episode_0005

Historically, humans have been sleeping on soft beds for a long time.

Therefore, my behavior of rolling around under a fluffy blanket could be evaluated as very universal, both anthropologically and historically.

My fate is truly miserable, having to abandon this paradise and be dragged out for such a trivial request.

Wherever you go, the people around you are important. Even at school or work, if your deskmate, mentor, or subordinate is strange, you will have a hard time.

Well, if that wasn’t the case with my uncle’s personality, I wouldn’t be here either.

Thinking about that, I remembered the guy who came in late as my junior and said he wanted to learn archery.

A troublemaker who lacked both talent and skill but had an incredible passion for learning that sucked up all my personal training time.

Now that I’m gone, it’s possible that he’s taken my place.

I guess I saved face at the competition… Well, it doesn’t matter anymore.

I shook my head to shake off the distracting thoughts, picked up a science fiction novel collection with a strange sticker that said ‘JinXmunko’ on it, and began to spend my free time.

To be honest, it wasn’t my favorite genre. However, since this was all I had to read, I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t just sit there blankly staring out the window at the desolate, ruined scenery.

There was a clank. The door to the shelter, which had been reinforced with various locks and reinforcements, opened.

Of course, it was called a shelter in a grand way, but it was nothing more than an old man cleaning up a villa building and fixing things up here and there.

For reference, the basement and the first floor were used as storage and equipment rooms, and the second floor where I was and the rooftop were living spaces.

In an already dangerous world, it was widely acknowledged that it was safer inside than outside, but I glanced at my watch to see how long it had been since the old man, who liked to wander around outside, had come home. The hands on the watch were pointing to 6.

Why is that all I can do? Well, I guess there are days when you can come early.

I didn’t think that the old man would have any sense of humor. If he had, he probably wouldn’t have accepted this request in the first place.

A rough tap on the floor informed me that a visitor had arrived in the living room, and I spoke absentmindedly, my eyes fixed on my novel.

“Mister, it seems like things didn’t work out as well as I thought? You came home early. I thought you’d be back late at night or tomorrow morning.”

“I told you. It was a misunderstanding. Do I look like a womanizer to you?”

“Then no? If you look at the clients you introduce every day, eight out of ten are women.”

The old man immediately shut his mouth at my sharp remark. I don’t know why he insists on saying something that will only cause harm.

“Wash.”

“There’s no water heated up. If you don’t mind using cold water, you can wash in it.”

“Ugh…”

The old man let out a sigh and then staggered toward the shower room.

I said that, but in reality, there might have been some heated water left. It was water I had heated for myself to wash up, rather than water I had prepared for the old man.

This was also one of the inconvenient things about the shelter. If I wanted to boil water for a bath, it wouldn’t boil just the amount I needed, but the water in the water tank set aside for hot water would all be heated, so it was unavoidable.

Honestly, considering the karma the old man had accumulated today, it would have been better to have him shower in water with ice cubes floating in it, let alone warm water, but I felt a little annoyed that he had the nerve to notice and take his bowl of rice.

Well, I guess I’ll let it slide considering the fact that he came back late after playing around with a girl without any notice.

“Oh my… I’ll live!”

What the hell are you…

I tried to concentrate on my novel again, but either because the intruder had returned sooner than expected or because of the strange noises that had been coming from the man since he disappeared into the shower room, I couldn’t concentrate, so I just put the novel down.

I sat up in bed, wiggling my legs and swimming under the covers for a moment, before I realized that there was a sweeter smell coming from the shelter than usual.

“Ugh…”

“It’s noisy. Please wash quietly. I can’t concentrate.”

“Ugh.”

This is really the worst. Who wouldn’t want to be a 4050 candidate?

I decided to ignore the noise from the old man. My priority was to find out where the smell was coming from, rather than worrying about such things.

Not the artificial, contrived sweetness of canned fruit, but the smell you would expect to find in an orchard in the midst of harvest season.

