Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Donated Chapter 3

Steam rose from the shaking lid of the kitchen set mounted on top of the brazier. Meanwhile, on one side of the brazier was Dingo, laying down without any care in the world. With the bubbling sound from inside the kitchen set as a cue, I slowly reduce the brazier’s heat. Exactly 5 minutes later—when a slight burnt smell tickled my nose—I opened the lid.

“Hmmm… good.” I hummed with a smile as the glistening rice revealed itself. Even though there’s a slight burn smell, the rice in the bottom was not burned at all. Dingo sniffed the smell and quickly jumped to his feet.

“This is not for you.” I pushed him away and poured dog food into his bowl first before adding up some chicken breast meat I stored in a vacuum-package. As soon as I finished preparing it, Dingo moved his snout to the bowl and devoured it.

“You are pretty big now.” I said as I patted the back of the guy. He’s definitely getting bigger. Compared to the first time we met, he had grown around 1.5 times more. He's still cute, but now and then, I could see the appearance of the mother wolf from him. One day, I will take this guy to hunt a wild boar with me.

“Their meat must be delicious…” My mouth watered as I imagined their taste. Since they were wild animals, the meat would be pretty tough. But in this situation, any meat, regardless of their degree of tenderness, is always welcome.

Should I set a trap in a place they often pass by? I fumbled through survival books and videos as I mixed the rice with side dishes. I need to do it soon because my meat stock is running low. Living with only fish meat was also an option. But fish is fish, and meat is meat. I wanted to eat real meat.

“Dingo needs to eat meat too.” Dogs and wolves were almost the same animal, so giving Dingo dog food was fine. However, in order for him to grow strong, this little guy needs to eat meat. And watching him chewing a piece of meat while holding it with his forelimbs somehow makes me happy too.

“I need to know their moving path first…” The prey I was looking for was a young wild boar, not an adult one. But since all of the herd would be covering their younglings while moving, it was hard to catch them. However, if a trap was installed, there’s a chance I would be able to catch the young one.

“Actually, it will certainly be easier if I use the guns, but it would be such a waste.” Currently, I have 171 bullets in total. And as it was something which was hard to procure, I had to use it sparingly. it would be best if I only use it in case of emergency.

I washed the dishes after I finished eating with a mix of brazier-warmed water and cold water. After shaving and brushing my teeth, the scruffy look I had earlier disappeared.

“I need to cut my hair a little shorter.” I said as I looked at myself in the mirror. I wanted to go to Mikyung to ask her to do it. However, the message I got from Yoohyeon yesterday stopped me. Through Yoohyeon’s paper plane, he wrote,

-Mr Seongho, thank you for always helping us. But now we will take care of our problems by ourselves, so I hope you will refrain from coming if possible.

Then, I replied like this,

-I understand.

If it's making someone uncomfortable, then it is better not to do it. On top of it, from what Yoohyeon told me, there’s a brewing tension between Hyung-jun Hyung and Kyunghoon. Although Hyung-jun hyung is the leader of the gym group, he was someone who didn’t want to force others to adhere to his opinions. Taking advantage of that, Kyunghoon pulled Bora to his side and even tried to coax Yoohyeon.

“Now that he felt a bit safe, he quickly tried to take over the command over the group.” I chuckled. Yoohyeon also said that Hyung-jun Hyung and Kyunghoon often clashed on important matters. Compared to Hyung-jun Hyung who insists that survival is the most important thing, Kyunghoon insists that it would’ve been better if they actively hunted zombies. If they asked my opinion, I would have said it would be better to share the roles, but I am an outsider. So, I don’t have the right to say it.

“Well, it’s their problem to solve.” By the way, I want to see people who came to settle near the gym. According to Yoohyeon, there was no major movement from them as of right now, so I thought I should go scout them later on to determine whether they were a decent neighbour or not. When the last parts of those thoughts came to me, I chuckled. There is no such thing as a good neighbour in the apocalypse. It was either a friendly neighbour who has yet to turn into an enemy, or an outright enemy.

“I should have killed him…” No matter how much I thought about it, it was a pity that Kwon was still alive. The main reason for my inability to kill him was accuracy. Even though his subordinates were in the way, which could be said as one of the reasons too, in the end, if I had good accuracy, Kwon would be dead by now.

So, what should I do to increase my accuracy?

“Of course practicing.” Or, work hard until I get an item with more Dexterity options. There were no items in the store to raise your stats, so that option was out of the table. The items users could wear was also limited to 5. So, even if someone wears 6 or more, it has no effect at all.

I spent an hour practicing with the bow. Once I finished, I checked the bull pepper I planted in one corner of the vacant lot. It had become quite high.

