Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 216



Only Krnovel

94. Influencer (2)

It may be hard to believe, but Dolsingman is said to have been a wealthy man who had made a lot of money through business before the war.

It is unclear what the business was, but the AI ​​image he created himself depicted a man in a suit, his face shaded in black, looking down in a luxurious office in a skyscraper.

“under.”

I burst out laughing without realizing it.

The background music is a sophisticated jazz song that I’ve heard somewhere before.

Anyway, the single man who called himself a successful businessman fell in love with a woman of a certain age, got married, and began his newlywed life, living a life that was the envy of others.

But as you can see from the nickname ‘Dolsingman’, that happy married life was doomed from the start.

The couple’s relationship began to sour when China’s hardliners began to raise their voices within the party.

A shell fell on Taiwan’s Kinmen Island for the first time in decades.

As China openly threatened war, global stock markets tumbled and fears and apocalyptic theories that war would destroy everything flooded the real world and the Internet.

I remember that incident clearly.

At that time, I was raising funds to build air-raid shelters at the front line.

I vividly remember watching with great concern as the apocalyptic situation unfolded sooner than I expected.

But people generally want to see a good future rather than a bad one.

As China, which had been running wild like a mad dog, temporarily calmed down due to warnings from the West, including the United States, optimists dismissed China’s recent series of actions as nothing more than an attempt to consolidate internal unity, and the world regained its former vitality as if nothing had happened.

However, Dolsingman was one of those still shocked people who had not recovered from the social reversion.

He became an abolitionist.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of doomsday activists.

There are active destructives and passive destructives.

An active doomsday person is someone who is convinced that doom is coming soon and is preparing for survival, even if it means giving up things like social prestige, status, income, and relationships.

This includes stockpiling several years’ worth of food at home, looking into suburban housing for post-war living, and considering or building a bunker on your property.

People like me who have invested all their savings in bunkers should be considered to belong to an extreme faction within the category of active doomsday activists.

In contrast, passive doomsday theorists believe in an imminent doom, but they prepare for the future in ways that are not socially noticeable, such as by accumulating knowledge or increasing the proportion of liquid assets such as gold or dollars in their portfolios in preparation for unexpected situations.

The single man was also a passive destroyer.

He felt that destruction would come someday, but he had no intention of giving up all the social status and wealth he had achieved.

He was convinced of destruction, but his heart longed for the world to remain as it was.

The beginning of misfortune begins with difference.

The single man’s wife was a person who wanted to see the world in a more optimistic light than the single man.

And although Dolsingman is said to be a passive destroyer, even his mouth cannot be said to be passive.

He expressed his view that destruction was coming to his wife with quite a high frequency.

His intention was probably to try to persuade his wife, however clumsily.

The AI ​​image that followed showed a scene of a shaded man and woman arguing in an American-style mansion overlooking the ocean.

“My wife said that. She said I was crazy. She said I was mentally ill. So I just kept worrying about a war that would never happen and was just pouring out my worries all day long.”

During the couple’s breakup, there were no divorce stereotypes such as raising one’s voice or throwing things.

With just a little insult and distancing, the couple’s relationship quickly fell apart.

The single man, now alone again, had no more reason to be concerned.

Perhaps it was because of the backlash from losing his beloved wife that he boldly changed his course from a passive destructive person to an active destructive person.

It seemed certain that the single man really had a lot of money.

Instead of building a bunker by digging into the ground like I did, he looked into the “VIP group bunker service” that was popular in the West.

Due to their experience during the Cold War, the West developed things related to air-raid shelters early on.

Even leaving aside countries like Switzerland, where you can put your entire population in a bunker, in North America, where money can buy you everything, bunker services for the wealthy have existed for decades.

The idea is to build mass bunkers with flashy amenities like swimming pools, theaters, restaurants, fitness clubs, and social halls inside solid structures like abandoned nuclear missile silos and sell them to the super-rich who can afford them.

I knew there was a similar service.

I could have gone if I had taken all my money.

To begin with, this type of business itself was primarily about insurance that only benefited business owners – the risk of accidents was extremely low – so the entry price was not astronomically high for something for the super-rich.

However, I have opted out of subscribing to this service for several reasons.

One is the danger of group living that I have repeatedly emphasized, and the other is the change of heart on the part of management.

Food, safety, and living are all filled by the employees of a business, but what if the employees or the business change their minds?

