Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Something felt empty…

I stretched my arm to the side and looked for Da-jeong, but she was nowhere to be found.

Ah right, she went to Ruat Kingdom…

Even though I always found it absurd that Da-jeong never failed to put her legs on my belly every night, I was secretly disappointed that I couldn’t feel her presence right now.

“I want it because I’m so used to it.” I sighed and made my beddings. After washing up, I left the hut. The sky was still dark, but I could already see Jiman and Sangshin sitting beside the brazier.

“Is gukbap on the menu today?”

“Yes, Hyung. I’ve been boiling it since yesterday evening. It should be ready soon.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve been preparing it since yesterday?”

“I’m on night duty last night, so it’s just something that helps keep me up. Nothing I can’t handle.”

However, even though Jiman said that, some fatigue can still be clearly seen on his face. His stats were quite high, but no matter how high it was, it still couldn’t render fatigue useless.

I sighed and pushed him away from the pot. “I’ll be looking for it from now on, so go over to my cabin and get a good night’s sleep.”

“It’s okay, I’m not that tired.”

“It’s okay, go to sleep.”

After Jimani left, Sangshin let out a sullen laugh.

“Hehe… I didn’t expect that I’ll get to eat some gukbap in the apocalypse…”

“Why don’t you prepare some side dishes instead of just waiting idly?”

At my word, he waved his finger.

“I’m not on duty for today’s breakfast.”

Well, it’s just as expected. In the shelter, there were quite a lot of good cooks. However, Sangshin was not one of them. He couldn’t control the fire temperature at all, so he often burned the pot. Despite that, the only food he liked was gukbap–which is something that is really hard to cook. Therefore, a lot of shelter members were complaining about it.

Sangshin rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“Did you wait since dawn to eat this?”

“I’ll even conquer the world if it means I can enjoy gukbap.”

What a dedicated guy…

Sangshin’s love for gukbap was famous not only among the shelter’s members, but also at the auction house. Not everyone was aware of the name Lee Sanghin, but everyone knew the name of Gukbap Addict. Wherever he went, he always compared the price of food at the auction house with the price of gukbap.

For example, If someone caught a hwajo and put it up for auction, he would argue:

-Huh? 100 points? With that much, you can eat 5 servings of grilled meat.

-With that much money, you can buy warthog bones and meat and make gukbap with it. You can feed one platoon that way.

-Did your ancestors buy you the food? Do not interfere with my business and get lost.

Like that.

However, even when people were criticized like that by Sangshin, they didn’t have any bad blood with him. Rather, they have good reviews about him. After all, he was known as the strongest telekinesis user whose level was over 30. It was known that he had hunted a drake with me in Texas, so his stock price was currently sky-high.

The man in question was currently sitting in front of the pot. When I opened the lid of the pot and saw him sniffing the smell, my good feelings about him vanished.

In the end, he rubbed his cheeks in a hurry, as if his face had been burned by the hot steam.

“Ah, hot.”

His personality really didn’t match his strength.

“This should be ready, right?”

“You’re too impatient.”

“I’ve prepared a bowl, so I’m going to eat and go to sleep right after.”

Saying that, he took out a bowl from the drawer, and it was truly spectacular.

“…Isn’t that a stainless dishwasher?” (T/N Google 설거지통 if you want the know the pic.)

“It has never been used, so it’s clean.”

Is that the problem?

With a happy expression on his face, Sangshin watched as steam spewed out of the lid of the pot. If he had poured that passion into hunting, the highest level survivor might have been him, not me.

Well, whatever. Let’s just eat.

“Let’s see… it seems like it’s ready.”

Scooping a little of the soup with a ladle and bringing it to my mouth, I felt a fairly light taste.

I might be able to sell this.

“Can I eat it? I’ll scoop some now.”

“Don’t eat too much.”

Sangshin put a lot of soup in the dishwasher. And when he put three packs of instant rice, I almost burst out cursing. He’s crossing the line!

