Chapter 4
A gallery brimming with juicy rumors in the Southern Metropolitan Area Survivor Gallery.
- Zombies showed up in the refugee camp, you bastards!! [661]
- Those soldier bastards are total thugs, huh? [341]
- I'll teach you how to pick up women [331]
- Face-to-face trade at Moran Station Exit 1, come on [111]
- The post above is a scammer lol [421]
One post that didn't belong there suddenly appeared.
Title: I'm the bastard who just said he was trapped in Chonggak Dabang and needed water
You fucking bastards, I don't need any of you anymore.
(Roughly, a photo of Oda Water 500ml. JPG)
Can you see it?
It's not lukewarm muddy water or filtered sewage, but actual bottled water!!!!
And not just that—it's genuinely cold water, like it was just taken out of a refrigerator! Real bottled water!!
This even took care of my wound infection for now, and I barely managed to avoid dehydration!!!
Fuck, I can use the shop!!
???
ㄴ ??
ㄴ What the hell is this guy?
ㄴ What are you talking about?
Are you schizophrenic?
ㄴ Oh, this is that guy who said he was trapped in Chonggak Dabang.
ㄴ The bastard who said he didn't need rescuing, just asked someone to bring him one bottle of water lol.
The contents of the proof post were clear.
He'd been trapped in the middle of the Orange Zone and barely survived with bottled water obtained from a shop.
How'd you manage that?
ㄴ He said he barely got water before dying from dehydration and infection.
No, you bastard, I know that much too.
ㄴ I'm asking how you got water out there.
ㄴ He said he bought it from a shop.
ㄴ Is there a shop there?
ㄴ You think there'd be one?? Are raiders running a business to make a living?
ㄴ Yeah, exactly lol.
What a dedicated troll, you idiot lol.
ㄴ When was the last time you saw Oda Water that clean? lol
ㄴ He's just scamming people by claiming he has water this clean, yeah.
ㄴ How the hell would you get water that clean in the Orange Zone? lol
But the users' reactions were cold.
Naturally.
Obtaining water that clean in the middle of the Orange Zone, overflowing with raiders and mutant stray dogs, was impossible.
There were also scammers everywhere who used Awakening abilities like illusions and freezing skills to fake the condition of items.
But this was still a gallery.
Users who were experts at analyzing photos began leaving comments one by one.
Title: Hey, fuck, wait a second
That bottled water isn't fake.
?
ㄴ It's obviously a fake made from a pre-apocalypse photo.
ㄴ No, you idiot, look at the background.
ㄴ Look at the angle of the collapsed rebar and the blood spatter on the floor tiles.
ㄴ And the basement of Chonggak Dabang in the background is exactly the same, fuck.
Huh...?
ㄴ Fuck, you're right...?
ㄴ And look at the condensation on the bottle. It's really cold.
ㄴ Wait, then that Oda Water is real...?
ㄴ It's really bottled water taken from a refrigerator...?
Where did you get it? Where did you get it? Where did you get it?
ㄴ How did you get it? How did you get it?
ㄴ How do you have something that even the Green Zone bastards drink?
[OP] It was delivered, yeah.
ㄴ Delivered...?
ㄴ Who came to you?
[OP] No, I bought it from a shop, then a space opened up and it flew straight at me from right in front of my eyes.
ㄴ [OP] It smacked me in the face and gave me a bloody nose;; But who cares? I drank clean water, lol.
ㄴ It flew straight at you?
ㄴ Is that even possible...?
How much does that cost?
ㄴ Wouldn't it start at 200 mana stones?
ㄴ At least 150, yeah.
[OP] No, I bought it for 20 mana stones.
ㄴ ???
ㄴ 20 mana stones???
ㄴ That clean bottled water costs 20 mana stones...?
ㄴ No way...
No, how do you buy it??!!
ㄴ Where's that shop!!!!
ㄴ How do you get into that shop?
That little breadcrumb Oda Water Bro tossed out—or rather, the mysterious system-shop rumor—began to snowball.
