Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

By the way, thank you Chelle for $18 donation, that raise the count to 32. i need to do 13 more… wow… too much love~

There is no time. Joo Seung-cheol now knows about me. There’s nothing holding him back from exposing me to the Auction House after coming back to life. Of course, I’m sure he won’t reveal it, but it’s necessary to always assume the worst case scenario. Therefore, I could not afford to leisurely hide behind the portal and had to go on full offense.

I blocked one guy running towards me from the front with a dimensional wall. At the same time, the long knife that the other guy was swinging at me was blocked with the long knife I had in my hand.

Crack-!! Crack-!!

Crackling sounds run through both the ceramic long knives as they push against each other. When I put almost all my strength to push my long knife, the man’s eyes opened wide. He probably didn’t expect me to be able to exert power beyond the level of an awakener with physical strengthening-type unique skill.

“You bastard!” He slipped the long knife in his hand to the side and swung one of his legs towards me.

Is he working as a bodyguard or something before the apocalypse?

Trusting my Hard Skin skill, I retaliated by slamming my forehead into his face.

Puck-!!

“Ughhh…” Both of us were being hit by each other, but only one of us let out a pained voice. Judging by the fact that blood had dripped from his nose, It was safe to say that I had broken his nose. On top of it, since the headbutt also contains the hit boost from the combo of Resolute Strike and Lethal Strike skills, his brain must be shaking right now.

Of course, I wasn’t unharmed either. My body trembled and my bones ached. However, I did not lose the center of my balance. And that’s enough for me.

I jumped towards the man while holding the cracked long knife tight. He tried to push me away even when he was on the floor, but it was to no avail. The long knife backed with my weight quickly pierced the man’s abdomen. At that moment, from my back, a man whom I was blocking with my dimension wall attacked me.

“Die!”

I rolled over to the side as soon as my feet touched the ground. In my eyes, the movement of the man who was pierced by a long knife in his stomach and the man who rushed at me was very slow compared to the enemies I’ve fought before.

“Huppp!”

The man swung his long knife to me again. A few strands of my hair flew into the air as I moved just an inch from the blade in order to counterattack. Once I was close enough, I slammed my fist at the man’s chin.

Puck-!!

The man flew several inches above ground because of my blow before falling to the ground. However, he still tries to stand again. I have to admit, he’s quite durable. If it had been any other person, they would have been fatally wounded with that one punch.

I threw the Emeras throwing knives at the two. My throwing skills were by no means great. But since the target wasn’t moving and was also wounded, I wouldn’t miss. The two screamed as the sharp throwing knives pierced their legs and stomach.

“Ugh!”

“Keuk!”

It’s about time to end this fight, I pulled out the Emeras spear from the dimension slot and threw it at the man I hit on the chin. He was still able to move his body away from the trajectory even in a state of moaning in pain, but he can’t do anything about the follow up.

“Bye!”

The Emeras spear pierced his forehead, making his body fall to the ground as it lost all of its strength. All that’s left was the other guy who had a long knife lodged in his stomach. I grabbed the sword hilt as I put my right foot on his forehead. Then, I put strength on the sword.

“AHHHHHH!”

Blood gushed out from the man’s stomach after the man failed to prevent the blade from going even deeper with his hand.

「You have earned 50 points」

「You have earned 50 points」

As the system notification appears in front of my eyes, my sight changed to that of a murderer, and a new skill was generated in my status window. If I hadn’t given the neck warmer to Rapwi, the Paralysis Poison Resistance skill would have been deleted, overtaken by the new skill. Luckily, the empty skill slot that was supposed to be filled with the cold resistance is now the one used for the new skill.

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

In the midst of a loud heartbeat sound, I opened the portal and summoned Dingo and Ding-soon.

“You guys go and hide somewhere close. Come out when I call you. You guys know what I mean, right?”

They whimpered, sniffed me and licked my face.

What are they doing? I’m not dying just yet. I will be soon, though. I stroked the two wolves and chased them away. Now it’s time for the main character to appear.

When I pulled the bloody long knife, he finally appeared. The guy walked towards me as he made a gun shape with his finger. Then, the ability blocking debuff appeared on my status window.

Dozens of my skills were unable to use and my stats were drastically nerfed. Finally, a notification popped up, saying that my unique skill was blocked.

