Chapter 15
Starplex Human Documentary, Episode 1.
Cheerfully spending mana stones to claim a new tile, our swift Mr. Sinsok.
“Aaaa...!! Aaaaaaaaa!!!!!”
For some reason, he was sitting on the floor, screaming like a little girl.
“Fuuuuuck...! No, nooooo!!”
Why was this man, who had been so excited moments ago, now pounding the floor and weeping bitterly?
“You fucking idiot...”
Ironically, what he held in his hands was 1++-grade Hanwoo boasting dazzling marbling.
What on earth had happened on Starplex's first basement level?
To find out why, the production crew went back ten minutes to take a closer look.
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[Spending 5,000 mana stones. The ‘Blueprint Control’ skill is upgrading to Lv.2!]
[Ownership of 6 additional tiles has been granted]
Ding-!
Along with a cheerful sound effect, a three-dimensional blueprint of Starplex appeared before me.
“Heh heh heh...”
In fact, I had already decided long ago which tiles I would unlock.
A man needs beef, pork, and chicken. How could I possibly endure this?
Absolutely impossible.
Preferences may differ, but I'm a meat person rather than a fish person.
“Yoshiiiiii!!! I've chosen you!!!!!”
Without hesitation, I tapped the [Meat Section] and the six tiles surrounding it.
Fwaaash-!
At that moment.
The Blueprint Control skill activated, and a transparent wave swept briskly into the depths of the mart.
Everywhere the light touched, the reek of blood and filth on the floor evaporated as if it had never existed.
At the same time, the wave struck Jomssaem, who had spent the past six months watching me from right up against the boundary.
Thuuuuung-!!
As if pushed by a massive snowplow, Jomssaem's enormous, grotesque bulk was shoved backward by the distance of the six newly added tiles.
“No! Jomssaem, where are you going!!!!”
Dragging along several organs presumed to be legs, Jomssaem was pushed away without knowing why, eventually slamming his head into the distant new boundary and standing there in bewilderment.
- Kyaaaak!
Maybe not bewildered—maybe fucking furious. Who knows.
“Haaah... Jomssaem and I... are we truly incapable of getting closer...?”
Why had we become even farther apart at the exact moment we grew closer?
“But I haven't forgotten that you didn't let me flick you last time.”
I haven't forgotten the three forehead flicks I've got saved up.
I'm saying I'll come flick you someday.
With that, I turned my gaze from Jomssaem to the tiles I had newly acquired.
Vroooom-!
It was exactly the same sight as when I first gained ownership of the processed-food and beverage sections.
The large refrigerated display cases that had lain dormant for the past six months lit up with bright lights and began humming powerfully.
Red jewels were perfectly arranged in rows and columns on neatly squared Styrofoam trays, each tightly wrapped in clear plastic film.
“O-oh, ooooooh...!”
As if possessed, I dashed out of the disaster-control room and ran toward the meat section.
And the moment I saw those dazzling displays inside the cases, my knees nearly gave out.
“Haaah... insane... inssaaane...”
A++-grade Hanwoo flower sirloin with the grade clearly stamped on it, fresh crimson pork belly, raw chicken, and juicy sausages nestled carefully in packs.
“Fuuuuuck! It's finally meat!!!!!!”
For me, who had spent every day since the apocalypse eating cup meals, ramen, snacks, and Spam, these were literally fresh—and fresh in several other senses, too.
“Uhh... What should I eat first...”
Like a child visiting a toy store for the first time, I pressed myself against the display-case glass and panted.
Of course, I intended to eat every last one without exception, but order was important.
“I'll grill the homemade sausages first... Ah, no, the pork belly and Bibim Daewang-myeon combination is something I've been simulating in my head this whole time...!”
The hand reaching for a pack of crimson pork belly stopped abruptly.
“No, no. A man has to have some dignity. Starting with pork belly at my first post-apocalypse meat party would be disrespectful.”
My gaze naturally rose to the top of the display case. There she was.
