9. Stray Dogs of the Streets (4)

I carefully picked through the scattered corpses, stashing the items they’d gathered one by one into my inventory.

“Holy shit… so many condoms…”

Who the hell hoards this many condoms? Then again, they’d already captured three women on the first day-guess they were planning to have some fun.

Well, now they’re all dead.

‘Plenty of food too… Looks like they raided a pharmacy. Nice.’

There were all kinds of medicines, along with toilet paper and other daily necessities. By the time I finished looting everything, my inventory was starting to feel full.

‘Time to get out of here.’

It was time to leave. I’d gathered enough-any more and my inventory might burst.

*Creak…*

*Sigh…*

As I stepped outside, I spotted a burning building in the distance.

With no firefighters left to put it out, that building was going to burn to the ground. And if the flames spread to the neighboring buildings, the whole block might go up in smoke.

‘Ugh… The air’s gonna get nasty.’

The acrid smell was already thick in the air. Unless it rained, the fire would keep spreading.

‘Come to think of it… What if a nuclear plant blows up? That’d be fucked.’

Do nuclear plants automatically shut down without operators? Or do they just keep running until they explode? No idea. But one thing’s certain-if a reactor blows, we’re all screwed.

Life was already hard enough. If radiation starts spreading, we’re truly done for.

‘Mutated monsters from radiation, radioactive rain pouring down…’

Even I might turn into some mutated freak, filming bizarre shit like a cryptid.

‘Horrifying…’

Shuddering at the thought, I hurried home.

“Hey!!! You there!!”

Just then, someone called out to me from afar.

Another group of five or six young guys. What the hell? Why do I keep running into these assholes? Are they just random mobs spawned to give me points?

I need to get home, read some books, eat, and sleep… Why the hell are they calling me over just to die?

‘They look like kids… Middle schoolers?’

They definitely seemed like brats. Still short and all…

“Hey! What are you doing alone?”

“…”

When I didn’t answer and just stared blankly, they started running toward me.

Good, come closer. My little point bags. I won’t go easy just because you’re kids. In this world, there’s no law, no rules-no such thing as juvenile delinquents. No one’s gonna care if I beat some brats to death.

“How old are you?”

“Where do you live?”

“What’s your name?”

“Are you alone?”

“Got a boyfriend?”

“Wanna come with us? We’ll protect you.”

“Fucking bitch. Why aren’t you answering?”

“Not gonna talk?”

“Hey, just drag her. Youngseong-hyung said he’d give us weapons if we brought him a girl.”

“Oh, right. Seongbok, grab her.”

Before I knew it, they’d surrounded me, casually planning to sell me off like it was nothing.

These little shits must not know how the apocalypse works…

Guess they gotta die.

*Crack.*

“Huh? Huh? HUH?! AHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“S-Seongbok!! You fucking-!!!”

I grabbed the wrists of the punk trying to hug me from behind and twisted. The little thug dropped to his knees, screaming.

“Why the fuck are you brats wandering the streets? It’s dangerous out here. Full of monsters…”

And psychos like me, obsessed with points.

“Fuck!!!”

The spineless little shits tried to run the moment one of them went down.

Not letting a single one escape.

In the apocalypse, compassion, mercy, pity-none of that means shit. Anyone who shows hostility has to die. That’s the only way to avoid future trouble.

And from what I’ve seen, the number of people who actually repent and change is less than 0.001%.

Especially these little shits, running around in packs, planning to kidnap girls. Instant disqualification.

No point keeping these bastards alive. Kids or adults, assholes are assholes.

“Don’t run.”

I pulled a kitchen knife from my inventory and hurled it at the backs of the fleeing brats.

*Thunk!*

“GAAAH!!”

“F-FUCK!!!”

The middle-school thugs writhed on the ground in pain. Serves you right. How dare you lay hands on me? No forgiveness. Just death.

“Ghk… Ghk… Cough…”

The little shits coughed up blood. Must’ve hit their spines and lungs.

“You first.”

“P-Please…”

*CRACK!*

The bat doesn’t wait. Shouldn’t have messed with me if you wanted to live.

I smashed their heads like watermelons. Felt like squashing bugs. Yeah, deep down, I never saw them as human.

“1,039 points…”

Turns out two of them were Awakened. Not that it mattered-without proper training, they were no different from regular people.

[Quest Complete]

[Reward Granted.]

“Oh…!!”

The “Collect 1,000 Points” reward gave me 100 points and an accessory. Now I had 1,139 points.

‘The accessory is…’

[Anklet of Multi Jump: When equipped, allows multi jumps by consuming a small amount of MP. Up to 5 consecutive jumps possible. MP consumption increases with each jump.]

“Wow…”

An accessory with an ability I never expected. Multi jumps? If I have enough MP, I can jump up to five times.

‘How high can I go with five jumps?’

No idea. I’ll test it later.

‘For now…’

I needed to get home fast. The screams would attract monsters soon.

******

I hurried back home and unpacked.

“Not bad.”

I’d picked up some boxes on the way and neatly packed the food inside, then laid out the tools I’d grabbed from a hardware store. I needed to clear my inventory for future looting.

“I’m hungry…”

First, I needed to wash up. Too much blood on me.

At least the water was still running…

“Ah, fuck…!”

