Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 328



Only Krnovel

Episode 328 133. Fair Trade (2)

One thing is certain: our outing is not a picnic.

“Skeleton. Why did you suddenly stop?”

There is a saying that the best training ground is actual combat.

I don’t 100% agree with this, but it’s not entirely wrong, since there are things you can only learn from practice.

“Soo. What will happen if we continue like this?”

Just as the curriculum of a training center is diverse, the actual situation takes on thousands of forms.

It may be an over-simplification, but if we simplify things greatly, there are easy battlefields and difficult battlefields.

I think teaching someone in a difficult battlefield is a kind of black comedy.

It’s a place where the teacher himself has a high chance of becoming a corpse, so if he teaches his juniors through his death, he can give it some kind of meaning.

That is, as long as that junior doesn’t end up in the same corpse state.

An easy battlefield is one that should be highlighted and preferred as a living training ground.

The lower the difficulty, the better.

You might ask, if there is no threat whatsoever, what is the difference between this and a training camp, but it is different. It is definitely different.

Experiencing something you have never tried or known before is a great discovery and enlightenment for the person involved.

People who have raised children, even those who have never raised a child, are amazed by the small, slow discoveries their children make each day.

It’s similar.

“Um. Well?”

Although Suu shows talent for shooting and is indeed a good marksman, Suu’s lifelong experience has been fixed, boring sentry duty, mostly guard duty.

If she could just stay in one stronghold her whole life, there wouldn’t be a problem, but you never know what will happen in the world.

Our territory may be broken up for some reason, and Rebecca and Sue may have to find a place to live on their own two feet, a life different from their previous one.

Although it is not something I want to do, I need some experience in case I have to borrow Suu’s hand due to a lack of fighters.

Children grow up quickly.

That operation swoo has grown to the point where it touches my shoulder, and as the sun goes down, it may grow taller than Rebecca, or even taller than me.

In today’s world, if you can hold a gun and fight, you are an adult.

It is freedom to be bound by the naive norms of the pre-war era, but we must realize that this logic does not apply to others who attack us and try to take everything away from us.

“There are two cars blocking the road by crossing each other. What do you think? The oncoming car has no choice but to slow down.”

Therefore, we must inform you.

“High speed doesn’t mean you can dodge bullets, but the faster you go, the higher your chances of dodge and, most importantly, of escaping.”

I, maybe, can find a way to live without Rebecca.

“So you’re saying it’s a trap?”

“That’s right. Most road traps start with slowing down the other person.”

“Why? Isn’t it okay to just end it without any warning?”

“Cars are valuable assets, right? Especially if they’re self-propelled, they at least have a working battery and gas. The guys who lie in wait in ambush here are the guys who hang out all day, maybe even all month, waiting for a car to pass. Isn’t it more rewarding for the looter to make the most of it when the opportunity comes?”

“I think Skeleton is right.”

It taught me a lot as I headed towards my not-so-distant destination, Sejong.

The art of observation and choice, not the art of fighting or killing.

Especially for Suu, it seems like the skill of selection is necessary.

“Skeleton!”

She reacts sensitively to even the smallest changes and points her gun at them.

Defensiveness is a necessary virtue for women and children.

But there has to be a limit to that defensive attitude.

The target that Suuga was aiming his gun at was a non-mutated goral.

That’s at least 600m away.

Similar things happened several times on the way to Sejong.

The most dangerous moment was when we encountered a group of refugees who had formed a small camp across the road.

From a distance of about 800 meters, Suu was about to point his gun at the people who looked like small ants, blindly looking at us as if they were his own mother.

“Swoo.”

He grabbed the gun with one hand.

“Why? Skeleton?”

Suu asks with a look of mixed doubt and discontent on her face.

“Swoo. You don’t necessarily have to be hostile to everyone.”

“But aren’t those people watching us?”

“You have to think from the other person’s perspective. Wouldn’t those guys be scared if an outsider like us suddenly showed up?”

He lightly patted Suu’s head, who was wearing a knit hat, returned the gun, and spoke into the K-Walkie-Talkie.

“I’m just passing by. I’ll just pass by.”

He sped away from the scene on his motorcycle.

Of course, I didn’t let my guard down until they completely disappeared from sight.

“Didn’t Skeleton suspect those people too?”

Suu sees the sight and suddenly asks.

“Of course you should be suspicious. But that doesn’t mean you have to fight with everyone.”

