WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
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◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 33: Gold (3)
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Once Gold had joined the pack, it was only natural for me to join Ji Changsu's group as well.
Gold knew who I was and where I lived. It was obvious it would lead the pack back to kill me.
“With Hunter Park Gyu joining us, it's like we've got an army at our backs!”
Ji Changsu's followers, former employees of the company he ran, didn't seem especially reliable. Still, they were well armed, and there was strength in numbers.
Mutations were honest enemies.
Without enough firepower, they were nightmares. With enough, hunting them was no different from the safaris white people used to hold in Africa.
“Don't shoot from too far away. Hold your fire until you can see the whites of their eyes, then fire together. Landing one accurate shot matters more than anything.”
I hid the others below a gentle hill and climbed it alone.
There they were.
Five mutation dogs.
Too many to handle with rifles alone, but we had a heavy machine gun.
Had there been so few of them?
The pack I'd seen earlier had looked like at least ten.
And the one I was desperately looking for was nowhere in sight.
Gold. Where had it gone?
It had clearly looked as though it had been accepted back into the pack.
If anything, that was good.
If Gold wasn't here, it wouldn't get caught up in the slaughter that was about to begin.
Half relieved, I fired at one of the mutation dogs.
Bang!
Blood sprayed from its shoulder, but that was all.
Those things rarely died from a single bullet.
The textbook one-shot kill was to wait for it to open its jaws, then destroy its brain through the weak cartilage beneath its jaw, or aim for the gap near the shoulder blade, where its enormous head no longer acted as a shield, and crush its heart. But it was hard to find anyone crazy enough to try that in a real fight.
The mutation dogs glared at us and growled in unison before charging at terrifying speed.
The battle had begun.
I hurried down the hill and saw Ji Changsu and his employees fumbling as they checked their weapons.
“They'll be here soon. Get ready.”
I didn't think it would be a particularly difficult fight.
All we had to do was hold our ground and shoot whatever appeared.
There were seven people with 5.56 mm automatic rifles, not pea shooters.
It didn't matter if some rounds missed.
While the dogs were occupied with us as bait, the heavy machine gun would mow them all down.
No matter how strong a mutation's tendons or bones were, they meant nothing against the force of a 12.7 mm machine gun.
The gunner assigned to that important machine gun was someone reliable.
Sergeant Jeong, recruited by Ji Changsu, was a Corps Faction veteran with frontline combat experience.
And in case things went wrong, Ji Younghee was waiting with the bus engine running, hands on the wheel.
If necessary, she would drive the armored bus into them and rescue us.
More than anything, they had me, Park Gyu.
If Ji Changsu's lot did even half their job, we should be able to wipe them out without much trouble.
If Kim Daram, who I couldn't contact right now, had been here, we would have killed every last one of them with room to spare.
Click. Since even one extra round could be precious in an emergency, I loaded another bullet into the magazine and attached it to my rifle.
“Here they come.”
The dogs' rough breathing came from behind the ridge.
Soon, the first one appeared below it.
Rat-tat-tat!
The heavy machine gun spat fire.
Just three rounds shattered a mutation dog, spraying blood through the air.
I gave a thumbs-up.
“Nice shot.”
But then.
“Damn.”
I had underestimated them too much.
No, I had underestimated Gold too much.
It had appeared at the start of the war, ruled the southwest, escaped countless pursuits and extermination attempts, and kept its pack thriving all this time.
In human terms, it was a founding monarch.
Having faced it myself, I could believe it was a four-legged human. It was that smart and cunning.
It was targeting the roof of the bus.
“Sergeant Jeong!”
I immediately shouted a warning to the gunner.
Sergeant Jeong quickly ducked back through the ventilation hatch, like the veteran they were, but Gold had another target.
Clang!
The machine gun.
Gold clamped its jaws around the barrel and bent it with monstrous bite force.
Grrrr.
We had lost our greatest weapon as soon as the battle began.
Ji Younghee immediately stomped on the accelerator and threw Gold from the bus, but that didn't change the fact that the machine gun was gone.
To make matters worse, huge dogs began appearing one after another atop the ridge.
Ji Changsu's employees began backing away, their faces pale.
“Don't panic. Not yet. Follow my orders...”
This fight.
“Younghee! Younghee! Get over here, now!”
“Aaaaah!”
“We shouldn't have come!”
“Run!”
“Where?!”
We had no luck.
No, perhaps I had failed because, deep down, I had looked down on that dog called Gold.
