Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

One of the characteristics of Survival Life was that it didn’t give any announcement to the users when a certain event was taking place.
The users would only realize that an event is taking place when they found something unusual or something that’s not supposed to be there.
That fact is what makes the tutorial really hard for beginners.
One moment they didn’t see anything, and the next moment, dozens of zombies were swarming towards them.
However, after experiencing similar things dozens or even hundreds of times, you would naturally come to terms with it even if you hate it.

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While having those idle thoughts, I stared at the empty air around me.
Suddenly, a light that doesn’t light up the area slowly comes to existence out of thin air.
And inside it, a long wooden stick appeared.

“One for now.” As I quickly took the stick, another one regenerated inside the light.
Thanks to the bug that didn’t get fixed until this day, I was able to obtain two ebony sticks.

“It’s been a long time since I saw you too.” Dark brown surface, moderate weight, a great grip as well as the pointed protrusion at the end and the insane durability.
In the beginning, there is no weapon better than this stick to smash zombies’ heads.
We stagnant waters always choose this weapon whenever we died and had to get through the tutorial again.

“It was even stronger than a steel rod.” After some time, the corrosive disease would subside and metal weapons could be used once again.
However, we stagnant waters always prefer to use this stick rather than a metal rod since it transpires the cracking sensation to our fingers vividly whenever we hit those zombies’ heads.

I put one stick in my backpack while gripping the other one with my hand.
From the outside of the building, countless shuffling noises unique to zombies’ limping could be heard.
And after some time passed…

Growl-!!

Here they come.
I left the living room and looked down the stairs.
Zombies were coming up in hordes.
Moreover, since the spores had completely taken over the body, the zombies were moving at a much faster pace than the zombies from this morning and afternoon. 

I opened the window near me and jumped down through it.
Thanks to the soft soil I landed on, the impact from failing wasn’t that harsh to my body.
The zombies which were currently flocking on the entrance of the building quickly found me and stretched their arms to me.

Growl-!!

“The difficulty definitely got easier.” If the difficulty was still the same with the early version of the tutorial, the zombies would have swarmed me at this point because they were much more responsive and agile. 

When I ran out of the garden, I could see zombies gathering up while forming some kind of wall on the edge of the area.
It seems that the unique zombie wall still exists.
In the game, it’s some kind of a barrier which would keep users from going anywhere else instead of finishing the tutorial.
Those walls of zombies would only disperse once the tutorial boss was defeated.
Of course, there’s also a way to break through the zombie wall without finishing the tutorial.
However, as in reality I only have one life, it was something I wouldn’t dare to try since it was too crazy.

I ran away from the zombie wall which was slowly coming towards me.
Thanks to the improved night vision and terrain detection skills, I could run without bumping into anything because I could see all the obstacles quite vividly.
As I entered a certain residential area, the zombies drove me to one side as if they were herding a sheep, though it was more apt to say they were hunting rather than herding.

The place I arrived at was an unnamed three-story building.
It’s tilting to the side quite a bit, but for some reason, it hadn’t collapsed yet.
This very building is something the users called a checkpoint.
It was called so since zombies wouldn’t attack anyone as long as they were inside the building.
It was not completely safe, though.

When I stepped onto the second floor, an unexpected person who wore almost the same outfit as me was standing there with a worried face.
It was Mikyung.
She flinched as soon as she saw me and pointed the ebony stick at me.

“Ah, Ahjussi!”

“Shhhhh.” I put my finger in front of my mouth.
This girl… is she trying to summon the zombies? “Follow me quietly.”

With Mikyung in tow, I climbed to the third floor.
Then through the window, I looked down at the herd of zombies below.
They were something I had to fight against soon.
But first, let’s just rest for a while.
However, the moment I was about to rest my body against the wall, a text suddenly appeared in front of my sight, jolting my body back up.

What the heck is this?

.

.

.

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While I was looking blankly at the air, I could see Mikyung fidgeting within the corner of my eyes.
For now, I’ll have to get away from her to check the authenticity of the text.

“The zombies are giving us time to rest, so stay here for a bit.”

“Where are you going, Ahjussi?”

“I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Ah, okay… I’ll let you know if the zombies come up.”

“Yes, please.”

