Stagnant Water of Apocalypse
chapter-74

A few days after the Orc First Kill event. I had a conversation with Da-jeong at the Auction House through our ciphered language. It seems like even though on the rankings, my record was shown as faster a few seconds than them, they’re actually yielding the first rank to me, by not immediately killing the orcs they hunted and waited a couple seconds for me to kill mine first.

Of course, I thanked her for that.

-Are you gonna thank me with just your words alone?

-Is there anything you want? Maybe something you want to eat?

-I want the dish from before, it was so delicious. But this time, I want it fried!

-Ummm… it’s difficult to fry because I don’t have any fryer. How about smoked?

-Call! But you know, you should probably include the DLC this time, am I right?

-You do know that DLCs have a different price to the main course right?

-Die!!!

Da-jeong and I were already acting like we were back in the game. Gender or age doesn’t matter at all between us. The more important thing was to be able to help each other and have fun. I wished Rapwi would join soon. Even if we couldn’t live together, I still want to give him the ciphered code first, so we can communicate easier.

When I sent the smoked Hwajo to Da-jeong, I also told her that I’m going to find Rapwi soon.

-He must have been somewhere near Jinju by now. So, I’ll go look for him. You just stay there, Da-jeong.

-Okay. I’m a princess waiting for her prince anyway.

-Princess my ass… you are a whip-wielding SM queen.

-You know, I looted some gags and a butt plug at the adult toys store. It will suit you.

-Let’s just stop here.

If this girl said she’s going to do it, she will surely do it. So, let’s not talk about it anymore. Maybe she had made Yoohyeon her slave by now. When I asked her how the gym group people were doing, she said they’re doing fine. Then, I explained to her the circumstances around my current hideout.

-It’s not bad to stay here. There are many water tanks in the residential area. There is also the sea, so I don’t think there will be any problem with food supply.

-So, when should we go there?

-I would like you guys to come next month at the latest… Do you have a lot of food left in the base?

-Compared to when you left, it had already been reduced by half. So, are we leaving in early October?

– Ask the others. You aren’t making decisions on your own like a dictator, aren’t you?

-….noooo…. I did it democratically, of course…

-Why is your answer so delayed, like you’re hesitating?

-Shhhhh. Be quiet. I love you. Dream of me. Bless you.

-That’s more of a curse rather than a blessing.

I came out of the Auction House and prepared a meal. It’s about time for Yeowool and her group to come. We had become quite friendly while throwing traps and hunting together these past few days. And when we talked about having dinner together, they instantly said they would love to do so.

Even though it was just pleasantries, I couldn’t back down because their eyes were twinkling when we talked about it. So, I prepared a lot. By prepared, I mean taking out food from the cave when saying that I looted it from here and there.

When the sun in the sky was at its highest, the three finally arrived.

“Ahjussi, we are here.”

“Wow, it smells delicious!”

“Shh.” I quickly shushed them while pointing to a road in front of the building which was full of zombies. After the Orc First Kill event, the zombie’s behavior had changed. Now, some zombies have become more sluggish than before. The three students liked it because it makes it easier for them to get around, but as I knew what their behaviour means, that’s not a good sign. At all.

That sluggish behavior means that they would soon evolve into a ghoul. I don’t know if it can be considered as a real evolution or not, but what I know is that zombies, which already had enough nutrition, would soon turn into ghouls and would be granted the ability to run. When that time comes, the situation will become the worst, to the point where our current situation can be said as heaven when compared to the future.

Unlike zombies, ghouls could run, crawl, and overcome obstacles. Their strength and stamina were also quite high, and above all, their tracking ability would be significantly improved from the time when they were only a normal zombie. Therefore, it would be harder to run away from those guys. To survive, the only way was to kill them. However, on top of them, orcs and werewolves would also appear. The true apocalypse was about to happen.

But in order to survive, one needs to eat first.

The children’s eyes widened as I placed one large bowl on the table.

“You worked really hard on farming, Ahjussi.”

“I looked at many places and couldn’t find anything like this. Where did you get it, Hyung?”

“It’s really absurd.”

What I prepared for them was bibimbap made by soaking dried vegetables in water. Even after soaking it in water, it does not return to its original shape and texture, but rubbing it with red pepper paste was enough to make it delicious once again. When I sprinkled some sesame oil on it, the faces of the children changed to those of a zombie with food in front of them. Even Yeowool, who was normally calmer than the other two, was also staring at the bowl.

