Stagnant Water of Apocalypse - Chapter 164

 Chapter 164 – The Flocking Survivors (8)

The people who witnessed the battle between the 3 stagnant waters and the orc weren’t only Jang Won-taek and Lee Beom-seok alone. The ogre was ginormous to the point people could see it from a relatively long distance. They all trembled at the ogre’s power and tenacity. At the same time, no one thought the stagnant waters could win. After all, even when it was hit by hundreds of bullets, grenades. and even a rocket from an anti-tank, it still stood tall. Of course, it was the catastrophe dungeon that made the ogre overwhelmingly strong, but the survivors didn’t know that. Anyway, the survivors, as always, started to narrate the story in the auction house.

-The fucking atmosphere is no joke. It looks like a war broke out here.
-Are ogres normally that big? I think it’s almost 4 meters tall.
-It was fine even after being hit by a rocket. Is there any way to kill it?
-Has anyone ever hunted ogres in Survival Life?
-If I said yes, I would be lying.
-If you have any experiences of hunting ogres in Survival Life, where there were only a few users, you should’ve been a Stagnant Waters not normal user.
-Guys! It seems like an earthquake just occurred here!
-Fuck you guys are so loud!
-That’s right, stop it.

Survivors from nearby areas moved to the area near the battle place. Arguing that they could not believe the words in the Auction House. But, after confirming the identity of the ogre, they made even more fuss than the guys before.

-I’m sorry I snapped at you guys earlier.
-What’s happening?
-Please tell us!
-I’m a different guy from the guy from earlier. The ogre stomped on the fucking floor, levitating any fragments on the ground and blowing them away with a roar. You guys really have to see this for yourself to believe it.
-It looks like a scene from a movie!
-So how do you feel about it? Will the stagnant waters win?
-I don’t know. They are still fighting fiercely.
-Wow, never think that could work!
-What happened!!!!!!
-With the help of a Blink user, I Love Gimbap appeared on top of the ogre’s head and attacked it with an adamant spear.
-He can make that kind of movement in the air?
-I Love Gimbap’s movement is just out of this world! He can even change direction in the air.
-Waaahhh! A grenade explodes in the ogre’s mouth!
-OMG. If it’s like that, shouldn’t the orc die?
-The guy still hasn’t died yet even though it bleeds from its mouth.
-It’s vitality is so tough.
-Even though I know I Love Gimbap’s play time in Survival Life plays big part on his strength, I just can’t help but respect him. He truly lives up to his title as stagnant water.
-I don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch an ogre. It’s totally a monster.
-Anyone knows how the stagnant waters kill an ogre back in Survival Life?
-If I remember correctly, their level was around 70 when hunting the Orc.
-Since there was no unique ability back in the game I don’t think their level is relevant.

At that time, a rocket fired by Seongho exploded on the ogre’s mouth. Its head was blown off and blood spewed from the open wound, sending the auction house into a crucible of frenzy.

-The ogre is dead! It’s dead!!!!
-Really? They killed the ogre?
-Wow, that’s fucking ridiculous. A giant ghoul blocked the ogre, and I Love Gimbap put a rocket in its mouth. Just WOW!!!
-They can even kill ogre…
-Seems like an ogre is nothing.
-LOL You were shaking on your ass when it was still alive. But now that it’s dead you are saying it’s nothing? Have some shame man.
-I don’t care about anything else, but I’m curious about what the ogre drops.
-The amount of experience points and points will be no joke. I’m envious…
-Forget about those trivial things. The skill will at least be tier 3 skill and the item will be insane.
-I Love Gimbap has now become a mini ogre. Wouldn’t he get stronger than ever?

Without paying any more attention to the discussion happening in the Auction House, survivors who were in the vicinity of the battlefield immediately left. After all, as the ogre died, many monsters were coming back. They were all tired, so they didn’t even think about taking the leftovers left by the whale.

