Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 17



Only Krnovel

16. Motivation (1)

That school was a cruel place.

The rankings of each grade were posted on a large poster, from first to last.

The weak were eliminated and left to their own devices.

It forced competition rather than cooperation and demanded mechanical coldness rather than humanity.

Creativity was not tolerated, only obedience and discipline were enforced.

It was a place where it had to be that way.

Because our enemies are merciless and do not tolerate any mistakes.

Boys and girls who had just graduated from middle school were reborn as machines inside it.

To fight against the enemies of humanity, monsters.

The motivations were different for each person, but in my case, it was hatred.

My hatred for having lost my parents and older sister to monsters and becoming an orphan was so intense that it was hard to imagine now.

Lee Sang-hoon was the complete opposite of me in many ways.

He grew up in a wealthy home, his parents were alive, and he entered the school because he saw prestige and prospects.

It may have been difficult from the beginning for him, who grew up in a greenhouse, to win against me, who had nothing but poison left in him.

From admission to graduation, he was blocked by a wall called the country and only ranked second.

When he entered school, he probably never thought that the number 2 would become his trauma.

But our competition ended in a completely unexpected way.

The tables have turned.

If we compare it to music, it would be like having performers competing in classical music at a classical music competition, but then suddenly the categories at the competition venue change to rock and heavy metal.

I think that music genres are a matter of taste, not of superiority.

But the music that was popular on the battlefield was rock and heavy metal.

Mozart and Salieri were something backward and boring in it.

A guy who was in the corner and didn’t get any attention emerged as a hero and was in the center of the spotlight.

We were pushed to the periphery of the stage and had to suffer the dark ridicule and contempt that always comes to such people.

One left and one stayed.

Those who left became wild men, and those who stayed became officials.

The competition between the two is over.

The only string that connected them was broken.

I thought I would never see him again.

That guy came to me himself.

What on earth is going on?

Mr. Kim said that it is rare for someone who contacts you after a long time to do so with good intentions.

“Are you the one who put the capsule on Route 13?”

“How did you know?”

He admitted it right away.

I know this guy’s personality well.

Lee Sang-hoon is a perfectionist.

He tried to do even the smallest things perfectly, so he always fell behind me.

“Why would you do something like that? What if you rip the capsule in the middle and summon a monster?”

“Summoning? What does that mean?”

“Do you still know that?”

“Don’t you know?”

“The capsule’s true identity has been revealed to be a simple portal. It’s a type of simple crack used by infiltrators.”

“···I see.”

It’s been quite a while since I retired from active duty.

I knew from experience that capsules were not like eggs, but it was bitter to know that my knowledge was now outdated.

“I think I know why you put it there.”

“Guess.”

“You don’t want refugees coming around your bunker, do you?”

“You’re good at matching, whether you were a kid or a teenager. What’s going on? You must be busy.”

“Are you thinking of going to Jeju Island?”

Are you a scout?

This is not the desired flow.

“What do you want me to do there?”

I had previously refused it.

However, Lee Sang-hoon, who has become a high-ranking official, seems to be unaware of that fact.

“The instructor position is vacant. The instructor candidate died three days ago. I received recommendations for other candidates, but none of them were to my liking. Then, at that moment, I saw you moving the capsule.”

“Instructor.”

“It’s a better life than rotting away in a filthy basement.”

“You must be very stressed out?”

“Isn’t it a more stressful life to live there? I know you live alone, but living alone for almost two years without saying a word and without any friends, isn’t that a punishment in itself?”

“Not at all?”

For the first time, I seriously questioned it.

That’s not true.

Over the past two years, there have been some dog-like moments, but for the most part, I’ve lived a comfortable and leisurely life.

Dude, you have a ton of internet friends, all you have to do is write a diary.

So what if I’m not popular on the message boards?

I have neighbors with whom I can exchange Christmas greetings.

“Are you serious?”

Lee Sang-hoon’s voice shook.

It’s an unbelievable sight.

He answered me clearly once again.

“I like it here.”

If you go to Jeju Island, it will probably be warmer than here.

But that’s all.

There are people and realities out there that I don’t want to see.

I hated it so I got out and the current unpopular user Skeleton was born.

“I guess you still can’t get over your sense of entitlement and inferiority.”

