Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 107



Only Krnovel

57. Judgment (3)

Even in the doomsday era, Sundays feel special.

Even when I was in China, I always took Sundays off unless the situation was particularly bad.

But I don’t forget my daily routine.

I work in the garden at dawn.

During the day, the sun is so hot that we tend to crops for exercise and to pass the time, and harvest what is ripe or what we need.

The crops I currently grow are five types: lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, cabbage, and melons.

The reason I don’t plant leeks is because I don’t cook well.

Cooking ultimately involves using fire, and fire uses fuel and especially spreads a lot of smell.

I put moderately ripe melons in a basket, cut off any rotten stems with scissors, checked the condition of the leaves, and let them rest.

The resting place is the stream flowing under the house.

As I lightly wash my body and soak my feet in the suddenly clear stream water, I feel confident that I can get through the day without having to use the air conditioner.

But at night, I end up turning on the air conditioner.

It was when I was blankly watching the stream water flowing by.

“hmm?”

Something big was moving in the water.

It’s not a fish, it’s something that looks like shrimp.

But it’s too big for a shrimp.

I had a bad feeling, so I picked up the rifle I had left next to me and slowly walked into the valley, when suddenly a K-walkie-talkie rang out from behind me.

“The hunter I dealt with before! The hunter I dealt with before! Are you there? If you remember my voice, please answer me! This is really urgent! I will definitely thank you!”

The moment I heard that voice, I found myself smiling and muttering.

“I knew it.”

The owner of the voice was none other than Manseok.

*

Since business was business, this time I went to Manseok’s store alone without Defender.

“Ah. Hunter!”

Manseok was waiting for me outside the store.

I went into the container fortress with him.

“······You made a big fuss.”

The inside of the castle resembled a battlefield.

Smoke was billowing everywhere, stalls were smashed, and bloodstains and corpses roughly covered with cloths came into view.

“There were twelve men guarding it, but six were hit. Even with hundreds of bullets and hunter gear, they didn’t even get a scratch.”

This man, Man-seok, calmly and composedly explained the damage situation, as if he was a completely different person from when he used to do business with a lot of fuss.

That appearance was probably the same as when he was working at the company.

I listened to the explanation of the battle that took place yesterday while letting my imagination run wild.

It goes without saying, but if I had to conclude, it was Manseok’s crushing defeat.

Although he is a powerful gang leader within the city, Manseok has never experienced life outside the city walls.

He too would have seen monsters from afar and occasionally witnessed mutations.

The author Hunter has probably dealt with it at some point.

You probably thought they were nothing special.

They are hunters in name only, they are no different from ordinary soldiers.

So you’ll feel confident.

If it’s not a monster but a mutation, I think we can do it here too.

The result is a miserable defeat.

The opponent is no ordinary mutation.

Mutations are mutations.

Those that have just mutated and become bigger and stronger are like African safari prey, getting shot and becoming trophies for hunters, but those that have gained experience by killing humans in repeated battles take humans as trophies.

That is also why the South Korean government failed to deal with the gold gang when it was still in good health.

“What should I do?”

Manseok asked a question with a stern face.

“Now that you’ve become a target, it’s best to move. This area is now its hunting grounds.”

“That’s difficult.”

Manseok shook his head.

He spoke before I could ask why.

“······As people are leaving, the refugee camps we were managing are gone. Other camps are already under the control of guys like me, and there’s nothing to be gained by fighting them. The camps they manage are also being shaken to their core. The safe camps are tightly controlled by those with connections.”

It seemed that his foray into this wilderness was not intended to discover a new business model.

Because there was no other way.

Like others who have poured into this wilderness.

Still, it seems he had his own vision.

“We have to secure this store somehow. I want to make it a focal point for the people who are pouring into this area.”

“The center of gravity?”

“Let’s say people start settling down around here one by one. It’s not like they’re going to point guns at each other and engage in a war of nerves every day. They’re not foreigners who don’t speak the same language. They’re all Koreans. After all, if people start settling down around here, they’ll need a place to gather. They can do business and have fun.”

Deep in his eyes, Manseok revealed an enthusiasm that was not typical of a gangster.

“We will make this place the Las Vegas of Korea.”

Whatever his dream, it seems unlikely he will ever give up on this place.

“······Please help me.”

