Chapter 27: Two Things I Hate the Most
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 27: Two Things I Hate the Most
Is "middle-aged" even the right word?
I only call them middle-aged because they are a mix of white-haired seniors and people hovering right on the border between middle-aged and elderly—the kind who wouldn't find it strange to be called "grandpa" by growing kids.
There are about ten of them in total.
Around four middle-aged folks and six elderly.
"Who is it?"
I asked over the barricade, putting on my most wary expression.
My slightly trembling voice subtly hinted that I was intimidated by their numbers.
Since they wouldn't know how many people were inside, it also gave off the distinct impression that I was trying my absolute best to put on a brave face.
A rather burly middle-aged man stepped forward.
"Ah. We came from the senior center nearby. You know this lady, right? The one who did some part-time work here a few days ago."
He spoke with unearned familiarity, cutting straight in without even signaling. I looked at the middle-aged woman standing next to him.
She was one of the middle-aged ones.
Of course, there was no way I remembered her face.
I had hired over ten people for the cleaning job; why on earth would I memorize every single face?
"No."
"Come on. Anyway, she's the lady who worked here back then. Our senior center got pretty beat up during that 'Zombie Rush' or whatever, and we're almost out of food, so we've been looking for a new place to move to. She said there might be a decent spot here, so we came to check it out."
This motherfucker kept cutting me off, ending his sentences with a rising tone.
Even his polite speech was just a facade, a cheap performance to show off what a considerate elder he was.
I wasn't exactly one to talk about manners since I dropped honorifics with strangers regardless of age, but man, I really wanted to punch this guy in the face.
But losing my temper here would be a rookie move.
"Ah... I'm sorry. My girlfriend and I live here."
"I heard only the two of you live here? And that there are plenty of rooms on the other floors."
"Those are warehouses."
"Come on, don't be so cold-hearted. It's still cold out, and these folks won't ask you for anything. Just give us a few rooms. We don't plan on staying long anyway. We'll move out as soon as we find a suitable place. Alright?"
And that "suitable place" was obviously right here.
Honestly, it was a mystery how these decrepit, low-HP geezers had even survived the Zombie Rush in the first place. But as the legendary saying goes, the ones you have to watch out for most in a zombie apocalypse are the elderly and children. You couldn't judge by appearances.
Warning people to watch out for the elderly and children usually meant that even a healthy adult could die if they got stabbed in the back when their guard was down. But in a zombie apocalypse, you had to be careful for a slightly different reason.
Just because they were old or young didn't mean they didn't have stats.
Their base stats were the same, and depending on what Modes they had, they could be plenty threatening.
In other words, anyone who had survived this long in a zombie apocalypse was, by definition, strong.
Which meant there was absolutely no need to feel pity just because they were old.
"I'm sorry. This is my building... taking in other people is a bit..."
"Now, now. A young man shouldn't be so stingy. Living so selfishly will get you into trouble, you know? In a world like this, we have to band together to survive."
He scowled as he spoke, his tone carrying a distinct edge of menace.
He was fairly big, and despite his age, he had a decent amount of muscle, suggesting he kept up with working out even as he grew older.
That was probably why he was the representative.
I, on the other hand, had zero muscle.
For thirty years, I had never exercised, barely eaten properly, and done nothing but play games. It would be a miracle if I had any meat on my bones.
I had put on a bit of weight lately since I'd been eating well, but to anyone else, I probably still looked like an absolute pushover.
A sob story followed by a veiled threat.
The elderly folks outside didn't look particularly threatening, but their sheer numbers made this a situation that a minority couldn't easily handle.
As I pretended to mull it over, Kim Ji-hee stepped out right on cue.
"Oppa, what's going on?"
"Oh... the girlfriend?"
"Who are you?"
Since I had told her to come out at the right moment and pretend to be my girlfriend, Kim Ji-hee clung to my arm, looking wary.
The middle-aged man looked Kim Ji-hee up and down, a greasy smirk spreading across his face.
"Young lady, you have family, right? Just think of us as your grandparents, your mom and dad, and let us stay for a few days. Your boyfriend here is being far too rigid."
"...I don't."
"What?"
"I don't have any. My mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather... they're all dead."
"..."
This was a nerve-wracking situation for Kim Ji-hee.
Having nothing but terrible memories of groups since the apocalypse, the prospect of living with others—even if they were just old people—must have felt incredibly burdensome.
On top of that, this guy was leering at her, his eyes scanning her up and down—especially her exposed thighs. There was no way she'd feel comfortable.
"Please, we're begging you. Alright? We literally risked our lives to get here. We have nowhere else to go. Old folks like us have nothing left to lose. We'll stay quiet and then be on our way."
At this point, it was practically a threat.
Kim Ji-hee looked at me with trembling eyes.
I had only told her to come out after a few minutes; I hadn't told her what I actually planned to do.
I pretended to hesitate for a moment, then let out a sigh.
"Sigh... Fine. You can stay in the empty rooms for just a few days. But we can't give you any food. We barely have enough for ourselves."
"Ah, of course! We aren't shameless freeloaders. We'll keep to ourselves and find our own food. You won't even notice we're here. What could a bunch of old folks possibly do? Come on, let's head inside, everyone."
