Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Snore-!!

“Judging by the situation, I believe that an immediate dispatch of an investigation team is necessary.”

If someone was sleeping in the conference room when a meeting was happening, it would be logical to wake them up immediately and kick them out of the room. However, right now, the people didn't do that and have decided to just ignore the sleeping person. It was all due to the fact that the one who was sleeping was the Zombie Queen, Choi Da-jeong.

She was sleeping on two chairs and snoring. In her justification, it wasn't that she purposely came to the conference room to sleep while a meeting is undergoing. It was just that people came and had a meeting while she was sleeping.

Jang Won-taek rubbed his tired eyes and gestured to the man sitting next to her.

“I will leave the investigation to Miss Da-jeong. Please wake her up.”

"Yes? Wake her up?” The man stuttered at Jang Won-taek's words before moving his head towards Da-jeong. Then, he, gently, very very gently, tapped on her body.

The sleeping person wasn't the one who made him scared, it's the ghoul behind her which made him scared. That ghoul and many other zombies and ghouls of hers were the only monsters which could enter and exit this shelter.

And perhaps, because they received the power of Da-jeong, they were in the shape of a normal human being, unlike ordinary ghouls. The only difference they had from normal human beings were the fact that they were all over two meters tall and their forearms were as thick as a human waist.

Fortunately, the ghoul did not react despite the man's actions.

‘Have It been ordered not to harm the people in this shelter?' The people who saw it all wondered.

As Da-jeong didn't even flinch when the man kept touching her shoulder, Beom-seok stood from his seat. He walked over to her and shook her shoulder vigorously.

“Da-jeong, Da-jeong, wake up.”

“AH~ it's so tight…"

What the hell are you dreaming of?

People coughed at her overly-lewd wake up speech while Da-jeong struggled to open her eyes.

"What the… Why are you guys here? What are you trying to do?”

Her gaze turned to Jang Won-taek, and he simply responded with a tired smile.

"We aren't going to do anything to you. By the way, I have something to entrust to Da-jeong, can you please help us?”

“Is it a task for me?”

“You have to pay for the food.”

At the word ‘food', Da-jeong puckered her lips and sat right up. The regret of coming here crossed her mind. Government shelter is an organization which runs with a lot of rules. It's not as tight as the military, though. Therefore, for a free-spirited person like Da-jeong, who eats whenever she's hungry and sleeps whenever she's tired, it was the worst place to be.

The man who had said that dispatching a team immediately was necessary earlier summarized it to Da-jeong.

“Something strange is happening on Bam Island. It looks like it wasn't the erosion, but plants from other worlds could be found there. I want you to investigate it.”

“Hmm, this is not the time yet for erosion to happen, though.”

erosion refers to a phenomenon in which plant-type monsters erode the Earth. It was due to the fact that when zombies or ghouls run out of energy and withered, their corpses will be turned into plant-type monsters.

Jang Won-taek added. “To be precise, this is not erosion. It is speculated that the seeds of plants from other worlds were brought here by monsters and were blown away by the wind and had somehow grown on Earth's soil. I would like you to get a sample of it and investigate its impact on the land.”

Da-jeong put her chin on her palm and yawned. “Can I set the island on fire after the investigation is over? The filth must be disinfected.”

“Do you seriously want to set the land on fire? But it is an ecological conservation area…”

“No, that’s when Korea was still fine, and now, it's a mess, right?”

"Haha…"

What Da-jeong said was right. They were now in the apocalypse, so what's the use of keeping it there?

However, in this case, it was necessary to observe the phenomenon for a little more.

Jang Won-taek comforted Da-jeong.

“I promise the next time the erosion happens, you can set it on fire to your heart’s content.”

“Ahh… What a waste.”

Anyways, it was concluded that Da-jeong will take over the investigation of Bam Island. After it was finished, other important things were also decided one after another in the meeting. But for Da-jeong, it was nothing but a trip of boredom.

“Ah… It's hella boring.” She was annoyed. Normally, she would have washed up with the water brought by the zombies before heading out to eat with the handsome Yoohyeon. But there were only dull old men here.

Seongho, who sent her here, must be having fun playing with Rapwi by now, right?

Da-jeong suddenly became excited as soon as she imagined the two of them running through the city naked.

“I want to play too!” As soon as she got up, Jang Won-taek cleaned up the papers in front of him and noticed the people.

“Let's end the meeting here today. Let’s keep being faithful to our respective duties.”

In an instant, the conference room was empty. Da-jeong sat down in despair and put her legs on the table. Then moments later, someone came in and sat down next to her.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Joo Seungcheol.” At his greeting, her head slightly turned towards him. There, a handsome-looking man was staring at her with a broad smile plastered on his face.

"I hear that name a lot… Where is it…”

“You’ve probably heard it mostly on the news. They often call me the heir of Daehyun group.”

