I clean out the storeroom. Then I load the things nearing their expiration dates, one by one, onto a cart.
I take all of those outside and load them onto the truck. Then I go to a nearby orphanage.
“Oh my. You’ve come again.”
The people at the orphanage unload what I brought and take it away.
For me, I’m just disposing of things I no longer need, but their faces are bright.
I suppose it’s because there’s quite a lot. With that much, the kids will be able to eat for a while.
After handing over everything I brought, I head straight back.
The people at the orphanage always want to give me something in return, but I have no particular desire to accept anything.
Zucchini, eggplants, things like that. Stuff grown in their vegetable garden.
It’s not like I cook for myself, so there’s no reason for me to take any of it.
It’ll only become baggage. It’ll turn into food waste and just waste trash bags.
But why do they keep trying to give me things when I refuse every time? By now, they should know to stop.
It’s not that I don’t understand. That’s what affection is.
But accepting everything someone gives you is another matter. It’s not as if I’m lacking anything.
Anyway, now that I’ve emptied it out, I have to fill it again. That’s what a food storeroom is.
I don’t know when everything will collapse, but even if it collapses right this moment, it has to be able to serve its purpose from then on.
The problem is that no matter how much food I stockpile, there’s a limit.
Expiration dates. Things that, once time passes, I’ll have to throw away without being able to eat them all.
I deliberately stocked up on all sorts of powders and canned goods, but even those aren’t enough.
In the end, there’s a limit to relying only on stored food.
I don’t know how the world will end. I don’t know how many people will die.
So the best thing is for the ruined world to be able to stabilize again.
At least to the point where food won’t be a concern.
That’s the biggest reason I pulled Baek Jinho in.
I can survive on my own. But what comes after that is too much for one person.
No matter how much I prepare and make provisions, eventually, the end will come.
So I need to at least create the possibility of getting through the crisis and rebuilding afterward.
That is Seonyang Group, and that is Baek Jinho.
But even so, there’s a problem.
When that situation comes, will Baek Jinho really show me goodwill?
Of course, thanks to me, he was able to prepare as well, so if he knows gratitude, he’ll treat me decently to some extent.
But is it right to endure until then while believing only in that?
No. It isn’t. The human heart is fickle. I can’t entrust everything to good faith when nothing is guaranteed.
A contract? Meaningless. What use is a contract when there’s no one to enforce it?
So I need to have a weapon.
There was a time when I thought that weapon would be a gun, but that’s too barbaric. And meaningless, too.
Once you point a gun barrel at someone, that relationship can never be restored.
That would be the stupidest thing of all. A pathetic thing.
Usefulness. Or necessity.
Even if the world ends, those who can live will live. That will be because they have value.
I need to become someone important enough that even if heavily armed people point weapons at me and threaten me, I won’t so much as blink.
So that they can’t harm me even by mistake. So that, instead, they’ll crawl before me.
Antihistamines will become that weapon of mine.
If the acidic mucosal spores worsen in the future, they will only get worse, not better.
So antihistamines, which are effective for respiratory diseases, are essential.
But that alone isn’t enough. Which means I need to buy and gather other things too.
But what would be good?
Nothing suitable comes to mind. At most, alcohol and cigarettes?
Even if the world ends and people are worrying about what they’ll eat tomorrow, there will definitely be humans who look for alcohol and cigarettes.
I can guarantee it. There’s no way there won’t be.
So stockpiling alcohol and cigarettes isn’t a bad choice.
For one thing, both are easy to store.
Alcohol should get better the longer it ages.
Even soju has no expiration date. Liquor is even more so.
So I just have to store it properly. Since there’s no need to worry about direct sunlight hitting it anyway, that’s not much of a concern.
Cigarettes should be fine as long as I’m careful about moisture.
Well, if I leave them for a long time, they might get a little strange, but by then, I doubt the smokers will even care.
They’ll just be grateful that there are any at all. They’ll desperately beg me to please give them just one cigarette.
But alcohol and cigarettes aren’t enough.
They can be powerful bargaining tools, but they aren’t items people will die without.
Well, I suppose a few might feel like they’re dying.
Medicine is still the best.
The problem is that medicine has short expiration dates. Besides, while preparing antihistamines, I already prepared most of what could be prepared.
I’ve stocked up on most disposable items and hygiene tools too.
What I need is something directly connected to life and death.
For now, the only thing that comes to mind is water.
Groundwater pumped up from deep bedrock will serve its purpose even in a situation where the water supply is contaminated and proper water is hard to obtain.
So what I can do now is drill more spare groundwater wells.
The problem is that to do that, I have to buy the land in those areas too?
And if it’s too far from where I am, it loses meaning as well. It’ll only serve as a one-time trading tool.
