It had taken some time, but Im-hee had managed to heal everyone. After which, she barely clung to consciousness long enough to produce the cooking items from her Inventory. But once she had done so, she passed out cold.
Jang-book was the one to carry her to her bed. Although everyone wanted to protest, no one could. They knew purchasing Blood Burner was both infeasible and impractical.
The Coins it cost were far more than what they would make from a single kill.
It was just not worth it.
Yet no one would ask Im-hee to heal now. Fortunately for them all, Im-hee was far from selfish. And since she willingly offered to take the pain upon herself, they couldn't refuse… no matter how much they wanted to.
After she had passed out, Min-ho had offered to prepare the meal this time around, while the others took turns showering in the bathroom. By the time it was his turn, the meal was already prepared and waiting for them.
It was nothing too fancy. Min-ho had done what Im-hee did before, which was marinating the meat in spices and frying it in oil.
Though he initially wanted to cook the meat into pepper soup, the fact that they were running out of rainwater had prohibited him from doing so.
Else they would need to purchase water for an exorbitant amount—which seemed like what they would be doing soon if they didn't find a source of fresh water.
Once the meal was done, Min-ho decided to eat with the others before taking a shower.
They sat around the floor in a circle and mostly ate in silence.
Strange enough, the reason Min-ho opted to eat with them never came to fruition. He had expected Dok-su to ask about sharing the Coins so he could begin to level up. But he never did.
Instead, what did happen was Jang-book asking about Sae-wee's finger, highlighting a fact that had seemingly gone unnoticed by even Ji-su.
After she had explained, no one said anything anymore. They just finished up their meal, and then went to their individual beds.
Jang-book bringing up Sae-wee's Whiplash had rekindled something inside Min-ho he didn't like.
In an attempt to forget about this, he went to the bathroom and finally took a shower.
Once he was done, he followed the others' footsteps and purchased a new outfit for the night.
That being, a simple white t-shirt with a light pair of trousers.
Upon returning to the room, he had discovered it was quite dark—courtesy of Jang-book covering the glowing crystals.
Once Min-ho made it to his bed, he returned his thoughts to Dok-su.
In truth, he wasn't really ready to share those Coins with Dok-su. What Sae-wee had said to him about Dok-su being unhinged had lingered in his mind longer than he would have liked.
Though Dok-su had remained mostly under control and cooperative with the rest of them, he couldn't help but overthink.
What would happen if he became Second Tier? Would he still be a team player? Or would he show a side they had yet to see?
Min-ho didn't know, but he knew that if he held out on giving Dok-su those Coins, there would be discord amongst them—a scenario they couldn't afford in the slightest.
He sighed. At this point, he was caught between a rock and a hard place.
Suddenly feeling overwhelmed, his lids became heavy and a yawn escaped him.
He began to feel extremely tired, his body begging for rest.
But he couldn't sleep. And not because someone needed to stand watch—no, that much was taken care of by the Safe Zone.
Excluding the first Safe Zone, all other Safe Zones would reinforce the entire structure, so no one—no matter what Rank or Tier—could break into any Z-Streamer's room as long as the door was locked.
This was not the reason he couldn't sleep. The real reason was because he needed to gather Coins. And a lot of it.
Squinting his eyes to drive away the slumber calling him, he opened his eyes and summoned his System.
[Name: Mee Min-ho, Rank: E]
[Affinities, Equipment]
[Inventory, Shop]
[Coins: 53,150]
[Developer Options]
He ignored everything else and pinned his gaze to the bottom of the options. That being, Developer Options.
Looking at it, Min-ho's heart pulsed when he saw it wasn't grayed out. It was then that he realized he had yet to find out how long it took to reset and grant him access. After making a mental note to keep track of this, Min-ho selected the option and was instantly transported to the System Center.
Once again, the space began to take shape. Systems forming, cords being drawn to a world in the middle. The systems were growing in number by the second, just like they did each time he came here.
Except, something was different this time around.
It didn't take him more than a second to realize the space was that much bigger. And the systems were generously spaced apart.
This made Min-ho uneasy. He didn't understand this space—how it came to be or why he had access to it—but it seemed to only become more mysterious by the second.
Not lingering too long on this, he sprang into action, searching for Z-Streamers that had an influx of Coins and Gifts.
After a twenty-minute search, Min-ho found three candidates with Coins and Gifts galore.
He wasted no time replacing their Gift Cords, not once thinking about the morality of what he was doing. If he was being honest with himself, he never did think about how right or wrong this was.
It didn't matter if the Z-Streamer had an abundance of Coins or not—he was still stealing what was rightfully theirs. Yet, he knew that there were some things he had to shut his heart to.
His gaze lowered.
'At least I'm not killing anyone,' he thought, his mind's voice somber.
After a moment of quiet, Min-ho decided that thinking on this would not do him any good. So instead, he decided to investigate the search bar, and find out if that strange thing that happened before would repeat itself.
With a thought, the search bar appeared. He paused for a second thinking on whose name to use and test the search bar out.
Almost instantly, a name came up.
He wasted no time typing in the name, eager to see the stats of their potential partner—Wo Shin-ji.
Once he typed in the name and hit search, just like last time, an influx of Systems appeared before him. Each System belonging to a Z-Streamer with a variation of the name he typed in.
Though he wanted to question why this was happening, something else had immediately caught his attention.
Beside one of the screens was the one belonging to the actual name he had searched for.
Min-ho peered at the screen for several seconds, then he gasped.
[Name: Wo Shin-ji, Rank: E]
[Affinities, Equipment]
[Inventory, Shop]
[Coins: 1,233,150]
'He has a million Coins?'