The only thing that stopped me from screaming at him was the fact that he helped me well during the drake hunt.

“Kkakdugi is a must for gukbap.”

(P/n Kkakdugi = cubed radish kimchi, literally just radish that is cut into cubed and made into kimchi)

slurp-

He hurriedly inhaled the soup and chewed a lot of kkakdugi. The sound of him eating was really alluring for some reason.

I laid halfway down in my chair and surveyed the auction house. I didn’t know about it last night, but there was information that the stagnant waters team had arrived in Ruat Kingdom. However, the content is not trivial.

-Seongho, we’re screwed!

-This is no joke! There’s fire and it’s a mess!

I wanted to find out what was so crazy, and I found out that flames were surrounding the palace. It was absolutely not a natural phenomenon.

-Rapwi went close and got hit by a fire fist and passed out! What should we do?

-Everyone seems to be asleep.

-For now, let’s retreat.

There have been no comments ever since. The last comment must have been posted at least a few hours ago. The time difference shouldn’t be that big, so I should be able to hear the details when the day gets brighter.

While he was distracted for a moment, Sangshin finished eating so many soups and was tapping his stomach.

“Ugh. The gukbap went smoothly down my throat.”

“Do it in moderation and get some sleep.”

“Even if you don’t tell me, I’ll have a good sleep. After all, I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately.”

He quietly tidied up after himself and crawled into the cabin. After a while, the day dawned and people got up one by one.

It seemed Sooyeon and Yoohyeon were the members on breakfast duty today. The two sighed as they looked at the still steaming pot.

“It’s gukbap all day again today.”

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Two days have passed since I returned to Korea. The survivors from Texas settled well in the Korean Shelter thanks to James and Paige. After all, even Jang Won-taek would not refuse some free cows.

There were 300 cows living in my shelter, which I collected on two occasions. No matter how greatly the shelter was expanded, 300 cows were a number that could not be handled by us. Even though several people, including Jiman, worked on it together all day, the work was not finished.

“That’s why I need to send the cows there quickly…”

But before that, I need to know whether Seokhyun had come to his senses or not.

-Are you alive? What happened?

-Seongho is here!

Since they know if they all write a comment at the same time makes me dizzy, Da-jeong stepped forward as the representative.

-Did you read what we posted?

-Yea. What kind of flames engulfed the palace? Is the situation still the same?

-I’m not kidding, it’s still the same as when we arrived. The palace, no, the entire capital seems to be on fire.

The flames were not ordinary flames, but rather a large-scale one.

-I heard Seokhyun passed out after being hit by a fire fist? What exactly does that mean?

-Literally. Fists made out of fire came out of the flames and struck him.

Such an absurd thing…

-Is Seokhyun okay?

-He’s not dead. I told him not to go, but this bald pervert…

‘Even if I die, it’s okay.’ He probably said that.

It wasn’t a baseless confidence. After all, Seokhyun’s unique skill was infinite resurrection, and he even brought a resurrection scroll with him. It’s pointless to worry about him.

-Anyway! There is fire magic spreading around the palace where we have to enter. It’s impossible to get in.

Why did a magical flame spread over a wide area in the first place?

When I asked about it, Da-jeong gave an unexpected answer.

-I asked Amelia yesterday using the whispering gem. She said it was the result of some kind of experiment.

-What kind of experiment?

-Listen well. When you think of magic, usually a fireball will come out of a wizard’s hand or wand or something, right?

-Yeah.

-The people of the Lotus Continent thought of using magic a little differently. I don’t know exactly how different, but they thought of using a lot of aether stones to create magic on a large scale.

-Are you saying they are trying to amplify magic?

-Amelia said something similar. Anyway, thanks to that series of experiments, humans benefited greatly. There is a country called the Ezekium Empire above Ruat, and it has been victorious in the war using that kind of magic.

-What is the relationship between the Ezekium Empire and the Ruat Kingdom?

