Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

buying this too, but I was hesitant because I had to spend all of my points if I do so.
But it seems like it was a really good weapon.”

Anyway, Seongho had assigned the other three soldiers for a long range offensive role.
The reason was simple, as it was their expertise as soldiers.

To be honest, Seongho personally thought since the monster’s nest which they would raid was nothing but a small scale one, they wouldn’t need any plan to do it.
Or at least, it was how it should be normally.
However, as the opponents were kobolds, they had to be more careful.
It was because those guys often called for reinforcement by making strange noises when they were cornered.
There was no content regarding it in the walkthrough pamphlet, therefore Seongho had no choice but to personally explain it as well as the strategy to the group.

“All you have to do is hold on to your own position and attack! Team 2, if the kobolds run away, don’t chase them! Team 1 or 3 will take care of it!”

“Understood.”

“Let’s go.” The party left the battalion and headed for the mountain.
Since they already found the nest by using Yoohyeon’s paper airplane, all that was left was to go and attack it.

When they moved closer to the nest, Dingo started to bark.
The kobolds who heard it quickly ran out of their den and looked around.
This will be the very first time the gym group ever saw kobolds.
Wet fur because of morning dew, ferocious-looking teeth, and slumped posture.
It was a very ugly looking monster.
They’re on a different level when compared with the ugly green-skinned goblins.

Unlike goblins who use nets and traps, kobolds only use really primitive weapons such as spears and slingshots.
However, they were still annoying little bastards because they have a habit of calling their kin when cornered.
Moreover, they could run on all fours, which would make them very slippery and hard to track.

“That guy is running away!” When one of the soldiers shouted, Yoohyeon fired an arrow with a folded paper tied on it towards it.
The arrow bent to avoid a tree before piercing the back of the running kobold like a guided missile.
Then, a small explosion occurred.
However, as the explosion came from the inside of its body, it was quite fatal.
The kobold couldn’t stand the explosion and fell forward, whimpering.

Before it could run away, Seongho jumped to it and smashed its head with an ebony club.

“Phew.
It’s done! Let’s rest for a while before moving to the next nest!” At his cry, Lieutenant Hyun-woo sat down and sighed.

The raid, which had just finished, was already the second raid.
Never in his wildest imagination Lieutenant Hyun-woo ever thought that hunting kobolds would be so easy.
His eyes followed Seongho as the two soldiers began to speak, seemingly thought so as well.

“Aren’t you surprised, Commander-in-chief? He seems to have a lot of experience in fighting against kobolds.”

“Yeah… I think so too.
He seemed to know in advance where they were going to run.”

Of course, it could only be nothing but coincidence.
However, the direction he went to whenever some kobolds ran away, as well as his timings, were always impeccable.
He guided people to take action by going back and forth between them and the front line.
And when they did what he told them to, the battle proceeded easily.
Moreover, whenever he told someone to retreat a few steps back, stones thrown by the kobolds fell right in front of them.
When Lieutenant Hyun-woo asked how he did that, he said that he saw it in advance because of his unique ability.

However, even though Seongho seemed to be doing a lot, the truth was he didn’t even fight directly.
He only went around with Sooyeon to help her get some experience.
As a result, Sooyeon’s level finally rose to 10.

“Oh.
I’m level 10 now.”

“What about the additional effects?” Seongho quickly asked.

“It increases the healing distance.
Though, I don’t think the range increase will be that far.” Sooyeon explained.

“I think you are really Mercy.
Though, I don’t know about her at all.”

Sponsored Content

“They say I look so similar to them when I take my glasses off.
Should I tie my hair up too? To ponytail?”

But Seongho just shrugged his shoulders at her question.
After all, he didn’t care much about her appearance.
Before she knew it, he already approached Yoohyeon and told him that he did a good job while patting him on the shoulder.
Sooyeon quikly shut her mouth and hid her embarrassment by tying her hair with a rubber band.

After looking at the group, Seongho decided to end the hunt there.
It was because the party’s stamina consumption was too severe due to the fact they had to climb the mountain.
Most of the nearby kobold nests had been cleared, so he judged that it should be fine for a while.

The group went down the mountain in unison and headed to the base.
However, when they arrived, they were reminded that it wasn’t only kobolds who were taking the supplies without their consent.

.

.

.

“Wow, I really wanted to slap them.”

“You did well for holding it in.” I said as I patted Hyung-jun Hyung on the back.
What made him angry were none other than the nearby survivors.
When we returned from the kobold subjugation, we saw them rummaging through the warehouse as soon as we entered the base.

When the soldiers sighed at the sight, Hyung-jun Hyung was the one who threw them a question.

“What are you doing now?” 

“Why are you asking that? Can’t we be here?”

“This warehouse is public property prepared by the state.
not yours.”

