Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 241



Only Krnovel

101. Takeoff

A message from Defender: It’s a nightmare… Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do. I wanted to see your face, but my brother’s health and our circumstances aren’t favorable.

Message from Defender: Contact me when you get to Jeju Island. I need to make sure you’re alive.

A message from Defender: I’m Da-jeong. Skeleton. I didn’t know you were so heartbroken. Are you weak-hearted without us? If we were here, you wouldn’t be so weak······? Just kidding, you’re doing well there. Keep in touch sometimes! And often is fine!

I told the Defender siblings that I was going to Jeju Island.

It’s heartbreaking, but it’s something that has to be done.

The recurring nightmare was a good reason.

It is a famous legend among hunters who went to China.

The urban legend, which is said to have been inspired by Borges’ short story collection, is summarized as follows:

1. If a nightmare with the same content is repeated, the nightmare will definitely come back to life.

2. That nightmare cannot be a precognitive dream.

3. Because the situation of the nightmare, which has been repeated countless times, is so familiar, the person who has had the nightmare thinks that what happened to him or her is another nightmare and gives up.

At the time, Skeleton was a person who neither believed in nor wanted to know about rumors like urban legends, so he did not know about the rumor.

The person who told me the urban legend was a teammate of mine who would sit at the table waiting for me when I came out to the restaurant for breakfast with a frown on his face.

“······Team Leader. I had that dream again.”

Her nightmare involved her being killed by her own bullet.

The location, time, and type of monster changed from moment to moment, but the content of his bullet reflecting off the reflection field and lodged between his eyebrows was eerily consistent.

At that time, I dismissed the nightmare as just a nightmare.

But that nightmare became reality.

She came in as a substitute when Kim Da-ram was injured, but the bullet she fired from Kim Da-ram’s position missed, and she met the same end as in her nightmare.

It was a week before my application for unfitness for military service was accepted and I was scheduled to return to Korea.

I’m having nightmares similar to hers.

The place is my comfortable bunker.

I’m lying straight on the bed and sleeping in a good posture.

The door opens.

I don’t know why it was open.

For some unknown reason, the door opens and gunmen come in.

I fight back with the gun I always keep by my bedside, but the endless stream of black men fills the entire bunker and I drown in it.

Sometimes they are shot to death, and sometimes they are beaten to death after being hit unconscious with a buttstock.

There was also a version where I was tortured, but the content of the dream was so vague that I don’t remember what kind of torture I was subjected to.

There are many derivatives, but the general outline of the nightmare is the same.

One night, while I was sleeping, some assailants stormed my bunker and tried to kill me.

This nightmare started after Kim Pil-seong came into my bunker.

Even though I killed Kim Pil-seong, the anxiety he left behind tormented me every moment, and after contact with Kim Da-ram was resumed, it grew even more intense, causing me to get out of bed with a gun several times while I was trying to get a good night’s sleep.

According to the medical DVD I have, the most effective way to cure mental illness is to remove the cause that caused the mental illness.

But it is not a world where it is easy to remove the cause.

Someone might tell me to leave my bunker, but if I leave the bunker right now, will I find a safe place?

The answer is ultimately the only place where safety and security are guaranteed – Jeju Island.

“Why do you insist on going to Jeju Island? This place is enough to build an iron fortress.”

One day, when Cheon Yeong-jae asked me, I answered with a bitter smile.

“psychosis.”

Cheon Yeong-jae nodded.

“Senior Park also gets caught up in that kind of thing.”

“I’m looking forward to four years of living this life.”

Three years is enough time for a person to become ruined.

In order to avoid this mental illness, I tried many things like Viva! Apocalypse! but in the end, I failed the endless dice roll of the mental test.

Message from unicorn18: The date has been set. The flight will take off soon. He asked me to keep my luggage under 10kg.

A message came to the unicorn.

I sent him a reply.

SKELTON: What about weapons and ammunition?

It is a question with many meanings.

The unicorn soon replied.

Message from unicorn18: You won’t need it.

If you take out the ammunition and gun, you’ll have about 5kg of luggage.

At the same time, the security of Jeju Island was also confirmed.

