Chapter 20: Just Cook at Home
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 20: Just Cook at Home
When Kim Ji-hee opened her eyes, the sun was already high in the sky.
Although the room was pitch black thanks to the blackout curtains, she turned on her phone and saw it was 3:00 PM.
She had arrived here around 4:00 AM yesterday, and by the time she ate ramen, washed up, and did this and that, she had fallen asleep around 7:00 AM. She had slept for nearly eight hours straight.
Had she slept this deeply recently...?
She used to lie down early, but she had to wake up at dawn every day to send off the hunting squad as soon as the sun rose, so her sleep was always fitful.
In the first place, her home wasn't properly heated, and occasional loud noises kept her in a light sleep; she had never slept soundly.
Here, on the contrary, it was quiet.
The only sound was the steady breathing of a strange man behind her back.
If anything, it acted like white noise, helping her sleep even better.
How long had it been since she slept in someone's arms?
Aside from sleeping in her parents' arms when she was a child, she couldn't even remember.
Having lived as a trainee since she was young, Kim Ji-hee had lived a life that was mature in its own way.
Competing, striving, and practicing to debut.
Managing a tight schedule, cutting back on sleep, restricting her food, and exercising.
She also had to know how to shake off the temptations reaching out from all sides.
Since she was a minor, she was targeted less, but in the entertainment industry, there were always hands reaching out, tempting her with an easy path.
Kim Ji-hee wanted to succeed.
Because she was confident in her skills, looks, and body, she was able to remain indifferent to those temptations.
Because she knew such things could send her to the abyss overnight.
That was why, even after becoming a twenty-year-old adult, she had never dated, let alone kissed, much less had sex.
That was the chastity she had guarded so fiercely.
But because she had guarded it so fiercely, it felt all the more hollow now.
If someone asked her how she was any different from a whore, Kim Ji-hee would have no answer.
In exchange for saving her life, she sucked the dick of a man she had just met, and had sex for coins.
It was the moment her principles crumbled, but in the end, she had entrusted her body to him.
Strangely, her mind should have broken, but instead, she felt at peace.
She didn't know it was because of her negative mode, but thanks to it, she adapted to this situation rapidly.
"...Are you asleep?"
She was awake, but she couldn't move.
The large, unfamiliar hand of the man rested on her bare skin.
The sensation of that hand kneading her breasts right before she fell asleep still lingered.
Though the squeezing had stopped, indicating he was asleep, he was holding her so tightly that she felt bad pulling away from his touch.
How did she end up in this situation?
She didn't feel wronged, but she did find it strange.
She hadn't avoided dating because she had low standards; it was for her success.
If anything, her standards were incredibly high.
That was why she could easily refrain from dating.
Surrounded by so many handsome men, her ideal standard was so high that ordinary men didn't even register in her eyes.
Yet, here she was, cuddled up to a man who was average... at best, average... the kind of guy you'd just pass on the street.
He didn't even seem to take care of himself, walking around with messy hair and wearing whatever sloppy, casual clothes he found.
A man who was the exact opposite of her ideal type.
Yet, she felt no aversion.
Instead of getting up to escape his hand, she turned on her phone and searched for various things.
The internet was still working.
She gathered information from various online communities.
This crisis, dubbed the "Zombie Rush," was causing chaos everywhere.
She felt glad she had come here.
What had happened to Seongsu Apartment?
One thing was certain: even if she had made it back home safely, she wouldn't be greeting such a peaceful morning like this.
After spending quite some time looking at her phone, she felt a rustle behind her.
"Mmm. Slept well. Sleeping while holding these plump tits made me sleep deeper than usual."
"..."
Setting aside her ideal type, the words coming out of his mouth were so vulgar she could never get used to them... yet, strangely, she didn't feel repulsed.
Squeezing her breasts a few times as if greeting them, the man stretched and got out of bed.
"Let's see what arrived today. Oh! Fuck! Hamburgers! Ji-hee, do you like hamburgers?"
Hamburgers?
It was the only food she could eat during her trainee days when she wanted to rebel.
Even then, "rebelling" just meant eating it on her once-a-week cheat day during extreme diets, and even then, it was considered a relatively complete nutritional meal.
Of course, French fries and soda were strictly forbidden.
And only beef patty burgers were allowed.
The burger the man tossed to her was a spicy chicken patty burger.
He gave her a large portion of hot French fries with plenty of ketchup squeezed over them.
Taking a sip of the large cup of cola filled with floating ice cubes, she winced at the intense, refreshing carbonation.
It had been a long time since she ate right after waking up, let alone junk food.
It was something that shouldn't be happening, but she loved it.
She devoured it on the spot and quickly cleaned up the man's trash.
Kim Ji-hee was quick-witted.
