[Episode 02] Survivors (2)

The whole house next door was dark.

Some of the lights weren’t on, but the darkness despite the daylight seemed to be due to the thick curtains covering the entire living room window.

‘That’s wise.’

If you do that, you won’t be attacked by flying monsters like Kelican.

‘But it’s too dark.’

It was something I realized as I came out of the hallway, but the skill to maintain dignity could be applied anywhere within my domain.

So it was possible to ring the doorbell and open the door at will.

In the area of every corner of the house, everything was done according to my will.

‘That’s how you do it, maybe?’

I wanted to stare at the living room ceiling.

‘Turn it on.’

flash­

As soon as the lights came on, I could feel Choi Hyung-joon’s family flinch and tremble.

“uh? The lights are on!”

Only the youngest child in the house, about 5 years old, was just admiring it without knowing why.

The rest were trembling with fear.

I handed Samdasoo to Hyungjun Choi, who was looking at me with trembling eyes, and said,

“First, feed the children water.”

“Ah yes. thank you.”

Hyungjun Choi carefully received the water I handed him with both hands.

The overly polite appearance was rather burdensome to me.

‘Was the first appearance too impactful?’

Ringing the doorbell and opening the door without hesitation were intentional actions.

It was to push forward with a mystical concept as much as possible and at the same time bring the initiative in the conversation.

But it turned out to be a lot better than I thought.

“Na Yeon-ah, Seo Yeon-ah. Let’s drink water.”

The two looked at me while feeding the children. Thanks to that, the children were also watching me.

“Kellogg! Coke!”

“Seo Yeon-ah! it’s okay?”

Unsurprisingly, Choi Seo-yeon, who was drinking water in an uncomfortable atmosphere, heard mucus and coughed repeatedly.

‘I’ll have to loosen up the atmosphere before we talk.’

Feeling sorry for scaring her, I took out a tangerine from the box and approached Choi Seo-yeon.

Then, after squatting down and meeting the child at eye level, he handed him a tangerine and started talking.

“Do you like tangerines?”

Seoyeon Choi nodded slowly while coughing.

“ruler.”

“Oh, thank you. Coke.”

Choi Seo-yeon, who received the tangerine with a nod, looked at me and carefully handed the tangerine to her mother, Park Hye-won.

“wait a minute.”

Park Hye-won skilfully peeled a tangerine and put a piece in Choi Seo-yeon’s mouth.

As soon as the sweetness entered her mouth, Seoyeon Choi relaxed and smiled.

“lol. Mom, give me another one!”

“tasty?”

“Yeah!”

The frozen atmosphere quickly melted when the four-year-old smiled.

“Mom me too, me too!”

Choi Na-yeon, who seemed to be about 6 years old, also ran to her mother and ate the tangerine.

It was then.

[Citizen Choi Seo-yeon’s credibility increases.]

[Citizen Na-yeon Choi’s credibility increases.]

[Citizen Park Hye-won’s credibility increases.]

[Citizen Hyungjun Choi’s credibility increases.]

After that, new messages continued to appear one after another.

[Citizen Seoyeon Choi’s reliability has reached 50.]

[Loyalty is unlocked.]

[Citizen Seoyeon Choi’s loyalty has exceeded 30.]

[Citizen Seoyeon Choi has met the conditions for vassal registration.]

It was the reliability of Choi Seo-yeon, who had a high reliability of 42 from the beginning.

It seemed that he had exceeded 50 with just one tangerine.

I quietly opened the citizen management window and checked Choi Seo-yeon’s information.

『Name: Seoyeon Choi (Lv. 2)

Reliability: 57 Loyalty: 33

Awakening Ability: None

EXP distribution rate: 0%

Settlement amount distribution rate: 0%

★Quest Grant Exit』

Not only did trust rise, but a new index called loyalty was created.

This was a whopping 33 from the start.

‘Is it because I’m a child?’

Anyway, thanks to that, I was able to figure out the conditions for trail registration.

The vassal registration system was a new feature that appeared as the Dignity Maintenance skill went up to level 2.

As soon as he was born, he tried to register Hyungjun Choi, who had the highest level, as a vassal, but it failed with the message ‘The conditions were not met.’

50 Reliability and 30 Loyalty.

That was the minimum condition for vassal registration.

‘Should I register as a visitor to Choi Seo-yeon?’

After thinking about it for a while, I quickly gave up.

‘She’s too young and her level is low.’

Unlike citizens, only 10 people were allowed to register as vassals.

Since he was the first citizen to meet the conditions, he could have tried registering as a souvenir, but he couldn’t cancel it like in the case of the shop window.

It was too precious to try it out.

‘It may have a greater effect than I thought. So, if you register as a vassal, you have to be at least at the level of Hyungjun Choi.’

He was a sturdy man in his 30s and level 9.

It was right to raise Hyungjun Choi’s abilities even for smooth monster hunting.

‘but···.’

□Hyungjun Choi (Reliability: 31) (Lv. 9)

At least, the level of confidence that had risen was 31.

It’s still a long way from getting to 50.

‘Honestly, it’s a bit wasteful to use it on Choi Hyung-jun.’

It was then.

“C’mon…”

Hyungjun Choi spoke first.

“How should I repay this grace…”

“There are ways.”

“···Yeah?”

“Let’s talk separately in the hallway for a moment.”

“Uh, yes.”

It was an embarrassing story to tell in a place where the family was listening.

I was going to ask him to risk his life for me from now on.

***

When we came out into the hallway and were alone, Hyungjun Choi was as stiff as when we first met.

First of all, I threw lightly to relieve tension.

“Did you get your citizenship?”

Hyungjun Choi hesitated for a moment before answering.

“If you’re talking about a notification window that popped up in the air, yes. received. I received it as a group of my family about 30 minutes ago.”

