In order to communicate in Survival Life, a microphone was required. However, in the game, itâs not possible to hear the voices of users. It was because of the gameâs unique system where it converts the voice input into text. Since the ID was not revealed, thereâs no way to know who the user was unless the user speaks. The developer team seemed to want users to keep the concept of anonymous survivors. There was also a patch about that at one point, so in the beginning, users kept the concept well. Afterall, users who hunted and chatted with me today could become my enemies tomorrow.
But as time passed, the atmosphere of the server changed. As more and more users dropped out of the game, leaving only the us, the stagnant waters, we began to decorate our appearance to our liking. So, even when our ID couldnât be seen, the others could immediately recognize who is who by looking at their appearance.
For example, Rabbit Pwincess used to wear a bunny girl costume on a bald male. Because heâs a man, should I call the costume bunny man? At first, we cursed his appearance because it was disgusting.
âBut later, everyone ended up only wearing underpantsâŚâ
The most frightening thing in this world was getting used to things like thisâŚseriously.
And Rabbit Pwincess, who pioneered the fashion change of the the stagnant water, often shouted âsexâ. The reason was unknown. Everytime he opens his mouth, those words always come out without fail. It was my daily routine with Duck Buttockâs Goes Kwek Kwek to beat him up because heâs such a perverted guy.
âIf he levels up this quickly, it looks like his unique ability is not a joke.â I said as I looked at the item menu. Rabbit Pwincess had the longest playtime amongst the three. Probably over 5,000 hours. Heâs only second to me. If so, just how good his unique ability would be?
âDangerousâŚâ I stopped trying to type something in the comment. Judging from the fact that he leveled up so quickly, Rabbit Pwincessâ unique ability was clearly combat-oriented. On top of it, since he had reached level 15, he must have acquired 3 additional effects to the ability. I donât know what it was, but it was clear that I wonât stand a chance against him in a fight.
âIn Survival Life, we played togetherâŚâ but in reality, thereâs no guarantee that it will be the case too. I have no idea who he really is or what his personality is like after all.
âBut it doesnât seem like that idiot-like personality in-game was made up.â Letâs take a closer look. I selected the comment field and entered text by voice.
-Hello
Once I put it out, I left the comment section and immediately began to work. Lately, Iâve been obsessed with learning how to make smoked trout. My teacher was naturally the survival books and videos downloaded from MeTube. Itâs impossible to make it with a smoker right now, so I decided to try the easy way.
âPut this rod into a triangleâŚâ covered it with tarpaulin and put the salted trout inside. It looks clumsy, but as itâs a traditional method, it is worth the try. I cut the firewoods into small pieces and put it under the triangle rod before lighting it up.
Cough-!! Cough-!!
âOh, itâs stinging!!â The smoke was so strong to the point I had to move away from the pit. But still, I couldnât take my eyes off it. Afterall, this smoking method requires maintaining the same temperature for up to several hours. I still donât know the best number of hours yet, so I had to perfect the method through trial and error. If the current method didnât work, I would have to smoke it in another way and perhaps also change the wood.
ââŚâ
By the way, watching a smoking process together with Dingo like this made me feel like Iâm an actual caveman. It was a strange and complicated feeling. Though, I still felt grateful as even at this moment, when I was enjoying the moment of peace, countless people out there were fighting against zombies for their survival. They couldnât even dream of eating smoked trout. All they had were those bland MRE.
I spent hours doing various things while waiting for the trout to be cooked. And when I finally decided to take it out, the colour was scary. It was completely black, like it was completely burnt.
âCan I eat this?â I think I should eat after peeling its skin, like fruit. And as expected, as I scraped the skin off with the mithril knife, an appetizing red flesh showed itself.
âWoahâŚâ After blowing it a few times, an explosion of flavour shook my body to the core. The meat melted easily in my mouth. It had a hint of sweetness in it before a smoky flavour came in. It was a kind of flavour which would be a perfect pair with soju. But I wouldnât drink it today.
âItâs too salty for you⌠Eat this instead.â I said as I saw Dingo, which looked like he was ready to bite my hand if I didnât give him any. When I put the grilled trout in front of him, the guy finished it in a matter of seconds, leaving only the bone.
In the middle of eating, an answer was posted in the item menu on the Auction House.
-Who are you?
-I hope you can tell me your name first.
â Itâs me, Rabbit Pwincess.
I smiled at how direct he was. It would be better to respond in the same manner and reveal my identity here. If push came to shove, I would still have some time to run away since Rabbit Pwincess didnât know where I lived. Or does he? Have I ever told them that I lived in Busan? I want to make sure about it by looking through the video, but since it was only a daily chat, it would be hard to pinpoint when and in which videos did I ever say it. Letâs not make a big deal out of it. Even if he knew I lived in Busan, it would be hard to find me since Busan wasnât a small city.
-This is I Love GimbapâŚ
After typing like that, no answer came back for several seconds.
But thenâŚ
-Hiks Hiks HiksâŚ
-Whatâs wrong?