When I see you bowing at a 90 degree angle to someone like me.

But I didn’t come here with only good intentions.

“People, is this all there is?”

That mutation.

That guy named Hoot must die.

While the Gold Pack continues to hunt wild animals for food, Hoot hunts only humans for food.

As they gain experience and learn the ropes, they may realize that humans are the easiest prey to hunt, and may even enjoy the act of hunting humans itself.

The fact that the Manseok store, located just 15km away from my territory, was attacked means that my territory is also included in the bastard’s territory.

If a monster weighing hundreds of kilograms were to fall silently from the air as described by Manseok’s subordinate, then even Park Gyu would be helpless.

You will die like a rat or a rabbit.

“I called for reinforcements.”

“How many more are coming?”

“Two people.”

“What about combat experience?”

“I was getting beaten up a bit······.”

“Have you ever had any experience engaging in a gunfight with a mutant or at least a human?”

Manseok turned his gaze to my question.

“No, there won’t be any.”

Are you saying you don’t have any friends worth using?

But at least you can give me a meat shield.

To be blunt, I’m going to use these to kill Hoot.

It is something I must do for the safety of myself and the people I am trying to protect.

If the people who use meat shields are human garbage, then I guess that can lighten the burden on my mind.

“Why are you smiling all of a sudden?”

I feel like my feelings have leaked out.

“Let me think about old times for a moment.”

If Kim Da-ram heard my thoughts, he would laugh.

When did you ever use meat as a shield to hide humans?

I won’t deny it.

At that time, that was the only way.

We can kill monsters while saving our team members.

“Then, I would like to talk about the terms of the contract.”

Asking for a reward is both a fair price for labor and a way to hide my cold true nature.

Now I have to write a long story about those tough, yet scared, boyish men.

“You said you needed batteries before, right?”

The items Manseok prepared were not cool.

It’s an amount that can be carried by motorcycle alone.

There’s nothing I can do.

Their lives are in shambles too.

He nodded, pretending to be kind, and pointed to the goods on the relatively intact stand.

“That.”

“Ah. A hunter weapon?”

“Yes. Can I have that too?”

A look of concern appeared on Manseok’s face for a moment, but he soon nodded.

“Ha. To be honest, it’s a hunter weapon. I tried it yesterday and it didn’t work.”

It can’t be helped.

Close combat – These are made with the sole purpose of dealing a critical hit to a monster with a single hit in a situation where they are within the range of the monster’s reflective field.

The large-caliber rifle that Baek Seung-hyun had could be used against mutations, but its recoil is not ordinary.

Since it’s at the level of Baek Seung-hyun, it can be used freely.

When held by an inexperienced person, a Hunter weapon is nothing more or less than a dangerous firecracker.

“These are all the Hunter weapons.”

There are a total of three hunter weapons that Manseok gave me.

One blader and two hapunizers that I had eye-painted.

“I’ll just take one.”

“Really?”

“Instead, you have to treat me better next time we deal?”

“Ah, this person. The more I look at him, the more I like him.”

I walked around the container fortress with Manseok’s subordinates and tried to reconstruct the behavior patterns of Hoot that we raided yesterday.

It’s clear that he has a temper.

If you look at the fact that he tore six people apart while counterattacking.

It is said that they even placed the head of the person they killed on top of a container box as if it were a spectacle.

As I searched for one more reason to kill the guy, I came across something I didn’t really want to see.

They are women.

Terrified women were shivering inside the container, their heads sticking out and looking this way.

The thug who was guiding us said.

“There’s no need to feel sorry for them. They are the ones who reaped what they sowed.”

“is it so?”

“Brother Man-seok doesn’t do things like kidnapping or human trafficking. As someone who used to work for a large company, he strictly enforces contractual relationships. Those women are just there because they’re stupid and incompetent.”

I climbed up the ladder and onto the container.

But there was a man I knew tied to a pole.

He is a naked judge.

I made eye contact with him.

Despite the dire circumstances, his eyes were surprisingly clear.

He even smiled faintly when he saw me.

Are you in your right mind?

Or maybe that’s what madness looks like.

I looked back at the top of the container, curious.

“It would be a good idea to lay down something like plywood so that it would be easy to move around on top of the container.”

“Yes, Hunter.”

“And I need to gather some people and do some work.”