“You grow incredibly fast, huh?” I smiled as I looked at Dingo who kept his distance from the plant. It seems like he’s traumatized by it.

“Whoa… tears are coming out.” I said as I lightly touched the bull pepper and sniffed it. Looking at the growth rate of the plant, it was clear that there was some kind of mystical power enveloping the forest.

“Will the growth rate apply to plants I planted too?” There's only one way to find out, which is by trying it. However, I can't do it now since there’s one thing that cannot be delayed any longer. Which is, making kimchi. The cabbage I bought before D-Day was getting worse by the day. It's holding up just fine, but it seems like if I kept delaying it, I wouldn’t be able to use it anymore.

“Let’s do it then.” I prepared the ingredients for kimchi and salted the cabbage. Then, I made the seasonings in a large basin and covered it with plastic.

“Now I have to wait a few hours.” To use the time wisely, let’s not idle away but make a trap. I opened one of the videos and started to make it. The frame of the trap was made out of wood. But, as the caught prey would be flailing wildly, I had to put a stone underneath it.

"Will they really get caught with this?" If they don't get caught, I'll try making a spear trap next time. I made another trap before setting out to the forest with Dingo, searching for the trail of the wild boar pack. They have a habit of rubbing their backs against trees, so Dingo immediately sniffed them.

Woof-!! Woof-!!

“Here? Okay. Dingo, you back off.” Because wild boars also have a good sense of smell, they would smell Dingo's odor if he is close to the trap when I made it. I put the trap frame on the tree and fixed a solar apple on the stick as bait. Because wild boars always feed their cubs  first, the ones that will be caught in the trap would be the young wild boars. 

“Will the adults attack the tree in anger?” Well whatever, if this method fails, I just need to try a different method. After setting up another trap around the same area, Dingo suddenly growled. At the same time, I felt something approaching from the bushes. It's goblins. They were hiding in the bushes and advancing little by little.

The situation that is happening right now was what made goblins a scary monster. They were smart enough to use the surrounding terrain to their advantage. But the stupid thing about goblins, is that they all believed that if they disguises themselves like that, they won't be caught no matter what. Therefore, goblins were completely powerless against the experienced while they're relatively powerful monsters for newbies.

“You must have been waiting.” It looks like they were hiding and planning to attack me when I came out. Seeing the three goblins crawling side by side somehow made me very annoyed. I pulled Tokarev and shot one of them. (E/N I thought you wanted to preserve the bullets…)

Bang! 

The goblins froze in surprise. Dingo ran and barked loudly, and they began to retreat quickly. My Life Tracking skill was activated and their tracks were visible to my eyes. They were retreating not far away and stopped.

“Is there where you set your trap?” I smirked. Looking through the telescope, it was indeed a trap. It is probably one of those traps that will trigger a stake that will pierce the target, complete with paralysis poison smeared on top of it. Unfortunately for them, I’m not stupid enough to play their game. Because it was a waste to use the Tokarev, I pulled my bow and used it to hunt them. Two arrows were what it takes to kill them. I would remove the body later, but now there’s work to be done.

I returned to the shelter and fully armed myself. At this point, it was better to just destroy their nest. I've killed a few guys, so their numbers won't be the same as before. If I wait any longer, there’s a chance their number will increase.

“There should be at most about 20 leftover goblins … the odds are good enough.” As I was in a position to attack, I thought It would be best to not spare any bullets. I pulled the weapon I bought from the Store from the scabbard and inspected it.

「Orichalcon Long Knife: Permanent, Sharp」

Although it’s called a knife, the length of the blade is close to 60 cm. It is single-edged but it has a very sharp edge. It's not as good as the ones made of Emeras, but it’s easier to handle and repair. The price was 300 points, so it could be called a useful weapon worth its price.

“It’s hard to use it right now, but…” I need to familiarize myself with using it. I thought so while putting it back in the sheath and fastened it around my waist. After a few months, the time to use the swords that I had kept from before the apocalypse happens will come. Survival Life was a survival game, so it was only natural that most users used a bow as their main weapon. However, there are some monsters that can render ranged weapons useless because of their movement speed, such as werewolves, and they will force you to enter a close-quarter-combat with them. To counter them, you need to be able to use melee-only items and weapons.

“It’s not bad to practice beforehand.” That's why I bought the arming sword from a foreign armory site. There are many different types of monsters, so you can't deal with them with just one or two kinds of weapons.

“300 points is a bit of a waste, but…” With the Auction House open, earning points will be easy for me, who have this whole forest for my own use. Everyone’s identity was anonymous in the Auction House, so I wouldn’t have to be worried of being caught. Of course, this plan was for the future, when other survivors unlock the Auction House.