Adding Hwajo on top of it would make it even more fancier, but I didn’t do it because I couldn’t find any excuse if they ever asked me where I found it. Let’s just let Da-jeong and others eat it for now.

“Let’s eat.” I said after pouring a doenjang soup which didn’t have any ingredients inside.

“Thank you for the food!” The children said in unison. Yeowool was holding up the bowl and putting it in her mouth. Well, I think it was natural since 18 years old was the age where they reached the peak of their growing age, and would need a lot of nutrition.

As I ate slowly, I thought of a means of escaping from monsters. The time has come when simply running away wasn’t enough to escape from monsters. The best method to run away at this kind of time was to use ropes to cross between buildings. It’s a method I used a lot in the game since most monsters couldn’t traverse the rope. Other people could also use it to go back and forth between buildings. Afterall, the road would become so dangerous that it was impossible to use.

“What are you thinking about, Ahjussi?” Yeowool, who had already finished her portion of the bibimbap, asked quietly.

I quietly added more rice and garnish to her bowl.

“But I’m already full, Ahjussi.”

“This is the last bibimbap.”

“Then, I will enjoy this food.” Indeed, it seems like there’s always an extra room in a woman’s stomach. In the case of Sooyeon and Mikyung, even after eating so much food, they still said that they had a separate stomach for sweets.

Junho and Dohyung also emptied one more bowl of rice.

When they finished, I opened my mouth.

“There is something I want you two to do.”

“What is it, Hyung?”

“Didn’t you say that the two of you have Terrain Mastery unique ability?”

“Yep.”

Terrain Mastery means they can do parkour. Although I had superior athletic ability compared to ordinary people thanks to my stats, it was impossible to compare myself with the two. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone jump over a wall that seems to be over 10m at the shortest.

According to Yeowool, their unique ability came from their daily activity. When they were still in school, they often ran around, jumping around walls of their school just to get to the cafeteria earlier than other students. And it seems like those repeated actions had turned into Terrain Mastery unique ability. They were both still level 4, so they still had no additional effect on their unique ability. That said, their skill had a lot of potential to be useful.

“Can you run around between buildings with a rope?”

“If it’s only that much, it was a piece of cake.” The two thought for a little while then nodded.

“Ahjussi, are you thinking of tying ropes between buildings?” Yeowool intervened in the middle of our conversation.

When I affirmed, she thought for a moment and then she said. “The monsters might be able to use the rope as well.”

I’m sure they wouldn’t be able to use it as I had used this method thousands of times in the game, but it’s better to take a step back here.

“Let’s try it first before making further decisions. Or, are you worried because you’re afraid of heights?”

“It’s not like that. It’s just… if the monsters are able to use the rope, there will be nowhere to escape for us.”

“I think most monsters wouldn’t be able to use the rope. Zombies, of course, can’t. And goblins and kobolds, as you all know, are cowards, aren’t they?”

Orcs, of course, wouldn’t be able to use it since they couldn’t move delicately, and it would tear because of their weight, and werewolves will choose to tear it apart rather than to use it. Anyway, as far as I know, there were very few monsters that could ride the rope. Among the enhanced ghouls, the only one who could do it was the one we called ‘grasshopper’, an enhanced ghoul notorious for its agile movements.

“Since Hyung want us to do it, let’s just do it. Can I use that rope over there?” Junho jumped to his feet.

“Yeah. There’s a structure at the end of the hallway, isn’t there? Tie it there.”

Dingo grabbed the parachute rope and handed it to Junho. He said ‘what a good boy’, patted Dingo’s head and ran straight away.

Meanwhile, Yeowool, who was busy looking at her strategy book, said in a complicated tone. “Goblins and kobolds are not really a problem, but the problem is the orcs and werewolves. Especially werewolves.”

“They are mainly active at night, so just don’t come out at night.”

“It will be tougher to farm…”

“What can we do? We just have to adapt.”

After waiting for a while, Junho returned.

“Hyung, I tied it up.”

“It will be fine even if I hang on it, right?”

“Of course! It would even be okay even if Yeowool was the one who used it!”

“Hey!” Yeowool kicked Junho’s thigh as soon as she heard his words.

We then went to the end of the hallway and checked the ropes. It was tied up strongly. I immediately got on the rope and moved to the building across the street. If my Strength stat were insufficient, I wouldn’t be able to move as fast, but since my current Strength stat was 15, I was able to move between buildings in no time by holding the string as if I was doing a pull-up and moving it in strides.

At the building where I was moments ago, I saw the kids cheering happily.

