Chapter 49
Meanwhile, the Capital Area Survivors Gallery was dealing with the aftermath of the World's Greatest Sub-Mod Competition.
Title : [Head Mod] Head Mod!!! Heeeaad Mooood!!!!!
Fuck, there's a gore pic in the featured posts!!!!!!!
What are you doiiing!!!!!!!!
Kyaaaaaaak!!
ㄴ Kyaaaaaaak!!!
ㄴ I saw it too!!!!
ㄴ No, why'd they take a picture of a Heavy corpse!!!!
ㄴ Its guts are all hanging out!!
But fuck, there are five administrators!!!
ㄴ Why...! Why...! Why isn't the management any better!!!!
At least Troll NEET was managing it alone.
ㄴ Even they've disappeared; no idea what they're doing now;;
If five people gather, there's always one piece of trash.
ㄴ All five are gathered, and all five are trash right now.
ㄴ Jiboro-sensei, you were wrong this time.
Even after the Sub-Mods were chosen, the Gallery bizarrely wasn't being managed.
But looking at the picture, it was killed with a gun.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ Yeah, I guess so.
ㄴ Looks like a shotgun.
Can you kill a Heavy with a gun?
ㄴ You can, technically.
ㄴ Huh?
Why would a Scrapper carry a gun around even after Awakening?
ㄴ The only reason ordinary people can still be worth 0.1 of a person is guns.
ㄴ Guns, firearms <<< These bastards are secretly the thing from modern civilization.
ㄴ Guns are often better than weak Awakeners.
ㄴ ㅇㅎ
Just as the users were resignedly exchanging bits of information.
But when are you going to delete it?
ㄴ Seriously, that's separate—delete it already.
ㄴ Kids can see this too.
ㄴ What kids are here?
Watashi's a baby, eek!
ㄴ [Speedrun] ㅇ?
ㄴ [This user has been banned]
ㄴ Got cut lol
ㄴ ㅇㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Fuck, it's the first day of their term, where the hell have they been!!
ㄴ [Speedrun] SorryforbeinglateIhadimportantbusinessandwasdelayedalittlefromnowonIpromisetocutdowneveryshittypostbycluelesstrollsinexactly0.1seconds
No, what the fuck are these guys doing?
ㄴ Reveal the admin room, woohoo.
ㄴ [Head Mod] Ahem... there were circumstances;;
ㄴ [Shop Wiki] I too... was analyzing the System's data...
[Healer Union] “I'm here.”
ㄴ Mm, yeah, yeah.
ㄴ Showing up confidently despite being late.
[Healer Union] Actually, I'm the youngest, so I opened the Gallery while watching everyone's reactions...
ㄴ Mm-hmm, being the youngest in the guild is a valid excuse.
ㄴ Union, don't let anyone find out you got a Sub-Mod badge; you'll get sniped without a trace ㅇㅇ
ㄴ ㅇㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
The newly appointed deputy administrators and Head Mod appeared, no one knew where they had been or what they'd been doing.
They cleaned up the unmanaged Gallery in an instant.
Meanwhile.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-!!
At Starplex, someone was tearing through the place in a mad sprint.
“Kwahahahahahahaha!!!!!!”
It's me, Speedrun.
That's right, the one screaming like a lunatic and racing around this place while living up to my username was me.
“No one can stop me!!!”
Where is this place?
“The second floor!!!!”
Right. The place I'm running through now is the second floor of Starplex.
The reason I unlocked this place is simple.
Until now, my greatest craving had been food.
But after raiding the butcher counter and supermarket food section, most of that craving had been more or less satisfied.
“Now I can grill meat whenever I want!!!”
That's right. I was full.
A well-fed human naturally starts wanting stimulation from another dimension.
For me, who had been cooped up in the basement for over half a year, the only visual stimulation had been the piled-up food and Teacher Zombie in front of me.
A new stimulus to flood me with dopamine.
That was.
“A natural landscape!!!!”
I shouted while sprawled out in the [Gardening Garden & Conservatory] built across the center of the second floor.
Brightly glowing System-made LED grow lights. And ordinary lights.
Giant palm trees, nameless trees, and brilliant flowers reaching lushly toward the ceiling filled my field of vision.
“This is it...”
And even the lush green lawn planted densely across the floor.
“Suuuuurp—haa. Sluuurp...”
I shoved my nose into the ground and inhaled deeply.
The pleasant scent of damp grass and the rich smell of earth filled the air.
“It's real soil... It's soil!”
Soft earth where footprints sank in and particles scattered between my fingers.
The primal energy and texture of the earth, felt for the first time in ages.
It felt as if my soul were being cleansed.
“Fuck, it's a flower!! A flower.”
I picked and ate the prettiest flower among them.
“Ptooey, ptooey!”
