Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 50



Only Krnovel

35. Alma mater (1)

I remember when I first went to school.

I remember sitting alone in a shady, sparsely populated area, as if it were natural, while watching some of the new students taking pictures with their parents and siblings, laughing and chatting, and talking about their futures.

There was someone there before.

He was a boy who had the same loneliness as me.

Are they the same freshmen?

“What is your name?”

I spoke first.

I’m not an extrovert, but the guy sitting next to me looked so timid and depressed.

The guy looked at me with fear in his eyes, barely able to meet my gaze, then quickly averted his gaze and revealed his name in a hushed voice.

“······Kang Han-min.”

Whether I was intrigued by his timidity or perhaps by the boyish sense of superiority, I smiled at him, forgetting for a moment the miserable reality surrounding me.

“That’s a strong-sounding name. I’m Park Gyu. My last name is Park and my first name is Gyu.”

It was the first school he had ever attended.

Contrary to his name, Kang Han-min was weak-willed and his physical strength and skills were below average.

At first, I tried to help him, but perhaps because of the Spartan atmosphere prevalent in the school, I ended up ignoring him because he showed no signs of improving.

Perhaps the teachings of my mentor had a strong influence on my young self who was just coming into being.

“People can make mistakes. There is no such thing as a perfect human being. But we hunters cannot make mistakes. Our enemies are not humans. In order to deal with non-human beings, we too must shed a small part of our petty humanity.”

Jang Gi-yeong, like the first generation of hunters, was a former soldier with a brilliant career and the title of hero.

Because of his fame, many students wanted to become his disciples, but Jang Gi-yeong was a difficult and neurotic instructor.

He demanded perfection, a virtue that is difficult for humans to possess.

Excessive training and excessive reprimands were the norm, and he would do anything to expel students he deemed below standard from school.

“Kang Han-min. It’s you again?”

“Kang Han-min. Don’t you feel sorry towards your colleagues? Because of you, your colleagues and team members suffered the disadvantage of having points deducted.”

“Kang Hanmin!”

Kang Han-min was the target of Jang Ki-young’s continuous attacks.

In his view, Kang Han-min was a defective product who should never be labeled a hunter.

In the end, Jang Gi-yeong gave Kang Han-min an ultimatum in front of everyone.

“Kang Han-min. You are not needed in my class. If you have a conscience, if you have a human heart, then walk out on your own.”

Kang Han-min did not go out.

He was harder on himself than he looked.

Maybe he hates monsters as much as I do.

Jang Gi-yeong’s bullying and reprimands became more severe, but Kang Han-min stubbornly held on until the next school year.

I can’t forget Jang Gi-yeong’s expression and the words he said when Kang Han-min barely passed the final test.

So, when Kang Han-min fired a sneak attack at the holographic Necromancer type, rushed into range, and split the Necromancer type in half with a high-powered shotgun, Jang Ki-young uneasily uncrossed his arms and shook his head, muttering.

“That guy will eventually hurt us! I guarantee it!”

It doesn’t seem like Jang Ki-young had any precognitive abilities.

It seems that you can’t even predict your own fate right now.

“That’s what Principal Jang Gi-yeong said.”

Time passed and it was the Chinese era.

While I was spending my days accumulating data while keeping an eye on the Chinese government, Woo Min-hee, who was fine at the time, suddenly handed me a detached bullet from a high-powered shotgun and said.

“Did you hear that guy’s career was a total lie?”

“what?”

“That old comrade who fought with that human blew it up. That human named Jang Gi-yeong. Instead of fighting the monster with an axe, he sat down and cried while lowering his head like an ostrich.”

The reason Jang Gi-yeong could be so cruel to Kang Han-min is because he is a hero.

Because they were qualified, they could bully others so much, belittle them, and kick them out so shamelessly.

Even the axe, the main weapon I use in close combat, owes much to Jang Gi-yeong’s heroism.

According to a story that has now become half-legendary, when a rift appeared in Gochang-gun, Jeollabuk-do, soldiers including Jang Gi-yeong stood up to protect the people from monsters.

Soldiers were helplessly killed by the monster’s ability to reflect bullets, and to make matters worse, dead soldiers began to come back to life and attack other soldiers.

In an instant, the defenders were annihilated, and after two tanks were destroyed by the reflective field, the survivors fled in a hurry.

In that hell, Captain Jang Gi-yeong made a decision.

He threw away his gun, pretended to be dead, and waited for the monster to come near.

