Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Sponsored Chapter 9/11

The next day, the survivors returned once again and rummaged through the warehouse. They were even pompous enough to laugh out loud while doing so.

Hyung-jun Hyung and Lieutenant Hyun-woo did not come out from their lodgings to see them, saying that seeing them would only cause their blood pressure to rise. So I was the one who watched them take the supplies. I looked at them indifferently, not overly friendly nor angry, while they were shamelessly taking the supplies.

Seeing me that way, a smile came to their lips.

“We’re asking you to survive together, so let’s work together.”

“Lieutenant Kim was a really nice person, but how come that ahjussi is like that?”

…If he had been here, he might have punched that guy with his fist.

I sent them off with the utmost patience. But there was nothing I could do about the heat rising inside my body.

“You wouldn’t be able to do this nonsense again. I'll make sure of it” Afterall, the moment they took those supplies, my plan was already in motion. In one of the boxes they took, there was a paper doll of Yoohyeon. Once I knew their location, I would immediately move. I’ll teach them that once they get the attention of a bastard like me, they would only be able to sleep with one of their eyes peeled open.

When I got to the dorm, Yoohyeon ran up to me. “Hyung, what are we going to do with them?”

“First, we have to find out where they live.”

“After that?”

“I just want to know about it.”

“Don’t tell me, just like before…”

“Like before?”

Yoohyeon turned his head and didn’t say anything more. Only an idiot wouldn’t come to a conclusion after being given so many pieces to put together. However, people also know that it's easier to pretend not to know rather than confronting something they didn’t want to.

Yoohyeon groaned. "Sometimes, I-I'm afraid… that Hyung will become our enemy… at the kobold raid too… Hyung is a person on a different level from us…"

“Unless you betrayed me first, that will never happen.” I said so while patting him in the back.

"Really?"

"Yes. I was someone who was not that smart and had quite a dirty personality, but I won't abandon people I know if I could help them."

“…by any chance, the supplies that you found when we arrived at the one-room building neighbourhood…”

“It was originally there, isn’t it?" When I smiled, Yoohyeon laughed awkwardly. That’s right, If you act like a fool in moderation, everyone becomes comfortable.

After I finished packing up, Yoohyeon said, “I think they have arrived.”

“Can you tell me anything about the location? Any landmarks or something similar?"

“School… I can see schools. There are three of them side by side…”

“It should be Saman-dong…” I marked their locations on the map. Now it's my turn to act. “Just in case, change the location of the women’s dormitory before night falls. got it?"

“Is there something wrong, Hyung?”

“They kept looking at Sooyeon and Mikyung with disgusting eyes yesterday. We couldn’t be sure what they would try to do with them.”

"Yes Yes."

“If people ask you about me, just tell them that I went out for a brief reconnaissance, okay?” Yoohyeon nodded his head eagerly. I went outside and called Dingo who was playing in the training ground.

Let's go hunt some assholes.

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The hideout of the guys who come to the base and make a fuss was in a villa in front of a school. I stayed in a building nearby for a while and watched them come and go.

“Three people…” 

They were diligently killing the zombies around them to avoid having many zombies around their hideout. And since they were all men, the possibility that they were interested in Sooyeon and Mikyung was quite high.

Yoohyeon's paper airplane suddenly flew in through the window.

-The entrance could only be open from the inside, so it will be difficult for Hyung to enter through there.

They put quite a lot of thought into security, huh?

Which means, including the person who was responsible to open the door from the inside, there were four people in total. I expressed my intentions by tapping the paper airplane. After the paper plane flew, I looked through the binoculars at their villa. A man was peering out through the window. I need to get him out so I can get in.

“What is a good bait to lure him out, I wonder…” It seems like I would need more time before deciding. I sat on one corner of the building and observed the villa. After some time had passed, the guy inside the villa peered through the window again.

Hmm, once every 30 minutes?

“He wouldn’t be able to hold himself back if he saw delicious monsters passing by while looking out.” In this case, golden goblins would be that delicious monster. Because it carried a large pouch with them, most survivors were aware of its existence. However, it was difficult to find one roaming around alone because they often hung around hobgoblins.

“How many paralysis poisons I currently have?” I used up all of them to attack the bunker, and I didn't get that much from harvesting the available frogs. I also couldn’t keep touching the poison frogs to get them to produce the paralysis poison quickly, because by doing so, it would make them stressed out and they would eventually die.

