Chapter 7. Ice is no less than fire (2)

* * * * *

3 P.M. The raindrops are thick and I can’t see well anymore. It’s not like filling a fish tank with water.

“Uh, John. Wouldn’t it be nice if we took a break?”

Even that strong Camilla was uneasy, and she gripped her armrest tightly.

“You can go quietly. I’ve seen it somewhere, and it’s said that driving at a moderate speed is good for fuel economy.”

“What if I run into a zombie?”

“Pay a little more premium surcharge.”

The reason why I drive a truck even though I am a little forced is because of the ‘safe house’.

It’s called a safe zone, but it’s not a place where you become invincible just by being there, or your health and bullets automatically recover if you sleep overnight.

It is a name given by users for convenience, meaning ‘it’s a good place to store things and rest for a while, as it is less conspicuous by others.’ It is not an official name.

‘A place where everyone else knows where it is is a safe house.’

I used to think so when I was a newbie.

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But after gaining experience and understanding, I was able to understand the deep meaning.

This kind of survival game eventually flows in the direction of forming a unique ‘territory’ for each player.

The logic of a predator, literally defending one’s territory, repelling intruders, and not encroaching on someone else’s territory unless absolutely necessary.

Especially, Safe House is the core of the field.

A bird’s nest. The beast’s lair… So, if a user occupied a safe house somewhere, you would naturally be able to guess what he was aiming for, what area he was in, and how to move to kill or avoid him.

If someone has taken over the safe house in the forest, it means that they are aiming for self-sufficiency. The forest is easy to get food and drinking water, and if you are lucky, you can also get some simple medicines.

Conversely, if you have occupied a safe house in the city, it means that you are targeting electronics, luxury goods, and manufactured goods. These items are sold at high prices on the black market. In other words, it means that this person will equip himself with strong armaments and hire mercenaries to fight for power with other forces.

The safe house I’m going to is a place outside of the Hamptons, and it’s neither a forest nor a city.

To put it bluntly, it is closer to the middle ground with strengths in trade. A transportation hub where you don’t need to stay for a long time like a transfer station or distribution center.

For situations in which air-raid shelters are questionable, a safe house is the next best option.

The plan is to distribute and store supplies in various safe houses, and then move them all to air-raid shelters at the time of the end.

Since it’s such an important place, originally, you should go in after thoroughly reconnaissance. Now I’m blindly pushing.

There is, of course, evidence.

This world is ‘single player’, and there are no other players except me.

The difference between ‘single player’ and ‘multiplayer’ is the presence or absence of a tutorial. As I did, if you start in Mini Bell Town, it’s single player, if you start in any other place, it’s multiplayer.

In other words, other people don’t know that the place is relatively safe even if it’s not 100% safe. There will be no one who deliberately attacks here.

… Of course, this is pre-patch standard.

But if you think about it that way, there is no limit. The safe house I’m visiting now may not have been built. It’s a time period much earlier than the original game background.

Wasn’t there a little commotion in Mini Bell Village? Just like the initial item position that should never change has changed.

But even so, what can I do? For now, push ahead as you know, and if there is something different or wrong, just flexibly correct it.

I am confident. I don’t know how to win 100%, and I don’t even want that.

I just know how to solve it to my advantage in any way. Constants and variables. Category of possibilities. Minor errors. Make the most of them.

… Except for the girl next to her who scribbles something like “A fool is riding” On the car window with her fingers.

Anyway, the gas station passed by a long time ago, the porter bus stop passed, and about here… ah. Okay. We are here.

Abandoned fire station.

There is a place to park your car like a fire station, and the building itself is very sturdy. However, it was raining so much that it was difficult to check what the situation inside was like.

But I passed it for now. Because of Camilla. I’m sure it wasn’t like that when we first met, but in the past few days, maybe I’ve developed a rebellious temperament.

So after we kissed, even more so.

“… No. How far are you going?”

In the end, Camilla, who couldn’t stand it, urged her. I pretended not to know

“So what? Are you still there?”

“Looking at it earlier, there was a fire station building. I think we can store the truck there in the garage.”

“Is there such a thing? I didn’t see it.”

If you pretend to be surprised, the bridge of your nose goes up right away.

“hehehe, this is a tracker’s intuition. Turn the car over here Didn’t go too far.”

