Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

After Kwon died, the other golf course group members (who were hypnotized by Kwon) were at a loss about what to do.
Their memories were jumbled up, and the majority of them did not even know why and when the society had collapsed.
Even though they soon knew that the world they knew no longer existed, and that some kind of a game system had been created in place of that, they couldn’t fully take in how much things had changed.

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From that moment on, they have to fight for their survival in a ruined world.
Who can be sane after being shoved to those circumstances after their consciousness went blank for god knows how long?

The survivors were outraged.
Kwon—the culprit of their misery—was already dead.
Since they couldn’t vent their anger towards a corpse, they seek for another avenue.

One of the survivors said:

-From what I remember, someone among us has to die in order to prevent a zombie raid from coming!

-How the fuck did you know that?

-I saw it on the internet! It’s dangerous if there are more than 5 people…

-What nonsense.
If so, why is it still so quiet right now? There are 11 people here, so shouldn’t the zombie raid come already?

-This ahjussi is suspicious.

Unfortunately, the instigator quickly got cornered.

-If we only need to kill one person, then let’s kill that man! He doesn’t look strong!

-That’s right.
We can just kill him.

-Let’s surround him and attack!

-If you kill me, do you think you guys will be fine?

He tried to incite the others, but in an instant, he was surrounded and was beaten to death.
It was truly a fitting end for an instigator.
But, even though they had just killed someone, their anger did not subside.
Then, they realized that the supply inside one of the bunkers had been stolen by the other groups of survivors in the area.

-It must have been stolen while we were still confused!

-Bastards!

-Let’s get it back!

-Let’s kill those bastards and get the supplies back!

The rage which had no place to go had finally found its target.
However, since they had just come to their senses after being brainwashed by Kwon, they had no idea about common things in the apocalyptic world which survivors should’ve known in order to survive.
They didn’t know that it would be dangerous if there’s more than 5 people gathered in one small area.
They also didn’t know that if they killed more than two or three people, the system would register them as murderers, and if they’re still jumbled together like that when one of them became a murderer, the murderer event will be triggered.

They would be able to know about common sense while living in this apocalyptic world simply by asking other survivors around the bunker.
However, those thoughts never appear in their head, as they’re currently being blinded by their anger.

Meanwhile, the fate of the two women was decided, and the atmosphere became harsh.
Both of them were attracted to a group with three young, decent-looking men, but the opposing group protested heavily.

-Wait, shouldn’t you share them with us too?

-Share? You think they’re items? Let’s just stop, it’s embarrassing for you guys to lose like this, but what can we do?

-It’s really funny.
Previously, you guys wouldn’t even be able to look at us.

-What did you say? I dare you to say it again.

-It’s not wrong, ahjussi.
Please, just make some concessions.

-Does every group have to be limited to five people?

-I don’t know, that’s what the dead ahjussi had said.

Before the situation escalated even more, someone suggested a new target to turn their anger towards.

-Let’s not fight among ourselves, and kill the thieves first!

-We’ll discuss things later! After killing those bastards!

-That’s right!

The disagreement between them disappeared, and they agreed to move towards the neighbourhood.

-We’re all going together! Don’t let the guys who stole our supply escape!

Ten people marched together.
Hearing the last words of one of the men, each and every single one of them knew that they would be dead if they didn’t follow the rest.
Meanwhile, Cheol-jun and Yuju, the two women that Kwon had brought, held each other’s hands secretly.
Whatever the others said or plan to do, the two of them had decided they were going to leave this group as soon as they saw a chance.

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The group hunted goblins on the way and moved to the one-room neighbourhood.
It was a very remote neighbourhood, so there were very few zombies.
Once they arrived, they surrounded a particular building that had survivors inside and attacked indiscriminately.
The three survivors inside the building couldn’t help but counterattack.
With that exchange as the impetus, the whole neighbourhood turned into a battlefield.
And among the chaos, there was one person who moved quietly.

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.

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The gym group and Captain Kim, who heard about the battle, quickly started packing.
The MVP of the process was none other than Mikyung and Yoohyeon.
Even though the two did not have an ability that is good for combat, thanks to their reconnaissance and mobility-based unique ability, they were able to perform spectacularly.

When Yoohyeon relayed the battle situation in real time with his paper airplane, Mikyung moved the members and their luggages little by little.
In less than 10 minutes, the five people and their belongings were moved to the outskirts of the neighbourhood.

And a paper airplane flew to me too.

-Do you want Mikyung to move you too, hyung? She’s a little bit dizzy now, so if you need her please wait a little.

I shook my head.

“No.
I’ll join you guys later, so go first.
I have something to check.”

The paper plane went silent for a moment, then flew again through the crack in the window.
They’re quite smart as survivors, so they should know they shouldn’t wait for me for nothing.

I looked down to the chaotic street below.

