Stagnant Water of Apocalypse - Chapter 82

 Chapter 82 – Cooperate or Antagonize (2)

After greeting Da-jeong, I went to greet the members of the gym group. Unlike Da-jeong who dressed extravagantly, they were all dressed lightly. When I asked them about what was going on, they told me that while passing through the Changwon Tunnel, a Farming Dungeon portal popped up and they had no choice but to enter it.

“We were going to give up on the dungeon and just go, but Da-jeong unnie entered.” Mikyung clung onto me and whined. It’s a voice which I hadn’t heard for a long time. After I said hello to everyone, I brought Junho, who was hanging out by the lakeside, to say hello.

“He’s one of the students who joined me in Masan.”

“I’m Park Junho! My unique skill is Parkour!” (T/N the raw says parkour unlike the earlier chapter…)

“Oh! So Parkour can also be a unique skill, huh? By the way, if it’s ‘one of the students’ that means there are other students too?”

“Yeah. They are at our base camp now. I think it would be better to go there instead of staying here… How about it?”

“Seongho, if we go there, do you have some extra clothes there? I am freezing to death.” Sooyeon came out of the tent and stomped her feet while exhaling a breath of cold air.

“Put this on for now.” I took off my windbreaker and handed it to her.

Sooyeon, who had a much more relaxed expression now, smiled at me.

“I’m sorry, what do I do? Seongho must be cold too.”

The moment I saw her smile, I realized why commander-in-chief Seong-tae was so obsessed with her. I didn’t think much of it when we were together before, but after seeing her after a long time, I just realized, she truly is an amazing beauty. Junho, too, as soon as he saw her, lost his soul and muttered ‘Mercy… Mercy…’

“I think I’ve heard it about ten times.” Sooyeon muttered bitterly. It seems like a lot of things happened when I was away from Gimhae.

Da-jeong came to me and said, “Kang Seongho-ssi. You left us and went to Masan alone, so what kind of things did you stumble upon?”

“I went to find a hideout.”

“So what are the results?”

“I’ll explain that later.”

Originally, we used to talk nonsense, but we had no choice but to talk like this in front of other people. I proceeded to mention that there was a portal around our base camp. And when I told them that the portal was connected to the hideout I found, the faces of gym members brightened.

“But Seongho, can we go there? How many of you are there?” Hyung-jun hyung asked me

“Excluding me, there are four. Therefore, including Da-jeong, there will be nine in total.”

“Hey, then the zombie raid…”

“There will be none. The hideout I found is on an island.”

“Island? Ah, right! There’s an island in Masan…”

“Right now, we are using a boat to travel to and fro from the land. But with Mikyung’s help, it will be easier to move around.”

“So, are you saying that you want to merge the two groups? What do you guys think?”

“I’m fine with it.” Sooyeon said.

“We have to walk a long way to get out of the tunnel. If we join, we will instantly arrive in Masan. So, I’m extremely okay with it” Mikyung chimed.

Everyone responded positively. The fact that the Farming Dungeon could become a teleporter pushed their decision to agree. Then, Hyung-jun hyung came to a conclusion.

“Then let’s not waste any more time. It’s a pity we have already pitched the tent, but let’s pack it and walk again. Seongho’s base camp is just a short walk away. Let’s go there and talk.”

“Let’s do that.”

I went to Yoohyeon, who was walking towards one of the tents, and whispered in his ear. “Did the arrogant queen attack you at night?”

“Uh… Noona is surprisingly a pitiful person.”

“Sorry?”

I wondered if Yoohyeon was also captured, but it seems like that wasn’t the case. He told me that the only thing Da-jeong did to him was ask him to drink with her. Of course, that alone was terrifying enough for Yoohyeon. But when he thought of her only as an older sister instead of a terrifying and arrogant Zombie Queen and listened to her story, she was surprisingly a good noona. The next day after they woke up, she thanked him and bought a weapon with plenty of points for him. It’s really interesting to see the youngest see Da-jeong in that kind of way.

