Chapter 68: The Delivery Riders of Seongsu Station
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 68: The Delivery Riders of Seongsu Station
Back when I was looking for the Seongsu Multiplex, and even when I received the Faction Quest, it was thanks to the information Kim Ji-hee had pried out of the Seongsu Apartment residents.
This time was no different; a quest had triggered based on information brought in by Oh Yoon-seop, one of my "Residents."
Seeing quests pop up like this through information gathered by my "Residents" made me realize, deep down to my bones, the absolute necessity of building a faction.
Wandering around by myself, hoping to stumble into events and trigger quests, was far too inefficient in a world this vast.
"Good, good."
If I kept accepting and clearing quests like this, I'd rack up points in no time. Eventually, I'd gather enough trustworthy people to practically print points.
When I stepped outside, construction was in full swing.
Flanking my studio apartment building were two warehouses.
Across the street stood another studio apartment building housing Oh Yoon-seop's family and the ten people who had followed them, and to the right of that was the bathhouse building.
The first floor of the building to the left was being completely gutted and cleaned to make room for a cafeteria, while the second floor was being remodeled into a food store.
Naturally, the labor was being handled by Oh Yoon-seop's party members.
Since they were mostly just hauling things out, it wasn't particularly backbreaking work.
While some cleared and cleaned, others scavenged the neighborhood for restaurant supplies, tables, and chairs, as well as display shelves to showcase the food on the second floor.
After all, those things were scattered all over the streets. Finding them was a piece of cake.
Seongsu-dong was packed with so many shops and restaurants that I could practically handpick the exact designs I wanted.
Lee Mi-sook had said she didn't care what we used, but as the actual owner of this place, "whatever" was a word that simply did not exist in my vocabulary.
"You know those tables you see in typical Korean diners? Fill about half the window side with tables for one or two people, and focus on three-to-four-person tables for the inner section. Keep it strictly to that. Even if people come in large groups, I'm going to make them split up and sit separately."
No matter how much of a zombie apocalypse we were in, my Paradise shouldn't look like a chaotic wasteland.
Granted, since it was a paradise built amidst a zombie apocalypse, a bit of that rugged aesthetic was inevitable. Still, I couldn't tolerate throwing random, mismatched junk together just because materials were scarce and ruining the overall look.
"It's starting to look like a real village."
A small village.
It was a bit funny to call it a small village when we were right in the middle of Seoul, a metropolis of ten million. Yet, there was a certain romance to a tiny community slowly blooming from the ashes of an apocalyptic wasteland.
Once the cafeteria was fully functional—complete with running water, electricity, and gas—Lee Mi-sook began to cook.
"Come and eat, everyone!"
Lee Mi-sook had been cooking ever since she arrived, and everyone had been eating her food, but this was the first time she was serving it in a proper cafeteria setting. We all gathered around the tables.
Myself and Kim Ji-hee included.
"Your cooking is seriously amazing, ma'am. Lately, whenever I crave a home-cooked meal, I skip the Special Meals and come looking for you," Kim Ji-hee praised.
"I don't blame you."
It was an undeniable fact that the Special Meals were also fucking delicious.
Even Lee Mi-sook had acknowledged their taste.
Plus, considering they arrived piping hot as if they'd just been whipped up, it was hard to choose a winner.
But the mere fact that her cooking could rival those Special Meals showed just how broken a Level 7 cooking skill really was.
Although she could have made a giant batch for everyone to share, today was a trial run for how the cafeteria would actually operate, so individual meals were served at each table.
Each large wooden tray held a bowl of white rice, several side dishes, and a small, bubbling earthenware pot of soybean paste stew.
The side dishes weren't just some lazy greens, either.
There was stir-fried spicy pork for the meat dish, along with stir-fried sausages and a rolled omelet.
"Wow! Thank you for the food!"
The ten workers who had been sweating since dawn were the first to dig in.
"This is great."
I took a bite and gave her a thumbs-up.
This was actually my first time eating Lee Mi-sook's cooking.
I had assumed that no matter how good she was, it wouldn't be much different from my Special Meals. Since I didn't see any reason to walk all the way across the street just to eat, I had stuck to my usual system-generated meals.
But this was genuinely good.
This kind of spread was hard to get from the Special Meals.
Those usually consisted of a main dish and a couple of sides; even when they served Korean food, it was never a full spread like this.
I figured I'd drop by to eat here every now and then.
"How is it?"
Lee Mi-sook walked over and asked.
Her worried expression was almost absurd.
Surely she had to know how good she was.
But having observed her for a few days, I knew her anxiety wasn't an act.
She was genuinely anxious.
She was worried about whether she would be useful in this place.
Her husband was registered as a "Resident" and working hard, but she and her daughter, Oh Se-i, weren't registered yet. In her eyes, they were just freeloading off him.
She felt a desperate need to prove her own worth.
"I'll hire some help for you soon. Keep up the good work."
"Yes. Thank you, Captain."
