Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 145
Only Krnovel
Episode 145
“When we gave up Seoul, the legionnaires also retreated from the east of Seoul.
There were people who refused to leave, but Seoul was a very large city, and there were a lot of refugees from nearby areas, so there were quite a few people left.”
The identity of the strangers who appeared before us was, as they had previously revealed, a search party from the National Assembly. Let’s hear what their purpose was through Song Yu-jin’s mouth.
“Even if it wasn’t possible, hundreds of thousands would have remained. Even though they were abandoned, there was a population that was almost as large as a local city.
Well, after that, a cold wave came, monsters came down, and mutations like the Four Heavenly Kings and such began to appear, so the population decreased quickly, but at some point, all the people disappeared.
It must have been around last summer.”
Song Yu-jin looked at me with eyes filled with confusion.
“We send out search parties to find the cause. About once a month.”
The bespectacled man next to him added.
“In addition, we are investigating the erosion rate, vegetation changes, number of mutations, and density of monsters around Seoul.
In fact, if Seoul, which is one with Incheon, collapses, Incheon will also experience a similar situation.”
The man’s name is Lee Ho-yeon.
Awaken like Song Yu-jin, level 4.
He is said to be the leader of the search party.
The search party consisted of seven people: four Awakens and three soldiers.
Although they are called Awaken, except for one, they are all lower level Awakens, below level 4, so it seems that the soldiers make up for the lack of basic combat power.
The soldiers did not wear rank insignia, indicating that they belonged to the National Defense Commission and not the Ministry of National Defense. However, judging from their stocky physiques and fierce gazes, they appeared to be veterans with considerable experience.
It wasn’t the Awaken ability that found us, but the bonfire.
He said that he came straight here after seeing the black smoke rising from broad daylight and used Awaken’s sensing ability to find the exact location.
Could we say that it was a meeting that seemed like a vague coincidence but with a strong sense of inevitability?
The atmosphere wasn’t bad.
The military side is building a wall, but the Awaken side is generally friendly, thanks to Song Yoo-jin.
“But why did Sam suddenly come to Seoul?”
“That’s right······.”
I thought about it for a moment.
How can I tell the story so that I can strictly distinguish between myself as a skeleton and myself as a professor?
It’s true that Song Yu-jin’s mouth is tight.
If she had told Woo Min-hee that I had real satellite equipment, I might have disappeared before I could even dream of the armband. After gathering my thoughts, I said to Song Yu-jin with a very serious expression.
“Do you know PaleNet?”
“Yes, I know.”
The Awakens behind them faced each other.
“It just blew up.”
“uh.”
These are friends who didn’t tell me their names.
It wasn’t that they particularly disliked me, but rather, like other young people, they seemed to be reluctant to get involved with others.
“I’m on my way to fix that failnet.”
“Palenet?”
I introduced her to Valentine, who had been silent.
“He’s currently the administrator of Palenet. We’ve known each other for a long time.”
“It’s Valentine’s Day.”
“Ah, yes…….”
Unlike me, Song Yu-jin didn’t seem to welcome Valentine very much, but on the other hand, the two friends who hadn’t told me their names were surprised and approached him, asking him various questions.
While they were talking, he said to Song Yu-jin.
“Can I speak to the team leader for a moment?”
“Team Leader? It won’t be difficult. Team Leader Hoyeon! It seems like our Sam has something he wants to say.”
While Lee Ho-yeon was slowly approaching Song Yu-jin after hearing her words, Song Yu-jin suddenly leaned her face toward me and whispered in my ear.
“Our team leader is suffering from depression right now. I want you to know that.”
“What is depression?”
Lee Ho-yeon came to me with a bitter smile.
This guy is quite tall.
Maybe 187.8cm?
He has a thin body and a hunched back, so you might not notice him from afar, but when you stand up close, you can definitely feel his presence.
This friend’s attitude towards me is neutral.
It’s not that I like it or dislike it.
