Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 209



Only Krnovel

93. The Man from Jeju (2)

A helicopter with two rotors is heading towards a gray-white area.

There are six people on board, including the pilot.

Everyone but me is away.

The average age was in the early 20s, but the atmosphere inside the helicopter was heavy and eerie.

The reason I boarded the helicopter was, as always, out of morbid curiosity.

The concept of inducing monsters has been proposed for quite some time, but it has never been realized due to its lack of practicality.

This can be seen by looking at a map of South Korea.

If you were to guide a monster, where would you guide it?

Of course, the metropolitan area won’t do, but Gyeongsang-do? Jeolla-do? Chungcheong-do or Gangwon-do?

That’s ridiculous.

There are also practical issues.

It’s not much different from the question, “Who will bell the cat?”

Even scholars have differing opinions on what exactly the monster is, so leading it to a desired location was nonsense.

Woo Min-hee accomplished that difficult task.

According to Woo Min-hee, this method was first discovered in Japan.

I thought it was a very Japanese thing.

Because Japan is a country where docile people live who do not know how to resist any oppression committed by the state.

The Japanese government is said to have forcibly driven out the people of the Tohoku region and created a monster bait station there.

In the process, ten million people lost their homes and hometowns and became miserable refugees, but instead of denouncing the country, the Japanese are said to have discriminated against and despised the refugees who were driven out.

The way Japan lured the monsters was a novel idea.

As monster hordes frequently raided the Awaken training facilities around the rift, the Japanese government hypothesized that the monsters were attracted to the Awaken, who had waves similar to those of smaller species, and confined many of the Awaken who were unfit for combat in group facilities while observing the monsters’ movements.

The monsters were driven around the Awaken containment facility instead of the military base right next door.

That’s how the monster-attracting facility was invented.

The name of the facility, ironically, was Lighthouse.

It is said that Woo Min-hee benchmarked this method and built a lighthouse similar to the Japanese one north of Paju.

“That’s the lighthouse.”

The woman who had not said a word pointed out the window.

Across the bay, where the endless sea stretched out, closer to yellow than blue, lay a city of shabby and outdated buildings, and next to that city stood a building so huge that it made me doubt my eyes.

“Is that a lighthouse?”

A massive rectangular structure, seemingly housing an entire 3,000-unit apartment complex, crouched on the ridge as if threatening the city.

It was reminiscent of a giant, planet-scale beehive.

There was an endless cluster of hexagonal rooms, each side of which looked like several apartment buildings lined up side by side.

What I’m curious about is not the shape of the building, but how it was built.

“Who made that huge thing?”

That city dyed in gray-white is probably Gaeseong.

It’s a city in North Korea.

No matter how superior Korea’s civil engineering capabilities are, it is impossible to build such structures after the war.

Even if there was any capacity, all of that capacity was transferred to Jeju Island.

“Made in North Korea.”

A woman with the callsign “Lightning” embroidered on the top of her combat uniform answered curtly.

She looked like she was in her early 20s, but her eyes held a deeper anguish than Woo Min-hee’s.

She continued, looking down at the huge beehive outside the window.

“It was the last refuge for the Kim royal family and the Pyongyang aristocracy.”

The Kim dynasty and the Pyongyang aristocracy, however, were murdered by angry North Koreans before they could reach that hexagonal honeycomb.

After the entire country collapsed and most of its territory was eroded, the Republic of Korea National Assembly took over the shelter.

What was once a refuge for only a select few has now become a beacon to save the common people of South Korea.

Lights flashed in the hive.

It’s a guiding signal.

The helicopter descended slowly into the ruins of the old kingdom.

Beyond the helipad, a tall, lean man with several children behind him was waving both hands vigorously.

I think I know who it is.

You said you were a man from Jeju.

“Why are you so late?”

But this guy.

“I’ve been waiting for you!”

The person looks light.

*

They say that luck is everything in this world, but there is probably no other group for which luck is as important as Awaken.

Even though they are born with the same abilities, some people take on high-ranking positions in the National Assembly while others end up being expendable items on the battlefield.

The luckiest of the Awakens will be the first or second batches of the new school.

At that time, even people who would be considered as job-wakens by today’s standards were treated as precious and quickly rose through the ranks simply because they were away-wakens.

Skill didn’t really matter.

Yang Sang-gil, who has now passed away, wanted his young and easy-to-control friends called Awaken to keep our old school hunters in check.

In this way, the first and second classes of the new school were promoted quickly without even experiencing a proper battlefield.

Jeong Ho-gyeong, the head of the “Gaeseong Lighthouse,” was also one of those lucky golden generations.