Simply put, if security personnel are determined to take control of a bunker, there is no way to stop them.

It’s a story about an absurd thing that could happen, where you spend a lot of money and end up dying a miserable death.

I think there was a similar service in Korea.

But that’s the first time I’ve heard of it, even from a die-hard doomsday fan.

“I heard about the VIP bunker service at a social gathering. I was interested in it, so someone recommended it to me. It was a service that only connected a very small number of people, through personal connections. I liked the security and the bunker’s unique policy, so I signed the contract without asking any questions.”

The following screen depicts a secret and massive underground facility built in a remote mountain in South Korea, with BGM that has a strong sci-fi feel.

Dolsingman described the facility as follows:

“Military dictatorship – a legacy of the Cold War. The facilities are not as luxurious as those in the United States. They are just concrete blocks. The heating and cooling are not up to standard for VIPs, and there are no auxiliary facilities. However, the manager is trustworthy, and the fact that they have adopted a thorough non-face-to-face method moved my heart.”

There are a total of 8 people and 8 teams contracted for that bunker.

Four of those teams failed to reach the bunker.

This scene clearly shows the worst flaw of the group bunker service, which is difficult to enter when you are in a hurry.

There was a very special rule in the bunker where only four teams gathered.

Let’s take breakfast as an example.

Meals are served by the caretaker in the communal dining hall.

Up to this point, it’s no different from any other public bunker service, but Dolsingman’s bunker applies a rule to this ordinary meal that determines the entire character of this bunker.

This is the timetable.

The four groups of bunker occupants have the right and obligation to eat in the communal dining hall at different times.

The breakfast timetable is as follows.

Team 1 / 6:30~6:40

Team 2 / 6:45~6:55

3 teams / 7:00~7:10

Team 4 / 7:15~7:25

Each resident must use the dining hall only during his/her permitted hours and must vacate the table after those hours to make way for another team.

In this way, even though they live in the same bunker, they strictly avoid encountering other residents.

To achieve this, the service provider carefully arranged the bunkers so that each bunker had its own path, rather than a corridor-style bunker, and so that no one would encounter another contractor in any way.

It is literally the perfect non-face-to-face bunker service.

This was a unique feature of the bunker that was in perfect harmony with the VIP bunker service in North America, which places great importance on social interaction.

The managers of the secret bunker were always a lean, muscular woman and a sturdy man wearing gas masks.

The man’s background is unknown, but the woman is a former member of a famous special forces unit, which played a big role in solidifying the determination of wealthy clients.

They shared three bunkers as siblings, and the reason two shared three bunkers was because their mother lived in the other bunker.

It may be a waste of space, but it also reduces the worries of residents who worry about the manager changing his mind.

“At first, I wondered why our paid employees took up more space than we did, but think about it. Those guys are the ones who have the upper hand. After the war, we have to rely solely on their goodwill to survive, and that little bit of space is nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

As Dolsingman said, the meeting between a manager who had sincerity, fighting spirit, and knowledge but no money and a rich man who had a lot of money but neither the will nor the ability to do anything on his own turned out to be a pretty good match.

The managers faithfully performed their duties, and the users enjoyed fair compensation equal to the amount they had paid before the war.

However, that life was not normal by the standards of the general public.

At least four residents lived completely separate lives for over a year, not knowing each other’s faces or who each other was.

The reason why the rules could be maintained was due to the manager’s thorough management, but the biggest reason was probably the hearts of the residents.

A life where you want someone around you but don’t want to communicate.

Such a life is familiar to the residents who lived a harsh life before the war.

Because I lived a life where I lived alone, without interacting with anyone, even though I was in the middle of a street with hundreds of thousands of people passing by.

Loneliness in the crowd was like the color of life to them.

Even single men who have experienced the pain of divorce thought that such a life suited them and was right for them.

In this strange communal life, the single man happens to see a woman.

As he entered the communal dining hall, through a corridor made of PVC plywood that was barely large enough for a single body to squeeze through, connected to his bunker, he saw a woman who had just finished eating and was entering his hallway.

She was a woman with long hair and long eyelashes.

There were wrinkles engraved by the years on the corners of her eyes that I could barely see, but I thought that she must have been a beautiful woman when she was younger.

The single man didn’t care.

He wasn’t young either.

Maybe they’re about the same age?

Back in his bunker, Dol-sing-man went to the Viva! Apocalypse! Korean bulletin board, one of his few hobbies and the only communication he allowed himself, and looked at a few bulletin boards to feel energized.

