Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

2/10

Fortunately, it seems like many survivors had heard about what happened to the Kori nuclear power plant. In the span of 30 minutes after I navigated through the city center, I’ve already seen more than 20 survivors fleeing towards the west.

Naturally, zombies and goblins were everywhere. But all of the survivors still managed to run away successfully. The tactic they used to safely get by was the most basic one. One person would gather the attention of those monsters while the others would hunt them moderately before running away again.

I kept running while being chased by a horde of zombies. On the other side of the road, I could see three other people who were also running, just like me. The messy road conditions in Busan gradually brought our path closer and closer before it merged into one single path.

If someone among the four of us falls, the zombie chase would stop temporarily. The three glanced at me, seemingly having the same thoughts as mine. However, in this situation, it's better not to not entertain those useless thoughts and just run as fast as we can. We are akin to gazelles running through the meadow, and the zombies were the cheetahs. If we become just a little bit slow and weak, we are going to be eaten by them.

Fortunately, I wasn't on the slow side. During this summer, I had lost so much weight to the point that the stab-proof armor felt loose. My stamina had improved too, as a result of going around and lifting heavy things while looting.

Once I began to speed up, I could see the people running next to me falling behind.

There's no need to put these people in danger with me. I led the zombies into the alley with Dingo. Then, I went up to the roof of a nearby building and then cooled off for a while.

Growl-!!

After a few seconds, the zombies who arrived at the roof ran towards me. Their movement was much more agile than before. And when they evolve into a ghoul, all the lags between their brain and body would completely disappear, resulting in a much quicker and stronger zombies. Before that time comes, I have to hunt diligently in order to get levels, points, and items.

“Dingo, cross over.” As the guy heard my shout, he barked at me. I ran around the zombies, aggroing their attention before jumping into the roof of the building next door. The zombies who tried to catch me floundered on the railing and fell one by one. From below, numerous thudding and popping sounds could be heard soon after.

“Thankfully the system recognized it as my kill.” In order to earn points, people had to work hard to realize the outcome. Take Mikyung, who entered the goblin’s den together with me, for example. She had the will to earn points and worked hard for it. The result? She manages to reach half of my kill counts there. Therefore, she got some points in the end.

When I looked down from the roof, people who were running next to me earlier had entered one particular alley. But it seems that there were goblins in the alley since the man in the lead fell down without being able to scream right after they entered. The other two were terrified at the scene and quickly scampered into the first building they could find, but that was the end for them. Zombies swarmed towards the building they were at, before ear-shattering screams tore the air a few moments later.

“They were unlucky.” In the current world, a momentary lapse of judgment will cost you your life. Though, if they had a good unique skill, they could have lived.

When I looked around once more, I saw people running with their ears covered so they wouldn't hear the screams of the fallen survivors. From whom did they hear the news about the meltdown, I wonder? Did someone who had unlocked the Auction House told them? or do they know from Yoohyeon?

I ran down the road and glanced to the side as I ran with Dingo. Our first destination would be the Nakdong River. After that, Gimhae, Changwon, etc. and maybe even settle down somewhere good.

“It is dangerous to enter the city now.” In every neighbourhood, there’s bound to be groups of survivors who have already established themselves. Thus, they wouldn’t welcome other groups who came to their turf kindly.

There were several new groups of survivors in my neighbourhood too. But the reason they were able to settle down there was because people in the gym group weren't aggressive. If it was the office team who occupied the neighbourhood first, they would’ve evicted them.

“After all, they are all competitors.” Two tigers cannot live on the same mountain. However, in this case, tigers were too grand of an animal for them. Those guys were nothing but foxes.

After running hard, I finally reached the riverside. I could see some people flocking together and looking crestfallen as they're staring at the collapsed bridge. Since the gym group has Mikyung with them, they should’ve been able to move to the other side easily. However, the group I saw didn’t have such means. Therefore, there’s no other choice for them but to swim across.

“Though, the river current is no joke.” Even if they could swim well, the chance of being drowned because of exhaustion was still high.

“Let's go to another place! It's too far to swim from here!"

“Let’s move towards the marina! There should be some boats left there.” 

Most of the boats should’ve sunk, but there should be some FRP boats left. When someone shouted that idea, everyone followed the guys as if they were ducklings following their mother.

But, don't they think that they are a little bit too crowded?

It seems like one of them realized it too and shouted that they should disperse into smaller groups. However, unfortunately for them, before they could do it, the zombies which had sensed their presence had already started flocking into the area. If they didn’t cross the river right here and now, they would all be killed.

