Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 94



Only Krnovel

51. Authentication (1)

It’s been a long time since our bulletin board named user, Defender, has “authenticated”.

As for me, I didn’t find his reduced activity particularly strange, knowing that he had moved to a quieter place with fewer people, and that he was being targeted by users who never posted on the forums, but other users thought otherwise.

Anonymous458: Defender, why don’t you do authentication these days?

Anonymous1131: That’s right. I heard that, but I haven’t seen it once since I came here?

mmmmmmmmm: That’s called a water rocket. Who would take it these days? All the weak ones have been defeated.

Anonymous782: It’s an influx, but Defender was quite famous even on Palenet.

…

…

Users have pointed out his poor performance and even questioned whether he is worthy of remaining a named player.

ㅇㅇ: What is a defender without authentication? He’s just a user I’ve never heard of~

In my view, the very existence of this trend is undeniable evidence that our hearts are sick.

In the midst of widespread death and tragedy, emotions become dull and the world appears different.

It may come as a surprise, but few of us are surprised to see a dead body.

I guess you could say you frown a little.

No one would hesitate to pull the trigger on someone who wants to kill us.

We can’t say that there aren’t any guys who wouldn’t hesitate to point a gun and commit violence in front of an attractive woman or a weak person with possessions.

Even I have felt that urge more than once.

Just like the word “plunderer” that disappeared at some point, we too have become beings that are no different from those plunderers.

Well, I think Defender’s activity has decreased a lot recently.

Sometimes, I feel like reading his or my younger brother’s cynical sarcasm.

The last time the defender posted on the bulletin board was when he returned home after doing some light farming in the garden.

Defender: Authentication

The person in the photo posted by Defender was a man in his early 20s.

He was forced to sit on an old chair, his two thumbs bound with cable ties and his eyes wrapped with duct tape.

Unlike Defender’s previous certifications, the man in the certification was alive.

This is out of the ordinary.

So far, Defender has only authenticated photos of people he has killed, and has never authenticated a living person.

I had a feeling that something strange had happened.

As if to answer that question, Defender posted another post.

Defender: Justice Min. Come out.

-Instead of sending messages, post them on the bulletin board where everyone can see them.

Asking to be spared is good, asking to negotiate is good, but asking to be killed is even better.

Give me an hour.

If you do nothing for an hour, you will see your dead brother’s certification.

“······.”

People say the Defender has changed.

Some people also put forward the plausible opinion that the reason he was able to be active in the early days was because the people at the time were weak.

But I don’t agree with that idea.

The Defender I know was, well, a complete user from the start.

Unlike other users whose way of thinking and morals change with the times and whose perspective on the world changes, Defender is someone who has had his own firm standards from the beginning and has lived his life according to them.

As his nickname implies, he is a guard.

yourself, your family, and your own territory.

Anything that touches it is removed.

He merely “certifies” his own protection.

Now Defender has authenticated again.

It’s obvious that the bulletin board will be engulfed in chaos.

But no one could have predicted who the storm would eventually hit.

*

Defender and I are probably the only people who know about the other main character in this incident, a user named JUSTICE_MIN.

He has never posted on this board even once.

The same thing happens when you search for an account.

Although it was an account that had been registered before the war, it was a mere empty entity that existed only in name.

Therefore, when Defender mentioned him, our bulletin board users each expressed strong doubts and curiosity.

RKKArA: Who is Justice Min?

Anonymous458: That’s right. I’ve never heard of it.

Foxgames: Who is it?

Anonymous1131: I don’t know who this is, but it’s interesting.

gijayangban: A person with no activity history

…

…

Unlike other users, I actually have contact with Defender.

“Defender.”

We contacted them first.

“Yeah. Skeleton.”

My brother answered.

“What’s going on?”

“Just a moment. I’ll connect you with your brother.”

My brother’s voice was different from usual, it was cold and businesslike.

I think I know why.

You’re currently holding a hostage and are in a standoff with someone trying to kill them in real time.

Perhaps she is supporting her brother by operating several drones.

“Oh. Skeleton.”

Soon the Defender contacted me.

“I got shot before. It wasn’t just a coincidence. I had been planning to hunt that bastard for a while. I was looking for clues that day and I let my guard down when I got shot.”

