Chapter 123
Chapter 123
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Madman and Suspicious Guy - 3
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After a long time had passed, I rubbed my stiff back and explained it to her.
"...That's how it happened."
There was a pond in the forest inside the dimension gate, and it had a hidden resurrection function.
Da-jeong furrowed her brows, clearly not understanding.
"There was something like that in the forest? Then what was the resurrection scroll for?"
"That's separate. See, I'm perfectly fine even after resurrecting, right?"
I held out the two scrolls, and she touched them skeptically.
"That's weird... So the pond in that forest had a resurrection function, and you didn't know about it until now?"
"I thought it was just a normal pond... You can't find out unless you die, and I hadn't died until now."
"Then why did it get contaminated?"
"Listen. The first time I entered the forest inside the dimension gate, I found the pond. It was crystal clear back then. So pristine I thought I was in a fairy tale forest."
"But after you died?"
"It was pitch black and contaminated. The pond absorbed my death. In exchange, my points evaporated, and I was coughing up a storm from resurrection aftereffects... Huh, looking now, my level dropped by 1 too."
"Your level too? Man, all the carrying I did for you went down the drain."
Da-jeong grumbled.
I felt the loss too, but if I thought of it as the price for saving the scrolls, I could accept it.
In short, the pond's resurrection function was completely separate from the resurrection scrolls.
"Let's set the resurrection scrolls aside. I've just been holding onto them without using them."
Da-jeong pondered for a moment, then furrowed her forehead again.
"So you can resurrect inside the dimension gate even without scrolls if you die?"
"Not anymore, probably. The pond absorbed my death and got contaminated. I don't know if it can go back to normal or not."
The deer beetles seemed to know something, but for now, that was the situation.
Da-jeong rested her chin on her hand and stared at me.
"Is this for real balance-wise? Why do only you have something like that? Our playtime isn't that different."
"My guess... is I got lucky. What if the dimension gate had opened somewhere else instead of the forest? I'd have been totally screwed."
"Lucky my ass... You polluted a deep mountain pond."
"Don't say it like that. People might misunderstand. I paid a price too."
Good thing I had a lot of points; if I had fewer, resurrection might have taken much longer.
Anyway, as payback for saving the scrolls, I now had three things to fix.
My level, points, and the maybe-repairable pond.
Of course, before all that, we had to raid Joo Seung-chul's bunker first.
I slowly stood up and looked out the window.
"You said you chased off all the guys that bastard Joo called in?"
"We're the only ones around. Though there might be some hiding somewhere."
"I was originally planning to take out even the guy with the brainwashing trait. But..."
"He's holed up in the bunker, so it's tough?"
"He must've confirmed the chaos, so he won't come out now. Let's just raid Seung-chul's bunker."
Da-jeong poked my side.
"This is the part you enjoy the most."
"Even more this time. Something fun must be hidden inside."
She nodded vigorously.
"Yeah, Joo Seung-chul was always hiding stuff. He'd say every day, 'Come to our bunker, and I'll teach you.'"
"Let's see just how amazing what he had was."
"Sounds good."
We led the ghouls ahead and moved to Seung-chul's bunker.
The corpses were already half-buried in snow by now.
Da-jeong looked at them bitterly.
"Told you, don't get tangled with Kimbap Lover."
"I wanna show this to those auction house kids who curse me out daily. Tell them to stop before I kill them."
"They'd curse even harder. It's anonymous."
"Not anonymous to me. I checked them all with skills. I've got their IDs and names recorded to deal with later."
"Whoa... You're really vicious."
"You just figuring that out now?"
I had no intention of dealing with the anonymous trash-talkers.
The brute ghoul opened the entrance, and we went inside.
"Hope nothing burned..."
"You set the fire yourself."
Contrary to our worries, most of the bunker was intact, with only the vents blackened.
Checking the warehouse, it was stacked with an insane amount of supplies.
Da-jeong stuck her tongue out at the packs of spam.
"He hoarded this expensive stuff in such quantities..."
"He's a chaebol. This is pocket change."
Not just spam—combat rations, biscuits, dried veggies, pickles, all in massive amounts.
These weren't the real prizes, but we had to take them anyway.
I opened the dimension gate and loaded the food and water into the shelter.
Da-jeong tossed a spam can, saw it bounce off, and grumbled.
"Even if I wanted to help, I can't."
"It's fine. I'm used to it."
But this warehouse was no joke.
I thought it was just the first floor, but in the corner, there was a door leading underground.
Da-jeong went down with a glowstone and let out a cheer.
"Whoa! There's a ton of rice and flour down here!"
"Anything else?"
"Looks like he gathered all the powdered stuff here!"
As a chaebol, he'd built a massive warehouse.
Going down myself, it was indeed enough to make Da-jeong excited.
