Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 296



Only Krnovel

119. Tools (3)

Not everyone tells the truth.

The truth becomes even more ambiguous, especially when it is a battlefield where life and death intersect.

Because even what the speaker believes to be true and says is likely not true.

“It’s true. It’s a monster. They brought a monster with them?”

The man who claimed to have seen the monster had dilated pupils and occasionally trembled violently.

It looks like you’ve been taking stimulants.

The intentions may be pure, but the man’s words lack credibility.

In this case, cross validation is performed.

If there is only one survivor, it may not be a problem, but if there are several, you should check them all.

However, this cross-validation does not necessarily give the correct answer.

“The fanatic brought the monster. I saw it too.”

“It wasn’t so much that he dragged me here as that he brought me here. It was more like he was giving orders.”

“It’s true that I brought them. I hid them as soon as I saw them.”

Madness is easily contagious on the battlefield.

However, it is also noteworthy that the majority of witnesses did not take stimulants and their statements were consistent.

“My name is Kwon Chan-young.”

The person currently leading the complex is a young doctor named Kwon Chan-young.

There were still vivid red stains of blood here and there on the doctor’s gown, which had turned yellow.

He is the best in both health and mental condition of anyone I’ve met here.

I asked the question with the expectation that it would confirm the truth.

“Did the fanatic really move the monster?”

Kwon Chan-young was lost in thought.

“It’s true that we came together. That’s for sure. But I’ve never seen a fanatic give orders or anything like that. But we went back together. We burned down our complex as if it were nothing and went back with the fanatics.”

It’s an unbelievable story.

But when the same statement comes out of so many different people’s mouths, we should at least be prepared to accept it.

Still, we humans know nothing about monsters.

We must not forget that point.

The point is that what we know may be wrong.

Defender gave Kwon Chan-young a small gift.

Alcohol, cigarettes, and ammunition.

In exchange for the gift, the Defender asked about the internal helper he had agreed to contact.

Perhaps because of the gift, Kwon Chan-young tried to answer properly even in the midst of confusion.

“Lee Soo-chil fought bravely and died. He was trying to kill the believer who was controlling the monster next to the monster, but he died in the reflection field. That believer was also Awaken.”

Kwon Chan-young then talked about fanatics.

“······They want children. They especially try to take away children who are eligible for Awakening. No one knows what they do with them, but everyone here knows that none of the children they take have ever returned.”

I don’t believe in feng shui, but I guess there is such a thing as geomancy.

If you look at the fanatics who have settled around the docks, they are doing similar things to Woo Min-hee, who set up a research lab around there.

The fanatic sent messengers to surrounding communities, asking for children, and if there were no children, for young women who could bear children.

Danji had been suffering from the fanatic’s demands for a long time, and although she had handed over many children, the fanatic was never satisfied.

If you give one, they ask for two, and if you give two, they ask for all.

“Everyone was against it. They thought that if we fought them, only our neighbors would benefit. The general opinion was that we should just hand over the children to reduce the number of people.”

Kwon Chan-young sat down on the floor weakly and shook his head.

“It was just bullshit. It was right to fight.”

Then a small, middle-aged man who had been watching us from behind spoke in a sharp voice.

“Fighting doesn’t solve anything. This is the result of fighting!”

It seems like you don’t like Kwon Chan-young’s comments.

Kwon Chan-young pretended not to hear, but the man continued to speak in a tone that seemed to be defending himself.

“I’ve been able to hold out until now because I didn’t fight. I can still complain while I’m still alive! What do you think you know when you don’t even know what’s shit or what’s soybean paste?”

I looked at the defender.

There is nothing more to be gained here.

The defender sighed and looked around.

“It’s not a good situation to leave your car in.”

“then?”

“I think it would be better to go right up to the front and leave it there.”

“Would that be good?”

It doesn’t look like we’ll get the oil we need here.

Still, since I’ve identified several forces while coming here, I guess I can barter with one of them.

It’s almost time to leave here.

It was Defender who was in charge of saying goodbye.

“Then let’s go now. We would like to help, but as you know, things are not going well here either.”

“No. Be careful.”

The Defender headed towards the car first.

I looked around.

High-rise apartments lined up like a folding screen, and a ruined park spread out on the ground below.

How many people lived here before the war?

It would probably have been a happy life.