The one who would bathe my tongue and throat, pickled in preservative-packed processed foods, in a brand-new sensation.
[1++-Grade Hanwoo Flower Sirloin]
“Uhhh...”
Sexy marbling bloomed as densely as snowflakes across the red meat. I'll eat you first.
Fuck. I'd never even eaten this before the apocalypse, and now I was going to eat it after the apocalypse.
“I guess this is what people mean when they say you never know how life will turn out.”
Everyone, even if life is hard, hang in there until the world ends. You never know what might happen.
What matters is keeping your spirit unbroken even after the apocalypse - Sinsok
“Today is a Hanwoo partyyyyy!!”
With trembling hands, I hugged a pack of the most extravagantly marbled 1++ Hanwoo and hurried back into the disaster-control room.
“All right, now I just have to grill this dazzling beauty a little... Heh, just a little... Huh?”
My hand stopped dead as I was about to tear open the packaging.
And then silence. More silence.
“Ah, fuck. Ah, fuck. Aaaah, fuck.”
In that dreadful silence, I realized one god-awful fact.
“Fire, fire... There’s no fire.”
There weren't any utensils either.
No induction cooktop, no gas burner, no frying pan.
“Why?”
My despairing gaze turned toward the other side of the transparent boundary.
To the display shelves just one handspan—literally one handspan—beyond the tiles I owned.
There, a meat grill, a gas burner, and herb salt were displayed as if to mock me.
“Kgggggh...”
That's right. If I wanted cooking equipment and a grill, I had to claim ownership up to there.
Or I had to unlock the Living section tiles or the Camping section tiles at the opposite end.
“What idiot designed the floor's merchandise layout like this?! You could've put the grill right next to the meat!!!!”
What a fucking idiot. What a goddamn moron.
Couldn't they at least regenerate the sample grill? Why couldn't they do that either?!
“Fuuuuuck! Why can't I grill meat when I have meat!!!!”
No wonder things had seemed to be going so well.
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The next day, in the tiny bathroom attached to the hallway beside the disaster-control room.
I sat on the toilet, staring blankly into space with a pale face.
“Urgh... ugh... I think I'm going to die...”
If you're wondering how I ended up like this, the answer is simple.
“No... People eat beef raw all the time...”
Unable to give up like this, I threw away the last of my reason, tore open the packaging, and stuffed a chunk of bright-red 1++ Hanwoo straight into my mouth.
The rich flavor and texture of the meat fat melting the moment it touched my tongue!
There was no such thing. It was fucking gamey, greasy, and impossible to chew properly.
But out of sheer stubbornness—and pure spite—I finished an entire pack raw, basked in my mental victory, went to sleep, and woke up to this.
Grrrrrrr-!
An ominous rumble echoed from inside my stomach.
Think about it.
For six months, my stomach had only digested processed foods made almost entirely of preservatives, and then I suddenly dumped an entire kilo of greasy 1++-grade raw meat into it.
It was only natural for my guts to panic and immediately declare a strike.
“Please save me... I'm sorry... I'll never eat raw meat again...”
With no control over my sphincter, I endured the waterfall pouring out of me and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead.
By now, you can probably guess how I'd been using the bathroom over the past six months.
[Passive – Ownership]
- Immediately purifies pollutants within the area and ejects unauthorized hostile entities outside.
I had been making excellent use of the Blueprint Control skill's passive. Of course, I'll omit the details of how I did it.
In any case, that method had been efficient in many ways, but it made me feel like I was losing my dignity as a human being, so when I expanded the tiles this time, I also unlocked the bathroom beside the hallway.
“Fuck... If I'd given this up, I could've been grilling meat...”
But now that I had a bathroom and soap, I could wash myself too. Fuck, this is great.
“Sinsok-kun... Actually, I've never washed myself either...”
Of course, I was fine because of the pollutant-purification function. It just felt a little strange because I hadn't physically washed for six months.
“Ah, what do I do...”
