Chapter 86: Saintess Kim Ji-hee
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 86: Saintess Kim Ji-hee
Lately, a certain online community has been trending in Seongsu-dong.
It was none other than the "Paradise Gallery."
Many complained that the name was shitty, but I had just been too lazy to think of anything else, so I modeled it after the Zombie Apocalypse Gallery.
I could have called it the "Paradise Community," but I just went with the first thing that popped into my head, and it stuck.
In any case, anyone with a "Paradise Membership" could access it. Since it worked just like a smartphone app but didn't require carrying an actual physical phone, its user base was steadily growing.
I had divided the boards by category to keep discussions organized, separating them into real-time chatrooms and standard forums to prevent any server bottlenecks as the user base grew.
There was plenty of brain-dead chatter, but honestly, wasn't this kind of nonsense part of the charm of a post-apocalyptic world?
These bastards would probably talk like this even if you put them face-to-face.
The anonymity of a faceless forum only egged them on.
Of course, it wasn't actually anonymous.
Their usernames were their real names.
Although I was the only one who could link those names to their actual profiles, simply forcing them to display their real names stripped away just enough anonymity to keep them somewhat in check.
All sorts of threads were being posted.
Talk about me was starting to bubble up.
Of course, these guys didn't get to chat for very long.
Then, threads about Paradise Hospital started appearing.
It was clear that we had at least a few customers.
Their reactions were understandable.
Honestly, while a Level 4 Healing Skill was good, it wasn't exactly performing miracles.
It was certainly better than slapping some ointment on a wound and praying, and it could treat physical trauma requiring professional medical expertise far more effectively than an actual doctor.
Still, at 150 Coins, the price was steep enough to lock out the average survivor.
But I had no intention of lowering it.
If they just wanted to patch up some minor scrape, they had no business coming here anyway.
They could handle that on their own.
In a zombie apocalypse, even basic medicine was worth its weight in gold.
In fact, more people died from infected wounds due to a lack of medicine than from the actual zombie virus, making medicine even scarcer than food. I could easily ignore their whining.
And that stubbornness was finally starting to pay off.
I hadn't even advertised the place.
It was just a day like any other.
You know how some days are.
Just one of those days.
A completely ordinary day where, for some reason, customers suddenly swarm in.
A day when five or six people, looking like they'd been beaten half to death somewhere, showed up with horrific injuries all at once.
After that day, word of mouth about Paradise Hospital spread like wildfire on the Gallery.
Granted, we still didn't get any patients with minor scrapes.
But we now had a steady stream of three to four critically injured patients arriving every single day.
And as the patient count grew, so did the chatter.
Kim Ji-hee certainly knew how to play the crowd.
She had managed to source a white lab coat emblazoned with a major hospital's logo, wearing it over a tight, form-fitting top and a sleek pencil skirt.
"Oppa, I'm going to make us so many Coins."
Ji-hee seemed absolutely thrilled.
A Level 10 skill.
Even to her, it must have felt insanely broken, and now that she actually had a proper role to play, her excitement was understandable.
Besides, it was a smart business move.
A doctor didn't just need to be good at healing.
Making the patients eager to return was just as important.
In that sense, she was right to leverage every asset she had.
From my perspective, as long as she wasn't spreading her legs for other men, I didn't care.
In fact, purely from a business standpoint, it wouldn't even be weird for me to encourage it.
It was just that I had plenty of other ways to rake in Coins, so I didn't feel the need to micromanage her.
It wasn't even like she was exposing that much skin.
Just a tight top and a skirt that cut off above the knee.
It was a relatively normal outfit, but because her figure was so unreal, merely highlighting her curves made her look stunning.
A subtle tease.
That was always the best way to drive men wild.
Anyone who caught a glimpse of her wouldn't forget her easily.
Soon, we might even get people dropping by when they weren't even hurt.
Some might try to pull something smooth, but with Ji-hee enjoying Level 5 stats as a "Resident," there wasn't a soul alive right now who could overpower her.
Business was booming.
Before long, she earned herself a nickname.
"Oppa, people are calling me a saintess."
"A saintess?"
A saintess? This wasn't some high-fantasy world; it was a modern-day zombie apocalypse.
And yet, the title was oddly fitting.
After all, the typical image of a saintess was a combination of purity, beauty, and healing.
Purity... well, to outsiders, she might seem that way. And since she was gorgeous and could heal almost anything, the title did seem to suit her.
In more ways than one.
"Shouldn't they call you a 'Sextess' instead of a Saintess?"
"Oppa! I'm not... You're the one who always pounces on me!"
"Oh, please. You're always moaning and begging for more."
"That's only because you trained me to..."
"If people saw you sucking me off, would that officially put you on the fallen saintess route?"
"...."
The "saint" in saintess didn't have to mean holy; it could easily mean something far more carnal.
In any case, leveling up Ji-hee's skill had proven useful in more ways than one.
I could always make use of it myself if I ever got injured.
It felt like her primary role in our setup had finally been solidified.
Of course, when there weren't any patients, she still spent her downtime organizing the food warehouse.
I figured I'd keep an eye on Oh Yoon-seop and eventually boost his combat skill level as a reward—though maybe not all the way to 10.
Naturally, it wouldn't be free. He'd have to pay a price.
Whether that meant absolute obedience to my orders or something else.
That was exactly why I was designing the Membership Quests, after all.
I also spent the 4 points I had accumulated since the Oh Se-i incident.
It was about time I leveled up my hunting-type cheat mode.
Level 4 cost 2 points, and Level 5 cost another 2.
I had exactly enough points to raise it by two levels, leaving me with 8 Normal Mode Points.
As expected, Predation's options were heavily focused on growth.
A 10% chance to absorb a positive mode upon a kill. I had picked up a few random modes here and there from killing zombies and survivors, but they were absolute garbage, so I hadn't paid them any mind.
From now on, I'd probably be collecting a lot more of them.
The Level 4 option allowed me to steal modes without even having to kill the target.
There was absolutely zero risk to me.
Being able to steal a mode without killing meant I could even siphon modes from my own Residents. Of course, relying on a 5% success rate instead of the usual 10% was a bit of a gamble, but if played right, it essentially gave me two bites at the apple.
"I can try to siphon their mode first, and if that fails, I can just kill them and try to absorb it again."
Obviously, I had no reason to use the lethal option on my own Residents.
And finally, there was the option to transfer my absorbed modes to whoever I wanted.
All in all, it was a cheat mode that made managing and utilizing other modes incredibly efficient.