Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

This chapter is for last Sunday when there's no upload.

Donation pot: $5

I hung the cleaned rockfishes on one empty space inside the shelter. To be honest, I wanted to hang it around the seashore and dry it using the sea breeze, but it would be difficult to do, since if I did that, monsters would surely steal it.

“The smell is also no joke.”

The kobolds, which came after smelling the fishes, kept dying while trying to break through the moat and the barbed wire fence.

“Damn bastards, can't you learn to just give up.” In the end, because of their stubbornness, it's me who had to get rid of their body. I cut the kobold’s corpses into pieces and threw them away to the forest. Still, I was glad, as now that I've seen how effective my defenses are, I can feel safer. It could at least withstand the invasion of small monsters.

Meanwhile, I salted all the eggs of the rockfish that I had kept separately. I want to make it into something similar to salted pollock roe.

“It takes a lot of work to make it, though.” To make it, it was important to remove all the water and dry it for several days. However, I don’t mind doing all of that hard work since salted pollock roe was delicious. Some people said in the apocalypse, it was best to avoid eating salty foods as much as possible, as it would make you thirsty easily, but I disagree.

“People just can’t eat it because it was unavailable.”

Anyway, even though the salted roe wasn't complete just yet, I was already thinking of how much I should sell it on the Auction House. Even if it’s a little expensive, anyone who wants to eat salted fish would definitely buy it.

“Is there anyone who put food in the Auction House?” When I checked, it turns out there are some people who posted it. Amidst all of it, the one which stands out the most was the wild boar meat that someone had posted. However, when I entered its comment section, it was full of curses because the instant winning bid for the auction that the posted had set was 1000 points.

-Someone has to catch 500 zombies to win the bid for wild boar meat. Fuck you!

-If you butchered the wild boar incorrectly, it will smell and you won't be able to eat it.

-Then what will be the fair price?

-Because the store bread is 20 points, so I think 500 points is the fair price.

-Wow, it's still expensive.

-Think carefully, you bastards. The wild boar will at least give 20kg of meat. That means, it's 25 points per kilo. Do you think that’s still expensive?

-20 points worth of store bread VS 25 packs of 1 kilo of wild boar?

-LOL?

-Looking like this, 500 points is not that expensive…

-Wait, store bread is edible right away, but wild boar has to be butchered before it can be eaten!

-The store bread is disgusting. It was absolutely tasteless.

-And yet there’s still people who eat it? just how miserable are you?

Some moments after that, the comment section was raging once again as someone had won a bid for the wild boar.

-Wow, are you a pushover? Why did you buy it?

-Survivor 1: If you feel jealous, why don’t you just buy it?

-No, it's not that I want it. I’m just saying that the price is ridiculous.

-Are you crazy? In the first place, the prices look fair.

-Someone wants to eat meat but can’t do so because there’s no supply. Of course, it will be expensive.

-Still, there should be common sense!

-Trying to find common sense in the apocalypse…

-LOL

The person who bought the wild boar was Survivor 1. He’s with the government, so it’s only natural that he would need a lot of meat.

“I thought his unique ability is related to shelter-making…” However, by the looks of things, it seems like I was wrong. At that time, the topic of discussion in the comment section took a strange turn. Someone suddenly posted that there’s someone who had a bio-friendly unique ability while the others were busy discussing wild boar hunting. He said that with a bio-friendly unique ability, it was easy to hunt a wild boar.

– It was an unbelievable unique ability. The animal just came as if asking to be caught.

-Really?

-No need to worry about starvation… How great it would be if I were the one who has it…

-Everything is good, but there was a problem that rats would also come hahahha.

-Ouch…

Well, that’s indeed a bit problematic. But it’s likely that the additional effect for that skill was the ability to exclude certain animals. After skimming some more, I read the last comment of the guy who talked about the bio-friendly unique ability.

-If you meet someone with that unique ability, be careful. He betrayed us and ran away.