After checking the bulletin board for a while, he became lost in an inexplicable emotion and put on his favorite North American jazz record from 1972 on his record player and sat lost in thought for a while.

His ex-wife was ten years younger than him.

She was a lively and beautiful woman.

It is true that I was attracted to her looks and youth, and it is also true that I thought it was a kind of trophy for such a successful businessman to have such a young and beautiful wife.

The marriage ended in failure as he pursued a path of destruction, but upon closer examination, it seemed that that was not the only reason for the breakup.

The wife was just making excuses.

I had a feeling that something wasn’t right even before we got married.

I’ve often felt that even when we look at the same thing and talk about the same topic, our thoughts seem to run on completely different parallel lines.

It would have been the same for both of them.

When he felt alienated, his wife must have felt alienated too, and eventually, the differences that had piled up would have led to their breakup.

Now, in a state of emotionless realization, the single man absentmindedly thought about his childhood.

There was a time when he, a boy’s middle school graduate, was the only one with a woman around him.

Here, Dolsingman boldly asks us a question.

“Suddenly, I thought of my deskmate from elementary school. Isn’t that strange? At the age of 50, I’m thinking of my deskmate from the past, who wasn’t even my child.”

The first part of the story of a single man, “New Love,” ends here.

Here I paused my reading for a moment and turned the volume of the speakers that were playing that damn jazz music down to zero.

“······.”

I don’t feel good.

It’s true that I’m more special and have more experiences than others, but it’s also true that my writing skills are inferior to others.

It’s not just my fault.

When writing sentences in school, we were taught to write sentences that were as simple and concise as possible, based solely on facts, without any exaggeration, and that could be understood immediately by a third party.

That is the writing attitude that we, those who only leave behind results, should have, but it is an undeniable fact that at least such writing is not helpful in the current situation.

And this guy is a single man.

I used to look down on him because he didn’t even write or comment, and he had a nickname that I didn’t like, but he’s not an ordinary guy.

Who would have thought that he had such a talent hidden away?

I don’t think my education is shorter than that of Dolsingman, but he knows how to stimulate people’s emotions.

Is this an experience you learned from divorce?

Well, I guess I should learn something like that······.

Anyway, there is no way that this Park Gyu would lose to a divorced man.

I read a draft of a visual novel I wrote myself.

The attached screen shows a handsome man with an excessively shiny face, holding a pair of axes and smiling with his teeth shining, with an explanation written in Ming font below him.

Note: This is me preparing for battle.

The attached BGM is the most famous part of Chapter 1 of Richard Strauss’ masterpiece “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”

The first sentence announcing the start of the visual novel is written in bold type, under music that hints at the emergence of a legendary hero.

Skeleton is one of the most capable Hunters on Earth, battle-hardened and heavily trained for action.

Not bad.

It feels simple yet classic.

But compared to Dolsingman’s, it feels somewhat lacking.

I hate to admit it, but it’s a bit childish.

It even feels similar to the introduction of some game.

“······hmm.”

My old fighting instinct warns me.

If I continue like this, I’m sure I’ll lose.

What should I do?

Should I add in some previously discarded romance?

I’m talking about a romance with Lightning.

But I doubt that alone will be enough.

I feel like there should be one more.

Since the opponent is a single man, there must be two romances for it to be a match-up.

But making one up is also a problem.

I’m not someone with enough imagination to create someone who doesn’t exist.

I was wasting my time like that, lost in the quagmire of creation.

“hmm.”

Popular posts from single men.

Looking closely, it doesn’t seem that popular.

It’s just a chin-up.

There is a level to popular posts.

While there are popular posts that are recognized by everyone as fun and interesting and are automatically recommended, there are also “honorary popular posts” that barely make it to the threshold of being popular.

The number of popular posts recommended by Dolsingman is 16.

It is an “honorary popular post” that barely manages to reach the threshold of 15 recommendations, which is the threshold for popular posts.

What’s even more serious is the number of comments.

The number of comments is noticeably lower than the number of recommendations.

This means that people are more likely to press the recommend button out of inertia rather than because they find it very fun.

Let’s take a look at the comments.

Yeah: Hmm

Berkut_break: Loneliness in the crowd. It’s a very common discourse, but it feels refreshing to revisit it now.

tntn_Orthopedics : Similar to me.

It’s so cute.

“······.”

It’s worth a try.