Grains, sugar, salt, various seasonings—all in huge quantities.
Carefully sealed, they seemed like they'd last forever.
While I moved supplies, Da-jeong kept cheering as she went deeper.
"Dried veggies and fruits below are insane! Holy crap! There's meat and fish too!"
Completely dehydrate, add deoxidizers, vacuum seal, and shelf life skyrockets.
Joo Seung-chul had prepared very systematically.
"Doesn't seem like he played the game much..."
How did he know the apocalypse was coming and stockpile a bunker?
Might be related to the resurrection scroll gift.
Anyway, I cleaned out the warehouse.
"It's like he shoved a whole mart in here."
So many supplies, the shelter might need expanding again.
"Wonder if we can eat all this..."
An infinite storage sub-space that doesn't rot food would be perfect.
I tore open vacuum-sealed meat and fish for Dingo and Dingo-soon.
You guys did great—eat up.
Besides food, the bunker had tons of other supplies.
Daily necessities, and point-bought weapons caught my eye.
"Three long knives."
Perfect, since mine broke.
I moved everything from the bunker to the shelter.
After a few hours, I was mentally and physically drained.
"Phew..."
The last thing left was the security door.
The brute ripped off the lock, revealing a small safe on the desk and a floor hatch.
"Whoa, all gold."
Da-jeong happily fondled the gold dust.
A few papers were inside the safe.
But this... didn't look good.
—Kimbap Lover, playtime 5541 hours, played up to expansion pack Unknown Monsters. Deathmatch 103 times, Battle Royale 25 times, Great Labyrinth 85% cleared, Killer Play 105 hours...
Da-jeong's eyes widened beside me.
"This is your game record."
"..."
How was it more detailed than mine?
Not just me—Seok-hyun, Da-jeong, and Geom-in's records were all meticulously noted.
Another paper detailed the apocalypse date, government responses, action plans.
And...
"Failed to track High-Ranker 4 positions... Failed to track another informant... This must be about Ji-man."
"Ji-man? The Poor Man on that island?"
"Yeah. He said scary suited guys from the government came after he contacted them."
"They don't know everything either?"
"Nope... If they did, they wouldn't need Ji-man."
Might've needed his trait.
Traits didn't exist in the game.
I rummaged the desk and found more papers.
"This is a must-capture list..."
"Whoa, must-kill list too."
"Specific actions after Metal Plague ends... Prepared very systematically."
Finally, efforts to seize the government shelter were evident.
Things went smoothly until Da-jeong entered.
After she and Seok-hyun joined, cracks appeared.
The assessment of me was brutally honest.
—Kimbap Lover. Estimated 20s or 30s.
—Suspected sub-space ability user. Cautious and highly suspicious.
—Doesn't strike first usually, but doesn't avoid fights.
—Ruthless and very greedy.
—Has significant backup, possibly large minions.
—Contacted Bunny Duo, then headed to Seoul.
—High interest in government shelter. Likely for sealed firearms.
—Sub-space ability...
—Must cooperate, brainwash, or eliminate.
These bastards.
"They know you better than you know yourself."
"...Yeah."
The faction that gifted Joo Seung-chul the resurrection scroll was confirmed.
Knowing server records made them extremely dangerous.
"They know game records but not our personal info?"
"Hmm... Maybe they don't know much about Korea."
"Remember that? Yeouido shooting incident."
Da-jeong tapped her forehead and went, "Ah."
"Yeah, that got completely buried. Congressmen standing up, grilling the government."
"President told me. Checked with commanders—no faction could've smuggled guns for a shootout in central Seoul."
"The ones who gifted Joo Seung-chul?"
"High chance they're enemies."
"Ours."
I nodded, then opened the floor hatch, revealing a dark hole.
I went down, tied multiple parachute cords to the concrete cover.
Da-jeong handed it to the brute.
"Pull."
Heave-ho.
Several strong ghouls hauled up the concrete covers.
After removing a few, the pit appeared.
Da-jeong tossed a stone and counted.
A small sound came seconds later.
"Not even 200 meters?"
"Yeah?"
This felt ominous.
Could 200 meters block the Metal Plague?
Government shelter dug 500 meters, so this was underprepared.
I tied a long rope to a brute ghoul and lowered it into the hole.
At the bottom, I pulled out a glowstone, and an astonishing sight greeted me.
"Hm..."
Russian-made pistols, shotguns, a few rifles, and ammo crates littered the floor.
Opening a 7.62mm crate, dark green tins full of Russian script.
"500 rounds per tin?"
Two tins per crate, five crates—thousands of rounds at least.
"Not that many..."
The amount felt off.
A chaebol stockpiling should've filled a whole room.
"Tch."
I shook off the disappointment and loaded the guns and crates into the cave.