The fight between Defender and Justice Min seems to have been raging somewhere I didn’t know about.

I had a vague idea, but I didn’t expect that the Defenders would be thinking of hunting Justice Min.

I thought he would play defensively and protect himself and his brother.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

But when I think about it carefully, that Defender guy.

I’ve always been a guy who likes to run around and do things red-hot.

My brother liked to stay in the corner of the room.

Well, it seems like the siblings have a close relationship.

“I was going to call you if it was urgent. It’s not that bad. Anyway, I’ll hang up.”

Communication was lost.

This means that Defender’s internet best friend, Lee Park Gyu-do, has become an ordinary viewer like any other bulletin board user.

Now, like other users, I have to constantly compare the time Defender posted with the time displayed at the bottom of my monitor screen or on the clock in my house, and guess how the unknown user Justice Min will react based on the posts Defender or Justice Min will post.

I was about to head down to the basement to find some popcorn, having mustered up my resolve.

“Skeleton.”

The communicator rang again.

It’s not Defender’s.

It belongs to mother and daughter Rebecca.

This communication was also received from the Defender, but the frequency was adjusted so that it is not connected to the Defender.

So, what I’m saying is that I have to use two different communicators when dealing with the Defender and the sniper mother and daughter.

It’s a waste of resources, but since the Defenders have no desire to mix with them, I ended up using the two communicators alternately by myself.

Anyway, that Rebecca knew Defender.

“Defender, are you Skeleton’s friend? He lives next door?”

“huh.”

“What was that writing just now?”

“Do you see the Korean bulletin board too?”

“It’s nighttime in the US right now. The respawn rate is low. I’m bored.”

“Anyway, you mean the hostage?”

“huh.”

“That’s it. I don’t know the exact details either. But there was someone who threatened to kill Defender before.”

“Threats? What is that?”

Suu intervened in the middle and gave Rebecca a detailed account of the current situation.

“That kind of thing······.”

“Skeleton.”

Suuga called me this time.

“Uh. Suu. You want something juicy?”

“no.”

Suu said in a serious voice.

“A car overturned in front of my house.”

“okay?”

“Yeah. Maybe that guy called Defender. Maybe he fought in front of our house?”

“What distance?”

“4km northeast?”

“It’s not right in front of the house?”

“forecourt.”

Although Suu is young, she is a child who grew up with her mother relying on a single gun in a world full of enemies.

Besides, he is more mature and deeper than his mother.

You will have your own feeling.

“Just wait a minute.”

He took Baek Seung-hyun’s motorcycle and headed straight for Rebecca and her daughter’s territory.

Every time I ride Baek Seung-hyun’s motorcycle, I feel like, Baek Seung-hyun, don’t you regret giving him this motorcycle?

It’s dozens of times more useful than the stuff I spent a lot of money on.

If you think about it a little, the convenience of a durable two-wheeled vehicle is incomparable even in the age of destruction, so why didn’t I buy one?

If I sold just one piece of heavy equipment sitting in my warehouse, I could start a soccer team with money left over.

Well, I have my excuses too.

My teacher Jang Gi-yeong told me that motorcycles are a waste of money, so I should never ride one or even think about buying one, and as his disciple, I uncritically accepted his ideas.

Boooooooooooooo–

But, even though he is my teacher, I honestly feel like he doesn’t say much of the right things.

What should I say?

If you look at the story, 90% of it is nonsense, but the remaining 10% is true, so it feels like it’s being accepted as nonsense?

The same goes for motorcycles.

It’s so good and convenient.

I arrived at Rebecca’s territory in one go, feeling the brisk engine sound and sense of speed.

Suu waved at me from above the building.

“Skeleton!”

“come.”

I climbed the stairs, which were filled with very American decorations, and observed the abandoned fields from the rooftop through the surveillance equipment held out by Suu.

Indeed, there is an overturned car.

“There, people were dragging the person inside out.”

“People?”

“huh.”

“One guy? One girl?”

“No. Three guys.”

“Hmm. It’s not a defender.”

It seems that Suuga mistook another incident for this one.

There are two Defenders, not one, but that doesn’t mean there are three.

And that’s three men.

I checked the time.

There are 20 minutes left until the Defender’s scheduled time.

If Justice Min doesn’t write within 20 minutes, the hostages secured by the Defenders will die.