I crawled out from under the covers as if possessed and headed toward the living room where the old man had passed by.

On the table that also served as a dining table was a black envelope, and a sweet smell was coming from it.

Unable to contain his curiosity, he opened the envelope and a few peaches the size of the old man’s fist with a slight pink tint appeared.

What is all this? Fruit must be very expensive. Are you paid enough to be able to buy it? Did fruit ever come to our camp in the first place…?

The reason why fruit was expensive was simple and clear. It was hard to get. It was a natural phenomenon, as the transportation network was destroyed by the zombie outbreak and the logistics chain was also completely ruined.

If we were to take a look at what we had stored, it would be quicker to count the number of refrigerators and freezers that were still functioning properly because many of the power plants had stopped.

To put it simply, it was like saying that all the previously harvested fruits had rotted.

Alas, even though it has only been a few decades since the 21st century, humanity has regressed to only being able to eat fruits from the sun.

On the other hand, meat was not as difficult to obtain as before.

Of course, this only applies to herbivores like cows and horses. Omnivores are a bit more complicated, and while there were some that were fine, there were also some that seemed to be faster to find as zombies.

You could say that there is an inconvenience of having to choose what to eat. That is why most people prefer the meat of herbivorous animals such as cows, horses, sheep, and goats.

Fortunately, if things like zombie tigers, zombie lions, and wolves existed, it would have been an apocalypse of a whole other level of difficulty in terms of survival, let alone herbivores, but fortunately, even in this world, those guys are species that can only be seen in zoos.

Anyway, since there is no need to bite zombies, zombie cows and horses do not run rampant, and since the livestock farms are not properly managed, it is very common for livestock to escape on their own and flow into the city, so it is not difficult to obtain meat.

Of course, compared to the past when you could easily get it by going to the mart and swiping your card, it’s no joke to say that it’s not difficult.

I had set up a makeshift refrigerator in the basement, but since peaches tend to spoil quickly, I thought it would be better to eat them all, so I took out a knife and started peeling and eating some peaches.

“Ugh, it’s refreshing…”

The old man appeared in the living room, wearing a towel around his waist and showing off his upper body full of scars and muscles. His hair was still wet, and he was busy wiping the moisture off his face with his hands while covering it with a towel.

I bit into the peach, forcing myself to hold back my appetite as all the sweetness from the peach disappeared.

“How about having a little etiquette? Is this some old man’s living room?”

“Oh, is that right?”

“…”

This time, I was speechless at the confident answer. No, even in your own room. How can you show up like that in front of someone else?

I closed my eyes and supported my pounding head with my hands.

“Okay, do whatever you want. I don’t think he’s an old man, but every single one of his actions is amazing.”

“By the way, I heated up the water for you. Thanks.”

“The thing I just heated hasn’t cooled down yet. Do you think I’d heat something like water for you? I would never do that, right?”

“Does that mean there is no bitterness? Thank you.”

Hearing thank you from a mean person made me feel even more disgusted.

“Where did you get this? I’ve never seen fruit come into camp before.”

“Ah, you know the client from earlier? Yuri.”

“Uh.”

“That guy’s house has a backyard with a fruit tree. I thought it would be a good deal if I sold it, so I took on the job. Why, it’s almost winter, right?”

Hib.

I hiccuped when I heard that while I was eating a peach. So did I eat my winter supplies?

The man who had finished drying my hair put the towel away and saw me happily eating a peach.

“I ate it.”

Gulp.

“Oh, there are still 4 left.”

A sweet scent, no less than that of the peaches on the table, flowed out of my mouth.

“If you ate it… There’s nothing I can do. As long as it tasted good, that’s fine.”

Fortunately, the old man didn’t get angry.

When I thought about it, it was obvious.

I’ve suffered so much, I shouldn’t be scolded for eating three peaches. Of course, that’s true.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I can eat it proudly, but I never said anything like that.

As far as I know, a bag of fruit was worth the price of a gun and a magazine to match.

Unlike my uncle, I had some sense.