Even though I know I’m a professor, it doesn’t seem to resonate as deeply in my heart as Song Yoo-jin.
In fact, this is the new school average.
No matter how great I was or what accomplishments I had in my past, my style itself has already been proven to be outdated.
It’s a similar situation to a painter who painted photo-realistic paintings but ended up on the streets due to the invention of the camera.
I had no particular desire to be respected or have my past acknowledged, so I spoke dryly about my business.
My business is none other than a new type of monster.
Valentine showed Lee Ho-yeon a gray-white dragonfly that he had filmed with a drone.
The moment he showed the photo, Lee Ho-yeon adjusted his glasses.
There was no change in expression, but there was a look of surprise.
“This is.”
He asked for the phone.
As he handed over his phone, he opened his mouth and examined the new monster, zooming in so that it filled the screen.
“It’s an extinction type.”
“Extinct type?”
I once heard about the unfamiliar concept of extinction from a user I don’t know well, Anonymous68, during Dongtan Mom’s live broadcast.
Since all languages are automatically translated into the bulletin board language during the live broadcast, it is impossible to know whether Anonymous 68 is Korean or a foreigner.
So I tried sending a message in English, but it was simply ignored, leaving me wondering what the concept of extinction meant.
But the same word came out of the mouth of a level 4 Awaken.
Awakens below level 5 are considered job wakens, but in fact, there is a need to distinguish between level 4 and levels below.
Awaken Level was created in a time when no one knew what it was, so looking at it now, there are more than a few strange aspects.
Here is a simple diagram of the psychic sensitivity index of a level 10 Awaken in a normal person.
Normal people < < < (an insurmountable fourth-dimensional wall) < < < Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 < < < < < < Level 4 < < < Level 5 < 6, 7, 8, 9 < < < (another fourth-dimensional wall) < < < Level 10
It's something like this.
It may seem funny that it's below level 5, but it's actually quite different from levels 2 and 3.
So, level 4 Awaken is treated differently from lower level Awaken.
If we compare it to the Joseon Dynasty, it would be like the position of a middle class person.
"It's a new species discovered in places that have already become monster territory, such as China, India, and Africa."
That's why what comes out of this guy's mouth has a higher level of credibility.
Except for some vested interests, it is the law of the National Assembly that the higher the level, the better the treatment.
"It has a different nature from the monsters that have appeared so far. While the previous monsters' behavioral principle was not to be hostile towards humans, but to establish a bridgehead in human territory, the extinct species, unlike the previous types, clearly recognizes humans as enemies and actively attacks them as its behavioral principle."
"Are you saying that monsters have become the true enemies of humanity?"
It's a shocking fact, but I'm not that surprised.
Well, it seems like I had some unorganized guesses and expectations in my mind that it would be like that.
Now the monsters are enemies of the Earth itself, but won't they one day bare their teeth against the children of the Earth?
Since the rift opened and humanity began its struggle, new species have been discovered every year, and they have evolved into forms that push humanity further into a corner. This is just my guess, but could it be that our enemy is not monsters, but the world beyond the rift itself?
Just like the human immune response.
The “infinity” I saw beyond the cracks was not simply expressed in the sense of a large number.
Beyond that gloomy horizon, countless gray-white monsters were being created.
They were "forming themselves" as if formless ash was settling, without factories or workers.
"It looks like that guy can move outside the erosion zone like a small species?"
"No. They are usually found in eroded areas, and those areas were completely eroded a long time ago. This is the first time they have been found in Seoul, which has not been eroded at all." "What is the strategy?"
"Are you going to fight?"
Lee Ho-yeon looked at me with slightly uneasy eyes.
This is a question that could be asked of an Awaken who has the power to kill people by will alone.
"If it is unavoidable"
"Unfortunately, there isn't much data on that new species. They are found only in areas that are completely eroded. In such areas, drones and satellites are useless."
Lee Ho-yeon bowed to me.
