Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 370



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Episode 376 152. Record (1)

A monster that controls monsters.

It is a claim that is difficult to accept, both in academia and on the front lines.

It is generally accepted that monsters are more like mechanical devices programmed to perform specific purposes than living creatures, and this is supported by the testimonies and records of our hunters active on the battlefield.

In fact, monsters tend to behave within the schema we categorized.

For example, those classified as small-sized – infiltration type did not disappear within the Earth’s environment, but moved within the range of penetrating deep into human territory and establishing a base, while the medium-sized to large-sized species designated as combat type were armed with powerful powers and combat capabilities to break through the kill zones set up by humans in front of the rift.

When that didn’t work, a giant Kraken-type monster appeared.

The emergence of the giant species opened the curtain on a great tribulation as some countries with weak national power or relatively weak defenses were breached.

It was around that time that stories about monsters controlling monsters began to spread.

“These people say that the monsters attacked from three sides. They were able to repel the first two waves with air support, but the third wave completely swept away the fortress.”

Vast territory and overly large population.

China, which was more vulnerable to the disaster of rift than any other country, employed flexible defense measures in each region.

In the heart of China, such as Beijing and Shanghai, they built impregnable kill zones with the power of money, and in ordinary areas, they built ordinary kill zones, but in areas with sparse populations and vast areas, instead of the money-eating hippopotamus called kill zones, they built fortresses that controlled and managed various cracks.

Each fortress had its own air force, artillery, and elite hunters, and instead of responding immediately when the rift unleashed monsters, they let the monsters take over the no man’s land and waited until all combat-type monsters except small ones were gone before killing any remaining monsters.

Of course, the gray-white eroded zone increased every time a medium-sized or larger combat-type monster was destroyed, but it wasn’t a big deal for a large part of the uninhabited area to turn gray-white, and the fortress system was spotlighted as an excellent solution for low-density population areas developed by China.

The Chinese named their fortresses after historically famous fortresses, such as Shanhaiguan, Jiange, and Huroguan, and praised the chain of fortresses as the New Great Wall of China.

Their methods also influenced similarly situated powers, such as the United States, which also began building Chinese-style fortresses, known as forts, in sparsely populated areas.

But then the fortress collapsed.

It’s hard to believe.

The fact that a monster that was not only impregnable but also had no reason or thought, and therefore no purpose, would suddenly attack and destroy the fortress went against all common sense known up to that point.

The Chinese government attributed the fall of the fortress to internal rather than external factors.

In fact, it was revealed that a significant portion of the materials and construction costs of the captured fortress had been embezzled by a party official, and the official was sentenced to death and executed shortly thereafter.

But it is people who guard the fortress.

Even though the fortress itself was weak, it was home to numerous elite soldiers, hunters, and powerful war equipment.

There must have been some like-minded people in the Chinese military, and they sent us survivors from the fortress – called Jian Ge –

Of course, they spoke in Chinese.

The interpreter was Lee Sang-hoon, but he had difficulty understanding the Chinese people’s dialect, so he had Kim Da-ram do the interpreting instead.

I saw the battle records left by the survivors.

I am a neutral person when it comes to China, but I still have my suspicions that they are lying.

It had to be that way.

They say they killed 57 monsters in one battle.

It’s not a difficult number if you rely on the power of equipment, but the real problem is something else.

Because it is impossible to encounter 57 monsters in a single combat area that is not a kill zone.

Their stronghold controls four rifts, 35km from the nearest rift and 78km from the furthest rift.

Even if coincidences overlap, it is impossible for me or the theory to explain how 57 monsters, not just one or two, would head towards the fortress at the same time.

But the survivor told an even more absurd number.

It is said that as many as 200 monsters attacked the fortress as if they were surrounding it.

The story goes that over 200 monsters appeared in a place where even 57 prayers were impossible.

“That’s a lie.”

Lee Sang-hoon immediately expressed his antipathy.

He hated Chinese people.

I thought the Chinese were lying again, just like a European merchant who had just seen a panda for the first time.

In reality, the battles against monsters were full of fraud, forgeries, and lies.

The reason is simple.

Because monsters don’t leave corpses behind.

No matter how easy it is to film and how many cameras are used, it is impossible to film every combat situation.

