Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 57



Only Krnovel

37. Immortality (3)

The momentum of the counterattack grew stronger and stronger.

“Typhoon”’s views continued to increase, and the number of comments and recommendations also grew over time.

The heat was so intense that it surpassed the recent release of Pilkrum’s new short story, “The Iljin Hunter.”

When “Typhoon” finally surpassed “The Hunters” in number of recommendations, people said,

Dragon C has surpassed Philcrum.

Those perennial second- and third-rate writers have finally risen to the level of top-class writers.

What’s strange is Pilcrum’s reaction.

He didn’t show any reaction to Dragon C’s masterpiece this time. It’s unclear whether he was shocked or if something had gone wrong with reality.

All of us on the bulletin board sincerely congratulate Dragon C on his splendid return.

Mr. Dragon expressed his deep gratitude, but his true feelings were different.

He revealed his true feelings only to me.

Message from DragonC: Who wins or loses, who cares? I just love this moment.

SKELTON: Really?

Message from DragonC: Before the war, who would have dreamed of a thing? A mere second-hand writer without a single hit, being in a relationship with a top-class writer. It’s all a miracle brought about by the war.

Message from DragonC: I feel truly alive now!

Dragon’s joy could be felt beyond the letters.

That’s right.

He was truly grateful for this situation.

For a moment, the rivalry between the two writers who had both PaleNet and Viva! Apocalypse! boiling over at the same time seemed like it would end in a fairytale-like ending.

Their story isn’t over yet.

There was one more.

*

Message from DragonC: I must complete my final work before I die.

SKELTON: You mean Remnant?

Message from DragonC: Oh. I absolutely have to draw that. I’ve decided that I’ll die after finishing it.

SKELTON: An immortal masterpiece?

Message from DragonC: It’s not that great. It’s just the struggle of a human who doesn’t have much time left to live. Anyway, just wait. There will be some exciting news soon.

I never found out about that funny news.

Because another incident that broke out soon buried the news.

Philcrum88: I admit defeat, DragonC.

Philcrum conceded defeat.

He declared himself defeated on a bulletin board for everyone to see.

But the content was full of enough suspicions to make one doubt its sincerity.

– First of all, I sincerely apologize for plagiarizing Dragon-ssi’s drawing without permission and hurting your feelings. My intention was not to make Dragon-ssi angry, I just wanted to get your attention.

I think we met four years ago at the writer’s year-end party hosted by the platform. I think we said hello then.

I know this may be rude of you to ask, but is there any room left in the bunker?

I felt my heart pounding as I drew and understood Dragon-ssi’s remnant in my own way.

This is a masterpiece. It is a masterpiece that will remain in human history.

If you want me to be a servant, I’ll do it. I don’t mind living in the annex. I also want to see the end of Remnant!

*

“······.”

I may have been the one who initiated it.

This Park Gyu transformed into an 11-year-old child and cast a question mark on the entire Jeju Island-bound fleet.

Palenet’s invasions will also be rare, occurring once a day. Recently, bored bulletin board users showed an interesting reaction to the post by popular writer Pilcrum88.

keystone: Wow, it’s Pilcrum88. I’m a huge fan of High School Emperor.

Anonymous848: Are you setting up a studio? There might be unexpected synergy?

unicorn18: Pilcrum88, can I ask you for just one commission?

Defender: Hey Philcrum88, are you alone?

As always, my internet friend Defender is the one who sees the truth straight.

It looks like the keyboard was being tapped by my younger brother.

Defender: You’re not bringing a bunch of unfortunate children and their parents to Vienna, are you? We’re starting to run out of food, and one by one, the kids are coming out.

There was a gap of about 1 minute and 10 seconds between this post being posted and the replies being posted.

Philcrum88: I am a family of three, including my wife, son, and younger brother.

Defender: You’re not my younger brother, are you?

Philcrum88: He’s my younger brother.

Defender: lol

The communicator rang.

“Skeleton! Are you looking at the computer?”

As expected, Da-jeong’s excited voice rang out.

“This Philcrum, no, this guy! Isn’t he so shameless? Huh?”

“······That’s kind of true.”

It’s hard for even my family to accept it, but three adult males?

Are you saying you’re going to take over the bunker?

Besides, Dragon-ssi’s bunker might be big enough for him to live in alone, but wouldn’t it be a little cramped for four people?

Taking a sip of the coffee that Dragon had gifted, he asked Da-jeong.

“Dragon, how will that guy turn out?”

“Of course you wouldn’t accept it?”

