Overwhelming Change (1)

The sun rose over a ruined morning. The streets outside, swept clean by last night's brutal wave, were a scene of utter devastation. Amid the scattered corpses of mutants and pools of dried blood, survivors trudged forward with heavy steps.

Those who had lived through the night began the grim task of clearing away the bodies piled up over the hours of darkness and scrubbing the metallic stench of blood from the pavement.

“Kang Min-ah… I hope you’re happy there now.”

Someone cradled the torn remains of a comrade and wept in stifled sobs.

“Dad! Dad!!”

“He’s already gone. Come with me, kid.”

“We barely made it…”

“Good work. That was hell.”

Others collapsed onto the blood-soaked ground, staring with hollow eyes, patting one another on the back in quiet comfort.

“Haa… fuck… why the hell did they suddenly push in like that?”

“Normally even a wave only brings Orange Zone heavies or spitters… but this time…”

“If it wasn’t for the System, we’d all be dead already…”

A few of the more lucid survivors tried to guess why creatures from the Red Zone had surged all the way here.

“Did something happen in the Red Zone…?”

“How would we know?”

“Not many people who go there ever come back alive.”

They hadn’t even fully explored the Orange Zone yet, let alone the Red. Most stalkers had no idea what had triggered it. They were simply relieved to still be breathing.

That was when it happened.

The streets and alleys, once filled only with agonized groans and weary sighs, fell deathly silent. The translucent blue holographic windows appeared simultaneously before every survivor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who had been hanging their heads in despair.

The heavy gray air of gloom and resignation flipped in an instant. Even those clutching dead comrades and sobbing, even those laughing hollowly while gripping broken weapons, froze.

“Holy… shit…!”

“W-what the hell is this…!!!”

“Huh…?”

Everyone stared at the sudden announcement with their mouths hanging open in perfect unison. The depression that had swallowed them whole vanished without a trace. They stood there in a daze, murmuring a single number.

“Four thousand…”

“Four thousand people…”

“Four… thousand…”

“Four thousand flavor… rat meat… now available…”

The Metropolitan Area Survivor Gallery was in absolute chaos, swept up in a frenzy over the explosively increased membership count. I woke up, saw the madness unfolding, and laughed.

“Heh heh heh.”

The reason I had poured every single magic stone I earned into dramatically expanding the member limit was simple. I hadn’t been able to check everything in detail because things were so hectic, but while browsing the gallery I kept seeing comments like these.

I hadn’t caught every single one in the chaos, but more and more of the sob-story users I had invited were starting to complain that the stones were too heavy a burden.

“The more people who buy my stuff, the better the outside economy gets.”

The higher the average strength of the people out there rose, the more I benefited. So increasing the member count was ultimately profitable. Not only that—

It wasn’t too severe yet, but because the member pool was so small, voices were starting to say that members received special treatment. I expanded the roster dramatically before that snowball could roll any further and cause real trouble.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason I increased the member count.

“And we’re not done yet!!”

Thanks to the meat bombing I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did last night to stop the wave, this achievement popped at the same time. An impossible achievement? I only sent some meat. Apparently indirect help counted too.

“Hell yeah, jackpot?”

This was the real clickbait. Without spending any more stones, new items were automatically unlocked and registered in the shop.

It looked like the reward had been tailored to my traits. I never expected to get so many items for free, so I was feeling pretty hyped. But looking at the lineup… it was a little suspicious.

“Fuck… isn’t this just dumping unsold stock?”

Parmesan cereal I could understand, but mint choco and Ziaco? They really just picked the worst-selling items from the supermarket and registered them. Still, the quantities were huge and they were free, so from my perspective it was pure profit.

“But… will these kids even like this stuff?”

Let’s post a notice first.

Luckily the overwhelming quantities seemed to generate a positive reaction.

“Thank goodness.”

Of course, I still felt a little guilty.

“I wanted to register meat…”

As everyone knew, my shop registration was one item type per slot. I couldn’t combine grilled ribs and pork belly into a single slot.

“Let’s see, the most numerous is pork belly… honeycomb pork belly… sixty packs…”

Even if I registered meat now, there were four thousand members. Selling only sixty packs of honeycomb pork belly to four thousand people would be a bloodbath.

“…”

They went crazy over cup ramen. If I sold sixty packs of pork belly to four thousand people, someone would actually die.

“Kids! One day I’ll feed every single one of you meat!!! Yeah!!! I’ll create a world where everyone eats meat!!”

I’ll make sure every one of you gets at least one piece of meat!!! Just not right now. Until then, everyone hang in there!! I’ll hang in there too!!!

With that, I turned my attention back to the gallery.

“Ooh, nice passion.”

Everyone was furiously posting PR threads to get invited.

