WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 37: Seonbi (2)
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Even before the war, there was one subject that always sharply divided opinion.
Would people survive the coming end in groups? Or would they survive as individuals?
The old debate was slowly tipping toward collectivism.
Visibility, perhaps.
My main argument, as someone on the individualist side, was that group systems could not help being conspicuous, would inevitably face powerful challenges, and would eventually collapse.
Some had collapsed already.
Just look at the fortress of chaebol[1] Park Cheol-ju, the ultimate boss of collective survivalism. It had been smashed to pieces.
But individualism had serious problems of its own.
They were less about outside threats than human nature.
Not everyone was suited to being a hermit.
I had thought I was, but reality showed me that I was an ordinary person who needed other people too.
Spending years alone, shut in a tiny room and afraid that I might die at any time, was not easy.
The days might remain peaceful.
But it was true that even the smallest change in daily life could lead to uncontrollable fear and worry.
It was practically my creed that small pains and inconveniences every day led to mental illness.
In my case, I removed whatever caused the danger. Most people, though, had to live while enduring those small pains and inconveniences.
They could not even fix them.
Most of the pain and inconvenience of bunker life was decided from the moment the bunker was designed.
As a result, many people gave up halfway or became strange.
Even I, who had never used online communities before the war, relied on them enough to suspect I had an addiction.
Death would be different too.
Even if you died someday, dying with someone beside you who would fight and die with you, or someone who would bury and mourn your body, could not be the same as dying alone in solitude.
There was another problem.
The flow of the times.
I thought Seoul would become like Beijing.
I thought that when the city fell and the system collapsed, tens of millions of refugees would scatter in every direction and set off a chain of ruin.
But South Korea was different.
I did not know whether its politicians were better liars or whether people trusted them more than the Chinese trusted theirs, but Seoul's citizens chose to sit where they were and die rather than flee together in the face of the catastrophe before them.
They were too hopeful.
Or perhaps they made that choice because they lived in an environment where it was hard to imagine surviving on anything but hope.
Unlike China, with its abundant land and resources, the Korean Peninsula was narrow, and every kind of disaster had gathered on that narrow land.
If this continued, collective survivalism might gain the upper hand.
That didn't mean I had been wrong.
No one could see the future.
Calling something wrong just because what happened in China did not happen in Korea was far too results-oriented an interpretation.
“Hello. I'm SKELTON.”
Since this was an opportunity, I tried to talk with people whenever I got the chance.
“SKELTON? Ah, you're younger than I expected.”
“You're SKELTON? Your image is completely different from what I imagined.”
“You look perfectly normal. Why do you act like that on the boards?”
For some reason, their reactions were strange.
I knew I was unpopular and had fallen low enough to be associated with someone like Unicorn18, but everyone I met kept saying the same thing.
“...”
Was I just bad at using the internet?
“Hm...”
One user in particular was unusually friendly toward me.
Anonymous848.
It was the middle of the night, yet they wore sunglasses and a mask. I could not see their face clearly, but judging by the parts not covered by the sunglasses, they looked well past their mid-forties.
“Do you know me?”
They kept watching me, so I asked indirectly.
I wondered if there was someone who recognized me.
Probably not.
Hunter information in South Korea was confidential, not just mine but that of nearly all Hunters.
The reason was the older classes before us.
When China was at the height of its power, dealing alone with the disaster that had crossed over from India and the Rifts within its borders, it still reached into our country.
More precisely, it reached not for the country, but for its talent. The eighth, ninth, and tenth classes.
Hunters the country had spent enormous sums training as Monster-specialized soldiers crossed over to China in pursuit of money.
After suddenly losing elite soldiers, the government faced a barrage from the media and public opinion. In the end, personal information for every graduate of Guard, the Hunter training institute, was classified.
Naturally, there was no way their faces would become known.
Those who had not graduated from my school, or had been judged unfit even there, were managed more loosely.
As a result, there were people who made a living showing off and telling stories about being Hunters.
John_nenon, for one.
“No. I was just curious. Kyle_Dos talks about you sometimes.”
“What did he say?”
“That despite your image on the boards, you might be a decent person.”
“Didn't he mention meeting me?”
“He never said anything like that. Have you met?”
“Before.”
We talked for a while.
It was my intention that the subject moved from Kyle_Dos to something else.
“The military? I came from the west too, but that region is controlled by the neutral military rather than the Corps Faction.”
“I see.”
“I heard the Corps Faction was having problems. Apparently its leader is Lieutenant General Kwon Seong-tae, and the helicopter he was on crashed while carrying other commanders loyal to him. An army whose commanders are gone. Well, isn't that obvious?”
