Post-Update Announcement (2)
Jeong Hoon and Han Sora were far from the only ones who heard the Administrator's update announcement.
"Unnie… you heard that, right?"
"How could I not? He practically shouted it."
There was a building that had once been called Daengdaeng Elementary School. Now it was a hideout where seventy-five people huddled together, trembling. The shelter was filled mostly with women, the elderly, and children. Some of them didn't even have game accounts. They were people who had survived on nothing but absurd luck — luck bought with the sacrifices of countless others.
And that miracle was slowly curdling into despair.
"Unnie… those bastards are gonna hear this news and come running with their tongues hanging out. Am I getting ahead of myself? No, I'm not, right? If it's that son of a bitch Do Minhyeok, he'll show up grinning ear to ear with his goons in tow and start harassing you all over again."
A tall, well-proportioned girl with a long ponytail — dressed in the kind of athletic wear a track athlete would wear, an orange jacket thrown over it — ground her teeth as she spoke. Park Seeun cracked the knuckles of her left fist in her right hand, remembering the men who had been dropping by their shelter these past few days with their bizarre threats.
No — not just any men. Organized crime. The gangsters who supposedly ran the smartest operations in all of Gyeonggi-do.
The lively nineteen-year-old looked over at the woman beside her, worry written across her face.
The woman wore thick-rimmed glasses and a worn but unmistakably corporate suit. She was about the same height as Park Seeun, but the fullness of her figure — every curve that marked her as a woman — stood in stark, almost overwhelming contrast. Her soft, slightly downturned eyes held a mixture of adult anxiety and quiet allure.
"Calm down, Seeun. Still… he's a person too. Minhyeok will show some restraint."
"…Hold on, Unnie. You're not seriously — no way. You're not actually considering that bastard's garbage proposal, are you?"
Not long ago, the man who ruled those gangsters — Do Minhyeok — had sniffed out this shelter full of nothing but the elderly, women, and children, and started circling it like a shark. His interest had focused almost entirely on one person.
The mature woman standing right in front of Park Seeun. Kim Seyeon — the woman with the ring glittering on the ring finger of her left hand.
"…"
"Hey, Unnie! Have you lost your mind? You can't! There's no way that bastard keeps his promises!"
"…If things get any worse, there won't be a choice. I have to protect the children and the elderly."
"But then — then what happens to you, Unnie?!"
Park Seeun exploded, desperate to change the woman's mind. But Kim Seyeon didn't look like she was going to listen. She was carrying a burden far too heavy. She should have been the one being protected — cut off from her husband and her daughter — and instead she had been forced into the position of guardian for dozens of lives.
"…My class is Cleric, and Minhyeok knows that. I can heal and cast blessings, so neither he nor his men will dare treat me roughly. If anything, they'll have to treat me with respect. In an age when even a doctor is nearly impossible to find, someone like me is worth whatever price people are willing to pay."
"Unnieee! I told you not to talk about yourself like you're merchandise! God, damn it!"
"Seeun…"
Park Seeun vented every scrap of fury she had, but Kim Seyeon's resolve had already hardened. The shelter's situation worsened with every passing day. In two weeks they would all starve or be slaughtered — that much was certain. She had already been cutting her own rations as an example, but it was nothing more than buying time.
"Haa…"
In the end, Park Seeun stamped her feet, then stomped away from Kim Seyeon's side. No doubt she was going to barricade herself in her room.
Kim Seyeon watched Seeun's back as she left, then let out a long, weary sigh.
This is complicated enough already… why did it have to come to this too?
"System, on."
1. <Your Stats>
2. <Items & Gold>
3. <Shop> NEW!
4. <FAQ>
Kim Seyeon called up the system window and tapped Shop on the list floating in midair. Just as the Administrator had said today, the shop was open. When she and Park Seeun had first heard the news, they had cheered — though their faces had gone cold the moment the PK announcement followed.
But then…
"How is this even…!"
The prices were horrific.
Even the cheapest emergency rations — never mind the tiny quantity — cost a full 500 gold. Back when they had no idea how much gold zombies and monsters dropped, they hadn't known whether that was expensive or not. But then…
"U-Unnie… I, I killed a zombie and got some gold…!"
"How much did you get? What's wrong?"
"F-five gold…"
"Five… gold?"
Not fifty. Not a hundred. A measly five gold per kill.
The prices were completely insane. Even granting that basic necessities skyrocket under extreme survival conditions — the fundamental principle of capitalism — this was beyond the pale. Most of the people here considered it a miracle just to kill ten zombies without dying themselves!
If they'd at least credited us for everything we'd already killed before now…
Kim Seyeon sighed and tapped 1. Your Stats.
