Translator/Editor: TranslatingNovice

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Chapter 8: Damien04 and 1 Other

Most of us doomsday preppers are men, and mostly single men at that.

At John Nenon's regular meetings, I've never seen a female participant, nor have I read a post on the community suggesting the writer is a woman.

If you think about it, the reason becomes clear.

In other words, doomsday preppers are those who pray for the world to end and perform rituals for it.

If you are grateful for the current world, you would wish for it to continue rather than prepare for its end.

What would have become of our fate if monsters hadn't suddenly appeared and war hadn't broken out?

In my, Park Gyu’s case,

It would have been a complete disaster...

Not just falling, but plummeting to rock bottom.

The proof remains intact in my now disconnected phone.

[Web Transmission] (Shinheun Bank) Mr. Park Gyu, Notice of Auction Execution for Collateral Loan

[Web Transmission] (Sanwang Money) Mr. Park Gyu, Notice of Debt Transfer for Ladies' Loan Delinquency

[Web Transmission] Shilla Credit Information. http:/sinramoneytaker.co.kr/…

Not only did I pour cement on dog-shit land for construction, but I also ended up taking out loans with no intention of repaying when funds ran short.

It was hard to imagine a bright, flower-like female user in a place filled with such gloomy guys.

But recently, a female user appeared out of nowhere.

It was 1 year and 7 months after the war had started.

Living in a bunker for over a year, everyone faces a common problem.

The lack of entertainment.

I don't drink or smoke.

I'd have a light drink in a safe place, but drinking alone leads to addiction, and addiction leads to death.

Cigarettes are a mere amusement but also a valuable bartering resource and have the power to attract people.

I know from experience that the sense of smell of a human who has quit smoking for a long time is not inferior to a dog's.

But it's not easy to find entertainment elsewhere.

It's not like TV stations air dramas every day, nor is there a place to meet friends for a drink.

Physical activities like soccer require a team.

For people like me who prefer solo survival, even table tennis is impossible, unlike those who pursue group survival.

I thought about picking up fishing as a hobby, but I gave up because the radiation levels in the nearby reservoir were not decreasing.

As more guests frequented, I spent more time in the bunker, and my hobbies naturally shifted to indoor activities.

Honestly, at this point, the most entertaining thing is probably our doomsday preppers community, Viva! Apocalypse!

A place where people with similar thoughts to mine gather and share similar situations.

There are strange users like IamJesus, Dongtanmom, and the human hunter, but there are also exemplary users like me.

More than a year and a half into the war, even I, who used to be a perpetual lurker, started actively posting in the community.

The reasons are complex.

It's boring, and there's a feeling of connection, but also a desire not to see our precious community disappear as one by one, the members fade away.

The results are as follows.

SKELTON: (Skeleton Daily) Tonight's dinner haha

SKELTON: (Skeleton Story) Hot news I heard from the military frequency yesterday

SKELTON: (Skeleton Making) Tried making a wool felt doll!

SKELTON: (Skeleton Video) Skeleton's Beatbox (3)

For some reason, my presence in the community was becoming more like my mentor John Nenon.

But I didn't completely mimic John Nenon.

While John Nenon only added (John Nenon) as a header, I added detailed topics like (Skeleton Video) after the header to consider the reader.

However, unlike Jonnaenon, I had no popularity whatsoever, with view counts always in the single digits, and neither likes nor comments.

Maybe it's the limit of a regular guy who lacks both hand skills and writing talent, not to mention the knowledge to teach others.

Watching popular users like DragonC, a webtoon artist who uploads beautifully drawn depictions of their daily life, and Anonymous118, who uploads various homemade games despite their crudeness, I could feel why John Nennon was so attacked.

Being active in the lowest ranks of the popular cast, I naturally started noticing friends similar to me.

A tenacious author who kept uploading homemade novels despite only getting binary digit views, a freak who confidently shares hideous videos of their naked body without any basis, Sea Monkey Papa serializing the Sea Monkey Diary, and so on.

Among this lower group, there was a user named Demian04.

He habitually uploaded his own drawings made with a ballpen, and to speak of talent, there wasn't even a hint of it.

His subjects were always long-haired women (or so it seemed), and although the poor drawing was forgivable as psychic art, the breasts were exaggeratedly large.

