Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 100.1: Demonic Fiend (1)

unicorn18: It’s going to take some time to review. Be patient. Getting a plane up and running isn’t exactly easy.

Just because I sent the data didn’t mean I was heading straight to Jeju.

I hadn’t expected ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) to leave immediately anyway.

Of course, I hadn’t made the mistake of handing over the entire disk.

Not that Unicorn had even asked for that.

This disk was my lifeline.

I didn’t know exactly what was inside, but it was too valuable to give away outright.

At any rate, since Jeju’s decision would take time, we had the opportunity to analyze the data left behind by the mysterious Chinese scientist.

The one who pushed for its translation and analysis was Cheon Young-jae.

“We don’t have anything else to do. Might as well crack it open. Aren’t you curious why those bastards were so desperate to get this?”

He had earned that right.

He had fought on the frontlines of a near-hopeless battle, risking his life.

Since we weren’t moving out immediately, Ha Tae-hoon stayed in the hut built by Rebecca and her daughter.

The battle was over, but the Chinese military wasn’t the type to forgive and forget.

Vengeance ran deep in them.

If they decided to track us, we had to remain vigilant.

While Cheon Young-jae volunteered to stand guard, Ha Tae-hoon and I sat down with a translation program and online dictionaries, attempting to sift through thousands of files.

“... ...”

To be honest, I had no idea what I was looking at.

And no amount of staring would change that.

This was like handing a book to a caveman and expecting him to interpret it.

Ha Tae-hoon wasn’t faring much better, but at least he had an edge.

He was better at Chinese than I was and had a four-year college degree under his belt.

Having money meant that even failure wasn’t the end of the road for him.

A stark contrast to Defender, who had spent his life hopping from one construction site to another, scraping by with whatever odd jobs he could find.

After skimming through multiple files, Ha Tae-hoon cautiously offered a hypothesis.

“This... seems to be related to newborns and the Awakened.”

“Newborns? And the Awakened?”

I blinked in confusion.

Those two things were about as related as a fountain pen and a computer mouse.

Seeing my lack of understanding, Ha Tae-hoon scratched his head and explained further.

“I mean... how should I put it? This data suggests that China has been seeing a huge number of Awakened children being born.”

“Well, obviously. They probably have dozens of times more than Korea. Population alone gives them an edge, but on top of that, China has seen way more erosion events than we have.”

“What about you? Find anything?”

“Just a headache. DNA analysis, chromosomes—just a mess of stuff I can’t make sense of.”

“Let’s keep digging. If the Chinese were willing to go this far for it, there’s got to be a reason.”

We resumed our so-called ‘analysis’, but I still had no clue what I was even supposed to be looking for.

Numbers, letters, simplified Chinese—a storm of incomprehensible data scrolled past my eyes.

Then I finally caved.

“Hold up.”

I paused first.

“It’d be better to just ask the internet.”

“The internet? You mean that satellite network Melon Mask built? What was it called again... Starchain?”

“Wow, it’s been a while since I heard that name. Yeah, I think that was it. Though now, everyone just calls it Viva! Apocalypse!”

“Oh. That’s the same thing?”

“You know about it?”

“I used Failnet for a while.”

The internet was full of idiots and attention-seekers.

But in rare cases, true experts lurked among them.

Even our Korean forum—setting aside clowns like Sunbi and Dongtanmom—was filled with highly educated white-collar men who had, at some point, been professionals in various fields.

Of course, by now, only about three out of every ten remained.

But that still left a chance of finding someone capable.

And if not the Korean forum, then the English forum—which had even more users and a fair share of elites—might yield a better response.

So I took one of the indecipherable research images, filled with equations and chemical formulas, and posted it to the English board first.

SKELTON: Found this Chinese research data by chance. Anyone know how to interpret it?

The revamped translation system—since Melon Mask’s survival had been confirmed—was nothing short of astounding.

Even I was surprised by how well it worked.

Big data, AI, GPT—a perfect synergy.

If the world hadn’t collapsed, I was convinced that within ten years, language barriers would’ve been a thing of the past.

A few responses trickled in.

Alpine88: Hmm. Interesting.

xx_dagnite_xx: That formula looks like bio-data.

DOMUS: I nuked the shit out of those Chinese bastards. Launched multiple missiles from Ontario silos.

Seems like "Chinese research data" was an effective clickbait phrase.

While it wasn’t blowing up, I was at least getting responses from people trying to interpret the data.

I considered posting on the Korean board, but decided against it.

No point.

To be honest, there was no one on the Korean board smarter than me anymore.

Judging by the way things had gone, there probably hadn’t been a real scientist among them in the first place.

With my insurance policy of collective intelligence in place, Ha Tae-hoon and I returned to deciphering the unintelligible text.

An Unexpected Visitor

In the afternoon, the radio buzzed to life.

“A car just passed in the distance.”

Ha Tae-hoon and I stood up at the same time, grabbing our guns.

Then, Cheon Young-jae’s voice followed.

“Oh. Never mind. Looks like a refugee just passing through.”

Ha Tae-hoon and I exchanged glances.

And then laughed.

We were thinking the same thing.

The Chinese were a concern, but more than that, we just didn’t want to keep looking at this incomprehensible data.

After taking a short break, we returned to our analysis.

A Breakthrough?

By late afternoon, I checked the English forum again.

