Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 378



Only Krnovel

Hiding a House in the Apocalypse Episode 384

156. The Leader (1)

In the eastern frontier across the river, a large group of mutations are running rampant.

Although they have not caused any direct casualties yet, the area is swarmed with packs of tiger-sized dogs loitering around human territory.

We sent a team of hunters, but to no avail.

A hunter with a stocky physique who was not from the school but had as much experience as one reported to me with a bitter expression.

“It seems like you have a really good head.”

As evidenced by the fact that the South Korean government was unable to hunt down the Gold Pack until the end, a pack of mutant dogs with a great leader are extremely tricky creatures.

No additional teams were dispatched as they did not appear to be actively hunting humans.

We don’t have the resources to respond to each mutation individually.

The eruption was reported by the Paju Observatory.

It wasn’t a big deal, but it was already the third time in a week.

There are reports that some of them are headed towards Seoul.

This may not seem like a big deal, but we have human sensors.

“Have you still been in touch with the captain?”

Woo Min-hee has disappeared.

Leaving a note.

– Please take care of me.

Although no recipient was specified, the recipient of the note was in some sense firmly designated.

That’s right, it’s me.

*

“I don’t think our current artillery firepower is enough. We need to increase the number of idiot tanks in operation. Find more engineers among the new refugees.”

On the left, Kim Byeong-cheol and soldiers from the corps are smoking cigarettes and discussing operations among themselves.

“I contacted Kang Han-min, the person in charge of rescue, and he said he had no knowledge of this matter, but that he would take necessary action soon.”

On the right, orthodox soldiers – wearing ranks noticeably lower than those of the legionaries – were sipping coffee cups with stern faces and trying to communicate continuously on their radios.

“So what should we do now? Should we introduce the citizens again?”

On the other side, neatly dressed administrative officials were reviewing documents and laptops.

Few people know who the new leader of Seoul is.

It just so happened that the new Seoul’s legal representative was the “Revival Committee for the Successful Settlement of the New Seoul,” and surprisingly, this Park Gyu’s name was on that list.

I too have become one of the top officials of this city.

The chairman position is vacant, but no one can deny the fact that Woo Min-hee is in fact the chairman.

Now that Woo Min-hee is gone, there is no one to control the city’s motley factions.

The meeting, which lasted a full three hours, failed to reach any conclusion.

As I was leaving the conference room, a group of administrative officials approached me.

“I need to find the manager.”

I totally agree with their opinion.

But where and how can we find that Woo Min-hee?

Am I right in looking for her?

Woo Min-hee has a fussy and unpredictable personality.

She also had a secretary, but unlike other powerful people, she didn’t write long letters or ask for too many things.

The one who has been by Woo Min-hee’s side for a long time is Song Yu-jin, who is also my disciple.

“Director······?”

Perhaps because of her long suffering in the Paju Crack, her face had no trace of the innocence she had when I taught her.

Where innocence had been, sharp wariness had taken its place, and useless positivity had been replaced by suspicion.

“well.”

She controlled her expression by watching me closely.

It’s an attitude I hadn’t seen before when we met again in my bunker.

“The director tends to leave his post when something big comes up.”

“okay?”

I waited for my disciple’s answer, feeling my heart cooling faster than the coffee cooling down in real time.

“I know it’s rude to ask this, but I think you want to live a long life.”

“Everyone wants to live long.”

“······I need to die quickly.”

Song Yu-jin muttered with a bitter smile.

I looked at her with slightly surprised eyes, and she met my gaze and continued speaking.

“That’s something the director always said.”

“Minhee?”

“Yes. But, there is something like that. Among the people who say they want to die every day, there is no one who really wants to die, and those who really take their lives go alone without saying a word to anyone around them.”

I’ve heard that story too.

Telling people around you that you want to die actually means you don’t want to die, so you want attention.

“When I was in Paju, the director called everyone together and said something. He usually didn’t hold gatherings, but he just gathered all the employees together as a courtesy and gave them some kind of lecture, so I remember it clearly.”

Song Yu-jin shared an interesting topic with me.

“He said that if things got worse, we might have to go into the cracks.”

“Into the crack?”

Song Yu-jin nodded without hesitation at the question that was filled with surprise.

“Yes. The inside of the crack is safer than we think, so he meant to tell us to be prepared to enter the crack in case something happens.”

It’s safe inside the crack.