If it were just an exaggeration, I wouldn't have said much, but in Demian04's case, it was as if two sacks of rice were attached.

Did he grow up malnourished as a baby?

Demian04 mainly uploaded contemporary art-style drawings and rarely wrote posts expressing his thoughts or opinions.

His persistence in continuously uploading those poorly drawn grotesque chest-monsters might be what made me remember him.

But this guy, all of a sudden, started talking a lot.

(Search results: demian04 – 4,553 posts)

...

Demian04: Miss Yuri, you're so pretty~

Demian04: Picked a flower for Miss Yuri today and took a picture.

Demian04: Current state of Demian's food storage.jpg

Demian04: (Demian04 Food) Tonight's dinner, too bad I'm eating alone~ haha

Demian04: (Demian04 Art) Fanart for Miss Yuri!!

Demian04: (Demian04 Story) Just chased away some refugees

...

...

"......Hm?"

No, why is this person suddenly copying me?

Actually, that peculiar header is John Nenon's trademark, but it’s I who inherited and splendidly improved it.

Demian is imitating me, not John Nenon.

I think I know the reason.

Not to boast, but recently, I too have gained a bit of popularity.

SKELTON : (Skeleton's story) Memories with Chairman Jae Pung-ho (1)

My series slowly unraveling my story with a chaebol, akin to the manner of pulling a thread of yarn, has struck a chord with the demanding Viva! Apocalypse! Korean forum users.

Particularly, the third installment, which can be considered the climax, even made it to the popular posts.

It seems Demian also read it.

But why is this guy suddenly so talkative?

In times of the apocalypse like now, it's not rare for people to go crazy overnight or start behaving unusually.

Stress accumulation, ignoring the truth, external threats, diseases and radiation, drugs, anxiety about the future – there are countless reasons that can drive us mad.

In Demian's case, it's clear he went mad through a different route than usual madness.

Demian04 : (Demian04) Fanart for Miss Yuri!!

I click on one of Demian's posts to check its contents.

As always, he drew his nymph with long hair.

As terribly drawn as before. But to the eyes of me, Park Gyu, who had seen all his drawings, one difference stood out.

He put effort into it.

A lot of it.

Suddenly, I wonder.

Who is this Miss Yuri?

A real person? Or an imaginary girlfriend? I've never seen such a person in the community.

After all, women don't exist in this world.

Unable to resolve my curiosity, I sought advice on the community.

SKELTON : (Skeleton's question) Who exactly is Miss Yuri?

The help came from an unexpected figure.

Message from Defender: Looks like you blocked them. Turn on the 'Show Blocked User Posts' feature.

It's the human hunter.

In reality, he's a psychopath who commits random murders, but within the community, he's a fine user who speaks a bit harshly but truthfully.

So, a real-life bastard but an internet sage.

Isn't it usually the other way around?

Anyway, following the human hunter's advice and turning on the 'Show Blocked User Posts' feature, the hidden truth is revealed.

Yuri_need_man: Yuri is here~

Yuri_need_man: Dressed up and took a pic after a long time

Yuri_need_man: Feeling blue

Yuri_need_man: I want to go to Starbucks

...

...

"What's this?"

A woman.

And a young, pretty one at that.

Although her face isn't fully revealed, the glimpses show a beautiful woman in her early 20s.

Her figure is voluptuous, and she seems aware of it, often wearing revealing clothes.

She has quite a few tattoos as well.

The location is inside a bunker, and the picture is not one of the past, but of the present.

But then.

"Huh?"

It’s been a long time since my usually gentle expression hardened.

This is a trap.

Why would I have blocked that Yuri_id?

I didn't block Miss Yuri.

I blocked the person using her account.

I check.

Account info of Yuri_need_man

Account ID: viva103472

Nickname: Yuri_need_man

Number of posts: 10,323

"Figures."

Viva! Apocalypse! board nicknames can be changed anytime like chat room nicknames, but the account ID is unique and cannot be changed.

I search by account ID to find the original nickname of this account.

kurogod: My dad's wealth is around 1.2 billion

kurogod: Missing caviar~ Prime steak from the US doesn't satisfy my taste~

kurogod: The Bentley I used to drive before the war~

kurogod: Honestly, if I had gone all in, I could've built a much better bunker than you guys~

...