I don’t know why I laugh. Pretending to believe it, I turned the truck around. The rain has subsided a bit, but it’s still the same that I can’t see ahead.

I stopped the truck some distance away and turned off the engine. I had a quiet discussion with Camilla. The sound spreads wider on rainy days, so I decided not to use a gun.

Instead, I put on a poncho and even a gas mask, along with the gear I had previously placed in the back seat. It was a little stuffy, but it was treated to prevent fogging, so it looked neat.

I got off the truck and grabbed two axes from the trunk. Of course, I didn’t forget to pick up a pebble.

The door had already fallen off, and there were no windows at all. It looks like someone took it to the barrel. The inside was even worse, with nothing left but a decrepit cabinet.

Instead, there are only bundles of newspaper, a dirty blanket, traces of a fire, and three zombies hanging around. He was pretending to be homeless.

Bang-bang.

I hit the cabinet with an axe. The stray zombies crawled out. I quietly turned back.

The zombie’s steps became a bit faster. Are you curious about unfamiliar sounds? I lured all three guys to the road. A black shadow appeared behind the zombie. It’s Camilla.

Puck. The one with her head split in half fell face down. As the rain pours so much that the smell of blood spreads everywhere, the zombies show their teeth and look around. Camilla finished the other one, and I finished the previous one.

Shoot aaa…. She turned and washed the ax in the pouring rain. It didn’t look like there was any filth on it, but just in case, I carefully unfolded my raincoat and went back into the fire station.

Camilla pointed upstairs. I nodded. Grabbing the sack tightly, I walked up the stairs. That buck that buck Took. Took. With every step he took, water dripped from his raincoat.

The door is closed. Camilla grabbed the doorknob and yanked. I threw a pebble at the wall. Tak! It made a sound.

“Sure.”

Camilla makes her complicated gestures.

‘Four. Are you going to lure them out?’

I shook my head and put my thumb down. I mean grab it here. This time I went in first.

First of all, I turned the ax half a turn and grabbed it. I didn’t want to get hit by three guys while I was catching one with an ax blade. Instead, if you hit the forehead like this with a pick,

“Goodbye!”

Although it cannot be reliably disposed of, it can be recovered quickly. One fella. Camilla kicked her wheel chair over and knocked over both of them. In the meantime, I split a guy’s head.

Puck. Pak. The ax dances. It hit him hard enough to knock off the cement floor a little and hit him on the head.

Camilla stopped as if she wanted to know why she was caught here, but she ignored it and left. That zombie corpse is useful, so let me know then.

I opened all the windows on the second floor and closed the iron door. Fortunately, the rooftop and fire lookout tower were empty. Finally, I checked the garage.

Spacious enough to store three fire trucks. Two shutters were down and one was up. As long as you attach it well to the wall, you won’t notice it at first glance from the outside.

But I didn’t come to the garage just to look at it. Shelves and cabinets neatly stored along the walls. And in front of it, an iron plate that seemed to be 1m in width and height.

I found it. Safe House.

Camilla dropped to her knees and threw her axe away while she looked.

Caen… Caen… Caen. Surprised, she turns to me. He brushes her knees and stands up. It’s as if she just fell over.

I don’t know why he seems to be showing his expression even though he’s wearing a gas mask, but he pretends not to know and kicks his foot on the steel plate.

Kang again… Caen… And a deep ringing sound. Of course, down here is empty.

Camilla finally noticed something strange and came closer. She brushed away the dirt, revealing her handle.

One, two. Three. Carefully open it. Beep, beep. 40-WD wipes away the rust once, so I need to spray some.

I’m glad. There were stairs leading down. Originally, it was red, and the guidance lights on the stairs were off. The stairs are relatively tidy, though a bit dusty and dusty. The iron door was firmly closed.

Camilla grabs me as I try to go down first. She puts herself first. She said yes and she did. There’s a good chance there’s nothing inside anyway. It’s ‘Safe House’.

Go down the not very long stairs and open the basement door. It opens quietly without making a sound.

“… And.”

It’s much cleaner than I remember. I’m glad I’m wearing a gas mask. For being able to hide a smile from Camilla.

* * * * *

The safe house was much cleaner and more spacious than I remembered.

