Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 106



Only Krnovel

57. Judgment (2)

Bam

He took out a canister, took half of it out, and handed it to the defender.

“What? Are you giving it to me?”

“I haven’t even been able to thank you for all this time.”

“I didn’t do it with the expectation of receiving anything in return.”

“No, I have plenty of bullets. I’m grateful for all the time.”

He gave half of the bullets in the cartridge to the defender who stubbornly refused.

It’s a natural price to pay.

He followed me to deal with dangerous guys, and he even helped me load the truck.

According to my late father, no matter how close you are with someone, it is polite to always return the favor when asked for something.

No matter how close you are, if you just use each other without giving back, eventually you’ll both drift apart.

“Isn’t that the guy named Manseok from Gaepo-dong?”

He sat in the passenger seat, placed his gun on the window sill, looked around, and asked questions.

“I know.”

“What kind of guy is he?”

“He’s just a typical son of a bitch. He works with soldiers to sell military supplies on the market, and he also works as a pimp. He does whatever he can to make a profit. You could call him a typical gang leader. But for a gangster, he’s got a long wallet and is said to be very resourceful. He’s especially popular with the soldiers.”

“okay?”

A gaunt man holding a sign passed by me without my knowledge.

“They’re using a strange advertising model.”

“Isn’t he a competitor? You like to set an example, don’t you?”

“I thought you were a judge.”

“Judge? Oh, Judge. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard from you.”

Tata Tang!

A gunshot rang out not far away.

The Defender, however, did not stop the car.

When I looked at him, he spoke first with a blank face.

“They’re not targeting us. There’s a distance. There’s no need to react. If we’re mistaken as a gang, we’ll just get shot.”

Surely, a strong heart is a strong heart.

If it were me, I would have stopped the vehicle, carefully scouted out the area where the gunshots were heard, and then resumed driving after ensuring safety.

It’s probably a difference in style.

This Park Gyu can be reckless and rough when necessary, but in unnecessary situations, he moves cautiously to the point of seeming cowardly.

There is a reason for that.

Dying in a situation where you have to die is inevitable, but dying in a situation where you don’t have to die is because you feel like you won’t be able to close your eyes even if you die.

There was one more incident after that.

On the other side of the road, several motorcycles passed us, roaring.

The Defender also saw them and stopped his car and prepared for battle, but the group of motorcycles ignored us and headed straight south.

There was no particular danger after that.

In the distance, an old highway rest area and a fortress made of container boxes in front of it came into view.

Before going in, I made contact by walkie-talkie.

“Yesterday, I was the one who decided to exchange bullets for oil.”

“Ah! That customer from yesterday!”

Manseok suddenly sighed.

“But what should I do with this?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Okay. Come in first. Then honk the horn three times from the front.”

I exchanged glances with the Defender and switched places.

Defender got out of the car and I took the wheel.

It’s such an obvious repertoire to say you’re going to make a deal and then attack.

If I get attacked, I’ll die instantly, but there’s a bomb inside the car.

The Defender will take revenge.

It was planned like that in advance.

You could call it insurance for the time of destruction.

By the way, it’s just getting started.

He measured the position of the bulletproof plate placed on the inside of the car door and prepared his pistol.

Crash

One on the passenger seat, one behind the gear, and one inside the door.

I slowly approached the store, my whole body lubricated with tension.

Bread Bread Bread

Horn three times.

Soon the thugs showed up.

“Original.”

I drove into the area surrounded by containers.

One by one, we came into view of miscellaneous shops selling oil, refrigerators, food, and parts, as well as prostitutes and naked judges.

But something is different than before.

Bloodstains were sprinkled across one of the containers as if paint had been poured over it.

“Ah. You’re here. Dr. Park.”

Manseok welcomed me with open arms.

He didn’t seem to have any particular animosity towards me.

In addition, there were several drums neatly stacked in the direction where he was standing.

He got out of the car, hiding the gun he had left on the passenger seat.

“What happened?”

Manseok frowned.

“Ah, shit. It happened.”

Manseok turned his head towards the container covered in blood.

“A mutation came in here in the middle of the night and killed one of my brothers.”

“Mutation. What kind of mutation is it?”

“Nobody saw that. No one saw it. There were a few of them here.”

A short-haired man with tattoos covering his neck next to him shook his head and joined the conversation.

“I can’t see it. That bastard. I can’t see it. Just without any sign, Yongjae’s body crumpled as if he had been hit by a black car going 150km/h. The black thing bit Yongjae’s neck and ripped his head off. The headless, twisted corpse danced and flew into the sky. That was the end.”

Throughout his speech, he kept a look of disbelief on his face.

