Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 128
Only Krnovel
Episode 128
67. Hero (3)
I tried to remember what I was like when I was an instructor.
“Today I’m going to talk about zombies, the mutation of human corpses. As you know, zombies are freshly dead,
“A type of mutation that turns medically dead people into living corpses by causing mutations in the mutation factor just before individual cells begin to die out completely, and they tend to move in groups······.”
A podium, textbooks spread out in front of it, and students vaguely visible beyond it.
I recall the feeling of a powerless voice reading from a prepared textbook in a classroom filled with silence.
The clock on the wall that I used to look at often – the minute hand never seemed to move.
At least I was sure my mind wasn’t in that classroom.
Still, after class, there was always a group of people who followed me around.
I didn’t really care.
I never even tried to look at those faces properly.
Kim Da-ram commented on me at that time like this.
“A temporary teacher with a shrimp-like back, hunched shoulders, hair as tangled as a washcloth, dark circles under his eyes that were so thick it was hard to tell him apart from a panda, and an expression on his face that looked like he had seen everything in the world, sighing heavily.”
Now that I think about it, I think Kim Da-ram would have enjoyed the site where the “company name” I used to visit appears next to his nickname.
“On that topic, he was quite popular compared to me.”
This is because I am the type of person who likes to constantly rank people and compare myself to others.
Song Yu-jin, a disciple from that time, came to see me again.
Judging from his playful expression as before, he doesn’t seem to have come with particularly good intentions.
As expected.
“Can I stay here?”
He throws a solid fastball right from the start.
“The commander told me to stay here for a while. As you know, all the soldiers that came with me are men, right?”
“I’m a man too?”
“Hey. Sam is okay······. Oh, Sam······? Why are you suddenly unzipping your zipper?”
“?”
“Ah, come on! Don’t do something weird! Just like the manager said, you’ve really become weird.”
“I?”
He zipped it back up and looked down at his tall disciple.
Even though he’s tall, he’s still short.
Will it easily surpass 160?
Kim Da-ram, who was in the late 170s, is noticeably shorter than Woo Min-hee, who is in the late 160s.
The disciple looked up at me with serious eyes and spoke as if protesting.
“Sam! Do you know that I took your side before?”
“what?”
“It’s over there!”
Song Yu-jin pointed to one side of the ceiling.
“Internet equipment!”
That’s the exact spot.
“You pretended not to know······.”
“You betrayed Woo Min-hee, the junior I respect the most.”
“······fountain?”
“Should I tell you?”
As soon as I picked up the walkie-talkie, she hurriedly came over to me and bowed down.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
“······.”
I put down the radio and watched my disciple Boreum apologize with sadness.
The color is nice.
This means that the nutritional status is good and there is no sign of stress.
She seemed like a completely different race from the women on the street, whose lives were not much different just three years ago.
He asked her a question subtly, looking at the Awaken Hunter uniform she was wearing.
“······How long will you be here?”
Song Yu-jin, who had been bowing awkwardly, raised her head.
“fountain?”
“How long will you be here?”
“A week? I heard that should be enough. Maybe I can go in three days.”
“Woo Min-hee said that?”
“Yes, Mr. Woo So-jang.”
“okay?”
3 days a week.
Why is there a deadline?
I stepped out of the bunker, controlling my expression.
“Follow me.”
“Huh? Where are you going?”
“There is an annex.”
“An annex?”
“I’m the type of person who can’t tolerate other people living in my house.”
“You’re so neat. But why are your panties always the same······.”
“What should I say to Woo Min-hee, my junior whom I respect and who is like a senior to me?”
“sorry!”
He showed the cabin he had made for Rebecca and her daughter, making sure to instill in his disciples, who were constantly climbing up, that there was a hierarchy.
Song Yu-jin’s face, which had been looking at my bunker with an indifferent expression, brightened.
“Wow! Awesome! I think I saw it on YouTube. Is this a boiler? Is it made of wood?”
“That’s right. If you want to stay, stay here. There’s a bathroom over there. I’ll have to shower on my side, but it’s cold outside, so I don’t think I’ll need to shower, right?”
“I sweat a lot so I have to wash twice a day.”
