Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 213



Only Krnovel

93. The Man from Jeju (6)

The forms of people going mad in eroded areas are very similar.

He becomes speechless, loses his energy, and stands frozen in place like a plant, staring at one spot with blurry eyes, until one day he suddenly disappears.

No one knows where the people who disappeared in the madness of erosion went.

Some say they leave like elephants, heading towards a place where there is no one to find a place to die, while others say they leave towards a deeper erosion that has corrupted them.

But from what I’ve personally seen, those who can’t withstand the erosion literally perish.

It is like the “rapture” that some doomsday theorists once claimed, where people disappear as if they never existed by a principle unknown to them.

This can be seen in numerous cases that my team and I have seen in China.

The most memorable incident was one where a person in an isolated high-rise building was defeated by erosion and disappeared.

Kim Da-ram listened to the Chinese man sobbing and told me about his wife’s strange disappearance.

“They were inside the house until yesterday. The elevator was broken, and the emergency stairs were barricaded, so there was no way to get up or down except by climbing up the ladder on the collapsed ceiling. The ladder is only installed when necessary. But they said that the person who was on the 23rd floor, where the ladder is not, disappeared. They looked around to see if anyone had fallen, but there was nothing like that.”

Although the story isn’t as dramatic as the chained man disappearing into smoke, it’s plausible enough to make you think that people going crazy from the erosion madness are going to disappear.

Considering that the monsters that are the apostles of erosion are a race that do not leave behind corpses, this may be a compelling argument.

Hong Jong-beom was in a prison-like room with the same design as the one I had first seen in Woo Min-hee’s room.

The boy who had been my ardent admirer was sitting at his desk in a stuffy, stuffy room, wearing only a faded yellow running shirt and boxer shorts, staring blankly into space with his eyes.

“Jong-Beom.”

Called his name.

There was no answer.

I didn’t call twice.

Actually, calling you once doesn’t really suit me.

The moment I first saw that sight, I knew that Hong Jong-beom had been captivated by the madness of the other world.

“Since when has it been like that?”

I asked the girl I was with.

“It was probably like that since this morning. Not last night. I was just running around excitedly, bragging and showing off.”

Around Hong Jong-beom’s neck was a crude necklace he had made himself.

A single bullet was hanging from a string made of the same material as a military ID tag, with a hole in it.

The bullet has the word “PROFESSOR” written on it, which I wrote myself.

“······.”

I turned around.

The children looked on in surprise.

“Hey, are you just going to leave?”

He nodded.

There is no other way.

Those who are defeated by erosion have no way to turn back or heal.

If even the son of the most powerful man in China cannot cure it, who can cure someone who has fallen victim to the madness of erosion?

As I go out into the hallway, I see Jeong Ho-gyeong approaching me.

After exchanging greetings with me, he went into Hong Jong-beom’s room.

Jeong Ho-gyeong’s sorrowful voice could be heard through the open door.

“Jong-beom! Jong-beom! Wake up! Is that all you can do?! You said you’d build your career here and go to Jeju to become a scholar! If you, the tallest and biggest, fall apart like this, what are the other kids supposed to do?! Get up! Jong-beom!”

For some reason, the voice of Jeong Ho-gyeong, who was slowly moving away from me down the hallway, was strongly imbued with a provocative yet melodramatic emotion.

“Does this happen often?”

I asked a neatly dressed child walking shoulder to shoulder.

Perhaps because they were from different backgrounds, the child answered with an expression that said it was no big deal.

“Yes. It happens often during the eruption season.”

*

Two events await me.

One is the upcoming lighthouse lighting event, and the other is my leaving this place.

Dalgrak- Dalgrak-

It’s hard to find a sound in the restaurant today.

All you can hear is the sound of utensils moving and food being chewed and tasted.

A special meal has arrived.

The special matched the items I had unloaded via helicopter and forklift.

“Now, eat your fill. If you need anything, tell me!”

Jeong Ho-gyeong personally held a ladle and generously served the children a special banquet.

