Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 34

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Potter

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 34: Cavity (1)

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Snow piled up softly.

A brazier made from stacked bricks.

Thin branches and a fire burning low.

A kettle steaming as it boiled, and a packet of coffee mix ready to be opened.

Pour the proper amount of water into a stainless-steel cup, add the coffee mix, and that was my breakfast for the day.

A lot had happened, but this winter had been peaceful.

Even compared to last winter, never mind the violent autumn, the days had been undeniably calm.

An upside of the civil war, perhaps.

They said thousands died every day in Seoul and millions had taken to the roads as refugees, but that was a story from a distant world to me.

It was embarrassing to think about now, but when I was in school, I had once wanted to save the world.

Back then, the words of Jason Choi, “the Last Explorer,” had sounded quite convincing.

He was supposedly the first among eight billion people to enter a Rift and set foot in another world. With the world's media focused on him, he made a shocking declaration.

“Rifts can be closed.”

Before I had even graduated, Jason Choi had contributed to lowering the standing of Korean Americans in American society.

It had all been a lie.

He had never entered a Rift. He had never even faced a Monster.

The scenery he described beyond the Rifts differed far too much from what we knew, and the friendly little animals he claimed to have seen only ever appeared before him.

When the creatures we called small-type Monsters began emerging from Rifts and killing people, the man who had supposedly entered one first bolted faster than anyone.

Jason Choi never went to prison, but he got caught up in astronomical lawsuits. He struggled in that swamp of litigation until he was swept away by the aftermath of a nuclear blast.

Apparently, people on American forums still claimed he was alive, though it was less a serious opinion than a popular meme.

I didn't know whether Jason Choi was alive or had survived, and I didn't care.

But on our forum, there was at least one person who had risen like Jesus.

SUNBI[1]: Hgyendi? 1234SUNBI.

This man of taste, more devoted to lust than anyone but also appreciative of manners and style, had once been killed alongside Demian04 during the Yuri incident that set the forum ablaze.

Defender, who had cleaned up the scene at the time, had confirmed it.

And yet, dead SUNBI had risen from the grave and appeared on the forum as bold as ever.

It was already a world where walking corpses existed, but SUNBI's resurrection filled forum users with chilling fear.

Even Park Gyu slept with the lights on at night.

Anyone would be afraid.

It was bad enough for a dead person to suddenly appear. The messages they sent were hard to believe had been written by a human.

Message from SUNBI: Hnyugepnu? Hnuhnuhunu

Before long, it became known that SUNBI had sent bizarre messages to several users besides me. Then one user offered a sharp opinion, and the fear brought by resurrected SUNBI quickly faded.

Anonymous848: SUNBI died and left the bunker behind, right? Maybe someone else took over the bunker and logged into the forum.

I thought that made sense too.

Defender: I buried SUNBI myself. They're definitely dead.

Defender reconfirmed SUNBI's death.

Still, one person stubbornly pushed a minority opinion unlike everyone else's.

berkut_break: What if it really is SUNBI?

We had no particular connection.

He was one of those pretentious users who sat in some corner of the forum exchanging pompous talk about auteur films and postmodernism with people who shared his tastes.

Still, he seemed to enjoy Dragon's comics and Foxgame's games quite enthusiastically...

Anyway, this user named Berkut unusually got worked up on the forum.

berkut_break: Let's say the person operating SUNBI's account has changed. But is that enough to mean it isn't SUNBI? The SUNBI we know is a Viva! Apocalypse! user with the account ID viva112578 and the nickname SUNBI. Even if the person behind the account has changed, wouldn't it still be more than half SUNBI?

It was nonsense not worth considering.

He probably wanted a keyboard fight.

They spent every day exchanging “discourse” using bizarre terms translated straight from Japanese, especially terms coined by German-language philosophers.

But his intentions were crushed by the cutting remark of a user occupying a similar ecological niche to mine.

unicorn18: You fucking crazy?

In a way, it was the product of the times that unicorn18's remark became a popular post. Still, I couldn't deny feeling a little jealous when I saw it.

That jealousy must have poisoned me.

“...Urgh.”

My tooth hurt.

I had a cavity.

Being a doomsdayist didn't mean I could handle every situation.

Dental problems were one of the things I couldn't handle.

My teeth were rather weak, so I had prepared a few things. A cheap handpiece that ran on 110 volts, dental teaching materials, a fairly powerful light, and so on.

But looking in a mirror and drilling into my own mouth wasn't an easy task.

I quickly gave up and looked for another way.

That other way was asking Viva! Apocalypse! for help.

This was, in fact, the beneficial function its creator, Melon Mask, had intended for the community.

Viva! Apocalypse! was a satellite internet network created so people living through the apocalypse could cooperate without being constrained by distance.

SKELTON: (SKELTON hurts) I have a cavity. Any former dentists here? I'll compensate you, so could you take a look?

Ten minutes passed after I made a help post suited to the forum's original purpose, but there was no reply.

Then my only online friend answered my miserable call.

Defender: A dentist? Why not ask divorcedman?

Divorcedman?

Who was that supposed to be?

The nickname plainly showed the twists and turns of his life, but there were quite a few users who only lurked, as I once had.

Maybe he was one of them.

I asked divorcedman for help.

Thankfully, divorcedman was alive.

Message from divorcedman: Treatment is possible, but I don't have the equipment you're imagining. I'd have to dig it out with something like a hand drill, and I don't have filling material, so I'd have to leave the hole as it is. Is that okay? Oh, and the most important thing. I'll tie you down before the procedure.

“...”

I thought for a moment.