The plane that will take me to Jeju Island is said to be landing on the US military base runway at dawn tomorrow.

The request is to clearly mark the runway with flares or other luminous materials.

Although I was able to do it, I decided to ask for help from Cheon Yeong-jae and Ha Tae-hoon.

But that unicorn guy. He keeps saying things that shake my resolve.

Message from unicorn18: I think I’ve said this before. Jeju Island life. It’s going to be hard in many ways. Looking at the message boards, it seems like people live freely, but that’s not the case in Jeju Island. Think of the whole place as one big barracks. Well, if you like that kind of thing, you can come, but if you’re not comfortable there, it might be better to stay there.

Message from unicorn18: There are quite a few people in Jeju Island who want to return to the mainland.

Unicorn guy.

Why do you keep saying this?

Even though the environment there is shitty, isn’t it better than here where you never know when you might die?

By the way, doesn’t this guy have anything to do?

It feels like I’m stuck on the bulletin board for 24 hours, whether it’s posting or replying to messages right away.

Surely, this isn’t the person I thought it was?

It’s hard to imagine Kang Han-min or Na Hye-in locking themselves in a room for 24 hours and shitting things on the internet.

By the way, when this guy says something like that, I start to become a little more cautious.

SKELTON: If you go and don’t like it, can you come back?

I asked the unicorn just in case.

The unicorn answered in three seconds.

Message from unicorn18: The address you gave me won’t work, right? I have to get on a plane. The reason you’re able to get on a plane this time is because of the Chinese data you have.

Message from unicorn18: Our scientist confirmed the data and gave the OK sign, but your data, if it’s fake, you better not send it.

SKELTON: (Skeleton sweating) Why?

Message from unicorn18: If it were you, and the guy who brought you here by spending expensive jet fuel was a scammer, would you just leave him alone?

SKELTON: Hmm. That’s a difficult question to answer.

Message from unicorn18: You may not get shot, but you have to be prepared to live without being treated like a human being. Well, you’ll probably end up in a mutation farm or something.

SKELTON: Mutation farm? Feeding and cleaning up after the animals?

Message from unicorn18: Similar, but more horrible. The mutations there······.

SKELTON: ?

Message from unicorn18: Anyway, if you are confident, come, and if it is a scam, don’t come.

SKELTON: (Skeleton straightens) I still haven’t heard an answer to my question?

Message from unicorn18: There’s a ferry once a month. It used to go to Mokpo, but now it’s going to Busan. They’ll probably take you there. No matter how much Jeju Island is a shithole, there are more people who want to come than people who want to leave.

Message from unicorn18: I have to do the new daily quest for Foxgame, so don’t contact me anymore today.

“Busan······.”

Even if life on Jeju Island doesn’t suit you, are you saying that you’ll drop me off in Busan instead of my neighborhood?

The distance from Busan to my area is closer than from Seoul to Busan, but it is still hundreds of kilometers.

That would also probably require going through an area I don’t know about, where a lot of erosion has occurred.

That too, probably on foot.

It would be nice if the Jeju Island guys gave us something like a motorcycle, but would they just give a quality motorcycle like Baek Seung-hyun’s to a guy who leaves?

Anyway, the saying that they don’t catch the guy who wants to go really struck a chord with me.

At that place, I gathered Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae.

“I’m really, really sorry.”

Under their bewildered gazes, I threw a tantrum that was not typical of me.

“Even if I go to Jeju Island, I want my bunker to be emptied. It’s okay to use the bullets and supplies inside, but I want the furniture and decorations inside to be left where they are.”

Ha Tae-hoon tilted his head and asked.

“It feels like I’m going to Jeju Island to live there for a month.”

“Because there is a possibility of that.”

“Is your senior picky?”

“I’m a bit picky.”

“How was it in China?”

“Your time is different from mine. Isn’t that right, Senior?”

“It wasn’t bad.”

After a long and noisy conversation, I stared blankly at my colleagues in my area.

Cheon Young-jae and Ha Tae-hoon exchanged glances.

Soon Cheon Yeong-jae spoke.