Still, I’ll do it.
It’s not like I’m short on money. What is there to hesitate over? Even if not many, two places should be worth doing.
I picked out two farming villages at some distance from my house.
Fortunately, houses in places like that are cheap. Even though it’s Yongin, at this price, it’s perfectly manageable.
I didn’t demolish the houses or anything. I just installed one tap in the yard.
To anyone else, they’re shabby abandoned houses. But not many people know that water comes out perfectly fine here.
So I can just leave them be. I’ll only need to wrap them well so they don’t freeze and burst in winter.
And come by from time to time to turn them on once.
I keep preparing like that, but the thought that something is still lacking continues to linger.
Everything I prepare can be looted.
Things that can somehow be taken even without me.
Things that, in an urgent situation, can ultimately be taken even if they have to kill me.
That won’t do. No matter what happens, I need to create a situation where they cannot kill me.
The knowledge inside my head. Those things cannot be taken unless I open my mouth.
So in the end, I have to accumulate knowledge.
So that even if the world ends, I’ll be treated as a valuable talent. So that anyone who tries to kill me will hesitate, even if only for a moment.
The best is medicine, of course. But it’s too late to enter medicine now.
Six years of pre-med and medical school. There’s no guarantee the world will still be intact within that time.
Besides, medical school isn’t somewhere I can just go because I want to. It’s not some neighborhood mart.
Pharmacy is the same. There’s no way that would be easy either.
So I give up aiming for a formal course.
The truth is, doctors and pharmacists are indeed valuable, but if the world ends, they won’t be all-powerful either.
Without sterile products or even a single operating room, they can’t save someone who’s dying.
It wasn’t for nothing that I gave Baek Jinho information.
Things like that can be left to the experts. If necessary, I can use them through negotiation and bargaining.
What I need to do is clear.
Knowledge about the threats that will arise as plants become more abundant in the future.
Fortunately, I have the professor, an authority in molecular biology who works with numerous experts. I have the countless materials he sent me.
On top of that, I can still contact him, so I can receive feedback on the materials anytime.
So I need to know more about that field than anyone else.
At least it’s something I’ve been looking at continuously for the past few years, so I’m familiar with it.
I put all the information I have into my head. So I can know it without having to search through the materials.
So that even if, in the worst case, I can’t refer to them, I’ll remember everything.
Memorization is hard. If I’d been good at that, I would have gone to a better university.
If I’d known things would turn out like this, I should have gone to the biology department or somewhere like that instead of physics.
I should have listened to the professor. Tsk.
My head had gone stiff, so studying again was quite difficult, but since I wasn’t doing it by force, it was at least better.
Studying for myself, for survival. Memorization.
So I quietly do it. My motivation itself is different from when I’m forced to do something.
When you do something you don’t want to do, efficiency drops. This is something I want to do.
So the memorization goes fairly well. The issue is how much I can retain.
Meanwhile, in my spare time, I practiced using a sling.
A sling. The best long-range striking tool, usable with nothing but a cord and stones lying everywhere.
Since guns became impossible, I had considered bringing in something like a hunting composite bow and using that.
However, that was also quite difficult to handle. On top of that, I really disliked the fact that arrows are finite.
So what I chose was the sling.
A cord is easy to carry, and it’s hard to think of it as a weapon from the cord alone.
Besides, the power of a sling is tremendous.
Even when an amateur throws it, a stone spun around with a cord exceeds 140 kilometers per hour.
Its range easily surpasses 200 meters as well, and if it hits a place like the head directly, it can even kill instantly.
The problem is that you have to be able to hit your target.
So I practiced the sling.
Stones are everywhere, so practicing isn’t hard.
And when I find a pretty decent stone, I collect it.
Round ones, or nicely shaped oval ones. Those fly even farther. The impact is greater when they hit too.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—swish! Thud!
The sling I spun strikes and rebounds from a spot about three handspans above and to the left of the center of the target.
It really is hard. Aiming is difficult.
Still, if the target is about the size of a person, I can land a hit somewhere on the body about six times out of ten.
But that’s not enough. I have to be more accurate.
I may not be given the time to throw twice. So I need to be able to land a single strike by surprise, no matter what.
To do that, I have no choice but to keep throwing hard.
Even someone with garbage aim like me will improve if I keep at it.
Time passes again like that.
My head grows hot, and calluses form on my hands. The orphanage receives several more deliveries of food, and I meet Baek Jinho a few more times as well.
His expression is bright. I still haven’t told him about the power source, but he’ll figure that out on his own. It’s not like he’s doing that for my sake.
He’s doing it so he can survive.
And then, as summer passed and autumn was about to arrive, something finally happened in the world that could be considered serious.