Chapter 32: Byeol’s Trust
Exposing their stomachs, kneading, or sleeping in wild and carefree positions were all common examples.
But Byeol’s habit was by far the most outrageous.
It did not bury its poop.
One of the reasons Joo Joowon specifically chose to rent a two bedroom apartment was precisely because of this issue.
Cautious cats would never leave their feces exposed because the smell was too strong and could easily attract predators.
Only large feline animals like tigers casually relieved themselves without concern.
Ordinary cats were different.
They carefully buried all their waste unless they believed the environment was absolutely safe and there was no need whatsoever to hide their scent.
Even among pet cats, this behavior was actually extremely rare.
After all, burying waste was a natural instinct for cats.
When Byeol first arrived home, it buried its poop normally too.
Later, it occasionally stopped doing it.
Then after about a year, it completely gave up burying it altogether.
Joo Joowon had once even suspected the cat might be sick and brought it to the pet hospital for an examination.
In the end, the veterinarian told him that this behavior was actually Byeol expressing affection toward him.
No matter how one looked at it, this situation was absolutely insane even among stories about cats loving their owners.
From Byeol’s perspective, it was fully demonstrating trust toward Joo Joowon.
"Look, I trust you so much that I do not even bother hiding the smell of my poop around you. I seriously love you. Aren’t you touched?"
Joo Joowon: "..."
What wonderful love.
Please do not love him like this next time.
Seriously, he was about to cry.
But how could he possibly wound the burning sincerity of a little cat?
In the end, he could only endure it while pinching his nose shut.
Mostly because he completely failed to correct the habit anyway.
That was why Joo Joowon extravagantly rented a two bedroom apartment and specifically prepared one room solely for Byeol to use as a toilet.
At the very least, this prevented the smell from drifting directly into the bedroom and making him feel as though even his hair carried the scent of cat poop every single day.
Because of Byeol’s terrible habit, the moment Joo Joowon saw the cat walk into the second bedroom, he immediately grabbed his bowl and chopsticks to flee the area.
Not long afterward, Byeol walked back out of the second bedroom with its tail raised proudly.
Joo Joowon carefully breathed in through his nose.
After waiting a moment, he suddenly froze.
Huh???
What was going on?
There was actually no smell at all?
Joo Joowon understood very clearly just how horrifying cat waste smelled.
Even with the door closed, the odor was impossible to completely contain.
Yet now, he could barely smell anything at all.
That could only mean one thing.
Byeol had voluntarily buried its poop.
Although this also meant Byeol no longer considered the current environment completely safe, Joo Joowon still felt so emotional that tears almost filled his eyes.
Heaven knew how many years he had waited for this day.
Logically speaking, after enduring it for years, he probably should have become used to it already.
But as long as his sense of smell still functioned normally, some things were simply impossible to truly adapt to.
At most, his tolerance level had improved tremendously because of it.
The first time Joo Joowon killed a zombie without vomiting was partly because of this exact reason.
Sometimes cat waste smelled so terrible that it could make tears stream uncontrollably from a person’s eyes and even trigger vomiting.
In households that raised many cats, wearing a gas mask while cleaning litter boxes every single day would not even be considered unusual.
His tolerance had been trained little by little through experiences like that.
Otherwise, the very first challenge he would have faced while killing zombies might have been overcoming the urge to throw up.
From this perspective, people who constantly dealt with garbage dumps, performed surgeries, or worked as forensic examiners probably possessed much higher resistance as well.
After slowly finishing lunch, Joo Joowon carried the dishes into the kitchen but did not wash them.
After all, washing dishes consumed a great amount of water.
These days, he simply covered the bowls with plastic wrap before using them.
After doing a round of stretching exercises on the floor, Joo Joowon felt that his arms had relaxed considerably.
The single point of Physique he obtained from the Dead Man Treasure Chest had already raised his Physique to six points.
As a result, the recovery speed of every part of his body had improved.
Originally, Joo Joowon had already prepared himself mentally to leave the remaining four experience points needed for leveling up until tomorrow.
However, judging from his current recovery speed, it now seemed possible to accomplish it today.
He did not need to recover to perfect condition.
As long as he could restore seventy to eighty percent of his peak state, he would still dare go downstairs and continue hunting zombies.
As he sitting down on the sofa, Joo Joowon reached his hand into his pocket and took out the Zombie Core.
Because he feared getting robbed while away from home, he always carried important items on his body.
Fortunately, there were not many important belongings yet, so he could still fit everything on him.
Through experimentation, Joo Joowon had roughly confirmed that Zombie Core could indeed be consumed directly.
The problem was the risk involved.
If someone endured it successfully, everything would be fine.
If they failed, then they could only wait for death.
However, the Zombie Core itself was nearly the size of a fist.
Even the tiny fragment he had sliced off earlier had been enough to overwhelm a fully grown adult man.
Perhaps part of the reason was because the other person had already been injured beforehand.
Still, this was enough to prove that Zombie Core was completely unsuitable for direct consumption without proper processing.
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