The Elevator to Hell (2)

The elevator motor hummed with a faint, vibrating whiiiir. After half a year without power, this space felt far too luxurious to be called a simple metal box. The soft glow of the gold metal frame, spotless full-wall mirrors, and smooth black-and-white marble flooring beneath my feet all screamed extravagance.

I stood motionless inside that square metal tube.

“How long has it been since I last rode an elevator…”

The reason I’d burned a precious tile just to unlock this thing was simple. My current Blueprint Domination skill could only scan the B1 floor. I had no idea how big the other floors were or what kind of stores were arranged how. My own memories had already faded long ago.

“I’ve been stuck on B1 for six whole months, after all.”

Staying underground that long had wiped out any recollection of what was upstairs. The department store’s internal CCTV had started going dark one by one from the first month after the apocalypse. The exact day all connections were severed was Day 42—back when I was still counting the days.

“Hmm…”

Thinking about it too deeply would get depressing, so I moved on. That was why I had no choice but to explore in person and draw the map by hand.

“Besides, more magic stones will come in anyway.”

And there was one more reason.

“If I can connect tiles through this, it’ll be huge…”

My Tile Ownership ability only worked by linking tiles together. Since I now owned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the elevator, if I could connect it to tiles on other floors, that would be an absolute jackpot.

“Let’s start with the first floor…”

Would this thing even move? Please move. With a trembling hand, I pressed the [1] button among the floor selectors.

Clunk.

“Fuck, it’s moving! It’s actually moving!!”

I could move the elevator. I could control it at will.

But the instant the doors closed and the signature mechanical hum began carrying me upward—

“Wait, hold on. Just a second.”

A spine-chilling question flashed through my mind.

The safe zone created by Tile Ownership activated based on the tiles I owned. I had just claimed the floor tile of the elevator while it was stopped on B1. So if the elevator moved to another floor, would my owned tile travel with it?

Or would it stay fixed in the empty space on B1?

“Fuck, timeout! Timeout!!!”

How did you set the horizontal coordinate system? The cursed meme I used to see on the internet before the apocalypse slammed into my brain at the worst possible moment. Over and over.

If the tile ownership was fixed in the empty space on B1…

“No… no!!!!!!”

That would mean the inside of this ascending elevator was no longer my safe zone.

“Shiiiiiiit!! Don’t go up! Stop! Stop right now!!”

It had to stop. I needed to stop it and think this through.

The short trip from B1 to the first floor felt like an eternity. My shaking hand frantically hammered the emergency call button on the elevator wall.

Tu-ru-ru-ru-ru— Tu-ru-ru-ru-ru—!

Click.

A calm, mechanical voice flowed from the receiver.

“Ah…!!”

Of course, there was no human on the other end to answer the friendly greeting or stop the elevator. The only person who could pick up the call ringing in the disaster prevention room was currently trapped inside this elevator, shaking like a leaf.

“No! Don’t open the door!!! Love is a closed door!!!!”

I clung desperately to the doors. But cruelly, the elevator arrived at the first floor anyway.

Ding-dong—!

With a cheerful chime, the metal doors slid open on both sides.

“F-fuuuuck!”

The moment the doors opened, I saw the ruined first-floor lobby bathed in sunlight pouring through the windows. And—

-Grrrrk?

“Hey… buddy?”

There stood the familiar figure.

‘You reached all the way up here?’

It wasn’t surprising. The Starflex building had collapsed in multiple places.

-Kiiiiiiik!!!

The instant it spotted me, the creature fired a razor-sharp tentacle at a speed I couldn’t even react to.

“Buddy!!!!! I gave you meat!! I turned the lights on every single day so you could sunbathe comfortably!! I even cranked the AC so you wouldn’t get hot, you ungrateful bastard!!!!”

Okay, I was the only one who actually got the AC, but still!!!

Right before the tentacle pierced my forehead, I squeezed my eyes shut.

Thud—!!

A dull impact rang out, like something hard had slammed into a glass wall right in front of me.

“O-open… open your eyes…!”

I cracked my eyes open. The tentacle was trembling helplessly in midair, blocked at the exact threshold of the elevator doors.

Thankfully, even after the elevator moved, my tile ownership was still being recognized.

