Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

I was able to identify some skills that the nurse in front of me used. It was Blink and tentacle. On top of it, judging from the fact that parts of her body were reattaching itself to her body after being hit by Seokhyun, it was clear that she also had a regeneration skill.

‘Neither the doctors nor the nurse are normal.’

The nurse stretched her tentacles towards Seokhyun at that moment. The air rippled as it brushed next to his head.

Glancing to my side, I could see Da-jeong also jump to the side to avoid the tentacles. At the same time, Da-jeong’s werewolf, which was clinging to the ceiling, ran at full speed towards the nurse.

‘That’s not an ordinary werewolf’s movements.’ I mused. It seems like it had received buffs from being tamed and became stronger.

However, the nurse blocked its attack easily. She used her tentacle to wrap around the werewolf’s neck and swing it around to block Seokhyun’s attack.

Seokhyun, who was just about to punch, pulled his punch back. A good call in my opinion as he shouldn’t have attacked Da-jeong’s werewolf. It’s her first ever monster. So it would be special. If he killed it here, who knows what Da-jeong would do to him… Or me…

Da-jeong rushed in and the nurse threw the werewolf at her. Something which looked like tears could be seen in her eyes.

“I Love Gimbap is mine! But you! YOUUUU!!!!”

“Just who is yours? He’s mine you bitch!” After avoiding the werewolf, Da-jeong raised the mithril blades in her hands and climbed the wall. A white brilliance emerged from the darkness along with a thump. Seconds later, I realized that Da-jeong had cut a few of the nurse’s tentacles.

However, the nurse didn’t care at all and just continued to stretch her tentacles out to contain Seokhyun.

Is there no limit to her regeneration ability?

“Heup!!” Seokhyun, who had been striking the tentacles for a while, grabbed a tentacle blitzing towards him without avoiding it. A struggle of strength ensued. And before long, Seokhyun came out victorious; He lifted the nurse away from the ground using his ogre-like strength.

Just when Seokhyun was about to give her a taste of his high kick, the nurse’s body disappeared and appeared behind me.

“Uh-huh.”

As soon as I heard her voice, I pulled out a mithril blade from the dimension slot and swung it towards my back. Blood splattered from the nurse’s face and several of her tentacles fell to the floor.

“Kyaaaak!” She hurriedly backed away with a shriek, clutching her hand that had turned into tentacles with her other hand. Using that opportunity, Da-jeong and Seokhyun jumped towards the nurse again.

Meanwhile, I could see the three masked men running towards me. All of them were screaming with their eyes red. However, my gut feeling told me that their red eyes weren’t the result of fighting instinct skill. It was probably the effect from the brainwashing.

“I Love Gimbap! Do you know how much I wanted to meet you?”

“You can’t say you don’t know me!”

“You bastard! We will pay you back for what you’ve done to us in the Wetland Labyrinth!!!!”

Wetland labyrinth? Why in the world is that place coming out from their mouths?

When I saw the weapon the masked mens’ had in their hand, I thought that I had seen it somewhere. But since everyone was wearing a mask, it was hard to tell who was who.

If that’s the case…

I put my mithril blade into the dimension slot and clenched my fist tight. The masked man on the left who saw the blade suddenly disappear twitched ever so slightly.

“Huh?

I decided on you!

I activated a few of my skills and ran towards the guy. The incoming long knife was a bit scary, but I decided to trust my senses as well as regenerative power and pushed on.

“HAAAA”

“Heeeub!”

The long knives narrowly passed my shoulders and head. I bowed to avoid the targeted attack of the masked man and got up straight away. But he noticed my attempt to attack and immediately leaned back to avoid it.

‘Look at this guy.’ My eyes narrowed. Even someone with a high level of awareness wouldn’t be able to avoid this. Which means, the masked man in front of me must have a sensory skill.

The man retreated quickly, and another masked man swung his longknife with terrifying speed at me.

‘This guy is a body strengthening-type.’