Climbing back up the rope, Da-jeong looked excited.
"Lots of guns? Enough to arm my ghouls?"
"Not much. Six guns total, five ammo crates."
Her excitement turned to disappointment.
"That's it? You're not lying to me?"
"I don't lie to you or Seok-hyun."
"Hmm... Thought so."
She looked satisfied.
Bunker raided clean—time to go.
Wanted to use it as a temp shelter, but too many hostile bunkers nearby.
Killing them all was impractical, so vanish instead.
We left the bunker behind and hopped on the snow sled.
.
.
.
While the two were causing chaos in the Hannam-dong rich district...
Seok-hyun quickly crossed the Han River back to the government shelter.
But the entrance was sealed shut.
He knocked firmly, calling the attendant.
"What face are you showing up with?"
Not the attendant—the president greeted him.
Seok-hyun replied nonchalantly.
"The suspicious guy left with me, so it's a win for the shelter, right?"
"The issue isn't that—it's you ignoring rules and acting on your own. Mr. Hwang Seok-hyun, if I let you in, the shelter folks won't stand for it. Even I can't smooth that over."
"Hold on, hold on."
Another voice chimed in.
Geom-in?
Seok-hyun pressed his ear to the door, focusing on their talk.
"President, let's think positively. The identity-hiding guy Earthworm mentioned is gone. Like pulling a bad tooth, right?"
"To pull a bad tooth, you don't smash the patient's head with a chair. Who'd accept that?"
Seok-hyun had once threatened them not to tail Sung-ho.
But hadn't acted on it.
So Jang Won-taek and Lee Beom-seok let it slide.
Crimes need results, after all.
"Geom-in saw and heard it too. How do we know when he'll kill next with that temper?"
"He won't kill."
"Who guarantees that?"
"...I'll guarantee it."
Seok-hyun startled, pulling his ear from the door, blinking.
Was that really Geom-in's voice?
Meanwhile, inside the shelter, people gathered.
Lee Beom-seok, Oh Seung-yeon, and a few others listened in.
Jang Won-taek glanced at them and asked Geom-in.
"Why the sudden change? You two buddies now?"
Everyone knew they weren't close.
Geom-in had met Kimbap Lover and owed him his life, but couldn't say it.
"N-not exactly, but... Earthworm helped us a lot anyway. And Seung-yeon's here."
Recovered Seung-yeon placed a hand on her chest and stepped forward.
"If Seok-hyun hadn't come, I might've despaired and died. He's truly grateful."
The four he'd carried back on his back defended him too.
"Carrying people and running in that blizzard ain't easy. But he saved us through it."
"Scary at first... but seems like a really good guy."
"Just bad at expressing it. That's Seok-hyun."
Geom-in stepped back as if to say, See? waiting for Jang's reply.
Lee Beom-seok whispered to him.
"Five people left—big manpower gap. If Seok-hyun doesn't return, it'll hurt."
"..."
Jang closed his eyes.
Truth was, Seok-hyun pulled weight of nearly ten.
If he'd never been there, fine—but now treating him as expendable darkened the future.
And he'd saved people.
Saved five, killed one—but with resurrection scroll, not really killed.
Legally, no result meant innocent.
Apocalypse law meant nothing anyway.
Jang opened the door with a stern face.
Outside, naked Seok-hyun was doing a grand salute.
What the hell?
As Jang flustered, Beom-seok tipped him off.
"Among young folks, it's seen as max respect."
"Max respect..."
Jang sighed deeply and approached Seok-hyun.
"When people talk, look in the eyes. Stand up."
Seok-hyun flipped over and stood.
Exposing his nakedness to many.
"Forgiving me?"
"Forgiveness isn't mine to give. You broke rules, but there's mitigating circumstances, so we're giving a probation period."
"Probation?"
"We'll see. Behave from now on, and people will accept you. But another incident..."
"No more incidents."
"On Kimbap Lover's orders too?"
Everyone knew Seok-hyun was tight with Kimbap Lover—no hiding it.
"Yeah."
"Where is he?"
"Probably killing Joo Seung-chul by now."
"No way... That bunker's tough. Even he..."
"Bet in an hour he'll be looting it."
Jang was speechless.
How to raid a concrete bunker in an hour?
Yeah, wanted to meet him.
Jang said to Seok-hyun,
"As price for accepting you, one proposal."
"What?"
"Want to meet Kimbap Lover. Not like before—face-to-face talk. Possible?"
"I'll ask, but don't expect much. Super shy guy."
Shy guy...
Not wrong.
Seok-hyun sat on the ice, saying he'd stay till he heard back.
Geom-in brought him a blanket and clothes.
"Thanks."
"Uh, no biggie."
Geom-in felt a lump in his throat as he backed away.
For some reason, he was happy.