Stagnant Water of Apocalypse - Chapter 17

18 days before the zombie outbreak, the TV program Hyung-jun Hyung told me finally aired. If I remember correctly, Hyung-jun Hyung mentioned that the guy has levitating ability.

When I saw his face on TV, the guy in question looked like a very ordinary man. It’s been a few days since he went to Seoul, so why did the program only air now?

Anyway, on the TV, the MCs and the panel of celebrities took turns talking to him.

―You know that if you lie, you won’t be able to stand back up, right?

―I heard that there are some foreigners who want to give you 1 million dollars if you could prove your superpower, so why did you come here?

―Anyway, we will thoroughly verify it. Stage, please!

As the round stage slowly rose, smoke blew on the surroundings of the stage, adding dramatic effect to its entrance. When it finally stopped several moments later, the celebrities climbed up to it and went around the stage.

―There’s really nothing here…

―I couldn’t find any strange devices around here, either!

It looks that way to me too…

Then, the TV showed the face of the guy in question as he licked his lips with his tongue. It seems that he was nervous.

Then, the MC said to him,

– You know, it’s okay for you to give up now. If you continue, we’re going to take a really thorough look at your so-called ‘Superpower’.

– No, I’ll do it. I’m not going to give up.

– Then go up to the stage, please. Now, dear audience, let’s see if he can really unleash his superpower in front of us! Let’s give him a round of applause!

At the same time as the audience gave a soulless applause, the guy went up to the stage. He then stood there for a brief moment before showing off his levitation ability.

-Let’s fly in the sky! Air Levitation!

His body rose to the air. Though, it’s not very high; only about 50cm from the ground. But no one pays attention to it. What’s more important was that he successfully did it.

-Wow!

-He’s really floating! But he really looks like a normal human!

-Hey, put a stick under him and check it out!

What followed after was the verification time. The MCs and the celebrities all rummaged through the guy’s surroundings and see if they could find some strange device. Not only them, several audience members were also called to the stage to confirm the authenticity.

After it was done, The MCs asked for permission to the guy before they started to push and pull his body. When the guy’s body smoothly slid in the open air, the MCs’ faces were coloured in surprise.

―Uh… This is, as far as I know, the first appearance of a superhuman, right? We are truly honoured to have you in our program. No matter how many times I see it, this is real…

They should have rehearsed beforehand, but it seems that they were still pretending to be surprised for the sake of the show. The levitating guy continued to use his power even after he came off the stage.

“It would be useful to run away.” If I could also use that ability…

Then suddenly, the guy excitedly took the microphone offered by one of the MCs.

―I, the reason I am standing here today is to inform you of one thing.

– And what might that thing be?

– I don’t know when, it could be in a week or two months. But, a zombie apocalypse is coming.

-Zombie apocalypse? You said zombie just now, right? Is it the same zombie we saw in movies?

When one of the celebrities moved their body just like a zombie, the audience burst into laughter. That’s kinda funny. However, the guy didn’t laugh at all, his face remained serious.

– It’s not a laughing matter. Most of the people gathered here will turn into zombies while the rest will have a hard time surviving. Our society will collapse, and the world will be full of zombies and monsters. We are heading into ruin.

– Come on, wait a minute.

The MCs were bewildered and tried to stop him because it seemed like it was something that wasn’t planned for the show. However, the guy quickly stepped back and spoke quickly.

―Search the internet with the keywords of Survival Life, Status Window, etc.! Be prepared in advance! The end is coming! Zombie Apocalypse!

-Hey, excuse me! Hey!

―You all will become zombies! You’ll die! It’s not the time to laugh, Okay!?

As his voice continued to climb higher, the celebrities in his surroundings were all bewildered and tried to calm him down.

-Please calm down, okay?

And that was the last thing I could see as the camera went up to shoot the ceiling and no more sound came out.

“It’s a broadcast accident.” Since the program was a special program, it was broadcasted live to the entire nation. Thanks to that fact, people would become aware that a zombie apocalypse was coming.

The internet was quiet at first, but after a few minutes passed, an explosion of reaction took place.

-Did you guys see it? Are we really going to be zombies?

―It’s so funny LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

―I wish life would be turned upside down. Damn Hell-Joseon, GO TO HELL!!

―But, is that man’s superpower real?

It was not taken very seriously. Afterall, they don’t know anything. If they knew that there were thousands of people who could see the status window as well as that a meteor with the name Silver Dragon had entered the solar system, they would certainly react differently.

A superhuman has appeared? So what? People would still live their life normally as it wasn’t something that directly affected them.

