Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 52



Only Krnovel

35. Alma mater (3)

The end of The Guard, a hunter training institute that was once called the shield of the Republic of Korea and the object of envy and jealousy, was a miserable one.

There were only a handful of people gathered there.

A man was up on stage giving a speech.

“Those who should protect us have abandoned us and run away to save themselves. It’s not like they’re trying to fight back. They’ve literally abandoned us. They’re a stain on the times. I’m trying to remove that stain and build a new future in its place.”

It’s a face I’ve seen somewhere.

Was it Park Sang-min?

He was a member of the National Assembly and was talking big.

I haven’t seen him since I was with Je-pung-ho, but as always, he seems to live a long time.

There were voices of discontent coming from the surroundings.

“That guy. He insisted on tearing down the school building, which was empty.”

“You’re thinking of doing something, right? There’s an election coming up soon, right?”

“National representative? That thing where they elect 500 people?”

“The population of South Korea has decreased by more than half, but why is the number of rice-eaters increasing? For whom?”

Half of them blamed Park Sang-min, but the other half seemed to think he was probably the one brought in by Park Sang-min.

“What do you know?”

“Be quiet. You’re a piece of trash.”

“Don’t you know the basic principle that as the number of national representatives increases, the national rights increase as well?”

“Okay. If you want to blame someone, do it at the National Assembly member who abandoned you. You can’t even say a word to the guys who put you on a leash.”

Park Sang-min finished his speech after watching the scene from afar.

“The dirty era will end. A new era will come. I, Park Sang-min. I will run at full speed today to open a new era with you all.”

As Park Sang-min drove off, half of the few people left.

About twenty people were left in the dreary, sandy, wind-blown field.

They all looked older than me.

Most were in their 40s, but occasionally there were people in their 50s.

I couldn’t find any friends younger than me, and I couldn’t even find anyone my age.

I found a woman with a longing for her.

Kim Da-ram might be here.

She is one of the reasons why I accepted Woo Min-hee’s invitation.

I thought maybe she would show up here.

Because this place is precious to her and to me.

Although others criticize my grace and call me a fraud, I have received His grace.

The same goes for Kim Da-ram.

Jang Gi-yeong treated children from wealthy and powerful families fairly, as well as orphans like us.

I have never arbitrarily ignored or treated them disadvantageously because they have no parents.

I have always appreciated that fact.

Because the other instructors weren’t like that.

But Kim Da-ram did not show up at this place.

Baek Seung-hyun, who tried to drag me down by selling her name, is also not there.

“······.”

Two minor objectives were left in vain.

If either of them had appeared, it would have cleared up some of my long-standing doubts.

There was a small funeral home next to the school.

This is Jang Ki-young’s funeral.

I didn’t know why the funeral of the still-living Jang Gi-yeong was placed next to the school, but now I think I know a little bit.

It’s Woo Min-hee’s doing.

Her pathological sensitivity gave the drama.

On the first page of the guestbook, the name of the person who planned this event was written in an unnecessarily elegant handwriting.

[Woo Min-hee]

After that, there were a few names of instructors that remained in my vague memory, and there were also a few names of people who seemed to be my seniors, but the total number did not exceed ten.

I was the 10th person to write my name in the guestbook.

“······.”

I thought about it for a moment.

Should I write Park Gyu?

Actually, it is correct to write Park Gyu here.

It is polite to the deceased to write the first and last name that represents me both publicly and privately.

But an unknown whim strongly suggested another option.

The fact that there was no one to guard the funeral also gave strength to my new idea.

Slowly and respectfully, I left my mark on the guestbook of the deceased who was still alive.

[ Professor ]

Perhaps this name would resonate more with the benefactor who has already died and will die again.

When I think of the most shining moments of my mentor, when he would insist strongly and push through despite everyone’s objections, saying that it was too much.

I could hear the conversation of middle-aged men next to the funeral home.

“The principal said he had a secret plan to stop the school from being demolished. What was that secret plan he was talking about? He said that if it worked, we could stop the demolition.”

“Well. No matter what anyone says, Jang Dae-wi is a patriot. He was loyal to his country until the end. When he resigned as principal and was involved in a lawsuit, he received a job offer from China, but he immediately turned it down. There is no one like him.”

No matter what anyone says, Jang Gi-yeong was more popular and respectable than Lee Sang-hoon.

I’m not saying this because I’m a favored disciple.

“Please step back. The bombing will begin soon.”

