Chapter 6
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Human's Enemy (3)
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“I don’t know who you are, Mr. Nameless, but you’re going to be blessed.”
The moment I saw the vast array of goods and restaurants in the underground shopping mall, I offered a prayer of thanks to whoever had designed the layout to connect the station passage to the mall.
And I marveled at the sharp judgment of the short-haired girl, So-hee, who had kept this particular passage open even while closing off everywhere else.
“First things first, I need to fill my stomach.”
I immediately headed into the kitchen of an empty family restaurant and buried my face in the sink to gulp down tap water.
Only after quenching my burning thirst did it occur to me that I should rummage through the fridge for some food.
It seemed a family birthday event had been planned at the restaurant today, as the fridge contained a prettily packaged cake and some bread.
There were other ingredients too, but in this situation, I didn’t have the luxury to leisurely cook.
Satisfied with something I could eat right away, I pulled out the cake and carried it to a table in the dining hall, where I sat down.
“...”
As I recharged on sugar and sorted through my thoughts, it did feel like the carbs were helping my brain work a bit better.
Two things were now certain.
“First, just like the cyclops said, we’re in a situation where we can only live for a limited time.”
I rubbed the numeric tattoo on my wrist, but it wouldn’t come off, confirming it as I muttered to myself.
“Second, there’s this place called the Space Market where I can buy things, and the currency there is ‘the survival time I’ve secured.’”
Calling out ‘Space Market’ in my mind brought up a large window filled with various item lists before my eyes.
To survive in this world, I needed to know exactly what the Space Market sold—or didn’t sell.
What were the prices for survival necessities, and how could I use it to my advantage?
“Water, food, clothing, electronics… It’s selling just about everything. Easier to find what it doesn’t sell.”
To be precise, it sold everything except firearms.
“2L of water for 5 hours, a can of tuna for 10 hours…”
I glanced at the cake I was about to eat, then refocused on the system window.
“To eat one can of tuna, I’d need to kill two regular larvae. Reasonable, I suppose? Wait, how much was my axe again?”
Using the search bar, I found the tomahawk I’d bought.
“‘Tomahawk’… 900 hours? Was the discount some kind of tutorial perk?”
Thinking it wasn’t all that different from typical games, I uttered a term I’d only seen in novels, and a new window popped up before me.
「[Status Window]
Name: Lee Min-jun (Silver)
Title: First Apostle Slayer
Survival Time (ST): 437 hours
Karma: +0.4
Stats
[Strength Lv.5] [Vitality Lv.5] [Agility Lv.5]
Passive Skills: [Apostle's Nemesis Max], [Apostle's Predator Lv.2], [Pesticide Lv.1]
Active Skills: None」
“Damn… It really is a game. Does that mean stats level up too?”
Clicking on the Vitality stat brought up a message asking for confirmation.
[Use 300 hours to raise Vitality level by 1? (Y/N)]
300 hours was three-quarters of what I had.
Even though my stats were still low, the high cost was disconcerting, but I squeezed my eyes shut and hit Y.
In a world like this, if survival was the ultimate value, then Vitality had to be key.
[Vitality level has reached 6.]
[Endurance increases.]
[Your skin toughens further.]
“Not bad. I wasn’t just going to sit around twiddling my thumbs anyway. To hunt more larvae out there, I’ll need both endurance and defense…”
Seeing my reduced survival time brought a bitter taste I couldn’t quite hide, but I swallowed the unnecessary emotion and examined the status window again for other details.
“Come to think of it, didn’t it say earlier that I equipped a title?”
Muttering to himself, Min-jun clicked on the titles he’d acquired.
「[First Apostle Slayer]
Grade: Rare - Growth Type
Effect: [Apostle's Nemesis Max] [Apostle's Predator Lv.1], *Skills always applied」
「[Larva Predator]
Grade: Uncommon
Effect: [Pesticide Lv.1]
*Skill always applied」
‘The first one at least has a cool-sounding name…’
Each title came with one or two skills attached, and the fact that the skills were ‘always applied’ even without equipping the title was definitely a plus.
Above all, the titles he’d gotten seemed pretty good—except for one thing—the effects were plenty useful for killing bugs.
[Apostle's Nemesis Max]: Apostles show high hostility toward you.
[Apostle's Predator Lv.2]: Every 3rd ‘basic attack or active skill’ hit on an apostle deals an additional 160% physical damage.
[Pesticide Lv.1]: Basic attacks on insect-type apostles reduce their movement and attack speed by 5% for 0.5 seconds.
Clearly, ‘Apostle’s Nemesis’ offered no positive benefit to him, only ramping up the monsters’ hostility.
But since the monsters were already charging at him like mad even without provocation, just to eat his time, the penalty didn’t feel like a big deal right now.
If anything, considering the effects of the other attached skills, it felt like a steal.
Since the titles were growth-type, there was a good chance that when their grades rose, [Apostle’s Predator] would level up or even better skills would attach.
Only after seeing the skill effects did he understand why he’d been able to take down larvae more easily than others.