Originally, these concrete walls and floors are not. Moldy linoleum, posters of half-naked men and women were pasted on the walls, and there were refrigerators and televisions I had picked up from somewhere, and empty bottles of alcohol.

But now, even if you set up a cafe, it’s clean enough for customers to come. Perfect exposed concrete construction method. Even a bathroom with toilet and shower. The room was originally two, but now it is six.

“… What are you doing here? Why does the fire department have this?”

Pretending not to know, he glanced at the wall. The copper plate engraved with the history of this building flashed. Camilla fumbled with her fingers to read her words.

“Oh, this was a checkpoint during the war. It was made to run away here when bombers fly in. So, did you break down the checkpoint and just put a fire station on top of it? However, after going through that, it seems that the remodeling work was relatively recent. Did you intend to use it as a worker’s quarters?”

I don’t know why. Camilla looked inside her with a flashlight and pointed to a small box.

“Let’s open that.”

‘Firefighting supplies, beware of shocks, beware of damage.’ I peeled off the sticky stickers and carefully opened the box.

Unexpectedly, there were ‘real’ firefighting supplies. A new dust mask and gloves. It is waterproof, flame retardant, and even light, so farming without worrying about contamination is possible with just this.

After removing one layer, a carefully wrapped bottle of alcohol and a letter came out.

“I was told why shock and damage caution.”

While Camilla was looking at the letter, I checked the bottle. All of them are luxury items that have high alcohol content and are traded at high prices.

In fact, you can get alcohol with just a distillation for quite a bit of alcohol, and with alcohol you can make a variety of items from molotov cocktails to disinfectants, but these are a waste.

These are liquors from Minsk. As ‘rare contraband’, these are high-end items that are quite expensive on the black market.

“Somehow.”

Camilla handed over the letter. I laughed out loud when I saw it. I don’t know what kind of guy the fire chief is, but it looks like he was trying to set up a gambling den here. Gambling. Alcohol. With such facilities that men and women also provide.

Unfortunately, all of that went back to nothing, with only the interior work completed.

“John.”

Camilla with her arms outstretched, her eyes twinkling.

“I am hungry. Let’s eat. I also want to eat warm stew… “

“Let’s unload and think.”

… However, since there are many rooms, you can use each room. By the way, those Minsk liquors are pretty good exchanges if you sell them.

I don’t know if there is a black market in the world at this time.

After a while, I heard the sound of a truck moving. Camilla also cleverly put the truck against the wall, as if she had the same idea as me. She subtly attached the driver’s door and the entrance to the bunker, so that she could get in immediately in case of a crisis.

“The black market?”

Camilla asks back in surprise.

“Uh, I was wondering if there was one here too.”

“Of course I do. Why?”

“Those drinks look pretty expensive. I thought if I sold it there, I might be able to buy a lot of things.”

“Um… It’s pretty spread all over the place. It’s on the non-human sanctuary side, and it’s also in the sanctuary. But if it’s Minsk alcohol, there won’t be that many people accepting it.”

She didn’t tell Camilla, but in fact she had to dispose of the jewels she stole from Lambert. To do that too…

“John. Would you like to go to the city with me?”

“Can I go?”

From noble mtl dot com

“There are many entry routes here and there, but in fact, many of them are related to the Liberation Organization… I guess I’ll have to approach it with caution. There are ways to break through, but it’s better to be safe.”

Well, Camilla, she’s a member of the Liberation Organization, and she’s modeled a lot here and there, and she’s even done propaganda. A lot of people know her.

“But what?”

Suddenly lowered his voice. A disturbing thought comes to mind.

“Uh, no way your face is well known here and there… You can’t go in now that you’ve left the Liberation Organization, right?”

“What a sad sound. I’m Camilla, a supermodel who naturally digests any brand? Even when she went out well, she said that if she coordinated a little, she went around without anyone getting caught. Don’t worry about that.”

“Then what is the problem?”

“I lack courage.”

She thought she was talking nonsense, but after rubbing her stomach gently with both hands, she took out a bottle and wrapped it around her hand.

“Only, I can fill it with this.”

“… Okay. Okay.”

“But not this. Something else.”

He calmly puts the bottle down and points upwards. I think I know what you’re talking about.

“…Let’s drink that from the truck?”

Camilla winks in one of her eyes.

“I heard you have to sell this?”

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