Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Donation pot: $5

“Follow me.” The Zombie Queen said as she entered a high school in the middle of a residential area. The gym members followed right after her. To be honest, they weren’t interested in the kill event at all.

But what can they do?

The Zombie Queen—who had been taking care of them for the past few days—was calling them. It was a bit far fetch to say that she cared for them, but they could not deny that she had helped them a lot. They were able to live comfortably as the Zombie Queen, who dismantled the Gimhae Clan all by herself, looked after them.

She said it was now their turn to pay for the meal, and even though she dragged them away, they didn't even think of rebelling. Half of the reason was because they were grateful towards her, the other half was because they were scared of her.

As her name suggests, she was usually affectionate, but sometimes she shows madness. That madness wouldn't explode today… right? That was what everyone was hoping for.

A paper plane flew and Yoohyeon went to Da-jeong and whispered something. She nodded her head and she said in front of the porch.

“Everyone, you will take the first floor together with my cuties.” The word cuties refers to none other than her zombies. Each of them had a name reminiscent of an idol, and all members of the gym had memorized it. They didn’t do it voluntarily, though. It just happened that way when they had no choice but hear her calling Sugar Sunghoon and Strongest Jio.

Hyung-jun stepped forward and asked. “Is it okay for you to go up to the second floor alone?”

“I have a sca~~ry orc unnie waiting for me, would you like to go with me?” Da-jeong said as she laughed softly. At her words, Hyung-jun shook his head desperately.

He is tough enough to fight against goblins and kobolds, but he didn’t want to deal with orcs. In the depth of his heart, he wanted to get out of here right now, but it was so difficult to get the words out. Afterall, at first glance, Da-jeong seems to be a sweet girl, but inside, she’s a little… or a lot twisted. The only people who could accept her as she is should be the other stagnant waters who played the game together with her.

Maybe Seongho was running away because he’s afraid of her personality.

When Hyung-jun had such thought, the monsters who had been messing around in each classroom ran out into the hallway. Da-jeong quickly posed like a model and called out for zombie idol group. The zombies ran out, at the same time, she took off her high heels and grabbed two long knives.

“Let’s start. By the way, I will not forgive you if you run away, you know? Because this is all for you.”

The gym members closed their eyes as they braced themselves. The words ‘I just want to rest at home’ did not come out of their mouths. Which means, the only way they could return home was to survive through this.

Hyung-jun unclenched his knuckles and stepped forwards. “Don’t worry. They're monsters we had fought with before. Sooyeon, please focus on healing me.”

"Yes. Leave it to me and go ahead.”

“Mikyung, keep dividing the monsters' attention from the side, and Yoohyeon, aim only for the goblin that went past me and take them out, okay?”

"Okay." 

Joining Da-jeong's zombies to fight against monsters was something they had done several times. Even if Da-jeong’s zombies didn’t wear the red ribbon on their neck that distinguishes them to any other normal zombies anymore, they could easily tell them apart from the monsters.

While the four of them were fighting the monster together with the Boys Generation, Da-jeong went up to the second floor. Only two zombies followed her. Both of them were the most powerful and ferocious zombies among the bunch. However, Da-jeong didn’t have any intention of letting them deal with the orc, because she would be the one who would fight it.

Once Da-jeong arrived on the second floor, a bunch of kobolds appeared and made a wall in front of her. Without batting an eye, Da-jeong instructed one of her zombies to face them. Her gaze was locked into the end of the dark hallway.

“Our orc must be hiding there.” As if responding to her words, the orc shaman ran out with 3 hobgoblins in tow. They would have continued hiding if it wasn’t she who’s there, but it seems like thanks to her unique ability, they looked at her in a slightly ‘friendlier' way.

As the orc shaman's wand struck the ground, the ground shook as if an earthquake had occurred.

"Aha." At that moment, Da-jeong knew what its ability was. Her zombie, who guards her from the back, put down the backpack and rushed at the hobgoblins. While the guy was dealing with the guards, Da-jeong went through the backpack and changed her items.

“If the dress code has been changed, you should notify me. What is this?”

At her murmur, the orc shaman walked out while waving its wand. No matter how powerful a zombie is, it was simply too weak to stop an orc while also dealing with three hobgoblins. Because of that, Da-jeong faced the orc shaman 1:1.