I blocked their attacks with a dimension wall and stepped back. Behind me, Seokhyun and Da-jeong were fighting with the nurse who was screaming strange noises.

A smile crept across the face of one particular masked man.

“Heh, it’s not as easy as before, is it?”

“Back then, you were lucky we were in a closed space… You won’t be as lucky this time around.”

“Have we ever met each other?” When I asked, all three of them shook their shoulders.

“Have we met? Are you seriously asking that? You met us in the Wetland Labyrinth. Have you already forgotten?”

“Let’s just kill that bastard.”

“If we break his head a little, he might remember it.”

Now I was sure about their identity. The masked man trio were those who I killed in the Wetland Labyrinth because they attacked Geom-in.

But, how can they be here? They were obviously dead.

Resurrection itself was possible, but those guys had no Resurrection Scroll back then.

Was there any kind of Unique Skill which could bring the dead back to life?

I took out a mithril blade from the dimension slot at that moment. The three masked men who saw it mocked me.

“That bastard is flustered!”

“You murderer. Didn’t we say we haven’t killed anyone else before?”

“It must have been because you don’t have the ability to do so.”

“You bastard!”

The conversation ended here. Even if I couldn’t kill them, it should be okay to cut their limbs. I climbed the wall and ran at them.

“That bastard climbed the wall!”

“What the fuck are you doing? Are you in the circus or what!”

I spawned the dimension wall mid air and changed my direction using it. The masked men swung their long knives in shock when I suddenly rushed at them. However, the Mithril Blade was much harder than the longknife. Thus, when my sword clashed with theirs, their long knife shattered to pieces right away.

“Huh?” One of them let out such a voice as I grabbed the masked man’s arm and cut its mask off his face. After some resistance, the man’s arm was cut cleanly from the shoulder blade below. But to my surprise, the masked man who had to struggle with pain was able to push me away.

Not only physical reinforcement, does he also have pain tolerance?

As I was being pushed back, I observed the man’s shoulder blade. There was nothing on it. Not even blood dripping out.

‘These guys… aren’t human?’ Then I’ll kill them. I gave strength to remove the mask man that was stuck to me and also blocked the attack of the other two. Then, using the gap, I took out a shotgun from the dimension slot.

When I finished reloading the shotgun, the Masked Man stuttered. “If you kill me…”

Bang! Bang!

The masked man’s head, which took the brunt of the impact of shotgun shells from close range, turned into a beehive in an instant. Surprisingly, he was able to hold on to his two feet for a few seconds before finally collapsing to the ground.

Dajeong screamed at that moment.

“Seongho, you!”

“It’s okay! These bastards are not human!”

「You have earned 10 points」

If I had killed humans, the points I would get was 50. Therefore, it was safe to say that this masked man was anything but human. Judging from their durability and point count, it looks like they were something like ghouls. But how did they turn humans into a ghoul?

I aimed at the heads of the other terrified masked man. But at that moment, the nurse suddenly appeared. I quickly spread the dimensional prison in front of her as she approached with her tentacles wide open as if wanting to hug me.

“Kyaaak!”

After the nurse disappeared with a scream, only the two masked men were left. Seokhyun and Da-jeong ran to them and started to beat them to pulp.

“They are not human, so you can kill them.”

“Not human? Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay then.”

After a while, the two masked men met a tragic death. As expected, Da-jeong and Seokhyun did not become murderers. After that, we quickly circled the dimensional prison portal.

Da-jeong crossed her arms and stomped the ground rhythmically with her feet.

“I overheard it just now, but you have already killed them before?”

“Yeah. You were there too when I did it. They were the three guys who attacked Geom-in in the Wetland Labyrinth.”

“That’s them? They looked different!”

I touched one of the corpses with my foot and showed her the part where I cut him.

“There’s no blood, right? Moreover, I only got 10 points after killing this guy. It means, he’s a ghoul, not a human.”

“Did they put a human soul into a ghoul body? Is that even possible?”

