Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 261



Only Krnovel

107. House

dump-

Landed on the ground.

He immediately released his parachute, took out his pistol, and looked around cautiously.

Based on what I observed at the time of the fall, there were no danger factors, but this is not Jeju Island.

It is a land of struggle where danger can strike at any time and any place.

I checked the direction while leaving the parachute behind.

Although I came to a place farther away than I thought, it is still completely my territory.

I walked slowly towards my bunker.

I see familiar scenery.

The mountainside in the distance, the abandoned city, the neglected highways and interchanges, the golf course, the ugly factories and warehouses here and there, the rice fields overgrown with weeds.

Everything is vivid in my memory.

I can see a stream.

As it is midsummer, the quantity is extremely abundant.

I followed the stream.

The destination is a low hill rising alone in the distance.

That hill, which had been a barren mountain without a single tree just after the war, had now turned into a full-fledged mountain covered with grass, shrubs, and fairly large trees.

It is truly amazing how nature has recovered from the aftermath of a nuclear bombing in just a few years.

Now it’s time to cross the stream.

I plan to cross the shallow waters leading to the bunker, but the usual stepping stones are nowhere to be seen, perhaps because the water volume has increased.

The current was neither fast nor deep, so I crossed the rapids just as I had experienced.

I see an uphill slope.

“······.”

I checked my pistol and slowly started up the hill.

It’s unlikely, but it’s possible that my bunker was overrun.

During the month or so I was in Jeju, the Legion faction may have collapsed and unleashed unbridled Hunters may have invaded this area.

It’s true that Cheon Yeong-jae and Ha Tae-hoon are powerful hunters, but in a one-on-one fight, one unlucky bullet can kill a person.

I quietly entered my realm, leaving all possibilities open.

At the end of the climb, I walked slowly, hiding behind the trees, revealing my area that had been hidden by the slope.

A scenery I always see.

“hmm?”

It wasn’t this.

“What is this?”

I muttered without realizing it.

A concrete wall stands tall around my bunker, which is supposed to be my private hideaway, unknown to anyone.

The pace quickened.

As we reached the wall, a heavy engine noise was heard.

Boooo …

It’s the sound of an excavator’s engine.

Behind the wall, the sound of an excavator moving furiously can be heard.

And a human voice echoed through the engine noise.

“Stop! Stop! Enough! Enough!”

This is Cheon Yeong-jae’s voice.

As soon as I heard that voice, I screamed through the wall.

“Cheon Yeong-jae!”

The reaction came a little later.

“Huh? What is it?”

Cheon Yeong-jae’s bewildered mutterings can be faintly heard.

“It’s me! It’s me! It’s Park Gyu-da!”

When I shouted again, I heard Cheon Yeong-jae’s answer.

“What?! Senior Park?! Senior Park?”

“okay!”

“Stand in front of the door for a moment. There will be a camera.”

“No, it’s my house.”

“Just stand for now.”

I headed toward the door as I was told.

“hmm?”

It’s a door I’ve never seen before.

It looks like it was taken from a factory door, but the finish is quite good.

As I stood in front of the shaded hole where the camera was probably hidden, there was a beep and the door opened with a click.

It looks like an automatic door.

It also opens and closes with a powerful electromagnet that operates on electricity.

“Hmm.”

You’re quite skilled.

Beyond the open door, faces I missed were waiting for me, drenched in sweat.

“Hey, senior. Cheon Yeong-jae.”

These are my seniors and juniors.

“No, how did you do it?”

“Why are you back already?”

There’s a lot to talk about, but there’s an issue that needs to be addressed first.

Before I knew it, I was pointing with my finger at the concrete wall surrounding my area.

“No, what the heck is this?”

*

In the campfire, the wood is burning with a crackling sound.

Around him, three hunters sat in a circle around a campfire, each holding a glass of beer in his hand.

Beside the campfire, fish were strung on branches in a tighter circle than we were.

“······okay?”

I’ve been through a lot, but these guys have been through a lot too.

“They were school kids.”

Not long after I left for Jeju Island, a group of strange men invaded my territory.

They surprisingly left without doing anything, but it was late at night with heavy rain pouring down – they probably targeted this time – and in bad weather where it was difficult to see even an inch ahead, they just searched through the bunker I had built earlier and returned.

A curious assailant touched the trip wire connected to a booby trap I had set in the past, but the long-neglected booby trap did not detonate, and only revealed that there was a trap there.

But the mere presence of an element of danger caused the villains to retreat without hesitation.

Because I saw the central toilet, proudly positioned on a protrusion that stood out like a stage in the center of an abandoned bunker.

They left my territory, only realizing that Park Gyu’s bunker was long abandoned and full of traps.

It was a little late, but the hard work of the past was rewarded.

The next day, Ha Tae-hoon, who was living in Rebecca’s cabin, discovered scattered footprints and reported this to Cheon Yeong-jae.

