Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Sponsored chapter 2/11

It was difficult to make a vegetable garden on the island. The situation here was completely different from the forest inside the portal. There were no iron farm tools here, let alone the help of the almighty scarabs. It was not far-fetched to say that our current technological level was far below the primitive age.

The best thing is that I am not alone. Everyone was very motivated because they liked this island, so that was worthy of a high evaluation. Of course, there was no guarantee that the motivation would necessarily lead to success.

Anyway, I called the children and assigned a task to each one of them. In this situation, it would be good for efficiency to hand out a hard task since I had already fed them well.

“The two of you go out to land and farm. If you find yourself in danger, just run away, okay?" Junho and Doyoung nodded at the same time. It's funny how their past actions of running around to eat lunch quickly had become a reassurance in this kind of situation.

I wrote a list of items needed for fishing and making a vegetable garden on a note and gave it to them. “There won’t be any metal farm equipment left, but some plastic ones should still be left. Don’t forget to bring a shovel.”

"Okay."

“And make sure to bring a net and a trap. The trap must be out of shape, but it doesn't matter. Just bring them." If Jiman's unique skill is at work, fishes would definitely come asking to be caught.

I checked the list one last time and sent them both to the dock. It's at least an hour's journey to the land so I want to make sure that I had written down everything that was needed. After all, if they put themselves in danger, rowed and farmed, but had to go back because they missed something, it wouldn’t feel right. Though, if we have Mikyung, we could go back directly with her Blink… This island and this situation really reminds me of the members of the gym group.

I took Jiman and Yeowool and pointed at the tree. “You have to turn that thick-branched tree into an axe. Also a plow, and a hoe.”

“Will we really use stone? It’s really primitive.” Yeowool spoke in frustration.

“We are less than primitive men.” I corrected her. “We can't even handle stones properly. We have to learn everything step by step.”

“I watched a video.” Jiman said and borrowed my long knife. He cut a tree and brought it. Then, after smashing the branches, he picked up two stones and began to trim them. While he did so, Yeowool exclaimed ‘oh…oh…’ while squatting and watching.

He’s good. When a string was coiled around it to tie the stone and the wood, a tool similar to a stone ax was completed. Although it looks sloppy, it was a useful tool which could cut down trees and plow some land. 

Jiman started digging with it.

“It takes a lot of effort, but it works.”

“It’s difficult for Yeowool since it needs a lot of strength, so she should just clean the bushes and stones."

"Yes. But what will Dingo do?”

King~

Dingo barked a little and I patted him on the ass.

“He will walk around and keep an eye out for monsters.” As Dingo ran right away, Yeowool looked at his back as if she was not sure.

“Does he understand what we are saying?”

“He will bark when monsters appear.”

"As expected." Since it's a small island, even if Dingo just strolls around, he will easily cover the whole island. I left the island and boarded the boat that was anchored at the dock. Since the sky was cloudy, I think that rain is going to pour. That’s why I brought a lot of basins.

There’s quite a bit of bottled water on the island, but the more water, the better. After all, I need something to water the garden. As I rowed without thinking, I finally arrived on the land. A few zombies greeted me, but I ignored them and put the boat into the dock.

Looking through the telescope towards Dot Islands, I saw Jiman and Yeowool playing around.

“They will surely fall in love with each other.”

Was Jiman 20 years old and Yeowool 18 years old? It's not unusual for people with such an age difference to fall in love and become a couple.

Meanwhile, the only things that approached me right now were monsters. It's really karma I kicked the zombies that were rushing at me and ran towards the mart.

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When people think of a dungeon, they often think of a dark, narrow space. The dungeons in Survival Life were not much different from that. It was larger than a den and smaller than a labyrinth. Nevertheless, it was a place that required a lot of preparation.

But when it comes to Farming Dungeons, the story was completely different. It was another world which could only be entered through the portal. No one knows what's inside. Forests, seas, swamps, mountains, deserts, wastelands, and all kinds of terrains await users. It's a place to farm, but it also has limitations. Once you exit after entering, you cannot enter the dungeon again. So, inside the Farming Dungeon, it was common sense to set up a base camp, stockpile some supplies there, and then take them all out once you are done exploring.

Occasionally, users would run to each other inside, but far from fighting each other, most of them would cooperate. The reason was simple; They didn't have the time and reason to do so since the ecosystem inside was quite rough.

“When a good dungeon comes out, it should be fixed.” 

Farming Dungeons were basically random events. Each time they appear, the terrain inside changes randomly. But, there is one way to make a particular terrain appear again: it was to leave behind one item inside the dungeon. If you do so, a bug will occur and the last opened Farming Dungeon's terrain will appear again next time the event happens. In my experience, when there were about 4 or 5 people in one area, one portal leading to the Farming Dungeon must appear around them.

