Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

owool opened the door in advance for me, it seemed like Yeowool was looking at me through a telescope.

“How was the island, ahjussi?”

“It was fine.
It’s a little messy and there’s no other place to stay other than the memorial.”

“Isn’t there an information centre and an octagonal pavilion there?”

“The information centre is not usable because it is wide open, and the octagonal pavilion is not a place for people to live.
We will freeze to death in winter.”

“I don’t like cold.”

“There is a room at the memorial, so if you bring a blanket and a sleeping bag, it will be fine.
What about Junho and Doyoung?”

“They went out for one last farming trip.
After all, you have to keep farming.”

When I looked around the hideout, their luggage was already organized.
Though, it was packed really badly.
As we were chatting about this and that, the two boys returned with a backpack slung over their shoulders.

I gathered the kids. 

“Listen.
We can all get on the boat, but you can carry only one bag of luggage with you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And if your friend falls, don’t look back.
I’ll take care of it, so don’t hesitate.”

Everyone nodded eagerly.
It seems like they had known about this.
It’s convenient to run one by one, but if even one person gets caught by a monster, it’d be a pain in the butt.
I’d rather collect the aggro and then deal with it all.
I told them to pack one backpack, then went up to the roof and raised the flag.

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“Start.”

The race to the marina began.
As expected, some monsters came after us.
There were four people running at the same time, so it was impossible for them not to move.
Some of them were even evolved ghouls.

“Don’t look back, run!” I shouted at the kids and turned around with my long knife and shield.

Khaaaaaak!

A few zombies rushed in, but I was able to cut their heads off without difficulty.
However, the problem was the evolved ghoul.
It had a bizarrely deformed skeletal structure which makes it look more like a lizard rather than human.
Anyone who saw it crawling back and forth on all fours would definitely get terrified.
But I had seen too many of them.
It was to the point where I was already sick of them, so I was unperturbed.

“You are really as ugly as the other zombies!” As if it understood my words, it pounced at me in anger.
I raised the shield in line with its trajectory.

Tung!

The long claws of the ghouls scraped the wooden shield.
At the same time, I moved my body sideways and blew its arm off with a long knife.
Its arm soared into the air with green blood spurted around.

Kiaaak!

My fighting instinct skill was activated at that moment.
I rushed to the screaming ghoul.
It spread its snout and stuck out his tongue to prepare for me, but I had already lowered my upper body.

“Bye.” 

The long knife slid past its neck and lobbed it off.
The ghoul, who had lost his head, fell to the floor and spilled a lot of green blood to the ground.
But it didn’t end there.
The goblins were watching me in the alley and were probably looking for an opportunity.

I hit the shield with the handle of the long knife.

“Come here all at once you ugly f*cks!” Seeing that I was alone, they rushed towards me.
Let me teach them that it was a mistake. 

Numerous paralyzing darts flew, but the sword armor protected my body from most of them.
One of the poison darts penetrated my joint, but my paralyzing poison resistance skill shone at that moment.

When three goblins saw me on my knees, they shouted happily and approached me.
But as soon as they moved closer, I jumped up with all the strength in my body.

Kiek!

The three goblins shrieked in surprise.
I mercilessly cut their bodies with the long knife.
Their ugly heads, arms and legs were scattered everywhere.
At that scene, the other goblins were frightened and ran back down the alley.

It’s a bit quieter now.
I flicked the blood off my long knife and ran towards the marina.
Once I arrived there, I could see that the three kids looked tired.

“Hyung, you are really strong!”

“I think you can just kill all the monsters here, ahjussi.”

“What are you saying? I won’t be able to kill the orc.”

Even if I say it like that, if I activated all of my skills, I think I would be able to beat an orc with only a long knife and a shield.
Orc’s movements are slow, so if I aim for the delay… Well, it’s still best to attack safely from a distance.

After waiting for a while, the last member of our group came rushing in with a backpack.
After he got on the boat, Junho and Doyoung started to row hard.
At first, it was a little awkward, but because they were boys, they quickly got used to it.