“As expected, Senior Park has good instincts. No, maybe he’s just lucky.”

The two of them, who couldn’t leave for Jeju Island like me and didn’t want to leave their territory and find a new place, tried to secure safety through a third method.

That’s the concrete wall that surrounds my area.

An amount that is not enough even after using up most of the reserves.

“Did you run out of cement?”

When I pointed this out, Cheon Yeong-jae raised his hand.

“I knew where the hidden cement warehouse was.”

He answered sarcastically, taking a big bite of a skewer of grilled fish by the campfire.

“Jeongho told me.”

That’s what the Defender told me.

Well, unlike me, Defender was a yard boy.

You probably know what’s around me better than I do.

Maybe he also knew the area of ​​the old people I had come out of in a panic the other day.

“I did most of the construction.”

Ha Tae-hoon answered questions about the construction.

Even I, who pride myself on being an experienced carpenter, could see that the finish and completion of the wall was high, so when I asked who took the lead, Ha Tae-hoon raised his hand.

“Didn’t I tell you before? My father was the president of a small company.”

“I guess they teach things like this too?”

“My father told me that I didn’t need to go to college. He told me to just watch and learn.”

“It’s an open house.”

“All the salaried workers below me graduated from college, but it seems like they didn’t look good in their eyes. You know that sense of accomplishment that’s unique to self-made aristocrats?”

“And yet, you managed to get into a place like school?”

“Rather, it was my mother who was the saint. Thanks to that, I did things like being a hunter, but looking back, isn’t it thanks to that that I’ve managed to survive until now?”

That is true.

Because our hunters not only received combat training, they also fought on the battlefield called China.

It’s safe to say that I’ve learned how to survive in a hell of a lot of things.

After a while, we sat around the campfire, ate grilled fish and sipped beer.

The beer tasted a little weird, but it was within acceptable limits.

As I stood there blankly watching the fire burn out silently, I felt a strange sensation.

I, who advocated so much for one-person survival, felt not only comfortable but even safe among people.

To put it precisely, it would be solidity.

Looking back, we always moved as a team.

From my school days, I learned how to work as a team and move as one, and on the battlefield, I had to fight as one with my team.

Perhaps individual survivalism doesn’t suit me, having lived in a group for so long.

I still think that individual survivalism is more probable than group survivalism.

But circumstances have changed and I am in an environment where I cannot stubbornly push my ideas forward.

If the world has changed, I must change too.

It would be foolish to stubbornly pursue only one idea and die in vain.

The important thing is survival itself.

I felt it deeply in Jeju Island.

There is no need to be restricted by method.

I spent my time leisurely, leaning back on a comfortable camping chair.

“Okay. I’ll take my leave now.”

The place was empty and Cheon Yeong-jae said goodbye.

“What? Don’t you live here?”

“No. I still live in the lower town.”

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

“It’s a place where mutations don’t come. It’s actually more comfortable for people.”

Cheon Yeong-jae smiled faintly, his eyes sparkling softly, and walked leisurely toward the outer wall.

Now, only Ha Tae-hoon and I are left in the room.

It’s a little awkward.

No matter what, Ha Tae-hoon is my senior.

Just as an uncomfortable atmosphere was about to form, Ha Tae-hoon suddenly opened his mouth.

“I still live there.”

As we heard earlier, Ha Tae-hoon is still living in Rebecca’s cabin.

But Ha Tae-hoon doesn’t seem to like that house.

“I hate houses made of wood.”

“Isn’t it okay? There’s a sauna right next door.”

“Koreans, you know. We have to live in reinforced concrete structures.”

“I see.”

Don’t Koreans live in houses with thatched roofs or tiled roofs?

“Why don’t you stop by my house sometime?”

I went to the cabin.

A lot had changed.

The most noticeable change was the addition of a wooden terrace in front of the cabin, with chairs, tables, and other furniture, but if you look into the details, you’ll see that there were sensors, surveillance cameras, and other security equipment installed everywhere, almost to the point of paranoia.

Even on the steep slope leading to the back of the house, several claymores using trip wires have been installed.

This is the exact opposite of my idea of ​​relying on natural objects to block enemy threats.

The most decisive change is the demolition of the sauna room.

“no.”

The sauna room that I built myself and used well had been turned into a drone warehouse.

“Senior Ha. Don’t you go to the sauna?”

“Oh. Because my blood pressure is high.”

He glanced back at the day he was shocked.

“What? Wasn’t it supposed to be removed?”

“Oh, no. I just thought you were good at writing.”

There is something I definitely felt after seeing Ha Tae-hoon’s behavior.

This gentleman is the one who has turned my realm, my hidden haven, into a sturdy fortress.

100% sure.

This human being took the lead and changed my territory to suit his taste.

“I’ll show you something good.”

He took me into the house.

There was a shelf next to the terrace, and underneath it were neatly arranged familiar weapons.