“Since our hideout is on an island, it's good to be able to enjoy it alone.” The dungeon opening cycle was once every one to two months. Without the Farming Dungeon, everyone on Earth would have starved to death as time went by. There will be less and less things to loot in the cities eventually.

“Well, it is possible to continue living by eating store bread…” But It was questionable whether it could be called life.

I played some videos related to farming dungeons on my laptop. The portal which was shown on the screen was similar to my dimensional door. So, it's highly likely that my dimension was the same as the dimension inside the farming dungeon. And if people rushed in after the portal opened, there’s a chance they would be able to see my shelter.

“This place is really a golden goblin's nest.” All kinds of supplies were piled up in my shelter, which was about 200 pyeong. There were even motorcycles, ATVs and mini fork cranes here. It wasn’t usable now, but if I fix the position of the gate with an item, I could use it to move around places quickly.

“…it’s more dangerous than I thought.” The moment they see my shelter, people's eyes will roll over. There was a good chance that a siege battle would take place. The defensive power of the moat and the round barbed wire was quite high, but it was not difficult to break through if a few people rushed in. 

In fact, people's perceptions were more dangerous than physical threats. 

If someone spread rumors like: ‘That bastard set up a shelter here by himself when others were dying and was eating well,’ I will become a public enemy. Well, currently I am already a public enemy on Earth, but it's a different story if people are hostile to me everywhere I go.

“Well, it won’t be easy to find.” 

No one knows how wide this world is, so these worries of mine are useless. I got out of the cave and ran towards the pier. I had moderately looted around the area, and now I was going to return to the island.

An orc suddenly appeared with several goblins in tow before me. When the guy smashed his stone ax on the floor and screamed, the goblins rushed in.

“Are we really going to do this?” 

I grabbed a rope from a nearby building, climbed up to the roof, and pulled the Elderwood Longbow from the slot. With every shot I unleashed, one goblin fell down.

“Looks like you’ve grown too.” 

The orc started tossing objects around me in anger when its men fell. However, the accuracy was low, so it was not difficult to dodge it.

“Are you envious because I didn’t shoot arrows at you?” As I said that, I nocked another arrow in the bow and let it fly. The orc roared in anger as the arrow dug into its stomach. He ran to the building and started climbing on the window. It's like that one scene from the King Kong movie.

I waited until it reached the top, then pulled out Emeras spear from the slot and aimed it at its forehead. The orc's eyes widened.

“Here! a gift!” As I pushed the Emeras spear with all my strength, the orc fell to the ground.

Thump-!!

The orc went mad and I started shooting adamant arrows from above. When the penetration enhancement was added to the power of the Elderwood Longbow, the skin of the Orc was easily pierced. Finally, when two arrows hit its head, the orc couldn't stand it any longer and dropped to its knees.

I finally threw the spear.

“Khaak!”

The practice I had done was worthwhile since I succeeded in piercing the orc's chest. The orc, who boasted a strong vitality, finally died and left a point. The two remaining goblins have already run away. I could see the direction they ran to, but tracking only two normal goblins was nothing but a chore.

“They don’t give anything but points.”

Monsters such as orcs did not drop skills and items anymore when the user who killed it reached the same level as them. Werewolf was level 20, so they should be fine for me to hunt for a while.

I pulled out the arrows and looted anything I could find on the monsters. At that moment, a few people came out of the building.

“Seongho-ssi. Can we talk to you for a moment?” It was Cheol-jun. There was no prior contact, but I was aware of their existence. I pointed to the store inside, and as they entered, I took a seat at the entrance. Two men and two women looked at me curiously.

“You know Cheol-jun hyung and Yuju, right? My name is Lee Sangcheol.” Said a young man who seemed to be the leader of the group.

“I am Lee Sanghee.” The woman spoke after him and smiled at me brightly which burdened me quite a bit.

Since both of them have the same family name, it looks like they were siblings.

Sangcheol lowered his head. And when I asked him what was going on, he said, “At that time, I didn’t know Seongho-ssi well…”

“It’s fine. There was no damage done to me.” And if I was harmed in any way by them, we wouldn’t be talking like this right now.

Sangcheol said again. “I just saw that you killed an orc. You are amazing. Did you set up a rope to climb up on and catch it?”

“Yeah, well… Even if werewolves appear later, those ropes will come in handy.”

“We also installed some ropes, but it was not easy.” Yuju shook her hand.

In fact, the task would be easier if you have someone with the movement-type unique skill such as Blink or Terrain Mastery.

But what do these people want to say?

When I urged them with my eyes, Sangcheol hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.

“Recently, a series of strange things have happened around here. The murderer's event is one, but even the people who were engaged in it suddenly disappeared.”

