Stagnant Water of Apocalypse
chapter-34

In all honesty, fighting zombies wasn’t difficult at all. Their agility and durability were less than a goblin. Even without any martial arts knowledge, an ordinary person could easily overpower 1 or 2 zombies if they got a weapon in hand. However, the problem was, when you fight against zombies, unless you kill them quick enough, other zombies around you would slowly swarm towards you because of the noise the fight caused, leaving you no path to escape.

“That’s why you have to choose where you fight wisely.” If you chose to fight in a narrow space such as an alley, hallway or between a door, the chance you’ll come out alive from the fight would be considerably higher as you could effectively defend against the zombies coming front the front with just a shield. Unless they were a reinforced zombie, you could literally beat it up without breaking any sweat in a one-to-one battle.

Just like what I was doing right now. I let one of the zombies come towards me, then I immediately push it back with my shield before hitting it with a mace right on the head. I repeated the same trick over and over again until the last zombie laid lifelessly on the floor.

「You have earned 8 Points 」

“Huff huff huff, this is no joke.” It wasn’t this hot yesterday, why did it suddenly become this hot today? Even though I wanted to stop and rest for a few minutes, there was no time to cool off at all. I threw the mace and the shield across the portal and jumped to my motorcycle. With a roaring sound, the motorcycle sped up through the street full of zombies.

Every zombie around the area stretched their arms towards me as I passed by. But thankfully, even though the spores had finally taken over the body and were able to control it, their speed was still slow. They would only start to move faster after a few hours as they gain more energy from foods. Before that time comes, I need to finish all my looting.

“ANYONE THERE? HEEEELPPP!!!!”

As I blitzed through a house, I saw a zombie sinking their teeth into someone.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH! SAVE ME!!!!”

However, I keep holding the throttle without letting it go. There’s simply no reason for me to stop. In this situation, everyone was responsible for their own life. If they couldn’t survive this much, there’s simply no hope of surviving in the future for them as the difficulty would only get harder from here on.

After a while, I finally managed to arrive at the hardware store. But a problem came up. The door of the hardware store was locked with a huge padlock.

“Shit.” I immediately took the oxygen cutter and turned it on to cut the padlock. While doing so, I could hear many shuffling steps inching towards me from all directions. Thankfully, I managed to cut off the padlock before the zombies could reach me. I lifted the shutter and pushed the door with my body. The inside of the hardware store was quite narrow so I had to leave my motorcycle outside.

As I closed the shutter, the thick and stale air enveloped me. Then, the owner-turned-zombie staggered toward me from the side room. However, as the space was narrow and there were a lot of things placed between us, it was difficult for him- no, it, to approach me.

“I’m sorry.” Without waiting for it to attack me, I pounced towards the zombie and buried my mace in its head. Meanwhile, the other zombies outside start to bang the shutter.

“Be patient, you bastards!” Then, I proceeded to took a swipe through the display. However, even if I limit things I want to loot to something with metal on it, there’s simply too many things around. I wouldn’t have enough time to take all of it. I can’t just spill the shelf just like what I did at the pharmacy, because these things are way heavier than the medicines at the pharmacy.

“Let’s just do it slowly.” I cleared my mind. The items in this store were things that won’t be available once the corrosive disease struck. Therefore, it would be better to secure as many metal-made things from here as I can, even if it means that I have to spend a lot of time here.

“After I sweep this place clean…” I should go to the police station. The camping equipment store was located right next to the main street, which means there would be a lot of zombies there. Rather than going there right after this and wasting both time and stamina fighting zombies there when I still have places to go, it would be better to just go there after I’ve looted the police station. And for the other places listed in the note, like the fishing equipment store, I could just loot those places later on in the future.

I could feel sweat trickling down from my forehead to my neck. I stopped my work for a moment and took off my motorcycle helmet in order to get some fresh air, then continued my work.

“These guys, really!” While I was throwing all the items across the portal, the banging on the shutter got even louder. They just can’t let me loot in peace, can’t they? The heat is already annoying for me, but the banging sounds makes me even more annoyed .

