Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 283



Only Krnovel

115. Happiness (2)

The shelter system was designed from the beginning as a tool of exploitation by the government to more quickly select and extract human resources, especially the newly emerging Awaken.

The method of exploiting the unique Korean national character of unity and loyalty to the government and following it well was successful enough to gather enough young Awakens in Jeju.

The shelter system completely collapsed when the Incheon government abandoned its responsibility and fled.

The military group under the Kim Byeong-cheol regime initially pretended to value the autonomy of the shelters, but in reality they greatly restrained the shelter system and actually used various methods to dismantle the shelter system.

However, after repeated learning, the shelter residents realized that the upper echelons would no longer take responsibility for their lives, and they began to shun Kim Byeong-cheol. In fact, many of the refugees who had come to Seoul returned to the shelter system and dispersed to Incheon or the suburbs of Seoul, centered around the shelter director whom they had elected as their leader.

Shelter No. 73 is one of those places.

But it seems that there has been a change in the shelter system without us knowing.

“Huh? That?”

Ha Tae-hoon, who was behind the wheel, saw the flag fluttering in front of the shelter camp.

One is an old flag with the printed number 73 on it.

Judging from the design and material, it appears to have been made during the time when the government was still in power.

Next to the 73 flag, there is another flag waving with a crude, hand-drawn, ridiculous penguin on it.

“Isn’t that the Park Penguin flag?”

Soldiers on watchtowers towering throughout the fenced-off refugee camps watch us.

Ha Tae-hoon spoke into the walkie-talkie.

“This is the vehicle that requested a visit earlier. Please confirm the vehicle number.”

After a while, a heavy iron door, probably taken from a large factory, opened.

Before the door even opened, Cheon Yeong-jae jumped out first and ran toward the open gap in the door.

Ha Tae-hoon said while looking at that scene.

“It’s definitely different than usual.”

“okay.”

It’s definitely different.

If it were the usual Cheon Yeong-jae, he would have noticed the ambush and informed Ha Tae-hoon before he even noticed it.

Cheon Yeong-jae is now mentally unstable to the point where he cannot properly use his sensing abilities.

It must be that important of an issue.

While Cheon Yeong-jae was talking to the men who approached him with guns, we slowly entered the camp.

As we parked our car in the designated spot, Cheon Yeong-jae walked towards us again.

“Hey, it looks like it went under the Park Penguin?”

According to Cheon Yeong-jae, in a reality that is getting worse, it seems that even among shelters, there are mergers and absorptions that are starting to occur.

There are four strong shelters at the center, and the one chosen by the 73rd shelter is the 13th shelter with a leader known as Park Penguin.

Park Penguin has already recruited five more shelters to his faction.

At least 20,000 people are now under the name of Park Penguin.

“······Perhaps we are witnessing the founding of a nation.”

I agree with what Ha Tae-hoon said to some extent.

The reason I only half agree is because, even among pessimistic doomsayers, I am particularly pessimistic and believe that most of them will die out before they can even establish their kingdom.

Wars, mutations, natural disasters. All sorts of disasters have befallen us, but the real disaster has not even begun yet.

It’s a monster. It’s the natural enemy of mankind.

Bang Jae-hyuk’s tent was in the middle of a settlement made of tarpaulins, wood, and other miscellaneous plastics.

An older woman was carving something in front of her tent.

Looking closely, it appears to be a stem of some kind of grass.

Maybe it’s a sweet potato stem.

Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae greeted her.

“Hello. I’m Park Gyu. I’m Jaehyuk’s mother.”

Bang Jae-hyuk’s mother had a blunt appearance that seemed more stubborn than kind, but she didn’t have the so-called “scan” that seemed to judge people, and she didn’t have any loudmouths.

“i look forward to.”

He seems like a quiet and strong-willed person.

Not long after exchanging greetings, Bang Jae-hyuk came out of the tent.

He came out with a slight limp, wearing a steel and plastic walker on his left knee, and nodded when he saw me.