I went into the bathroom and called the portal, but as expected, it didn’t open.

「 ‘Unique ability’ restriction」

When I called up the status window, those words were written on the ‘active buff’ row.

The fact that these words suddenly appeared…

“Goddammit! It’s those reinforced zombies.”

In Survival Life, when the moniker ‘reinforced’ was attached in front of a monster’s name, the strength of the monster would rise exponentially in comparison to its normal fellow monsters.
Some monsters had a much stronger physical ability when the moniker was attached.
In some cases, there were also entities that attacked with unusual skills such as invisibility or hallucinations.
And those types that got unusual abilities when reinforced seems to be the cause of this.

“This kind of ability doesn’t exist in the game.
I sighed.
In Survival Life, there’s no such thing as unique ability.
So, I was quite taken aback with this sudden development.
But the silver lining was, it only restricted unique ability, not the stats as a whole or the other skills.
That means, I could still kill the reinforced zombie.
I was certain that the restriction would be lifted once I did that.

“I’ll have to find out where it is.” And then immediately hunt it.
It’s not my style to just take a beating without retaliating after all.

“Slot #1.
Oh…” I exclaimed and took the bow I stored in slot #1.
The portal, which was my unique ability, was sealed.
But for some reason, the additional ability attached to it can still be used.
I’m not complaining though.
It’s way better to have this quick slot rather than just hunting with the equipment I currently have in my hand since I would have more options.

I put the bow back in the quick slot and returned to Mikyung.
When I tapped her on the shoulder, her body jolted up as she quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

“Mikyung, listen carefully.
I was curious how you ended up here, but let’s talk about it later.
You know what we need to do now is to break past the tutorial, right?”

“Yes, Ahjussi.”

“The situation right now is a little different from the strategy I gave to Hyung-jun Hyung.
So firstly, let me ask you something.
Do you see something strange in your status window?”

“Please wait a moment.
Status window.” Her eyes moved back and forth.
Moments later, her eyes widened.
“It says my unique ability is restricted… How does this happen?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure… Can you at least try to use your skill?”

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“Okay.
Wait for a moment.” Mikyung recited the activation words quietly.
But as expected, she failed to activate it as she didn’t blink anywhere.
“I can’t…”

“If so, listen carefully.” I grabbed her by the shoulder and spoke as slow as possible.
“I remember from one of I Love Gimbap’s video that every reinforced zombie has an ability unique to them.
Among them, there’s probably an ability which could restrict a unique ability, just like what happens to us.”

“Were there any unique abilities in Survival Life?”

“I don’t think so.
But maybe it was updated with a patch before the game ended.” Mikyung nodded her head after listening to my words.
I once again realized that she was truly a very gullible girl.
“Mikyung, once the restriction is lifted, will you be able to use your unique ability?”

“You mean my blink?”

“Yes.
You told me that you can move about 10m with it.
Can you still do it?”

“How can I do it…”

I whispered in Mikyung’s ear.
“Listen.
Down there, there must be a reinforced zombie that is blocking Mikyung’s abilities.”

“Yes, yes.”

“If it was killed, there is a high probability that Mikyung’s abilities will be usable again.”

“But, who will kill it?”

“Me.”

“No, Ahjussi, that’s dangerous…”

“Don’t worry about me.
So, I need you to get the other zombies’ attention so I can fight that zombie which restricts your ability.
Can you handle it?”

She pondered and said.
“I, I think it’s possible…”

“Mikyung… possible is not enough.
You have to do it.
If not, both you and me will die.”

“Uh…”

“Can you do it?”

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head.

Then, let’s do this.

I took Mikyung to the roof.
Normally, it would be a restricted area, but since the door was gone because of the corrosive disease, it was now accessible.

“Ah, Ahjussi, did you hear that sound during the day? The explosion…” Mikyung asked nervously.

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“It was probably the sound of an explosion from the military ammunition depot.”

“Military ammunition depot? Are you sure?”

“”Yeah, it probably happened when the corrosive disease destroyed the metal parts of the ammunition, which caused the gunpowder inside to spill out.
Then all of it got lit up because of some random sparks.”