For a moment, I decided to enter the portal, so that I wouldn’t have to listen to those annoying banging sounds while feeling the extreme heat at the same time.

“Ah… So refreshing…” Let’s just stay like this for another minute. Then, Dingo, who seemed to be running around in the vacant lot before I came, barked and ran towards me as soon as he saw me.

“Shhhh. Just stay here for now, okay?” After stroking the cute guy a few times, I returned to the hardware store again. And as expected, the heat once again assaulted me.

Bang bang bang!

The shutter suddenly vibrated like it was about to break. However, I paid it no heed as I was busy throwing random things across the portal. There are simply too many things here, that I couldn’t even tell what I need and what I do not.

“Ura-cha-cha!” After throwing dozens of cement sacks, my vision blurred as I lost my sense of balance for a split second. After regaining my senses, I put my head inside the portal to let it cool off.

“Ah… Refreshing…”

Bang bang bang!!

Suddenly, as if knowing that I was taking a break, another round of pounding came. However, this time, it didn’t end there as the shutter shook violently for a moment before some parts of it fell off to the ground. When I peeked through the hole left by the fallen part, I was left speechless by what I saw.

“When did so many of them come?” Five zombies were standing outside, pounding the shutter with their arms. Isn’t it more efficient for them to find other food rather than trying to destroy the shutter doors just to eat me?

If I wait for ten more minutes, I’m certain that they would leave to find other food. But I simply didn’t have the luxury to do that. Which means, I would have to fight them again.

I took out the solar apple slice that I prepared beforehand from my pocket and put it in my mouth. In an instant, I could feel some of my stamina was restored. At the same time, my blurred vision also became a lot clearer. Feeling that my condition was good enough to fight them, I put my helmet back on and took the mace and shield out from the portal. As soon as I opened the half-broken shutter, three zombies quickly walked towards me while staggering while the other two bared their teeth at me.

“Let’s dance.”

.

.

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After killing the zombies, I drove as fast as I could towards the police station. It was too hot and exhausting, so no matter how much I ate the solar apple, the effect was minimum. It seems there’s a limit to how much stamina it could restore in a short amount of time.

I was exhausted to the point that my Survival Instinct skill got activated. Thanks to that, by the time I got to the police station, my body felt very light.

“I have to loot quickly and rest…” I threw the motorcycle at the entrance of the police station and took the oxygen cutter with me as I walked in. But suddenly, gunshots rang out from inside the police station.

Dammit, did someone get here first? They can’t use the guns for long because of the corrosive disease anyway, so why bother coming here? Or, is it actually one of the police officers that originally works here?

“They must have decided to come here because they thought it was safer here than their own home.” Afterall, there’s a weapon storage here. The problem was, that same weapon storage was the reason why I came here.

“I can’t help it.” I opened the portal on a wall that faces directly towards the entrance before jumping in. Not long after that, I saw zombies who heard the gunshots starts to flock towards the entrance from all directions.

“Damn, things are getting troublesome.” However, going out and helping those survivors is not an option. It’s not just zombies that I have to fight if I decide to help out, since there are also humans. Worst case scenario, I could be killed because of a stray bullet or even a deliberate shot.

As I was enjoying the fresh air of the forest, the zombies finally arrived at the entrance. At that moment, another series of gunshot thundered. Several zombies which the bullets landed on, slumped down to the ground. However, their numbers hardly decreased. No, it was more apt to say that their numbers will soon increase as more and more zombies come because of the gunshots.

“Even after the effort the government put in, they still did those stupid things? Didn’t the government already said that loud noises would attract zombies? Did they not know about it?” I facepalmed at their foolishness. It was clearly written in the TV after the President’s speech earlier today as well as in the paper spread by the plane that zombies have a sensitive sight and hearing. So how?

