Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: 아포칼립스의 고인물-97화
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: The Trio's Meeting - 1
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We passed through Daegu and arrived at the arboretum in Bonghwa, Gyeongsangbuk-do.
Asia's largest seed vault was located inside the arboretum.
Although the power outage had eliminated the optimal storage conditions, the seeds themselves weren't contaminated.
The entrance to the seed vault had been tightly sealed with concrete.
They'd even taken care of this in such a short time.
We all scratched our heads at the same time.
"How the hell do we get in..."
"They wouldn't have sealed it completely shut."
I circled the area with Dingo.
He sniffed around and started digging at one spot on the ground.
I tapped it with a rock, and the sound was somehow different.
"Feels like this is the weak point."
"Hold on."
Seok-hyun grabbed a large boulder from nearby and slammed it into the concrete.
After a few hits, the concrete crumbled with a rumble, creating a square hole just big enough for a person to fit through.
I peered inside and looked down. A pitch-black hole awaited us.
"This was originally an elevator shaft down, right?"
"Probably... Got to be at least several dozen meters."
What if there's a monster waiting at the bottom?
I was used to dark spaces, but the thought of dropping into that hole made my chest tighten like I was suffocating.
I tied several glow stones to a rope and lowered them down.
Seok-hyun leaped down and stuck to the wall to check the bottom.
"I can see the floor. No elevator either."
"Well, the elevator was made of metal too..."
We hopped down using the dimensional walls.
This sure is convenient.
We arrived underground in an instant, where a tunnel straight out of a movie had been carved.
Seok-hyun poked my side.
"Isn't this the kind of thing that shows up in the final scene? The secret base explodes, and the protagonist sprints down a long tunnel to the ending."
"Don't jinx it."
But it was pretty warm in here.
They must have kept the temperature low for seed storage, but now everything was powerless.
We walked through the tunnel and reached the seed storage sector.
Dozens of doors had crumbled, and the seeds sat neatly in plastic cases on display racks.
"There's really a ton."
"Let's just grab what we need."
"Why? It's not like there's an owner."
Seok-hyun tilted his head, but I saw things a bit differently.
There were too many seeds, too much variety—no need to monopolize them all.
We just needed the edible ones. No reason to grab tree seeds I'd never heard of.
I picked up a cylindrical container and shone the glow stone on it.
"You know what a crow pillow tree is?"
"No clue."
"That's what I mean—no need for stuff like this. Edibles only."
We'd stopped by several nurseries passing through Daegu and already secured a ton of seeds.
No need to obsess.
"Still, it'll be hard to come back later. Better stock up now..."
"I've got motorcycles. When the metal plague lifts, I can pull them out and ride back here."
"For real? You have motorcycles?"
"Two in the shelter."
One's an ATV, but whatever.
Seok-hyun nodded in acceptance, turned around, and started rummaging with his glow stone.
Every time he touched a display rack, a case hit the floor.
I gathered them and organized them in the corridor.
"Put anything we're taking outside. I'll store it inside."
"Got it."
We spent a few hours picking out the essentials.
Anything unheard of got passed.
Just looking at the neatly stacked supplies in the shelter warehouse made my stomach feel full.
Poor Man—no, Jjimani—would love this. Opportunity later.
"Done. Time to pull out."
We escaped the vault using the dimensional walls.
I patched the entrance hole with mortar and brushed on some white paint, restoring it to its original state.
This about wraps it up.
Seeds secured, entrance fixed.
Perfect.
We left the seed vault and headed north.
We sped north along the highway.
We made stops in places like Jecheon and Wonju along the way, hunting and farming as we went.
Our levels ticked up bit by bit, and supplies piled up in the shelter.
In Wonju, we even found a mineral water depot stacked full of bottled water.
All of it went straight to the shelter, naturally.
Seok-hyun took to calling me a pig.
For gobbling up every scrap of supplies.
Pigs are cleaner and smarter than people think, though. It's a compliment.
Before long, a cool wind began to blow.
By the time we reached Seoul, a quick date calculation put us in mid-November.
"It's cold... What kind of November weather is this?"