"Anyway, thanks to you, I've finally gotten some valuable data after a long time. An extinct species active outside of the eroded zone. I think this might be the best result since I took charge of the search party."
Certainly, there seems to be a fundamental difference between the hunters of our time and the hunters of the present age.
At least when a new species appears, we are not satisfied with just discovering it, but try to kill it in our name.
It is true that many comrades died because of their reckless spirit of challenge, but it is also true that thanks to their sacrifice, we were able to secure at least a minimum of data and save the lives of our comrades who would fight that new species next time.
But these new friends consider the discovery itself to be their greatest achievement.
He left Lee Ho-yeon behind and approached Song Yu-jin.
"Search party activities. Will they continue in the future?"
"Yes. I have nothing else to do. It's cold outside, but I have to stay in Incheon. What's the use of talking? I want to go back to Jeju Island quickly. How can I do it with Sam's help?"
"If I had any connections, I would have gone first."
I understand the situation.
It's also clear what I have to do.
It's important to repair Palenet, but we also need to kill that new guy.
Even though I've been away from active duty for a long time, my hatred for monsters shows no signs of abating, and more than anything, it's my job as a professor to defeat new species.
"I have a favor to ask"
"What do you want?"
"Viva! Apocalypse! I know."
"yes"
"If there's anyone in Incheon who can access it, ask the human named m9. Hey, have you seen that white, wiggly guy?"
People tell me that I was the first to defeat so many new species because of my superhuman judgment, leadership, and fighting prowess.
The truth is crude.
Always collecting information.
They collected statements from all the stragglers, civilians, and even detained criminals in the areas where the new species appeared, and sometimes even went so far as to rummage through the rotting corpses of those who had been brutally beaten to the point of being hard to look at, in order to infer the new species' means of attack.
I won't deny that in unavoidable circumstances, they let Chinese people they could save die in order to get data.
By doing so, I was able to solve new types of puzzles over and over again.
Our team's fighting prowess and legendary teamwork is the story that follows.
M9 is a guardian angel that protects Seoul even after people leave the city.
To be honest, we're not on good terms, but now I have to admit that he's more famous than me.
"m9? Oh~! The person who lives in that slanted apartment?"
"You don't know either?"
"Who doesn't know? The Hope Cliffhanger."
"······That guy must have lived in Seoul all along, so he might have seen that new species. That's why I'm asking him to contact Incheon and have him look for it."
"Just a moment."
Song Yu-jin took out her K-Walker Talkie and fiddled with the keyboard.
I was watching what he was doing and he was entering his personal identification number.
Personal Identification Number: CLIFF_HANGER
"What is that?"
"Oh, that person has a personal number."
"What?! That kind of guy?"
"Do you know each other?"
"No. I don't know."
"Honestly, what should I call that person now? He's a human cultural asset! That's what it feels like. The name of the apartment he lives in is also The Hope, right? That's why I'm giving him a lot of support here and there."
"······I see."
I can understand it, but what is this feeling?
As an abolitionist, I feel like my pride in my philosophy is being shattered.
Because it proves that it's possible to survive zoo-style like that.
Although it may be a survival style that was achieved through luck rather than through thinking, there is no denying that M9's method is extremely superior.
In the sense that it elicits fair favor from humans, who can be said to be the greatest threat.
The m9 answered the call.
"Captain M9 speaking!"
The moment I heard that, I lost my self-control and blurted out a word without realizing it.
"Shit"
"fountain?!"
He quickly shut his mouth and sent a signal to Song Yu-jin using the school's hand signal to communicate with her.
Song Yu-jin looked at me with a trembling face and asked m9 what I had requested.
"I think someone just said something stupid…"
"Oh, they were talking about the Jurassic period next to me."
"Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhh······."
Song Yu-jin asked m9 for information about endangered species.
I had some confidence.
A house that is tilted will have a better view downward than a house that is not tilted.
"Oh, you mean that worm-like thing?"
As expected, m9 knew about the extinct species in question.