“How is it? Do you like my gun, Mr. Murderer?” Joo Seung-cheol waved his gun-shaped fingers at me.

“It’s awesome. Why don’t you come a little closer?”

Grinning, Joo Seung-cheol took steps forward and came closer to me. “I will do whatever you want. I want to see your face up close too.”

The timing wasn’t right yet. I have to wait for him to come a lot closer to me. I released my grip from the hilt of the sword I was holding because I was feeling a bit tired. It felt so heavy due to the fact that my stats were blocked.

“So, how do you feel after seeing me?”

“Your skill in dealing with my subordinates and your unique skill…” He stopped in front of me. In the back of my mind, I want to just attack him right here right now. But because he was currently stronger than me in terms of stats, If I attack now, I will be the one who lost. So, I need to wait for the correct time to attack.

“… Is quite useful. Much better than my weak subordinates’ skills and unique skills.”

“Is that so? Are you sure they are the weak ones, and because of their stupid boss?”

“Of course… My unique skill wasn’t combat-related skill. So I had to give a lot of things to them in order to make them fight for me. It’s really a waste that they had to die. So, I’m so sorry….I have to kill you too.”

“Can’t you spare me? I could be your subordinate.”

Seung-cheol shook his head as if it was a ridiculous notion.

“You know that’s impossible, right? How can I accept you when I didn’t even know what’s inside that subspace of yours? It is better to just kill you.”

“That’s right…” When I lowered my head, he smiled.

“Haha, don’t worry. Even if you die, your stats will not go to waste.”

“What do you mean?”

“If the ones I used my skill on died, one of my stats will rise. So far, it has risen by 1, and with you, it will rise by 2.”

“Are you absorbing stats? But, wouldn’t that make you into a murderer too?”

“You don’t get it, do you? The one who killed them doesn’t have to be me. I can just order my subordinates to do it. The stats will come in as long as they die while still being affected by my skill. Do you understand now?”

Oh… So that’s the other additional effect.

“SIgh… That’s…”

“Actually, as soon as I found out about your abilities, I wanted to tell the Auction House about it. After all, there are a lot of people in the world who want to kill you. But I didn’t do it. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

At that moment, Seung-cheol’s expression changed drastically.

“Because I will have you tortured, to the point where you will ask for me to kill you instead. You had killed me, you f**ker. And you will pay for having me experience that.”

“I never imagined you would have two resurrection scrolls.”

“I got one as a gift. From someone you can’t even imagine.”

“Who is that someone?” I asked, but he ignored me and continued.

“Oh, come to think of it, that b**tard Rapwi also stabbed me with a knife. Just thinking about that time…” His body shook and his face turned red before looking straight at me. “Neither you nor Rapwi will meet an easy death. I will test how tough a human body could be through both of you. Then, I’ll take everything in your subspace.”

Wow, that’s my main specialty he’s talking about.

“…”

I acted as if I was terrified and took a few steps back. Meanwhile, Joo Seung-cheol matched my steps and walked towards me with a long knife in his hand. I don’t know whether it was because he was feeling too excited, or because he was distracted by the sound of heartbeats, but he didn’t seem to realize the two wolves that had climbed up the wall.

“I don’t want to dirty my hand by killing you. So thank you so much for becoming a murderer in advance.” He smiled. “So just sit still, and let’s end this easily.”

“But I don’t want to?”

“Well, I guess, let’s start with one arm then.”

At that moment, Dingo and Ding-soon jumped off the wall. The two jumped over a fairly long distance and crashed into Joo Seung-cheol.

He, who was hit by two wolves, cursed. “M**herf**ker!”

Whimper-!!

Dingo, who was biting him, was hit by the guy’s fist and fell off. Meanwhile, Ding-soon, who bit his shoulder, backed away.

“Get away!” Joo Seung-cheol swung his long knife and could barely stand up. At that time, I pointed the weapon I had prepared beforehand towards his head.

“WHA-”

When Seung-cheol saw the police revolver, his eyes became wide open.

“Corrosive…”

Bang-!!

Before he could say anything, the chamber rotated and exploded the gunpowder. Because of the strong impact, the revolver was disassembled; but the bullet still flew towards Seung-cheol’s head.

