Chapter 105: Mode Farming
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 105: Mode Farming
Farming modes was simple.
First, gather the people, throw some food to feed them, and then have them line up and sit down in orderly rows.
There was no need for them to step forward.
I could just check their modes one by one using View Information, starting from the top right of the neatly arranged crowd.
Since most of them were non-combatants, they didn't have any modes.
Even if they did, they were modes related to emotional aspects, like Kim Ji-hee's.
I'd been seeing a lot of these lately.
At first, it seemed like most people didn't have any modes at all.
Aside from receiving random modes, did living in a zombie apocalypse cause these modes to manifest based on a person's personality?
It wasn't entirely baseless. In the original game, there was a mode where you could customize stats by choosing positive or negative modes, allowing you to directly select a character's traits.
For example, if you chose the Chain Smoker mode, you'd constantly smoke cigarettes, and if you chose something like depression, you'd easily fall into a depressive state.
But this was reality.
Could randomly assigned emotion-related modes actually alter a person's feelings?
Was Kim Ji-hee not originally like this, but became dependent because of her Dependency mode?
If it were a game, that would make sense.
Because they just move according to how they're programmed.
But what if, in reality, the mode was determined by the person's personality?
Of course, looking at Kim Ji-hee, it was clear that the modes people used were random.
Though some people, like Oh Yoon-seop, received skills that suited them perfectly, it seemed like a lot of it was left to chance.
Just like how the Doctor and Pharmacist Union didn't have any healing skills.
If that was the case...
Then this ability to see information windows meant I could deduce a person's personality traits to some extent when looking at them in the future.
Whether the mode changed the person,
or the person created the mode,
it was clear that there was some connection between a mode and a person's personality.
And if that hypothesis was correct...
Could my Predation even change a person's personality?
"Huh?"
While keeping these potential experiments in mind, my gaze locked onto a child.
"You."
The very back row.
I called out to the child crouching in the corner, wolfing down a lunch box.
"Ye-sol. You."
"Go on. Hurry."
"..."
The child called Ye-sol stood up hesitantly and walked toward me with cautious steps.
She was still clutching her lunch box tightly.
She looked to be about six years old.
Though she was filthy and her unwashed hair was a tangled mess, her features were quite distinct and cute.
Since she was a little girl, her fearful, cautious glances didn't feel unpleasant at all.
Of course, that wasn't what mattered.
[Jeon Ye-sol]
- Age: 6
- Mode: Mana Affinity (8★), Frailty (7★)
- Stats:
* Strength: ★
* Agility: ★
* Stamina: ★
* Mana: ★★★★★★
What mattered was that I had found exactly the kind of person I wanted.
I hadn't actually expected to find one.
Since there were over fifty people gathered, I had only checked on a whim.
Honestly, I didn't even need such a high-level mode.
If it was a mana-related mode, whether it was Level 1 or Level 2, I was just going to spam Predation on it. If I successfully devoured it, great; if not, whatever.
But I had hit the jackpot.
"Where are this kid's parents? Step forward."
I looked around for Jeon Ye-sol's parents.
It seemed faster to talk to a guardian rather than a child who was keeping her distance out of sheer terror.
But no one stepped forward.
"Hmm... Can you not hear me?"
When I pulled out my pistol, one of the guys in front hurriedly explained.
"She... she doesn't have parents. She's alone."
I asked Jeon Ye-sol.
"You don't have a mom? Or a dad?"
Jeon Ye-sol nodded.
"Are they dead?"
"..."
She nodded once more.
"Works out well."
It wasn't exactly the right thing to say to a kid whose parents were dead, but it made things convenient for me.
"Come with me. I'll feed you, wash you, and give you a safe place to sleep."
"..."
Jeon Ye-sol hesitated.
Her fear of me was immense.
Of course, I wasn't giving her a choice.
I picked up Jeon Ye-sol, who was still holding her lunch box, and left.
"Gasp!"
"The child..."
"She's only six years old, how could he..."
"He'll rot in hell..."
What the fuck do these bastards take me for?
I stopped in my tracks and raised my pistol, and they instantly shut up.
There was no need to explain myself.
To them, Jeon Ye-sol was just another useless mouth to feed.
Unlike them, who could at least do some manual labor, a child like her could only do minor chores, and probably couldn't even do those properly.
I didn't know why she was staying here without a guardian, but it was a stroke of good luck for me.
Since she wouldn't have gone around talking about her skills, no one else would have recognized her value.
In fact, even if she had, she wouldn't have been valuable to anyone else anyway.
