5. A Lucky Day (5)

The parts worth selling from the goblin corpses were quite limited.

“Other than the heart and gallbladder, everything else is useless.”

The remaining parts were literal trash that couldn’t even be eaten.

If I were a monster, I might have been able to eat goblin meat, but as a human, it’s just too disgusting.

“Fuck… The gallbladder… burst again…”

Wearing three layers of plastic gloves, I crouched on the landing and extracted the goblins’ hearts and gallbladders. The hearts came out relatively easily, but the gallbladders kept bursting.

At first, I didn’t know what the gallbladder was, so after fumbling around for a while, it ended up bursting. The second time, I found it but burst it while trying to extract it. It’s such a fragile part-even while pulling it out, it would burst… And when it bursts, the godawful smell makes me want to vomit.

In the end, out of eight corpses, I only managed to salvage two gallbladders.

“And this is only… 20 points…?”

Even worse, the selling price was ridiculously low compared to the effort put in. After all that backbreaking work, each gallbladder was only worth 10 points. This is just unfair.

‘Fuck… I went through all this bullshit for just 20 points in an hour…? This is way too inefficient…’

It would’ve been more profitable to just kill one more goblin in the time it took to extract and sell the gallbladders. I’m never doing this shit again.

It stinks, it’s filthy, and it’s just not worth the effort.

“The hearts are also 10 won each-no, 10 points.”

The hearts were only worth 10 points each too. At least they were easier to extract than the gallbladders, but the price was still disappointing.

And one of them was crushed beyond salvageability, probably because I had smashed it during the earlier fight.

“Ugh. Fucking hell…”

Anyway, I sold 2 gallbladders and 7 hearts for a total of 90 points. Seeing the points roll in like this made it feel like a decent haul.

On top of that, I sold the 4 goblin ears I had at home for another 40 points. I guess all goblin parts are just worth 10 points each.

‘Current points…’

Total: 390 points. If I reset the shop once more, I’ll have 290 left.

‘Since the general store items were priced around 100 points each… I can buy one more thing…?’

Since the auto-reset is still six days away, I can just reset now and keep buying stuff while I’m at it.

First, let’s check if I can sell the dead human bodies lying around.

“Ugh… No way…”

Apparently, I could extract and sell various organs-brains, hearts, eyeballs-but the moment I thought about slicing open their stomachs, I felt a strong aversion.

Killing people was one thing-I could justify it by telling myself, “This is just a novel world”-but laying them down neatly and dissecting them for profit felt way too repulsive.

Stabbing someone to death and then sitting down to butcher them are two very different things. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Yeah, I’m not ready to be a human butcher yet. At best, I’m just a killer.

“Huu…”

Time to dispose of the remaining corpses.

Using my enhanced strength, I dragged the bodies down to the first floor. The stairs were slick with blood, but I didn’t have the energy to clean it up, so I just left it.

Sure, monsters might come sniffing around because of the smell, but after checking outside earlier, the streets were already a bloodbath. They’d probably be too busy feasting on the countless human corpses scattered everywhere to bother coming inside.

-Flop!

“Huu…”

I stepped over the shattered glass door of the first floor and tossed all the bodies into the flowerbed outside. The sun was starting to set.

Those corpses would probably be eaten by other monsters during the night.

“Huu…”

I was a little worried that monsters might enter the building at night since the entrance was wrecked by those goblin bastards. But there was no way to block it off right now, so I just left it.

“Let’s go back up…”

I turned off the sensor lights on the first floor and trudged up to the third floor to check the apartment of the woman I had killed earlier.

No one from the first floor, second floor, or Room 302 showed any signs of coming out.

“The password was…”

Two-seven-seven-six, I think.

After a few attempts, the door clicked open.

“Hmm…”

This crazy woman didn’t even turn off her lights. I have no idea why she’d do something so reckless when monsters could be lurking outside.

‘From what I saw earlier on the first floor… all the other apartments had their lights off except this one.’

Seems like this cat lady had zero intention of hiding her presence from potential threats.

To think this bitch was living right below me. I definitely made the right call killing her quickly.

‘Maybe I should just kill the rest of them today…’

But I was too tired, so I decided to deal with them tomorrow.

“Holy shit, so much cat food…”

Room 301 was packed with cat food. Did she feed all the neighborhood cats or something?

Right now, it was completely useless. Cat food smells too strong to eat, so it’s basically trash.

I’ll throw it all out tomorrow. What’s the point of cat food in a world overrun by crazy monsters? The cats would just end up as monster chow.

“Not much else here…”

There were plenty of household items, but they were all worn out. At least there were a lot of kitchen knives-good for throwing. I’ll grab every one I see as emergency weapons.