Fuck, no matter how high I feel, eating grass is a bit much. Yeah.
“Still, I'll put you on top of the meat when I have a gardening party later. Mm-hmm.”
Anyway, this is it. This is life!!!
Looking at the leaves bursting with freshness, I felt like my clogged veins had been blasted wide open.
“Ugh.”
After being trapped in the basement and coming out into such a wide-open space, even the sense of room felt different.
“I'm the building owner! The buildiiing owner!!!! I'm the building owner of this whole areaaa!!!”
A space with no one in it and no one who would ever be allowed in—a place of my own. I hopped around it, going completely berserk.
I'm the building owner... I'm the building owner...
Maybe because there was no noise at all, my shouts echoed throughout the space.
And I'd gotten to own a place like this without spending even one mana stone!
“Hahaha! Getting it for free is the best!!”
After frolicking around for a long while, my gaze came to rest on one place.
[Premium Fitness Center]
Top-of-the-line equipment from brands including Hammer Strength stood in neat rows, while one wall of the enormous gym was covered with floor-to-ceiling mirrors.
“Okay!!! Fuck it, let's work out!”
To think I'd do my first workout after the apocalypse.
I kicked open the gym door and went straight to the free-weight area.
“If you're a man, you test the big three.”
I immediately stepped into the squat rack and started with squats.
“Hmph!”
Just as I was about to hoist the barbell with all my strength.
Clatter.
“...Nnngh!!”
I'm not even kidding. I barely lifted it.
Fuck, my legs and arms were shaking like crazy.
Even after removing all the plates and lifting just the empty bar (20 kg), my arms were trembling. Fuck.
“This is, this is fucking hard!!”
I tried performing the other exercises as well.
Squat 20 kg (empty bar)
Bench press 20 kg (empty bar)
Deadlift 20 kg (empty bar)
“Haa, haa... tsk... the big three... 60 kg...?”
Fuck, is that a lot? I guess I'd have to work out to know.
Title : [Troll NEET] Guys, how much do you lift in the big three?
Pure curiosity;; I just lifted 60.
Is that high?
The big three?
ㄴ You mean how many zombies you can kill by doing the big three?
ㄴ Hmm? Sounds like they're talking about working out;;
I'm a combat-type from the Yellow Zone, and a 200-kg bench is the basics ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Gasp
ㄴ I tried benching with a Heavy corpse ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Heavy press, fuck lol;;
But 60 kg...?
ㄴ Is this bastard saying he only lifted the empty bar?
[Troll NEET] Oh, the empty bar weighs 20 kilos?
ㄴ [Troll NEET] I barely lifted even that.
ㄴ The fact he proudly wrote 60 is the punchline lol
What about 20 + 20?
ㄴ [Troll NEET] 40
ㄴ Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!
ㄴ Who's lifting the bar weight, your ancestors!!!!!
ㄴ [Troll NEET] ?
Even if a zombie bites him, he probably won't get infected for a while because he has no muscles ㅇㅇ
ㄴ My grandma, who's living a second life as a Walker, could probably lift 100 in the big three lol
ㄴ An insult to someone's family and an insult at once, holy shit;;
ㄴ Is it okay to laugh at this...?
ㄴ ㅇㅋㅋㅋㅋ
How the fuck did this bastard survive the apocalypse lol
ㄴ Is he really a NEET?
[Speedrun] YoumustrespectmeIcanliftandlower3000kginthebigthreein'0.1seconds'Thisisarecord-breakingachievement
ㄴ Fuck, I really will respect you.
ㄴ Seriously, I'd better respect you.
Fuck. Is this the physical stats of a Black Zone Awakener?
“Even if you're not a combat type, isn't this too much...?”
Tsk.
What kind of person is this, for their big-three total to be 60?
ㄴ What's their ability?
[Troll NEET] Guess ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Hmm... let's see.
ㄴ Wasn't this person the first one to spot Jinhyeok when that gay Jinhyeok showed up last time?
ㄴ Right.
Then aren't they either clairvoyant or stealth-type?
ㄴ Oh, seriously, maybe they are.
ㄴ If they turn on invisibility, hide in a corner, and spend 24 hours a day on the Gallery, that lines up perfectly lol
ㄴ Ah lol
[Troll NEET] Ah;; hiding in a corner is true, though;;
ㄴ Kyaa~ the stealth cockroach meta optimized for survival lol
ㄴ Invisible cockroach, fuck lol
ㄴ An invisible cockroach whose big three is 60 lol
ㄴ How a weakling survives the apocalypse = don't get noticed
ㄴ Seriously, surviving is fucking easy lol
Oh, now the Gallery has the right feel again.
“Then let's try some cardio too.”
On one side was a stair-climbing machine, aka the Stairway to Heaven, and I chose one and stepped onto it.
Whirrrrr-!
