Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 242



Only Krnovel

102. Gray Dystopia (1)

The pilot’s name was not disclosed, but as the night landing suggests, he was a veteran pilot with considerable experience.

He continued to fly at a low altitude, seemingly conscious of anti-aircraft fire, when suddenly the plane made a sharp turn, tilting almost 90 degrees.

“I will go to the sea.”

I felt the aircraft slowly rising into the sky, and soon a yellowish sea came into view.

As I was blankly gazing out at the sea from above the clouds, something caught my eye.

“What is that?”

Huge trajectories were clearly visible even at fairly high altitudes.

It’s not really a ship, but the course is subtle, and there are clearly huge things moving on the sea that are reminiscent of ships.

I pulled out my forgotten animal dictionary and remembered their names.

“whale?”

The pilot answered with a bitter smile.

“It must be a mutation whale.”

“Mutation whale······.”

It was generally believed that there were no mutations in the ocean because fish were too inferior to other species for mutation factors to occur, but whales are a different story.

Even though whales have fins, they are mammals like us.

Well, there was a theory that whales were mutating, but it was ignored by the academic world.

Whales have become too numerous to cause harm to humans, and even if they were to attack humans, it would be a repeat of the brutal days of whaling that roamed the world’s oceans in the 19th century.

Unlike fish, whales must emerge from the sea to breathe, so they are certainly easy prey.

Well, you’d need some kind of brutal weapon that could kill whaling ships and mutated whales.

“Mutated killer whales are a real problem. They are already big, but they are getting bigger, reaching the size of a sperm whale.”

“Orcas? I heard that orcas don’t harm people.”

“That’s an old saying. Now, it is a killer whale, just like its English name suggests.”

“It looks really tricky, huh?”

“Yes. Even without that, the smart ones are getting bigger and moving in groups, so they can’t survive. Just looking at the regular ferry to Busan, two ships have already been hit. We also have a navy here, and they’re very clever. They can tell if a ship is dangerous to them just by the sound of the screw, so they run far away, and when a weak ship comes, they ram it and destroy it.”

“······That’s terrible.”

The pilot said with a smirk.

“In the old days when there were no people, the sea belonged to whales, but now the old masters have found their place again.”

Listening to the pilot’s words, I stared at the sea with its strange trajectory for a while.

Since the propeller plane’s horsepower was not sufficient, the flight time was much longer than that of domestic flights departing from Gimpo Airport in the past.

Two and a half hours had passed since we had been flying over the endless sea from the West Sea to the South Sea.

The land that had disappeared from sight appeared before us again.

For a moment I forgot I was wearing my belt and tried to get up from my seat.

It’s Jeju Island.

The island of Gensokyo that was on the lips of countless people.

chief mourner.

How many people wanted to go to Jeju Island?

The island, once synonymous with paradise, was now black.

“?”

The grass is not visible.

It’s not a season where you can’t see grass.

However, the part of the island that I could see was only black soil, as if to prove that Jeju Island was a child created by a volcano.

I heard a sound.

It’s the sound of a jet.

Whew Whew Whew—

I turned my head and saw a formation of heavy planes spraying something over the island.

“What is that?”

When asked about the plane’s formation, the pilot sighed with a bitter smile.

“We are spraying Agent Orange.”

“Agent Orange······?”

“Yes. There are some areas where it’s difficult to get to because the grass is growing.”

The plane turned its nose westward.

Then, the inland scenery that had not been visible before began to unfold into view.

I already expected it.

The island of Jeju is quite far from our paradise.

You can see Mount Halla.

The area beneath Jeju’s towering roofs is painted gray-white.

It’s not the work of a monster.

It’s a concrete wall.

The island was divided by huge concrete walls that were incomparable to the beehives in North Korea.

In that gray maze, I couldn’t find a single bit of the beautiful scenery and Jeju-like things I knew about Jeju Island.

“Welcome to paradise.”

The plane began to descend slowly.

*

None of the people who greeted me on the runway were faces I recognized.

Two people who appear to be scientists, one guard, and three people who appear to be probably Jeju government officials.

“Is this the material in question?”

My gaze toward them was not very kind.

A young man who appeared to be a government official asked me with a grin.

“What brought you here?”

I felt uncomfortable with his contemptuous gaze and answered coldly.

“Hunter. Served on the Beijing front.”

People all stared at me.

It’s none of my business what they’re thinking.

“Where is the person I contacted via satellite internet?”

There is no unicorn 18.

Unicorn18 may be someone I don’t know, but at least I don’t see anyone here who can be connected to that strange weirdo.

“That person didn’t come out here.”