But after just a little while, there won’t be any people in this vast complex.

I let out a shallow sigh and followed the Defender.

Kwon Chan-young looked at his bloody, rubber-gloved hands and muttered sadly.

“······If only there was PaleNet.”

I don’t really have any sympathy for this group.

A common sight in the Age of Destruction.

It is a very natural process in which humanity, condemned to destruction, disappears.

But the three-syllable word that Kwon Chan-young uttered struck a chord in my heart.

“Palenet?”

I spoke to Kwon Chan-young.

At the sudden question, Kwon Chan-young looked at me with a bit of surprise even though he was tired.

I looked at him and asked the question I had prepared.

“By any chance, that Palenet thing? Was it made by Jonnaenon?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you know me, Jonnaenon?”

“Oh, by the way, there was an administrator with that nickname before PaleNet went down. Why is he displaying his nickname so big?”

“ah······!!”

also.

People miss PaleNet and John Nae-non.

I asked a question just to make sure.

“Would things have been different if there had been a failnet?”

At this, Kwon Chan-young nodded to me with a confident expression on his face.

“Palenet may be messy and chaotic, but it could serve as a medium to connect people who are far apart, right?”

Kwon Chan-young stared at the old cell phone screen that could no longer hold anything with a bitter smile.

“······There is nothing now. Nothing.”

“······.”

I left him behind and got into the car.

The defender asked.

“What were you talking about?”

“Just. Some trivial internet talk.”

It’s not all petty stuff.

This is an important story.

Maybe as much as the teacher I am trying to find now.

*

The layout of the Busan buildings, the ruins left behind from wartime destruction, the noisy tents standing everywhere, and the endless rolling West Sea.

The pier I visited after a long time didn’t look much different from when I stayed at Hunter Street for a while or when I went to block Emgu and Baek Seung-hyun’s escape.

It’s a sad thing.

It’s a landscape I clearly know, but there’s not a single person I know in it.

Now there are no more people filling the docks, no arrogant and haughty government agents, and no more my junior Woo Min-hee.

According to the Defender’s information, all that’s left on the dock are zombies and fanatics.

When the Defender finally stopped at the docks, no monsters were found, but people only mentioned a cultist who was dragging a monster around.

I’ve worked with Defender several times.

Although they are not a team, they can confirm each other’s intentions with just a brief exchange of glances and hand signals.

The most valuable asset of all is trust.

Both I and Defender trust each other.

The Defender went out to scout first.

Although I am disappointed by his occasional display of creepy temperament, I still find it good to see him taking the lead.

I repeat, Defender is a very good hunter.

The Hunter’s abilities are general, but he has several specialties that are superior to mine, such as one-on-one combat, gathering, reconnaissance, and survival skills.

Darkness is the domain of zombies, but there are things more dangerous than zombies, so we decided to wait until night to be active.

Soon the Defender returned from reconnaissance.

“The number of zombies has decreased since I was there. It’s not like they were torn in half, they’ve almost been annihilated.”

“This must be the work of a fanatic.”

“maybe.”

Zombies were a shield that protected the cultists from the Legion faction, but now that the Legion faction has collapsed, they are nothing more than a nuisance and a pest.

Under the rising moon, we held our breath for a while and watched the movements of the pier.

Due to the nature of the time of night, we cannot obtain much information through our eyes, but sounds often inform us of what is happening here.

The most frequently heard sound is that of insects.

No matter how gloomy the zombie’s cries are, they become infinitely shabby when faced with the chorus of grasshoppers longing for fall.

I waited for the various sounds to be heard beyond the crickets that were playing as background music.

“Skeleton.”

The defenders lying face down next to each other opened their mouths.

It looks like you have some business to attend to.

I answered with some determination.

“What’s going on?”

“That’s what my brother said.”

“uh.”

“Why? It’s not your taste.”

I was wondering what it was.

“Your younger brother.”

“huh.”

It’s a matter of taste.

She’s beautiful, has old friends, and is a bright woman, at least to me.

There is no reason for a man to refuse.

But what should I say?

Should I say it’s different?

An essential, almost rejection-like feeling of being different from me blocks me.

“what.”

I looked at the Defender with a faint smile.

Still a beautiful face.

That face is waiting only for my answer.

“Are you really trying to make me your master?”