Perhaps, originally, she was an extremely affectionate person, but after the apocalypse, she had no choice but to act arrogant and violent. She must have felt lonely since she lived alone with only her zombie subordinates around her as companions.

“Let’s follow Student Junho! When the wind blows, lower yourself to the ground! Beware of the griffon!” Da-jeong shouted to the group. We carefully went through the forest, and after some time, we finally arrived at my base camp.

The three who were guarding the base camp were startled when they saw us.

“Who are they, ahjussi?” Yeowool asked me.

“It’s the gym people I talked about before. This is Yoohyeon.”

Yeowool’s gaze fell directly to Yoohyeon. Her stoic expression quickly melted and turned soft because of his handsome face.

“Isn’t he handsome?”

“I-I don’t know.” Even though she said so, she quickly glanced towards the mirror, and then greeted Yoohyeon in the most cheerful way. The smile never left her face.

After the greeting session ended, we sat down and started talking. The Masan personnel were afraid of Da-jeong who was sitting outside the base camp. Well it was not much of a surprise to see them like that. After all, she was sitting on a zombie chair with her legs crossed while being surrounded by zombies. Da-jeong, who thought that people’s eyes were drawn to her, simply smirked. She really has a bad personality.

We continued to talk about what we had done so far and what we would do in the future. After a while, the fog settled down and several people approached the base camp. When I asked who it was, it was a very familiar person; President Jang Won-taek.

He had come to see us. How many people have entered this dungeon I wonder?

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“It has a great atmosphere here. I am not sure if it would be right of me to say that in this situation though.” Everyone in our group met with the president separately. Our base camp instantly became crowded because of too many people.

He said goodbye to the one he met previously and smiled as he saw Da-jeong, who was a little farther away from the group.

“With this, I’ve already met three of the four stagnant waters.”

“Have you not met Gimbap yet?”

“That is the case. In fact, he is the person I wanted to meet the most, but it’s disappointing.”

When President Jang Won-taek said so, Da-jeong didn’t even glance at me.

“By the way…do you want to join us? I would extend my offer to all of you.”

“I don’t have any thoughts of doing that.” Da-jeong refused. I always thought that Da-jeong was blunt, but Jang Won-taek was also surprisingly blunt.

“Anyone else?”

Hyung-jun hyung spoke cautiously. “Now is the time for us to settle down in a new hideout… and I’m not used to Seoul.”

Jang Won-taek smiled faintly at Hyung-jun hyung’s refusal. “Government Shelter is always open to everyone, so please call me if you change your mind. There is a dedicated comment section in the auction house for it.”

“Oh, yes. But we’re not at that level yet…”

Hyung, I don’t think you need to tell him that…

“You will be there soon. Or Da-jeong can let me know?”

“When I hear that, I suddenly don’t want to do it.”

“This… It seems like you are a frog rather than a duck.”

When Jang Won-taek jokingly said that, Da-jeong suddenly stood up and showed him her ass.

“Do you still think I’m not a duck?”

“No, Kuhum… Kuhum…”

It seems like the President was taken aback by Da-jeong’s actions. I need to change the atmosphere.

“Why is the government trying to bring people together?”

When I asked, Jang Won-taek replied, “It is to protect our society from monsters.”

“Even though zombie raids are dangerous?”

“Government shelters are strong. And Awakened are gathering there. Zombie raids are taking place even now, but that’s not a problem.”

Well, how long can it continue like this I wonder?

When people gather, it means that eventually more and more problems will crop out. It would be nice if the internal unity was good, but the current government shelter had a ticking bomb called Survivor 1.

I doubt he knew about that…

At that moment, Jang Won-taek was handed a note by the aide behind him.

“I didn’t come here to scout… haha, it’s just seeing talented people makes my heart flutter. In that sense, I will give you some information. Is anyone here still living in Busan?”