[OP] I don't know either. A moment ago, an invitation suddenly flew at me like a status window, and the shop window opened, so I bought it, yeah.
ㄴ Wait, you were invited?
ㄴ I'm asking how you got invited.
ㄴ Me too! Invite me too!
[OP] I don't know, but you bastards should work hard and get invited too, you vermin, yeah.
ㄴ No, how are we supposed to work hard enough to get invited!!!
ㄴ You have to explain it for us to know!!!!
You fucking bastard, tell us!!
ㄴ Tell us!!!
ㄴ Aaaaaaah!!!!
ㄴ Die trying to escape!!!
And with Oda Water Bro disappearing like that,
the rumor about the shop began to swell out of control across the gallery.
****
[Sale completed]
[Delivery completed]
I stared blankly at the messages floating in front of me.
“Huh? What? It really sold?”
[100 mana stones deposited]
Rrrrrk-!
Along with the message, mana stones tore through the air and dropped into my space.
“Oh, fuck!! It sold!! It sold!!!”
The first item I registered was bottled water.
I didn't have to think very hard about it.
Water was obviously a necessity, so I figured it would sell and registered just five bottles to start.
-Starplex-
[Item: Oda Water 500ML]
[Price: 20 mana stones]
[Stock: 0/5]
And then it sold immediately.
But something else was even more astonishing.
“No, it really gets delivered?”
At first, I was a little flustered when it asked me to enter the delivery coordinates.
I entered the user's IP address, and at the same time an alert sounded, the Oda Water 500ML in my refrigerator vanished into thin air.
“This is some seriously ultra-advanced technology.”
It can pinpoint a location using an IP address? It's practically biological GPS.
“But he bought only two at first, then suddenly bought three more.”
Was the customer really that thirsty?
“Hmm, that's a huge win for me.”
I was about to brush it off like that when—
“Wait. How much is the going rate outside for him to buy it so desperately...?”
I'd been in too much of a hurry to check the market price before registering it.
I immediately read through the posts in the gallery's trading section.
- 3L rainwater, 90 mana stones, face-to-face trade only, comment if interested [312]
- Personally purified water, 40 mana stones, face-to-face trade [121]
- Carbonated water farmed in the Orange Zone, starting at 150 [12]
- No idea what water source this came from; if you're a real man, drink it, 15 mana stones, come on [112]
“What the fuck...”
Even sewage basically started at around 40 mana stones, didn't it?
My bottled water straight from the refrigerator was 20 mana stones. Isn't the balance on this thing weird?
[The system determines an appropriate product price at its discretion]
“Damn it, you system bastard... You run a business way too honestly!!!”
Has this system never been to a traditional market?
Doesn't it know about the time-honored tradition of price gouging and making the customer name a price first?
“Oof, my stomach...! No way!”
How could the system run a business with such spotless integrity, without a shred of shame before the heavens?
As a full-time trader, I couldn't tolerate such behavior.
“Sheesh...”
It hurt that the automatic pricing system wouldn't let me gouge customers as I pleased, but there was nothing I could do.
At least obtaining mana stones was fortunate, and it meant the outside world must be an absolute disaster.
“If bottled water is worth 20 mana stones, how much could I get for Spam?”
To soothe my disappointment, I picked up a can of Spam from the shelf and tried to register it in the shop as an additional item.
Before starting business in earnest, I needed to check how the shop system worked and test a few things.
But my plan was stopped by a fussy warning window.
Ding-!
[Your skill level is too low]
[Current registration slots (Lv.1): 1 / 1]
[Mana stones required for upgrade: 1,000]
[Maximum registrations per slot (Lv.1): 100]
[Mana stones required for upgrade: 1,000]
“At my current level, I can only have one type of product, and the registration limit is capped at 100 per type...”
Then could I accept more members?
[Current number of members (Lv.1): 1 / 100]
[Mana stones required for upgrade: 1,000]
“Hmm.”
