Possessed a Healing Game, but It’s a Zombie Apocalypse - Chapter 10
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10
2. Recruiting Serfs… No, Workers.
Sweet Little Village was the spiritual home for all users who enjoyed the game and a sanctuary for newbies.
Since the concept itself was a farm healing game, farm management was the main content, but Masfarm was a highly flexible game that allowed for other types of gameplay besides farm management.
If you wanted to raise a combat character, you could increase your combat power and grind dungeons, and besides farming, you could do various activities like mining, gathering, weaving, beverage production, and if you wanted, you could even play a reverse harem game with multiple romance targets.
However, even users who raised combat characters had to start with farm gameplay when they first began the game. In other words, since all players started by operating a farm, all farming-related items could be bought in Sweet Little Village.
Even though Nana was seeing the broken and desolate village with her own eyes, it didn’t feel real.
‘Are there really… no survivors at all?’
As if responding to her thoughts, a dry wind swept across the blackened dead earth. Blackened, withered leaves rolled around at Nana’s feet.
“Well, there’s no way anyone could be alive…”
From when the zombies appeared until today, Nana had never once come to Sweet Little Village. She was worried there might be zombies, but honestly, she didn’t want to accept the reality that a tragedy had occurred in the village and she was the only survivor.
“I’ve thoroughly searched this area, but there don’t seem to be any living creatures, let alone humans.”
Ishanka approached Nana and told her about the village’s situation. He left out the part about attaching a note to a messenger pigeon waiting nearby at the Bridge of Jeonseoggu, containing information about the current situation and his intention to break off the engagement with the Vilona Tribe.
“Is that so? Then let’s hurry to the blacksmith. There’s nothing good about staying here long, right? Quickly. Now that there’s no one here, it’ll get so dark you can’t see an inch ahead when the sun sets.”
The words that no one was there made the reality she had been avoiding hit her heavily. Nana deliberately urged Ishanka with a bright voice to hide her increasingly sinking heart.
Nana and Ishanka arrived at the blacksmith without difficulty. As Ishanka had said, they didn’t see even a trace of zombies on the way here. However, this place couldn’t completely avoid zombie attacks either, as the walls and roof had all collapsed, leaving only the framework barely standing.
The two entered the building that was once a blacksmith while staying alert to their surroundings. Fortunately, they could find farming tools without much difficulty.
“Since we’re here, let’s take everything we can. No one will come to buy things from this place anymore.”
Nana opened the inventory at her waist and swept all kinds of farming tools into it. The farming tools went into the small pouch as if being sucked in.
“You should come see this for a moment.”
“Aah! You scared me! Make some noise when you move around!”
Just then, because of Ishanka who appeared silently behind her, Nana was startled and dropped the hoe she was holding. The hoe rolled on the floor with a clanging sound.
As always, this person was like a quiet cat. No, a black panther would suit him better than a cat, wouldn’t it?
“I’m sorry for startling you, but there’s something I’d like to show you.”
Following Ishanka’s guidance, they moved to the wooden floor inside the counter where the blacksmith owner used to sit every day.
“I found this place while exploring this area earlier. When you tap it, the sound is different, so it seems like it’s hollow underneath.”
Ishanka tapped the outer wooden floor and then the inner wooden floor in comparison. The sounds were definitely different.
“Could it be a secret storage?”
“It could be, but it might also be a trap. I hear some shops take advantage of the prejudice that there would be a secret safe in places like this and install traps instead of safes to catch thieves.”
Ishanka’s words about it possibly being a trap made sense too. The blacksmith owner had some eccentric aspects. If it was anyone, that old man would definitely do something like that.
“Since I’m not from this village, I left it alone without rashly opening it. Do you happen to know anything about this?”
“I don’t know much either. The blacksmith sometimes asked me for daily que… I mean, errands a few times, but he never talked about that place.”
Even in the gameplay tips posted on the Masfarm Community, she had never seen information about a secret space in the blacksmith.
“Still, let’s open it once. Even if it’s a trap, I don’t think such a small blacksmith would have installed a grand trap, and I don’t think there would be explosives powerful enough to collapse the building in one go. The owner here was a bit eccentric, but he had tremendous pride in his work and really cherished the blacksmith. And most importantly.”
