Marauder of the Apocalypse-Chapter 62: Power Outage

Though the rain had stopped, the world remained dark.

Thick clouds blocked the sun, casting a murky gray over everything. Or perhaps my dark mood had become like tinted glasses, coloring my vision. Even if I wanted to look at things positively and brightly, this wasn't that kind of world anymore.

Heat, sudden showers, blackouts.

I diligently checked the water tanks while walking around the villa rooftop. The tanks we'd left wide open during the rain had collected quite a bit of water. I wasn't sure if it was from the rain or if they'd had that much left originally.

After tapping the tanks, I stared at the bleach in my hand, deep in thought.

"How much do I need to add to disinfect this?"

According to Professor Kim's materials, rainwater could be used as drinking water if disinfected with bleach. Was it 2 drops per liter, or 4?

For this volume...

I poured in roughly the amount I estimated. After closing the tank one final time, I slowly approached the roof railing to survey the streets.

The streets had become ruins. We'd made them that way deliberately - to look abandoned, like there was nothing left worth taking.

Broken windows, scattered garbage and corpses. Even the farm building we'd moved to was similarly damaged.

'Right now, hiding and lying low is the best strategy. No need to look well-off and intact. We should appear like everyone else to avoid being targeted for raids.'

This was a world slowly dying. It was right for us to look like we were dying too.

Looking at this scene brought strange thoughts. How long could I - could our group of marauders - actually survive? People who couldn't create anything, who only killed, stole, and left corpses behind.

Maybe marauders only had an advantage in the early apocalypse, and those with technical skills and production ability would fare better in the long run.

As I gazed down at the streets, I smirked.

'Pointless worrying.'

Summer was the immediate problem - why think about the distant future? And if we really needed something, we could just raid for it. Materials, knowledge, people. Anything.

With that thought, I headed back to the farm villa carrying the bleach.

The farm villa had been reorganized over the past few days.

I opened the entrance and went inside.

"I disinfected the water tanks."

"Welcome back. We finished gathering all the remaining resources."

My fellow marauders sat on the floor sorting through various items, categorizing them into plastic bags and boxes.

Batteries taken from other villas' gas stoves, power banks, wires, phones, keys, lighters, and so on.

Resources we'd only now collected after prioritizing food and water.

I sat down with a groan, and my fellow criminals also massaged their shoulders and thighs. The toll of carrying rice sacks, kimchi and water up and down stairs in a villa without elevators was setting in - body aches and muscle pain.

"Can't do any more heavy lifting. Can't fight age."

Park Yang-gun suddenly lay down. His voice held genuine pain, like someone truly hurting.

For once, Sa Gi-hyeok made an appropriate comment:

"You were working better than me though."

"No, can't do it. Really can't. Oh my, how will we do dishes and laundry? With no hot water even."

I smiled bitterly.

The power was out. All the modern conveniences we'd taken for granted had stopped. Boiler, washing machine, TV, fridge, AC, fan, vacuum, lights...

Our living standards had reverted to medieval levels overnight.

Using rainwater, fanning ourselves when hot, washing by hand, no hot showers.

I glanced at Do-hyung. Even if some goodwill remained, it was just a fragment. He'd committed too many irredeemable crimes, stealing electricity from public facilities when society was still functioning.

Could this electricity thief adapt to life without power?

"Are you okay? There's no electricity."

"Huh? Oh. I'm fine. It's nice, like camping."

Do-hyung, who'd been busy sorting batteries into boxes, suddenly looked up. What was this? He actually seemed fine?

After some thought, I tried to guess his psychology. An electricity thief - maybe having no electricity made stealing it more exciting? His true nature really hadn't changed.

Just then, Sa Gi-hyeok spoke up:

"So what do we do now? We can't farm anymore."

Everyone's eyes turned to me. I pretended to think before slowly leaning back against the wall.

"Any ideas? About resources we need, how to get them, dealing with the blackout?"

I'd actually already decided. We'd do nothing for now. But I needed to signal that I was listening to my companions' opinions.

Do-hyung leaned toward me and said:

"Don't we not need to do anything else? We've stockpiled enough food and water. Seems like we could eat just lettuce for a month."

"Well..."

I deliberately showed signs of contemplation while adjusting my mask. Agreeing too easily would decrease their sense of achievement. I had to pretend to refuse at first, then agree for maximum effect.

I deliberately looked at Park Yang-gun, who waved his hand dismissively:

"We'll break down if we do more physical work here. No reason to move anyway."

