Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 91



Only Krnovel

49. Madman

Before the war, a reporter requested an interview with Jang Gi-yeong, who was the principal at the time.

Jang Gi-yeong readily agreed to an interview – the reporter is affiliated with a major media outlet – but there didn’t seem to be any particularly nutritious content.

Jang Ki-young, who was at the peak of power at the time, only answered questions he wanted to answer, and when asked questions he did not want to answer or on sensitive topics, he responded with irrelevant answers or incoherent nonsense.

Still, there is one memorable dialogue.

The question was about the secret behind the hunters’ significantly low incidence of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

This question seemed to have struck Jang Gi-yeong’s fancy, as he heartily told him the secret.

“Our school does not accept weak students. No matter how outstanding or special someone may be, a weak-minded person will eventually cause a big accident.”

He is said to have talked for an hour and a half about a bizarre theory about how to measure and train the strengths and weaknesses of a person’s mind, referring to a mental strength measurement model he developed.

well.

I think differently.

The reason our hunters who have been to China have a low rate of PTSD is not because our mental strength was measured and trained as Jang Gi-yeong said, but because they all simply died.

Even healthy and smart people die, so those with anxious minds die even more easily.

Jang Gi-yeong tried to enforce his theory by forcing his friends who showed signs of anxiety during the war to retire early and strip them of their hunter status, but even that was meaningless.

With the rise of Awaken, Jang Gi-young’s era collapsed overnight.

In this way, a hunter who experienced war with a “mental illness” was released into society.

They had a very high chance of causing social problems, but society collapsed before they could do so.

The Defender’s motive was one of those unexploded bombs.

*

“He was a good friend. He was cheerful and talkative. But he became quiet after the fanatics’ Lunar New Year offensive, and by the time the offensive ended, he had changed.”

The Defender’s wounds don’t appear to be that serious at first glance.

My mind is clear and the bleeding has almost stopped.

But the bullet was lodged in the femur, near where the artery passes.

This is a problem.

We injected antibiotics to minimize the risk of infection, but you never know when that bullet might hit an artery.

We need skilled, combat-experienced doctors.

“······People have become strange.”

We are now riding in a 12-seater minibus.

There’s no way of knowing where he finds these things and fixes and makes them usable, but apparently that’s Defender’s hobby.

“I personally don’t like that person.”

The one behind the wheel was Defender’s younger brother.

“I go crazy every time I see him. He used to be a really nice guy.”

There was no choice.

If Justice Min were to attack while Defender was away, it would not be good news for Defender, his brother, or me.

It’s not like there weren’t any countermeasures, as armor plates were installed all over the vehicle.

Even so, one shot from an anti-tank weapon would be enough to finish it off.

That’s not all I’m worried about.

Motivation is the human being itself.

“Awakened? What level is it?”

“It’s a job-wakening.”

Job Wake.

A derogatory term for someone below level 5 and unfit to fight against large monsters.

But even that Jabwaken is a threatening opponent, as evidenced by the battle that took place this morning.

The guy who shot the Defender so hard seems to have two powers.

Cognition and detection.

Cognitive ability is said to be the ability to recognize an object and sense its existence from a very long distance.

It can be said to be an extended version of the detection ability, and since the distance can reach tens of kilometers, it means that when combined with the detection ability, an unshakeable pursuer is theoretically created.

This is my very personal opinion, but I think he also had the ability to foresee.

I don’t think the ability was put to practical use, but I think the occasional unnatural movements are enough to raise objections.

Anyway, if the guy was a skilled killer, not only Defender but also his younger brother would have been killed without me knowing, even though he was young and inexperienced.

“What kind of ability?”

“clairvoyance.”

The defender groaned softly, caressing his upper thigh as if the wound was painful.

“They say that if you concentrate hard, you can even see the veins?”

“It will be comfortable when having surgery.”

“Actually, I retired and decided to become a doctor. I have something better than a CT scan built into my eye.”

The defender suddenly took off his shirt, revealing his solid muscles.

“Look at this.”

He turned his back to me.

You can see the scar.

“What is this?”

“It’s a mark left by shrapnel from a suicide drone.”

There are dozens of scars.

Among them, several were close to the spine.

There is evidence that Defenders could have been crippled or killed before the war.

“He cleared all the debris from the scene.”

“That’s amazing.”

“At the time, I didn’t even know I was Awakened. I woke up without even knowing it.”

“Is this an unconscious awakening?”

