Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Sponsored chapter 23/32

The situation of the Japanese people who arrived in Masan was truly miserable. They looked exactly like illegal immigrants who abandoned their homeland, dirty and famished. However, that’s not the biggest problem they’re facing in this foreign land. The biggest problem they’re currently facing is the weather in Korea. Even though the Masan area is not as cold as areas in the central region of Korea, for them, who lack a lot of preparation for winter, such as thick clothes, it was extremely cold.

When the Japanese first arrived in the residential area of ​​Yanggok-dong, their first priority was to find food. However, as most apartments around the area had been destroyed by the corrosive disease, they had no choice but to look for food only at the surrounding houses and stores. Of course, with so many people gathered, monsters had also gathered. Therefore, a lot of Japanese lost their lives, and it reminded those who survived once again that it was currently a post-apocalyptic era.

“This is all we can find.”

“…” Shiraishi Yuzuka looked blankly at the food his brother, Kenji, laid down in front of her. The amount was far too little for dozens of people to share.

“Dozens of people scoured through the city and… This is all?”

“The Koreans must have swept it all away already. I guess it’s time to fill our stomachs with Store bread again.”

Store bread. Yuzuka’s face turned sour at those words. As a Japanese herself, calling those abominable things ‘bread’ was an insult to other bread she had ever eaten in her life. But of course, she would still eat it when she was really hungry. After all, it was better to just force herself to eat it rather than to die.

Kenji sat down in front of his sister with a resigned expression plastered on his face. “No matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t find anything other than this. I would like to distribute it to the weak, will that be okay?”

“Yuzuka will not object. Please do as you wish, Aniki.”

(E/n for you non-weebs out there, Aniki is a term that Japanese people use when they’re referring to one’s older brother. It is a more courteous and polite term than Onii-chan.)

“I’m sorry… You must be hungry too…”

“No. Yuzuha can bear with it.” Yuzuka smiled. It has been a while since they left Busan. When they first landed in Busan, they had expectations to be able to survive by leisurely farming in the empty city. However, after spending some time there, they realized that it was all but a vain dream. After all, the reason why Busan was empty of people was actually because of the radiation.

While they were living there, people commonly complained about the pain they felt around their abdomen and a taste of blood in their mouth. After a lot of people started to feel the same way, they couldn’t stand it any longer and tried to escape from Busan. It was at that time that they joined hands with Otaro and his subordinates. A dozen people led by the Shiraishi siblings and Otaro fled from Busan and headed west. However, even after seeing several cities on their journey, they didn’t stop. They only stopped in Masan as they saw people around the area.

However, the problem is, they don’t know where exactly they were. A map of Korea was simply unthinkable to obtain, and even if they obtained one, they still wouldn’t know where their whereabouts was, as no one in the Shiraishi’s group understands the Korean language. In any case, they plan to stay in the area for a while. There’s not much food here, but at least there’s a house for them to stay in.

Several days later, while Kenji and Yuzuka were out, trying to find more food, they discovered a small island several kilometers away from the shore.

“There’s people living on that island…”

“To think they are still able to set fire in this situation… I envy them…”

Yuzuka and Kenji continued to talk about the Island for a while. In the end of their conversation, they concluded that there were no monsters on that island.

“Maybe, monsters can’t cross the sea.”

Kenji furrowed his eyebrows at her sister’s words. “That’s absurd! Even the brown bears of Hokkaido can cross the shallow water without any difficulty. It doesn’t make sense that monsters can’t swim.”

“But looking at them, Yuzuka has no choice but to think that way, Aniki.”

“Hmm… I hope we can talk with them somehow.”

“Yuzuka thinks that it would be difficult, Aniki. Koreans don’t need us. No, they didn’t even like us..”

“I guess you are right. For them, we would be just some strangers that they’re reluctant to talk with.”

At her brother’s words, Yuzuka nodded her head solemnly. But before she could finish her nod, she covered her mouth with her hands and let out a series of phlegm-full coughs.

Cough-!! Cough-!!

“Hey, Yuzuka. Are you okay?”

“Yuzuka is fine.”

Because of the cold weather, she was afflicted by a disease, which was unknown whether it was just a cold or mild pneumonia. And because they had run without stopping from Busan, her stamina hit rock-bottom and her immunity also got weakened. Therefore, she never got better.

In Kenji’s effort to ease his sister’s pain, he stopped in every pharmacy he found to look for a painkiller, but to no avail. Kenji gritted his teeth and returned to their hideout while supporting his sister.

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“Cough… Cough… How is it?” Futaba Otaro looked around his subordinates and gave them a challenging gaze. Beneath his feet, a small orc, tattered with wounds and blood, could be seen, breathless. It was an achievement he achieved through hand-to-hand combat. Of course, his subordinates had also helped him by luring and attracting attention of the orc while he’s fighting it, but it was Otaro’s ignorant power that ultimately defeated it.

