I’m the Only One with Powers in the Apocalypse – Chapter 7

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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The woman in casual clothes gave an awkward bow.

“Yes… I’m fine. …So-eun, are you okay?”

The girl in the school uniform nodded.

They didn’t seem to have any visible injuries. If there were any, those girls would have made a huge fuss.

As long as they weren’t bitten, it was fine.

But if they were bitten…

The baton’s handle was quite rough.

Even if I swung with all my might, it wouldn’t slip from my hand.

…Shit.

I shouldn’t think about it.

It was just fortunate they weren’t bitten.

Growl.

Ah… I was hungry.

I carefully put my ear against the storage room door.

Growling and gurgling sounds could be heard intermittently. They didn’t seem to be trying to break down the door anymore, but they were still out there.

I didn’t know how many there were.

I pointed at the door and whispered quietly,

“They’re still there. We need to be quiet.”

The woman in casual clothes nodded.

I carefully moved away from the door and leaned against the wall.

Growl.

Ugh, shit. I couldn’t stand the hunger anymore.

I had only had Gatorade and water all day, and I was feeling weak.

I should eat something.

I picked up my bag, and shit, it was so cold that frost had formed. The frozen dumplings hadn’t thawed at all.

Could I even eat them like this?

“Ha…”

I carefully unzipped my bag and sighed. The woman in casual clothes offered me a cream-filled red bean bun.

“H-Here… This… if you’d like…”

I looked back and forth between the bun and the woman.

“Isn’t that… what you were going to eat?”

Growl.

Ugh, shit.

The woman said,

“I-It’s okay. We… we had ramen at home. We just came to buy some snacks, just in case…”

The woman’s hands trembled.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“…What… what happened? Why…”

Hmm…

If I explained, as kindly and gently as possible, that it was the apocalypse, would she calm down?

I’d bet she wouldn’t.

I nodded and accepted the cream-filled red bean bun.

“Thank you.”

Rustle.

I was even worried about the sound of opening the bun wrapper.

Damn it.

I took a large bite.

The fluffy bread, sweet cream, and red bean paste filled my mouth. This was incredibly delicious.

Probably because I was starving.

Wow, this was so good.

Munching on the bun, I looked around the storage room.

The lights were on, various boxes were stacked around, and there were no windows.

…No windows.

“…Hmm.”

That was good.

I immediately took out my phone.

The first thing I had to do was call my parents.

…No answer.

Shit!

“Ha…”

My damn sister wasn’t answering either.

Damn it, I had to keep trying.

Anyway…

My battery was at 65%.

Where could I charge it? I had left my charger at the goshiwon.

Ah, shit, this was a problem…

Did convenience stores have portable chargers?

Thinking that, I opened the news.

[The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global pandemic.]

Amidst the flood of local and international news, one article caught my eye.

…Pharmaceutical companies, my ass.

What were they going to treat people who were running around biting others after they died with? Penicillin? Shit.

Anything else?

…Shit…

That meant the country’s functions were paralyzed.

In just one day!

If those human beasts had appeared even in military bases, the military wouldn’t be able to move rashly, right?

Ah.

What happened to the president’s press conference?

I clicked on the article.

…It seemed like the press conference did happen.

Even the military… was affected.

Probably more and more military bases would be affected from now on.

In StarCraft terms…

It was like having multiple bases set up, but the enemy was simultaneously attacking all of them, leaving only a few defensible.

The roads were blocked, so the military couldn’t be deployed easily. They couldn’t leave their bases unattended, and soldiers sent to help other units might also become victims.

…Couldn’t they do something like aerial bombardment?

…Thinking about it, that was also problematic.

Where would they bomb?

The places with the most casualties were probably residential areas. Drop bombs there?

Without knowing who was infected and who wasn’t?

Even in this convenience store, those bastards were growling outside, but three people, including me, were trapped inside the storage room.

If someone dropped a bomb here, shit, I’d grab that bastard by the collar and slam him into the concrete.

These girls survived, and I survived.

There were probably quite a few survivors out there.

