Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Bang-!!!

The gryphon collided with a building’s wall and broke it down. The window frame, which had barely maintained its shape, was crushed, and the windows were shattered. It hadn’t crossed the Styx river just yet, but it was in a state of fainting thanks to the impact.

After the dust settled, Shin Il-hwan and his group, who were quick on their feet to run away, found the gryphon.

“What the fuck is this?”

“I heard that gryphon’s meat is edible…”

When someone said that, everyone looked at him.

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. If we boil it for a few hours, it will be edible. Though the meat of the cubs tastes better than the adults.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Shin Il-hwan said, with an excited expression painting his face. After all, he just saw the gryphon’s eyes blink.

“It’s still alive. Do you know what it means?”

“If you kill them, you will get skill and experience…?”

“Did you just talk to me informally?”

“No, no, Hyung-nim!”

Shin Il-hwan smiled. Looking at the gryphon, he felt like a cake just rolled to his mouth when he’s sleeping. Of course, a gryphon was a dangerous monster, but it wasn’t moving. Wouldn’t killing it be an easy thing to do? He just needed to sneak up to it and stab it in its eye.

He stood on the steps, staring intently at the gryphon’s head, and extended his arm towards his subordinates.

“Long knife.”

“Yes, Hyung-nim!”

A familiar feeling came to his hand. He stretched his neck to both sides and climbed to the floor.

‘What skill will this gryphon give me, I wonder?’ Shin Il-hwan smirked. Actually, that didn’t matter at all. He was more pleased by the fact that if he killed the gryphon, his name would be widely known.

“The title ‘Ogre Slayer’ is so yesterday. Now, everyone shall know the name ‘Gryphon Slayer’…”

The tip of the long knife touched the gryphon’s eyes and the smile on Shin Il-hwan’s mouth widened.

But he didn’t know. The ‘Ogre Slayer’ he mocked who fell together with the gryphon was currently climbing the stairs he just climbed on a few seconds ago. It also means that he could hear Shin Il-hwan’s words very clearly, thanks to his Super Sense skill.

All of a sudden, his subordinates began to let out a moan. Shin Il-hwan thought nothing of it, but when he turned around, he was startled. Someone was beating his men!

“KEUK!!!!”

“Agh!”

Shin Il-hwan and Seongho’s eyes met at that moment.

“I prepared the meal, but that meal is not for you.”

“Prepared? Meal?”

“If you don’t want to die, lower your sword now.”

“…”

Shin Il-hwan clenched his teeth and clenched the long knife tight. It didn’t matter who the man in front of him was. After all, his pride, as someone who had formed and led a large faction inside the Korean shelter, didn’t let him be commanded by anyone.

His lips twitched. “Sorry, finders keepers.”

The long knife dug into the gryphon’s eyes. No, to be exact, it was stopped only inches away from the eyes by something invisible.

Shin Il-hwan was taken aback, but still gave more strength to his hands. But he could not break through whatever it was.

Seongho clenched his fist at that moment.

“Oh ho, so that means you want to die, right?”

It was then that Shin Il-hwan realized who the big man in front of him was. A giant with short hair in a black body armor… He’s none other than I Love Gimbap. He, who had left the Korean Shelter, had come all the way here.

But how did he make the gryphon fall here?

While such thoughts run through his mind, Seongho’s fist hits his stomach. He couldn’t even scream and grabbed his stomach. His legs shook as he was forced by his own body to take a step back. Although he was someone with a physical strengthening unique skill while also having the Pain Tolerance skill, he could not stand the blow.

As the second punch went deep into his stomach, Shin Il-hwan’s consciousness started to fade.

“Keeeuu…” Something resembling the cries of a ghost escaped from his twisted lips.

Seongho patted his cheek while showing no expression on his face. For him, killing and beating people up was already a daily routine, so there wasn’t much feeling coming up to his heart while doing so. He just wanted to get this thing out of the way quickly.

After a few more punches, Shin Il-hwan became completely silent. Seongho grabbed his limp neck with one hand and lifted it up.

“I warn you, do not appear before me again. If you do so, that day will be the day you die.” Seongho said, as he flung his limp body out of the building. His body would be tattered at best. But, he wouldn’t die. The members of his faction, who already stood back up, were frightened and ran away when they saw their leader flying away through the window.

Seongho sighed. In fact, the reason he didn’t kill the guy who touched the gryphon was because this place was inside the Korean Shelter. He ended up entering the shelter without permission, so he felt it would be too much if he also commit a murder.

In addition, he would have to use the Crime Pardon scroll to make his murder stack back to 0. If he just keeps killing everyone who annoyed him thoughtlessly, he might run out of the scrolls, and when the situation calls for an inevitable choice, he might not be able to return at all from being a murderer.

