Chapter 25: The Little Landlord
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 25: The Little Landlord
There was still a zombie left in Room 201.
It was the zombie of the auntie who used to annoy me. In the sink were greasy dishes, traces of meat, and leftover meat in the fridge.
"Grrrgh!"
It reminded me of when I first entered this house.
I think she used that Bull Rush-like mode back then too.
Can they still use the modes they had even after becoming zombies?
I avoided it in the past, but now there's no reason to.
I kicked the rushing zombie square in the chest, knocking her down.
This was only possible because inside the Safe Base, our stats were on completely different levels—she couldn't even hope to compete.
I stepped closer and crushed her head under my foot.
Seeing how she stayed behind while the other zombies left, maybe she still had some lingering attachment to her home. But now, it was time for her to get the hell out of my building.
Leaving Room 201, I checked the rest of the third and fourth floors.
Naturally, there were no survivors.
I had planned to kick them out if there were any, so maybe it was for the best that they died early.
It was about time to expand the Safe Base to encompass this entire building.
I could have moved elsewhere, but I'd lived here for several years. There was no real reason to move, and I didn't want to.
Maybe when the base needed to grow, accommodate more people, and become grander, but for now, I wanted to live here.
I'd also put some affection into decorating my room.
And rolling around in a cramped room with Kim Ji-hee had its own romance.
"Hmm. I should probably clear out the corpses and empty the rooms."
The system cleaning was done, but it felt like I needed to do some actual cleaning.
Whether I used them as living spaces or storage, they needed to be clean first.
After confirming everything was empty, I expanded the range of the Safe Base to the entire building.
Then, I designated the empty lot right next to the building entrance as a waste disposal site.
"Lulu~"
To think the day would come in my life when I'd own my own building.
I was just a bootleg landlord with no official deed, but who in this world would question my ownership?
Even if the real landlord showed up, I could just buy it off them with a reasonable amount of Coins.
Not that it would ever happen.
It was a worn-out, quite old building.
But because I was attached to it as the place where my apocalypse began, it looked quite majestic.
For now, I had to wait for this Zombie Rush to end before I could hire people to clean the interior. Satisfied with just checking things out, I stepped out into the alley.
200 pyeong was definitely spacious.
The Base Invincibility Mode, which used to only reach the alley in front of the building, now applied even further out.
Light leaked from the window of my first-floor home.
Normally, I had it set so that even if the lights were on, it would look pitch black from the outside, making the interior invisible. The fact that light was leaking now meant someone had changed the settings from inside.
Since I was out here, there was only one person who could have done it.
"What are you doing?"
"I wanted to try what you taught me... Are you going far, Oppa?"
"I'm going to go fill my quota of 400."
"Be careful. You can't die."
Kim Ji-hee seemed to like the "Resident" ability.
Seeing her wave with a worried expression—having seemingly washed off the semen that had been dripping from her mouth—made me think so.
"I'll make dinner."
Since I'd set it up so Residents could change options too, she would probably turn off the light setting on her own if zombies approached.
Seeing her off, I pulled out the iPad I had brought along.
Whaaaaaaa—
[Repeat Quest 1-3]
– Defeat Zombies (★)
– 88 / 400
– Reward: 1 Point
Wasting an entire day on the 2nd Zombie Rush and cleaning the building had taken a toll.
My original goal was to clear up to Repeat Quest 1-3.
Cleaning the building was planned, but because I was busy having sex with Kim Ji-hee, I hadn't gone out to hunt the zombies even after the cleanup was done, leaving me far short of the target.
Still, if I spent the entire night killing them, wouldn't I be able to fill the remaining 312?
The zombies were swarming.
I could see countless red lines pointing toward me.
But they didn't reach me.
Hunting Expert.
This might be better than I thought.
I could see the zombies' attacks.
Where they were aiming.
How far they had traveled.
Dodging what needed to be dodged, I drove my dagger into the zombies' necks one by one.
It was the perfect environment to get used to their trajectories.
My base stats were now 6/5/5/5.
On top of that, the stat bonus I got for staying inside for three hours—which I called the Rest Bonus—was at Level 3, and this time it applied to Strength, bringing it to a whopping Level 9.
Honestly, Level 1 zombies weren't even in the same league.
I could have just tanked the hits and hunted without worrying about trajectories, but that would only make me lazy.
I had to adapt and find ways to utilize it while I could.
Once, I had played for about 5,000 consecutive hours, doing nothing but slaughtering zombies until I could fight with this level of indifference.
It reminded me of those days.
Back then, I used to dive headfirst into Zombie Lairs completely bare-handed.
By the time I had killed about a hundred of them, I started to get the hang of it.
It was a bit awkward because it differed slightly from my usual combat style, but it allowed me to kill enemies much more safely. Once I got used to it, it would be great.
By the time the sun rose.
There were no more zombies left inside the Safe Base.
The quest completion message had popped up just a moment ago, so I had reached my target.
"Whew. Fuck. How many hours has it been?"
The rush had started at dawn and lasted until the sun was high in the sky, so even with my high Stamina, it was bound to be exhausting.