“Did you wash that often when you were in Jeju Island?”
“yes.”
“Incheon?”
“Once every three days?”
“It’s once every two weeks here.”
“That, that’s why the fan······.”
My disciple is a bit of a jerk, but he has been beaten up a lot in his social life, so he has a sense of humor.
Just by rolling your eyes, you can see them lower their heads on their own.
“If you like washing, you can wash yourself in the valley down there or not.”
I looked up and down at Song Yu-jin.
“Sam? Are you scanning me?”
“Is that the only weapon you have?”
“yes.”
Song Yu-jin’s only weapon is a pistol.
There is not a single common greatsword.
“What else? What about the cold weapon?”
“No. We don’t carry that kind of stuff. And I’m not in the combat unit. And frankly, I’m not very good at shooting guns.”
“Combat units······.”
“why?”
“No, it’s unfamiliar.”
When I was in school, there was no such thing as combat arms.
Everyone was a warrior.
Our old-time hunters were one in which if one died, someone else could always take his place.
“Anyway, write here. Don’t turn on the boiler. I’ll prepare an electric blanket.”
I was about to turn around and leave after giving some proper warning.
Song Yu-jin called me from behind.
“fountain.”
“What is it?”
I answered while standing awkwardly in front of the door without turning my head.
“Did you know that Sam was super popular?”
“okay?”
“Yes! Everyone was excited. That professor, that war hero, would become our instructor!”
“······.”
“But I was sad that it ended after only two weeks.”
The image of the disciple was reflected on a metal plate that had been hung in the corner of the cabin at Rebecca’s request.
The disciple who used to be a jerk when Woo Min-hee wasn’t around is now staring into the distance with his shoulders hunched.
I could tell where he was looking, but it wasn’t hard to guess what he was drawing with those eyes.
Perhaps, he is drawing a past that will never return.
“Have you eaten?”
“no.”
“I’ll give you some food for dinner, so empty your stomach.”
Not long after leaving the cabin, Song Yu-jin came out of the cabin.
She could hear a faint sound from the communicator she had on her ear.
“Sam, stay here.”
“why?”
“I think we have a little problem.”
The problem was not difficult to figure out.
Two trucks appeared over the ridge at the golf course on the other side of the hill.
Everyone on that truck was a soldier.
As you can see from the part where no gunshots are heard, it wasn’t a legionary faction.
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Ha Min-ki of the 223rd Special Response Brigade.”
We are allies.
However, it seems that they are not 100% allies.
“I came to look for Mr. Yang Sang-gil.”
Lieutenant Colonel Ha Min-gi showed the documents and requested the extradition of Yang Sang-gil.
The person standing in front of Ha Min-ki was a young captain wearing a name tag that read Kim Min-ho.
He looked through the documents without showing any sign of intimidation even in front of dozens of soldiers and superiors surrounding him.
He handed the documents back to Ha Min-ki.
“I am very sorry, but we are under orders from the National Committee. Just because you brought us orders from a command that is not even our superior unit, we are not obligated to follow them.”
“Isn’t Captain Kim Min-ho a soldier of the Republic of Korea?”
Ha Min-ki’s voice rose slightly, but there was no change in Kim Min-ho’s expression.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Can any soldier refuse an order given directly by the Joint Chiefs of Staff?”
“I am also in a position to receive orders. It doesn’t seem like a matter that I can resolve on my own. Have you talked to your immediate superior?”
“Is this not enough?”
“You cannot move until you receive orders from your immediate superior.”
Ha Min-ki’s face turned red, but he did not show his anger outwardly.
Instead, he spoke in a low voice, subtly revealing the anger he had suppressed, as if it were about to explode at any moment.
“······Okay. I’ll check it out.”
While Ha Min-ki walked toward the truck with a flushed face and spoke loudly into the walkie-talkie, Kim Min-ho smiled indifferently at the soldiers watching him from the armored vehicle.
This brief and stark contrast seemed to show the reality of the “military forces remaining in the National Assembly” that I had never thought much about.
As I approached with Song Yu-jin, Kim Min-ho spoke to me with a nonchalant expression.