“I guess so?”

I always feel this way, but people are truly unknowable.

Is there anything as changeable and unpredictable as the human mind?

I think about it sometimes.

If humans were like monsters, this world might not be very fun.

Mr. Dragon chose an option that broke everyone’s expectations.

DragonC: Okay.

*

The reason I attended the face-to-face meeting between Pilcrum88 and Dragon C was because of a sense of duty.

If I hadn’t responded to Dragon’s message, Dragon would not have made a splendid comeback and Pilcrum wouldn’t have had to apologize.

Of course, we won’t be able to see Dragon-ssi for a while, but who knows.

Unlike Dragon, who had created a safe bunker, Pilcrum was being crushed by reality itself.

If he dies and Dragon is left alone, paying the price for not properly preparing for the future, wouldn’t that mean he won in the end?

But it seems that Dragon-ssi’s thoughts were very different from mine.

Anyway, something happened.

There are four opponents.

Philcrum88’s family and his younger brother.

On the other hand, this side has only one Dragon.

Maybe it was because of me that Dragon was able to raise his head.

“hello?”

Philcrum88 is exactly the type of successful webtoon artist people think of.

Moderately young appearance, moderately white skin, and eyes that look moderately contemptuous of the world or indifferent.

He reached out to me first.

“Are you Mr. Dragon?”

This guy.

Didn’t you say you met Mr. Dragon before?

Feeling the growing antipathy inside me, I gave up my seat for Dragon.

“I am Dragon-ssi. Mr. Pilcrum88.”

“Please call me Shim Ho-jun. You seem older than me.”

“This is Yongsu Choi.”

The two writers exchanged handshakes.

The one who was smiling the whole time was Pilcrum.

On the other hand, Dragon-ssi was mostly expressionless, only occasionally showing an awkward smile in response to what the other person said, and it seemed like he was being led by Pilcrum rather than taking the initiative in leading the conversation.

“I’m really sorry. Really. I didn’t know that Yongsu-hyung was such a good person and I provoked him. It’s really a shameful history. But what can I do? Life is tough and shit. When I was really kicked out of Seoul and went to Incheon, I was like, fuck. Ha. I felt really dirty. This Shim Ho-jun is going all the way to Incheon! I thought!”

“My hometown is Incheon.”

Mr. Dragon said with a bitter smile.

“Oh, sorry. That’s what I meant. Haha.”

The family that Pilkrum brought along seemed satisfied with the bunker facilities, unlike Kim Da-ram.

It’s probably evidence that they’ve lived in worse places than that.

Well, I guess Philcrum and his family are fine.

It feels like a real family, and Pilkrum is like a cartoonist himself.

The skill with which he was able to draw cool male characters one at a time while playing with the tablet was like watching magic.

The one I care about is Pilcrum’s younger brother.

He was tall, reaching 190cm, and possessed a well-trained body, but he looked nothing like Pilkrum.

It’s actually strange that they’re younger siblings.

This man showed a clearly ominous expression from the beginning, and soon looked at Dragon-ssi and spoke rudely.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you live alone?”

Although Dragon-ssi showed a slight displeasure at the word “mister,” the man just laughed and had a shameless expression on his face, showing that he had no consideration for Dragon-ssi’s feelings whatsoever.

“I live alone.”

“Oh, somehow. I thought you smelled like a widower.”

He looked back at me.

“What is this person? A friend, perhaps? A bodyguard? Something like that?”

It seems like I’m not even on the radar.

Well, maybe he gained some confidence because he was tall and built well enough to look down on me.

Mr. Dragon looked at Pilcrum and asked for an explanation.

Philcrum introduced his younger brother with a big smile.

“Oh, he’s my brother. He doesn’t look like me, but if he weren’t my brother, I wouldn’t have dared come here. Oh, my brother is a hunter.”

“Are you a hunter?”

“Yes. I have participated in the war. Now, what is it? Awaken? I heard that they were pushed out by those people.”

Pilcrum’s brother snorted and suddenly picked up the dagger, twirling it around in his fingertips.

“I just came out. I thought I’d just end up being a cannon fodder anyway.”

I don’t think this guy likes me.

He puts the dagger he was swinging around excitedly back into the sheath tied to his thigh, looks at me, and speaks rudely.

“But why has this old man been staring at me like this all this time? Are you gay?”

“Can’t I look at it?”

“Hey, you hear a lot that you’re tactless, right?”

The man frowned, clenched his fists, and made a clenching sound.

“If you keep teasing me, shall we have a round of sparring?”

