Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 49



Only Krnovel

34. Housewarming

Gold took care of the boar he brought.

I took out the intestines and drained the blood and put it in the freezer. In addition to this, I also have one wild boar, two deer, and two chickens.

I decided to butcher a sow, since the chicken was for me to eat and the goral was honestly not a good meat to serve to guests.

This is my first time butchering meat.

I turned on the slaughter video and imitated it.

The skin didn’t come off as well as I had hoped, but as I continued to do it slowly and steadily, the boar soon looked like the one I saw at the butcher shop.

I took a sniff.

It’s not a particularly appealing smell.

There is a fishy smell.

They say that the ribs of wild boar are the most edible.

The ribs were divided into three large pieces.

One is for the Defender siblings, one is for the sniper mother and daughter, and the other is for me.

I had a similar experience when I was in China.

My colleague and I captured a domestic pig that had escaped from our pen, and together with the Chinese, we skillfully butchered it and had a pork party.

At that time, it seemed like there was hope in China.

Even though the North was being eroded, a huge amount of materials were supplied from the rear and an equally large number of manpower filled the front lines.

I heard that there are a thousand hunters recruited every month.

We were able to produce a thousand hunters a year in such a short period of time.

To be honest, the level of training wasn’t that high, but that wasn’t a big problem.

Although he was a beginner, he had basic training and quickly became a veteran in life-or-death battles.

In fact, they even drove out a horde of monsters that had taken over a large city and purified the eroded areas.

It was probably humanity’s greatest victory over monsters.

The Chinese were excitedly shouting that mankind, having overcome nature, would overcome even monsters, and that China would be at the forefront.

But destruction cannot be prevented.

I saw from beyond the crack.

A despair called infinity.

*

Pioneers are now a part of life.

If you turn on the radio, you can hear pioneers’ radio transmissions here and there.

A plea for help, a joke to fill, someone’s backstory, a hymn to the good old days.

There was no way to know the news of the pioneers who were confronting us in the north, but there was no need to find out.

Because other pioneers had branched south along the road they were confronting.

One thing that was concerning was that most of them had information about the sniper mother and daughter.

I’ve heard several times that there are remnants of American soldiers in that town, so I shouldn’t approach them.

It may help the sniper mother and daughter in the short term, but it doesn’t seem like it will bring about good results in the long term.

As the pressure from the pioneers grows, her domain will face greater challenges and she may face powerful enemies who are targeting the mother and daughter as before.

For example, the Jo Seong-yong gang.

Jo Seong-yong’s gang has not appeared anymore, but this is a world where people like that survive for a long time.

Maybe somewhere else they’re having fun driving people out into the wilderness?

I rode my bike towards Seojeop while listening to the pioneer’s rambling radio transmissions.

A wasteland appeared, with large shell craters scattered throughout.

It was a place where Chinese warships dominated the West Sea and launched missile strikes.

The Defender’s new home was perched precariously on the edge of the sunken wilderness.

As I approached the house, I spoke into the radio.

“I’m here.”

A young man and woman emerged from the ruins.

“Sir!”

Defender and his brother came out and waved.

“What kind of a bastard is this?”

“That’s right. You’re so impatient, oppa. We haven’t even met the parents yet.”

“No. What kind of meeting is this? Neither of us have parents.”

My brother stared intently into the trunk.

“What is this?”

“Huh? This?”

A proud smile naturally appeared on my lips.

This wild boar meat was butchered by Park Gyu himself, and it is the rib part that is said to be the most delicious.

“What kind of meat is it?”

The defender put his nose to the meat and sniffed it.

“Pork? It smells really good.”

“wild boar.”

“Wild boar? Sir? Are you good at hunting?”

“No, it’s not so much hunting as, well, there were circumstances for that.”

Even if I told you that a mutant dog bit you, you wouldn’t believe me.

“I’m not very good at hunting.”

“That’s amazing.”

“Human hunting and animal hunting are different.”

“How is the new house? Is it livable?”

Around it stood other ruined houses, standing side by side.

In each house there was faint trace of life.

It’s a ruin that was abandoned a long time ago and no one visits.

“Want to come and take a look? You came to a housewarming party, right?”

“What kind of houses are you talking about in these times? I just came because I was worried.”

“Go and take a look.”

“Hmm.”

Visiting someone else’s house during the Destruction Period is an event with a high probability of leading to death, but the Defender siblings are trustworthy friends.

“good.”

When was the last time you went to a friend’s house?