“It won’t be a problem. They won’t be able to touch us anyway.”
The army, already divided in two, was divided in two again.
No, maybe it’s broken into more pieces than I know.
The divisions in the army were suddenly sealed.
A drone appeared in the sky.
A heavy drone, reminiscent of a small airplane, circled overhead like a vulture searching for a corpse.
*
“LCN-2044. This is a Chinese-made civilian drone. It is slow and clumsy, but it is large and powerful, so it is often used for long-range bombing or reconnaissance.”
Kim Min-ho looked like a typical elite soldier.
Needless to say, he is sharp, cool-headed, and knowledgeable.
In comparison, Lieutenant Colonel Ha Min-gi looked older than his rank, and the traces of bad lifestyle habits were clearly evident in his sallow complexion and stooped figure.
It didn’t seem like he knew much about anything,
“Are you a legionnaire?”
One voice was loud.
“I don’t know because these days, we don’t bid on defense procurement items. All possibilities are open.”
“Are you saying that it might not be a Legion faction?”
“There are many elite raiders in the outskirts outside the metropolitan area. The Legion promised a considerable reward on the broadcast, so they may be raiders after the reward.
Or perhaps the Legion faction may have disguised themselves as raiders to hide their true intentions.”
I raised my hand as I quietly watched Kim Min-ho speak without any emotion, as if he were a machine.
He looked at me and lifted his chin slightly.
“Is this a problem caused by Yang Sang-gil?”
Kim Min-ho nodded.
“I guess we should see it that way.”
“Then wouldn’t it be better to move Yang Sang-gil’s new soldiers to the rear for a moment?”
“Why do you think so?”
“With even medium-sized drones in the air, isn’t it natural to expect an attack?”
“why?”
“Why? If we catch a big shot like Yang Sang-gil and spread propaganda, I think we can sway the public sentiment in Incheon.”
Kim Min-ho chuckled.
“Thank you for your opinion.”
Then he turned his gaze.
“But the orders I received from above are to keep Yang Sang-gil here and protect him.”
“You’re only giving me one tent in this weather?”
Kim Min-ho glared at me fiercely.
Maybe that was the first expression of emotion?
Satisfied with that, he didn’t open his mouth any more.
Instead, I left my seat and thought about this matter from the beginning.
Why on earth is Yang Sang-gil here?
Even within the city, they could inflict as much humiliation and pain as they wanted and make people pay for their sins.
And why on earth did he give me a walkie-talkie?
Neglecting to check your belongings?
I don’t think so.
Seeing that picky Kim Min-ho doesn’t seem to have any problems.
In any case, it is certain that Woo Min-hee is at the center, but the situation is not easily resolved into one thing.
Like a split army, the truth was shattered into pieces and scattered to the point where it was difficult to recognize its original form.
As I was looking at the stars appearing one by one in the gradually darkening sky, carrying my luggage on my back, I felt a presence behind me.
It’s Yang Sang-gil.
Normally I wouldn’t have allowed him to stand next to me, but the chaos of the situation gave me patience.
“······It’s getting colder and colder.”
Yang Sang-gil exhaled steam while pulling up his parka.
“I guess there was trouble?”
He looked at the soldiers who were still arguing.
“······A drone appeared.”
Yang Sang-gil sighed.
“You’ve had a hard time. Because of someone like me.”
He clasped his hands together and exhaled, looking up at the sky with wrinkled eyes.
Strangely, Yang Sang-gil’s face, looking up at the sky, looked like that of an ordinary man you could see anywhere, rather than a butcher who had driven tens of millions to death.
“······I didn’t want to do something like that.”
“······.”
“I guess I should have quit then. When all the administrative bureaucrats like me were taking off their clothes, I guess I should have taken off my clothes too.”
“Did you say you took it off?”
“Well, that doesn’t work like that.”
“why?”
“Excuse me, but do you have any family?”
He nodded.
Yang Sang-gil breathed into his hand again and sighed.
“······If I take off my clothes, my wife will no longer be able to use the Bali parking service at the department store and she will not be able to enter the lounge. I have to spend at least 2,000 a year at the department store to maintain my qualification, but that is not possible.”
