Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 363



Only Krnovel

Episode 369 149. Long-term (5)

bang!

Suddenly a gunshot rang out.

This is not it.

It’s the other way around.

I held my breath and watched the situation.

A man’s voice echoed along the tracks, along with a distant, hollow laugh.

“You little rat. What the fuck.”

It appears the shots were fired from the barricade on the other side of the tracks.

This is probably how it reacts to mutant rats.

We saw one too.

If there’s one, that means there are many.

As soon as the cause was identified, we resumed progress.

Swish-

Approached within 150m.

The concrete structure, connected to the ceiling by what appeared to be pillars, protruded slightly.

It’s a good place to take cover.

I hid under a pillar, took out my magazines, and lined them up neatly underneath so that I could load them comfortably.

I don’t want a protracted war, but I have to prepare for it.

I watched the movements of the figures beyond the green field of vision.

The target is a machine gun position.

To be sure, it would be better to crawl to where the grenade is hitting and throw it, but that method is useless.

Even if the machine gun positions are destroyed, there is no way to prevent the enemy’s subsequent return fire.

Above all, the enemies also know the importance of machine guns.

In any case, they will try to protect the fortress made of machine gun bullets.

Aim for that blind spot.

“It starts.”

He aimed the gun at the head of the pale figure leaning tiredly over the machine gun.

bang!

The shooter fell almost immediately after the shot was fired.

“It’s a surprise attack!”

John the Baptist’s men quickly take cover and try to check the situation here.

He hid himself in cover and did not move an inch.

Instead, wait.

The moment they cleared away the bodies of their comrades and grabbed the handles of the machine guns.

bang!

Another explosion.

It appeared in an instant and hit the exact spot.

It is an extremely hunter-like shooting technique.

Each hunter has a different confident distance, but I prefer a distance between 100m and 150m.

“Damn it. I got hit by Byungsoo too!”

Amid the shrill shouts, the sharp crack of gunfire drowned out the shouts.

Bang! Tata ta ta tang! Bang! Bang!

An extremely nervous retaliatory shot.

They don’t seem to have any idea where I am.

As expected.

“Get the machine gun! Now!”

Clank-

Another one foolishly grabs the machine gun.

Before he could even pull the trigger,

bang!

It teaches a lesson.

Force damage from a favorable position after giving the enemy a strategic asset that is difficult to give up.

This is one of the few one-on-one tactics our hunters use, the so-called whack-a-mole tactic.

I wished the enemy would continue making foolish choices, but there was a friend on the other side who had some sense.

“Get away from the machine gun! Aim at it! So take it! Down below. Don’t give me a blind spot, grab it and take it!”

He spoke into the communicator.

“advance.”

“Rager.”

The Defender and his companions advance.

With two reinforced plastic shields in front, quickly and without hesitation.

Urgent footsteps are heard from behind the barricade.

It looks like reinforcements.

But, if we have the upper hand here, there will be limits to what they can do.

The moment they allowed me access, they lost their advantage.

If we had deployed a sensor, the results might have been different, but that’s just a matter of assumption.

Beyond the blurred vision of the night vision goggles, all that can be seen is a bunch of untrained, ordinary fighters, just running around in confusion.

“Over there! Hide over there!”

Now the sensor has identified my location, but it is already too late.

bang!

When I put a bullet between the eyebrows of the men who were trying to threaten me, only then did they realize who they were dealing with.

“What the heck. That kid. This is no joke······. He’s killing them one by one on that street.”

“Special Forces? Is he a special force-type guy?”

“Oh, no. It’s a hunter!”

“Hunter?”

“Yeah. There were guys called Old School Hunters······. They’re almost all gone now, but there are survivors······!!”

The footsteps of the Defender party are getting closer.

If we join forces, we plan to push through it all at once.

“attack.”

The defender party advanced under my protection.

Bang! Tata tang!

bang!

Although John the Baptist has more numbers, they have lost their heavy weapons and are poorly trained fighters.

When a group of specialized killers systematically attacked them, they resisted fiercely and were scattered like chaff.

“Retreat! Retreat to the waiting room for now!”

In most battles, most damage occurs when the battle line breaks.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Defender and his companion stood straight and took aim at the enemies running away indiscriminately.

Bang! Bang!

That too, with careful single shots.

Screams and shouts echoed through the air as gunshots rang out.

bang!

The Defender took down another one.

“AAAAAHHHH!!!”

It looks like the bridge was hit on purpose.

I released my cover and followed the defender group.

The Defender approached the suffering enemy, hugging his legs, kicking his weapon away and kneeling on his neck.

“How many are left?”

The defender asked, aiming the gun at his face.

When the man did not answer,

puck!

The Defender crushed one of his fingers with the grip of his pistol.

“How many are left?”

Srrrrung-

This time I pulled out my greatsword.

The terrified man looked at the tip of the knife that seemed ready to cut through his eyes at any moment and spoke hurriedly, forgetting his pain.

“Wow, we’re almost all dead. Only two escaped! There are four left. One is a man and the rest are women, women!”

bang!

After the Defender gave him rest, we headed to the waiting room.

According to prior investigation, all eight entrances to this station were closed.

