Stagnant Water of Apocalypse Chapter 120

Published at 4th of February 2022 09:31:40 PM

“I don’t mean that we need to spare Joo Seung-cheol.” I raised my voice. “It’s just so easy to kill him. We can just wait at the entrance to that building and fire a bolt at him once he goes outside. I wouldn’t even be turned into a murderer, because I wasn’t the one who shot the bolt.”

But in fact, I had never shot it towards a person, except for those who had become a murderer, so I didn’t know for sure. However, judging from everything I had experienced, there’s a 99% possibility that the system wouldn’t recognize that as my kill, and it won’t turn me into a murderer.

Hearing my words, Djeong asked in a curious tone. “Bolt? As in ‘crossbow bolt’? Who shot it, then?”

“That’s right, it’s a bolt from a crossbow. However, the one I have in the shelter was bigger–it was closer to a ballista. And the ones who shot it were the scarabs, Dingo, and Ding-soon.” Djeong had never seen a bolt shot out from my portal. It was because in the span of time we were traveling together, I had never met anyone strong enough to force me to use it.

Originally, Dingo was the one who pulled the bowstring of the ballista, but recently, Dingo had also learned how to operate the ballista. Though, he just grabbed the string and ran to whichever way the scarabs were pointing at.

“Duck, you haven’t seen the bolt popping out of the air, right? Seongho’s big, thick thing suddenly popped out of thin air. It’s amazing.” Seokhyun exclaimed.

“Seongho’s thick and big… I think I already saw one.”

“Hey, stop with this strange conversation.” I rebuked and shifted their focus to the important topics.

“To be honest, there is another reason I want to watch him a little bit longer. Look at this, these are a few additional effects of various unique skills…”

As I pulled out the notebook, their gazes were fixed into the content written in it. Djeong then let out a sigh and pinched my thigh. “From whom did you get all of this information from?”

“You!” I said to Djeong.

“Is that so? By the way, what is this? Command? Have you ever met someone with this unique skill before?”

“Yeah. It’s an ability that can make the target do what the user’s want. If the user orders the target to stop, he will stop. Do you remember when you first met me?”

“Ah… in Gimhae?”

“I just remembered, you had killed one person back then, so you can’t kill humans anymore, lest you want to be murderer. Ah, my head…”

Djeong laughed out loud. “Even if I become a murderer, we have to stick together.”

“I refuse.”

Then Seokhyun, who was reading the notebook, opened his mouth. “Hey, that guy can block your ability just by looking at you.”

“The activation method is not through physical contact? Think carefully… you beating him up is also considered as a physical contact.”

“At first I thought that too, but it’s not. His ability didn’t get canceled even when we were separated by the government agents. And he also told me he will only release his ability once we are in our own respective rooms.”

“Then one additional effect is confirmed… He had already opened the Auction House, so he is at least level 15, so I need to find out at least two more.” Even when someone doesn’t have a combat-related unique skill, there are always other ways to level up. For example, you can just take the last hit of a dying monster, or use gasoline to make molotovs, like Kwon did. And as Joo Seung-cheol had some subordinates under him–just like Kwon–He surely had gotten some help from them.

“Ability blocking is a dangerous unique skill. If it were you, Djeong, and not Seok-hyun, who was in the shelter, you would have been the one who got beaten up by him.”

Djeong grinded her teeth at my words. It’s only natural, though. After all, if she had accepted Joo Seung-cheol’s invitation to his shelter, she would have been imprisoned by now. And it was very obvious what was going to happen to her next.

“Just like the Wi-Fi zombie I fought before, you never know what is the full extent of your enemy’s power. You should learn from what happened this time. Also, we should try to pry information about the chaebols too.”

“You are going to find out everything, kill everybody, and then take everything for yourself, aren’t you?”

Djeong understands me well…

“There is another reason. They’re rich, so they must’ve stocked up a lot of clothes, right? It’s something normal survivors couldn’t do. I bet they stored the clothes in one of those shelters. We need to take those too.”