Puck-!!

As the orc's staff hit the floor, the ground rumbles. The monster on the second floor collapsed to the ground, but Da-jeong survived thanks to her amazing sense of balance.

“Seongho was worried about me. He said I would be in danger if I met a zombie with the ability to block one's unique ability.” She said.

Kiek?

"I'll have to kill you and prove that I would be okay on my own. If I catch an orc with my own hands, he will accept it, no? So… let’s dance.”

Geruk-!!

The orc didn't know what the little human in front of it was talking about, but it knew that the human was taunting it because of her hand gesture. The orc roared, showing its jagged teeth to her and then rushed to Da-jeong.

Small creatures like this, just one dash…

However, unlike its thought, its dashed to nothing. The human side steps its dash to the side and even makes a cut on its side. It was shallow, but because the long knife was quite sharp, it successfully cut apart its skin.

Keaaaaaaakkk-!!

The orc swung the wand on its hand madly in anger. However, Da-jeong avoided all the attacks with grace as if she was dancing, and gave it several more scars on its skin. She wasn't as strong as Rapwi, and her attacks weren't that accurate, either. However, the reason she could do so was because her agility stats was close to 20.

It was the result of equipping various items. At times when it would have been too difficult for an average person to get one or two items, Da-jeong used her subordinate zombies to collect a lot of items by scouring through the city. Thanks to this, she was able to unilaterally play with the orcs.

“Focus, focus!”

As she continued to swing the two long knives, two of the orcs' fingers floated into the air. The orc shaman wailed in pain and pounded its staff against the wall. At that moment, the window on the wall exploded and the shattered glass poured into Da-jeong.

However, even though Da-jeong was being assaulted by numerous pieces of glass, she didn’t take her eyes off the orc even once and quickly retaliated by cutting one wrist of the orc away.

Keaaakk-!!

The orc wept painfully, and the Zombie Queen wiped the blood staining her lips with her tongue.

“Because you made me bleed, I will also make you bleed even more.” But she didn’t know how much. She would only stop once she judged it had bleeded enough.

A moment after that, her subordinate zombies, which had slaughtered the three hobgoblins, stared towards the orc shaman.

But before it could rush towards it, Da-jeong stopped it.

“I see you, Strongest Jio! I acknowledge your love for me, but we're not in a relationship where we can have more than this. You understand?"

Both the zombie and the orc tilted their heads at the same time at her words. However, without caring about their reaction, Da-jeong crossed her two long knives in front of her and jumped at the orc.

Papapa-!!

After several more exchanges, the orc fell to his knees, bleeding from all over his body. But, instead of killing it, Da-jeong deliberately backed off.

“I should give the 1st place to my friend.” A poor friend who had to hide himself because his unique ability was not a combat-related skill. Even if she didn’t kill the orc now, she would still be able to set a record right after her friend finished. She just need to wait a little bit. She believed that Rapwi would have the same thoughts as her.

But, when she opened the ranking page, her sweet expression twisted.

"WHAT?"

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.

.

“Huff…Huff…” Survivor 1, Baek Geom-in, exhaled heavily. He thought that once he used his unique ability to copy a blink-type unique ability to quickly find the orc, the rest would be easy. But he was mistaken. The resistance of the orc’s subordinate monsters was stronger than expected. The other awakeners, who had to support him in the fight against the orc, got blocked by the waves of monsters and couldn't get up to the second floor, so he had to run away for a while.

If the monsters he had to fight were nothing but mere mobs, he should’ve been fine. But since the monsters he had to fight were the orc shaman, as well as its guards, 3 hobgoblins, the story was different. On top of it, since the unique ability Geom-in copied had no additional effects, its efficiency was considerably lowered.

Frustrated because the orc was still fine after a long time of running away, Geom-in swore inwardly.

‘Hurry up, you idiots!’

In fact, the reason he didn't cursed out loud was because he didn't want to treat them badly. He had recruited them to his side with great difficulty. If they were offended because of his curse, they would quit. Geom-in didn’t want that.

“Are you guys still far away?” Geom-in shouted timidly. As if to respond, two people came up soaked in blood.

“Sorry we are late!”

“Where are the bodyguards?”