“Rebecca. Are you watching?”

“huh.”

I walked over to Rebecca and looked at the monitor screen she was looking at.

When the screen seemed too narrow, she turned on the dark monitor next to her.

The monitor displayed the same screen that appeared on the laptop.

“What, what is this?”

“Dual monitor.”

Rebecca answered in a native speaker’s pronunciation.

“Is this even possible?”

“Are you a skeleton idiot?”

“······.”

I looked at the screen that appeared on the sub monitor while being scolded by Rebecca.

“Oh, please stop scrolling so thoughtlessly.”

“When in Rome, eat Roman food.”

“What, Rome? This is Korea. And who do you think gave you that equipment?”

“Acquisition by prescription.”

“What.”

As I was engaging in a war of nerves with Rebecca, I heard gunshots from a distance.

Suu, who was on the rooftop, came down holding a gun and surveillance equipment.

“People killed the people in the car.”

“okay?”

“Yeah. The woman who was riding was dragged away.”

Speaking plainly, but strictly speaking, it is someone’s terrible tragedy.

Suu spoke of the tragedy as if it were nothing.

I guess I’m used to it.

Well, she is also a person living in a time of destruction.

In a way, she, who lives higher up than I, who lives underground, has probably seen more tragedy than I have.

“Skeleton. What happened to Defender?”

“No. Not yet.”

Suuga came next to me and looked at the same monitor as me.

Knock knock

While Rebecca was typing hysterically, trying to figure out what was going on on our message board, searching for unknown words in the Korean dictionary, I was thinking about what was going on.

The first thing that comes to mind is worry.

Defender guy.

Didn’t Justice Min clearly say that it was a medium-sized group?

He was so skilled in combat that he was afraid.

You clearly said you would ask for my help when fighting them, but why didn’t you call me when you actually fought them?

What comes before the question is regret.

“······.”

Now that I think about it, something similar happened.

When I fought against Kim Pil-seong’s group, I didn’t use the Defender Summoning Ticket even though I had it.

That’s because the Defender could be at risk.

Perhaps the Defenders are thinking similarly and are trying to fight their own battle?

When my thoughts reached that point, I got up from my seat.

“······Sorry. I have to go.”

Rebecca and Sue looked up at me at the same time.

“Going already? It’s not time yet?”

“No, I’m worried.”

Defender said I didn’t need him, but that’s his opinion.

Even if he doesn’t call me, I should at least be by his side.

So that we can help them whenever they need a helping hand.

I don’t want to lose them.

As if they don’t want to lose me.

But before I could even take a step towards the stairs.

“Skeleton!”

Rebecca shouted, looking at the monitor.

“hmm?”

A new text appeared on the sub monitor.

Defender: Additional authentication.

It was Defender, not Justice Min, who posted the article.

The word ‘additional’ had the same creepiness I felt when I first saw the Defender.

“Click?”

Rebecca typed in a heavy silence.

A picture came to mind.

“Soo. Are you okay?”

He didn’t cover Suu’s eyes.

That’s not my place to do anything, and in this day and age it’s just a fuss.

“are you okay.”

Suu looked at the screen with an indifferent expression.

There were three corpses on the screen.

Defenders of the past would cover the faces of corpses with plastic or other trash, but things are different now.

Distorted faces, clearly depicting the pain and fear felt at the time of death, occupied the center of the monitor in an eerie manner.

Beyond that, the tied up man I had seen earlier was still sitting on the chair.

Defender: 5 minutes left.

The Defender warned again.

No one responded to his post.

There was none of the usual sarcasm or fuss.

I nodded without realizing it, looking at the ominous silence that was hanging over the bulletin board.

“This is the Defender.”

It seems I was the one who started making a fuss.

I may be better at killing monsters, but killing people is Defender’s specialty.

He’s a cursed 18th generation member, an unfortunate member who entered the school to hunt monsters but ended up killing and slaughtering more people.

The hour of destiny came in an uneasy silence.

4:02 p.m.

So, one minute left until execution.

A single post appeared on the bulletin board, which was as quiet as a mouse.

JUSTICE_MIN : I’m sorry. I apologize.

Justice Min appears.

With bitter words of apology.

But right after he wrote that, another post came up.

Defender: Authentication.