89. Consultation
89. Consultation
However, after the sprout appeared, it didn't really grow exponentially in a noticeable way.
It meant I had to keep an eye on it for a while.
"You said it would take a week."
"Yes. At level 1, it only took 5 days."
"Let's see for now. Do I just leave it alone?"
"Yes. Just leave it where there's sunlight."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
"Yep. Then, by any chance..."
"Yes?"
"Do I need to go somewhere else to grow anything separately?"
"Separately?"
Hmm.
I think about it, but there isn't really anything I need to start doing right now.
"Let's test this ability first and decide later. We don't have enough land to grow things right now, and we don't have seeds either."
"Ah, yes, understood."
"Is your wife and the kids doing well?"
"Yes. They're all doing fine."
"That's a relief."
There are things to ask regarding the kids' education and such, but it's not urgent right now.
"For now, go inside and get some rest with your wife and kids. There's no need to work."
"Yes."
The man hesitates.
"...Thank you."
"No need to thank me. I brought you here because I needed you."
"Still."
"Let's get along well from now on."
"Yep."
The back of Kim Young-jin as he leaves.
'Self-sufficiency, huh.'
I looked at the blue sky outside.
#
Me, Seo-yoon, Eun-bin, Yun-ji, A-rin, Tae-jun, Young-jun, Yu-rim, Seol-hwa, So-young, Min-ah, Young-jin, Ji-hye, Si-hoo, Si-ah.
15 people.
'No men.'
Me, Tae-jun, Young-jun, and Young-jin make four.
Since I'm an outsider, if you exclude me, there are three men.
Only 9 women.
2 babies.
'......'
Should I make the women do farm work?
Actually, since Seol-hwa, So-young, and Min-ah were brought as slaves, I could just work them to the bone, but somehow, they just ended up becoming base members.
"Don't you think so, Seol-hwa?"
I asked Choi Seol-hwa, who had become a wallflower next to me.
Seol-hwa opened her mouth, glancing at me.
"...How am I supposed to answer if you ask me that?"
That's true.
It hasn't been decided that they'll do farming yet.
And the experiment isn't finished either.
"What are you doing these days?"
"Just standing guard, playing board games, that sort of thing."
"Why do you guys like board games so much? You said you were playing board games last time too. Is it fun?"
"It's not like there's anything else to do."
That's true.
Since there's no internet right now.
No, wait, I should be able to bring those game consoles.
'I'll have to bring them when I go out next time.'
"What are you playing? Dice?"
"The Game of Life."
"You're playing something unique."
"That's all we have..."
Maybe because absolute submission is in effect, Seol-hwa answered promptly.
After she finished speaking, the woman bowed her head.
Well, she is someone I brought here after beating her up. Still, I have no intention of hitting her now.
She's living quietly on her own, so I have no intention of bothering her.
"Right. Do well from now on."
"...I'll do well even without you saying it."
"Right. How are So-young and Min-ah?"
"They're living quietly too. They weren't exactly having sex with Su-hyeok because they liked him either. But you only talk about them whenever you meet me."
"It makes me anxious."
"...They're not the type to do anything weird. If they had the guts for that, they would've done something already."
True, I did bring them here through threats.
"Bring them here."
"Me?"
Seol-hwa asks.
I shook my head.
"Yeah."
"Okay."
Seol-hwa leaves.
She brings So-young and Min-ah.
The women are visibly uncomfortable around me.
I asked.
"Nothing going on?"
"Yes."
"Yes..."
"What are you doing these days?"
"We're just doing that work, cleaning, doing laundry, playing, just hanging out."
"Laundry. Come to think of it, do you guys do the laundry?"
"We take turns. Sometimes we do it together."
"Right. Do you have a washing machine and dryer?"
"Yes."
Looks like they're getting along fine on their own.
"Do you have any complaints?"
"Other than being a little bored, not really..."
"Is that so? I guess the others are treating you well."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Right. Keep getting along well and don't cause any trouble."
"Yes."
