Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 27

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Potter

◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 27: Junior

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Since the sun had set, I spent the night at the refugee camp in Incheon.

Sleeping among people who had been driven out and left starving was practically the same as handing over your life, so I settled for warming myself beside a burning oil drum.

As I rested my eyes for a moment, a man came snooping around and approached me.

He looked to be in his early twenties. His face was so young he could have passed for a teenager.

He boldly reached for my bicycle.

I opened my eyes and warned him.

“Don't touch it.”

Startled, but apparently too stubborn to give up, he tried to reach for it again.

I quietly drew my pistol. Only then did he raise both hands and back away, but a group warming themselves by another fire behind him sent me cold looks.

At dawn, another gang joined them.

They whispered among themselves while looking at me, then drew their weapons and slowly approached.

Clubs, steel pipes, rebars bent into crowbar shapes, bicycle chains. A colorful assortment of crude weapons made my tired, bloodshot eyes swim.

The middle-aged men warming themselves beside me lowered their heads and quietly slipped away.

They showed no sign of seeking help or trying to stop them, but that was fine.

I casually showed the automatic rifle wrapped in cloth beside me to the approaching group.

A means of communication in the age of ruin.

The young thugs surrounding me exchanged fierce looks, then turned and left.

Once they were gone, the middle-aged men quietly returned. I showed them the automatic rifle too.

“...”

I waited alone by the fire for the sun to rise.

As soon as dawn came and soldiers appeared at the guard posts, I headed for the military command.

I had one reason for going there: the countless Capsules that had appeared around Kyle_Dos's air-raid shelter.

I intended to report them to the military.

Capsules normally fell under the NCRC's jurisdiction, but the NCRC had all fled to Jeju Island, so the military was the only place left to deal with them.

Of course, I had taken plenty of photos and marked the coordinates.

Honestly, I didn't want to do it.

Even on my way to the command, I nearly turned back several times as doubts crept in.

I could already see it.

What if reporting this only brought trouble down on me?

But what else could I do?

It was something that had to be reported.

The military might already know, but if they didn't, Seoul would be doomed. And that doom would affect me too.

That was why I had no choice but to go, even if I expected a bad outcome.

I was a Hunter from the old days.

A primitive hunter who had to face colossal monsters armed with nothing but courage, guts, skill, my own body, and one paltry weapon.

Thousands of Capsules were far too many for a primitive hunter like that.

* * *

Two years and two months after the war began, the South Korean Armed Forces had split into two factions: the Corps Faction and the National Assembly Faction.

The stronger of the two was the Corps Faction.

Military units guarding the main frontlines had risen up in anger at the government's unequal treatment and policies.

Since units that had defended the frontlines formed their core, they held an overwhelming advantage in troop numbers, quality, and equipment.

They had started the civil war because they trusted in that strength.

The faction I was visiting was not the Corps Faction, but its enemy, the National Assembly Faction.

As its name suggested, the National Assembly Faction had the backing of the National Assembly and was South Korea's only legitimate regular military force. It was inferior to the Corps Faction in both equipment and manpower, but it possessed the greatest weapon of all: legitimacy.

No matter how well they dressed it up, the Corps Faction was a coup force held together by profit.

Loyalty had held while the civil war was going well, but once it became urban warfare and forced both sides into a war of attrition, the loyalty of frontline units began to waver.

Eventually, a frontline commander dissatisfied with the excessive losses defected to the National Assembly Faction with their entire unit. The Corps Faction had to reconsider its strategy from the ground up.

Maybe it was too early to say, but wouldn't the National Assembly Faction win this civil war?

It would be a victory that left nothing but scars, though.

I arrived at the heart of the National Assembly Faction.

“What brings you here?”

Unlike lower-ranking units, this wasn't a place where bribes worked.

With things as they were, security was tighter here than anywhere else.

Tanks and other armored forces covered the ground, while more than ten drones flew overhead at different altitudes and through different sectors, watching the area.

There were chilling signs everywhere.

[ No filming, climbing fences, or drone flights

- Violators will be executed immediately ]

I had no choice but to stand in line and wait my turn.

“What brings you here?”

After waiting two hours, I was finally able to speak to the clerk at the complaints desk.

“Could I speak with the person in charge of Monsters? It's an extremely urgent matter.”

The moment I said that, I saw the clerk's expression sour slightly.

“What is it?”