“Excellent achievement, Leader!!”

“Even orcs can’t beat you!”

His subordinates made a fuss about his victory. On the other hand, Otaro, a muscular giant, shrugged his shoulders and turned his head away.

“How is it, Shiraishi? I had grown this strong. How about you and your sister?”

“Why did you only make such a ruckus after we arrived here? Where was your vigor when we first arrived on this land?”

Otaro’s lips twitched at Kenji’s question. “So, why don’t you do something grand for all of us Japanese?”

“…you just don’t know.”

Otaro was a professional wrestler with the ring name “Itoshima’s Monster”. After the apocalypse, he acquired a physical strengthening unique skill that matched his strong body. And now, he has grown to the point where he can equally fight orcs in a hand-to-hand combat. But character-wise, he’s quite flawed. He was easily agitated and arrogant. And now, he even becomes a greedy person and has gathered a lot of other Japanese survivors under him to form a faction called Shinil Bonjo.

Otaro took his feet off the orc’s corpse and headed towards Kenji, who was standing on top of a tree.

When Kenji looked at him walking towards him, he grabbed the wooden sword on his waist. “Do not come any closer, or I will have to strike you down.”

“Hey, don’t be like that. We’ve been together since we were in Japan, haven’t we?”

“And I consider it a bad fate. Tell me what you want, Futaba.”

“You see that island over there?” Otaro turned his head to the side. He couldn’t see it from where he is right now, but there was a small island several kilometers from the shore. “I want that island. The two of you should cooperate with me to take it over.”

“I will decline.”

“Hey, are you going to say no before you even hear my plan?”

“Your plan is obvious. You will mobilize your men to attack and take over that island, without any regard for the people living there.”

“Oh! You are smart, Shiraishi.”

“It’s not me who is smart. Everyone can easily tell by looking at your greedy eyes… Unfortunately, we will decline. But we will not interfere with your actions, so do as you please.”

“A pity… But, are you really going to feed your sweet little sister only Store bread forever?”

In the end, Kenji pulled out his wooden sword and pointed it towards Otaro.

“Did I not tell you to stop paying attention to my sister?”

“I am merely worried about her. She coughs a lot everyday. So, didn’t she need medicine? People on that island might have stockpiled a lot of medicines.”

“I had heard about a city a few kilometers to the north. I can just get it there.”

Otaro shuddered mockingly at Kenji’s words.

“You will have to fight through countless monsters and Korean survivors to do that. Do not forget, This is Korean land. You’ll just exhaust yourself.”

“Then, can you be sure that there are no awakeners on that island?”

“My men have confirmed there’s only six or seven people there. We can just break them with our numbers.”

Kenji sighed and shook his head at Otaro’s answer. Then, he warned him. “As I said back then, we should not cause any fuss in Korea.”

“Why?”

“Did you not see the Auction House? There are, at least, more than a hundred Koreans who have reached level 15 and have unlocked the Auction House now.”

They had only managed to reach level 15 after they landed in Busan and fought against countless monsters. And the very first one to open the Auction House amongst the Japanese was Yuzuka.

At first, she thought that as Korea had a smaller population than Japan, there wouldn’t be a lot of people who had unlocked the Auction House as she did. However, she was completely mistaken. The Auction House was already crowded with people when she entered. And when she asked about Japanese there, she was greeted with a barrage of profanity.

Kenji and Otaro, who reached level 15 a few days after her, were also surprised because of that. Therefore, they promised themselves to be careful about their actions for a while. However, as Otaro was overly proud of his own abilities, he had completely forgotten about his own promise.

“Heh, it’s nothing to worry about, Shiraishi. Anyway, if I take over that island, your sister will definitely see me again.”

“There will be no such thing. I guarantee that.” Kenji snorted and walked away. Meanwhile, Otaro gathered his men.

Unbeknownst to the two, a paper airplane was gliding back and forth over their head.

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“They’re going to make a raft to come here, Hyung.”

“What troublesome guys… What do you think? Would it be possible for them to cross on a raft?”

“Uh… it’s close to impossible. Their boss is almost as tall as Seongho hyung. But I think he’s a lot heavier than Seongho hyung. But.. But… Uh…”

“Just call him a pig.”

“He’s a bit like a pig, but he also looks like he has a very strong body.”

“Then his unique skill should be the same as mine.” Hyung-jun sighed. He was now certain that the Japanese would attack the island. Otherwise, there’s no reason for them to build a raft. On top of that, according to Yoohyeon, their number reached about 20.

Hyung-jun nervously stroked his chin.“In terms of level, we should be higher than them.”

“But I think those people have killed people before. While we don’t even have any experience in fighting against other humans.”

“It can’t be helped. There are no people around.”

