Chapter 104: Dong Seoul Terminal Faction
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 104: Dong Seoul Terminal Faction
[Quest Complete!]
[4 Points Obtained]
[Normal Mode Level (★) Selection Ticket x5 Obtained]
[Safe Base-Exclusive Defense Turret (★) Obtained]
The quest was complete.
A whopping 4 points.
Along with 5 Normal Mode points and even a Safe Base-Exclusive Defense Turret.
Would it be fair to say the difficulty was a bit too easy compared to the rewards?
What would have happened if I hadn't leveled up "Hunting Expert" on the way here?
"Time Acceleration" and "Time Deceleration."
I casually called them "quickly" and "slowly," but without these two skills, could I have wiped out an armed faction carrying guns this easily?
The outcome probably wouldn't have changed.
After all, my stats had long since surpassed human limits, and I had "Cat Step," which paired perfectly with them.
One beat ahead of everyone else.
No, not even a full beat.
The simple advantage of being able to move just half a beat faster was a power strong enough to overcome any disadvantage in numbers.
Still, I doubt I could have put on a performance quite like this without them.
"Time Acceleration" and "Time Deceleration" showed a transcendence of physical laws that even I had never experienced in the zombie apocalypse. This skill, which guzzled a whopping 5 mana per use, truly delivered the impact of an ultimate move.
Whatever the case, I won again today.
"Whew. That was tough."
"...Great work, Boss."
Oh Yoon-seop and the hunting squad stared at me, utterly dazed.
Their faces were practically screaming with things they wanted to say.
"What?"
"...I truly respect you, Boss."
Oh Yoon-seop spoke with absolute sincerity.
"Why state the obvious now?"
Doing this much is exactly why I can be the Owner of Paradise.
"Pack up everything you can. I already grabbed some, but we might have missed something."
"Yes, sir."
Oh Yoon-seop and the hunting squad quickly began cleaning up the battlefield, keeping an eye out for any potential stragglers.
It was only natural to retrieve all the guns and ammunition from the people here.
The victor's spoils.
Although my Level 4 Backpack was already bursting with loot, there were bound to be plenty of other things left here.
"My mana is completely drained."
My 19 mana was also nearly bottomed out.
It recovered at a rate of 1 point every 10 minutes, so a short rest would replenish it, but the feeling of insufficiency that I felt during the battle lingered even after it was over.
Having Cheat Mode probably made me feel that way even more.
If I were just a normal player playing through a regular zombie apocalypse, I would have shrugged it off, thinking, Hey, this is more than enough.
Honestly, being able to use such an insanely broken skill nearly four times in a row was already absurd.
Normally, using it once would drain your mana completely, forcing you to hesitate and save it for the absolute last resort—a single, game-changing move.
A skill meant solely to turn the tide of battle.
But I am the owner of Cheat Mode.
Let's find a way to increase my mana.
I also want to find a way to speed up my mana recovery, but that would require finding someone with that specific type of mode, and I don't even know if one exists right now.
On the other hand, there are quite a few ways to increase maximum mana.
The first is raising my base stats, and there's also the Hot Spring Healing Bonus.
There are also ways to raise it through food.
"From now on, visiting the hot spring is a must as soon as I wake up."
Right now, my hot spring was upgraded to tier 2, giving me a 10-hour random stat boost of ★ for a 15-minute soak.
I should max out the upgrades to maximize the stat bonuses I receive.
This was actually for the best.
Since raising my strength, agility, and stamina further didn't yield any immediately noticeable difference, I had gotten lazy and skipped out on the healing bonuses. But now that mana had become useful, my thirst for stats had grown.
The same went for modes.
I had practically forgotten about Predation, only glancing at whatever modes I happened to acquire whenever it triggered before tossing them aside.
But now, I had a goal.
"A mode that increases mana. A mode that helps with mana recovery."
Having a goal is always a good thing in a zombie apocalypse.
Because the time it takes to achieve that goal serves as a sweet glimmer of hope in this empty, tedious era of ruin.
I headed inside Dong Seoul Terminal to check out the building, only to find a crowd of people gathered in the waiting room.
They didn't have guns.
Unarmed, they held crude weapons and stood on high alert.
"Do you live here?"
Since I was in a good mood, I asked politely.
Naturally, there was no response.
"Hmm."
Perhaps it was only natural for there to be more people here.