“But the government might be interested…”

Looking at the Awakened community, the overall atmosphere of the sites was tenser than usual. Every single one of them was cursing the person who appeared on the show.

– Is that bastard crazy? Why did he appear there?

– I don’t know what the hell he hoped to achieve by appearing there. Anyone know who the guy is?

―The zombie apocalypse is coming LOLOLOL Anyone who didn’t know about it will die LOLOLOLOL

– I think he’s very commendable. Do you think it’s good that the world is ruined?

—? Why are you triggered?

And they started to fight again…

Meanwhile, at the different bulletin board, there was a heated discussion about how to collect points.

―Is it only me who has a “–” symbol on their “point(s)” section?

―Everyone’s the same. No one seems to have accumulated points for now.

―But, where can I use the points?

―You can use it in Shop and Auction Houses…

―In order to open Shop and Auction House, you need to level up first.

―Is there any other way to get levels and points other than killing monsters?

―I think that’s the only way. But who knows? Maybe the stagnant waters have a different way.

―That’s so cool…

Well, truth to be told, there’s another way to earn points other than killing monsters.

“Killing other users.” You would get 50 points by doing so. Compared to goblins which gave 2 points and orcs which gave 10 points, it was a far more lucrative offer. Thanks to that, there’s so many users who hunted other users in the early days of Survival Life.

“The problem is, if you do that, the ‘murderer’ system will be applied to you.” A user who kills another user would be registered as a ‘murderer’. And if they keep killing other users, the ‘murderer’ system would be activated and would force them to fight in a deathmatch with the users around them. Moreover, the location of the ‘murderer’ would be revealed to the others. And if someone managed to kill a ‘murderer’ in the deathmatch, a lot of points would be rewarded to them without turning them into a ‘murderer’.

“Once someone becomes a ‘murderer’, the game would be almost unplayable…” Though, there were people who overcame that penalty and kept playing as a ‘murderer’ for about a year. However, it was only possible for them to do so since we, the stagnant waters, left them alone since they’re so fun to toy with.

But, If they actually meet me… I was certain that they wouldn’t last long. Afterall, I had won deathmatches more than 100 times.

Although the question of whether I could actually kill people still exists…

“If I really have to, I will.” Otherwise, i would be the one who die

.

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Dingo have a very good sense of smell. He could easily smell an animal at a distance of more than 100 meters. However, the problem was, he always barks loudly every time he smells one. Thanks to that, I had to educate him before the apocalypse came or else, I’ll be doomed.

“Come on, Dingo. Smell this.” I pushed a tree bark that a valley deer had rubbed against towards his nose. And as expected, Dingo barked loudly after sniffing it.

“No, Dingo. That’s not it.” I said as I showed him my palm.

The little guy was confused for a moment. He probably thinks along the lines of ‘What do you mean?’ right now.

I removed my palms and fed him a chunk of meat after seeing that he’d calmed down. After that, I offered the tree bark towards him again.

Woof! Woof!

“Didn’t I tell you to not bark?”

After trying several more times, giving him a chunk of meat and offering him the tree bark, the little guy finally stopped barking loudly and replaced it with a low growl.

“Right, good job!” I spoke as concisely as possible and praised him excessively. While doing that, I also rubbed his neck and gave him plenty of meat.

After repeating this training for several more times, he seemed to finally understand my intentions.

I taught him two things. If he smells a strange smell, he would lie down in the direction of the smell and growl. If he smells blood, bark immediately to let me know.

“Great. Now, let’s go to that place! Follow me.” Dingo trudged behind me without any leash attached to his neck. What a weird puppy, no, wolf.

Our destination this time was the valley. The reason I wanted to go there was because I really wanted to use the harpoon I bought at the fishing supply store. It’s a bit difficult to use it in the sea, that’s why I wanted to train first against the relatively easy red trout.

“We’ll also do reconnaissance at the same time.” There were so many areas to explore in this forest. I also wanted to climb the mountain in the distance and scout it out with the drone. But for now, I had to push it aside because the first step was to fully learn about areas nearby my cave.

“Please…Just don’t let an owlbear pop out…” Oh, and werewolves too. Dingo would surely warn me anything was around, but I just couldn’t let go of the tension. Afterall, monsters always appear from places you don’t want them to appear.

I clenched my bow and quickened my steps. It’s definitely a road I had taken before, but for some reason, I was not as tired as myself from back then.

The moment I thought about it.

「Vitality has increased by 1」

I have 12 points on my Vitality stats now. If I continue to be active in the forest, It would climb higher than this, but there’s a limit.

“Around 16 or 17…” The number I raised on my own effort while playing the game for a year and three months was about that much. If it got boosted by one item, it would get close to 20.