People gathered as gunshots rang out in the distance.

A few people nodded at me, but I didn’t recognize them.

It’s a face I vaguely remember, but it feels too distant to pretend to know or have a conversation with.

Even if we talk about it, it will just be an empty repetition of echoes.

The countdown began, and soon explosives placed throughout the school made a loud noise.

The schoolyard and classroom where I spent three years were melting away in the dust.

Perhaps at this moment, my mentor, who is no exaggeration in saying that he was the founder of the school, will also meet his eternal death.

I paid a silent tribute to both the school and my teachers, and left, remembering a page of time that will never return.

On the way back, I took an armored car.

Unlike the soldiers in the helicopters, the soldiers in the armored vehicles did not build a wall.

They were as curious as I was.

“You were a hunter, right? How did you feel when you stood before a monster?”

“People’s lives are similar. You want to run away and throw yourself away.”

“Do you know Kang Han-min and Na Hye-won?”

“I don’t know for sure. When you have about 1,200 classmates, there are bound to be some you pass by without even seeing their faces.”

One of the officers who had been silent looked around.

He looked at me and suddenly asked.

“Wouldn’t you get depressed if you lived like this?”

“Well, it’s something I have to overcome.”

“There’s something called a freelance hunter. The pay isn’t that much, but it’s enough to live off of. With that kind of money, you could probably get a decent place to live next to the docks instead of here.”

I wondered what he was talking about, but it seems he was worried about me.

The officer handed me something.

“This is something the Chief asked me to deliver.”

It was a palm-sized notebook.

“They said it was the teacher’s heirloom. They asked me to pass it on to Mr. Park Gyu, saying it would be good for him to have it.”

In a notebook so old that the leather cover was almost falling off, the entire page was filled with dense, powerful, and restrained handwriting.

What caught my eye was the phrase written in powerful Chinese characters along with the picture of a dragon with a strong, old-fashioned feel drawn on the first page.

[ Even if this body breaks, for the protection of my homeland . ]

It’s definitely the handwriting of my benefactor, Jang Gi-yeong.

I must have scribbled something in that room with a pen that had run out of ink.

I expressed my gratitude and got out of the armored vehicle.

The soldiers waved their hands.

They were warm-hearted people.

However, I have to walk quite a distance to get to my bunker.

Because I didn’t want to tell Woo Min-hee my location, I walked 12km away to contact her.

I guess I should have made it 3km away.

But lately, there is one thing I can trust.

“Do you have a defender brother?”

“The ribs you gave me before were delicious. It was so delicious that even if two people ate it, three people wouldn’t know it.”

“I’ll tell you my location, so you can scout the area?”

“Hey~.”

With the support of my defender brother, I walked the desolate path to reach my territory.

As always, a gloomy yet sentimental scene.

I opened the door to the bunker and went in, throwing myself down on the mattress.

“······Phew.”

It seems like a lot has happened, but when I get home, I can’t remember anything, as if sand is slipping through my fingers.

If I had to pick one thing, it would be the feeling of waking up in bed with the morning sunlight shining on me.

I was thinking of using the internet for a bit, but I just lay there blankly for over 30 minutes doing nothing.

What woke me up was the ringtone of the K-Walkie-Talkie.

Personal identification number: REDMASK

This is Woo Min-hee.

Why did she, who I hadn’t even seen in Incheon, contact me?

Should I not answer the phone? I thought about it for a moment, but in the end, I got up and picked up the radio.

“Are you Woo Min-hee?”

“senior!”

Woo Min-hee’s voice was overflowing with, what could be called, a sinister energy.

“Jang Ki-young said!”

“what?”

“Before he died, he suddenly had a seizure and started shitting and peeing, and even in the midst of all that chaos, he kept shouting out his senior’s call sign! Professor! Professor!”

It might seem unfair to my mentor to describe the situation at the time in a tone that was full of mockery and contempt.

Although he has many flaws, my teacher is not someone that Woo Min-hee can judge lightly.

I tried to reconstruct the end of my mentor in my own way.

The lab staff sat Jang Ki-young, who was sitting like a still life, on a convertible chair that could be used as both a surgical chair and a bed, inserted a needle into his vein, and injected him with drugs that could lead to his death.

Until then, my mentor had been staring blankly ahead of me, as if he were dead.

It was when the venom flowing through the tube reached the heart and tried to stop its beating.

My mentor lightly tore off the leather and iron restraints that were holding him in and jumped up from his seat.