“The important thing is your spirit! You can’t give in to the crack! The expedition led by Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in has almost closed the crack! Just hold on a little longer! Once the crack closes, they’ll come to Seoul! Just hold on until then! Hold on tight and think of your mom and dad! If you don’t have your mom and dad, think of your siblings, and if you don’t have those, think of the special meal you’ll eat tomorrow!”

Jeong Ho-gyeong tried to arouse the children’s fighting spirit by displaying his characteristic excessive emotions and overactions.

Judging from the indifferent expressions on the faces of the children listening, it doesn’t seem to have had much effect, but at least it seems certain that he identified his own fate with this lighthouse.

“······.”

I don’t like him and I have no intention of becoming close to him, but I have no intention of belittling his good points.

After the meal, Jeong Ho-gyeong gathered the lighthouse personnel on the wall.

A platoon of soldiers, who had not been seen for a while, headed toward the outer wall and stood guard below.

I also went to the outer wall and looked down, and there was a familiar face.

A group of caterpillars are seen struggling to scale an impassable wall, mixed with a horde of zombies.

“What is that?”

I pretended not to know and asked.

“Well, it’s something that suddenly appeared this spring. It looks like a monster, but it’s not particularly harmful, so I’m just watching.”

They say that Gaeseong Lighthouse was a place of exile, but the equipment wasn’t like that.

As noon turned to afternoon, soldiers flew a fairly large reconnaissance drone across a hexagonal field.

Whew Whew Whew—

The large drone, which was not as powerful as a helicopter but still produced considerable wind pressure, flew straight into the sky and headed southeast.

It starts now.

Jeong Ho-gyeong called me.

“This is a special seat.”

A small watchtower was erected in the center of the honeycomb-shaped structure.

Judging from the materials and design, it appears to have been built by South Korea, not North Korea. As Jeong Ho-gyeong said, standing on top of the watchtower, the surrounding honeycomb-shaped walls come into view at a glance.

A strong sense of pride appeared on Jeong Ho-gyeong’s face.

“The lighthouse will soon be lit.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Jeong Ho-gyeong looked back at me.

“I don’t intend to use this lighthouse as a one-time thing or as a waste of time.”

I was silent.

“I intend to make this Gaeseong Lighthouse a model for a permanent, monster-guiding lighthouse, and later close the Jeju Rift and all the other Rifts on the Korean Peninsula, including the Paju Rift, and use them as a breakwater to protect the Korean Peninsula from monsters.”

“······.”

“Imagine! Imagine that in a situation where all other countries are destroyed, our Republic of Korea is the only country left and becomes a refuge for humanity!”

“That’s amazing.”

He gave a soulless compliment.

well.

The report says that the lighthouse is useful, but as for whether it is sustainable, I would say no.

This lighthouse is inevitably built on an eroded area.

Losses like Hong Jong-beom’s will continue to occur.

But are Awakens capable of causing waves really that common?

Since the number of Korean children was not included, we gathered together North Korean children and children who were presumed to be the children of fanatics, although we did not pay attention to them, to create this number.

In this age of destruction where the population is rapidly declining and people are dying endlessly, it seems impossible to maintain this number of people stably.

“what?!”

By the way, it looks like there’s a problem.

“Oh. Why is that thing showing up?! There’s nothing blocking it! If there’s no kill zone, wouldn’t that thing not show up?!”

Jeong Ho-gyeong is shouting loudly into the walkie-talkie with a pale face.

Soon, Jeong Ho-gyeong put down the radio.

“······I guess we’ll have to turn on the lighthouse light later.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Three types of Krakens have appeared.”

“You mean the giant bell?”

“Yes. Is this really a curse? If there were no kill zones or barriers, giant species wouldn’t appear, but the crack is acting capriciously and spewing out three of them.”

“It seems that even this lighthouse won’t be able to stop the giant bell, right?”

The Kraken type is so out of line that it can be compared to a natural disaster called a typhoon.

The death rays that cross from both eyes sweep the earth below like a lighthouse’s beam, crushing all living things.

