Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 377



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Hiding a House in the Apocalypse Episode 383

155. The Strongest (2)

A truly outstanding person needs no fancy adjectives.

Power hitter.

This is the most plain and honest nickname that describes Jo Young-chun.

He was a brilliant player.

He set a home run record, showed off his skills by hitting .300 in his career, and personally amassed various wealth and honors.

It is said that he successfully married a top star of the time, having affairs with him almost like a formality, and unlike other professional athletes, he went into war with all the wealth and fame he had from his old days after retirement.

Min-sik, a fan of Jo Young-chun, didn’t even know if he had children.

“Maybe so. You’ve been married four times. You must have had at least one child. That’s what I’m saying.”

The reason I followed Minsik was because I wanted to build trust with him, but also because I was curious.

Scavenger.

After the war, I wanted to take a close look at the lives of people who lived by collecting various items while wandering around the ruins.

Minshikpa is the final form of the scavenger, having evolved into the strongest form among the many scavengers.

Observing how they operate in the dangerous, eroding ruins would be a very educational exercise in itself.

In fact, their composition is quite different from our hunters.

Unlike our Hunters, who are made up of a team of four, Scavengers are made up of a motley crew of over twenty men and women.

Among them were boys of middle school age and middle-aged women.

In response, Min-sik answered the question while bending down in the shaking passenger seat of the bus and looking around with eagle eyes.

“The kids can fit into tight spaces, and those ladies have an eye for things we don’t know the value of. They dig better and more thoroughly than we do.”

For transportation, they used a bus covered in iron and running on oil, and Min-sik especially emphasized the importance of the internal combustion engine running on oil.

“I’ve used electric buses a lot, and while they certainly have their advantages, they’re not suitable for combat. If one explodes, not only will the entire bus become a grill, but if there’s even a minor breakdown, it’s impossible to fix. Not to mention not being able to turn on the heater in this fucking cold weather.”

Then I learned why Minsik and other scavengers were so obsessed with the district.

The scavengers did not search the ruins indiscriminately.

This is something that anyone who has watched them even a little bit would know, but the actual scavengers subdivided their areas more systematically and definitely than that.

Here, let’s borrow Minsik’s mouth.

“Our buses are a very precious resource. They are our bread and butter. The amount of resources we can grab and hold of depends on whether we have them or not. The amount of transport and the more people we have, the higher the quality and quantity of materials we can collect.”

So the scavengers prioritized the transportation routes for power plants, including buses, and created a system to make those power plants as efficient as possible.

“They’re making a bus stop.”

Before scavenging a specific location, scavengers secure it from traffic.

Send out your best combat scouts – perhaps including the Sensing Awaken – to secure the roads and forge their own paths and routes within the ruined city.

When there is a risk factor, they weigh the damage they can see from dealing with that risk factor against the benefit they can gain from eliminating it, and are willing to take on the fight if the benefit is high.

The opponents are mainly looters, but according to Minsik, they have experience chasing away everything except monsters.

The reason I excluded monsters is because I have accumulated empirical data that while they may be dangerous, there is nothing safer than not invading the territory.

“The monster is a respectable lord.”

It is said that the problematic player is seated next to the lord’s house.

The name of the Archmage is synonymous with the infiltration type, the Necromancer type.

It’s a zombie field.

“Jo Young-chun is the next stop.”

As is typical of people his age, Minsik would sometimes use informal language, but sometimes he would secretly switch to using informal language, but I didn’t really mind.

He was much older than me and didn’t seem to want to use the informal speech as a common hierarchical device.

“Okay, okay. Everyone, get off! Hee-min’s mom. Are you feeling okay?”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

“Okay. Hee-min’s mom’s condition is okay. How’s Jeong-tae?”

“Oh, it sucks, but I have to do it. I’ve been resting for two weeks.”

It just seems like he was more comfortable speaking informally.

When I see women of similar age to me, and even boys of middle school age, using informal speech naturally.

Since there was a monster den around where Jo Young-chun lived, the bus stopped one stop behind and released the scavenger.

There were only two people who followed us.

One of them was wearing sunglasses, and judging by the soft glow in his eyes visible through the slits of his sunglasses, he might be a sensor.

“Take this.”

Minsik handed me a baseball bat.

It is a reinforced bat with the central part of the bat reinforced with iron plate.

Its intended use is probably to deal with zombies wandering around out there.

Thud! Thud!

The men in the lead were already starting to clear the way by smashing the zombies’ heads with their usual skill.

