14. reverse
The location where the headhunter took the photo can be deduced.
It was an open farmland where grain was dyed golden before the war.
Like my land, it is not an easy task to dig up the land and do construction, even though the designation is not a mountain or a forest, but it is clearly written as an answer.
In fact, I have never seen any signs of construction, having been to and from the area frequently.
The headhunter must have passed the spot by chance.
He also appealed that he was in the vicinity of Gwanggyo, and the scenery reflected in the murder certification photo he posted a lot of talk suggested that he lives in a mountainous terrain with thick forests.
Maybe the headhunter, isn’t this guy the type who wanders around?
However, it does not seem to use a car or other means of transportation.
All I found around the tracks of my four-wheeler was the marks left by men’s sized sneakers.
The footprints were heading east, and even they were cut off in a cluttered reed forest.
But what are you going east for?
I don’t want to know and I have no way to know.
The problem is this friend’s recent behavior.
[ Defender sent you a friend request. ]
Viva! This was the first time I knew that Apocalypse! had a friend function.
because?
Because I never received a friend request.
But why is it this guy?
To be honest, I hate this guy.
I agree that it is a world where people have no choice but to kill people, but as soon as the war started, his actions of killing and authenticating a large number of people as if he had waited were somehow twisted.
Even after breaking the blockade, that feeling hasn’t changed much.
[Approve] [Reject]
There are two obvious options here.
For some reason I haven’t hit the decline button yet.
*
One year and ten months since the war began.
The outside temperature today is 32 degrees. It’s a summer.
At this time, articles that curse the viciousness of the four seasons of Korea and Dangun’s pioneering plan are habitually posted in the community.
I’m not afraid of summer
Room temperature 24 degrees.
This is the current temperature of my shelter.
Yes.
Air conditioning is running in my shelter.
On the table are the assassin’s pasta made earlier and shaved ice with freshly ground ice topped with condensed milk and canned red beans.
Put a large spoonful of shaved ice into your mouth properly warmed by pasta.
“Big~.”
The pain that makes my head frown and ringing comes with happiness.
Let’s call it summer fun.
I am also a person with eyes.
I did not post pictures of bingsu to the community.
If I, who is already hated for no reason, commits even such a trivial deception, only a strange man like a headhunter will be left who will read my words!
Although I am not popular on the bulletin board, it is not an exaggeration to say that my quality of life is in the upper ranks.
No, someone who lives as well as I do can only be found by looking at the conglomerate that built the fort.
The core of my luxury life is, above all else, abundant power.
It is different from the power plant.
While most of the community users use small generators such as gasoline and gas, I run a large diesel generator that can be used in factories.
This generator, named Skelton Heart, boasts an enormous size that exceeds the size of an ordinary air-raid shelter, and as the name suggests, it can be called the heart of my hideout.
Performance is certain.
With only oil, it generates tremendous power, and it vomits enough energy to fill dozens of storage batteries in an instant.
The downsides are installation cost, noise, and huge gas emissions.
The installation cost was covered by buying cheap land, and the noise was not a problem since it was located in an uninhabited neighborhood, but the exhaust gas was a nuisance that gave me as much headache as groundwater throughout the construction of the shelter.
As many as seven vents were drilled, and a duct system was built after dozens of trials and errors.
Still, when the generator is turned on, black smoke billows up through the vents.
I tried to reduce the smoke by installing a dust facility, but from a distance, I can see seven columns of smoke from a place where I can observe my shelter with the naked eye.
So, the generator usually runs only at night, but especially on rainy or windy days, it was intentionally turned on to fill the storage battery with electricity even if there was no need for electricity.
But even this abundance must be conditional.
That there should be no people around.
Smoke is said to be covered by the darkness of the night, but people should not live in the area where they can feel the noise and rumble of the generator.
bang! bang!
In the south that afternoon, a sniper mother and daughter opened fire with excitement.
Feeling more than usual.
Will there even be a battle?
Soon, the K-walkie talkie rang and vomited indistinct Korean along with noise.
– Chijik! Skelton. A lot of people are going there.
Since the day the typhoon came, the sniper side has maintained a loose alliance in a face-to-face neighborhood.
The hand-in-hand did not say anything, but the relationship improved as a synab.
Providing information is one of them.
With a wry smile, he asked into the walkie-talkie.
“Did you kick them out?”
There was no answer from the walkie-talkie, but right before the walkie-talkie cut off, I could hear my daughter’s faint laughter.
