Stagnant Water of Apocalypse - Chapter 68

Chapter 68 – Shelter Condition

All the monsters which had appeared so far were not very threatening. Even though it sounds like bullshit looking at how chaotic the world had become after their appearance, it was the truth. Zombies, goblins, kobolds, they were monsters which survivors could handle with the correct strategy. A lot of people also surprisingly survived because the respawn rate of the reinforced zombies was nerfed by the patch.

The keepers or bone creepers could be said as some sort of event monster which would only appear at night. If people hide at that timeframe, they would hardly ever see it. However, things would change drastically starting from the appearance of orcs and werewolves, since those guys were monsters which had superior fighting power than humans with unique ability. It also had the intelligence to actively seek and hunt humans. In other words, those guys are the ones worthy to be called ‘monsters’.

The most famous monsters among users was the ogres. The most feared monsters in the game were the bone creepers. But the monsters that represent Survival Life the best could be said to be orcs and werewolves. It was not for nothing that the orcs were monsters that even stagnant waters had to be anxious about.

“The important thing is that they show up almost at the same time.” Just like before, existing monsters would not disappear, so surviving would be even more difficult. Again, attacking was useless. Survivors could only run, hide and just fight to survive, not for conquest.

A true apocalypse was about to unfold.

“Since I will change my hideout, I have many things to do.” When orcs and werewolves appear, it is good to change hideouts as well. Before their appearance, a two floor hideout was preferred, but with those guys appearing, the taller the hideout, the better. This was because the burden of the hideout had to be distributed in several places. The existing monsters could often be defeated by concentrating one’s firepower.

“But the orcs and werewolves aren’t like goblins and kobolds.” Since they were strong, just a few arrows wouldn’t deal any damage to them. Therefore, the hunting method of scattering several people around the hideout, while keeping on poking damage to the monster would be effective. On top of it, from now on, even the firecrackers would have no effect. The time has come for flash can or ignition can to be used.

“The problem is that there aren’t many ignition stones in circulation.” Glowstones could be purchased at the Store, but ignition stones could only be obtained through looting. I had asked the scarabs to dig up some ignition stones when they found them. It’s not very likely, but if it’s those guys, there’s still a chance.

“What I have now is 10 glowstones and 4 ignition stones…” That amount was what the scarabs had been diligently collecting. Which means, my chance of surely killing an orc or a werewolf were about 4 times.

“The chilli bomb is also very effective, but it’s not indefinitely.” Moreover, I had used the last chili bomb I had in the fight against the Gimhae Clan. However, since I already planted the chili plant in the forest, it would grow quickly. But for the time being, I had to make do without it. The paralyzing poison also had no dramatic effect on medium or larger monsters.

“So… I need a trap.” Humans have been hunting animals using weapons and traps since long time ago. I would do that too.

“It will be a little difficult, though.” Considering the habits and behaviors of orcs and werewolves, a few traps that could be used immediately came to mind. However, since I have to conserve ignition stones, I would have to hunt with traps for the time being.

I left Gimhae and headed for Changwon. The area I chose to be the next location for our hideout was Masan. It was a good place to loot because the commercial and residential districts were intricately intertwined. On top of it, the sea was right next to it, so it means we wouldn’t have to worry for running out of food. Of course, it would be better to go to Geoje or Tongyeong if we want a huge amount of seafood, but it was too far.

“I may go there someday, but…” For now, let’s be satisfied with Masan. When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was the shopping complex around the pier. There were also a few FRP boats and a couple of fishing supply stores around.

“There is a small piece of land that can be used as a vegetable garden…” Fortunately, there’s only a few people who would eat from it if we ever cultivate the land, so it didn’t require a huge landscape. After taking a few more glances, I went into reconnaissance.

The number of survivors around this area were a little different compared to our previous area, perhaps because they all had similar plans, which is to gather food by fishing at the sea. And all of them were moderately wary of me. They were definitely different from the Gimhae Clan, which openly tried to assert their dominance as soon as they saw me.

“There doesn’t seem to be a big force here…” Though, if I go to a populated area in Changwon, I might be able to find it. In any case, I finally decided on a location for a hideout. It was a four-story commercial building. The building was rundown, but there were plenty of places to hide, and there were many furniture and miscellaneous things left inside. The fact that there was a quilt shop and a crockery shop close by also attracted me.

