Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 75



Only Krnovel

43. Worries (2)

“Oh, senior? What’s going on?”

Woo Min-hee seemed to be in quite a good mood.

“Are you doing well?”

“Oh, because a funny person posted something on the Internet.”

“Internet? What in the world are you doing these days? Aren’t all the LAN cables cut off?”

“There is something like that. I have a website, and there is a person on it who uses the same name as my senior’s personal identification number.”

“Skeleton?”

“Yeah. I thought the person was a bit strange, but really? It feels like he’s twisted from the root?”

“Ah, I think I know what it is.”

It’s you. You.

Who has the right to call whom else strange?

After trying to please him a little, I brought up the main topic.

“By the way, are there any jobs in Incheon? It’s starting to get a bit dangerous here.”

“Are you coming to Incheon?”

I haven’t decided yet, but it’s clear that my bunker is no longer safe.

This means that we need to consider other methods.

The thing that provided the greatest motivation would be the change in the person named Woo Min-hee.

My junior, who was so crazy that I couldn’t even touch him, changed into something resembling a human being when he turned 30.

Honestly, I couldn’t have imagined, even just a year ago, that we would be able to communicate this easily.

But conversely, other people also changed.

Could you have ever imagined that Kim Da-ram would change like that?

My soulmate, who used to be my best friend, is now selling me out without a second thought, even though I am his former senior and team leader.

It’s not that she didn’t have a calculating side, but it came as quite a shock to me that she took no time in letting Kim Pil-sung know my location.

“I just wanted to take a look around.”

Anyway, in the struggle between the National Assembly faction and the Corps faction, I chose the National Assembly faction.

It is said that he joined hands with Woo Min-hee.

“Well, I won’t stop you. Thanks to you, I was able to solve a big problem. But I don’t know if you’ll like that job, senior. It’s oversaturated here. And on top of that.”

No matter how much a person changes, their true nature does not change easily.

Dealing with Woo Min-hee will be tiring in many ways.

“You have to come alone. Can you come here alone?”

“Aren’t you going to send an armored vehicle?”

“Why do you need me when I don’t?”

If you look at the sprouts that are already appearing.

In fact, it may be that I just got a call from you because I feel good.

“I’ll go alone.”

“Come to the lab when you get there. I’ll contact you. Do you know where I am?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

To be honest, if you deal with Woo Min-hee, you’ll see a lot of dirty things.

But what can you do?

It’s all about living.

First of all, I want to see it with my own eyes.

What is it like to live in a dying city?

I have lived in a luxurious bunker life so far, so I wonder if I can really adapt to it?

“Oh, and senior.”

Woo Min-hee added with a laugh.

“Have you ever borrowed money before?”

“Uh, yeah. A little?”

One thing that is most important.

“Because I lost it gambling once.”

The fact that I am a genius is a secret I must take to my grave.

*

I told my neighbors that I was going to be away from home for quite some time.

“What? You’re going to be in Incheon for a week?”

I contacted Defender first.

“Maybe there are more.”

“What are you doing in that busy neighborhood?”

“Well, I guess I should consider moving soon. Things aren’t going so well.”

“Are you drafted into the military?”

“Oh, well. That’s right. It was good, but now it’s not so good.”

“I don’t know if it’s necessary to move. The Legionnaires wouldn’t send a million troops just to take you down, right? You’re not even a VIP.”

When the VIP sound came out, Defender’s younger brother joined the conversation.

“Skeleton, are you a VIP? You were a VIP?!”

When the younger sibling gets excited, the older sibling also gets excited, which is a characteristic of these siblings.

“S, S? Sir?!”

“No, it’s not that great. I’m just a worrier. Or should I say old woman’s anxiety?”

“I understand what you mean, but you know.”

The defender made a grunting sound and trailed off.

After a while, he asked in a serious voice.

“Can you last there?”

“It won’t be easy.”

I said it easily, but I actually don’t know.

I have slept in a dying city, but only when I was a tourist and stopped by for a short time. I have never led a life of any kind there.