“maybe.”

There are some people who have a spectacular awakening, like our great prophet I.M.Jesus or my classmates Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in, but most of them awaken to their Awakening ability at some point without any special phenomenon.

This is also called unconscious awakening, but in fact, this is the most common form of awakening.

What I’m saying is that it’s not for nothing that I put the sheet to my mouth and check it over and over again.

This means that without me knowing, I might have become eligible for Park Gyu-do Awake.

“Just looking at the number of riders, it seems to be the 17th or 18th. Is that right?”

“Oh. It’s the 18th generation.”

The defender sighed and said.

There’s a five-year age gap between me and him.

Although they were educated with the same old school curriculum with only a five year age difference, their life trajectories are completely different.

We had a chance to touch a little fame and money.

But this cursed rider’s life was already ruined while he was still in school.

However, there is opportunity in crisis, and among the cursed riders, those who are qualified to be Awaken can rise to the upper echelons on much better terms than the other riders.

Looking at the fact that the Awakens below level 5, who are now ridiculed as job-wakens, have taken up all the important positions in the National Assembly.

According to Kim Da-ram, there were a considerable number of people from the 18th class.

“Cursed Rider? That’s only half true. Old schoolers like us went straight to the abyss, but the Awaken qualified ones had a chance to rise above their abilities. There’s a girl five years younger than me who’s on the same committee as me? She’s not even in her twenties anymore.”

It must have broken now.

Anyway, I couldn’t quite understand why the person who was guaranteed that golden opportunity remained in Incheon.

“Even at that level, Awaken would have been treated fairly.”

“That was impossible.”

“why?”

In response to my question, the Defender lowered his gaze and muttered in a low voice.

“I’m going crazy.”

The place where the motive lived was an abandoned junkyard on the outskirts of Incheon.

Defender’s younger brother stopped the car in front of the entrance.

“Listen carefully.”

The Defender looked at me with a pained, yet extremely serious face.

“No matter what that kid says, hit the gong.”

“······What on earth are you talking about?”

“You’ll know it when you see it.”

The Defender brother honked his horn twice and entered the junkyard.

Towers of scrapped cars piled up everywhere, bizarrely cubic chunks of metal, dark objects of unknown purpose, the skeletons of giant beasts.

People say my area is a bit shabby, but compared to this place, it’s a well-maintained park.

It’s not just the appearance that’s ugly.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

I heard a dog barking.

But the sound is too loud.

Even considering that it’s a fierce dog, it feels like my ears are ringing.

Surely it’s not a mutation?

He watched with cold eyes as the vehicle entered the junkyard, his gun at the ready in case of an emergency.

In the distance, you can see a residential area made up of stacked containers.

But there are more than one or two.

They built dozens of them, stacking them up like a castle.

It didn’t take long to find the lord of this castle.

A man wearing a sharp suit, completely out of place in this dirty and bizarre junkyard, was standing on top of a container, holding a gun, and looking down at us coldly.

Below that, next to the container, a mutation dog, probably bound with chains and restraints, was barking in my direction with bloodshot eyes.

“Jongcheol!”

The defender’s brother stuck his face out and shouted loudly.

The man named Jong-cheol smiled brightly.

*

His name was Heo Jong-cheol.

Like the Defender, the 18th generation had deep eyelids, a prominent nose, and lots of hair like a Westerner.

In particular, his beard was grown so thick that it covered his cheeks, like a 19th century Western intellectual, but that beard was probably not just a gene he inherited from his parents.

Look at the piles of minoxidil medication outside the container.

“Let’s see, Jeongho.”

The Defender’s name has been revealed.

It was Jeongho.

Jeongho and Dajeong.

They were siblings who turned their sperm around.

“I didn’t touch the artery. Sit over there. I’ll treat it right away.”

I looked around inside while he took the Defender inside.

It was built like a castle, but the interior was poor.

From a distance, it looked like a castle made up of dozens of containers, but in reality, only three containers were in use: a residential building, a food and storage building, and a clinic.

Still, I had plans to expand it like my bunker, so I drilled a hole leading to another container.

“Ugh!”

The Defender’s groans can be heard from inside the treatment room, which is hidden behind curtains.

Defender’s younger brother is holding onto the hem of his shirt with anxious eyes and can’t take his eyes off the treatment room.

“Wouldn’t that be okay?”

When I told her something to comfort her, she looked up at me and smiled.