“Is that an important question?”
“Yes. It’s important. It’s important. You don’t know. How much it hurts the person who is no longer in the playground of people who are there every day.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You may think it’s a luxury, but surprisingly, if you shop cheaply at a department store, you can buy much cheaper and better items than outside. Besides, such small luxuries are the only consolation for my wife who has suffered for me and our children all her life. I don’t ask for much. The top grade is 5,000, and the ones above that are over 100 million. 2,000 isn’t that much money, right?”
“······.”
“It’s not just my wife. My daughter, who almost got screwed, went to study abroad in the U.S. She inherited some of her father’s wealth, but her back was broken. If I take off my clothes, it’s obvious. I have to go back to Korea. I have to go back to Korea, sitting in a cramped economy class seat with foreigners I don’t know, leaving behind my friends who laughed and chatted with me while going to school, without even receiving a diploma.”
“······.”
“My son… haa… I won’t say anything.”
“What kind of guy was he?”
“What did you do? I was called to the police station for posting malicious comments on the Internet.”
“aha.”
Yang Sang-gil took out his cell phone.
Although it has already lost its function as a communication device, at least the cell phone functions as an album.
The screen on his phone was a family photo taken by the Yang Sang-gil family at a park.
A drop of dew formed on the wrinkled corner of his eye.
“If only I had taken off my clothes then.”
Yang Sang-gil slumped his shoulders along with his cell phone.
“······There was no way this family could survive.”
Yang Sang-gil suddenly looked back at me with an old face.
“Are you Director Woo Min-hee?”
Although we live in a world where older people are looked down on, experience is not something to be ignored.
When I see you suddenly hitting the nail on the head.
But his surprise attack didn’t elicit any reaction from me.
Even that common surprise.
It seems like it was a secret weapon.
You can see his expression suddenly fall when I don’t react.
The man who once stood at the highest position in South Korea hunched his shoulders and whined like a child throwing a tantrum.
“······You’re trying to throw me to that woman because you’re friends with Kim Da-ram, right?”
“Really? But Kim Da-ram, you don’t know, do you?”
“Did it look like that?”
“Didn’t you say that as if you didn’t know anything?”
Yang Sang-gil smiled faintly.
“Why don’t you know?”
For a moment his face looked like that of a completely different person.
From the innocent old man next door, to a devil who carelessly threw away hundreds of thousands of lives.
“He was the one who insulted me every day, trying to get me kicked out of my seat······.”
The next day, several drones appeared in the sky.
A strange man’s voice echoed from one of the drones.
Their demands were simple.
“Send Yang Sang-gil and his family to the east.”
End
ⓒ Road Warrior #dp8g
(g8990***) -Recommendation74-
Yes, in ‘Hiding a house in the apocalypse’, the meaning of ‘house’ seems to have changed strangely.
At the beginning of the work, Park Gyu ruthlessly removes any factors that could expose him or that he may not repay debts for the safety of the bunker, which is simply a place to eat and sleep.
But as you go further back, you can see that he is not obsessed with the shelter of a bunker.
Rather, it is better to reveal the bunker to those around you and to take risks to stick to your beliefs.
I get the impression that the meaning of ‘home’ is changing from a material place to live to a hometown or an ideal place to be reached.
Perhaps Viva Apocalypse, where Park Gyu could have the only human interaction, was his home.
In that sense, ‘Hiding a House in the Apocalypse’ is a story about a man named Park Gyu trying to escape his utopia from the apocalypse.
I think it might be possible to interpret it
(OneTwo***) -Recommendation70-
It’s gloomy because of Yang Sang-gil, but the mood is somewhat lively thanks to my old disciple looking at the 30cm wrapping paper.
(Magic Nim***) -Recommendation 59-
I feel like Park Gyu is being manipulated, but I suspect that Icarus is not his son but Yang Sang-gil.
(kjh0***) -Recommendation 41-
But if we do this, won’t the skeleton bunker be too exposed?
(Lee Jin-jin**) -Recommendation 31-
It was so funny to see the zipper being unzipped, but no one said anything because the atmosphere was so tense ㅋㅋㅋ
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