“...”
That was information I did not know.
Since contact with Kim Daram had been cut off, the community was my only way to learn what was happening in Seoul.
Some people found fulfillment in exchanging information like reporters, but because they knew rumors could grow into larger problems, community users tended not to share information unless they believed it was certain.
That was probably why the news had been late.
“Defender...”
“Hm? What about Defender?”
“No. They just came to mind.”
Were they safe?
No matter how I thought about it, the soldiers they had seen did not seem like ordinary military raiders.
Could they have been caught?
Those siblings too?
No, the odds were high.
Unless one of the siblings was Awakened, even I would struggle to fend off trained soldiers.
While we talked about this and that, we reached the area where SUNBI's bunker was supposed to be.
Like the other outskirts, there was not a person in sight. But with the city relatively close, gloomy lamplight glowed beneath the ridge.
Beyond it were gloomy gray-white lights.
“...Well.”
An Erosion zone beside a preserved city, not an abandoned one?
Judging by its shape, it seemed to be a small Erosion caused by a Settled Type. The Gwangju area had been designated a strategic region, so it should have been managed more thoroughly than other places. Yet an Erosion zone had appeared even there?
It was proof that no one was managing it.
Proof that Monsters they could kill were being left alive.
“Stop.”
Dies Irae, leading us, signaled for us to halt.
“There it is. It should be over there. Just as tntn_Orthopedics told us, there's a large ventilation shaft.”
Sure enough, I could see the shaft.
It looked more suited to subway or sewage piping than a bunker.
The stench of sewage was thick in the air.
“Let's go. We'll scout ahead first. The rest of you, if enemies appear from the flank, fire warning shots.”
Dies Irae was certainly an experienced soldier.
“Wait. A booby trap? I'll check first.”
Not only did he have extensive war experience, he had probably seized victory through his own initiative many times.
Where had he been active?
North Korea?
The South Korean military had briefly retaken Pyongyang when North Korea collapsed.
Considering his age and experience, there was a strong chance he was a soldier from that time.
“Bunker found. Five people inside, judging by the footprints. Based on shoe sizes, two women and three men?”
Everyone's expressions stiffened.
A fight would begin soon.
It meant we could lose the bunkers we had prepared with such difficulty, and the lives beyond them, then roll across the ground as cold corpses.
The tension froze everyone's breath, but it did not last long.
We heard laughter.
It came from inside the bunker.
“Ha ha ha ha!!”
“Kihyah hah hah!”
“Whoa. Fuck! That's awesome!”
Maybe it was uproarious laughter.
It was a kind of laughter we had lost.
The sound of many men and women watching something together, laughing and shouting.
“Are we killing all of them?”
A man asked, greed showing in his eyes.
He was probably Chouchou.
I had never seen him before because he was hardly active on the boards, but his thoughts were not difficult to read.
“We're not killing the women too, right? That girl probably only wrote those posts because the guys threatened her.”
He looked as though he were defending women, but in truth, he wanted women themselves.
Probably the cute girl who had posted the first verification photo.
The girl who showed her face afterward could not be called cute even as a courtesy.
What did Dies Irae think?
“We should kill them all.”
He answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Isn't that a waste?”
Chouchou asked with a serious expression.
Dies Irae showed a hint of irritation.
“If you insist, rape them first.”
It seemed he had understood Chouchou's intention at once.
Well, it was obvious.
Males in heat tended to walk down the road to ruin of their own accord.
“No.”
Chouchou looked wronged, but no one believed him.
“I'll keep watch. Just finish quickly.”
“I only said we should let them live.”
“After the rape, they have to die. Handling the aftermath isn't as easy as you think.”
“Who's talking about rape? Is saying we should let them live really so deserving of abuse?”
“Then catch the women yourself, drag them away, and rape or slaughter them as you please.”
I knew Dies Irae had killed every dog he raised.
Among them had been young ones with only faint signs of mutation, ones that might still have offered a small hope.
He was certainly not an ordinary person.
“Let's begin.”
Without a moment's hesitation, he and his companion from the same group took control of the entrance. Maintaining secrecy, they moved their people with hand signals alone and found the ventilation shaft.
He held up three fingers. It meant they would begin after three seconds.
“Ha ha ha ha ha! Look at this bastard! The crazy bastard is throwing a fit because we said their comic wasn't fun.”
“Fuck, I think I know who that bastard is. Isn't that the asshole who couldn't even get a daily Webtoon series and drew totally unfunny smut comics on some obscure board?”
“Hey! Dragon! You fucking bitch! Your comic sucks!”