“Haa… fuck… I almost got completed.”

My legs gave out and I collapsed onto the elevator floor.

“Agh, buddy! You scared the shit out of me!!”

At least I didn’t piss myself. I really didn’t.

But holy shit, this was actually amazing.

“Ownership got acknowledged??”

Which meant—

I could connect tiles here too.

“Kuuuuh, legendary… I have arrived!!!!!!!”

Alright, let’s take a proper look around. Now that I’d confirmed the horizontal coordinate system was properly recognized, there was nothing left to fear.

The first floor was just a luxury goods hall that had been smashed to pieces. I carefully filtered out the remains of what used to be people and looked around.

“More importantly, why aren’t there any other zombies?”

Aside from my buddy staring at me with all 360 degrees of its eyeballs, there were no other zombies in sight. Back when the CCTV still worked, every floor had been packed with different zombies. The entrance in the distance was completely covered in dried blood, making it hard to see outside. Only faint sunlight filtered through.

“Hey buddy, move. I can’t see.”

But if buddy moved, the building might collapse. Just stay right there.

Anyway, luxury goods weren’t useful right now. Pass.

Ding-dong—!

“Oh, nice!!”

That was what the description said, but when I arrived it was too dark to see anything properly. The view illuminated by the elevator lights was just more ruins, same as the first floor. And of course, buddy was still there.

“Okay! Okay, good! This place is also extremely high priority…”

Checked. Next.

Slide— Slam!

“Whoa! Whoa! This is it!!”

I wondered if there was still any infrastructure left that would let electronics work outside. No idea.

The unlock message appeared without fail.

“Anyway, this floor is also pretty high priority.”

Slide— Slam!

Ding-dong—!

Both the fourth and fifth floors looked identical. They were both clothing stores, though the styles seemed slightly different.

“Those over there are mannequins, right?”

Please tell me they are.

“Hey, don’t move.”

I avoided the gaze that seemed to be staring at me from afar and organized my plans in my head.

“Clothes, huh.”

I did want to change my own outfit, and they might sell surprisingly well. From what I’d seen in the gallery, the outside world no longer had the capacity to produce new goods.

“So they’re probably eating rat meat…”

But claiming this right now felt awkward. I still had more floors to check, and hiking clothes were also available in the newly opened camping section.

“Alright, let’s pick up the pace.”

The sixth, seventh, and eighth floors didn’t seem particularly important right now. The sixth floor was a premium dining and specialty restaurant area, but I didn’t need it at the moment.

“I can cook now. I can control ingredients at will.”

The seventh floor had a large arcade, indoor shooting range, theme park, and kids’ zone. I only gave the eighth-floor cinema and ninth-floor swimming pool a quick glance.

“Who watches movies during the apocalypse?”

But seeing everything with my own eyes like this taught me something. Buddy was connected across every single floor.

“Buddy’s size is seriously making my heart feel grand.”

And the higher I went, the denser and larger Buddy’s flesh and tentacles became, filling entire floors. The volume was growing insanely.

“So the one on B1 is the root?”

Does that mean I’ve been talking to Buddy’s crotch this whole time?

“Zombie gaygay…”

Then where on earth had all the other zombies gone?

“Anyway, the long-awaited tenth floor!”

Once I checked here, I’d be done!!

Ding-dong—!

The moment the doors slid open—

“Huh?”

There were no broken ruins. Not even Buddy.

-Zzt… Zzzzzzt…

The unpleasant white noise of old fluorescent lights pierced my ears. What filled my vision was an endless, bizarre hallway covered in faded yellow wallpaper.

“What the fuck.”

And the instant the elevator doors opened, the yellow wall directly ahead was covered in horrifying phrases someone had frantically scribbled in dark reddish-brown.

I alternated my gaze between the bizarre rules and the endlessly stretching yellow corridor.

“What the hell is this.”

The moment I stood there in a daze, something appeared at the far end of the yellow hallway. It looked like a human skeleton that had been forcibly stretched out—its limbs grotesquely long. It slowly raised one abnormally elongated, pale index finger and pressed it against what used to be its mouth.

A gesture demanding silence for the other guests.

At the same time, a skin-crawling vibration leaked from the gaps in its torn maw.

-Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

From within those gaps came a sound no human vocal cords could produce—a grotesque noise like bones scraping against bones, forcibly squeezed out.

“Dude, this is legendary floor noise.”

Shut the fuck up.

“You bastard.”

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!

Without a single moment of hesitation, I spammed the elevator’s [Close] button and muttered.

“The genre almost took a weird turn.”

Obviously, even after seeing that horrific figure, my mental health remained perfectly intact.

“I should claim the ninth floor later and install a subwoofer in the ceiling.”

Elevator? Tenth floor? Safety rules? Anomalies? Horror?

“Aaaargh! My head suddenly hurts!!!”

Anyway…

“That’s enough for today.”

Three days later, the day of another restock arrived.

I threw open the shop door the moment the alarm went off. The result?

…Sold out in one second, as expected.

“Kya. The automatic magic stone hunting is insane.”

I lay inside my goose-down sleeping bag in the tent, happily listening to the sound of magic stones pouring in while enjoying the users’ reactions.

“Hmm…”

But at the same time, I felt uneasy.

“This won’t work as it is…”

Exploring with the elevator had been an excellent decision. Not only did I learn what was on the upper floors, I also confirmed I could connect tiles.

But my concern was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the opposite. Was this current method really okay?

“I don’t think so…”

There was a clear limit to this approach. Ever since I massively increased the number of members last time, the cost of upgrading member slots had skyrocketed.

“Are you fucking kidding me with this inflation?”

Upgrades that used to cost a comfortable 1,000 stones had somehow jumped five times higher. Of course, if I upgraded and sold even more, they would benefit too.

“But can they hold on until then?”

I hadn’t checked every detail, but people were dying every day out there.

When I first saw the gallery, there had been a little over 80,000 users. Now the total had dropped to 79,000.

People who thought ‘As long as the members can live comfortably among themselves, that’s enough.’

“Get out.”

And although I wasn’t checking every case, some of my precious members were definitely dying.

“Ah, shit. Another one just died.”

Even though the last wave had been nothing but weak Red Zone mobs compared to my buddy, the shop had only been properly open for three weeks. If this many people were dying already…

“If they all die… then I die too…”

Eventually all the members who bought my goods would disappear. And if I couldn’t earn magic stones and lost the ability to exercise ownership—

-Grrrrk!

The sound of Buddy greedily smacking its lips beyond the transparent wall sent a chill down my spine. No matter how much meat I delivered or how friendly I acted, I knew the truth.

Buddy was not my friend.

Buddy was not my friend.

Buddy was not my friend.

The moment I got kicked out for not paying rent, I knew exactly what would happen.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. That can’t happen.”

In the end, the two conclusions I reached to survive were these.

“I need to put in effort to help them more.”

But to do that—

“I need to earn way more magic stones.”

Being the breadwinner is hard.

“But how?”

The best I could do right now was expand the slots and sell a wider variety of goods. Was that the only solution?

While worrying, I checked my current magic stone count.

“For now… let’s raise the skill level first.”

If this was the best I could do right now, then I had to do at least this. With that resolve, I opened the blueprint skill.

Ding—!

“Twenty-five slots… That’s more than I expected.”

This was more than enough to connect not just B1 but the blueprints on other floors as well. As I examined the blueprints to decide where to unlock first, the steadily decreasing number of survivors from earlier crossed my mind.

Even if I couldn’t empathize, I could predict it. Surviving every day with a clear mind in a hellish apocalypse like this couldn’t be easy. Sometimes people needed a legal stimulant to help them forget their shitty reality.

For now, unlocking the liquor corner and then connecting it to the pharmacy on the second floor seemed best.

“Alcohol might be usable as a weapon too.”

Medicine would obviously sell well. With the remaining stones, I could register some new food items as well.

Thud—!

-Grrrrk!!

At the same time, Buddy’s massive body, which had been smacking its lips, was pushed back as if swept away by an invisible broom.

Buddy doesn’t go far. You’re everywhere anyway.

“Okay. Next is the pharmacy…”

The moment I muttered that, something completely unexpected happened.

As I read the newly appeared text, I sucked in a sharp breath.

“Tile Copy…?”

What the hell is this, you damn weeb.

With trembling eyes, I looked at the skill window.

“Holy shit…”

A new door had just opened.