Nanoe began to explain.
"First of all, the mechanics of this game might look chaotic, but they basically revolve around just two things: defending inside the room and building up the room."
"Even though there are a lot of zombies, if they are spread out to each room, it will not be too many. That means if too many Owners die, those zombies will gather around the remaining rooms."
"That is why letting them live is better than killing them. Besides, the second thing is… the trading mechanism."
"Rover, even though I am not an Owner, I also have a System and I have looked through the trading mechanics a bit. If this were really a game where we are supposed to kill and rob each other, then this mechanic would be meaningless."
"However, if the System put this mechanic in, that means the System wants the people here to unite, to trade with each other to find a way to survive."
After listening to Nanoe, Rover nodded, feeling that it made perfect sense. He glanced at her, finding her powers of deduction almost unbelievable.
Nanoe seemed to understand what he was thinking. She covered her mouth and laughed. "You should remember I am a chief accountant. I have to deal with things many times more complicated than this."
Hearing that, a memory of those yearly financial reports piled up like a mountain flashed through Rover's mind, making him shiver.
Nanoe was right. If she could handle the finances of a large company, then this little bit of information was nothing to her.
"Good. I will follow your lead." Rover nodded and said, "But in the future, I will bring more girls into the room. If you want to regret it, there is still time."
Nanoe smirked, shot him a sideways glance, and said, "One of me is enough to keep you fed. If you add another woman, are you not afraid you will die from exhaustion?"
Rover was not worried about that at all. Although his physical condition was not great at the moment, he believed that in the future he would definitely find some kind of medicine to strengthen his body.
"I only have one small request," Nanoe said.
"Go ahead," Rover nodded.
"That is…" She smiled. "Every time you set your eyes on some girl, you have to tell me. I will check whether she qualifies to become your woman or not."
"You do not want a troublemaker inside the room, do you?"
Hearing that, Rover immediately nodded. Even though a Tenant had to absolutely obey the orders of the Owner, conflicts would probably still arise between the Tenants, and that would cause a lot of problems for everyone living in the room.
"I agree."
Seeing Rover agree so readily, Nanoe let out a long, relieved breath. She smiled and said, "Do not worry. Since I have accepted becoming your woman, I will treat you as my life. My mind will be completely focused on finding ways to help you."
Rover smiled without saying anything, then told Nanoe even more information. Her ability to reason things out was terrifying, so the more she knew, the better.
…
Floor 02, Room 08.
Inside the room, a black-haired young man, around twenty-two years old, was sitting on the floor, holding a large knife. The blade was over thirty centimeters long, so sharp it was frightening, and it was stained with blood.
"Ha… ha… ha…" He sat on the floor, panting heavily, yet his face was filled with joy.
"Perfect." He burst out laughing. "Hahahaha… This piece of paper did not lie to me."
The young man raised the sheet of paper, looking at it as if it were an invaluable treasure.
"I did not expect to be lucky enough to pick this up. Otherwise, I would probably be just like those people out there, running in despair or becoming food for those zombies."
As he spoke, he shook the piece of goatskin parchment in his hand, a smug grin spreading across his face.
"Hahaha… Father, Mother… the name you gave me really brought me luck. I, Sunny, am the main character, hahahaha…"
Sunny took a deep breath, feeling his stamina recover quite a bit, then got up. He walked to the door, pushed it open a small crack, and looked outside.
His gaze swept over the corridor, where countless zombies were crammed together, pounding on the doors of other rooms, but the area around his own room did not have many zombies.
No, to be precise, those zombies seemed to not be attacking his room at all. A few zombies passed by, only giving his room a brief glance before moving on, with no intention of attacking it.
"Tsk. Looks like I killed so many zombies that they do not dare to attack me anymore," Sunny muttered.
"That's fine too. I'll have some time to recover my stamina. I just need to wait a bit longer. Once these zombies leave, I can go out and scavenge supplies. Hahahaha…"
Sunny laughed in sheer joy, his face drenched in sweat yet still filled with excitement.