When I pressed the switch, the steps began descending one by one.
“Hup. Hup.”
Two minutes. Two minutes.
“Huff... hup... huffff... hup... hufffff....”
Exactly two minutes.
I rode it at level 5 and came back down.
“Hrk—huff. Hrk—huff...”
I lay on the marble floor and stared blankly into space.
Okay, I admit it.
“I have no talent for exercise.”
*****
One day later.
I moved my living quarters to the [Gardening Garden] in the center of the second floor.
I dragged over the one-touch tent and goose-down sleeping bag I'd set up in the basement, then threw them onto the soft soil.
Camping in an indoor garden bathed in a fresh phytoncide scent and warm artificial light.
“Now this is glamping...”
This is healing. Nothing else is.
“Who would've thought I'd get to heal in the apocalypse.”
This place is overflowing with vibes.
“Okay. How about I make a meal.”
I put the wide griddle I'd brought from the camping section on a gas burner and prepared food to match the camping theme.
“Introducing, mindless camping skewers.”
I threaded thickly sliced raw pork belly, crisp handmade sausages, and pineapple salvaged from supermarket canned goods tightly onto skewers.
Sizzle-!
The smell of meat filled the garden.
“Ahh...”
When I bit into a nicely browned sausage and sweet grilled pineapple at once, the meat juices and fruit juices began dancing in my mouth.
Sizzle-!
Then I took a long swig of a can of beer I'd brought from the alcohol section.
“Fuuuck!! This beer is insane...”
This is heaven. So that's why everyone drinks alone.
“This is niiice...”
I feel like I'm about to become an involuntary shut-in.
I turned my gaze beyond the tent, through the windows along the second-floor wall.
By unlocking the entire second-floor tile, I had driven Teacher Zombie, who had originally filled the second floor completely, outside the building—as far as the second floor was concerned.
“Agh! Teacher Zombie! I told you we should split the rent!”
- Grrrrrr-!
Of course, Teacher Zombie hadn't been completely separated.
The massive chunks of flesh ejected outside the building were now stuck fast to the outer wall, connected by grotesque tentacles and veins to Teacher Zombie up on the third floor.
In other words, it looked as if a pulsating blood-red hula hoop had been slipped loosely around the waist of a gigantic department-store building.
When Teacher Zombie was ejected, the entire second-floor exterior wall was smashed and I thought the building would collapse, but it regenerated immediately.
“Are you okay, Teacher Zombie?”
- Raaaargh!!!!
It seems pretty angry. I don't know why.
“Hmm.”
The view outside, visible through the gaps beyond Teacher Zombie, was a true inhuman hellscape.
A sky mixed with ash gray and red.
The once-glittering skyscrapers had either snapped at the waist or been half-destroyed, exposing only hideous skeletons of rebar.
On the road directly below, a carpet-like mutant that filled the space slid along on a lower body made of hundreds of limbs.
Far away, the Han River had turned into a swamp of bubbling dark-red mud, with tentacles occasionally shooting out.
“Damn! What a view.”
Even though I've only come up one floor, I can at least see some scenery.
I thought I'd suffocate and die from being stuck in that cramped basement.
“So that's why everyone wanted to move somewhere with a good view.”
I checked my mana stones while tearing into the skewers.
[Mana Stones Currently Held: 312,500]
“Fuuuck... the restrooms are really raking it in.”
Not just the Capital Area, but the newly incorporated Cheonan, Pyeongtaek, and Anseong as well.
The restrooms I'd copied outside were earning mana stones nonstop, 24 hours a day.
[Basement Level 1 Basic/Living Area: 49 tiles]
....
[Entire Aboveground Level 2 Area: 100 tiles (NEW!)]
[Aboveground Level 10 Hallway: 20 tiles]
[External Copied Tiles: 10 Restrooms (20 tiles)]
[Detailed Daily Settlement Statement]
[Starplex Maintenance Cost (69 tiles): -69,000 mana stones]
[External Copied Tile Maintenance Cost (20 tiles): -20,000 mana stones]
[Aboveground Level 2 Maintenance Cost (100 tiles): ̶1̶0̶0̶,̶0̶0̶0̶ ̶> 0 mana stones]
(*Permanent Ownership Benefit applied! The daily maintenance cost of this floor is fully waived.)
[Total Estimated Daily Maintenance Cost: -89,000 mana stones]
[Total Estimated Daily Revenue: +103,000 mana stones]
[Estimated Daily Net Profit: +14,000 mana stones]
And on top of that, the tiles on the second floor I just acquired are exempt from maintenance costs!
“That was fucking incredible...!!”
I really got this one for free.
Chomp chomp chomp.
“Yeah! You need something like this to make the apocalypse worth living through!!!!”
You need an event like this now and then to start feeling some affection for the apocalypse. Good job, System.