“Raising the Perception stats is certainly good, but…” As now I have Dingo, it became quite ambiguous. And if it wasn’t the Perception stats, raising the Agility or Dexterity would be better.

“Dingo isn’t perfect, though. There’s nothing wrong with raising the Perception stats, either.” Let’s just forget about this and focus on catching a red trout for now.

When the sound of the falling water entered my ear, Dingo energetically ran past me and took the lead. But he never went too far away from me. Whenever he felt that our distance was too big, he slowed down and glanced back to confirm my position.

He’s really a smart guy.

Together, we finally entered the valley. Dingo quickly looked around and became interested in the fish swimming in the water. Then, he looked at me with a strange look as if conveying that he’s too afraid to go inside.

“Are you smelling dangerous things around?”

Woof!

It was questionable whether he understood what I said or not, but judging from his carefree attitude, I think we should be okay.

If that was the case, then, shall we try to catch a red trout?

I took my harpoon and put it in the water.

Let’s see…

The red trout swimming leisurely nearby quickly ran away as it sensed the ripple I had caused. If I could just catch two of them, both me and Dingo would be very satisfied.

“The bending angle should be around this…” Great. I just spotted a trout.

It was a bit small in size, but it seemed to be easy to catch as it was floating around the water.

However, I failed. The harpoon hit the ground without even hitting the body of the trout. I tried several more times, but nevermind a trout, what I got was only a new knowledge that trout was quite an agile creature.

“Why is it so fast!” I took the harpoon again and aimed at the nearby trout.

However, I failed again.

Do I have to order a speargun?

If I have a speargun, I’m sure I would be able to catch it as I could simply shoot it.

“Please let me catch at least one, please!”

Could it be that the sky heard my wish? Because as soon as I did that and carefully stabbed the back of a small trout, I could feel the tingling sensation of something moving on the tip of the harpoon.

“Wow!”

Dingo, who was sleeping, was startled at my voice and ran to me. Once I raised the harpoon, the pierced trout floundered, spraying water to every direction.

“Haha, I got it!”

Woof! Woof!

Dingo got excited and barked at the trout. Quickly, I showed him my palm.

“Shh. Monster will come if you keep doing that.” Especially owlbears. However, it seems that they did not reside around this valley, so it shouldn’t be a problem. In case they come, I could just run away through the portal and sneak back a few hours later.

Dingo showed a great interest towards the trout. So, I pulled it out of the harpoon and put it on the ground. The looks on his eyes changed instantly; it seems that he wanted to jump towards it but didn’t know what to do. However, he turned over and whined after being hit at the snout by the trout’s tail.

“I’m going to catch one more, so let’s leave it alone for now.” I scooped some water with a plastic bag and put the trout inside before anchoring it to a rock. Since I’d done it once, it would certainly be easier, right?

But I was wrong.

The red trout didn’t even come nearby as if they were wary of the harpoon. It seems that the common knowledge which said the memory of fish evaporates after 3 seconds was a big fat lie.

“Anyway, nothing is easy.”

The day was also getting dark. I forced myself to be satisfied with just one trout and collected my gear.

“Dingo, let’s go home.”

On the way back to the cave, Dingo suddenly turned away as he sneezed after sniffing into a certain pepper plant. The identity of the pepper was a bull pepper.

“Are canines supposed to be weak against spicy things?”

As I used to eat cheongyang pepper, I confidently took one pepper from the plant and chewed it.

And I tasted hell.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh…”

My breath was held up on my throat as I felt a volcano erupted in my mouth. Tears keep running from my eyes while snouts come from my nose. My head was also dizzy and I couldn’t come to my senses.

The effect of the pepper was spectacular. It looked like it could be used as a substitute for tear gas if it was grinded well. So, I dug up the soil around the bull pepper plant and carefully pulled it out.

When I did that, Dingo didn’t even come near me.

What a cute guy.

As soon as we arrived at the cave, I quickly planted it on the entrance of the cave. Only by then did the spiciness on my mouth go away completely.

“Then let’s eat the trout…” Because of its small size, it wouldn’t be a meal but a snack.

While the trout was being grilled, Dingo panted heavily as his eyes focused on the trout.

“Wait. If you eat it now, your mouth will be burnt.”

I took out a piece of the trout, cooled it off for a few seconds, seasoned it with salt and put it in my mouth.

Wow… it’s delicious.

The crispy skin and the moist flesh were a heavenly combination.

I took some out and gave it to Dingo before quickly gobbling down my portion.

Next time, I will surely bring a speargun with me.

Dingo who seemed to have finished his share suddenly licked my fingers.

There’s none left, you cute bundle of fur!