Chapter 172
Chapter 172
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 172
Chapter Title: Corroded World - 2
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Jang Won-taek and Lee Beom-seok stepped aside.
They even added that I should just take what I wanted.
I shot back that I'd grab as much as I could.
Lee Beom-seok looked horrified... but whatever, I planned to take it in good conscience.
If Dajeong had been here, she would've teased me about whether I even had a conscience.
Anyway, we loaded the supplies into the dimensional storage.
We'd originally agreed on 30%, but we couldn't measure it that precisely.
For example, if there were five motorcycles, it's an awkward number, right?
In cases like that, I'd take two.
Jang Won-taek would probably look the other way on something like that.
As I was in the middle of moving stuff, Dajeong's face poked out from the open dimensional gate.
"Tok-gong, you got nothing going on right now, right? Mind if I borrow you for a bit?"
I could handle the luggage on my own...
"What's up?"
"Poor Man's herding fish with dolphins right now? It's insane!"
Dajeong flailed her arms in circles, making a huge fuss.
Dolphins doing what now?
Curious what was going on, Seok-hyun and I went through and found total chaos on the beach.
Out in the ocean, a pod of dolphins was charging straight for the shore.
The fish they were herding were leaping out of the water like crazy.
"Whoa! This is no joke!"
"Ji-man, more! More!"
Everyone was stomping around excitedly, waiting for Ji-man to bring in the dolphins.
They'd gotten so close he was riding them already.
Ji-man's traits really were broken.
A moment later, the fish fleeing the dolphins surged onto the beach, breaking the surface.
There had to be at least a few hundred.
Dajeong rolled up her sleeves in excitement.
"Nets! Get the nets!"
"Unnie, hold on!"
I crouched down for a bit to watch them scooping up fish with the nets.
"Nice..."
It was such a peaceful scene.
"Ahaha!"
Mi-kyung splashed around happily, dancing up a storm.
It was that hip dance from the old "white skin" video.
That was fine, but then Seok-hyun tried to copy it, and everyone gouged out their eyes.
"Argh, seriously."
Watching a bald guy in panties shake his sensual butt hair felt like a sin against my eyes.
I brushed off the sand and headed back to the warehouse.
Only I could access the dimensional storage anyway, so doing it solo wasn't a big deal.
Plus, everything was so well-organized, it was easy.
"Hard drives first—most of these..."
Jang Won-taek had decided to entrust the backed-up cultural artifacts to me.
If the Korean shelter requested them later, I'd pass them along.
Lee Beom-seok, who didn't think highly of me, seemed opposed but didn't step up.
He knew it was the easiest option.
The dimensional storage froze items' time upon entry.
So unless they were already broken outside, they wouldn't fail no matter how long they were stored.
"Next up, food... This mixed gas packaging?"
Seeing cheese powder with high fat content preserved without spoiling was impressive.
With a national agency involved, it was on a whole different level from what I'd imagined.
"I'll prioritize food I don't have."
No point grabbing rice—they had way too much.
I wandered the warehouse, stuffing it full.
Watching my once-empty dimensional storage fill up neatly was so satisfying.
"Weapons too..."
They even had heavy machine guns here.
The kind Hyun-woo bragged about, firing 12.7mm armor-piercing rounds.
This could take down any monster so far, even ogres, no problem.
Over 30 kilos, but no issue for anyone with decent stats.
"Shame about the low ammo..."
I could make more with the bullet production bench.
It was broken down into parts, easy to move.
"Weapons are a bit light overall."
The stockpile was mostly food and daily goods.
I could grab more from the Yongsan bunker later.
I spent hours loading essentials into the dimensional storage.
Medical supplies, building materials, books, electronics, and so on...
"And these are gold bars."
The 999.9 GOLD stamp gleamed temptingly.
I knew they were useless in the apocalypse and would stay that way, but still.
I pretended not to notice and took half.
Who knows? Might come in handy someday.
I wrapped up farming with the motorcycles and repair parts.
When I finally crawled out the dog hole, it was pretty noisy outside.
New arrivals must've been registering at the office.
I tried to pass by without looking, but a guy and girl called out like they knew me.
"Do you not remember us?"
"...Who are you again?"
Their faces looked similar—siblings, probably.
The woman stood in front of me with a complicated expression.