Incomprehension rather than fear seemed to be the emotion that dominated him.

I remembered the story I heard from Defender yesterday.

“Isn’t that the owl mutation? It’s been talked about a lot these days.”

At this, Manseok, as well as the vicious gangsters around him, all opened their eyes wide and looked at me.

“That’s it! That’s it!”

“that’s right!”

“No, it looked like an owl?”

“You said you didn’t see anything just now?”

“No, it’s an owl. It had something like eyebrows!”

“That’s an owl, you idiot.”

I looked around.

Lights were hung here and there with dangling wires.

Owls have no trouble seeing in the dark without a light, but they would still be able to see this light from afar.

That’s probably what caught the attention of the owl mutation that has recently appeared here in search of “rich food.”

Besides, there is an especially abundant amount of food here.

“Anyway, something like that happened.”

Manseok quietly looked in front of the container where his subordinate had been killed, then motioned for me to move.

The deal has begun.

“Let’s see. 5.56mm NATO bullets. Good condition. This cartridge. Are they US military? Wow, US military bases are hard to find because they’re quickly evacuated.”

After he quickly checked the ammunition, they looked towards the synthetic oil.

He took the seal off a drum in front of me, put a long pair of chopsticks inside, and took it out, showing me the slimy oil stuck to the chopsticks.

“As you can see, it is the best. Do you see the first digit of the lot number? It’s number 4. It was made in Changwon.”

“What is the best number?”

“3. They say that the ones made in Yeosu Industrial Complex are the best. But they say that everything made in Yeosu is sent to Jeju Island. I can’t get that either.”

Manseok then demonstrated how oil catches fire.

There was little smoke and the firepower seemed adequate.

It doesn’t seem like there are that many impurities.

As people say here and there, it could be said to be the culmination of South Korea’s chemical engineering technology.

“Okay, can I carry it?”

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

“Did you hear that? Guys! Load up the gas~.”

When I tried to get involved, Manseok stopped me.

“You don’t have to work hard, boss. Leave it to your younger siblings. They’re already not cost-effective in this small town, so you have to ask them to do something like this.”

He put both legs up on the desk with his chin up and took out a cigarette naturally and put it in his mouth.

“······.”

Manseok sighed and blew out white smoke, then stared at the gaunt man holding the sign.

“That judge.”

I had nothing to do and I didn’t want to just sit still, so I brought up the topic.

“Did you do something bad?”

“Bad things are our specialty.”

Manseok smiled brightly like a Hahoe mask.

“Do you think that person is pitiful?”

Manseok asked with a serious voice, his smile fading away.

For a moment, I had to carefully choose the words that came to my mind as I watched his eyes glow ominously with the hatred I had seen before.

“Honestly, it does look a bit harsh.”

Here, a little sincerity is better than a joke.

“That’s true.”

It seems to be the correct answer.

Manseok sighed again, blowing out smoke from his cigarette.

“I’ve been playing with people’s fates for half my life, so isn’t it just karmic retribution to be treated like a toy for a little while before I die?”

Manseok suddenly stood up and gave instructions to his subordinates.

“Hey you little punk! Not that one! That’s something else. The one next to it. Yeah! That one!”

As expected of a gangster, his emotions change quickly. He put on a calm expression as if he had never yelled before and continued the conversation from earlier.

“What do you think I did before the war?”

He asked timidly, with an ominous smile on his face.

“Well, I don’t know how to read faces. Do you have any MBTI results?”

“I was an employee of a large corporation.”

Manseok tilted his head back and looked up at the sky.

“It wasn’t a parasitic company that sucked up the domestic market, but a company that made money through exports. I was a member of the purchasing team there.”

I looked at him with a slightly surprised expression.

It’s amazing.

The previous workplace of a gangster boss who seemed to kill a person with a smile was an industrial force.

“I had a daughter.”

One of the causes of the colorful expression of hatred on the man’s face has now been revealed.

The hatred reached his family.

“She was on a whole other level than those stupid, selfish bitches who went in on their own. She was really kind, pretty, and······.”

“······.”

Manseok’s hand holding the cigarette was trembling.

“Having a pretty daughter isn’t always a good thing. You end up with some worthless bastards clinging to her.”

“A beggarly son of a bitch?”

“Yes, I had a stalker.”

“······.”

“Fortunately, my daughter was caught in front of the studio.”

I think I know what happened.

Manseok looked back at the naked man.

“But that bastard said. He’s a professional. He’s a professional, so his status is secure and there’s no risk of him running away. He even wrote a letter of apology. So the police caught that bastard and he was released, and he raped and killed my daughter. During the day, he wrote a letter of apology, and at night, he beat another man’s daughter with a crowbar until she was unconscious, raped her, and strangled her to death.”

