WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 3: Mentor
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Everyone has a plan.
Even doomsdayists like us shared the same broad ideology, but often disagreed on the details of how to put it into practice.
For example, whether to make contact with the outside world after the collapse or pursue extreme isolationism. Whether to form a group or survive with only a tiny circle of family and friends.
Arguments between doomsdayists regularly broke out on Viva! Apocalypse!, the doomsdayist community that charged a monthly fee of $100.
I had been more of an observer than a participant in such debates, and from what I saw, there were not many constructive ones.
Most dragged on as tedious keyboard battles where both sides talked past each other, until they finally turned into contests to prove who had more assets.
I had more money, spent more on better facilities, and owned better weapons, so I must be right. That sort of thing.
It was an ugly sight, but people boasting about their money were not always wrong.
More money undeniably allowed for more preparation.
For instance, I could never afford the self-generating power system powered by nuclear batteries that I truly wanted, but for Donald Orris in America, selling just one yacht from his collection would more than cover it.
Of course, money was not the only thing that made someone persuasive.
A person's strength, experience, and abilities could sometimes carry more weight than their assets.
There was one man.
Community ID: John_nenon. Known as John Nenon. Korean.
There was nothing especially complicated about why he stood out.
John_nenon was a professional Hunter.
Hunters were guardians who protected humanity by hunting monsters in front of the monster dens known as Rifts. Becoming one required passing extremely demanding qualifications and exams.
In other words, not just anyone could become one.
Hunters also possessed combat ability far beyond that of ordinary people and, because of their profession, could access more classified information than civilians.
Still, Hunters had ranks, and John_nenon had never verified what rank he was.
The only thing he had verified was his professional Hunter license.
Well, that alone was an absolute credential within a doomsdayist community filled with nobodies.
A wealthy guy arguing with John_nenon had backed down the moment he saw the Hunter verification.
The reason I mentioned John_nenon was not just his Hunter credentials.
John_nenon had a survival philosophy nearly identical to mine.
In particular, he believed in building a large survival facility in an isolated place, accessible from a major city yet fundamentally cut off from human access, to ensure permanent survival.
He was someone I could learn a lot from.
When the underground air-raid shelter I had spent so much money building became a breeding ground for mold because of groundwater seepage and condensation, his posts taught this novice carpenter countless useful things: how to remove mold, why cement putty was more suitable than lime putty for floor construction, how to manage groundwater according to aquifer type, and more.
His idea of building several dummy bunkers instead of relying on one shelter for long-term survival also matched my own thinking.
In particular, the idea of installing huge amounts of remotely detonated explosives or booby traps in dummy bunkers, then clearing out intruders from the main bunker with the push of a button if they took one over, was brilliant enough to make me slap my forehead with a smack.
On top of his exceptional knowledge, he kindly answered questions, and he had the prestige of being an active professional Hunter.
It was only natural that John_nenon became popular in the community, especially among its Korean users.
Still, he was not perfect.
Whenever he made a post, he always attached the heading:
[John Nenon]
For example:
[John Nenon] The Need for an Oil Depot for Long-Term Survival (3)
[John Nenon] The omakase I just ate lol
[John Nenon] (Confidential) The Situation on the Chinese Front as of 2023
[John Nenon] Tonight's dinner lol
I couldn't understand why he did that, but his posts were high-quality and professional.
Then he gradually changed.
The community itself changed first.
As signs of collapse became increasingly visible and more people, especially Koreans, joined the community, strange signs began to emerge. People appeared who envied John_nenon, whose popularity and influence within the community were unrivaled.
At first, a small number of people criticized John_nenon indirectly, taking subtle digs at him.
Instead of openly challenging his information posts, they presented other perspectives and attacked his information that way.
The man whom I had thought shared my views, aside from that [John Nenon] heading, acted differently than I expected.
Perhaps he felt a sense of belonging to that meaningless community. He began showing that he cared about public opinion, and eventually revealed his face.
Until then, he had only indirectly shown off his thick arms and firm chest through thin T-shirts and the like. Why he revealed his face was obvious.
It was a warning not to get cocky.
However, unlike his bulging body, he looked rather guileless...
Was that why?
The reaction within the community grew even colder, and people who openly took shots at him began appearing with some frequency.
The main topic was John_nenon's Hunter rank.
John_nenon really was a professional Hunter, but supposedly he was a D-rank Hunter, the very bottom among professional Hunters.
Some people even began spreading his real name.
According to them, John_nenon's real name was Gu Ssanghyo.
Already a community star, John_nenon chose a direct confrontation rather than giving up his position.
He organized an offline meetup for the Korean users of Viva! Apocalypse!, the gleaming $100-a-month doomsdayist community.
An important construction project had just finished, and I was considering new plans, so I attended the meetup to get some advice.
Ten people attended the doomsdayist meetup.
There was a broad range of ages. I remembered quite a few people in their fifties, people who had financial breathing room and still had energy left.
The largest group consisted of people in their thirties and forties, particularly licensed professionals.
There were a few people in their twenties like me, but unlike me, they seemed to have joined the community to satisfy their curiosity rather than seriously prepare for the end of the world.
It was late autumn, and the weather was fairly chilly, but John_nenon wore only a thin tracksuit.
It looked two sizes too small, as if it might burst. The tightly stretched fabric clearly outlined the impressive muscles John_nenon always bragged about.
Drawing everyone's attention at once, John_nenon introduced himself.
"I'm Gu Ssanghyo, an active Hunter."
Four out of the ten attendees applauded, and I was one of them.
Honestly, the meeting place was nothing special.
It was a cheap fresh-meat barbecue place, somewhere you went for the price rather than the taste.