When citizenship was granted, citizens were asked to see if they recognized it.

“So, was there anything special before that notification appeared?”

“Uh, that’s…”

“Have you been?”

“Yeah. For a while, my body was stiff and I couldn’t do anything.”

“okay. Thank you for speaking up.”

It seemed that a temporary stiffness had come before he was accepted as a citizen.

‘Then what about the monsters?’

The declaration skill became level 5, and the entire 30th floor turned into an area.

Naturally, it could be inferred that the higher the level, the wider the area.

Then, someday, there will come a case where there are non-human monsters in the area.

Likewise, it would be nice if I could be rigid or kicked out at will, but things didn’t seem to go so easily.

‘Let’s think about that then.’

There were too many things to do to worry unnecessarily.

“I will tell you directly. We will help you get back to your old stable life. I cook and eat, take a warm shower, and that kind of life.”

“Yeah?”

“Not only that, it ensures safety in the house as well. No monsters will be able to invade unless I give permission.”

“… is that true?”

“I swear by my name.”

Hyungjun Choi looked at me with trembling eyes and then spoke with determined eyes.

“Of course, you are not doing all this for free. What can I do?”

I was silent for a moment, staring at him indifferently, then opened my mouth.

“What I am asking you from now on is something that could cost you your life. Would you like to?”

Hearing that he could seriously die, Choi Hyung-joon’s worries were surprisingly short.

“Yes. I’ll do it. If only my wife and children could be safe, what would I do? Even if it wasn’t for you, I was going to go out and get water and food. I already risked my life then.”

At first, he planned to have Choi Hyung-joon hunt goblins right away.

But now my thoughts have changed.

It was because of his disappointing appearance in the first meeting.

‘I was very nervous that I might swing a golf club.’

At the time I pressed the doorbell, I was using the eyes of the Absolute and perfectly grasping the inner situation.

At that time, I was quite nervous when I saw the golf club in Hyungjun Choi’s hand.

As soon as I entered, I thought about whether I should yell at them not to attack.

However, when he entered the house, Choi Hyung-jun could not attack once.

‘The size is distracting.’

He had a large physique and a good skeleton, but he seemed to have a softer heart than he looked.

A modern person might see this as a natural reaction, but in any case, disappointing was disappointing.

‘I think I can.’

Even though I relied heavily on the proclamation skill, I had the experience of catching a Kelican.

In the case of the goblin, it was all about throwing dumbbells and catching them, but it didn’t seem like they would lose if they were given the right weapon.

‘It doesn’t have to be aggressive, but it should be enough to fight without panic when meeting a goblin.’

Choi Hyung-joon, whom I have seen so far, is a responsible adult who knows how to sacrifice himself for his family, but he doesn’t look like someone who can kill or do anything.

Suddenly, the golf club in his hand caught my eye.

‘Is it made of whole iron? I’m sure if I wield that, I can easily smash a goblin’s head.’

I reached out my hand to Choi Hyung-jun and said.

“Can I see that golf club?”

“Uh, is this? Here you are.”

After receiving the golf club, I thought to myself.

‘Shop open. register the goods.’

There was one fact that I realized while using the Absolute Eye skill earlier.

Being able to use skills without having to say anything.

Although it took a little concentration, it wasn’t too difficult.

Gee-

The light pouring from the shop window scanned the golf club, and a new item was registered in the shop.

Looking at Hyungjun Choi’s reaction, it seemed that the shop windows and the light coming from them were invisible.

Used Golf Clubs (538,200 KRW) ▶Repair

‘What?’

It was a very expensive golf club.

‘530,000 won.’

Thanks to the shop level effect, the amount with a 10% discount was 530,000 won.

I asked Hyungjun Choi with a puzzled expression.

“How much is it?”

“Uh… Uhm. I remember giving you 400,000 won.”

“Forty?”

“Yeah.”

I’ve felt it before, but in this damn store, the prices of products that need restoration were higher than the original product prices.

If it’s used, it won’t be enough even if you give it a half price discount.

‘To restore.’

When I clicked restore as a test, an estimate came out right away.

[In order to restore a ‘used golf club’, an amount of KRW 3,870,000 is required.]

[Would you like to recover?]

‘crazy.’

A whopping $400,000 was needed for the restoration.

It was almost half of the money I had.

‘cancel! cancel!’

It was a used or new item anyway.

It would have been better to just buy it at a slightly higher price than to restore it.

‘I don’t know if I need dozens of them…’

Before that, it was rather a loss to restore the product.

“Um… is that really okay? I’ll give you anything. Other golf clubs in my house.”

Hyungjun Choi seemed a little relaxed.

It was worth it.

Whenever he talked seriously about life or anything, he was in a situation where he was asking about the price of golf clubs.

I quickly changed the topic of conversation.

“Hmm, hmm. Do you remember the day the monsters appeared?”

“I remember.”

“It was a Saturday. It was the weekend. Quite a few people were probably relaxing at home.”

Some people went out to play because the weather was so nice, but there must have been a lot of people who were resting at home.

So it was said that dozens of people would be alive even if they couldn’t even make it to this apartment.

“The lucky ones who were in the house at the time are probably still alive. Please visit them.”

I haven’t been able to fight the goblins myself, but I don’t think one individual has that much power.

I could tell just by looking at his small size and lower level than adult men.

A goblin’s real weapon is numbers.

It was about hunting in groups and working closely together.

But it’s not just goblins that can form groups.

Since ancient times, pushing with numbers has been one of mankind’s traditional weapons.

Hyungjun Choi decided that it would be difficult to hunt goblins alone, so he decided to focus on increasing the number of troops capable of fighting goblins.

“I want you to find the survivors and bring them up here.”