Chapter 126: Looking for a Companion
Ever since Joo Joowon posted his first guide on the very first day, countless discussions about the Ashfall account had appeared.
People debated whether he was some hidden mastermind or closed beta tester.
Others speculated about how many people were working behind the scenes to provide him with information.
Some wondered how he had managed to gather such a large group of people in peaceful society.
Some even suspected that he belonged to some secret martial arts family hidden from the public eye.
In short, every bizarre theory imaginable had appeared, and somehow every single one of them had supporters.
Although none of the people arguing could convince each other, they all shared one common belief.
There was absolutely no way that one person could have discovered so much information alone.
Joo Joowon glanced through the comment section a few times.
The player who uploaded the video was surprisingly stubborn.
He had actually started arguing directly with people in the comments section below.
Joo Joowon couldn’t bring himself to care.
As long as his address wasn’t exposed, none of this mattered to him.
The marketplace only remained open for such a short amount of time each day that he simply didn’t have the energy to waste on things like this.
Since the other party disliked him so much, blocking them was the easiest solution.
What truly worried him was the thread created by MusclePotato404.
The sense of crisis growing inside him became even stronger.
What exactly would humanity be forced to face after seven days?
A carnival of zombies?
Rampaging mutated parasites?
A feast for awakened plants?
Joo Joowon felt that his current level provided absolutely no sense of security whatsoever.
He reopened the pet section and continued scrolling while filtering the listings with a frown.
The "products" there roughly fell into two categories.
The first category consisted of people treating their pets as emergency food supplies while trying to exchange them for medicine or equipment, dreaming far too optimistically.
The second category consisted of people who believed they lacked the ability to keep their pets alive and hoped another player would raise them instead.
Although these pets were technically being given away for free adoption, the requirements attached to them were astonishingly numerous and varied.
Some people had even brought over the international standards and expectations that existed before the apocalypse.
Joo Joowon quickly discovered that the pet listings came with all kinds of ridiculous requirements.
Some owners demanded that buyers provide supplies as collateral, promising that they would return the supplies after a certain period of time, essentially trying to scam people and get something for nothing.
Others wanted daily videos proving that their pets were living well.
Some even had strict requirements regarding the quality of life their pets would receive.
Joo Joowon: "..."
He genuinely felt that these people were being absurd.
If they wanted all of those conditions fulfilled, they might have better luck achieving them in their dreams.
Having an empty head wasn’t the problem.
How had they somehow managed to fill it with water too?
In an apocalypse, the value of supplies hardly needed to be explained.
Honestly, if something happened to him and someone was willing to take care of Byeol, he would feel nothing but gratitude.
He certainly wouldn’t start making additional demands and acting difficult.
What if the other party originally intended to give Byeol a chance to survive, but changed their mind because of his attitude?
Besides, he had already exposed the existence of the inheritance system.
Compared to relying on the kindness of strangers, using inheritance as a form of exchange made far more sense.
The inheritance system allowed players to specify conditions that heirs had to fulfill before receiving the inheritance.
Given the overwhelming power of the apocalypse game, Joo Joowon suspected that players who chose not to honor such agreements would be extremely rare.
Because the trading platform connected players from all around the world, even though regions were separated into categories, Joo Joowon had secretly hoped to find some unusual pets.
Perhaps someone overseas raising tigers, lions, or other exotic animals.
Reality quickly proved that he had been thinking far too much.
Nobody would ever list pets like that on the marketplace.
Owners who had good relationships with those animals were probably already relying on them to help farm experience and level up.
Owners with poor relationships had most likely already been eaten or abandoned by them long ago.
There was no way such animals would ever appear for sale.
Then again, perhaps relying on them wasn’t even possible.
After all, most large predators attacked with their mouths.
Since they couldn’t understand human language, they wouldn’t know that zombies weren’t supposed to be eaten.
If they happened to possess Hwi’s complete lack of standards regarding food, they might simply eat infected flesh and become zombies themselves.
Large predators also consumed enormous amounts of food.
If they became hungry enough, perhaps the owner would end up becoming dinner first.
After thinking it over, Joo Joowon added keywords such as "inheritance," "no requirements," and "just give them food" before continuing his search through the pet section.
The moment he added those filters, the number of available listings dropped dramatically.
However, the sincerity of the remaining owners increased noticeably.
Unfortunately, in the apocalypse, most people struggled enough just trying to survive themselves.
Who still had the energy to take care of pets?
Large dogs that could actually contribute in combat were especially rare.
Listings for those were practically nonexistent.
Pets with video proof showing that they could understand commands had become extremely popular products.
If the issue of pets becoming infected after biting zombies could somehow be solved, demand would probably increase even further.
Personally, Joo Joowon leaned toward finding a hunting dog.
He no longer possessed any Zombie Virus Immunity Serum.
However, he still had the zombie core dropped by Dog Chimera.
Once upgraded, as long as the dog didn’t have injuries inside its mouth and rinsed properly afterward, the risk of infection should theoretically remain manageable.