WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 24: Faith
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Faith is not God's exclusive domain.
There are many kinds of faith.
Faith in love between lovers, faith in their own luck that successful entrepreneurs naturally possess, faith that makes a sports coach stubbornly keep fielding an underperforming player, and so on.
I once saw a similar kind of faith on a real estate forum I briefly joined while looking at land.
Going by my hazy memory, the post was probably written by someone whose entire fortune was tied up in one house.
Real estate always goes up~ Even if war breaks out, missiles fall, or the country collapses, it always goes up~
I mostly agreed, but I didn't think real estate would keep going up even in an extreme situation like war.
Someone in our community had similar faith.
mmmmmmmmm: (Breaking) America declares national normalization!
mmmmmmmmm: (Rumor) Icheon-Yeoju Food Belt optimized
mmmmmmmmm: A cargo ship came into Busan!
m9, who spouted insane nonsense almost every day, had not been a fanatic about tomorrow from the beginning.
By board standards, m9 had been an ordinary user with perfectly normal thoughts and standard values.
m9 began changing after winning an apartment in a state-of-the-art complex called The Hope.
Until then, m9 had been one ordinary user among many. Then m9 suddenly changed and began disparaging the lifestyle m9 had chosen.
But the users of our Viva! Apocalypse! Korean board were not so easy to deal with.
With nothing else to do, we stayed logged into the board all day. That meant we knew exactly how to deal with strange people.
The method we chose was no response.
Without needing to exchange words or argue, we imposed social sanctions by collectively ignoring them.
Considering that communication was this board's primary purpose, collective shunning was a severe punishment comparable to a death sentence.
But this wasn't someone else's story.
I was in a little danger too...
SKELTON: What's butter for breakfast?
I even removed the John_nenon-style header tags that had been a point of pride and carefully wrote a post likely to draw comments, but no one replied.
The reason was the human hunters.
Their previous spam posts saying “SKELTON is awesome!” had sent my already limited reputation straight to the bottom.
One user who was friendly toward me informed me of that fact in a message.
A message from Kyle_Dos: Are you really friends with Defender? You know what kind of image Defender has here, right?
I did.
Everyone hated Defender, but Defender's posts stood apart from other users' and provided plenty to watch, so people left Defender alone. Defender was the very definition of a necessary evil.
It was only natural that my image would plummet when someone that strange kept clinging to me.
In fact, on the board, I was already treated as a proper member of the “Defender Clique Family.”
But my reputation wasn't beyond saving.
My role model was m9, whom I had mentioned earlier.
After suffering the social death of collective shunning, m9 broke a long silence and suddenly rose to become a user everyone watched.
The momentum was so strong that users who had blocked m9 began unblocking m9 just to search for m9's posts.
It all began with a recent post from m9.
mmmmmmmmm: “The Hope” Property Tour
The post had no explanation, only three low-resolution videos attached.
In the first video, m9 used a selfie stick and showed the journey from the bunker to Seoul, with heavy editing cutting out much of it.
m9 looked older than I was, and for some reason kept two dogs in the bunker.
Welsh corgis? French bulldogs? Probably something like that.
“Now, this is the road connecting my hideout to Seoul. As you can see, it's completely safe! The soldiers are always guarding it, you know? Raiders? Never saw any. But what's the point of good security? You rot away inside a bunker, don't you?”
Unlike my territory, which had only recently begun filling with pioneers, soldiers and armored vehicles marched in orderly lines along the road around m9's bunker.
For some reason, the military was heading toward Seoul rather than the front line, but m9 didn't seem to care.
“Now I'll reveal my new apartment! Haters! Watch with your eyes open! This is a home you'll never have, even if you die and come back to life!”
Perhaps m9 had suffered a lot until then, because m9 freely poured a long, satisfying stream of pent-up resentment at the camera.
But this person.
“Especially you, SKELTON! You bastard. What? You said it would never get built? What? Your acquaintance's official word? Ha! How can a person be like that? Just insult me outright. Don't sneakily mess with people's hopes!”
Why was m9 only losing it at me?
Anyway, the videos showed the current state of The Hope.
Since times were what they were, the government had not built the entire complex. Instead, it quickly built one pilot building, planned to accept residents into it as test households, assess the living conditions, and use that data to construct the rest of the complex.
m9 was apparently one of the test households moving into that pilot building.
