Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 31



Only Krnovel

26. Gold (1)

The Christmas season has arrived without fail.

A former game developer who recently changed his nickname from Anonymous118 to Foxgames has opened a tree decoration site, following last year.

Bulletin board users who had time to spare began to swarm each other and decorate each other’s trees.

Unlike last year, this year I also decorated my Christmas tree quite a bit.

Haha, our bulletin board friends are really mischievous.

I decorated the Defender’s tree.

As expected of a named user, Defender had already filled three trees and was receiving the fourth, and luckily I was able to put my nickname on a lollipop decoration in the last spot.

It has been snowing heavily outside for the past three days.

My territory and its surrounding areas turned into a white snow field.

With snow piling up, the golf course next door seems to have regained its former beauty.

Because the weather was what it was, there wasn’t a single shadow of a person around.

After the war, only wild boars and deer, which had increased in number, occasionally roamed the wilderness left by humans.

It was supposed to be a peaceful and quiet day for once.

That is, until a fierce wild howl was heard from the southwest.

*

The monster invasion has been compared to a fungus.

A clear source of contamination called a crack causes mold to grow in the surrounding area, which in turn produces all sorts of evil germs, which in turn produce more mold.

Mutations are one of the pathogens created by that fungus and are one of the worst enemies a civilian can face.

There are many different types.

In Africa, lion mutations, in India, elephant mutations, and in China, panda mutations each showed their own fierceness, but the mutations that are really problematic are those that came from livestock mainly raised by humans.

Chickens, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, etc. I’ve never heard of a hamster.

The most threatening of these is the mutant dog, whose ancestors hunted humans.

The original version is not a wolf, so it has high basic fighting power, forms packs, and is also very intelligent.

There is also a pack of mutant dogs living in the southwest of my territory.

The leader of the pack is a very cruel and cunning dog called Gold because his entire body is covered in golden fur.

The order to suppress was issued when the South Korean government was still relatively intact, but the suppression force always returned empty-handed.

At one time, it would wander into my territory, but recently it has settled down in the southwest where there is abundant game, proving that it is destined to be a dog.

From the realm of the gold herd, a fierce, wild roar could be heard competitively.

Is this a fight between mutant dogs?

The growling, full of primal violence, continued into the late afternoon.

“Can you hear the skeleton? It makes a strange noise.”

It seems that the mother and daughter snipers heard that sound too.

It was Suu who communicated directly.

“It seems like a mutation. Anyway, take care and Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas. Mom said Merry Christmas to me too. And she asked if I could use the computer around New Year’s?”

“why?”

“I want to countdown to Eastern Standard Time with the message board people.”

“······The computer is acting weird right now. I’ll catch you and get you the satellite equipment and laptop, so just bear with it for a bit. Is Mom okay?”

“huh.”

“okay.”

After finishing the communication, I prepared my weapon.

I got some weapons from Rebecca in exchange for my internet usage fee.

One anti-personnel mine, a Claymore, a recoilless rifle, a 7.62mm machine gun, and about 200 rounds of ammunition.

For me, who had enough fire extinguishers but not enough neutralizing power, this was like a drop of rain in a drought.

I also received homework, which was about the Javelin battery.

Rebecca promised to give me one if I could just restore the battery to its original condition and make it usable.

Its power goes without saying.

It can destroy almost any tank in South Korea with one hit.

It would be best if such a situation never came to pass, but isn’t it true that one’s fate is unpredictable?

They say that a ceasefire is currently in place in Seoul, but it’s unclear when they might start fighting again.

As I took out my dusty battery tester and charger and started wondering how to charge them, the sun was already setting.

I was about to wash up a bit, go into the heated tent, turn on the heated mat, and go to sleep.

The motion-sensitive sensors installed on the inner bunker began to blink.

“······.”

Something has entered my realm.

Inside the main bunker.

I turned on the listening device and listened to the speaker.

The sound of panting and shuffling feet could be heard clearly through the speakers.

Soon the CCTV footage showed me a black and white image of the intruder’s identity.

The identity of the intruder was not human.

A wounded and dying mutation dog shuffled into my territory.

No other crowd is visible.

Did they get attacked?

Anyway, it’s a problem to have something like that in my area.

It would be best to get out there and clean it up quickly.

I grabbed a gun, an axe, and a lantern, left the bunker, and cautiously approached the intruder.

In the darkness, you can see something large, staggering and convulsing.

Soon it turned its head towards me, but it seemed to be having difficulty even turning its head, as it fell to the side.

He aimed his gun and shone a lantern.

“?”

The moment I saw the dog, I was quite surprised.

The identity of the mutation dog that came to my territory is Gold. He is the ruler of the southwestern pack.

Why did this guy, who had overcome countless subjugations and reigned as the regional hegemon, come to my territory alone in this state?

Gold lay face down on the floor, panting, his eyes rolling, staring at me as if he were a human.

As I illuminated its body with the lantern, its ribs were clearly visible, its skin and flesh were torn, and its rich golden fur, which gave it the name Gold, appeared before my eyes one by one and disappeared into the darkness.

This is not human work.

Although Awaken is said to be armed with powers that are powerful beyond human abilities, it does not have the ability to bite and tear apart mutations in this way.

These savage wounds are caused by a mutated dog of the same species.

I remembered the competitive growling I had heard earlier.