That’s right.

Outside the rift, there are various monsters guarding the rift, but beyond the rift, there is surprisingly little.

Beyond the horizon, countless monsters are endlessly “manufactured,” but that’s all.

There is no way to know where it is going or where it is headed.

The world moves according to an order that we cannot understand.

Beyond the crack is a world of essentially complete nothingness.

In it, we are not much different from the monsters that entered our world.

Since there is nothing to be gained from that world, when the life we ​​have stored up in our world – water, calories – runs out, we too will perish like monsters.

When an eruption is imminent, you may see a large group of monsters moving towards the exit of the rift, but the group itself is harmless.

To them, a human being abandoned with broken limbs is no different from a rock on the side of the road.

Of course, any hostile actions against the crack itself would provoke monster attacks, but Woo Min-hee’s idea that the inside of the crack is safe is not wrong.

If we live like dead rats, clinging to the other side of the crack, we might be able to survive on the other side of the crack until our life spark dies out.

However, it did not take into account that humans could become crazy or change due to the nature of the crack itself.

That is something we cannot fathom or measure.

“Did you see the path that the chief made in front of the Paju crack?”

Song Yu-jin’s voice brought my mind back to reality from my momentary reverie.

“Like that dragon bone?”

I asked, looking into the eyes that held a weariness that would never be erased.

“Yes. It is used to protect us on our regular patrol routes, but its real purpose is what I explained earlier.”

“Is this a path to escape across the cracks?”

“That’s correct.”

The most plausible reason for Woo Min-hee’s sudden disappearance is Jeong Gyu-waken.

Seunghwan Ahn, the leader of the regular Awaken, came to see me.

He usually had a pale complexion, but today he appeared with a particularly pale face. He carefully watched my expression and asked me a question.

“Everyone’s condition is strangely bad today. So, Captain, can you give everyone a day off today?”

“Is there a reason? Why does everyone feel anxious?”

In response to my question, Seunghwan Ahn glanced around the office with an anxious look in his eyes, then continued speaking in a small voice without making eye contact.

“······Something is coming.”

This is truly irresponsible talk.

But to those who feel what we cannot see or feel, this is true.

I asked Seunghwan Ahn, raising my whole body’s senses, if I could possibly feel even a part of their senses.

“How does it feel?”

I still feel nothing.

Other than the psychological need of not having been on the Internet even once today.

“······I hear something like a voice.”

“voice?”

“Yes. What should I say? I feel like it’s some kind of thought, not something that happens with the tongue and vocal cords as we speak. And it’s something that we will never understand.”

“Is it possible to describe it in detail?”

At my request, Seung-Hwan Ahn rolled his eyes anxiously, collected his thoughts, stuck his tongue out, and spoke to me in a rough but meaningful language about a world of senses that I could not understand.

“Needle and thread? Mathematical formulas? Equations keep coming up. I don’t know what each side says, but in my opinion, they all seem to make no sense, but like thread going through a needle’s eye, or mahjong tiles finding their pair, they fit together perfectly, disappear, and a new equation appears to perform the same task. It goes on and on… There’s no beginning or end. Problems are presented and solved endlessly… It just keeps going on, like crazy.”

Fear began to creep up Ahn Seung-hwan’s face.

“That infinite solution drives people crazy······”

infinity.

Is the infinity I saw also continued in their imagination?

“I’m sorry, Seunghwan Ahn. I asked you to do something too much.”

“Oh, no, Captain.”

Seung-Hwan Ahn took a sip of cold water and wiped away the cold sweat that had formed.

“······Anyway, this was a dangerous signal even inside the Big Hole.”

“Danger signal?”

“When I feel like this, I stop everything.”

“Even if Kang Han-min is there?”

“Well, I’m not sure about that. It’s certain that Kang Hyeon-min, the savior, is inside the Big Hole, but no one except a small group of personal guards knows where he is.”

Although he is the regular away captain here, Seung-Hwan Ahn is a friend who was judged to be out of action even in Jeju and came down to the mainland.

There probably weren’t many opportunities to come into contact with top-level information about Kang Han-min’s whereabouts.

Still, one thing is certain.

“······.”

It looks like he’s coming closer.

*

The government has its own manufacturing plant inside the warehouse.

The most commonly manufactured items in factories where numerous workers still work are building materials and winter gear.

Ammunition and weapons may be more urgent, but we know that.

