Chapter 30: Goryeojang
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 30: Goryeojang
I don't trust people.
Especially not in a zombie apocalypse.
Do I trust Kim Ji-hee, who became my "Resident"?
I can confidently say I don't.
I don't keep Kim Ji-hee by my side because I trust her; I keep her because I can control her completely.
And while I might not know her true personality, I trust her negative mode, Dependency Level 5.
Unless I lose her trust and someone else appears whom she can depend on more than me, Kim Ji-hee cannot betray me and leave.
Besides, she has seen my Cheat Mode, and as long as she knows her body has value to me, she has no reason to betray me and leave.
That is the calculation.
My relationship with Kim Ji-hee, that is.
After all, unless she suddenly went mad overnight, it would be far more suspicious to claim she fell in love and couldn't betray me—especially when our first meeting involved me shoving my dick down her throat, giving her Coins, and having sex.
If I don't even trust Kim Ji-hee, with whom I share such a complex relationship, why would I trust some old people I met for the first time yesterday?
Especially when they already have a prior record of raiding my food warehouse?
[You have slain the instigator of the raid.]
[Quest Complete]
[Obtained 2 Points]
[Obtained Safe Base-Exclusive Automatic Door (★)]
[This will be delivered with tomorrow morning's supplies.]
The reason I only killed the middle-aged man and stopped there was partly due to a sliver of hope that there might be a follow-up quest, but also because the quest was completed with his death.
If I wanted an additional quest, there was no need to provoke them any further.
Every event needs a justification.
The elderly didn't attack me out of sheer terror, but they also couldn't step forward because they knew they were in the wrong.
They had stolen food.
In normal times, they might have argued over whether I had to go this far, but in a zombie apocalypse, food is a lifeline.
And the elderly knew that.
Having starved in the senior center during the Zombie Rush, they couldn't bring themselves to protest.
So, if they were human...
If they had even a shred of remorse, they would just leave quietly.
If they did, my plan to see if a follow-up quest would trigger would go down the drain.
But I left even that choice to them.
I was curious.
In events like this, choosing one option and seeing how things unfold is half the fun.
I had told the elderly to clean up their room and leave by late afternoon, but for the first time in a while, I set an alarm and woke up early in the morning.
"Mmm... What is it?"
"Wake up. Once those geezers leave, check if the room is clean. If it isn't, clean it up."
"...Okay."
I woke Kim Ji-hee up and went out.
Just in time, the elderly were coming down, packed and ready to leave.
The middle-aged man who had a private meeting with me yesterday froze mid-step on the stairs and slumped down.
"Wh-what?"
I gave him a bright smile as he stood there, utterly speechless and stammering.
"Leaving already?"
"Y-yes... We're about to leave..."
"Come on down."
I drew my dagger and stepped outside.
The rest of the elderly were already waiting outside; only the middle-aged man had been left inside.
Seeing me come out with him, the elderly looked visibly anxious.
"Um... Why..."
"Ah. After what happened yesterday, I felt a bit uneasy, like I was just kicking you out for no reason."
"No... No, not at all... You don't need to worry about that. We were the ones in the wrong..."
"Come on. You folks didn't do anything wrong. That motherfucker over there is the one who stole, so why should you be sorry?"
The corpse of the bastard who died last night and was thrown off the rooftop lay sprawled messily on the ground.
The corpse was mutilated, likely gnawed on by zombies that had wandered by at dawn.
Watching them flinch, I took the lead.
"Follow me."
I let out a sigh as I walked ahead.
[Event Quest 1-1]
– The remaining raiders have stolen from the food warehouse once again while being evicted. Wipe out the raiders.
– Reward: 1 Point.
Seriously, when will my predictions ever be wrong?
Why do people always throw away their last chance out of sheer greed?
I had a feeling when I saw the panicked looks on their faces, but the quest system left no room for doubt, turning my suspicion into absolute certainty.
I had told Kim Ji-hee to check the room and the food warehouse, but I didn't even need to hear her report.
As I walked ahead, the elderly exchanged glances before cautiously following me.
Did they think I wouldn't know just because I hadn't personally checked Room 201 and Kim Ji-hee hadn't told me yet?
Honestly, what if there hadn't been a quest?
Perhaps nothing would have changed.
After all, if I had trusted them in the first place, I wouldn't have set an alarm to come out and check on them at this hour.
Even without hearing from Kim Ji-hee, I would have led them to the designated spot, made them strip to search them, and my subsequent actions wouldn't have differed.
"Um... This place is..."
The people who lived in the senior center were, in the end, locals of this neighborhood.
They knew exactly what lay ahead in this direction, and seeing the zombies gradually growing in number nearby, they asked anxiously.
I drove my dagger into the stomach of the man who had made a promise with me.
"Kegh!"
We had walked out of the range of the Base Invincibility effect, but there was no way he could resist me while I was under the influence of the Rest Bonus.
Besides, he was already terrified of me from yesterday.
