Chapter 157: Paradise Is Open as Usual.
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 157: Paradise Is Open as Usual.
The Paradise Gallery was in an absolute frenzy.
Now that the final Zombie Rush was over, the survivors finally had a chance to address the needs they had been suppressing for the past five days.
Those who had stockpiled food were likely running on empty. Exhausted to their limits, trying to farm food by fighting through respawned zombies to raid stores was out of the question. It was far easier and safer to go to Paradise and spend the coins they had earned from desperately struggling to survive.
But Paradise did not open today.
It wasn't until evening that they finished farming the zombies near Paradise, and they still had to clean the blood-soaked streets.
"Tomorrow, we'll hose down the streets and take inventory. Mi-sook, start prepping food in advance. The place is going to be packed."
"Yes, Boss."
"Oh Se-i, Lee Yu-ri, and anyone else with nothing to do, go help out at the cafeteria. Doctors, get ready to open up again too."
"Yes!"
"But I have to stream..."
"Perfect. Set up a camera in the back and do a cooking stream."
"...."
It was about time to start selling the food and the stockpiled meat.
Even though he had added another warehouse, both were packed to the brim—all 7,000 square feet filled with food and meat, leaving absolutely no room for more.
Of course, expanding the warehouse space wasn't difficult.
There was plenty of land to build ten more warehouses if needed.
But there was no point in just letting food pile up.
Leaving the Paradise members to their maintenance, I headed toward the Delivery Faction.
Seongsu Station.
Here, too, the scars of a massive battle were highly visible.
Still, perhaps because I had reinforced their outer wall to Safe Base standards before the Zombie Rush began, it didn't look too bad from the outside.
I walked toward one of the few entrances.
The automatic door slid open with a whir.
"Who goes there!"
"It's me, you motherfuckers. Go get Left-hand Man."
"How did he get in?"
"Call the guards!"
"Hey, you dumbasses. The automatic door opened because I have the authority. Stop making a scene, will you?"
"Is that so?"
"'Is that so?' my ass, you idiots. Just go get Left-hand Man, fast."
"Y-Yes, sir!"
How the hell are these guys still alive?
After dealing with A-grade elites like the Eagle Five Squad or Oh Yoon-seop's hunting squad who got things done on their own, looking at these bumbling, useless trash gave me a headache.
From a distance, Left-hand Man came running over in a panic.
"Y-You're here, Boss!"
"So you're alive?"
"Of course! That outer wall you installed for us before you left was a lifesaver, Boss!"
"Well, you paid for it."
The motorcycles were in good shape.
The delivery riders were out checking on the bikes they hadn't ridden in a while, and the atmosphere wasn't entirely bleak.
"Did you lose many?"
"Yes... well... compared to other places, we got off easy..."
How should I put it? Left-hand Man seemed to have matured a bit.
The guy who used to do nothing but run his mouth and act cocky seemed to have grown a little more serious after surviving a single Zombie Rush.
That's the weight of leadership.
The feeling that your subordinates are dying because of your own incompetence.
If only I had done better.
If only I were stronger.
That's how one grows into the role.
Of course, unqualified dumbasses just die trying.
"Let the dead rest, and get ready for deliveries. We're opening tomorrow."
"Ah, already?"
"What do you mean 'already'? The rush ended this morning."
"True... I'll get them ready."
"Did you guys manage to gather some coins?"
"Yes... we actually held our ground pretty well and did some farming."
I tossed him a Level 3 Backpack I had brought along.
"Eat up while you work."
Left-hand Man opened the backpack and gasped.
"Heh! Boss!"
It was only natural for him to be shocked, considering I had packed it full of food.
It wasn't an astronomical amount.
A Level 3 Backpack was only about 2m x 2m x 2m, after all.
But even that was incredibly precious right now.
I spoke to the guy, whose eyes were welling up with tears of gratitude, before turning to leave.
"Increase the number of delivery riders to a hundred. Train them well. We need to start thinking about expanding our delivery zones soon. Run two twelve-hour shifts with fifty riders each, and then we'll see if we need to add more."
"Wait... but... we have so many injured and dead right now that even maintaining our original numbers is tough."
"That's why I'm telling you to recruit more. If they're hurt, tell them to get treated at the hospital. I'm off."
After handing down my orders along with a suitable carrot, I ventured a bit further out this time.
Jamsil Sports Complex.
Since I had charged them a hefty sum, it was only polite to check if they were putting it to good use.
"They're repeat customers, after all. I wonder if they've gathered plenty of coins."
I still had 60,000 coins left to squeeze out of them.
Actually, no.
Now that the value of coins had dropped, I could probably squeeze even more out of them.
Sure enough, now that the Zombie Rush had passed, there were quite a few zombies wandering the streets.
