Chapter 27: Looters at the Door
Joo Joowon had never been particularly lucky to begin with.
Not receiving any equipment drops was perfectly understandable.
Now that all the zombies had been cleared out, it was finally time to collect the spoils.
Joo Joowon checked the time and realized it was already noon.
He quickly began gathering the supplies together.
After thinking for a moment, he even collected the alcohol purchased by one of the male tenants.
To certain alcoholic players, these things might be exchangeable for valuable items.
After stacking the scavenged supplies beside the elevator, Joo Joowon headed toward another apartment to continue looting.
The people living in this apartment also clearly disliked cooking.
The only improvement compared to the previous apartment was that the kitchen still contained plenty of noodles and flatbread.
It seemed the residents lived under tight financial conditions and normally relied on noodles just to fill their stomachs.
Inside the bedroom, Joo Joowon even discovered several job application resumes.
The owner was probably unemployed.
This person’s fate had been rather tragic.
The unemployed tenant had fought against a roommate who transformed into a zombie and had even successfully killed the creature.
Unfortunately, because everything happened too suddenly and he failed to equip proper protection in time, he ended up infected himself and eventually transformed into a zombie as well.
Joo Joowon even found a copper coin on the corpse.
It was probably dropped from the zombie the man killed earlier.
Normally, copper coins only existed within the status panel.
At present, they were the only game related currency that could be stored or withdrawn.
For now, it seemed that once a player died, their coins would physically drop out together with the disappearance of their game panel.
Before Joo Joowon could finish searching the apartment, he suddenly heard the low warning growls Byeol made whenever detecting enemies outside the door.
He immediately raised his crossbow and rushed out.
Two people were currently carrying away the supplies Joo Joowon had worked so hard scavenging and were clearly preparing to bring them back to their own apartment.
Joo Joowon raised the crossbow and coldly said, "Put my things down."
"A little boy?"
The two men looked at each other.
Both could clearly see excitement rising within the other’s eyes.
Joo Joowon was fairly tall and he preferred buying dark colored clothing that resisted dirt.
Combined with his bulky clothing and motorcycle helmet, he looked like an average height adult man to outsiders.
When he knocked on doors earlier, his equipment had looked complete and intimidating.
At a glance, he clearly appeared difficult to provoke.
That was why the two men had not dared make any noise while he was knocking earlier.
Only after the hallway finally became quiet did they dare open the door and investigate the situation.
The first thing they noticed was the pile of supplies Joo Joowon had placed nearby.
It was only a few steps away, and all the zombies nearby had already been dealt with.
Normally, the two men never had the habit of stockpiling food at home.
They simply ate whatever they had and ordered takeout whenever they got hungry.
So when they saw this situation, it was difficult not to become tempted.
Of course, they had only planned to steal some supplies and carry them back.
They never intended to confront Joo Joowon directly.
At that time, if the owner could not find the thief, then the other party would probably have no choice but to swallow the loss in silence.
Who could have guessed that the damned cat outside actually belonged to him and even knew how to warn its owner?
At first, the two men had been somewhat nervous after getting caught red handed.
But after realizing Joo Joowon was actually just a little boy, the thoughts in their minds immediately began becoming more active.
Although their minds were stirring with malicious thoughts, with Joo Joowon currently aiming a compound crossbow at them, the two men still did not dare act arrogantly.
They quickly put down the supplies and raised both hands.
"Little guy, calm down. Let’s talk this out properly."
"We don’t have bad intentions. There’s just no food left at home. We’re starving. When we saw you leave the supplies here..."
While speaking, the two men also slowly began approaching Joo Joowon.
Only after a bolt suddenly shot between them did they instinctively stop moving.
Joo Joowon coldly said, "Get back. If you come any closer, don’t blame me for being ruthless."
"Relax, relax."
Although the two men did not believe Joo Joowon would truly dare shoot them directly, they also did not dare risk testing it.
"We’re leaving right now. Right now."
Under the intimidation of the compound crossbow, the two men ultimately left unwillingly.
They lived in the apartment located deepest within this floor.
The door of the neighboring apartment beside theirs still remained wide open, while the zombie that had been shot to death lay peacefully on the ground.
If the two men had simply taken advantage of the situation to search the neighboring apartment while he was busy scavenging supplies elsewhere, Joo Joowon honestly could have turned a blind eye.
But instead, they were unwilling to even search the apartment themselves.
They simply wanted to freeload completely off his efforts.
Did they really not want to contribute even the slightest bit of effort and instead wait for free pies to fall from the sky?
Moreover, Joo Joowon could clearly sense that after they saw him and thinking he just a little boy because of his small body, the cautious attitudes the two men originally maintained had subtly changed.
This was precisely why he did not want to deal with strangers after the apocalypse began.
When disaster descended, the ugliness of human nature would become infinitely magnified.
He had absolutely no interest in gambling his own safety against other people’s moral bottom lines.
Joo Joowon did not continue searching immediately.
Instead, he returned to the apartment and raised the compound crossbow toward the doorway.
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