Chapter 3
After crying my eyes out for quite a while, I wiped my tears and steeled myself.
“Boss... Someday, I’ll make sure to hold a proper memorial rite for you.”
I swore that someday I would recover Boss’s remains and make him a proper grave.
A grave like this could never honor Boss’s achievements.
Come to think of it, this was the first proper goal I’d ever set for myself after living my whole life as a loser.
“To do that, I have to survive first.”
First things first: I had to assess the situation.
What on earth had happened to the other survivors and the other regions?
I immediately opened the newbie must-read post listed in the announcements.
Title: I Wrote a Guide for Newbie Stalkers for the First Time in a While
Hello, you Sbung bastards.
The gallery you’ve logged into is the Metropolitan Area Survivor Gallery, yeah.
But you can just think of it as the Gyeonggi Area Gallery.
You’re probably itching to go out and pick up scrap now that you’ve awakened, but know at least this much before you go.
Red Zone: Northernmost Seongnam, Jamsil area.
Even now, it’s a hellgate where only one out of ten Stalkers who go in manages to return alive.
Most of the Hunter bros are Awakened from this place, yeah.
There’s an insane amount of stuff to farm right now, but newbies get killed in three seconds if they go.
The level of the zombies that spawn there is fucking ridiculous too, so leave it to veterans or Hunter bros.
Orange Zone & Yellow Zone: outskirts of Pangyo, Bundang/Suwon
This is your main stage. The front-line defensive zones where waves come rolling in and unexplored territory (Orange)
refugee camps (Yellow) coexist here.
This place is at least better. Go farm mana stones here.
Green Zone: southern Bundang, central Suwon
An artificial paradise on earth.
The inside of the walls built by Awakened and rich people immediately after the apocalypse, who poured mana stones into them like water.
The tutorial ended fastest here, and the gallery opened first, but it also produced the most weak-ass Awakened.
But the Hunter bros cleared part of the area entirely, so it’s practically a White Zone now, yeah.
Most rich people and Hunter bros live here, so figure out how to kiss their asses well.
But I still can’t get in, fuck lol.
+1 for the guide post.
ㄴ +1 for the newbie post, yeah.
Newbies, stop acting tough and going to the Red Zone, fuck.
ㄴ Last time I took two useless bastards there, we almost got wiped out.
Don’t feel safe just because it’s the Yellow Zone.
ㄴ It hasn’t been cleared, so zombies still come out.
ㄴ Last time the whole village got infected and they mobilized a shitload of Stalkers, fuck.
“Oh my...”
With over ten years on the forum under my belt, I’d finished assessing the situation.
As expected, the outside world had long since turned into a society of survival of the fittest.
Each region had been divided according to the danger level designated by the system into Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red Zones, and so on.
The powerful Awakened were called Stalkers and went into dangerous areas to farm.
The weaker Awakened and ordinary people with personal weapons were called ragpickers and rats, and operated as such.
And the strongest Awakened, after receiving certification from the Control Bureau, worked as Hunters.
“How much had Uncle Niki Twaa seen coming...!”
A game about picking up scrap had become reality.
“But why does it stop at the Red Zone?”
I said I was in the Black Zone from the start. Besides, there wasn’t a word about Seoul either.
“Let’s ask.”
Judging by the atmosphere, I probably should have lurked for three months before posting, but I didn’t have time now.
So I wrote a post under a throwaway username.
Title: [OP] Guys, what is the Black Zone?
I’ve been in Yeouido since the first day of the apocalypse—what happened to Seoul?
I expected comments to appear quickly, but.
“What the...”
Surprisingly, no one paid attention.
Don’t feed the troll.
ㄴ The concept of someone claiming they’d been in Yeouido from the very first day of the apocalypse is kind of fresh, though lol.
A Black Zone Awakened on a throwaway, lmao.
ㄴ +1 for originality.
The few comments I got treated me like a roleplayer.
“But why?”
[OP] No, I’m seriously in Yeouido;;
ㄴ Uh-huh, sure, sure.
ㄴ If you’re really an Awakened from Yeouido, you’d have become a Hunter-granddaddy-level Awakened, not a Hunter.
