Automated Farming (1)

"Whew..." I sighed, staring at the three Mana Cores resting in my palm.

When I opened my status window, my EXP had indeed gone up by 10. The first time I killed one, I got 2. This time, killing three gave me 10. It definitely wasn't a fixed amount per kill. Maybe there was some other metric.

Anyway, now that even the zombies wandering the floors above and below were gone, a strange silence settled over the place. Is there even another survivor nearby?

Just thinking about it brought back the scream I'd heard earlier, draining my energy. How many corpses were in this building right now? I felt like I could smell a rotting stench wafting through the cracks of my warped door, though it was probably just my imagination.

"Ugh..." I dry-heaved, but maybe because of the stress, I also felt strangely hungry. Chuckling at the bizarre contradiction of feeling nauseous and hungry at the same time, I opened the cabinet in the kitchen area.

"I wonder if there's anything to eat..." Come to think of it, there was absolutely nothing edible in my room except for a few packs of instant ramen I'd stashed away for late-night cravings. And since the gas and water were cut off, I couldn't even cook them. Should I learn a water-boiling spell first? But that felt a bit half-baked.

Even if I could handle the zombies inside this building with Mana Absorption, I couldn't use that spell to hunt zombies outside yet. Even if I could lure them in by screaming, if too many came at once, the building itself might collapse like the one across the street. And who knew if there were stronger, special zombies out there.

Besides, going out there myself to fight zombies and scavenge for supplies? Absolutely out of the question. Rummaging through houses littered with human corpses and filth to grab things? Facing hordes of zombies in combat? Honestly, no way. Even if I weren't in this fragile girl's body, a massive coward like me could never pull off something like that.

...Let's just eat some ramen and think. Since both electricity and gas were dead, my only option was to crush the ramen and eat it raw. Worried that eating something too salty would make me thirsty, I only sprinkled a tiny bit of the seasoning packet, then forced the rock-hard raw noodles into my mouth. In the quiet room, only the loud, dry crunching sounds echoed through the air. It tasted absolutely, phenomenally awful.

"Sigh."

Munching on the dry ramen fragments, I scrolled through the remaining messages on my phone and the Magic Archive. I managed to piece together a few facts. The zombie outbreak began on May 3, 2028, at 3:33 AM. Yongin-si, where I was located, had completely botched its initial response.

Consequently, within just five hours of the outbreak, the city had turned into a zombieland overrun by super zombies, leading to a declaration of total abandonment. Naturally, there was fierce backlash, but they said the government was already stretched thin just trying to defend the capital area and the coastal regions packed with nuclear power plants.

In other words, I shouldn't hold my breath for the police or the military to come rescue me. This zombieland was now completely ruled by a few utterly bizarre, freakish zombies. What a total shitshow.

How on earth did I sleep through the world ending like this? No, it wasn't that I slept too much; the world just went to hell in the blink of an eye. ...Well, ruined is ruined either way. Feeling thoroughly depressed, I kept scrolling down the Magic Archive.

Amidst a database that seemed to contain every spell in existence—from basic fire magic you'd expect any mage to know, to alchemy, magic swordsmanship, and dark magic—an interesting spell caught my eye in a dusty corner.

It was none other than a spell to create golems. For some reason, the Enlightenment condition was already fulfilled. Honestly, I had no idea what I'd supposedly "enlightened" myself on, but hey, a win is a win.

I looked down out the window. The streets were still packed with zombies. If I used a golem, wouldn't I be able to safely farm supplies without having ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to face those zombies myself? I could just chill in the corner of my room, defending against any zombies that came close, while those guys brought in all the resources.

Hmm. Should I ask the forum if this is a good idea? I immediately accessed the Magic Archive and tapped on the Free Registry. Feeling a bit guilty about just asking a question out of nowhere, I snapped a photo of the chaotic alley outside and another of the ramen I was eating, then attached them.

Once again, these jobless mages were just laughing and chatting amongst themselves instead of giving me a straight answer. They were definitely out of their minds. But wait a second. If they were all Magic Tower Masters too, did that mean they were all tiny, cute girls like me? And those girls were posting on a forum like this? Hmm... That's a bit... No, actually, I don't even know. Just then, a strange comment popped up.