Shouts from boys and girls rang through the bunker's heavy door and out through the ventilation shaft.
Dies Irae folded all his fingers.
His companion in a tactical mask inserted tear gas into the shaft.
Soon, the laughter inside the bunker stopped, and violent coughing leaked out.
Cough! Cough!
“Fuck, what is this?! What the hell?!”
“Did they really come?”
“Those old fucks?!”
“Don't open the door!”
“I can't! I'm dying! I'm dying!!!”
Amid the miserable screams, the door opened.
Dies Irae gave a hand signal.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dies Irae's gun and his companion's gun spat fire. Not even three-round bursts, just single aimed shots.
Human figures dropped one after another in the acrid smoke.
“Please save me!”
A girl crawled out with tears and snot all over her face. She grabbed Dies Irae's leg and clung to it.
Dies Irae briefly looked back.
His gaze went to Chouchou.
After seeming to study Chouchou's expression, he aimed his gun at the back of the girl's head.
“N-No! Don't kill the girl!”
Chouchou tried to stop him, but Dies Irae pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
The gun spat fire, and the girl's head snapped aside.
“Why did you kill her?! Fuck!!!!!”
Chouchou screamed.
Someone might call it murder.
But perhaps it was mercy, from my point of view.
Chouchou looked disappointed, yet his gleaming eyes never left the girl's corpse.
“...”
People like this existed in the community.
It was a truth I knew, but did not want to know.
Dies Irae and his companion entered the bunker, where the acrid tear gas smoke still lingered.
Bang! Bang!
Two more shots rang out.
“Clear.”
The battle was over.
The filth that had mocked us had been removed.
“...Let's take what we can for now. We can talk later.”
Dies Irae and his companion, the hosts of this party, took nothing.
He seemed satisfied merely watching his guests enjoy themselves, like a generous host.
The people gathering around him were probably more important to him.
He had arranged separate conversations with people who seemed to be a doctor, a farmer, and an engineer.
Perhaps the real purpose of this gathering was to identify the talent his group needed.
After a man came out carrying a box of condoms and an armful of food, I entered the bunker.
Something caught under my foot.
It was Chouchou.
He was crouched beside the entrance, groping the girl's cooling body.
Bodies were scattered inside and caught under my feet, but I did not go out of my way to look at their faces.
It was not that I felt guilty.
I was simply sickened.
These people had shown us the concrete reality of the apocalypse well enough.
They had merely become one part of that reality themselves.
My attention was on the laptop sitting by itself.
“You said you were SKELTON, right?”
Dies Irae, who had shown no interest in me, took an interest in me for the first time.
“What are those?”
While everyone else took consumables directly tied to survival, such as food, medicine, clothes, toilet paper, and condoms, I collected things that were somewhat unnecessary: a laptop and satellite equipment.
“You already have one, don't you?”
“That is true.”
“What, are you planning to like your own posts?”
Dies Irae showed amusement for the first time.
“...I'm not that kind of person.”
I immediately answered with a serious face.
* * *
It had been a week since the new SUNBI died.
Defender had not contacted me.
I sent messages, but there was no reply.
“...”
One afternoon, when the air in the bunker felt especially cold, another miracle occurred on the boards.
tntn_Orthopedics : Didn't the fake SUNBI die?
Guest3321 : Hey, doesn't that look like the same SUNBI?
The twice-dead SUNBI had returned again!
This time, however, the resurrection site was different.
The third SUNBI appeared not on the Korean board, but on the English board, committing the sin of spam.
SUNBI : KOREAN SUCKS
SUNBI : I HATE KOREANS
SUNBI : KOREAN, PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS
SUNBI : HELL ON EARTH : KOREA
SUNBI : I hate Korea
SUNBI : today's lunch ;)
......
“...”
I immediately switched on the radio.
“SKELTON? What is it?”
Sue asked innocently.
“Put your mom on.”
“SKELTON? What's wrong? I'm busy.”
I sighed and said one thing.
“After I went to all that trouble to get you equipment, what the hell are you doing on the boards...?”
“...”
A new post appeared on the English board.
SUNBI : Except SKELTON :)
“...Satisfied?”
“Delete those posts right now and change your nickname.”
I cut off the transmission and pulled a sheet of paper from inside my clothes.
[ Defender Summoning Ticket ]
Looking at the drawing of me that Defender's sister had drawn, hanging beyond the room, I clasped my hands and prayed for the first time in nearly a year.
That they, like the sniper and her daughter, were still alive.
That this dry apocalypse had not taken them.
Footnotes:
[1] Chaebol: A Korean family-controlled conglomerate.
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