Swallowing the cake in his mouth, I wiped my hand on my clothes and began experimenting with various other things.
Starting from ‘Equipment Window,’ then ‘Inventory,’ ‘Monster Codex,’ ‘Summoned Beast,’ and so on.
Unsure what genre of game this system resembled, he rattled off elements from PC games to mobile games as they came to mind.
In the end, nothing came up except ‘Status Window’ and ‘Quest Window.’
‘Sucks that there’s no inventory window. Guess that means I have to carry everything myself.’
Smacking his lips as he mulled it over inwardly, the sound of a chair scraping pulled him back.
Someone sat down in front of him.
“Eating all alone looking so pitiful?”
The one who’d come looking for Min-jun was So-hee, the girl he’d met earlier.
“I was taught the world is meant to be lived alone. And… in a world like this, this is a feast fit for a king.”
“Oh, come on, don’t be so cold. The world is about living together. Like how I tried to help you earlier, or how you gave advice to the others.”
Tearing his eyes from the bread, he looked up to see her hand extended for a shake. Despite her cute appearance, her hand looked rough.
‘She looks younger than me. What kind of work has she been doing to make her hands like that…? No, more importantly, why come all the way here?’
“Thanks for the help back then. I told you my name, right? Jung So-hee. Nice to meet you.”
“...”
She seemed to get along well with the other survivors, and quite a few of them had been proactive about hunting larvae.
So why come find him, the loner…? It wasn’t easy to understand.
“Hey? No handshake? My arm’s gonna fall off waiting.”
Snapping out of his thoughts at her urging, he set down the bread he was eating.
A strong feeling told him this would drag him into something annoying, but since he already owed her his life twice, he had no choice.
“Lee Min-jun. What’s up?”
“Oh. You left so suddenly earlier, so I figured you’d be curious about what happened to the others and came to tell you.”
“Not really curious.”
Even at his indifferent demeanor, So-hee pressed on with what she had to say.
“The people split into two groups and started arguing. One side insisting we wait for government aid—the side with that flavorless assemblyman—and the other saying we need to act in this changed world.”
Pretending to ignore her, he took another bite of bread, but his ears perked up anyway.
“You know the upper floors of this shopping mall are all Golden Apartments, right? The assemblyman’s group went up there. Makes sense if they’re planning to wait—they’d need a place to stay. Oh, and the people who were already holed up in Golden Apartments all joined the assemblyman’s side. That’s probably why he chose the place.”
The original Golden Apartment residents.
Memories from the chaos resurfaced.
The ones who had ruthlessly turned away him and the others fleeing.
Of course, he understood their actions rationally. But emotionally, it still pissed him off.
“And the other group is getting ready to head out right now. Shopping around the mall here and there.”
“Huh?”
“Shopping. Gotta grab what you can, right?”
No need to dwell on those people—So-hee’s next words jolted him wide awake.
“Shouldn’t you have led with that?”
“I thought you knew already! And when did I have time to ask?”
“...”
She was right a hundred times over, so Min-jun gave a curt thanks and hurried off.
It was obvious those items would cost a hefty chunk of survival time at the Space Market, so he needed to stock up now while he could.
‘First place to hit…’
He dashed off, heading straight for the sporting goods store.
But people thought alike—by the time he got there, crowds were already picking through the shelves.
Grateful for the larvae kills that had leveled his Agility, he swiftly gathered gear.
A large-capacity tactical backpack that was easy to carry,
Functional hiking clothes that were easy to wash, lightweight, and well-insulated, plus high-ankle military boots.
And all sorts of miscellaneous survival gear.
Sweeping through from B1 where the mall was to the 2nd floor above ground, gathering everything, he finally sat on a bench in the underground arcade and glanced to the side.
So-hee was sitting right next to him, decked out in the exact same gear.
“Why do you keep following me?”
“‘Cause I knew this would happen?”
“Knew this would— what?”
“Following you around got me fully prepped to head out without even thinking. So convenient.”
“...”
At her brazenness, he stared, speechless, until she spoke again.
“But don’t you have questions? By now, you should.”
“About what?”
“Why I didn’t join any group and came to you instead.”
“Didn’t ask ‘cause it felt like a hassle.”
“Min-jun, you don’t have friends, do you?”
“...Grew up just fine without ‘em.”
“Wow, for real? First person I’ve met like that.”
“If you’re just here to annoy me, get lost…”
As Min-jun started to snap at her teasing, she cut him off.
“I have a favor to ask.”
There it was—the bad feeling confirmed. Min-jun sensed the inevitable had arrived.
Truth be told, from the moment she’d helped him, unless it was something hugely dangerous, he’d been inclined to grant her request anyway.
Might as well get it over with quickly.
But So-hee must have taken his silence for refusal, because she hurriedly added,
“I’ll give you my survival time in exchange.”
“...”
“I checked earlier. We can transfer time if we both agree. Do this for me, and I’ll give you half my survival time… How about it?”
Repay the favor and gain survival time?
No need to think twice.
“So-hee, how much survival time do you have?”