"This winter's gonna be brutal."
"Then why're you just in your briefs?"
"They're comfortable."
We set up base in a residential neighborhood in Gangdong-gu.
You could definitely feel it was Seoul—tons of monsters and survivors everywhere.
Peek outside for a second, and you'd see backpacked survivors sprinting by.
The number of monsters chasing them was no joke either.
Seok-hyun glanced out and said,
"Zombies just ran past."
"...About twenty of 'em."
With Seoul's population, that's barely a start.
In other cities, you could hide and it'd stay quiet, but here it was nonstop chaos.
Call it vibrant energy?
After watching the outside for a while, we agreed not to go hunting recklessly.
Grab a few monsters, and you'd end up facing the whole neighborhood's worth.
"Nighttime's gonna be scary... Bone Creepers and werewolves will be no joke."
"Don't forget the Keepers."
True enough.
They only showed at dawn, so we hadn't run into any, but they were pretty terrifying monsters too.
For now, best to settle here and scout the surroundings.
I unpacked my gear while Seok-hyun headed out for recon.
I gave him a grappling hook, and he swung between buildings like Spider-Man.
We'll ignore the part where he slammed into a wall and fell.
"Hyah!"
Before long, he was tangling with monsters, making a racket.
That's recon?
I ignored him and headed into the cave to prep dinner.
We'd worked hard getting here, so a hearty meal was in order.
The goral from before was too gamey-smelling, so aside from the thighs, I tossed the rest.
Now I knew why gorals hadn't gone extinct in Korea.
As I cooked rice and sliced kimchi in the cave, Seok-hyun came in with a nosebleed.
"Did some farming?"
"This."
Pasta and jerky tumbled out of his backpack.
Sauce? The lidless ones had rotted.
Some survivor who didn't trust the metal plague, apparently.
But my shelter had plenty of sauce.
Could even make tomato sauce, though it'd take time.
I took it and served up the meal.
Seok-hyun stuffed his cheeks like a chipmunk and smacked on the kimchi.
"When you calling Duck Down Quack?"
"At night. Too many eyes now."
A woman dragging ghoul minions around wasn't exactly common.
"Just reveal yourself. You're stronger than me overall."
"Not quite yet."
This guy didn't check the auction house, so he had no clue about the situation.
I mentioned it, and he skimmed through, frowning hard.
"Anyone'd think we were blood enemies. They've dumped a lifetime's worth of curses."
"They'll try to kill me on sight. Good excuse—humanity's traitor."
"Who was it that shared the strat guide at the end?"
Me, but zero presence.
"Doesn't matter. Real beef is I didn't drop the videos. For them."
"Ah, so that's the actual reason."
Scratch the auction haters, and the same story comes up every time.
They already knew the basics anyway.
What they really wanted was Survival Life event info.
Spawn times, event details, rewards.
Don't hog the honey—let us have some too. Sorry, pass.
Seok-hyun crunched on smoked meat and asked me,
"No regrets?"
"None at all. I'd do the exact same thing over again."
"Then we're good. I'll back you up—no worries."
"Just put on some pants first. Stop advertising you're Bare-Ass."
"Nag nag."
"I'm not the nagging type, but you make me..."
Really.
Watching Seok-hyun was like leaving a kid by the water's edge.
A kid who could pummel orcs and kill werewolves.
After dinner, Seok-hyun went out farming again, and I messaged Dajeong via the auction house.
She must've been watching—she replied right away.
Dajeong grumbled but told me about an experiment at the government shelter.
The Examiner must've pushed for it—right as November hit, they tested it.
Results were the same as mine.
I told her I'd tested pulling a nail from the cave, and she whined.
Promise made—gotta keep it.
Night fell, and I sent her the location.
Seok-hyun, exhausted, hugged the still-disgruntled Dingo and went to sleep.
Awooooo—
A werewolf's howl echoed from somewhere far off.
This hour should be silent, but Seoul was surprisingly noisy.
I shut my mouth and pricked my ears. Suspicious sounds came from all directions.
Low whispers.
Short screams.
Monsters growling.