“Shh.” I put my finger in front of my mouth and then pointed to Yeowool. Until now, She still didn’t tell me what her unique ability was. Even when I said that I had to know her unique ability to take measures, she still didn’t want to tell me.

Anyway, she plucked up her courage and put her hands on the rope. However, due to lack of strength, she could only move slowly.

“Ouch!” When she let out such a short scream, the monsters below instantly looked up. I quickly shot and killed them one by one, then approached Yeowool and said,

“Get to my back.”

“Ah-Ahjussi, will it be okay?”

“Isn’t it better than to hang around like that?”

She nodded her head and climbed into my back. The child was so light to the point I didn’t even feel anything when she climbed up. I moved her to her original building and dropped her off.

“Haaahh, I can’t cross.”

“You have to. We need to secure some more means of escaping. Dohyung and Junho, can you two connect more ropes to the surrounding buildings? If you run out of ropes, just tell me.”

“Yep. Leave it to us, Hyung.” After the two disappeared, Yeowool buried her head between her knees.

“How long do I have to do this? I can’t…”

“You have to do it until you die. If you don’t do this in the future, you won’t be able to survive.”

“I have no powers…”

“Don’t you have your unique ability? Though, I still don’t know what it is.”

“My unique ability is useless. It’s the same as not having it.”

“If you don’t want to say it, you don’t have to.”

Everyone had their secrets. And there must be a reason why Yeowool decided to hide her unique ability. But when she decides to do so, she would have to solve a lot of things by herself. It doesn’t matter for me since I could use the forest, but it will be difficult for Yeowool, an ordinary high school student.

From the window, I could see Junho and Dohyung running between the buildings and connecting the ropes. There’s a mountaineering equipment store nearby, so I would have to do some looting because we would need a lot more ropes.

As I was about to leave, Yeowool grabbed the hem of my pants.

“Ahjussi…”

“Why?”

“Would you like to go out with me?”

“…” What the hell is this…

I squatted and put her hand on her shoulder.

“Can you tell me more? I don’t get it because I’m slow at this kind of thing.”

She barely raised her head and said. “My unique ability is called… One heart and one body. But, isn’t that what a couple do?”

“That should be right, isn’t it?”

Sometimes it refers to an organization or a friend that boasts a strong sense of unity, but usually it talks about a couple… It seems that her unique ability would only get displayed when she had a partner.

“Is that why you asked me to date you?”

“I-I mean, there’s no other man…”

“What about Junho or Dohyung?”

At that word, her voice rose a bit.

“I don’t feel like that towards either of them. And if I date one of them, it means I will have to ignore the other one…”

Well, that’s right. They’ve been friends since they were so young, so it would be hard to do so.

“You don’t have to force yourself to do something you don’t like.” I said as I tapped her shoulder.

“No. If it’s Ahjussi, I’m fine with it. If I stay like this, I can’t even use my unique ability… I don’t want to die…”

“What do you mean “I don’t want to die”? There will be another man besides me coming soon, you can just date him and use your ability with him.”

This time, Yeowool’s eyes widened.

“Who is he?”

“His name is Yoohyeon, and he will arrive at the beginning of October. He’s currently, uh… 22 years old? You will surely fall in love at first sight.”

“I’m not someone who looks at appearance. Ability is more important.”

“He’s good at what he does. Anyway, just wait for him and decide. Because dating a guy like me will only make your life dull.”

“I’m okay with Ahjussi, though…”

“You will regret it when he comes. He’s really handsome.”

“Is he really that handsome?”

“Yeah. When I first saw him, I thought he was an idol.”

“He doesn’t have a girlfriend right now?”

“Uh… I don’t know for sure.” Since Yoohyeon was close with Mikyung, they might have developed romantic feelings for each other. And if they aren’t, I hope Da-jeong hadn’t yet made him her slave.

Anyway, Yeowool brightened up after hearing that a handsome oppa was coming soon.

After a while, two boys came because they had run out of rope. I went up to the roof with Yeowool and saw that ropes had been installed toward all nearby buildings.

That’s cool.

Now we just need to install some traps.

.

.

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My shelter in the forest suddenly became noisy. The kobolds had come and tried to invade endlessly. They sleep in their nearby nest during the day and flocked to my shelter at night. I didn’t care, though. The defensive power of the barbed wire fence was quite high, so I didn’t even think of going after the kobold by myself. Moreover, after they ran a few times into the barbed wire and became bloody, they only threw wooden spears and stones from a distance now.

