Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

(E/N Happy New Year, everyone!)

To make people who blocked the entrance fall into chaos was not difficult at all. Just make the scarabs and Dingo shoot ballista arrows towards them should do the job.

“I can also paralyzed them by shooting arrows coated with the paralyzing poison at them.” I've been amassing the poison from the frogs, so the amount I have now was considerably large.

However, right here, right now, the method I chose to do was the pepper bomb. The area near the entrance was narrow with a poor ventilation; an ideal condition for the pepper bomb to exert its maximum power.

Of course, I can't stop them from running away outside once I threw it, since the bomb will also affect me if I do so. But, that was my goal in the first place.

“Once you leave, you can’t come back in…”

The guys waiting outside would only be able to suck their fingers when I left, so that's even better. Moreover, because of the monsters parade outside, they won't be able to stay around the portal either.

While I was picking some peppers and about to turn it into bombs, I saw several people passing by in front of my portal. Then, those who blocked the entrance gave a stern order towards them.

“Take off all your backpacks.”

“We are not him, nor are we related to him.”

“Prove it.”

“Why do we have to prove it?”

“Come on, just cooperate.”

Those kinds of conversations went on and on. Still, seeing that they were not fighting, it seems that they just want to leave the dungeon as quickly as possible. Or maybe, their hatred towards me was just that great.

“Your awaited guest will be leaving soon. Just be patient a little bit more.” Of course, what they'll get as a farewell gift were not the items I looted, but a spicy one in the form of pepper bombs.

With an ear-to-ear smile plastered on my face, I finished coating the grinded pepper with sap. Now that spring has come, it would be difficult to use this method again, as the sap wouldn't be able to freeze in the temperature. Therefore, an alternative method was needed.

“Well, there's no use thinking about it. The mighty scarabs will surely take care of it." Even though I might look like an insane person who talked to no one, the truth is, I could feel the scarabs listening next to me, startled and trembling.

Hmmmm. Did I put too much pressure on you?

Anyway, let's start the game. The rules will be as simple as it could be. All the participant have to do was either sniff the smoke rising from the pepper bombs and endure, or run away and leave the dungeon.

Though, if they choose the first option thinking that it was nothing but a mere smog, they would experience what hell on Earth truly is.

“Ready… Set…” I put a pepper bomb on the slingshot and aimed it towards the portal. In order to be able to present the taste evenly to all customers, location selection is important. Therefore, It would be better to shoot at the ceiling, since the powder of bull pepper will rain down on them, delivering the taste right to their eyes, nose and lips.

“GO!” The pepper bomb launced and hit the ceiling in mere second. It make a slight cracking sound before another one followed suit as I shot another bomb.

When the powder reached the height of people's head, immediate reaction could be seen.

"Huh?" Everyone wrinkled their noses.

The smell of ciggarete's smoke was nothing compared to it, wasn't it?

The bridge of the nose contorted. However, a cough wasn't something they let out from their mouth. What came out instead was a pain-filled moan.

“Kaaaaaakkk!”

“Euuhgghhh!”

All kinds of action from covering their nose, choking themselves, and pulling their hairs could be seen from everyone.

“Agghhhhh!!!”

“Ca… breathe!! Keukkk…”

As the one who made the food, I feel honored to see all my guests shred tears of joy because they enjoyed the meal.

One by one, they collapsed. When I felt that the time was right, I left my shelter and went into the dungeon while wearing a gas mask. Passing by as carefully as I could to not step on someone, a hand grabbed my ankle out of a sudden.

"You… You!!!"

It's amazing that he could see me even when he was suffering through unbelievable pain and confusion. As a reward, I gently patted his hand.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

He let out a strange scream at my action. That's why you should've just stayed lying there…

I left the guy behind and walked towards the dungeon portal. When I was right before it, I called my own portal. With me only inches away from the dungeon portal, my own portal opened up right after the dungeon portal. In other words, on the outside.

Therefore, when I left the dungeon, it would be impossible for people to find me in only that brief time of exposure. Moreover, as I was wearing a gas mask, no one should be able to identify my face.