But something felt off.
Even if it was only one apartment building, construction took time, didn't it?
Leveling the land alone should take well over a year.
How had they shortened the construction period?
The answer was in m9's video.
For a moment, I doubted my own eyes.
“Wow...”
I couldn't help it.
That apartment building was tilted.
As if it wanted to boast that if Italy had the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Korea had The Hope, it leaned at such a severe angle that it terrified anyone looking at it.
But m9 didn't seem to see any of that.
“Now, let me reveal my sweet home. No more moldy bunker!”
At least the interior had been decorated more or less properly.
A built-in display cabinet and wardrobe, a bathroom with a bathtub, heating, a toilet that flushed properly, a sink, a refrigerator, a washing machine, all the trusty companions of domestic life.
But it only had the appearance of being furnished. The apartment's interior on screen was full of defects.
The wallpaper, apparently pasted on with glue sticks, was peeling and hanging in tatters. Cracks ran across the bathroom walls. The built-in refrigerator wouldn't even turn on, and no water came from the faucets.
Most memorable of all was the moment m9 dropped a pen and it gently rolled downhill across the living-room floor.
The community's response was nothing but question marks.
Anonymous848: ?
Kyle_Dos: ?
anon:458: ?
DragonC: ?
unicorn18: ?
Defender: ?
Surivival_KING: ?
SKELTON: Huh?!
anon118: ?......
It was truly shoddy construction.
The people who had won the lottery came to their senses and voiced their complaints, so the authorities had slapped the place together as a stopgap.
A journalist based in Seoul brought accurate information.
gijayangban: (PaleNet repost) The Hope pilot households were applications, not a lottery. About 2,000 people went there, saw the apartment leaning, and turned back. The actual safety inspection says it's a wreck that could collapse at any time, but the higher-ups suppressed it and gave it a habitable rating. Seoul citizens are currently betting on when The Hope will collapse.
Unlike our Viva! Apocalypse!, the PaleNet the journalist mainly used was a community that ran on wired and wireless internet networks. Access was extremely unstable, and even its servers went down all the time. But as an open internet community, it had overwhelmingly more users, so its information was far more reliable and extensive than ours.
The final photograph of Chairman Je Pung-ho had also come from PaleNet.
There were plenty of false rumors as well, but the journalist had an eye for separating truth from lies. That ability had quickly made gijayangban a well-known, reliable user.
Everyone on the board nodded at the journalist's words, except one person, who vehemently denied them.
mmmmmmmmm: Fun novel~ Sounds like you live in an outer suburb too embarrassing to call Seoul, so stop acting like you know things and be on your way~
Despite the desperate mockery, m9 became a popular user.
People wondered.
When would m9's apartment collapse?
When would m9 disappear from the board?
From that day on, every one of m9's posts received more than ten comments on average.
Their contents were all much the same.
anon118: Brother, you're okay, right?
unicorn18: Didn't your house shake today?
anon458: Rumble! Crash!
Anonymous848: It's tipping over~......
Seeing m9, once a must-block user, receive so many comments gave me a powerful jolt.
I realized that even if a user had been blocked by many people, everyone would unblock them if they were entertaining enough.
I had decent material.
The camouflage-house construction I had been planning for some time.
The plan itself was simple.
I only needed to place the old container house on the site of the collapsed bunker and fix it up a little.
For the first time in a while, I took out the forklift, moved the container, and made it more or less habitable before posting on the board.
SKELTON: “The Fake” Property Tour
Thinking the title wasn't straightforward enough and had drawn few views, I changed it and posted again.
SKELTON: “SKELTON Second Condominium” Property Tour
The title wasn't the problem.
Many users merely looked at my post and left.
Later, Defender, or the one I assumed was Defender's younger sibling, told me the exact reason.
Defender: It's a shitty house. You're going to live in a place like this instead of your bunker? Are things that bad?
Apparently, the house's quality was the issue.
It was a camouflage house, so I had only given it a quick once-over. I knew it was a camouflage house, but other users had no way of knowing that.
Who would enjoy watching someone slap together a shitty little house?
It was my failure to meet the customers' expectations.
More importantly, why did Defender keep clinging to me like this?