-Ezekium must have helped Ruat a lot because it was in a situation similar to that vessel nation.

-Aha.

―But…it seems that something went wrong with that experiment and the flow of the nearby ether was messed up. It was said that the magic applied near the royal palace was called a Fire Fists spell.

The spell’s name is Fire Fist.

Anyway, currently the party was resting in a place around the palace.

-What should we do? Just believe in Seokhyun’s resurrection and go in?

The solution was simple. The drake had given me a fire resistance item. If Seokhyun wore it, he should be able to move around.

I packed my body armor and ogre gloves.

-I will send you two items.

-What is it? I know that one is definitely the ogre gloves.

-The other one was a gift from Mr. Drake. It’s a fire resistance item.

-Wow, did you really kill it?

-Have you not heard?

It turns out that the shelter members didn’t talk about it.

Da-jeong wanted to hear the battle with the drake in great detail.

-What are the details? I just made up my mind and caught it. That person also helped.

-You love towards me has cooled!

-I woke up this morning and felt empty because you weren’t by my side.

– Really?

-Yeah. It’s strangely empty and I find it a bit regrettable.

-Are you missing my body too?

-That too. But that’s not all.

I continued to say it without saying that I need you. She whined that she wanted to go back quickly.

-The three of us will quickly finish up here.

I sent Da-jeong two items and a bunch of beef.

-By the way, Geom-in said that some survivors lived here until recently.

-Is that so? Were there any traces?

-If a person stays in one place, there are many traces left, right? Geom-in said they were here until a few months ago.

Then there’s a good chance that they were alive.

I asked her.

-Handle the work well and return safely, okay?

After getting an answer from Da-jeong, I turned off the auction house and went out of the cabin. Now it’s time to deliver the cow.

When I looked for Jiman, he was already in the cow pen, brushing the cows one by one.

“You should be fine there.”

Moo~

Judging by the fact that the cow’s cry was different from normal, Jiman definitely has the ability to communicate with it.

“Jiman, let’s go.”

“Yes.”

We led the cattle and headed to the Korean Shelter. When the cows came out of the dimension gate in a straight line, Jan Wontaek and Lee Beom-seok’s jaws fell to the ground.

“Heh heh… I never thought he’d bring a real cow from Texas…”

“Mr. President… Will it be possible for us to raise those cows?”

“If there’s a will, there will be a way. There is a lot of grass near Yeouido, so we can use the area to feed them. Of course, the monsters are a problem…”

Many roads and buildings have been overturned and the unique ecosystem of Lotus has taken its place. That ecosystem was hostile to both humans and monsters. No, to be exact, the ecosystem itself was like a huge enemy.

Vines that wrap around buildings, trees with only bare branches without leaves, and grotesquely large flowers were all monsters. Therefore, the common sense of walking alone on the street had long left the thoughts of the survivors.

In order to not die, being fully armed was the bare minimum. On top of that, everyone must always travel together. That way, even if someone died, their corpse could be recovered.

Anyway, 100 cows came into the Korean Shelter. The guys were still quite calm under the influence of Jiman.

“The delivery has been completed. For a few days, Jiman will come and help you take care of them. So don’t worry about them running away.”

After that, of course, it’s up to them. Raising cows in Seoul, which was overflowing with monsters, would be a very difficult task. However, they still had to do it.

Jang Wontaek talked with James and I returned to the shelter.

Now I want to start doing business in earnest.

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As the apocalypse entered its 10th month, there was still something that the survivors lacked.

It was water.

For those who are willing to hunt outside, food is not exactly a problem for them. For those who were unwilling, they could just buy the store bread even when it’s as tasty as sand.

However, water, especially drinking water, was difficult to find. The monsters had already drunk all the bottled water, and the water tanks in the residential area had already been contaminated.

The only saving grace for the survivors was the water of the Han River. However, only a handful of people drink it after purifying it. After all, it was known how dirty the water of the Han River is. That’s why when bottled water was put up on the auction house, it was often sold out immediately.

