Hiding the House in the Apocalypse

4. good news

Even destruction has stages.

Opinions differ from person to person, but the main indicator that distinguishes the stages is the state of the country.

Any serious step is conditioned on the collapse of the state.

Since the Chinese warlords started a suicide war, nuclear missiles have been dropped on major cities in South Korea, and the collapse of the Republic of Korea has begun.

Many people died and many cities were in ruins, but even at that point, the system of the Republic of Korea was still maintained.

I didn’t even have to go outside.

Even if you only received shortwave radio or TV waves, the national emergency broadcast was informing you of the current situation.

The TV I was using as the main one was broken because of the EMP, but I installed the emergency one instead and watched the situation.

Millions of people died and half of the city’s functions were stopped, but Seoul and neighboring provinces quickly regained stability and managed the situation thanks to military units, civil servants and volunteers.

I left the shelter after communications had been restored and systems were established in the area I had established.

I headed toward Seoul with an old luggage bike prepared for this day.

It would be a very risky move for the United States armed with cannons or firearms, but this is South Korea.

The risk of sniping or shooting is incomparable to that of the United States.

Even if this were America, I would have made the same choice.

It’s because you can’t get anything to gain if you try hard from the beginning.

Of course, even if this is Korea, basic etiquette must be in place.

Cheap brands, shabby and worn-out fashions, and meager belongings. It is the dress code of the age of destruction.

In addition, he brought food and water for three days, some dollars, and cigarettes for bartering, and for self-defence, he brought an American handgun and a sharpened hatchet.

There was no major threat while heading to Seoul, but the scenery and air of destruction unfolding in front of my eyes gave me a complex and conflicting feeling of relief, compensation, and a feeling of depression that soaked my feet.

There was a good reason for leaving the well-decorated hideout and heading to Seoul.

“I’m looking for Hunter Lee Sang-hoon.”

Among the busy soldiers, I picked out a person who looked like a good person and asked.

“Hunter Lee Sang-hoon?”

“yes. You are now the Disaster Relief Officer.”

“Can’t you see I’m busy right now?”

Contrary to his face, he was a tough man, but when he gave him a few packs of cigarettes, he became kind like a lie.

“Ah, you found Director Sang-Hoon Lee. It’s a very common name.”

“oh. You’ve been promoted. After all, the cotyledon was different.”

“please wait for a moment. We’ll get in touch. Can I tell you who you are?”

“Please tell me that this is Park Gyu, who went to school together. If you don’t remember well, if you say one of your classmates who graduated at the top of their class, they will immediately understand.”

After a while the soldier returned.

“Chief Lee Sang-hoon says that he is in a meeting right now, so it is difficult to contact him.”

“is that so?”

“Is there a problem? If there is anything I can help with, I will help.”

I didn’t come here to meet Lee Sang-hoon.

It was a fact that I knew from the time I left the shelter that he would not meet me.

Actually, I don’t want to meet you either.

There is a different reason why I sold Lee Sang-hoon’s name.

“I want to be given a military walkie-talkie and personal identification number.”

Cell phones still work in some areas, but there are many areas where they do not.

Cell phones are useless, especially the further away you are from the city.

In this situation, the most useful means of communication is a high-performance shortwave walkie-talkie, K-walkie talkie.

It is heavier than a mobile phone and difficult to use, but it is highly reliable and can communicate with all humans in the nearby area without knowing the other party’s number if it is set to a common frequency.

That alone is convenient enough, but military walkie-talkies are one step higher than civilian ones and can access encrypted military frequencies.

That means you can get information directly from the military, the most reliable armed group and source of information at the moment.

“Since you seem to be acquainted with director Lee Sang-hoon, we can give you a walkie-talkie free of charge, but I don’t think you can give him a personal identification number. It is given only to military and police officials or those in charge of handling monsters.”

expected sea.

I didn’t think personal identification numbers were going to be in the first place.

The soldier handed me a brand new one that hadn’t even been unwrapped.