It was early morning in the U.S., but time meant little in the apocalypse.

In fact, more bad things happened at night than during the day.

If I were raiding someone’s bunker, I’d do it at night, not during the day.

There was a new reply waiting for me.

xx_gnite_xx: This is just a fraction of the data, so take this with a grain of salt, but based on what’s here, this is genetic research.

xx_gnite_xx: To put it simply—Awakened individuals, those affected by the Rifts, show no formal genetic abnormalities, but their descendants develop severe genetic defects.

xx_gnite_xx: It’s just my theory, but that’s what the data seems to suggest. Haven’t done this kind of analysis in a while. I need sleep. Post more data if you have it—I’ll check when I wake up.

“Hoh.”

That’s... new.

Honestly, I hadn’t expected much.

But this guy was making a surprisingly convincing argument.

I kept an eye on his username while scrolling through another tab filled with research files.

Should I start uploading them one by one? Or should I pick out the ones that seemed important?

It should be fine to do it gradually.

Of course, there was always the possibility that this guy was lying.

It wouldn’t be the first time some internet pseudoscientist tried to sound smart by regurgitating something they barely understood.

Just because he was American didn’t mean he was immune to being full of shit.

Since I was an expert in dealing with internet bullshit, I decided to do a quick search on this xx_gnite_xx user’s past posts.

What I found was... unsettling.

xx_gnite_xx: Should I kill my blonde husband? I’ve got a 12-gauge shotgun.

xx_gnite_xx: I’ve been growing poppies. Anyone know how to refine them into something fun?

xx_gnite_xx: I want to rape the blonde bimbo living in the next shelter.

xx_gnite_xx: Gangster-style beatbox.

xx_gnite_xx: God, I miss fresh, deep-fried potato chips.

xx_gnite_xx: The old hag in the shelter across from me finally died. Haha.

xx_gnite_xx: (Attached image) Is this syphilis?

xx_gnite_xx: Jerked off thinking about the blonde next door.

...

...

“...”

Yeah. This didn’t feel good.

Not at all.

Then again, judging by his posts, his environment wasn’t exactly great either.

If the world had gone to hell, maybe even scientists and researchers needed a vent for their madness.

Still, I couldn’t forgive that godawful gangster-style beatbox post. That was just unforgivable.

But I wasn’t going to let go of this lead just yet.

There was still a chance this guy was a crazy scientist.

Just as I was searching for more data to upload—

“Hey. This.”

Ha Tae-hoon, who had barely spoken aside from telling me to eat, suddenly spoke up.

“Did you find something?”

“A document. It’s all text.”

“Oh? Really?”

For idiots like us, words were far easier to process than complex equations and data charts.

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

“What does it say?”

“Hold on.”

Ha Tae-hoon leaned in toward the monitor, eyes narrowing.

Then, his face twisted in disgust.

“Ah, fuck. This is some bullshit.”

“What?”

“It’s written in Cantonese.”

“...Cantonese?”

“The dialect they use in Hong Kong. And it’s not even formal—it’s all spoken language.”

“So... can’t you read it?”

“Nope. The words are completely different. I can’t make sense of this.”

“Hold on, then.”

I had him send me the file, then uploaded it to Viva! Apocalypse!

Of course, as a private post.

🔒 SKELTON: Skelton’s Hidden File

On the surface, my post would look like a locked entry.

Private posts were invisible to other users.

It was a feature added after Vivabot took over as an administrator.

Most users mocked it as a useless function, saying the site was just a gathering place for attention-seeking narcissists.

But private posts could be shared with select users.

Not that I had anyone to share this with.

I was only using it for one thing—the translation feature.

- Select the language to translate.

Viva! Apocalypse! supported multiple languages.

It even supported Mayan, a language with no living speakers.

Of course, it had to support Cantonese.

Sure enough, the option was there.

I hit Translate.

A small spinning gear appeared.

Then, the text on the document began transforming into Korean.

“Oooh.”

Ha Tae-hoon let out a small gasp.

“This is like Mamago, but way better. Feels way more advanced.”

“Well, it was made by Melon Mask.”

“Oh, seriously?”

“For the record, I’ve personally exchanged messages with Melon Mask before.”

“No fucking way?!”

I grinned and pulled up my message history with Melon Mask, showing it to him.

“Whoa... Melon Mask really went to space? I thought that was just a rumor.”

Sipping my coffee, I gave him a knowing smile.

Slluurp—

Joining Viva! Apocalypse! had been one of the best choices of my life.

While rich kids like Ha Tae-hoon were stumbling through the dark ages, struggling to survive in a ruined world, I, Park Gyu, was still enjoying a modern digital life, networking on a global scale.

With the pride of a true Vivarian, I turned my attention back to the translated text.

Slluurp—

Ha Tae-hoon drank his coffee beside me, reading the document as well.

This bastard was a faster reader than me.

“What?!”

Before I could even finish the first sentence, Ha Tae-hoon let out a shocked exclamation.

“This is...”

I quickly caught up with him.

“... ...”

This wasn’t research data.

It wasn’t an evaluation or a scientific report.

What we were reading was a message left behind by a scientist known as "Wang Seobang."

A message that began with a line straight out of Moby Dick:

[ Call me Demonic Fiend. ]

The document of this anonymous scientist revealed a truth we had never truly considered—but had always suspected.