He stared at the fire axe lying within arm’s reach with wide eyes.

When the monster finally approached, Jang Gi-yeong stood up with an axe and “cut down” it with superhuman skill.

This is the beginning of Jang Gi-yeong’s heroic legend.

The legend spread widely through the media, but no one really doubted it.

Jang Gi-yeong was a typical soldier who had gone through an elite course, graduating with high marks from the tough North American Special Forces training course, and even had a flashy anecdote about knocking down a large black soldier 40cm taller than him in a bar.

Above all, when the reinforcements arrived, the monsters that had appeared in the crack had completely disappeared.

All that’s left is Jang Gi-yeong and several zombies that he knocked down with an axe.

Even as reinforcements arrived, Jang Gi-yeong used his skill at knocking down large American soldiers to chop down two zombies in succession with an axe.

It wouldn’t have been easy to doubt his bravery in that situation.

“The reason the monster didn’t attack him was probably because he lost his will to fight and didn’t do anything. As you know, senpai, monsters read humans’ hostility and react accordingly, right? You didn’t feel that, senpai? It’s a little different from me.”

At the time, I accepted that Woo Min-hee’s constant verbal abuse extended from his colleagues and Chinese people to his distant mentors.

Although not as much as Kang Han-min, Woo Min-hee was also one of the students that Jang Ki-young disliked.

Jang Ki-young’s favorite disciples are me and Kim Da-ram.

He rated Kim Da-ram higher than me in front of people, but that was probably because she had reached the highest level that an ordinary person could reach.

The only person he truly considered his persona was me, Park Gyu.

“Yeah. That’s how you do it. That’s how you swing an axe.”

In the past, the weapon used to fight monsters inside the reflection field was a high-powered grenade.

In fact, this one was more destructive than an axe, easier to use, and less dangerous.

However, the monsters also seemed to have come up with their own countermeasures, as they came out with a new ability that detonates the hunter’s gunpowder weapons in close combat situations.

A new power called “Detonation”.

Many Hunters have fallen victim to this new ability and have been brutally murdered, with their fingers torn off, their chests ripped open, or their forms distorted into unrecognizable shapes.

To counter this, mankind developed new weapons using gunpowder that did not explode until just before detonation, called separating charges, but even these were not safe from detonation.

This is because there are guys who cast detonation at the moment when the separated charges combine and become explosive.

To this end, hunter equipment with faster fusion, explosive power, responsiveness, and convenience were developed one after another, but at least the cold weapons, which are traditional weapons of mankind, were free from such games of wits.

Jang Gi-yeong was the most ardent believer in cold weapons.

He considered the axe, which made him a hero, to be the greatest of all weapons.

“The axe is the most superior weapon. Just as I did 15 years ago.”

I learned everything from him.

Although he was a cold, strict, and demanding instructor, there is no denying that his vast knowledge and outstanding skills made me who I am today.

However, the decision to insist on using an axe in close combat was somewhat questionable.

There were plenty of other good weapons out there, so why an axe?

In fact, unlike the many techniques he taught me, his axe handling techniques were somewhat flawed and most of them were close to acrobatics that were extremely difficult to use in real combat, to the point where I wondered if they were just something someone had imagined.

In practice, I found that his axe swing wasn’t very suitable for dealing with monsters.

Jang Gi-yeong assumed that monsters were extremely fast and agile in close combat, and that they would relentlessly attack, but the monsters I actually faced were closer to moving trees than animals, as he used the expression “cutting down trees” during his active years.

When the news spread that I had cut down my first monster with an axe, the first person to contact me was Jang Gi-yeong.

“Yes, Park Gyu. What do you think? What about my technique? Was the close combat tactic using an axe effective?”

At that time, I was extremely tired, many of my comrades had died in the battlefield, and I had an interview scheduled with Chinese investigators, so I tried to cover it up a bit.

“It seems okay.”

Jang Gi-yeong seemed very happy at that time.

The last time I saw him was after the era of the old school hunters had passed and his past scandalous behavior had led to his voluntary stripping.

The hero of yesteryear lived in a cramped rental apartment.

If he had simply stepped down from his position as principal, he would have kept his wealth, but he had filed numerous lawsuits, was involved in numerous lawsuits himself, and, as is typical of people who are involved in litigation, was not living a very affluent life.

Although he had a wife and children, he seemed to have been as harsh to his family as he was to his students.