In the apocalypse, such a thing wasn’t exactly rare. But to say he’d been betrayed, didn’t he look perfectly fine? He could even laugh. When someone points out my thoughts, he accuses the guy who ran away as an idiot.

He’s suspicious… I promptly used 10 points to check the ID of the guy who claimed to have been betrayed.

「Scream 5 (ComeToSeeSpring)」

“Isn’t this guy someone from the whining series?” He demanded excessive support from us in the game, and was someone who thought that Rapwi was a woman. He must have been shocked when he found out that Rapwi was a male. (E/n check chap 10 if you guys forgot)

“Didn’t this guy have a guild? If I remember correctly, the name is JongSaMu.” I jolted down his ID and guild name in my notebook. I believe it will be useful someday.

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Early at dawn, I retrieved the fish trap I had installed on the pier. The tie enveloping the trap was broken here and there, so the shape was quite bad. But still, there were quite a lot of things inside.

“There are octopuses here too.” And even though it failed to catch some shrimp, there are eels and a few unnamed crabs inside. It's definitely lacking compared to the sea of ​​another world, but it's not bad at all. I pulled out the trap and quickly went into the alley when suddenly I heard someone's voice calling for me.

"Hello…" Two women greeted me in the motel parking lot. They were faces I had seen before, but I don’t remember where exactly I saw them. When I rummaged through my memories, I finally remembered that they were the girls who used to be Kwon’s slave.

Did they run away from the one room neighbourhood after the murderer event?

They put down their weapons and tried to look as harmless as possible.

“Can we talk to you for a moment?”

“Yes, we have something to ask you…”

“…”

At their word, Dingo relaxed while I concentrated and looked around. There doesn't seem to be anyone else except them in the area. I quickly signaled them to follow me. There’s absolutely no need to enter the dark parking lot.

They looked at each other's faces, then nodded and started following me. The place I chose to be our conversation place was a gas station which reeks of gasoline. Although the walls collapsed here and there, there were quite a few pillars to hide in case things went south.

I leaned on the pole and waited for the two of them to approach.

"What do you want from me?"

“Before, we ran away without saying any words… Thank you. Thanks to you, we lived.” The man approached me and bowed.

“My name is Yuju and this is Cheol-jun-ssi. Once again, thank you very much."

At their words, I relaxed my expression a little and nodded my head. “My name is Kang Seongho.”

“Ah… so it was Seongho-ssi.” Until now, my judgement that there’s no ally or enemy in the apocalypse had not changed. But there’s also no need to unnecessarily increase the number of enemies. Though, still, I wouldn’t show any mercy to those who threatened me.

“How did you end up here? Didn’t I tell you to go north?”

“At first, we really headed towards Gimhae's new town. But halfway through, I remembered that…” Cheol-jun scratched his head. “I remember a little bit from the time when I was still under Kwon's hypnotism and recalled that Gimhae and Changwon are dangerous…”

Right, those cities were where the clans related to Kwon were located at. Though, It doesn't seem like they remembered it.

“To what extent do you remember?” I asked.

Cheol-jun said cautiously. “Well, I want to make a deal with Seongho-ssi with the information we know.”

“You can ask us anything in exchange for what Seongho-ssi knows about Kwon.” Yuju-ssi concluded the conversation.

If all I had to give was information about Kwon—which had now become useless to me—that should be fine.

“Let’s go over there and talk.” I pointed to the office inside the gas station. It was about time for the zombies around us to notice our presence and flock to us. While we walked, the two took an interest in my trap.

“Did Seongho-ssi catch all that?”

“Yeah…”

“The octopus looks delicious…”

“Go to the fishing gear over there and install some traps in the pier.”

“There are monsters on the pier, so it’s dangerous, isn’t it? We could get hit by a paralyzing stinger from behind when installing a fishtrap…"

“It should be safe now.” The two sat quietly in their chairs, not knowing what to say.

“Let’s take turns asking each other, you can ask me first.”

