Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 14



Only Noblemtl

Apocalypse in Water Episode 14

Episode 14

We retrieved the twig arrows that Jiyeon had given us, Hoyoung’s family photo, some supplies, and lastly the drone.

“Take these upstairs and send them to Building 110. I’ll check the lower floors.”

“Are you okay alone?”

Bomi looked at me with concern as she accepted the bag I handed her.

“I’ll just take a quick look. Don’t worry, I’ll also be laying lots of booby traps.”

“I’ll send you right away, so don’t do anything dangerous.”

Bomi ran up the stairs.

I thought as I watched Bomi go up with both hands full of farmed goods.

He takes care of my worries too, and his prickly attitude has definitely changed.

Looks like you’ve completely opened your heart to the company.

Hey, it’s not necessarily just because of the soup.

Before that, I saved your life, took revenge on Saji, and gave you food and water.

I guess I’ve slowly started to open my heart to those kinds of people.

But looking at the amount of raw fish eaten, it doesn’t seem like that’s necessarily the case.

Bomi ate half of the meat of the large limbs, including the belly fat.

Anyway, it was a welcome thing that Bomi and I had developed a bond that was enough to be able to trust each other’s backs.

As I said before, Bomi’s long-range attacks were quite useful in this world.

It was a good match for me, who was directly facing monsters.

Besides, haven’t you seen the tremendous power of the branch arrows?

I lifted my wrist and looked down at the bracelet Jiyeon had given me.

Could there be something to this?

Jiyeon told me to use this when I fall into water.

But how do I use this?

I scratched my head.

And, does it have to be submerged in water to be used?

If you fell into the water, you would definitely be eaten by fish like piranhas, sea cucumbers, and giant cutlassfish.

So I’m going to go down to the first floor of building 108.

Observing the apartments, there were differences between each building, but in the case of building 108, about half of the first floor was submerged in water on the exterior wall.

That would mean that part of the first floor, including the underground parking lot, is underwater.

The apartment is divided into the outside and inside by a wall, so even if it is flooded, the probability of finding aquatic monsters such as sea cucumbers, giant cutlassfish, or piranhas is significantly low.

If you ask where the limbs and the water monsters came from, you can only answer that they came from the underground parking lot passage, but you should be able to deal with that number of monsters somehow.

Anyway, in the current environment, the first floor was the best place to safely fall into the water.

This time too, I went down to the 7th floor without any particular restrictions.

As Bomi said, it’s too quiet.

The broken stairs in our apartment were still teeming with debris.

Rather, the number seemed to have increased.

At the moment when I was feeling a bit cold, I felt a chill as if I had opened the door to a freezer.

I quickly assembled the three-sectioned spear and advanced forward, almost crawling.

Soon the identity of the cool air was discovered.

What is that?

Is it really a ghost like Bomi said?

I was surprised, but I didn’t panic because I don’t believe in ghosts.

No, it seems a bit different to call it a ghost.

I squinted my eyes and stared at the mass of water standing tall like a statue.

Is that water blob something like the liquid metal T-10000 from Terminator 2?

But it’s not silvery like liquid metal, it’s transparent like normal water.

However, it was difficult to call it ordinary water.

If it were water, it would flow down due to gravity, but the water stuck to the ghost’s body as if it were coating it.

So, it looks like something is inside a transparent jelly.

The thing inside the transparent jelly was the ghost that Bomi had been talking about.

The ghost had pale skin, and its bones were exposed amidst the flesh that had been torn off here and there.

When I saw the true nature of the ghost, I immediately knew what a ghost was.

It’s not a ghost, it’s a drowned person.

Working as a detective, I’ve seen all kinds of corpses.

Among them were several drowned bodies.

The drowned bodies are a sight that even family members find difficult to look at, with their skin rotted and blue, their bodies mutilated by fish, and their bellies bloated.

The figures inside the water mass looked just like that.

Among the lined up lumps of water, there were also skeletal remains of drowned people, either completely devoured by fish or torn off by the current.

Why are these things here?

I was more confused by their presence than by the sight of the horrific drowned bodies.

I don’t think there was anything like this in the monster guide.

At that moment, the eyes of the drowned man in front opened wide as if he had recognized the intruder.

Her eyes looked at me with a pale phosphorescence, as if she were a ghost.

Even I, who don’t believe in ghosts, was startled and took a step back.

“Wow~Wow!”

The drowned man came toward me, making a ghostly sound.

The way he waved his arms made it look like he was struggling in water.

In reality, the drowning person was actually engulfed in water.

This looks like a zombie.

If I were to list them as a species in the Aquatic Monster Encyclopedia, I would probably name them Water Zombies.