In fact, the members of Dot Island have accumulated a considerable amount of combat experience. But all of them were gained by fighting against monsters. The reason they had no experience in fighting against other survivors was all due to Seongho, who had overly pampered them. He had always cleaned everything that could be a threat to the group before they knew about it.

“This is tough… we’re going to die if we stay here. What should we do…”

Hyung-jun had said not to worry to Seongho, but he was actually subtly worried. Those Japanese, who had poison in their eyes, seemed to be quite familiar with fighting, even though their level was low.

They’re also losing in numbers. For the fight to be equal, each member of the island group had to fight against 2 or 3 people at the same time.

“Seongho hyung said he was coming, can’t we just hold on until then?”

“He’s in Incheon now. We don’t know how long we should wait for him. He said he’s going to come here using the farming dungeon, but will it be that easy?” The farming dungeon had just spawned on the island two months ago, so it was about time for it to spawn again. However, from what he knew, the inside of the farming dungeon was completely random. Therefore, it was basically impossible for Seongho to enter the farming dungeon and immediately find the correct portal that leads directly to the portal in Masan, no matter how strong he was.

Hyung-jun made a decision. “We cannot stand still any longer. Yoohyeon, keep scouting the area with Yeowool. I will talk to Sooyeon.”

“What are you going to talk about?”

“I want her opinion regarding whether to stand our ground or run away.”

When Hyung-jun asked Sooyeon about it, unsurprisingly, she insisted on running away. “It’s better to leave now and retake the island when the opportunity arises later. Materials are indeed scarce outside, but we have no choice but to do it because we lack the ability to fight them.”

“You think so too?” Hyung-jun queried.

“I think Seongho hyung will come. But still, we have to think about what might happen if he didn’t.” Jiman, who was passing by, gave them his opinion.

“Assuming Seongho can’t come, we should all leave.” With the conclusion reached by the three, Hyung-jun proceeded to gather all the island inhabitants to listen to their opinion.

“As you all know, the Japanese are going to attack this island. So, I want to ask what you want to do? Both me and Sooyeon thought it would be better for us to run away.”

“We will follow your choice, hyung.”

“Yep.”

Everyone quickly agreed. After all they were all scared because they had no experience in fighting against people at all.

With the opinion leaning to only one side, Hyung-jun commanded. “We are leaving now. Everyone should only bring one backpack.”

The island instantly became busy. With only one backpack on their back, everyone fled to the land on the west side of the island with the help of Mikyung.

The Japanese, who finally arrived after rowing the boat, collapsed on the ground as they found that the island was empty.

“What is this? Why is nobody there!” Otaro yelled at his subordinates, but no one was able to answer.

“Those b*st*rds are fast…”

“Is this island ours now?” The Shinil Bonjo group cheered and excitedly took all of the supplies stored in the dormitory. However, unbeknownst to them, there was a small change happening in the island. In one corner of the island, a blue portal appeared.

It was not far-fetched to say that the blue portal would be their worst nightmare so far.

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After scouring through the whole Seoul, Da-jeong’s ghouls had finally found the farming dungeon. And when the two entered the portal, Seongho explained towards Da-jeong.

“I used an item to trigger a bug so this farming dungeon will always be the one that appears.”

“There’s something like that?”

“It only applies to farming dungeons, but yeah.”

“You really did a lot of research…”

“The problem is, we never know when the farming dungeon will open. So in a sense, we’re actually quite lucky.” The gryphon nest farming dungeon opened for the first time two months ago, so the timing of its next appearance should be around this time.

Da-jeong went inside and her mouth instantly opened wide at the scenery. It was due to the fact that what Seongho said was right. They were once again spawned in the place where they hunted a gryphon two months prior.

“It’s real…”

“DIdn’t I tell you just now? I did this because I had planned that I would return to Dot Island someday.”

“…Then why did you bother yourself by going up all the way to Seoul?”

“Just because I want to.”

“…” Da-jeong shook her head at his unexpected answer.

Meanwhile, oblivious to Da-jeong’s feelings, Seongho dived into his memories to found the portal leading to the island. After walking for a while, he finally found it, as the tents where they had stayed in before were still preserved in the crevices of the cliff.

At the sight, Da-jeong quickly took off her shoes and dipped her feet in the clean water running down not far from the tents.

“Let’s take a break here, okay? I don’t think something will happen to them. Those guys are quite strong”

Seongho checked the Auction House after hearing her words, then immediately made hurried steps.

“We don’t have time.”

As he crossed the portal, an unexpected sight awaited him. The Japanese, who had been carrying the supplies stored in the dormitory towards somewhere, stopped and stared blankly at Seongho.

Amongst them, Otaro smiled and pointed his long knife at Seongho.

“Who are you?”

“Me?”

Seongho checked the surroundings and sighed. It seems like his doubt regarding Hyung-jun’s words wasn’t unfounded.

“I am I Love Gimbap.”