environment in Ark could be worse than reality.
With the terrain shift, the visible monsters changed too. Gazelles didn’t approach but prowled visibly in the distance.
As Yuseong took in the new sights while walking, a massive gate appeared before him. Dull gray walls stretched out on either side, blending with the surroundings like an ink wash painting.
‘This is the destination.’
The city reached by following the sole outward road from Green Plain Village.
Tar, the mining city.
Yuseong entered the city. Far more NPCs walked its streets than in Green Plain Village, including Player NPCs among them.
Proving the city’s higher level, they were more properly equipped than Green Plain Village’s Player NPCs.
Suddenly, Yuseong looked down at himself. He was still in the starter outfit from the game’s beginning. The only change was the Eonir pistol from defeating the Relic of the Hidden Sage.
‘Time to gear up, maybe.’
But there was a problem.
‘No money.’
His inefficient gun and real-world purchases had drained his funds dry. He didn’t have enough for gear right now.
Of course, he could go hunt any monsters for quick cash. But not at the moment.
‘Need to take down another extra boss.’
The so-called “Owner of the Old Mansion.” Before discovering the extra boss “Relic of the Hidden Sage” right next to Green Plain Village, it was the first extra boss starting players there could challenge.
Challenge level limit: 12. Exactly Yuseong’s current level.
Considering the attention gained from one extra boss, skipping this one wasn’t an option.
But hunting monsters for money risked leveling up and missing the boss.
He’d checked an armor shop just in case, only reconfirming his money was laughably insufficient.
He couldn’t hunt and risk leveling. Nor could he skip the boss.
‘No choice. Gotta go for it.’
It wasn’t real life-or-death anyway.
‘With the new gun, it’s better than just charging in with the basic one.’
Yuseong began heading toward the second extra boss, the Owner of the Old Mansion.