“There is a skill which resurrects someone as long as he has points, a skill that could fully resurrect someone wouldn’t be so strange.”

Seokhyun scratched his bald head and stood on where the nurse would come out.

“Then, there’s a possibility that the woman is not human, right?”

“I think so. Though, I need you guys to cut her legs or arms first, not the tentacles to make sure.”

Da-jeong thought for a long time and said, “I’m sure those who are behind the doctor and the nurse are experimenting with humans. The Sniffles and ghouls which act like humans are the proof.”

I agreed with her.

“I’m sure they have an end goal… let’s hear the story when the nurse comes out.”

“Do you think she will tell us? First of all, she’s a villain.” Da-jeong tilted her head.

“We have to show her that we are crueler than villains.”

“That’s a good way.” Da-jeong nodded.

Eventually, the dimensional prison flung the nurse back to reality. Unlike when she entered, her nurse’s uniform was now tattered in many places.

“UGHHHH!!!” Her tentacles and everything else was devoid of any strength. Her face was also painted with fear.

“I-I-I kept falling off the cliff! It was endless.”

Without showing any pity, Seokhyun grabbed her from behind and while Da-jeong stood a few distance away to prepare if she escaped with blink.

Contrary to their preparedness, the nurse only laughed. “To think you can use your spatial ability like that…”

I pressed the blade to her chin. “I know you are not human. So it would not matter if I kill you. Now, I’m going to ask you something, okay?”

“It doesn’t matter. I already achieved my objective anyway… What are you curious about?”

Surprisingly, she surrendered easily.

“Tell me your identity and purpose.”

“If I tell you that, will you go with me? By the way, I didn’t give up on you. Someday I’ll eat you…”

“With what? You don’t have any p***y aren’t you?”

“I can just make one.”

Is that so?

Upon hearing her words, Da-jeong smiled and squatted down in front of the nurse.

“Do you want to do it together with us? Seongho’s ass is really cool.”

“I like that proposition.”

“…it was my fault for believing.” I gave strength to the blade.

The nurse said hastily after that. “You’re wasting your time. I will just come back to life.”

“You have a Resurrection Scroll? Why am I not surprised…”

She pushed her long torn corners of her lips upwards.

“Scroll is outdated. Can you see the thing on my back?” When I looked at it, an unknown inscription was engraved on her smooth back. It seemed like it was the engraved version of the Resurrection Scroll.

“I have thought about it before. You guys have quite a bit of information; Your power also seems to be strong enough. So, why are you doing this?”

The nurse answered with something we didn’t expect.

“It’s to live.”

“Tell us everything.”

At my prompt, she smiled and continued.

“You guys are misunderstanding something. Even though we have had great power and have done many things… We are just like you guys. We are just trying to survive in this apocalypse.”

“Isn’t it too much for something like that?”

She looked straight at me. From the shape of her mouth I could conclude that she was laughing.

“You have also killed people before, haven’t you? We are just like you… But, we just put the corpse to good use.”

As always, talking to them was like talking to a wall.

As soon as I heard the answer, I cut off her throat. Her severed head rolled on the floor and her skin stopped wriggling. After that, her body was engulfed in the light and disappeared.

When Da-jeong was about to snap her fingers, I told her. “There’s no need for that. After all, she died, she didn’t use Blink to run away.”

“Shit… I’m so annoyed all of a sudden. We got no answer!!”

“We got one.”

Seokhyun looked out the window as he said so. When we followed his action, we could see one of the men who was brainwashed by the nurse being attacked by survivors.

“Both the doctor and the nurse are not invincible. If we kill them, they die.”

“What are you talking about? Of course they will die if we kill them.”

“I mean, they’re not strong to the point we can’t fight them. We just have to level up and collect items diligently to fight them.”

Well, what he said was right. If they were an absolute existence, they wouldn’t have needed me in the first place.