I took a step and passed through two portals at once. I could just wait inside from now on, but for some reason, I wanted to hide in another place and observe from there.

In order to do that, it seems like it would be nice to attract attention with fireworks.

“It will buy me a few seconds…” Using that gap, I would jump out of the portal and run to a nearby building.

I lit two wicks of firecrackers and threw them away.

Boom-!! Boom-!!

On a pitch-black night, flashes and fireworks burst forth, painting the sky. At the marvelous sight, people exclaimed, forgetting that it would attract monsters to their area.

I used the timing to jump out of the portal and run away,

Naturally, no one noticed my presence.

Just wait until that bastard shows himself. That was the thought of the majority of people around the dungeon portal. They were all certain that anyone who had entered the dungeon was still inside. Which means, he would have no choice but to show himself if he wanted to leave.

However, apart from those thoughts, there's also people with different thoughts. As whoever the person is could enter the dungeon unnoticed, couldn't the person come out without anyone knowing?

For that reason, those people were only staring at the entrance of the dungeon. If they ever saw someone come out of it, they promised to themselves that they would shoot him.

However, when fireworks exploded in the sky, they could not stand the sight of the fireworks exploding and looked at it.

Boom-!! Boom-!!

It was a large fireworks display. Blinding flashes and flames erupted in the sky and the people watching the entrance turned their eyes away without realizing it.

It goes without saying that the one who was responsible for it had disappeared within those few seconds. Realizing that they had been deceived, the people looked around, but Seongho was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, in the dark and deserted alleyway, So-yoon and Dae-ho, who were walking a few distances away from Hyun-woo, coincidentally overlapped with him.

So-yoon noticed Seongho's presence and whipped her head towards his direction.

“Wait, oppa, who is that behind you?”

“Where?”

“In that store.”

With her good eyesight, she immediately recognized where Seongho was hiding. Though, she felt chills all over her body, as if a beast was crouching down while it was stalking her at that very moment.

When So-yoon focused her eyes on the darkness, she finally saw the figure. He was quite tall and was wearing a gas mask. The bow protruding which was slung to his back together with his backpack was a testament that the figure was a seasoned survivor.

As she looked at the gas mask man, she felt something inside her; it was anger. It was something which stemmed from the fact that the man left nothing behind, which made her and her group suffer from the other's survivors' suspicions.

‘That guy dared to take all the items for himself?'

It was natural for human beings to be suddenly angry. As much as her temper, her action was also quick. Without giving Dae-ho time to stop herself, she rushed towards Seongho.

Seongho, who was observing her, never thought that she would come running at him. He placed his hands on the long knife's hilt on his hips and prepared to pull it out. However, when he realized that she was rushing with nothing but her bare hands, he canceled it.

‘Since she's with Hyun-woo, I can’t be rough.’ Seongho thought so. He crouched and placed his hands on the girl's trajectory to block her fist from hitting his body.

"Ugh."

When the two collided, So-yoon was the one who was surprised. It was because she'd never thought that there would be a man who could block her fist that effortlessly. Afterall, even the most physically talented survivor she had met so far had all failed to do so!

On top of it, what makes her even more surprised was the fact that the gas mask man's strength was so great that he did not budge when she punched him with everything she got.

This man is strong…

So-yoon's voice came out of nowhere.

“Why…, why did you do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you take all the items for yourself and ran away? Don't you know that because of your action, me and my group were being framed?”

“That's a normal treatment for people who finished 2nd.”

Most Survival Life events were just like that in nature; winner takes it all.

“Who are you? Are you perhaps a stagnant water?”

“If I am one of them, would you still be alive, after trying to attack me?”

She bit her lip at his words and quickly kicked him in the chest. She did that in order to use the recoil force to pull her fist out of his grip. Normally, it would be normal for someone to back off when they saw a kick was coming. But the man in front of her didn't even flinch and just grabbed her by the ankle with his free hands and sent a kick into her belly as a counter move.

“Keuk!”