Is he crying?
-I Love Gimbap-nim is alive!! I thought you were dead.
-I suffered a little bit, but I am still alive as of today.
Itâs so weird to use polite speech while talking to him like this. Back in Survival Life, we talked in a semi-formal way to make everyone equal. Rabbit Pwincess extended his long wild welcome before telling me that he was currently in Seoul.
-Are you with the President by any chance?
-Iâm not. Iâm alone.
-Ah⌠then just who gave the President the info that they show on TV on the D-Day?
-I thought it was you⌠You are the only one who has that much information and you used to stream as well.
-I didnât do it because I have some situation.
If Rabbit Pwincess criticized me after knowing the truth, I decided I was going to cut off contact with him. But contrary to my expectation, he showed a surprising reaction.
-I get it. Is it because you have something you canât tell others? Did you decide not to do it because you were afraid of being caught and arrested?
I finally met someone who understood me for the first time.
-Thatâs right. It is because I have a unique ability that is difficult to reveal to others.
-Oh⌠Whatever it is, I know it will be awesome! My unique ability is resurrection, but yours must be something even greater.
-Resurrection?
-Yes. On top of it, itâs an infinite resurrection. I can respawn as long as I have points.
-WoahâŚ
My mouth hangs open as I read his message. I donât know if his unique skill is as good as mine or not. But still, resurrection was a cheat-like ability in this kind of world. Rabbit Pwincess then revealed his unique abilityâs additional effect too.
-Level 5 effect is physical resistance, level 10 is elemental resistance. Level 15 is a variety of special resistances. Those goblins darts are useless against me now HEHEHEHE!
-Thatâs great⌠You wouldnât have any problem clearing the goblin dungeon then.
-Well⌠I could only tank 3 hits.
-Then itâs not okay. What will you do if you get hit by 4 and get paralyzed?
-Will you not go with me? Letâs just wear underwear and hit them with bare fists!
-I canât do that because I donât have a resurrection ability like you.
-Oh, yeah. I forget.
Is this guy really wearing only panties? If itâs really true, he probably had already died a few times until now. Well, his elemental resistance will keep him safe from the weather even without clothes, I guess. Afterall, it works even against the heat from the sun and the cold from rain.
-Perhaps⌠are you only wearing panties right now?
-How did you know?
-You are totally crazyâŚ
-I donât feel the heat or the cold anymore, so itâs okay. By the way, have you met the other guys?
-I have only met one.
-Who?
-MyDream.
-Ah⌠that person. Weâre not even close, but he kept acting friendly to me. I donât like it. If I remember correctly, he said he had a lot of money.
-I think he has some kind of mental related unique skill, because he has some minions working for him.
-Oh, this is a really good information. If he had people working for him, itâs probably brainwashing or memory manipulation ability.
-Speaking of which, please donât shake hands with other people recklessly.
-Okay. By the way, did you meet him in Busan?
Ah⌠Yeah, so he indeed knew where I lived.
I answered casually.
-Did I ever tell you why my ID is I Love Gimbap?
-Yeah, you said you were running a snack bar. Are you scared now because I can find you?
-I honestly admitâŚ
He laughed.
â Hey, relax. Weâre too close to do that to each other. Donât you remember? We hunted those trolls together, did the tutorial again together after being killed by an ogre, and even got lost in the labyrinth because we couldnât find our way out together!
Itâs because of you that we got lost in the labyrinth⌠Well, I guess I could relax a little bit more. I was friendly with other stagnant waters, but I got along very well with the rabbit Pwincess. Maybe itâs because his personality could entertain my emotionally dry heart.
Wait a minute⌠Doesnât that mean I felt happy when I was together with this crazy bastard?
Anyway, it was nice to have some good memories with Rabbit Pwincess. Even If we both died because of it, we always laughed it out and did it again.
But nowâŚ
â Things have changed. RabPri.
â Itâs Rabbit Pwincess.
-Itâs hard to pronounce, so please accept it.
âPwi, Pwi, Pwi, Pwi, Pwi, Pwi.
I sighed. This guy was very strict about some unimportant things. The more we talked, the more I felt I had returned to the game.
-By the way, I envy your unique skill. It would be nice to be able to survive with only points. I need too many points to equip myself.
-From your words, it seems like your unique ability isnât combat related⌠How about this? Because it seems like weâre the only ones in the Auction House right now, letâs exchange one item we had looted so far with only 1 point.
I nodded my head at his words. It was a great offer for me. Since Seoul had a huge population, the number and difficulty of zombies there would naturally be on the high side. I wondered what kind of loot Rabbit Pwincess had got there.
-Put away the stick and letâs put something elsewhere.
-Hehe, did you get two of these too?
-Of course.
-Theyâre really funny. We reported a bug like that, but they ignored it until the end.
-But did you know that they doubled the Auction House fees with the patch?