“Let’s do that. I’m not going to use that bunker anyway. It’s safer for someone like me where I live than here, and it’s also more advantageous for me to fight.”

Ha Tae-hoon also opened his mouth while fiddling with the suicide blade drone.

“I’m thinking of building a new house.”

“New house?”

“Can I use the work vehicles and equipment in the garage?”

“Oh, okay. You can use it. Well, as long as you’re confident that you won’t get caught in the middle.”

“I should build my own bunker too.”

“Senior, are you doing a good job with your construction?”

“My father worked in construction. We weren’t well off since I was young, so I followed my father around and learned various chores from over his shoulders. There was also a time when my mother and father were fighting over a divorce.”

Ha Tae-hoon added, smiling and looking into the distance.

“Because my father made a lot of money, my family became harmonious as if nothing had happened.”

“It is a condition for a harmonious family.”

“Anyway, are you writing something?”

“Do whatever you want with it. Just don’t break it and eat it.”

So I did get permission to leave my bunker empty for a while, but after thinking about it carefully, it seems like Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae have noticed.

That means my bunker is never safe.

Even if you don’t know what a professor is, there must be more than one or two people who want to take the neck of the best hunter in South Korea.

Chijijijik—

“This is Alpha One. Currently approaching at low altitude. If there are any hostile forces in the vicinity, or if there are any difficulties in controlling the runway, or if any other abnormalities occur, please respond immediately.”

The plane arrived at dawn before July.

It had rained all night, and the air was clear and humid.

Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae set fire to a drum can to mark the runway boundary.

A rumbling sound is heard from beyond the low ridge.

The hum was similar to the propeller sound of the large drone operated by Dajeong some time ago.

“It’s a light aircraft. It looks like a small propeller plane.”

Ha Tae-hoon, who is an expert not only in drones but also in aircraft, muttered.

Soon the shadow of an aircraft appeared in the darkness.

The plane, flying so low that it almost touched the mountains beyond, spotted our lights.

“This is Alpha One. Runway found. Attempt landing immediately. If you are on the runway, please clear it immediately.”

Even in the darkness, the plane landed without difficulty.

The size of the plane was smaller than I imagined.

It’s easy to understand why the baggage weight is limited to 10kg.

“Are you a skeleton?”

The pilot approached us, holding a pistol.

The safety on that pistol was off.

He stood in front of him and showed him the disc.

“I am a skeleton.”

“What about the luggage?”

“It’s over there.”

He checked his luggage.

“Hmm? This is.”

The pilot pointed to the satellite device.

“Obelisks are prohibited.”

“Is that so?”

“Because there are many people who violate security policies.”

“There are people in Jeju Island who use that too. I was able to contact them right away.”

In response to my protest, the pilot smiled bitterly, smoking a cigarette.

“······He must be a tall person.”

The moment I heard those words, the faces of Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in, whom I had forgotten about, flashed before my eyes again.

My heart was pounding.

Unicorn 18. Is he really Kang Han-min, or Na Hye-in?

Nothing is certain, but now we can confirm it.

My former colleagues who once destroyed Kim Da-ram’s paradise and my world, whose names I was reluctant to even mention.

“······.”

Although I was defeated by the nightmare and left my realm, at least I gained the courage to face the world.

“then.”

I raised my hand, looking at my seniors and juniors who were looking at me.

There is no need for many words between comrades linked by blood and death.

“I mean, I don’t think he’ll last even a month.”

“I don’t know. That’s it. Anyway, live well. The construction will start today.”

After a brief greeting, they turned around without hesitation, and as they left, the pilot’s guard, which had been extremely alert, relaxed considerably.

I spoke to him.

“Let’s go.”

“Just a moment.”

“?”

“I need to eat, pee, fill up my tank, and rest a bit.”

The pilot answered, grumbling.

After the pilot’s business was done, we boarded the plane again and took off from the runway.

In an instant, my territory became as small as a lie.

Beyond the world that has shrunk to the size of an ant colony, several cities and gray-white areas are visible.

It has been three years and seven months since the war began.

I, Park Gyu, am trying to challenge myself with a new life.

And then we try to face each other again.

Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in.

My old classmates.