Chapter 92: Drug Addicts
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 92: Drug Addicts
Starting the next day, I went out farming early in the morning with Kim Ji-hee.
"Ugh, I'm so nervous."
"Even if you get bitten, I'll save you, so stop making a fuss."
"Really?"
"Of course, you'll have to pay for the cure."
"...How much is it?"
"Who knows. Can you afford it with your net worth? I think you'd have to sign a lifetime slavery contract."
"I'd rather just die."
In a way, this was her first time going out to hunt, excluding the time she was semi-forcibly assigned to the hunting squad back at Seongsu Apartment.
Back then, even though she was technically part of the hunting squad, she couldn't actually hunt zombies herself and had only come to me to get coins. Thinking about that, it made sense why she was making such a fuss now.
That was why Kim Ji-hee had prepared her own full setup.
She had retrieved a Level 4 Backpack—which I had bought another of recently and kept in the warehouse—and packed it with all sorts of food and medicine. She was also fully armed from head to toe in Level 3 or higher armor with rare options.
At this point, her gear was so stacked that even zombies would probably avoid her out of sheer disgust.
She had even taken a healing bath to maximize her stats, and was currently eating one of Lee Mi-sook's rare stat-boosting dishes.
Ever since I noticed Lee Mi-sook's cooking occasionally came with rare options, I had sent her all the rare meats. We were storing those special dishes to eat when needed, and since I had stopped Ji-hee from dipping into that stash, she was instead eating a rare meal made from ordinary ingredients.
Well, preparing diligently wasn't a bad thing.
In a zombie apocalypse, the absolute most dangerous thing is complacency.
Even for me, if I got bitten by a zombie in my sleep and the infection took hold, my life would end right there. That was the reality of a zombie apocalypse.
Though unless I developed sleepwalking, that was highly unlikely to happen.
Having filled our bellies so thoroughly, we left the house.
This place would soon become our old home.
We boarded the tram and headed toward the route Kim Ji-hee had planned.
"First, we need to go to the Eights Bed Store."
The mattress I had scavenged before was from a furniture store near the Homeplus.
I wondered if it was still there.
We'd have to see, but Kim Ji-hee insisted on getting something even better and headed toward the store she had scouted first.
It wasn't toward the Homeplus.
It was further east.
The direction toward Konkuk University Station was an area I hadn't visited much.
"This is my first time coming this way."
"...Should we go somewhere else?"
"No, it's fine. Let's go."
Blazing a new trail is always good.
Still, these days, zombies had been cleared out in most places, so we didn't run into situations where dozens of them swarmed us from all directions.
At most, three or four wandering around would spot me and charge.
"Kyaaa!"
Level 1 zombies were easily taken care of.
Seeing them collapse after just one or two hits, Kim Ji-hee, who had been terrified, slowly began to muster up some courage.
"That's only because it's you, Oppa!"
"You can do it with your stats, too."
"Should I try, then...?"
"Try it on that bastard over there."
A single zombie was shuffling toward us.
Its stats were all Level 1, which was basically like having zero stats. It was enough to make me yawn.
I nudged Kim Ji-hee forward, and she tightly gripped her Level 3 Baseball Bat with trembling hands.
"Don't let it get too close. Once it's within swinging range, bash its head in."
"Ugh..."
Her shaking hands weren't just for show.
She was genuinely terrified.
Honestly, in a zombie apocalypse, this kind of timid personality was incredibly frustrating.
If it were my family or an indispensable companion acting like this, I would have driven myself absolutely insane just looking at them.
I'd probably kick them in the back and tell them to just die now if they were going to die anyway.
But for some reason, I didn't really feel angry at Kim Ji-hee.
I had never once considered Kim Ji-hee a combatant.
Even in non-combat roles, she did more than her fair share.
She served me very diligently with her body.
And with her healing skills, she played the indispensable role of the base's doctor.
Who would dare give her crap just because she couldn't kill a single zombie?
If she was scared, she didn't have to kill them.
But still, it was better if she did.
Eventually, she would have to.
Even if she lived her entire life inside the base, as long as zombies existed in this world, there would come a moment—just once.
A moment where she would have to kill a zombie herself. And what if the zombie she faced at that crucial moment happened to be high-level?
She could die before she even had time to prepare herself mentally.
So, it was better to get it over with now.
"Just swing."
The distance closed.
Because the zombie was so slow, it shuffled along at a pace that almost made me wonder if it was intentionally delaying to give her more time to prepare.
Lest she lose her nerve, I gave her a little push.
"If you don't swing, I'm going to take you on a bitch-walk in front of the zombies later."
"..."
Kim Ji-hee flinched.
I didn't lie.
I would lie if necessary, but she knew that when it came to things like this, if I said I'd do it, I meant it.