No matter how much human technology advances, a camera with an omniscient perspective has not yet been invented.

The monster also has the power to render electronic devices powerless.

It is to the extent that it is impossible to erase records easily, and even the hard disk records that have pushed countless politicians and celebrities into the abyss are being torn to shreds.

“There’s no need to talk anymore, Park Gyu. These guys. Most likely, they’re trying to cover up their own mistakes.”

Aside from Lee Sang-hoon’s prejudice against the Chinese, the data itself was questionable in many ways.

Even considering that it was a night battle, video footage was scarce, and even the remaining footage was difficult to see what was happening, and there were too few survivors.

What’s strange is that there are so few survivors, because monsters don’t hunt humans themselves.

Monsters usually ignore humans unless there are special circumstances, such as a combat zone like a kill zone or an intrusion into their territory.

Because their goal is always to extend the eroded zone, not the extinction of humans.

The destruction of humanity is only a secondary effect.

As the widely quoted expression goes, humans build factories and discharge wastewater in pursuit of profit, without intending to destroy the surrounding ecosystem and kill living creatures.

A Chinese interpreter under the same command suspected internal strife.

“The survivors are all classified as members of the New Revolutionary League. They are really bad people. They have a lot of complaints and are very greedy. The executive who embezzled the construction funds is also from that faction. Perhaps he did this to erase the evidence?”

Everyone believed that the fall of the fortress was a human error, and the atmosphere was such that it actually led to that.

I had similar thoughts, but there was still something that didn’t make sense.

I spoke to the interpreter, looking indifferently at the exotic man with distinct facial features who I could not understand.

“Is it true that monsters attacked in a group?”

As the interpreter relayed the message, the survivor nodded with a fearful expression.

I asked again.

“Why did they form a group?”

The man who heard the interpreter’s words looked at me and spoke urgently.

Soon the interpreter translated the words.

“There is a leader.”

“guv?”

“Yes. They say there was a big guy like a leader leading the monsters. He looked like a giant scarab, and he just stood there motionless and watched the monsters attack the fortress.”

No one believed that.

I didn’t believe it either.

But three months later, I remembered the survivor’s testimony.

China’s proud fortress area was completely destroyed.

We later found the survivor again, but he was nowhere to be found.

In the absence of information, we are the unknown.

I had to deal with a monster that moved a monster.

We tried to find the best solution with limited resources, but it wasn’t a very smart method.

I need some data.

*

The government’s warehouse contained food, energy, machine tools, and even more unexpected things.

Internet portal server backup data is one of them.

“There are domestic records regarding the general type after my senior retired. However, I think I’ll have to search the portal for the international records my senior wants.”

Even if it is an overseas service, there are many cases where the servers are located in Korea.

This is because it is easier and faster to store frequently used services or data in domestic servers than to process requests coming across the Pacific.

Well, in Korea, a slow response time also means they have no intention of doing business.

It appears that such servers were also included in the list of government asset warehouses.

I don’t know why, but the government may have tried to restore Seoul to its pre-war appearance as much as possible when it was later restored.

“Please wait a moment, Captain.”

While the technicians that Woo Min-hee had sent were restoring the server, I recalled the story I had heard from Woo Min-hee the day before.

“It goes without saying that Senior Kang Min can destroy monsters in large quantities.”

As expected of an over level 10 Awaken, she knew about the transcendent powers of Awaken that I was unaware of.

Among them was the ability of Kang Han-min, who is called the strongest Awaken in South Korea.

“Because I use the power to sever the connection between monsters and rifts. Monsters get their life from the rift itself, just like electronic devices that need electricity to function. I sever that connection with the power of waves.”

Maybe that’s what Kim Hanna was talking about.

The scene where the monster turns into particles of light just by Kang Min-sang appearing.

“······The same power is used by the general type. No matter how strong the Awaken is, it will turn into an ordinary person. It won’t disappear like a monster, but the Awaken exposed to the nullification wave will experience extreme stress.”

organize.

The General type has the power to temporarily seal away abilities.

Not only that, it also seems to cause significant psychological damage to Awaken.