People gather around carrying electric batons or guns.

They were watching my mentor with anxious eyes in case something unpleasant happened, but my mentor was looking at a different scenery than the research lab.

In fact, I see myself writing in agony in the shabby funeral home next to the school he founded.

And finally, I looked at the four-syllable words written in the guestbook.

Feeling an unknown impulse, my mentor roared like a tiger.

“Professor!”

I reached out and picked up the notebook that had been thrown into the corner of the mattress.

The notebook left behind by the teacher contained plans for dealing with different types of monsters, different types of operations, positions, and more efficient weapons.

To be honest, this is content that cannot be used in real life.

There are many parts that are overly flashy and meaningless.

As I turned the pages, I began to have doubts.

How he wrote down every boring and unrealistic fantasy on every page.

It was laughable that this kind of person taught us.

Is that why?

Jang Ki-young forced perfection on us.

He knows that he needs the best actors and artists to bring his vague imagination to reality, so he treats his students so harshly and instills the word perfection in them.

But his imagination was too weak to contain reality.

Who knew?

Kang Han-min, whom he regarded as the most insignificant tool, would change the entire framework of the world.

On the other hand, it is an objective fact that I, Park Gyu, am the best tool to express Jang Ki-young’s absurd imagination.

As if to reinforce that fact, the last page had a drawing of a weapon that had connected him and me.

This is the latest axe, designed by Jang Ki-young.

“No, instructor.”

I found him without knowing it.

Ironically, the axe had a rocket booster attached to the end.

[ Rocket-propelled impact power enhancement attachment ]

Perhaps he was inspired by the robot animations that were popular during his childhood.

I felt a smile naturally appear on my lips at the sight of my teacher’s innocence as I stared at the axe.

“?”

Something feels off.

The shading on the handle of the axe, which had been shaded black, suddenly disappeared as if it had been cut off.

Looking closely, I saw something stuck to the part where the shade had disappeared.

I tried taking it off.

This is not ordinary paper.

It’s a psychosensory test.

I’m talking about the black paper that was stuck side by side on the wall between me and Suwa.

But the color of this test paper is unfamiliar.

White, not black.

That too is pure white.

I remembered what the instructor’s daughter had said.

I think it was black – blue – red – gray – white.

hundred.

Because it’s white.

It was a pale white that was almost sad.

“······.”

I closed my notebook and thought again about my mentor’s end.

In a harsh experiment he proposed himself, Jang Gi-yeong was chosen by God.

With insight that sees through all things, like Kang Han-min or Na Ye-won.

At that moment, Jang Gi-yeong realized everything.

His great success and his inevitable dark fate.

He must have known that, whether the outcome was good or bad, he was destined to never escape being a test subject.

But now Jang Ki-young has the power to turn the situation around.

A power that can break the restraints given to one by God and even teach a harsh lesson to a disciple who despises one.

I know he doesn’t want to make that choice.

He is a soldier, a patriot, and a man who is as harsh on himself as he is on others.

He probably waited silently for the promised decision so as not to harm the Republic of Korea he was trying to protect.

That decision might not have been easily implemented.

He knew his daughter was outside in the hallway, waiting for him to call her name.

Until the very end, Jang Gi-yeong struggled between his military duty and his personal desires.

His anger towards Woo Min-hee and the National Assembly member behind her would also have had a significant impact on his judgment.

In the end, what my mentor chose was passive resistance – a quiet death.

I honestly don’t know why he called my call sign in the end.

Why did they call my call sign, which is not my name, not my daughter’s name, not my wife’s name, not Kang Han-min’s name?

After much thought, I came up with a clumsy excuse.

Perhaps that was his final teaching to his beloved disciple.

“Professor!”

To let us, the unchosen ones, know that there is an adverb “yet” before us.

*

I had a dream that night.

In my black and white dream, I was still a young teenager, and the teacher standing in front of me was still in his 30s.

“Park Gyu! This is how you use an axe!”

I had a crazy sparring session with my mentor.

To the point where all the energy in my body was drained.

He blocked the attacks by following trajectories that were difficult for the eyes to follow, and counterattacked in a similar manner.

“Take a break!”

Jang Ki-young, who had the same tireless energy as before, turned his head to the side while I was panting to catch my breath.

A clear anger appeared in his tiger-like eyes.

“Kang Han-min! What are you doing!”

Jang Gi-yeong looked at me again.

He smiled.