“Ugh!! I wish there was more! This isn’t enough to feed the kids!”

What should I say about his behavior?

The “over” was severe.

His voice is unnecessarily emotional, his gestures and facial expressions are extreme, and he constantly mumbles to himself when no one asks, which makes you wonder if he has ADHD.

“Ha. Let’s relax! Me! How many times have I experienced such difficulties? There’s still another chance!”

While he was talking, Lightning came towards me.

Looking closely, I saw a faint scar engraved on the corner of her eye.

It healed well, but judging by the remaining traces, isn’t it a pretty deep wound?

She looked at me with her softly shining eyes and asked in a dry voice.

“I’m really sorry, but do you know how to drive a forklift? One of my team members said he could, but when we actually asked him to do it, he said he couldn’t do it because it was different from what he was used to driving.”

It seems like they speak standard Korean, but there are faint traces of North Korean speech.

Maybe this woman’s hometown is here in the North.

With that in mind, I readily agreed.

Booooooooooo—

Well, there’s nothing I can’t do, but I’m pretty good at driving a forklift.

In particular, I completely mastered forklift driving while working at the company.

He carried out the mission as if possessed, going back and forth between the helicopter and the helipad to unload supplies.

There was nothing particularly difficult.

Except for the nonsense Jeong Ho-gyeong is talking about next to me.

This guy really talks a lot.

“We are now the last light in Korea! What are you going to do if you neglect the last light!”

“Whether you’re a corps member or a parliamentary member, that’s not important! What’s important is the Republic of Korea! The future of the Republic of Korea is in our hands. Why doesn’t everyone feel any excitement about that important and sacred responsibility?!”

“Ugh! We lost another farm block yesterday! I risked my life to protect the livestock, but now it’s dangerous! There’s not enough pasture!”

I wasn’t the only one who ignored him.

Rather, Lightning’s group was more thorough in ignoring it.

Every time Jeong Ho-gyeong twisted his body violently, I would stare at him in surprise, but Lightning and the others didn’t even pay attention to Jeong Ho-gyeong, let alone look at him, no matter what he did.

As I unloaded all the supplies with a forklift and put them into the warehouse, Lightning approached me.

“great job.”

She made eye contact with me.

She smiled very faintly.

“At first, I was hesitant when you said you would follow me, but I didn’t know you were this talented.”

“······Is there anything else you want me to do?”

“No, we don’t have any.”

Lightning glanced at Jeong Ho-gyeong, who was twisting his body over there.

“I don’t know about that person.”

Lightning called Jeong Ho-gyeong that guy.

If you’re from that school, you’ll at least be called a senior.

That would mean there’s not even a shred of respect.

“It’s better not to listen to that person’s request.”

Lightning gave me a heads up.

“Once you give in, you’ll be forced to use it until the end.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Jeong Ho-gyeong approached us.

His gaze was on Lightning.

“Ha-yeop-ah.”

He called Lightning’s name.

“While you’re here, can you help me out a bit? There’s a monster in the food area. I want to feed the kids some meat, but I can’t do anything because of the monster.”

They may seem like a close couple, but their relationship doesn’t seem to be good.

Look at Lightning’s expression as it rots away.

“I’m sorry, but we came here to supply. I haven’t heard of any other names from you, sir.”

“No, the kids are starving. Yeah? The kids are starving to death? What are you going to do with all this food we’ve brought? If we could just find a food section, we could feed the kids for three months! Help me out. You’re a school graduate, too, right? Yeah? What did we learn in school?!”

Jeong Ho-gyeong raises his voice, but Lightning’s expression remains unchanged.

She waited for Jeong Ho-gyeong to finish speaking, then looked straight at him and snapped coldly.

“If you have any requests, please ask the manager directly.”

Jeong Ho-gyeong grabbed his head.

“Ah! Why are you all like this! Why don’t you have a sense of mission?! Huh? Even if you don’t have passion, you should have a sense of mission, right? That’s what a hunter is, isn’t that what an Awaken is?”

To be honest, it’s not a pretty sight.

It’s not even a child, it’s a grown adult behaving like that.

“Then I will go now.”

Lightning and the other Awakens boarded the helicopter.

Lightning beckoned to me too.

“······.”

Isn’t it too fast?

It’s not like I’m hiding my eyes from the wind.

I really want to stay here a little longer.

I asked Lightning to be sure.

“When are you coming back here again?”

“Three days at the earliest, four days at the latest? But why are you asking that?”

“There’s something I’d like to look into here for a moment.”

3 to 4 days.

