I’m the Only One with Powers in the Apocalypse – Chapter 33

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Jung Eun-seo skated over to me. “Actually, there’s something we wanted to discuss. We talked about it amongst ourselves while clearing the entrance, and we wanted to talk to you about it, Sung-hoon.”

Discuss?

I tilted my head. “What is it?”

Jung Eun-seo glanced behind her, then said, “We’ve been staying at the milk delivery depot over there. We were lucky; there was no one inside. While staying there and going out for supplies, we noticed something—”

Soo-hyun interrupted, sounding impressed. “Wow… you’ve been going outside? Don’t those… things… chase you?”

“Oh, yes, they do. But we have these.”

Soo-hyun’s eyes widened as she looked down at Jung Eun-seo’s inline skates. “Are they… fast?”

Jung Eun-seo smiled awkwardly. “Yes. We can easily reach 30-40 km/h, and even 70-80 km/h downhill. We just have to be careful about the wheels and the bearings.”

…70-80 km/h?

Wow.

Even I was surprised. That was incredibly fast—not as fast as me using Accelerate, but still much faster than I had expected.

“Wow…” Soo-hyun said, impressed. “I should have learned how to inline skate.”

Jung Eun-seo gave a sad smile. She was pretty, with dimples that appeared when she smiled.

“A lot of our club members… died. We used to have over twenty members.”

“Twenty?” Soo-hyun asked, surprised. “Were you all together when it happened? Where do that many people even meet? Is there a skating rink nearby?”

“No, we were at the park…” Jung Eun-seo’s smile turned bitter. “When it happened, we were having a club meeting at the park. People were screaming everywhere, some of our members were attacked… everyone panicked and ran… and more of us were attacked. The six of us… we were hiding, and then we managed to contact each other and meet up again.”

Hmm…

It seemed like she had lost quite a few close friends, but honestly, I didn’t care. I needed to level up. Why had she stopped me?

“So, what was it you wanted to discuss?”

“Oh, right,” Jung Eun-seo said. “We… we noticed there are a lot of survivors while we were skating around. They’re too scared to leave their homes, and they’re starving. Most of them are elderly people, or children whose parents haven’t come back…”

…Ah, I understood.

“You want to… go around to their houses?”

Jung Eun-seo nodded. “Yes. Even just bringing them bread or ramen from the supermarket would be a huge help. That’s what we wanted to talk to you about.”

Hmm…

This woman was a good person. I only cared about leveling up.

Soo-hyun, who had been listening, said, “There are a lot of families like that in our neighborhood too.”

Hmm…

Single-family homes… There must have been a lot of them… It had been almost a week since the apocalypse began. Had it been over a week? Damn it, I was so busy killing and covered in blood every day, I’d lost track of time. The food in those houses must be running out. That’s probably why I’d been hearing so many screams lately.

“I’ll help too,” Soo-hyun said.

I grabbed her hand. “No. You can’t.”

I looked at Jung Eun-seo. “You said you were fast, right? Let the fast people handle the deliveries.”

Soo-hyun looked at me. What was she trying to do? I shook my head, looking down at her. Jung Eun-seo smiled and nodded. “Okay.” The other inline skaters, who had been listening, also nodded in agreement. Ye-eun and So-eun had already experienced it firsthand; they wouldn’t want to go through that again. The large man was too timid.

The problem was Soo-hyun. She was too useful. And she felt good in my arms. I couldn’t risk losing her. I pulled Soo-hyun aside. “It’s safe here, that’s why I brought you. I wouldn’t have brought you if it wasn’t. Be careful.” Soo-hyun pouted and poked me in the side.

“Okay.” Ugh, damn it, my side! I chuckled and said, “I’ll be back.”

“Be careful, oppa.”

I left the group and walked onto the road. While we were talking, my Accelerate had fully recharged—six charges. My Strength was at 10. How many had I killed at the hair salon last time? 10 Strength should be more than enough. I walked between the cars, heading towards the hardware store along the center divider. I could see human shapes inside the stores across the street.

One or two here, three or four there… Those weren’t my concern. I wanted to power level. I reached the hardware store. …The bodies inside must have started to decompose. The smell… I almost coughed. Damn it. I crouched down in front of the hair salon and took a deep breath. “Hoo… haa…” I pulled the door open and stepped inside.