“You are not dead yet, aren’t you?” Seongho patted the gryphon’s head.

At that moment, Lee Sangshin and Hyung-jun appeared from upstairs. There were also Moon Daeho and Moon Soyoon, and Yoo Ji-hye who is still looking at him with fearful eyes.

“I was wondering what the hell fell here…”

“Seongho, is that your doing?”

“I heard that Sooyeon’s glasses were broken.”

“Wow… you fought a gryphon just because of that?”

“Just that? Do you know how uncomfortable it is to wear glasses in the apocalypse?” Seongho glanced at Soyoon. The latter quickly coughed and turned her head away.

“There should be some shady guys here. Where did they go?”

“They left.”

“They aren’t the type to leave when just being told, though?”

“I made them.”

“Aha.” Sangshin nodded and stepped back.

Seongho looked around at the people and opened his mouth. “I want you to stay away for a moment. I have work to do.”

This place was their dormitory, so he thought he had to be polite even when asking them to leave. When Hyung-jun disappeared with the people, Seongho opened the portal and summoned Sooyeon.

Mikyung, who was on the roof of the building across the street, also came.

“Sooyeon, you just need to kill it. Just close your eyes and stab the eyes with a long knife.”

“…”

She looked at Seongho for a moment before accepting the long knife into her hand. She then pressed it hard against the gryphon’s eyes.

“Ah…” Sooyeon let out such a sound as soon as her status window was updated. On her skill list, a new entry with the name Gryphon’s Eye was there.

As Sooyeon slowly took off her half-broken glasses, Mikyung trembled.

“Wow, unnie… you’re so pretty.”

Without paying the compliment any attention, Sooyeon admired the view. Even without glasses, her vision was crisp and incredibly clear. Something which she had long lost. She naturally dropped her glasses, but Seongho picked them up.

“Even though you already have the skill, you should not throw it away. There will be cases where your skills are blocked later.”

Sooyeon looked at him without saying a word, then approached him slightly and hugged him.

“Thank you… Seongho, thank you very much… I’m just nothing, but to think you will take care of me like this…”

Seongho patted her shoulder.

“There are so many things Sooyeon has done in the past and will do much more in the future, so how can you say you are nothing? Your eyes are fine now, right?

“Yeah… it’s great.”

Sooyeon smiled broadly and Seongho was captivated by her beauty for a moment. She was already pretty when she was wearing ugly medical glasses, yet now, her beauty was compounded even more. It’s a different kind of feeling from Da-jeong’s beauty.

Seongho sighed and pushed her away.

“Please go back to our shelter for now. I didn’t come here with permission.”

“Does that mean there is still work to be done? If it’s so, okay then.”

After she went into the portal, Mikyung stood around Seongho without doing anything else.

“She’s really pretty.”

“Yeah. When she took off her glasses, I was surprised. By the way, you go inside too. If you lack points for future use, just tell Jiman.”

People need 100 points to enter the portal. Since Mikyung’s blink ability is often needed, she often walks in and out of the portal.

Jiman was in charge of supplementing the points. There were so many things which could be sold at the shelter, thus his points had already surpassed Da-jeong’s total point. Though, he would give things to sell to those who needed points without greed.

Seongho pulled her arm and hugged her as Mikyung tried to enter the portal.

“You did a good job earlier. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be in trouble.”

“Hehe.”

She hugged him back and laughed. As the two of us were doing this, the surroundings became noisy. The people who discovered the gryphon had come to see it with their own eyes. Mikyung quickly hid inside the portal, and Seongho went upstairs.

‘Why is it so noisy outside?’ He took a peek and saw that even Jang Won-taek and Lee Beom-seok were looking at the gryphon.

Jang Won-taek’s gaze reached Seongho at that moment.

In his eyes, his gaze was as if saying:

‘Help me.’

.

.

.

The plan for not staying for too long in the shelter went awry because Jang Won-taek said he had something to say and asked for a talk. I knew it was going to be very troublesome and boring, so I refused.

However, the more we talked, the more I felt pricked in my conscience. After all, I was the one who cut off his right arm. If I hadn’t killed Hyun-woo, Jang Won-taek wouldn’t have found himself in this predicament.

I don’t regret it, but it seemed like I needed to lend him a hand.

“…the Yeouido Coalition and the Han River Faction are the two biggest factions as they are actively gathering people. Both of them keep demanding us to give out supplies. But, what they ultimately want is guns to rule the shelter.”

Lee Beom-seok’s explanations continued one after another, and I suddenly wanted to run away. The most annoying thing in the world was faction fights. If it happened in my shelter, I’d rather kick everyone out and live on my own.