Suu makes a face of incomprehension and then asks a question.

“why?”

“Shoot all the people you hate with a gun?”

“That’s······ Yeah. No.”

“Why are you hesitating?”

“I never hesitated.”

As I continued along the road a little further, I noticed a rather interesting customer.

It’s a herd of wild boars.

It looks like an ordinary wild boar, but you can get an idea of ​​its size by comparing it to the barn right next to it.

The size of a one-ton truck. It’s a mutation.

Suu looked surprised and cocked his rifle, which still looked larger than his body, and aimed it at the boar.

The distance is 1,200m.

It’s not a meaningful distance.

Especially for those with such thick skulls.

Sudo also knows this fact and just watches quietly with his gun aimed.

I left it alone and waited for time to pass.

Eventually the wild boars discovered us.

The guys stared at us intently, then snorted and disappeared into the bushes.

“what do you think about it?”

I asked Suu.

Swoo put down his gun, frowning slightly and looking lost in thought.

“Are you running away?”

“Why would you run away?”

“Are you scared when you see us?”

“Ding.”

“Then what?”

He smiled broadly and gazed at the vast expanse of farmland now turning wild, with the wild boars gone.

“Not all mutations try to kill humans. It’s true that mutations are hostile to humans, but not all mutations rush out to kill humans. Rather, mutations that live in nature don’t necessarily try to deal with humans.”

These facts are not taught in school.

The country won’t even tell you.

Most of the mutations we encounter on the battlefield are hostile to us and have no choice but to kill us.

If you hesitate to shoot with some vague ambiguity, you will be killed in an instant.

But the number of mutations I saw in China that were living as nature intended was by no means small.

Even among the Gold Clan, didn’t they just get along well with each other?

“······At camp, I learned that all mutants are murderous animals that are desperate to kill humans.”

Suu couldn’t take her eyes off the direction where the herd of wild boars had disappeared.

Perhaps this teaching broke her common sense.

“There are quite a few who avoid it because it’s dirty. Well, if there’s nothing to eat and the only food around is humans, they’ll come looking for it on their own.”

“Then there’s no need to kill all the mutations?”

“To be precise, you don’t have to fight every mutation. It’s like those guys before.”

“The people who were watching us earlier?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what kind of training you received in camp, but for people like us who have no one to rely on, the most important thing is to not create a combat situation.”

“Then through conversation?”

“Conversation is just conversation. In a chance encounter, it’s better not to start a conversation rashly.”

“Then how?”

“It’s about reading each other’s tension. Think about when two beasts accidentally meet. They just exchange glances, growl at each other, and then back off.”

“······It’s difficult.”

I lightly stroked Suu’s knitted hat-covered head as she muttered with a puzzled expression.

“You learn little by little. You can’t be good at everything from the beginning.”

There’s something I didn’t say.

That this world heading towards destruction is a bit harsher for a woman like Suu, and a foreigner at that, than for a strong man like me.

That’s probably not a topic that needs to be explained now.

In terms of curriculum, it is an advanced course.

Passing through fields and mountains with increasingly deep autumn colors, we arrived at our destination, Sejong.

A huge ruin is visible, surrounded by mountains and a vast plain with a winding river.

Ruins are ruins, but they are ruins with countless smoke rising from each chimney.

Sejong is currently the largest city in South Korea.

“Is that Sejong?”

“huh.”

“It looks huge.”

“It’s really big. There are a lot of people.”

Suuga revealed a light of anticipation.

Children always crave new things.

It must be curiosity born of instinct.

Children need to have that kind of curiosity to learn a lot.

“Did you bring sunglasses?”

“huh.”

But it remains to be seen whether this new thing is a good thing or a bad thing.

“let’s go.”

It is our role as adults to distinguish between the jade and the stone.

*

Growing cities grow as fast as their children.

Sejong became bigger and more prosperous every time I came.

The streets that had been divided into slave quarters and plunder quarters when I first arrived were now teeming with prosperity without distinction.

There were so many people.

At this point, it’s difficult to adapt.

“Skeleton. There are so many people.”

Suu, who was on his bike, leaned down and whispered to me as I walked and pulled the motorcycle by hand.

“Hold on tight. In a city like this, you can get your nose cut off with your eyes open.”

Actually, I’m the one who needs to come to my senses.

Now there is no gatekeeper in front of Sejong.

