Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 258



Only Krnovel

105. Whereabouts (3)

Just because you’ve known someone for a long time doesn’t necessarily mean you’re close to them.

Na Hye-in and I are like that.

Although we had been aware of each other for a long time, we had never met in private, and we didn’t even know each other’s cell phone numbers.

Therefore, it was inevitable that we had to rely on our imagination to figure out what kind of person Na Hye-in was.

The Na Hye-in I had in mind is a person who is quiet, cautious, and doesn’t show her courage on the outside, but has an iron will that doesn’t break in any situation.

Other than that, I don’t know anything.

For a long time, I trained and practiced only how to evaluate others to see if they were fit for combat or not.

Therefore, as an individual, the evaluation of Na Hye-in can only be close to a blank sheet of paper.

But the Internet showed me a new side of her.

Unicorn18.

A long-time member of the bulletin board, but a bit of an odd guy.

It was hard for me, who had watched her during her school days, to imagine that the unicorn’s true identity was Na Hye-in.

Now, Na Hye-in, the unicorn, my motivation, and the savior of humanity, stands before me.

“I thought about it carefully and I think it would be better to talk face to face.”

The outfit has changed.

Previously, he was wearing a training suit with the National Assembly mark on it, but this time, he is wearing a neatly ironed-on uniform.

Na Hye-in’s face, staring at me with an almost expressionless face, clearly showed the passage of time compared to before, but it still had an intense aura that overwhelmed its surroundings.

She handed me the paper bag she had brought.

Inside the paper bag were four take-out cups of coffee.

As I was staring at the coffees, Na Hye-in seemed to sense my gaze and began to explain first.

“I don’t know what you’ll like.”

It’s a small consideration, but that consideration also stimulates the edge of memories.

Yes, Na Hye-in was a person who prepared excessively.

Nearly ten years have separated us, but human nature does not change easily.

“I’ll have an iced Americano.”

When the menu was decided dryly, a faint smile appeared on Na Hye-in’s expressionless lips.

As I stared blankly, she handed me the coffee.

“I had a feeling that would be the case.”

We sat across from each other in an unknown cafe and enjoyed some coffee for a while.

I feel sorry for Na Hye-in, but Jeju’s coffee was less tasty than what Dragon left behind.

What’s more bitter than coffee is the awkward silence that flows between us.

I have a lot to say, but I can’t quite think of what to say.

The awkward silence is still there, as the awkwardness that has persisted since school days remains intact.

There is a much bigger difference than you can imagine between talking on the internet or in a group chat and talking in person.

After a few eye contacts, it was Park Gyu who spoke first.

“It may seem like I’m repeating myself, but thank you.”

It would be natural in this situation, but my speech resembled Park Gyu’s from the past when he was active on the battlefield rather than the Skeleton of the Internet.

The way he looked at her probably wasn’t much different from back then.

“Thanks to you, my life was saved.”

Na Hye-in tilted her coffee cup with a faint smile.

“no.”

Her gaze turned to me.

“Rather, it is I who should be thankful.”

She turned her gaze out the window.

Outside the window, a high wall and a gentle mountain rising above it took up most of the view, shrouded in a hazy fog.

“Wait a minute, I have somewhere to go.”

Na Hye-in stood up from her seat.

She looked at me and asked.

“Can you go with me?”

*

The place Na Hye-in took me to was a grave.

To be precise, it is a well-organized and decorated graveyard.

It was not difficult to tell that this cemetery was the graveyard of people who fought monsters just by looking at the tombstones standing here and there.

Na Hye-in walked calmly past the tombstones, holding a bouquet of flowers, and placed a flower on each tombstone whenever she saw a name she recognized.

When five flowers were laid in front of the tombstone, she opened her mouth quietly.

“Do you know what’s missing from this graveyard?”

The sudden question made me take a moment to collect my thoughts.

Before I could open my mouth, Na Hye-in smiled sadly and answered herself.

“harmfulness.”

Are you saying there is no body?

That’s what they say.

“No cracks?”

Na Hye-in nodded her head while absentmindedly looking at a tombstone.

“They all disappeared into the cracks.”

I looked around the cemetery.

There are estimated to be over 500 tombstones.

If you can fit into the crack, you’re over level 5 Awaken.

So many Awakens were consumed within the rift?

I had heard the story, but I never expected that so many Awakens would be sacrificed.

“Why did so many people die?”

“Not all of them are dead.”

“······.”