Another woman, who appeared to be a government official, met my eyes and answered.

“······.”

He didn’t really respond or show any reaction.

I don’t feel very good.

I don’t know if it was because I saw the desolate landscape or because I anticipated a future where I wouldn’t be treated so well.

They led me into a huge bunker that went underground next to the runway.

“Please stay here until I finish analyzing the data. I left some paperwork on your desk, so please fill it out before I finish checking it.”

The document they left behind is a census report.

It’s a document that asks you to write down your name, age, resident registration number (which I can’t even remember anymore), occupation, family information, and other things.

One funny thing is that they ask you to write down the cell phone number you used before the war.

It seems that the Jeju government has better inherited the legacy of the pre-war South Korean system.

Well, it’s a place that was created by sending a transport plane and taking everything from the mainland.

It would be stranger if there were no such thing.

I dug through my memory and wrote down the documents they requested and submitted them.

The results came out around evening time.

“Mr. Park Gyu.”

A stranger opened the door and came in.

He was a man in his 30s who looked annoyed just by looking at me. He glanced at my face and the documents I was holding, then turned around.

“Let’s talk as we go.”

As we walked down the hallway, he explained the situation.

“The data obtained by Mr. Park Gyu has been confirmed as real.”

“Is that so?”

“Have you ever looked at the data?”

“No. It’s encrypted.”

“Get in the car.”

Outside the building, there was a small electric car parked.

“What about my luggage?”

“It’s already been loaded into the cargo hold.”

I checked the cargo space and got into the passenger seat.

I looked around the car.

I feel like something is missing.

I soon remembered what I was missing and asked him.

“Excuse me, do you have any weapons?”

He looked at me strangely.

“A weapon?”

“Yes. Like a gun.”

The man who had been looking at me strangely finally burst into laughter.

“There’s no such thing. Here. It’s different from the mainland.”

“Aren’t there any mutations or marauders or anything like that?”

“I told you there’s no such thing.”

“Even so, just in case······.”

The man stared at me blankly as I continued to search for the gun, then asked me rudely.

“Did you carry a gun before the war?”

I felt ashamed for a brief moment.

Yes, that’s right.

This is common sense.

In Korea, unlike the United States, it is common sense and even legal for individuals not to carry guns.

“······.”

Looks like you’ve been in the mud for too long.

I lived for three years and seven months in a pathological environment where I felt extremely anxious without a gun.

In some ways, it might be a natural result to develop a mental illness or something.

Although I agreed with the man’s words, I held my breath in inexplicable anxiety as the car drove away.

Because of that, I didn’t have time to enjoy the surrounding scenery.

All I remember is that it was an endless, gloomy landscape with little blue and only gravel and concrete.

What was more focused was the man’s story.

“The results of the data verification were very interesting and the data we were looking for was correct, but the data itself seemed to be a bit different from what we expected.”

Those researchers seem to have found it too.

The last record of that person.

“Even so, we cannot help but offer a special gift to someone who risked his life for the Republic of Korea and brought us difficult data, so we have decided to provide a house in a special zone.”

“Zone 2?”

“Yes. It seems like you’re alone, but it’s a nice place where you can live comfortably alone.”

It’s a zone 2.

Was it a place that provided a house worth 57㎡?

I heard that it is lesser level than Type 1, but better treated than Type 3.

I heard that there are many people living in shelters, which are worse than the third class, so I guess they are not being treated that badly.

Maybe if the recording of data was what they wanted, they would have been assigned a Category 1 zone.

The vehicle was headed in front of the giant concrete wall I had seen in the photos of the unicorn and from the airplane overhead.

There was a door in front of the wall large enough for a tram to pass through.

The name of the district was written on the sign.

[ Residential Complex 2-23 ]

As you pass through the gate, you see a road arranged like a checkerboard, lined with endless rows of two-story prefabricated houses.

“Here are the keys and the certificate. It’s already late today, so rest at home and come to the community center tomorrow to report. Oh, and please follow the broadcast orders. If you don’t, you will be subject to significant disadvantages.”

No. 143-213.

This is the name of the realm in which I will now live.

As I stepped up the creaking, rough stairs, a narrow hallway with a rickety railing was revealed.

The narrow width, barely enough for two adults to pass, naturally brought up several troubling issues.

I walked down the hallway, my steps creaking like stairs on creaky, perforated metal plywood.

I can feel the gaze from the barred window facing the hallway.

I ignored it and arrived in front of my new territory.

After some trial and error, I was able to open the closed door, as the lock was rusted.

While I was opening the door, several doors on the other side of the hallway opened and people I didn’t know poked their heads out, which wasn’t a very pleasant experience.