“It’s enough for two shots.” Moreover, this time the target would be goblins, not humans, so it would be easier. After deciding, I left the building and roamed the area. After some time, I finally found 3 ugly green-skinned bastards wandering in one alley. I quickly made my move, killing 2 others while paralyzing the other one. Now, it’s time to disguise the still living one as a golden goblin.

“I mean, these guys are very greedy.” Even if their pouch was still tied to them, if they found other things and liked it, they would take it. Moderately stupid and moderately greedy, they were the perfect monster to be used in this circumstance.

“Just give them one big pouch and that’s it.” They would turn into a golden goblin. I tied a pouch full of junk to the neck of the paralzyed goblin's neck and left. After waiting for a while, the guy squirmed.

“The paralyze duration is similar to that of a human.” Maybe size didn't matter for the poison.

Anyway, the guy wriggled then jumped up and touched his pocket.

Kik!

The guy panicked, but once he realized the pouch was still there and even got a bigger pouch, it calmed down. Hey goblin friend. Isn’t there something better to get you out of the alley? Sure enough, the goblin was lured out of the alley by some of the candy I had thrown away.

"It’s time…” The time was approaching for the man inside the hideout to look out. Though, there was a margin of error of about 1 or 2 minutes. But he should look out around this time.

As if he had heard my words, he opened the window and looked out. “Huh? A single golden goblin. Do you want to be killed that much?”

The guy looked around and opened the window fully before firing an arrow. His first shot was a miss, but the second shot successfully pierced the back of the goblin. He cheered silently and disappeared from the window.

Now it's my turn to enter. I watched the entrance to the villa. However, when the door opened, no one walked out, and only sounds of footsteps could be heard. It seems like he had a stealth-type skill. After the sound had completely disappeared, I rushed towards the open door and climbed to the second floor.

“…” There must be a gathering place somewhere… Here it is. I opened the portal in the wall next to the window and entered. The portal was transparent and it was stuck to the wall, so they wouldn’t notice anything strange even if they moved closer and tried to touch it. After a while, the man who left to loot the fake golden goblin came up while grumbling.

“What the fuck… Why did a golden goblin only have nothing but junk?” Well, that's because that goblin was not the real golden goblin.

I smirked as I waited for the rest of the group to come back.

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“Is it because it’s an apocalypse?” Or did they really don’t have anything better to do?

The men who returned before the night became late instantly talked about adult topics. The subjects were, of course, Sooyeon and Mikyung.

“Before that happens, I will take care of it.” But only after getting useful information. At the very least, I had to know where Help Me, Kim Hyojong was.

Then at dinner time. They finally started talking.

“A while ago, a person came from Klejang… he said Klejang hyung was going directly.”

“Well, it’s only natural since those girls have such sexy bodies. Though, It will take some time before he arrives.”

“I should have said they were pretty in moderation, but since I said they were so pretty, he decided to come directly. Sigh…”

“Should we move and get our hands on them first?”

“If you do that, they will run! So do it in moderation, you bastard.”

They laughed as if it was funny. I waited longer and found the hideout of a guy named Klejang. It's near Naeoe-dong Park. I think I would have to go there next.

By the way…

“These guys need to die here.” I pulled out a plastic whistle, pushed it slightly out of the portal, enough to let the sound echo and blew it.

Fwiiiii-!!

Their conversation stopped. A man came into the living room and looked around.

“What is that whistle sound just now?”

“No one was blowing a whistle.”

“That’s why I was asking you, you bastard! What did you do during the day? What did you do when you were stuck at home?”

“Oh, I didn’t do anything! I'm just watching the house…”

He did go out to loot a golden goblin, but if he said that, he would definitely get beaten.

“Then who the fuck blew it? Hey, search everywhere. Look at the ceiling, bathroom, everywhere!”

The four men left the room and began to search the house. When they left, I left the portal and pulled back the blackout curtains on the windows before setting fireworks on fire.

puff puff puff!

Brilliant fireworks lit up in the room. It's getting dark, so it would be easily seen from the outside. 

The men jumped in fright and started to panic.

“What the fuck is this!”

“Turn it off! Turn it off quickly!”

While they were making a ruckus, I quietly threw a few pepper bombs. The room was so noisy with flames and smoke to the point they wouldn't even know what was coming to them even if it made a sound.

“Oh fuck!”

The guys, who were frowned at first, grabbed their noses and started coughing. Even a werewolf was knocked down because of that pepper bomb, so naturally ordinary humans wouldn't be strong enough to stand it. All four men collapsed to the ground. One of them screamed, scorched by the flames.