A message from Defender: (Defender embarrassed) Should we merge???
Anyway, m9 continued to rise after that.
In particular, on the day m9 left the bunker and moved into The Hope under the military's escort(?), m9 received an astounding 122 comments.
It got to the point where Yankees from the foreign boards came over and asked what was going on.
As with all things in the world, the gossip about m9 was quickly consumed and quickly forgotten.
A bigger problem easily buried the small incident that was m9.
The clue had already been in m9's video.
The military marching toward Seoul in long lines.
They had been the army guarding the front line.
The army guarding the eastern front collectively disobeyed orders, turned its units around, and “marched” on Seoul.
Their stated justification was not entirely false.
“Citizens of the Republic of Korea. The Korean government is lying to you right now. The president and cabinet ministers have already taken all equipment and elite personnel, especially the Hunters, and relocated them to Jeju Island. They have abandoned us.”
It wasn't just one army that entered Seoul.
Another army entered Seoul from the west.
Their stated justification also had merit.
“The duty of the Republic of Korea's military is to defend its land and its people. Politics, as the Republic of Korea's stained constitutional history shows us, is a realm soldiers must neither touch nor covet. I, Im Myeong-su, will defend Seoul from every threat to protect the people of the Republic of Korea, the National Assembly, and the Constitution of the Republic of Korea.”
The two armies faced each other within Seoul.
The capital of a country already divided north and south was split east and west.
Soldiers in the same uniforms confronted each other at intersections, raised barricades, and prepared combat supplies.
The army backed by the National Assembly and the army backed by the corps entered negotiations over their demands, but the chances of those talks ending well were not high.
For the first time, the journalist, who had lived in Seoul and personally experienced all kinds of events, expressed despair.
gijayangban: Choosing Seoul may have been a mistake.
At that point, I tried contacting Kim Daram.
Kim Daram didn't answer.
Had she been aboard the transport plane that previously crossed my territory?
Or had something else happened that prevented her from answering?
As Kim Daram's replies grew increasingly delayed, I silently read the board for a while.
One poster caught my eye.
mmmmmmmmm: The military coming is bullish news.
It was m9.
For the first time in a while, I searched m9's posts.
mmmmmmmmm: (In-Seoul Desk[1]) Why civil war will not happen.
txt
mmmmmmmmm: “The Hope” will not be touched. Why? It's where the generals will live!
mmmmmmmmm: (Negotiations nearing settlement) Generals' Apartments! The Hope!
mmmmmmmmm: Our neighborhood will shoot up after the negotiations end~
Even when everyone foresaw disaster, m9 sang a hymn to faith.
I knew m9 had blocked me, but I sent a message anyway out of concern.
SKELTON: You know you're in real danger, right?
I didn't expect a reply.
But one came.
Immediately.
A message from mmmmmmmmm: I know. So what do you expect me to do about it?
A twist.
m9 had not blocked me.
What was more, m9 knew the choice m9 had made was wrong.
Perhaps that was why.
As if m9 had been waiting for me for a long time, m9 sent messages without hesitation.
A message from mmmmmmmmm: Yeah, SKELTON. Defender's friend. You don't kill people, right?
SKELTON: Don't lump me in with people like that.
A message from mmmmmmmmm: You keep paying attention to me, SKELTON. Hey. Can I go to your bunker? Huh? I have two dogs. Can they come too? You can eat us if you have to.
SKELTON: Block.
* * *
One day, two years and one month after the war began.
There was still no contact from Kim Daram.
A civil war broke out in Seoul.
Two armies wearing the same uniforms and speaking the same language pointed guns at one another and poured the flames of their anger onto each other.
The civil war, which lasted a week, engulfed most of Seoul in flames and created millions of refugees.
A photograph taken amid that hellscape was posted to the board.
Against a sunset that made the sky seem to burn, and ruins that were truly burning, the photograph showed an apartment building standing alone.
It was an apartment building I knew.
The Hope.
A symbol of hope.
And one person's faith.
The state-of-the-art apartment building, occupied by only a single household, still stood tilted in one corner of Seoul at that very moment, serving as a landmark of hope.
Footnotes:
[1] In Seoul: A Korean prestige label for being located within Seoul, often used in real-estate talk. m9 uses it to imply insider authority and higher property value.
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