“Uncle Kyunghoon said that if a nuclear bomb exploded, you should run away quickly…”

Ah, that bluffer for once got things right…

As I thought that, I lay flat on the floor and looked at the zombies below.
Amongst the zombies, there’s one particular zombie which had a strangely shaped head.
I think its head evolved into something like that to act as an antenna to spread his unique ability restriction ability.

“What do you see, Ahjussi?” Mikyung asked.

“Shhhhh.
Your voice is too loud.
Do you see that guy over there?”

“Where?”

“The guy with a weird head.”

“Uh… I can’t see well…” She said with a stutter.
Well, it’s as expected.
In fact, if I hadn’t eaten the shadow grape, I wouldn’t be able to see this well either.
I took a firecracker and a match from my backpack and handed them to her.

“Take this.
Once I went down, set off firecrackers from here to lure the zombies.
Soon, the restriction on your ability will be released.”

“Ahjussi… about that…”

“I’m going to kill that zombie.
Once the restriction was lifted, Mikyung should quickly use your ability to run away to the building across from here, okay?”

“It’s too dangerous, Ahjussi…”

“It’s okay.
You just need to do what I told you.
Or, you can’t do it? If you can’t, I’ll look for other ways.”

“Uh…” After a moment of hesitation, Mikyung nodded her head vigorously.
“I’ll try.”

Even though she still had a long way to go with her action, her courage was something to be admired.

“Okay.
Once I went down, set off fireworks right away, okay? If you are late, I will be surrounded by zombies.”

Mikyung nodded at my words.
She then practiced a motion of lighting the wick several times.
When she stopped, she looked at me.

“But Ahjussi, will the zombies really come here? If they don’t…”

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“Trust me, they will.
Zombies love loud and moving things.” I assured her.
Even if there’s food in front of them, if there’s someone running in the distance, they would ignore the food in front of them and chase the person.
And as the organic tracking ability of the current zombies were lower than those back in the game, they would without a doubt chase after the firecracker.

As for the possibility that Mikyung will betray me… Well, it could be said that it was non-existent.
Afterall, without cooperating with me, she wouldn’t be able to escape from this place.

“Once I jumped off from the second floor, light the wick right away.”

“Yes…”

“Then let’s do it.” I went down to the second floor.
When I opened the window and looked down, the zombies were slowly getting ready to come up.
I moved towards the window where the least amount of zombies were and jumped off.

“Ouch!” The impact striking my body was a league different from what I felt when I fell on top of soft soil earlier.
As I rubbed my legs, I heard the sound of firecrackers burning from above.

“Hey! Here! Here!”

I didn’t tell her to scream, though.
However, thanks to that, the zombies were over-stimulated and started to stagger up the stairs.
I quickly took my bow out of the slot and aimed at the reinforced zombie.
It’s the 100 lbs bow, not the 60 lbs one.

In the middle of the darkness, the figure of the reinforced zombie could slightly be seen.
And even just by looking at its bulky body, its power could be felt.
If it’s a reinforced zombie with the ability of physical reinforcement, its muscles will swell like a pufferfish.
And in the case of a reinforced zombie with unique ability, the colour of their skin will be unique.
They might also have some strange body parts.

In this case, the guy had an antennae-like protrusion on its head, which as I had assumed before, was a means to spread his power.

A message popped up as I pulled the bowstrings.

「Strength has increased by 1」

The result of toiling hard in the forest finally appeared.

As soon as I released the bowstrings, the zombie’s upper body wobbled.
The guy looked at me with its mouth wide open.
As I always say, you guys need to stop roaring with your mouth open.
Well, it’s all good for me, though.
I returned the bow into the quick slot and pulled out the ebony stick and shield.

Growl-!!

The WiFi zombie ran towards me and tried to ram me.
I moved out of its path and counterattacked with the stick.

“Even when my unique ability is sealed.”

Puck, puck, puck!

The WiFi Zombie was indeed a reinforced zombie with special ability.
But its physical ability wasn’t very high.
It was stronger than a normal zombie, but it was not a problem for me, who had fought against reinforced ghoul before.

“You are nothing to me.”

I blocked the zombie’s arm with my shield and then hit its chin with the stick.
The zombie’s jaw bounced up into the air.
Without giving it any time to recover, I swung my bat and buried it on its head.