[Mana Affinity (8★)]
- A pure child reacts sensitively to mana.
- Mana stat increases by an additional 80%.
- Mana Recovery Rate increases by 100%.
- Mana recovery interval decreases by 25%.
- Mana consumption decreases by 20%.
"What an absurd skill..."
To think a skill like this actually existed.
This is practically on the level of a Cheat Mode.
Of course, this was a highly exceptional case.
As the mode description suggested, it might have only manifested because she was a pure child.
Since it only applied to her, and she didn't have any other modes to utilize mana, it was ironically quite useless to Jeon Ye-sol herself.
But to me, it was literally a Cheat Mode in its own right.
The ridiculous part was that I could invest points into this as a Normal Mode to level it up.
If I devoured it, would its performance drop because I wasn't a pure child?
There was no need to worry about that.
In the first place, this mode was far too valuable to gamble on with a 10% chance through Predation.
Why gamble when I could guarantee its use?
It wasn't like the kid was resisting me, screaming for me to kill her instead.
No matter how much she struggled, she was still just a child.
Right now, she was terrified because I looked like a bad guy, but once we reached Paradise, she would change her mind.
"Let's go."
Oh Yoon-seop and the Hunting Squad were waiting in a prepared vehicle.
I got in with Jeon Ye-sol and shared the navigation permissions with the driver.
"We're heading out."
Farming until the very last moment, I finally headed back.
---------------------------------------------------
The main base of Paradise was now Seoul Forest.
I had deactivated the Safe Base on the studio apartment building, removing the outer walls and automatic doors.
The warehouse had been dismantled long ago, and the Small Bathhouse had been moved to the hot spring area, so there was practically nothing left there.
The studio apartment building where Oh Yoon-seop used to live, along with the cafeteria and food store, still stood, but since the automatic doors and all supplies were gone, any visitors would find nothing and have to turn back empty-handed.
There was still a lot to fill in at Seoul Forest, but as long as we had the food store, cafeteria, and housing, running the place wouldn't be a major issue.
I let the Residents move into their preferred floors in the Trimage, and turned the apartment building behind it into Rental Apartments for Level 3 Membership members.
I added whatever was needed as we went along.
From the Membership members cleaning diligently to the people taking the tram to buy food...
Since the tram dropped them off right in front, we actually had more customers than back when we were at the studio apartment building.
I had also attached the hospital to the building housing the cafeteria and food store. With the doctors and pharmacists commuting and working diligently, it was starting to look like a true Paradise.
After getting off at the parking lot and transferring our farmed loot to the warehouse, I called for Kim Ji-hee.
"Oppa!"
Kim Ji-hee, who had been working hard lately due to the influx of hospital cases, ran over in an instant.
Then, seeing Jeon Ye-sol sitting next to me, she froze for a moment.
"What's with that look? It's seriously rubbing me the wrong way."
"...Should I wash her?"
"She does need a wash, but it's not what you're thinking."
A zombie apocalypse offers a high degree of freedom.
In the game, there was no sex content, so it didn't relate to that kind of freedom, but in a real-life zombie apocalypse, no one cares what you do.
Of course, I didn't think having certain fetishes was something to be ashamed of.
But I didn't have any pedophilic tendencies.
To me, a woman's charm comes from a pretty face, hips built for childbearing, and breasts that feel soft to the touch—none of which a child has.
"I'm going to register her as a Resident. Tell Lee Mi-sook to wash her and help her unpack in the unit next door."
"Okay! Oh, she's so cute. What's your name, sweetie?"
"...Ye-sol..."
"Really? Where's your mommy?"
"Dead, apparently."
"...And your daddy?"
"Dead, apparently."
"This is a really nice place. They give you yummy food, you can sleep in a warm bed, and you can get squeaky clean. Want to come with me?"
Jeon Ye-sol glanced at me, then nodded and clung to Kim Ji-hee.
I suppose the pretty and kind Kim Ji-hee was at least slightly more comforting than a killer like me.
Whatever.
Either way, it was bound to be better than Dong Seoul Terminal.
After washing up and changing into clean clothes, Jeon Ye-sol looked quite adorable.
"I asked her, and she says she wants to stay here."
"She's an orphan, so she has nowhere else to go anyway. It's not like we can send her to an orphanage."
"..."
This place was far better than an orphanage where she'd have to go out and beg.
I registered Jeon Ye-sol as a Resident.
And immediately, I raised her Resident skill, Mana Affinity, to Level 10.
"Welcome, my mana pouch."