I, who hid in the reeds on the riverside to observe them, quickly took out a rubber boat from the portal, floated it on the river, and jumped onto it. When the boat started to move away from the ground, Dingo also jumped in.

“Hey, that guy rides a boat alone!”

“Please take us too!”

Alone? Are those guys blind or what? I have Dingo with me. Though, even if I was alone, I wouldn’t be foolish enough to help them. I know that if I tried to help them, they'll try to take the boat from me, and then there'll be a fight. I continued to row hard without paying attention to their curse and plea. The current wasn't that strong, but the boat's speed was slow and it kept drifting down the river.

After a few minutes of rowing, I finally reached the land.

“There’s nobody here.” The apartment complex around the area had all collapsed, making the area akin to a wasteland. Zombies were the only ones who were wandering around in search of organic matter. Once they found us, they approached us with a growl.

“You have rested well, haven’t you? Let’s run!" I spoke to Dingo.

.

.

.

The meeting place, a neighbourhood full of one-room buildings, was quiet. I climbed on a nearby building and looked around with a plastic telescope. It's all paddy fields in the surroundings. It's a fine place to stay for a while since there were not many zombies because to begin with, the population here was quite small. But if I wanted to farm, I would have to go up to Gimhae or Changwon.

“There are a lot of goblins instead.” I could see some of those ugly bastards pulling out rice sacks from the warehouse and jumping around. There were also some guys who made a bonfire on the first floor of a building with no window intact. Without zombies around, this place was their heaven. I scouted around carefully in order to not be noticed by them.

“Convenience stores are all robbed…” Even the few local supermarkets were empty. This fact would surely disappoint the people in the gym group.

“First, let’s find a suitable place.” I have to put some stuff I had looted around in the old neighborhood to give it to the gym group. I entered a suitable one-room building and opened a portal on the top most house. As I piled up the items, a paper airplane flew in.

Seems like the gym group had already arrived here. I said while holding the paper airplane. “Yoohyeon, everything is good?”

nod nod.

“Mikyung, can you get Hyung-jun Hyung here? There is something good here.”

After a while, Hyung-jun Hyung and Mikyung appeared in the room, with their countenance a bit dark. But the moment they saw the goods I had piled up, their expressions made a U-turn.

“Hey! What is this all?”

“Ajhussi, did you find this?”

“I thought that maybe the owner of this house had piled up things, so just in case, I went here. I was lucky to find all of this.” It seems like, since it hadn’t been long since the gym group arrived here, they didn't have a chance to look around.

Hyung-jun Hyung said while looking at the materials. “You know, the supplies we brought here aren’t much. So, I was wondering about what to do from now on. But with this, the four of us will survive.”

Four? Wasn't there five people with the Captain? When I asked about it, Hyung-jun Hyung told me that he went to Gimhae University in order to look for his colleagues. Hopefully, he would be able to enter the class 1 warehouse and return with some supplies.

“The warehouse might be full of groceries.” Mikyung said excitedly. Better not think that it's ours, though. Captain Hyun-woo seems to not have questioned his colleagues, but it was questionable whether the soldiers would share the warehouse with others or not.

Hyung-jun Hyung, who was looking at the supplies I had in my backpack, spoke slowly. “Seongho, wouldn’t it be better for you to come to our group now?”

“Look, hyung. I find these things because I wander around alone.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Don’t you know that If you go with someone, your luck will drop?”

“Then it’s a bit troublesome. Anyway, thank you. Thanks to you, we will be able to survive."

“Thank you very much, Ahjussi. But… for the time being, you will be here, right?”

Mikyung asked me with her glittering eyes. I think she wants to play with Dingo, who was busy lying down on the floor.

“Well, you can play Dingo as much as you want. There’s still some time left before I'm going."

“Our dingo~” As soon as she heard my words, Mikyung jumped and hugged Dingo. To be honest, I know that the guy didn’t really like to be treated that way. But what can I do?

I went up to the roof and looked over the golf course. Hyung-jun Hyung, who came along with me, said in a worried tone. “I heard that there are people living over there. But their personality is a bit…”

“Sooyeon probably knew about them.”

"I heard from her. That place is in the middle of our path to Eden Villa, isn't it? That’s quite problematic. We have to visit her villa one of these days and move the supplies that Sooyeon left there.”

Although Sooyeon had joined the gym group, I heard from her that she didn't move all the supplies she had yet. Most of the things she had hoarded were still left untouched inside her room in Eden Villa.