Looking at Jang Won-taek’s face, it wasn’t far-fetched to say that he had become 10 years older. An evident on just how much the trouble bugging him.

I looked out and asked.

“Just a few minutes ago, I beat up this big man and several others…”

“That is Shin Il-Hwan and his members from the Yeouido Coalition. We found out after he came here that he worked as a gangster back in the normal world.”

“A gangster in this shelter… What a funny thing.”

“Hehehe, what can we do? It just happened.”

“Do you still think this shelter should always be open for everyone now?”

Jang Won-taek shook his head and spoke in a slightly embarrassed tone. “No… but even after closing the door, things still didn’t work out the way I thought it would. It seems that I lack the ability.”

Someone who had reached the peak of Korea’s political ladder? Lacking ability?

“Well, in my opinion, it’s not your ability which is lacking, but the way you’re solving it.”

“Do you mean I need to start using force?”

Indeed. It was the prescription the shelter needed now.

“If they don’t want to die, they should just run away. Should I tell you another way?”

“What is it?”

I reached out to Jang Won-taek.

“Hand over the shelter to me. Then I will take care of everything.”

“Mister President, that’s…”

Lee Beom-seok tried to step out, but Jang Won-taek stopped him with his eyes.

“Let’s continue to hear it now. What are you going to do after you drive them out or kill them?”

“Unlike before, I will only let some selected people to enter the shelter.”

“Will you use your standard as the measuring method?”

“It may not be the universally valid standard that you politicians often talk about. It’s my way.”

“What about the rest of them?”

“They will have to live on their own.”

Jang Won-taek laughed for a moment at the simple ignorant remark.

“It seems like it’s true that some people just can’t understand each other.”

“You have seen enough evidence, haven’t you? Your old ways are not working. How much more ‘evidence’ do you want to see until you change your mind?”

“No… no.”

Jang Won-taek leaned against the window.

“After I entered Yeouido, I went through a lot of people and fought against a lot of powers. There are people who accept me and there are people who don’t. It was fine, though. I had hoped that one day they would understand me. It was all blown away thanks to the apocalypse, though.”

“According to my dog-shit philosophy, no matter where they are, what situation they’re in, in the end, people will end up living as they please. Correcting it is a fool’s errand. It is best to crush them thoroughly, whether it’s by using the law, or violence.”

He looked at me bitterly.

“Maybe Seongho is right… At least at this point, Seongho’s way is working well.”

“I’ll decide on my payment myself.”

I would take what I want with me when my work is done.

“As of now, Seongho-ssi is the leader of the Korean Sheler. I will leave it up to you.” Jang Won-taek bowed his head to me.

Now, all the supplies in the spare shelter and bunker were in my hands. My stint would be short. But it should be enough.

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After Jang Won-taek and Lee Beom-seok left, I met Hyung-jun hyung and his group again. They were astonished to hear that I had become the shelter’s leader.

“Just what in the world happened?”

“Long story short, I’m just a janitor. I’m just going to clean up for a while.”

Lee Sangshin snapped his fingers.

“Oh, I see. Are you here to clean up the faction? Thank god! I was fed up with them.”

“But Sangshin, don’t you have something to say to me?”

“There’s nothing, though?”

I looked straight at him.

“I will be direct with you. Do you want to hunt with me?”

“Your offer is tempting, but I felt burdensome. I’m not a great person.”

“If someone like you, who has watched my broadcast from start to finish, is not great, then who dares to say that they’re great?”

Despite my repeated persuasion, he persevered. Even when I told him that Poor Man is now with me, waiting for him, he only flinched for a moment.

He sighed and confessed his true feelings.

“I mean, I’m not a great person. What should such a person do if they want to live a long life? Staying clear from the way of the real ‘great people’.”

“Am I great?”

“More like dangerous, to be honest.”

It’s sad that I couldn’t deny it.

I delivered an ultimatum. “If you join my shelter, you will get free soup for the rest of your life.”

“PARDON!?!!!??”

“We will make it whenever you want to eat soup. Instead, you just have to be patient as making it will take some time.”

“No, how… Isn’t your unique skill something related to subspace?”

“Don’t ask for details. How is it? This is my last offer. If you refuse, that’s it.”

“Will we have pork gukbap?”

“Absolutely.”

“Can I eat a lot?”

“You can eat as many as you want.”

“I will be loyal forever.”

He’s such an easy man.

The other people who were watching also had expressions on their faces when they heard it.

“Sangshin oppa, how can you give in that easily?”

Sangshin shrugged his shoulders when she asked the question.

“There’s nothing I can do in front of pork gukbap.”