Just like them, Jang Won-taek and Lee Beom-seok also left before regrouping with Major Kim Hyun-woo in a certain building.

“Major Kim!” Jang Won-taek yelled but got no answer. He’s completely out of his mind. All of his subordinates were dead, and the shock hasn’t left him alone just yet. In particular, the death of two people who had been with him for several months hit him hardest.

Jang Won-taek patted his shoulder with a solemn face and called him once again. This time, Kim Hyun-woo jolted and looked at Jang Won-taek.

“The ogre… what happened to the ogre?”

“… It’s dead.”

“Who… No, you don’t have to tell me. I’m sure it was them…”

“It’s as you say.”

“I, I failed… My subordinates…”

“This failure is not your responsibility. I should have given the retreat order faster.”

Despite the comforting words, the grim light of despair filling Hyun-woo’s eyes did not dim. He knew, the command of the assault team rested on his shoulder; Every single movement the team made was his decision. Jang Won-taek also gave him full authority for the team and did not interfere in any way, but he returned with the worst result possible; He had failed him.

Major Kim Hyun-woo bowed his head and sobbed. “It’s all my responsibility… If only I had retreated back then…”

“…”

The two looked at him silently. They hoped that Major Kim Hyun-woo wouldn’t read extensively into the mistake he had made. Only time could bring him back to his feet.

After a while, Major Kim slowly got up.

“I feel better after crying. Please go first. I will come back later.”

“Return the gun.” Jang Won-taek said in a voice filled with authority. To his eyes, it was obvious what he was going to do once he was left alone.

Kim Hyun-woo clenched his teeth and glared at Jang Won-taek. “Someone should be held accountable.”

“How can I hold you accountable if you are dead? Have you already forgotten your promise to support me until the end? You have a lot of work to do from now on.”

“…” Kim Hyun-woo looked down on the floor, and Jang Won-taek spoke even more solemnly.

“There is no world where everyone always succeeds. People are bound to fail many times. In this case, the wheel of fate decided that it was your time to fail. The history of mankind is full of blood. Reducing the sacrifice as much as possible is our responsibility. That’s what we have to do.”

“Rather than leaving it to a loser like me…”

“A man like me would never have become a President if I only mull over each and every mistake I made. Do you know how many times I have failed since I entered Yeouido? Countless number of times. The ruling party didn’t like me, and the opposition party for once shared the ruling party’s sentiment. But in the end, I still became the President. Do you know why?”

“…” Major Kim Hyun-woo suddenly began to listen to him.

“Because I never gave up. If everytime you think it’s over and stand up again, you will be the one who laughs last.”

Jang Won-taek tapped the shoulder of his cherished subordinate.

“Don’t let him return to the shelter now. Let him cool his head while hunting monsters with a cold weapon for a while. I’ll give him a new mission in a few days.”

“Yes, Mister President.”

Major Kim Hyun-woo did not resist and handed the gun to the President before disappearing with Lee Beom-seok. Only then could Jang Won-taek breathe a sigh of relief. Now that all the striker teams had died, if he lost even Hyun-woo, it would be a big blow to Government Shelter.

“It’s really unfortunate…” More people had died. Though, he knew it was because of a variable called an ogre. But he could not deny that the damage was huge. On the bright side, Seongho’s value has risen even more. Perhaps those drawn to the ogre killer would seek Government Shelter. Eventually he will leave, but until then it will benefit Government Shelters.

Jang Won-taek felt a bit disgusted with himself for having such thoughts even when lots of good men had just died.

However…

“It’s unavoidable…” Government Shelters must rise using those sacrifices. Those lives should be the foundation of a new Korea in the future.

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We moved to the nearby mansion as soon as the battle ended. We made that decision based on everyone’s physical state. ; They were too tired to return to the Government Shelter.

The person who suffered the most from fighting the ogre was Seokhyun. He barely came to his senses after ingesting the potion as well as receiving Sooyeon’s care.

He shook his head, said he would sleep in the shelter, and went in.

