31. The Man Who Became Light (2)
“Do you remember…? Mr Skelton. I am John Naenon.”
authentication was requested.
It was a very natural thing, but the moment I saw the certification video, I felt a little shock and unknown guilt.
“The Mark Seven Harpoonizer requested by Skeleton. The seal has not been broken… it is brand new…”
I remember going to Jonnaenon’s Jeongmo before the war.
He wore a training suit that was one size smaller and stuck to a bizarre fashion that accentuated his muscular body.
Come to think of it, I think I was about 183cm tall.
At a restaurant where you have to take off your shoes to enter, you shrank by about 10cm, but when you put on shoes, your height increased to 183cm.
He also has muscles, so he must have weighed 88kg.
But I don’t think that thing was 18cm.
One day, when we were standing side by side at a bar to urinate, I got a drunken glance at him, but I remember his was not that big…
But now, you will never be able to find the main character who was cheerful, laughing and chatting among them.
The arm exposed in the video was emaciated, as if only bones were left.
The excessive poverty seemed to be caused by other causes rather than nutritional problems.
Another bottle of soju! Seeing that the exhilarating voice that used to shout “!” is barely audible and trembles nervously.
What happened?
SKELTON: By any chance, sir. where are you sick?
They evaded an answer.
All they asked for was a meeting with me.
I took my fingers off the keyboard for a moment and thought.
It is very dangerous to go out now.
Right now, gunfire is heard intermittently from the north.
It is said that skirmishes and confrontations are continuing.
I don’t know what lies beyond.
Just a year ago, the friendly soldiers who provided information when contacted with a personal identification number have disappeared.
It is a known road, but now you have to break through the dangerous area that has become an unknown road.
But if I just sit there and watch the erosion spread, not only me but everyone around me will either die or go crazy.
If you ask Minhee Woo for help, your immediate safety is guaranteed.
But she won’t leave me alone.
After all, they will make an excuse for me to leave the shelter and throw me to death.
“…”
It’s a hard choice.
Taking the risk of dying an hour later in order to avoid a certain death that will come in a year.
But I’d rather struggle with something than sit still and die.
In addition, he is confident that he can control the dangers he may encounter outside to some extent.
the answer is fixed
clap
It’s time to find my role model.
But the sun hadn’t gone down yet.
In today’s time when drones fly around, it would be reckless to move in broad daylight.
I logged on to the community to pass the time until the sun went down.
SKELTON: Does anyone remember John Naenon?
I suddenly became curious.
What do bulletin board people think of the old user named Jonnaenon?
After preparing for the trip for a while, there were a few comments.
Doyourbest321 : f*ck you? That bastard. you’re a scammer
RKKArA: You say you’re a hunter, but I heard there was an Awaken at that time? The fact that he pretended to be a hunter even though he knew he was a second-class hotbari is really, it’s not even a matter of nerves. What if there was even one Awaken among us?
Anonymous 848: Hey~ I’m sorry. It’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I think that person is still alive. Did you make a lot of money?
Defender : I’ve been to that human lecture before, and he said a lot of strange things. what? Private nuclear power? Does that make sense?
There were no favorable comments.
All comments were sarcastic or insulting at him, and no one spoke of his strengths.
Although this is the big meaning of the bulletin board, I felt a bit disappointed.
“······John naenon. He is a good person.”
It is true that John Naenon did unauthorized persecution.
It is also true that he made a huge fortune by using bulletin boards.
Wasn’t his information useful though?
Everyone must have read the text he translated and got at least one or two small pieces of information.
In addition, he called a professional company directly when there was construction work, and took care of what we needed.
Who could have provided such a service?
It is respectful.
Except for John Naenon, no one had ever stepped out so much for another.
But the reality was harsh.
No one forgave him, and no one remembered the ball overshadowed by the lesson.
Is that why?
What our twisted hero kept silent all along.
What was he thinking during those long years?
Are you ready for a spectacular comeback?
Or did he prepare a quiet revenge?
Neither seems likely.
Eternal neglect may have been the conclusion he chose.
*
We left the air-raid shelter around dusk.
The current temperature is 1 degree above zero.
The sky was full of dark clouds.
It looks like it’s going to rain or snow.
I moved my bike quietly, feeling the warmth of the hot pack attached to my heart.
It was pitch black outside, but I know this road well.
I guessed where I was just by revealing the fine contours of the terrain under the starlight, and I went down the steep slope with minimal brakes.
A stream appeared.
It is a fairly deep river.
Deep enough to get wet up to your buttocks if you ride a bike.
If you go a little further, there is a road that farmers made by piling gravel little by little.
It is difficult to see because it is hidden by the fast-flowing water, but there is a pile of stones at the entrance.