..

Kurogod. This guy is one of the four I had blocked, along with the human hunter.

He spent his days writing a diary, boasting about things.

Judging from his speech, he seemed young, but I remember the skin texture of the hands in the verification photo looked older than mine. The problem is that this guy disappeared a year ago.

For a guy who never missed a day of diary writing to suddenly vanish, there’s only one reason.

He lost his bunker and was killed.

But the guys who killed Kurogod are playing a very interesting trick.

After looting whatever little assets Kurogod had, they discovered our community and are using a young, pretty woman as a front to target my cheerful comrades.

The human hunter commented.

Defender: No one's gonna fall for this stupid trap, right?

But there is someone.

Demian04: (Demian04) Miss Yuri~ You're so pretty today too~ (heart emoticon)

It’s Demian04.

He chases after every post that this Miss Yuri made, pressing like and earnestly praising her.

Nosy users try to dissuade him.

Especially a user who went by the nickname SUNBI is most active in dissuading Demian04.

SUNBI: Hey, young man, that's not how you should behave. Control yourself. I'll send you a porn clip in DM, go have some fun and have a wisdom time~

That's fine. Being obsessed with a pretty girl is a sign of a healthy man.

Plus, the leggings photo of Miss Yuri taken in real-time has enough destructive power to make even me save it.

But everything has an end.

The looters soon showed their true colors.

Yuri_need_man: I'm lonely and need protection. Is there any man who can let me stay for the night?

The looters cast their deadly fishing rod.

With a provocative photo in lingerie.

The foregone conclusion flowed past me like a prophecy.

Demian04: Here!

The prophecy is fulfilled.

Demian took the bait in less than a second.

"Wow... Shit."

More than a year and a half into the war, our community members, though not as close as those in Rupert Reich Palace, have a strong sense of solidarity, and everyone tried to stop him in unison.

Defender: Don't do it. I warned you.

Even the psychopath human hunter.

Of course, I, Park Gyu, also contributed my part.

SKELTON: (Skeleton's advice) Demian, copy me if you want, but please see reality.

The most vehement critic of the situation is SUNBI.

SUNBI: Yuri, I warn you. If you mess with our community, we won't stand by!

As the community's backlash grew, the looters changed tactics.

Yuri_need_man: There's a lot of jealousy, so let's talk in DM~

Direct Message, meaning they'll talk in private messages visible only to them.

Naturally, no one saw Demian04 again after that.

SUNBI, who tried to correct Demian04, also disappeared, seemingly disappointed by the incident.

The most mysterious outcome of this incident was the disappearance of Yuri.

After making a quick buck, the wolf in sheep's clothing disguised as a community user never appeared on the forum again.

A week has passed since then.

For some reason, I became curious about Demian04's past.

What kind of person was he before and immediately after the war?

He began his activities right after the war.

Back then, he quietly uploaded only drawings.

The subject he loved back then was not women with ridiculously large breasts but landscapes.

Unlike his crude figure drawings, his landscapes are excellent.

Especially his untitled work 'No. 04', depicting a sunset over the sea and a lone lighthouse island, is quite beautiful.

So much so that I printed one and hung it in my bunker.

I thought the Demian episode had concluded, but there was a sequel.

Defender: It's a bit late, but here's Yuri's authentication

Demian04 was not the only one who attended Yuri's lethal meeting.

Our human hunter also attended, mercilessly killed the looters and the face behind it all, and now he posts the proof pictures on the forum.

What he posts isn't just the looters.

He also respectfully acknowledges (faces covered) our former brothers who were stripped and beaten to death.

Their corpses, brutally murdered, have a different feel from those killed by the human hunter.

But there isn't just one. There’s two.

Why two?

It wasn't just Demian04 alone who went to die.

Defender: You’re asking who the other one is?

Who could it be?

Defender: 10

10?

Defender: SUNBI.

"Ah."

Translator Notes: In case anyone missed the joke, binary digits are 0 and 1. MC is saying that the novelist’s posts only rotated between 0 and 1 view.

I believe when Defender says 10, he’s saying shib, which is the first part of shibal, which means f*ck.