Since her husband called me Captain, Lee Mi-sook had naturally started calling me Captain as well.
Since the ingredients, water, electricity, and gas all belonged to me, the profits from the cafeteria would naturally go to me.
However, I didn't plan on pocketing every single coin.
I was going to register Lee Mi-sook as a "Resident" soon anyway.
A talent with Level 7 cooking was someone I absolutely had to keep close.
Even with the Special Meals, they would only be enough to feed me and a select few in the long run. I couldn't feed an entire community with them.
A single set meal would sell for 10 coins.
I decided to give her a cut of 2 coins per meal.
This was a special privilege reserved for a Level 7 chef like Lee Mi-sook.
She was already a hard worker, but giving her a direct incentive would make her put in even more effort.
As for the staff to help her, I had another system in mind that I planned to roll out soon to handle recruitment.
Once I built a system accessible exclusively through the Paradise Membership, people would feel like they were missing out if they didn't sign up. And my passive income would skyrocket.
After finishing my meal, I set up a 1,000-square-foot warehouse behind the cafeteria, connecting it directly to the kitchen.
"From now on, send all the food ingredients here."
"Yes! Finally! Hehehe."
Kim Ji-hee beamed with joy.
She was the one managing the food warehouse. Though she hadn't complained, I knew she'd been struggling with fresh ingredients. Unlike easily storable items like Hetbahn and ramen, fresh produce and meats had to be prepped and consumed quickly, making them a headache to manage.
That was why she had been so eager to dump as many ingredients as possible onto Lee Mi-sook when she first arrived.
I had spent 100 coins to upgrade the food warehouse with a 90% anti-spoilage feature to deal with the piling stock, but what was the point?
It was still just sitting there, unused.
But now, Lee Mi-sook had arrived to put those ingredients to good use.
For Kim Ji-hee, who wanted to sell off the processed food and hated seeing raw ingredients cluttering up her warehouse, this was the best news she could have hoped for.
For now, I didn't expand the cafeteria's warehouse; I only upgraded its durability and anti-spoilage features.
Since it was only going to hold raw ingredients, this size—combined with the refrigerators and freezers—would be more than enough.
Next, I went around to the cafeteria, the cafeteria's warehouse, the bathhouse, and the second-floor food warehouse.
I installed Safe Base-Exclusive Automatic Doors on every single one of them.
I linked them all to the Paradise Membership system, ensuring the doors would only open for registered members.
"Seriously, the system is a godsend."
Once the system I was currently designing was fully implemented, the Paradise Membership would practically gamify survival, giving people a real sense of motivation.
I stepped out of the cafeteria first.
I still had work to do today.
Now that I had a quest, there was no way I was going to just lounge around at home.
I set out to investigate the faction near Seongsu Station.
Seongsu Station wasn't actually that far away.
Given that the entirety of Seongsu-dong lay within a one-kilometer radius, I really should have crossed paths with them at least once. But because my usual routes had always subtly avoided the station, I'd never noticed a faction operating there.
After walking for about ten minutes, the station came into view.
Seongsu Station wasn't particularly large.
It only had four exits, and I could see tents pitched all around them.
They had integrated the nearby shops into their perimeter, and there seemed to be quite a crowd.
The roads leading to the station were blocked off with barricades, preventing easy access.
But what caught my eye was one road that had been kept completely clear, lined with rows of parked motorcycles.
"Whoa."
Vroom, vroom.
Right on cue, a sound that had vanished since the start of the zombie apocalypse echoed through the air.
The sound of an engine.
Well, a motorcycle engine, to be precise.
I watched as a group of guys revved their parked bikes, clearly enjoying the roar of the engines.
There was a wide variety of bikes.
The riders all had tattoos inked on their arms or legs—they wouldn't have looked out of place standing right next to the Tattooed Thugs from the Seongsu Apartment.
Trash and cigarette butts were littered everywhere.
"Wow..."
I couldn't help but marvel.
To think there were guys who still held onto this kind of romanticism even in a world like this.
I didn't look down on it at all.
It was a classic post-apocalyptic romance.
Back in America, where the land was vast, even when abandoned cars blocked the roads, they never completely sealed them off. If you were a decent driver, you could easily navigate through the gaps.
Tearing down those open stretches on a motorcycle, feeling the thrill of pure speed... that was a romance I understood all too well.
Because I used to have it, too.
But why was it?
Even though I could totally relate to that romantic vibe...
...there was something incredibly tacky about this scene that rubbed me the wrong way.
Specifically, those giant insulated delivery boxes strapped to the backs of their flashy bikes.
"Are they just Delivery Riders?"
Probably shouldn't have said that out loud, right?
As I mentally scolded myself for the rude thought, it seemed someone had actually overheard me.
"What's up with this bastard?"
A few guys who had been squatting nearby, dangling cigarettes from their mouths with slouching postures, were staring right at me.
"What did you just say, you little shit?"
Yep, they definitely heard me.