Chapter Title: Superior Ability Awakening Stone
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๐ฐ New Post Title: Hooaang~ Your guardian angel Castaway has arrived~! (,,>ใฎ<,,)! Did everyone enjoy their red bean buns, yo? Even if you couldn't eat one now, you'll get to someday! Of course, you'll need points for that! But how's everyone earning their points, yo? And if any kind souls could tell me about other channels, that'd be great~? (โฏ>แด<โฏ)เฒฃ ๐ฌ Comments โ Anon ...What the hell is this speech pattern? โ Faithful Sisters Was this person always like this? โ Anon Guardian... angel? โ Earth Mage Hey, Mr. Jo. Cut the nonsense and post some red bean buns. โ Blue Plum Maiden Where the hell are you getting bread and milk from anyway? โ SellsAnything Curious? Add me as a [friend] and I'll tell you everything. โ Anon โณ Reply Whoa~ Of course there's some idiot pulling this crap. โ Anon Castaway! You can't add friends! It shares your location! โ SellsAnything Wanna die?
Shortly after posting like this, comments started pouring in.
'Location sharing?'
It seemed that adding someone as a [friend] let you see each other's locations.
'Good thing someone told me.'
It had been worth the effort of diligently posting bread and milk, even if it was for points.
Anyway, after waiting a bit longer, fortunately, the answer I wanted appeared.
โ PleaseGiveMeOneCoin Points? Hit [Point Acquisition] in the bottom right and shove anything in. โ Anon โณ Reply The amount of points you get depends on the item's value. โ Anon Usually, you toss in a whole monster after killing it.
'Point Acquisition?'
Sure enough, there was a small [Point Acquisition] button in the bottom right.
'Press this and shove anything in, huh...'
For experimentation, I tapped [Point Acquisition], and the square gallery window turned black.
Assuming this was where I needed to put items, I tossed in the water canteen I'd bought first.
โ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION โ Ding~![0%] โ [0.4%]
"0.4%?"
It said point acquisition, but what was this 0.4% fill?
โ RockLife Usually, you shove in like 50 rocks to get 1 point. โ DayByDayTough If you're unlucky, it might take 70-80. โ RockAppraiser Nah nah. If you're lucky, one rock can net 1-2 points.
Reading the real-time comments that followed, it seemed you needed to fill 100% to get 1 point.
Since the water canteen was basically trash, I figured that's why it only filled 0.4%, and soon thought of another use for it.
'Couldn't I just use it to dispose of trash?'
I bet others were using it that way too.
'Now that I think about it, there wasn't much trash on the streets.'
โ MoleLife Other channels? Swipe left/right on the gallery.
In the meantime, someone had shared how to access other channels.
It was simpler than expected, and a few comments followed below it.
โ Earth Mage But even if you go, you can't read the posts. โ Anon Can't read text, but you can see pics. โ Anon The Mage Tower's working on translating. โ Anon Translation my ass. How many years has it been? lol
'Can't read posts from other channels?'
Easy enough to check.
But first, to thank those who kindly answered, I left a comment.
โญ Top Comment โ Castaway (Me) Everyone! Thanks a bunch~! I'll keep striving to be your guardian angel~! (,,>ใฎ<,,)! โ Earth Mage โณ Reply This speech pattern definitely wasn't like this at first... โ Anon Where are you? I'll protect you safely!
I ignored the continuing comments and swiped the gallery window to the left.
A gallery in the same format appeared, and the text at the top read Channel 3.
'Is this a world where over 90% of the population vanished too?'
Skimming the posts...
โโโโโโโ ๐ฐ Channel 3 Posts [Sob sob. Doomie's dinner was tasty today too.] [157][Aaaah!! When will the shit in front of my house disappear?! I'm going insane!] [91][Survivors, come to Incheon Alliance! Awakeners preferred!] [363][Awakened to an ability. Is this a good one?] [67][No condoms, can I use vinyl gloves??] [139][FML, got bit. I'm out first.] [238][This goddamn world.] [33][Please share some medicine.] [45][Zombie hunt, day 335.] [172]
'Zombies?'
Zombie kept popping up frequently in the Channel 3 posts.
And the words scattered here and there reminded me of the modern world.
'Did a zombie apocalypse hit the modern world?'
Of course, not the one I'd been in until yesterday.