"Understood."
"Go on in."
The women walk back, hesitant.
Well, it ended up being something like a consultation, but since I'm already at it, I might as well take a look around.
#
Tae-jun and his siblings had no particular problems.
They were kids who were starving to begin with. They said they were playing with So-young and Min-ah over there.
Yun-ji was still collecting and reading books, and A-rin was busy playing with the chicks and chickens.
"Do you have any problems?"
"Not really. Hngh."
Eun-bin stretches.
The doctor. A woman who, by chance or fate, also possessed a healing ability, was drinking tea outside.
"What kind of tea is that?"
"Uh, barley tea."
Barley tea is delicious.
As I was thinking that, she subtly offers me some tea.
I shook my head and asked.
"What are you doing these days?"
"Me? I'm just here. Watching A-rin-ssi raise the chicks. Sometimes I drink tea like this."
"Right, you seem to like cute things."
"...You saw?"
"Yeah."
Eun-bin looks slightly embarrassed.
Why is she embarrassed by something like that?
"Do you do anything other than watching?"
"I do. I help prepare meals, clean, do laundry, stand guard... there's a lot to do."
I suppose so.
A house doesn't run just by existing.
Plus, there are Infected and potential people out there, so surveillance needs to be thorough.
"True, a house doesn't run if you don't do anything."
"Yes. Well, it might not be as much as Yu-seong-ssi, though."
"Still, it's better than when there were four of us at the villa back then, right? Better than when we were at Cheongju Elementary School."
The woman's expression stiffens slightly.
"That's right. That place... honestly, it wasn't a good place."
She has changed a lot.
The woman who tried to protect everyone before is gone, and only a slightly cynical woman remains.
Well, she died and came back to life, so that's to be expected.
"...And back at the villa, it was also a bit like that."
Eun-bin's face gradually turns red.
What is she thinking about?
"You're thinking about that time, aren't you? The day you bargained your way in alone."
"W-w-when?"
It's obviously that time. The day she came in saying something about assessing the situation or whatever. My first time with Eun-bin.
Honestly, it's a bit of a dark history.
Eun-bin made a look of shame.
"...I'll be going now."
"Don't run away."
"Ugh."
The woman shudders.
I feel like if I said one of the lines from back then, she'd freak out. I stopped. I didn't come here to tease her today.
I changed the subject for her sake.
"Is there anyone hurt or sick?"
"Ah, no. No Infected have ever broken in here."
"Right, we did pick a good spot."
There are mountains on both sides, and farmland above and below. There is a village above, but we cleared it out when we first arrived, so there's nothing there.
"...This place is nice, but are you going to stay here forever? If the water and electricity get cut off, it's going to get tough here too."
"That is a concern."
Water and electricity.
According to Lee Cheol-woo, information related to that is top-secret.
It seems there is an ability user related to it.
But is that possible?
'No.'
Electricity and water didn't go out immediately at the start of the outbreak. It seems more likely that it was maintained to some extent and then kept running by an ability user afterward.
If not, then I'd have to try visiting a place like a nuclear power plant.
"Do you know where there's a nuclear power plant?"
"A nuclear power plant?"
"Yeah."
"Most of them are on the East Coast, aren't they? I know there's one on the West... and one in South Jeolla Province."
The East Coast and Jeolla Province are all far away.
It's a bit much to go there.
It would be better to find a researcher like IN Company's Lee Cheol-woo and ask them instead.
"That's a bit of a problem. It's hard to go anywhere, and I should have saved some people this time."
"...Are you talking about the ones you killed?"
"Yeah."
Should I have saved them? How should I have controlled those soldiers and civilians down there?
When I asked that, Eun-bin thought for a moment and said.
"I... don't think so."
"Is that so? Not just because it's already over?"
"That's part of it, but they were people who had contact with IN Company. The soldiers were also people who had no qualms about killing civilians. I don't know about the Jeungpyeong side, but they weren't exactly innocent people either."
"I see."