As the man collapsed, the elderly fell into a panic.
"Why do you always betray the goodwill of the person giving you a final chance, treating them like a total fucking pushover? Did you think I wouldn't notice if you slipped some food out on your way? Does it feel good to rip off kids young enough to be your grandkids?"
I didn't care what kind of tragic backstory they had.
No one in a zombie apocalypse is without a story.
It wasn't particularly harder just because they were old.
Everyone had it hard.
Meaning, there was absolutely no reason why anyone deserved special treatment over anyone else.
So, there was no need to waste emotions on each other.
I got the points I wanted.
In a way, giving them a choice—even at the risk of losing my points—was the final act of kindness I could offer, having already gained 2 points.
But if you treat kindness like weakness, there's nothing left to talk about.
"Wait... Wait!"
I stabbed them to death, one by one.
Faced with my emotionless movements, they couldn't even think of running away.
Probably because they knew that running would only get them caught and killed even faster.
Four left.
"Whew."
[Obtained 1 Point]
The quest completion message had popped up long ago.
I briefly considered finishing the cleanup myself, but decided I might as well use what I brought, so I pulled it out of my pocket.
It was a small, switch-like device.
I had picked it up off the street; it was some kind of button that blasted loud music when pressed.
I pressed it and tossed it toward the elderly.
"Eat what you stole on your way out."
The road to Homeplus.
Watching the zombies, freed from the Zombie Rush, swarm toward the noise, I turned back the way I came.
I checked to see if any of them were following me, but they were frozen in place, unable to move.
I was going to kill them if they followed.
I returned home.
Kim Ji-hee welcomed me back.
"Welcome ba...ck."
Seeing me drenched in blood, she seemed to have a rough idea of what happened by now.
"Did it take about a day?"
3 points.
In just a single day, I had earned as many points as I did from clearing the Zombie Rush Main Quest.
Now, I knew for sure.
Events.
They were a goldmine for points.
And in my head, having played 100,000 hours of Zombie Apocalypse, I knew exactly what kinds of events existed.
I had even experienced, so often it felt like eating shit, the hidden events that others missed because they just killed everyone and moved on.
In a way, it was for fun.
To kill time.
Out of curiosity.
To see just how far the events in this game went.
The things I had done just to test those limits were now serving as the perfect fertilizer to grow my Cheat Mode in this real-life zombie apocalypse.
My mind felt a lot lighter.
When you're constantly dealing with people, even the most cold-headed person can become emotional.
But if there are points on the line, it's much easier to just view them as points.
While I was out, a Medium Ration Box had arrived. Kim Ji-hee, who was organizing it, walked over holding a small plaque.
"Oppa. It says this is a Safe Base-Exclusive Automatic Door... It was inside the box."
"Ah."
It was a piece of steel about the size of a palm.
A wall pad-like device was attached to the front.
[Safe Base-Exclusive Automatic Door (★)]
– An exclusive automatic door that can be installed in a Safe Base. When used on an existing doorway, the exclusive automatic door will be installed.
– Can be upgraded using Coins.
"Oh..."
So that's how it works?
When I pressed the steel plate against the half-shattered glass entrance of the building, it was sucked in, absorbing into the doorframe and expanding.
"Ohh!"
"Wow!"
The original glass door vanished as if swallowed whole, and a massive iron door took its place.
Just looking at it, the door boasted a sturdiness that looked nearly impossible to break.
[You can configure the settings of the automatic door.]
The automatic door had various functions.
Its durability seemed to increase based on the automatic door's level, but changing its material didn't affect its durability.
What did that mean?
"Whoa. It turned into glass."
It meant that even if I changed the massive steel door into glass, it would still retain the durability of the steel door.
To be precise, it wasn't the durability of a steel door, but rather the default durability set for a Level 1 exclusive automatic door.
"Give it a hit."
"Huh? What if it breaks?"
"It's fine."
If I hit it, it actually might break.
Kim Ji-hee hesitated for a moment, then kicked it.
"Ouch!"
With a loud thud, Kim Ji-hee stumbled backward, and I caught her.
"Oh. It's sturdy."
There was also this feature.
"Go outside."
A feature where it opened automatically when a "Resident" approached.
With a whirring sound, the automatic door slid open, revealing Kim Ji-hee standing outside.
However, Kim Ji-hee couldn't seem to focus her gaze and looked around in confusion.
When I opened the door, Kim Ji-hee spoke up excitedly.
"You can't see inside from the outside!"
Seriously, what did this Safe Base even lack?
To enter from the outside, visitors could ring a doorbell, or I could disable the bell entirely.
I could register fingerprints so only "Residents" could enter, or set up a passcode.
I liked it.
What I liked most was this:
[Detachable.]
[Unlocked Safe Base-Exclusive Items can be purchased with Coins from the "Visiting Black Market Merchant".]
That meant I could soon replace that pathetic door lock and the warehouse door that would fly open if you just yanked on it.