Chapter 147: Testing the New Equipment
Generally speaking, most food became relatively safe once cooked thoroughly, but nobody had ever said that the zombie virus was obligated to follow the same rules.
It took Joo Joowon quite a bit of experimentation before he finally figured out how to use the Spatial Waist Pendant.
It was no wonder that the item had a Mental Power requirement.
Using it required him to first establish a connection with the pendant using his mental energy.
Only after linking with the pendant could he target an item and store it away.
Of course, that complexity only existed because he had not equipped the waist pendant.
If it were actually equipped, the process would become much simpler.
With the assistance of the system, all he needed to do was target an item and select the option to store it.
That latter method was probably how the vast majority of players used the item.
However, Joo Joowon found himself far more interested in the former method.
After all, it meant that he could still use the storage space without occupying an equipment slot with the pendant itself.
In other words, if he ever obtained multiple storage items in the future, he could potentially carry all of them at once.
The storage space inside the waist pendant was not like the neat square inventory slots found in online games.
Instead, it was a gray, misty world without boundaries, filled with endless chaos.
Only after the mutated crab was placed inside did a faint light appear, gently surrounding its body.
Aside from that discovery, Joo Joowon also realized that "Storage Slot ×1" did not mean that only a single object could be stored inside.
Rather, it simply meant that the storage space consisted of one undivided area without partitions.
This was quite different from how inventory systems worked in games.
In games, a single inventory slot could only hold one item, and only identical items could be stacked together within the same slot.
After confirming that the Spatial Waist Pendant did not restrict the types of items that could be stored inside, Joo Joowon placed several emergency medicines into it, along with monster drops, emergency drinking water, and a selection of high calorie foods.
In addition to those, he also rather extravagantly stored some vegetables that spoiled easily.
Unless vegetables were pickled, their shelf life was extremely limited.
Although food itself was not in short supply at the moment, Joo Joowon suspected that obtaining fresh vegetables in the future would become increasingly difficult, so he decided to preserve some while he still could.
Calling them fresh was perhaps a bit generous.
After all, the electricity had already been out for several days, and without refrigeration, most vegetables had long since begun to wilt.
Only things like cucumbers and tomatoes had managed to hold out a little longer and could still barely be considered fresh.
Considering that the storage space inside the pendant was limited, Joo Joowon did not fill it with too many unnecessary luxuries.
Aside from several boxes of pet deworming medicine and two bags of cat food, everything else he stored consisted entirely of survival supplies.
After finishing all of that, Joo Joowon began practicing how to use the Spatial Waist Pendant, hoping to reach the point where a single thought would allow him to instantly retrieve whatever item he needed from the storage space.
Because his Mental Power attribute was relatively high, he also experimented with the possibility of preparing items inside the storage space itself using mental energy so that they would be ready for immediate use the moment they were taken out.
Unfortunately, the experiment failed.
Joo Joowon had no idea whether his Mental Power was still too low or whether the Spatial Waist Pendant simply lacked the ability to perform such relatively complicated tasks.
He was not discouraged by the failure.
After all, it had only been a casual experiment to begin with.
By the time he became fully awake again, the sky outside still had not completely brightened.
Even so, Joo Joowon had no intention of going back to sleep.
Instead, he continued practicing with the Spatial Waist Pendant over and over again, making sure that he would never find himself unable to retrieve something at a critical moment.
With the Spatial Waist Pendant available, there would be no need to carry a backpack whenever he went outside in the future.
After all, no matter how convenient backpacks were, it was impossible to claim they had no effect whatsoever on mobility.
The Spatial Waist Pendant certainly had the drawback of being fragile, but as long as it was placed somewhere safe, it would not be easily damaged by accidental bumps or collisions.
He continued training with it until broad daylight finally filled the room.
Only then did he stop and glance at his Mental Power.
It had only recovered to thirteen points rather than returning to full capacity.
That was most likely because he had continuously spent Mental Power while manipulating the Spatial Waist Pendant.
Fortunately, thirteen points of Mental Power were still more than enough as long as he did not recklessly run outside looking for trouble.
Because it was designed as a waist pendant, the cord attached to it was quite short and nowhere near long enough to be worn around the neck.
Joo Joowon went downstairs and searched through his home until he found the gold pendant he had bought during his zodiac year celebrations.
He removed the red cord attached to it, threaded the Spatial Waist Pendant onto it instead, and then hung the pendant around his neck for safekeeping.
After returning home and eating a few small bread rolls as breakfast, Joo Joowon went to check on the cactus plants.
There were no visible changes that could be seen with the naked eye, but that was hardly surprising considering only a few hours had passed.
He informed Bomi that he would be leaving the house and hoped that it would guard the apartment well while he was gone.