It’s a mortar.

“mine thrower?”

It’s a military weapon that our hunters rarely use.

At best, we only use rifles, and even if we have machine guns, there are very few people who use them.

It’s heavy and bulky, but in battles where high firepower is needed, Hunter weapons are used.

Even during my active duty days, equipment related to the Goro gun was strictly the domain of soldiers.

In fact, the cannon caught far more monsters than we did.

“I got it for free when I bought some shells for drone strikes.”

“Will there be a time to use it?”

“There might be guys attacking with mortars, so it would be advantageous to fight back.”

“How to operate?”

“I learned it from the soldiers.”

He led me into the cabin.

In contrast to the bustling outside, the interior was simple enough that it was not much different from when Rebecca first built it.

Of course, what he wanted to show me wasn’t the inside of the house.

A large drawing was placed on a table larger than the bed.

“What is this?”

Ha Tae-hoon smiled proudly and showed me the drawing.

“It’s a new house.”

I saw the drawing.

There was a blueprint for a neat one-story house made of reinforced concrete, and at the end of the blueprint was Ha Tae-hoon’s signature written in neat handwriting, which appeared to have been written by him himself.

“······.”

It’s quite serious.

No, I think you know better than me.

I know because I’ve done construction work too.

How difficult is the design and level of difficulty of the house that Ha Tae-hoon wants to implement?

There are several tasks that would have seemed like ordinary construction work at the pre-war level, but were extremely daunting for individual amateur carpenters.

It feels like a whole other level to me, who can’t even manage the plumbing properly and has built a central toilet.

“I’m thinking of building it once the exterior wall is finished. I told you, people in Korea have to live in reinforced concrete.”

“Cheon Yeong-jae lives in Slatejo.”

“He’s a human who can live in a cave. To be exact, he’s a human who can’t live around people.”

“Cheon Yeong-jae?”

“He may seem easygoing to Youngjae, but he’s a very suspicious guy. He’s said to suffer from PTSD. He has a disease that makes it so he can’t trust people 100%.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Well, even so, Youngjae being outside is a good variable when attacked.”

I agree with that.

By the way, I have a question.

I asked while looking at a professional drawing that I could not even imitate.

“Did you learn it all at home?”

Ha Tae-hoon glanced over his own drawings and muttered with a bitter smile.

“After all, children end up like their parents.”

He took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

“Father. Even though we broke up a long time ago, what I inherited from that gentleman still lives and breathes inside me.”

Ha Tae-hoon said he would build his own house once the exterior construction was completed.

Of course, they are also improving not only houses but also essential equipment for communal living, such as water and plumbing.

This is actually a blessing for me, since I have already decided to form a group.

I also thought that I should take care of the plumbing as the number of people increased.

Rebecca and Sue are good neighbors, but the more capable the neighbor is, the more helpful he is.

Rebecca is good at hunting and woodworking, and Suu excels at sentry duty and sniping, but in a small group, it’s definitely easier if each person is a specialist.

The reason Diesirae is so selective in accepting people is probably because she has a long history of running groups.

“I showed you everything I wanted to show you, so should we go to Sweet Home?”

Ha Tae-hoon smiled faintly and pointed towards my bunker.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t touch anything.”

I looked back toward the bunker.

“okay?”

“Who would use it when those school kids might come at any moment? There’s nothing I’ve touched except the garage, so enjoy your new home after so long.”

Certainly, a senior is a senior.

There are no corners that are not nice, but I can see that he takes care of it when needed.

I looked at him and spoke sincerely.

“Thank you, senior.”

“······I don’t want to hear you call me senior. Anyway, I’m glad I came back. It’s much more reassuring to have a professor on our side. Let’s listen to what happened in Jeju Island slowly.”

After saying goodbye to him, I finally headed to my bunker.

For some reason, as I approached the bunker step by step, my heart started pounding like a boy entering an amusement park for the first time.

Yeah, a lot has happened.

There were so many choices and so many unnecessary facts to see.

Kang Han-min.

Can a person change that much?

I came into contact with Na Hye-in.

If she gets back online, we can communicate again.

I’ll have to give that sparrow from the Red Archives board a beating someday, but for now I’d like to thank him.

Thanks to you, I was able to come back here.

Squeak–

The heavy door opened.

I descend the irregularly constructed steps designed to misstep intruders, step onto the ground, and look into the darkness.

The pitch-black curtain that I once feared and considered my fate.

Now the curtain wraps me warmly like a blanket.

I came back home.

No, it’s too early.

Click-

Turn on the computer and look at the screen.

-Viva! Welcome to Apocalypse!

“······.”

Knock knock

SKELTON: (Skeleton Breaking News) Skeleton returns!

After hitting refresh several times and staring at a screen that was finally blank with no comments, I finally smiled and leaned back, placing my clasped hands on the back of my head.

“Phew.”

Yeah, I’m finally back.

In my house.