Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 77



Only Krnovel

43. Worries (4)

I traveled by truck.

In addition to me and Baek Seung-hyun, there were three other hunters in the cargo hold.

15th class Bang Jae-hyeok, who hurt his knee, 11th class Ha Tae-hoon, who refuses to be called senior, and 18th class Cheon Young-jae, who joined in the middle.

They were silent and seemed to have no intention of speaking.

Since I didn’t really have anything to say, I just watched the city scenery slowly passing by.

On the streets where pre-war glamour and post-war decline were mixed, people like corpses gathered in groups of three or four, staring soullessly at passing trucks.

The nutritional status was not good.

It was not uncommon to see people so skinny that their bones were touching each other.

“There are a lot of people.”

I opened my mouth with great difficulty.

Baek Seung-hyun, who was checking the gun next to me, glanced at the people passing by and then turned his gaze back to the gun.

“You’re just holding on to your life by force.”

When Baek Seung-hyun spoke, Bang Jae-hyeok, who had not said a word, opened his mouth and snorted.

“From the moment the upper class people fled to Jeju Island, the Seoul metropolitan area became nothing more than a breeding ground.”

He was inspecting a large-caliber rifle like Baek Seung-hyun.

The kill marks on his head were presumed to be from mutations he had killed, and at first glance it looked like there were easily over a hundred of them.

It’s a great thing.

It’s amazing that he was able to achieve that level of success even though he had to wear a steel walker due to discomfort in one of his knees.

He is probably a marksman of considerable skill.

But his heart seemed as twisted as his wounded leg.

“I heard that in some fish farms, when fish die, they grind them up and make feed for the other fish. I wonder if it’s the same here?”

When you see horrible assumptions pouring out of your mouth without even going through your brain.

“No matter what, do you really have to grind up human meat and feed it to them?”

Ha Tae-hoon, who had been listening silently, opened his mouth.

He was carrying an unusual weapon.

A close-range weapon that projects multiple blades called bladers.

It was a weapon that was evaluated as being effective against medium-sized monsters because it adopted a separate charge, making it safe from the monster’s detonation ability, and it could spray sharp blades the size of a dagger like a shotgun, but it showed weak penetration power in actual combat, and remained as a bad stock.

According to people who have used it, it’s pretty good against zombies.

“Even if it is an era where morality has fallen to the ground, would the country do something like that?”

Crash

He added as he checked the condition by moving the blade of the blader that protruded like a beast’s claw here and there.

“I told you there’s a factory.”

Bang Jae-hyuk muttered without even looking at him.

“I saw it on PaleNet. 90% of the information there is just rumors, so you don’t need to listen to it.”

Ha Tae-hoon put down his blader, took out his dagger, and twirled it with his familiar hand movements.

“Just how many jokes were there in the guy we were trying to catch right now?”

I overheard their conversation and told Baek Seung-hyun.

“What kind of guy is he? Are there any special precautions?”

A dark shadow fell over Baek Seung-hyun’s face.

“He’s the guy who drank three Hunter teams.”

The name of the thing is derived from its color, like the mutations I know.

Red.

That’s the name of the monster I must kill.

It’s hard to believe, but the monster is said to possess the sensing ability of some Awakens, and with that sensing ability, it can detect the location and movements of its opponents without having to see them, and respond accordingly.

“At least there were no reports of it causing any waves. In other words, it’s below level 5.”

“I see. But is this the right one?”

There is a weapon that Red has that Baek Seung-hyun didn’t mention.

This is the area where Red lives.

His territory is the zombie zone.

As we entered the street, we were greeted by the chorus of zombies.

“Has this place become a zombie zone too?”

As far as I know, it was a residential area.

That seems to be an old saying.

“Civil war, winter. So many people died back then. Those people turned into zombies.”

After a while, the truck driver slammed on the brakes.

“I’ll be waiting here, so go.”

The three of us who go into battle are me, Baek Seung-hyun, and Cheon Yeong-jae, who never spoke a word.

Bang Jae-hyuk and Ha Tae-hoon didn’t follow us.

Their mission is to guard the trucks and support the retreat of our combat units.

The pitch of the zombies’ cries changed as they became aware of our arrival.

It’s probably to wake up my friends who are in a state of trance.

“It’s messier than I imagined.”

I glared at Baek Seung-hyun with half sincerity.

Baek Seung-hyun quickly averted his gaze from me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you in advance.”

If you had made some lame excuse, I would have said something, but since you admitted it honestly, I decided not to point it out anymore.

After coming all this way, it doesn’t look good to go back empty-handed.

“Is that the building?”

He pointed his finger at Red’s base that he had seen on his phone.

It’s a half-collapsed dome-shaped baseball stadium.

I don’t like baseball, but I’m sure it’s the home stadium of a professional baseball team.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a mascot statue with peeling paint and a decapitated head standing at the entrance.