“I found Capsules. A massive colony with more than a thousand of them. I have the evidence and the coordinates.”

“Capsules?”

“Monster eggs.”

I showed the photos.

The grayish-white flower garden Kyle_Dos had seen.

Unlike me, the clerk seemed to feel nothing at the sight of it.

They merely glanced at the photos and repeated the same words they had said to the person before me.

“Is that so? That's serious. We'll check it out.”

The clerk gestured to me.

“You may leave now. Next!”

This person probably wouldn't take any action.

They wouldn't investigate, and they wouldn't report it.

The reason was obvious.

I looked shabby. They didn't know my past. They were trying to dismiss me as a nobody.

I considered leaving, but this wasn't something to be swayed by emotion over.

There was a pile of kindling capable of burning everything down right in front of me. Leaving just because the fire hadn't reached my own house yet would be short-sighted.

I intended to live at least another five years.

My personality was softer than I thought, so I probably wouldn't become the last human alive. But I intended to at least make it to near-last.

“Excuse me, could you connect me to Colonel Jeong Daegyeong?”

I could have made a scene, but I considered myself a fairly refined person.

“Colonel Jeong Daegyeong?”

“Yes. The one who was seconded to the NCRC.”

“Ah, I believe you mean Brigadier General Jeong. One moment.”

Connections were the refined method used by someone with a career, like me.

I didn't particularly like it, though.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

“Who should I say is calling?”

“Park Gyu. Just tell them those two syllables.”

“Mr. Park Gyu. Yes, one moment.”

After making the call, the clerk stared at me.

Did I look different to them now?

“They said they don't know who you are.”

“...”

“Next!”

“... Get the person in charge.”

“Pardon?”

“Get the person in charge of Monsters! This is urgent!”

“Sir?!”

There was no helping it.

What could I do when the world had forgotten me?

“Now!”

This was an ordinary person's own way of struggling.

Soon, soldiers approached me with their firearms.

I went quietly.

If I resisted, they would execute me on the spot.

I waited for the soldiers to restrain me. When they were about to put handcuffs on me, I even held out my hands myself.

Once the cuffs were on, I politely spoke to someone who seemed to be a superior.

“I would like to speak with the person in charge of dealing with Monsters.”

“First, you'll need to be questioned.”

So I was headed for a holding cell first.

That was fine.

It was a little forceful, but in South Korea, people only pretended to listen once you acted like a nuisance.

If enduring some discomfort gave me a voice, saved millions, and preserved the safety of my territory, wasn't that a profitable deal?

Still, it really was a small world.

* * *

The interrogation room was dark.

Calling it an interrogation room was generous. It was nothing more than a tiny room with a desk and a lamp.

They had removed my handcuffs.

I'd only raised my voice. I hadn't damaged any property or harmed anyone.

If I had laid a finger on a female soldier or one of the soldiers, I would have been beaten with clubs before being forced to sit here.

“Please wait a moment. I'll bring the person in charge.”

The soldier who had escorted me here spoke in a businesslike tone without looking me in the eye.

“Please do.”

I spoke as politely as possible.

Here, they held all the power.

The more polite I was, the better.

A moment later, an unpleasant sound came from beyond the corridor, like steel scraping against metal.

A crutch?

It was similar, but sharper. It sounded like someone was deliberately dragging it along the floor just to make an irritating noise.

What kind of person could it be?

Probably someone with a truly twisted personality.

“Oh my. Isn't that Senior Park?”

The instant I heard that voice, I recognized its owner.

I didn't even need to see her face.

That deep, resonant voice was practically the trademark of someone I knew very well.

“Daram told me about you. You really were alive?”

When I looked up and saw her, I had to control my expression.

She didn't look like I remembered.

The graceful limbs that had once stretched out like a model's were gone, replaced by an ugly prosthetic arm and leg.

I looked at her face.

Even the deep hood couldn't hide the crushed scars covering half of it.

“... Minhee.”

This woman's name was Woo Minhee.

She had been my junior partner.

She smiled at me like a girl.

“Why didn't you contact me? I mean, you didn't contact anyone but Daram, did you? I didn't hear anything about you contacting Gyeongmin or Changsu either.”

“Do you work here?”

“Yeah. Things happened.”

“What about Jeju Island? You could get there if you wanted.”

“I could, but I didn't want to go.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

At that moment, Woo Minhee's eyes gave off a chilling grayish-white glow, bright enough to illuminate the darkness.