Then, I saw the shooter running to the second floor before looking down while tilting his head. He must have thought that if he jumped to the side where no zombies were spotted, he would be able to run away. I admit, it was indeed a good idea. However, when he started to dangle from the railing rather than jumping straight off, I sighed. What unfold after that was the exact same as what I expected it to be. The guy’s pants was grabbed by a tall zombie and he got pulled down.

The man struggled to push the zombie away. Unfortunately for him, there’s no chance that other zombies would leave him alone. More and more zombies swarmed towards the man, and moments later, his scream pierced the air.

“Shit.” I quickly closed the portal. It’s just too early to see someone being eaten alive by zombies. I should wait like this for a few minutes before re-opening the portal. Hopefully, by that time, the zombies already moved away.

“I don’t have much time…” The longer I wait here, the less time I have to loot another place. Ten minutes later, I finally re-opened the portal. The zombie swarm, which was occupying the entrance to the police office building earlier, had moved to the second floor. It seems that they were moving towards where the foods left behind by the man who just died were kept. I wanted to chase them away and take the foods for myself. However, after pondering for some time, I decided to not do it. The amount of the food itself wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

After a while, the zombies came down and started moving out of the police station. What was left was only a corpse which had been shredded to bits. I walked towards it before taking the revolver the man dropped while looking away.

Damn, it reeks of blood…

When I opened the tattered door and entered, I was greeted by an extremely messy sight.

“Is this the only weapon you have?” When I went to the place where the man first shot the gun from, I was greeted by 15 rounds of .38 calibre live bullets, one K2 rifle, and 20 rounds of 5.56mm live ammunition. Meanwhile, the weapon storage was completely empty.

“It seems like there’s someone who came even before the man from earlier.” But I can’t judge them. Afterall, I also came to steal, just like them.

“Let’s move this for now.” I opened the portal and moved all my findings into the portal. When I went upstairs, it was incredibly messy. Leftover foods could be seen scattered all over the place while the desks and chairs were turned upside down.

Fortunately, I still found some useful things such as a light stick, three tasers, and a pair of walkie-talkies. I packed it all up then threw it into the portal, before gearing up again then went outside.

As I was driving my motorcycle down the road, numerous zombies roared and came after me from all over the place. I’m in a very bad mood right now, so get lost!

As I finally arrived in front of the motorcycle shop, I was taken aback by the situation. The shop was completely exposed, so it was difficult to avoid the zombies’ gaze. Moreover, all that was left was a scooter and an ATV. Without any delay, I quickly entered the store, pushed the ATV to block the door, and rummaged through the drawers behind the counter.

“The key… the key…”

Growl-!!

In the meantime, a few zombies managed to find me and tried to get over the ATV. I’m not letting them do it, though. I swung the mace towards their heads with one hand while my other hand kept on rummaging through the drawers to find the key. And after doing that for several minutes, I finally found the key. I quickly opened the portal and tossed the keys along with anything I could find inside it. By the time I closed the portal, several more zombies had gathered around the ATV.

Because I was moving in a hurry, my breath was quite ragged. My helmet visor was foggy, my legs and arm felt heavy and sweat dripped like waterfall all over my body. And yet, the zombies in front of me were all aiming to sink their teeth into my flesh. With my current condition, I simply couldn’t afford to fight them. Therefore, I decide to open the portal and wait for them to disappear. I took my helmet off and took a breath, enjoying a short moment of respite.

Outside, the zombies who had passed through the ATV blockade bounced away from the portal as soon as they touched it. It was as if they were hitting a wall. Hopefully, the portal would be strong enough to withstand their march. Afterall, except for that one time when I pulled the goblins with spears towards the portal, I hadn’t got the chance to check its durability.

“Should I go to the camping gear store next?” However, I was still a bit dissatisfied by what I got from the district police office. It was good that I managed to secure 2 new guns, but I wanted to secure more live ammunition.

Should I go to the nearest infantry battalion next? But if at least one of the soldiers survived and were armed, I would be caught in a gunfight.

“And it’s likely that the ammunition depot has been captured.” No matter how many times I thought about it, it was simply impossible for me to win against anyone who managed to get the ammunition depot under their control first. If I just hid inside the portal, the soldiers would undoubtedly leave after some time passed, but I couldn’t do that as the time was running out.