Looking at the small house that was so big that it took in everything at a glance, there was no trace of anyone else but him.

“Park Gyu, you? Yes. Come in. It’s a shabby place, but there’s room for you to have a cup of tea.”

Since there was only one chair at the table, he had to drag the one from in front of the computer.

I looked at the computer screen while he made coffee.

He was writing a long piece of writing with his word processor turned on.

Because of the distance, I couldn’t see what was written, but I could easily make out one mark that appeared at the bottom right of the screen.

[ WINDOW Genuine Certification ]

[ Go to settings and authenticate Windows ]

“······okay.”

Jang Ki-young brought out coffee.

“Was my technique effective?”

I hesitated for a moment.

Should I tell the truth or comfort my teacher with kind words?

Suddenly, Kang Han-min’s face flashed before my eyes.

Kang Han-min, who was driven into a corner by Jang Ki-young’s continuous hitting, would often appear in front of me as I was returning to my lodgings with an expression on my face as if I was asking for salvation.

What did I do back then?

Yeah, I threw out some soulless consolation.

“It’ll be okay. If you work a little harder, the officer will see you again.”

It may not be just a coincidence that similar consolation was offered to Jang Ki-young.

“Yes, I think so.”

Jang Ki-young was delighted even with the soulless praise.

Looking at the tears shining in those cruel eyes.

And, it seems like it was quite difficult.

“I think I’ve developed a way to become Awaken.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Zombies. Aren’t zombies human mutations? When a human’s life activities cease, the mutation factor is absorbed into the corpse and infuses it with otherworldly energy, right? That’s what they do. They put a person in a suspended animation, almost dead. The mutation factor thinks the person is dead and takes effect! That’s when they begin to revive! With otherworldly powers, and perhaps even the telepathic abilities of the Awaken, a human with an immortal body could be born!”

When I see a tiger instructor I know talking nonsense like this,

I tried to stand up with deep disappointment, but the instructor continued talking.

“······People call me a fraud, but I’ve seen it. The true nature of monsters. Monsters have leaders. There’s definitely an entity that gives orders!”

“Are you talking about the general type?”

“What type of general are you?”

He seemed unaware of the new entity.

Well, I discovered it two months ago. He must not have known since he took his clothes off a year ago.

My discovery seemed to have unintentionally hurt Jang Gi-yeong.

“No! That can’t be true! That can’t be true! I must have seen something wrong. You said you were guessing, right? A guess is just a guess.”

“That could be the case.”

“Singing! Yes! There was a guy singing something like a song. I couldn’t see him inside the rift, but he was definitely singing something like a song! It was almost as if it was their language! I heard it clearly when I was pretending to be dead. When he commanded, all the monsters went into the rift······. No! There was one left! The one I killed with the axe!”

He left the place after making up a promise that didn’t exist.

Jang Gi-yeong hesitated and spoke to me as he was about to leave.

“Hey, do you keep in touch with Hanmin?”

I could answer coldly because I knew what he meant.

“no.”

Jang Gi-yeong lost one lawsuit after another.

The former hero, who once responded to interviews with the three major broadcasting companies and major media outlets, appeared on a YouTube broadcast by people called Wreckers, criticizing government policies and begging for Super Chat.

I turned off the video when I saw him talking about how he raised Kang Han-min, the disciple he had cast out and now the savior of the times.

Now Jang Gi-yeong is dead, and the school he gave his all to is also facing demolition.

I thought about it for a moment.

Whether to go to that scene or not.

I thought it would be better not to go.

Because the world is dangerous enough these days.

One communication changed my mind.

Personal identification number: REDMASK

I got a call from Woo Min-hee.

“Did you know that the school is being torn down this weekend? I think it would be good if you went.”

“I?”

“Are you far away?”

“······.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Well, there’s nothing good to say to someone like me. But I think it would be good for you to go there.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Kang Han-min was hoping for that too.”

“Kang Han-min?”

“Yeah. I think you’re the best person for the position.”

“······.”

I thought about it for a moment.

I wonder if the words he left for Woo Min-hee were a mockery or a respect for me.

In the silence, the sound of Woo Min-hee’s lips licking her lips could be heard.

Is this the main point?

“Oh, and one more thing. Do you know about Jang Gi-yeong?”

“Instructor Jang Gi-yeong? I heard he died. I heard that they’re even having a funeral.”

“Stay alive.”

Woo Min-hee laughed.

“I am still alive and eagerly waiting for my senior to come.”