Using that as a cover, we entered the stream.
The wheels are only slightly locked.
bang!
As I was following the road, I heard a gunshot.
I got off my bike and took a detour.
I climbed on top of a low hill and confirmed the identity of the people firing the gunshots.
is a pioneer
People who had appeared and disappeared at the golf course the other day were building a barricade with broken cars and planks and shooting at the opposite road.
On the other side was another group of people.
Is it a gang for composition?
That’s probably the most likely option.
As I passed through the hill and entered the field, I confirmed their identity.
It wasn’t Cho Sung-yong’s gang that opened fire from the other side.
“Shoot! shoot! cubs! Kill them all!”
“hey! Yongsu’s father is not breathing!”
“Get some hot water! I need to disinfect!”
“When are the pioneers coming?!”
They were also our normal neighbors.
The people who at least once rode the same subway to buy groceries at the mart and passed by on the boulevard were now divided into two groups trying to kill each other for reasons unknown to them.
went straight into the dark.
After that, there were no other threats.
Ambush points where looters might be found were empty, and looters were nowhere to be seen on the highways, which were lined with abandoned vehicles and turned into huge vehicle graveyards.
The real threat came from the sky.
Shoot aaah
It rained.
Being covered in cold rain in 2 degree weather is a disaster that leads to death.
Inside an abandoned bus, lighting a fire and donning a poncho raincoat, you have to fight four enemies: damp and heat, cold and unpleasant.
I swallowed caffeine pills without water to avoid falling asleep in the middle.
“…”
After the rain stopped, I got on my bike and rode on the wet road.
When I arrived in Seoul, the sun was about to rise in the morning.
It’s a speed that is possible because there is a bicycle.
If it was on foot, it would have taken three days, no, it might have taken more than that in the current situation.
I took out the note from my pocket and checked the contents.
[ Next to the broken beacon. Say no to the man with the glasses at the newsstand with the FAIL sign on it. ]
On the street named after the capital of a country in the Middle East, those who were left behind opened a sloppy market and were selling goods.
Miscellaneous items such as discarded electronics, rusty kettles, burst cotton blankets, crumpled wads of paper, and bundles of miscellaneous trees were placed on the tumbled stalls, but there were no luxury items or precious metals.
Contrary to popular belief, luxury goods are still in demand.
It’s because the guys who can eat more live are all wiped out.
The security situation was somewhat stable, and soldiers from the National Assembly were patrolling the market side as well.
After a long time, I walked on a street that stinks of people, dragging my bicycle by hand.
bang!
A gunshot was heard from the east, not far away.
It is an area controlled by the legionnaires.
Could it be that there is going to be a battle right now?
Looking around anxiously, I am the only one surprised on this street.
Everyone went on their way calmly, bargaining, looking at goods, and sometimes even trying to steal.
Even the old woman selling mugwort on a stall was yawning profusely.
As if the gunfire was a natural part of life.
Swallowing my surprise, I went to the stall written on the note.
[FAIL]
There was a simple sign written on cardboard in marker, and under it, a skinny man wearing glasses with broken glasses sloppily attached with glass tape was doing business with computer parts on top.
I approached him and spoke in a low voice.
“I’m looking for John Naenon.”
The man looked at me.
“Your nickname?”
“Skelton.”
The man with glasses beckoned someone.
A man with one leg, wrapped in a blanket, came swiftly on crutches with a limp.
“Take care of the store. I have somewhere to go.”
The man with glasses put on a hood.
“Let’s go.”
“yes. By the way, is it east?”
Another shot rang out from the east.
I was surprised, but the man answered calmly.
“yes.”
The place he guided me to was a residential area with a forest of impersonal concrete structures called apartments located to the east of the market.
A tower soaring high into the sky beyond the apartment forest was collapsing, half collapsed.
thud!
A piece of debris fell from above, creating a roar and dust.
Before the dust has gone,
bang! bang!
Two gunshots rang out from the side of the apartment complex.
Undoubtedly.
It’s a gunshot I heard earlier.
When I looked at the jar with a worried face, the man started talking while wiping his glasses with a cloth.
“Across the street is an area controlled by the Legion faction.”
“Who are you fighting with? Parliamentarians?”
“no. They are fighting among themselves. At first, the stars fought each other, but now the Mugunghwa fights each other. Soon, well, the diamonds will fight each other.”
“What did the National Assembly do?”
“I am watching. Even if you don’t do anything, you’re self-destructing.”
He took me beyond the apartment complex to an old-fashioned shopping street.
distance in memory
From nob le mt l dot com
Gong Kyung-min, who was my motivation and team member, dragged me and other team members around saying that he would treat me well.
