Chapter 33
[Blueprint Copy. Lv.1]
Active: Designate a tile owned by an Awakened and paste it unchanged at a specific coordinate or location.
Passive: The copied offline area will change its functions appropriately according to the number, shape, and purpose of the copied tiles.
Blueprint Copy, huh.
Does that really mean I can copy the tiles I own, exactly as stated? And even paste them at specific coordinates or locations?
“Isn't this a good thing...?”
This seems fucking amazing, doesn't it?
If I can paste the tiles I own at specific coordinates or locations, isn't that fucking amazing?
“Fuck...?”
A legendary SSSR-rank Awakened has appeared.
Who am I?
“I'm a Building Master. A build-ing mas-ter.”
An Awakened from the Black Zone. Architecture, the Building Master.
“Kheh-heh-heh!!!”
Just from the explanation, it obviously seems insanely overpowered.
“But I'm Speedrun. I won't be getting pushed around so easily anymore.”
This fucking System.
In other words, the real System bastard, not me, wouldn't just hand out an overpowered ability.
“There must be some harsh payback attached.”
It clearly must demand something from me, that's for sure.
Thus, I began slowly reading through the explanation that followed.
[Tile Copy (Construction Fee): First 2 copies free]
[Currently copyable tiles: 0/2]
[Offline maintenance fee: Additional maintenance fee incurred according to the purpose of the copied tiles]
“Huh?”
So the first two copies were free, and all it did was increase the daily maintenance cost?
“This is fucking sweet, isn't it?”
No, this System bastard is surprisingly decent?
But there was more explanation below.
[Blueprint Copy: Offline Store Permissions]
- The System judges the original purpose of the copied tiles and helps create value beneficial to the Awakened, such as admission fees, usage fees, and sales revenue.
“Oh?”
My eyes lit up. It didn't just copy the tiles and preserve their functions; it helped create value too.
In other words?
Because the System wasn't some dumbass.
It meant it wasn't saying it would make me suffer an unconditional loss.
Right! That's more like it!
“Praise the System.”
The System really did have a purpose all along.
[Mana stones currently held: 89,000]
[Ownership period remaining: 64 days 23 hours 11 minutes]
For now, the ownership period was generous, and 109,000 mana stones came in every three days.
It seemed like I had plenty of leeway for now.
Of course, I'd need to calculate carefully. There was a separate additional maintenance cost too.
“S-s... s-simple...”
Simple math is hard.
But I really liked the ability itself.
The fact that I could set up offline stores would help the people outside too.
Which meant it would be a huge help with my mana-stone situation as well.
“Krrrgh, System, now that's some consideration.”
[Currently copyable tiles: 0/2]
Of course, the fact that I could only copy two tiles for now was a little disappointing.
But the number of tiles I could copy would increase when I leveled up. It was fine for now.
“Anyway.”
Then let's figure out what they need first.
Since I was opening an offline store anyway, I wanted to copy the tiles that would help them the most.
The tiles most directly tied to their survival and most likely to be used.
“I have to strike a balance in everything.”
Helping others was embarrassing, but it helped my mana-stone situation.
I opened the Gallery.
- Damn, soaking green-onion-flavored cereal in water turns it into an apocalypse lol [3323]
- Mint-choco bars <<< brushing your teeth and eating at the same time, top-tier [2212]
- Oda Sujwa made with nothing but bottled water, verification lol [332]
....
The Gallery was still overflowing with posts about the food I'd sold a little while ago.
- Got backstabbed by the party members I trusted and my hideout got looted... Are they even human? [156]
- Can't find a new hideout, fuck;; Take me in... [123]
- Scraped myself on rusty rebar and I think it's tetanus... Any party with antibiotics? [32]
- I've slept in blood-crusted clothes for a month and now my skin's completely fucked... I want to wash, seriously [89]
- The soles of my shoes have completely fallen off, so I'm walking barefoot, and I stepped on glass, fuck... [34]
- I just pulled out my tooth raw (verification) [332]
....
Past the jubilant proof posts, desperate screams about survival were still buried all over the Gallery.
“Tsk...”
I naturally logged in with the Unemployed Troublemaker account instead of the Shop's official account, then casually tossed a post into the Gallery.
Title : [Unemployed Troublemaker] What are you guys having the hardest time with right now?
Just got curious all of a sudden ㅇㅇ
The comments began popping up one after another as if they'd been waiting for me to post.
Just living.
ㄴ Breathing, fuck
ㄴ Waking up and finding the world still hasn't ended (even though it already has)
It already ended, my ass lol
ㄴ For real, when is the world going to actually end already!!!
ㄴ Let me go painlessly...
ㄴ Yeah lol
Watching you shitpost in the Gallery ㅇㅇ
ㄴ [Unemployed Troublemaker] ;;
“Man, you guys are hilarious.”
Grinning, I typed another comment.
[Unemployed Troublemaker] No, seriously, what sucks the most?? Personally, it's having to look at zombies every day ㅇㅇ
It wasn't a lie.
“Jomssaem is pretty fucking difficult.”
I was serious.
Oh, seriously?
ㄴ Hmm...
ㄴ Zombies are honestly fine since I see them while scavenging every day
ㄴ Maybe when you have nowhere to sleep?
ㄴ It's fucking hard without a hideout
Hideouts <<< Anyone who has one is a bourgeois lol
ㄴ Ever been attacked by hunting dogs or another party while sleeping?
ㄴ For real, it's fucking shitty lol
ㄴ I want to sleep somewhere warm and soft until I black out ㅇㅇ
For me, washing and clothes...