Nana looked around and opened her mouth again.
“It’s already a collapsed blacksmith, isn’t it? There’s nothing to lose. If worst comes to worst, Isha, who’s good at fighting, will protect me, right?”
At her clear answer, a smile slowly spread across Ishanka’s face. When someone whose default expression was consistently calm smiled, the atmosphere changed.
On top of that, since he was handsome, it added an attack power that felt like pounding on her heart, making her mind momentarily confused.
No, this isn’t the time for this! Anyway, putting aside the small talk, Nana watched from a little distance as Ishanka found the gap in the wooden floor and lifted the floorboard with his hands.
Ishanka seemed like he would dodge any sudden traps on his own, but Nana wasn’t confident she could dodge them.
“This is…”
Fortunately, what was under the wooden floor wasn’t a trap. Under the wooden floor was a single sword. The long sword, which had a jet-black color as if forged from black iron, was clearly no ordinary item. Nana’s eyes gradually widened.
‘Huh? Why is that coming out from here?’
Even Nana, who had no interest in anything other than farm gameplay, could recognize that sword at a glance. It was the sword called a cheat item among combat character users, ‘Aion Araf’.
Initially, Masfarm had far more users who started to see the romance targets that famous character designers put effort into creating, rather than for farm management.
Along with word of mouth about it being a healing game where you romance attractive romance targets while casually operating a farm, a gameplay video by a famous gaming YouTuber became popular, causing the number of users starting Masfarm to explode.
But romance gets old after a couple times, and farm work gets boring after a day or two. Users who got tired of Masfarm, which had no other content besides those two things, slowly started switching to other games.
It was nothing short of an emergency for the Masfarm management team.
So to hold onto the feet of users who were about to leave, they released various new content to increase the game’s freedom, and scattered quests that were like giving away cheat-level items for free. One of those was that black long sword.
“May I take a look at that sword?”
He handed the sword to Nana without saying much. When she grasped the handle wrapped in luxurious leather, a system window popped up in front of her eyes.
【Hidden Item: You have obtained the masterpiece of the ages, ‘Aion Araf’, created by Vulcanus, the greatest blacksmith on the continent! The sword’s stats are as follows…】
Even though she already knew it was a cheat item, the stats were unbelievable. Wow. Combat character users would go crazy for this, wouldn’t they?
The sword’s stats and passive buffs listed at length in the system window were enough to make even Nana, who had no interest in combat, drop her jaw.
Actually, the reason combat character users were enthusiastic about this sword was because it was created to retain users in the early days, but it disappeared when the game established itself and underwent a major update, making it a premium limited item that traded expensively in the Masfarm Community market.
‘Wow. If I sell this, I could buy two cows. Then I could make cheese and butter too, right?’
Then, as if responding to Nana’s inner thoughts, a new message window appeared before her eyes.
【If you sell this sword, you can see one of the game’s endings: the Rogueton Count’s Family who became rich from treasure. Will you sell the sword?</p】
Ending reward: A chance to return to the original world you lived in.
*If you return to the original world, you cannot come back here again and your memories of this place will fade.>
It’s valuable enough to see an ending? What exactly is this sword? It wasn’t just a simple premium limited item?
To think a sword of such value was hidden in this rural blacksmith. At this point, it wouldn’t be strange if one of the romance targets turned out to be a prince later.
The hand holding the sword trembled slightly. To be able to escape from this ruined game and return to the original world.
If she returned to the original world, she wouldn’t have to be on edge worrying about zombies appearing anymore. Nana recalled once again the terrible tragedy of the village after the game error.
The sight of zombies with rotting bodies tearing at the flesh of living people, and herself who helplessly watched and then ran away.
Even though it was to survive, the guilt of running away alone and surviving while the villagers were suffering a disaster had troubled Nana for a long time.
All of that terrible experience would be resolved if she sold this sword. If she returned to the original world, her memories of this place would fade too, so she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.
It’s not even an error I created, so why should I be trapped here? It’s not my fault, so why should I keep suffering?
Strength entered her fingertips gripping the sword.
‘If I go back, everything will be over.’
Nana slowly raised her head.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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