I looked at the corpses piled up along the street.
"...Should I do this later?"
The others might not know the Zombie Rush was over, but it had already been going on for three days.
Since people might come out knowing it was relatively safe during the day and try to farm these corpses, leaving them like this would literally be doing all the hard work only for someone else to reap the rewards.
"Ah, whatever."
Even if the meat dropped here didn't mean much to me, I couldn't stand the thought of giving it to someone else.
I went back home and opened the door to find Kim Ji-hee fast asleep.
"Mmm... You're back?"
"Get dressed and come outside."
There were nearly 300 zombie corpses.
Cleaning this up by myself was out of the question.
Shaking off her sleepiness, Kim Ji-hee came out in her padded jacket and covered her mouth at the sight of the endless trail of corpses.
"Whoa..."
"Start from this side. Search the corpses one by one, check if there's any meat or items with options, and gather them here. I'll handle this side."
"Okay."
Grunting, Kim Ji-hee searched the zombie corpses, tossing the searched ones aside as she worked.
Perhaps because her stats had increased from the "Resident" effect, she managed to search through them quickly despite the physical strain.
"Oppa, should I keep things like this too?"
"Yeah. Keep anything with an option."
There was no need to collect the clothes or weapons the zombies were wearing.
However, weapons or armor with simple options like a [Rusty Dagger], or even basic survival supplies, could be sold to others.
Above all, even if they didn't sell, I would rather destroy them than let some passerby pick them up. That was absolutely unacceptable.
"It's meat!"
Although it was a 1% drop rate, the meat actually dropped quite frequently compared to the odds.
Even during the 1st Rush, despite the Auntie from the 2nd Floor looting some, we still got about 5kg. Seeing how the two of us had already gathered nearly 10kg this time proved it.
We also picked up various miscellaneous items.
This was the result even though we only picked up items with options, even if they were nothing special.
"Where should I put these?"
"Stash them in Room 201 for now. That's going to be our warehouse from now on."
As a matter of urgency, I just threw the corpse of the Room 201 auntie outside.
It wasn't like this place was a zombie graveyard, yet there was never a day without corpses. Fortunately, during these events, zombie corpses automatically despawned within 24 hours.
Although it was a setting from the in-game mod, seeing the corpses disappear 24 hours after the 1st Rush suggested it was working properly.
"Whew."
The farming that had started around sunrise finally ended when the sun, having peaked in the middle of the sky, was about to set.
"We ended up staying up all day and night."
I had planned to fuck her hard again once the rush was over, but I was so sleepy and exhausted that the thought didn't even cross my mind.
She offered to cook, but I told her I'd eat when I woke up. Not wanting to lie down on the mattress with my blood-stained body, I washed up with hot water and fell straight asleep.
How many hours did I sleep?
Looking at Kim Ji-hee, who was playing a game with a console controller next to me, and the dark outside, I asked,
"What time is it?"
"2:00 AM."
I slept for a long time.
Well, it didn't matter.
The Zombie Rush was over, and the farming was done, so the survivors would probably start busily roaming around outside about now.
Running into them would only lead to conflict.
Waiting until things quieted down a bit wasn't a bad choice.
"Ah! Hold on a second."
I pulled Kim Ji-hee, who was gaming, into my arms and buried my face in her breasts.
"Pack up the burner and the pork belly, and come up to the rooftop. Let's eat there."
"Huh? Are we allowed to go up there?"
"This building is mine now. There's no one else here."
"I'll get ready!"
Before coming back inside for the last time, I had temporarily blocked the building entrance with a mattress and various furniture discarded from Room 201.
We'd have to clear it to get out, but it was a sufficient barricade to temporarily block outsiders from entering.
Of course, someone might clear it and break in, but if there were signs of that... well, I could just go down and slaughter the rats trapped in the jar.
Fortunately, no one was crazy enough to clear the obstacles blocking such a shabby building and break in.
I loaded the gas burner, grill pan, plenty of pork belly, the lettuce wraps, ssamjang, garlic, and rice that came with the supplies into a cart and headed up to the rooftop.
The rooftop wasn't very clean either.
Whether it was used by residents of other floors or from before the apocalypse started.
But that was actually better.
There was a large table, making it the perfect setup for grilling meat.
"We can set up a tarp here and have a barbecue with a camping vibe, even if it rains."
"I love that. Sleeping in a tent sounds romantic too."
"You do that by yourself. I'm sleeping on the mattress."
"..."
Normally, few people would find romance in this.
But in a ruined city.
Setting up a spot and grilling meat in the silence had its own romance.
Pouring a shot of soju into a beer glass, topping it with beer, and clinking our glasses together, Kim Ji-hee also spoke of that romance.
"Congratulations on becoming a landlord!"
From a pathetic single room to the owner of a small studio apartment building.
In reality, I was an overpowered apocalyptic thug with a fucking broken barrier spanning about 200 pyeong, but on the surface, I was the very picture of a romantic little landlord.
"Kaaah."
Washing down the smell of blood carried on the cool breeze with pork belly and somaek, I enjoyed the chill of the dawn.