On the spot, I carefully checked that there was no malfunction and did a test.

The result is perfect, good quality.

This is the moment when the purpose of coming to Seoul is fulfilled.

For the rest of the time, I rode my bike around downtown Seoul.

According to sources, a total of five nuclear missiles were dropped toward Seoul, four of which were intercepted in the air and one fell within the four gates.

The number of casualties is being counted, but it’s well over a million.

The roads became parking lots with vehicles that could not even come and go, and the city was in ruins.

In particular, a ban on entry was issued to the inside of the four main gates that were directly hit by the nuclear weapons.

People who lost their homes were wandering everywhere, and the hospitals were filled with phosphates of the atomic bomb survivors and injured people who had not been able to find beds.

The state of health didn’t look too bad.

It remains to be seen whether the security force is strong or the citizens do not have the energy to commit crimes right now.

As if the effect of the EMP was less than expected, many vehicles and base stations were stopped, but there were not a few base stations and cell phones that were working fine, and power was restored mainly in places with urgent priority, although limited.

What people fear is the next air raid.

According to the government announcement, this side also carried out nuclear retaliation and destroyed the starting point of the provocation, but few people believed it straight away.

Sure enough, while I was walking around Seoul, an air raid alarm went off and I took shelter in the subway.

I saw many refugees in the subway.

Since it was a neighborhood with a large apartment complex around it, the subway was crowded with so many people that it became saturated.

“?”

Inside the subway, I doubted my eyes for a moment.

＜ Samjeon ‘Best Louis Billharrington’ Resident Area＞

＜ Label ‘Chief Head Stone’ residents’ area ＞

＜ Brandia ‘Proud Noble Hill’ residents’ area ＞

＜ Rotu ‘Rupert Reich Palace’ residents’ area ＞

…

…

The subway was divided into apartment complexes.

Mature men and women who were not wearing armbands but were wearing invisible armbands were nervously moving back and forth, thoroughly marking their divisions.

A man wearing a red hat that looked over 60 lines appeared in front of me and asked curtly.

“mister. Where are you from?”

“I am still in my 20s. Even though I am only 29 years old.”

“No, where are you from? Are you from this town?”

“Please refrain from speaking half-heartedly. Aren’t you my master?”

“Are you from this town?”

“no.”

“Non-residents, go over there.”

At the end he waved his hand without even looking at me.

The non-residents’ area was located in the most remote part of the subway station.

＜ Lease and Others ＞

An area where even light cannot reach properly.

A few people were walking around with gloomy faces, and faint radio sounds were heard everywhere.

“······This airstrike is not a nuclear strike, it is a cruise missile strike. The ROK interceptor unit will prevent this with the spirit of Chungmugong, but the people of the country prepare for any unexpected disaster…”

Soon, the earth shook softly, and an explosion that could be heard from afar reverberated eerily through the walls and through the subway station.

thump- thump-

It’s not a very good experience to experience an air raid in an unfamiliar air-raid shelter with people you don’t know the name of.

Above all, there is no privacy whatsoever.

rustle-

As I was hungry, I took out a chocolate bar and peeled it open, and as if a group of rats appeared, bright eyes stared at my chocolate bar.

That alone is burdensome, but a boy I don’t know comes up to me and looks up at me blankly.

Growling-

Have I not eaten properly?

Looking at the face value, there is a place where you can survive even if you starve for a month.

The person who appears to be the child’s parent came belatedly and took the child.

“excuse me.”

He held out a new chocolate bar and asked a few questions.

“Rations? I gave it like a rat tail. But even that…”

The child’s parents glared at the humans who dominated the entrance with resentful eyes.

Instead of those who spared their words, I asked a question from this side.

“Did the residents just monopolize it?”

The child’s parents nodded silently.

“okay.”

It’s a fresh discovery.

It is natural for people to come together to form an interest group in times of crisis, but Koreans had their own focal point.

If there were jipseongchons in the Joseon Dynasty, there are apartment complexes in modern times.

The more the number of households and the stronger the influence, the stronger the power of the complex.