We left and exchanged brief greetings.

“Life here isn’t bad. But I guess I’ll feel more comfortable with my colleagues. To be honest, the world these days is getting worse by the day.”

The downfall of the Legion had immediate negative effects throughout the metropolitan area.

Armed deserters, small groups of deserters, and even company-sized groups of deserters ransacked refugee camps wherever they came across and made moves to take control of the camps themselves.

As the refugees were no longer easy to deal with, groups of incompetent deserters were rounded up and hung on the gallows, but it seems that some refugee camps fell into the hands of vicious soldiers.

Just like deserters, fanatics are also becoming more and more rampant, secretly spreading their tainted ideas to people everywhere.

“Anyway, I’m glad I got to work with Senior Park Gyu. I was worried that someone as crippled as me wouldn’t be accepted.”

“I need you to come and catch a cat for me.”

“cat?”

“Oh. He’s a very cunning guy.”

“I think I know what type you are.”

Since we were planning to leave for the day, we kept the conversation to a minimum and borrowed a shared cart from the shelter to load Bang Jae-hyeok’s luggage onto the truck.

“hmm.”

I don’t really intend to spit on other people’s luggage, but Bang Jae-hyuk had a strangely large number of shoes in his luggage.

And those are colorful sneakers, too.

Bang Jae-hyuk noticed my gaze and came over, smiling broadly.

“It’s Naisa Air Cooking. It was brought in through the last overseas customs clearance before the war broke out.”

“okay?”

“This is Jordan 13 God Game Retro 2019. This is Saloman XT18.”

“?”

I don’t really care about shoes, but when I look at Bang Jae-hyuk’s eyes and expression when he looks at his carefully maintained shoes, I can easily tell how much he cherishes his shoes.

But so what?

“Okay, then stop showing off your sneakers and put them away.”

“If there’s anything you like, tell me. I’ll give it to you as a special gift.”

“Really? Then let’s take a look later.”

Actually, sneakers aren’t the problem right now.

There are already important issues waiting to be resolved before we even get here, issues that are incomparable to things like shoes.

“Cheon Yeong-jae, it looks like you saw your girlfriend.”

This is it.

“Oh, I forgot.”

From Bang Jae-hyuk’s evasive gaze, I had a strong feeling that this guy wouldn’t like that topic very much.

“Isn’t that important?”

“It’s important, but······.”

Bang Jae-hyuk loaded a couple of boxes of sneakers onto the cart with a bitter smile.

“That’s where things got tricky.”

Bang Jae-hyuk glanced at Cheon Yeong-jae, who was cheerfully moving his luggage behind him, and whispered to me.

“That woman hung out with drug dealers.”

“······.”

“He says he would never do that, but what can I do? The place he lives in is full of addicts.”

Bam-

A box of sneakers with a long name starting with “Nisa” lost its balance and rolled into a haphazardly stacked pile of luggage.

“And this is something we just talk about between ourselves, but no matter how nicely you package it, it’s not like we broke up on good terms.”

“I heard something along those lines. How did they split up?”

“The woman felt disillusioned.”

“okay?”

“When she saw Youngjae, she was attracted to him because he was manly and had a refreshing personality, but when they actually started dating, she realized that he was overly dependent on her and whined. Even though she wasn’t his mother. I think that’s why she lost interest in him.”

Bang Jae-hyuk sighed and pulled the cart.

Squeak-

Bang Jae-hyuk’s voice could be heard mixed in with the old, friction-making wheels of the cart rolling by.

“Honestly, I brought it up because I thought he wouldn’t come to pick me up if I didn’t sell him.”

“······.”

“There’s nothing good about meeting you. Besides.”

The wheel that had been rolling for a moment stopped.

Bang Jae-hyuk turned his head towards the north.

“It’s difficult to meet in reality.”

“why?”