Who would have thought a dog could do something like that?
It was a human wearing a dog's skin.
If it had been born human, it would have been an exceptional warrior.
Rat-tat-tat!
The guns spat fire.
I brought down the one charging at me with its jaws wide open, bullets punching through its mouth and out the back.
Rat-tat-tat!
I fired suppressing shots at one circling around the flank while picking up the gun that had been thrown to the ground and firing at another moving around the other side.
Bang!
Yelp!
Blood sprayed from its side, and it howled, but it was probably only putting on a show.
At the same time, two of them lunged from either side as if on cue.
Bang! Bang!
Two shots beneath the shoulder blade, exposed for an instant.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
I aimed both barrels at the dog on the opposite flank and squeezed the triggers hard.
Grrrrrr!
The first one was already dead in midair. The second came at me as though to pounce, then drooled as it slumped against my body.
Even a mutation had no choice but to die once around fifty bullets had lodged in its body, even if none struck a vital point.
I threw down my guns and reached for the next one when another dog charged straight at me at full speed.
Shing.
Two axes gleamed beneath the winter sunlight.
I waited until its body barely brushed past mine, then struck the joint of its front leg.
Crack!
Grrrr!
Ignoring it as it threw back its head and bared its teeth, I shattered the joint of its hind leg too.
Crack!
Grrr!
As it collapsed with a scream, I stepped back, picked up a gun, reloaded it, and emptied the magazine into its writhing belly.
“Hunter Park! In front! In front of you!”
Blood splashed over my face as I looked ahead.
A large black one stood there.
The new leader that had driven Gold away.
I might have had a chance if it had only been that one.
Then the one with the golden mane and fur stepped gracefully up beside it.
I called its name.
“Gold.”
Gold wasn't the only problem.
More unfamiliar dogs appeared one by one behind the black one.
“Ah.”
Had the ones I hadn't seen earlier joined them?
But there were too many.
Four, five more?
The battle, which had been going badly from the start, was now heading for disaster.
Two mutations were clinging to the bus Ji Younghee was driving, while another was chasing Ji Changsu and his ragtag group, driving them out of their minds.
I was the only one who could fight.
“...”
Seven mutation dogs.
Including one overgrown specimen.
That was too much for one human, fighting alone, to face.
“Hoo.”
I had always known I would die someday.
Maybe that moment had come now.
If I died here?
It would be a shame.
To die and leave my bunker behind.
But that was only a matter of time.
I knew it.
That Park Gyu would one day die and disappear in this apocalypse.
It was only a question of when.
But for now, I would think only of surviving.
I would do what I was good at.
What I liked doing.
The one thing in this world that I could be recognized for.
I threw away my empty guns and took up my two axes.
Strangely, they felt lighter than usual.
I had a good feeling about this.
Thinking back, I'd faced far worse situations.
Like when a fanatic strapped bombs to zombies, forcing me into close combat with hundreds of them.
Or when I faced a close-combat specialist Monster, a Dancer type, one-on-one.
More than anything, when I had been abandoned beyond a Rift.
Compared to then, my stomach was full, my mind was at ease, and my reasons to live were far clearer.
Why, I had things to protect.
My bunker, my social standing on the message board, and so on.
If the great SKELTON suddenly vanished from the board, it was obvious everyone would be sad, wasn't it?
Grrrr!
The black one bared its teeth.
It looked like it intended to face me itself.
I prepared for a battle that might become my final dance.
Just before we collided, I looked at Gold.
It stood there, staring intently at me.
What could it have been thinking?
Grrrr!
The black one roared and was about to charge.
Then a miracle happened.
Gold, which had been silently standing beside it, suddenly turned and tore into the black one's throat.
“!”
The black one widened its eyes at the sudden ambush and tried to turn its head, but its throat was already caught.
Crunch!
Gold's teeth, which had bent a steel gun barrel, now crushed the black one's neck bones.
The black one convulsed, its front legs twitching spasmodically before it collapsed.
The miracle didn't stop there.
“Gold!”
After biting the black one to death, Gold came to me with blood-stained teeth bared.
It wasn't trying to fight me.
It was trying to fight alongside me.
A species that had every reason to hate humans had taken humanity's side.
Human and dog became one.
Guns spat fire, and charging teeth were stopped by other teeth.
Axes blocked more charging teeth, and other teeth tore into the owners of those teeth.