I left the food in the fridge. My own fridge was already full, so there was no space.

“The storage…”

Opening the built-in cabinet next to the balcony revealed a bunch of miscellaneous junk. Nothing particularly useful.

‘Haa…’

Now that I’ve checked everything, I should see if any new quests have popped up and reset the shop.

[Quest: Reach Level 10 or Higher (11/10)]

[Reward: 100P, Increased Credit Score]

“Oh…”

Since I completed the goblin ear quest, a new one had appeared. And because I had already reached Level 11 by killing the Minotaur earlier, the quest was instantly marked as completed.

‘Now I have 490 points!’

This is great. The points are piling up fast. I immediately accepted a new quest.

By the way, it seems you can only accept up to three quests at a time.

[Quest: Purchase 10 or More Items from the General Store (3/10)]

[Reward: 500P, Greatly Increased Credit Score]

This one should be doable within the week. And it gives a whopping 500 points-what a jackpot.

‘If my credit score increases significantly… will the third shop slot unlock…?’

More options are always good. For now, let’s reset the shop.

[Available Items]

[1. Monster Encyclopedia Vol. 1]

[Details: Monster Encyclopedia Vol. 1 contains records of various mystical creatures from the fantasy realm. Reading it allows you to identify the names and traits of these creatures.]

[Price: 250P]

[2. Apprentice Alchemy Book]

[Details: Reading it allows you to learn “Basic Healing Potion Crafting” and “Clay Golem Creation.”]

[Price: 300P]

After resetting, I lost 100 points, leaving me with 390. I can buy either the Monster Encyclopedia or the Alchemy Book.

‘The Monster Encyclopedia would let me identify creatures immediately… but the Alchemy Book gives me practical tools right now…’

An instant-use healing potion and a clay golem for simple tasks-if I can control both shikigami and golems, survival should get a little easier.

‘The encyclopedia is good, but I need something immediately useful.’

I decided to buy the Alchemy Book first. Now I have 90 points left.

‘Time to head back…’

I went back upstairs.

I’m a little tired, so I should wash off the blood, read the alchemy book, and then meditate.

·

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·

“Huh…”

After cleaning up and meditating, I realized something shocking.

“I don’t need to sleep…!?”

That’s right. Meditation boosts recovery so much that it replaces sleep.

I had been worrying about how to sleep alone without a lookout, but now I can just meditate instead. Meditation is the best!

“This is amazing…”

The efficiency is insane. Plus, my magic power has replenished a lot.

[Magic Power: 240]

It was at 0 before, but after four hours of deep meditation, it shot up to 240. Looks like I gain 60 magic power per hour.

This seems as efficient as the protagonist’s meditation technique… or is it? Maybe it’s just early-game levels? I don’t know.

The original novel had over 300 chapters, so I don’t remember all the minor early-game details perfectly. It’s not like I only read this one novel…

Anyway, now I can use magic emission, create shikigami, and even craft potions and golems.

‘Magic emission is just… releasing it outward, I guess…’

Feeling the faint flow of magic inside me, I grabbed some A4 paper and cut it up.

I need human-shaped paper cutouts to make shikigami, so I should make a bunch while I have time.

“Write a character on the heart part… and infuse a little magic…”

I created a paper shikigami.

“Oh…!”

The paper shikigami, made with about 2 magic power, floated in front of me. Now I can use it to obscure an enemy’s vision… or something like that.

During combat, just having something flitting around in front of them should be distracting enough.

“Spin around.”

Whoosh.

“Oooh… It worked. Nice…”

It’s pretty cool how it moves on command.

I should make about twenty. Clay golems require dirt, so I can’t make those yet-skip for now.

·

·

·

“Huu… Made about twenty shikigami…”

I spent around 40 magic power to make 20 paper shikigami and stuffed them into a cross-body bag. By the way, this bag was looted from the neighbor’s apartment. Pretty sturdy.

“Got my weapons too…”

All the weapons the goblins dropped became mine. Three spears, four clubs, and two rusty swords-I stashed them all in my inventory so I can swap them out if they break.

I also grabbed about seven kitchen knives, so I have plenty of throwing weapons.

“Huu… Time to head out…”

The sun was rising outside. With daylight came the eerie cries of monstrous birds. The screams that had filled the streets all night were still there, mixed with the sounds of explosions and destruction.

Day 2 of the horrific apocalypse. Time to start hunting goblins in earnest.

To make basic healing potions, I needed goblin gallbladders and ears, so I had to kill them quickly.

If I’d known this earlier, I wouldn’t have sold those gallbladders yesterday…

Now I’d have to go through the nightmare of extracting them again.