Before, any area with a decent human population had been completely cleared of zombies.
Looking at this, having a Zombie Rush once a month—even if it didn't get progressively stronger—might not be a bad thing.
Since farming wasn't my goal today, I ignored the zombies and headed straight for my destination.
Jamsil Sports Complex was also in better shape than expected.
"Thank you. Thanks to you, we were able to get through it safely."
"When do you want me to build the remaining two?"
"...We need to do some repairs first, but as soon as we have some spare coins, we'll contact you immediately."
"Sure, sure."
It wasn't quite on the level of Seoul Forest, but the location itself was pretty good.
It had the Han River behind it, a narrow stream flowing along its side, and direct access to the Olympic Expressway.
Up until now, the roads had been blocked by abandoned cars, making driving impossible. But once people started getting back on their feet, the first thing they would do was clear the roads.
And it didn't even require meticulous clearing.
As people's stats increased, pushing aside the wrecked cars on the road became a breeze.
There was no need to clean them up perfectly; just shoving them to the side to make room for a single vehicle to pass was more than enough.
That was why road access played a crucial role in choosing a base.
Other places like the Seongsu Apartment Self-governing Body and the orphanage crossed my mind, but I didn't bother visiting them.
Why waste time looking after people who couldn't pay?
I needed to focus on my new customers.
By the time I returned, Paradise had gone back to its usual self.
The farming was finished, and the shops were fully prepared to open.
I posted an announcement.
[Paradise Is Open as Usual.]
---
I increased the number of trams from four to eight.
I spent 1,000 coins per tram to upgrade their speed, cutting down the loop time from fifteen minutes to ten.
The route itself wasn't that long, starting from Paradise, passing by the side of the Seongsu Station Cafe Street, looping between Konkuk University, and coming back around under the Dongbu Expressway.
Still, the Paradise Membership holders in the Seongsu-dong area used it heavily, so the upgrade was well worth it.
The fare was originally 3 coins, and I didn't bother raising it.
Public transit should always be affordable for the common folk.
Of course, even at 3 coins, it brought in a tidy sum.
Since there was no transfer system, passengers had to pay another 3 coins to head back, meaning they spent 6 coins for a round trip.
This was especially true for those buying food; they couldn't carry those heavy loads back through hordes of zombies, so paying the fare was practically mandatory.
At dawn.
As soon as the first tram completed its loop, a massive crowd of people rushed in.
"Are you selling food today?"
The food shops were packed to bursting.
With so many customers, the inquiries piled up as well.
"Why are the prices the same as during the Zombie Rush? Wasn't that just a temporary hike?"
"Didn't you see the announcement? We asked for your understanding regarding the unavoidable price increases due to inflation."
"Wait... then if inflation goes down, will the food prices drop too?"
"Of course, of course. I mean, how are we supposed to survive if food prices jump by 50%..."
Anticipating these kinds of complaints, I had already addressed it in the announcement.
Prices have risen due to inflation.
In reality, this was practically a price drop for the survivors.
Before the Zombie Rush, hunting a zombie gave them 10 coins, but now it gave them 20. Meanwhile, the price of food had only gone up to 15.
Of course, if they complained that the difficulty of killing zombies had also gone up, my only response would be: So what?
Fortunately, no one caused a scene.
"Excuse me, customer. If you cause a disturbance, you will be forcibly expelled. If you don't want to get beaten up, please leave."
"Wait... what do you mean..."
The Eagle Five Squad proved to be quite useful assets.
When they weren't out hunting, they patrolled the cafeteria, the hospital, and other areas of Paradise to maintain order. As veterans of the zombie apocalypse, they knew exactly how to handle people as if they were dealing with NPCs.
"Please be aware that any threatening behavior toward Paradise staff may trigger the automatic defense turrets."
Aside from the customers, there was a massive influx of inquiries about moving into Paradise, as well as applications for Level 3 Membership and Resident status.
Had the time finally come for Paradise to expand its faction?
I told Kim Ji-hee to start taking applications for Level 3 Membership for now, and decided to leave the promotion to Lee Yu-ri.
"Oppa, Yu-ri unni asked if she has to sleep with you to live here."
"Huh? I thought she said she liked Trimage."
"It's not that she wants to move in here. To be precise, she asked if she could still live in Trimage even if she slept with you."
"Why is she asking you that?"
"I think she's scared because it's her first time. Apparently, women in their twenties think the absolute condition for living here is getting fucked by you."
"Hmm."
Well, they weren't exactly wrong.
Come to think of it, I had been meaning to take Lee Yu-ri to bed, but I'd been too busy to pay her any attention.
Plus, she had done her part well during the Zombie Rush.
"Bring me those things."
I took the items Kim Ji-hee handed me and headed over to Lee Yu-ri's place.