"Shouldn't we still prepare for marauders? Even if we made it look like ruins, some people need to see with their own eyes to believe."

Those were Park Yang-gun and Sa Gi-hyeok's opinions. I closed my eyes, then opened them slowly.

"We probably don't need to do anything else outside. We're not lacking any immediate resources, and there's no reason to risk getting hurt. Let's just prepare for marauders and scavengers."

"Good."

Do-hyung nodded quickly, clear relief showing on his face. An indecipherable light gathered in his eyes.

I got up energetically and grinned.

"Since we have the most rice and kimchi left, let's use those. If we contaminate some with zombie blood or saliva and leave it in a few houses, scavengers who eat it will turn into zombies."

Shame we couldn't get botox or pufferfish poison.

My criminal companions stared at me blankly before slowly nodding. They didn't seem to mind defensive traps.

"Do-hyung. Don't you know how to make traps? From camping, like animal traps?"

"No. That's not camping."

His serious expression, as if I'd insulted camping, seemed genuine.

As everyone started getting up, Park Yang-gun lay there rolling his eyes. He made a show of trying to get up while groaning. He really seemed to hate working.

I pressed his shoulder down to make him lie back down.

"Rest at home."

"I should at least help with my hands."

An obvious lie, but resting was right. I created an excuse for him first.

"We can't even use fans in this heat - you'll die working in layers of clothes. Just rest instead of risking heatstroke."

With no electricity, we had no way to regulate temperature. Air conditioning was out of the question, and we couldn't even use ice packs from the freezer.

Heat had become an extreme danger that couldn't be avoided or blocked.

Park Yang-gun raised just his upper body with effort, pointing at the remaining batteries:

"I'll at least organize these. Good luck."

"Yeah."

With that, we headed out to the streets.

After killing a wandering zombie, we quickly contaminated the bait with its blood and saliva. Blood on the kimchi, saliva on the rice. We knew food was precious too, so we used spoiled kimchi and rain-soaked rice that we couldn't eat anyway.

The job was done once we hid that bait in house refrigerators and corners.

We chatted while carefully crossing between villas. Through entrances when no zombies were around, across rooftops when they were visible.

Sa Gi-hyeok was sweating heavily and looking like death.

"Ha, ha. Really feels like dying without AC. Can't even eat ice anymore."

"Right?"

I fell into thought. Many areas still had power. Maybe we could track survivors' locations by running air conditioner units?

Or lure and kill people by offering to sell ice.

Do-hyung waved a handheld fan. It had some robot sticker on it, probably from the kids.

"We can still use handheld fans with power banks and cars. That's something at least."

I glanced at him. The old man's suspicions had affected me too. His words about being able to return to Hope Community anytime.

No matter how much I influenced his psychology, this guy had a final escape route. He'd even suggested returning to Hope Community, and didn't he have a girlfriend there?

"How's Hope Community? Is your girlfriend alive?"

"What?"

Do-hyung froze while crossing a ladder laid across the roof railing. He looked at me with eyes tinged with suspicion and faint madness.

"Why ask that?"

"Our area lost power. If they still have electricity, maybe you could charge some power banks there. Can't do anything if we can't even turn on phones. Want to save fuel for winter."

Do-hyung, who'd kept his mouth shut tight, suddenly gave a bitter laugh.

"They say they have power. But really, you won't go back to Hope Community? Elder Evangelist and Administrative Elder say they'd welcome Deacon Kwon." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

So he still trusted me. Or maybe he wanted Professor Kim's knowledge that I had. It was useful knowledge with blackouts, monsoons and typhoons approaching.

After brief thought, I said casually:

"Would Hope Community still be intact if we returned?"

A church with its pastor dead, Hope Community reduced to a small scale, a villa street wiped out.

Do-hyung seemed to realize something and shuddered.

"You're right. I was crazy. Let's just keep holding out here."

There really was no reason to return. They'd face blackouts too, and living in groups made them vulnerable to waterborne diseases. Individually, we probably had more resources.

That's when Sa Gi-hyeok, who'd been standing blankly, suddenly pointed somewhere beyond the roof.

"A motorcycle's coming?"

"How many?"

"Just one. What is it?"

Marauders? I quickly leaned over the railing and recognized a familiar figure. The delivery vigilantes. RiderZero.

Swoosh swoosh, RiderZero dodged zombies and obstacles while approaching, threw what looked like paper at the entrance, and shouted loudly:

"Letter delivery!"