“There’s no one…”

“We also evacuated because of the power plant.”

As the people spoke, President Jang Won-taek nodded his head. “That’s good. This is information I recently got. Foreigners have landed in Busan. They are probably Japanese.”

“Why are the Japanese coming here?”

“Probably to look for something to eat.”

“Did they all come here by the sea? That’s tough.”

“There is no clear information about how they came yet, but it seems that there are at least a few of them. And everyone speaks Korean.”

This information surprised me too. After all, how can people from mainland Japan speak Korean? Not only one or two but all of them.

Jang Won-taek rubbed his hands when people looked like they couldn’t believe it. “When I heard about it, I ordered my agent to check it again, but the same information came up. To be precise, they speak Japanese to each other, but to us it sounds Korean. Do you understand?”

Hmm… He said from his agent? It also means that there was information he hadn’t told us yet. It seems like if we were really curious, we would have to join the government’s organization…

Hyung-jun hyung was so surprised that he asked again. “Then do they hear us in Japanese too? Is that even possible?”

“That part is not yet clear. For now, we are observing them from a distance…”

“It’s amazing that foreigners are still alive.”

“There would be no system, so how come they survived?” Dakeong, who had been silent all this while, crossed her legs and sat down in the opposite direction. All the gazes of the male aides standing behind Jang Won-taek turned towards her at once.

“I think the person who was looking for Japanese people at the auction house a few days ago was a real Japanese person.”

“Did that happen? If so, it seems like people who said they had met foreigners in the speedrun labyrinth must have said the truth. Heh heh, I’m actually getting information.”

That Japanese name was Yuzuka… It seems like when someone does not have an ID for Survival Life, their real name will be registered in the system. If so many Japanese are still alive, so would people from other countries. I proceeded to ask how far the government delivered the information about the apocalypse, and Jang Won-taek replied that they spread it to all the necessary countries.

“Of course, there were countries which did not believe in the apocalypse. However, a number of countries have directly confirmed the monster’s in real life. So, they accepted it. After all, it’s hard to deny that.”

“To put it all together, I’d say all of the survivors now have the system. Including the Japanese who landed in Busan.”

“Ah… now that I think about it. If you already opened the auction house, you’re already level 15, right? Aren’t you very fast?”

“It’s because my unique skill is combat-related, and if you focus on leveling up, reaching level 15 is not that difficult. After that, it’s the Hell section, so it’s really difficult.”

Da-jeong’s words are correct. Though, she also lied about the hell section because she was currently at level 17.

Jang Won-taek glanced at his aide and after receiving a nod, began to stand up.

“It was nice to meet you today. By the way, Da-jeong is going to meet a lot of people today.”

“Hm? Did I have a date scheduled today? I have no idea.”

“The rumors about the Zombie Queen have spread far.”

“Hmmm… I don’t like it. If I catch one of them and force them to have a good time with my boys generation, they will be quiet, right?”

“Haha, I wouldn’t recommend it. Anyway, today was fun. See you next time.”

When President Jang Won-taek disappeared with his aides, Hyung-jun hyung shook his head.

“The president is really alive. I once thought it was only rumour.”

It’s the first time I’ve actually seen him in person too. We all owe him something. But it doesn’t mean that we will join the government shelter. After all, that guy, Survivor 1, was there. By the way, the president must have awakened, but what kind of ability does he have… Since he is the president, his ability wouldn’t be combat related…

Da-jeong dangled her high heels on the tip of her toes and clicked her tongue.

“Director, the kids over there are calling you.”

“The kids?”

“Yes. Go quickly.”

After Hyung-jun hyung disappeared, Da-jeong turned to me.

“Seongho, aren’t you being too shy? Do you know how many days I rotted in Gimhae because of you?”

“You still look fine.”

“My stomach is rotting, what can I do? It’s not fun because everyone is living a good life! I can’t have fun!”