But my meat-obsessed mania hadn't disappeared. If anything, it was burning even hotter.
Just as I was lost in thought in Rodin's Thinker pose.
Like a gut emptied by one satisfying flush, my mind cleared, and a flash of insight struck me.
“...Ah, right. I have to cook it.”
Why had humanity discovered fire and become the lord of all creation? So we wouldn't get sick from eating raw meat!
But I didn't have a gas burner. If so, what way was there to cook meat without fire?
“...Hot water from the purifier...!”
My cold-sweat-soaked gaze shone like that of a sage who had realized the truth.
Meat is delicious grilled, but it's delicious boiled too.
Shabu-shabu. Wasn't shabu-shabu, lightly blanching meat in boiling water, also an excellent meat dish?
Could I cook meat with hot water from the purifier?
“Fuck it. Let's try.”
I dragged my unsteady legs out of the bathroom.
I drained a cup of ramen and filled it with hot water from the purifier.
As the steaming hot water filled the ramen cup to the brim.
I carefully placed a chunk of 1++ Hanwoo, roughly cut into large pieces with a box cutter from the disaster-control room, into it.
“Cook... Please cook...!”
The top-grade Hanwoo slowly lost its redness in the hot water and turned grayish brown.
Whenever the water cooled, I poured in fresh hot water and repeated the process several times.
It was a horrifying cooking method that would probably make chefs clutch the backs of their necks and collapse, but those chefs had probably become ingredients for the Jomssaems, so I didn't care.
Blowing on my burned fingers, I retrieved a clumsily cooked slice of Hanwoo and carefully shoved it into my mouth.
“...!”
Lukewarm, mushy boiled-meat flavor with no salt and no charred taste.
But then.
“Sob... hnnng... It's fucking delicious...”
The rich flavor of the meat fat melted the moment it touched my tongue.
The moment the texture of actual meat—worlds apart from Spam—slid down my esophagus, my eyes welled up with tears.
“Fuck... This is meat... *sob*...”
I dunked the Hanwoo into the hot purifier water again and again, inhaling it without even noticing my hands getting burned.
Whenever it seemed too bland from having no seasoning, I dipped it in ramen seasoning powder to add flavor.
“Ah... ahhh, fuck... It's so delicious. It's really so...”
It was a genuinely moving flavor.
****
“Hoooo... This is what sex feels like...”
Two hours after I demolished two packs of Hanwoo in ramen-seasoning shabu-shabu.
Once my stomach was full, a realistic, cold calculation finally crossed my mind.
“I should think about this a little more rationally.”
Owning the meat section? I wouldn't regret it even if I died.
That hot-water shabu-shabu had been fucking delicious, and from now on, I'd be eating all sorts of things with my own bizarre cooking methods.
Owning the bathroom? I don't need to say much, but that was a fucking excellent choice.
“Fuck, looking back, I think I've been living like an ape until now.”
What I meant was that this incident had made me realize I needed to start using my head.
“Okay. An evolving shut-in freeloader.”
I patted my full stomach and activated the [Blueprint Control] skill, bringing up the blueprint of Starplex's first basement level.
Come to think of it, this was the first basement level of a massive shopping complex that had everything.
[Seafood Section]
[Produce Section]
[Living, Camping Section]
[Liquor/Wine Section]
[Instant Deli / Bakery Section]
...
I could make a rough assessment now.
“First priority is definitely the Living and Camping sections...”
I couldn't grill meat without a gas burner and a grill, of course.
“I should be able to find convenient daily necessities like sleeping bags too.”
It was a valuable section that could serve as the foundation for upgrading my personal disaster-control room.
Next.
“Alcohol? It's not really my thing.”
Still, you never knew. I had no idea how alcohol would be regarded in the outside world.
Well, it seemed like everything would sell well.
“I'll pass for now.”
I cast my gaze toward the area beside the bathroom in the disaster-control-room hallway.
“I wonder if I can claim the elevator too...”