“no.”

“Then look away or look somewhere else. It’s so distracting.”

“I don’t do sparring, I just do actual combat.”

I glared at the man.

The man’s expression turned grim.

Soon he got up from his seat and let out a loud scream.

“Hey! You son of a bitch!!”

He extended his ominous hand to me.

As he was watching, Pilcrum stopped him.

“Hyungmin! Hold on!”

“No, fucking hell, this kid is making me mad.”

“No, let’s just get on with it. Hyungmin, you were already hurt from the start, right?”

“I felt sick when I saw the dead bodies on my way here! Anyway, what the fuck is that kid? Real life? He’s falling over and making noise. He’s got a hole in his mouth.”

“No, Hyungmin!”

“Ha, shit.”

Looking at the way he’s walking away, he doesn’t look like my younger brother.

I think they brought a thug-like guy as an escort, but at this point I’m really worried about Dragon-ssi’s future.

Ignoring the grumbling man, I called Dragon out of the bunker.

“Are you okay?”

To be honest, it doesn’t look okay.

He’s just a thug and a hoodlum.

Pilcrum88 is somewhat human, but he doesn’t seem like a very good person.

If he was a good person, he wouldn’t have brought such a thug along.

“The way I see it, those bastards are just going to kill you or chase you out and eat you in a bunker.”

Not even 99%.

100%.

“That could be the case.”

Mr. Dragon sighed with a bitter smile.

Is it because of my mood?

His complexion, which had previously looked morbidly dark, was now taking on an even deeper shade of black.

Mr. Dragon took out the pill, swallowed it without chewing it, and sighed as he spoke.

“But the Pilcrum is real. It’s real. It’s the Pilcrum I saw from afar.”

“I don’t feel like it.”

“3 days.”

Mr. Dragon held up three fingers.

“Call me in three days. I’ll respond if I need any help.”

“no.”

I shook my head.

“Contact me in three days. If you don’t hear from me, I’ll come right away. Wouldn’t that be better?”

“······.”

Mr. Dragon looked at me quietly and nodded with a displeased but trying to agree expression.

“······Do that.”

Mr. Dragon smiled at me.

I couldn’t understand.

How can people smile like that when there is such a bleak future ahead of them?

Could it be that I am not pretty?

That’s not it.

Lee Park Gyu, even though I am treated like trash and ignored here and there, the hatred that still lives and breathes in my heart has not faded one bit.

“······.”

I took a deep breath and looked straight at him.

“My call sign is Professor.”

“Professor? S-class?”

“3 seconds.”

“?”

“I can take care of this in 3 seconds, including the guy yelling inside.”

The axe danced across the palm of my hand.

“Answer me.”

Dragon C looked surprised at first, but that was only for a moment. He waved at me with a generous smile that I couldn’t understand.

He asked me to put my ear close to his ear.

“Did Pilkrum ever get in trouble for copying my work and drawing it exactly like that? At first, I was really angry. I was so angry that my mind was going to explode. I wanted to go to Incheon right away and shoot him. I even ran a brain simulation to kill him!”

“······But why?”

“As time goes by, what should I say? This is okay. I don’t know. I’m an artist too and I have pride. I don’t know. Why am I like this? But this feeling that’s stirring inside me right now is real.”

I saw Mr. Dragon.

His face, which looked dark, perhaps due to poor health, was overflowing with sincerity that could not be hidden even by his darkened face.

“Just watch over me for three days.”

I nodded with a heavy heart.

It’s the path he chose.

I don’t understand, but he is also a community user.

I respect his opinion.

“Oh, and I have a gift.”

“also?”

“Oh. Wait a minute. Follow me.”

The gift that Dragon-ssi gave me honestly exceeded my expectations.

It was an espresso machine.

That too, with a large quantity of frozen coffee beans.

“No, can’t you just leave it like that? Yes?”

Pilcrum’s wife, who had been watching, spoke up.

A large man was grumbling beside him, and Pilcrum was barely able to stop him.

I was also curious.

“No, something like this for me?”

“I quit coffee.”

From the side, the grumbling of Pilkrum’s wife was heard.

“We didn’t hang up?”

Mr. Dragon ignored that and insisted that I take the espresso machine and coffee beans.

“Please. You came here twice. Compared to those, this is nothing. Please accept my heart!”

“······.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve shot a gun before. I’m still a little noisy, but I’m also a full-time Army soldier.”

I returned to the bunker with the unwanted gift.

Three days have passed.

There was no contact from Mr. Dragon.