“Mikyung was really working hard. She just went around with Yoohyeon and told people about the information regarding Kori power plant. She kept doing it even though I told her to do it in moderation.”

“Maybe because it was a good thing?”

“Obviously, it’s a good thing, but… sigh…. It actually got dangerous in the middle of it. There are even crazy people who shoot at Mikyung.”

“Those kinds of people deserve to be abandoned to death, hyung.”

“Well, yeah. There’s nothing we could do with them, so I told them to do whatever they saw fit.”

I nodded at Hyung-jun Hyung’s words. People who were aggressive towards other people, even while getting helped, were likely predators. Leaving them to their own devices would be the wisest thing to do.

“By the way, Seongho. If you ever run out of supplies, just come to our hideout and eat together with us."

"I’ll do so, Hyung."

Hyung-jun Hyung tapped my shoulder several times then went down. Meanwhile, I took out the plastic telescope and looked over the golf course. There, I saw a few people moving around busily moving plastic carts full of stuff.

“I wonder what was inside those things?”

Did they succeed in opening the underground parking lot time bunker?

That time bunker was located within the danger zone, so it was a bit difficult to visit it. Well, it doesn't matter. If they truly had opened it, it would be all the better for me. After all, I planned to end the hate relationship between us very soon. So, him getting more supplies would only make it better for me.

When the night falls, lights peculiar to the glowstone lit up from the windows of many buildings. It looked like whoever lived there didn't even have a blackout curtain or anything to cover it up because they evacuated in a hurry.

“The goblins will love it.” The gym members had followed my words, so they took something to cover the windows with them. After taking a walk around for one last time, I opened the portal and crossed over. As soon as I arrived, the scarab leader held out a hook and a pair of gloves towards me.

"Oh, thank you." I took it from his hands. A hook was an item which would be really helpful when I was moving around. And the metal gloves were something which would help me in processing emeras. If I make a spear blade out of emeras and put it on the Auction House, I’m sure it would be a highly coveted item.

I groaned and put the gloves on.

.

.

.

When most of the survivors were having a difficult summer due to the appearance of goblins, Choi Da-jeong, or Duck Buttocks Goes Kwek Kwek, was living a comfortable life while being protected by her subordinates. Though, her so-called subordinates weren't humans but zombies. On top of it, they weren't just an ordinary zombie, but were closer to a ghoul—zombies which had considerably become stronger.

All of them will slaughter the zombies and goblins around the area while the points they get from the hunt goes to Da-jeong. They also knew how to shoot a bow and gather food. They normally stole from the survivors who always struggled to fight for it. Whenever that happened, Da-jeong had always told them to beat them in moderation and let them go without killing them. After all, if the survivors were killed by her zombies, she, as their owner, would become a murderer. Thanks to that, survivors who set their base in her area often called her the heartless bitch, zombie bitch, and many more.

However, Da-jeong didn’t pay any attention to those people.

“They will all die in a year, so why should I care about what they say?” Recently, she has been talking to herself more and more. It was because the zombies who faithfully followed her orders couldn’t speak. The survivors around her area also hated her, so she was naturally left alone.

She was also tired of watching people gossiping at the Auction House. There were so many people who pretended to be Rapwi. It was as clear as day that they weren’t him considering his way of talking which was direct without any brakes. The real Rapwi hadn’t appeared at the Auction House for quite some time now.

“Haaah, I’m bored.” Da-jeong sighed. It would be nice to have I Love Gimbap around at times like this. According to Rapwi, I Love Gimbap didn’t reveal his identity because his unique ability was quite problematic. When she asked Rapwi how he knew about that, he said that I Love Gimbap had given him a smoked fish as a gift. From that alone, Da-jeong couldn’t imagine what kind of unique ability he had.

Is it perhaps a creation skill?

“He gave a smoked fish to Rapwi but sold me a bag of ice for 5 points?” Da-jeong wasn’t angry because she felt it was a waste to spend the points, but rather because he pretended to not know her. He even said, ‘don't be surprised later’ as their parting words.

“It’s really absurd.” After all, they were really close back in the game. She even knew where and what I Love Gimbap was doing back then. He was running a snack bar in Busan. However, since Busan was a metropolitan city, not a rural area, she couldn’t just go there to look for him.

Suddenly, a sudden information came up in the Auction House. The content was that Busan and Ulsan have been designated as hazardous areas.

“If the radiation spreads, everything will be destroyed, right?” She looked at the Auction House, and she was upset about it. People in the comment section didn’t take it seriously and only joked about it.