Animals that live in groups inevitably try to choose a leader.

Power in the animal world is not the same as in humans.

Humans can use all sorts of tricks to add concrete to power, but animals must die or leave the group when they grow old and weak or when a stronger one appears.

Is this guy one of those cases?

Did you end up here after being challenged by a strong competitor and losing?

“······.”

It’s a shame.

He did bother me once, but he kept the humans, zombies, and other nuisances from coming up from the southwest.

Crash

But that will all end now.

It is also true that the guy killed dozens of humans.

It is true that the guy killed the puppets for fun like a cat mom’s cat, and it is also true that he filled his stomach with cannibalism.

The dying dog raised itself.

It turned away from me and headed down the slope past my area, a mess of grave mounds and industrial waste.

The guy’s movements aroused curiosity.

However, this could also be a mutation trap, so I followed Gold while being cautious of my surroundings.

The place Gold headed to with a staggering gait, bleeding, was an abandoned village, a small farming community where Kim belonged.

A few old people came back here and tried to make something of it, but there was no electricity, no oil, and no neighbors who had been with them their whole lives.

As scavengers periodically came and rummaged through the empty houses, they walked away alone and the village became a complete ruin.

Gold walked straight towards this abandoned village.

I followed the guy’s blood trail into a town that even I had forgotten about.

Rustle-

From the very beginning, I stepped on the debris that was scattered all around.

I followed the guy with a sense of discomfort.

At first, everything was unfamiliar.

The darkness of the night obscured my vision, and the thought of a monster that could kill me with a single leap created tension.

But when the guy suddenly stopped walking and turned his head to look somewhere, and when I saw his eyes that seemed lost in thought, the black and white landscape magically returned to the quiet yet lively village it had been before the war.

Yes, that’s right.

This road was the main road that ran through the center of the village.

There was a Nonghyup bank over there and a mart across the street.

The place the guy was looking at was where the butcher shop used to be.

This is the store that sold a lot of good meat for cheap, made delicious soups, and sold a lot of my meat that had turned into pemmican.

The boy resumed walking forward, his lips licking his lips.

The guy’s steps became lighter.

The staggering steps changed into brisk, trotting movements like those of the dogs that were often seen roaming freely in the town.

The next place the guy stopped was where the noodle restaurant used to be.

It’s not my favorite store.

The taste was ordinary and the price was not cheap, but more than that, the owner of the place mildly criticized a young man who was having a bowl of noodles and a glass of soju in broad daylight and was drinking all day long instead of going to work, which made me feel bad and made me stop going there for a while.

Because of the rural nature, there was nowhere else to go, so I started walking around quietly again.

But to that guy, it seemed like the store was full of only good memories.

When I see the tongue sticking out and the saliva dripping down from under the sharp teeth even in the dark.

Come to think of it, the kind-hearted owner would often leave a bowl full of leftover bones outside the store.

Gold took another step forward.

This time the guy glared at a house, growling as if he was making a face.

This is the village chief’s house.

He was a self-proclaimed enemy of Mr. Kim and was very fond of dog meat. He was even featured in the news for secretly slaughtering purebred dogs raised in a nearby country house.

When I see that guy growling like that, did he get eaten by a dog he knows? Or did he almost get eaten himself?

Gold took another step forward.

The guy’s footsteps slowed noticeably.

The hind legs hung limply as if they had no strength left, and the lower body moved forward as if dragging itself with only the strength of the forelegs.

The guy squeezed his way through the collapsed stone wall.

As a lion-sized creature pushed against it, the wall that had been precariously holding on collapsed, showering bricks in ruins.

The spreading dust momentarily obscured the guy’s appearance.

Crash

Highly intelligent mutant dogs know how to use tricks.

I watched the surroundings while waiting for the dust to settle.

The heavy breathing sound stayed in one place the whole time.

The dust cleared and the guy appeared before me again.

The man was curled up in front of a ruined house, licking his wounds.

Beyond the limply wagging tail, a doghouse was tilted to the side, precariously standing as if performing an acrobatic feat.

I walked slowly between the stone walls and looked at the house.

I think I’ve seen this house.

I don’t remember much about it, but it occupied a corner of the living village scenery that I remember.

Why, whenever you pass by and hear the loud barking of a dog, don’t you take a look at least once to see what kind of dog it is?

It was this house.

Where gold lived.

On the overturned doghouse, the name the dog had been called was written in meteor magic.

“Mix.”

When I called his name, he looked at me.

“······Gold is better.”

They say that humans are ships made of memories.

In that respect, the dog is not much different from a human.

A proposition and a woman passed through my mind as if they were a pair.

The scholarly consensus is that mutations cannot be tamed.

A woman who lived alone, without family or neighbors, relying on cats.

These two seemingly unrelated ideas culminate in the poor woman smashing the entrenched orthodoxy to pieces with the cudgel of miracles.

Here, another miracle is about to happen.

The guy started making strange rhythmic breathing sounds.

At first I thought this guy was taking his last breath, but I was wrong.

Unlike humans, the beast lacked attuned vocal cords and was ignorant of pitch, imitating the human song with rough breathing.

It says happy birthday.

“hey.”

I called the guy.

At the ‘I love you~’ part, the guy turned his head towards me.

“Do you want to live?”

A curiosity, like a chronic disease, was triggered in me.