Chapter 183: The Weather is Warming Up
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 183: The Weather is Warming Up
What is the most dangerous thing in a zombie apocalypse?
Hunger? A place to sleep? Zombies?
Naturally, in a world where everything is dangerous, if you had to point out the hazards, the list would be endless.
When you think about it, everything is a threat.
Even the buildings you pass on the street—you never know when or where something might fall from them.
This is especially true in a city with so many high-rise buildings.
It's not like the zombies are knocking down buildings, but in a zombie apocalypse, it wouldn't be surprising to see people-turned-zombies literally falling from the sky.
But putting all that aside, if we look at the game Zombie Apocalypse itself, the thing VR players found most unfamiliar and struggled with the most was, without a doubt, the weather.
Posts like these would flood the forums in the summer.
Actually, summer was the easy part.
As long as you didn't expose yourself directly to the blazing sun, you could manage the heat to some extent in the shade.
Unless you did something stupid like going outside to fight zombies during the hottest part of the day, you rarely died from the heat.
But the cold was a true disaster.
The plunging temperatures of midwinter dragged human body temperatures down with them.
No matter how many layers you piled on, there was a limit. If you weren't wearing proper gear, the moment you started sweating inside your clothes, it would only make your body temperature drop even faster.
Above all, if you didn't have a proper base to shelter from the cold, you were as good as dead.
That's why, when starting a zombie apocalypse game, players usually set the starting season to spring.
If you had to choose between summer and winter, summer was still better than winter.
Rather than starting in autumn and facing winter just as you were getting adjusted, starting in spring gave you precious time to adapt and gather enough supplies before winter hit.
In that sense, the timing of the real-life Apocalypse Multi-Server's launch was quite exquisite.
It was March when the Apocalypse Multi-Server first began.
March was a bit too close to winter to be called true spring, making the nights quite chilly, but it wasn't completely unbearable. It was only slightly cold around evening, so it didn't cause any major issues.
Above all, since it was the very beginning of the zombie apocalypse, there were plenty of clothes and places to sleep.
Or perhaps time flew by so frantically that people didn't even have the chance to feel the cold.
Besides, as long as you ate well and stayed healthy, you could withstand the cold to some degree.
Thus, spring arrived, and up until now, with May just around the corner, there hadn't been many weather-related issues.
It hadn't rained much, and on rainy days, the zombies' hearing actually became duller, prompting many people to go out farming.
But now, summer was slowly creeping in.
"The weather is starting to get warm."
Since it wasn't May yet, it didn't feel scorching hot, but daytime temperatures were already climbing to 22 to 24 degrees Celsius on warmer days.
Normally, this wouldn't feel hot.
But in a zombie apocalypse, you're constantly active, making you highly sensitive to the temperature.
"Maybe I should farm some air conditioners."
In the summer, requests for electricity service would skyrocket, and in the winter, requests for heating service would surge.
Since electricity cost 20 Coins a week and heating cost 30 Coins, those who couldn't afford the 30 Coins would probably just request electricity and try to get by with electric blankets.
Well, there was no need to worry about winter just yet. But even if you connected electricity, cool air wouldn't magically blow out on its own, so air conditioners and fans were bound to become highly sought-after items.
Of course, air conditioners weren't purely beneficial in a zombie apocalypse.
Normally, once the power went out, they were useless anyway, let alone good or bad.
But if you did turn one on, the outdoor unit would make a loud noise, increasing the chances of attracting nearby zombies, especially at night.
So, even if they had electricity, most people would try to make do with fans. But would a fan alone be enough?
And the same went for our Paradise.
"Hmm."
The construction system was great and all, but you couldn't install air conditioners inside.
It wasn't that it was impossible, but since interior items had to be scavenged and decorated manually, someone had to bring in an AC unit and install it. Unfortunately, there were no AC technicians in Paradise.
Should I post an announcement somewhere to find people who can bring in AC units and do the installation work?
That felt a bit cheap, though.
Regardless, Paradise had to prepare for summer.
While we could probably get through it without too much trouble one way or another, I wanted something more convenient and perfect.
Fortunately, a solution of sorts was in sight.
Or should I say, it was predictable?
"I just need to raise it to Level 12."
When I upgraded the Safe Base to Level 11, the Level 11 option turned out to be an enhancement option related to supply, which was originally a Level 1 option.