“…”

That was the end of it. Joo Seung-cheol stared blankly at me with a hole in his forehead.

“You…how…”

“It lasted about 30 minutes. I thought it would be enough for me to do one shot. So I took it out in advance.”

“Fu-”

He couldn’t even finish his curse and fell to the floor.

“It looks like he didn’t have a third scroll.”

Just having two resurrection scrolls was something close to a miracle, so if he got three of them, I don’t know what to say. He said that he received it as a gift from someone I could not ever imagine, I wonder who that someone might be?

By the way, it’s about time for Da-jeong to arrive. If she’s nearby, she would have heard the heartbeat and she’ll be able to find me. I’m sorry for her, but I’ll have to ask her to kill me.

Finally, Da-jeong climbed over the fence, riding on the shoulder of a large ghoul. She seemed to have guessed what happened after seeing me and the corpses strewn all over the icy ground. On top of it, the sound of the heartbeat was a solid proof.

“Seongho.”

I looked at her and raised my bloody hand. “The gun shattered and hurt my hand. On top of that, I don’t have enough strength, so please do it for me.”

“Okay…”

Da-jeong silently unsheathed the long knife in her waist and held it in her hand as she walked up to me.

“When you resurrect, Let’s do something hotter than this.” Then she landed a kiss on my lips.

“Aigoo… I’m scared to death..”

A cold solid thing penetrated my chest at that moment. Then slowly, my red vision was painted black.

.

.

.

Da-jeong stabbed her long knife into Seongho’s chest and stepped back from him. Her hollow eyes and bitten lips tell everything about her feelings.

“Please, just quickly disappear…” Although she believes in the resurrection scroll, she obviously didn’t like having to kill someone she cherished, with her own hands, no less. Moments later, a system notification, which told her that she had received a lot of points and skills, appeared before her eyes. But she didn’t feel elated even a bit. She’s just staring at the disappearing corpse in front of her.

Da-jeong sighed and snapped her fingers. “Bring Seongho here.”

Except for the ghoul she used as her chair, all of her ghouls scattered through the city. She waited for him, shaking the boots Seongho gave to her.

‘If I had killed that b**tard earlier, this wouldn’t have to happen…’ Just why did Seongho choose to do this alone? Alongside those thoughts, Da-jeong was also thinking of nagging at Seongho once he returned.

But… Why hasn’t he come?

Da-jeong squatted and waited, but even after a few minutes passed, Seongho still hadn’t come back. Panicked, she climbed over the shoulder of the large ghoul and ordered it to climb the fence.

“You guys still haven’t found him?” She said as she saw one of her ghouls. For some reason, she felt uneasy. She was certain that something had gone wrong. Da-jeong searched every building in the area, but she could not see Seongho anywhere.

“You are playing a prank on me, right?” Da-jeong shouted. But no answer came back. Meanwhile, a battle broke out when several survivors encountered her ghouls. Those survivors were Seung-cheol’s reinforcement. Da-jeong hardened her face and focused her killing intent on them, driving them away.

Unfortunately for her, even after waiting for another 10 to 20 minutes, Seongho was still nowhere to be seen. Because of that fact, despair washed over Da-jeong. Therefore, she once again ran around the city to find him.

“Hey! Come out!” Da-jeong ran around screaming, but there was no response. She posted a comment on the Auction House in case he was resurrected in another area, but there’s no reply whatsoever.

“N-no way… no, it can’t be…” Da-jeong shook her head as hard as she could, as guilt enveloped her heart. After all, she was the one who killed her…

“He had the resurrection scroll… So why…”

A cold wind ruffled her long hair and Da-jeong slowly fell to his knees.

“I… I killed…”

Tears flowed like a waterfall from her eyes.

.

.

.

“…” I opened my eyes and was greeted by an unfamiliar surrounding. Just where in the world is this place? I thought I would respawn near the place of my death because of the scroll…

“Ugh…” I forced my aching body, which felt as if I was just beaten back and blue, to get up. However, at that moment, an unpleasant stench entered my nose. On top of it, one side of my head was throbbing like crazy.

Putting all my strength on my body, I forced it to get up once again. And when I finally see my surroundings, my eyes become wide open.

Isn’t this the spring?

“It’s odd…” However, unlike the last time I saw, the water of the spring wasn’t crystal clear, but pitch black.