Therefore, it is a dead end.

I looked inside the waiting room through the mirror in front of the stairs.

There is no one.

We entered slowly and cautiously, keeping a close eye on all points.

There is a door.

It was recently used and there are traces of bloody footprints that were hastily inserted.

“Over there.”

Are you trying to stage a sit-in in a small space?

It’s a foolish idea that those without experience are likely to make.

After surrounding the entire door, he opened his mouth while leaning against the wall.

“Raise your hands and come out. I’m not here to kill you.”

There is no answer.

I looked inside through the gap in the open door with the mirror.

In the darkness, a man stood tall with his arms outstretched.

The order to cease fire was given by hand signal.

It might be a regular Awaken.

“Did the government send this?”

The man standing alone spoke.

A slow, intelligent Seoul dialect.

I can’t feel the North Korean accent.

“Put down your weapons and come out with your hands up. If you don’t resist, I promise not to harm you. I’ll give you five minutes.”

The child’s story is not mentioned at all.

Even if you have a wish, don’t reveal it.

It is one of the negotiation techniques.

After a moment, an intelligent voice answered from beyond the door.

“If you need the information, I will give it to you.”

“······Are you John the Baptist?”

“That’s what they call it. I’m not even a Christian.”

“4 minutes left.”

I deliberately made a rattling sound with the grenade attached to my harness.

however.

thud!

A shock wave echoed from beyond the door.

It’s not made up.

A perfect awakening, or a shockwave from a monster.

He immediately ordered the defenders to fall back.

A slow, intelligent tone resonated through the urgent silence.

“······I don’t know whose order it was, but we have now discovered a way to make humans Awaken. We have discovered the forbidden secret to creating artificial Awakens that North Korea and China have been working so hard to create.”

That’s nonsense.

The moment I thought that, another shock wave rang out.

thud!

“Hey, Seo. Go out.”

Just as the soft voice of John the Baptist rang out, a child I knew well appeared on the other side of the door.

That’s right.

That’s the kid.

I sent it knowing we would die, and my whims tried to get it back.

The child was staring at us quietly with his big eyes.

Unlike before, he had taken off his hat, so his hair was loose.

It looks like she was a girl.

That’s not the important thing.

“······.”

Was alive.

And that too without any visible signs of abnormality.

But that alone won’t make you happy.

“What do you think?”

The voice of John the Baptist was heard.

A clenched hand appeared from beyond the door and dragged the child inside.

“It’s the Awaken I just made. No, maybe it’s an old acquaintance of yours. It’s not common for a child like this to come to me alone right after a failed contact.”

John the Baptist laughed.

“Then the story will be fast. Yes. This child is now a true Awaken. No side effects, and very healthy! With one injection, a helpless child with no abilities was transformed into the future of this country, called the regular Awaken. Isn’t that amazing? Mr. Unknown Name?”

“I’m going to die soon.”

I thought I shouldn’t give him any more say.

“Like the kid Jin-ho you took away.”

“Great discoveries always come with sacrifices. In fact, it’s not like you should be criticizing me now. Besides, didn’t you send this child here expecting that to happen?”

“······.”

“It seems there was a misunderstanding, but I don’t think humans need to fight each other.”

John the Baptist made a suggestion.

“So, how about we talk slowly while playing chess?”

*

The room was dark.

Numerous shelves surrounded the area, but the pervasive darkness obscured their contents.

In a corner, a man and three women were tending to a wounded man gasping for breath, and in another corner, the child I was looking for was crouching.

In the center was a chess board on a camping table and two chairs facing each other.

John the Baptist stood at a distance across the table.

He was a man with gray hair and a messy look.

As rumored, it looks like it’s Awaken.

He offered me a seat and I sat down.

The chess pieces were already set on the chess board.

“Are you good at playing chess?”

He shook his head.

Instead, I saw things hidden in the room.

Contrary to what the captive said, there were two more fighters in John the Baptist’s hideout.

Oddly enough, they were holding Chinese swords instead of guns, and the soft energy in their eyes silently revealed that they too were Awaken.

Are there any regular Awakens among these?

In that case, it is not difficult to understand John the Baptist’s leisure.

“Then let’s change the rules.”

When John the Baptist motioned to his servant who was carrying a scepter, the servant sat down in his place.

“Set it to the madman’s long-term rules.”

When John the Baptist gave the order, the man sitting opposite him swept all the pieces onto the floor except one.

There is only one thing left. The king.

John the Baptist, standing over there, glares at me with his softly shining eyes and asks.

“Do you know the madman’s long-term?”

“More or less.”

“Which side do you think is advantageous?”

I saw the long board.

It is usually said that whoever catches the mad king has the advantage.

Because you can move it twice at a time, and almost freely.

But I think differently.

The game is established because it is equal.

A series where one side is unilaterally superior or beat can be surprisingly susceptible to an absurdly easy destruction method.

The side that does not have a truly powerful king can change its faction before the game.

I don’t know much about chess and I lack experience, but I think this is where the blind spot of the special rules of the madman’s chess lies.

“Is it this way?”

Refers to a king with many horses who oppose one king.

John the Baptist smiled.