I didn't know whether this was a limitation of my skill level or something else, but with my current ability, I could only see the blueprint for the first basement level.
My guess was that once I owned the entire floor, I might be able to see the blueprints for the other floors too, but I wasn't certain.
“The thing is, I don't know what's on the other floors.”
I needed to inspect everything in greater detail before claiming the appropriate tiles.
“I want to wear some new clothes too.”
Anyone who knows I've worn the same clothes for six months: ㄱ-
If I remembered correctly, there was also a swimming pool and a hotel. But those were matters for the distant future.
There was no way I could manage those right now.
[To own a new tile, upgrade ‘Blueprint Control (Lv.3)’]
[Mana stones required for the next level up: 50,000]
Owning a new tile required an insanely large amount of mana stones. Holy shit.
“Then let's pay the rent first...”
[Mana stones currently owned: 9,000]
From the mana stones left after the tile upgrade, I paid 6,000 mana stones as maintenance first.
[Spending 6,000 mana stones to extend the ownership period.]
[Existing remaining ownership period: 57 days 3 hours 35 minutes]
▼
[Current remaining ownership period: 62 days 4 hours 1 minute]
“…?”
I doubted my eyes.
“Wow... Fuck. I threw in 6,000, and it only goes up by five days?”
That worked out to a daily maintenance fee of a whopping 1,200 mana stones.
Fuck, look at that mana-stone inflation.
[Warning! As the number of controlled tiles and facilities increases, the daily maintenance fee will rise sharply!]
“Ah... I really need to calculate this before expanding, don't I...?”
I couldn't just be happy about moving into a bigger home.
The bigger the house, the more they gouged me for rent and maintenance too.
“Kraaaargh!!”
[Mana stones currently owned: 3,000]
“Should I just live in a one-room rental...?”
Just as my pitiful mana-stone balance made me break into a cold sweat at the thought that one wrong decision could leave me completely screwed.
Ding-!
[You have cleared Building Master Main Quest 2!]
[Objective: Unlock and own a new tile!] (Complete)
[Reward 1: 10-day free-rental ticket (maintenance fee waived)]
[Reward 2: 1 additional sales-slot expansion ticket]
Ah, right, there had been a quest. Ten days of free rent and an additional sales-slot expansion?
[Current remaining ownership period: 72 days 4 hours 1 minute]
“Fuck... That scared the hell out of me...”
I almost got too close to Jomssaem for real.
Just as I was rubbing my chest in relief, a new notification window appeared immediately.
[Building Master Main Quest 3: Reach 30% ownership of the floor you currently possess]
[Current ownership: 10% (10/100 tiles)]
[Reward: Unlock a new ability????]
“Oh, 30% of the first basement level...”
I currently owned a total of ten tiles.
The four starting tiles—the Food, Beverage, and Processed Food sections—plus the six tiles I had just expanded into—the Meat Section and bathroom—came to exactly 10%, more or less.
“So that means I need to claim about twenty more tiles.”
Until now, the rewards had been mana stones, but the next quest said it would grant a new ability.
Then the conclusion was obvious.
“So basically, I have to work hard at running a business...?”
I still didn't know the full potential of this Building Master ability, but it was definitely a god-tier ability that gave me both stability and nail-biting dopamine.
But as I mulled over the quest's conditions, I soon licked my lips.
“It's a little disappointing...”
Tch. I wish it had given me free ownership of a tile.
“I want to eat grilled meat right now, damn it.”
Isn't there any way to get it without lifting a finger?
“No... I said I'd run a proper business.”
After steeling my resolve, I opened the gallery.
I had no choice but to doubt my eyes.
- System, please look at this post!!! [555]
- S-bung is proving he follows the System's great cause today ㅇㅇ [443]
- System, please inspect this;; [5563]
- I-I'm embarrassed, but please look, Shopkeeper... [442]
....
The users were frantically looking for me.
“Why the fuck are these guys acting like this...?”