The other drowning victims who had been standing still also began to react.

He opened his eyes and started moving, emitting a flash of phosphorescence.

Their hideous appearance made them look like monsters.

Not only that, the grotesque and threatening gestures made it seem like it was going to bite people like a zombie hungry for blood and flesh.

Could it be that the reason we can’t see the monsters is because they ate them all?

Before we knew it, the drowning man was approaching.

I could just turn around and run away, but I thought it might be helpful to gather information about the guys.

It didn’t seem dangerous because of its zombie-like slow speed.

I lightly jabbed the three-pronged spear I was holding at the guy in front.

Hey! What is this?

The window seemed to have hit a wall.

But it felt more like the resistance of a liquid, like water, rather than a solid wall.

In reality, the spear only penetrated the water surrounding the drowned man as far as a thumbnail.

I tried to push, but the water resistance only grew stronger and I could only get in as far as my thumb.

At this rate, it seemed like I wouldn’t be able to even reach the area near the torn flesh.

In the meantime, other guys approached.

The guys were screaming and stretching out their arms towards me, like drowning people begging for help.

Oh! How did you get here so quickly?

I was so surprised that I hurriedly tried to pull out the window.

But what is this?

The window did not fall out.

When I applied force, it pulled a little, but it didn’t move as if it was stuck.

The water zombie’s arm came towards me.

I thought I had plenty of time to myself because my movements were slow, like a zombie, but at some point the water surrounding my arms disappeared and my movements became smoother.

In an instant, his arms came close enough to reach my shoulders.

Cold sweat dripped down his forehead.

If you take this lightly, you’ll be completely screwed.

I let go of the window and immediately took out a hammer from my tool belt.

And then he hit the water zombie’s arm with a hammer.

If, like in the case of the spear, the hammer fell into the water, I was determined to give up completely.

But this time, the hammer struck the bony arm without any resistance.

Crunch, the water zombie’s arm flew away with a bone-breaking sound.

I was slightly taken aback by the unexpected turn of events, but I immediately turned around and ran towards the swarm of water zombies that were rushing towards me.

This time the water zombies were chasing me quickly again.

It’s 180 degrees different from the sluggish behavior just now.

I was confused by the water zombie’s pacing behavior patterns.

But something was strange.

Unlike the legs that moved quickly and playfully, the upper body, including the arms, shoulders, and torso, moved awkwardly, like a poorly assembled doll.

Oh! Now that I think about it, the water on the bridge side is gone, just like the arm I broke a while ago.

Oh! Is that so?

I think I finally understand the habits of water zombies.

Then, I was wondering how to counterattack by using the habit, but oh no! It was almost dangerous.

I suddenly came to a sudden stop.

Just ahead, a booby-trapped rope hung at ankle height.

As the wind stopped blowing, the distance between me and the water zombies became so close that I almost touched them.

I jumped over the rope and pulled out a chainsaw from my tool belt.

The running water zombie staggered and fell when it was caught in a booby trap.

Then, the water that had been concentrated in the upper body flowed down and wrapped around the legs.

Oh! My guess was right.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I plunged the chainsaw into the water zombie’s head.

The reason I chose the head as my attack point was not because I thought I would die if my head exploded like a zombie.

It seemed like it would take the longest for the water to return to my head.

As soon as its head exploded, the water zombie’s body collapsed, and water poured out from every hole, including its ear holes, mouth, and anus.

The next guy to come running also got caught in the rope and ended up in the water with his legs.

I didn’t miss that moment and stuck a chainsaw in his head.

After smashing two or three heads at the same time, corpses piled up on the stairs, and the water zombies climbed over the corpses and climbed over the rope.

Then I gave up catching them without hesitation and ran back up the stairs.

Soon after, a booby trap appeared.

I turned around and started the chainsaw.

So I came up to the 12th floor.

Even though I caught more than ten water zombies, there were still a lot of water zombies.

This actually seems to have increased.

Did they perhaps gather from another city or sea?

Or maybe, in the past, a ship full of people sank nearby?

Surely that’s not possible.

Although there are rumors that this is the site of the Dragon Palace, isn’t it Seoul, which is inland?

On the 12th floor, we tried to catch the water zombies in the same way.

But this time it was different.

Unlike regular zombies, it seems to have some learning ability, as it covered its entire body in water before its ankle was booby-trapped.

Although my speed was greatly reduced, I did not trip on the rope and fall thanks to the resistance of the water.

How do I do this?

If a spear doesn’t work, will a chainsaw work?

Should I just run away like this?

At that moment, a swooshing sound of wind was heard from behind.

And then suddenly something brushed past my shoulder.