“So you tied that guy up?”

“Not just that. Just that.”

Manseok smiled brightly.

“I later went to confront this kid. My daughter died because of your mistake. He told me to admit my mistake and apologize to my daughter. That way, my daughter who died unjustly would feel less wronged in the next world. But do you know what that kid, that kid with the judge behind him, thinks of me? He looked at me like a bug, and then he called in the court inspectors? Those guys. He told me to kick out this outsider. He’s not even a citizen! He’s an outsider!”

“······.”

“I saw this kid go to the civil affairs department later and stand trial. An old lady who didn’t know anything got scammed and lost all her money. How could an ignorant and ignorant person be more aggrieved? He was complaining about his situation and begging for his grievances to be resolved, but the kid sitting high up there yelled at the old lady. He knew the basics. I knew what he was thinking and how he lived in the world from his gaze, his posture, and his arrogant voice.”

Manseok got up from his seat.

“He thinks he’s above the clouds. That piece of shit thinks he’s above everyone else.”

He approached the naked man with a gun.

The naked man trembled at the sight of the gun in his hand.

“This kind of buggy baby is like this ······.”

Manseok snorted once and then looked back at me.

“But I know I didn’t do well. I know I’m a piece of shit. That’s why I give you a chance every day.”

“opportunity?”

Manseok suddenly did something incomprehensible.

Suddenly, he cocked the pistol, released the safety, and forcibly placed the gun into the naked man’s hand with the muzzle pointed at him.

He shouted at the naked man.

“Now, the guy who killed your family and turned your kid into this is here. Now, pass judgment.”

He urged the naked man to shoot while holding his head to the barrel of a gun.

The sight was the very embodiment of madness that I had never seen before.

“Take the verdict! Quickly!”

The judge’s trembling hand, however, could not pull the trigger.

Manseok snatched the gun from the man’s hand with a snort, slapped him hard across the face, then returned to me as if nothing had happened and buttoned up his coat.

“As you can see, I am innocent~.”

I have nothing to say about the tangled web of grudges before the war.

It’s not something I need to know about.

Only one question has been answered.

That’s all.

My gaze turned to the other items piled up in the store.

“This battery. Can I take a look at it?”

Manseok also responded to me with his characteristically cheerful attitude as if nothing had happened.

“Oh, this. It’s made in China, but it’s good. Don’t think about the old Chinese products. They’re better than domestic products. When I was working at the company, the engineers would go to China, steal all the technology, and sell it.”

“Do you accept firearms? I have a few brand new American-made rifles.”

“Really? Did you really blow up the US military base? You’re so big. I’ll give you a big reward.”

I think I’ll have to visit this store again.

Regardless of what kind of person this Manseok is, the things he has seem like they could extend the lifespan of my realm quite a bit.

And there.

“Huh? What is this?”

“Ah. This.”

Manseok showed off a fighting machine that looked like a pouch holding several blades.

“This is hunter equipment.”

He even has hunter gear.

Bladers, large caliber rifles, 128mm rocket pistols, and even the Harpoonizer, which I enjoyed using against medium-sized and above units.

It’s almost like a department store.

“No, where do you get all this stuff?”

“I used to have connections with the military. I ended up going over to the legion and becoming a member of the Nagari faction.”

As someone who deals with a lot of people and controls and exploits their emotions, Manseok was also quick-witted.

He looked at me and asked me slyly.

“Are you a hunter by any chance?”

“······I worked as a hunter for a while in the past.”

“As expected. From the moment I first saw you, you gave off a strong scent. You must be a hunter.”

While we were talking, the synthetic oil loading was finished.

A one-ton truck was loaded with so much synthetic oil that it was so tightly secured in the cargo bed that it would sway.

If things go back this way, there’s no better deal than this.

Looking at the way it looks, it seems like it’ll end like this.

He must have already been caught as a hunter, and he had another deal to make, so he gave Manseok some expert advice.

“be careful.”

“What should I be careful of?”

“It’s a mutation.”

“Oh, that’s it.”

“Mutations will come back to a place they’ve already targeted. They’ll keep coming until they think it’s dangerous. They’re the kind of guys who have both human judgment and animal tenacity. You were attacked yesterday, right?”

At this, Manseok listened to what I said absentmindedly, with an expression on his face as if it was nothing.

“I’ll take care of it.”

What do you mean by doing it on your own?

Well, I hope nothing happens.

I have to deal with this guy again.

“How was it?”

When the Defender asked, I pointed to the tank of oil in the back and gave him a thumbs up.

and,

“As you can see.”

I hope that at least Manseok won’t be judged until the next transaction.