Yuju hesitated and bit her lip. Cheol-jun, who was sitting next to her, said, "It's okay," and patted her on the shoulder.

Maybe what she want to asked had something to do with slavery.

“What was I like in Kwon’s bunker? I mean, what am I to Kwon?”

“Do you want to know exactly, or roughly?”

“I want the 100% truth.”

“It wouldn't be a pretty truth.”

“I know. I know roughly, but I think I have to hear it directly from someone who truly knows in order to overcome it.”

“You were his sex slave.”

“…” Yuju instantly closed her eyes and bit her lips at my words.

Moments later, she even told me her story. “I’m a model who originally went to that golf course to do some jobs.”

“Oh…” Now it made sense. She’s quite tall and a looker as well.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal because I was told that I was only going to shoot a promotional video… but…” Finally, tears welled up in her eyes. It was crystal clear that she was angry. However, Kwon, the object of anger, did not exist anymore. Therefore, her anger couldn’t go anywhere.

Then, Cheol-jun asked me. “How did Kwo- that guy die? I know he died on fire. But did you know exactly how?"

It seems like she wanted to ask was ‘Did he die in pain?’

“Kwon died while suffering pain and burns all around his body. He was burned alive.”

“You did a great job, Seongho-ssi. Thank you.”

“Are you the one who killed him, Seongho-ssi?”

I nodded. It was a little bit late to say I was not the one who killed him.

“Now, it’s my turn to ask… is there any power who controls this area?”

Cheol-jun stuttered and answered my question.

It wasn’t long since they arrived in the area, so they don't know much about it. But they knew that there were two other groups around here besides me.

“One was the group where we belong, and the other was a group consisting of a few high school students.”

“Two boys and one girl. They seemed to be friends.”

“How about their inclination?”

“They didn't seem bad, but I can’t be sure since I never really bumped into them.”

“They rarely hunt and seem to be focused on looting.”

Hearing their behaviour, it seems like they didn’t have a combat oriented unique ability.

Then, I showed them the note that had been shot towards me with an arrow to them. And instantly, Cheol-jun confessed that it was her leader who shot it.

“We didn’t shoot it with any bad intention. We are not that radical.”

Is that really so? I couldn’t be sure. In my eyes, even though ordinary people weren’t as bad as Kwon or the Gimhae clan, they were still not as good as the gym group members.

We took turns asking questions and got some information we needed from each other. From them, I knew that Jinhae had become a monster's paradise. On top of it they also told me that the Changwon clan was big and violent.

“It would be better not to go to the Seongsan-gu area if it was not necessary. Rumor has it that the clan there is holding a tight control on the area.”

“Are there a lot of people there?”

“Our leader used to live there, then went here after being pushed out. Our leader said there are more than 30 people there.” 

“The rest of the survivors are mostly living in their tyranny.”

"Wow…" someone who commands over such a force would surely be someone I knew… I had to look for his ID in advance. The meeting of the clans would be held again in a few days, so i should check it at that time. Though, If the meeting didn’t take place because they somehow knew that the password was leaked, there’s nothing I could do about it.

Anyway, I get along quite well with these people. Both of them were trying to get information from me without being overly frustrated. Let's help each other here. As a token of my sincerity, I handed what was in the trap to Yuju.

“Even if I can’t give you guys some tteok, this should be enough to replace it.” (T/N in Korea, there’s a tradition of giving tteok/rice cake to the neighbors after moving to a new place.)

“Ah, thank you very much. In fact, we only have some battle ration.”

“Yuju-ssi is completely constipated because of that… ah.”

“Why are you saying that?”

These girls are really free-spirited, huh? It seems like they weren’t yet aware that the apocalypse was a time when it was better to go solo rather than with other people. Though, it’s good to have someone that can be trusted next to you.

"See you later." I said goodbye to both of them and went out.

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“Hey, they went inside the building.”

“He should’ve left the trap before going.”