"Didn't we have that showdown back then?"
"You were the only one fighting, not us. They weren't even a match."
Right...
She was the one who'd picked a fight when I tried to monopolize and leave the dungeon.
Thinking I was with Hyun-woo's group, I'd held back and backed off.
She bit her lip, recalling it, but didn't push further.
Instead, she extended her hand.
"Guess it's fate we met. Nice to see you. I'm Moon So-yoon. Not a brainwashing trait, so relax."
"Acceleration trait, right? Kang Sung-ho."
"I'm Moon Dae-ho. This is my big bro."
"Ah, sure."
After greetings, So-yoon stared at me intently.
"Wow... I suspected back then, but you're Kimbap Lover? You should show your face more. We almost had a big problem."
"Showing my identity carelessly causes trouble."
She glanced at her brother, and they shrugged.
"Fair enough. They were trashing you so bad at the auction house, even I got mad. But you don't need to hide now, right? You took down an ogre..."
"Got lucky."
Chatting with them, they didn't seem like jerks.
Anyway, the guy had played Survival Life.
He looked about my age, scratching his head as he gave his details to the clerk.
"Lee Sang-sin here. Did Survival Life for about a year. Trait's telekinesis. Yeah. Am I a vet? Nah, no way."
He glanced at me, flinched, then slowly turned away.
His heart was pounding—he had something to say, but...
Whatever, he was keeping quiet, so I ignored it.
I slipped out of the office and opened a dimensional gate to our team's assigned lodging.
To make it easy for everyone to come and go.
But it cost 100 points each time, so hardly anyone used it.
I stepped through the gate.
.
.
.
"Hyung, found this."
Ji-man brought a weird mushroom.
"Where'd you get it? My memory's fuzzy on it."
"That leather backpack you gave me? Yeoul checked the marked spot in the book. It was dangerous, so she got help from Dajeong unnie."
No time before, but they got one.
I gently brushed the mushroom wrapped in dirt.
Horn Mushroom
Effect: All stats +1 for 3 minutes
The only one in all of Survival Life that boosted all stats.
Short time, only +1, but still something.
Hard to farm in-game, annoying to eat in combat, so I'd ignored it.
"I think these only grow from ghoul flower remnants... Were there any there?"
"Yeah. Yeoul sent a drone—pics here."
Her attention to detail was impeccable.
The photo showed clear traces of a ghoul flower.
So there were ghouls in the northern black forest too.
Ghouls were mutated humans, so that meant human traces?
"Ji-man."
"Yeah."
"Tell Yeoul to scout the black forest more closely. Yoo-hyun keeps mapping."
"Got it. What about this?"
"Can't eat it like this... How do you grow it again..."
I pulled out my laptop and dug through videos.
I'd only streamed about horn mushrooms once, super short.
Not important enough for the list.
"Where is it..."
As I fumbled, Ji-man nailed the filename.
"This one."
"How'd you know?"
"I remember most of your streams."
"You remember that? Impressive."
I could only shake my head in awe.
The video had a quick bit on cultivating horn mushrooms.
"Horn mushrooms? You grow 'em where ghoul flowers burst into plate-shaped remnants. In the liquid there. But they die easy, hard to cultivate. Plus, monsters swarm it."
Hmm, oh ho. Got it.
We listened intently, then grinned at each other.
I ruffled Ji-man's hair.
"Drop remnants in, and you can raise it, right?"
"Leave it to me."
A guy who befriends sharks and dolphins could handle mushrooms easy.
And his would improve in quality—worth looking forward to.
Who knows? Might get an all-stats +3.
Speaking of, needed to hunt ghoul flowers...
For strong ones, the ogre corpse came to mind.
Had to be a massive ghoul flower blooming there.
Ghoul flowers sucked up nearby organics—nothing better than an ogre corpse.
But the museum was far—needed Mi-kyung's help.
She'd been hunting hard lately to help me.
Her level was rising, points piling up, easing gate costs.
Unlike most non-vets who gritted their teeth to pass, she did it lightly.
"Mi-kyung, got a sec?"
"Ah, oppa, one moment."
Sure enough, she popped out from behind the stone wall in 10 seconds.
"No need to defend?"
"It was just long-range anyway. Goblins are too scared to come now. Hehe."
"Good, that's how it should be."