“Suddenly, the northern area was eroded and monsters appeared. I heard that something like a giant appeared and fell down with a thud, and then the area was eroded, but that’s something I’ve never seen or heard of. Anyway, out of nowhere, a large area was eroded and monsters appeared.”

“What kind?”

“It must be a small species.”

“Spider? Or.”

“Necromancer type.”

“The servant?”

“Very many.”

“That would be a problem.”

“The bigger problem is that the suddenly eroded area includes a village full of drug addicts.”

“Does that woman live there?”

Bang Jae-hyuk nodded with a deep sigh.

“······.”

To sum it up in one word, it’s a fucking mess.

Going to rescue them is a pain, and even if you do rescue them, you can’t expect good results.

I classify drugs as being as dangerous as monsters.

If monsters destroy the human realm itself, drugs destroy the human soul itself.

Administering the necessary dose under the supervision of a doctor for unbearable pain or surgery is the original function of drugs, but for addicts, the doctor’s prescription is a good thing.

They give you just enough medication to feel good and not die from an overdose.

Well, you could argue that they’re well-intentioned drug addicts, as long as they’re destroying themselves.

Most addicts bring destruction upon themselves and their loved ones.

The forms of destruction may vary, but none of them escape the larger framework of a predestined tragedy.

What Bang Jae-hyuk is worried about is probably the current state of Cheon Yeong-jae’s ex-lover, who has probably changed significantly.

“When I saw him, he was fine. He was definitely fine. He wasn’t skinny or sunken in. But what should I say? Maybe it was because I saw him from far away. He didn’t look completely fine. I don’t know how to explain it, but there was something like that.”

It can have a significant impact, both positively and negatively, when someone you know becomes a completely different person.

Of course, there is a good chance that the woman named Moon-hee did not use drugs.

Because human will often shows a nobility that easily surpasses our narrow-mindedness.

“What are you talking about?”

Cheon Yeong-jae approaches.

The expression is not good.

I guess he overheard our conversation, probably starting in the middle of it.

I’m sure you’ve heard some, if not all.

Bang Jae-hyuk hesitated for a moment and looked at my face.

After thinking for a moment, he said to Bang Jae-hyuk.

“Tell me the truth.”

Bang Jae-hyuk hesitates.

This is not a matter to hesitate over.

This is the most basic issue in a relationship between colleagues: trust.

Said it clearly.

“I think this is a story that Cheon Yeong-jae needs to hear.”

Cheon Yeong-jae’s face, which had never lost its smile since he came to the shelter, appears to be quickly drying up.

It’s not a good story.

Rather, it is a story that may have a negative impact on one’s psychology.

Maybe this will be the reason why he leaves us.

But I think even that is better than having trust shattered.

“what’s the matter?”

Cheon Yeong-jae asked in a complicated, subdued voice, unlike usual.

Bang Jae-hyuk looks embarrassed.

Because it’s actually a heavy topic and a depressing story.

He stood next to Bang Jae-hyuk.

I didn’t say a word, but by doing so I wanted to give strength to Bang Jae-hyuk.

I don’t know if my intention was conveyed or not, but Bang Jae-hyuk recounted to me the story he told me while loosening and tightening the screws on the walking aid attached to his left knee, in a slightly longer and more detailed version.

“······Moon-hee is on the mountain. Together with Yoon-seong-jae.”

The biggest difference added in that changed version is that Cheon Yeong-jae’s ex-lover’s man is treated with a bigger and more important role than I heard.

“You haven’t broken up with Yoon Sungjae yet, right?”

Cheon Yeong-jae asked in a suppressed tone, suppressing his emotions that seemed ready to explode at any moment.

“Maybe. We’ve been hanging out together the whole time. We were hanging out together the last time I saw you at the market.”

Cheon Yeong-jae dropped both arms.

He squatted down with his back against the cart, as if he didn’t even have the strength to stand.

When Bang Jae-hyuk offered him a cigarette, he took it in his mouth without any resistance.

Before the war, cigarettes made of crude tobacco wrapped in paper rather than filtered ones sent a foul smell and acrid smoke skyward.

