Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 248



Only Krnovel

103. Struggle (4)

The sound trap has two functions.

One is a function that notifies the approach of a known opponent.

But I note another feature.

The person who made the sound is startled by the sound, feels fearful, and becomes intimidated.

Some realize they have been discovered and begin to shed their secrecy and take action, while others remain in place as if dead, waiting for sympathy from this side.

The unknown enemy beyond the fog appears to have adopted the latter attitude.

I lay down on the roof, aimed my gun, and watched the direction of the sound, hoping to find even a single small shadow.

It was a night when the earth spider was falling.

It was the time when the countless stars that settled in the sky would one by one reveal themselves through the curtain of light, and in my experience, a fairly strong wind would blow down the ridge from the top of the mountain towards the outpost.

It’s true that the wind does a little to push back the obnoxious fog, but it doesn’t have a very dramatic effect when offset by the increasingly thick darkness.

In the end, we have no choice but to use other senses besides sight.

Intuitive is hearing.

Touch also has meaning.

Because when the other person is close, you can sense their presence through faint vibrations.

But the most important thing is to think ahead.

I personally believe that if you think about a scenario, such as where the enemy will come from, what point they will attack from, and how they will attack, you will be able to react more quickly when an unexpected situation occurs.

It may not be possible to speed up the reflexes themselves, but it is certain that at least the time required to make decisions will be drastically reduced.

There are three cases.

Is it a mutation, a human, or a monster?

I stare into the fog, updating various numbers in my head in real time.

“······.”

I had a feeling it wasn’t a monster.

Monsters are something that exists on the border between the living and the non-living. They are not creatures that think like humans or animals, but rather move according to pre-programmed algorithms, so they cannot perform sophisticated actions such as stopping when they hear a sound.

This means that there are no restrictions on the use of firearms.

The gun control, which was set to single shot, was changed to three-shot, or rather, continuous fire.

Three-shot is effective against humans, but rapid fire is needed to deliver punch against mutations.

Srrrrung-

In case of emergency, he pulled out an axe and supported the gun barrel while holding it.

And then he lowers his breathing as if he were dead and focuses all his attention on the surrounding boundaries.

There is no sound of footsteps or breathing.

A battlefield where only a dreamy sight is repeated as the wind blows from the mountaintop endlessly pushes away the fog and fills the space again.

“······.”

In a fight like this, the outcome is decided in one go.

Even if I stay up all night like this, I won’t move.

It will be quite some time before the sun rises, but I have no idea when this fog will clear.

It was when I was holding my breath and staring out through the fog with wide-open eyes.

Jeokbuk-

There was a sound of footsteps.

That’s right.

It’s the sound of something at least human-sized hitting the ground.

The distance is at most 30 meters ahead.

Instead of pulling the trigger hastily, I focused all my attention on my hearing.

Swish-

There is a sound of wind.

But, this sound.

“?!”

He got up from his seat and moved his body to the side.

Swish-

Something cold brushed past me and hit one of the solar panels, making a loud cracking noise.

In the pitch-black darkness, amidst the countless flying debris, I captured a clear image of a dark object penetrating the panel.

“······.”

window.

It’s a window.

Although it was painted black and had rough marks on it, its shape and the sharp tip that shattered the panels and bounced back had the characteristics of a spear used by primitive man.

person.

He is a person.

The moment I made that decision, my ears again caught the sound of death.

Swish-

The same wind noise as before.

The direction is.

Chaengkang!

This is exactly my torso.

The moment the javelin, which seemed to have become one with the darkness and was difficult to distinguish, came into view, I struck it down with an axe.

Jeokbuk-

I hear footsteps.

20m ahead.

I won’t be hurt.

They fired suppressive fire into the darkness.

Tata tata tata tang!

Immediately after the shooting, he ran down from the rooftop to the guard post.

And immediately, the emergency power was activated, turning on all the lights, including the searchlight on the roof.

Thud!

With a sound like a heavy spring snapping, the dead lights around the outpost began to emit light that dispelled the darkness.

In the midst of the countless, disorienting lights, I saw black shadows disappear into the hazy mist beyond the light.

My prediction was correct.

The identity of the unidentified manhunter who attacked this outpost and killed people is a human like us.

To be exact, it would be a low-level awakened.

I immediately reported this fact to my superiors.