In the place of the collapsed dome, a steel structure jutted out like a human skull, dyed an eerie blood red.

Although it is rusted and red, at first glance it is a creepy visual of the actual bones of the building protruding.

“I have to do two things at once. Kill the guy, secure the body, and escape safely.”

Baek Seung-hyun looked back.

Around the truck, fellow students were setting up a barricade.

“But no one has ever gotten past the first step.”

The dome-shaped stadium may be the center of attention, but the field doesn’t look all that favorable.

There are many places to hide and take cover in the many piles of collapsed ruins, and the dome stadium is densely packed with tall, vertical buildings that apes love.

If the guy decides to run away, there’s almost no way to chase him down.

As I looked around, I saw Baek Seung-hyun and suddenly asked.

“Aren’t there three things?”

Baek Seung-hyun lumped it together and said it was two tasks, but in fact, this mission is a combination of three tasks.

One is to kill mutations.

The other is to kill the mutation and escape.

And the last thing is to secure the body of the killed mutation.

The difficulty of a mission increases exponentially as conditions are added.

This mission is no different.

Mutation’s body recovery.

Perhaps this is the condition that makes this mission impossible.

Baek Seung-hyun nodded with a dark face.

“······that’s right.”

He hesitated for a moment.

Perhaps he felt the urge to lie, but reason, which tells him that he cannot lie, suppressed that urge.

“okay.”

The mutation’s greatest weapon was none other than its own self-worth.

The value of the bastard, combined with a variable he probably couldn’t have imagined, the zombie zone, made him an impregnable fortress that would make even experienced hunters struggle.

That is, even if you can kill Red, if you cannot secure his body, the mission is a failure.

The story goes that in order to kill the guy and retrieve his body, the hunters are eventually forced into mid-range close combat.

That too, against monsters that are as smart as humans, yet fast and agile and strong, with the ability to sense.

“The pattern he enjoys is to grab someone by the leg, jump up, and then throw them to the ground.”

“is it so?”

“I know a guy who was treated like that. He was dragged by his ankles and then thrown upside down from ten stories.”

“Oh, like that.”

At that time, Cheon Yeong-jae, who had been silent, opened his mouth for the first time.

“That chimpanzee. There are rumors that he captures women and rapes them.”

18th term.

An ill-fated rider known as the rider of curses along with the 17th.

It’s probably a similar rider to the Defender.

An unfortunate generation whose lives were ruined and twisted before they could even earn the Hunter badge.

His cheek was engraved with a knife scar.

“Do we really need to retrieve the body of that guy?”

His eyes were as sinister as the life he had lived.

I had a strong feeling that even Baek Seung-hyun, who was like heaven to me, was a person that I couldn’t properly control.

“Calm down a bit. Youngjae. You know the boss’s personality, right?”

It’s like seeing Baek Seung-hyun, who is weak, trying to please the strong.

Cheon Yeong-jae’s razor-sharp gaze was fixed on me.

“I heard you are Kim Da-ram’s direct supervisor.”

He just nodded.

“······That’s different from what I heard from Kim Da-ram. He said that his senior was a heartless person. He even abandoned his dying comrades?”

“Didn’t you say you were going to pick a fight earlier?”

I said something because I didn’t want to waste time in the zombie town.

Cheon Yeong-jae smiled faintly.

“No, I’m not arguing, I just like the way it’s done.”

Cheon Yeong-jae glared at Dong-moon, who was barricading himself behind him, with contemptuous eyes.

“It’s because of those idiots that we got pushed out by those monsters called Awaken.”

“You talk a lot, surprisingly?”

“I wonder if you could do some mental warm-up exercises to help me relax?”

Cheon Yeong-jae laughed slyly.

That unknown value system and its unpredictable, erratic appearance somehow reminded me of the Defender.

Cheon Yeong-jae looked at Baek Seung-hyeon.

“You said the guy had sensing powers?”

Baek Seung-hyun nodded.

“Then I’ll take the bait.”

Cheon Yeong-jae threw away his weapon.

Two rifles and a pistol.

In his hand he held only a machete called a jungle knife.

“Are you okay?”

I asked because I was worried.

I said that because I thought that since it was a zombie zone, you should at least bring a pistol.

At this, Cheon Yeong-jae held up three fingers.

“Don’t you know the three-room rule?”

“Three room rule?”

“There’s a rule that says if you hear three gunshots, zombies will come.”

“No way.”

“It’s true. When they hear the first gunshot, the zombies wake up. When they hear it twice, they think something is wrong. When they hear it three times, they think someone has appeared and gather in the direction where the gunshot came from.”

“Since when did this rule come into existence?”

I asked in disbelief.

“Recently.”

Cheon Yeong-jae met Baek Seung-hyun’s eyes.