Why did I respawn here rather than on Earth?

“Ughh…” I stood on my feet and walked away from the dirty spring. When I turned back, gone was the fantastical and mysterious spring. It was replaced by a dirty and terrifying spring.

“I wonder if the resurrection scroll is still there…” I searched for it in my pocket, and to my surprise, I found it. It’s wet, but since it was a parchment, it would dry if given time.

By the way, why am I so lethargic and weak? Joo Seung-cheol’s blocking ability should have been lifted when he’s dead, so my original stats should’ve returned by now.

“What is this…” I was left speechless a moment after I opened the status window.

「Level: 24 Points: 0

Vitality: 6 Strength: 6 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 5 Perception: 4

Unique skill : Dedicated Dimensional Door

Skills: Life Tracking, Paralysis Poison Resistance 2, Fighting Instinct, Light Gait, Eyes of Truth, Stigma of Death, Hard Skin 2, Griffin’s Eye, Resolute Strike, Cold Resistance, Water Breathing, Lethal Strike

Active buff: Resurrection Aftereffect 」

My points became 0 and all the stats fell to the floor. When I saw the ‘Resurrection Aftereffect’ on the active buff column, I wondered whether Weakness and Exhaustion debuffs were part of this debuff.

Then, I turned to the notification window below the status window.

「Resurrection system corrupted」

「With 13560 points, 1 minute of resurrection time and 3 hours of resurrection aftereffects has been applied」

“Maybe this…”

Did the spring save me by taking my points as payment?

Is it contaminated because it absorbs my death?

Is the resurrection time and the time applied to the aftereffects of the resurrection got shorter because a lot of points were consumed?

I sank down in despair. However,

“Wait… I should consider myself lucky…” I cherished the resurrection scroll, but instead of it being used to resurrect myself, the spring and the points were used for my resurrection. I can just collect the points again, but… Is there a way to make the spring clean again like it used to be, I wonder?

I took off my stinky clothes and cautiously returned to the shelter. Fortunately, there were no monsters along the road. And when I arrived at the barbed wire fence, the scarabs were surprised as they saw me.

‘What happened?’ Their eyes seem to say.

“Something happened. Would you mind moving the barbed wire?”

All the scarabs nodded and moved the barbed wire. Thanks to them, I don’t have to break through the defenses I set up myself to enter my own shelter.

As I was about to collapse, the stag beetles approached me. Their eyes seemed to say the same things as the scarabs. So, I explained the situation to them.

“Actually, I died and came back to life. However, instead of consuming the resurrection scroll, the spring inside the forest was polluted.” The scarabs nodded their heads. But the reaction of the stag beetles was different. One of them drew on the ground using its claw, asking me the location of the spring.

“The location? It’s not far from here…”

By the way, let’s wash up. I stink. I staggered up and washed myself in the cave. When I put on new clothes, I remembered Da-jeong. She must be looking for me by now. I opened the portal, armed with only some simple equipment.

“Damn, where did she go?” There were three corpses frozen in the ice. After a simple glance, I walked away from the shelter entrance and finally found Da-jeong. When I went to the place where her ghouls were crowded, she was on her knees crying.

“Why are you crying?”

“Huh?” Da-jeong whipped her head and looked at me with her eyes wide open.

“You, you… uh, what happened? I thought you were dead…”

“I did die. Didn’t you stab me with a knife yourself?”

“Th-that’s right…”

“I respawned in the forest. Because of some system error, It’s not the resurrection scroll which resurrected me, but a spring near my shelter. I woke up in a polluted spring.”

“Really?”

I spread my arms. “Look. My clothes are different from what I wore before. It smelled, so I washed and changed before returning here.”

“…” She scans my whole body and starts to weep as she finishes.

“Were you crying, thinking I was really dead? What’s wrong with you? It’s so unlike you who want to f*** me everyday.”

Da-jeong suddenly hugged my neck, kissed me deeply, and pushed me down. I couldn’t stand her strength and fell to the ground with her body on mine.

“Hey, Because of the aftereffects of the resurrection, my stats were so low right now. I’m weak, and my body is hurting.”

At my words, her eyes shone. “Then… You can’t stop me, can you?”

Well…

I guess that’s a no?