Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Everyone must have dreamed about building a hut in the woods at least once in their live. So did I. My plan was to work hard as much as I could and build a hut in the village far from the noisy city for my retirement days. How nice it would be to live in harmony with nature.

“But, damn it.” I hissed. Never had I thought that I would build my dream hut with my own hands. I was going to leave it to Da-jeong, but she didn’t even finish it. I have to do the rest since I was sure I don’t want my hut to have nothing but the Earth below it.

I clumsily made the flooring and spread mortar all over it. It was somewhat different from the hut originally drawn by the stag beetles. They pointed to the structure and protested.

“It will be pain if moisture come up to the room.”

The stag beetles protested even more at my answer. They complained that the moisture was something I shouldn’t fear since it was a part of nature. But I’m not a fantasy race like you, goddammit.

Even though the nagging continued, I did not stop the construction. At some point, the stag beetles seemed to have given up as they went to work on something else.

“Whoa, it’s hard.” Now that the mortar had hardened, it was time to lay down the real floor. I cut the big logs into smaller parts and fitted it along the lines the stags had drawn on the ground. Just by looking at their work, it was clear just how meticulous they are.

Once it was done, I put a thick tarp and vinyl on the flooring, and finally laid plywood on it. Now it’s time to raise the pillar frame. It would be nice to have a crane, but it’s my style to make it only once I really need it. Currently, having that was low on my priority list. I proceeded with the work while sipping on some beer that had turned up thanks to the winter on earth.

“Keeeeeeuuuugghhh.” If it were a normal society, I would have been fired from my work because of drinking on the job. Though, since my resistance was high, and my body was strong, I couldn’t get drunk with just any kind of alcohol. But the taste is still good.

Now that the pillars have been erected, it was time to build the walls. The design was slightly different from what the stag drew since I would be installing a brazier and door at one side.

As I was raising the timber to build the wall, the stag beetles came and nagged me again. Their chief said ‘Why don’t you clean the floor?’

This time, I decided to open my heart and listen to their nagging as advice.

“Okay, okay. I’ll do it.”

When I stopped my work and cleared the floor, the guys looked a little startled. They seemed to say ‘Wait, why is this young man suddenly listening to us?’

After cleaning, I was sitting on the wood to rest, when the chief stag beetle came with a piece of paper in its claw. Drawn on it was an object that looked like a simple crane. If I had that, it would surely make the work easier.

“But it’s taking too long to make it.” When I said that, the stag beetle climbed up to my thigh and pinched my hand.

“Ouch. What is that for?” The guy made a gesture to look at the clearing. That moment I realized, it was saying to look at the bigger picture; other people who were supposed to come here too. Not one or two huts were to be built in the future, but if every time I needed to raise the pole with manpower alone…

“Yes, you are right.” I nodded and tried to pet it. However, the stag skillfully moved away to avoid my hand.

So you mean we can talk but not touch?

What a picky guy…

While I was taking a break from cutting the logs, a thought came to my mind.

Has it been two days?

It was about time for Da-jeong to reach the volcano. When I looked at the auction house, a smile naturally appeared on my face.

-Da-jeong is dying!

-Da-jeong is dying!

Seems like she’s currently climbing up a volcano. After all, the best quality soil needed to use in the blast furnace could only be found in those areas. I took a sip of my beer and typed in a comment.

-I’m currently drinking a cold beer.

-Just wait until I come back! Ah really! Why did I say I’ll go to this damn place! Building the hut will be easier!

-Other people’s rice cakes always look bigger than ours. It’s just the way of the world.

-Your wife is having a hard time right now, can’t you just speak more beautifully to comfort her?

-How can I even make it more beautiful than this? Anyway, the drink is really sweet today.

-Know what? Just wait until I get home. You are dead!

I don’t know with what method she intends to kill me, but that’s not important. Da-jeong seems to have recognized the shelter as her home now. It used to be mine alone. But now, it has become ours. That’s good progress.

I accepted her complaint by throwing jokes here and there. After a while, I got back to work and built the crane using the stag’s blueprint. Once it was done, I used it to lift the roof and place it on top of the house. However that’s not the end as I still need to layer it with some plywood and tarpaulins. Only when the third evening after Da-jeong left came did the hut seem completed.

“It’s a bit slanted.” It seems that there was an error in the cutting process. Though, it wouldn’t be a problem soon. It’s still perfectly liveable.

I fitted the door that the stag beetles had drawn to where it belonged before finally building a brazier and building a wall to separate the bathroom from the rest of the house.

It’s done!

“Let’s leave the bathtub here…” After installing the bathtub, I wondered what it would be like to turn this bathroom into a full-scale washroom using water pumped from the valley.

“I have more and more work to do…” Someone said that plans were bound to go awry from the start. It couldn’t ring any truer than this moment. My plan to build a simple hut had turned into building a cabin house where I could live comfortably.

When I contacted Da-jeong, asking where she currently was, she said that she was on her way back. However, no matter how fast she went, it would still take around two days for her to arrive here. There’s still enough time for me to connect the water pipe to this washroom.