Lee Sang-hoon grumbled coldly.

For a moment my face hardened.

“······.”

I don’t know because I’m not looking in the mirror, but my eyes are probably pretty sharp.

Not as much as when I was in school though.

“What can I do? I don’t have talent. Talent. You or me.”

Lee Sang-hoon’s grumbling turned into sighs.

“Don’t you know how hard it is for me?”

There was no response.

It’s not that I don’t understand it in my head.

Being in a high position means having a lot of responsibility.

Seoul is being destroyed, so will that make us feel at ease?

But we had too many fights and misunderstandings to sympathize with Lee Sang-hoon’s suffering.

Because we were competitors, never friends.

“Let’s have a drink for once. I have some good wine.”

“I want to go, but because of the capsule.”

My answers became increasingly indifferent and insensitive.

Lee Sang-hoon is not so dull as to not know that.

“okay.”

His voice grew distant.

“Take care. Park Gyu.”

It seemed as if the communication was cut off, but then suddenly a small muttering could be heard from the other end of the speaker.

“Your back of the head.”

“what?”

That was the end.

What Lee Sang-hoon was trying to say has been piquing my imagination for quite some time.

I frantically touched it, thinking it might be a wart, but it was fine.

*

There is a saying that if you want to hide a tree, hide it in the forest.

There were also users in the community who set up base in Seoul.

They didn’t dig a bunker, but they set up base in a corner of a common structure called an apartment and converted it into a hideout.

The reporter who regularly brings us fresh news from Seoul was one of those people.

He welded shut the iron gate of his apartment and drilled a hole in the lower apartment to use as an entrance. He said that this was possible because the entire family living in the lower apartment committed suicide.

That reporter has been living up to his reputation lately.

gijayangban : Current situation in Seoul.jpg

The photo showed hundreds of thousands of angry citizens gathering in front of the government building.

And that’s not all.

Citizens showed up and protested in almost every place where there was a government office.

The whole of Seoul was turned upside down.

It was expected.

There is a limit to covering up reality with candy-coated hope.

The protests became increasingly violent and violent.

In proportion, the slogans became simpler.

Please save me.

That was their only demand.

The plane called Seoul has started to crash.

The response from community users was lukewarm.

Anonymous848: That’s really cool. You were mocking us like that.

Kyle_Dos: I still remember the show on public broadcasting. What did they say about us back then?

Anonymous 458: A group of social misfits who have chosen to eliminate themselves due to their delusions of grandeur.

I can understand how these guys feel.

This country has a culture of setting a standard for life and mercilessly punishing those who deviate from it.

Our doomsdayers are the ones who have gone off the rails.

He suffered considerable social persecution and ridicule.

I also heard a civil servant ask if I was schizophrenic because of a construction problem.

The exodus of refugees accelerated.

Anyone who had the will to escape tried to leave Seoul.

In Seoul, the refugees who were presented in a fancy way as pioneers were actually members of the military.

If you apply to become a pioneer and form a group, you will be given weapons, equipment, and some food. If the pioneering is successful, you will be given additional equipment, food, and support to help you settle down.

It is questionable how many will succeed in pioneering, but as pioneers are stirring up every place where they can live, our community users are dying.

Defender: Authentication

The human hunters also seem very busy.

The reason I haven’t been able to post on the community lately is probably because I’ve been busy killing and burying people.

However, a bit of controversy arose over one of the human hunter’s authentication photos.

The thing that was said was that the shadow in one of the authentication photos was so thin that it looked like a woman.

In my view, even that was a cross-section of the melancholy of the times.

In the past, if I had seen a picture of a corpse, I would have either hastily pressed the back button or just gulped at the sight of the eerie frozen corpse, but now that I see so many corpses, I have the leisure to pay attention to things other than the corpses.

One of them even enlarged the shadow part of the Defender and drew its silhouette directly in Paint, making the theory that the Defender is a woman public.

Unicorn18: Look at this line. Is Defender really a woman?

The storm caused by Unicorn18 briefly heated up the bulletin board, but it did not last long.

Defender: Are you looking for it?

The Defender himself put out the fire.

The human hunter is a woman.

I am skeptical.

I saw his shoe prints.

It was men’s size.

There are other reasons too.

It would be easy for a woman to kill a man if she had a gun, but it would not be easy to move and dispose of the dead man.