Bang Jae-hyuk gave me a hint.

It means leave it alone.

After putting some distance between himself and Cheon Yeong-jae, Bang Jae-hyeok spoke.

“Well. I don’t know. Did I really need to say that? Even human emotions have an expiration date. As for Youngjae, that expiration date is almost over.”

“It could be emotions in a can.”

“That may be true. But how can we know if the packaging is tin or plastic?”

“Cheon Yeong-jae. That guy doesn’t trust people easily. What on earth happened?”

Bang Jae-hyuk offered me the crude cigarettes that he had also offered to Cheon Yeong-jae, but I declined.

It may be that I don’t like smoking, but I also think that smoking at this point in time, when drugs have become the cause of all problems, is a contradictory act.

“You said we broke up on bad terms, right?”

“okay.”

“Youngjae didn’t let that woman go. He told her to break up, but she didn’t let him go. He just kept kneeling and didn’t move. He probably knew that. That the woman’s heart was completely gone and there was no turning back. But he didn’t want to admit it.”

“······You should have just done beatboxing.”

“How did you know?”

Bang Jae-hyuk suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked at me.

“what?”

“Song Moon-hee and Chae-gan Yoon Seong-jae are former beatbox champions.”

“······okay?”

“Oh, you just did that. Anyway, since it seemed like Youngjae wouldn’t let Song Moonhee go, Yoon Sungjae intervened. After Youngjae knelt down and protested for five days, he joined forces with the big guys and knocked Youngjae down.”

“Chun Young-jae, you couldn’t even eat properly back then?”

“uh.”

If we look at it from a completely neutral perspective, the villain in the story is Cheon Yeong-jae.

In that cross-section that only cuts out a part of the long story called life, Cheon Yeong-jae is clearly a villain who forcibly oppressed a woman named Song Moon-hee and caused her pain.

On the other hand, Yoon Seong-jae is a good character who has the same position as a prince in a fairy tale.

He joined forces with others who shared the same views and subdued and drove out the tyrant Cheon Yeong-jae, thereby rescuing Song Mun-hee.

But unlike fairy tales, the story of life continues without interruption and changes its flow in a myriad of ways.

“They all wanted to kill Cheon Yeong-jae because they knew he was a scary guy. But at the time, murder was a serious crime punishable by death. There were police officers too. Still, they were afraid of the consequences and tried to at least cut off his tendons. At that time, Song Moon-hee desperately tried to stop him. Cheon Yeong-jae left the shelter after writing a pledge not to approach Song Moon-hee again.”

“When did this happen? It seems like a long time ago.”

“It happened during my time at the Seoul Shelter.”

I looked at the time.

Morning, close to noon.

“What are you going to do?”

Bang Jae-hyuk asks.

“The decision is made by Cheon Yeong-jae.”

I walked slowly and approached Cheon Yeong-jae, who was sitting with his back against the cart.

He looked up at me.

I asked him.

“Are you going to go save me?”

Cheon Yeong-jae nodded.

“good.”

I turned around and called out to Bang Jae-hyuk and Ha Tae-hoon who were watching us.

Cheon Yeong-jae looked at me with a puzzled face.

“What are you doing?”

“Why? Don’t you need our help?”

He asked with a faint smile.

“That, that!”

“I only ask once.”

Cheon Yeong-jae hesitated for a moment, then smiled bitterly and spoke grumblingly.

“Really. This guy. I told you I can’t stop him.”

It wasn’t done with particularly good intentions.

This is a fact that must be deeply engraved.

So that I don’t fall into the bottomless well of goodwill.

That’s why I ask.

“There’s just one thing I need to make clear.”

“······what?”

He spoke calmly while looking at Cheon Yeong-jae, who was still unable to escape from the ups and downs of his emotions.

“If that woman is alive, I will decide whether to accept her or not.”

It is not dogmatic.

I’m saying that I will take responsibility for everything.