'What was it? Oh, parallel worlds or something?'
Even more surprisingly, I could read the Channel 3 posts.
Maybe because they were in Korean, since they were posted here...
'I can read Channel 4 and 5 too.'
Same for Channels 4 and 5.
For reference, Channel 4 was mostly curses, and Channel 5 was like reports.
๐ฐ Channel 4 Posts [We're screwed! Got drafted into the subjugation squad!] [172][These bastards are total shit. Should we all just die?] [254][FML. How long do I have to hole up in this bunker?] [388][This shitty passive system! So inconvenient it's driving me nuts!] [263] ๐ฐ Channel 5 Posts [Rebecca, age 122. Northern barrier checked.] [1][Rosnia, age 146. Finished today's herb management.] [1][Otil, age 201. 100 bottles of mana potion produced.] [1][Fasnel, age 137. Southern scout complete.] [1] โโโโโโโ
Confirming I could read them, I went back to Channel 3.
๐ฐ Channel 3 Post Title: Sob sob. Doomie's dinner was tasty today too. (Photo of hardtack and canned tuna) Does this qualify as ใ ใ ใ ใ ? ๐ฌ Comments โ FirePunch Daily life much? โ AnyoneHere Bourgeois meal. โ GiveMeCheat Eating that well. Jealous. โ Anon Still having food left is what's amazing. โ Anon Where do you live?
'Food seems to be an issue here too.'
Thinking of selling bread and milk on Channel 3 as well, I headed to the exchange.
As expected, there were tons of items posted by people, and one caught my eye.
'Huh?'
'200,000 points?'
Way beyond what I could dream of right now.
Of course, that was for nowโlater might be different.
[Points: 2,608]
2,608 points...
'A bit short.'
About 98.7%?
Anyway, price aside, "ability awakening" piqued my curiosity.
To learn more, I tapped the post, revealing tons of comments below.
๐ฐ Exchange Post [Sale: Superior Ability Awakening Stone][Price: 200,000.] ๐ฌ Comments โ SunForever Whoa. Superior ability. Super jealous. โ WhenDoIAwaken This guarantees an A~B-grade ability, right? โ Anon Eating it makes you an awakener for sure. โ EveryoneAwakenedButMe A~B grade means you can go on a rampage right away, no? โ Anon โณ Reply Rampage against regular zombies, yeah. Depending on the ability, even stage 1 mutants. โ LetMeEatRice But the price is insane. Who's dog's name is 200k points?
"Hm."
Did eating this give you superpowers or something?
I desperately wanted a way to protect myself, so it tempted me greatly.
The problem was the 200,000-point priceโI had no way to buy it right now.
'Still, at my earning rate, I could save up in 1-2 weeks.'
Given the price, it probably wouldn't sell that fast, but who knew.
Plus, 200k was a huge burden for me, so I brainstormed ways to haggle it down.
'They seem short on food here too, so trading food directly might work.'
The seller's goal was probably food anyway.
Direct trade with food might let me snag it way cheaper than 200k.
'Let's haggle via 1:1 chat.'
Without wasting time, I requested a 1:1 chat with the seller.
โ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION โ [Requesting 1:1 chat with 'Ice Queen'.] [Opponent has accepted 1:1 chat.]
'Nickname Ice Queen. The number means Channel 3, huh?'
Noting that, I replied right away.
She'd noticed the 2ch on my nickname too.
At that, Ice Queen replied promptly.
I interpreted that as including the value of two lives.
Hearing that, I checked the modern item list for decent food.
-Rice 20kg: 45 points
-Ramen 1 box: 23 points
-Instant rice 1 box: 31 points
...
...
Naturally, multiple listings per item, but I picked the cheapest.
Rice had 20kg for 80 points too, instant rice up to 42.
Totaling 990 points.
An absurd discount from 200k.
Empty boxes? Possible, I guess.
'Then they could scam too.'
Like giving fakes or a lesser grade instead of superior.
Easy to understandโfood was too little.
'990 points is pretty low, yeah.'
I thought more about it.
'Honestly, 1-2k points is easy money now.'
Just post red bean buns and milk on Channel 2 like before.
Even if scammed this time, I could recover in hours.
'If it's a real scam, I'll remember it forever.'
Decision made, I sent the reply.