Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 311



Only Krnovel

125. To a wider place

First of all, I would like to thank Ha Tae-hoon.

When Rebecca and her daughter needed a place to live, he readily vacated the cabin where they were currently living.

“Well, you can live in a new house. It’s still under construction, though.”

Thanks to this, we were able to isolate the anxious Rebecca into a private space.

Rebecca needs time to adjust.

Although I meant well, I deceived her.

She denied the hope she had risked her life to believe in.

Even if it was a worthless hope to me, it must have been precious to Rebecca.

Fortunately, Suu quickly adapted to our territory.

“hello?”

She walked around the area with me and greeted everyone she lived with.

Everyone loved her.

Of course, the Defender siblings are excluded here.

“······.”

“uh.”

Suuga is not an easy child, and he doesn’t feel intimidated by the Defender siblings who exude a subtle murderous aura.

Instead, she whispered to me as she left the Defender siblings.

“Those people. They’re the ones from before, right? They were close friends with Skeleton.”

“huh.”

“Not my type.”

The last person we greeted was Valentine, the ace of our domain and the most important person besides me.

“hello.”

“Oh, hello?”

Valentine greeted Sue warmly.

But Valentine, as I acknowledge, has extraordinary insight, as befits a man.

“That kid.”

He whispered in my ear.

“Something feels creepy.”

“Is that so?”

“That······ It’s not as bad as people with the Hong surname, but what should I say about their eyes? They’re a bit scary. I’m not a xenophobic person, though.”

I don’t know what happened at the US military camp, but it’s clear that life there had a strong impact on Sue.

“It was like hell. The whole place was like a giant cemetery. It was like everyone was just sitting there waiting to die?”

Suu showed me photos taken at the US military camp.

“······What is this?”

“This was taken right in front of me.”

It’s serious.

Erosion has progressed right up to the base.

I had heard stories of erosion in the local area growing out of control, but the situation was even more serious than I had imagined.

The land heading south from the US military base was a gloomy gray-white color, much like that of Shanghai.

Could life there have brought about the changes that Suu is experiencing now?

I don’t think so.

The real change came from within Sue herself.

Although his kidney had already grown significantly, his mind had grown just as much as his body and he was suffering from growing pains.

That means puberty has arrived.

One of the most obvious signs that a child has entered puberty is the challenge to their parents.

“I can’t even stand to watch Mom cry.”

Suu says bitterly as she eats the juicy jelly I’ve hidden away.

“If you say that to your mom, you won’t be able to write.”

“I’m sorry my Korean is not good. I can’t think of any other good expressions. But it still annoys me. You’re not coming out of your room today, are you? You could at least say hello.”

When a child grows up, it doesn’t just mean that their height and body grow.

With his height increasing significantly, he tries to see beyond his parents.

It doesn’t really matter to them whether the sight is black or white.

Because every sight you see beyond your parents will surely be new.

It would be the role of adults to explain the meaning contained in each color.

“We can say hello later. But before that, isn’t there something we need to do first?”

When Suwa met his eyes, she smiled brightly.

“I know what you mean. You want to comfort a crybaby mom, right?”

“huh.”

How to appease Rebecca.

I know the answer to this question.

David.

He is Rebecca’s husband.

For Rebecca, who stubbornly wants a complete family, her husband is a puzzle that must be found and maintained.

“What’s the news about Dad? I’m a little pessimistic.”

Suu sits on the desk, legs swaying, a bored expression on her face.

“I saw from the side that you were in contact with your dad, but that wasn’t the case either?”

“okay?”

“Yeah. What should I say? People to people. Beyond that, people connecting again?”

“Connection through a third party?”

“Hmm. What, something like that?”

“okay?”

This is unexpected information.

That was because Rebecca’s unquestionable belief in David’s survival was completely refuted by Sue’s one word.

I asked Suu for more details.

“When Mom was desperately searching for news of Dad in Viva! Apocalypse!, a user named Sneaky Locomotion said he knew Dad. What did that idiot Mom do?”

“Did you just believe that person?”

“I was a little suspicious, since Mom isn’t a total idiot. But what about that Sneaky Locomotion photo you took with Dad?”

“okay?”

“I don’t know where it was taken, but it’s definitely from the same unit. He’s also a former soldier. That’s why my idiot mother fell for it.”

It’s definitely suspicious.

“So, Skeleton, listen carefully. How strange this is.”

Sue calmly ate my secret snack while telling me about the story she had with Rebecca and the Sneaky Locomotion.

“Sneaky Locomotion said he knew where Dad was and that he was within reach. But he never let Mom and Dad talk directly. When Mom asked him something, he would record what Mom said and then relay it to Dad later.”

“So that guy was always in the middle?”

“huh!”

Suu clapped his hands.