When Geom-in told them the location of the 3 hobgoblins, the two immediately clashed with the three hobgoblins. Thanks to that, Geom-in was able to fight 1:1 with the orc shaman.

‘I will be the one who got the first kill!’ Geom-in threw a flame can as he said so to himself. Then, something amazing happened. A pillar of fire rose to the air and instantly filled the hallway. Because of that, the orc shaman fled to the first floor using its blink ability.

"Oh shit…!" Geom-in screamed. Then, he hurriedly pursued it with his own blink. The road in front of the Art Center quickly became a mess.

“Watch out for the tip of that wand!”

“If you don’t approach it, it doesn’t matter!”

Flames erupted and orcs roar filled the road, but the survivors remained calm. They weren't stagnant waters or even semi-stagnant waters, but they were people who had dealt with orcs back in the game. Thanks to their experienced act, Geom-in was able to stab the orc in the back with a long knife.

The sharp blade tore the orc's skin in an instant.

Kieeeekkk-!!

When his long knife finally impaled the orc’s throat, Geom-in fell into ecstasy. There was no doubt in his mind that he was number one. There was a delay of a few seconds in the middle, but that's something the other guy should have suffered too.

While the survivors were still fighting the other monsters, Geom-in quickly opened the ranking page. The name of Survivor 1 was going to be firmly engraved on the record… Or that’s what he thought.

Why are there three records already?

Geom-in rubbed his eyes to see if he had seen something wrong, but the three records did not disappear. Then, just as he was being attacked by a monster, other survivors rescued him.

“Geom-in-ssi! Let's deal with these guys first!"

“There are still many monsters!”

However, those words didn’t even register in Geom-in's ear. He only stared at the ranking page with disbelieving looks.

「1st place 00:03:21

That Bastard 

Kill:13 

Points:62」

「2nd place 00:03:28 

Sex 

Kill:35 

Points:104」

「2nd place 00:03:30 

I Am The Queen 

Kill:20 

Points:76」

「2nd place 00:03:31 

_Please insert your name here_

Kill:6 

Points:30」

The cursor was blinking next to the 3 minutes 31 seconds record.

"Why?" He muttered blankly. He never imagined that there would already be three people ahead of him. The 1st place was even that bastard, I Love Gimbap, which the Auction House folks said to be lucky to have gotten first in the speedrun event.

“Lucky?”

Wasn’t his unique ability from creation-type?

But what is this result?

Geom-in glared at people with bloodshot eyes. If these idiots had come up 10 seconds faster, he would have taken first place.

A monster attacked him again while he thought so again, and he was saved yet again by another survivor.

“Geom-in-ssi! What are you doing here!”

His shoulders shook violently. Then, his words finally exploded.

“Ahhhh!” Meanwhile, Beomseok, the chief secretary of the president, who was looking at the Art Center from afar, lowered his telescope.

“He’s crying. His final record is 4th place. Except for 1st place, all of them are recorded as 2nd place.”

“Huh… he’s in fourth place even though he had such a fast clear time?”

Jang Wontaek felt sorry for him, and Beomseok wrote on the wall with chalk.

“The 1st place was 3 minutes and 21 seconds… that’s an amazing record.”

“Even though Geom-in prepared that much, he couldn’t overcome him. It seems like his records on the speedrun event was no luck, and his unique ability wasn’t creation type.”

“Then what’s your guess?”

“I don’t know… We have to meet him to be sure.”

“Are you sure he’s in Gyeongnam?”

“Seokhyun and Da-jeong are both in Gyeongnam currently. He must be around Changwon… my guess is, he’s in Seongsan-gu.”

Jang Won-taek mumbled and scratched his cheek. “Find more about him. Even if we can’t get him to join us, we need to at least convey our will to him.”

“Will he be able to understand? He is someone who hid the information he had until the very end.”

"Stop talking about that."

The former president and chief of staff were silent for a moment. They couldn’t guess what kind of unique ability Gimbap had that made him hide any kind of information about him. But surprisingly, his fighting power seems to be great.

Beomseok's head hurt.

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“Find that bastard quickly!” People of JongSaMu ran around the bank as soon as they found body of a dead orc shaman. Whining series No.5 screams as loud as he could to his subordinates. He must have been very angry because his target was stolen right in front of his nose.