"That kid is pretty fast, but he's not good at climbing slopes. One time, he followed me into the elevator shaft, and I got a little carried away. He came up alone, fell down, and I haven't seen him since. He got lost."
(Slippery: the floor is slippery)
It appears that he even survived the attack.
"······"
The m9 guy, when I first saw him he was missing two screws, but after living in a slanted place, he seems to have leveled up.
I asked a few more questions through Song Yu-jin.
Whether he shoots or has other special abilities.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the information I was looking for, but I did get some pointers.
One most important fact.
Extinct species do not make waves.
The wave is a precursor to many miracles, including the reflection field caused by the monster.
It itself signifies an explosion of psychic energy.
The absence of such waves means that the guy isn't that great of a monster.
Even in Dongtan Mom's live, they didn't cause any disturbances and just acted together with the zombies.
"······"
Maybe this new species isn't as strong as we think.
We'll have to wait and see for the exact specs.
"Thank you, Eugene."
"No, Sam. It's nothing."
"Then we'll go to Seoul to fix PaleNet."
"Yes? You're going to Seoul? Even after seeing the new species?"
Song Yu-jin looks at me with a surprised face.
"Are you serious?!"
When I think about it carefully, I feel like I haven't taught much to my disciples for the past 15 days.
All it was was a soulless recitation of a passage from a textbook that everyone knows.
But if you follow me to this extent, shouldn't I teach you at least one thing as your teacher?
He spoke calmly, superimposing the image of her youthful middle school days on top of the disciple who was looking at him with eyes that held a soft glow.
"The discovery of a new species is not a reason to stop a mission."
"?"
"If I avoid, someone else will be able to face that new species without knowing about it. Like you and your companions. Even though you call it Awaken, do you know how dangerous it is to face a new species of monster with no information about it?"
"······yes."
"That's what it means to be a hunter. You have to have the basic idea that you're better than other guys."
"fountain······"
He smiled brightly at her.
"And me, professor."
End
ⓒ Road Warrior #dp8g
(yy***) -Recommend98-
Such a cool driving force: I want to wear the armband!!!!
(***Hyung-ah) -Recommendation84-
They say it’s a new type, but it looks a bit lacking since it’s cut from the M9 line.
lol
(if**) -Recommendation64-
It’s funny to think that there’s a reason for those mission-filled words to be the community badge.
(**Phenol) -Recommended 60-
Captain M9 speaking ok jrl
(Antimatter**) -Recommendation 48-
It feels like I’m accumulating karma, but it’d be funny if this happened and everything went downhill lol
(code****) -Recommendation 46-
A guy who survived on his own for three years after his country was ruined is no ordinary guy.
A person can die if he gets lost in the winter mountains for just a few days.
(round**) -Recommendation 41-
‘The watchman on the front lines of humanity’, ‘rock climber’, ‘the one who is not hated’, ‘human cultural asset’
I thought he was a gag character, but he was a doomsayer who adapted better than anyone else.
mmmmmmmmmmmm and m9 are different people!
(Snowman***) -Recommendation 22-
At this level, the more tilted the more hopeful
Is this a training site like a volcano or a Wudangsan mountain?
(ga****) -Recommendation18-
The first step is to make the floor slippery…
With something like melted cheese or wax toothpaste, it made the floors slippery at school or in the military…
I almost got hit, but no!
(Passionate***) -Recommendation 14-
When giving advice to Melon Musk
Use the slope! I thought it was just a regular m9 gag
This was valuable information I got while running away from the extinction type, lol
The opposite of extinction is more hope…think of it as something similar to hope.
It’s even more meaningful haha
(Impressed***) -Recommendation 13-
After putting on the armband, people’s hearts start to want to stab themselves with a bamboo spear.
(Shin Seung**) -Recommendation 7-
“And I, the professor.”
This line marked the beginning and end of the MCU.
It overlaps with “I AM IRON MAN”…!!
(Toy***) -Recommendation 6-
Surely they won’t broadcast live the capture of an endangered species?
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