Chapter 180: A Taste of the Survivor Dungeon
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 180: A Taste of the Survivor Dungeon
I did use quite a lot of weapons clearing out the Survivor Dungeon.
I threw over 50 grenades and fired more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition.
Naturally, it was an absolute, utter waste.
If I had actually tried to be efficient, putting aside the grenades, I honestly could have cleared the place using fewer than 500 rounds.
That is, assuming I killed every single zombie with guns alone without getting my own hands dirty.
But I was on a time attack, and shaving off time was directly proportional to wasting ammo.
I had to fire non-stop, using the noise and muzzle flashes to broadcast my location. That way, any zombies hiding in the corners would hear me and crawl out on their own, saving me from wasting time searching for them. Thanks to that, I managed to clear this massive department store in just 40 minutes.
Of course, it wasn't just raw firepower.
Firepower alone wouldn't have cut it.
The Survivor Dungeon might be rated Level 3 in difficulty, but it's practically no different from a Level 4 dungeon.
I'm not the only one who thinks so.
A whopping five Level 4 zombies appeared in a Level 3 dungeon. Anyone would agree with me.
Back at Hanyang University Hospital, a single Level 4 zombie appeared as the boss. Here, five of them were roaming around together, and they weren't even bosses.
Funnily enough, these five Level 4 zombies were in the VIP lounge. They were so out of place that I almost walked right past them.
I had wandered in wondering why on earth a department store would have a secret passage. When I saw a few zombies inside, I sprayed them with bullets. But even though I was shooting carelessly, they either dodged the bullets or survived getting hit. When I looked closer, the number 4 was floating above their heads.
Five of them, no less.
In that instant, I drew my longsword and used "Time Acceleration" and "Time Deceleration" to decapitate two of them.
It gave me goosebumps to see them actually reacting in an attempt to dodge even that.
Zombies grow, too.
It's not like they're having sex or lifting weights to bulk up, but they do get stronger every time a Blood Moon passes.
The difference between the Level 4 zombies that appeared early on and the ones appearing now is probably larger than one would think.
And yet, they tried to dodge my attack.
An attack from me, whose Agility level was nearing 30.
Of course, that was utter bullshit. In the split second they flinched to dodge, their heads were already flying off.
If anything, maybe that was why I could set a record in the 40-minute range.
To be precise, a record of 40 minutes, 59.84 seconds.
Once I gathered the Level 4 zombies in one place and took them out quickly, only the small fry were left.
Well, in the end, if I had to name the biggest contributor to wiping out nearly 1,700 zombies in this massive dungeon within 40 minutes, I would naturally say it was the infinite supply of grenades and ammunition.
I did use a lot, but considering I had plundered enough to fill several warehouses at the Yongsan US Military Base, this was a drop in the bucket. Even if I had just set them off like fireworks out of sheer boredom, it wouldn't have made a dent.
But in the end, firearms aren't enough to finish the job.
It's not easy, but as you farm, you can find guns with levels or rare options. Unless you have one of those, the limitations of firearms become glaringly obvious as the zombies' levels rise.
If you're lucky, you might struggle with Level 3s. If you're unlucky, you won't be able to kill Level 4 zombies, or you'll get bogged down, meaning breaking records becomes impossible.
So, ultimately, the biggest reason for the 40-minute record was my overwhelming stats.
All that was left was showtime.
[Obtained 400,000 Coins]
[Obtained 22 Points]
[Obtained Normal Mode Level (★) Selection Ticket x80]
[Obtained Survivor-Exclusive Supply Box (3★) x100]
[Obtained Survivor-Exclusive Solar Generator Blueprint (3★) x2]
"Sigh... Fuck... Why do I even bother hunting zombies so diligently? What's the point of selling food? I can just clear out one of the countless demonic lairs scattered around and be set for years."
If only I could broadcast this, I wonder how the people of Paradise would react.
With the current growth rate of the survivors, this dungeon is impossible to clear normally.
It's surprising that there was a party that cleared it in 56 minutes, but then again, given the sheer number of survivors, it would be stranger if none of them could keep up with how I was back during my Seongsu Station days, even if they couldn't match my current level.
But that's literally just one party.
Or a handful at best.
The rest of the survivors desperately roam around hunting zombies just to afford a single 15-coin meal a day.
They form parties, and if they happen to run into a pack of five or more, they run for their lives.
They scrape by day by day like that, and when the weekly Paradise membership renewal day comes, they hunt even harder, risking actual death.
That is the daily life of ordinary survivors.