But that smile only lasted a moment, and she turned her gaze toward the treatment room with a pensive expression on her face.

I looked around as she remained silent.

There are so many books.

The bookshelf was packed with classics representing the humanities, including Goethe, Aristotle, Rousseau, and Schopenhauer, but what Yoo Jong-cheol was reading at the moment was a comic book – spread out and turned over on the desk.

It didn’t take long for the surgery to be completed.

After 10 minutes, Heo Jong-cheol came out.

“Dajung-ah. Look at this.”

He picked up the blood-soaked bullet on a stainless steel tray with medical forceps and held it up in front of his brother Defender.

“It is the seed of death embedded in the body of your flesh and blood.”

“What about you, brother?”

But the defender brother didn’t say a word of thanks.

It was a little surprising that she, who was so affectionate to me and Defender, could have such a cold and stiff expression in front of other people.

“It’s inside.”

Defender’s younger brother entered the treatment room.

I glanced at Heo Jong-cheol’s expression.

He must have been in a bad mood, but he pretended not to care. He sat down at the wooden desk he had made to be his study, opened the comic book, and hid it inside the desk. Instead, he began to read a philosophical book titled “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” with a serious expression on his face.

“······.”

He doesn’t really seem like a crazy person.

Hiding the comic book and pretending to read a difficult book was actually quite humane.

But why do the Defender siblings hate that guy so much?

Although he has a slightly unlikable style, it doesn’t seem like a flaw that would keep him from being able to avoid this friend who has such great medical skills.

Honestly, if you have that level of surgical skills, wouldn’t you be the number one candidate for recruitment?

“······.”

If.

If I were to create a group.

“You said you were from school?”

That Heo Jong-cheol was looking at me.

He nodded.

“If you’re an old school hunter, you probably have at least one grudge against this country.”

“I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any.”

Heo Jong-cheol closed the book with a meaningful smile.

“If you’re a hunter, you must know why the National Assembly members went to Jeju Island, right?”

“More or less.”

“As you know, it’s because the population is small. Yes. Because the population is small, the cracks are weaker, and it’s easy to defend with a small force, so they moved to Jeju Island.”

It’s a story we all know.

It’s a story I’ve told, heard, and thought about hundreds of times.

Enough to make me yawn.

“What will happen to us who can’t go to Jeju Island?”

Another age-old question.

“We’re all going to die.”

This is not an exaggeration at all.

Everyone dies.

Without exception.

The only difference is whether it is fast or slow.

But there’s something that’s been catching my eye since a while ago.

These are the countless whirlpools that have been wriggling in the eyes of my junior, Heo Jong-cheol, since a certain moment.

At some point, his eyes changed into those of a madman.

“But you know, what if this situation happens?”

There was no response.

Asking what a madman thinks is not a very wise choice.

But once a madman sets his mind to something, he will inevitably pour out all his madness.

“What if all the people gathered in Incheon disappeared?”

“······.”

“Wouldn’t it be a better place to live than Jeju Island?”

At that moment, Defender came out of the examination room, supported by his younger brother.

He shook his head as he watched me talking to Heo Jong-cheol.

It’s telling me to ignore it.

Defender’s younger brother also gave a similar look.

But once the story begins,

“How could they kill so many people in Incheon?”

I asked.

The thoughts of a madman.

“With nukes.”

“Where do nukes come from?”

“There are Chinese kids down there?”

The madman smiled broadly.

*

SKELTON: (Shocking Skeleton) Possibility of a nuclear explosion in Incheon?!

They say that it is the behavior of internet attention seekers to sell even a family’s misfortune if there is a material that can become popular, but in my case, it is a little different.

SKELTON: (Skeleton Analyzing) The Connection Between Nuclear Weapons Held by Chinese Military Bases Near Dangjin and the Incheon Nuclear Explosion

This is a warning.

To raise awareness among our Internet friends left behind in Incheon and to save them.

But visionaries are lonely.

Anonymous458: Isn’t this the kid who died before?

Fox_games : You’re alive.

ㅇㅇ: Is this shepherd boy into jokes?

Anonymous848: Stop the skeleton… It’s ugly to look at…

roka_gg : Hmm

ㅇㅇ: Analyze, you fucking hypocrite, clean your anus properly

unicorn18 : netkama

mmmmmmmmm : ?

gijayangban : ?

dongtanmom : Yum…?

“······.”

Well, there’s a saying that the difference between a visionary and a madman is only a thin line.