“What kind of work should I do?”

“Collect some wood that’s taller than your forearm. Do you have any tools here? Like a chainsaw or a woodcutter.”

“I’ll look for it, Hunter.”

Wheeeeeeing–

Tools are good, after all.

One tool can easily do the work of dozens of people.

With a woodcutter’s saw and some wood gathered by the thugs, we made spiked stakes with sharp spear-like tips to protect us from the hoots.

“We’ll place these at each defensive point. If he comes running at us, we’ll turn him into a hedgehog.”

The thugs who heard my plan all looked surprised and shouted out their praise.

“Oh.”

“As expected, you are a professional hunter.”

“Amazing! Hunter-nim!”

The title changed from Hunter-nim to Hunter-hyung-nim.

“It might be a good idea to just paint the whole place with spikes.”

Now that I’m a big brother, my voice has become much stronger.

Manseok heard what I said and immediately shouted.

“Let the women go! Make those bitches work too!”

Wheeeeeeeeing-

While the stakes were being made here and there, I walked slowly around the area, thinking about the places where people were killed and how they were killed.

Its favorite method is to swoop down, but it is also said to walk on two legs and split a person’s head open with just its beak.

It’s a bonus that he can knock out a thug who runs up to him from behind with just a flap of his wings.

It’s not a good idea to prevent a raid.

That monster is strong enough to easily chew up one or two people even on land.

Think of it as a walking dinosaur.

By the way, the more I look at it, the more difficult it seems.

It’s a monster that’s not only unthinkable in air combat, but also strong in ground combat.

“······.”

Setting up a makeshift stake won’t protect you from a monster that has devoured hundreds of people.

The spikes are disposable.

If you don’t hit the guy in one go, it might as well not happen.

However, you can’t just turn on a searchlight and fire bullets at something you can’t even see at night like in World War II.

If you keep using bullets like that without a searchlight, the bullets piled up in my area will disappear overnight.

There is only one answer that comes to mind.

“Blader.”

Blader.

A hunter’s equipment that rains down 18 sharp titanium blades at the moment of triggering.

This item was not adopted because it was said to have weak punching power against monsters, but it will at least play a big role in fights like this.

A blader is a large shotgun that uses blades instead of bullets.

If you just look at the direction properly and trigger it, you can easily turn a mutation into a rag in one hit.

Rather, we should be more worried about the blind blade flying towards us, which is one of the chronic problems of Blader.

Anyway, if you have this blader, your survival is guaranteed.

This means that, assuming that I discover the guy first and that he is within range, this card will definitely allow me to kill the guy.

But this Park Gyu, that gangster Man Seok, seems to have found that too funny.

“Oh, this? It’s called a blader, right? I know what it is. I know.”

Manseok smiled brightly.

“I’m going to use this.”

This friend seems to have had similar thoughts to me.

In order not to let him read my true feelings, I quickly gave up and left.

There are three hours left until sunset.

Still, the thugs were driving stakes all over the containers.

I climbed onto an empty container to take a quick break.

“······.”

I came face to face with the naked judge again.

He was looking at me with clear eyes.

As I was about to ignore him and go down, he opened his mouth.

“I had no choice.”

A clear voice with just the right resonance flowed out from the mouth of a man whose appearance was so miserable that it was hard to open one’s eyes and look at him.

“They released the person who killed that friend’s daughter.”

“is it so?”

I knew I shouldn’t mingle, but my curiosity piqued and I listened to what he had to say.

The naked man nodded, looking at me with a confident gaze.

“It is our job to prevent one innocent person from being locked up even if it means letting ten criminals go free.”

“Fuck you!!!!!!!!!!”

A roar erupted from under the container.

It’s Manseok’s.

“Hey! Hang that kid! Use that kid as bait!”

The naked judge didn’t care.

“Even if I could go back to that day, I would release that person. That is my decision as a judge in the Republic of Korea. If we arrest and detain people with insufficient grounds for arrest based only on circumstantial evidence, then in this world······”

His words were not continued.

The thugs tied up the naked judge and placed him high on a pole.

Manseok said to me quietly while placing LED lights under the pole.

“I’m going to use my blader at the moment when that owl chick snatches this guy away.”

Manseok handed me a blader.

“······Would you please do it?”

His eyes were filled with madness.