Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 284



Only Krnovel

115. Happiness (3)

It is said that Cheon Yeong-jae’s old lover lives in a small settlement built on top of an old mountain fortress.

The roads and abandoned villages along the mountainside beneath the acid were covered in gray, and the gloomy songs of zombies filled the eerie realm in every abandoned house like a never-ending round.

“Is this it?”

Ha Tae-hoon said bluntly.

He is one of those who are dissatisfied with this operation.

That’s why I don’t plan on asking him to do anything dangerous or difficult.

“There used to be a lot of people living here. Do you see that apartment complex with the swans painted on it? Over 2,000 people made a living out of that apartment complex, using it as a fortress. But they all died, and as you can see, they turned into zombies.”

Bang Jae-hyuk is neutral.

He has no interest in rescuing Cheon Yeong-jae’s ex-lover, but he has no reason to oppose this matter.

He plans to take on the role of rear support along with Ha Tae-hoon.

It’s not like we can ask much of him since he has a disability in his legs.

There were other guests besides us on the ridge overlooking the village.

A vintage-looking Jeep was parked at the edge of the ridge with its engine off.

A familiar flag was fluttering on an elastic pole extending from the body of the car.

Somewhere a funny penguin.

Bang Jae-hyuk muttered as he saw the flag.

“Are you from Park Penguin’s side?”

A man and two boys were standing around the jeep.

They didn’t seem surprised to see us, as if they had been notified in advance.

A man approached us, leading two boys.

“Is that you? You’re going to the herb village.”

An ordinary appearance.

He’s a man you could see anywhere before the war.

But it’s not a problem that can be judged by just looking at the face.

I saw boys who I assumed were the man’s sons.

It’s true that I have some fear and caution, but at the same time, I don’t hide my curiosity and determination.

I raised two sons well in this perishing world.

It’s an amazing achievement.

“My name is Park Penguin. It’s funny, but what can I do? The world calls me that.”

The man politely held out a business card to us with both hands that appeared to be from before the war.

[Aram Hardware Shopping Center “Interior Estimate Consultation Welcome!” – Jin-gu Park]

“That’s the original name. Oh, don’t worry about that business card. It’s just a long-standing habit of mine. I don’t have many business cards left to give out. It’ll be fixed soon.”

Park Penguin looked at the gray land with his sons.

“Are you saying you want to go through there?”

“yes.”

Park Penguin patted his sons’ heads.

“Look carefully. These are the brave men who were once called Hunters.”

His two sons looked and were similar in size.

They are twins.

It is unclear whether the baseball team that chose twins as their mascot predicted the future or not, but it is a certain fact that twins have become more common in an era when children have become rare.

The media reported that the number of twins has increased as in vitro fertilization has increased, and in reality, strollers can be frequently found in supermarkets and on the streets.

Although there are so many twins, not many of them have kept their other half.

There were twins at school.

One died and the other left the battlefield.

“Can I watch from here?”

It appears that Park Penguin has received all of our personal information from the shelter.

It’s not like we have any great technology or anything like a copyright.

“Please do so.”

The operation began under the gaze of Park Penguin and his son.

The biggest challenge, of course, is the zombies.

There are so many zombies and they are blocking the vehicle’s path.

A small number of zombies are nothing more or less than a light warm-up for our hunters, but as the number of zombies increases, they become more vicious and ferocious, and for some unknown reason, they even seem to become stronger.

It’s like the feeling of the small amount of soul remaining in the dead body resonating.

It’s not a smart idea to drive your vehicle into a street full of zombies.

However, it is not possible to take a detour and go on an unpaved road.

There is only one road leading to the settlement where Cheon Yeong-jae’s ex-girlfriend is located, and that road can only be accessed through the village.

If it were a buggy, it would just ignore everything and go straight up the steep slope, but there is a limit to what a cheap 1-ton electric truck can do.

Besides, we have Bang Jae-hyuk, who has a disability in his legs, and his old mother.

You can’t lose your vehicle.

We need to find another way.

It may not be a very smart idea to enter a city overrun by large zombies without a vehicle, but as Jang Gi-yeong says, there is no place a hunter cannot go.

The school developed several methods of moving around in a zombie-infested urban environment.

One of them is “Parkour Route”.

It is a method of making a path by moving through narrow railings, between rooftops, steep slopes, and various terrains that are difficult for humans to access, and creating a route that cannot be blocked by large numbers of zombies.

The biggest problem with parkour routes is the individual’s physique.

Everyone has different jumping ability and agility.

