The Ring-Pommel Sword
Points Held: 40 P
"WAAAAAAAH!"
Had my prayer reached God—no, the System? The slot machine halted on the sword symbol, and a ring-pommel sword spilled out as the reward. I threw my head back and howled with joy.
"Heh heh heh. Let's have a look."
The baseball bat that had been my soul partner a minute ago lay flung on the floor while I drooled and pulled up the sword's information.
A ring-pommel sword once carried by a nameless general of the Joseon era. It has no special abilities, but it is a finely forged masterpiece! And somehow its condition is flawless, as if it were made yesterday! Aren't you lucky!
"Heh heh heh... a hwando a Joseon general used. A masterpiece blade...! Heh heh heh heh."
It had no abilities whatsoever, but the description sounded impressive, and the sword I'd wanted had actually come out. Dopamine detonated, and I couldn't stop laughing.
"Oh. Right. This isn't the time."
I'd been stroking the hwando like a pervert, spit at the corner of my mouth, and I hauled myself back to my senses.
"Heh heh. Time to give it a swing."
I drew the blade, as much to test what it could do as to feel it in my hand.
"Ahh. This cool, solid weight. Twenty-eight years, has it been."
It was the first sword I had ever held in my life, yet I settled into a stance and recited a line I'd heard somewhere.
"Hah!"
The playing ended there. I swung in earnest to see what the weapon could do, and the blade split the air with a vicious hiss. I had never handled a sword before, and still I was moving it with practiced ease.
"Huh... this is nice."
When I finished running through the forms, I couldn't help marveling. It was better than I'd expected.
"It's like I already know where the blade should go to be efficient, and where my feet ought to land."
The uncanny knack put a satisfied smile on my face.
"My hands are itching to go outside and start slicing zombies."
I wanted to confirm the sword's power as soon as I could.
"But there's something I have to do first, isn't there?"
Everything had its order. Night had already deepened, so going outside would be difficult; I still needed to look over the mansion that had become my residence, and I had to check the third main quest. The live combat test would have to wait.
"Shall I start with the main quest?"
I opened the System and pulled up the third main quest that had appeared.
Secure a Nest
Humans always need a nest. You have secured a place in this apocalyptic world where you can rest in comfort. But no human can live alone! In an apocalypse, the strength of companions is needed all the more! Find companions to stay in your residence!
📍 Find Companions: 0/4
🎁 Reward: 1,000 P
"A thousand P?"
It was far higher than any quest reward I'd received so far, and the surprise slipped out of me.
"But the objective..."
The massive points had my eyes spinning, yet one look at the goal pulled a sigh out of me.
"Ugh. How am I supposed to find companions in a world like this?"
I had no objection to gathering people. The problem was that even the living—anyone who wasn't a zombie—were hard to find these days, and tracking down someone both useful and trustworthy was genuinely difficult.
"Ugh. The dead owners are even more of a waste now."
If they'd still been alive, the quest would have been that much easier. A shame.
"I'll put this off for now and look around the house."
A main quest I couldn't progress could wait. I decided to survey the mansion first.
I was already in the yard, so I started there.
"Nothing much out here."
The only things worth noting were a vegetable patch in one corner and a shed beside it where the farming tools were kept. The patch was fairly large, in keeping with the enormous yard, but I knew nothing about growing crops, so it didn't interest me. That was the end of the yard.
"Basement first, then?"
From the brief look I'd taken at the residence system, the mansion had a basement, so I decided to check that before anything else.
"Let's see. I remember the stairs down being next to the ones going up to the second floor."
I headed for the staircase I'd noticed while wandering the house, before I'd killed the elderly zombie couple.
"There's a second basement level?"
Coming down onto the first underground floor, I saw another flight continuing downward and realized the basement went two levels deep.
"I'll start with this floor."
I stopped descending and began to look around, and what I found there stunned me.
"Whoa. What is all this?"
The first basement was twice the size of an ordinary living room, packed with shelved cabinets, and those cabinets were stuffed with food.
"Whoa, how much is this? I could last, what, ninety days?"
A rough count told me there was enough for one person to hold out for ninety days.
"No wonder the diary never worried about food. They had something to fall back on."
An elderly couple would have found frequent grocery runs physically taxing, so they'd probably bought in bulk whenever they shopped and lived off the stores.
"So what's on the floor below?"
Having hit the jackpot on the first level, I headed down to the second basement with a smile.
"This is all wine?"
Maybe collecting it had been a hobby. The lower floor was a wine cellar straight out of a movie or a drama, with display cases running left and right as far as I could see, and so many bottles inside them that counting was hopeless.
"They really were rich."
The old man had clearly been far wealthier than I'd imagined.
"This isn't the cheap stuff, is it? Bet it tastes good."
I lifted a bottle to check, and my mouth watered. I wasn't in the mood to drink tonight, though, so I set it back down.
After that I came up from the basement and searched the rest of the house, but there was nothing else of note. I'd already seen everything on the first floor during my initial look. The second floor held the room where the zombie couple had been staying, a few rooms that looked like guest quarters, and the master bedroom where the couple had originally slept.
"Guess this is where I'll be sleeping from now on."
I said it as I let my body sink into the queen-size luxury bed in the second-floor master bedroom.
"Whoa. This is seriously soft."
True to a high-end mattress, a plush comfort I had never felt before wrapped my whole body.
"This... I'm... gonna pass out... any second..."
Fatigue must have been piling up without my noticing. The bed's comfort won, my eyes gave out, and I slowly sank into sleep.
"A strong, standing-at-attention morning!"
The next morning I woke refreshed.
"A rich man's bed really is different. I slept like a log."
I couldn't help marveling at a coziness I had never known in my life.
"Food first, then."
I went down to the first-floor kitchen for breakfast.
"What should I eat today?"
Opening the refrigerator, I found all sorts of ingredients the old couple had stocked. Fancy ones, too, of course.
"Beef for breakfast is a bit much, but who knows when the power's going to cut out."
Once the electricity died, anything that needed refrigeration would spoil fast, so I decided to eat the perishables first.
The beef hissed and seared in the pan, and the sound and the smell filled the house.
"Oh, an induction stove. No need to start a fire. This is great."
The gas had been cut off long ago, so grilling beef—something I couldn't even have dreamed of at my old place—was possible here only because the cooktop ran on electricity.
"If the power goes, there's always the yard. I'll just barbecue."
The more I thought about it, the more the mansion seemed to have everything.
"Time to eat."
Once the beef was done I set the table, picked up my chopsticks, and put a piece in my mouth.
I chewed slowly, savoring it. A soft, juicy texture, a savory saltiness seasoned just right, and the rich flavor unique to the meat filled my mouth.
"Khh. Meat like this makes me want a drink."
The wine on the second basement floor came to mind the moment I said it.
"Just one glass?"
I hesitated. I was planning to head out zombie hunting right after breakfast.
"One glass ought to put some life in me. That'll do."
Done deliberating, I went down to the cellar and brought up a bottle.
"Let's see what a rich man's wine tastes like."
I found a corkscrew in the kitchen and opened it. With a squeak and a cheerful pop the cork came free, and the living room filled with the scent of grapes.
"Smells good."
Breathing in the fragrant aroma, I poured a glugging stream into a wineglass.
"Let's give it a try."
I took another piece of beef, then lifted the glass and drank. The deep aroma and flavor of the red wine mingled with the meat and made the taste even richer.
"Damn. That's incredible."
It was a luxury I could never have indulged in before the apocalypse broke out, and it put me in a fine mood.