While she was naturally sharp, her years as a trainee had honed her ability to read the room.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yes."
"Wanna go for a round of morning sex?"
"..."
"Just kidding. I'm a bit busy today, so let's do it tonight if we have time."
"..."
His speech style, which constantly left her speechless, was hard to respond to, even for someone as accustomed to walking on eggshells as her.
Perhaps she had grown a bit more comfortable.
She managed to subtly change the subject.
"What are you doing today?"
"Farming the zombies I killed yesterday. You come out too."
The man brushed himself off and walked out.
She was about to follow him but hesitated, remembering she wasn't wearing anything on her lower half.
"Can I wear pants?"
"Huh? Oh. If that's more comfortable, you can wear them."
"No..."
She picked up a pair of short dolphin shorts strewn on the floor and put them on.
He probably got these for her, anticipating her arrival...
Stepping outside, she saw countless zombie corpses, proving that her memories from last night's darkness were not a dream.
A rotting smell was already beginning to sting her nose, suggesting a terrible stench would soon fill the air.
"Don't worry. They'll all disappear once the Zombie Rush is over."
It would be natural to ask "How?", but for some reason, she felt like whatever the man said would actually happen.
She was about to ask what she should do, but the man cursed.
"Ah, fuck. Fucking bitch."
The man turned around.
--------------------
"What a fucking bitch."
The timing was a bit awkward.
When I turned my head, the first thing I saw was Kim Ji-hee.
"No, not you. That fucking bitch up there."
Normally, it was right to farm zombies immediately after killing them.
This was because while the dropped items were influenced by my mode, the system didn't explicitly lock the ownership of already dropped items to me.
Even so, the reason I hadn't farmed them at dawn was because Kim Ji-hee had arrived.
It took two hours to kill them all, and the sheer volume meant farming would take at least an hour.
In fact, just collecting the dropped meat would take that long, and checking if the zombies had any items would take even longer.
So I had intentionally put it off.
It wasn't like anyone would dare steal them if I left them there anyway.
If they were in their right mind, having heard all the racket I made, would they really have the guts to come out and farm the corpses?
If they got caught, I'd beat them to death.
Yet, a fucking bitch with that exact kind of audacity actually existed.
Of course, it was just a suspicion.
But seeing that not a single piece of meat I saw on the ground before going inside was left, I could be certain.
Though I couldn't be sure who it was, a thief had definitely stolen my meat.
And why did my eyes drift to the upstairs unit first?
Other people might be living in this studio apartment building.
I had never seen them, but at least a studio apartment building was safer than most other places.
Since I slaughtered the surrounding zombies indiscriminately, zombies rarely came this way.
This meant that as long as they stayed holed up inside and had enough food, they wouldn't have died by now.
Someone from elsewhere could have come and farmed it.
But it felt like the time had finally come.
The studio apartment building.
It was time for a cleanup.
After calling her out, I headed back inside the building, and Kim Ji-hee followed.
I pushed Kim Ji-hee back into the room.
"I'll call you again later, so stay inside."
"...What are you going to do?"
"Have you seen Parasite?"
"The movie?"
"Yeah."
"Yes."
"There's a parasite in this building. I need to find it."
I had already said it, but I told her once more.
"You can eat and use whatever is in here, so make yourself comfortable and treat it like your own home."
"Still..."
I knew what Kim Ji-hee's expression and words meant.
She wasn't acting like that out of guilt.
It was a matter of utility.
I reassured her.
"These tits alone make you useful enough, so stop worrying."
"..."
"Ah, if you really want to do something, do you know how to cook?"
"Yes, a little."
"Then just stay home and cook."
I closed the door and went upstairs.
Room 201.
I stared at the first door I saw, hesitating for a moment.
But as I stood there debating, the smell of meat leaking through the gap in the door made me sigh first.
"Sigh, fuck. Of course."
I found the meat thief.
Strictly speaking, they weren't a thief.
Since they probably just picked up what had been left on the street for hours.
But in this world, the powerful rule.
Taking what belongs to the strong is stealing.
I pondered for a moment.
How should I clean them out?
I was about to do it myself, but then the face of that auntie flashed in my mind.
After healing myself with Kim Ji-hee, looking at that auntie felt repulsive for no reason.
So I found another way.
"Let's not get any more involved."
There was no reason to dirty my own hands.
Doing nothing was the most foolproof method.
I went back down and farmed whatever was left of the zombies.
Even though some of the drops on the ground had been stolen, the amount of meat was still substantial.
I gathered about 5kg and picked up a few decent items before heading back home.
"Today, I'm taking a good rest at home."
The night transitioning from Day 1 to Day 2.
It was going to be a very long night for the people here.
"Is there anything you want to do?"
"I want to go to Seongsu Apartment."
And then, Kim Ji-hee made an interesting suggestion.