“Are you saying that the people of JongSaMu have disappeared?”

“You don’t seem to know… Yes. They literally disappeared overnight. I couldn’t see them at all, so I went to the hideout, and there was no sign of them.”

"…were they attacked by the murderer?"

“Perhaps it’s the case. I don't know who the killer is, but it's clear that he's around here. That’s why I’m telling you… why don’t you join us and fight against it?” His voice lowered towards the end.

In the end, I think they wanted to talk about this. It's ironic that they actually came to the perpetrator to join them.

At the moment, Sanghee leaned her upper body towards me.

“I've been watching Seongho while you were roaming around the area. You have great skills… What do you think… I think we'll get along well."

“There are people I hang out with.”

“I haven’t seen those students these days.”

“We moved our hideout.”

“Where… ah, it seems like that’s the reason you were running around a few days ago.”

“Did you move to the island?”

Sanghee pondered and asked me as if she didn't understand. “Isn’t there nothing there? There are no supplies there and it is difficult to loot.”

“We have our ways.”

“Sanghee, wait a minute. Seongho-ssi, if you go there, wouldn’t you be fine from zombie raids and murderers.”

“That’s why we occupied it.” I emphasized the word occupy. Although there was no ownership on the island, it was us who occupied it first, so it would make people think twice if they wanted to come there.

Cheol-jun and Yuju's expressions darkened a bit when they heard my words. Seems like they understood the meaning behind my words.

Sangcheol smiled bitterly as he tapped the table. “Why didn't I think of that? There are also plastic boats, so you can cross over.”

“There is nothing on the island.”

“That’s why it is good. There are no monsters, but food can be transported by boat. Ha… that's unfortunate."

Sanghee looked at me and pursed her lips. “But you must be very bored on the island. What do you do all day?”

“It's pretty busy there. We have to make a vegetable garden and catch some fish.”

"That's right… But you must be bored at night… Seongho, how about me?"

She looked into my eyes and licked her lips. Her companions around her were visibly embarrassed by her actions. It's the first time I saw a woman speak so openly. But I wasn't interested in her. To be precise, I couldn’t be bothered to have a special relationship with a woman right now. I had a lot of work to do on my own, so it would be a pain in the ass if she clings to me.

I slung my backpack. “Are we done? If so, I will go first.”

When I was about to leave, Cheoljun said hurriedly. "Please wait. There was something I wanted to say to Seongho-ssi… Recently a lot of people have been walking around the playground.”

In Masan, when you say a playground, it means the baseball field. It's north of here and pretty close.

“Are they a clan?”

“They are the biggest clan members in Changwon. I don't know why they're walking around, but I think Seongho should be careful."

"Thank you for the information." Though, It doesn't matter who comes at me. In return, I told him that a Farming Dungeon would open soon.

“Is it open now?”

“In Survival Life, it opens right after the appearance of the Orcs. I can’t say for sure, but the time is roughly around now.”

Upon hearing this, Sanghee patted Sangcheol on the shoulder. “Didn’t you say you saw it in one of the mytube streams?”

“Oh, yeah that’s right. But I didn't see it properly. That man's voice was so sleep inducing…"

“I Love Gimbap? That person?”

“Yeah. Anyway, hearing his voice made me fall asleep. I can't even remember now."

To think I’d meet someone who used my stream as a sleeping drug…

Well, it was something I couldn’t be angry about as that came up often among viewers. I hid my burning face and went outside.

“If we meet in the farming dungeon, please pretend to know us.” Sanghee said quietly from behind.

Hmm… it will depend on the situation. I boarded the boat and headed to the island. The children were watching the rabbit farm while they were working.

“It’s cute…” Yeowool squeals.

It’s cute, isn’t it? We’ll have to catch it and eat it soon.

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That evening, we finished our meal and prepared to enter the Farming Dungeon. Even if we were excited like this, there’s a chance that the dimensional gate might not appear. If that was the case, I was wondering if I should go to the mainland and look for it. But when such worries filled my mind, Dingo, who had gone for a walk, ran towards us while barking loudly.

“What’s up? Who’s coming?" Everyone got used to Dingo's barking, so they quickly learned to distinguish the meanings. His current bark was a warning sign that a strange thing had appeared, not a monster.

When I followed him to the information centre, a blue portal greeted me. The children raised their arms and cheered.

"Oh yeah!"

“Wow!”

I restrained Dingo and the boys, then carefully slipped my hand into the portal. Cold air could be felt on my hand. This is getting more and more disturbing. Even though winter was over in the forest, it was still cold.

“Hurry up, uncle.”

At Yeowool's urging, I pushed myself into the portal.

What?

Where the hell is this?