Chapter 75: Safe Base-Exclusive Communication Network
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 75: Safe Base-Exclusive Communication Network
Clearing dungeons or going on long-distance farming runs requires a lot of things.
That includes resources, of course, but also people.
In a zombie apocalypse, "people" usually just means NPCs, so players typically have to secure all these necessary supplies on their own. Unless they've invested a massive amount of time, fully preparing everything is no easy task.
First, food.
It would be ideal to farm and find food along the way, but it's not that simple.
Moving around and fighting zombies already drains a lot of energy. If you waste energy searching for food and end up empty-handed, your combat effectiveness plummets immediately. Forget about your farming goals—you'd be forced to turn back, or worse, meet your demise right then and there.
Even if you plan to farm along the way, carrying spare food is a must.
Next, combat.
Honestly, this is just as fundamental as food.
In a zombie apocalypse, you can't survive without the proper martial force to fight off zombies.
Of course, even without combat power, building your own shelter and carving out a survival route without fighting zombies is another way to play, and many people enjoy that style. But when going on an expedition or entering a demonic lair, you need to at least be strong enough not to die.
Even if you shake off most of them, you must have enough power to deal with the persistent zombies that cling to your tail.
This includes combat skills and good items necessary for battle.
Finally, healing.
Fighting zombies inevitably leads to injuries.
Even if your stats are overwhelmingly high like mine are now, you can never let your guard down in a zombie apocalypse.
Whether your stats are 10 or 100, if you get bitten in a moment of carelessness, the chance of infection is still 50%.
Besides, even if you don't get bitten, there are plenty of other ways to get hurt.
If you don't treat your wounds in such situations, your combat power will drop. And once your combat power falls below its usual level, the likelihood of accidents that wouldn't normally happen skyrockets.
So, the three essentials for an expedition:
Food. Combat. Healing.
I had managed to secure all of them.
"This is fucking awesome."
Though, I wondered if I'd actually need to use them.
For food, I could just pack some special meals. For combat, I didn't even need to use combat skills; I could just crush everything with my raw stats.
Healing... was the most likely to be useful, but even if I got bitten by a zombie, I had the Level 2 Vaccine. Unless my arm got chopped off, I wouldn't need to pull out [Noona's Hands Are Healing Hands].
Still, just having them was reassuring.
There was a world of difference between not having something when you suddenly needed it, and having it even if you never used it in your entire life.
It felt reliable.
There was just one thing that bothered me, though.
"There are too many stars."
It was fine when there were only one or two, but now that they were reaching seven or eight, I sometimes got confused about whether something was Level 7 or Level 8.
Couldn't it just display them in a unified format like the status window, like "8★"?
"Why wouldn't it be possible?"
As I thought that, the Safe Base's system came to mind.
"...Can I change the display format too, by any chance?"
[Changing the level and grade display format to "Simple View."]
I had wondered if it would work since the Safe Base's system was meant for modifying things related to the base itself, but it seemed I could change it system-wide, independent of the Safe Base system.
– Designates an area with a 2km radius as a Safe Base. In the Safe Base, you can invest Coins to receive various benefits. You can invest Points to increase its level.
– Every day at 06:00, 12:00, and 18:00, a super-large food supply arrives at the Safe Base. Survival supplies are also frequently supplied. High-grade equipment is occasionally supplied. Safe Base-exclusive items are supplied from time to time.
– Independent water, electricity, and heating services are provided to the Safe Base. You can activate their use with Coins. Costs are reduced by 95%.
– Powerful refrigeration and freezing services are provided to the Safe Base. You can activate their use with Coins. Costs are reduced by 95%.
– Independent sewage disposal, food waste disposal, and trash crushing services are provided to the Safe Base. You can activate their use with Coins. Costs are reduced by 90%.
– A "Visiting Black Market Merchant (4★)" visits the Safe Base every week from Saturday at 06:00 to Sunday at 23:59.
– You can install "Safe Living Facilities" in the Safe Base using Coins and Points. Costs are reduced by 30%.
– You can create a 'system' for operating the Safe Base.
– An independent communication system is provided to the Safe Base.
"Communication?"
Honestly, this was a bit ambiguous.
Especially considering the value of an 8★ upgrade, I wondered if this was really an option that belonged here.
Even right now, Kim Ji-hee was using her phone perfectly fine, there were areas with internet access, and phone calls went through without much trouble.