But I vaguely know that city life is more miserable, poor, and terrible than it appears.

You just didn’t see it because you weren’t trying to look closely.

Didn’t the second gentleman reveal it openly?

What is the fate of those who are thrown out?

The life of ordinary people is one where they could die even if a cold wave comes at any moment.

Food is also a concern.

Even on our bulletin board, we often see posts about food shortages, so how much worse must it be in the cities?

It’s been almost a year since the dog food bar was released.

I don’t know how the city still manages to feed millions of people.

“ah.”

I don’t know.

I don’t even want to think about it.

I had a strong feeling that this was a problem that I shouldn’t think about.

After telling the Defender about my travel plans, I next contacted the sniper mother and daughter.

“Skeleton? Can we use that house?”

It seems like our sniper mother and daughter are having a very difficult time.

It is also important to consider Rebecca’s shameless personality, but even so, it is difficult for the idea of ​​moving into someone else’s house as soon as she leaves home to be born from the discomfort that has built up over a day or two.

Of course my answer is,

“Oh, no.”

It’s a rejection.

“why?”

“It’s dangerous here. You saw it? Helicopters and fighter jets coming.”

“ah.”

“Are you having a hard time these days?”

“It’s so hard.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s think about it again when I get back.”

As I was about to end the call, I heard Suu pushing Rebecca away.

“Skeleton!”

“huh.”

“We’re okay. We can hold out longer.”

“okay?”

“Yeah. Instead, I gave you some juice when I came.”

“You mean the juicy one?”

You little swoosh.

Do you know anything?

That coming out like that can move my heart more strongly.

If she had known, she might have been a natural born fox, unlike her stupid mother.

That can’t be happening······.

Actually, Seoul and Incheon are similar distances to me.

For the first time in a long time, I chose a bicycle as my means of transportation.

They prepared simple travel gear, including a Chinese rifle, a pistol, and an axe, and also took some food, goral meat sausages for bartering, and alcohol and cigarettes for bartering.

There was no stock of cigarettes, but Kim Pil-seong’s gang had some, so they split them in half with Defender.

I was thinking of wearing a bulletproof vest as protective gear, but I just left it on because of the season.

Defense is one thing, but I personally think it’s better to maintain good physical strength and condition.

As usual, I waited for the sun to set and took advantage of the darkness to walk back along the familiar path.

My area has been empty for a long time.

There were rumors that the country had even given up on the area because the Chinese army was roaming around and nuclear weapons had been dropped, so few people went there.

In fact, the country deliberately neglected the vulnerable western part.

But now, two and a half years after the war began, people still live in my area.

They are pioneers.

Some of the pioneers who survived last winter are surviving by creating their own communities in the mountains, hills, or abandoned apartment complexes.

Their behavior is said to be on the borderline between looters and civilians.

They generally act friendly, but when the other party is weaker than them and needs something, they inevitably turn into raiders and steal what the other party has.

Therefore, the safest way is to avoid humans as much as possible until you reach a place where security is maintained.

As we followed the familiar path, we came across at least three pioneer camps.

There was one small camp of four or five people, while the rest were groups of at least twenty people.

They were all armed with guns and, as usual, stood guard at night.

Their camp was so close to the road that they had no choice but to cross the stream.

Fortunately, since it was the season, crossing the water wasn’t too much of a burden.

As we crossed the river, a half-collapsed city formerly known as Siheung-si appeared.

From here on, it is under the jurisdiction of Incheon City Government.

Refugee camps have been set up on land that has been scorched by Chinese warship bombardment and nuclear attacks, and are producing systematic agriculture and the bare minimum of industrial goods under military supervision.

As we approach the street, we see soldiers guarding it.

I sold her name and told her my name, just as Woo Min-hee told me.

“Please wait a moment.”

There is one thing that stands out as you approach the government-controlled area.

Soldiers talk on cell phones.

That means the signal is getting through.

Out of curiosity, I took out my cell phone.

Indeed, the antenna is up.