I went to the valley with the dingo and dug deep to place the pipe.

“Leave the hose here…” It wouldn’t be difficult for a monster to find it, so I had to bury it in the ground. And so the work time was multiplied several times over. Of course, the monsters around the forest didn’t just leave me–who made quite a loud noise–alone.

Tatatatang-!!

I released my stress by raining them with bullets.

“Stop attacking, you bastards!” I shouted. However, no matter how many of them fell, there was no end to their numbers. Seems like as long as we live in this forest, we would be destined to continue fighting. Maybe until we die.

“Whew…” I had fired so many bullets, it was to the point that dense smoke rose from the gun barrel. It was good that my stress was relieved, but new stress quickly replaced it. Hearing the gunshots, more monsters came. It would be refreshing to just shoot them all. But the amount of ammunition I had was limited. Moreover, if I just keep killing them like this, I need to dig the ground again to bury them. Without that ending touch, creepers would start roaming this forest at night.

I cursed again and shot them to death one by one with arrows. Thanks to that, my working hours have stretched even more.

“Ah, seriously!” I huffed as I plopped to my ass. It might be better to wait for people to come in than to work alone like this. But in that case, it was going to be quite long before they came in.

“They are still too weak right now.” Leaving the monster hunting aside, it would be difficult for them to even complete the entry mission with their current combat power. Considering the fact that they ran away because of a surprise attack from a handful of Japanese, they were still a long way off. I sent them to Seoul in hopes they change for the better.

“They should be doing fine.”

I mustered up my strength and finished the last task, namely pumping the pump lever, which was used by people from 40 years ago. The hose shuddered and water gushed from the pipe. I wouldn’t use the water just as it was, I would put it in the bathtub and use it to wash and many other necessities. It would be nice if I could get my hands on a motor pump… Though it was an easy problem to solve. All I need is Yoo-hyeon entering this shelter.

I cleaned up and laid down in the hut. Dingo panted and lay down next to me.

“This is our house.”

kiiing-!!

I now have a cozy home.

.

.

.

I moved all the furniture and supplies from the cave to the hut. I decided to live in this house from now on and just use the cave as a warehouse.

“It’s hot, there’s no ventilation, and it’s dark…” I was fully aware of it since I was the one who built it, but this house really had quite a few flaws. To mitigate it, a new solar generator and infrared detector had to be installed.

After cleaning and moving all the mattresses and blankets, Da-jeong finally arrived. She stared blankly at the hut, covered in dirt. From how her cheeks had become slimmer, showing her chin and cheekbone more, it’s crystal clear that she had suffered quite a bit.

“To think you’ve built this much…”

“I have water ready inside. Go wash.”

“Really?” Da-jeong squealed. Once she entered the house and went to the bathroom, she put her hand in the bathtub and rejoiced.

“Now we just need to connect the pump.”

“I already did that too.”

“NICE!!!!”

Da-jeong looked at the pump stored in the small warehouse and tapped her forehead.

“Seriously, without you, I wouldn’t be alive.”

“Didn’t you say that you will kill me while you were climbing the volcano?”

“I’m going to kill you another way. Just wait.” She squinted her eyes and gave me a predatory grin. I know very well how ferocious a lioness could become after five days of starvation. Though, I already have a plan to avoid that.

I opened the portal and went to Earth to take the cold beer I had prepared beforehand and gave it to her. She grabbed the beer from the bathtub and wiped the corner of her eyes with her index finger.

“I’m not someone who cries often, but tears are coming out.”

“Drink all the way, all the way…” (T/N Here’s the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGwmA1y07o)

“It’s good…” That was the end of her words before drifting away from consciousness. It seems that all her tension had washed away as soon as she returned home and her body decided to put itself on rest. Of course the alcohol helped.

I pulled her out from the bathtub, wrapped her in a towel, and laid her down on her mattress. It’s hot, but I still need to cover her with a blanket.

“…” As I looked down at her body which was only wrapped in a thin blanket, a desire rose inside me. No matter what anyone says, Da-jeong was pretty and had a really nice body. But since I got work to do right now, I had to push the rising desire back down.

I packed up and went out to Earth with Dingo. As I went down to the dark subway entrance and hid, I heard a few muffled gunshots from the inside.

“Those bastards are already shooting.” I sighed. Since the corrosive disease had almost subsided, I knew that the guns would survive even after a few shots. The problem was that the looters at the subway station had full control of the guns. There must be some way to find the entrance and loot it from them.

“The spare shelter is mine, you bastard.” Even when that’s the case, I wonder how I should proceed…

WIth my current equipment, it would be close to impossible to survive against a barrage of bullets. Dimension wall was usable, but it wouldn’t be easy. After all, I have to keep adjusting the area I place it on by reacting on where the muzzle was pointed at.

If only I had a bulletproof vest…

I thought of government shelters at that moment. As a shelter built by governing bodies, they should have quite a stockpile of bulletproof vests and bulletproof helmets.

