Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

The Hannam-dong Clan finally sent their answer in regard to Seongho’s proposition through Kim Ji-eun. All in all, they were mostly leaning to welcome Seongho’s offer, while at the same time, inquiring how Seongho could figure out their circumstances.

But there were two problems standing in the way of a smooth merge between them. Although they felt it was nothing but ideal for them to join the Korean Shelter, the amount of supplies they had to leave behind to join them in Yeouido was a big problem. In addition, the newly joined personnel also emerged as a problem. It would have been fine if they just stayed quiet, but they were all busy trying to get a position above others.

For the problems, Seongho offered a way to smoothen the process.

-Just leave the supplies there. Regarding personnel, when you guys meet me before, few people come to meet me, right? Just take care of them and leave the rest.

-But, how about the supplies?

-Just go, those supplies will probably arrive in the Korean Shelter’s warehouse before you anyway.

-How is that possible…

She seemed to be curious about how the supplies would be moved. But Seongho didn’t tell her anything. His unique skill has become something of a public secret, but it’s still better to keep its details a secret.

When he said that he would take care of the supplies, the Hannam-dong Clan leaders made a decision. However, it seems that the ruckus caused by their newly accepted personnel was still too much to handle.

Soye’s rant continued one after another.

-Those guys… What gave them so much courage to ask me to dance for them? Seongho, do I look like an easy girl?

She’s not. But she’s definitely a girl that’s easy to fall in love with. If it wasn’t for Da-jeong and the other girls in the shelter, he could say that he also would fall in love with her.

-I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.

-Riiiigghhhtt? Ah… I’m so relieved that Seongho offers us a way to distance ourselves from them. How should I repay you?

-I didn’t do it to get anything in return, so just come to the shelter and be quiet. Otherwise, I’ll kick you out.

-Seongho is currently the leader, right? Where did that grandfather from before go?

-He’s taking a break. When he returns, I will also return the leadership role to him.

-Wait a minute, then that means Seongho will leave the Korean Shelter, right?

Not necessarily.

Seongho planned to keep his name as a member of the Korean Shelter even after the situation returned to normal. However, he wouldn’t act for them; he would act freely without being bound by the rules. This was an agreement he reached with Jang Won-taek.

When he explained that point, Soye was skeptical.

-If Seongho would be leaving the shelter, there is no reason for us to go there…

-I won’t officially leave the shelter. It’s just that I won’t stay there for a long period of time, as I would be busy going around.

After all, if he couldn’t do that, he would miss a lot of things which were necessary for his growth. Moreover, the amount of supplies stored in spare shelters and bunkers located around Seoul alone was no joke. So far, less than 10% have been unearthed. With that in mind, it was better to keep his name written on the shelter personnel’s list even when he transferred the leadership back to Jang Won-taek.

-Are you saying you’re going to stay in the shelter?

-Of course.

-Then we will move. All agreements have been made. There are some people who just don’t like it, but…

-Just seal the bunker and move. I’ll take care of the rest.

Seongho really took care of it. No one knew what he was going to do when he stopped by the Hannam-dong Clan’s shelter. But soon after, a series of screams continued around the luxury villa. A few days passed and Seongho returned to the Korean Shelter as the Hannam-dong Clan members adjusted to their new dwelling.

Soye was happy to see him and promptly ran towards him. However, just a few meters away from him, her steps come to a sudden halt. After all, a thick smell of blood was permeating from his body.

Even though he acted casually as if he did nothing, Soye could feel it. Seongho was a type of person who took care of any dangerous and repulsive work which people would shy away from.

It was around that time that Jang Won-taek and Lee Beom-seok met and greeted the members of the Hannam-dong Clan. The former leader admired the changed atmosphere in the shelter.

“It had changed a lot in just a very short time.”

“Are you talking about the atmosphere?”

“People say the new leader is very coercive. But, they also said he’s down to earth and caring. Do you understand why there are such conflicting evaluations?”

Lee Beom Seok hesitated before opening his mouth.

“He utilized the ‘carrots and sticks’ method very skillfully…”

“That’s right… He used to rule with an iron fist using the other stagnant water people, but when he decided to do something different, he managed to throw away the act very quickly. Even for someone like me, I know that someone who gives you pork Gukbap, samgye-tang, and sashimi won’t ever betray me, hahahaha.”

“Didn’t he just use the food to coax his way in? It won’t last long.”

Jang Won-taek was surprised by his subordinate’s poor evaluation. It seemed like the guy was jealous of Seongho’s achievement.

He looked out the window and saw people eating. Even without Seongho around, they brought the chair and the table out and ate in peace. The reason why everyone was quiet was probably because they knew what would happen if they acted otherwise.

Jang Won-taek suddenly asked.

“…How long have you been following me?

“It should be around 21 years and 3 months now.”

“It’s been such a long time, huh? I remember the first time we entered Yeouido. Weren’t you my attendant at that time? We didn’t even know the way and parked the car in the wrong place.”