“We killed the ogre, but with how much damage we suffered, it’s ambiguous to call it a win.” Da-jeong said bitterly as she took care of her ghouls which had been reduced by half. She even almost lost the Tank because of this fight.

“Don’t worry, I will help you gather more later.”

“Of course you should. By the way, is it ok if we don’t clean the rest of the monster?”

“It’s okay. There’s too many monsters anyway. We alone will not be enough.”

“A lot of people died. Those soldiers…”

“When Seongho hyung told Major Kim to run away, he should have heeded it.”

Reading the grim mood, Da-jeong clasped her palms together and sat down on the sofa. “So? What did you get? Tell us quickly!”

The dark eyes of everyone twinkled and looked at me.

“For now, the item is this.” I took off the gloves I wore and placed it on the table in front of the sofa for everyone to see.

「Ogre Gloves: Vitality +5, Strength +5, Ogre Power automatically applied when worn」

“Wow… it’s my first time seeing an item with 5 stats gain.”

“Me too. But isn’t the name a bit odd? Normally the material name is attached to the front.”

I know right… Normally, the material of the item would be the prefix before the actual name. There were very few things that deviated from this rule.

Is this perhaps a unique item? I put the gloves on and punched the wall behind the sofa. The concrete wall dented with a thump. At the same time, a burning pain traveled through my arm.

“Keuk.”

Although I still have Hard Skin on my skill list, it was not enough to reduce the pain. The ogre’s power was certainly great, but with the current state of my body, I wouldn’t be able to utilize it fully. Probably it was something like a penalty.

Meanwhile, people could not help but marvel at the hole caused by my punch.

“Wow…”

“It’s no joke…”

“Seongho’s strength is no joke. But is your hand okay? You have no physical resistance.”

“It’s not fine.”

As I shook my hands, Sooyeon jumped to my side.

“I will treat you. Take off your gloves.”

“No, it’s okay now. My skills heal me.” When I took off the gloves, my hands appeared in good condition.

Da-jeong pushed the two girls with her butt and sat down next to me. “Stamina regeneration alone wouldn’t be able to do that. It’s the effect of the skill you just got, isn’t it? Quickly tell me what you got.”

“It’s Primal Life.”

“Wow. That’s a hot name. What is the exact effect of that skill?”

“This is also a compound skill. It have super-regenerate, berserk, and…” I deliberately let my words trail off.

“I know about those two. The other one?”

“Vigor.”

Da-jeong’s eyes gleamed.

“Vigor? I don’t know what the effect is just hearing the name.”

“I don’t get tired easily… something like that.”

“That’s good. I’ll have to check it out myself later.”

Well. I don’t think it will work even at night. Sooyeon seemed to understand what it meant, but Mikyung, who looked like she didn’t know, grabbed my hand.

“You have become very strong. Congratulations!”

“Oh, yes, thank you.” After answering Mikyung’s words, I clapped my hands to redirect everyone’s attention.

“There were a lot of things happening today. Thank you everyone who came to help. Let’s return to the shelter for now.”

“Are you going with us too?”

“No. I have people to meet first. Da-jeong can just enter the portal…”

“I’m going to sleep. Don’t wake me up.” She said as she took her ghouls and went inside the portal.

“You two go back to the shelter first. Starting tomorrow, everyone should do the portal quest.” I told Mikyung and Yoohyeon.

“Us too?”

“Everyone.”

The three did their part without backing down against the ogre. The Corrosive Disease will slowly subside now, so we need to prepare.

The two of them rejoiced like children at my words and then suddenly asked.

“But what about Sooyeon noona?”

“I have some business to attend to. I hope she can help me.” I moved my head towards Sooyeon. “Will you help me?”

She nodded her head and smiled.

“I will be happy to help.”

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Meanwhile, Oh Jung-min and Kim Ji-eun returned to the villa to contact others. The ‘others’ they called were of course the chaebols who built their shelter in hannam-dong area. They weren’t as foolish as the chaebols who Seongho killed, but their information about the current times was still lacking, regardless.