Paradise is a heaven with running water, electricity, and heating?
That's only a story for Level 2 membership members who can hunt Level 1 zombies with relative ease.
It doesn't apply to Level 1 membership members who barely scrape by, lacking the energy to do anything because they only eat one meal a day.
Even then, before the prices went up, they could at least squeeze in to wash up or use electricity by acting as lackeys for Level 2s. But now that the conditions have changed and prices have risen, the gap between Level 1s and Level 2s, who only associate with their own kind, has widened further.
To them, a dungeon like this is far from a hope or a goal—it's a nightmare they must flee from the moment they lay eyes on it.
If they knew that for an apex predator like me, it's just a playground to clear when I'm bored, yielding enough coins and rewards to keep me worry-free for a long time, they would probably feel an overwhelming sense of deprivation.
Well, I don't really care about showing them anymore anyway.
It was an obvious outcome, and my only regret was being a bit late and letting some other bastard get a taste of that delicious 100% bonus reward once.
Of course, the points are still a welcome sight that brings a wide grin to my face.
"I'll have to come back tomorrow to clean this up too."
Just like during the Zombie Rush, there are simply too many zombies, so I can't do anything right away.
I exited the dungeon, blocked the small gap near the entrance with surrounding cars, and took the tram back.
When I returned home, Kim Ji-hee and Lee Yu-ri were deep in discussion.
"The inventory inside might actually be fine."
"I saw earlier, and Oppa didn't go inside the luxury goods section. Bullets or shrapnel might have hit the display items, but the inner stock should be fine."
"We absolutely have to go tomorrow and secure the first floor first."
"Of course."
"...What are you guys doing?"
"Good work today, Oppa."
"Master. I heard you were incredibly cool. You should've shown me too."
There's no need for people to swarm the place to farm tomorrow.
Because I can just leave Lee Yu-ri in the Large Warehouse and have her send everything via the Sponsor function.
"Times like this really make me crave an inventory."
Well, that's also a chore.
Since the Sponsor function doesn't have a detailed feature where you can just select a certain area and send everything at once, you have to sponsor items one by one.
If it were a small amount, the convenience of teleporting them would make it worth it. But since the volume is so absurdly massive, picking them up by the backpack-full to send them is a hassle, and sending them one by one is also a pain.
I feel like it's about time a mode like Subspace showed up.
At first, I thought, Subspace in a zombie apocalypse? Seriously? But now that skills like Mana Infusion are a thing, it's about time skills like Subspace or Fireball appeared to show that the Multi-Server is different from a server that only preserves the classic flavor of a zombie apocalypse.
In the first place, the moment they imported and applied an RPG system, it was hard to call this a pure zombie apocalypse anyway.
Not that there's any point in nitpicking.
Even if I grumble about the lack of realism in real life, I don't even know what kind of bastard created this server and applied it to reality.
For now, I gave a task to the two women, who were showing fierce determination to tag along and plunder the luxury goods section no matter what.
"...What is this?"
"Boxes I plundered from the Survivor Dungeon."
There were a whopping 100 boxes, each one far larger than a super-large supply box.
When I brought them, they were the size of mini-boxes packed in a bag, but once taken out, they expanded enormously, completely filling an empty space in the Large Warehouse.
"My goodness, what on earth is..."
The Level 3 Survivor-Exclusive Supply Boxes were packed to the brim with actual survival gear, with each box containing different items.
Some boxes contained sleeping bags, bedding, and tents to ward off the cold.
Others were filled with canned food that could be stored and eaten for years.
Some were packed with military rations to maintain calorie intake.
There were also boxes containing tools to handle any situation.
You could basically call them ultimate survival gift baskets.
"This is a fucking goldmine, honestly."
I even thought that if these were placed on the survival goods shelves at the Large Mart—which were currently as popular as the food section—they might briefly surpass food sales.
But could they really compare to this?
"How much should I sell the solar generator blueprints for?"
There must be several ways to generate electricity.
Just because the apocalypse hit modern society doesn't mean everything suddenly vanished; the knowledge still remains.
But this is a Level 3 item.
A magical blueprint that, as long as you have the materials, lets you craft a Level 3 solar generator.
"I should trade it for something good."
While I was teasing Kim Ji-hee, threatening her with an oil massage if she didn't want to see the luxury goods section burn down, I received a call from the Eagle Five Squad.
"Captain. We went out to farm and caught a strange guy we saw."
If veterans like the Eagle Five Squad found someone strange, they had to be truly bizarre.
I headed out immediately.