Satisfaction, or Advancement - 2
After sharing some information, I headed to the orphanage rooftop with my women.
"Sorry it's nothing fancy."
"It's more than enough. Thank you."
A somewhat old-fashioned tablecloth was spread out like we were on a picnic, with snacks and tea laid on top. We couldn't keep Seon Yeowon away from the kids for too long, so the meeting had no choice but to be held here.
"I assume you've all read the book."
My women nodded.
"Let's get straight to the point. First off, the Status Window isn't lying. Zombies... won't be reborn here."
The moment you eliminate every last zombie in an area once, they won't respawn here. More precisely, they won't respawn indiscriminately anywhere.
"Honestly, that's a huge change in itself."
Yeowon let out a hollow laugh.
"We built a fence in the yard here, but zombies would still slip inside sometimes at night. The gate's locked, and the walls are pretty high..."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"But they're kids. If they can't even play in the dirt and stay cooped up, it'll be suffocating for them."
"Then..."
"Every morning when I wake up, I check the yard from the rooftop, and whenever the kids go out to play, I always assign some who can shoot to watch over them."
I nodded slowly.
"When we liberate Anseongu, the benefits we gain won't be small. Even without this particular wall, we can build walls elsewhere to block zombie attacks... that kind of strategy becomes viable."
If Anseongu stayed in its current state, building walls or hiding in buildings wouldn't mean much. You never knew where zombies might pop up. The very premise of blocking or sealing specific points to defend against zombie ambushes didn't exist. Excluding my absolutely safe apartment and the orphanage, there was nowhere to hide.
"But we won't be completely free from zombie threats."
Zombies that should respawn in this district just appear at the boundary areas instead. And they can freely wander into Anseongu. Once they start roaming the roads, the meaning of safe zones shrinks dramatically.
"On top of that, massive zombie hordes attack this area at regular intervals, and both the quality and quantity of zombies will surely increase compared to just leaving the district alone."
This was the first problem. Touch it rashly, and you could end up with worse results than simply ignoring the district's boss.
"Of course, that's not all."
Unlike the 'safety' I could gain—which was less than I'd expected—the 'rewards' I could reap were far greater than anticipated.
"We can establish a proper base. The kind other major organizations have. According to this book... it seems we can do quite a lot."
With system-guaranteed farming, we could harvest substantial yields. We could craft basic weapons like forges or spears, chop wood, quarry stone to build walls and houses.
"It feels like rebuilding civilization from scratch... but growing like this should yield something."
No telling when we'd recoup the investment, but this was definite growth. I could project my influence over more areas. No matter how many people, I could protect them with my power.
More precisely, the moment I chose this path, I'd have to accept more people.
"Lay proper walls, dig up land and chop trees for it, build facilities worth defending, set up guards, farm, craft weapons..."
Even picking a few people for the apartment facilities had been tough. With this many gathering, headaches were inevitable.
"It'll mean a lot more work."
We'd need more people. The faction would have to grow and keep growing. Plus, others might covet this land and start wars.
'Land where you can't build bases and zombies can respawn anywhere anytime' was worthless. That was Anseongu now. But if I turned it into something I could claim without issue right away, nearby organizations might get greedy.
Of course, I could crush them all. Kill them, defeat them. But the process itself felt unpleasant. It was people fighting people.
"I want to think about it a bit more slowly."
The moment I finished speaking, Seohee shot to her feet.
"I don't get why Master's agonizing over this!"
"It's—"
She shouted with the most confident expression imaginable.
"You're the king! The boss! A shit-ton of women lining up in the field, spreading their pussies, dying to take your cock just once, right? Don't you wanna try it?"
"...Seohee."
"I'm not wrong!"
"Sit."
"Okay."
Like her earlier protest had been a joke, she sat back down with an awkward face. Her obedience was cutely like a big dog, but now wasn't the time for that thought.
"The number of people I have to take responsibility for will grow. Way too many."
If I'd craved honor and power, I wouldn't have bothered returning to my world. Sure, I looked forward to family, phones, computers, comfy life—but what I wanted most was a 'non-hero's life.' Not one where everyone stared at me, no one else could do the job, and someone died because I didn't act.
"Honestly, if we're just thinking about the survival of the people here now..."
I forced the words out.
"It might be better to leave this land alone."
Maybe they hadn't expected me to think this way; I felt the women stir. Hari shook her head.
"Dad. You really gonna do that? You're such a busybody."
"Your dad's—"
"You hated even Haena dying. And she wasn't innocent or close to you."
"..."
"If you moved somewhere else, maybe, but rescuing more people in Anseongu will be harder. There'll be anomalies."
The moment I swept the monsters once and made this land a 'safe zone,' the anomaly I'd experienced then wouldn't repeat. It wasn't a respawning monster area anymore. No matter how many gathered, nothing would happen. Even if more or stronger monsters came in, none would be beyond what I could handle.
"Sunwoo... maybe it's overstepping, but I really don't get what you're afraid of."
Roa looked at me with worried eyes. She'd gone into the dungeon with me. She'd seen exactly how I fought. She knew now that more monsters or external attacks couldn't harm me.
I let out a hollow laugh and spoke softly.
"People."
To be precise, it wasn't fear they'd take everything from me. Fight and win—that was easy. Crushing invaders wasn't hard.
But people were scary. Not as enemies, but allies. Or potential allies.
More accurately, I was scared because I knew what I'd sacrifice to protect them. I didn't want to be dragged around. Didn't want to protect out of duty, not happiness.
But the hero I'd been still lingered in my chest. Hallucinations appeared. Light sparkled. Impossibly bright and radiant, pouring out its glow. Like waking to morning sun because I'd forgotten to draw the curtains at dawn, I desperately averted my eyes from that light. Even closing them tight, that violent, massive light pierced my lids, stabbing my retinas—
"Ngh?"
I felt a touch. On my dick.
"You okay now?"
An Sua, sitting beside me, grinned mischievously. She'd slipped her small hand into my pants and was kneading my still-soft cock.
"I'm fine. You can stop."
An Sua clapped her hands like wrapping up a situation.
"Then, shall we call it here for today?"
Nothing felt resolved, but she beamed brightly regardless.
"Truth is, even after reading the whole book, we figured you'd think 'kinda annoying, huh?' at worst. We didn't expect Master to agonize like this."
"Fair enough."
"Let's break for now! Everyone think it over slowly! We'll decide next time—plenty of time left!"
My mind was still stuffy, but her crisp voice lightened my mood a bit.
"And... Master?"
An Sua's eyes met mine.
"Let's go play for a bit to clear our heads! Just us two!"
She grabbed my arm tight. I naturally felt the softness of her breasts.
"Not against it... but why so sudden?"
"Ah, you don't know? Then it's a secret!"
"A secret, huh..."
Of course, I could order her to tell me, but I'd never used a 'command' on her. I knew she loved me, and if she was hiding something, it was probably something I didn't need to know.
"Let's go!"
An Sua dragged me down, arm in arm. I followed her in a daze.