Like the way he doesn’t seem to be afraid of zombies at all, or the way he swings his weight around in an instant even though it seems light.

This isn’t a skill that’s been learned once or twice.

“There is something like that.”

Minsik also opened his mouth as he swung the bat himself and knocked down one of the zombies.

“He was once a fucking hotshot. He was a great person that you couldn’t even look at in the past. Now, when I see him relying on and clinging to me, what is it? An erection? No. Comedy?”

A man wearing sunglasses intervened.

“Isn’t it joy?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Joy. Fuck. Korean is so fucking hard.”

Minsik beat up some zombies once, wiped the sweat from his forehead, exhaled deeply, and continued speaking.

“Isn’t it fun?”

“······.”

“······yo. this?”

“Oh, it’s okay. Feel free to talk. By the way, where is the player?”

“Over there. That apartment.”

Minsik pointed to a low, old apartment.

It appears to be a typical old-style apartment building, built like a square with an atrium in the center.

Although it was said to be a ruin, the surrounding environment seemed far from the characteristics of a well-to-do neighborhood.

Wouldn’t it be a bit of a harsh environment for a player who enjoyed wealth and fame and had not lost any of his wealth before the war to live in?

While I was wondering about this, a dull thud was heard from somewhere not far away.

pop!

It’s the sound of something exploding.

I thought for a moment about the meaning of the sound.

It’s clearly the sound of someone hitting something with a blunt object, but the sound waves aren’t the same as the sound we make when we hit a zombie.

A sound as if the club itself was causing an explosion.

After a while we were able to find the culprit making that delightful cracking sound.

pop!

A man with a giant build and innate strength like a wild horse was swinging a bat at zombies.

Boom! Boom!

The shape of the bat was identical to the scavenger’s tool we use.

I asked while looking at Minsik.

“This person······?”

Minsik nodded with a sly smile.

“Yes. Yes. That person is······.”

pop!

The large man turned his head towards us, sending the last zombie’s head flying like a literal home run ball.

Jo Young-chun.

He is a former power hitter.

*

Jo Young-chun was living alone in the old apartment we found.

The inside of the apartment showed even more signs of poverty and deprivation than the outside.

It looks like they were trying to push for redevelopment, but it doesn’t seem to have gone well.

Even before the war began, leaflets urging for redevelopment consent were stuck on the doors of houses where people had left behind like a plague.

Some lakes even had eerie notices posted that I was familiar with: Random Auction.

“I also went to Incheon.”

Despite his large size and fierce appearance, Jo Young-chun’s voice was thin and boyish.

“I lived here for a while and then eventually came back here.”

Jo Young-chun looked at Min-sik with tired eyes.

“If I hadn’t met Mr. Lee Do-won, I might have died.”

Minsik slowly nodded his head while looking at his old idol with a happy gaze and a smile on his face.

I saw the house.

It’s a narrow, old, and shabby house.

It was a little bigger than the house Jang Gi-yeong lived in in his later years, but it looked much older.

The yellow floorboards themselves were not made in the 21st century.

It looked like a house where people who had been poor in the past and had nowhere to go had no choice but to live.

However, in the midst of that secluded place, on the side of the display case that was crumbling like ruins, there were faded trophies and plaques that remained like scars.

Is this this person’s house?

“Brother Youngchun.”

Minsik stated his business.

“As I told you before, you must leave this place now. This man is the head of the Hunters in Seoul, and he said he is going to cut off the bridge. If he cuts off the bridge, we will not be able to come here freely like before. This could be the last time.”

As expected, fans are fans.

Even though you like to speak informally like that, you’re still so polite to that person.

I saw Jo Young-chun’s face.

Well, I’ve already decided.

He doesn’t seem like he’ll change his mind.

“I’m sorry, little brother.”

Indeed, Jo Young-chun chose to stay here.

“I’ll stay here. Thank you for everything. Really. I really don’t have anything to say to my brother other than thank you.”

It is very common for people who are tired, old and homeless to choose death in a familiar place rather than seek new adventures in a foreign land.

Jo Young-chun also made a similar choice.

Minsik’s men began to pile up the food and fuel they had brought inside the house.

However, there was only a small amount of food and fuel in the cupboard.

If you use it sparingly, it’s only enough for a month.

If the temperature drops sharply, the time given to Jo Young-chun may be reduced even further.

“······.”

I got up from my seat.

He is said to have been a great player in the past, but he has nothing to do with me.

While Min-sik had his last conversation with Jo Yeong-chun and his subordinate was packing up the remaining luggage, he got up from his seat and looked around the house.