…So bombing was out of the question.

It had to be urban warfare, but the military was stuck.

…That was the situation.

This was a headache, shit.

…Mom, Dad.

Why weren’t they answering the phone?

Were they… victims?

Bitch, were you dead?

…This was driving me crazy.

“Ha…”

I buried my face in my knees and sighed without realizing it.

Meanwhile, the bun, completely oblivious, was still delicious.

“…Um…”

A raspy female voice.

I glanced up.

The woman was looking at me cautiously.

“…O-Our house is right next to that alley… S-Sorry to ask, but could you… take us there…?”

…Take them…?

I could barely take care of myself, how could I help others?

Was she kidding?

I blinked slowly and said,

“…I don’t have anywhere to go either.”

I came here to go back to school, not to live here.

I had to take a fucking plane to get home.

The goshiwon I lived in was far from here.

I had never even been to this neighborhood before.

Damn it.

The woman said,

“…Our… our rooftop room is empty, if you’d like to stay there…”

…Rooftop room?

I didn’t know what to say.

As I stared blankly at her, she continued,

“The previous tenant got a job elsewhere and moved out last month. Our house… we run a boarding house just up ahead.”

“…A boarding house?”

The woman nodded.

Ah, a neighborhood near a university.

It made sense that there would be boarding houses around here.

“Right now… we have our family and a female university student staying with us. If you’d like… perhaps…”

“Are your parents there too?”

The woman shook her head.

“My grandmother is there. My mom and dad went on a trip to Japan last week… It’s just women…”

…Just women?

So, they came out to get food and ended up in this mess.

It seemed like they wanted a man around.

…Hmm…

The offer wasn’t bad.

I needed to recover my Spirit periodically to level up, and the only way I knew how was to rest.

I needed a place to rest.

“…Is the rooftop room clean?”

The woman’s face brightened a little.

“Yes. My younger sister and I cleaned it thoroughly. There’s no furniture… but we can give you some.”

Did I look like I was going to settle down?

I chuckled.

“A place to sleep is all I need.”

I looked at the storage room door.

This was tricky.

If I knew how many of those things were out there, I could come up with a plan.

“…The problem is how to get out of here.”

Of course, I wasn’t expecting an answer.

I looked around the storage room again.

Was there anything useful?

I carefully opened each box one by one.

Cola, cider, various snacks and cup ramen, all sorts of things.

There were even tissues and sanitary pads.

Hmm…

Raiding a supermarket wouldn’t be a bad idea.

No.

Wait.

…Daiso?!

Daiso was good!

They had everything at Daiso!

Maybe I could find something I could use as a weapon.

…Shit.

Thinking about it, there was no way Daiso would have assault rifles, swords, or maces.

Damn it, I should have thought about weapons before, so I could come up with ideas now.

All I could think of was Daiso.

I opened each box, but there wasn’t anything particularly useful.

“Ha…”

Wait.

The shelves the boxes were stacked on…

They looked like metal pipes?

They were screw-type shelves.

I could disassemble them if I unscrewed the bolts.

The girls just watched me.

I didn’t care if they watched, I started struggling to unscrew the bolts with my hands. Shit, it was tough doing it barehanded.

The woman in casual clothes, who had been watching me, took something out of her pocket and handed it to me.

A key.

“T-Try this…”

I nodded and took the key, trying to fit it into the Phillips head screw. Damn it, it didn’t fit.

“Ha…”

Was there anything else?

Just then, the girl in the school uniform, who had been completely still, tossed something at my feet.

A box cutter.

Looking at her hand as she threw it…

There were quite a few cuts on her wrist.

She must have been self-harming a lot.

The woman in casual clothes glared at the school uniform girl.

“So-eun. You’re still carrying that around?”

So-eun, the school uniform siren, didn’t answer.

She just buried her face in her knees.

What a frustrating bitch.

She was chattering away just fine at the entrance of the convenience store.

I picked up the box cutter and tried to fit it into the screw.

This might work.

“Thanks.”

I slowly started to unscrew the bolt.

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