After hearing my words, Djeong wore a fed up expression on her face and whispered to Seokhyun. “Rapwi, Rapwi… That guy is the type of person who when he eats a fish, he won’t leave anything behind, even its bones.”

“I like to eat the bones too, but I think I can’t beat Seongho.”

Now it’s decided. I said while looking out the window. “Leave only one ghoul over there and let those guys run away. I want to see where they are going.”

“Okay. We are really just going to watch them, right?”

“Maybe? I will watch them from the sky using the dimension wall first before deciding. You guys can think of me as a drone.”

“How about me?”

“Djeong, you do some farming here, and Seokhyun…”

“I’m going back to the shelter.”

“Eh?”

“You want to return there?”

We were surprised by his decision. Even if the people in the government shelter did welcome Seokhyun back, will Jang Won-taek accept him again? After all, he broke the worst taboo of the government shelter by doing violent acts to another member of the shelter.

No, wait a minute. Even though Seokhyun had used violence in the shelter, which broke the main rule of the shelter, we can’t just dismiss his merit because of that. He had saved 5 government agents who were stuck outside, in the middle of winter, without any hope of surviving. On top of that, him breaking the rules of the shelter can be used as a reason in order to reveal Seung-cheol’s evil intention. Jang Won-taek will also be in trouble, as a lot of people had left the shelter together with Joo Seung-cheol. If we aim for that gap…

“If I apologize, he will accept it.” Seokhyun said in a firm tone.

“…you don’t have to apologize. You did nothing wrong.”

“I just realized today why Seongho sent me to the shelter. I could only interfere in such a situation because I was there. And in the future, other opportunities will arise too.”

But in the end, he would have to suffer for a bit if he were to do that.

I asked him. “Will you be okay? You don’t have to overdo it.”

“I will stay in the shelter until the corrosive disease is completely gone. After that, let’s go around together.”

“Okay.”

I nodded my head and stroked Seokhyun’s shoulder. After that, we checked each other’s levels. Djeong is currently level 23, Seokhyun is 24 and I am 25.

“I got an additional effect, but it’s a bit dangerous, so I can’t just test it on people recklessly.”

“What is it? I can try it.”

“Well, alright. Dimensional prison.”

A dimensional prison appeared in the air, but Seokhyun only tilted his head.

“Is it transparent?”

“To me, it looks like a door with vertical lines. Now, I don’t know what will happen to you, or where you would be sent to when you go inside. But in the case of Djeong…”

She suddenly slapped my face. “I fell from the sky! For five minutes! Can you even imagine what it feels like?”

“Does that mean you can fly around for five minutes? I bet it feels good.”

“That’s right! So why don’t you try entering yourself!” Djeong kicked Seokhyun’s ass and pushed him into the dimensional prison. I didn’t even have time to stop her.

“Hey, you can’t just push him like that.”

“Even if he dies inside, he should be fine.”

“I know. But his unique skill needs points to be activated. It even gets pricier the more he dies.”

“Really?”

Djeong stood nervously in front of the dimensional prison with her arms folded. Her face showed that she was worried and sorry at the same time. Exactly five minutes later, Seokhyun came out of the dimensional prison, drenched. It seems like the dimensional prison had some kind of system which would automatically spit out people who entered when the duration was over.

“Pooh! Sea, I got sent to a sea.”

“Is it the kind of sea without any island, and just water everywhere?”

“Yeah. And I also heard some strange noises from below, under the water.”

As soon as she heard those words, Djeong jumped into my hands. I could feel her skin crawling with goosebumps. “I, I will never enter it again!!!”