He shouted that there was an amazing restaurant here, but he couldn’t find it until the end, so he went into an ordinary-looking Chinese restaurant and recalled the scene where he was surprised by the amazing taste of the restaurant.
“Park Kyu. How long will you be stuck? They are just special kids. They are God’s chosen children. To be honest, it’s true that before awakening, our toenails weren’t as good, but what can we do? Have the times changed? drink. drink. Will worrying about our f*cking fate change?”
Now there is no Kong Kyung-min and my team is divided.
I will never be able to find that Chinese restaurant.
bang!
Through the hazy flashbacks, gunshots rang out, this time from the front.
The sound of the wind, reminiscent of death, brushed my ears, and I heard the sound of bullets bouncing from behind.
The man and I lay on our stomachs and crawled toward nearby cover.
I spit out the muddy water that was muddy from the rain that had come in my mouth and asked the man.
“What is it?”
A man with glasses who seemed to be immune to gunshots, but this time he seems startled.
He leaned his back against the wall, exhaling heavily, trying to breathe deeply.
“f*ck, I don’t know. It was fine until yesterday. Ha, really. It’s okay to live day by day.”
“Are you a legionnaire?”
“It could be a civilian.”
“Why civilians?”
“I just write and watch. This is such a neighborhood.”
Those with guns now show hostility to all who pass by.
I thought of Rebecca the sniper, but I soon forgot about it.
A fierce firefight ensued on the side of the complex, and finally a tank appeared and aimed its tank gun at the complex.
“…”
Through streets stained with violence, we arrived at our destination.
“I think so.”
It was a run down, three-story mansion.
On the outer wall of the building, which seemed to be at least 50 years old, a half-torn banner congratulating the reconstruction was waving sadly.
John Naennon was in the basement of the building.
“Come this way.”
As I stepped into the basement, several rats jumped out.
The basement of the apartment was deeper than expected.
The man opened his mouth as he lit the lantern and illuminated the endless stairs.
“They said that this row house was built as a camouflaged command bunker built during the war during the military regime. The top is an ordinary rotten contracture, but the bottom is special.”
Now is the time to ask.
“I heard that you are John Naenon’s subordinate, what exactly is your relationship?”
The man stopped.
I didn’t stop to answer my question.
In front of us was a cheap locker like you would find in a bathroom.
When he opened the locker, an unexpected object appeared to his surprise.
It is a radiation protection suit.
Same company stuff as I have, a higher model than mine.
He handed me a hazmat suit.
“The load is right. In other words, would you say a follower?”
“Are you a follower?”
“yes. It’s real. John Naenon is a great person.”
The man’s voice was powerless, but it didn’t sound like something made up in vain.
He put on a protective suit and muttered as he looked into the distance.
“······If there is a melon mask in the United States, there is Jonnaenon in Korea.”
“Is that so···?”
That respect is Viva! The creator of Apocalypse! Rubbing it on a melon mask?
Isn’t that too far out?
Is it enough to be put on the same level as a great swindler, businessman, who made a fortune of tens of trillions of dollars at the age of 40 and gained worldwide influence, and a man who was kicked out of the bulletin board after being kicked out of the bulletin board?
That’s not it.
This is an unreasonable evaluation that even I, who is friendly with the discussion, cannot agree with.
“Wear it.”
“Why is this?”
“You will know when you come in.”
The man wore a protective suit and illuminated the other side with a lantern.
There stood a recently reinforced concrete wall, in the center of which a door made of lead was firmly shut.
“There is Lord Jonnaenon in here.”
I followed him through the door.
The room was dark.
There was a bed in the twilight and someone was lying there with their arms hanging down.
Curiously, something like a faint light shone from his arm, but it wasn’t the light coming from his arm, it was the light coming from a flickering medical device under the bed.
A man in a protective suit woke up a man lying in bed.
“older brother. older brother! Skelton is here. You must wake up! older brother!”
The man who was straddling the line between life and death was supported and raised his body.
A body with nothing but bones left, a man with red spots spreading like a plague all over his face, looked at me with wide eyes.
I recognized him when he tried to smile.
That there are barely any teeth left in his mouth.
“······ Mr. Skelton.”
The man said in a muffled voice.
I remember the muscular man I met at a cheap meat restaurant.
It seems that it has now gone to the other side where it will never return like the others.
Like that Chinese restaurant I will never find again.
Now, one question remains.
Why did this dying man find me?
Why did the country so desperately long for the relics of the old era?
“no.”
Soon the clue was solved.
John Naenon knew me.
“Professor…!!”
Another me hidden behind the mask of Skeleton.
A question leads to another question.
Since when?
The scene where John Naenon was trying to tell me something at the last meeting I attended came back to me as if I had seen it in a dream.
“ah.”
Was it from then