Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 282



Only Krnovel

115. Happiness (1)

Chijijik—

Radio waves carried the voices of distant colleagues.

“Yes. I’m alive. I don’t need to die like this. Oh, and of course, my mother is doing well.”

15th class Bang Jae-hyuk announced his health with a slightly fast speech.

“Here? It’s Incheon. I can’t go far away with my mother. What? How is it here? I’m just living here. It’s not like I have anywhere to go. What? The professor’s bunker? No, they’re building a settlement around there? How many people are there? What about the equipment? Are there any warlord or looting camps around here?”

From the short conversation, I could tell that Bang Jae-hyuk had a very cautious personality, despite his fast speech.

I don’t know if he met all the criteria I had in mind, but Bang Jae-hyuk showed his intention to join my realm.

“Of course, with my mother. And I have some luggage. I could throw it away, but it’s a bit of a waste to throw it away. But since it’s quite large, I think it might be usable.”

Bang Jae-hyuk requested a vehicle.

At that point, I asked Cheon Yeong-jae again about Bang Jae-hyeok as an individual.

“Bang Jae-hyuk’s mother? She’s a nice person. She’s polite.”

“He is a good cook.”

Ha Tae-hoon intervened from the side.

“He is the one who makes delicious things out of ingredients that are not there.”

Cooking.

It’s a good ability.

Cooking is not just about satisfying your taste buds, it also has the effect of expanding the range of ingredients available.

Among the weeds that are spread all over my territory right now, I don’t have the ability to distinguish which ones are edible and which ones are not.

There used to be a series on edible weed characteristics on bulletin boards, but I remember getting a stomachache after digging up weeds once, so I never ate weeds again.

“Okay. Tell Bang Jae-hyuk’s mother to come too.”

To be honest, the arrow in my heart is pointing the opposite way.

No matter how you package it, old people who can’t fight are just a burden.

However, Bang Jae-hyuk is a good shooter and is also friendly with the hunters from Incheon.

Even when accepting people, it is better to accept people who do not cause conflict with existing members.

It’s my wish that there will soon be enough fighters to stand guard.

Besides, it seems like the Defender wants to show me something.

“We have to go out together. This is.”

Defender has made a name for himself on the message boards with his killing, but from what I’ve seen from the side, he’s actually just as talented at collecting ruins, a process called scavenging, as he is at killing.

According to Da-jeong, she has the ability to find $100 bills in trash cans.

If my defender and I go out to collect frequently, we need to have defenders who can guard the area as much as our gaps.

He was able to contact Bang Jae-hyuk at a time when he was needed.

There is no need to hesitate.

All you have to do is bring Bang Jae-hyuk and his mother.

It was when I was thinking like that and trying to prepare for the trip.

“Genius.”

Bang Jae-hyuk said.

“Huh? What’s wrong, Senior Bang? Your knees hurt again?”

“I saw Moon-hee.”

Moonhee?

Is that a girl’s name?

While I was listening to the conversation without thinking much, I noticed a change in Cheon Yeong-jae’s face.

“Moonhee?”

For a brief moment, a distinct change appeared on the face of the man behind the cheerful mask, whose true intentions were difficult to read.

It’s pure surprise, joy, and regret.

Three emotions came to Cheon Yeong-jae’s face one after another, with a split-second interval between them.

“It was in the Gyeyang area. I saw him pass by when I was standing at the market there with my mother. I couldn’t have mistaken him. His ankle tattoo was exactly the same as mine.”

Cheon Yeong-jae didn’t give much of an answer to this question.

After the exchange, I asked Cheon Yeong-jae.

“Are you going to follow me?”

After hesitating for a moment, he looked straight at me and nodded.

*

The risk of mutations tends to be understated compared to monsters.

In reality, the harm caused by mutations is a joke compared to the harm caused by monsters.

But that’s only a story in terms of scale.

Assuming there is one monster and one mutation, the one that directly threatens human survival is the mutation.

Monsters that do not belong in this world and exist on the border between the living and the non-living world simply occupy the land and do not seek or desire food.

However, mutations and humans require food.

Most mutations recognize humans as food and actively target them for food.

Humans can also hunt and prey on mutations if they have firearms and the power of a group, but in an environment where such conditions are not created, humans are nothing more than easy prey for mutations.

The scariest thing about mutations isn’t just their large, strong bodies.

Their greatest weapon is the intelligence that has chased humans to the chin.

Intelligence comes with experience.

Mutants, with experience in countless killings, are as lethal as experienced soldiers.

“Why did that guy follow his senior?”

“Black”, who appeared in my area, is one of those guys.

Like “Gold,” who had developed a rapport with me in the past, he also had intelligence that was almost identical to that of a human.

That’s why he needs to be eliminated as quickly as possible.

The problem is that the guy is a pretty tricky mutation.

“That kid is on the level of the Three Divine Beasts.”

In the past, there was a named mutation in the Seoul area.

Things like Red, who was the reason we met, and the killer owl couple.

Most of them froze to death in the harsh cold wave, but they were a headache for the government, so much so that the Incheon government offered a large reward.

“There were the Seven Evil Things, the Five Wonders, the Three Gods, and the One.”

“What is Iljon?”

“Even that is a bit of a stretch. Several outposts were completely blown away after a radio transmission that some kind of unseen beast had appeared at the outposts on the outskirts. It wasn’t just a shabby place, but a place guarded by a platoon of fully armed soldiers fell in an instant.”

The one in charge of driving is Ha Tae-hoon.