When everyone gathered, the discussion went up to 100 in an instant.

“Let’s ask for information. In exchange, we will give them guns. They will be satisfied.”

The person who said that was Lee Min-soo, who can be said as the father of the Korean idol world. He was dreaming a big dream with a few celebrities from his agency. They wanted to build a new shelter around their bunker. It would be impossible if Lee Min-soo was alone, but the celebrities under his care had a great reputation. Using it as the gathering points would make his dream become possible. The only thing he lacked was information.

Park Kyung-hoo, who was sitting next to him, nodded his head.

“That’s right. Even if you say he’s a stagnant water, he’s powerless against guns. Government Shelter had some supplies, but I believe he wouldn’t get it for himself.”

“Now that I think about it, smuggling despite the lockdown was a huge hit, haha.”

“At that time, everyone was in a bad mood. The harbor was empty, no one could stop our ships.”

The thing they were talking about was the weapons they smuggled from Russia. In addition to the two, most of the people who built the bunker in Hannam-dong also imported their weapons from Russia. Afterall, at that time, the East Sea Coast Guard couldn’t do their job as effectively as before because of the situation.

Lee Min-soo leaned back on the sofa and spoke slowly. “No, wait… how about telling him to join us?”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Park Kyung-hoo smiled with satisfaction at Lee Min-soo’s suggestion. The two continue to talk with each other. The topic even arrived at the point where they said that there’s an idol which was perfect for being married to I Love Gimbap.

“No man hates women. Especially if in an apocalypse like this…”

“Is it worth it, though? We will start living in the same bunker afterall…”

“Tsk tsk, don’t say something like that.” Lee Min-soo waved his hand. “We will be on an equal footing. There is no such thing as who is above who.”

“But, you’re still the owner of the bunker, aren’t you?”

Oh Jung-min and Kim Ji-eun were just listening to them. In their mind, they doubted I Love Gimbap would just accept such things. Kim Ji-eun sighed and looked through the auction house. After browsing through the hot topic section, she came across a new piece of information.

The ogre is dead.

When she relayed the information to Oh Jung-min through whisper, his expression changed drastically.

“What? The monster is dead?”

The atmosphere in the meeting room changed drastically. The other two asked what was going on, and Kim Ji-eun told the truth.

“I Love Gimbap killed the ogre. Of course he didn’t kill him alone.”

“O-Ogre?”

“What kind of… is it true? He killed an ogre?”

Park Kyung-hoo massaged his forehead at the information. Although he had never played the game, he knew from the pamphlet the Government distributed on D-day that ogre was a very powerful monster.

In the pamphlet, it was written like this:

– An opponent that should never be opposed. Run away as soon as you find it.

That ogre was killed by I Love Gimbap.

When he read the information, he was looking forward to testing the monster’s capability against the guns he has. But to think someone already killed it…

Kim Ji-eun quickly relayed the situation to the two of them.

“The Government Shelter mobilized their assault team who were equipped with a lot of heavy weapons. But they failed. After their failure, the stagnant water team faced it and killed it. Of course, the main character of the fight was I Love Gimbap.”

“Wh-what skills did he get?”

“A good item must have come out…”

When they were busy thinking about such things, an arrow hit the window of their room. However, as it was an arrow without the arrowhead, it only made a knocking sound and fell.

Oh Ji-eun smiled faintly. “The man in question is here. Check it out for yourself.”

He had arrived? The two jumped up and looked outside. Their eyes instantly met the big man’s eyes standing below.

The Ogre Killer.

The terrifying eyes of a man with a gigantic body swept over them. He licked his lips, and the two moved away from the window, terrified.

It looked like he was saying this.

-I’ll be there soon.

It was too late for them to run away. Lee Min-soo and Park Kyung-hoo desperately thought about what to offer to Kimbap Joa.

They hoped he would be satisfied.