Cutting through it all came the click of Dajeong's high heels.
She's here.
I woke Seok-hyun and Dingo.
Dajeong earned the nickname Ghoul Queen while hanging around Seoul.
All the boyband zombies escorting her had turned into ghouls.
They were ridiculously ugly, but she said staring at them made them kinda cute somehow.
The shelter folks had to suffer those hideous mugs, but she didn't care.
Anyway, she arrived in the Gangdong-gu residential area with her thirty ghouls.
The local monsters weren't about to let that slide, sparking a massive brawl.
Kobolds as the opener, mixed with ghouls, Bone Creepers, and werewolves in a total dogfight.
Nearby survivors were too stunned to even peek outside.
Dajeong slipped through the chaos, past the studio apartment parking lot, and up to the third floor.
Her high heels echoed through the dark stairwell.
She shoved aside the furniture barricade and entered.
Sung-ho and Dingo greeted her.
"Huh? That's Dingo?"
"Grown huge, right? Wolves grow fast."
"Any bigger and you can't claim husky anymore."
"Tamer excuse then."
"Speaking of, where's Bare-Ass?"
"Won't wake up."
Sung-ho cleared space, and she strode in full of swagger.
"Dare sleep when I'm here?"
In the room, a young guy in nothing but briefs was curled up asleep.
She considered kicking his ass but suddenly pitied him and sat beside.
"Hey, hey."
He stirred, sat up with a huge yawn.
Looked around, spotted the sultry-dressed woman, blinked rapidly.
"Ghost or what?"
"Duck Down Quack, the one you gamed with."
"...Still sleepy. Gonna crash more."
He lay back down, and Dajeong kicked his butt in anger.
"Ow."
"You two fight the second you meet?"
Sung-ho came in and sat them down.
Seok-hyun rubbed his eyes and peered at Dajeong's face.
"...Didn't know you were this kind of woman."
"What'd you hear? Stories at least."
"Apocalypse and makeup? Dress? Heels—what's the thinking?"
"I don't walk much. And you in briefs shouldn't talk."
"I wear pants going out with Sung-ho."
"Oho, evolved already. Our Bare-Ass."
They glared, then snickered.
Seemed like the same guy she always scrapped with in-game.
Sung-ho, ever the cleanup crew, wedged between them.
"You two are exactly like in the game... Anyway, sit. Ghouls still downstairs?"
"They'll wrap up soon."
"Send 'em elsewhere. Anyone see you coming?"
Dajeong crossed her arms and scoffed.
"With monsters going nuts—who's coming out?"
Just like she said, the outside was pandemonium right now.
Any sane person would hole up quiet.
"Alright then. We've all had a rough trip getting here—you rest up."
"So now it's fun sexy time?"
Not the vanilla kind normal folks imagine, of course.
Sung-ho smacked her leg.
"Cut the crap and spill about the government shelter."
"Hmm. Gotta grease the wheels first. Starving lately."
"Starving and you've got a belly."
She yelped at Sung-ho's jab.
"Food so bad I had to bulk up why."
"So you did flip the cafeteria..."
"Definitely not normal..."
Even Bare-Ass gave her a weird look.
These lunatics?
Dajeong hated how the two crazies shook their heads at her.
She shot to her feet and declared,
"Can't stay in the government shelter anymore. Grandpa Prez just schemes work, Examiner's all awkward smiles and buddy-buddy crap. Food sucks, space so tight I'm losing it. I'm out."
Pent-up rage exploding.
Sung-ho tried soothing her—we needed intel on the inside—but she wouldn't budge.
Finally, she pointed at the leftover bowl greasy with oil and chili powder.
Hadn't cleared it yet.
"Me too—I wanna eat stuff like this. Travel with Sung-ho, tasty meals every time! So you, Bare-Ass, go in."
"I refuse."
"What?"
Her eyebrows shot up, and Seok-hyun slowly stood into a weird pose.
"What I love most is saying NO to propositions from witches like you..."
"Who's a witch!"
Enraged, Dajeong kicked his butt, and Sung-ho sighed.
Here we go again.
The Trio's Meeting - 1
End
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