I think I know what you’re talking about.

The face of the boy I saw in Gaeseong who had followed me around so much flashed before my eyes.

“It just disappeared.”

Na Hye-in knelt down and placed a flower in front of a tombstone.

I saw the name written on the tombstone.

It’s an unknown name.

However, the dates of birth and death engraved on the tombstone indicated that the owner of this grave was a young soul who was not yet in his twenties at the time of his death.

Na Hye-in stroked the tombstone.

He must have been a very caring child.

He opened his mouth quietly, observing her expression.

“Was he/she a teammate you cared about a lot?”

Na Hye-in nodded.

“He was a smart and kind kid. He was so strong-willed that I thought he would never disappear.”

“Fate is unpredictable.”

“More than anything, this child told me about the Red Archives.”

Na Hye-in let out a shallow sigh and stroked the tombstone.

After a brief moment of mourning, she turned to me.

“······I’ve talked about my concerns on the bulletin board before, right?”

“I remember.”

I answered, looking into her mysterious eyes that seemed to glow softly even under the sun.

Na Hye-in turned around from the tombstone.

“That is a big worry, but what is even scarier is the fear that I might disappear at any moment like this child.”

She turned her head and looked northwest.

That direction is probably where the crack is.

“······When I’m inside, I hear all sorts of voices. No, should I call them voices? No matter how hard I try to understand them, intentions that aren’t assembled or organized within our thought system enter my head at will. And those fragments of sparkles combine in ways we can’t understand and whisper to us.”

Na Hye-in looked in the direction of the crack and quietly clenched her fists.

“······Come over there.”

If this were before the war, her statement would have been shocking enough to easily shatter the definition of rift as we know it.

It is beyond our experience and knowledge to know that a crack, which is nothing more than a mere “phenomenon” that has occurred, has a will of its own and can convey something similar to a will to humans.

How is this any different from the idea that this Earth has a will of its own?

“······.”

But now I feel it vaguely too.

What is the nature of the disaster that seeks to destroy our enemy and our humanity?

Monsters, and furthermore, cracks, are destroying our world with the intention of destroying humans, or at least the faint will to destroy this world.

“I think that’s what it means. From what I understand.”

I thought to myself as I looked at Na Hye-in’s profile, smiling sadly and staring at the graveyard.

How much despair and loss has there been during that time?

The number of those losses will be no less than the number of gravestones in this harmless cemetery.

That’s all.

I have nothing to say to her here.

I can’t even offer you a little comfort.

Because I know better than anyone that I, who chose to run away from fate, have no right to speak to her who was standing on the line of death.

“but.”

Na Hye-in looked back at me.

Her eyes, shining so brightly that they were clearly visible even in the sunlight, were looking straight at me.

“Thanks to you, I changed my mind.”

I looked straight into her eyes.

The first person to turn their gaze was Na Hye-in.

Avoiding eye contact, she stood there, holding her wrist awkwardly, and continued speaking in a slow but sure tone.

“I saw you fighting that day.”

It can’t be helped.

You must have come to save me because you saw that.

“The Dongtan Mom video was boring. I was doing something else and started watching from the middle, so I didn’t know who it was. Plus, he didn’t show his face and didn’t even say a word. But I realized once the battle started.”

She avoided eye contact for a moment, then turned around to look at me again.

“It was you. No, it couldn’t have been you. There’s only one person in this world who can fight so well against monsters with a human body that has no powers.”

With a shallow sigh, she added.

“Professor.”

“······.”

“Seeing him fight so fiercely in such a dangerous battle without saying a word, something stirred inside me. I’m not good at expressing myself because I’m short on words, but it felt like old feelings I had forgotten were coming back to life. At least one thing was conveyed clearly.”

She stares at me with her mouth shut.

It seems like he’s expecting a reaction.

I asked, inwardly surprised by her fresh appearance.

“What was conveyed?”

She answered as soon as she opened her mouth.

“I feel like I need to get out of the house soon.”

Na Hye-in smiled brightly.

I just found out.

It’s amazing that she, who is always blunt and mysterious, can smile like this.

That’s the rough outline of the conversation we had in the cemetery without the remains.

We exchanged a few words, but nothing of great importance.

Of course, I didn’t talk about Viva! Apocalypse! or the Red Archives bulletin board.

The most basic Internet etiquette is not to bring Internet work into reality. We are veteran Internet users.

Before we broke up, Na Hye-in asked me.