“Yes, that’s right. I was attacked just as I said. It was a man. I have evidence. He was using a short, black-painted spear. He aimed for me and threw the spear in the darkness and fog. It was a very skilled and precise attack.”

If it weren’t for me, you would be dead.

But he didn’t say that.

Because I am a person who knows the degree.

So, to put it in terms of the Red Archive bulletin board, it means that you didn’t do any “bitik”.

*

SKELTON: New, I’m a newbie…>< (cute girl hesitating emoticon) (8)

I clicked on this Skeleton's Red Archive bulletin board debut post, monumental and truly meaningful.

It was just a normal viewing of my posts, but maybe because I had been through a near-death experience, the comments on these posts felt like a reward for me.

DEPA: (Emoticon of a girl with fox ears waving and saying hello!)

Circle: Newbie lol

sleeping : (cute girl greeting emoticon)

Bukkozhang: Aren't you the guy who posted that weird article earlier? Anyway, newbies are always welcome~

ORONA: It smells bad….

Rank 13: Pup… Yell!

Gum-Stuck Moss: (Cute girl sleeping emoji)

Unicorn: Hi

Unlike the cold-hearted Mupple, there are many warm comments.

It's like being in a cold place and eating a warm stew made by someone you love.

Hororok-

I put the caffeine capsule I always had in my mouth and swallowed it down my throat along with some water.

I guess I'll have to stay up all night.

There's no way of knowing when that unidentified assailant will attack again.

One thing's for sure, that javelin.

It's an extraordinary skill.

What can I say, it's a sense of camaraderie that only people who use the same cold weapon can feel.

With each attack, you could feel something like the attacker's pride.

The belief that my spear will not miss, that there is no one that my spear cannot kill.

It's something to be proud of.

If I hadn't set up an alarm around the outpost in advance, I would have noticed the killer approaching only when he was very close, and I would have been forced to fight on unfavorable terrain while unprepared.

The odds of winning such a battle are significantly low.

This means that Park Gyu-do could have been one of the many missing people who passed through this outpost.

It was time to take a short break and go up to the rooftop again.

Suddenly a small, flashing window appears on the screen.

Someone started a conversation.

I opened it.

Unicorn: Hello~

A user I don't know started chatting with me.

But this nickname looks familiar.

I responded to the conversation half in doubt.

SKELTON: (Skeleton) Hehe~

Unicorn: Me, unicorn!

SKELTON: You changed your nickname?

Unicorn: Oh, yeah. It's not such a proud name.

SKELTON: I just got attacked.

Unicorn: I heard. I heard what you said.

SKELTON: Really?

Unicorn: Oh, I can see all the reports that come up. I have that authority.

SKELTON: I see.

Unicorn: You said it was a person. Are you sure?

SKELTON: He was an experienced and skilled killer. He wielded a javelin. He probably had other weapons, too. At least the weapons he used to kill me were two javelins.

Unicorn: Are you hurt anywhere? I thought you weren't hurt.

SKELTON: No, that's not true. But the opponent was an Awaken. A low-level Awaken. It seemed to possess the ability to see and perceive in the dark. That's why it aimed for me in the dark and threw its spear.

Unicorn: Oh, I see······

SKELTON: I'm not sure if I'm confident in my spear, but I only brought a spear today. I wonder if I have other weapons. Maybe a gun.

This is not ordinary.

Even if the glass of the guard post is bulletproof, can it withstand a determined number of gunshots?

If I lose my second floor stronghold with the glass windows, I lose my means of communication with the outside world.

So, what this means is that if the other party destroys the bulletproof glass, I will have no choice but to hold out on the first floor without being able to contact anyone.

So I asked.

SKELTON: It looks like you haven't contacted anyone you know yet?

Unicorn: Oh, it's a little late······. Sorry.

Unicorn: I'm really sorry. I couldn't help it.

SKELTON: Don't be sorry. I was the one who said I would come here.

Hoping only for help from others is not a very good strategy for maintaining one's psychological state.

Sometimes the mind of a person who has no hope at all is healthier than that of a person who has only weak hopes.

If the unicorn won't come out of the house, you have no choice but to endure.

Fortunately, there were no further attacks that night.

As the sun rose, I patrolled the area.

There are also traces of tin cans and wires being touched.

Footprints also remain.