Even if she didn't know what a "bitch-walk" was, the name alone was probably repulsive enough to make her want to avoid it at all costs.
"For your information, a bitch-walk means walking naked on all fours with a leash around your neck."
"Ugh, no way!"
Kim Ji-hee squeezed her eyes shut and swung the bat.
Naturally, you wouldn't expect a blind swing to connect.
But it did.
Thwack!
The Level 1 zombie's head exploded, spraying blood and brain matter everywhere.
Some of it splattered onto Kim Ji-hee as well.
Squinting her eyes open, Kim Ji-hee looked at the headless zombie corpse collapsing limply to the ground.
"W-Wow..."
Fortunately, Kim Ji-hee only had an aversion to the act of killing zombies, not to the corpses themselves.
It had simply been fear.
The fear of killing something that looked like a human.
That was a fear anyone would have.
Having been taught all their lives not to harm others, killing a zombie that still retained a human form was no easy task, no matter what they had become.
It was only the first time that was hard.
"I did it!"
Kim Ji-hee cheered, jumping up and down.
"See? Nothing to it."
It was true she had gotten lucky.
She had swung with her eyes closed, and the zombie's head just happened to be in the path of her swing.
But that was enough.
With Kim Ji-hee's current stats, a Level 1 zombie was bound to die from that anyway.
There was no need to push her too hard from the start.
After all, Kim Ji-hee hadn't come here to hunt zombies; she was here to farm furniture and interior items for our new home.
"Good job."
I patted her head.
"Hehe."
She snuggled into my chest, rubbing her head against me as she basked in the praise.
"Die!"
With that as the catalyst, Kim Ji-hee started stepping up to smash the heads of any lone zombies or pairs we encountered.
Though she still quickly hid behind my back the moment three or more appeared.
This was more than enough.
And it wasn't just about zombies.
Even if a human threatened her, Kim Ji-hee would now be able to keep her composure and protect herself.
Arriving at the furniture store, she began shopping for beds with a skip in her step.
"Oppa, how about this one?"
"I only want the most expensive one."
"Of course. When it comes to mattresses, expensive is always better."
"And it has to be soft."
"That too, obviously. If it's too hard, your back will hurt."
"Why would your back hurt?"
"...Well, because you thrust so hard, Oppa..."
Blushing as she spoke, she quickly turned her head away, pressing down on the mattress and sitting on it.
"Wow, it's really soft. I think it's even better than the one we have at home."
"Well, the price tag on this one is definitely higher."
Because the entrance of this store was heavily damaged and blocked by various obstacles, the inside was actually quite clean.
This is why farming inside buildings is the way to go.
Aside from a bit of dust accumulating over time, most things remained well-preserved.
Since the beds were even covered with blankets, they hadn't gathered much dust at all.
"The blanket is so soft, too. It must be high quality."
Since we were moving anyway, I decided to boldly leave behind everything in the studio apartment.
When you move, you have to fill the new place with brand-new things.
The headboard was also cushioned and looked comfortable to lean against, so I put it into my Level 4 Backpack.
It was a bit heavy, but... as long as there was space inside the backpack, it wasn't really a big deal.
When I first started farming, things were so heavy that I had to struggle to balance them on a folding cart to bring them back.
But now, with my Strength stat nearing Level 20, lifting them directly didn't feel heavy at all.
"We should put one in the guest room too, right?"
"Of course. Other women might come over."
"...I don't have to sleep in a different room now, do I?"
"You're still the main wife for now."
I pulled the anxious Kim Ji-hee close and roughly massaged her breasts.
As expected, a proper push-and-pull dynamic is crucial between a man and a woman.
Though I had to be careful, since even minor push-and-pull tactics had a massive effect on someone with Dependency Level 7.
Pouting, Kim Ji-hee chose a slightly lower-grade bed for the guest room.
Even so, they were still beds in the ten-million-won range.
We picked out about five beds and put them in the backpack.
Since the subspace was 5m x 5m x 5m, there was still room left even after packing five king-sized beds.
The weight had increased a bit, but carrying it wasn't much of a struggle.
"On to the next farming spot."
"Yes, sir! Next!"
As we left the furniture store and headed to our next destination, a man standing on the street approached us.
Wearing a baseball jacket with his cap pulled low, the man scanned us up and down, pulled something out of his backpack, and tossed it to us.
"You guys are out early. I was planning to just drop it off and leave."
"?"
It was a small, thumb-sized bag containing white powder.
"Keep up the good work."
I stared blankly for a moment at the man as he coolly turned around and walked away.
What the hell is this bastard's deal?
"What is this?"
"Well, it's probably not cold medicine."
White powder.
I smelled something interesting.