It was the refugees that the sniper chased away.
Refugees, who once became a hot topic in the community, are rare and rare guests these days.
For a year right after the war, many refugees left Seoul, which was harsh, and went to the countryside, but most of them failed, and rumors about the failure spread.
In addition, the war has stabilized and the government has shown hopeful messages and actions, so the number of refugees has decreased rapidly and has not been found in recent months.
But now I am a refugee in the city.
They went straight to my territory.
“Ah, the f*ck.”
Annoyance rose.
Why do you come to my realm after leaving so many seats?
Are you a predator?
The armed status is not very great.
Most of them carried homemade crossbows called judge killers, and few carried firearms.
They reached just before the air-raid shelters outside of me.
I turned off the air conditioner, took out my gun, loaded the bullets, and secured the two axes to my belt.
I am neither a sniper mother and daughter nor a headhunter.
My strategy is to avoid battle and not reveal my location if possible.
All wiretapping and surveillance equipment was activated to determine their trends.
“There’s nothing here, so why did you come this way?”
“That’s right. Isn’t this area a nuclear bombardment?”
“I think that was a US military base. You say you’re changing your purpose to the US military base?”
A booming voice came from the speaker.
The answer was a man in his mid-40s wearing a priestly military uniform.
“In this area, the ground is high here and there are low mounds that can control the surroundings.”
The man in military uniform looked around and added.
“Now that the restoration of the urban area has failed, our goal has now been changed to the recovery of the US military base. That’s a US military base. However, there is a problem with residual radiation and there may be looters hiding like before, so let’s start here and observe the surroundings to recover slowly. You know, isn’t it ugly around here?”
I only found out the man’s name later, and he was Choi Joong-ryeong.
The clothes and the people around him looked more like a reserve soldier than an active soldier.
All of the people I was with were male, and most of them were similar in age to Choi Jung-ryeong.
They were not trained soldiers.
Most of them were sluggish and often showed anxiety.
I wanted to ignore it as much as possible.
But the moment I saw them pitching tents within my turf, I clicked my tongue that things had gone awry.
To make matters worse, a man found a dummy camouflaged shelter.
“What is this? Is it an air defense shelter?”
It is empty.
All that’s inside are explosives I can detonate inside the main shelter.
It is made in a semi-bunker style and has a long, straight hole inside that serves as both a muzzle and an observation window, so defense is guaranteed, but it is not for residential use.
More than anything else, there is a secret passage leading to my main air-raid shelter hidden inside the shelter.
I took my gun and went out of the shelter.
The reason they showed up was because it was judged that at least they weren’t looters.
When I appeared, people including Choi Jung-ryeong showed considerable surprise.
“This is private land.”
I spoke to them at a reasonable distance with industrial waste beside me, which could be used as cover at any time.
“Please leave.”
People were terrified.
Some showed hostility, but most of them felt surprise and fear at the figure of Nara with a gun.
It was Choi Jung-ryeong who dealt with me.
He looked me up and down, signaled to the people around him to stay still, and took a step forward.
He wore a pistol on his belt.
“hello?”
he shouted lively.
I just bowed lightly and didn’t answer.
“I am Choi Hyuk-chan, a reserve lieutenant colonel. After receiving permission from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, I came to pioneer this area.”
“Pioneering?”
He came up to me and tried to show me the papers.
When I pointed the gun at him and signaled him to stay away, he put the papers in his pocket with a wry smile.
“Even though you are still young, you are very wary. Did you get beaten up when you were in school? Anyway, did you always live here alone?”
“I don’t intend to speak to you at length, so please speak briefly.”
“hahahaha. yes. I’ll keep it short.”
Choi Jung-ryeong, who had been laughing kindly, suddenly made a loud noise with a straight face.
“Didn’t you say this is your land? That’s all a thing of the past now.”
“What does it mean?”
“Ownership has been reset. The register has also been erased. Except for major cities, provinces are now Muju Gongsan. The one who first establishes and occupies is the owner.”
The man took out the paper again and fluttered it.
“This is the permit.”
Only then did I understand.
Why did the refugees who had not been seen for a while reappear?
I thought for a moment.
The situation in Seoul might be worse than I’ve ever seen.
“Looking at your good looks, you seem like a person who is a perisher or something, but I won’t touch your land. Our goal is over there.”
Colonel Choi pointed to the US military base.
“I’m going to rent this area for a while until the cleanup is over there. Will you take a look at that? The former owner~?”