“Ahh. But aren't you in a wheelchair?"

“If I am in a wheelchair at my age, It would be better to be dead hahaha..” Seungcheol roughly ignored Da-jeong's sarcastic words. “When the apocalypse happened, I wasn't here from the beginning, but in my own shelter. Do you know why I came here?”

“I don't know and I'm not curious.”

Da-jeong didn't seem interested, but Seungcheol didn't care as he told her anyway. “I want to see the stagnant waters. Especially you.”

“What do you think of me after meeting me? Do you want to slam me on the bed and spread my legs?”

By Da-jeong's unrefined answer, Seungcheol was taken aback. But as expected from the heir of conglomerates, he could smoothly continue the conversation.

“It would be a lie to say I wasn't attracted to Da-jeong’s appearance. But I value your abilities more.”

“So? Let's just get to the point. Do you want me to take over this shelter? Like a particular scheming bastard?”

While Seungcheol was looking for something to say for a moment, the door of the conference room opened once again. This time, it was Geom-in who entered. He looked at Da-jeong with a smile on his face, but when he saw Seungcheol, he immediately frowned.

“I thought the meeting was already over…”

“We have our own meeting. If you have something to say, do it quickly and leave.” Seungcheol said with an authoritative voice while also frowning at Geom-in.

As the two of them were having a mental fight, Da-jeong stood up from his seat and gathered her ghouls, as she had no interest in it at all.

“Get ready to go out.”

“Da-jeong, wait a minute…”

“There's still something I want to talk about with you…”

The two men called her, but she didn't care and went outside. She walked down the hallway and slammed the shelter door opened, revealing the view of the devastated ground. Several combatants could also be seen fighting the zombies on the edge of the shelter. However, when they saw Da-jeong, they immediately began to retreat.

"The Zombie Queen is here!"

“Get out of the way!”

Da-jeong, on the other hand, beckoned as she kept walking without batting an eye to them. The ghouls, who were waiting only for her command, instantly roared and jumped out towards the hordes of zombies. Then, a one-sided battle ensued.

The ghouls of Da-jeong were originally strong and were in a state of being strengthened by receiving numerous buffs from Da-jeong's skill. Therefore, it could be said that each of their individual strengths was equal to a reinforced ghoul. So no matter how much the normal zombies tried, they would only get destroyed by them.

In particular, the performance of the strengthened ghoul called Dangchi was dazzling.

“They are annoying, so destroy them all.”

Kuoooooo-!!

Hearing the owner's instructions, the giant ghoul roared and unilaterally beat the surrounding zombies. Whenever Dangchi swung its fist, zombie heads exploded.

Thanks to Da-jeong's interference, the zombie raid ended in an instant. The ghouls started eating the zombies, and people turned their heads away from the disgusting scene.

Geom-in, who was watching the scene while smoking a cigarette at the entrance, saw Seungcheol standing next to him and muttered, “Fuuhh… Da-jeong came into this shelter because of me. So get your hands off her.”

“It’s the first I’ve ever heard of it. I hear she came here because she was interested in the President's proposal.”

“That is not true. We've been playing together for thousands of hours. No one can intervene in the memories built up between us.”

“Her earlier response is too cold for someone who shares thousands of hours worth of memories. Maybe Geom-in is mistaken.”

At Seungcheol's words, Geom-in's face turned red. He had boasted to his comrades that he was the reason why the Zombie Queen came to the shelter. However, that's it. He couldn't show anything more since Da-jeong didn't take any order from him.

But it was impossible to pick up the already spilled water. Therefore, he must somehow change the heart of Da-jeong, who was walking amongst the corpses of zombies outside the wall of the shelter.

When Da-jeong found the two men while returning to the shelter, she sighed.

“Ah… it's really boring.” The thought of going into the shelter and listening to the nonsense of the two men made her grimace.

She decided to just wait until Seongho and Rapwi to come…

She jumped on the shoulder of one of her bulky ghouls and then commanded.

“Let's go to Bam Island.”

Dozens of ghouls moved at her command. Meanwhile, Geom-in, who tried to follow her, soon gave up. He had to somehow make an impression towards Da-jeong, but he didn't have the courage to do so.

The swordsman looked at her back for a long time before returning into the shelter helplessly.

Cheol-seong dragged his body and hid in a dark, empty alley. His body was greatly wounded because of the two attacks from Rapwi and Gimbap. But since he possessed transcendent stamina and vitality, he was still able to keep his life.

“Fuuuhhh, Fuuuuhhh…” Even at this moment when he exhaled violently, the blood had stopped dripping from his wounds as the wounds itself has started to heal.

He gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the pain. “That guy…”

Looking at the circumstances, the person who broke into his fight with Rapwi was highly likely to be I Love Gimbap. Afterall, there wouldn't be many people who could fight in such perfect harmony with Rapwi like that.

He also didn't think he was the other 2 of the four stagnant waters since Duck Buttock turned out to be a woman while Survivor 1 was in the government shelter.

Therefore, only I Love Gimbap is left.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…” Cheol-seong laughed out loud. He had finally found him; The very guy who treated him as an endangered species. When he opened the Auction House and scoured through it, it seemed that no one had found him but himself.

‘Should I put the information up now and put him in trouble?' Cheol-seong thought. “No… No…”

Cheol-seong didn't want anyone else to intervene. He wants to kill both I Love Gimbap and Rapwi with his own hand. It's foolish to bring the grudge he bears in the game into reality, but nobody could say anything since the game had become reality.

"Just wait…" he will keep looking for them until the end and kill them. But before that, it was necessary to analyze the fighting power of the two. Apart from Rapwi, he still couldn't accurately grasp I Love Gimbap's unique skill.

‘I guess he can hide his body…' He was not caught in his field of view, so that was worth mentioning. On top of it, he could also pull a weapon from perhaps a subspace. In other words, I Love Gimbap could attack unilaterally whenever he wants.

‘Is the bolt fired by an assistant…' Chelseong mumbled. Maybe, the previous fight was a 1:3 fight rather than a 1:2 fight. If it's indeed so, things look dark for him. Afterall, although it was unplanned, the combination of the two was enough to defeat him, who had higher stats than them. Which means, if they were to add another person in the combination, the chance he would lose his life was high.

Cheol-seong decided. For the time being, he would forget about revenge and just focus on hunting. After all, once he reaches level 20 and kills more survivors, he will become much stronger.

"Okay. Let's do that." Cheol-seong stayed in the place to heal his wound and moved to the place where his other men were. As the loud heartbeat echoed through the area, several people came to him.

“Boss, what happened to Rapwi?”

“If you have suppressed him, we will bring him to you.”

“No… you don’t have to.”

Cheol-seong answered and killed the subordinates in front of him with a ceramic knife.

“Keuk!”

“Wh-why are you…”

“Heuk!”

The dying subordinates, whose head had been cut in half let out one last death throes. But Cheol-seong did not even raise an eyebrow at it.

What's the problem with predators wanting to hunt in a world where the strong survive and the weak die?

“Hmmmm…”

After sacrificing three of his subordinates, murderer's unique skill Blood Offering rose to level 3, and his Strength stat broke through 25 point. Now he would be able to destroy concrete with bare fists alone.

But Cheol-seong was not satisfied just yet. In the previous fight, the reason he could read the movement of Rapwi was thanks to his strength which was way higher than Rapwi. If it was 1:1, He definitely would be able to overpower him. But because of I Love Gimbap…

‘I need to kill more people…'’ He decided he would start killing all of his subordinates in Changwon. Then, in a much stronger state, he would be able to deal with both Rapwi and Gimbap.

And once he killed them…

Cheol-seong's train of thought stopped there.

‘What should I do after finding and killing them?' Making a lot of subordinates and expanding his influence did not arouse his interest. Hasn't he personally experienced it in the previous fight? Only the stagnant waters could excite him.

“It seems like I shouldn't kill them easily…”

Cats didn't kill mice easily. After driving them into a corner, they play with them and only kill them once the cats lose their interest in it.

‘I'll make you stop calling me endangered species.' That derogatory word was the reason why Cheol-seong was particularly obsessed with Gimbap. He avoided having a fight with him because he didn't want Cheol-seong to die, reducing the user in the game even more. The funny thing was that the other stagnant waters also sympathized with Gimbap and avoided the deathmatch with him.

Cheol-seong tightened his muscles and raised his body. Then his gaze turned to the north. In his mind, he was certain that the two of them were going to Seoul. It was a judgment based on the fact that rumors were circulating in the Auction House that Duck had entered government shelter.

All he had to do was to slowly follow them while developing his abilities.

And once he arrived in Seoul…

‘I’ll deal with everyone in a deathmatch…’

Cheol-seong moved his steps to where his men were.

Whoosh-!! Splash!! Pitter-patter…

In the morning, heavy rain enveloped Changwon. When I looked out the window, I could see weeds growing abundantly between the sidewalk blocks. It made me realize just how much resilience nature has. If things stay this way, it is certain that within a few years nature will overthrow the city. Plant monsters from another world will also join them.

I got up from my seat and rotated my shoulders. It looks like the exhaustion from yesterday's fight hadn't gone away yet since my body was still sore all around.

When I turned my gaze to one corner of the room, I saw Rapwi, no, Seokhyun, shaving his head in front of the mirror.

“Are you going to be completely bald?”