“If we could find food, we can eat in moderation.” Though, for me, location wasn’t so important. but for the gym group, who was pretty poor, it would be quite important. I don’t know when will they come, though.

“There are quite a few monsters roaming around. But it should be fine…” If someone only want to live in place without monsters, there would be no place to live. Moreover, since there were a lot of different things in the Store, without points from killing monsters, surviving is practically impossible. Unless, you want to continue living while eating only tasteless bread.

“It’s a problem because a person can’t live with just one food.” So, we need to carefully select a place with moderate amounts of monsters and supplies around.

By the way, while walking around to this building, I saw quite a few survivors in the street. They farmed in pairs of two or three and carefully hunted monsters. It didn’t seem like they had great fighting strength. However, their strength was still enough to ensure their survival.

For now, they all seem to be good neighbours.

“Let’s live quietly.” Please don’t be like people of Gimhae Clan who were willing to fight for stupid reason. The Changwon Clan, who was close with Kwon, will be in Seongsan-gu, so we won’t run into each other right now.

I threw my backpack into an office on the fourth floor.

I started looting from one of the fishing supply stores. Fortunately, it was still untouched by survivors, so I got quite a lot of things from it.

I’d like to put a trap here, but can I afford it? If those green-bastards ever found it, I would lose everything because they were very interested in things that humans made. They were such annoying creatures, that’s why you have to destroy them thoroughly. However, it’s impossible to do since they were simply everywhere.

To prevent that from happening, it seems like I have to put the trap at night and pick it up early at dawn, but around that time was a scary time since keepers and bone creepers would be roaming free.

“There may still be food left.” About two months had passed since the zombie apocalypse. People who originally lived in Busan should be poor as they threw away most of their supplies while moving, but the survivors’ situation in other regions should be different.

“What I need…” It’s a net, a trap, a fishing line and all kind of tool. If I want to fish in the pier, it seems like I have to fish after I get on the boat, since monsters would love it if I just hang the fishing rod and leave it. If I go to the beach where there were few people, I would be able to fish comfortably, but farming would become difficult. There were pros and cons in every place.

“Still, it’s a good city to live in.” If it’s a busy place, there would be a lot of survivors and monsters, so it’ll be difficult to live, but this place was just enough. I put the necessary things in the portal and returned to the fourth-story house. As I was organizing my supplies, an arrow suddenly flew through the window. As it flew in a parabola, I had a gut feeling that the shooter didn’t have any intention of attacking me.

“There’s no arrowhead too…” replacing it was a note being folded. Perhaps it was sent by a nearby survivor. When I opened it, a couple lines of sentences greeted me.

-We want you to be a quiet neighbour. We don’t have much power, but it’s still enough to drive away some disrespectful neighbours. But the best thing would be not to fight. We don’t want to summon monsters for nothing.

“Is this a warning to get along?” The meaning was vague, but one thing was certain. The person who sent this note was at least not as unscrupulous as the guys in the Gimhae Clan. Because such people wouldn’t even bother on sending a note, they would just come unannounced and get rid of whoever they didn’t like.

“It seems that their strength is not very strong.” I felt that way when I saw that they emphasized that they had the power to expel me. That’s why he showed his will not to fight.

Is it perhaps because they have any elderly people and children?

“Well, we’ll find out later.” First of all, it was necessary to change this building into a proper shelter. I finished my meal in an instant and started to set up some net trap. However, I was aware that it would be difficult to restrain both orcs and werewolves with a net trap alone since orcs were strong enough to rip it apart and werewolves have their sharp claws. But it was important to be able to tie them up even for a few seconds to give me enough time to close the distance and stab them with a spear.

Of course, it will not just be a normal stab but a powerful one, aimed towards its vital organs. Otherwise, it will only aggravate the monster’s anger. It was a bad idea to lure them in, hide in the portal and fire the net gun. The net that goes into the net gun was standardized, so if it breaks, it must be repaired before it could be used. Though now, there should be no one who was able to repair it.

“If the situation calls it, I’ll have to use the gun…” There were only 164 bullets left, so I wanted to save as much as possible. If I hadn’t fired at the goblin because I was angry, there would have been a few more shots left.