I pushed the mattress and furniture aside to open the door, and they swarmed inside.
Feigning panic, I ran up to the second floor and shut the door to Room 201.
Having replaced the batteries in the digital door lock, it clicked shut with a beep just as the elderly group makes their way up.
"You can use any floor up to the fourth, except for this one."
"Thank you, thank you. Alright, we'll take it from here, so you can go back to whatever you were doing. Don't you worry."
The middle-aged man stared intently at the closed door of Room 201 before heading toward Room 202.
I nodded and headed back inside.
"Did they get in?"
"Yeah."
"...Are we really going to live with them?"
"For now."
Events like this happened quite often in Zombie Apocalypse.
Should I call it a "Survivor Joining Event"?
Every now and then, survivors leading a group would show up, begging to join your base.
Since they were NPCs with pre-programmed personalities, players could analyze them to either put them to work or kick them out, making whatever choice they saw fit.
On the Zombie Apocalypse Gallery, the meta choice for a Survivor Joining Event was always to kick them out or kill them.
Honestly, when playing solo, there was almost no benefit to living with NPCs.
In a world where food was already scarce, adding even one more mouth doubled the food consumption, but having two extra hands didn't exactly double your productivity.
To make matters worse, when a whole group arrived, the outnumbered player would often get subjected to all kinds of political maneuvering, eventually getting kicked out of their own base.
Even if you were heavily armed, you couldn't stay on guard twenty-four hours a day, even while sleeping.
At least eighty percent of the time, the Survivor Joining Event ended with the player getting completely screwed over.
It was no different when I played.
That was just how humans were.
When you first took them in, they were genuinely grateful and appreciated the bare minimum.
But the moment you gave them an inch, they took a mile and treated it like their god-given right. Eventually, they started viewing you as the outsider and plotted how to kick you out.
Would reality be any different?
I had already confirmed that real people weren't much different from in-game NPCs.
In the end, they'd try to take over my little building.
They'd try to make me share my food, and eventually, they'd try to strip me of everything.
And that was exactly why I let them in.
"Even if I told them to piss off right now, it would've just started a fight."
Their eyes showed they had already set their sights on this place before they even arrived.
They claimed they just happened to wander over from the senior center, but the lady who did the cleaning job definitely told them how nice this place was.
With their food gone and their senior center half-destroyed, there was no way they'd go back just because I told them to.
Now that they've seen with their own eyes that it's just me and Kim Ji-hee, they'd think it was absurd if ten of them couldn't overpower two young people.
Sure, if I had beaten down that middle-aged guy right then and there, I could have kicked them out.
But that went against my golden rule of surviving the apocalypse.
Why ruin the fun early on when I can set up a much more entertaining situation?
"Don't give those old geezers any food, even if they beg. Tell them I said no. And don't just stay cooped up in the room; go up once or twice a day and ask if they're comfortable. Just like that. Perfect."
"...Okay."
The massive event known as the Zombie Rush was over.
The Zombie Rush was an event where you fought zombies, but what came next was an event between the survivors who made it through.
For events, the more people, the better.
For the sake of entertainment.
And while entertainment was a nice bonus, the real goal was to milk all the sweet Quests that would trigger because of them.
"Oh, by the way, is your aunt still alive?"
"Yes... she contacted me... telling me to come back."
"Great. Let's go."
"...Huh?"
"Why the surprised face? Let's go. To see your aunt."
"...Oppa."
One good thing about a real-life apocalypse is that people can still communicate via cell phones.
Since I've been living without a phone, I've been playing this like a frustratingly realistic game of Zombie Apocalypse, but Kim Ji-hee was able to contact the Seongsu Apartment faction through her phone.
Though she had left the Seongsu Apartment self-governing body's group chat long ago, and it was just a one-sided message from her aunt.
Seeing her grip my arm with an anxious expression, I realized what she was misunderstanding.
"Hey, do you think I'm crazy? Why would I send you back? We're going so we can let her know you're living with me now."
"Oh!"
Only then did her face brighten.
Dependency is a truly wonderful Mode.
As we stepped out, noisy chatter drifted down from upstairs.
"Ugh, seriously. 'We'll stay quiet,' my ass."
"Should we move our food somewhere else?"
"No, it's fine. Food comes in every day anyway."
I wrapped my arm around Kim Ji-hee's shoulders, and she wrapped hers around my waist.
I used to think couples acting like this in public were incredibly cringe.
Now I realized I only felt that way because I was a jealous, forever-alone virgin.
"I thought you were going to kill those elderly people earlier, Oppa," Kim Ji-hee said softly as we walked.
I scoffed, mildly offended.
"Hey, do I look like some psychopath who just kills people whenever things don't go my way?"
I didn't just kill people for no reason.
I only did it when it was necessary.
"Besides, they're elders. I was raised on Confucian values, you know. Do you know what the two things I hate most in this world are?"
"What are they?"
"Rude people."
The image of the middle-aged man who had dropped honorifics the second he saw me came to mind.
"And decrepit, low-HP geezers."
"..."