After poking around and testing the holographic windows by myself, the conclusion was clear.
I had to pay maintenance for the tiles, too.
Increasing the types of items I could sell—the slots—or the quantity of stock also cost mana stones. So did increasing the membership limit.
“This thing is a total mana-stone guzzler.”
There are holes everywhere for mana stones to leak out.
“Then let's extend the ownership first.”
[Warning!]
[Time remaining on ownership: 4 days 22 hours 35 minutes]
The steadily decreasing ownership time made me deeply uneasy.
So I pushed the 100 mana stones I'd just obtained into the system window.
[The ownership period for the 4 tiles controlled by Blueprint Control will be extended.]
[100 mana stones deducted]
[Extension period: 48 hours]
[Time remaining on ownership: 6 days 22 hours 35 minutes]
The period was extended in proportion to the mana stones I paid.
“Two days...! Nice!”
The fun thing about this ability was that it wasn't just a simple click-and-go utility.
It was a dopamine-fueled ability that even gave me the enormous thrill of watching my lifespan increase in real time.
[Architect Main Quest 1 cleared!]
[Objective: Defeat one mutant, obtain a mana stone, and extend your ownership!] (Complete)
[Reward: 100 mana stones granted]
On top of that, the quest had cleared even though I hadn't killed a zombie.
“That cleared...?”
Heh heh. What a sloppy system bastard.
“And it's giving me another 100 mana stones, too?”
What a generous system.
[Architect Main Quest 2: Unlock and claim ownership of a new tile!] (NEW!)
And a new quest had opened as well.
“Oh, nice! Nice!”
Unlocking and claiming ownership of a new tile. It was the perfect goal for me, wasn't it?
I turned my gaze toward another area inside the supermarket, beyond my current ownership.
Thunk-!
The other sections of the supermarket were faintly visible behind Zombie-sensei, who had held his position solidly for six months.
[Meat Section]
[Seafood Section]
“...Eating nothing but canned Spam and ramen every day is getting old.”
Now that I was trapped here alone and had become an Architect, I couldn't spend my whole life eating canned food.
[You do not have control of the entire building. Secure ownership starting with your desired area.]
[To own new tiles, upgrade ‘Blueprint Control (Lv.1)’]
[Mana stones required for the next level: 5,000]
If I claimed those delicious sections with my ability, I could restart their equipment and refill their stock, too.
Then I could eat beef, fried shrimp, frozen food—whatever I wanted. Right?
If I claimed the floors above this one, I could bring in all kinds of convenience goods and furniture, too.
“When was the last time I slept in a bed...?”
Yeah.
The place I was in was the source of the apocalypse, a zone no one else could enter.
So what if it was the Black Zone?
“As long as I eat well and live well here, that's all that matters.”
My goal wasn't simply to eke out my life in squalor.
I was going to make a shitload of mana stones by running a business.
Then I'd level up the shop, expand my domain, and live the most luxurious penthouse life in this ruined world.
“Right?”
I would enjoy life here at Starplex.
“That’s my goal from now on!”
I didn't have enough mana stones to expand my tiles right away.
I needed to sell more items first.
[Maximum registrations per slot (Lv.1): 100]
The current maximum I could register was 100 items.
“Okay, fill it to the brim and sell it.”
I designated the 100 bottles of Oda Water 500ML near me for sale.
-Starplex-
[Item: Oda Water 500ML]
[Price: 20 mana stones]
[Stock: 100/100]
Okay, the items were registered for now.
[Current number of members (Lv.1): 1 / 100]
I needed to fill up the membership list.
“All right, how about we invite some other customers?”
I muttered that as I opened the gallery.
“Uh... Huh...?”
I couldn't help but doubt my own eyes.
- Please invite me to the shop, please invite me to the shop [313]
- Shop owner, could you please hear me out just once? [315]
- You fucking bastard Oda Water Bro, I'm so fucking jealous [314]
- Does this shop even really exist? [421]
- Please invite me!! [44]
- If Oda Water Bro got invited, what reason is there that I can't? [311]
The entire gallery was burning up over the mysterious shop rumor.