The boat which we boarded was heading to the island.

.

.

.

That evening.
We sat down at the memorial and enjoyed the peace after a long time.
There weren’t a lot of supplies here, but in retrospect, there were no monsters either.
Everyone sat down on the bench in daze as they looked either towards the sea or the sky.

“Today we will rest, eat and sleep, and start working hard again tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.”

Even after running and rowing hard, the children did not show any exhaustion on their faces.
It was probably due to the fact that they saw hope.
Although the island was small, it was enough for a few people to live and the food was adequate.
And the most important thing of all was the fact that there was soil to make a vegetable garden, which was great.
If we bring fertilizer, we will be able to grow enough vegetables to eat.
It would even grow faster because we have Jiman.

Yeowool rested her head on my shoulder before standing up straight.

“How about splitting up our team? One team goes to the land and farms, the other works on the island.”

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“Would that be convenient?”

It would be better for me, Junho, and Doyoung to move, but I doubted whether the two of them would accept it.
No matter how you look at it, the island was more comfortable.
Fortunately, they both showed enthusiasm.

“I will happily go.
Instead, since Jiman hyung is here, I want to eat some sashimi tomorrow, hehe.”

“Hyung, I heard there are congers here in this sea.”

A smile bloomed in Jiman’s lips as he nodded his head.

“If it’s a fish, I’ll catch it anytime.” 

Well, it looks like it was sorted out.

With that, it was decided that Jiman and Yeowool would remain on the island to work.
Even though it seemed to be safe and easy job to stay on the island, it was not true since there was so much work to be done here.

In the evening we ate and talked about our future plans. 

“In early October, people from the gym will probably come.
So, there’s only a few days left.”

At my words, Yeowool carefully parted her lips.
“I’ve heard a lot of stories about them, but I don’t know what kind of people they are.”

“They are all good people.
As for why they are called gym people, it’s because the first place they settled at was at the gym.
The older brother I knew was the owner of that gym.”

“Ahh.”

In addition to the gym folks, I also told them about the zombie queen.
Everyone’s faces instantly turned pale in fear.

“Hey, why is such a person working with people at the gym?”

“Well, I guess because she liked it?” There was no need to explain my relationship with Dajung here.
Junho and Doyoung started making a fuss, saying they had heard the rumors from Cheol-jun.

“They say she catches people and throws them to her subordinate zombies.”

“There are rumors that she’s doing crazy things with those zombies at night…”

“…”

Yeowool furrowed her forehead at their words.
This, too, was a rumour originated from Dajeong’s action of turning everything into a mess.
Though, she’s not the kind of person who cares about that.

In my view, Dajeong was not a person who would be satisfied with the stable life on this island.
She was more likely to leave after helping the people here together with her zombies.
After all, she needs a lot of monsters for her unique skill to shine. 

I also need to meet Rapwi.
But, it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to go meet Rapwi together with Dajeong.
Strange rumours will start circulating in the auction house about the suspicious man clinging next to the Zombie Queen.

Suddenly, Jiman interrupted my thoughts as he rummaged through the notes and chimed,

“The farming dungeon will be open soon.”

“Farming dungeon?”

“What is that?”

Is it already time for it to open?

In other words, the farming dungeon was akin to my portal.
The only difference was that it is an event held by the system and there was no limit on the number of people who could enter.
On top of it, no one knows where it will lead to.
It’s called a Farming Dungeon because you can get a variety of things from it.
Without it, it would have been much tighter to survive.

Jiman gave a rough explanation about it to the kids.
and the three children looked at his notebook with dazzling eyes.

“Hyung, these notes…”

“I put it together while watching the stream.
It’s not complete, though.”

“Whose stream?”

“It’s I Love Gimbap’s stream.
He’s someone who specially streamed Survival Life.
He’s a nice person.”

No, I’m not a good person.
Even after that, Jiman kept praising me.
Everything you say about me is good, but please stop saying that I am a nice and wonderful person…