In fact, unless zombies somehow spawned on satellites and caused them to crash, communication was unlikely to go down completely.
As long as the signal stations receiving the transmissions weren't destroyed, that is.
Did I really need to spend Points to use this?
Well, if a moment ever came when communication became absolutely necessary, it might prove worthy of its 8★ status.
The advantages and convenience of communication in modern civilization were beyond words.
If you took away people's phones right now and told them to live without them, it might truly feel like reverting to an ancient civilization, playing out a primitive apocalypse.
"Hmm."
So, I could boldly describe this as the first option that fell slightly short of my expectations.
Since it had given me things that far exceeded my expectations up until now, I had naturally been wondering what kind of unimaginable thing it would give me this time, only for it to stumble once. Well, whatever.
Still, since I had it, should I give it a try?
[The Safe Base Communication System is being activated.]
[Would you like to link this with "Paradise Membership"?]
"Huh?"
But then, an unusual message popped up.
"Link it!"
[Connecting the communication system to "Paradise Membership."]
[Free communication via "Paradise Membership" is now available within the Safe Base.]
["Residents" possess high-level authority.]
["Hosts" possess the highest-level authority.]
I realized I might have misjudged this.
[You can manage the communication system.]
As the one with the highest authority, a list of membership subscribers cascaded down before my eyes.
At the very top were the "Residents."
When I tapped on Kim Ji-hee among them, new functions like "Call" and "Message" appeared.
I tapped "Call."
A message saying [Connecting call...] appeared, and then—
"Hello?"
Kim Ji-hee's face appeared on a screen right in front of me, and her voice came through.
[Would you like to transmit your screen?]
When I agreed to transmit, Ji-hee waved her hand at me.
"Whoa. What is this now?"
"..."
This is fucking insane.
A communication system that lets you connect with someone anytime, anywhere, without a phone.
Of course, there were limitations.
Right now, it might actually be worse than a cell phone.
Because it only worked within the Safe Base.
Even though the radius had expanded to 2km, it basically meant it wouldn't work once you left Seongsu-dong.
But still, this was huge.
If we utilized this, there would be absolutely no reason for people with "Paradise Membership" to lose contact with each other, at least within Seongsu-dong.
There was no risk of zombies detecting you because of a phone's ringtone.
If you kept your phone on silent anyway, there was practically no reason to carry one around anymore.
How convenient would it be to have messages pop up right in front of your eyes?
And being able to view the other person's screen remotely meant you could see their situation in real-time.
The potential applications for this were endless.
I would have to gradually expand its uses.
Any new feature was bound to be helpful if used correctly.
Of course, looking at the end result, if someone asked me if this had as much impact as the "system" option, I'd probably say no.
Maybe it was just because I was a dumbass who didn't fully grasp the value of this communication system.
Regardless, it had been added to the options.
My remaining Points went back to 1.
And my fears quickly became reality.
"Ah... 5 Points... Fuck."
The Points required for Level 9 was 5.
Which meant Level 10 would likely require 6.
"Whew..."
Seriously, how many Points am I going to dump into this single thing?
If Safe Base and Base Invincibility didn't level up as a set, it would have been a nightmare just to think about.
Imagine if one of them was still Level 1 right now.
Yet, I couldn't give up on either one.
Upgrading Base Invincibility made me stronger, but if the Safe Base level was low, the range would be too narrow, severely limiting that power.
On the flip side, what was the point of only having a high Safe Base level?
Without Base Invincibility, a vast stretch of Safe Base territory was completely useless.
In the end, this Cheat Mode only revealed its true power when the balance between the two was perfectly maintained.
"Oppa. If you're home, can you come over to the cafeteria for a bit?"
Just as I was about to move on to preparing my next full-power setup, Kim Ji-hee sent me a message.
Seeing the message float in midair instead of on a phone screen—she must have figured out how to use it already—it certainly did look convenient.
I left my room immediately.
When I walked into the cafeteria across the way, Kim Ji-hee and Lee Mi-sook had set out a spread on the table, arranged like a set meal.
"My mother made this... I thought you should take a look."
[Heartfelt Meal (2★)]
– A heartfelt meal prepared by a master chef.
– Upon consumption, Strength increases by 2★ for 3 hours.
It looked like I would have to add one more thing to my full-power setup.