Anyway, it was a good information for Da-jeong. According to the information, survivors from Busan and Ulsan were encouraged to move towards Changwon or Gimhae. There’s also Yangsan, but since it was quite close to the danger zone, probably the survivors wouldn’t go there. Therefore, I Love Gimbap should be in one of the two possible areas.

Da-jeong scanned the map laying in front of her and tapped it rhythmically with her finger. “What’s good about only thinking about it? Guys, get ready to go out.”

The zombies quickly moved and stripped her of her clothes. Da-jeong then walked towards her luggage and took a red dress which would be appropriate for an evening party and wore it. Of course, the only shoes which fit with that dress was a high heel. Normally, people wouldn’t wear a high heel in this kind of world because it would be hard to hunt while wearing it. But since Da-jeong wouldn’t be hunting by herself, she could easily wear it.

As Da-jeong finished changing clothes and sat on a soft chair with her legs crossed, four large zombies lifted the chair. Even if it's not a high-quality sofa, its comfiness was still quite good.

“Let’s gooooo.” At her command, her zombie subordinates began to move. The total numbers of zombies under Da-jeong influence were as high as 30, so even goblins did not dare to attack the group. Though, the roaming zombies, which felt that the zombies under Da-jeong's command were different, still came from time to time to attack her group.

Growl-!!

Growl-!!

However, since Da-jeong’s zombies were different from normal zombies, the zombies which came to attack them were instantly slaughtered. While all the chaos was happening, not even once had Da-jeong moved her eyes away from the book in her hands. Yet, she is still raking in points in real-time.

But suddenly, an arrow flew towards her.

"Huh?"

However, the arrow didn’t hit her since it was blocked by a zombie from her Boys Generation series. Da-jeong frowned and looked at the arrow. She then scanned the area with a vicious smile on her face. Once she found the location of the guys who shot the arrow, she stepped on her foot and got up.

“Now is the time for Boys Generation to appear! Sugar Sunghoon!” At her words, a zombie with a slender body came out.

“The Strongest Jio!” This time, a muscular zombie stepped forward.

“Shine Yesung! Victory Chanjung! Passion Jay!”

A total of five zombies followed her instructions and took a pose reminiscent of an idol. The survivors who were watching the scene from the third floor of a building laughed out of absurdity.

“She’s really a crazy bitch.”

“Well, what did you expect from the zombie bitch?”

“Let’s shoot more and run away.”

However, when the five zombies finished their pose and ran towards the building at a frightening speed, the laugh they had just a moment ago disappeared. They were frozen in place. 

Two zombies arrived at the bottom of the building and became the stepping stone for the other zombies to jump up. The three zombies reached the third floor in an instant thanks to their colleagues.

“Ackkkk!” The survivors struggled to escape, but the zombies were much faster than them. Two out of the three poor people were caught by the zombies and were dragged away by zombies to the first floor. As soon as they arrived, Da-jeong pressed the heels of her shoes into the groin of the half-insane men.

“Because…”

“Keuk!”

“You have sinned…”

“AHKKKKK.”

“You should be punished.”

At her feet, the two men who suffered an excruciating pain were on the verge of fainting once she finished her words. Da-jeong grabbed one man by the neck and raised him up. She then took off her high heels and began to use it to slap the cheek of the man. In an instant, his face swelled up.

"Are you kidding me? Yes? What do you want to do with this arrow, huh? Are you going to stick it in my eyeball?”

“Sp…Spare me. Please spare me…"

“Didn’t you guys try to kill me? Then you're ready to be killed as well, right?”

"Spare us… We will never do it again…”

When the man below her feet mumbled, Da-jeong added strength to her feet that is stl on top of the man’s groin.

“Ackkk!”

“What? I can't hear your mumbling, say it again."

“We will never do it again!”

“I’ll be watching.”

Da-jeong dropped the man she was holding in the collar towards the man in her feet. Then she snapped his fingers and the zombies around her began to move. The two men's eyes widened.

“Do…Don’t tell me…”

Da-jeong crossed his arms and declared. “Try it one more time. I'll let you do what you love. Of course, you’ll be the hole. Do you understand?”

The two nodded desperately. Never in their life had they ever wished for something so earnestly.

“Scram! I don’t want to see you anymore.”

"Ke…Keuk!” The two men grabbed their groin and crawled away.

“They are really pathetic people.” Da-jeong sighed. She hoped I Love Gimbap would at least be a decent person. While thinking that, she returned to her chair and crossed her legs.

“Let’s goooooo.”

With her words, the zombie queen started to move once again.