Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 69



Only Krnovel

42. Paradise (2)

It’s not all that surprising that Hunter is among Chairman Park Cheol-ju’s bodyguards, but I didn’t expect that the bodyguard was someone I knew.

A man named Kim Pil-seong came to my bunker with Ji Young-hee.

He is from the same school as me.

Well, that’s not surprising.

I have one thousand two hundred colleagues.

Most of them are dead, but there are still quite a few who survived and are shamelessly active.

“Park Gyu. It’s really Park Gyu.”

When you have about 1,200 classmates, there are bound to be some whose faces you don’t even remember, but Kim Pil-seong is a friend whose face you can at least remember.

I remember him because he withstood my attacks for quite some time in a mock battle using cold weapons.

7.8 seconds.

It was the time it took for him to drop his weapon.

“······Fuck.”

Immediately after his defeat, he started swearing.

In a school where any kind of indecent behavior is strictly prohibited, this is a taboo.

In particular, our instructor Jang Gi-yeong thought that swearing was a very vulgar thing.

“You. Get out! You uncivilized idiot! Hunters don’t swear! Repeat!”

Jang Gi-yeong called him out in a loud voice and gave him a cold shoulder.

I heard later that Kim Pil-seong was from a family of swordsmen who had run a kendo school for generations and that he himself was a kendo black belt.

That must be why he showed such strong anger when he lost in the duel.

He never appeared in my life again after that.

He was probably in China, but he was given a different mission and fought on a different front than me.

After more than ten years, two classmates reunited.

The boy with a skinny build and hair cut short to the point of black hair has transformed into a stylish man with a tanned, muscular body and long hair slicked back into a ponytail.

“Wow~.”

Kim Pil-seong burst into laughter when he saw my stomach house.

He looked at me with a look of wonder.

“Can people live in a place like this?”

Of course I can’t live.

But there was nothing good to come from telling the truth, so I put on an iron face and spoke calmly.

“······A mountain is a mountain, and water is water. When you become attached to it, that place becomes your home.”

I’m the type of person who is bad at lying, but I’ve been through a lot.

Even though you’re acting like a woman, you can’t tell such a small lie.

“Take this first.”

Kim Pil-seong was still a polite friend.

It’s clear from the fact that he didn’t come empty-handed.

He was holding a large can of oil, and Ji Young-hee was also holding a black bag full of oil.

Inside the black bag were leftover beef and vegetables from yesterday, instant rice, ready-to-eat combat rations, and water purification capsules.

“No, why all this?”

I felt like I was not being a “professor” by waving my hand and accepting it, but what could I do?

It’s just a matter of eating everything.

When will I ever get to eat such quality vegetables and protein?

I would rather live a thousand days eating beef than live ten thousand days eating goral sausage.

Ji Young-hee opened her mouth and looked at me.

“I’ve been indebted to you before, and I thought it might be difficult, so I prepared this.”

It looks like you put some thought into it.

As I was bowing and expressing my gratitude, Kim Pil-seong suddenly spoke while looking at my area.

“Have you been living here the whole time?”

The moment I heard those words, the emotion I felt was confusion.

Even though we’re classmates, don’t we have too little contact with each other to exchange greetings?

It was awkward for them to suddenly close the distance, even though they were complete strangers.

After a while of silence, Kim Pil-seong looked at me.

I felt like I had to answer something, so I answered appropriately.

“Rarely. I went to Incheon, and when I ran out of work, I came back here.”

“I see.”

He turned his gaze towards the short hill where my main bunker was.

“That’s the highest point here. You can see all around.”

“······.”

“By the way······.”

Kim Pil-seong glanced at me with a meaningful smile, his voice trailing off.

“It feels like the whole neighborhood is on fire?”

Looks like he got the hint.

The death traps lurking in my seemingly shabby territory.

He asked with a sly grin.

“Did you set the booby trap?”

I guess he is a man of war experience.

“I did set some traps.”

Let’s just admit half of it,

“also.”

Kim Pil-seong nodded with a satisfied expression.

I don’t know why, but I feel quite happy.

“By the way, I heard you were going to Japan.”

Taking advantage of the gap, I quickly changed the subject.

Kim Pil-seong looked at Ji Young-hee.

“You can hear the details from Younghee, and I’ll take a quick nap in the car. I couldn’t sleep at all yesterday because I was on guard duty.”

Kim Pil-seong took a quick look around my area, yawned lazily, and sat down in the passenger seat of the SUV.

Kim Pil-seong’s combat boots were sticking out from beyond the open door.

“By the way, how is your father?”

It wasn’t really an intentional question.

However, I wanted to buy some time by asking this question because I thought Kim Pil-seong was more difficult than I thought.

Fortunately, Ji Young-hee answered with a smile.

“You are at Chairman Park Cheol-ju’s house.”

She raised both hands and shook her head as if she had no solution.

“Your wish has come true.”

“Wishes come true?”

“Yes. Because I became the owner of a wealthy family that I had always wanted to be.”