ㄴ Hurry over to Jamsil and clear the Red Zone for us lol.
Why are you still slogging away over there?
ㄴ Come here, put the Hunter bros in their place, and live in Tower Palace in the Green Zone.
The Black Zone aside, even the Red Zone’s difficulty is fucking insane right now.
ㄴ You were there from the beginning? Now that sounds believable, mm-hmm.
“Fuck.”
That was right.
Yeouido, where I was, along with Gangnam, Jongno, and the rest of Seoul, was the source of the apocalypse.
Not only had no Awakened from there ever appeared, it was a brutally difficult area that no one could even approach.
Just don’t associate with anyone who claims to be from the Black Zone, yeah.
ㄴ They’re 100% scammers, for real.
No worries. Those bastards all got IRL-raided after the head mod traced their IPs, yeah.
ㄴ Oh, right lol.
If you look up their IPs, they’re from the Green Zone lol.
ㄴ The head mod’s real-life raids are legendary every time, for real.
I once watched a helicopter hovering over Seoul get sucked in by tentacles lol.
ㄴ It was fucking creepy, yeah.
Come to think of it, what happened to northern Gyeonggi?
ㄴ Northern Gyeonggi was wiped out. I added it to the announcement.
ㄴ Huh?
ㄴ Wave came down from the DMZ + close to Black Zone Seoul > explanation complete.
ㄴ Ahh.
On top of that, northern Gyeonggi had been physically overrun and completely wiped out by the zombie wave that came down from the DMZ.
So, in practice, this Metropolitan Area Gallery was a Seoul team without Seoul, excluding northern Gyeonggi and Seoul.
It was effectively the Gyeonggi Southern Survivor Gallery.
“...”
In the end, it meant that not only Yeouido but all of this vast Seoul was the Black Zone, and I was truly the only one left here.
Anyone who survives for a certain amount of time in one of the zones divided by the system becomes Awakened. Their strength is proportional to the difficulty of the zone where they spent that time.
“Then how powerful must Boss have been...?”
He must truly have been an Awakened powerful enough to be a Hunter’s granddaddy.
“But what am I...?”
[Name: Shin Sok]
[Architect: You are the absolute ruler of buildings and domains.]
“Absolute ruler, my ass...”
Even so, it was a utility ability, not even a combat ability...
Mana stones VS life << How long am I supposed to keep playing this shitty balancing game?
ㄴ Until the world is rebuilt, yeah.
ㄴ Ah lol, fucking hell lol.
Getting mana stones by killing zombies was shitty enough...
ㄴ A life where you even have to pick up scraps...
At least give us a lot of mana stones, fuck.
ㄴ The fact that they’re only given out randomly is seriously fucking annoying lol.
ㄴ For real, at least make them guaranteed;;
They only drop guaranteed starting from the Orange Zone;;
ㄴ How the fuck are we supposed to get there?
ㄴ The zombies there are pretty twisted, you know...
While everyone else was risking their lives to kill zombies and pick up scraps for mana stones,
all I had to do was designate an invincible zone, open a shop, and click-click my way to mana stones by selling things...
“Ugh... fuuuck... this is fucking easy mode...”
It was fucking easy mode...
“This is fucking easy mode!!!!!”
In games, the ultimate overpowered build usually comes from utility, not combat ability.
So I was an SSSR-grade Awakened too!!!
“Yoshi!!!!”
[Warning: Insufficient mana stones to extend ownership]
[Mana stones held: 0]
[Time remaining on ownership: 4 days 22 hours 35 minutes]
[Ownership will be revoked when the period ends.]
“From now on, I’ll buckle down, run a proper business, and live an upstanding life!”
With that, I opened the member list.
[Invite members to use the shop]
[Current list of gallery users you can invite]
1. YouPunkYouth
2. ZombieLover
3. SbungSbung
...
I picked one at random to test it out.
“Okay, you’re the one!!”
*****
At the same time.
In the basement of an abandoned commercial building on the outskirts of Bundang’s Orange Zone, where only its bare skeleton remained.