"Yes. Besides... it exceeded the number of people we could handle. There's nowhere to put them. There are dozens, hundreds of them right now."
That's true.
I had to verify the abilities of people I couldn't take responsibility for one by one.
If there was an appraisal ability user, maybe. If not, I don't know what might happen to Seo-yoon. Who was it? Like Han Hae-il.
It's fortunate he had a mental ability; what if he was an ability user who could breathe fire or something?
Actually, even though I checked the people here before bringing them, there was a possibility of problems.
'Park Si-woo, it's a shame.'
But he wasn't someone I could bring.
Or now... there's a way to get a Serum and transplant it.
'That's right.'
They said it was successful.
The experiment of transferring the Serum to a high-aptitude human.
However, the mention of a slight margin of error bothers me. Lee Cheol-woo said he succeeds most of the time, but there are cases of failure.
'That's a bit troublesome.'
Then the surest way is to find an ability user with high compatibility and swap abilities.
Appraisal ability, perhaps?
Then it naturally means I have to find and attack other regions where IN Company is located.
It also means I have to catch new IN Company bastards and extract information.
'......'
Well, the most urgent thing is to kill the Abomination.
'I don't know.'
If the IN Company headquarters is really destroyed as Lee Cheol-woo said, they would all remain in the form of local warlords. In that case, I could take it slow, but I can't just rest idly.
"Why are you like this? Suddenly."
"It's nothing. If you need anything, tell me."
"Okay."
#
Tae-jun's ability is 2x2x2m.
It's called 2x2x2, but in terms of volume, it's a space where you can put hundreds of bags of rice.
'I should have gotten rice and stored it beforehand.'
Forget it.
I can just go to the logistics center and get it.
This time, I brought Tae-jun, Seol-hwa, and A-rin.
Seol-hwa to detect, Tae-jun as a porter, and A-rin to drive.
"Wow, it's really big."
"Stick close. Seol-hwa, if there's anything, tell me immediately."
"Yeah."
"A-rin... A-rin, you just follow too. It's more anxious leaving you alone in the car."
"Ah, okay."
"Let's go."
Fortunately, there were no dangerous ones.
Even if there were, it was just Walkers, Runners, and maybe Crawlers.
There were no Hunter-class bastards or shitty ones like Balloons.
'And no Screamers or Spores that the soldier mentioned.'
Like that, I spent two days going around two logistics centers and managed to secure quite a bit of food.
Most of it had rotted, but the meat inside the cold storage and long-term storage foods like canned goods were still fine.
"I hope there's some left next time."
"Y-yeah, exactly."
"Let's go."
There's no sign of the Infected in the Bugang-myeon area coming up. Conversely, there's no sign of the ones in Cheonan coming down either.
Well, if they were going to come down, they would have raided the area above via Jochiwon first.
I stored the canned goods inside and the meat inside Tae-jun's Subspace.
Afterward, I checked the base a bit, caught some chickens, and grilled them to eat.
"...You're good at grilling?"
"I-is that so?"
A-rin was unexpectedly good at cooking.
It wasn't even seasoned, but after bringing and sprinkling some seasonings, pepper, and salt, it was delicious.
Especially Young-jin's family really liked it, and A-rin was flustered as the kids started sticking to her, calling her A-rin noona or eonni.
"......"
Seeing things like this, it just goes to show they're all the same people.
#
Days passed like that.
The 17th.
"Is this fully grown?"
"Yes."
"Then, it was supposed to take 7 days to grow, but it grew in less than 3 days. What is this radish sprout?"
"That's correct."
I narrowed my eyes, looking at the radish sprouts Young-jin brought.
Since it reduced time by 20% at lv.1, I thought the time would be reduced by 20, 30, 40, 50, 60% respectively.
But his ability reduced it by 60% at lv.3. This means now it only needs to be grown for 40% of the original growth time.
'20% 40% 60%... if the growth time decreases like this, will the plants just grow instantly at level 5?'
If that's the case, I wouldn't even need to do farming at all.