With eyes shining in the colors of another world, Woo Minhee smiled, her teeth white against her crushed face.

“I hate Kang Hanmin and Na Hyein just as much as you do, Senior.”

“...”

I couldn't see my own face, but I could imagine the expression on it.

Probably something subtle. I was desperately holding it in, but I couldn't keep it from twisting.

“Oh, right. We weren't supposed to mention those two in front of you, were we?”

Bullshit.

She had known exactly what she was doing.

She had always been like this, even in school.

A self-destructive life where she constantly hurt others and got hurt herself.

If her health bar had been just a little lower, she might have ended it with suicide. But this woman was tough.

“Sorry. I didn't even think about how that might upset you. I didn't do it on purpose.”

But it seemed I had grown up too.

“It's fine. Don't worry about something like that.”

I'd vaguely felt it when Kim Daram mentioned those two names before, but hearing their names no longer pierced my heart the way it once had.

It stung a little, but that was all.

It felt completely different from when I had heard their names from Je Pung-ho.

I looked at Woo Minhee with an unforced smile.

“I got over it a long time ago.”

I didn't know if I had truly gotten over it or if my feelings had simply gone numb, but I couldn't deny that everyone on the Viva! Apocalypse! board had helped build up my mental resilience.

I mean, I had gone from an unpopular user to Defender's friend, then sunk all the way to the hate-comment crew.

There was nowhere lower to fall.

“Now that we're talking about it, how are Hanmin and Hyein doing? A normal person like me has almost no way of finding out what they're up to.”

“Oh my.”

Pure surprise appeared on Woo Minhee's face.

“Are you really Senior Park?”

“Is there a problem?”

“No.”

She watched me with interested eyes for a while.

It wasn't a time I particularly enjoyed.

After the tedious scrutiny ended, Woo Minhee let out a soft sigh and spoke.

“The two of them are in Jeju Island.”

“So that was it. Are they doing well?”

“Those people? Of course they're eating well and living well. They're the saviors, after all.”

“Saviors... Do you know anything about Daram?”

“No.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, it's nice to see you're healthy, Senior Park.”

Woo Minhee raised her prosthetic arm and gazed blankly at its two steel fingers, curved like hooks.

“I ended up like this, though...”

“...”

You should have died back then.

Still, I supposed reuniting with Woo Minhee could be counted as a good thing.

At least we could communicate.

“Capsules. And a colony, too.”

“It's the first time I've seen a colony this big since China. Since we're under a ceasefire, I think we'll need to coordinate with the Corps Faction for field artillery. By the way, what was the maximum range of a Capsule's force field when you were active, Senior?”

“Three thousand two hundred and fifty meters. Three thousand five hundred to be safe.”

“Now it's five thousand five hundred.”

“Did it get longer again?”

“They must be learning about us more and more.”

Screeech.

Woo Minhee adjusted her prosthetic arm.

The fingers of the prosthetic, sharp and curved like a hawk's talons, were probably custom-made to her own specifications.

“That's long~ So long~. But we'll have to clear them out, right?”

Woo Minhee rose from her seat.

That lifted one burden from my shoulders.

Her personality might be awful, but she handled her own work properly.

“Since we met like this, and it looks like I'll be around here for a while, should we exchange contact information?”

Woo Minhee gave me her identification number.

Her identification number was “REDMASK.”

I didn't particularly want to exchange numbers, but I had no reason to refuse, so I gave her mine.

“SKELTON?”

Woo Minhee suddenly snorted with laughter and stared at me.

“What was that reaction for?”

“Nothing. You reminded me of one stupid person.”

“...”

Could it be this brat?!

No. Probably not.

Why would a new Hunter feared as the Red Woman by fanatics, unlike old-timers like me, Kim Daram, and Lee Sanghun, bother with a community for fugitives?

Still wearing a strange smile, she held out a gum-sized piece of paper divided into two colors like litmus paper.

“You don't have kids, right?”

“No.”

“I figured you didn't, but I asked to be polite.”

“What is this?”

“A simple psychic sensitivity test strip.”

“They make things like that now?”

“Humans are desperate too. If there are kids around you, have them put it in their mouths once. If the color changes, contact me.”

“Kids?”

“The scientists say that awakening in Awakened people like me occurs at the highest rate in the cerebral cortex of adolescents around puberty.”

“And if I contact you?”

“They'll probably send the kid and their family to Jeju Island.”