In the heat of battle, I could not stop wondering whether the sudden behavior of the dog roaring and fighting beside me was repayment for the kindness I had shown it, resentment toward the pack that had watched its downfall, or perhaps the nature of dogs, etched into its genes, asserting itself strongly enough to eclipse even the intelligence brought by mutation.
Without humans, a dog was only another name for a wolf.
Ji Changsu's adventure for his old master ended in vain.
No one had died, but he had lost an important weapon, and Ji Changsu himself had been broken.
His employees whispered as though they were looking at a monster.
“Is he even human? I've seen Awakened a few times, but he's on a whole different level.”
“So the rumor that he's an S-rank Hunter was true? More importantly, what was that dog?”
“I don't know. Everything's confusing.”
Amid the familiar murmur of voices, Ji Younghee walked straight toward me.
She stared at me.
As I grew uncomfortable under her overly intense gaze, she boldly said,
“Would you like to come to Jeju Island with me?”
“What?”
“A ship for Jeju Island will be leaving soon. I have tickets. Tickets that will get us assigned somewhere nice once we arrive.”
“This is a little sudden.”
“You know what kind of place Jeju Island is right now, don't you?”
“I do, but why should I go?”
“Aren't you single?”
Ji Younghee gave me a warm smile.
She was so beautiful to begin with that even dirty and with her hair in disarray, she was still striking.
Her excessive approach made me uneasy, and I looked away.
“I am, but...”
Looking up at the sky, she continued.
“They say even a passing brush is a bond.[1] This is already our second time, isn't it?”
“...”
“With someone like you, I don't think I'd be widowed twice. And I think we'd have an easier time adjusting to a new life on Jeju Island.”
She clasped her hands and fidgeted with her fingers.
She was taking off her ring.
The gleam of the ring as it slipped from her elegant finger stabbed at my eyes, and I looked back at her.
“Is this a proposal?”
“Yes. A serious marriage proposal.”
She waved the ring and smiled coyly.
Then her gaze turned to the mutation corpses strewn across the ground.
“This is the kind of age we're living in, isn't it?”
“...”
I could understand, but a marriage proposal this suddenly?
Honestly, I was flustered.
She was beautiful, from a well-off family, and her family was powerful enough to secure a bus, mercenaries, and a heavy machine gun even in this dog-eat-dog world, but wasn't this too soon?
“...I'm sorry, but I have no plans to get married yet.”
I took a step back.
“You're old enough, aren't you? Aren't you almost in your mid-thirties?”
“Even if I get a little older, I'll still only be in my early thirties.”
“Do you not like me?”
Ji Younghee stepped closer.
She came close enough that I could faintly smell the scent of a woman, a scent that stirred my instincts.
It was the movement of a woman who knew how attractive she was and how to use it.
Honestly, she was attractive.
Beautiful enough that I would regret turning her down.
And I was a healthy man.
Of course I was drawn to a young, beautiful woman.
But I didn't think this was the right kind of union.
I knew too little about her, and by any normal standard, this was no proper relationship.
More than anything, I could see her intentions.
The kind of ulterior motive only humans, no, only cunning creatures could have.
“Younghee, you're more than attractive enough.”
“And?”
She looked hopeful, but my answer had been decided from the beginning.
“I have to decline your offer.”
Surprise crossed Ji Younghee's face, but only briefly. Then she gave a faint smile, nodded, and left my side.
“I see. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything so foolish.”
The result was good.
It was what I wanted.
But it was also true that I felt some regret as I watched her walk away.
“...Hoo.”
Dogs howled in the distance.
Black dots were growing farther away across the abandoned plain.
Gold and its new pack.
After fighting fiercely beside me, it had swiftly left me once the other dogs sensed defeat and began to flee, making them its subordinates once more.
It had returned to where it belonged.
Maybe the true winner of this battle was that cunning bastard of a dog.
I raised a thumb toward it as it departed, full of respect.
A bark came back in answer.
It almost sounded like, “Happy birthday to you.”
After that, animal carcasses occasionally appeared in front of my territory.
Water deer, wild boar, and once, it even brought me a yellow-brown cow that had gone feral.
I had books on butchering and deboning, but I was more delicate than I looked, so I had never actually tried it. I thought I should give it a go.
I was starting to run low on meat too.
Sometimes, when I patrolled my territory, I could feel Gold's gaze watching me from the opposite ridge, its golden fur flying in the wind.
I didn't post this story to the community.
Footnotes:
[1] Even a passing brush is a bond: A Korean saying that even a brief encounter can form a meaningful connection.
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