The following explanation provided the inside story of the incident.

Ji Young-hee’s father, Ji Chang-soo, is said to have bought Park Cheol-ju’s half-ruined house.

I don’t know how he made money in this time of destruction, but Ji Chang-soo bought Park Cheol-ju’s conglomerate house and is now the owner of a conglomerate family.

In the photo released by Ji Young-hee, Ji Chang-soo was taking a group photo with a group of people with the widely known ruins of Park Cheol-ju in the background.

For some reason they were wearing something like aprons, and some of the aprons even had blood stains on them.

Did you change your business to slaughtering?

As far as I know, Jichangsu manufactures automotive electrical components.

Even if it was an apron, the sight of him standing in the center with such confidence as if he were the head of a wealthy family looked a little awkward.

In my opinion, Ji Chang-soo was the most loyal follower of his chairman, Je Poong-ho.

“······My father wanted to become a tycoon. That’s why he did such unreasonable things. I didn’t understand it at all before, but when I got Chairman Park’s house and saw his smiling face, all the absurd things that had happened up until then finally felt real.”

Ji Young-hee said with a lonely smile.

“Father, you have found your paradise.”

An expression that is hard to tell whether it is satisfaction or love and hate.

There must have been a lot of resentment and disappointment.

Maybe the loss of that feeling is ongoing.

“Are you going to Japan?”

Ji Young-hee stared at me intently, then looked around and whispered in a low voice.

“Can I be honest with you?”

“······.”

There’s no need to listen to it.

But I didn’t have a chance to hear it.

From the west came the howling of a wolf, heard long ago.

It’s the howling of dogs.

Ji Young-hee trembled and bared her teeth.

“Mutation!”

Yes, that’s right.

There are dogs in the west.

Gold.

The one who had brought us a wild boar, a deer, three pheasants, and three chickens was leading the herd and glaring at us, making threatening cries.

“Younghee! I have to go!”

Kim Pil-seong shouted.

Ji Young-hee looked back and suddenly looked at me as if she remembered something and asked.

“Mr. Park Hunter.”

“yes.”

“Can you help me?”

I need to help.

I’m talking about the Gold gang, not the Park Cheol-ju gang.

Clank-

This is the thought that came to mind the moment I saw Kim Pil-seong loading a large-caliber rifle for mutation in the car.

*

Park Cheol-ju’s bodyguards seemed to be of a much higher standard than the rabble that Ji Chang-soo brought along.

They are military personnel or people with similar experience.

His attitude toward firearms and his basic view of the world had the characteristic gunpowder smell of someone who had spent many years on the battlefield.

Those people are gossiping about me.

“That hunter. He’s no joke.”

“That’s right. Those cannibalistic dogs run away in fear just from looking at them.”

“Is there something like an aura? Something like a dog vendor.”

“Shhh! He can hear you!”

It was something I didn’t want to do, but it was accepted.

The one who provided the reason was, of course, Gold.

He hurriedly got into Kim Pil-seong’s car, arrived at Park Cheol-ju’s camp, rented a bike, and ran straight to Gold, yelling.

“Go! Go! You little brat! Go! You little brat! I fed you a few pounds of beef and you killed a deer instead. You don’t know gratitude. You eat the deer.”

Gold growled at me.

Especially when he said “you little brat”, his anger reached its peak and he pointed at me with his front paw.

Are you really calling me a petty guy?

They gave me beef that was a little weird, but it was still beef.

I heard that dogs’ stomachs are stronger than humans’ and are also resistant to botulism.

Anyway, the meaning was communicated.

When I pointed behind him and made a gesture of slitting his throat, the guy understood what I meant and ran away quickly, leading the group.

It was around that time that the SUV group including Kim Pil-seong arrived behind me carrying deadly weapons.

“What the fuck?!”

A man shouted.

Only then did they realize what was happening.

I drove the mutation dogs away without a single shot.

If you look closely at the content, it is a heartwarming story similar to the story of a beast repaying a favor, but in their eyes, I seem to be a superhuman who scares away ferocious killer dogs with just my spirit.

“Are you away?”

Awaken, one of the ignorant bodyguards looked at me and asked.

At that moment, I thought about the reply messages I’ve been sending frequently lately.

SKELTON: I’ll leave it to your imagination~♥

I almost said voice.

“······.”

Is this the evil of the Internet?

But my momentary confusion seemed to have brought even greater mystery to the bodyguards who were already looking at me with awe.

“Mr. Park Hunter. This is no joke. You took down dozens of mutants by yourself with a gun and an axe. Seriously, even a movie can’t be made like that.”

Ji Young-hee’s cube equation also coated me as an even more difficult character to approach.

The one who reached the peak of Hwalong was my classmate, Kim Pil-seong.

“······My friend was the best among us.”

He looked at me.

“You are the only friend who has ever defeated me in close combat.”

What would you say in this situation?

“······.”

There was no other choice but silence.