To be honest, I was scared too. After all, if I consider the sea that Rapwi got sent into was the same sea near my shelter, it means that there are unknown creatures living somewhere under that huge blue sea. Anyway, the dimensional prison can be materialized anywhere I want just, like the dimensional wall. Which means, If I put it in the direction my enemy was going, I would be able to forcefully make them enter the portal. Then, the enemy will be completely isolated for 5 minutes. And even if they didn’t manage to survive inside, it wouldn’t count as a murder for me, since all I did was nothing but opening the dimensional portal.

I took a towel from the shelter and gave it to Seokhyun.

“Now that Seokhyun is back, let’s eat.”

“Why haven’t they come out yet?”

“They must have been very tired. I saw them limping when they entered that building.”

We paid no more attention to the building Joo Seung-cheol and his subordinates were at and sat down to eat. Once we were done, Seokhyun, who said he was going to return soon, sprawled on the floor after finishing the hot soup I served.

“Look at him… he sleeps without any care in the world.”

“Leave him be. He must be exhausted from running around for two days straight.”

He must have been exhausted both physically and mentally because he had experienced that incident at the shelter. I took out a thick blanket and covered Seokhyun before putting a hot water bottle inside.

We took a break for a while.

.
.
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The blizzard finally stopped. Although the temperature outside was still below minus 20 degrees Celsius, it was still much better than before, and we finally could move freely again.

While Djeong went looking for a new ghoul, I climbed into the sky using the dimensional wall and checked Joo Seung-cheol’s bunker.

“This is awesome…” I knew he was a chaebol, but I never thought that he would build a bunker this big. The scale of this bunker makes Kwon’s golf club bunker look like a doll house.

“Is that frozen corpses around the wall?” From that, it could be inferred that the bunker was built with a zombie raid in mind. Though, a zombie raid wasn’t something which would happen for 24 hours straight.

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“It’s really great.” Joo Seung-cheol’s bunker wasn’t the only one around, though. Several bunkers just as big and sturdy as his bunker were built around this wealthy neighborhood.

Does the President know about this?

“Well, even if he knows, he’s someone who will pretend he doesn’t know.” He even hid his plans so much that I couldn’t figure out what his real purpose was. However, as of now, I believe he’s not my enemy. Yet.

Back to the matter in hand, there were two bunkers closely connected to Seung-cheol’s bunker. One belonged to President Kim, and the other belonged to Director Lee.

“Director Lee doesn’t seem like he would be strong… Though, he’s probably better than most of the other survivors living here.”

From what I hear, President Kim’s unique skill was brainwashing, and Director Lee’s was command. It was a unique skill which suited them so much, as they had experience of communicating and interacting with a lot of people.

“I think the command unique skill was fine, but I must kill the one with the brainwashing unique skill.” Which means, there were at least two people who I need to kill here: Joo Seung-cheol and President Kim.

“Is it truly a coincidence that they invested in the production company of Survival Life?” Or is there more to it? The only way to know about that was to find their bunker and kill them. The problem is, the bunker was tightly closed. Joo Seung-cheol was a clever guy, so he knew that opening the bunker would put himself in danger. So he stayed in his bunker and didn’t come out. The information I got was only from eavesdropping the conversations he had with his subordinates.

“He’s hiding like a mouse… Can I really kill him?” Do I have to do Seokhyun’s plan to kill him?

I shook my head. No matter how well-equipped the bunker is, they would still feel stuffy if they stuck inside for too long. If I wait, they will definitely come out.

“Or… I can find the dog hole…” Previously, Kwon had said something while promoting his concrete bunker. It was something about him drilling a hole in his bunker. I didn’t think of it that much when I was attacking his bunker, but as I delved into my memory, I remembered it.

“A bunker like that must have ventilation holes and openings.” Looking around the bunker, I found that the garden of a certain house was strange. “It’s messy over there. That place has a lot of signs of activity.”

It had been snowing for several days, so the garden was filled with snow, which had turned into ice. If no one stepped on it, the ice should be clean. But the snow in that garden was a mess.