I made one trap with a net and tested it several times. It wouldn’t work twice, so I had to kill the monster when they were caught in it.

“If you pull the rope like this.”

Fwoosh-!!

The ceiling collapses and the net falls. Since I have to pull it right in front of the monster, I must avoid the monster’s attack at least once.

“It’s not hard to avoid an orc’s attack. The werewolf’s attack was the problem.” Where the trap was located was quite a small place, so if its claw hits me, at least one of my arms would fly away.

Should I tie the string to another string so I could pull it from inside?

When I was caught up in those thoughts, night came. Survivors wandering around disappeared from the streets, and goblins began to disappear too. I quickly went into the cave and caught a turkey-like monster that I had looted from the goblin nest, the Hwajo.

Kieek-!!

Hwajo didn’t usually cry, but it doesn’t mean it couldn’t make a sound. The Hwajo I caught banged its head and struggled violently to escape my grip.

“Sorry. I want to eat some chicken after a long time.” It’s not a real chicken, but I bet it would taste similar. As the butcher tutorial book says, I had to cut its neck and stab its heart… but,

“Just where the hell is the heart?” It was a different animal than a chicken and larger too, so it wasn’t easy to find its heart. Therefore, I couldn’t help but just cut the guy’s neck. When I hung it upside down, blood poured out from the cut. The next step would be to pluck the feathers after blanching it in hot water.

“It’s still easier than slaughtering a wild boar, though.” When I pulled out all the feathers, its appearance surprisingly not very different from the raw chicken I saw at the supermarket except for the fact that it’s about two or three times larger in size. I cut the feet, took out the intestines, cleaned the inside, and washed it. By doing so, my hands were instantly covered in dirt, but I didn’t care.

“Dingo, do I smell a lot?” The guy got excited and put his nose towards me. Then, his tail starts to turns like a propeller. It seems like he’s looking forward to eating it. The scarabs also came and watched my work, probably offering help. However, since It’s a job that requires quite a bit of power, it’s difficult for those guys to help.

“You just take care of the garden.” In my words, the scarabs nod their heads. Thanks to the hard work they put, my garden was growing splendidly. Of course, making the garden itself was my job. Afterall, it’s too hard for these guys to do. But after that, the guys would take over the job to fertilize and watered it. It could be said that they were an optimal worker for the garden as they can even plant and harvest crops.

By the way, in addition to potato, spinach, lettuce, green onions, and onions were also planted. Their growth rate was rapid to the point that the lettuce could be eaten 4 days after planting.

“Originally, they said it would take about four weeks even if the weather was nice.” Though, since it’s a forest where monsters and scarabs that could understand words lived, it’s not that strange.

I cut the cleaned Hwajo into pieces and put them in the pot to boil them. Dingo seems like experiencing a torture as he lying on his face in front of the brazier. Now he knows that if he waits patiently, something to eat will come.

“He’s a smart guy.” While waiting, I checked the video on my laptop while basking in the warmth of the brazier. After the speedrun event, there would be a first kill event happening. It was an event to kill the representative monster of Survival Life, orcs. It wouldn’t be too difficult if it’s only killing one orc, but the targeted orc had a setting of being a tyrant who rules nearby goblins and kobolds. To get the first kill, I had to smash a few nests.

“It’s a bit difficult to do this secretly…” An orc nest would appear somewhere in the city. The setting was that the orc ruled all the monsters in the surroundings, so goblins or kobolds did not run away, they clung to each other. User have to deal with them all before you can finally reach the king. In the original game, it was a difficult event to do alone.

“It will depend on how the nest is structured.” And the number of competitors was also important. Unlike the speedrun event, I expect the competition to be fierce because many users would participate. The fact that the location was in the city centre rather than a dungeon or labyrinth will be a factor which would increase the competition.

“It won’t be easy.” But I had no intention of giving up. There’s a way to sneak into the nest when other competitors were fighting monsters. If discovered, I would probably get cursed, which was not surprising at all, but I would be able to eat to my fullest.

When I played the video, there was something I analyzed.

-I Love Gimbab: This king’s nest is quite large, so it seems that the nest wouldn’t appear in a small area.

