Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Terrence M. Iode. He was a stereotypical white American. His large size, muscular body, and the slanted hat he uses revealed his identity. Unlike me, who was covered with body armor all over, he was wearing nothing but a T-shirt, letting his muscles clearly visible.

I know that there’s some people who are proud of their muscles after working out a lot, but isn’t looking like that a bit too dangerous in an apocalypse like this?

Terrence walked over to Paige regardless of my concerns, making the freckled lady curled up.

“Baby, what are you doing here? Everyone is waiting.”

“…I don’t want to go.”

“You can’t do that in community life. There’s a time when you have to do it even if you don’t want to.”

Surely he didn’t mean doing an orgy?

Paige glared at him while clenching her legs.

“I don’t like it, I don’t want it! I don’t like the other uncles touching me!”

“Look at that temper… You are sexier now, Paige.”

As Terrence approached, she shook her head.

“I don’t feel like doing it right now.”

“So what? There’s no one here right now… meaning there’s no one to stop me. Not even James with his shotgun can.”

She bit her lips at his smirk.

“Dad should have shot you back then.”

“Hahaha… Even if he did that, I’d still be alive since Priest Ahn would have saved me.”

“That man is a scammer.”

Terrence sighed at her reproach.

“That was what people always said about the prophet. But he’s here to help us… isn’t it true that we haven’t lost a single person from our community thanks to him?”

“That’s not because of the power of gods! It’s just the power of the resurrection scroll! I know that there are people who are resurrected like them here in Korea sometimes.”

“Don’t believe that nonsense, Paige.”

“And about that girl! I know she’s a ghoul! How could you even have a thought of having sex with a monster like that?”

I could see Terrence’s muscles stiffened at those words.

“Where did you… hear that?”

“At first you called me baby, then Paige, now it’s you? Fuck you, you idiot.”

“I didn’t mean it that way…”

I have learned something from their conversation so far. Terrence was a useless idiot. He’d been completely brainwashed by Ahn Geun-seok, leaving him no room to think for himself.

He finally grabbed Paige’s knee and tried to force it apart. I hurriedly wrote a word on a piece of paper and showed it to her.

NEED HELP?

Paige glanced at me and slightly nodded her head. I quickly asked her to pretend to hug him and asked him to go through his pockets. After all, If he had a resurrection scroll, all the work I was about to do would be in vain.

Terrence smiled contentedly as Paige’s face drew closer to him.

“Yeah, sometimes it’s not bad to give up everything and just enjoy the flow.”

Terrence hurriedly took off her pants and poked her stick towards Paige. She accepted his kiss and rummaged through his pockets to find the scroll.

Now!

I blew the paralyzing stinger I had prepared in advance at that moment. Surprisingly, Terrence survived the poison. He just slowly turned around to where I was.

“I had a strange feeling from the beginning, but to think there was a mouse hiding there…”

Before he moved, I took off my cloak and opened the portal.

“Dingo! Bite him!”

A silver wolf’s upper body came out of the portal and bit Terrence’s leg.

“Keeeukkk!”

Terrence groaned, but he did not let Paige go.

“Pull him!”

Crack!

Paige’s eyes widened when she belatedly laid her eyes on the big silver wolf. She must have been terrified to see a monstrous wolf coming out from the blue portal.

As Dingo pulled Terrence relentlessly, his large arms couldn’t hold towards Paige any longer as he finally got dragged away by Dingo. I tried to give a soccer kick to his face, but to my surprise, he was able to grab my ankle.

“Kuahahahahaha! You’re the only one whose abilities are blocked, idiot.”

As he put strength in his hand, I felt a pain which I rarely felt.

This bastard is not affected by the battlefield!

Dingo growled and bit his leg harder, but he just tightened the grip on my ankle more.

“Pain only fueled my will! Hahahaha, I bet you didn’t know this!”

Isn’t that a typical villain’s remark?

I put my hand into the portal and snapped it. A bolt popped out of the blue portal and pierced Terrence’s side without mercy.

“AAAAHHHHH!”

Even if you have the Pain Tolerance skill, surely you wouldn’t be able to stand that kind of pain.

The grip on my ankle was released at that moment. I quickly groped the bottom of the portal to find the shotgun. The moment the gun was turned into him, Terrence laughed at me.

“Even if I die, I will come back to life! Priest Ahm will save me!”

“Will it be possible without this?” Paige interjected with a scroll in her hand. Instantly, Terrence’s complexion turned grim.

“Nooooooooo!”

Bang-!!