“It’s proof that people had gone through that place multiple times….” It would have been difficult to find something like this if I was only looking for an opening from the ground, but thanks to the dimensional wall and the Griffon’s Eye skill, I could easily find it.

I went down to the garden and scraped the ice. After a while, a tightly sealed entrance built with reinforced plastic was revealed. From the fact that there’s no lever or something that can function as a door opener on the outside, it was clear that it was not supposed to be opened from the outside.

“These guys are meticulous…”

How should I open this… No, wait… I don’t need to open it, right? I can just do something which will force the people inside to open the door and come out themselves.

“As human beings, we need to use our head.” I opened the portal and picked up ignition stone powder, gasoline, and matches before returning to the other side.

“I will teach you why Turtling Meta is dangerous if being played incorrectly.” I poured the gasoline mixed with ignition stone powder into the vent before lighting up the matches and hurled it into it. Before long, I saw fire coming out of the small hole. It’s not going to be easy to shut the fire off, because it was a fire created by mixing a total of 2 cans of gasoline and two ignition stones.

I quickly ran to the entrance of the bunker, then went into the cave and summoned the scarabs.

“Shoot the ballista when I give you the signal, okay?”

nod nod.

The scarab leader had gained trust from the scarabs that had recently moved in. And as they were satisfied with the condition of my shelter, they were doing everything on their own.

The stag beetles are the problem…

They said they didn’t like the garden as well as the vegetables, which I and the scarabs had painstakingly created and tended, and decided to go find the seeds of plants they wanted in the forest.

As I was listening from the portal, I heard a ruckus occuring outside.

“Fire! Fire!”

“Water, pour water on it!”

“Fireeeee” (T/N BTS SONG AGAINN????)

They were pouring water to put the fire off without realizing the fire was created by gasoline.

You guys don’t have any fire extinguishers?

Meanwhile, the scarabs ran around busily, putting the bolts on the rails. The scarab leader even called Ding-soon and put the bowstring in her mouth. She was growling in anger towards the scarab leader, but still pulled the string. Now, I just have to wait for Joo Seung-cheol to come out.

Finally, the door to the bunker opened. But, Joo Seung-cheol was hiding behind his subordinate.

“Damned cowardly bastard.”

I immediately opened the dimensional prison.

“Keuk!”

As his subordinates screamed and disappeared into the air, Joo Seung-cheol stopped on the spot.

“Sh-” Before I could even give the signal to shoot towards the scarabs, Joo Seung-cheol flew to the side. He seemed to have noticed my portal, for some reason. Thanks to that, I couldn’t shoot him with the ballista.

However, I quickly raised my hand and aimed at Joo Seung-cheol, who was about to get up, with the revolver.

Tatang!

Two bullets passed through the portal, leaving blood stains on Seung-cheol’s chest.

“Aghhhhhh!” He screamed and fell to the floor. His men approached him hurriedly, but they were all taken aback. And after a while, an unbelievable thing happened. Joo Seung-cheol was engulfed in light and disappeared.

“Damn it.”

Two resurrection scrolls?

I hastily closed the portal. He knew about my portal, and had also learned that I had a gun. I can’t leave him alone. But if I kills him once more, I will become a murderer…

“Should I call Djeong?” No, she also had one kill under her belt, so if she kill one more time, she will also become murderer.

Dammit, I didn’t want to use the resurrection scroll here, but it seems like I have no other option. I hurriedly called the dimension slot and pulled the resurrection scroll out.

When I opened the portal and went outside, two men were waiting for me. In addition to them, Joo Seung-cheol should also be waiting for me inside.

“You bastard!”

“I already know that you are coming!”

They screamed as they ran towards me. At that moment, I activated the Fighting Instinct and Stigma of Death skill, and my vision was dyed red in an instant.

The subordinates, who saw my eyes, were startled and stopped.

“Hey, aren’t you a murderer?”

“I will be one soon.”

I grabbed a long knife from the dimension slot and ran into them.

Chapter end