Some people can perform acrobatic movements that border on acrobatics, while others struggle with even basic tumbling.

Our Hunters tend to value a heart of steel and precise, rapid shooting as the highest values, while neglecting the rest of the abilities.

That doesn’t mean I neglect my personal physique.

When I was in school, there were obstacle course tests for parkour routes and such, and quite a few students had a hard time.

I passed the test above average and Kim Da-ram, like a human gorilla, made up for the points he had missed elsewhere, but my old colleague Kang Han-min was not like that.

He always failed obstacle course tests and was scolded harshly by Jang Gi-yeong.

The scolding and bullying was so severe that there was even talk among the students that Jang Gi-yeong tried to kill Kang Han-min through an obstacle course test.

In the sense that he made them take that dangerous test over and over again, even though he knew they couldn’t do it.

Even though he knew that a slip could lead to death or injury from a fall and that fatigue significantly increased the risk, Jang Gi-yeong pushed Kang Han-min harshly.

People have been gossiping that Jang Gi-yeong had at least a passing intention to kill Kang Han-min, but I think differently.

There probably wasn’t any intention to kill.

Even though I was aware that I might die.

Jang Ki-young is not a good person, but he is not someone who is so full of malice.

Like it or not, that person is my teacher.

“let’s go.”

The first target is a narrow building.

The building, which must have been a precious source of pride to some, does not even have the usual for-lease sign, and is now littered with dust, broken glass, and a few skeletal corpses.

Near the rooftop, a corpse lies lying, seemingly hanged.

The presumption that he was hanged was based on the broken rope that was tied to the gallows-style on the pole.

Woo— Woo—-

A sinister chorus of zombies is heard beneath your feet.

It’s a sound made while sleeping.

There is no immediate danger as long as you don’t make any noise that would provoke them, like gunshots.

Wheeeeeeeeing–

As we stand on the rooftop, a drone greets us overhead.

This is Ha Tae-hoon’s drone.

Ha Tae-hoon’s quiet voice is heard from the communicator.

“It’s still quiet.”

I stood on the rooftop and looked at the building across the street.

“this.”

Cheon Yeong-jae mutters with a frown.

“You can go from this side. But it seems like it would be difficult to come from that side to this side.”

“It’s not difficult.”

Low buildings must have fire escapes.

This is a legally mandated requirement.

The building owner is not a swindler and would rather install a cheap product than be beaten by various regulations including the fire code.

These reinforcements, however, are rarely used.

“I found it.”

After checking the strength of the rope, he hung it on a fixed pole and used it as a rope to jump to the roof of the neighboring building with Cheon Yeong-jae.

Even if this side is at a higher elevation, the distance is more than 4.5m.

Even if you try to run, if you miss your step you will fall 7 floors.

This isn’t a professor, but even a super skeleton would kill you.

Bam!

I landed lightly with Cheon Yeong-jae.

Two rigid fixed ropes were installed between the buildings.

Moving forward, creating our own path and route.

This is the core of the parkour route.

Hoping we would never have to climb this rope again, we moved on to find the next parkour route.

Wheeeeeeeeing—

While we were creating and modifying routes and working on our own established routes, Ha Tae-hoon’s drone was busy flying around, warning us of threats lurking everywhere.

This is the advantage of team play.

Having the help of colleagues who have solid strengths gives me less to think about, and with less to think about, I can focus more on my work.

We have overcome the most difficult obstacle, Zombie Town, by pioneering a path that is not so easy.

“This is the end.”

Even for a hunter, climbing stairs, jumping, and walking through narrow gaps where you can’t even move your feet will leave you breathless.

I also sweated for the first time in a while.

But now it’s halfway there.

“This is Ha Tae-hoon. I will try to get the vehicle as close to you as possible.”

I looked around as the truck detoured through the town to a point where it could provide support.

Sure enough, everything was dyed gray.

I saw the vines at the end of August.

The vines curled endlessly inward in a right angle, a shape not permitted by nature.

There are also luminous bodies that emit a gloomy gray-white light here and there, like fruits.

Many scientists have tried to figure out what it is, but all have failed.

Because the moment the fruit was dismantled, it left behind not even the minimum sample required by scientists.

A crack is something that humans cannot explain.

But we, those who have encountered the crack, each vaguely understand the nature of the crack.

I saw a flower of a form I had never seen before, blooming at the end of a stem that was endlessly curled at right angles above the bone.

The crack is a life in itself.

Just as the red and white blood cells in our bodies, which have souls, have no soul or thoughts but only a purpose, the disasters that the cracks pour out also have only a purpose.

“Senior Park.”