“OUCH HOT!!!”

“Shhh… Don’t be noisy you bastard… Cough Cough!” The more they breathe, the more they open their mouth, the more it will sting. I know it very well because I had suffered because of it too.

Papapapa!

Because the villa was quite noisy with the combination of all the screams, flames and smoke, there would be no monsters who wouldn't notice. After a while, the entrance to the villa became quite noisy and zombies came up the stairs.

Growl-!! Growl-!!

Even though the power of the zombies were much weaker than back in the game, and even though they were still not as strong as ghoul, they were still quite powerful nonetheless. The horde banged the door and seconds later, a loud thud could be heard.

“Zo-zombies!”

“Growl!”

The four men knew it was dangerous, but they couldn't help it as they couldn’t move properly. I threw one remaining chili bomb at the entrance and then closed the portal. Even if they run through the window to avoid zombies, they would definitely encounter a group of goblins. It was almost impossible to avoid their paralyzing darts by running away alone.

I patted Dingo’s stomach as I sat down and waited. After about 10 minutes, I opened the portal. The commotion outside was already over. In the midst of thick smoke, two corpses were lying on the ground in a miserable state. All their food supplies were also eaten by the zombies.

“Did the two other run away?” By the looks of things, It seems like they ran away through the window. Since their stats should be quite high, jumping from such height wouldn’t be a big deal.

When I looked outside through the window, I could see some goblins dragging someone in the distance. Judging by his attire, he was a man from this group. He must have jumped off the second floor and got caught by the goblins.

“Where did the other one go?” As I said that, I saw the man in one of the alleys across the villa. Because I couldn’t see his body clearly, it looks like that man was the one who had stealth ability. He didn't even think of attacking me even though he saw me, and he quietly disappeared.

If I let him be, things will be dangerous. Therefore, I activated Life Tracking and Fighting Instinct, and my vision was dyed red. There's no use in hiding. The Stigma of Death will find you. 

I lightly kicked the floor.

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Lately, Kim Hyojong didn't know how to wipe the smile off his lips. It was due to the fact that finally, a chance of him getting some lovers finally came. It was something which Kim Hyojong had always thought after Kwon from Busan boasted that he had two lovers.

‘I just have to go and get them.’ According to information from another branch, two women came to the Gimhae Battalion. Both of them were so beautiful that the informants were surprised to see. They said that their body was so drool-inducing.

It's not like his clan didn't have women at all, but Hyojong didn't like them at all, as he wanted to have his own personal girlfriends. Afterall, he’s none other than the clan leader.

There was no need to worry about those who occupied the Gimhae Battalion. Afterall, even though the guys from other branches often quarrelled against them and took their things without any concerns, they didn’t react at all.

‘They are pushovers.’ His groups would take all of their goods and women and all that's left for them was for them to die. Up until now, Hyojong has been living a life while finding pleasure in other’s pain. In real life, he was the head of an internet phishing group, and in Survival Life, he formed a clan and slaughtered newbies.

Back when the internet was raging because of the apocalypse, he stole tens of millions of won using the video he had made as bait, which still makes him happy when he thinks about it now. Of course, his current subordinates did not know about it. Afterall, in the whole world, no one likes scammers, moreover having them as their leader.

When Hyojong stood up, one of his men entered the villa.

“Brother, some bastard shot this arrow at us.”

"What is it?" Puzzled, he saw a letter tied to the arrow.

-Show it to the boss.

When he saw what was written on top of it, he felt wary about what might the shooter put in the letter, so Hyojong turned his back and opened it with chopsticks. However, to his surprise, the most dangerous thing was not the arrow, nor was the inside of the letter, but what was written inside.

-Help Me, Kim Hyojong, scammer. I know what you did.

“…” Hyojong hastily covered the letter with his hand.

How the hell did this bastard know my ID and name?

Did someone else see this?

He hurriedly looked through the folds of the letter. He could see some folds were overlapping as if it had already unfolded before. Hyojong's voice naturally lowered. 

“Have you seen the content?”

"Sorry? No, I didn’t see it.”

However, even after hearing his subordinates’ answer, he couldn’t believe him. To everyone in his group and the others, he was known as Park Ho-jun. The name Kim Hyojong was so well known to the awakened community that he was forced to use a fake name.

If this is known…

His heart pound…

Hyojong began to doubt his subordinates.