She flew a few meters away because of the kick and bounced off the ground before stopping. WIth a grunt, she covered her belly with her hands and tried to stand up.

It was at that time that Dae-ho's expression–which only had been looking at them from afar–distorted.

"You!!!!"

“Let’s stop.” The man pulled out a long knife from his waist. It was an action which Dae-ho read as a declaration that the man would use the sword if he decided to push the matter further. At the same time, the man took a step back and made it clear that he would not attack first.

With a sigh, Dae-ho chose to support her younger sister, who struggled to stand up rather than attacking the man. With the corner of his eyes, he could see the man nodding his head before disappearing into the darkness.

"That man is strong…"

“Is your stomach okay?”

"Yes. It was just a slightly strong push.”

"Thank god…"

By the way, how could the man block his sister's attack, who has the instant acceleration ability?

So-yoon, although not physically powerful, was good at utilizing her unique skill to accelerate herself and blitzing towards her enemy, using her accelerating force to surprise and damage her enemy. However, the man just shrugged off her attack.

Did he perhaps have met someone with the same instant acceleration unique skill before? So he knew how to deal with it?

“Isn’t it surprising, oppa? Is it because of that man's unique skill that he could enter the dungeon without anyone knowing, kill all the monsters and take all the loot faster than anyone, even though he's alone? Is that the reason he could stop my attack that easily?”

“You saw and experienced it first hand. It seems like it was possible.”

“No, I mean, I don’t know what that man’s unique skill is. Afterall, even if an additional effect is added, the essence of the unique skill does not disappear.”

“Well yeah…”

It was also difficult for Dae-ho to guess the man's unique skill. Seeing him come out of the dungeon after making a fool out of all of them, he seems like a stealth type, but after seeing him easily block her younger sister's attack, he also seems like a physical type.

He was truly a chameleon-like man.

Looking at his sister, she seemed to be interested in the man. However, it was dangerous to be interested in an unknown man in the apocalypse. Both of them knew it all too well.

His sister continued to look in the direction the man disappeared into, as if she was still sad. It's probably not that she had a crush on the man she met for the first time. Rather, she was just curious about his strength.

Dae-ho patted his sister on the shoulder.

“Someday we will meet him again.”

"Oppa! I am just curious. Nothing more.”

"Whatever. Let’s go to the hideout for now.”

I went up to the roof of a certain building and found Hyun-woo muttering to himself. It's clear that he's typing some comment in the Auction House.

"Yes. That's right. Someone advanced into the dungeon and took all the items for themselves. A few people were beaten up and they were now looking for the man to get their revenge. No I don't think so, It's not a physical-type unique skill. Yes."

Listening to the conversation, it seemed that he was reporting to someone in the government shelter.

I turned on the Auction House and navigated to the government's auction item. But as the comments were entered in a ciphered text, I couldn't understand the whole conversation.

“Is it the president? Or maybe, the chief of staff?”

There's probably no one else than the two who had the authority to give orders to Hyun-woo.

When I was thinking so, Hyun-woo suddenly mentioned my ID.

“Well… There's a possibility that the man was I Love Gimbap. But, isn't currently in Gyeongnam… Yes? Rapwi and Duck were both in Seoul? Oh, then he…"

These guys' speed of gathering information was commendable. Or is it because Seokhyun and Da-jeong are too noticeable?

Hyun-woo only answered a few times, and then he brought up a strange story.

“Ah, yes, they probably come to Seoul because of Geom-in-ssi's shelter. Afterall, it's a safe shelter which could withstand zombie raids… I was going to go and tell you about Incheon, but to summarize, there's a lot of boat people. From what I see, their number amounts to hundreds.”

A shelter which could withstand zombie raids?

Hundreds of boat people in Incheon?

I listened while sticking close behind my portal, thinking it might be something important.

Hyunwoo was not aware that I was eavesdropping on him, and he continued to tell me all the information he knew.

“After checking with many people, it seems to be true that the nuclear power plant on the east coast of China had blown up and caused a radiation accident. However, it has not been confirmed whether our west coast has been affected by it or not."