I could roughly imagine what kind of procedure he meant.

Torture disguised as treatment.

I asked whether there were any other dentists.

Message from divorcedman: Another dentist? I know one with great equipment. Rare in times like these. But.

SKELTON: But?

Message from divorcedman: I think that bastard's a quack.

SKELTON: A quack?

Message from divorcedman: He was active briefly before the war, and he talked himself up as a dentist. So last spring, I told him I was a dentist too, and he liked that. He said he had something to ask me and invited me to his house.

SKELTON: (SKELTON curious) He invited you over?

Message from divorcedman: I don't know what he was thinking. He dug his own grave. He had a diploma from my school hanging on the wall. I talked to him warmly because of that, but he knew nothing. Fine, maybe he forgot what he learned at school. Maybe he even forgot the names of picky professors. But does it make sense that someone who attended the same school wouldn't know the name of the building where we ate for six years? He was one hundred percent faking his degree.

Still, this quack supposedly had good equipment.

He had even been active on the forum.

Message from divorcedman: I don't know if he's alive or dead, but he was right about one thing. In the end, doctors depend on their equipment. If you're interested, send him a DM. You'll get a comfortable procedure. I can't guarantee the results, though.

The other quack's username, as given by divorcedman, was none other than “Dentist_Kim.”

Just judging by the username, he seemed much more trustworthy than divorcedman.

I investigated Dentist_Kim's history.

As divorcedman had said, Dentist_Kim was a veteran user who had started posting three whole years before the war.

Dentist_Kim: Nice to meet you. I never expected to join a site like this, but with the way things have been going lately...

Dentist_Kim: I've been thinking about how a dentist can last long-term if war breaks out.

Dentist_Kim: (Repost from English forum) How a dentist survives in a post-apocalyptic situation.

Dentist_Kim: John_nenon. You copied and pasted a French user's post exactly. I sent you a question by DM, but you didn't answer, so I'm bringing this out into the open.

Dentist_Kim: (Photo I took myself) A used dental unit chair I bought.

Five posts in total.

That was everything Dentist_Kim had posted.

He posted only occasionally, and his activity had stopped exactly one month before the war began.

He hadn't written much, but his posts made it clear that he had seriously aimed to become a doomsdayist.

And perhaps unintentionally, he seemed to be the person behind John_nenon's downfall.

I clicked one of Dentist_Kim's posts.

Dentist_Kim: (Repost from English forum) How a dentist survives in a post-apocalyptic situation.

- All medicine has benefited from modern technology, but no field has benefited as dramatically as dentistry.

Imagine a world without handpieces. You would need to train the muscles to overpower patients by lifting hundreds of kilograms at the gym. You would need to cultivate a temperament fierce enough not to lose to patients who rage and argue. Naturally, you would also need to prepare to fight the various legal risks that would come when a patient died during treatment...

It was a translated post recording the supplies needed to prepare for a post-disaster world from a dentist's perspective.

I clicked another post.

Dentist_Kim: I've been thinking about how a dentist can last long-term if war breaks out.

- In disaster movies, doctors are always treated as necessary people. Whether they are under villains or among survivor groups, they manage to survive while retaining their role as doctors. On the other hand, I have never seen dentists take on a similar role.

Why is that? Equipment.

Wouldn't it look strange if a dentist with a sophisticated unit chair and handpiece appeared during the apocalypse?

But dental diseases are more closely tied to daily life than most illnesses, and the pain is immense. People eat with their mouths, not their asses, right?

Now, let us assume that a dentist with modern equipment exists during the apocalypse. Let us imagine a world where, even when the power is out, there is a dental specialist with a unit chair, handpiece, and suction device that run on self-generated electricity.

What would that be like?

Wouldn't that alone make them an incredibly unique existence?

Unlike the first translated post, I read the second one to the end.

I found it quite interesting to see a doomsdayist with a different background and knowledge from mine consider and propose a way to survive.

Come to think of it, there had been many useful posts like this before the war. Even some users now treated as lunatics had once been normal people.

Park Gyu was not well known back then, but I think my image was better than it is now...

Anyway, it was certain that this user called Dentist_Kim had knowledge and experience in dentistry.

Just looking at the house in Pangyo shown in his proof photo, it also seemed certain that he had been a high-income earner near the top among dentists.

I sent him a message.

His reply came three days later.

Dentist_Kim sent me a photograph.

It looked like the basement of some building, and it contained a complete dental clinic chair and equipment like those I had seen before the war.

No doubt about it.

This was a perfect dental facility for the apocalypse.

The very facility Dentist_Kim had ambitiously envisioned in a post about five years ago.

Dentist_Kim: This is roughly what I've got. Since you're a fellow forum user, I'll give you a good price.

He gave me his terms.

Message from Dentist_Kim: One unopened bottle of single-malt whiskey, or one carton of cigarettes made before the war. Half a carton is okay if they're menthols~ But I won't take whiskey worth less than 100,000 won before the war~ // Luxury goods welcome too. Watches, bags, clothes. But they have to be at least Sanel or Guchi[2] level, and in good condition!

It was a demand detached from the current world.

It had the feel of wealth and leisure that had vanished from the world.

The problem was that I had none of the things he wanted.

I had a little tobacco, but I had disposed of most of it long ago, so I didn't have a full carton.

So I tried to negotiate.

Message from Dentist_Kim: No haggling~

There was no chance.

I had no choice but to call my online friend.

Of course, I only had one friend.

Message from Defender: Luxury goods? I do. No, I must. What? Hermes? Sanel?

I sure had a good friend.

But then this friend made an unexpected suggestion.