The host, John_nenon, grandly ordered nine servings of all-you-can-eat pork belly.
He said he was dieting and wouldn't eat.
But when the owner said everyone had to order at least one serving, he reluctantly ordered another serving for himself.
For someone who talked about dieting, he ate and drank more than anyone.
Anyway, the meat came from a variety of places, including Belgium, Germany, and Chile. It tasted exactly how one would expect from an all-you-can-eat place.
The members in their forties and fifties who seemed to have money left partway through.
John_nenon didn't mind.
If anything, he looked pleased. He heartily downed a glass of soju and unpacked the stories he had prepared.
"A war will break out soon. China will probably start it. The Party is trying to stop it, but China is a complete mess right now. There are too many Rifts, so they're carrying out evacuations on a provincial scale. On top of that, the Party itself is divided, and I've heard the central government can't maintain control..."
John_nenon's information was common knowledge to any professional Hunter, and even that was about six months out of date.
It seemed he lacked the connections or authority to access crucial information.
Well, that didn't matter.
There was something else I expected from John_nenon.
"Excuse me, John_nenon. There's something I'd like to ask."
As for me, I had been a longtime supporter of John_nenon and always clicked Like on his posts.
"Who are you again?"
"My username is SKELTON."
"SKELTON? Ah."
A bright smile appeared on John_nenon's guileless face.
"You're building an oil depot? I know a contractor who does that. Want an introduction? What scale are you looking for? Gas-station grade?"
All that work with my fingers hadn't betrayed me.
Not only did John_nenon sincerely answer my questions, he also introduced me to connections who could help with unauthorized construction work.
Despite his frivolous side, he was actually a pretty decent person.
Thanks to John_nenon's connections and information, my hideout made a major leap forward.
Separate from that, the first meetup was a great success for John_nenon.
The users who had met him in person wrote favorable posts, and John_nenon's reputation rose even higher.
I joined the chorus of praise in my own small way.
SKELTON: John_nenon was even more imposing in person. I'm a man myself, but he had such raw masculine appeal I could've fallen for him!
John_nenon clicked Like on my post.
There were several more meetups after that.
They were more like fan meetings than offline meetups.
John_nenon's reputation steadily improved, and attendance grew exponentially.
More than eighty people came to the last fan meeting I attended.
That day, at the final meeting, I sat in an out-of-the-way spot where John_nenon wasn't even visible, talking nonsense with people whose faces I didn't recognize.
There was nothing more for me to learn, and I had a mountain of work to do. I had just decided that this would be my last fan meeting when a thoroughly drunk John_nenon approached and beckoned to me.
He called me outside.
"SKELTON."
John_nenon looked at me with unsteady eyes.
It was a side of him I had never seen before, so I waited in puzzlement for him to speak.
"Are you, perhaps, a Hunter?"
"Me?"
"I feel like I've seen you somewhere."
"Do you?"
I thought for a moment.
Should I tell him the truth or lie?
"Well, to be honest..."
I hadn't even finished speaking.
A group of people hurried out of the restaurant, pushed past me, and gathered around John_nenon like a cloud.
"Gu-hyung[1], what are you doing? A TV station called!"
"A reporter wants to interview you!"
They were John_nenon's newest ardent fans.
Just as drunk as John_nenon, they looked back and forth between us.
"Gu-hyung, are you talking with this person?"
One man stared at John_nenon as he asked.
Surrounded by his fans, John_nenon looked at me for a long moment.
"..."
His lips seemed to part slightly, then closed tightly again.
John_nenon went back inside with his fans.
That was the last time.
I never met him again, and I barely logged into the community after that.
I logged into the community again one year before the war broke out.
"Hm?"
As I drank coffee and looked at the monitor, I tilted my head.
John_nenon's posts were gone.
They had all been deleted.
Not only his dozens of information posts, but even his thousands of diary-like ramblings had vanished without a trace.
I soon learned why.
After I stopped attending the offline meetups, another group began attacking John_nenon.
Unlike the earlier sly, dull attacks, the new attackers wielded a lethal weapon.
Anonymous338: Dick_nenon, you bastard, just Ctrl+C+V'd posts straight from the European board.
The information posts that had displayed John_nenon's vast knowledge were not his own work.
He had stolen posts word for word from a French user active on a French-language board and uploaded them as though he had written them himself.
When there were few people, he hadn't been caught. But as the community grew and sharp-eyed people gathered, John_nenon's actions were exposed.
The higher they fly, the farther they fall. John_nenon, once king of the community, fell horribly.
Countless criticisms poured in, and even his fans turned their backs on him.
I looked up posts from that time.
RokaGG: I'm disappointed in you, John_nenon...
RKKArA: Really enjoyed watching the delusions of someone who barely scraped into being a professional Hunter~
Anonymous82: Khaaaak... Ptooey!
Doyourbest321: How are you going to take responsibility?
Hasanius: Kill yourself, Dick_nenon~
It was truly a storm of criticism.
According to what I heard, rather than defend himself against the countless suspicions and accusations or insist on his innocence, John_nenon let out one short, forceful roar.
John_nenon: Your mom.
After that, I knew nothing of John_nenon's fate.
I heard rumors that the region where he had lived was devastated, but never heard that he had died.
Some said that a transmission believed to be from John_nenon had been picked up recently.
John_nenon. Was he dead?
Or was he somewhere far away, still fighting to survive?
Whenever I pumped oil from the depot, I sometimes thought of that man.
At least to me, John_nenon was... an excellent mentor.
Footnotes:
[1] Hyung: a Korean term a man uses for an older male, used here like "big brother."
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