Judging from Baek Seung-hyun’s serious expression, it seems like this three-room rule is probably common sense here.

Since I didn’t want to refute him, I didn’t say anything, so Cheon Yeong-jae walked forward.

“I’ll ask you to attack when I give the signal. Senior Baek.”

As he passed me, Cheon Yeong-jae looked in my direction.

I can’t tell if the gaze that stares at me with a strange smile is meant as a challenge or an expression of confidence.

The important thing is that the cursed 18th generation took on the most dangerous role.

Clank-

Our weapon is the Type 21 large-caliber hunter rifle that Baek Seung-hyun carries.

The name sounds fancy, but it’s a bolt-action rifle that uses 12.7mm .50 caliber machine gun bullets.

In other words, it is a crude variation of an existing weapon modified to suit its intended use.

It was developed to deal with monsters, but was eventually overshadowed by other effective weapons and relegated to mutation hunting. However, it is a very good weapon for mutation hunting.

Because it can deliver critical hits with each shot against mutations that 5.56mm bullets don’t stick to.

The fact that such a great marksman with such a powerful weapon cannot take down a single chimpanzee must be due to the conditions for recovering the body.

That’s such a strange situation.

Thanks to a new friend named Cheon Yeong-jae, this Park Gyu suddenly ended up being closed down.

Originally, the role of bait was mine.

Our plan was for me to be the bait and for Baek Seung-hyun to shoot and kill him.

It’s a good thing I don’t take on dangerous tasks, but why is that?

I feel uneasy.

“······Can I not go?”

It may be inevitable.

Since my days as team leader, I’ve been in charge of all the dangerous work.

So, whenever a team member other than me took on a risky role, I would feel uneasy without realizing it.

I actually saw a few of my teammates die in my stead.

It seems like it’s an occupational disease since I still feel the same anxiety even though I’ve been out of active duty for quite some time.

It’s a disease where you have to be me.

“It’s okay. That kid. He can die. He’s so shameless.”

Only after Cheon Yeong-jae had walked quite a bit forward did Baek Seung-hyun reveal his true feelings.

“Honestly, his skills are top-notch, but that guy’s temper… Considering that he’s skilled to that extent and Kim Da-ram didn’t take him, that means his personality is seriously flawed.”

“Are you talking about S-class?”

“Absolutely.”

S-class is not judged in Korea.

This is a title that can be earned by passing the test of the World Hunter Standard Organization in the United States after gaining outstanding experience and reputation in actual combat.

I heard that China also has a similar grade called special grade.

I’ve seen one special hunter and he was definitely an outstanding person.

So, what about the skills of my junior, who is said to be S-class by old-time standards?

I held the telescope and watched my friend getting further and further away.

The range of detection ability varies from person to person, but there is an average.

It is said that if you focus for 50m, you can detect up to 150m.

I don’t really understand it since I don’t have the ability to sense or the aptitude for mutation, but it is said that those with the ability to sense feel the appearance of a living being in the air as if it were a stain on their consciousness.

This means that it is impossible to avoid surveillance by the owner of the detection ability within the detection range.

Baek Seung-hyun made a plan assuming the bastard’s detection range to be 150m.

It may be the most dangerous distance for the bait, but it is also the optimal distance to draw out and kill the mutation.

But then an intruder appeared.

They are zombies.

A dozen zombies poured towards Cheon Yeong-jae, pushing away the ruined vehicle.

I saw Cheon Young-jae’s reaction.

Without panicking at all, he slowly ran in reverse, matching the speed and pace of the zombies, and as if escaping, he clumsily but surely hit the head of the first one to come out, accelerated, and hit the head of the next one, easily defeating the horde of zombies.

“Have you ever seen a guy kill zombies so casually?”

Baek Seung-hyun said in admiration.

“no.”

First time seeing this.

The sight of people killing zombies like that, out of a sense of duty.

It looks very efficient though.

“If Jang Yeong-gi saw this, he would be furious.”

It’s exactly as Baek Seung-hyun said.

If my mentor had seen it, he wouldn’t have left it alone.

We’ll never know exactly what kind of hunter he thought he was now that he’s dead, but it’s clear that he was after style.

After defeating the last zombie, Cheon Yeong-jae waved his hand loudly.

Looks like prey has appeared.

But we can’t see anything with our eyes.

From the dome stadium side and around the dome stadium.

Cheon Yeong-jae suddenly ran towards us at full speed.

The next moment, a red object shot out from the collapsed roof of the dome stadium.

A giant ape.

A giant chimpanzee, about 2 meters tall, appeared and looked down at us.

But this guy.

“······Fuck.”

It wasn’t for nothing that the curses came out of Baek Seung-hyun’s mouth.

That guy named Red.

He is wearing armor.

I’m talking about the armor plates that cover the entire bulky body, which is two meters long.