This trip only brought hunters from Incheon.

Because they know the area best and in a sense, it’s their problem.

“wait for a sec.”

Ha Tae-hoon stopped the car and suddenly started backing up at full speed.

There is an ambush.

A corpse, not yet properly decomposed, lies on the road, and beyond the corpses oozing pus, a metal plate with fine spikes is visible.

It’s a type of trap that tears up tires.

As we backed up at full speed, a flash of light appeared in the forest, followed by gunfire.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I ducked before I even heard a gunshot.

In the case of diesel trucks, steel plates were added to the area where the engine compartment was.

It cannot be penetrated by most firearms.

However, there is no protection for the front windshield other than armored plates on the outside.

The story goes that if you’re unlucky, you’ll get shot in the eye and die.

Armor plates could have been placed here as well, but that was not done because reconnaissance was valued more than defensive power.

The windows need to be wide open so that you can see and respond in advance.

“You little shits!”

Even in the cargo hold where Cheon Yeong-jae repeatedly stops and brakes suddenly, he sticks to the main body like a leech and responds.

Bang! Tata ta tang!

Ting!

One bullet lodged in the lower body, but I didn’t care.

This could be said to be an advantage of electric vehicles.

After I got out to the safe area, I turned on my phone for a moment to check the saved map and explore other routes.

While I was detecting new paths, I finished the story I told earlier.

“That guy named Iljon. There were even rumors that he was Awaken.”

“Mutations are away?”

“It may be an absurd story, but there’s no other way to explain how a single beast could wipe out a defensive position guarded by regular soldiers one after another.”

“Hmm. Well. I haven’t seen any cases like that. Anyway, what about Samshinsu?”

“There was a cat, no, a leopard. It was probably bred by an individual without permission, and there were signs that it was walking around with a leash, but it was a human-like creature wearing real skin.”

It was a trivial conversation, but through this short conversation, I realized once again how battle-hardened Cheon Yeong-jae and Ha Tae-hoon are.

It’s the innocence of talking calmly as if nothing happened even after experiencing a situation where one could have died if they had only made a little mistake.

“The black one that showed up this time is a similar species. It probably lives in a place with few people, so it’s less well-known. If you just look at its cunning, it seems to be two steps ahead of that leopard.”

As Ha Tae-hoon said, the black guy who appeared in my territory is no ordinary guy.

With their excellent sense of smell, which is characteristic of felines, they are able to determine our location and position themselves with that location in mind.

The guy only shows up when he’s at least 1km away if there’s no obstacle between him and us.

If it were to appear at a distance below that, it would move very quickly between obstacles, and I was convinced that this monster had a lot more experience in one-on-one combat than I could have imagined, given the part where it would time itself out of sync while moving.

He avoids guns, but he doesn’t fear people with guns.

It is true that guns are scary weapons, but we must understand in our heads that they are not omnipotent.

As you can see from the part where he mercilessly kills a man like a ronin, the mutation is something that cannot coexist.

Must be killed.

But the reason I’ve left it alone until now is to make sure it’s dealt with.

Shooting without warning is the worst thing you can do.

Such a cunning beast does not allow a second chance and is persistent in seeking revenge.

Since animals do not know universal values ​​such as forgiveness and reconciliation like humans, there is no other way to resolve their grudge than death.

The only way to deal with Black I can think of is through long-range sniping.

So, you have to hit the vital spot with a single bullet from 1km away, which is the distance he considers safe.

It depends on how much Bang Jae-hyuk will do, but reputations usually don’t lie.

“······He was alive.”

In the silence, Ha Tae-hoon spoke in a low voice.

Rattling!

The car shook violently.

Because we entered an unpaved road to go between a broken road and a road.

After the body stabilized, I stared at Ha Tae-hoon.

Wearing a base cap, he continued to speak in a low voice, his tired eyes staring ahead.

“That’s what Youngjae’s girlfriend said.”

“It looks like it’s split?”

“uh.”

“Who got it? It must have been a woman.”

“I know right.”

“Why are you here?”

“That bastard Youngjae. He’s smart and takes care of his own business, but he acts like a little kid in front of women. He relieves the stress he gets from outside by whining to women.”

“Hoo.”

I didn’t know.

That friend of mine, who is on my side but still has some suspicious aspects, has that side to him.

Well, if a person only has one appearance, then their life probably wouldn’t be very interesting, right?

Rather than being fun, life itself may feel like a series of duties.

“What kind of woman is she?”

To my question, Ha Tae-hoon answered without a second of hesitation.

“It’s completely different from my younger brother Jeongho.”

Despite her cute appearance, Da-jeong isn’t very popular.

It’s because he treats me kindly but always tries to keep his distance from other people, and he has a cold aura that only those who have lived until now can see – to borrow Valentine’s words.

There was even speculation that it might not have been the black one but Da-jeong who killed the ronin who came to my territory yesterday.

At least it is a known fact that the drone that chased the man had a brick attached to it, and that the brick was gone when the drone returned.

“She was a bright woman.”

It seems that Cheon Yeong-jae’s ex-lover was a really bright woman.

When I see that cold-hearted Ha Tae-hoon faintly smiling just by thinking about it.

“She was always the kind of woman who brightened up her surroundings.”

In the distance, beyond the green jungle, scattered settlements with yellow hues are visible.

Today’s destination is Camp 73 of the Shelter.

“Hey! I went around and around and we’re already here!”

Cheon Yeong-jae seems to be in an unusually good mood.