That’s a tolerable amount of time.

This facility above all else.

I feel interested.

The last refuge of the old dynasty.

The honeycomb-shaped structure is amazing, and above all, I want to see for myself the true value of this lighthouse in attracting monsters.

In fact, if this lighthouse were to operate permanently, it would be possible to envision a somewhat bleak scenario for human survival, where the sacrifice of a few would lead to the prosperity of the many.

“Oh. Is that so? So you’re a professor?”

As expected, Jeong Ho-gyeong didn’t welcome me very well.

It’s a given.

The people who hate and detest our old school the most are the new school 1st and 2nd generations, who are closest to our old school generation.

Those who take someone’s place are the most cruel to those they have taken the place from.

“But we, the old school hunters, don’t really need them.”

Even after hearing my call sign, Jeong Ho-gyeong showed a lukewarm reaction.

He later spoke dryly, without even making eye contact.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any good rooms. We can’t provide good food either. If that’s okay with you, please stay for a few days.”

The helicopter took off.

I took the note that Jeong Ho-gyeong had given me and went to find a place to stay in a building made up of countless hexagons.

The hexagonal structure requires movement through the roof of the barrier that forms the upper, hexagonal wall, except for some parts.

My accommodation also had to pass through a passageway leading to such a rooftop.

I looked down as I walked on top of a thick concrete wall as high as the 15th floor of an apartment building.

Each hexagonal honeycomb is unique.

Some hives are turned into farms where they farm, while others are turned into pastures where cattle are grazed.

Perhaps this structure was built to create several separate compartments so that even if one compartment is attacked by a monster, it can be minimized in terms of damage and quickly reclaimed if invaded by a monster.

Of course, this barrier does not completely block monsters.

I looked under my feet.

The hexagonal land that spreads out beneath the steep wall is filled with unidentifiable gray stone structures.

It looks like a spider type has made a nest.

In another hive, two small monsters were found standing still, seemingly dead at the same time.

The accommodation that Jeong Ho-gyeong assigned me was beyond the realm of such monsters.

Faded, luxurious signs and hallways greet me.

However, there is a hint of rusticity in that extravagance.

It is a shelter for North Korea’s high-ranking officials.

There were CCTV cameras operating throughout the hallway, and there were several doors on both sides of the hallway.

Each door had a window with bars at the top, like those in a prison, and I could feel eyes watching me through the bars.

There were children in this place too.

I found my room. Room 33, Revolution.

I opened the door and checked inside.

I blocked my nose.

A black mark in the shape of a human remains.

Beyond the blackened marks, countless dried maggots are also visible.

The body has been removed, but its aftertaste still lingers.

“······.”

Jeong Ho-gyeong. This guy.

I know you don’t like me, but isn’t this treating me too harshly?

As I was thinking about whether to contact Woo Min-hee, the door opened.

A tall, slender boy in his late teens appeared before me.

“Sir, what are you doing there?”

A short-cropped hair and somewhat unsavory appearance.

The lighthouse’s child.

“Jeong Ho-kyung, are you going to that room?”

“uh.”

The boy chuckled and swore.

“That room is better.”

The boy pointed to the room across from him.

I opened the door.

It’s a garbage dump.

But it’s better than a corpse rotting away.

I removed the cobwebs, dusted, and threw away some trash to make it a more habitable place.

As I was cleaning the room, the children came running over to see me.

Looking at their gazes, they all had a soft glare, which was eerie and made me feel like I was looking at monkeys at a zoo.

But on the animal side, it’s not me, but these guys.

Unlike me, who was neatly washed to look good in front of Woo Min-hee, these young friends are all dirty.

There are clear signs that it hasn’t been washed for quite some time.

“Can’t you even shower here?”

I asked the girl who kept scratching her head.

“It’s broken.”

The girl blinked and answered.

“breakdown?”

“yes.”

“Can’t you fix it from above?”

“Even if I tell you, you won’t listen. You always say we’re short on people.”

The little boy next to him added, chuckling.

“You say you have no passion.”

The children laughed when they heard that.

I stared at the boy in his late teens who appeared to be the leader.

“Where is the shower room?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Let’s just take a look.”

The boy had one of the children take me to the shower.

This is a communal shower room that can be used by multiple people.

There was also a fairly large bathroom in the corner.

However, perhaps because it had been neglected for a long time, it was dirty, parts were falling apart, and the water pipes were rusted.

But this simple structure is exposed to the outside.

And then I noticed a small pool of water in one of the shower rooms.

The water itself is coming in.

That’s what they say.

“······.”

I’ll show off my skills for the first time in a while.