“Huff-! Huff-!”
A man using a throwaway username on the Survivor Gallery let out ragged breaths through lips parched from thirst.
Outside was hell itself.
“Grrr...”
He could hear hulking mutants prowling amid the gaps in the half-collapsed concrete rubble.
“F-fuck...”
His entire body was covered in wounds, and his left leg, pinned beneath the rubble, was particularly bad.
He had staunched the bleeding with scraps of clothing, but...
The real problem was dehydration and infection.
He hadn’t been able to wash his wounds, and during the three days he’d been trapped, he hadn’t had so much as a sip of water, let alone a meal.
At this rate, he might die of thirst before being torn apart by them.
That was why he had squeezed the last scraps of reason from himself and posted on the gallery.
Title: [Purchase] Please... just one bottle of clean water... 80 mana stones
I’m in the basement of Chonggak Dabang in the Orange Zone, and my leg’s injured so I can’t move... My party was wiped out.
This isn’t really a trap, I’m probably going to die of dehydration first...
If someone comes here and leaves me one bottle of water, I’ll handle the escape myself... Or please just leave it somewhere nearby...
Isn’t that the raiders’ turf?
ㄴ The area around Chonggak Dabang is a famous baiting spot, yeah.
ㄴ I’m not falling for it, bro.
ㄴ What a fucking trap.
The difficulty there is fucking hellish to begin with;;
ㄴ 80 mana stones including bottled water and delivery fee is kind of cheap, though?
ㄴ The thing about these posts: if you go, they ask you to rescue them too.
ㄴ For real lol.
ㄴ No way, add an extra charge immediately!
“I’m not going in there in the first place.”
ㄴ That’s the one.
But all he got in return were mocking comments.
“Yeah... Who’d be crazy enough to come here...”
What lunatic would risk his life to personally deliver a single bottle of water all the way to this deathtrap just to sell it?
“If there is a god... grant me a merciful end...”
Just as the man’s head drooped and his vision began to flicker.
[You have been invited to the Starplex Shop!]
-Starplex-
[Item: Oda Water 500ML]
[Price: 20 mana stones]
[Stock: 5/5]
“W-what is this...?”
It was clearly a UI similar to the status window, but in a completely unfamiliar format.
“W-was this here before...?”
Had the system received a new patch?
[Delivered immediately upon purchase]
It would be delivered?
“Or is this some new... abnormal phenomenon...?”
There was no time to think.
He was at his limit, and if a bottle of water really cost that much, it was absurdly cheap.
“Fuck... At least I have nothing to lose...!”
With bloodied fingers, he set the quantity to 2 and pressed the [Purchase] button.
[Purchase of 2 bottles of Oda Water 500ml complete]
[40 mana stones deducted.]
“Huh...? Huh?”
Then the mana stones he’d hidden in his inner pocket scattered into the air and vanished.
[The items will be delivered to the buyer’s coordinates.]
No sooner had the system’s blue notification window disappeared than space tore open before his eyes.
Whack-! Whack-!
The items that shot out of that space hit the man squarely in the face before falling to the floor.
“Ah... Ow, fuck, what the hell...!”
Roll-roll-!
Two clear plastic bottles rolled across the dust-covered floor.
Forgetting his pain, the man’s gaze locked onto the bottles.
“No way... N-no way...”
Frost whitened the outside of the bottles, then melted into beads of water that trickled down.
The liquid inside wasn’t cloudy.
They weren’t rainwater or muddy water, either.
The chill at his feet told him for certain.
It was bottled water from before the apocalypse, freshly taken from a refrigerator.
“This is impossible...”
It was impossible.
He hadn’t drunk water freshly removed from a refrigerator even once since the apocalypse.
“F-fuck, I’m alive. I’m alive!!”
But this wasn’t the time to worry about such things.
He opened the cap and poured the water into his mouth.
Coolness flowed down his throat, and he felt hydration spread through his entire body.
“Ahh... It’s divine grace...!”
Those words slipped from the man’s mouth without him realizing it.
“Th-thank you...!! Thank you!!!!”
He clasped his hands and prayed while looking up at the sky.