That silence brought me to the person named Park Cheol-ju.

“Chairman, this is Hunter Park Gyu.”

Inside the conference room of a large underground facility abandoned by the US military, Park Cheol-ju was standing with his back to the wall, looking at a faded map hanging on the wall.

“Nice to meet you, Hunter Park Gyu.”

Before the war, Park Cheol-ju’s evaluation was not very good.

Just remembering,

Finding a good in-law is my only talent and greatest achievement.

A typical example of collusion between politics and business, with the protection of the regime rather than one’s own abilities.

If it weren’t for his father’s influence, he wouldn’t even be the owner of a hole-in-the-wall store.

This level of bad reviews stuck to me like a label.

You could say it’s the exact opposite type of Je-pung-ho.

In fact, after the destruction began, the two responded completely differently.

One became a leader even after death, while the other became a laughing stock for the violent soldiers.

What kind of person is the conglomerate chairman in question?

“INFP? INFP?”

Park Cheol-ju suddenly stuck his face in and started making strange noises.

“?”

“Aren’t you an INFP?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you know MBTI?”

I’ve heard it vaguely.

I think it was called a personality type test.

It is another pseudoscience that is no different from personality classification by zodiac sign or blood type.

At least, it’s not a topic that the author, who is the chairman of a conglomerate, would bring up from the first meeting.

“You’re like an INFP, right?”

“No, I don’t know what that is.”

“I’m an ENFP. A lively activist! A spark! That’s my personality.”

The moment I saw him smiling and innocently reciting 21st century superstitions, I briefly wondered if this man was a middle school student wearing the skin of a conglomerate chairman.

“Ha, they say INFPs and ENFPs don’t get along well, and it seems to be true. Nothing seems to be going right.”

What was that look in my eyes the day before?

Could it be that you’re not wary of me, but rather that you were assessing my personality type based on the personality test?

“Would you like to take a moment and try this?”

Park Cheol-ju handed me a tablet.

Free personality test (MBTI) 16 types

“Try it.”

“no.”

“Just give it a try. You have nothing to lose, right?”

“I don’t like it.”

What the hell is going on with this guy?

When I showed my displeasure, he suddenly pulled back, pointed at me with both index fingers, and snickered.

“As expected from INFP!”

This was Park Cheol-ju.

*

“The chairman has been in that state since he was shelled.”

The detailed story was taken over by Park Cheol-ju’s son-in-law.

“You were cheerful before, but you’ve become brighter now.”

“It looks like you ate a lot of salted pollack roe.”

“?”

“No. Please continue.”

This Park Cheol-ju’s son-in-law, a man named Gu Seong-jun, seemed like a rather picky person.

When I see him staring at me with wide eyes and pretending to say, “Who is this person?” without making a sound.

But is my joke really that repulsive?

At least Ji Young-hee, who was next to him, laughed heartily.

After the mood had calmed down, Koo Seong-jun continued speaking.

“Please escort me to the Chinese contact area. I don’t think there will be much danger, except for the mutation dogs.”

Because I’m Chinese.

I’m curious.

What kind of thoughts do the Chinese people who landed on this land have?

How many times do you have to do business with a Korean?

“We plan to provide food and fuel as compensation. Ten hours a week. We will also provide medical services. We have specialists. Take this opportunity to get a checkup!”

“Are you a specialist?”

This is a bit tempting.

But the biggest reason I accepted the offer was the gold.

As far as I know, Kim Pil-seong is a hunter who surpasses the A-class standards of old hunters.

He has considerable experience and even has hunter equipment in his hands.

The soldiers who joined us were no ordinary people.

They hide their true colors under their plainclothes, but I am sure they are soldiers.

He also has considerable experience on the front lines.

He may be a former private in the Legion.

When meeting such a group, Gold literally turns into dog meat.

Of course, it is true that my curiosity about Chinese people also played a big part in my decision.

I headed to the contact area in an SUV.

The contact area was a city swarming with zombies to the south, and a reclaimed land with a deep bay that looked like a river to the north.

Chinese people drove around in modified SUVs with their headlights on from afar.

The red flag on the car reminded me of a boring past.

“Be careful. You never know what they might do.”

Drones launched by both camps watched each other.

Whether there is an ambush or dangerous equipment.

After a long search, the two vehicles made contact.

Unlike me, Kim Pil-seong spoke fluent Chinese to a soldier in a military uniform.

Soon the two men clashed fists.

Food and fuel came from this side, and heavy equipment carried by forklifts came from that side.

The equipment was so heavy that it made a 3.5-ton truck lurch.

I know aircraft engines are big, but it seemed excessively large for an engine in a 15-seat jet plane.

A gust of wind from the bay knocked down the planks surrounding the equipment.

In the exposed spot was a simple, conical lump of iron.

It’s not an engine.

The engine.

“ah.”

I think I know what it is.

I had to look away and pretend not to see it at the same time.

It had to be that way.

The shape of the object the Chinese handed over was close to a nuclear bomb.