Dingo then barked loudly as if telling me to get out quickly.

“Yeah, yeah let’s go.”

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.

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Reconnaissance is a must when attacking the enemy's shelter or nest. I had checked the goblin's nest a while ago, but I still use my drone again now because I didn’t know the current situation of the nest. Information from the past is useless after all.

“How many guys are there I wonder…” Usually, in the daytime, only about 30-40% of the total number of goblins remained in their nest. The rest were outside, digging traps and hunting. In that case, I would only need to kill about 10 or so.

“After that, I would be in the position of the defender, and not the attacker….” or to be exact, I’ll be a camper. I didn't want to go into that messy nest if possible. The correct way to win was to wait outside, and then shoot them one by one. At that moment, I remembered Kwon's bunker. Somehow, I feel like his bunker is similar to a goblin’s nest.

“Then, is Kwon the hobgoblin? his girls should be golden goblins then.” I chuckled. They might not be carrying a real pocket, but since they were always by Kwon's side, the image fits. By the way, he had lost three subordinates this time, so he'll be quiet for the time being.

“The best way to kill them was to hide inside the portal in front of their bunker and shoot them as they came out.” But it will undoubtedly leave a hole in the bunker. On top of that, it would be hard for me to keep camping there.

“If I hold on, I will be in trouble.” The other way was to get a strong tank and push in… I thought of Rabbit Pwincess as I thought about it but quickly shook my head. It’s unlikely since it seemed that it would take at least a year for him to get here.

“I can go there to meet him, but…” The sight of a bearded man in his thirties wearing only panties running up to me made me shudder. Let's just pretend he didn't exist. When I unloaded my drone, I found the scarabs underneath me. (E/N Suddenly, scarabs.)

"You scared me! I almost stepped on you.” All of them were pointing north with their front legs. It seems like they were saying ‘It's them!’.

"I know. But first, let’s do some scouting.” I flew the drone and connected it to my laptop. With my permission, the scarabs climbed onto the backpack and looked at the laptop screen.

"Hmm…” it looks like they’re nodding their heads as they’re pointing their front legs around the screen. It seemed like they understood the videos. Anyway, the reconnaissance in the sky continued smoothly. I didn't even tell him to do it, but the Scarab Captain told me his and his group’s opinions.

“There are 9 in the nest and there are 12 outside, hunting and gathering?” The scarabs nodded at my question. Their number was roughly in line with my prediction. In other words, if I kill all of the 21 goblins now, this area will be quiet for a while. Then it's worth a try. The scarabs also drew some fat bird-looking creatures which confused me greatly. Is it possible that goblins are raising animals?

“Hmm… goblins were breeding these birds.” I'll check that later, but here's my plan. Dingo will pull the aggro from some goblins from the east while I will hit them from the west. There were a lot of enemies, so I want to divide them into as many groups as possible. There was enough equipment, so I didn't think it was dangerous at all. But there is one important thing here. There were always a lot of traps around the goblin's nest, so I needed to figure them out in advance. Thankfully, I have the perfect way to do it.

“You have to go around the nest and find their traps. Once you do, mark them with this. Can you guys do it?” I held out a white marker to the scarabs.

The guys gathered for a while to have a meeting and then nodded their heads. When I handed them the marker, some scarabs caught it and the Scarab Captain opened the lid.

“Yeah, that’s how you use it. Close it when you're not using it.” I didn't say my thoughts out loud, but seeing what they were capable of doing, they seemed smarter than me. They quickly move out while carrying the marker. Meanwhile, I checked all of my weapons and waited for them.

When I opened the Auction House, I couldn't see RaPwi’s post, but there were a few people inside. They auctioned some items, probably trying to figure out who’s in the Auction House aside from them. Since RaPwi had retracted his panties post, their items were the only items on the Auction House. When I checked their items, I could see from the comments that the three were delighted because they thought they were the first. And from their conversation, I could get a rough idea of ​​who they were.

“They know each other.”

But did Duck Butt and Survivor 1 haven't arrived yet? They must have acquired a great unique ability and they were people who don’t know how to hold back, so why? Let’s just ask them when they came here. It’s pointless to think about it by myself.

After a while, the scarabs returned and held out the marker towards me. Surprisingly, they even controlled the drone to tell me the location of the traps. Clumsy traps unique to the goblins were being shown in the laptop.

When they finished showing me the location of each trap, I tapped Dingo's ass.

“Dingo, let’s go.”

The guy quickly run into the east side of the nest.