I ate half of the solar apple slices I had at once before I ran outside. Just then, a motorcycle running down the street suddenly stopped in front of the store. As soon as I saw who was riding it, I cursed and ran to the backroom to hide.

Just why is my luck so bad?

“Hey fucker. I finally found you.” It was the tattooed man and one of his friends from the Villa gang. As soon as he finished his words, both of them aimed the crossbow they carried and shot it towards me.

“You nosy bastard, I will catch you and feed you to the zombie.”

Judging from his ragged breath, it seems like he was very excited to see me.

“I don’t know why you’re so angry, though.”

As he heard my answer, the tattooed man jumped over the ATV and entered the store.

“Do you seriously don’t know? I… I’ve been working hard to coax her to join our group… But… What did you do? You fucking tell her to join another group, you fucker!”

“Well, that was because we have to respect her opinion.”

“Respect her opinion my ass! If I want her to come with me, she must come with me, you bastard. Stop hiding and come out or I’ll put an arrow in your eyeball. Or do you prefer an electric shock, specially made by the great me’s superpower?” The guy chuckled, as his palms were gathering electricity. Though, I’m not surprised at all as Mikyung had already told me about his ability.

With a whisper, I called out the portal and went inside. I could hear beyond the door that his step was getting closer and closer. Few moments later, he kicked the door open. However, when he couldn’t see me anywhere in the room, his eyes instantly widened.

“Huh? Where did that bastard go?”

“Hyung-nim, he’s not there? The zombies are coming!”

“Hey, look for him outside! Was that bastard an awakened as well?”

The tattooed man said those words before he turned his body away. At that moment, I clenched my mace tightly, raised it to the air and pounced towards him. As soon as my mace hit him, an ominous cracking sound filled the air. At the same time, the man bounced away and crashed to the wall.

“ARRRGHHHHH!”

“Shhhhh.” I swung my mace once again, this time with all my strength towards his head. When it hits, blood splatters all over the wall like paint to a canvas. Without wasting any more time, I quickly took his backpack and threw it together with the mace to the portal before hiding once again with his crossbow in hand.

“Hy…Hyung-nim!” When the guy saw what happened, he was flustered, presumably not knowing what to do. I jumped out of my hiding spot and unleashed 2 arrows towards him.

“Keuk!” The arrow buried themselves on his body. One in shoulder, one in stomach. He fell from his motorcycle and instantly became a feast for zombies who were close to him.

I entered the portal and let out a long round of heavy breath.

“Phew…”

「You have earned 50 Points 」

This is the result of killing users… I mean people. I guess the murderer system wasn’t here just yet because the tutorial hadn’t even started. Though, the murderer system wouldn’t be given to users who only killed a single person. Most of the time, it was given to users who had killed 3 people while in some cases it was given to people who had only killed 2 people. However, the exact method for the system to determine whether a user is a murderer or not is still unknown.

In any case, even after killing the tattooed man, the characteristics of a murderer—an echoing heartbeat—weren’t given to me. Which means, there was no penalty for killing people in the next few hours. But I had no intention of killing anyone except for thugs from the Villa gang. Though, I also wouldn’t seek them out.

“I don’t have to take a risk just because of those trashes.” Although the portal was such an amazing ability, it couldn’t guard me from an arrow flying to me from my blind spot. My principle would be as simple as it could be. If someone decides to attack me, I, of course, will pay them in full. And by paying them in full, I mean destroying them completely and looting everything they own.

Outside the portal, zombies were growling as they devoured the two corpses. Their movement was so slow, it started to get frustrating. Running out of patience, I shot a barrage of arrows towards their heads.

After making sure that there were no zombies left, I picked the keys and went out. I turned the scooter and the ATV on and moved them to the forest before moving the motorcycle that the thugs rode here inside the portal too.

When I checked my watch, there’s 1 hour and 40 minutes left until the corrosive disease struck.

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