While this honeycomb structure is excellent at stopping various monsters, it is unlikely to be able to stop a Kraken-type destructive beam.

Because it penetrates objects and only destroys living things.

“Yes, it is dangerous. Well, there is a way to stop it, but it is not proven.”

“Is there a way to stop it?”

“yes.”

I almost tilted my head.

New information appeared from an unexpected place.

Blocking a Kraken-type death ray.

By what means?

“There’s a lead room here. It’s probably a large Kraken-type dragon shelter for North Korea’s top leader.”

“A room made of lead?”

“Yes. It is true that the Kraken type destructive beam is extremely powerful, but it cannot penetrate lead thicker than 1,200mm.”

“I don’t understand.”

I tried my own gag.

I also lament my fate of not being able to obtain anything called lead.

But the seeds don’t even eat.

“We are also skeptical. However, North Korean defectors say that the experiment using political prisoners was successful, but there are many sources from North Korea that are difficult to believe.”

Jeong Ho-gyeong added with a bitter smile.

“The Lead Room should be used as a last resort. Anyway, I’ll decide when to light the lighthouse based on the Kraken type’s movements. They’re strong, but they’re also slow, so I have some time to spare.”

It was that evening that news was heard that Hong Jong-beom had disappeared.

Contrary to my expectations, the CCTV footage that Jeong Ho-gyeong showed showed Hong Jong-beom, who had been sitting like a plant, suddenly jumping up from his seat and running down the hallway.

There are no records after that.

Even though Jeong Ho-gyeong organized a search party and looked for him, Hong Jong-beom was nowhere to be seen.

*

Whyeeeeeeeeee-

Sirens blared from the early hours of the morning.

At the same time, Jeong Ho-gyeong’s voice rang out over the intercom.

“Mr. Park Gyu. To the situation room. Mr. Park Gyu. To the situation room.”

I thought for sure that something unusual had happened.

When I looked at the faces of the people gathered in the situation room, I was convinced that my hunch had been right.

Jeong Ho-gyeong opened his mouth with a pale face.

“A Kraken type is coming here!”

A typhoon is coming.

Towards this lighthouse.

“According to drone confirmation, we’ll be arriving at the lighthouse in 1 hour and 30 minutes! The expected time of disappearance is also 1 hour and 30 minutes, but as you know, the Kraken type······.”

The Kraken type is a type of giant siege weapon.

Its only known mechanism is to move slowly on noticeably short legs compared to its gigantic body, indiscriminately killing anything in its path with a destructive beam before disappearing.

The general opinion during my active days was that the guy didn’t seem to have the intelligence to recognize and attack a target.

But what makes him so threatening is that the range of his destruction beam is so wide that it is impossible to avoid once it gets within range.

Let’s assume that a pair of death rays, each about 1.2 km across and 10 m wide, intersect the earth and cut down the mountains below.

The moment he enters the street, there is nothing he can do but beg God for his life.

The only way to avoid the Kraken type is to keep your distance, like I did the other day when I put Rebecca and her daughter in a buggy.

But the lighthouse is not like that.

Although it boasts an invincible defense against ordinary monsters, the lighthouse cannot avoid destruction as long as it enters the range of a Kraken-type monster.

The story goes that even a single ray of light passing through here could wipe out everyone inside.

“······I have to go to the lead room.”

Jeong Ho-gyeong’s expression is strange.

He opened his mouth to me with difficulty, with a contradictory expression on his face, as if he were trembling with fear, yet doing something he absolutely could not do.

“But in front of that lead room······.”

His eyelids fluttered.

“There are capsules.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. That’s a lot······. But who will clean it up······.”

Jeong Ho-gyeong looks at me.

“······.”

Are you telling me to clean it up?

Judging from the atmosphere, I am 100% sure.

I opened my mouth quietly, feeling the countless gazes on me in the suffocating atmosphere.

“Can’t you just clean it up?”

There was a sharp edge to my voice.

It’s not a question of whether you like his attitude or not.

Because I don’t understand.