Cheon Yeong-jae opened his mouth, looking up at another ridge.

“Well, it may be a bit early, but thank you.”

“It’s too early to be thankful.”

“I know that, but.”

“No, monsters aren’t the problem.”

I looked straight at Cheon Yeong-jae.

“The real question is what comes next.”

“······.”

“It would be better to prepare yourself mentally in advance.”

There’s a necromancer type on that ridge.

We need to kill him as quickly as possible.

Before he awakens the town’s minions – the zombies – and washes us away in a wave of corpses.

The Necromancer type is not an active builder like the Spider type.

He mostly uses facilities already built by humans as his base and likes to use the tactic of setting up a human curtain like the humans he commands.

However, as it is a primitive type that first appeared, it has many vulnerabilities.

“I see it over there.”

Behind a cheap motel building, a grotesque, human-like statue stands motionless amidst a sloppy, gray cobweb.

It’s a necromancer type.

There are at least a hundred zombies staggering around there.

“That’s a considerable number.”

“okay.”

It’s so difficult to approach.

There is a way to break through by force, but if you break through that number one by one, the necromancer will summon the village’s legion before you even get halfway through.

Sniping is pointless.

Monsters do not have a physiological activity called sleep.

Even though it appears to be sleeping to a human eye, it is not sleeping.

All it does is stain the land gray with its disgusting, crack-beyond corruption.

Hoping that it will soon become a lighthouse for its people.

“hmm.”

In fact, in a situation like this, even the world’s best professors have no clear solution.

It feels like I’ve been catching them too easily, but in reality, the Necromancer type is more difficult to deal with than the small types once they’re well established.

Well, back when we were receiving support from the Chinese military, the artillery and aviation units would take care of it if we just called their coordinates, but in this day and age, we can’t expect that kind of luxury.

“Let’s take a detour.”

There is no need to fight monsters rashly.

It’s not too late to do this after you get to your destination, confirm that the VIP is there, and make sure there’s no way to get the VIP out other than by vehicle.

It was the same in the Chinese era.

I’ve always considered fighting monsters to be a last resort, unless the monster itself is the goal.

He hates monsters more than anyone else, but that’s because he knows how dangerous they are.

From a distance it looked like a dense forest, but once you climb the mountain it was difficult to find any large trees that could be an obstacle.

It appears to have been consumed as firewood to survive the harsh winter last year.

The slope is steep, but if you use the cut off stump as support, you will be able to reach the next ridge without difficulty.

After a short break to quench my thirst with water from the water bottle and share a sugar-sweetened nutrition bar with Cheon Yeong-jae, I started climbing the slope again.

The drone didn’t follow us.

This is because you may provoke the monster for no reason, and if the monster exerts its power, you may lose a valuable reconnaissance asset.

Even without the eyes of a drone, we have the eyes of Cheon Yeong-jae.

This journey is for him.

“I don’t know exactly what you heard from Senior Bang.”

Cheon Yeong-jae said in a slightly out of breath voice.

“We got along pretty well.”

He laughed.

“Did you see the kids earlier? That penguin.”

He just nodded without responding.

In front of a short obstacle close to the cliff, we held on to the branches of small trees growing on the slope and moved forward.

He went up first, grabbed Cheon Yeong-jae’s hand, and pulled him up.

“Maybe I can be a father like Park Penguin.”

I asked, feeling his rather heavy weight pressing against my arm.

“what?”

“I was pregnant when we broke up.”

“······And yet you broke up?”

“Who knows? There might be children growing up there that I don’t know about.”

Cheon Yeong-jae expressed his subtle expectations.

I don’t think so.

Maybe it was something that even Cheon Yeong-jae himself did not expect.

However, the hope that a past lover is nearby and that they will meet again has risen like a zombie down there, a hope that died long ago.

“Don’t expect too much.”

“I don’t have any particular expectations. It could happen, I guess.”

Contrary to what he says, Cheon Yeong-jae is excited.

His eyes sparkled.

“There are people!”

I spoke calmly, stopping him from getting ahead of me.

“Take your time. Don’t rush.”

He stared at me.

It’s the kind of gaze I often see, as if testing me.

I also just stared at him quietly.

This guy has tried to test me several times over the years.

At least it showed that kind of nuance.

It’s my turn now.

There are no exceptions to verification.

I will watch him and test him.

Smoke can be seen rising beyond the gloomy gray-white colors.

I hid behind a bush and observed the ashen villa complex through my telescope.

There are things wandering around the ruins, with faded paint and exposed steel frames.

He is a person.