SALT 06

Chapter: 06

Enemy of Humanity (3)

“I don’t know who you are, but… Mr. Whoever-you-are, you’ll be blessed.”

The moment he saw the vast amount of goods and restaurants inside the underground shopping mall, he offered a silent prayer of gratitude to whoever had designed the passage connecting the station to the mall.

And he was also impressed by the judgment of Sohee, the short-haired girl who had decided to keep at least this passage open even if everything else was closed.

“First, I should fill my stomach.”

He immediately entered the empty family restaurant kitchen, buried his face into the sink, and drank tap water straight from it.

Only after quenching his burning thirst did he start thinking about searching the fridge for food.

It seemed that the restaurant had planned some kind of birthday event for a family that day, because inside the refrigerator were neatly packaged cakes and bread.

There were other ingredients too, but this wasn’t the kind of situation where he could leisurely cook.

Satisfied with food he could eat immediately, he took out a cake and sat down at a table in the dining area.

“….”

As he replenished his sugar and organized his thoughts, it really did feel like his mind was working better now that carbohydrates were in his system.

There were two things that were now certain.

“First, just like One-Eye said, we’re now in a situation where we can only live for a limited amount of time.”

He muttered while rubbing the number tattoo engraved on his wrist, confirming that it wouldn’t come off.

“Second, we can buy items from a place called the Space Market, and the currency used there is ‘the survival time I’ve secured.’”

As he thought “Space Market” in his mind, a large window filled with a list of items appeared before his eyes.

If he wanted to survive in this world, he needed to clearly understand what the Space Market sold—or didn’t sell.

He needed to know the prices of essential survival items and how to use them effectively.

“Water, food, clothing, electronics… It’d be faster to find what they don’t sell.”

More precisely, they sold everything except firearms.

“2 liters of water for 5 hours, a can of tuna for 10 hours….”

He glanced at the cake he was about to eat, then refocused on the system window.

“So to eat one can of tuna, I’d have to kill two regular larvae. Reasonable… I guess? …Wait, how much was my axe again?”

He searched for the tomahawk he had bought.

“The ‘Tomahawk’ is… 900 hours? Was that discount some kind of tutorial bonus or something?”

Thinking that the system wasn’t much different from typical games,

He spoke a term he had only ever seen in novels—and a new window appeared.

[Status Window]

Name: Lee Minjun (Silver)
Title: First Apostle Slayer
Survival Time (ST): 437 hours
Karma: +0.4

Stats:
[Strength Lv.5] [Stamina Lv.5] [Agility Lv.5]

Passive Skills: [Apostle’s Nemesis Max], [Apostle’s Natural Enemy Lv.2], [Insecticide Lv.1]
Active Skills: None

“Damn… This really is a game. Then can I level up my stats too?”

When he clicked on the stamina stat, a message appeared asking for confirmation.

[Use 300 hours to increase Stamina by 1 level? (Y/N)]

300 hours was three-fourths of the time he had.

Even though his stats were still low, the cost was higher than expected, which startled him—but he shut his eyes tight and pressed Y.

If survival was the most important value in this world, then stamina had to be crucial.

[Stamina has reached level 6.]
[Endurance increases.]
[Your skin becomes tougher.]

“It’s fine. I wasn’t going to sit around doing nothing anyway. If I want to go out and hunt more larvae, both endurance and defense are important….”

Seeing his reduced survival time left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he swallowed those unnecessary emotions and examined the status window again.

“Come to think of it, it said I equipped a title earlier?”

Muttering to himself, Minjun clicked on the titles he had obtained.

[First Apostle Slayer]
Grade: Rare – Growth Type
Effect: [Apostle’s Nemesis Max], [Apostle’s Natural Enemy Lv.1]
Skills always active

[Larvae’s Natural Enemy]
Grade: Uncommon
Effect: [Insecticide Lv.1]
Skills always active

“The first one at least sounds pretty cool….”

Each title came with skills, and the fact that they were always active even without equipping the title was definitely a plus.

More importantly, aside from one exception, the effects of the skills were extremely useful for killing bugs.

[Apostle’s Nemesis Max]: Apostles show strong hostility toward you.

[Apostle’s Natural Enemy Lv.2]: Every 3 basic attacks or active skill hits on an Apostle deals an additional 160% physical damage.

[Insecticide Lv.1]: When a basic attack hits an insect-type Apostle, their movement speed and attack speed decrease by 5% for 0.5 seconds.

‘Apostle’s Nemesis’ clearly had no positive effect for him and only increased the monsters’ hostility.

But since the monsters were already crazily charging at him for his time even without him doing anything, it didn’t feel like a major drawback.

In fact, considering the other skills attached, it felt like a great deal.