“They are all here.” The group of 10 was still ferociously attacking.
However, it seems like they didn’t know how to use their unique ability as they only shoot arrows over and over again.

Did their memories get erased when they’re brainwashed? 

“However, it’s still dangerous.” The three survivors, who had murdered other survivors under the order of Kwon, were still hiding.
The only thing that assured me that they’re still inside was that every now and then, they would shoot arrows back.
Looking at their boring fight, I almost fell asleep.

Should I just go? I don’t think things would go south even if I stay here…

The moment I thought that, one of the attackers groaned and fell to the floor.
Arrowhead could be seen piercing through his chest.

“They are shooting from our back!”

“Scatter, scatter!”

The attackers scattered around to the surrounding buildings.

“Sigh, I was just about to leave…”

Now that someone has clearly committed two murders, the murderer event should begin soon.
However, even after about 30 seconds passed, there was no heartbeat thump—which was the starting signal of the murderer event’s deathmatch.

“Ah… there are no zombies around here.” Back in the game, zombies could spawn anytime and anywhere the system wanted it to.
But in reality, there’s no such thing as that.
Since this neighbourhood was located far away from the city center, it would take some time for zombies to come here and create the zombie wall, marking the beginning of the murderer event.

So, the murderer event wouldn’t happen? That’s not the case either.

Thump-!! Thump-!! Thump-!!

There’s a weak heartbeat echoing through the area.
It looks like the murderer has a stealth-type ability.
Stealth-type murderers were a bit more difficult to deal with.

“The way that I can use here is…”

Moments later, another scream could be heard.
This time, it seems like the attacker had succeeded in killing the defenders.
At the same time, another sound of heartbeats came elsewhere.

“There’re two murderers.” I furrowed my brows.
It was something I had never encountered in Survival Life.
In the first place, because there weren’t that many users, it’s hard to even see a single murderer.
Like I said, we sometimes treat them as a ‘cultural asset’ as they’re so rare.

When I listened, the heartbeat became louder and louder.
It was clear that the murderers were moving towards where I was.
I didn’t even flinch because of it, but others would surely be terrified.

First of all, I need to identify the murderer.
I went down to the first floor, entered the portal and focused my attention on the street.
A pounding heartbeat could be heard soon after.
At the same time, I could see several people pursuing after a single man whom I suspected to be one of the two murderers.

“Don’t come! Don’t come!”

“Wait! Let’s talk for a second!”

Funnily enough, the murderer didn’t seem to be able to accept the reality that he had become a murderer.

“He’s a novice murderer.
Isn’t that right, Dingo?” The guy yawned at my words, clearly uninterested.

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Being a murderer doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll lose consciousness.
The murderer I met before had been brainwashed, so it could be said that it had lost consciousness.
But if he’s not brainwashed, he would be able to think for himself.
The problem was, once someone became a murderer, they would have an urge to kill people as their eyes turned red which enabled them to see the location of people around them.
The more people they kill, the more that urge corrupts their mind.

As I was waiting for the right timing, someone shouted.
“What are you talking about while throwing stones? Get lost, you murderer!”

This murderer seems to be someone with telekinesis unique ability.
I focused my mind as much as I could and grasped the circumstances around me.
To be honest, I’m not really interested in stopping a murderer.
I just wanted to kill them to recoup the points I used to verify the IDs of people in the Auction House.

“It would be better if I could also secure supplies.” However, I couldn’t touch the supplies in the time shelter because it was inside the danger zone.
But if it’s the supplies in one of the bunkers, it should be fine.

By the way, because there was no zombie wall, it looks like everyone could easily escape from the murderer.
But then, screams could be heard again.

“One murderer had already killed two people.” The more he killed, the stronger he would become, so the danger of fighting one would increase considerably.
The deathmatch event hadn’t started yet, but I had to end it here.
However, as I was equipping my gear, I saw zombies approaching from afar.

“You have worked hard to come this far.” A louder thumping heartbeat was heard one after another.
The deathmatch event had finally begun.

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.

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Cheol-jun and Yuju only pretended to attack the three survivors, unlike the others in their group.
It was because, after this whole thing ended, they were planning to run away from the group.
They only followed them this far to secure enough supplies for the two of them.

But a problem suddenly occurred.
Shrieking screams and chilling heartbeat began to intersect.

“Wh-what is this?”

“Cheol-jun, what sound is this?”

“I don’t know.
Let’s just run away for now.” The two entered a building while holding each other’s hands and hid in the stairs.
All they had to do was get to the bunker alive, so the two kept running.
But the heartbeat didn’t stop.
Then, the two saw a silhouette behind them. 

“Huh?” Cheol-jun narrowed his eyes.
She was sure that she had seen someone’s silhouette.
But that man had disappeared.

Then, a voice was heard. 

“I was here.”