There was no way the drug cartel bastards would have established a base as massive as Dong Seoul Terminal just to live by themselves, supplying their own food and maintaining the building.
A base required people to handle production and minor chores.
And those bastards held the power.
In a zombie apocalypse, those with power do not work.
Why would they, when there are plenty of people around to order around?
They make them cook and do chores.
They make them capture zombies and guard the base.
In return, they only need to feed them scraps.
Because for these people, safety—something far more important than food—was guaranteed.
So, after living as the underclass, they had only now come out with weapons because the commotion meant their oppressors were dead.
Because they saw a glimmer of hope that they might live.
The hope that they might escape.
I pondered.
What should I do?
Either way, this faction was already dismantled.
Now that the drug cartel was dead, whether these people had been forced to work or had done so voluntarily, it was time for them to make a decision.
And I had already seen this play out several times.
Most of them wouldn't leave.
Since I wasn't about to take them in and give them options, they didn't have much of a choice anyway.
Stay here, or go outside.
And what would they do out there?
They probably didn't know how to do anything besides wander around until they died.
Even so, it would be slightly better for these weaklings to band together and keep the existing faction running.
Of course, the capable ones might leave because they didn't want to carry the dead weight.
Not my problem.
"The junkies here are all dead, so do whatever you want. Leave, or stay here and run this faction yourselves."
As I spoke, I moved to find the food warehouse.
I had to take everything worth taking.
There was no need to show consideration for those who remained.
I spotted a few guys blocking the food warehouse.
They must have realized that if this place got cleaned out too, those left behind would have nothing to eat.
When I hesitated, the people in the waiting room rushed over in a crowd to block the warehouse entrance.
This must be the place.
I pulled out my pistol.
This is the problem with bottom-feeders.
They submit to power, but the moment they think they stand a chance, they cling on tenaciously.
They aren't weak because they're good.
They're just the type to bow to the strong and bully the weak, stuck at the bottom only because they lack any real power.
Bang!
I shot the closest guy, and the crowd shrieked, scrambling backward.
Watching them part to the left and right of the warehouse door like the parting of the Red Sea was quite a sight.
"I'm offering to let you live, so why do you keep trying to throw away your precious lives?"
Even though they had cleared the path, I shot another guy.
"Open the door."
When they realized that every second of hesitation meant another death, they started moving a bit faster.
The food warehouse opened.
Inside, there was a considerable amount of food.
These bastards.
They really knew how to farm, didn't they?
Of course, it couldn't compare to my Super-large Supply, but there was enough piled up in the warehouse to equal at least a few days' worth of it.
The same went for the guns and ammo.
Then again, if they had raided a military base to get that kind of weaponry, they might have cleared out places like supermarkets—which were considered large demonic lairs—early on, back when there weren't many Level 3 zombies around.
Even Dong Seoul Terminal itself was a major base that should have originally been a Level 2 or 3 Dungeon, yet here they were, occupying it.
I packed it all into my Level 4 Backpack without holding back.
"Please... could you leave just a little bit behind?"
The people watching from outside pleaded.
Did they really think I wouldn't take everything?
Not a chance.
I raised my pistol and shot the guy who had spoken.
"Why do you expect a free ride in life? If you wanted this warehouse, you should have killed them and taken it yourselves. I'm the one who killed everyone, so why should I leave my food for you? What use are you to me? Honestly, this food—you guys didn't even farm it, did you? You're just parasites who sucked the lifeblood out of those junkies, so why the fuck are you talking like this belongs to you?"
I have no desire to understand other people's feelings.
To an outsider, I might look like a psychopath.
But seeing this kind of shitty sob story only completely wipes away any lingering thought of leaving anything behind.
After packing every single grain without leaving a crumb, I walked out.
Terrified of getting shot, the crowd of over fifty people pressed themselves against the walls, avoiding my gaze.
If they were too terrified of a single person to do anything, what on earth did they think they could protect?
Even if I had left them some food, they would have been destined to just waste away here, eating through the remaining supplies until they died.
If not, they would find a way to maintain their faction using whatever strengths they had, even without the food.
Just as I was about to leave, though.
"Ah. Right."
What I had been thinking about earlier crossed my mind.
Mana mode farming.
The perfect test subjects for that were gathered right here, so why was I about to just walk away?
I opened my backpack and tossed some of the food I had taken from the warehouse onto the ground in front of me.
"Everyone, gather around."