The water cut off mid-shampoo. I had to rinse my hair with the water I’d stored in the bathroom.

“Should cut my hair.”

It was too long-took forever to wash and wasted water. With the supply cut off, I needed to chop it now. No reason to keep it this long.

“Scissors…”

I grabbed some scissors from the kitchen and hacked off my hair. It wasn’t even my original hair, so no regrets. Felt refreshing.

“Oh…”

Blonde locks tumbled to the floor. I left it shoulder-length and tossed the rest in the trash.

“Much better. Should’ve done this sooner.”

My face was pretty enough that even a rough cut looked fine.

*Sigh.*

After finishing my rinse, I stepped out.

The sun was setting. The streets were still filled with the screams of beasts and people, mixed with distant explosions and gunfire.

Total chaos. This world was done for. Everything was spiraling into ruin.

At least the rain was washing away the blood, and the fires were dying down, leaving only smoke. The rain was purging the world.

“No electricity either…”

I wanted to eat cup noodles while listening to the rain, but the electric kettle wasn’t working. Couldn’t even boil water for noodles now.

Fucking hell. Water and power cut off in less than a day.

“Butane gas…”

Thankfully, I’d prepared. I had a gas burner and spare canisters. Good job, me.

*Whoosh.*

“Oh…”

I boiled water. Noodles again. Nothing beats instant ramen. I didn’t have the energy to cook anything fancier anyway.

“Not enough…”

One pack wasn’t cutting it today. Time for noodle porridge.

I dumped in an instant rice pack and cracked an egg, boiling it down into a thick porridge.

“Kimchi too…”

I opened a store-bought kimchi pack I’d looted earlier. The tangy smell made my mouth water. Should’ve taken it out before eating the noodles.

How am I gonna get kimchi later? Make it myself? I don’t know how to kimjang… Where would I even get the ingredients? I want doenjang stew.

“Ugh… Fuck…”

Total disaster. At least I had ramen stockpiled…

‘If I run out of ramen, I’m screwed…’

My shop interface didn’t seem to sell daily necessities… In some novels, people buy chickens from their shop. Why do I only get books and magic tomes? If you’re gonna give me this feature, at least let me buy food.

Not that I need chickens-I can just hunt wild ones. The real problem is kimchi. How do I get more? Grow my own garlic?

This… This is really fucked. Forget farming-I should’ve learned how to make kimchi. Or maybe I should find a Korean chef to protect in exchange for cooking. Could have them live in a different unit.

As long as they’re not right next door, I can still meditate. And as long as I’m not traveling with anyone, I can use my inventory. Virginity? Doesn’t matter if I get a female chef.

This is actually tempting. A woman who can cook Korean food well-stir-fried pork, tonkatsu, spicy beef soup, kimchi stew. Maybe I should kidnap one.

Hell, it’s a good deal for her too. Better than being dragged into some den of men, getting passed around all day, and still having to cook. Just living together, no touching, just sharing meals.

I’ll gather ingredients; she just has to cook. Perfect. Maybe even give her some alchemy books I got from the general store and have her make potions all day. Everyone wins.

“*Sigh*… Fuck. What a dream…”

A total pipe dream.

Post-meal drowsiness hit me hard. I wanted to crash, but I couldn’t.

‘Need to meditate for MP… and read.’

Had to finish the Book of Combustion. Then buy the Monster Encyclopedia and reset the shop. So much to do.

“First, the quest…”

I needed to fill the empty quest slot first.

[Quest: Complete 3 Quests Within 3 Days (0/3)]

[Reward: 300P, Random Weapon]

[Warning: Failure Lowers Credit Score]

“Whoa. A weapon too.”

A weapon, huh? No idea what kind, but the shop only sells books, so a decent weapon would be great. Even a hammer or wrench would do, but something with effects would be better.

“Now then…”

I closed my eyes and began meditating.

Time to digest, recover, and heal minor wounds.

·

·

·

“Hmm…”

I must’ve meditated for a while. It was pitch black outside.

‘2 AM…’

About six hours of pure meditation.

“All healed up.”

My fatigue was gone. My MP had also increased by 360. At 60 per hour, it’ll keep rising the more I meditate.

If I just keep meditating without spending MP, it might grow indefinitely.

‘Is there a cap…?’

Since it kept increasing past 600, I’ll know if there’s a limit once I hit 1,000. If not, I could stack MP like crazy.

“Good. Very good.”

Feeling better, my focus sharpened. Perfect time to read. Easier to absorb when concentration’s high.

“Then…”

I grabbed the Book of Combustion and started reading in a comfortable position.

Too dark, so I turned on a flashlight.

·

·

·

“Ugh… I don’t get it!”

Didn’t understand a word, but I forced myself through it.

The result…

[Fireball Acquired.]

[Flame Emission Acquired.]

Got it. Direct attack skills.

Finally, I had ranged attacks. Fireballs from a distance, flame jets up close.

Plus, this would be great for starting fires. Perfect for roasting monster meat.

Fireball first, then flame jet to cook. Hell yeah.

‘Roast orc, here I come!’

Already drooling. As much as I love ramen, nothing beats meat. Wrapping a piece in noodles and chewing… Mmm…

“Got the skills…”

Now to buy the Monster Encyclopedia with my points and reset the shop. Hopefully, I’ll get some martial arts manuals this time.