So-called Shop Wiki school users were spamming posts that followed the guide like crazy.

“Nice.”

If they support me this neatly, it makes my job easier.

“But first, there are people I need to take care of.”

I invited every soldier who made major contributions during this wave, every stalker who went out to support the relief shelters and defense lines, and every member of the small guilds. All of them, first priority.

“Yes! That’s exactly why you were invited!”

Everyone had done their best in their respective positions, so they deserved proper compensation.

“Well… if becoming a member is the reward…”

Since I had increased the member count so much, it was fine to give them this much.

On the other hand, actual organizations with even greater purchasing power began to appear in response to the dramatic member expansion.

When large guilds started appearing and other users began to stir with anxiety, I snorted and typed on the keyboard with my main account.

“Yeah, you’re not getting in.”

I postponed their invitation for now. It wasn’t for any grand reason—just personal dislike. While everyone else came out to fight, why didn’t these big guild types show up? And now they’re suddenly acting all high and mighty in the gallery. I didn’t like it. Of course I understood that in a ruined world, group survival came first. But still.

“Don’t care.”

That was enough for me, the guy who had been sucking on honeyed catgirl catgirl all this time. An emotion I couldn’t understand.

“That’s plenty.”

Since I invited the people who went out to provide support during this wave first, the count had already filled up quite a bit. Naturally, I planned to invite the others properly too.

“Even though it’s a fair selection, it’s only natural to pick the more moral ones if possible.”

So I started going through the RP posts one by one and sending out invitations.

“You seem to have more stones than me…? Pass.”

“Aigoo… you went to the relief shelter to rescue the doctor during the wave? Pass.”

“Yeah, yeah. If you live steadily, good things come back around.”

But what about this one.

“Cat mom… unfortunately… it’s a no…”

The interviews were proceeding smoothly, and the member count was filling up quickly.

“Okay, shall we keep going a little longer?”

The moment I turned my eyes back to the gallery to continue the interviews, neither I, nor the endurance king, nor even the real God could have predicted it.

No one expected an irregular like this to appear.

“Uh…”

“Spit on it for me.”

The pale flesh in the photo right in front of my eyes, the subtly evasive yet exquisitely shy composition.

“Hup.”

It had been six months since the world ended, plus another two weeks. I hadn’t seen so much as a single pixelated video, let alone erotic pictures. All day I had been looking at that insane zombie teacher’s face and the destroyed world. A healthy 27-year-old Korean man named Shin Sok. What did I think when I saw this post?

“No chance. What do you take me for?”

Did blood rush through my veins and my pupils dilate? Did I immediately click accept?! No.

“Hah! Do I look like someone so weak I’d be shaken by something like this!!!”

*****

Meanwhile, forum administrator Baek Eun-wol was also watching the gallery.

“So they started by inviting the people who helped during this wave.”

It was a flow in which those who had risked their lives alongside her during last night’s crisis were being rewarded first.

“As expected of the System… It has a clear grand purpose of rebuilding the world.”

To Eun-wol, the System was an intangible, cold, lofty, conceptual god-like being. That was why, as an administrator, she always carried worries with her. The shop was a system she could not interfere with. It was so vast and lofty that it felt impossibly distant to her, and she had no idea how to properly assist it.

“For now… I should cut out the weird posts.”

Suddenly, a post with a bizarre title popped up on the board.

Eun-wol clicked on it without thinking, and her brows twitched slightly.

“Hm?”

A photo of someone shyly covering ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their chest had been uploaded as PR.

“Cooldown’s up again.”

Eun-wol muttered indifferently. It wasn’t the first erotic post, and it wouldn’t be the last.

“But everyone is risking their lives to post serious PRs to get invited. Isn’t this post just sabotage…?”

She wondered how desperate someone had to be to do this. Should she delete it immediately, or just give a warning? Yet deep inside, a strange curiosity bloomed.

‘If the System is truly a divine being… what reaction would it have to a post so filled with primitive, worldly desire?’

Would it deem it meaningless and ignore it? Or show even the slightest interest?

She stopped the finger that had been about to delete it and stared at the screen, pondering. At that very moment, there was one being who showed her the path forward.

And that being was, of course, the System.

“I-it got accepted…?”

The System had granted membership at an overwhelmingly faster speed than any other applicant—literally at the speed of light. The instantaneous, primal reaction of seeing a flesh-colored photo and immediately passing it in one second. Baek Eun-wol’s red eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck.

“Uh… S-System Admin?”

*****

Meanwhile, Speedrun Cha Dohee, who had been resting in her hideout to recover from her wounds, shot upright the moment she saw the post.

“It accepted them… because of a chest pic…?”

She quietly murmured after reading the post that the System had approved an erotic image.

“Hmmmm… so you’re a man after all?”

Oh, this kid is cute.