A Warm Meal and the Salamander
I stepped over the shattered glass door of the apartment building and patrolled the first-floor hallway. Thumping noises echoed from inside the units, suggesting zombies had gotten in. They might have turned inside the apartments, or maybe zombies had smashed through the outer windows just like here. I summoned a tower inside, cleared out the zombies, then switched the viewpoint to double-check.
"Hammer, smash the handle."
Whoosh—clang! The round doorknob shattered in a single blow. I opened the door and stepped inside.
"This'll do nicely."
I picked up a large hiking backpack and stuffed it with various tools. In a plastic bag, I raided the fridge for food. Carrying all this around is going to be heavy. Guess I need to recruit some pack mules first.
I paused my sweep of the first floor and headed up to the second. One unit had food laid out in plain sight. I knocked on the door.
Knock knock.
"Anyone home?"
"Y-yes! What do you want?"
"Come out for a second."
"We're sorry! We didn't say anything!"
"Don't worry and just come out. Don't make me repeat myself."
Click!
"Yes! I'm out."
"Good. Take this and follow me. If there are others in the house, tell them to come out too."
"Okay, okay! Everyone, come here!"
The middle-aged man called his family over.
"Go find a shopping cart or something."
I'd seen people dragging mart carts all the way to the apartment complex multiple times. There had to be some around if I looked.
"Um, sorry, but isn't that dangerous?"
"I've cleared the area nearby."
"Understood."
The man left his family with the luggage and went off to find a cart himself. We moved smoothly from floor to floor, gathering food and supplies. Eventually the load grew too big, so I recruited more people. Thanks to the cart the middle-aged man brought back, we managed to collect everything without issue.
"Bring a few fridges from the other units. Leave the luggage here."
I ordered them to organize the items in my apartment. The fridge was already full, so we brought in three more high-end ones.
"Write your names and unit numbers on this paper before you go back."
"Excuse me… what’s going to happen to us?"
"Nothing bad. In other words, you’re safe."
The man who asked brightened up immediately.
"Then… what about people who didn’t write anything?"
"You saw earlier, didn’t you?"
The woman’s face turned ashen after hearing the answer. If they had confidence, they wouldn’t have ignored my warning, right?
I started patrolling from the first floor again. Time to punish those who had ignored my warning. Instead of entering, I resummoned the tower and observed from inside. I skipped any units without survivors. Some people were hiding without leaving items at their doors.
"That’s the bastard who cursed at me, huh?"
No need to bother talking. I resummoned the Wooden Spear Tower inside his unit.
Creaaaaak.
The switched viewpoint gradually rose higher. The survivor stared in panic at the growing tree trunk.
Stab him.
Shunk—!
"Kehk! Krrk! Kk!"
The man who had cursed me coughed up blood. The spray from his pierced wound soaked the interior of the apartment. His screams continued for a while.
When I reached the sixth floor, people were already waiting in the hallway. I thought it would take too long and I wouldn’t finish today, but if they cooperated like this, it would be over quickly.
"Huh? Why are you out here? Want to fight?"
It was the guy who had cursed at me earlier.
"N-no! I’m really sorry! I wasn’t thinking straight and made a mistake!"
"Oh?"
"H-here! I brought all the useful items and food I could find."
"You should’ve cooperated from the start. Take it to unit 502."
"Yes, yes! Thank you!"
The man grabbed the items and hurried off. The others kept their heads down, avoiding eye contact.
He said he brought everything, but I doubt it’s actually all of it. I could overlook that much. Hmm, these are the people who left items out earlier. I checked the paper with the unit numbers. They didn’t need to come out.
"You can all go back inside."
"Yes! Thank you!"
"Thank you!"
The apartment complex was divided into three buildings. From a top-down view, they sat on the right, top, and left. The entrance to the complex was at the bottom. Following the road down from the entrance led to a crosswalk, and further down was a shopping district. I lived in Building 1 on the right. I finished patrolling up to the thirteenth floor of Building 1. A few had resisted, but they died instantly.
"Everyone in Building 1, come outside."
As if they’d been waiting, all the residents poured out.
"We’re going to clean now. Throw the zombie corpses outside and wipe up any bloodstains in the hallways or inside the units."
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
"We’ll work hard!"
Answers came from all directions. While the people cleaned, I adjusted the tower’s position from the rooftop. Until now I’d set it to fire inward easily; now I repositioned it to target outward. After finishing up inside the units, the hallways looked spotless.
Let’s call it a day here.
The sun had already set completely. Time to go get the auntie. The shelter door wasn’t locked. When I went in, she was sitting there with earplugs in.
"You can take the earplugs out now."
"Sorry?"
I mimed removing them, and she gave a small laugh.
"How did it go? Was it dangerous?"
"It’s fine. Everything’s been cleaned up. Grab your stuff and let’s go home."
"I’m finally escaping this place. Hehe."
She seemed genuinely happy just to be leaving the shelter.
"Come in."
"I lived right next door but this is my first time inside."
"Yeah, it is."
In truth, there had never been a reason for her to enter my place. We were just neighbors who occasionally passed by and greeted each other.
"Make yourself comfortable. There are plenty of clothes here too."
"Oh my. Are these your girlfriend’s clothes?"
"No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I just brought them from an empty house."
I’d taken women’s clothes from other survivors. They might be a bit tight since the sizes were small.
"Thank you for preparing them."