“Yeah. I thought it would be more comfortable to wear a hat if I was bald.”

“When I say I want you to disguise yourself, I don't mean you have to be completely bald."

“I don’t care about hair. Can you shave the hair on the back of my head?”

"Okay…"

I took the ceramic knife from Seokhyun's hand and did what he asked me to do. While I was doing that, he shaved his beard with a mithril knife. Moments later, all of Seokhyun's hair had disappeared except for the hair on his eyebrows. When he put a hat on top of his head, a handsome man with sharp eyes revealed himself.

"Nice.” I exclaimed. With this, those who had seen Rapwi before would not believe that he is the same person as Seokhyun. As soon as he put on some clothes, his appearance and atmosphere changed completely.

I tapped his shoulder.

“Let’s eat and leave in the morning.”

“What is the menu?”

“Rice, soybean paste stew, grilled fish, and kimchi.”

I thought he would be happy because he will be able to eat abundantly after a long time, but contrary to my expectation, he looked surprisingly pale.

Maybe it's because there's no meat?

“Did you say you only ate meat? You should also eat a lot of vegetables. You need a balanced diet.”

“It should be fine. The animals I ate are mostly herbivores.”

So he's saying that if you eat the meat of animals that eat plants, that should count as eating vegetables… That's a strange logic. But it strangely fits the image of Rabbit Pwincess. So, I didn't argue with him.

SInce I want to feed him and he wants to eat meat, I will give him that. I went to my shelter, caught some hwajos, butchered it, and then returned to Earth again.

When Seokhyun saw the hwajo meat on my hand, his eyes showed a curious glare.

“Da-jeong too had such eyes when I took something out of my world. She even asked if there was a raccoon inside.”

“Is there a real raccoon inside?”

“There's no raccoon inside, but there are other guys.”

Dingo woke up from his slumber when he smelled the smell of the meat being cooked. He quietly took a seat between us and rested his head on his front paws.

While the hwajo was turned into boiled chicken, Seokhyun and I had a conversation. It was mainly about the government shelter and Survivor 1.

‘There are guns in the government shelter. Guess they'll take it out after the corrosive disease has completely subsided. I sent Da-jeong there to find out more.”

"Guns? It’s something which can't exist because of the corrosive disease, isn't it?”

“It looks like it was being stored hundreds of meters underground. Since the corrosive disease has a form of a particle beam, it probably won't be able to reach down there."

I came to know it through a conversation with Da-jeong at the Auction House using the encoded words. On top of it, she was also angry because she thinks that I was having fun with Rapwi and left her alone to suffer.

In fact, we didn't have fun but suffered a lot because we had to fight a murderer…. Ah, that might be exciting for Da-jeong.

"Ohh. Then there will be trouble later.”

“I think so too, since Geom-in wants to be the ruler of Korea once he successfully takes over the government shelter."

Seokhyun supported his chin with the back of his hand while listening to my words.

“That would be fun.”

“Of course it will be fun for you. But not for me, since I only have one life."

“Why do you keep getting bothered by it? Since I can resurrect through my unique skill, it will surely come out as a skill later, or even as a consumable item."

"You aren't serious, are you?"

"I'm serious. In this world, nothing is impossible. No matter what happens, it wouldn't be strange.”

Is that so?

I remembered the skills and the items I got from both the speedrun and First Kill events. It was something I couldn't even see in this game. As Seokhun said, the world has become more fantasy than fantasy itself, so it wouldn't be strange to say that resurrection will appear as a skill.

“You may be right.” When I said so, Seokhyun smiled contentedly.

“So if you find yourself in a dangerous position again in the future, you can fight bravely and die. I will save you.”

“No, that’s a little…'" What a reckless person. Anyway, we decided to rob the Changwon Clan's hideout before going up to Seoul. Because it was obvious how the endangered species would behave.

“He will kill all his men and pursue us. We should take their supplies, since it's basically free for the taking.”

“He will become even stronger if he really did kill all his men.”

"Yeah…"

It was clear that he would be a pain in our butt on our way to Seoul. It's really regrettable that we couldn't kill him before.

No, wait.

Thinking in reverse…

I tapped Seokhyun's forearm and lowered my voice.

“Let’s follow him.”

"You mean we?"

"Yeah. I don't like the feeling of someone following my tail. He'll definitely get stronger by killing his men, right?"

“Are we going to put him down?”

“That’s our specialty.”

"SEEEXXXXXX." Seokhyun clapped his hands, then got up and started dancing clossack dance. However, not long after that, he stopped. He grumbled and tried to jump down the building after complaining that it didn't feel the same as back in the game because there's no ghouls around him now.

"Seokhyun-ah, please! Don't do that!”

I barely caught him and made him dance inside the building. He's really not normal.

Well, since I hang out with him, should I say I'm not normal either?