“Weak strength and low accuracy…” They caused no major damage to me or to the shelter. But since their number was quite high, it was a concern. Especially whenever I went to Earth since the shelter would become defenseless if the defensive measures had ever failed.

“I have to kill them all.” Or I should strengthen the shelter. I asked the scarabs to make a lot of wooden arrows to deal with them. It’s a waste to use carbon or aluminum arrows against the likes of kobolds. It certainly could be retrieved, but the durability would lessen.

“The time has come to make arrows.” When the scarabs made it, I was the one who assembled it. It seems like they readily cooperate because they found the dozens of kobolds scary too.

Just like that, three days passed.

The current time was night. A kobold-specific rattling sound was heard outside the shelter where I come to rest after a long day on Earth. It was a soggy cry, qualitatively different from the barking of Dingo.

I quickly grabbed my spare 60-pound bow I had in the warehouse and scattered the wooden arrows on the floor. The number of kobolds was so great that it was almost impossible to not hit any of it.

“…it’s kind of weird.” It was strange for kobolds to form a group like this. Originally, these guys only moved in a group of about 7 or 8 with the alpha as the centre. Moreover, It’s not like the shelter was so appetizing, so it’s abnormal that they were united for just the purpose of looting.

In any case, I’ll have to show them that this shelter was anything but easy so they would turn their tail.

Woof-!! Woof-!!

A particular kobold, who appeared to be the alpha of the big group, held up wooden spears and howled, while others chorused. The whole forest instantly filled with the howls of kobolds.

“They are absolutely crazy.” I spat as I lit a firecracker and threw it towards the alpha. A roar erupted, and the kobolds were thrown into chaos. Taking advantage of that opportunity, I nocked some arrow and shot it towards them. After shooting all the arrows, the scarab from the side threw me some more one by one.

“Thanks.” It’s very comfortable to have an infinite refill of arrows. By the way, while I was attacking, Dingo barked inside the barbed wire to grab the attention of the kobolds. Alright, if we keep doing it like this…

Then, before I could finish my thought, through the darkness, a muscular gorilla-no, an orc appeared.

Isn’t this our first time meeting in the forest?

When it appeared, the kobolds scrambled to get out of the way.

“Ahh, so you’re the reason why so many kobolda had gathered to form a single group” I said in a disbelieving voice.

Kieeeekkk-!!

A deafening roar erupted as the orc’s mouth opened. Then, the guy went down to the moat, grabbed the barbed wire. But soon after, it let out a scream full of agony.

Kiaaaakk-!!

“Shit.” It didn’t seem like it would back off easily. If so, there was only one way. I had to kill all the monsters gathered here.

While I was checking the slots, the orc who had returned to the horde threw a few kobolds towards me.

It’s an orc catapult!!! What the fuck!!!

Of course, it’s not effective since the kobolds who got thrown away were half stunned as they crashed on the ground and could be easily killed. But the orc seemed to have fun, so the problem was the fact it kept on throwing them!

“You motherfucker!” I cursed out loud as I shot him with a 100-pound bow I took from the slot. When the orc saw me drawing my arrow, it moved towards the back of the kobolds and used them as shields.

The guy was pretty smart. Next time, it might even throw the kobolds onto the barbed wire and use them to cross over. It must be stopped before it could do that.

I faced the monster with all my might. And an hour later, finally, all of the monsters disappeared.

“Huh, huh…” All skills were disabled and I felt quite tired. However, since the orc successfully ran away, I could expect more attacks soon. It could be easily killed with a flame can, but if I use it here, there’s a possibility that the fire may spread to the surrounding tree. So I tried to kill it by sniping it with arrows and guns. However, it survived by using the kobolds as its shield.

“Damn you.” The reason today was harder than the time I killed the orc in the Orc First Kill event was because at that time, I was the one on the offensive. But now, I was on the defensive. It was also fatal that I couldn’t use the flame cans while the guns did not work properly.

“I need to have a good plan.” I sat on the floor and stroked the panting Dingo. Even the scarabs were on their backs, looking quite tired. Afterall, throwing arrows at me and organizing weapons was a difficult task.

“You worked hard today. Go in and rest.” However, when his brethren come inside, the scarab leader stays and starts to draw on the ground with a branch. What he drew was a giant arrow, a ballista. It wasn’t portable at all as there was a stand attached to it. And the bolt was drawn almost the size of my forearm.

This could be a sure solution, but…

“Can you really make it?” The scarab leader nodded.

Could it be that these guys were blacksmiths in their previous lives?