Chapter 31: The Meaning of Players
Joo Joowon suddenly realized something.
Among all the messages posted on the trading market yesterday, there did not seem to be any messages written in the tone of children.
He absolutely did not believe every single child had transformed into a zombie.
Nor did he believe every child conveniently had adults beside them teaching them to stay cautious and careful.
Did this mean that all minors were not considered players yet?
Then what were they?
NPCs?
Or future players who had not logged in yet?
Could this game possibly have an anti addiction system that prohibited registration for anyone under eighteen?
Joo Joowon absolutely did not believe the apocalypse game’s developers would be that merciful.
As a result, even more questions surfaced in his mind.
Would children automatically obtain player status once they became adults?
If not, and becoming a player required a Player Qualification Token instead, then could Player Qualification Tokens only be obtained by killing players?
After thinking about it carefully, Joo Joowon dismissed that terrifying possibility.
He felt the probability was low.
Player Qualification Tokens dropping from dead players was probably only one method of obtaining them.
There had to be other ways as well.
After all, no game company would reject the arrival of new players.
Which brought up another question.
From the perspective of the game developers, what age actually counted as old enough to "play the game"?
Thirteen or fourteen?
Fifteen or sixteen?
Or perhaps eighteen or even twenty?
Meanwhile, perhaps age was not the deciding factor at all, and intelligence itself was what truly mattered.
Joo Joowon carefully reread the description of the Player Qualification Token item.
What exactly counted as an intelligent lifeform?
A species with civilization?
A lifeform capable of spreading knowledge?
A creature able to think and solve problems?
After failing to reach any conclusions, Joo Joowon gave up speculating further about the Player Qualification Token and temporarily set it aside.
He did not believe it was a useless item.
After all, every game eventually received version updates and expansion content.
Perhaps this Player Qualification Token would become extremely important once a future version arrived.
Joo Joowon opened a can of cat food for Byeol before hugging the cat and giving it a kiss.
"Good job today, Byeol. You even knew to warn me when people showed up. You earned yourself a canned food reward."
Honestly, Joo Joowon had never expected Byeol to actually make noise.
The cat had never recklessly provoked creatures stronger than itself before.
Warning enemies to stay away simply was not part of its personality.
Whenever danger appeared, its usual approach was to immediately run away instead.
Byeol flicked its tail, seemingly understanding the praise.
In Byeol’s eyes, every time Joo Joowon left the apartment, he was going out hunting.
Although there were occasional times when he returned empty handed, most of the time he always came back carrying food.
Even though Byeol itself refused to eat those things, it still reinforced the image of Joo Joowon going outside to hunt.
And now that Joo Joowon had started bringing it outside as well, then obviously he expected it to participate in hunting too.
Although it could not provide much help, standing guard over the "prey" at least was still something it could manage.
Cats were solitary creatures.
They rarely hunted cooperatively.
Even when multiple cats hunted together, the result was usually competition and fighting over prey rather than teamwork.
Of course, there were occasional exceptions under special circumstances.
Cats were extremely sensitive toward environmental changes.
Joo Joowon’s repeated behavior of bringing Byeol outside had also caused the cat to develop a misunderstanding.
In Byeol’s mind, Joo Joowon could no longer successfully support both of them alone through hunting.
Therefore, Byeol who previously only wanted to freeload and never hunt personally now had no choice but to become a qualified hunter once again instead of remaining a pet that only knew how to act cute and seek affection.
Meanwhile, Joo Joowon himself did not feel that Byeol had changed very much.
After all, cats were creatures filled with dramatic acting skills.
Human beings simply could not truly understand how their minds worked.
Because of that, he never expected any sort of meaningful response anyway.
After opening the canned food for Byeol, he headed off to prepare his own lunch.
As someone who always handled meals carelessly, Joo Joowon rarely cooked seriously.
Most of the time after work, he simply bought takeaway food from nearby stores and brought it home.
Even on the rare occasions when he cooked personally, he never pursued anything fancy or ritualistic.
As long as the food was edible, that was enough for him.
Nothing else mattered.
And now that the apocalypse had arrived, Joo Joowon naturally had even less motivation to cook properly.
He casually grabbed several vegetables and cracked an egg into the pot, considering the meal complete.
The eggs had all been obtained through scavenging other people’s apartments.
The shells were still covered with dirt and grime, making them look like locally raised free range eggs brought from the countryside.
Joo Joowon decided to eat the eggs first for two reasons.
First, they were nutritious.
Second, eggs were inconvenient to transport if he eventually needed to relocate.
It was better to get them into his stomach as early as possible.
In the future, he might not have the chance to eat them anymore.
Besides, summer was not far away now.
Without electricity, the eggs might spoil before long anyway.
Since they were still edible now, he might as well eat as many as possible while he still could.
In less than twenty minutes, Joo Joowon finished preparing lunch and brought it to the table.
By this time, Byeol had already finished eating and was sitting nearby washing its face.
After only a few bites, Joo Joowon suddenly saw Byeol walk into the second bedroom and immediately carried his lunch over toward the window area.
There were many ways cats showed trust toward their owners and relaxation toward their environment.
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