The long game has begun.

John’s men moved one king.

Every time the king moved, my piece left the board and fell into the discard pile.

“Hunter, right?”

John the Baptist opened his mouth timidly as he watched one of his pawns fall into disrepair.

“······That fighting style. I’m familiar with it. Graduates from The Guard in Korea fought like that. They were truly great people, but they were suddenly erased from the back alleys of history by the Awaken.”

The understanding is over.

They have blind faith in their own awakening abilities.

I believe that the stationmaster can handle a moderate amount of gunfire.

You may believe that the close combat can be resolved with a Chinese-made sword that is burdensome to look at.

“······.”

It’s something to watch out for.

Again-

A king wrecked my car.

“Have you ever wanted to be Awakened?”

John the Baptist said,

I looked up and looked at him.

The guy smiles.

“Let’s be honest. When the proud best monster hunters in South Korea suddenly lose their jobs to a pseudo-monster called Awaken and get branded as old-school hunters, you can imagine how they feel.”

“Where are you from?”

“That’s a good question. It’s North Korea. It’s eaten a lot of foreign food. Although it’s a shitty country, thanks to it, we were able to collect a lot of data, and thanks to it, we were able to produce results that can light the lamp of humanity.”

John the Baptist clapped his hands.

Empty-

As the light came on, the identity of the substance on the shelf that had been hidden in the darkness was revealed.

It was a sample of multiple brains.

“······.”

It belongs to humans.

Unusually, two or three samples are grouped together instead of just one.

“They injected a special compound made by processing the brain juice extracted from zombies. It was an experiment conducted in secret in China, and on a Chinese scale. As expected of such sinister guys, they rejected Awaken in the past, but they tried to mass-produce Awaken to use as weapons behind the scenes.”

“······Is that so?”

“The Chinese dismantled and analyzed only the Awaken itself, but I wondered if they were judging the whole thing by looking at only one side of a cube. In fact, no matter how much they increased the sample, they couldn’t get meaningful results. I, who was researching with them, saw it differently. In the end, we established a hypothesis that becoming Awaken might be determined by some genetic trait.”

“······So you broke up the family?”

John the Baptist’s mouth opened visibly.

It seems to have hit the nail on the head.

“Thanks to that, we were able to achieve meaningful results······.”

He stared at the child.

“Here we get the result.”

He clapped his hands.

“The experiment is over. Now we can create Awaken.”

One king has moved.

The king has killed the guards who were protecting him and now targets my king directly.

but.

Bam-

“uh?”

Build a barrier with pre-arranged elephant horses.

That means the attack was blocked.

There are only two rounds left, but the outcome is decided.

The opponent only has two turns left, and I have two more to sacrifice for the King.

The king of madmen shall not invade my king.

“······this.”

The man looked back at John the Baptist with a pale face as if he had realized that fact.

John the Baptist, however, seemed to have little interest in the long-term outcome.

“Tell your superiors about this. Take the child with you. Let’s talk about it.”

“What is the success rate?”

I looked at John the Baptist while holding my King in my hand.

John the Baptist answered.

“Maybe one in three hundred? Maybe one in a hundred.”

“What happens to those who fail?”

John the Baptist shook his head with a bitter sneer.

“Are you saying we should kill a hundred people to create one regular Awaken?”

“······With that level of yield, isn’t it cheap to sell?”

I threw my king, which I was holding, with great force.

The king was headed to none other than the only light dispelling the darkness.

Clang-

As the light faded,

thud-

The shock wave echoed.

It belongs to John the Baptist.

But you got it wrong.

Srrrrung-

I pulled out two axes and stared at the blades of the swords flying towards me.

Chaengkang!

Cut off the blade with an axe,

Bam!

With the remaining one, he split the man’s head in two.

“Turn on the lights! Turn on the lights!”

Let’s move forward using the man’s corpse as a shield.

Bang! Bang!

The women pull out their pistols and open fire.

Every time a gunshot was heard, the outlines of corpses with their eyes wide open flashed like subjects in a flash.

He swung his axe and pushed the body towards them.

Scratch! Scratch!

two.

and.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Another blow that hasn’t sent shockwaves yet.

The injured person groaning at my feet tried to get up,

Kwajik!

They rushed at John the Baptist, trampling him with their boots.

“I am the future of humanity!”

Bam!

He felt the axe blade splitting his skull and splitting his brain, and he pushed the body of John the Baptist, who had been alive until just a moment ago, away with his foot and pulled the axe out.

Late, the Defenders rushed into the room, shining the lights on their guns.

One of the Defender’s team members turned on the light.

There are two left.

This is a child named Lee Seo and I.

I held out my hand as I looked at the child who was staring at me with a fearful face.

“let’s go.”

“······Are you a real hunter?”

The child asked.

He nodded.

“Yeah. I’m a hunter.”

I walked slowly.

“······Like your mother.”

The fire broke out.

The madman’s long run is over.

The records of John the Baptist will be lost forever.

I don’t think it’s a defeat for humanity.

Quite the opposite.

the next day.

A medium-sized helicopter landed in Incheon through fog and bad weather.

Kang Han-min has arrived.