Squeak-

As I opened the door and went in, a pungent, foul smell came out.

It wasn’t the smell of a corpse, but a similar, putrid stench wafted throughout the house.

The source of the smell was soon discovered.

There was something black, jelly-like, rotten and dried in the pantry.

“······.”

The house itself wasn’t small.

Compared to my bunker, it’s a small room, but it’s spacious enough for the average South Korean male to live alone.

The problem lies elsewhere.

There is no toilet.

Therefore, there is no shower room.

In the space that appeared to be a bathroom, only emergency supplies such as protective clothing and gas masks were piled up, covered in dust.

I spent the night in a blanket that still smelled like someone else.

The nightmare isn’t over.

I had a sequel to my recurring nightmare where someone opened my door and started shooting, although it was interrupted in the middle.

It felt even more terrifying than the nightmare I had in my bunker, because unlike the previous nightmare, I had no means of resistance – not even a gun.

At exactly 6 o’clock in the morning, a loud noise suddenly rang out overhead.

– There will be a roll call and morning exercises today. Citizens are encouraged to attend without fail.

– You are fully responsible for any disadvantages resulting from your failure to attend the roll call. If you have a reasonable excuse for your failure to attend, please go to the disciplinary department of your community center and explain it to them within 3 days of the occurrence of the reason.

“roll call?”

The sound of double eyelids comes out of my mouth naturally.

But I didn’t forget the warning of the official who brought me here.

I think they told us to follow the broadcast instructions as much as possible.

I went out to see the faces of the residents living in the next neighborhood.

There were already several residents standing in front of the building.

But something strange catches my eye.

You could call it a feeling of discomfort.

The average age is so low, it’s ridiculously low.

Almost all of them are teenagers.

There are rare ones in their twenties, and those who look like they are in their thirties are nowhere to be seen.

People over 40 are wiped out.

It is clear that at least there is not a single old person here.

“······.”

It looks like the rumors were true.

All the refugees heading to Jeju Island were sunk into the sea.

Knowing about Baek Seung-hyun’s case, I thought so, but even before Baek Seung-hyun, many people went to Jeju Island individually or in small groups using various ships.

It looks like they were all sent into the sea.

The average age estimate is not only a phenomenon found in our building, but also in other buildings lined up next to each other.

-Start of Korean gymnastics~ One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six!…..

I did some gymnastics without even knowing the posture and asked the boy next to me.

“excuse me.”

The boy glares at me with cold eyes.

I was upset, but I didn’t show it and asked.

“Where is the bathroom?”

The boy did not answer, but simply pointed west with his finger and turned away coldly.

“······.”

I want to hit him once, but I’ll hold back.

The bathroom was a communal bathroom.

There was already a line of students waiting to use the bathroom, just a few stalls away.

The ratio of boys and girls waiting was not significantly different, suggesting that there were more waiting spaces for women than for men.

Next to the communal bathroom there was a communal shower room and sink.

There was also a friend who brought laundry and did laundry in front of the sink.

“······.”

I was just lounging around at home when a broadcast came on.

– There will be a breakfast time. There will be no after-hours meal service, so please arrive on time to eat.

Meals were eaten in the communal dining room.

They say it’s a communal cafeteria, but it looks like each district has a tent-top cafeteria where they get their food.

I couldn’t find anything like a bowl, and I soon found out why.

Each of them has their own bowl, a pantry filled with the disgusting rotten stuff that was rotting away in my room.

A woman holding a ladle glared at me as I arrived without a bowl.

“What about the cold soup?”

“This is my first time here.”

“There is no distribution without a lunch box.”

“It’s my first time today.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t make exceptions. You seem a bit old, but you know what I’m talking about, right?”

“no.”

As the guard wearing the armband approached, he stepped back on his own.

I found myself mumbling to myself as I turned around, my stomach growling.

“We’re in big trouble.”

I didn’t like it from day one.

I know this skeleton is originally like that, but isn’t this a bit too much?

Although it’s unsettling, Park Gyu, who was the envy of everyone in the Emperor’s bunker, is living in a place like this?

The unicorn’s warning suddenly flashed before my eyes.

“ha······.”

Yeah, it’s hard leaving home.

By the way, where the hell is that unicorn guy?

He grabbed a young boy passing by and asked him straight away.

“Is there a place here where I can use the internet or a computer?”

“There’s a PC room, right?”

The boy answered curtly and disappeared.

“PC room······?”

Find the unicorn.

Maybe it’s possible.

Even if you leave Jeju Island, you must see the unicorn.