“I am ashamed…”

“That’s right. Seongho is teaching us things we didn’t know even with our 21 years of experience in the political world. We should be ashamed.”

“Mister President…”

Jang Won-taek smiled vaguely.

“It was said that the water behind the Yangtze River pushes the water in front… In this apocalypse, every affair was decided by the strong. We have to work hard not to be culled.”

Lee Beom-seok did not dare to refute the words of his esteemed superior. He must have known that he and Seongho had an argument.

“Then what should we do next?”

“We have to admit and accept that there are other ways other than our own way. It shouldn’t be a means to an evil end though…”

“Mister President, please, lead us once again.”

“This guy… Seongho is the current leader of the shelter. Not me.”

The mentor spoke, and the disciple accepted.

“I will keep that in mind.”

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Lee Sangshin, the soup addict, finally entered Seongho’s shelter. Oh Hyung-jun and Yoo Ji-Hye also decided to enter the shelter, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

Yoo Ji-hye’s fighting power was lower than even Yeowool and Sooyeon. Thus, Seongho couldn’t be sure if she would successfully pass the entrance test even if he armed her with guns, and had Dingo and a scarab accompany her. Thankfully, Hyung-jun was aware of it and said that they would level up for a while before attempting the test.

Meanwhile, Lee Sang-shin, who just entered the shelter, was at a loss for words.

“What is this… It’s a completely different world…”

“Welcome to Seongho’s World!” Said a bald guy with a rabbit headband that jumped up and down.

Sangshin ignored him and looked around before finding that his hut was being built. Jiman and Geom-in were the ones who were in charge of it.

“All the huts were occupied, so we have to build a new one.”

“Can I do anything to help?” Sangshin said.

“Nope. You are going to go to the 6th floor of the Great Labyrinth with us.” Seongho said nonchalantly.

Right at that moment, he was dragged by three stagnant water. The moment he regained his calm, he found himself in front of a room with bizarre patterned walls.

Seongho said softly.

“Do you know about the doppelganger room? If we go there, monster with an ability to copy our skill will come out.”

“They will copy our ability?”

“Yeah. It’s very dangerous because it can even copy unique skills. Seokhyun and Da-jeong fired a rocket at them, but they avoided it.”

Lee Sangshin opened his mouth wide.

Just how high were these guys’ stats?

“…so what should I do?”

“You’ll be putting some anti-tank mines there. The press trigger would be around over 100kg, can you do it?” Seongho took 3 anti-tank mines from the dimensional warehouse as he said it. As he felt that one would not be enough, he wanted to just blow all three together.

Lee Sang-shin showed his telekinetic power by lifting Seongho and the backpack at the same time.

“That’s amazing… Does your ability apply to humans as well?” Admired Da-jeong.

“I didn’t use my power on Seongho but the backpack. If I could use it on people too, it would be a complete scam. I can just squeeze their heart.”

“Ahh.”

“Anyway, let’s start.”

Lee Sangshin concentrated his mind and moved three anti-tank mines to the doppelganger room. Now when four people approach the room, four doppelgangers will pop out. Aside from the stats, it would also copy Seongho’s unique skill, so they had to get rid of it as soon as possible.

“Let’s go.”

As soon as the four approached, the floor of the room wobbled and something which looked like a lump of mud spurted out. It was at that time that more than 100 kg of pressure was applied to the three anti-tank mines.

Boom-!!

A deafening noise and vibrations swept through the dimensional wall. Seongho saw that the dimension wall was about to break, so he hurriedly opened the portal. The four quietly hid behind Seongho, and as the dust settled, they poked their heads out.

“Is it dead?”

“Don’t jinx it!” Da-jeong complained.

“No, it won’t come out again. Look, the loot has already dropped.”

“Oh ho. Items.”

The three went into the messy room and picked up the items. Sangshin, who triggered the anti-tank mine, was excited.

“My level has gone up by two…”

“Well, they copy everything including our level. So it makes sense.”

“You are lucky to have killed us.”

As a prize for reaching level 30, Sangsin got a flame shield–which was his newly acquired additional effect. A bright curtain unfolded in front of him, and Seokhyun, who just picked up the item from his monster counterpart, tilted his head at the sight.

“Can I hit it?”

Sangshin nodded confidently.

“Sure. With this, I became complete. Noone…”

“Falcon Punch!

Seokhyun rushed in and threw a punch. When his fist hit the bright shield, it disappeared without a trace. That’s not all, the impact also threw Sangshin rolling over the floor as if he was a dumped trash bag.

Da-jeong saw it and kicked Seokhyun’s ass.

“Why did you do it to that kid!!!!”

“I didn’t think the shield would be that weak.”

Seongho opened the portal again and slid Sangshin inside. He believed that the shelter members would take care of him.

“Now let’s delve to the seventh floor.”

The three of them entered the stairway and descended. However, the closer they go to the end, the stranger the atmosphere becomes.

Seokhyun, who was in the lead, touched the wall and tilted his head.