Fire came out from the muzzle, slinging a round of ammo towards Terrence. After the ammo pierced his shoulders and head, the guy shook and blood burst from the gaping wound.

Paige bit her mouth all the way through the shocking scene without screaming. It seemed like being a cowgirl played a vital role in nurturing her strong mentality.

I lifted her up and put her on Dingo’s back.

“Hold on to him so you don’t fall. Dingo, run!”

It was about 500 meters to where Sangshin and James were. As long as they went away from the area, she wouldn’t be affected by the Shackles of War debuff any longer.

Dingo, who was slightly smaller than a bull, smashed the door with force and ran out. Paige, who had been keeping her mouth shut when she saw a human being shot with a shotgun, finally screamed.

After making sure that they had gone away, I went to confirm the kill. The points had come in, but the stats and skills remained the same, proof that he got nothing to do with the Battle Royale battlefield. It is probably the effect of Ahn Geun-Seok’s meddling.

“The bastard is a priest now? He’s been working hard, huh?”

I ran into the opposite direction of where Dingo and Paige disappeared to.

And at that moment, the redneck’s hideout broke into commotion.

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.

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Dingo ran with Paige hanging on his back. Gunshots rang out all around them, but the clumsy firepower could not completely penetrate the fur of the adult silverwolf.

Even though there were bloodstains on his silver fur, Dingo didn’t stop running. When a few rednecks blocked their way, Dingo simply jumped up above the human wall and landed on the roof of the building.

“C-crazy!”

Leaving the flabbergasted rednecks, Dingo quickly left the hideout. After running for some more, he finally found the place that smelled like his master’s friend.

The smell of pork!

The man would deny it, but Dingo definitely sniffed it. In other words, it’s the smell of his mouth.

Paige hugged his thick neck tightly.

“My dear wolf, where are you going to take me?”

Kung!

Even though it might sound like nothing but howl, it was pretty short and full of temper. In other words, Dingo was scolding the girl. What made it feasible for him to do something like that was because he had lived with the shelter members for quite some time, thus he had gotten used to their communication method.

“Okay, sorry.”

When Paige shut her mouth, Dingo stepped on the window sill and ran to the roof of the building. There, James and Sangshin were waiting for him.

“Paige! My daughter!”

“Dad!”

Sangshin scratched the back of his head while the father and daughter duo were having a reunion. Then, he shifted his gaze towards the people below.

“Look at those guys… They looked mad.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Let’s go”

As Sangshin gestured, the concrete shards flew up.

“Stand still.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll clean up those bastards first.”

As soon as he finished speaking, several rednecks came up to the roof with amazing movements. Sangshin remembered Soye had made that kind of move before.

Was it the Terrain Mastery unique skill?

“Don’t move!”

The rednecks pointed the pipe guns at them, but Sangshin just yawned at it. When the rednecks pulled the trigger, a thin barrier formed around Sangshin.

Babababababang-!!

Black smoke rose out of the muzzle, but the shield remained firm. At that moment, four long knives slid out from the bag on Sangshin’s back. The long knives, which took everyone’s attention, spread like a fan and flew in a straight line towards the rednecks.

With the sound of the air being ripped, the rednecks’ clothes were torn here and there, and blood was splattered to the ground. As their joints were ripped, the rednecks screamed and collapsed. The four long knives continue moving like a swimming fish, and sometimes like a hail of bullets.

“AGHHHHHH!”

One of the rednecks, who came up late, had his whole body pierced by a long knife and instantly covered by his own blood. As they were about to fall to the street below, a shard of concrete flew towards them and supported their backs thanks to the gesture of Sangshin.

“If you die now, I will become a murderer.”

Although he’s not as good as Seongho, Sangshin still knew a lot about the murderer system. After all, the live broadcast of the man who had made exploiting the system his hobby was his everyday lullaby.

As Sangshin released his telekinesis, the rednecks, together with the pieces of concrete holding them, fell to the ground.

“AAAAHHHHHH!”

After the dull sound, the surroundings became quiet. Sangshin then lifted a few concrete shards and supported himself and Dingo. After that, he said to James,

“We are going to hunt some cows later, right?”

James couldn’t answer right away since he was still shaken from the battle that had just taken place. He thought that Seongho was the only one who was strong, but the man in front of him also transcends his common sense.

“W-we will… But where did Mister Kang go?”

“Good. Now, we should get out of here. You don’t need to worry about him.”

“Isn’t he your comrade?”

“That’s right, but I have to say that my standing is lower than him… Let’s just leave. He’ll do fine by himself.” To be honest, when Seongho starts to fight properly, Sansghin would become nothing but a burden. Sangshin was also quite strong compared to the average survivors, but his power was still far from enough to join the fight between stagnant water-level individuals.