"It’s nothing."
She didn’t need to thank me. I’d brought them because I wanted to see her in different outfits. If possible, I’d love to see her in a bunny girl costume too. I’d have to look for one while out farming later.
"I’ll go change then."
"Sure."
She went into the room and came back out shortly after.
"Um…"
"Yes?"
"The clothes…"
"What about them?"
"They’re really revealing…"
"Are they? I just grabbed whatever was left, so I didn’t look closely. Sorry."
Of course I had specifically told the survivors to bring only the most revealing clothes. Just imagining it kept me from going soft.
"N-no, I should be the one thanking you. After you prepared all this… I’ll change quickly."
I was curious what she would come out wearing. It took longer than expected.
"This is a bit embarrassing. The clothes are so short…"
"Whoa…"
I couldn’t help letting out a sigh of admiration. She had emerged in dolphin shorts and a white string camisole. Her wide hips and large ass made the shorts cling far tighter and look much shorter than normal. The camisole was also small, so her bra was completely visible. I was fully hard and couldn’t stand up from the chair. Even though I had cum so much yesterday, I wanted to fuck her right now.
"It’s past dinner time. I’ll make something simple."
"Great. I finally get to try your cooking, auntie."
"You can look forward to it!"
She must enjoy cooking; her smile was radiant.
"Oh! Before that, let’s use the skill."
"The skill?"
"Open your skill window and read the description for the Survival Cooking class."
She read it aloud as I instructed.
"It’s simpler than I expected?"
"It might get more complicated once you invest in the skill tree."
"Will the food taste even better?"
"That too. But the effects are more important."
In WAW, food with buffs had been incredibly expensive. And it wasn’t something you could buy just because you wanted it. You only got one stat point per level. A cooking buff that raised stats was an enormous advantage. On top of that, it even restored invisible mental stats for characters.
"I finished reading. Please wait a moment."
"Take your time."
She picked up a cutting board and kitchen knife I had barely used, sliced vegetables, and put them in a pot. She added water and turned on the gas stove. Warmth began to fill the apartment. Having someone else in my personal space, filling it with life, felt strangely moving. Especially when that someone had such an insanely hot body.
Her elastic ass strained against the dolphin shorts, threatening to burst out. I wanted to slap those cheeks. I wanted to grab the breasts that were still visible from behind. I wanted to forget about cooking and just fuck her. If I waited just a little longer, I’d be able to do exactly that. I’d walk up behind her while she cooked, shamelessly knead her ass, hug her from behind, squeeze her breasts, kiss her without a word, and rest my chin on her shoulder.
Just endure a little longer for now.
Gaining trust had always been too difficult for me. But with her, I wanted to earn it.
"It’s ready!"
While I was lost in thought, she set the table.
"Wow, I didn’t expect you to make this much."
"I ended up cooking too much. Sorry for using so many ingredients."
"It’s fine. We should eat them while they’re fresh. Once they go bad we can’t eat them anyway. And we have plenty of supplies."
Once I hit level 10 I’d get an inventory, so spoilage wouldn’t be an issue.
"By the way, why are there four fridges?"
"I picked them up from empty houses."
"Is that okay?"
"No one’s coming back. It’s better if we make good use of them."
"That’s true…"
"Let’s eat before it gets cold. This looks really good."
"Yes! Enjoy the meal."
I started with the soy-braised beef.
"Mmm!"
It was delicious. I’d eaten it without thinking, but it tasted far better than expected—sweet, salty, and savory all at once. I could even taste the charred grill flavor. The deep, rich aroma was completely different from any bulgogi I’d eaten before. After the indescribably subtle flavor of the beef, I took a big spoonful of rice and drank the doenjang soup.
"Holy shit, this is insane."
The exclamation came out naturally. It was a truly perfect combination. I couldn’t stop eating. One bite led to another in an endless chain. I even mixed the rice and soup together because taking time to eat them separately felt wasteful. With every bite I sampled a different side dish. The seasoning wasn’t too strong, so even eating a huge amount didn’t feel heavy. The balance was exquisite.
"I need another bowl."
"Eat slowly. I’ll serve you."
When I finally looked up, she was smiling brightly. After the meal, I checked my status window.
My level had gone up again. This was a level that absolutely shouldn’t have been possible at this point. Even the top rankers probably hadn’t reached level 3 yet, let alone 6. At this pace, level 10 would come quickly too. Normally even high-ranking players only reached level 10 near the end of the zombie wave.
Makes sense. I had killed a number of zombies that no one could have handled alone.
Still, Survival Cooking is amazing. It gave me five whole stat points. It had provided an enormous buff from the start. Five stats. If I invested my remaining points now, I’d essentially have the stats of a level 11 character. That alone made the skill incredibly valuable. Just having someone with this skill nearby would be considered lucky. And that person was living with me. Could it get any better than this?
I began my evening patrol. Scouting the surroundings was essential if I wanted to expand my territory. I checked the marked locations.
"The fire hasn’t gone out, as expected."
Flames lighting up the dark residential area. I had hoped it would burn moderately and die out, but it was still consuming the houses.
The fire isn’t spreading as much as I thought? If fire had jumped to the residential zone, a massive blaze should have broken out. I zoomed in and saw something writhing inside the flames.
What is that?
The flames moved like waves, flowing outward in steady currents before gathering back toward the center. A message appeared above it.