Sami turned to the screen displaying the time remaining until the end of the quest. The time displayed was:
[00:04:35]
"No. I can’t black out now," he muttered as he quickly rushed back into the apartment.
To save his remaining Prana, he quickly convinced himself that he was not a 3 of Clubs. At that moment, the sweet sound of cards shuffling resonated in his ears once more.
And just like that, Sami was no longer a Warrior.
He felt the surge of physical strength leave his body, along with the instinctual knowledge of how to wield the knives he had used in combat.
With that lie undone, the rapid drain on his Prana slowed down considerably, though Sami estimated it had only bought him about two more minutes at most.
Without wasting time, he hurried over to the front door and shut it, though the lock was now broken from the intruder’s violent entry.
"That woman must have fled while we were fighting," he thought as he looked around.
Sami recognized her. She was a neighbor who lived in one of the apartments in this building. She had moved in recently with her newly wedded husband. Who knew? Maybe it was her husband who had chased her out of thier apartment?
Anyway, that was not Sami’s problem. What he needed to deal with next was the body in his kitchen.
The rule had stated that there could be no more than one person in a Shelter by the end of the Quest. Even though the intruder was dead, Sami couldn’t risk leaving the body inside.
...He was just that paranoid.
He grabbed the dead man by his ankles and began to drag him across the floor.
God, the guy was heavy!
Before long, though, Sami managed to haul the corpse out onto the balcony. With a heavy grunt, he heaved the body over the railing. And just as he had promised earlier, he tossed the corpse over the balcony into the dark abyss below.
Then, he ran back into the living room and stood, pressing himself against the front door.
From here onwards, it was left to luck and prayers.
"Lord, take the wheel," he muttered under his breath.
Not long after, his Prana finally got exhausted, and he felt himself revert to how he had been before the current Quest.
His world plunged into pitch-black darkness once more.
"Not a high-grade quest my ass," Sami sighed.
The darkness left him feeling uncertain and terrified. Time, for some reason, seemed to crawl really slowly, which just filled him with more and more dread as the seconds passed.
Now that he was blind again, he could hear everything. The chaotic noises of people outside his apartment, and the desperate banging on nearby doors.
As he stood frozen against the frame, he kept counting down the remaining seconds in his mind.
Truth be told, this was the first time Sami had ever prayed, though it was to no god in particular, but to all the gods out there.
After what felt like an eternity, he was finally close enough to feel a faint flicker of relief.
’Ten, nine, eight, seven...’
Just then, the scream of someone running down the hallway echoed closer, followed by a violent bang as someone threw their weight against his front door!
"Let me in! Please, I beg you!"
Sami flinched and pressed his entire body against the door, roaring back, "Fuck you!"
The person hit the door again even harder. "Please, if you don’t let me in, I’ll die!"
"How is that my problem?!" Sami yelled.
At that moment, the man behind the door let out a bloodcurdling shriek, but before he could finish, his voice was violently cut off and the hallway fell into a horrific silence.
Sami, breathing heavily, could hear his heart pounding right in his mouth.
Just then, he flinched again as the eerie shrieks of unseen monsters echoed through the floorboards, followed by distant screams breaking out in various apartments around his own.
At the same time, the entire building shuddered violently. It felt as if a massive, roaring tsunami wave had just slammed directly into the structure, washing past the outer walls with crushing force.
Sami could swear that the water level outside had already crested past the first floor and was now thrashing against the second.
The chaos outside continued for another agonizing minute before the turbulence finally ebbed away, leaving the world completely quiet once more.
Sami swallowed hard, his throat dry as bone.
At that moment, a clear notification chime finally sounded in his ears:
[Congratulations, Player No. 100346, on completing the First Main Quest.]
Sami exhaled a long, trembling breath and slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor.
...That was, without a doubt, one of the most comforting voices he had heard in a long while.
***
[Calculating achievements and distributing rewards...]
[Commencing reward integration: You have now become eligible to partake in Side Quests.]
[Side Quests Available...]
: Food Quest
: Weapons Quest
: Item Quest
[Bonus Reward: You have become eligible to partake in Emergency Quests.]
[Note: Partaking in Emergency Quests offers Evolution Points.]
[Congratulations, Player No. 100346. You have earned 100 Evolution Points.]
[Available EP: 100]
[You have gained access to Player Forums.]
[Since you have passed the Main Quest: Noah’s Ark, you have achieved a new title.]
’Title?’ Sami thought.
[The Player has been made a Landlord.]
[The Shelter is now a protected property. Unless the Landlord offers an invitation, another Player cannot encroach into a Landlord’s Property.]
"...?"
That sounded... great!
Sami suddenly felt all the tension in his shoulders loosen up.
Now, even though his door was in a somewhat bad state, no one could enter without his permission.
How cool was that?
There was another reason Sami was filled with joy, and that was the fact that this used to be a rented apartment. He paid a lot every month for rent, and as a nine to five worker, rent had always been one his biggest headaches!
Now, however, he had suddenly become a landlord.
This was now his property, and he no longer needed to pay rent. If this was not a massive silver lining to the end of the world, what was?
’Poor former landlord. Hehe. This apartment no longer belongs to you. It’s all mine now!’
Who knew? There was a decent chance the old lady was already dead anyway.
While Sami was still basking in the glory of free real estate, another notification chimed in his mind.
[The Landlord is now eligible to relinquish ownership of their Shelter to another.]
Sami frowned.
’That means... someone could challenge a Player or even find a way to force them to give up their Shelter.’
That was the implication he got after thinking about the words.
For a few long seconds after that, though, the apartment fell into silence.
Sami sighed, remaining slumped against the cold floor.
After a moment, he arched a brow as he suddenly realized something. Even without doing anything, the Prana he had spent was slowly trickling back into his body.
’So I can only recover Prana while blind. The longer I remain blind, the more Prana I accumulate in my reserves.’
This discovery made him feel much better about his condition.
’Since no one can break in here, I will rest for a few hours. Once I recover enough, I will get my eyes back.’
He gave himself some time to ensure that nothing else was happening. When no strange thing happened, he reached into his pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. Then, he took out a lighter, lit a stick, and took a long drag, letting the smoke fill his lungs before exhaling slowly into the pitch-black room.
Still seated on the hardwood floor with his eyes closed, Sami finally allowed himself to get some rest.