Even I’m exhausted from dealing with a few corpses, and now I’m going to kill and deal with intruders like a human hunter?

It’s not easy even for a healthy man.

It would be even more difficult for women.

SKELTON: (Skeleton’s opinion) Defender. You look like a man?

I added a comment, but it didn’t even get a single like.

No, if that’s the case, then why did you send me a friend request?

Anyway, I am still far away from the refugee problem that is heating up the bulletin board.

Thanks to the capsules.

A small number of police officers and hunters remained around the capsule, standing guard and blocking the road.

Even if you say they’re hunters, they’re just rookies who just graduated from school.

Thanks to that, I haven’t heard any gunshots lately.

“Hey. Are you alive?”

It was so quiet that I had to contact the sniper mother and daughter.

“approximately.”

Every time, the sniper asks for medicine.

“Morphine. Is that it?”

Especially painkillers.

Maybe what she wants is drugs.

How difficult would it be to live in a high-rise building, unable to wash or eat properly, and blocked from access by anyone passing by?

I think about it sometimes.

The thought of giving them one of my bunkers.

It won’t be easy.

She won’t come even if I tell her to, but I don’t trust her either.

This means that a relationship of nearly two years could end with a sudden shooting.

It’s already been one year and eleven months since the war began.

The time when the heat subsides and the wild rice plants bow their heads, turning golden here and there.

Although things were getting more and more chaotic towards Seoul, I rolled up my pants and went out to the fields to harvest the few rice plants I had, packed them into sacks, and prepared them for milling.

I’ve never done it before in my life, but I guess it’s okay since there’s a video.

Even though I’m a city person, I learned something from Mr. Kim. Shouldn’t I be able to get at least one bowl of rice?

Anyway, even this kind of trial and error is fun for me.

For people like us whose lives have already been decided, time is not a resource but rather an obligation to be spent.

It was when I was returning to my territory, carrying a gun and a sack of rice.

The K-Walkie-Talkie gave off a unique reception sound.

Contact is by personal identification number.

Could it be Lee Sang Hoon again?

Now it’s up to me whether I get in touch or not.

Because Seoul is turning into a source of disaster rather than a meaningful hinterland.

I checked the radio.

Personal identification number: DARAM

It’s Kim Da-ram, not Lee Sang-hoon.

This guy is now as hateful as Lee Sang-hoon, but he still went through a lot of hardships under me, so I contacted him out of old friendship.

“It’s been a while, Commissioner Kim.”

I intend to decline any and all requests or favors.

There is a justification for this.

I mean, a capsule.

I would say he is a truly multi-talented friend.

The first thing that came out of the radio was a sigh.

I waited for him to speak next, wiping my sweaty forehead with my sleeve, wondering what he would say.

“Mr. Lee Sang Hoon is dead.”

“what?”

For a moment I doubted my ears.

“Lee Sang-hoon? My classmate Lee Sang-hoon died?”

“Yes. My senior and classmate, Lee Sang-hoon.”

I never liked him even once.

I don’t think I would feel much if he died.

But it seems that fate has a surprisingly persistent side.

Lee Sang-hoon’s death came as an unexpected shock.

Well, I spent the same amount of time in the same field for ten years starting when I was sixteen.

They fought together and even saved each other’s lives.

Ironically, my strongest memories were the times when we were at our worst.

This is a memory from my school days.

The memories of that time, now ashen, were vividly vivid in my mind.

A guy who always sat at the front of the classroom, shaking his large, shaved head back and forth and raising his hand to ask questions.

The back of that rascal who shamelessly asked questions to curry favor with the instructor even though he already knew the answer filled my eyes without any context.

Feeling a little confused, he shouted into the radio.

“Why did you die? As a warrior? Or caught up in a protest?”

“suicide.”

The moment I heard that, Lee Sang-hoon from my student days appeared before my eyes and looked back at me.

The face was so blurry that I couldn’t recognize it.

What on earth did it look like?

Lee Sang Hoon, that guy.

He continued speaking amidst unanswered questions.

“······why?”

For some reason, my voice was shaking so harshly that even I was surprised.

Kim Da-ram continued speaking in a weary voice with a sigh.

“Don’t you need one or two people to take responsibility?”