“Hey, lower your voice.”

It seems like she was bored because people were afraid of her and treated her with respect. People like her need something exciting and dangerous to happen after all.

She put her finger under my chin. “I will follow you from now on. Consider yourself warned!”

“Oh, so you want to advertise that I’m Gimbap, huh?”

“I can just call you my slave. I think it would be perfect if you just put on your panties and go with a butt plug. You have a pretty good body.”

“I refuse, Duck Buttock. I need to go find Rapwi, so I don’t have time.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Rapwi? You have not met him yet? What the hell did you do in Masan?”

“I was a little busy… Fighting with people.”

“…Seeing you say that seriously, I guess it wasn’t a joke.”

“Something like that happened. By the way, I found Poor Man.”

“Poor Man? Really?”

A few fixed viewers of my show were even known by the other stagnant waters. And in Poor Man’s case, they enjoyed his concept a lot. Especially Da-jeong.

“It was not a concept. He must have had a really hard life.”

“Is that him? Strongest Jio, get him.”

In an instant, the zombies caught Jiman. Then, when he was brought over, her attention switched from me to Jiman.

“Your face is so pure. What’s your name?”

“Hyu-hyung…”

I’m sorry. Please play with her a little.

I sneaked away from them.

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I was finally able to find the approximate number of people who had entered the farming dungeon. It was over 200 people. I wish everyone would peacefully hunt and focus on farming, but that hope was squashed when there were already some fights and riots starting to brew.

Through Yoohyeon’s paper airplane more information came.

“Someone died because a fight broke out while they were digging for resources…”

“Where did it happen?”

“The lake side where we were.”

It’s close to our location. It was clearly a murder case, and there was a high probability that it will happen again. Wasn’t it originally said that blood calls for more blood? As there were so many people, it seemed like a big commotion would happen if a death match took place.

After hearing everything, Hyung-jun hyung briefed the members again. “It’s dangerous there, so don’t go to those areas for the time being. On top of it, be especially careful of wind noise. When something gusts, you go down on your stomach instantly. Understand?”

“Yes!!”

After that, we wandered around and got back to farming. It was nothing special, but I picked some fruits and, although small, I did some hunting. While we did so, Da-jeong and I acted separately from the rest of the group. When it was decided so, everyone looked at me pitifully. Da-jeong made an excuse that she was harassing me.

In fact, the real purpose of me moving with Da-jeong was to attack the nearby griffon nest. As a result of reconnaissance through Yoohyeon, a nearby griffon nest was spread across a relatively low rock.

We observed the nest by hiding in the forest under the rocks. “The nest is very low. As far as I remember, if the nest is low, the size of the griffon is very small.”

That’s what I saw through the video. Griffon’s nest was determined through territorial battles. The strong build their nests high, and the weak build their nests low. The owner of the nest we observed was probably kicked out by nearby stronger griffons.

“Given the size of the nest, It’s safe to assume that it’s not fully grown yet.”

“How big is this ‘not fully grown yet’? I can’t remember.”

“About twice the size of a bull. If we rush in, it will probably greet us like we are a lunch box.”

“So what? Let’s just go to the nest, beat the griffon and rob it.”

It seems like Da-jeong didn’t want to pass on the chance of beating the Griffon. While we were making plans, a paper airplane flew in front of us. This was some sort of warning from Yoohyeon. Which means we couldn’t speak comfortably anymore.

As I jumped up and looked around, a few people appeared through the bushes. As soon as they saw the friendly zombie, they pulled out their weapons.

“It’s a zombie!”

“Calm down for a second. I think I know who is here.”

The gaze of the man in the lead stopped at me for a moment, then moved to Da-jeong. Among the zombies, he must have thought that I was of little value.

“Duck Buttock, is that you? It’s me, Survivor 1.”

“Huh?” Da-jeong’s eyebrows creased.