“It was always like that. Even a small message, a simple question, had to go through that person. Isn’t it strange? When you’re in a place where you can be reached right away, you can’t even connect to a video call?”

I don’t know what Sneaky Locomotion’s intentions were, but it may have had a sexual component.

He demanded explicit photos, including nude ones, under the pretext that David wanted to see them.

“Did you send it?”

“No. I’m not that stupid. Besides, I can’t take a picture of something like that while I’m watching from the side.”

“hmm.”

This is not something a child should be talking about.

But this is the reality.

This issue is provocative but minor.

I think the real problem lies in the relationship between Sneaky Locomotion and Rebecca itself.

Sneaky Locomotion is clearly using Rebecca’s psychology of wanting to meet her husband to control her.

“······.”

As Rebecca’s friend, this is something I can’t just let go.

“Swoo.”

“huh!”

“Write down that guy’s detailed nickname.”

*

His nickname is SneekylOcomoTion.

It is estimated that the activity began before the war, and the number of posts written is around 5,500, and the number of comments is around 1,500.

According to the ratio of comments to posts that Dajeong mentioned, there is a very high probability that the person has a bad personality.

For reference, the comment ratio for this skeleton has decreased compared to the past, but it still maintains the golden ratio of 1:5 for favorable users.

By the way, this guy named Sneaky Locomotion.

Even when I search for text, no text appears.

If he had deleted his posts, the number of his posts would have decreased, but since his posts still remain, he probably made his posts private.

On a bulletin board where numerous users freely express their opinions, the private function is no different from a dead language.

Even without that, it’s easy for posts to get buried in the flood of posts, so it’s inefficient to make them private, and if you make a mistake, you can just delete the post.

Yet Sneaky Locomotion tries to protect its privacy in a somewhat puzzling way: by keeping it private.

Let’s understand this as a cultural difference.

The problem is the comments.

In Viva! Apocalypse!, you can search articles, but you can’t search comments.

As a last resort, I tried to follow in Sneaky Locomotion’s footsteps by clicking on a popular post recommended on an English message board.

I found a few comments.

SneekylOcomoTion : Keke

SneekylOcomoTion : keks

SneekylOcomoTion : Laugh out loud.

SneekylOcomoTion: Good job, bro.

As you can see from the above list, there are no particularly nutritious comments.

All the comments are exclamations.

There’s no way to know what kind of person Sneaky Locomotion is like this.

If I were a normal user, I would have given up here.

But this skeleton is not an ordinary user.

“······.”

Knock knock

SKELTON: (Skeleton please) Vivabot, are you there~???

VIVA_BOT014: Yes? You don’t know the user’s personal information?

This skeleton’s nickname is Twelve Square.

Viva! Apocalypse! is the ultimate model user.

If I were like m9, a beggar who is too kind and gentle to endure the current contradictions, I would have been the king of the bulletin board a long time ago.

SKELTON: Yes.

VIVA_BOT014: I’m embarrassed by this sudden request, but can you tell me why?

SKELTON: Why, you say?

Vivabot is surprisingly a warm-hearted person.

SKELTON: Someone I know is being manipulated by a malicious user.

I relayed to Vivabot what happened between Rebecca and Sneaky Locomotion in a brief and concise explanation of what I had learned in school.

VIVA_BOT014: Hmm. That’s something to think about.

I think it’s somewhat working.

As expected.

VIVA_BOT014: What are you curious about? Do you want to see the contents of a private post?

She complied with my request.

Of course, it wasn’t just the authenticity of the story that moved her.

VIVA_BOT014: Actually, I shouldn’t do this, but Skeleton is important to us. If Skeleton’s friend is having a hard time, shouldn’t I help him?

My uniqueness helped convince her.

Well, this is actually a right I can legitimately demand.

This is because Park Gyu-i is so easygoing and kind.

SKELTON: I’d like to see some of the text, and also check the approximate location of that sneaky locomotion.

VIVA_BOT014 : It’s coming from Ohio. Do you need more information?

SKELTON: (Thanks Skeleton) No. That’s enough.

After confirming the location of the Sneaky Locomotion, I returned to the bunker and reviewed the conversation with Rebecca.

“······.”

There’s no need to look too closely.

It is a dark fable written in internet message format about a desperate man searching for his family and the common deception and trickery of those who try to deceive him.

Finally, I asked Suu through the communicator.

“Swoo.”

“huh.”

“Don’t you love Mom?”

“······A little more than before?”

“Do you know about Necropolis?”

“huh!”

“Have you ever written it?”

“No. The connection failed. I tried several times, but there was no way to connect.”

“I see.”

With this, all preparations are complete.

Now it’s time to wake up Rebecca.

It’s time to raise up my neighbor who has locked himself in a dark corner.