“It’s a competition in the first place, so why are you so angry?” After killing the orc shaman, I was able to return to the hideout thanks to all my skill which was activated throughout the fight. I thought I'd stay there for a while until the commotion subsides.

“Let’s see… the status window.”

「Level: 17 Point(s): 3712

Vitality: 12 (+4) Strength: 13 (+2)

Agility:9 (+2) Dexterity:12(+4) Perception:10(+4)

Unique Ability: Dedicated Dimension Door

Skills: Survival Instinct, Terrain detection 2, Motionless Movement, Life Tracking, Paralyze Resistance 2, Fighting Instinct, Light Gait, Eyes of Truth, Stigma of Death, Hard Skin.

Active buff(s):- 」

“The point I got isn’t important…” The more important thing was the orc's unique ability, Hard Skin. “The effect is 20% reduction on physical damage, right?”

Even though it was not comparable to the ogre's Stone Skin, it was still a good skill because it reduced physical damage by a percentage. For the item, I got the bone necklace the orc was wearing. By the way, it’s such an incredible item which was hard to find since it increased Dexterity and Perception by 2 each.

“It’s hard to get a 2 stats option item in the first place.” And the probability of obtaining a three-stats option item was extremely bad. Even if the playtime exceeds a thousand hours, most users had never saw it. Even I, who had played for 5000 hours, only had two of such items in the game.

“This is what really matters.” I opened the scroll from the rewards. I had guessed that it would be a unique item before, and it seems like I was right.

「Crime Pardon: Consume 2,000 points to delete all murder records. This also applies to murderers.」

There was no such thing like this scroll in the original game. If someone commit more than one murder, the system would instantly register them as a murderer. Since their location would be exposed through heartbeats, it becomes almost impossible for them to live a normal life. It would also last until they meet their end.

And if there’s a scroll which could reset that status?

“If I put it on the Auction House, it will sell for quite a lot.” But, I have no intention to do so since it would be better to give it to Da-jeong, who had committed murder for me without thinking twice. There's no way that won't happen again in the future. Probably, Rapwi would easily do something like that too, so the first of the three of us to become a murderer should use this scroll.

I organized the items and turned on the ranking page.

“Ohoo, as expected!” Rapwi and Duck took 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Due to the nature of the event, there’s no meaning other than 1st place, but anyway. The one who got 4th place was someone I didn't know.

「2nd place 00:03:31 

Fuck 

Kill: 6 

Points: 30」

“Why did you put a curse word as your name?”

Are you in a similar situation to me?

When I entered the Auction House, as expected, there was a commotion there.

-It’s you again?

-His previous record in the speedrun event is not luck! You guys who said it was luck, come forward!

-Woah, he even takes first place in the Orc First Kill event.

-Everyone, I Love Gimbap will surely see what you are writing now hahahahaha

-You stupidass, what will he do even if he saw it?

-This is really upsetting. Survivor 1, you said you’re going to take first place? You don’t even appear on the records.

-That guy is such an attention seeker.

-Survivor 1: Shut up you bastards.

-Hehe, are you Survivor 1? Where's your ID on the rankings?

-Survivor 1: I finished 4th, so what?

At his words, the comment instantly filled with LOL.

-Oh LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

-The one who use curse words as their name.

-Crazy lololololololol

Then, out of nowhere, someone entered a strange comment.

-Are there any Japanese here?

-?

-Why would the Japanese people be here, you idiot?

-Aren’t all Japanese dead?

I stared at the comment section for a moment. Well, there’s no law that state that there should be no Japanese survivors. Even if they didn't know about the game and don't have any unique ability, there should be places where they could survive.

However, entering the Auction House means they have reached level 15.

“Maybe they also awakened?” After the speedrun event, didn’t people say they met some foreigners in the labyrinth? If that’s true, The Japanese and the rest of the world might have been affected by the system too. But the fact that they could speak Korean was strange.

In any case, the commenter who asked about Japanese did not comment any further, seems like they were embarrassed by the aggressive reaction. When I checked the ID, to my surprise, a name came out.

“Yuzuka? Instead of an ID, a Japanese name came out?” Oh my God. It looks like this guy is really Japanese.