We gated to the Korean shelter.
People were buzzing about someone arriving.
"Violet So-ye!"
"Whoa, So-ye's alive."
Violet?
The idol group famous for sexy dances?
Mi-kyung's face stiffened a bit.
.
.
.
Idols really were different.
So-ye looked super skinny from afar, with a tiny face.
Tall, made up, super eye-catching.
Makeup in this world... Total luxury.
Mi-kyung, for some reason, shrank and clung to my arm.
"Chin up—why you hiding?"
"It's nothing..."
"What, you commit a crime?"
"No, it's just..."
She glanced at So-ye, surrounded by people, and bowed her head.
"Makes me feel like a knockoff... That dance I did..."
"Ah."
The original of Mi-kyung's dance from the "white skin" video was Violet's.
Sexy concept group—bold hip shakes.
Though So-ye looked pretty innocent for it.
I slung my arm over Mi-kyung's shoulder.
She flinched and looked up.
"To me, your dance was cooler. Prettier too."
Mi-kyung's big eyes wavered.
Her face softened, then she looked down.
"Nah, you're just saying that."
"What? In my eyes, you're prettier."
"Anyone can see So-ye's prettier. Look at that tiny face."
Honestly, So-ye's looks impressed me too.
People could look like that, huh.
But irrelevant to me.
I patted Mi-kyung's shoulder.
"But your skin's amazing. High level, great hunter. Right?"
"Mm, my skin is pretty good."
White enough for Dajeong to call her "whitey."
Still pale under this world's sun—natural talent.
Elderwood sap helped too.
Mi-kyung suddenly beamed with confidence, giggling.
How'd her mood flip so fast?
We were heading to eat at the lodging when Jang Won-taek summoned me.
We talked outside the office.
"Sung-ho, care for a meal together?"
This guy always had a reason.
"What're you scheming now..."
He waved it off.
"Not business—just want you to meet someone."
"The one who arrived today? Violet So-ye? She wouldn't know me."
"Why not? Heard you met President Lee at that Hannam-dong villa."
Ah, got it.
He must've gossiped about me to the celebs back at the bunker.
This was gonna be annoying.
I'd planned to find the ghoul flower eating the ogre corpse—no time to waste.
Wait, she lived near the museum—could just ask her?
Taking Yoo-hyun and Yeoul felt off... Fine.
"Sure."
Soon after, Mi-kyung and I were invited to the cafeteria.
The food was way better than the old slop.
They'd put in effort.
As we waited, So-ye arrived with Jang Won-taek and a woman I'd never seen.
"Introductions. Kang Sung-ho, the strongest psyker right now."
Psyker?
Fancy word for superpowered person, apparently.
So-ye tossed her long hair back and greeted me.
"Hi, Sung-ho. Heard so much about you."
"Ah, yeah. Heard you were with President Lee in Hannam-dong."
"Yep. Wow... Seeing you up close."
"Pardon?"
So-ye covered her mouth, flustered.
Tall, so bending slightly matched my eye level.
"I passed the museum a few days ago. That ogre monster—huge, right? Heard it smashed the place."
"Team effort, nothing special."
I meant it, but she took it differently.
"So humble too. Meeting the strongest psyker has my heart racing."
Clingy vibe...
Dajeong would've grabbed her collar, asking where that tail was wagging.
Glanced aside—Mi-kyung looked down.
Jang Won-taek noticed and urged us to sit.
"Come on, you must be hungry. Nothing fancy, haha."
Hungry? Just rice.
I waited for So-ye to take a bite and asked.
"You saw the museum recently? How's it now?"
"Uh... Heard a huge flower bloomed. Some flower..."
The woman beside her spoke up.
"Ghoul flower."
"Massive, right?"
"Nothing like the others, they say. But why..."
I lowered my voice and outlined the plan to destroy the ghoul flower.
Jang Won-taek listened, awestruck, speechless.
"Whew... That drug... Got it."
"...Pardon?"
No.
He'd totally misunderstood.
"The drugs from ghoul flowers ruin so many lives. Even cases using people as bait to harvest... Terrible. You destroying that giant one—perfect."
...I just wanted to clear it for horn mushroom cultivation?
The two women from Hannam-dong said nothing but looked impressed.
This situation was going sideways.
End of Corroded World - 2