That a temperature drop of just ten degrees can kill more people equally and reliably than tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Of course, that’s not the only thing made in the factory.

In one corner of the factory there is a small factory for frontline soldiers and hunters.

We call that place the blacksmith shop.

Wheeeeeeeeing—

Amidst the sparks and whirring of various machines, I found a technician.

“Ah, Captain.”

A cheerful, hairy man in his early 30s greeted me.

His name is Kim Da-un, but people call him Seven.

The reason is that the right hand has only seven fingers from the ring finger to the little finger, and the left hand has only seven fingers because the little finger was cut off, but there is one more reason.

Originally, the doctor wanted to cut off his thumb as well, but Kim Da-un insisted that not even his thumb should be cut off.

The doctor warned that with just his current nutritional status and medication, his frozen thumb would not be able to come back to life and instead would rot, causing various infections and inflammations that could lead to death. However, Kim Da-un persevered and saved his thumb.

He increased the number of his fingers from six to seven.

So, rather than thinking of his nickname as gossip, he is proud of it and thinks of it as a small miracle he accomplished.

Seven’s blunt seven fingers are moving diligently, completing the mechanical device I requested.

“Look.”

He pressed the button.

Then, orange and blue flames simultaneously rose from a device that looked like a rocket nozzle and began to burn.

Cheeeeeeek-

The combustion was so quick that it seemed to have no significance beyond a fireworks show.

“······I created a propellant using a separate charge as you ordered.”

“thank you.”

We examined a tool that was still unfinished, the purpose of which no one could guess.

“When will it be finished?”

“If you hurry, it can be done within a week.”

“Can you pull it any further?”

“I guess I can pull it. But I have a question too.”

Seven looked at the machine he had created with wide eyes.

“What is it actually used for?”

“What is it for?”

“Yes. I know that there are many strange things among the Hunter weapons. Like bladers. Marionettes. The Chukonoo that the Chinese use? I vaguely understand why such things had to be made, but this item that the Captain ordered is something that I just can’t understand no matter how much I think about it.”

“Hmm······Is that all?”

“No, I don’t understand why they need such a large and high-powered propulsion system to catch something. Even if they made it like this, it wouldn’t be enough to penetrate super-large types like the Kraken type or Behemoth type. But it seems like it would have too much firepower to deal with types below that.”

Well, it’s not surprising that Seven would say something like that.

I may have had a hand in conceptualizing this weapon, but it was my mentor, Jang Gi-yeong, who created the original.

Therefore, I should refrain from telling you the true purpose of this object.

Because if someone like Seven thought of us fighters, they wouldn’t try to make it.

He answered with a big smile.

“It’s a tool for catching just one monster.”

“Huh? A tool to catch just one monster······?”

Seven looked incomprehensible.

I gave him a nod with a smile and left.

“Then I will ask for your help.”

Brrrrrr-

The phone is ringing.

Looking at the number, it looks like an administrative official.

I guessed that it was probably because of the annoying meeting problem.

Those were ten million, ten million words.

In the conference room, young men and women with sharp expressions and sharp eyes were guarding the surroundings, giving off a murderous aura.

A combat uniform with a sophisticated design that emphasizes functionality and an overall gray tone.

This is the Awaken Hunter that was in Ganghwa Island.

Jeju’s elite.

Why did they come here?

It has been said that government soldiers called them.

Are you really here?

A familiar official gestures for me to come into the conference room.

As I was walking slowly, taking in the atmosphere, someone approached me with a light hop.

“Hunter Park!”

A tone I’ve heard somewhere before.

When I turned my head, a face I remembered was looking at me with a bright smile.

“you?”

It’s a demonstration.

Aida, who almost became King’s successor, whom King and I saved together.

This young fellow, dressed in a combat uniform similar to that of the Reinforced Awaken, looked much more manly and masculine than I had seen him before.

“I never thought I’d see you here again. Seriously!”

“Oh, yeah. How have you been?”

I felt both joy and surprise at the reunion with him, who had become so much more mature, when I felt a cold gaze pouring down from the side.

He turned his gaze to Jeon Si-hun and asked for his understanding.

“······.”

My heart freezes cold.

This friend who called me with a tone as cold as my heart was my classmate and comrade.

He who stands beyond the now severed relationship calls me.

“Park Gyu.”

“Respectful people.”

He reached out to me until the very end,

was the only helper.