“It would be good if you could do it.”

“······It’s coming out pretty strong.”

Unlike me who smiles, Defender has no expression.

That’s how serious it is.

Likewise, he wiped the smile off his face and thought for a moment.

“Isn’t that it?”

“?”

“The gentleman we are looking for now. Instructor Jang Gi-yeong.”

“To me, he’s the principal.”

“Do you know how much effort that gentleman put into getting me married, or more precisely, having a child with me?”

As expected from a hunter from the school, Defender quickly understood the historical background behind my words.

“Oh, what was that? Was it the Hunter II Plan? To have excellent hunters have children quickly?”

To be exact, it’s not a plan to breed excellent hunters, but rather part of a study to see what effect our bodies, contaminated by rifts and frequently in contact with monsters, have on the next generation.

Either way, Jang Gi-yeong’s intentions were very obvious.

“How many times has that gentleman tried to set me up with him?”

“I’ve never heard of this before.”

“The Kim Da-ram you know was also that candidate.”

“really······?”

Even the world’s best psychopath defender’s expression changes when Kim Da-ram’s story comes up.

How much should I talk about?

“Kim Da-ram himself is keeping his mouth shut, but there is a way to confirm everything. Someone else told me that Kim Da-ram was called by Jang Ki-young before he came to be my first team member.”

“Are you saying that Jang Ki-young sent Team Leader Kim Da-ram to Skeleton, or rather, to the professor?”

“It’s only a guess, but it’s highly likely.”

“This is. Really. If Hunter! Apocalypse! existed, it would be a permanent popular post level?”

“Hmm, is that right?”

Actually, it’s not that big of a deal.

Neither Kim Da-ram nor I had any interest in each other.

Regardless of gender, it was a relationship that seemed fixed from the beginning as a team leader and subordinate.

To be more honest, I don’t like women like Kim Da-ram who are materialistic, stubborn, and scary like a gorilla.

Looking at Kim Da-ram’s current disgrace, it seems I had insight in the past as well.

“It’s not just Kim Da-ram. Woo Min-hee, who was here, was also one of the candidates to match up with Jang Ki-young.”

“That’s a bit hard to believe.”

“Woo Min-hee was an attempted murder. However, it is true that many of the girls from my school who are dead in China or whose whereabouts are unknown were intentionally assigned to me as part of Jang Ki-young’s plan.”

The fact that the percentage of women on my team is significantly higher than on other teams supports that guess.

Including support personnel, the figure was between 20% and 60%.

But at that time, professors were tools for only one purpose.

Just to kill monsters.

“······With such experience, would I be able to easily give in to a beautiful woman next to me?”

The defender snickered.

“It’s not easy.”

“Yeah. It’s not easy.”

“Skeleton looks easy.”

“Skeletons aren’t that easy.”

We were joking around, but then we kept our mouths shut as if we had made a promise.

The sound of the waves crashing echoed hollowly across the moonlit pier.

Bang!

The shape of the sound is blurred by the distance, so it is hard to be certain, but it is the sound of a blunt object striking a human body, especially the head.

The reason I remember this sound is because I have heard countless times that angry Chinese soldiers would line up rebels and kill them by putting plastic bags over their heads because they didn’t want to waste bullets, or by smashing the rebels’ heads with a blunt object they called a Ruyi Bang, which was used to kill zombies.

“He is a fanatic.”

Soon we could spot our enemies revealing themselves under the moonlight.

The sect is different from the ones in Wonju in that they are dressed in ordinary clothes, but they are all wearing white badges that look like those worn by politicians running for election.

There were five of them. Except for the cultist with the shotgun, they were all carrying heavy blunt weapons. They were strolling down the street as if they were taking a walk, crushing the heads of staggering zombies with their blunt weapons.

“Hahahaha!!”

From the scattered laughter, it was easy to tell that the fanatic was enjoying himself.

I walked slowly, keeping them in sight and checking their patrol routes.

The fanatics stopped in front of the dock warehouse.

“Let’s go back.”

The fanatics who were slaughtering the zombies turned around.

Soon we found out why.

Ding-ding-ding

The bell rings.

At the same time, the sound of rattling cart wheels can also be heard.

A cart was moving under the moonlight.

The person pulling the cart.

“Instructor.”

My benefactor is Jang Gi-yeong.