There are guys guarding the entrance to the city, but there is no one who comes out to greet you every time a car is loitering around.

So many cars, love, bicycles and carts move in and out of the city without any barriers.

The abandoned wasteland had been reclaimed as farmland, and rice and other crops ready for harvest were bowing their heads in golden light, while beyond them, an unknown number of windmills were turning powerfully.

The endless rows of stalls centered around the main street were piled high with products from before and after the war, and people who had formed a small orchestra played music and begged for supplies.

“Skeleton. This place looks like a real city!”

Yes, that’s right.

It’s a real city.

A city where real people live was created by our bulletin board user, King.

“Oh. Skeleton!”

The king was still alive.

He’s still wearing his fancy suit and has a new, vivid lion mask from some unknown source to cover his zombified face.

Suu looks at the king of the city with a slightly fearful, yet curious expression.

“This is. Who is it?”

The king showed interest in Suu.

“She is the daughter of a colleague who lives in the same area.”

“Oh, really?”

After a brief greeting, we entered the King’s office.

As soon as he entered the office, King turned his back, sat down, took off his mask, and let out a deep sigh.

I couldn’t see his face because his back was turned, but I could clearly see that the remaining hair on the back of his head was falling out in patches.

“······.”

King’s death is still ongoing.

“Did you get a call from IAMJESUS?”

The King turned to me again, his mask flipped over.

He nodded.

chin

The king placed something on the table.

It’s gold.

It is a heavy gold bar that weighs at least 5 kg.

There is a saying that precious metals are meaningless in a time of destruction, but I am not sure.

Precious metals still have the power of the past.

It was we humans who gave meaning to precious metals themselves.

Gold in particular has captivated the human soul throughout the ages.

“The Chinese don’t like gold.”

The king handed me the gold bar.

“500g of silver is enough.”

Refrain from taking on excessive salaries.

It’s common sense.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

He returned the gold to the king.

“We can’t accept something this big. All we want is a laptop and a game console at most.”

The king held out the gold bar again.

There was a strange stubbornness in the movements of his gloved hands.

“Buy IAMJESUS ​​everything he wants.”

In the end, was King’s target IAMJESUS?

I expected it.

I had something to say about this issue anyway.

“Do you still consider IAMJESUS ​​your successor?”

The king nodded.

With an attitude that doesn’t waver an inch.

“······okay?”

It is true that IAMJESUS ​​is a powerful Awaken.

At least over 10 levels away.

That means I’m on the same level as Woo Min-hee.

But no matter how close to omnipotent IAMJESUS ​​is, he is still immature.

No, aside from being immature, he is a person who is below average.

He had a difficult childhood.

Even though Suu had a hard time, her loving mother was always by her side.

On the other hand, I.M.Jesus was wounded since childhood and grew up embracing those wounds.

What really broke him was seeing the miserable corpse of his father, whom he both hated and loved.

His imitation of a cicada might have been an expression of his will to not even want to imitate humans anymore.

I like IAMJESUS ​​but I don’t think he’s a total mess and could run this big, vibrant city.

To be honest, I think it’s a miracle that that poor guy even messaged me and asked me to buy him a game console.

“I am Jesus, he is not capable of running this city. He is a completely different person from you.”

The king answered.

“This city still needs strength.”

He shook his head.

And I said what I thought.

“He’s just a kid with strength. He’s a kid who hasn’t grown up yet, and his body is still the same. Not only that, he’s also been badly hurt. Are you saying that you’re going to entrust a city with tens of thousands of people to a kid like that? Isn’t this city something you’ve built with your life and soul?”

No matter how much the world has declined, people living in the modern era have experienced democracy. From history, they also know the foolish failures of the past.

If there are few people, you can rule with violence.

Like that DSirae.

But can so many vibrant cities be ruled by power alone?

“You can teach it.”

Sighing, the King leaned back against the chair, looking uncharacteristically tired.

“You can teach it.”

I was about to add one more word, but stopped.

The moment I heard the word ‘teaching’, I unconsciously thought of Suu’s face.

Instead, he glared at the King’s face.

His eyes, visible through the eye sockets of his mask, still had that soft, unwavering light characteristic of Awaken, but it felt like it was filled with an unbreakable will.

The unavoidable fear that lies beyond those strong eyes.

“······I don’t think I have much time left.”

I knew it.

That the cylinder in one corner of the King’s office was completely empty.