I think the last time I went to Lee Sang-hoon’s house to play was.

We weren’t particularly close.

No, we were never close.

Lee Sang-hoon’s mother, who is always on the go, invited some of his friends to a birthday party, and I was just randomly included.

The reason I was invited, even though I wasn’t that close to Lee Sang-hoon, was probably because I had better grades than him.

My friends and I, who were about the same age as high school freshmen at the time, were able to catch a glimpse of the lives of the so-called upper class in Seoul.

It was full of things I had never seen before and whose uses I couldn’t figure out, and things I had never seen before but instinctively felt I could never have were taking their place as if they were natural everywhere I looked.

I didn’t really think about it.

Because the fire of hatred burning inside me was so hot that I felt jealousy and a sense of inferiority when I saw the wealth and luxury of others.

We ate some delicious food, exchanged some gifts – I went empty-handed – and sang a little Happy Birthday.

Anyway, unlike back then, I have grown older, Lee Sang-hoon has died, and his fancy apartment has collapsed, but for some reason, when I visit “a friend’s house” again after a long time, I feel homesick for Lee Sang-hoon.

Perhaps it is because of the splendor of its interior.

“Hey. What’s this?”

The wavy marble patterns, luster, and well-finished, sophisticated furniture and objects that I had seen at Lee Sang-hoon’s house were spread out before me in a way that was so well preserved that it was hard to believe that they were under desolate ruins.

“I told you, this is a casino.”

The Defender spun the roulette wheel that you would see at a casino.

“I don’t think it will be of much help in survival.”

I toured the underground gambling hall with the Defender siblings.

The casino, which was quite large, was equipped with numerous massage chairs, sleeping rooms, and even shower rooms.

When I turn on the tap, water comes out.

The water had a strong, overpowering bleach smell.

“I got scolded a lot for cleaning the water tank with my younger brother. I was thinking of calling Mr. Su too.”

“Never go.”

“I thought so.”

The bedroom was converted from a sleeping room and has only one bed.

The defender pointed to a corner of the casino.

“I sleep near the entrance.”

Sure enough, there was a matrix standing there with a neatly arranged blanket.

“Electricity?”

“For now, I have some batteries left. I also brought a generator, but I don’t have a lot of fuel. This winter was pretty long, wasn’t it?”

Fuel and food are not particularly abundant.

I’ll probably show everything before summer comes.

The Defender is a nonchalant observer.

“I need to start getting it soon.”

“If you have any bullets left, there are some.”

“As expected, Mr. Su!”

After that, I slowly looked around the new house and checked what was needed or lacking.

It’s not a particularly advantageous terrain for defense, but it’s a good place for concealment.

Said to the defender.

“There won’t be much need to kill here, right?”

“That may be true. Of course, we’ll have to kill them all once we find the entrance on our side. But I don’t think the guys who built this place will come. They seem to have died long ago.”

“That’s right.”

Before leaving, I took one last look around the splendid gambling hall.

It must have cost quite a bit of money.

Maybe enough money to double my bunker facilities.

But then what?

I’m giving it to someone else without even using it.

“Then I’ll go back now.”

“You’re going? Aren’t you going to eat meat together?”

“Because there are so many pioneers.”

“Have a cup of tea before you go.”

Defender Brother appeared in front of me and shook the teacup.

The fancy glass and the can in his hand are both expensive black tea. They seem to have been hidden in this gambling house.

“I’m good at driving. I worked at a cafe for a while.”

“Then let’s have a drink and go.”

What started as a housewarming party and ended with a skeleton tour turned into an impromptu tea party.

Under the starry night sky, we set up a makeshift table and three camping chairs.

Soon the Defender brother came out with the car.

You can tell just by smelling it.

It’s a good car.

It’s on a whole other level than the lemon tea in my bunker.

Slurp

Honestly, I’m not sure about the taste.

Don’t they say that tea is eaten for its fragrance?

There were no sweets to go with it, but the scent of the tea, its luxurious bitterness and roughness that drove away the stench of death and fear that was prevalent during the Destruction, and the warm heat that traveled down my esophagus and covered my stomach were good enough experiences to be remembered for a long time.

We sat in silence for a while, savoring the black tea left by the nameless kind man.

It was the Defender who broke the silence.

“I’ll tell you later.”

He stared at the fires the pioneers had lit in the distance.

“If only the world would be a little quieter and more livable than it is now.”

“······.”

“What are you going to do then?”

The defender looked at me first, but I didn’t say anything.