Name: Kim Seyeon
Age: 32
Birthday: September 30
Class: Cleric — Holy
Height: 165 cm
Weight: 59 kg
Three Sizes: 95-61-93
Level: 5
EXP: 200(1,550 to next level)
◈ Lowest-Tier Heal(MP 20)
◈ Sacred Armor(MP 40)
The highest stats in the entire shelter. Second was, of course, Park Seeun. There had once been survivors who could match the two of them — but they were no longer of this world.
She had survived extreme circumstances, taken refuge in this shelter, and somehow ended up acting as a kind of leader… but in truth, it was all the product of countless comrades' sacrifices. Kim Seyeon considered even reaching Level 5 a miracle.
Under normal circumstances, she too would have become a corpse like the others — a zombie wandering the streets.
But with stats like these… it's still not enough…
Almost without thinking, she lifted her gaze to the window. Beyond the small pane lay nothing but a ruined city. After more than a week, that sight had become familiar. Kim Seyeon wasn't focused on the ruins themselves.
Her eyes locked on a building in the distance. In this neighborhood it was called the Yumin Building — twelve stories tall, its narrow windows covered entirely in black screen film.
It was famous in this area for a different reason. Rumors — more than rumors — said it was a den of gangsters.
Minhyeok…
Remembering her high school classmate — the man who had left her with the threat, "You don't want to get dragged off by force, do you? Watch yourself" — worry settled back into Seyeon's heart.
If only someone would come and break this stifling deadlock.
And inside the Yumin Building that Kim Seyeon was watching with such anxious eyes…
"Boss, I'll present the summary report."
Burly men sat gathered in a large office, the atmosphere thick and menacing. Only one of them was on his feet.
"Go ahead."
"Yes, Boss!"
The standing man in glasses bowed at a perfect ninety degrees to the powerfully built man sprawled on the sofa with his legs spread wide and both arms draped over the back, then spoke in a crisp, clear voice.
"Summarized in three lines! One! Killing zombies and monsters drops gold! Two! You can buy goods with gold at the shop, and they're expensive! Three! If you attack and kill a person, you get half the gold they were carrying, and everyone within a two-kilometer radius is notified! That is all."
"Good work. Sit."
"Yes, sir!"
The man in glasses bowed ninety degrees again and plopped down on the floor nearby. In fact, aside from the single sofa, there wasn't a single chair in the entire office.
The only man lounging on that sofa exhaled a stream of cigarette smoke and pulled up a system window in midair — the kind only survivors could generate.
"Alright. Everybody open the shop list. Nobody can't open it, right?"
The men around him all nodded heavily, muttered "System on," and brought up their windows. They could all see each other's screens. The fact that the party system had no member limit made a big difference.
"Look at the shop list. There's only one thing we're going after. The small generator. Fifty thousand gold. Get one of those and we've got electricity. No more risking our necks scraping together tiny batteries."
"You hear me, you bastards? Gold. Bring me gold. From now on you put everything you've got into hunting zombies and monsters. Huh? You brain-dead sons of bitches. Beat it into those punks and flunkies under you — five hundred gold per person per day, no exceptions. You know the party system, right? You used it before that Administrator bastard started screaming about it. Use it to keep them in line. Tell them if they try to cheat, you'll beat them so hard they'll wish they were dead. Got it?"
"If you got it, then get out there and crack those kids' skulls, you idiots! Now!"
"Yes, sir!"
They scrambled out in a rush.
After bellowing his orders and driving the men out, he kept only the bespectacled man at his side and took another long drag on his cigarette.
"Haa…"
Alright. That's enough thrashing the idiots for now…
"Ttugi. What's the situation at Daengdaeng Elementary?"
"Yes, Boss. Taking out their main combat force worked exactly as planned. Their food is running low, and they can barely send anyone out to hunt. We estimate they only have two real fighters left. A bunch of women, old folks, and kids — of course they're hitting a wall. Heh heh…"
"That so?"
"Luring those bastards out one by one and getting them killed really paid off, Boss."
"Good. Keep watching. Make sure that bitch doesn't try anything stupid."
"Yes, sir!"
With that, he sent even the man called Ttugi away from his side. The man on the sofa — Do Minhyeok — stood up.
He walked over to the largest of the film-covered windows, lifted the screen slightly with his hand, and looked out at the view beyond.
There it was, in the distance. Daengdaeng Elementary School, where she was staying. The place that would soon be drowning in despair.
"Kim Seyeon… hurry up and make up your mind."
Do Minhyeok remembered.
High school. The girl who'd been one of the most popular in their class.
The insolent bitch who'd kept batting away his advances, then graduated and disappeared off to university.
And the lovely woman who had gone and gotten married, putting herself completely beyond his reach.
And then…!
"Fuuuck… the second that bitch comes crawling in with her head down…! I'm gonna bury myself between those cow-tit tits and pound her senseless… then grab her by the hair and wreck that ass from behind, smack smack…! Khhh…!"
Lust boiled up unbidden as he groaned over the memory of that woman's shockingly voluptuous chest and hips.