“Are you going to stay here?”

If you had asked me that question just a week ago, I would have answered it without a second thought.

I will definitely leave here.

But the human mind is incredibly treacherous.

To be honest, I have no complaints right now.

It’s comfortable to live in and the risk of getting shot in the sleep, which was my worst nightmare, is close to zero.

Not only will you avoid the dreaded morning exercises and roll calls, you’ll also be able to enjoy a rich and luxurious life thanks to your credits.

In short, almost everything that could be done before the war can be done.

Best of all, internet access is available here too.

You’re even given the luxurious option of choosing between the two: the Red Archive Bulletin Board.

Is there really a need to leave this paradise on earth?

“······.”

I answered with a sly smile at Na Hye-in, who was staring at me blankly.

“I’ll think about it.”

*

The intranet news bulletin board was filled with headlines announcing the return of another savior, Na Hye-in.

After a long hiatus, he decides to help savior Kang Han-min continue the operation to close the rift, which is now in its final stages.

“······.”

Close the crack.

I heard this news before coming to Jeju Island, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure.

But now it’s different.

It looks like the crack might be closed.

It seems that the disaster that will bring about the destruction of mankind can be ended by human hands.

Although Jeju is the weakest crack, whether it can be closed and whether it cannot be closed are two entirely different matters.

If we can just close the cracks in Jeju, maybe our species can survive.

Even if we postpone the question of preserving the human species left by Chinese scientists for another time.

As I was watching Na Hye-in, surrounded by a welcoming crowd, with my arms folded, my phone rang.

“Are you Mr. Park Gyu? Yes. I am contacting you after hearing from the savior Na Hye-in. It’s nothing else, but I heard that Mr. Park Gyu is contemplating whether or not to leave Jeju Island. If you make up your mind, please feel free to contact me at any time.”

Although Na Hye-in wandered around for a while, it is widely known that she handles her work neatly.

She used her authority to give the National Assembly the option to return Park Gyu to his original domain at any time, in case my mind changed while she was away.

The phone call you just received is confirmation of that choice.

“Hmm.”

Two days have passed since I met Na Hye-in and talked to her.

I still haven’t decided what to do with myself.

The biggest reason is probably because it’s a nice place to live.

As expected, it’s a zone 1.

It seems like a place where all the privileged classes of the past Republic of Korea have gathered.

There seems to be a place called the Special Zone, which is one level higher than here, but it’s not a place I would go.

Because it is a place given only to the highest level members of the National Assembly, Kang Han-min, Na Hye-in, and other Awakens who are over level 10.

Rumor has it that Philcrum also lives here, so if you get the chance you might run into him at the supermarket.

To conclude, this Zone 1 area is most similar to the Jeju I imagined when I first escaped from my territory.

The point is that if this kind of life is guaranteed, there is no need to leave here.

But my position here is still precarious.

Still, the top brass of the National Assembly are lucky low-level away people like Park Seung-soo.

For now, I can live in a place like this thanks to Na Hye-in’s consideration, but if something happens to her, my fate will be extremely bleak.

That means we can’t live forever.

Still, I guess I can take a break for a while.

Recently I was treated unfairly in Viva! Apocalypse!

Even if you make excuses for lame reasons, once a person’s mind is turned upside down, it is not easy to change it.

I have an idea too.

If you can’t accommodate “big users” like me, then I’ll have to go somewhere else.

There is a Red Archive bulletin board here in Jeju Island.

To be objective, the board is small compared to our bulletin board where people play on a world-class level, and the age range doesn’t match mine.

But they are younger and their future is guaranteed.

Jeju Island is not going to collapse anytime soon, so it will last longer than our bulletin board.

It’s a pretty good place for a “big user” like me to move to.

“······.”

I read the note I wrote on my phone’s notepad.

– Authenticate the person who played the game by turning the recruitment (gacha)

– Block skldqe82

– Melongman, postmomentum, DKFUDDL blocking

– Accept the quantum bomb friend request

Yeah, I decided to spin the gacha.

That was the next content I was going to post here.

I logged into the game and saw the recruitment screen.

-Pick up Yakumo (limited), Yoris (limited), and Fireba (limited)!

-5% chance of 3 stars!

There’s some noise going on.

Recruiting for the festival? A special event?

Characters with the word “limited” written on the back seem to be the type that can only be drawn here.

“······.”

Let’s try pulling it out once.

Lee Park Gyu, I personally think that he is on the lucky side.