Although it is less aggressive than the previously fought Macrophage type that hunts Awaken by moving its own mobile derivatives with “vital judgment,” it can be seen as much more threatening than that medium-sized type in that it can silence the Awaken in groups, replacing our old-school Hunters.

Valuable information, but I’m not sure.

This information is not very meaningful to me.

I am not Awaken, so sealing my Awakening ability won’t make any difference.

My past self approached it in a completely different way.

So to me, he was just another prey.

My plan was to figure out the pattern, determine its location, and then ambush it in the optimal location to send it back into the rift.

Actually, it almost worked.

Although it was ultimately thwarted by an unexpected power.

My experience, however, is a record of the past.

If the guy has thoughts and the ability to reason, he won’t get hit with the same number twice.

As he evolves, I too must evolve.

I think human evolution comes from records.

“Captain. It’s almost done. Would you like to test it?”

“Yes, just a moment.”

I opened up my laptop and opened up an Internet browser.

The familiar hourglass appeared for a moment, then the browser screen opened.

The moment I saw that screen, I was immersed in memories of the past.

This is an internet environment from the past that I was able to see when I was not yet familiar with the internet.

“You will be able to see data that had a lot of traffic in the past, but data that had little traffic cannot be mirrored, so it may be difficult to find the data you want.”

“it’s okay.”

There is a site that hunters of the past often used.

It was a site created by some so-called international organization, such as the International Hunter Association, and it was doing quite well until Awaken appeared.

There was a bulletin board where old school hunters from all over the world, including Korea, could post about monsters and mutations they had seen and how to deal with them.

[ 404 Error! Object not found! ]

Unfortunately, the old site seems to have disappeared long ago.

Maybe it was in decline before the war even started.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been here.

But there is still a way.

“Can this site be restored? As far as I know, it was created in collaboration with a domestic portal site.”

The technician blinked and answered.

“it’s possible.”

“How much can be restored?”

“Hmm. Just a moment. This might take some time. It seems to be connected to the cafe, but I’ll try to prepare it as soon as possible.”

It’s a blessing.

I know that even after our teacher Jang Gi-yeong stepped down from his teachings, he continued to run his own domestic information site and update various latest hunter information.

The name of the site was “Hunternet,” which sounded a bit archaic.

As expected from a site created by a middle-aged person without any sense, the design resembles a blog from the dawn of the Internet, and it simply provides the function of a data warehouse without any gimmicks or functions added.

As far as I remember, there weren’t that many users.

As expected.

[ no.882 ]

This is the number of the last post on the bulletin board.

It’s called a bulletin board, but there aren’t even a thousand posts.

It’s a number you’d see on a government office website.

The only people who are active are Jang Ki-young and Joo Seul-gi.

For reference, Joo Seul-gi was Jang Gi-yeong’s assistant and died after being hit by a nuclear bomb when the war started.

The content of the post is······.

[ No. 882 ] Ju Seul-gi: Cadets of The Guard! Let’s rise up as one! A signature campaign is underway regarding the injustice done to our mentor, Jang Gi-yeong!

[ No. 881 ] Ju Seul-gi: Cadets of The Guard! Let’s rise up as one! A signature campaign is underway regarding the injustice done to our mentor, Jang Gi-yeong!

[ No. 880 ] Jang Ki-young: This Friday is the trial date. I hope that my disciple who is reading this will write a petition to the judge.

…

…

Most of the news was about events, and the latter half was mostly advertisements for a petition to collect signatures for Jang Gi-yeong.

Contrary to expectations, there was no mention of monsters or mutations.

“hmm······.”

As expected, he is my benefactor.

It doesn’t disappoint.

Knock knock knock

Still, he continued to scratch the bulletin board with eyes like a dead fish, feeling like he was touching a dead child’s pepper.

It was almost at the end.

A familiar name caught my eye.

[ No. 22 ] Kang Han-min: Ah! There’s a place like this! o_ O Oh my~! Kang Han-min here to say hello aaaaaaaaaa~~!! UwU

Kang Han-min wrote the article.

A place where even a disciple has never entered.

Suddenly, an interesting thought crossed my mind.

I asked the technician.

“Hey, this site. Does it connect to the portal?”

“Yes, you can.”

“Can I see your portal search history?”

“Who is it?”

He pointed to Kang Han-min’s name.

“This guy.”