In other words, they were also like us; they couldn’t use the entire system. However, as of now, it’s clear that they’re ahead of us judging by the fact that they had Resurrection Scrolls engraved on their bodies and their ability to resurrect the dead.

I put my arms around Da-jeong and Seokhyun’s shoulders.

“Okay, let’s work hard to raise our level.”

“But you know, I found it weird how the nurse is weak compared to the doctor from before.”

“It’s because she’s a nurse. She has less to study than a doctor.”

“What bullshit are you talking about right now?”

We got out of the hospital talking about this and that with Da-jeong’s werewolf in tow.

.

.

.

We devoted ourselves to hunting in the Yongsan-gu area. And just like me and Da-jeong, Seokhyun gained an additional effect once he reached level 30. His body was engulfed in light, and once he reappeared, his looks became astonishingly young. All of his tiny scars were also gone, and his slender body was devoid of muscles.

Da-jeong touched Seokhyun’s body while her eyes looked at him with eyes full of doubt.

“Be honest with me. You aren’t Rapwi, aren’t you?”

“SSEEEGGGGGGSSSSSSSSSSS.”

“Ah, you are him, huh? But how come your appearance changed so much?”

“I don’t know either. My body became much lighter. My stats have also increased by a lot.”

In a nutshell, his body had been transformed into a body suitable for

I opened the portal in front of the National Museum and started hunting. The matter of national treasure would be taken care of by the members inside the Shelter.

When dealing with the nurse, I ate quite a bit of experience, so I quickly rose to level 34. Only when the shelter members asked me to move the portal a few days later did I rise to level 35.

「Level has risen to 35」

「You have earned 20 points」

「As you has reached level 35, an additional effect will be added to your unique skill」

「Dimensional Warehouse」

“Did anything good come out?”

“The skill name is Dimensional Warehouse. It sounds shabby, but it should be surprisingly useful.”

If it has the effect I wanted, it would be perfect.

We decided to return to the museum and look at the additional effects.

“Open the Dimensional Warehouse.” As soon as I finished speaking, a large door appeared in the vacant lot in front of the museum. Compared to the commonly used portal, it was several times larger in size. Since Da-jeong and Seokhyun’s mouths were open, it seemed that it was visible to both of them.

“Wh-why is it so big?”

“Even the truck will be able to come in.”

As I entered, a huge space greeted me. Da-jeong knocked on the door from outside, but there was no sound. I waved my hand to her and looked around. The sheer size of the place would accommodate few houses easily.

“The air is a bit stuffy, though…”

The floor and walls were all made of white material. When I knocked at them with all my power as a test, it didn’t even budge. I went out and took Dingo into the warehouse. Unexpectedly, the guy stopped moving immediately after entering.

“Dingo. Hey Dingo!”

The guy who had just jumped in suddenly ceased to move.

Does time stop in this place?

Am I moving because I am the owner of this warehouse?

“If time stops, it means that anything I put inside wouldn’t be damaged, right?” It’s a setting that only appeared in a fantasy novel, but since our current world didn’t come short compared to any fantasy novel, I’m not surprised at all.

I was satisfied with the functionality of the warehouse. All in all, it’s a cheat-like skill. When I took Dingo outside, he panted and ran again, continuing from the point before he froze. Then, I explained the functions of the dimensional warehouse to Da-jeong and Seokhyun.

“If you put food inside, I don’t think it will ever rot.”

“I think so too.” When I tested it, the food also froze in time.

Da-jeong pulled my cheek as soon as I went outside.

“Only you get all the good things. You greedy man!”

Anyway, now I had a place to store the treasures. I eagerly carried the treasures that the shelter members had moved to the warehouse. The treasures kept in the art museum which was burnt were those that were less famous, but the ones here were real national treasures.

As I gave up on things that were too big like a stone pagoda and made my way to the National Museum, spring came.

On a certain day, I saw a grotesque plant perched on the ground around the pond that grew at an incredible rate.

At that sight, I realized.

The erosion had started.