The survivors argued that it was the property of the state and that they had the right to take whatever they want.

Then, Lieutenant Hyun-woo said,

“Why don’t you take some every now and then? We already told you so, don’t we?”

“Why should we listen though? It’s up to us.”

“Yeah, don’t be like that.
Just do what you have to do.
By the way, has the number of people here increased? Who are the two girls over there?”

The survivors even tried to dig into the identity of Sooyeon and Mikyung.
What annoying bastards.
However, since Lieutenant Hyun-woo, the one who was in charge of this base was standing still, I couldn’t just confront them.

While they were talking to us, they still gathered as much supplies as they could.

“Let’s live together.
There are so many things here, you can’t eat them all anyway.”

“Are you taking it and sharing it with the survivors around you? If so, you can take whatever you want.”

The guys laughed out loud at Hyun-woo’s words.

“What are you talking about? Sharing?”

“Lieutenant Kim is a nice person, huh?”

It would have been fine if they just said they will share it with other survivors even though it’s a lie.
But the survivors brazenly denied it and walked away while laughing out loud.
Their attitude was so pompous to the point Hyun-woo, who had always been calm, turned red.

“…I didn’t hunt kobolds to see something like this.” Everyone agreed with Sooyeon’s words, but there was nothing they could do.
Afterall, It was true that there were many supplies piled inside.
It was also true that we are not the owners of the supplies.
You couldn’t just drive some survivors out just because their attitude was annoying.

When the two soldiers said they would take Lieutenant Hyun-woo to the dormitory, I quietly returned to the room.

“Looking at their attitude, they must have belonged somewhere…” After all, ordinary survivors had no reason to make enemies by acting cocky to another group, unless someone is backing them.
It’s even more true when the group had someone from the military.
Which means, they must have been ordered by someone.

Today was the 8th, the day the groups from Gimhae and Changwon, who were related to the Kwon’s group, would give each other their regular report.
When I opened the Auction House, a strange item was listed as an auction item.

I opened Kwon’s journal as I read the comment.

―CW5 C

Sponsored Content

―CW3 C

—GH4 C

―GH2 ST AR

“The front was the branch name, and the back is their situation… C means that nothing is wrong.” CW stands for Changwon and GH stands for Gimhae.
Meanwhile, The ST and AR were shortened English words for ‘Stranger’ and ‘Arrive’ respectively.
The stranger they reported was probably referring to us.

“It means GH2 was around the battalion.” It seems like the one behind those guys was this GH2 clan.
Their real goal was probably to drive us out and take over the warehouse.

Then, a comment suddenly appeared.

―BS11?

―BS11C

As I typed the answer, no more questions came.
Just like this, I just check the situation in each area.
They were also quite meticulous as they periodically removed the auction items and put them up again to erase all traces of communication.

When the auction items came up once again and several comments were written, I used points to check everyone’s ID.
At that moment, I discovered something surprising.
The troll who was the source of all the commotion happened back in the awakened forum was here.

-GaeTroll (Help Me): There’s women among the strangers? Are they pretty?

“Aigoo.”

He’s the guy who scammed 10 million won from some awakeners and ran away.

-GaeTroll (Help Me): Change of plan.
Get the kids together tomorrow night.
Try to find where the girls are sleeping.

“My god…”

It seems that the rumour that Sooyeon and Mikyung were pretty has spread all the way there. 

At that moment, an idea popped out in my head.
It was none other than the same ‘offense is the best defense’ strategy.

When I left that auction item’s comment section and browsed through the other auction items, I found out that Duck had arrived at Miryang.

“If it’s Miryang… it’s not that far from here.”

The comments also said that the whole area was crowded with survivors who flocked there because of her.

-There were already two zombie raids here lol

-Her body shape, posture and gesture is all perfect.
She’s like a real queen

-Hey, you bastards, stop saying anything when you are only quaking on your boots because of her zombies!

-LOLOL

-But why is she in Miryang?

-I don’t know.
She may have come to meet Rapwi.

“She’s really popular.” By the way, the reason she came down to Miryang must have been to meet me.
In fact, I was still hesitating whether to meet her or not.

“…”

I recalled my memories with Duck Buttock Goes Kwek Kwek.
He… No, she mainly played with Rapwi, but it couldn’t be said that we were not friendly to each other.

“She once said that she wanted to suck a werewolf…” At that time, I brushed it off as simple nonsense.
But now that I think about it, why is a woman like her saying such vulgar things like that?

“Let’s not think about it, let’s not think…” Duck was also a stagnant water, so the more I think about it, the more I will suffer.

Anyway, it seems like it would be better to meet her.
Afterall, she was someone I shared many memories with.

“You came all the way here to see me, shouldn’t I at least offer her some hospitality?”

I decided.
Let’s meet her and have a talk.