The place where my steps stopped was a display case with plaques.

Most of the awards and plaques were damaged by wind, rain, and weather, so it was impossible to tell what kind of awards they were.

I saw Jo Young-chun’s gaze directed at me through the glass surface of the plaque.

“······Is this the car the teacher is riding?”

It seemed impolite to come all this way and not say a word.

Still, I guess it’s the Korean people’s nature to share some kind words.

however.

“It’s not mine.”

Jo Young-chun said calmly.

A moment of confusion occurred to me.

What should I say, it’s a confusion that arose because the premise of the situation, the conclusion I had already reached, collapsed.

I stared at him with a questioning look on my face.

“It’s my friend’s.”

“Friend?”

Jo Young-chun nodded.

“We were friends from middle and high school.”

“······Is that so?”

One question has been answered.

But another question arises.

“Why are you at your friend’s house?”

If this were a safe and uninhabited place like my territory, I could understand.

But here, death is near.

Have you come in search of death?

To be seen in that way, he has already shown a strong enough will to live.

In particular, the exhilarating swing that blows off the zombie’s head is a trick that even I, a hunter, have a hard time imitating.

“I have something to worry about.”

With a gentle smile on his face, Jo Young-chun stared into space.

His gaze seemed to be looking into a past that would never return, but I had no way of knowing that past.

I waited for him to continue speaking.

“He was once a really good guy. He was a good pitcher and a good fielder. He hit well and pitched well. He was the ace and hit better than me, the catcher.”

“Were you close friends?”

Still looking into the past, Jo Young-chun slowly shook his head.

“No. He hasn’t even had a drink since he graduated from high school. This guy. When he was doing well, he was so arrogant that you couldn’t stand it. He was a total idiot. That’s why it was kind of satisfying to see him get involved in military service corruption and go to the military.”

Jo Young-chun let out a shallow sigh with a strange smile on his face.

“But there are guys like that, right? Guys you can talk to comfortably as if you broke up yesterday even if you haven’t seen them in ten years.”

“······.”

“That guy was that kind of guy. I just didn’t find out until too late.”

Jo Young-chun got up from his seat.

Standing at over 190cm tall, he had a stooped posture and still gave off a considerable sense of intimidation.

He looked at the faded plaque.

He held one of the trophies in his large hand and stared at it with eyes still stuck in the past.

“······Later, when I was doing well, this friend asked me for a favor.”

Another hand appeared and wiped the dust off the trophy.

“He asked me to hit the ball. Since this was his last call-up, he wanted to see how well his pitches would work against the regulars on the first team, and he also wanted to get some one-point lessons.”

Bam

The plaque was placed back in its original place.

“I refused. He was pushed down to the minor leagues and soon became someone whose name you can’t find in the sports papers anymore. I heard he was transferred to the minor leagues as a hitter, but I guess he couldn’t handle that either.”

Woohoo–

The cries of zombies can be heard from not far away.

Another group of people loitering around.

Jo Young-chun sighed and got up from his seat.

“······I thought about committing suicide in Incheon.”

His big, bulky hands, the ones that struck fear into countless pitchers, gripped the bat.

“I’ve never had any regrets in my life. So I thought it would be easy to commit suicide.”

He turned his head.

He turned his head, but a miserable smile was still hanging on his exposed side.

“But when I was about to die, that friend caught my eye.”

I heard later that Jo Young-chun had been married exactly four times and divorced four times.

He had several children, but gave up all custody.

He also had a history of attending fraudulent investment seminars.

“Mr. Do-won. Thank you for everything.”

The former player left the house with his bat in hand.

“Brother Youngchun!”

Minsik chased after him.

But Jo Young-chun coldly ignored him.

Minsik looked at me with a puzzled expression, then scratched his head and called his subordinates together.

“······What? All of a sudden. You’re ignoring what people are saying.”

Boom! Bang!

We left the scene amidst the refreshing sound of the waves crashing.

Min-sik watched Jo Young-chun from afar, but Jo Young-chun never gave him a single glance.

He just swings his bat and swings it again.

pop!

Use baseballs to hit the heads of the approaching zombies.

It is unclear whether his intentions are atonement, an expression of regret, or psychotic self-destruction.

Maybe it’s my own way of fulfilling an old friend’s request.

At least the swing of the bat he swung was worthy of the name of a power hitter.

pop!

Another zombie’s head flew off in a clean arc.

Without any objection, Bridge A was blown up.