The vibe was completely different from before.
You could tell just by looking at the number of comments pouring in.
Everyone was desperate to be invited to the mysterious shop.
“Oh dear.... What am I going to do...”
Even as I muttered as if I felt sorry for them, the corners of my mouth began stretching uncontrollably.
As you know, my shop was members-only.
No matter who they were, they could buy something only if I sent them a direct invitation link and approved them.
Who I let into my shop and who I kicked out—the final decision was entirely mine.
“Who am I?”
A high-school-graduate, unemployed NEET with no one in the world, and ten years of gallery experience.
I was someone who understood the weight of that absolute power—and of ten years of gallery experience—better than anyone.
“Heh heh... With great power comes great responsibility...”
I intended to use this power carefully.
Title: [Oda Water Bro] Hahahaha, are you jealous, you bastards???
To all you bros who hoped I'd die, grab your dicks and jerk off!!!
Jealous? You bastards, are you jealous? So what! I can use the shop!!!
Don't get it?
I was chosen!!! Heh, you fucking idiots lol.
Go ahead and spam the gallery all day begging me to invite you. I got invited!!!!!
I was chosen!!!!
You fucking bastard.
ㄴ This bastard actually managed to escape lol.
ㄴ You should've died there, fuck fuck.
ㄴ This is making me so fucking jealous I could die.
You can't take a quest from our guild.
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] Do you even know who I am?
ㄴ Don't you know rumors travel fast in this business? Release the hounds and we'll find you in no time.
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] Yep, I don't need to run quests anymore~~
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] I can just buy bottled water from the shop and resell it lol.
What a fucking bastard...
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] I'm going to sell this to VIPs and move to the Green Zone, yeah.
ㄴ Damn it...
ㄴ It pisses me off because he isn't wrong about any of it;;
Head mod, you have to ban this humblebragging!!
ㄴ Cut this bastard loose already;;
ㄴ [Head Mod] Don't order me around.
ㄴ ?
ㄴ Yeah??
ㄴ The two comments above both got banned lol.
Don't fuck with the head mod, lol.
ㄴ You don't know what the head mod's like? lol
ㄴ Yeah, exactly lol.
No... how the hell do you even get into that shop...?
ㄴ Is there anyone else who got invited?
ㄴ Nope, nobody;;
Why does only Oda Water Bro get invited?
ㄴ Fuck, exactly, that's what I'm saying;;
ㄴ I'm so jealous I could puke...
My first member and customer had even changed his nickname to Oda Water Bro instead of using an anonymous handle, and was stirring up the shop rumor in the gallery.
Heh heh. This guy was entertaining.
[Would you like to remove Oda Water Bro as a member?]
I answered the alert that appeared without hesitation.
“Yes.”
For now, get out.
[Oda Water Bro] I made it home!! Get that bottled water ready~~~~!!!!
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] Huh...?
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] ???? Sh...it...?
ㄴ How many bottles of water did you buy?
ㄴ I have some mutant byproducts. Can I barter with you, too?
[Oda Water Bro] The shop disappeared... Huh?
ㄴ Huh?
ㄴ It disappeared?
ㄴ The shop is gone?
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] It says my membership was terminated!! Why? Huh?? Why? Huh? No, why?
ㄴ ??
ㄴ LMAO
[Oda Water Bro] Why? Fuck, why??? No, why!!!!
ㄴ [Oda Water Bro] Aaaaaaaagh!!!!!!
ㄴ Idiot lol.
ㄴ Serves you right lol.
[Oda Water Bro] Whyyyyyy!!!!! Why did I get kicked out!!!
ㄴ Damn, this is so satisfying lol.
ㄴ Karma beam lol.
ㄴ Bo-bim?
ㄴ Ugh.
The sight was pretty entertaining.
“All right! Let's welcome some other quality customers!!”
Bottled water for only 20 mana stones!