-Ah⌠those fucking bastards!!
it seems he didnât know. After a while, the ebony stick disappeared from the display and was replaced by a ring. My mouth hangs open once again after reading the description. It was a ring made of magic metal with two stats increase options. The stats option attached to the ring was a rare one to boot, Vitality and Strength.
Rabbit Pwincess proudly gave a comment.
-You know how difficult it is to get something with two stats in the beginning, right? I searched all over the town to find this.
-Are you saying that you worked really hard to find this item? How many points do you have right now?
-I only have 240 points right now.
Ah⌠It seems like he literally worked hard to death. Still, with the ring equipped, the chance he would die in the long run would decrease considerably.
-Take the ring. I put that up for 10 points.
âHey! How can you sell it for just 10 points? It has a Vitality and Strength stats increase option!
âIt seems like I Love Gimbap-nim doesnât believe me yet, But I believe in you 100%. So, just take it.
I never thought that there were people who would believe in me like that. To be honest, I was touched by his words. To answer his belief, the item I have to put up on the Auction House should beâŚ
-Huh? How did you get this? An owlbearâs claw could only be obtained through looting, right?
-Yes, that is correct. I got it through looting.
-How??? Did an owlbear somehow get spawned in Busan?
-Thatâs not it. Like I said before, I have my own situation.
Even if I told him I got it by hunting an owlbear in a forest in another world, he wouldnât believe it.
By the way, I remembered that Rabbit Pwincess said that he usually enjoys drinking. I have a splendid snack that will definitely fit to be eaten while drinking with me now, so I think he would be happy with it. Iâm not sure if he got some alcohol with him now, but even if he didnât, he will definitely look for it. Itâs him after all.
However, it was questionable whether the food would be treated as an item. Because back in Survival Life, thereâs practically no one who ever auctioned food, even more so a handmade one.
Letâs try it first. I wrapped one smoked trout with clean paper and placed it on a disposable plate. Then I clicked on the auction registration. Thankfully, a message popped up in front of me right away.
ăDo you want to register smoked trout to the Auction?ă
I hit the YES button and set the auction winning bid to the minimum. In a heartbeat, the plate and the trout were engulfed in the light and disappeared entirely. Eat well, Rabbit Pwincess.
âBy the way, I forgot to tell him I used his name to trick KwonâŚâ
Will he get angry once he knows about it? Well, I doubt it.
.
.
.
Hwang Seokhyun carefully unwrapped the fish when a plate suddenly appeared on the desk in front of him.
âThis item really come out.â He had won a bid for a smoked trout, but never did he expect it to be real. With his eyes locked in the food, he wondered just where did I Love Gimbap get it. Is he at a place near a river or something right now? Or maybe his unique skill was related to cooking.
In fact, Seokhyun didnât care at all about those things. Itâs just a fleeting curiosity. The more important thing was that he had confirmed that his friend was alive and well. He even gave him a present to boot. Namely, the piping hot fish in front of him. For Seokhyun, who only ate military rations for the past several days, the food in front of him was no different than a true feast. In other words, he needs a drink to celebrate it.
Seokhyun kicked the zombie who crawled towards him and dashed off towards the kitchen. When he returned, he had a green plastic bottle filled with soju in his hand. Seokhyun sat down on the chair and wiped the saliva flowing down his unkempt beard.
If someone suddenly passed by and saw him, they would undoubtedly turn their head towards him. Afterall, his appearance was a bit⌠quirky. His hair was sparse, and he wore a half-ripped cloak with only a panty underneath. Moreover, he also wore a pair of boots which covered up to his calf.
âHeh, heh hehâŚâ Seokhyun grabbed a wooden chopstick and moved it towards the smoked trout. When he opened his mouth wide, his tongue came out to meet it.
Munch munch munch.
With a happy expression as if he had tasted heaven, Seokhyun kept munching on the fish. This is it! he thought. What he ate for the past few days were all garbage. Once he swallowed the fish, he poured all the content inside the plastic bottle to his mouth. With his current body, he didnât have any worry of getting drunk.
âKhaaaaakâŚâ
After the alcohol was gone, Seokhyun ate the smoked trout again. He kept repeating the cycle for several more times until he finished the whole fish.
âKhaakk⌠todayâs food is deliciousâŚâ
In the last few days, heâd fought hundreds of times, killed dozens of zombies, and had died a few times. Therefore, there was nothing left around him. What he was feeling right now was not just the deliciousness of the smoked trout, but the joy of being a human being. At this moment, he was the happiest man in the world.
After he ate all the trout, he grabbed his backpack and jumped out the window.
âSexxxxxxxxx!â
A few zombies shrieking in the street looked at him as he landed on the ground.
Growl-!!
âMove! I had to go to Busan!â
Seokhyun shouted something that would undoubtedly surprise Seongho had he heard it.
âGiant- Swing!â Seokhyun shouted as he grabbed the ankle of a zombie and swung it around in a circle, hitting all zombies around him.
Seokhyun worked hard. As it was, he had all the momentum he needed to go to Busan. However, there was one problemâŚ
After 30 minutes of walking, Seokhyun returned to his original hideout.