-I Love Gimbap: And the nest does not appear at night. They always appear during the day, so you just have to find a place where the kobolds appear during the day. Originally, kobolds do not appear during the day, but in the setting, they couldn’t help it because of the power of the tyrant.

“Why are you talking to yourself?” There were no viewers at all in this video. I could see why my voice at that time was hoarse. It’s such a minor game, and I’m too lazy when there are no fixed viewers.

As I was going to watch a little more, I sighed and turned off the broadcast.

“Good job, old me.” I got few hints from the video. The first kill event always starts during the day, and you could find the nest by simply looking for kobold who roam during the day. Lastly was the fact that the nest would only appear in a fairly large place. If I work with those things in mind, I would be able to find the it quickly.

When I entered the Auction House, I saw traces of quite a few people talking about it.

And another topic was me.

-If that bastard win again this time, I will kill him!

-You don’t even know who he is, so how will you kill him?

-It’s just impossible, you idiot. The location the nest will appear is not a labyrinth, but in the city centre, so do you think people will just let him take it? The number of monsters is no joke too.

-This time it will be difficult for Gimbap to win. Rumor has it that the clan is working together in several places.

-Wasn’t it originally a solo event?

-That’s right. But since there are so many monsters, it is almost impossible to break through alone. The orc was also quite fortified.

-Survivor 1: This time, the hunters led by Survivor 1 will win. I’ll let you know what kind of item and skill come out at that time.

-Win? Survivor1? My ass.

-Not interested.

Seems like Survivor 1 was still passionate about self-PR. But just like before, no one paid any attention to him.

“Your presence is so faint…” It was pitiful to look at Survivor 1 who promote himself so hard but to no avail. Somebody please do it for him.

“Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess.” Apparently, people were expecting Duck to win the event. It was because, although the unique skill and combat power of Rapwi was outstanding, there’s a limit to what he could do alone.

-Since Duck have 30 zombies under her, this time I bet she’ll win.

-But where is she and what is she doing now?

-I heard that she caused a riot again in Gimhae.

-What is she doing there? Is she going there to meet Rapwi?

-Rapwi couldn’t have gone down there…

-I saw him in Daejeon a while ago, but no one knows since then.

“If you go down a little further, Jinju … or Changwon.” Reading what people wrote, it seems like I don’t have to be worried for her since he was travelling with someone.

“For now, let’s wait while making a shelter here.” I decided. By the way, It takes some time for the Hwajo to get fully cooked. Eventually, darkness descends. I left the forest, took the fish trap and threw it on the pier with Dingo in tow.

Thankfully, there were no goblin in sight. When I looked under the pier, I saw quite a lot of baby pufferfish and eels biting the trap, but before long they gave up and ran away.

“Because there are no people, there are quite a lot of fish.” If things continue like this, In a few months I should be able to catch quite a bit of seafood. At that moment, I remembered that there was also an ocean in another world. I didn’t particularly check it, but seems like it was more abundant with creature than the sea of Masan. If I could get my hands on it, they could be stored for quite a long time after drying it with sea breeze.

When I got home and went into the cave, the scarabs were controlling the firepower while pulling out the firewood. Thanks to them, the Hwajo and the white rice were cooked perfectly.

What a weird guy.

Before I start cooking, I put a ciphered text on the Auction House. It was meant to tell Dajeong to buy it. I wanted to give it to her for free, but there’s a risk that someone else would take it. Dajeong was rich in points, so she doesn’t care even if the winning bid is high.

She finally answered as I was about to separate the two legs from the body.

-Put it up right now. hurry. I’m starving to death.

-If it’s too cheap, someone else will take it, so how about 100 points?

-That’s fine, so upload it quickly!

After putting it up for 100 points, she quickly won the bid.

– It’s as big as my ass. But where’s the legs?

-The legs are DLC, customer-nim.

-Ey! Do you want to get hit?

-It’s too big even without two legs anyway, right?

-Still, the human heart is… But did you get this from the cold place you mentioned? Is there a raccoon who says ‘Welcome back’ when you go inside?

Well, it’s not a raccoon but a scarab.

She left a comment saying she called the gym people to enjoyed the Hwajo together. Even if she acted like she’s crazy, she’s quite warm inside.