Everyone wants clean water.

In that kind of situation, the people in my shelter had access to clean water.

It is because of the creek flowing nearby. It might not be as good as bottled water, but as long as we boil it a little, there’s no problem with drinking it.

Anyway, Jiman was planning to sell that very water to people. That’s just speculation on my part, so I couldn’t help but get surprised when he said he wanted to give it for free.

“It’s a bit wasteful to give it away for free…”

“It’s okay, Hyung… It’s just water.”

My heart was shaken by his earnest eyes. Yes, it’s good if you give them clean water so they can live with it. However, that would make us go under in the long run.

“Tell me how are you going to do it.”

Jiman filled the plastic bottle with purified water.

“I’m selling this for 10 points.”

“Plastic bottles are not infinite.”

There are a lot of different things in our shelter, and there were hundreds of empty plastic bottles. It was something that can’t be made, so we just decided to store it in case we ever needed it.

Jimani said he could get it back.

“I can buy an empty plastic bottle for 10 points.”

“How about the fees?”

He let out an ‘Oh!’ sound and shut his mouth. 10% of the auction house’s winning bid disappeared as a commission. No one knew where these points disappeared to, including me.

It means, 2 points would be lost in the process of selling and collecting plastic bottles. Both the seller and the buyer would lose 1 point equally.

“Sell the water for 20 points. And buy the empty plastic bottle for 10. They should at the very least pay about 10 points for clean water.”

“Wouldn’t that be too expensive?”

“You know that the store bread was sold for 20 points, don’t you? 2 liters of water for 10 points is basically free.”

“Um, um… that’s right.”

In the apocalypse, clean water was more precious than anything else.

Jiman laughed awkwardly, probably remembering the existence of store bread.

“Now that we’re talking about it, the bread sold at the store tastes really bad. Just who was making it and selling it there, I wonder.”

“I don’t know. The monster in the deepest part of the Great Labyrinth is probably the one who made it.”

“Ewww…..”

Anyway, Jiman started the water business. The reaction was, of course, explosive. Everyone at the auction house complied with Jiman’s request.

-Even though I sell the water for 20 points, please sell the plastic bottles back to me at 10 points.

-But who are you? Are you I Love Gimbap?

-Of course he’s not. If it was him, the water would have been sold at 50 points instead of 20 points.

-And he would tell us to tie up 10 plastic bottles and sell them for 10 points.

-If someone goes against the law, he will find them and kill them.

These guys… But well, I might just do that if I were the one selling, so they’re not that wrong.

Even if it wasn’t 50 points, it would have definitely sold at a more expensive price than this.

While looking at the reaction at the auction house, unexpected news came. When Jiman put up a bottle of water, someone broke the rules and bought it at a higher price.

As the situation continued, people expressed their uncomfortable feelings.

-Yo, why did you do that you bastard!!!

-I Love Gimbap will record your ID and go find you if you keep doing this, you hear me? Aren’t you afraid?

I’m sorry, but that skill had already disappeared, so it’s impossible to confirm who it was.

The culprit appeared once again. But now, the guy increased the price to 40 points.

-Just take it all, you bastard!

-Looked like it’s the Chinese’s doing. I’m really fed up!

-Hey you, you said you want to eat and live together, but why are you doing that? Wouldn’t you be bothered too if the price of water goes up?

-It’s all you guys fault.

What kind of bullshit are you talking about all of a sudden?

It wasn’t just me who was stunned, dozens of people cursed at the guy. However, the guy remained silent and bought another water bottle for 30 points. As people also raised their bid, the price soared by 30 points, sometimes even 40 points.

Jiman’s plan to supply clean water at an affordable price crumbled as soon as it started.

“It shouldn’t be like this…”

I comforted the depressed man and called the shelter people.

Let’s see how many points the guy has to be ballsy enough to pull this kind of act.