Lieutenant Colonel Choi touched the pistol.
I pondered for a while.
Are you going to kill them all or live with it?
I inadvertently thought of the headhunter and his murder certificate, but quickly erased the thought from my mind.
“A couple of days is fine.”
Conditionally allowed.
I don’t want to cause trouble, and they’re not predators.
“Two days? Two days is too short, but I can understand it first.”
That’s how the uneasy cohabitation began.
Everything was unsatisfactory, but the biggest complaint was that I couldn’t get the heart of my realm to work.
The power of the accumulator is rapidly depleted.
The temperature inside the shelter soared uncomfortably, and candles replaced electric lights.
The most fatal thing is that the temperature in the basement freezer is rising faster than expected.
A few hours at most.
The freezer, which has been kept below freezing all along, will retain the heat of midsummer.
It means that my precious food could disappear entirely.
Not being able to access the community was another anguish.
“…”
I thought of the human hunter again.
I remembered in the dark that he had sent me a friend request and that I hadn’t turned it down.
During the first day, Jungryeong Choi and his party didn’t approach my area, but after a day, they started exploring all over my area like a curious child.
In particular, they showed great interest in the dummy shelter where I appeared.
Each time I held a gun and blocked it, but fear is easily diluted.
The people who were surprised to see me at first have now talked to me calmly.
“mister. What do you eat for a living here? Do you have anything to eat?”
When the thermometer in the freezer was pointing at minus 1 degree, Colonel Choi found me.
“We’re not in a good position, can you give us some extra food?”
“Food?”
“Will there be? Are you a doomsdayist? Aren’t they piled up in an air-raid shelter?”
“Even if there is, why should I give it to you?”
“Because I am Korean. Koreans should help each other.”
Choi Jung-ryeong looked back at the group and smiled.
“No matter how young you are, you seem to be alone. Can you handle all of us?”
The promised day passed, but Choi did not keep his promise.
Even after two days, he and his group were still walking around my territory calmly.
That afternoon, things happened.
Someone knocked on the emergency door of my main air-raid shelter.
It is the entrance to the passage leading to the 12 dummy air defense shelters I made myself.
“hey. Is there a door here?”
what they found
The main air defense shelter, which is like my life.
“Push! Try pushing!”
“zero! car! zero! car!”
After the nightmarish clamor passed, silence came for a moment, followed by Choi’s voice, which resonated right in front of the iron door.
“Are you there? Huh? Are you beyond that? Your face is red! Ah~!”
Hearing Choi’s taunting provocation, I made up my mind.
“I have a story to tell.”
For the first time he appeared before them unarmed.
It was a cigarette in my hand.
“The sun is strong right now, so it must be hot, but please wait inside the shelter. I will bring drinks and food. Start with cigarettes first.”
Choi Jung-ryeong smiled and said in a half-spoken tone.
“It will come out like that.”
He looked at me with his downcast eyes and quietly drove me away.
“Looks like there’s an air-raid shelter where you live beyond that iron gate, right? I know everything. I know everything.”
He was intoxicated with the feeling of victory.
He casually put his hand on my shoulder and sucked hard enough to go down my cheek.
“I will not take your house. Wouldn’t it have been hard to prepare? Just looking at it, it looks like that. We are not looters either. After all, if you settle down at a US military base, you’re a neighbor. isn’t it? You seem to be living alone, but if you call my family later, I will introduce you to a good woman. All of these friends’ daughters are pretty. Idol level, Idol!”
His friend request ended in an explosion.
I grabbed the gun and hunted for the man who deflected the blast.
Among them was Choi Jung-ryeong.
“Oh, how could this be… how······!”
His death made no sense to me.
There are more important things.
I hurriedly turned on the generator and supplied power.
Cold air returned to the freezer that had been turned off, and comfort returned to the air-raid shelter that was sweltering in the heat.
Breathing in the fresh cool air right in front of the air conditioner, I smiled with satisfaction for the first time in a long time.
Is that why?
[ You have accepted Defender’s friend request. ]
I accepted the friend request that I had been putting off.
The headhunter seemed very happy.
Defender: (Defender impressed) This skeleton friend, after bouncing around, finally accepts his friend! thank you!
“…”
forgot for a while
That the headhunters and I are ordinary people living in a period of destruction.
We are not very different.
Both of them have yeokrin, and if you touch the yeokrin, they will wriggle.
It’s just that the Headhunter’s wrath is a little excessively greater than mine.
That’s all.