“Who are you?”

“Is that important now?” The man appeared again and pulled a blood-stained ceramic knife out from his pocket.

Cheol-jun and Yuju stopped breathing at the same time.
They realized who they’re facing was a murderer.

“Can you hear this… thumping sound? At first, I thought it was my heartbeat, but turns out, it wasn’t.
It was actually the heartbeats of others, people… the heartbeats of their hot and pumping hearts… the sounds of your heart beating again and again… thump… thump… thump…”

The man’s knife pointed at the two.
He seemed to be a bit out of his mind.

“Should I tell you how I managed to find you? I can sense you… as I can sense everyone else… as if the one who gives me this power tells me to kill all of you… hahahahah.” The man laughed maniacally.

“Yu, Yuju-ssi, let’s go upstairs.”

“Cheol-jun-ssi…”

The two grabbed each other’s clothes.
While both of them were quaking on their feet, the murderer licked his lips with his tongue while casually striding up the stairs.
His eyes were red and bloodshot.

“I am very strong right now… very, very strong… with just a grip, I can crush that slender neck of yours… I can snap it to the right… to the left… so… just give-khuuak!”

However, before the man could finish his words, Cheol-jun could see ‘something’ poking out of his chest.

“Huh?” The murderer touched the ‘something’ protruding from his chest with his hand.
The skin on his hand bleed as soon as he touched it, showing how sharp the thing is.
Then, he felt that coldness had swept all over his body as strength began to leave him.
It was then that he realized that someone had stabbed him.

“Someone…” The murderer swung his other arm behind, slamming it against the wall.
The wall shattered, but that was it, as he didn’t even hit that ‘someone’.
The dark green blade, which was already pulled out from the murderer’s chest, passed through the murderer’s neck.

“Uh-huh!” That was the end of him.
The murderer’s head fell off as his body slowly fell.
Blood spurted out of his headless neck like a fountain, and Cheol-jun as well as Yuju screamed at the same time.
At the place where the murderer stood, there was a man who silently put his sword back to the sheath in his hips.
He was dressed in black with a large helmet covering his face.

“You better run away from this place.
The zombies are coming.”

“Wh-what?”

“If you just stutter and don’t do anything, you’ll die.”

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Cheol-jun covered her nose because the smell of iron from the blood started to agitate her sense of smell.
At that moment, she had a thought.

Is this man perhaps…

“The one who killed Kwon Kyung-joon…”

“That’s me.” Seongho replied, his voice was calm and toneless.
As he was about to turn around and leave, Yuju squealed.

“Why! Why didn’t you tell us!”

“What should I tell you?”

“After you killed that bastard, Kwon Kyung-joon! You could have explained what happened to us!”

“Why should I?”

At that one sentence, Yuju stopped.
She couldn’t find any words to say anymore.

Seongho said “You should be grateful that all I did was kill him then left quietly.
Why are you so upset? Are you saying that I should take care of you like a teacher? To all 11 of you?”

“Left quietly? you steal his stuff!”

“I’m the one who killed Kwon.
So, his stuff was my rights.
I didn’t even take everything and left more than enough for you guys.
If you have enough supplies, you should be satisfied with it, then try to figure out what’s happening.
Why did you come here to get it back? It looks like everyone here is going to die, thanks to your group’s foolish action.”

“We are all going to die?” Cheol-jun asked.

Without words, Seongho pointed to the outside.
Zombies were screaming as they limped closer and closer.

“While we were here, playing 21 questions, zombies were slowly swarming towards us.
Haven’t you heard about zombie raids?”

Both Cheol-jun and Yuju’s faces turned pale.
They realized that what the ahjussi they had killed said was right. 

Seongho looked outside.
“If you want to live, run now.
Go north.”

“What about those things?”

“Are you only going to stop asking questions after being bitten by a zombie?”

“Yuju-ssi!” Cheol-jun grabbed her arm in a hurry and ran downstairs, passing Seongho, who made way for them.

Seongho thought it’s been a while since they’d been freed from brainwashing, but it seems like they still don’t know how to use their unique ability.
Moreover, they probably had a lot of questions.
But in the apocalypse, someone couldn’t just simply ask someone about even the basic information without anything to pay them with, while not knowing anything was also a sin.
No one cares even if they complain about it being unfair.

Growl-!!

Khaaakk-!!

Without paying attention to the zombies outside, Seongho sat down.

“Let’s see…what I got today.” By killing two murderers, he got 300 points, a skill called Stigma of Death, and an item.
The item was a pretty good item, and the 300 points was pretty savory.
However, it wasn’t comparable to the Stigma of Death skill which was used by murderers to find survivors.
The murderer would eventually gain infrared vision to replace this skill, but it was a skill which normal users couldn’t simply get.