Suu, who was wandering outside the house, found me first and greeted me.

“Skeleton!”

I opened the door to the cabin with Suwa.

The inside of the cabin was plunged into darkness as black as night.

In that corner, Rebecca was crouching, her head buried listlessly between her knees.

Suu looked at that sight, sighed, and grabbed the hem of my pants.

It looks like something you don’t want to see.

Certainly, seeing parents weak is not a very pleasant sight for children.

Beyond just liking or disliking the sight, it becomes the seed of conflict that makes people think badly of their parents.

“Rebecca.”

I called Rebecca.

“huh.”

Rebecca answered weakly, her head buried in her hands.

“Are you doing this because of your husband?”

“huh.”

“You said David?”

“huh.”

“Where is that guy now?”

“······Florida.”

“Why Florida?”

“Because I came back there.”

“Did Sneaky Locomotion say that?”

Rebecca’s head snapped up when she heard the nickname “Sneaky Locomotion.”

Her haggard, sunken face seemed to speak volumes about the extent of her suffering.

“Huh, how did you not know?!”

She immediately glared at her daughter, Suu.

Suu, who was under the intense gaze of her mother, immediately hid behind me.

After a brief silence that felt like an eternity, Rebecca looked away.

Although no sound came out of his mouth, his tongue and lips moved fiercely somewhere.

It seems that Rebecca is just as disappointed in Suu as Suu is in Rebecca.

“······.”

Is this how parents and children come to hate each other?

It was a serious situation, but for me, who didn’t have much contact with my family, it was a new and refreshing experience.

But that’s not what’s important right now.

I sat on the wooden chair that Ha Tae-hoon had made.

Rebecca is seen burying her head again.

I opened my mouth in a low tone as I watched her waving her hand as if she wanted to be alone.

“Not to brag, but I mean it.”

“······.”

“Are you listening?”

“······.”

“I’m Viva! Apocalypse! I’m close with the manager.”

“what?”

Rebecca asked in a mumbled voice, her head buried in the ground.

“I have a connection. I just checked Sneaky Locomotion’s location information.”

“why?”

“He was in Ohio. That guy named Locomotion.”

Only then does Rebecca raise her head.

He turns to me with that same tired gaze that he used to glare at his daughter.

I continued speaking calmly, feeling the weight of Suu hiding behind me and looking at her mother with fearful eyes.

“I searched through your writings, especially after you received the equipment from me. As expected, you were desperately looking for David.”

The Internet is a microcosm of society, or rather, society itself in another form.

The weak and the naive are deceived and taken advantage of.

“My guess is that he saw your writing and had the intention of deceiving you.”

Rebecca shook her head.

“Sneaky Locomotion is in the same unit as David. They were in Korea together and withdrew together! They even showed me a group photo they took together!”

She showed me a photo she had printed on a crude inkjet printer in her arms, with a few of the colors missing.

It contained a group photo of several faded American soldiers standing in a row, staring at one spot.

I don’t know which of these two is David.

I can’t even tell who Sneaky Locomotion is.

One thing is certain, this photo is real.

But just because there is one truth doesn’t mean the whole thing becomes the truth.

The truth is the truth, and it has no power to infect or color anything else.

“Surely that one photo isn’t the only reason you believe in Sneaky Locomotion?”

“that······.”

He reached out to Rebecca.

“Skeleton?”

“Follow me. I have something to show you.”

We are headed to the bunker of my dear friend, Valentine.

“Oh my!”

Valentine is startled when a foreign mother and daughter suddenly enter.

“Valentine.”

“Yes, Mr. Skeleton.”

“Would you show this to these guys?”

“What?”

He answered with a big smile.

“The city of the dead.”

[ F. Sawyer, M. O’Connor, and For the Lovely Red One ]

[ Welcome to the noisy city of death . ]

– If you are dead, press enter –

Rebecca, who was looking at the monitor with him, brought her head close to the monitor and asked urgently.

“What is this?”

Rebecca’s dead eyes are gradually becoming livelier.

Rebecca seemed to know, just like Sue.

The cries of countless people, haunting their areas like ghosts.

And the possibilities there.

“Could this be the Necropolis?”

He gave up his seat to Rebecca with a big smile.

Rebecca stared awkwardly at the unfamiliar things around her.

Multiple monitors placed here and there, illuminating the darkness, equipment and computers, keyboards, mice, input devices of unknown purpose, etc. all running while making their own noises.

The awkwardness soon melted away like ice in the heat of need and desire.

Rebecca pressed Enter with curiosity, her eyes still filled with the will to live, though not as much as those of a wild animal as before.

Another, new world unfolded before her eyes.

“You can start looking for it now.”

I told her.

“In a wider place.”

Suuga approached Rebecca from behind and hugged her tightly, while they stared at the same screen together.