“Is that so…”

“Let’s go before the annoying guys come.” The ones Sangshin talked about were the crying ghoul and Ahn Geun-seok.

Sangshin beckoned, and four concrete shards quickly moved them away.

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I put on my cloak and wandered around the hideout. Thankfully, after running around, I found something interesting. It was a totem towering inside the mall. However, it was different from what I knew.

I tried to pull the totem from the ground, but I was caught up in an ominous sense of incongruity before doing it. I felt like something very bad was going to happen if I got closer.

“Just what are those bastards doing?”

“Are you curious?”

As soon as I heard a sound from behind my back, I opened the portal and hid in the shelter. Ahn Geun-seok suddenly appeared and looked into the air with strange eyes.

“This is your subspace, huh? I wanted to see what it looked like, what a pity.”

Ahn Geun-seok made a chair appear by shaping the floor before sitting down right in front of the portal.

It seemed like he knew a little bit about the portal.

I jolted down some words on a piece of paper and sent it to him.

The guy read it all and laughed.

“You found me rude for standing in front of your door? Then what about you? You, who had come to my house uninvited, and had made a mess everywhere?.”

-Keep waiting there. I’ll do something else, something better than this.

“Are you going to have some fun inside? The portal won’t move, so I’ll wait here until you come out.”

Look at this guy…

Looked like he didn’t just know a bit about the portal but a lot.

As a programmer, he might have looked at the Auction House’s comment log. For him, tampering with the system would be easy.

As I was keeping my silence, Ahn Geun-seok spoke to me.

“Isn’t it frustrating to be inside? Let’s talk.”

-I have nothing to say.

The shelter members looked at me while they were working, but they soon turned away. It seemed like they knew I was doing something and decided to leave me to my own device.

Ahn Geun-seok’s voice was once again heard inside the portal.

“You must have had a good look at her. How about it, I’m willing to give her to you.”

-I have no need for a ghoul.

“Isn’t she pretty? Our designers made her with her appearance as the top priority. Her current look was something that already went through several revisions. The designers had a hard time.”

The face of the ghoul girl was prettier than Da-jeong, Sooyeon, or even Soye. But I don’t like doll-like girls. It’s better to have someone who was a little bubbly and feral on some occasions.

(P/n sad Mikyung didn’t even got mentioned)

As the silence grew longer, Ahn Geun-seok made an additional suggestion.

“If her skin bothers you, we will get rid of them. You will have a doll that is absolutely loyal to you.”

-I don’t need it, just take her for yourself.

“Fufu, I knew you were going to say that. Unless you’re like us, there’s no way you’ll accept the offer.”

-Why do you keep asking me if you know?

“To buy time.”

Suddenly, several rednecks came and scattered around the portal. There was also the crying ghoul and a skinny man in a suit that I had never seen before. The suited man suddenly pulled out a notebook from his pocket and ripped out a page from it. Then a monster suddenly popped out of the air.

What the hell is this…

Ahn Geun-seok laughed in a low tone.

“This is the power of our designer. As you can see, his ability is monster summoning. No matter what weapon you use, you won’t be able to kill them all.”

It seemed like he’s the reason why Hyun-woo couldn’t find the Monster Lab.

This is bad… Rocket cannons and anti-tank mines wouldn’t kill them until they explode. The latter might even kill me if I got completely caught up in the detonation.

But there’s one thing Ahn Geun-suk didn’t know. I pretended to be in trouble and sent a note.

Ahn Geun-seok smiled and stood behind the monster, Sniffles.

“Hahaha… It seemed like the strongest stagnant water sometimes gets in a hurry too. But you can rest assured. I’m not going to kill you.”

-What do you mean?

“To be precise, I will not kill you and Da-jeong. I need high level people.”

Why are you suddenly involving Da-jeong?

I mean, Seokhyun is also quite high-level, Geom-in too.

-If you tell us your purpose, we can cooperate.

He and the designer snorted.

“Are you taking us for fools? We know better that Seongho has no intention of doing that.”

Tsk…

I closed the portal and headed towards the second portal. This portal connected to the dormitory of the Korean shelter.

“Yoohyeon, come here for a sec. I need your help.”

“Okay, Hyung!”

Yoohyeon’s paper airplane flew through the sky and scouted over the redneck’s hideout. It was flying so high in order not to get detected, in exchange, we could only see the rough shape of the people below.

“They are still waiting there?”

Jokes on you, that portal isn’t the only portal I have.