In fact, the power balance was revealed in this narrow underground shelter.

The strong pot occupies a good place and monopolizes the goods, while those who do not occupy a poor area and a small amount of goods.

It’s a very Korean landscape.

Soon, air raid cancellation alerts went off all over the place.

– Unleash the airstrike! Cancel the air raid! Citizens are encouraged to go out and engage in their livelihood.

After saying goodbye to the family I was with, albeit for a short time, I left the subway.

As I tried to get out of the subway, I saw the signposts divided by complexes and the residents of the complexes I saw earlier.

“…”

Well, I won’t do harm.

It is said that people can tolerate stealing but not bicycle theft. As I passed through the streets with my bicycle, I felt many eyes shadyly scrutinize my bicycle, but it did not actually lead to a threat.

Yes, it is still worth living, and the country is also healthy.

I accidentally overheard their conversation.

“This bombing fell on the new city center. Oh my God, the Chinese have even put chemical weapons in the missiles, so the damage is not so bad.”

It’s a perfectly normal conversation so far.

However, one blunt word from a woman stopped my steps.

“Good luck.”

For a moment I doubted my ears.

“?”

No, it’s a good thing in this situation.

“It’s a good thing. There aren’t even a few decent apartment complexes left in Seoul, but if all but us go bankrupt, won’t our neighborhood eventually become the most luxurious residential area?”

If one or two guys said something like this, I would have thought so.

But human behavior is always beyond imagination.

“I heard that it is a great blessing.”

“Our apartment will be reborn as the best luxury complex in Seoul.”

“My friend brags about his neighborhood all the time, so it’s embarrassing.”

“I want to see the war end soon and the paper feed order being sorted out.”

“I guess only when there is a crisis is there an opportunity.”

After the war began, he did not want to see other people’s faces.

Because he’s going to die soon anyway.

But this time, I couldn’t stand it and looked at the faces of others.

It was the face of ordinary people that can be seen everywhere.

So my anger deepened.

“Aren’t those words too much?”

I asked once that I would never see a face again.

The answer is a cold glare.

A middle-aged woman smiled and exchanged glances with the residents, then threw a word.

“Go on your way.”

*

There is no way to know, and no way to know, about the fate of the entire Danji village that he witnessed that day.

It’s because I’m not free enough to pay attention to people who say that the world is ruined.

However, he knows the fate of the residents of the ‘Rupert Reich Palace’ complex, one of the factions.

I remember it as a year and a half since my first visit to Seoul.

A group of refugees passed by my hideout.

– Chijik! Chijik! This is … Dong! Rupert Reich Palace Tenant Meeting! If anyone hears please reply! repeat! here is······

They constantly tried to communicate with their neighbors on public frequencies.

Instead of responding to the call, I just listened.

We have food and drinking water to feed hundreds of humans, but we have nothing to give them.

A single grain of rice, not even a single dead skin cell from my body is a waste.

Anyway, coming to my territory wouldn’t be a boon to them at least.

– Chijik! aaagh! It’s a monster! This is Rupert Reich Palace residents meeting! We are being attacked by monsters! repeat! This is Rupert Cibural Palace tenants’ meeting!

About a month ago, several man-killing monsters appeared around my base.

It wasn’t the monster that attacked them.

A being contaminated and mutated by the plague brought by the monster.

It is a ‘mutation’.

Several stray cats cared for by a cat mom who lived nearby were infected with the mutation factor and turned into the size of a tiger. Now they are trying to exterminate humans with the skills they used to destroy mandarin ducks and natural monuments.

Their fighting power is weaker than that of the ‘Gold Bunch’, a group of mutated killer dogs active in the south, but they do not have any fodder against ordinary people.

Tata Tang!

Along with scattered gunfire, the walkie-talkie let out a gruesome scream.

– Chijik! This is a resident of Rupert Reich Palace… I repeat! We are being attacked by monsters!!

I was listening quietly and said a word into the walkie-talkie.

“Good luck.”