He opened the World Chat window, his eyes carrying a hint of mockery. "So few people are chatting. Looks like not everyone is like me, able to get past the zombies this easily."
The messages Sunny saw were either people begging others to save them or desperately hoping to get a slot in someone else's room. After all, even if being a Tenant was basically the same as being a slave, it was still much better than dying.
The more messages like that he read, the greater Sunny's sense of accomplishment became, as if he were the only one standing at the mountaintop, looking down on the masses still struggling halfway up the slope.
"What's this…"
Sunny suddenly froze when a new message popped up in the chat window.
[Room 2705 – Rover (Owner)]: Selling Main Door Upgrade Blueprint. Anyone who wants to buy or trade can send a private message. (Image)
Just that one short line, along with the image of a scroll, made Sunny's eyes go wide as he stared at it.
Sunny glanced at his own shabby wooden door, its durability down to only 7, and something stirred in his heart.
"The others will definitely fight over it. I wonder how much that guy Rover is going to sell it for?"
He rubbed his chin, muttering to himself.
"All right. I do not need to think too much. With my luck, I will definitely be able to find a scroll to upgrade my main door."
Sunny tried to comfort himself, but the messages that followed quickly made him feel uneasy.
[Room 0802 – XXX]: Holy shit! It's a door upgrade scroll! Give it to me, I can offer 100,000$, no, 200,000$.
[Room 0409 – XXX]: Are you stupid? What does money even mean in this world? Rover, I have 100 silver coins, sell it to me.
[Room 0703 – XXX]: 100 silver coins? I'll offer 200 silver coins.
[Room 1108 – XXX]: What the hell? The game just started and you guys already have that much money?
[Room 0109 – XXX]: You did not know? Before the game started, if you walked around this building, you could pick up a lot of useful stuff.
[Room 3002 – Laura]: I don't have many silver coins, but I have a level 1 sword. Can I trade it?
[Room 2207 – XXX]: A sword? Level 1? Are we even playing the same game? Why do I feel like you guys are having it way too easy?
[Room 0301 – XXX]: A Main Door Upgrade Blueprint, huh? I may not have any money, but I still advise everyone to buy it, because the main door is the heart of a room. If the door is destroyed, the people inside are definitely dead.
[Room 2404 – XXX]: The person above is right. We have no idea when this game will end. Zombies are definitely just the beginning. Stronger monsters will show up later.
[Room 2209 – XXX]: It's only just started and more than 100 people are already dead. This game really is terrifying.
After reading the comments, Sunny's heart began to waver. He checked his backpack and found that he only had 82 silver coins, which made him let out a long sigh.
"Damn it. Even if I want to buy it, I still can't." Sunny ground his teeth, anxiety starting to creep in.
He had watched a lot of sci-fi movies and played plenty of sci-fi games. He knew very well that the people in the chat were right.
Zombies were just the beginning. There would definitely be monsters even more terrifying in the future.
The door to Sunny's room only had 7 durability points left. If a high-level monster attacked it, then…
He shuddered, genuinely wanting to buy Rover's door upgrade scroll, but he simply did not have enough silver coins.
"Wait a second!"
Sunny suddenly realized something. Hope flared in his eyes as he looked down at the goatskin parchment in his hand.
"I still have this. This has to be more valuable than their silver coins and items."
Sunny then used the System's item scan function on it, and after that, he sent Rover a private message.
…
Inside the room, Rover was going through the countless private messages other people had sent him, but most of them were utterly pointless. Some people even cursed him out.
On top of that, quite a few girls had sent him nude photos, hoping he would give them the Main Door Upgrade Blueprint.
Rover ignored all of them.
First, he was not short on money. Second, he already had Nanoe, and unless someone was unbelievably beautiful, he simply did not care.
Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to a message from someone named Sunny, from Room 0208.
He opened it, and the moment he saw the attached item, a delighted smile spread across his face.
[Survival Guide – Zombie Raid]