“me.”

My brother raised his hand instead of me.

“I want to go to New York.”

“New York?”

In response to my question, my brother nodded and conveyed his thoughts to me in a voice that was louder than before.

“I’ve never been on a trip abroad before.”

“It’s New York.”

The defender held the teacup with both hands and smiled wickedly.

“I want to build a house.”

“house?”

“When I was a kid, my father and I bought a piece of land in that beautiful suburb and decided to build a house there. It had a hip roof, Spanish skylights, a labyrinthine garden, and Greek columns.”

“I can’t imagine what kind of house it is.”

My brother and Defender both covered their mouths and laughed.

I was lost in thought, gently shaking my teacup as I watched the friendly siblings.

The future.

There is no future for us.

How much longer will you live?

There are only that many choices.

But these are different.

Even though we live in the same dark times, facing countless deaths and sorrows, we still keep what we want to do deep in our parched hearts.

I guess, when I see someone else having something I don’t, it makes me think about myself.

“Sir.”

The defender called me.

“Is there anything you want to do, sir?”

“well.”

To be honest, I’m embarrassed to say this.

If your goal is simply to live longer than others and then die, wouldn’t that seem overly bleak?

“honey.”

When my brother joined me, I finally felt a sense of duty to somehow package my wild wish, and soon I came up with an excuse that had been long ago but was also impromptu.

“······I plan to write a diary.”

“A diary? Can’t you write in that right now?”

“I haven’t used it yet.”

“So when are you going to start using it?”

This time, my younger brother asks.

I looked up and saw the twinkling stars.

A story I once heard came to mind.

The starlight in the sky is actually light from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of years ago, and it took that much time to reach Earth.

Can humans live forever like the stars?

“When the world becomes a little quieter and turns gray, when everyone disappears and I am the only one left on the bulletin board, that day will come.”

I want to be eternal.

“That’s when I record each day.”

“In letters?”

“No, no, on the computer. Before I die, I’ll print out what I wrote on the printer and leave it by my bedside, recording each day I, the last human, lived. Do you know? An alien or a mutation that replaced a human will appear and read the records I left behind. Ah, the last human will spend his last days thinking like this.”

As I finished the story, I was conscious of the gazes of my siblings looking at me with blank expressions.

“Skeleton.”

The defender became serious.

“You are definitely a little different from us······.”

“······.”

Are you not Mr. Su anymore?

“Wake up.”

My younger brother was equally surprised.

“Still, it’s romantic. Although, I started to feel a bit strange from the alien part.”

The defender stood up and put away his teacups and tea set.

“If you’re writing a diary, why don’t you try writing something a little more hopeful?”

Hope.

There is no hope in this world.

What’s the use of holding onto hope in a world where the end is already decided?

I said that a little carelessly, thinking that way.

“There is no such thing as hope in this world. Everyone is destined to die.”

The moment I said it, I thought, “Oh no,” but the words had already been said.

What can I do?

This is the reality we face.

But the expression on Defender’s younger sibling, Da-jeong’s face is strange.

She looked at me blankly and said curtly.

“Even m9, who lives in The Hope, will live more positively than you.”

“what?”

What did you just say?

m9?

No matter what, that’s not it.

Comparing this skeleton to that guy.

I wonder if that guy froze to death this winter.

“m9? Didn’t he die?”

There’s a 99% chance he froze to death.

“He’s alive.”

Defender’s brother handed me a tablet.

The site, with the PaleNet mark clearly visible, contained an apartment that was not only tilted, but had its windows all broken, making it clear that the inside was visible.

It contained the image of a man risking his life by drying laundry with a rope tied around his waist.

That’s right.

That mischievous side profile.

This is our former colleague m9 from the bulletin board.

“He also works hard like that······.”

In the midst of the shock, the words m9 had written in the past suddenly came to mind.

mmmmmmmmm : Look! The majesty of this royal view!

It seems that not everyone gives up in the face of despair.

In the midst of this miserable destruction, some were still fiercely fighting against the enemy called despair.

“······Even if you look back, there’s still a view.”

The world is wide.

I need to reflect a little.

*As the tea party was over and I was about to leave, the Defender approached me.

“Hey Skelton.”

“Aren’t you Mr. Su now?”

“I changed my mind.”

“······.”

“Isn’t that it? The one that demolishes the school?”

“Tear down the school?”

“It looks like they’re also attending the principal’s funeral.”

“headmaster?”

There was someone who gave me the call sign Professor.