In that case, if I upgraded to Level 12, wouldn't the Level 12 option be an enhancement for the Level 2 options—namely, the water, electricity, and heating services?
Of course, it might not turn out exactly how I wanted.
But the Safe Base level cap was open up to 13 anyway, and I had plenty of Points to spare.
The Points required to upgrade to Level 12 was 10.
It didn't matter if it didn't work out.
"If there's no cooling service, I'll just make one using the Server System Administrator."
Of course, that was absurd.
Right now, upgrading the Server System Administrator to Level 3 cost 20 Points. Spending 20 Points just to create a cooling system?
No way.
It was just good to have an alternative, but I hoped things would go my way.
I spent 10 Points to raise the Safe Base level to 12.
By now, the basic effects didn't show much of a change.
There wasn't much room left for them to improve anyway.
The Visiting Black Market Merchant's level became 8.
The installation cost of "Safe Living Facilities" was reduced by 70%.
At this rate, I wondered if the installation cost of Safe Living Facilities would eventually become free.
Well, even if it didn't become completely free, the discount was already massive as it was.
Construction and Transportation Facility discounts also increased to 60% and 30%, respectively.
The discount on Transportation Facilities was what I had been craving the most.
"I want to plaster the place with Teleportation Portals."
– Temperature Control Service is now provided to the Safe Base. You can activate its use with Coins.
And there it was, the exact option I wanted for Level 12.
"Wait, hold on. Temperature control?"
I had expected a service that would simply blow cool air inside the houses without needing an AC unit, so this option caught me quite off guard.
Well, in the grand scheme of things, it was basically the same.
Whether it blew AC air into the house or lowered the ambient temperature to match a set thermostat, the end result of lowering the temperature was identical.
But looking at the bigger picture, controlling the temperature itself was a completely different story.
"Does this mean I can keep the entire Safe Base in a state of perpetual spring?"
There is an optimal temperature for human living.
It's just that because humans can't control the climate, they have to adapt to the heat and cold, relying on air conditioners or heaters to regulate their immediate surroundings.
If you could control the temperature 365 days a year, you would never have to stress over the weather again.
"I wonder if I can't set the overall humidity or weather."
Seeing as only temperature was available for now, those options might unlock as the level rose to 13 or 14.
In any case, it was an incredibly good option.
At first glance, one might wonder if it was worth 10 Points.
But it felt like the Safe Base was gradually evolving to let me manipulate fundamental elements of the environment.
If it was cool in the summer and warm in the winter, it would prevent the people of Paradise from being unable to go out and hunt zombies due to extreme heat or cold.
This didn't just prevent their hunting hours from shrinking.
If they couldn't operate during the day, they would have to hunt in the evening or early morning. Even then, if their physical condition deteriorated due to the temperature, their chances of dying would skyrocket.
In that sense, weather was of paramount importance in a zombie apocalypse. Being able to control even just the temperature—the most critical factor of all—was monumental.
"Hmm."
Which is why I shouldn't just hand this out to everyone.
Even if they used the service through their membership, it should be restricted to only controlling the temperature inside their own quarters.
And even then, I should set a limit on the temperature range so they can only use it to keep cool or as a basic substitute for heating.
Let's test it out by designating my entire residential district.
Since it didn't matter if the air above the ceiling was hot or not, I set the boundary up to the roof.
[Temperature Control Activation Cost: 100 Coins / 24 Hours]
"Wow."
Since it was a Level 12 option and highly beneficial, I expected it to be expensive, but 100 Coins a day just to set it for my residential district?
Granted, my residential district was quite large.
If I included all of Paradise's current territory, it would probably cost around 500 Coins.
"I'll need to level up quickly and get some discount benefits to make this practical."
To offer this service to the other residents of Paradise at a reasonable price, I would either have to accumulate a ton of Points and level up further before summer arrived, or, unfortunately, make the consumers bear the hefty cost themselves.
For now, I designated only Paradise and ran a trial.
"Huh? The house feels kind of cool suddenly."
Broad daylight.
Today's temperature was hitting 24 degrees, but once I lowered it to around 17 degrees, the reaction was instantaneous.
The same went for the mart.
"Oppa, they're asking if you turned on the AC in the mart."
Right now, it was nothing more than a glorified, overpriced air conditioner, but this option would serve as a crucial stepping stone toward turning the Safe Base into a true paradise.