While the soldiers were waiting for orders from their superiors, he approached one of them, handed him a cigarette and asked him in a suggestive way.

“Does the cell phone work here?”

“So-so.”

“I feel like I’m popping better than when I was in Seoul.”

“That’s right. The number of people and the land have decreased. The communication network has also been expanded.”

“is it so?”

“Aren’t we in an age where so many strange things appear everywhere?”

“That’s true.”

“Everyone has a cell phone, and if there is a signal, wouldn’t each and every one of the people gathered in Incheon become a source of information? In addition, the country has provided a place to have fun like PaleNet, so it’s killing two birds with one stone.”

This soldier seems to be under the delusion that PaleNet was created by the country.

Who would have thought that such a great site was created by one person’s obsession?

Soon, I received a call from my superiors.

“Leave your bike here. I have orders to take you to the jeep.”

The soldier said with a smile.

Thanks to you, I feel relieved.

So that you don’t have to experience the terror of jealous and greedy stares every time you ride your bike.

From then on, I arrived at the lab comfortably.

It was still late at night when we arrived at the sea-scented pier.

One of the staff on duty assigned me a room in the lab.

There was a bunk bed in the room, but there was no one else in it.

I closed my eyes for a moment and waited for morning to come.

After the sun rose, work began.

For the first time in a while, I took a shower at someone else’s house.

There were pretty good shower facilities, so I was able to wash up comfortably.

For some reason, baby powder was also provided, and I got soaked in it.

Because baby powder is something I don’t have.

While I was resting in my room in a fluffy state, a man who was said to be Woo Min-hee’s subordinate came looking for me.

He was a different man from the one who had guided me before.

“I’m sorry, but the manager is out.”

He was dressed in a white gown and had a disheveled appearance. He seemed to have a disease that prevented him from making eye contact with people, and he looked away as if he was trying to convey Woo Min-hee’s intentions.

“The chief said you were a former hunter. Is that right?”

“yes.”

“The manager recommended the freelance hunter side, right? I’m going to guide you to the freelance hunter’s dormitory from now on.”

“Is there such a thing as a freelance hunter dorm?”

“Oh, yes. Actually······.”

The man made eye contact with me for the first time and began talking.

“Originally, there was no particular welfare support for freelance hunters, but recently, the Legion faction has been moving to take away freelance hunters, or so-called old-school hunters. So we hurriedly came up with a support policy.”

“I see. What do freelance hunters do?”

It’s a story we all know, but I asked out of courtesy.

So, a freelance hunter is a kind of problem solver.

The problem is solved by sending out cheap surplus manpower as hunters to remote areas where it is too expensive for the country to exert its power and where it is not cost-effective.

Freelance hunters primarily deal with mutations, not monsters.

It is said that before the civil war broke out, freelance hunters were active in the shadows.

Mutations, unlike monsters, appear out of nowhere and it would be too costly for the military to deal with them one by one.

But the treatment didn’t seem to be very good.

You can tell just by looking at Baek Seung-hyun.

He was a top-class hunter by the standards of the old days, but he lives with human trash like the Pioneers.

The residence of those freelance hunters was behind the research institute.

A narrow alley between the red-brick research center and the densely packed harbor warehouses beyond.

That’s where the freelance hunters live.

Hunter Street

A phrase scrawled with magic marker on a white-painted wooden board told the story of what kind of place the street was.

“B-23. You can go there.”

The lab staff refused to go into the alley.

He said he would go alone and walked into the alley.

Beyond the dark alley, you can see people sitting on the street.

An old man playing chess, an old woman doing laundry, children doing something on their cell phones.

There were ordinary people.

It’s unexpected.

I thought only our old-time hunters would be hanging around.

Maybe I’ll meet one or two people who recognize me.

“uh?”

It was in front of a building with a sign that said A-13.

A man looked at me and pretended to know me.

“Are you here?”

This is Baek Seung-hyun.

He was looking at me with a surprised face, and in his arms was a newborn baby who looked just like him.