Since the title was a growth-type, its grade might increase later, possibly upgrading [Apostle’s Natural Enemy] or adding even better skills.

Only after reviewing the skill effects did he understand why he had been able to kill larvae more easily than others.

After swallowing the cake in his mouth, he wiped his hands on his clothes and began testing other features.

“Equipment window,” “Inventory,” “Monster Encyclopedia,” “Summons,” and so on.

Not knowing what kind of game system this resembled, he tried everything he could think of—from PC games to mobile game features.

In the end, nothing appeared except the “Status Window” and “Quest Window.”

‘It’s a shame there’s no inventory. That means I have to carry everything myself.’

As he smacked his lips in disappointment, a chair scraped loudly—and someone sat down in front of him.

“Are you eating alone like some pitiful loner?”

It was Sohee, whom he had met earlier.

“I was taught that people live alone in this world. And… considering what the world has become, this is a feast.”

“Come on, don’t be so cold. People are meant to live together. Like how I tried to help you earlier, and how you warned others.”

When he looked up from his bread, he saw her hand extended for a handshake.

Despite her cute appearance, her hands were rough.

‘She looks younger than me… what kind of life did she live to have hands like that? …More importantly, why did she come all the way here?’

“Thanks for earlier. I told you my name, right? I’m Jung Sohee. Nice to meet you.”

“….”

She seemed to get along well with other survivors, and some of them were even actively hunting larvae.

So why come to him, who was alone?

“…Hey? Not going to shake my hand? My arm’s about to fall off waiting.”

At her prompting, Minjun snapped out of his thoughts and put down the bread.

He had a strong feeling this would lead to something troublesome, but since he owed her his life twice already, he didn’t have much of a choice.

“My name is Lee Minjun. What do you want?”

“Oh, I thought you might be curious about what happened to the others after you left, so I came to tell you.”

“I’m not particularly curious.”

Despite his indifference, Sohee continued.

“People split into two groups and started arguing. One side wants to wait for government support—the annoying assemblyman’s side—and the other believes we should adapt to the new environment.”

Pretending to ignore her, Minjun took another bite of bread—but he couldn’t stop himself from listening.

“You know the upper floors of this mall are all Golden Apartments, right? Assemblyman Lee Gidong’s group went there. If you’re going to wait, you need a place to stay. Oh, and the people who were already holding out in Golden Apartments joined his side too.”

Golden Apartment residents…

He recalled the chaotic memory.

The people who had coldly rejected him and the others while they were fleeing.

He understood their actions logically—but emotionally, it still left a bad taste.

“And the other group is getting ready to head out. They’re shopping around the mall.”

“…What?”

“Shopping. Gotta take whatever they can.”

That snapped him fully awake.

“Shouldn’t you have said that first?”

“I thought you already knew! And you didn’t ask!”

“….”

She was completely right, so Minjun gave a brief thanks and immediately hurried off.

Anything from the Space Market would cost a lot of survival time—so he had to gather as much as possible now.

‘First place to go is…’

He sprinted straight to the outdoor equipment store.

But as expected, many others had already gotten there first.

Thankful for his increased agility, he quickly grabbed what he needed:

A large-capacity tactical backpack,
Lightweight, warm, easy-to-clean hiking clothes,
High-ankle military boots,

And various small survival tools.

After thoroughly sweeping every floor—from basement level 1 to the second floor above ground—he gathered everything and sat on a bench in the underground mall.

Turning his head, he saw Sohee sitting nearby, equipped with the exact same gear.

“…Why do you keep following me?”

“Because I knew it would turn out like this.”

“What do you mean by—”

“By just following you, Minjun, I’m perfectly prepared to go outside! No need to think, just follow—how convenient is that?”

“….”

Speechless at her shamelessness, he stared at her.

Then she spoke again.

“Don’t you have any questions? Feels like you should be asking by now.”

“About what?”

“Why I didn’t join either side and came to you.”

“I didn’t ask because it sounded troublesome.”

“Minjun, you don’t have any friends, do you?”

“…I grew up just fine without them.”

“Wow, really? First time I’ve met someone with no friends.”

“If you’re just here to annoy me, you should—”

Before he could finish, she cut him off.

“I have a request.”

He knew it. The bad feeling had finally come true.

From the moment she helped him, he had already decided—unless it was extremely dangerous, he would repay the favor.

Better to get it over with quickly.

But mistaking his silence for refusal, Sohee hurriedly added:

“I’ll give you my survival time in return.”

“….”

“I checked earlier. If both parties agree, you can transfer time. If you help me, I’ll give you half of my survival time… What do you think?”

Repay a debt and gain survival time?

There was no need to hesitate.

“Sohee… how much survival time do you have?”