It was impossible to see the footprints beyond the tin can alarm, but at least the number of enemies could be guessed from the footprints left around it.

Maybe four.

Two of them would be women or small boys.

There were two sneakers with different sole sizes, one 270mm, one 225mm, and one 230mm.

In reality, only one of them had thrown a javelin, but if they brought three more, perhaps they were trying to take all the supplies in the outpost, including my body?

By the way, there is no sign of having fallen into a trap, but judging from the trajectory of the footprints that approached to a distance of 20m in front, it seems that rather than knowing the location of the trap and avoiding it, it simply got lucky and chose an area without traps to step on.

This part needs reinforcement.

You'll have to build a mound or something like that to make passage around the trap difficult.

Of course, I didn't forget to ask my superiors for support.

“I need reinforcements. I can’t last long alone. And tonight is not even the end of the road.”

However, it doesn't seem like reinforcements will arrive that quickly.

“I apologize. I have no authority and am only in a position to relay decisions from my superiors. We are also taking this situation very seriously and dealing with it as seriously as possible, so I am truly sorry, but I ask that you please hold on a little longer!”

If the story is long, it means that they won't do it.

I already felt the malicious hands surrounding me in Jeju Island.

Although Gong Kyung-min is the most likely culprit, I believe that even if he broke up with me, he would not do something like this.

Maybe there are some “lucky low-level awakened” people I don’t know about who are jealous of me and want me to die by leaving me here.

“······.”

Moved the positions of the monitor and keyboard.

I made it so that I could use it while lying face down by placing a mat under the desk and placing the monitor and desk on top of it.

Although lying down to work on the computer is not only bad for your back but also uncomfortable, this is a behavior that I reconstructed based on a discussion I had with my colleagues about how to deal with low-level Awakens.

It was a constructive discussion about how to best deal with a large number of Awaken who are aware of the enemy's location and who are trying to attack us while we are isolated in an outpost or defensive facility, and one of my friends made a pretty good suggestion.

“From what I’ve heard, even low-level Awakens aren’t invincible. Their detection ability only allows them to identify the general location of their opponents, and doesn’t reveal their outlines like a high-performance infrared sensor. Their clairvoyance ability is good enough to counter infrared sensors, but the clairvoyance ability’s range is short. At most, it’s less than 5 meters. The problem is their detection ability.”

He said with a big smile.

“If I were in a situation like the one in the proposal, my argument would be this: Rest and watch in the same place. That is, the other person would not know when we are resting and when we are on watch. If I had a separate bedroom and went to sleep there, wouldn’t that be like advertising that I should be killed?”

The name of that clever man who had not revealed a single trace of Awakening at the time was none other than my classmate, Gong Gyeong-min.

I've cut ties with him, but I won't abandon his ways.

That's how life began inside the observatory.

Meals, meals, guard duty, and leisure activities were all done at the observatory.

The assailants who attacked in the middle of the night have not been seen since, but as I expected, the Jeju government did not send me even a single reinforcement.

While waiting for the shift that may or may not come, I now find salvation for my soul through a brief immersion in a leisure activity.

Click

SKELTON: (Emoticon of a cute girl getting punched in the face)

Click

SKELTON: (cute girl surprised emoticon)

Click

SKELTON: (Emoticon of a cute girl saying good night)

“······.”

Changed the internet style.

This is an altruistic style where I write to express my thoughts and show off myself, and instead add cute girl emoticons appropriate to each post that catches my eye.

So, I guess you could say that it's a Zen-like bulletin board style that reveals me the most without revealing myself.

In martial arts terms, it is the principle that softness overcomes strength.

The results were encouraging.

ArmpitJoa: Is that guy that lives on the Skeleton message board?

B4MEdecede : Skeleton is cute

United Condom: Where the hell did that fucking skeleton come from?

Non-surgical Gen: I want to eat the skeleton roughly

ㅇㅇ: That skeleton kid. It wasn't like that when you first came here? But you deleted the post? Why isn't that post there? It was like, "Hello, hello, hello."

ttYarisdantt: Skeleton is so cute

RealPingP: Is Skeleton mute? Why are you only using emoticons?

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ : Bertelgiacon raising the skeleton is cute

…

…

The young friends who had coldly ignored me when this skeleton first appeared are now starting to mention me and stare at me.