Chapter 77: Searching Upstairs
This situation did not resemble receiving a beneficial buff at all.
If anything, it looked much more like he had just been cursed.
Joo Joowon scratched his head in confusion.
The appearance alone gave off the impression that something unlucky was about to happen.
No matter how he looked at it, it did not seem like a good thing.
But there was no way Byeol would intentionally harm him.
Byeol was such a good cat that he would not even scratch Joo Joowon no matter how angry he became.
Because of that, although Joo Joowon felt somewhat worried, he still had no intention of canceling his original plan to go out.
After putting on all of his equipment, he cautiously stepped outside.
Before leaving, he immediately sealed off the route with spider silk to prevent anyone from sneaking in and looting his home.
After finishing all of that, Joo Joowon first returned to his old apartment to check on the cat grass he had left behind.
The cat grass, whose leaves had started turning yellow after several days without water, now looked lush and vibrant after being nourished by the rain.
It was so green and healthy that not the slightest trace of dullness could be found.
In fact, the color was so vivid that it felt almost unnatural, making Joo Joowon even more vigilant.
He looked out the window.
Compared to yesterday’s barely visible drizzle, today’s rain had transformed into a torrential downpour that only seemed to be growing heavier.
Perhaps because the rainfall had become so dense, the rainwater now appeared gray and murky, almost as though it had been contaminated.
Unlike yesterday’s rain, which had looked completely normal, today’s rain was clearly abnormal at first glance.
Who knew what kind of disaster humanity would have to face after the rain finally stopped?
Joo Joowon stopped dwelling on it and pulled the curtains shut.
He immediately used spider silk to heavily surround the cat grass, deliberately leaving one opening so the plant could continue absorbing rainwater.
After finishing that, Joo Joowon repeated the process with several other plants placed in different rooms.
However, he was also worried about creating problems for himself, so he did not prepare too many.
As for the remaining plants, he simply threw them downstairs in order to eliminate potential risks in advance.
Only after completing all of that did he head upstairs.
According to the feedback from the search threads yesterday, there should no longer be any living creatures left on the thirteenth floor.
Even so, there should still be some supplies remaining there.
Whether he kept them for himself or traded them away later, they would still be useful.
Joo Joowon conducted a rough investigation first.
After confirming that the information gathered by the search threads had been accurate, he did not rush to collect supplies and instead continued making his way upward.
Worried about being touched by drifting rainwater, Joo Joowon deliberately chose the staircase on the opposite side of the building.
He also carried an umbrella in his hand so that if there happened to be any windows in the stairwell left open, he would still have enough time to react.
The walls on the upper floors had all suffered varying degrees of damage during yesterday’s chase.
One wall in particular had collapsed completely.
Fortunately, it did not appear to be a load bearing wall, so the entire building had not tilted or caved in as a result.
Even if it had been a load bearing wall, however, there was nothing Joo Joowon could do to fix it.
All he could do was pray that the building would not collapse before he moved out.
With Mind’s Eye activated, Joo Joowon continued climbing upward.
Perhaps because the rain outside had become too heavy, or perhaps because his Spirit attribute was still not high enough, the moment he equipped Sixth Sense he felt a buzzing sensation explode inside his head.
Forget exploring the surroundings.
The endless stream of warnings and alerts was already enough to make his brain go numb.
Fortunately, he had no intention of relying on Sixth Sense to scout the area this time.
Instead, he directly deployed the search threads.
Although he had been distracted with worry over Byeol throughout the entire night, he had not neglected his familiarity with the Spider Web Launcher.
By now, his control over the search threads had already become far more proficient than his mastery of the other two types of silk.
Using them to assist with exploration was no longer a problem at all.
Several search threads continuously spread along the corners of the walls, sensing every movement and disturbance on the fourteenth floor.
The sound of rain striking the walls was especially clear.
Occasionally, dust carried by the breeze blowing in through the stairwell would stick to the spider silk.
Other than that, there was no movement at all.
Everything was wrapped in deathly silence.
Seeing this, Joo Joowon controlled the search threads and guided them down from the walls toward the floor.
Ordinary spiders needed to move their own bodies in order to weave webs, but the Spider Web Launcher relied entirely on Spirit.
Because he did not need to personally produce the silk, using the Spider Web Launcher did not consume much of Joo Joowon’s mental energy.
Otherwise, he would have already felt exhausted yesterday when he manipulated the webs throughout the Spider Chimera’s nest.
The process of weaving an actual web was what truly consumed energy.
Simply releasing several strands of silk for exploration like this required an almost negligible amount of effort for him.
The search threads slipped through the crack beneath the door of the apartment closest to the elevator and continuously spread out in all directions.
Aside from the furniture placed on the flat tiled floor, the search threads did not outline any unknown objects.
After exploring the area once, Joo Joowon quickly extended them toward other locations.
After spending nearly half an hour, Joo Joowon had searched every room.
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