[Blueprint Domination (Lv.4 → Lv.5)]
[Mana Stones Required for Upgrade: 150,000]
Normally, I'd have had to bust my ass and claim it piece by piece, but this time I got it all at once for free through a quest.
[Building Master Main Quest 7: Copy one more tile of a different type]
[Reward: ???]
“A different type of tile.”
So far, I've only plastered the outside world with restrooms.
Thanks to how versatile restrooms are, they may not be perfect, but it seems the basic hygiene problems of washing and relieving oneself have been more or less solved.
“So this is secretly a way to serve the public interest.”
If I want to keep grilling meat and relaxing inside this comfortable tent, the survivors outside have to stay alive as well.
In fact, the stronger and more numerous they become, the better it is for me.
“Then what should I copy next?”
I looked at the Sub-Mods' administrator group chat while pondering.
- [Speedrun] : Howdidyouevenlift60?Thatisnotanachievementworthyofrespect
- [Speedrun] : Ifyouarereallythatweak,youshouldbeundertheprotectionofme
- [Head Mod] : I told you, I can lift 60 kg with one hand;;
- [Head Mod] : Are you really an Awakener?
- [Troll NEET] : I did awaken, though;;
- [Shop Wiki] : According to rough statistics... Awakening seems to amplify basic strength by at least fivefold... Troll NEET, did you perhaps lift around 10 kg in the big three before Awakening?
My 60-kg big-three total had become a hot topic.
Just as I was about to answer something, anything.
“Hmm?”
- [Healer Union] : By any chance... does anyone have any pre-apocalypse medicines to spare...?
- [Head Mod] : Medicine? You mean things like antibiotics or painkillers?
- [Healer Union] : Ah, yes, yes... I need medicine to clear my trait quest...
- [Healer Union] : I'm absolutely not asking for it for free! I'll pay in mana stones!!! Let's trade!
“Oh, that's unusual.”
Leveling up with pre-apocalypse medicine. That's an interesting ability.
Then, the speed demon answered.
- [Speedrun] : I do have about half a bottle of disinfectant left
- [Healer Union] : Holy crap!! Really?! I'll trade for it!! How much?!
- [Speedrun] : Pay me only 160 mana stones
- [Healer Union] : “I don't have any.”
- [Speedrun] : Youmustrespectme
“Hmm.”
Is disinfectant really that expensive?
- [Troll NEET] : What's the going rate?
- [Speedrun] : Ialreadycut30manastonesofftheblackmarketprice
- [Troll NEET] : Even with the discount, that seems expensive;; Is medicine normally that expensive?
- [Speedrun] : You... really don't know anything about the outside world, do you?
- [Speedrun] : We can't produce any more, but people keep getting injured every day
- [Speedrun] : Even healers charge mana stones to heal unless you're in their party, and if you don't properly treat a scrape, it gets infected and you die
- [Speedrun] : Well... things have gotten much better recently thanks to the installed restrooms... but there are still many people who can't even use a restroom
- [Speedrun] : That's why people go scavenging in dangerous areas where pre-apocalypse goods remain
- [Speedrun] : But the rewards are poor for the effort, and some days they don't find anything
“Ah.”
Only after reading Speedrun's messages did I suddenly understand the harsh reality of the outside world.
- [Speedrun] : But you really are holed up somewhere safe if you don't know even these basics; are you in the Green Zone, by any chance?
- [Troll NEET] : Why the Green Zone? Is it different there?
- [Speedrun] : As far as I know... they have almost perfect access to the pre-apocalypse infrastructure
- [Speedrun] : I hear the entire area is almost identical to the world before the apocalypse
- [Speedrun] : ...Seeing how comfortably you live without knowing anything about the world, you seem like someone from there
The entire area has nearly all the pre-apocalypse infrastructure?
“Oh... How did they manage that?”
Fuck, I should learn from them too.
I was about to ask, but the conversation ended.
- [Speedrun] : Anyway, tons of people are rotting to death because they can't wash and have no medicine
- [Speedrun : Awakeners have it like this too, so ordinary people's circumstances must be even worse than ours
- [Speedrun] : Especially... women have it much harder
- [Troll NEET] : Why?
- [Speedrun] : Uh... it's... one of those things. You don't need to know
- [Troll NEET] : Okay;;
- [Healer Union] : Ah!! I need to find medicine!!!
Thus, their conversation gradually faded from view.
“Hmm...”
I don't know about Healer Union, but Speedrun and Head Mod are probably pretty high-level powerhouses, aren't they?
And even they were in such poor circumstances.
“Confirmed.”
My gaze turned toward one place.
[Medical Center & Large Pharmacy]
A tile I had acquired along with ownership of the entire second floor.
“That'll sell like hotcakes.”
The next tile to copy was practically decided.