“But, isn't his expression quite serious?”

“He must’ve eaten something wrong today and was having a stomach ache now.”

“Then is he going to poop after a while?”

“Hey you crazy guys!”

When Seongho, Cheol-jun, and Yuju entered the gas station building, there were three sets of eyes watching them. They were friends who went to the same coeducational high school up until the apocalypse struck. The three of them were born and raised in the same neighborhood, so it could be said that they were friends who had played and studied together for 18 years.

Their names were Park Junho, Kim Dohyung, Han Yeowool. These three were famous as three foolish siblings at school. To be more precise, the two boys were the ones who committed foolish acts, while Yeowool was their red light—the one who always stopped them.

All three of them had lost their families because of the apocalypse and have been living together now. Though, It was a pity that they could not prepare enough food and water because they received the information regarding the apocalypse quite late.

Yeowool lowered her posture and looked at the man inside the building. The man was obscured by a pole, so she couldn't see him well. But she could tell that the man was quite sharp.

“Where did that ahjussi come from, I wonder?”

“He must have come from somewhere.”

“Hey you fools. The important thing now is that ahjussi walked around with his fish trap.” Yeowool said so as she landed a kick on both of her friends' butts. The two swallowed their saliva while touching their butt.

“It seems like there was something in the trap.”

“I think he didn’t get it from around here since the sea here is absolutely shit.”

Yeo-wool sighed at her friends bickering, eyes still on Seongho.

“Are we going to steal that? How about sneaking into his hideout at night?”

“He looked so damn strong, can we do it, though?”

“…to be honest, I’m not confident, but if there are three of us…”

“If you planned to do that, count me out, please. Why are you trying to steal in the first place? We can easily get that if we find out when and where that ahjussi put the trap.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Yeowool is right.”

“You two, get up!”

Junho and Doyoung quickly rise to their feet. When Yoowool speaks, the two of them had always followed her commands. It was because she was the one who thought about plans and stuff between the three of them.

She said with her arms crossed. “I was thinking, it’s morning now, right? Do you know why that ahjussi took the trap way before the morning came?”

“Uh… because there weren’t any monsters around that time?” Junho came up with an answer.

"Yes. Around that time, goblins and zombies are not very active. I'm sure there will be times like that in the night as well. That ahjussi knows that, and he used that time frame to throw the bait.”

“Now that I think about it, there’s no kobold anywhere around this time.”

Yeowool turned her head to the gas station building.

“We could say that around this time there's no monster being active.”

“Then should we throw some fish traps, too?”

“We'll do that. But we still need to meet that ahjussi, too. I think he had a lot of information.”

“Oh. Are you planning to use your beauty on him, Yeowool?”

“Seducing?”

The two boys giggled and smiled strangely. At the sight, Yeowool sighed and slung her backpack to her back.

“Think whatever you want. I’ll go first.”

“Hey hey, wait a minute.”

Junho and Doyoung quickly put their hand on Yeowool’s shoulder.

“But you know… Since we're friends, we can’t just let you go alone… Let's go together."

“Is that so? Then please, I beg you two! Don’t do anything stupid, okay?” Yeowool sighed and walked through the stairs with the two idiots in tow. In the distance, she saw the man coming out from the gas station. Seeing that he talked to Cheol-jun and Yuju without kicking too much fuss, she thought that he would be anything but violent.

Then the man got closer and closer with the trap on his shoulder.

Behind her back, her two friends chattered.

“Wow, his shoulders are so wide.”

“Aren’t he almost 190?”

“…”

Even to Yeowool, the man's body size was no joke. He didn't have a scary face, but he had an atmosphere around him that somehow makes him feel unapproachable.

Is the dog chasing after him a husky?

She gathered her courage and slowly moved towards him as she flung her hair back with her hand. However, as she was about to say hello, the man suddenly raised his bow.

"Oh." Yeowool let out such noises as she froze in place after seeing the sharp arrowhead pointing towards her.