“It’s good to be able to locate enemies and strike first…” Now, if he set his eyes on someone, they would surely die.
They wouldn’t be able to hide.

Suddenly, zombies entered the building.
Seongho leisurely packed his luggage and entered the portal.
The zombies, who had lost their target, wandered out of the building.
And the whole neighbourhood went quiet once again.

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.

.

“Have any of them responded to the gather order, yet?”

“Not that many.
Just about 3 people…”

Jang Won-taek and Bae Geom-in were smoking and talking on the roof of the shelter.
Although there was an age difference between them, Jang Won-taek didn’t care about it at all.
Afterall, it was because of this guy that he was still alive right now.
He seemed to be hiding his real intention from him, but that was something he could easily brush off as someone who had survived the political battlefield for so long. 

As Jang Won-taek whisked away the ashes off his cigar, it fell on the head of the zombie who was knocking on the shelter from below.

“The more people, the better…how did the labyrinth event go, by the way?”

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“Gimbap took first place.
His record is 38 minutes, and that’s an absurd record.”

“I have never played the game, so I don’t know how absurd it is.”

“Even in the game, it was almost impossible to get through in under an hour.
But here, in real life, where people only have one life, he manages to do so.
It’s extremely absurd, right?”

“I see… It seems like he’s running while being prepared to die.” Jang Won-taek furrowed his brow as he shook his head at Gimbap’s recklessness.

“I think Rabbit Princess is in second place and Duck Buttock is in 10th place.
I think Duck even killed all the monsters in the labyrinth.”

“Haha, those people are really awesome.” Jang Won-taek exclaimed.
This shelter would surely become much safer if such people were willing to help them.
But he doubted he had anything which could reel them in.
Even if he dragged them by force, he wasn’t confident he would be able to hold on to them if they decided to fight back.

Geom-in then changed the subject.

“These days, what happened in the labyrinth is a very hot topic.
A lot of people said they met foreigners.”

“Something is strange.” Jang Won-take hummed.
From what he knew, Survival Life was a game with a local server, which means, it could only be played in Korea.
He doubted there would be many foreigners who played it while they were in Korea.

The two met their eyes.

“Do they look like real foreigners?”

“There is a possibility that they were real foreigners.
It may have something to do with the complete isolation of the Korean Peninsula.”

“It’s already September and there is no typhoon and the air is so fresh.
It means that most of the dust has disappeared.”

“Hmm…”

Jang Won-taek brushed off the ashes of his cigarette and stroked his beard.
There’s a need to collect more information on this matter.
All of the important equipments were broken, so they had no choice but to send people to manually collect data.
Fortunately, there was a person with a blink ability in their group, simplifying the task, albeit a little.

After Jang Won-taek decided to go down to get things done, Geom-in opened the Auction House.

‘I’ll have to work on it soon.’ What he’s about to work on was none other than his reputation.
Many survivors had benefited from the walkthrough he gave to the government, but Jang Won-taek’s reputation overshadowed his own.
Moreover, all three people who responded to the order came only because they’re excited to hear that the president was still alive.
He was thoroughly pushed back.

If he’s an ordinary person, it shouldn’t be a problem for Geom-in.
However, since Jang Won-taek was once the President of South Korea, he will continue to exert great influence in the future.
But Geom-in couldn’t leave it alone.

‘At least, the people in the Auction House… I should bring them to my side…’

First of all, he had to promote the ID of Survivor 1.

-I think Survivor 1 is better than the rest of stagnant waters.
At least he’s not completely crazy.

-If he’s with the president, isn’t he the one who spread the information on the D-day??

-Is there someone who survived and hasn’t seen that strategy?

However, that was it.
People were not interested in Survivor 1.
The stars of the Auction House were RaPwi, Duck, and Gimbap.
Even though he’s not jealous about it, he was still worried.

“I was the one who spread the strategy…” He thought.
The people who had opened the Auction House at this point could be said as semi-stagnant waters, so they wouldn’t need the walkthrough he gave to the president.
So it’s natural that they didn’t feel grateful to him.

However, in a few more months, those who have benefited and in need of those walkthroughs will come in.
He thought that it would be the most ideal time to promote himself.

Geom-in left a comment to those who were fighting over where the stagnant waters were currently located.

-Do you all know the location of Survivor 1? A gathering order had been issued by the govs, so, if you go there, you can meet him.

-Not interested.

-What the hell is he doing? He didn’t even participate in the speedrun event.

-That bastard is more cowardly than I Love Gimbap!

When he saw his comments were answered with negative comments, Geom-in’s face reddened.

“Sigh… Let it pass, let it pass.
I’m the one who will win in the end, anyway.” He sighed and closed the Auction House.

Meanwhile, far, far away from the government shelter, Seongho, who was still checking the ID of people in Auction House, grinned.

He realized that Survivor 1 was a self-proclaimed type of person.