ㄴ I haven't been able to change even one pair of underwear, so my eczema and fungus are completely fucked, for real lol
I'm most afraid when I have to relieve myself ㅇㅇ
ㄴ For real. Imagining a Runner charging at me while I'm pissing is giving me chills ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Ah, fuck
ㄴ This is fucking terrifying
ㄴ I'm not sleeping tonight, bro
Minor ailments <<< this bastard is fucking JOAT lol
ㄴ For real, before the apocalypse one Tylenol would have fixed it...
ㄴ Now if you get sick and can't treat it properly, you're fucking dead!
Still, stronger Awakened
ㄴ seem to have resistance to zombie infection
ㄴ and seem resistant to disease too ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Guess that's because we're not them lol
Still, seeing the Shop constantly getting updated, maybe it'll sell medicine or sleeping bags later...? I hope so ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Gotta keep the hope alive somehow, fuck ㅇㅇ
ㄴ 22...
ㄴ The Shop really is the only light
ㄴ If the System in this fucking world hadn't been patched, I'd have bitten my tongue and died a long time ago ㅇㅇ
Everyone answered much more seriously than I'd expected.
“But it really is hard...?”
I was going to comment that the hardest thing was burning the meat because I messed up the heat, but I decided not to.
Besides.
“What the hell. We need all of it.”
They were risking their lives every day because they couldn't even satisfy humanity's three most basic needs.
“This is fucking great?”
No matter which tile I copied and installed, it seemed like usage fees would pour in. This was a total blue ocean.
But on the other hand, another thought occurred to me.
“This isn't fucking great...?”
Fuck. So that's why so many people had been dying.
They weren't merely dealing with zombies; they were living in an almost wild environment because of the lack of infrastructure.
“Living like this... sure isn't easy...”
Okay, okay, I've figured out what they need for now.
I wanted to solve everything for them all at once, but I was only allowed to copy a measly two tiles.
“Tsk...”
I rested my chin on my hand and stared intently at the blueprint of B1 floating in the air.
Something that could yield the greatest efficiency with only two tiles amid all those countless shortages.
A tile that they needed more than anything, with explosive demand guaranteed—and that would earn me piles of mana stones.
“Fuck, then this is obviously it.”
I made my decision without hesitation.
*****
A village near Migeum Station, on the border between the Orange and Yellow Zones.
Mornings here always began with a vicious stench.
“Ugh... the smell...”
A female Stalker brushed back her stiffly matted hair and let out a deep sigh.
Six months after the apocalypse.
In this world where law and morality had collapsed, the first things to disappear were not public safety or anything like that, but hygiene and human dignity.
It had been a long time since anyone had even glimpsed the most basic infrastructure, let alone running water and electricity.
The alleys around the station where survivors clustered and the half-collapsed apartment complexes were nothing short of public restrooms.
Feces and filth formed mountains in the corners by the exits and in every shop, tangled together with rotting corpses until the stench numbed their noses.
“I want to wash... Seriously... Just once, I want to wash properly.”
The blood and organ fluid she'd been splashed with while fighting a mutant a few days ago had clung to her clothes and skin and hardened like a helmet.
Mold and eczema had broken out, making her itch so badly she wanted to scratch her skin raw.
But in this changed world, washing one's body with clean water itself was a luxury.
When there wasn't even enough water to drink, where would water for washing come from?
“Please... There should've been at least a little water collected today...”
Scratching her itchy arm, she headed toward an isolated vacant lot.
This was a blind spot where she'd secretly installed a makeshift filtration device a few days ago using discarded plastic bottles, charcoal, and scraps of cloth.
If even a few drops of dew collected overnight, she planned to use it to wipe at least the crusted blood stuck to her face.
“Please... even just a little.”
Just as she moistened her parched lips and was about to peer into the dirt-stained collection basin of the filtration device.
Vrrrrrr-!
Suddenly, a geometric grid pattern spread out from thin air, and space began to distort.
“A zombie?”
The woman recoiled in horror and fell backward.
Fwoooosh-!
A blinding flash swept over her, so intense she couldn't open her eyes.
And where the light receded, an incongruous structure stood tall, utterly out of place in the ruined world.
“W-What is that...?”
Her pupils trembled minutely as if struck by an earthquake.
What had appeared in the middle of the ruins was a square, cube-like facility finished in unbelievably white, smooth marble tiles.
Softly glowing indirect LED lights. Immaculately clear automatic glass doors.
Hum.
Along with the quiet whir of a ventilation fan, dry, cool air flowed out from inside and brushed her cheeks.
“Ah...”
And the scent carried on that breeze.
The subtle, refreshing fragrance of a lavender diffuser—the sort she might have smelled only in a department-store bathroom before the apocalypse.
Forgetting her itch, she rose and slowly approached the place.
The interior beyond the glass doors was even more unreal.
A dry floor without a trace of moisture.
A large, spotless mirror, and beneath it a gleaming stainless-steel faucet and pump dispenser of liquid hand soap.
Three-ply embossed toilet paper rolls neatly hanging on the wall, and even a gleaming Western-style toilet.
The woman doubted her own eyes.
“I can wash... here...? Water comes out...?”
She murmured, studying her own appearance reflected in the glass doors.
“Th-This can't be….”
She extended a trembling hand and carefully gripped the glass door handle as if touching a sacred relic.
Ding!
The firmly shut door wouldn't open; instead, a translucent blue holographic window popped up before her eyes.
[-Starplex Women's Restroom-]
[Usage time : 10 minutes]
[Admission fee : 10 mana stones]
[Would you like to pay?]
“...Huh?”
She drew in a breath.
That distinctive blue window.
The payment system requesting mana stones.
And above all, that familiar name.
“D-Did the System... build a restroom...? For us...?”