“Is this… mucus?”

“Just keep moving forwards. We’ll check once we are there.”

“When we arrive, don’t rush to enter. It’s a floor with a containment layer.”

“We have guns!”

However, the three of them who arrived on the 7th floor were at a loss for words. After all, the 7th floor they remember from back in the game was nowhere to be seen.

“What the hell is this…”

“What is this wobbly wall…”

The wall shook as if it were alive. When Seongho shined it with the flashlight, the part which the light touched moved intensively. The stifling feeling of being inside a living creature and the unpleasant air was also added as a bonus.

Seongho was surprised even more when he activated his Super Sense skill.

“I can hear some screams.”

“Can you figure out what kind of monster it is?”

“It’s the first time I’ve ever heard something like this. It’s like… a devil from hell…”

“That’s troubling. The fact that that guy said we will die if we go to the 8th floor makes it even more so.” Da-jeong sighed.

“It seems like whatever that guy said could kill us on the 8th floor made it all the way to the 7th floor.”

“A mid boss, huh?” Seokhyun summed it up neatly.

Anyway, it seemed to be difficult to break through the floor with their current power. After all, they didn’t know what kind of monster would pop out.

Seongho heard the rustling around him and spoke quickly.

“I think something is coming here. Let’s leave and ask Yoohyeon or Yeowool to scout ahead later.”

“Agree.”

“I am against…”

“Shut up and follow me.” Da-jeong grabbed Seokhyun’s ear and dragged him away. At that moment, he saw something in a human form, standing in the middle of the dark passage.

He raised his middle finger to the monster.

“It’s smiling?”

The guy was smiling.

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Geom-in had a happy day recently. He finally succeeded in copying the unique skill of his three friends. Although there’s a downside of being a minor version, he still felt satisfied nonetheless.

He was able to interchangeably use 3 of the 7 copied unique skills once a day, including the shelter enforcement unique skill. He divided it into combat, exploration, and everyday use, so it was very convenient. Although he didn’t get any additional effects, it wasn’t a big deal. After all, as he leveled up, he would probably get one.

As night fell, he turned on his laptop and enjoyed the game. His three stagnant water friends went to Yeouido for some reason, and the others were sleeping.

“Woohoo… What a good game…”

While enjoying the game, a scarab came into the hut and looked up at him.

The guy’s eyes were as if saying:

-You goddamn laptop addict!

Geom-in turned off the game and closed the laptop.

“What’s going on?”

The scarab made a sighing gesture and scratched the floor to draw a gryphon.

“A gryphon appeared? Wait, then we have to wake people up.”

That’s not it… The scarab seemed to say. It was just flying past the shelter. But, whatever the case, Geom-in could not just ignore it.

Waking up Yoohyeon or Yeowool was a bit too much, so he decided to just use a drone with a night vision function.

Shortly after the drone took off, a blurry video was sent to the laptop.

“What is that guy doing here?”

The most logical reason why the gryphon came around the shelter was because of the corpses of monsters scattered around the shelter. It was their basic policy to clean it as much as possible, but they might have skipped some.

Geom-in watched the video with the scarab and remembered that he could control a single monster by courtesy of Da-jeong’s copied unique skill.

“It should work against gryphons, right?”

He tried to contact Da-jeong, but quickly gave up since he knew that she had a lot of work to do outside. Monsters could pass through the portal. But it was questionable whether a gryphon would be able to do so or not. After all, their size was quite big.

“I have to get it.” When Seongho found out about the situation, he would surely understand.

He made up his mind and stood up. When he changed his unique skills to blink and monster taming, his confidence surged.

After all, what he needed to do was simply blink towards it and put his hands on it.

“Okay.” The scarab, who told Geom-in about the gryphon, climbed towards Geom-in’s shoulder.

In the dark of the night, the gryphon, which was busy devouring an orc’s corpse, was startled by the sudden appearance of a human and spits out the meat it was eating.

Roaaar-!!

The guy hurriedly spread his wings, but Geom-in got on its back first. A golden light spread briefly from the contact area, and the gryphon’s wild eyes changed into a docile one.

“HA HA HA HA!” Geom-in trembled with joy as he got on the griffon’s back. It ended too easily, even to his liking.

However, just a few seconds later, fierceness returned to the Gryphon’s eyes. As it felt a foreign object on its back, it started to twist violently.

“Wh-what the… WHY!!!!”

Was it because the unique skill was a minor one?

Geom-in was terrified and just grabbed onto its feathers tightly. In the meantime, the view of the whole forest spread out underneath him. The gryphon had flown to the sky!

“Wa-wait, wait a minute!”

His blink’s distance was quite short, so it looked like he would fall and die if he used it. He could just go back to life thanks to the resurrection scroll, but since he knew what Seongho went through to acquire it, he felt sorry to use it for such a silly reason.

Without knowing the hundreds of thoughts running through Geom-in’s mind, the gryphon flew away with its big wings towards the distant sea.