“Doubt that grandfather would just give it to me.” I sighed. Another way to do this was to go down with Da-jeong’s ghoul. The thing is, even grasshoppers would lose their strength in front of the firepower of firearms. The tank should be able to stand its ground, but the problem is there’s only one in our group as of now.

“Seems like I will have to leave Da-jeong inside the portal and go down alone.” Only when I was deep enough I could let her and her ghouls out to bring down the core of the looters group at once.

As I was going down to do some scouting, I suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Euk.” I opened the portal and quickly jumped towards it. Not long after, I saw several people running inside. Each one of them was holding a pistol.

“We can’t even hurt it with a fucking gun!”

“We have to get the rifle!”

“Hurry up! it’s not the time to chat!”

Not long after they passed, a monster followed suit. It was an ugly monster that gave Da-jeong Seok-hyun and I quite a headache; Sniffles.

It’s been quite a while…

However, its appearance was different from what I remembered.

“This one is very bulky…” Normally, monsters with the same name would have a similar appearance. Afterall, it is just impossible for a goblin to look like a werewolf. Their genes and lifestyle was different in the first place. However, these sniffles had a bulging stomach, unlike the previous one I fought in Gyeryongdae.

“It seems shorter too.” With this new revelation, I became more and more convinced that Sniffles was a monster which was created by combining humans and monsters. I’ll be sure when another sniffle comes out.

Once the Sniffles walked away, I continued going deeper towards the subway station. However, when I was on another flight of stairs, I was forced to throw my body into the portal again.

“There are two sniffles.” The ones I saw right now were also different in appearance from the one I saw earlier. With this, I become sure. But I couldn’t laugh. The new Sniffles launched itself towards two looters who were trying to run away. I was extremely surprised by the power of the new sniffle.

“It can move like that?” It’s not even a rubber band, so it doesn’t make sense that it could narrow a distance that seemed 20 meters in one leap.

“AHHHHHHH.” A flurry of gunshots rang through the subway station right after the scream before it died down. The Sniffles retrieved its thorns and started eating the two corpses.

Shit…

I closed the portal and fell into contemplation. I came here with the plan to occupy the spare shelter, but now it has become a highest difficulty mission due to the existence of two Sniffles. On top of that, each one of them also seemed to have a different set of abilities from the Sniffles in Gyeryongdae.

“One had the elasticity of a rubber band, and the other…” Judging from its bulky body, It should be specializing in defense. If I make a wrong move, even the M72 rocket may not work.

“The elastic sniff is Slingshot Sniffles, and the fat sniff is Shield Sniffles.” And the first Sniffles I met was just a normal one. While I was naming the monsters, a group of looters passed me with guns in their hands.

“Why do so many guys have guns?” Even with this curiosity, I simply couldn’t go deeper than this. It was not even known who spread the rumors and when they gathered. There were no traces in the auction house either.

“Why did the gun break so easily?”

“It’s because the Corrosive DIsease sickness hadn’t subsided yet.”

“From what I’ve seen before, spoons and other things seem to work just fine.”

“That’s because there’s no pressure or shock that impacts it.”

“What impact does the gun have?”

For a moment, the looter’s expression, who looked like he was the eldest amongst the group, wrinkled.

“You meathead. Do you think bullets just go out like that? Don’t you know it needs gunpowder to explode in order to shoot with that much power? When that happens, the barrel will naturally be put under pressure.”

“Ah, is that so…”

It was ignorance beyond imagination. The two disappeared while talking about the need to bring out more guns. The guts of these guys… Talking about something which was mine like it was theirs…

I can’t let it slide. I made up my mind and called the government shelter. When someone entered a comment to answer me, it turned out to be Hyun-woo.

“So Hyun-woo was also in the shelter.” I murmured.

-Just tell them I Love Gimbap has something to say.

– Oh, yes.

After a while, Jang Won-taek appeared in the comment section. I briefly explained the circumstances to him.

-There are two Sniffles there?

-Yes. They also seem to have different abilities from the one in Gyeryongdae. By the way, you know that the looters carry guns, don’t you?

-I have heard of it, and there are our people too amongst them.

Seems like I need to be direct here.

-I need a bulletproof vest and helmets,

-Haha… To think even I Love Gimbap afraid of guns.

All living things are…

If Jang Won-taek showed an opposing reaction here, I was going to wait. After all, my people were in the government shelter, so if I waited, I could get the supplies I wanted. Jang Won-taek, of course, would be aware of that fact.

-It seems you need it desperately. But pushing and pulling here will only build up conflict. Let’s do this then. I’ll give it to you. But you must come in person. Come to the government shelter and pick it up.

For a brief moment I had a thought that it was only a bait for his bigger plan to put me down, but I soon changed my mind. There’s no reason for him to do harm to me at all. Even if he plans to kill me, I would be revived by the resurrection scroll, so there’s no need to be overly paranoid.

-I will depart today.

-Heh heh, now that I think about it, I am inviting a giant to our small house. I’ll wait.

Jang Won-taek also asked if I was really okay with the arrangements and what kind of food I liked before we ended the conversation. I made my way out of the subway station before long.

Now, it’s time to finally go to the government shelter.