"..."

This bastard had to be a cute girl too. She just had to be. For a sustainable food supply, maybe Druid magic would be good... But my problem was the immediate present. I was going to starve in a single day at this rate.

Besides, I needed to scavenge nearby buildings for daily necessities and clothes. And if I wanted to get the gold needed to upgrade the Magic Tower, I'd probably have to raid a Gold Jewelry Shop. As I was agonizing over this, a useful comment finally appeared.

Opinions were slightly divided on making it a main build, but everyone seemed to agree that dipping my toes into it was perfectly fine. No one else left any comments after that, so I decided to learn it right away.

There goes all my EXP. When I tapped [YES], 10 EXP was deducted, and with a strange sensation of unfamiliar knowledge seeping into my brain, I learned the spell Golem Creation.

"So..."

According to the knowledge that had settled in my head, creating a golem required three things. First, the material. It was only a Level 1 golem anyway, so how good could its combat power really be?

Defeating those crazy zombies was probably out of the question. To dodge them effectively and scavenge, it absolutely had to be light and fast. Wood would be best.

And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so, I approached the wardrobe standing in a corner of my room. Inside, it was packed with identical t-shirts and jeans. Since my body had shrunk, wearing these clothes was no easy task anyway.

The t-shirts practically reached my knees when I put them on, and the pants didn't fit me at all. Because of that, I had no choice but to make do by tightly cinching the waistband of boxer shorts for my bottoms. S-survival comes first, after all... It was an inevitable choice.

And in a way, didn't this look kind of like wearing safety shorts under a one-piece dress? Honestly, I knew that was a massive stretch.

My reflection in the mirror earlier looked like a total vagrant. Because the shirt hung loose, exposing everything from my collarbones down to my chest, it only emphasized my already fragile frame.

I looked exactly like a test subject who had just escaped from some underground research lab. ...Well, there was no one around to see me anyway, so I guess it was fine.

Anyway. I pulled out all these useless clothes, piled them in a corner of the room, and began drawing a magic circle on the wardrobe door with a Name Pen. The spell required ink, but there was no way I possessed an expensive fountain pen or a classy inkwell like the mages in movies. *Squeak— squeak—* All roads lead to Rome, right? Ink is ink, after all.

Thus, this magic circle being drawn with that unpleasant squeaking sound was the second component of the golem. It was the core that would grant the golem a sense of self and make it obey its caster.

Following the knowledge the Magic Tower's archive had bestowed upon me, I channeled mana to engrave the Rune of Obedience, the Rune of Clarity, and the Rune of Strength. *Fssss—* "...Uh." With an ominous sizzling sound, the magic circle began to grow hot.

"W-was the Name Pen really the problem?!" Even as I panicked, the magic circle continued to heat up. Eventually, it glowed a furious crimson, looking as if it might explode at any second.

"Wait—"

No. Absolutely not. If this exploded, the loud noise would undoubtedly attract a horde of zombies. And if any of them were monsters I couldn't handle with Mana Absorption, it would be an instant game over.

I had definitely done exactly what I was taught. What on earth went wrong? No, wait. Now that I thought about it, having too much output couldn't possibly be a bad thing. Output is always right. As long as it's controlled— And when I learned this spell, I had realized something without even knowing it. Was it Flow Guidance?

By now, it was obvious why that condition had been fulfilled. Just like how I had sucked the mana out of the zombies' bodies using Mana Absorption, let's draw out some of that oversaturated power. The only difference from Mana Absorption was that the destination of this extracted power wasn't my own body, but those crudely engraved runes.

Ugh—! Although the hot mana threatened to flow backward through my veins, I gritted my teeth, reached out, and redirected the flow. After what felt like an eternity... *Flash!* The runes, having successfully absorbed the mana, began to emit a brilliant, radiant light.

Not wasting a single second, I slammed the Mana Core I had prepared beforehand right into the center of the magic circle. This Mana Core was the final component of the golem.

As the Mana Core dissolved into the magic circle, a blinding light burst forth, filling the entire room. And within that light, the wardrobe began to shift and transform. D-did it work...? The result was far beyond my expectations.