Creak, thud! “Grrrr!” Mirrors, chairs, cape-like gowns, rolling carts with hairdressing tools… Eyes flashed from between them. Hostile gazes locked onto me. “Graaagh!”

Accelerate.

“Gaaa—aa—aa—” I drew my sword. Shing— “Hah!” The feeling of the sword piercing through bone. I yanked it out and thrust again.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! “—Gr-aaagh!” Accelerate.

The bodies I’d killed earlier lay sprawled on the floor, leaking fluids. The stench! Damn it! I took a large step over the bodies and thrust the sword. I pulled it out and pierced the heads of the two middle-aged women next to them.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! “Hah!” The remaining ones—two in front of the mirror.

“—Gyaa—aagh!”

Accelerate.

Blood droplets shimmered in the air like dust motes. I ran past the human beasts, blood splattering against my face, and headed straight for the mirror.

“Hah!” Thwack! Thwack! I stabbed everyone I could see. I immediately turned and looked towards the restrooms at the back.

“—Raagh!”

Thud! Crash! Eight bodies, frozen mid-air, mid-lunge, collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.

I kept my eyes on the restrooms.

“…”

The door was slightly ajar. I pushed it open with my sword. It opened smoothly.

…Empty. I stood there, listening. If there were any left, I would hear faint growls.

I had to kill them all. I cautiously stepped inside and checked the entire salon. Nothing. Good, I had cleared it out. I wiped my sword on the blouse of a woman lying on the floor, dressed in black from head to toe—probably an employee. …Even her bra was black. Did she coordinate it with her uniform? …Eight of them. Right, that’s about how many I had expected.

I still had Accelerate charges, but my Strength was almost depleted. I’d rest and then come back tonight for the McDonald’s. I left the hair salon and looked around the street. Still quiet. The path to the hardware store was now as safe as the hair salon. I sheathed my sword. Shing—click. Time to go back.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Back in the rooftop room, I washed the blood off again and lay down. I seemed to be showering more often since the apocalypse began. Three or four times a day was the norm now. But the smell of blood lingered, no matter how much I washed. …Come to think of it, I had used my sword quite a bit. Was it still okay? I drew the sword and examined the blade. I had mostly used it for thrusting, not slashing at anything hard, so it wasn’t chipped. It still looked good.

“Status.”

Hmm, 93. I had leveled up a lot. 19 stat points. To think I could gain this many levels in just one morning… this status screen was strange; the more I leveled up, the faster I leveled up.

Where should I allocate the points?

…It was always good to have plenty of Accelerate charges… but I had felt my Strength lacking today… …Next was McDonald’s. There were probably over twenty of them in there. …Twenty… …I needed both Accelerate charges and Strength.

The hypermarket and the mixed-use building, my next targets, probably had over a hundred each. …Both were important. I put 10 points into Spirit, bringing it to 55, and the rest into Strength. Now, 11 Accelerate charges. 25 Strength. I should be able to clear out McDonald’s in one go.

“Hoo…” I was really curious now. What was the max level? I was already at 93. …I didn’t know, damn it. I’d find out eventually.

The problem wasn’t the level cap, but something else. Eleven Accelerate charges was good; I could wipe out most places in one go. But the recovery… I was recovering 3 Spirit per hour. If I used all my charges, it would take almost 18-19 hours to fully recharge. …This was crazy.

Did that mean I had to raid one place, rest for a day, raid another place, and then rest for another whole day?

…What if something happened while I was resting after using all my Accelerate charges?

There was no guarantee that something like the old thug incident wouldn’t happen again. Then I’d have to waste more Accelerate charges, and my recovery time would increase to 24 hours or more. …This was a problem… I closed my eyes and sighed.

Whatever, damn it. I’d figure it out. Even at my current level, I was much stronger than most people. I really wanted faster recovery, but if it couldn’t be helped, I’d just have to rest more. I currently had 3 Accelerate charges. If I rested until late afternoon or early evening, I should be able to clear out McDonald’s. I’d take a nap.

…Chicken curry… I closed my eyes.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