It was a piece of eye-opening information. As far as I know, there were hundreds of nuclear power plants on the east coast of China.

And those power plants caused radiation?

Moreover, it seems like the boat people he's referring to are the Chinese.

So they came to Incheon?

“The amazing thing is that I can communicate with them. Just like with the Japanese who landed in Busan, the boat people also didn't seem to have learned Korean, but they could communicate well."

It's getting more and more surprising.

Anyway, it was clear that foreigners were coming into Korean soil.

Is it because their land is too dangerous to survive?

Because it was an apocalypse, it was impossible to expel them, so the government shelter seemed to be at a loss about what to do.

“It would be unreasonable to expect them to live together in harmony with us.”

The public sentiment was also quite bad, so it didn't seem like the government was going to be quiet.

Hearing Hyun-woo's words, the government shelter seemed to be upset about losing the coastal waters of Incheon. After all, it's the closest sea to Seoul.

After Hyun-woo left, I contacted Da-jeong through the Auction House. She responded a few minutes later.

-What's wrong? Did you get something delicious?

-No. I have something to ask you. What is the mission you get from the president?

-I was never given any explanation, they just told me where I needed to go.

-Incheon?

– How did you know that?

-I just overheard Hyun-woo… Uh, Lieutenant Kim talking to the government shelter. He's a former member of Gimhae Army Base.

-And?

I explained to Da-jeong what I heard. After hearing my words, she got angry.

-Is that half-hearted man sending me for that? Trying to test if the zombie raid won't happen?

– Don't explode yet. Don't we need to find out the truth?

-You know what? The only truth is that I want to stab that bastard with a twin sword. If he wants to experiment, he can just go by himself! Why is he dragging me into it?

-Calm down…

It was surprising that Geom-in could come up with a way to avoid the zombie raid. I don't know what it is, but it seems like it was ready to be executed as he continued to experiment whenever Da-jeong went out of the shelter.

From Da-jeong's point of view, she must have felt like she was being played by Geom-in. After talking for several more minutes, I finally calmed her down, albeit barely.

-You can just get your revenge later. For now, we have to get information first. So please be patient.

-Hm… I think my anger will subside if I see you nude?

What is it with all these perverts?

-Ask Seokhyun to show it to you.

-You don't know that I'm currently on a diet, aren't you?

-Why dieting suddenly?

-It's because I'm seeing that yellow panty of his everyday! The taste of food that comes in my mouth immediately becomes rotten when I remember the sight.

Ah… It seems like since I'm not there, Rapwi only wears panties around, not wanting to wear a full set of clothes.

-Anyway, for now, please just do what you are asked to do. Let's talk later in Incheon.

-Why Incheon all of a sudden?

-You'll find out when you go there.

-You bastard! You are starting to sound more and more like that grandfather and his gang.

Me? Sounds like the president? really?

After the conversation, I quickly prepared to leave for Incheon. It would be nice to hunt the monsters around this area first, but I wanted to understand the situation as soon as I could.

“There are hundreds of Chinese in Incheon alone…”

There was little chance that they would be peaceful and ready to mingle, which means a collision was inevitable. People from the same nationality will soon fight together.

In my case, I don't have any particular prejudices against Chinese people. All I know is that no matter the nationality, there's a lot of fucking bastard everywhere.

“There are a lot of fucking bastards in the world…”

When I was still running a snack bar, I had come across a lot of customers. And it was true that there's so many bastards in this world. A crazy kid who treats me like I'm inferior to him. An ahjumma who tells me that she only wants to pay for the ingredients of the gimbap because she will cook it by herself. A mother who raises her voice saying that it is not okay to accept money for what the child eats. Etc.

“There were a lot of good people too, though.”

But it was also true that the memories of those wretched things were the ones which remain deeply in my heart. Because of that,I think I only need to take care of a few people I can trust.

What a shit philosophy.

Awoo-!!

When the werewolves' cries echoed through the area, the bustling and rowdy chatter completely stopped, descending the area into silence.

At that moment, I closed the portal.

Let's call it a day.