Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 148.1: Painkillers (1)

SKELTON: (Skelton) Mountain Lord (1)

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) The Last Story of National Actor Kang Hoon-young (1)

“······.”

They say mortal enemies meet on a narrow bridge.

I had just finished writing a new post for the Redemption Story series and refreshed the page to check the results, when I spotted JeremyIrons uploading a new one.

I know this kind of move is cheap, but the world of competition is ruthless.

I clicked on the fresh post with less than three views.

Rattle—

Skipped the text completely.

“······.”

Clack clack

Dr.Emiless: ······Ha. You should at least lie better than this. Just admit it. This is fake, right?

This wasn’t some petty smear tactic or childish jealousy.

It was more of a preemptive jab from a veteran of the post-apocalyptic internet, meant to give a taste of how brutal this online world could be.

Sure enough, JeremyIrons, who clearly hadn't been scorched by the post-war internet just yet, fired back.

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) What? Who are you? On what grounds are you calling it fake? I got this straight from someone who was there. It’s been cross-checked.

He talks too much. Definitely inexperienced.

Smells like a rookie.

With a smug grin, I typed out a reply.

Dr.Emiless: All your reposted stories are just fiction······. None of them have proof······.

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) How the hell am I supposed to post pictures from Necropolis? It's not even PaleNet.

Dr.Emiless: Puhaha

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) ?

Dr.Emiless: That question mark, you idiot. What kind of title is that?

Dr.Emiless: You trying to act like Skelton, the named user from Viva! Apocalypse!?

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) Who the hell is Skelton? Some nobody?

“Huh?”

I tilted my head slightly.

Dr.Emiless: You don’t even know Skelton······? Even if you’re from Necropolis, that’s just absurd······. You don’t even know the basics······.

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) Wait a second.

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) I was wondering why this guy suddenly brought up some nobody like Skelton, and it turns out this bastard Dr.Emiless IS Skelton.

Dr.Emiless: ?

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) You are, aren’t you, you dumb fuck. I checked—every one of Skelton’s lame-ass stories has your comment. And what’s up with those two auto-likes······?

Dr.Emiless: ?

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) You did that, right?

Dr.Emiless: ?

I immediately rushed to another computer to delete my posts.

But before I could, a warning-like message popped up on the screen.

Message from VIVA_BOT014: Don’t do it······.

“······.”

VivaBot.

Clearly a woman with way too much free time.

She looked like she was in her early twenties—shouldn’t someone that age be going out, dressing up, and doing something with their life?

Why is she stopping me?

[Do you want to delete this post? (Y/N)]

Message from VIVA_BOT014: Please don’t······.

“······.”

Fine. I’ll let it go this once.

Because I’m the adult here.

But then.

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) This Skelton guy is a fucking legend.

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) No one reads his stories, so he fakes upvotes, wears a mask, and now he's even slandering others······.

Deadman13213: (JeremyIrons) He’s got two Viva accounts but doesn’t even know how to use anonymous posting. Must be some rich old dude······.

Suddenly, the replies started flooding in.

The post’s upvotes had passed 15.

Looks like it hit the trending board.

With that, the comments were rolling in fast.

Anonymous3132: Skelton? Who is that? Why’s this guy picking a fight with Jeremy Irons?

Anonymous113: Oh right, I remember. Isn’t he that loser who stirred shit like it’s the ADSL days?

Anonymous37311: He’s just salty no one reads his stuff.

Anonymous458: Skelton······.

Anonymous7721: JeremyIrons-nim, just ignore this loser and keep posting ㅎ

mmmmmmmmm™: What the smell?

gijayangban: ?

...

...

Time to take cover for a bit.

This isn’t going well.

“······.”

Eh, whatever. I’ll just get cursed at for a while.

It’s because I’m popular—people only trash what they notice.

It’s not like it’s the first time.

This too shall pass.

With trembling hands, I shut off the monitor and stepped out of my quarters.

Even after taking a hit from the shelling, I was still using the same building.

Well, technically it wasn’t a direct hit.

It exploded nearby and shook the villa, breaking a few of my precious items.

As the building manager put it, if it’s a “blessed spot,” I guess this is it.

Current time: 2:20 AM.

Late, but the area around New Seoul was lit up like the old days.

The generator from the government depot was lighting and heating the city, and under that glow, people were digging through ruins with shovels and pickaxes, pushing rubble aside.

They were clearing the path to Hanam.

Once the road was complete, the refugees under The Hope would be relocated there.

According to the city ops manager, it’ll all be done within a month.

But first, there’s one problem to take care of.

We need to clear out the local district heating plant.

One reason Hanam was picked as a new residential area is that the combined heat and power plant under the heating corporation had been completed fairly recently.

But for some reason, important facilities like that almost always end up as monster nests.

A nest formed during the early days of the war had already wrapped the entire plant in a pale white shroud.

Unlucky for the city, but now, four years after the war began, it’s like a hidden piggy bank.

At least in monster territory, those damn scavengers won’t show their faces.

Scavengers have a milder image than looters, but from an infrastructure standpoint, they were just as bad. Maybe worse.

They didn’t kill people outright, but they tore up the country’s foundation.

They’d even rip up railway ties and tracks to sell for scrap.

That’s why plans to transport supplies via rail in the South Industrial Zone ended up totally screwed.

Anyway, that untouched power plant—if we have enough fuel—could bring hope to New Seoul through the winter.

The problem is the nest’s difficulty.

Maybe it’s age, or maybe it’s just prime real estate for monsters, but at least three small types have nested there.

There are no zombies, so likely no necromancer types, but if even one of them is a spider type, then this mission won’t be easy.

Even if I take Kim Daram, it’ll be rough.

Unless I had a Regular Awakened.

As I stood outside the building, breathing clouds into the air, I felt someone approaching.

The moment I turned my head, I sensed something unpleasant was waiting for me.

Eyes glowing faintly in the dark.

An Awakened.

And not just any Awakened—one of the biggest headaches I had right now.

“Captain.”

Ahn Seung-hwan, head of the Regular Awakened, gave me a short bow.

I don’t like it when people bow their heads.

From experience, I know that kind of display always hides an agenda.

*

“Wow. Two laptops, huh.”

We weren’t exactly in a cozy pre-war café, and the weather was too damn cold to talk outside, so I had no choice but to invite him to my still-cluttered quarters.

“Oh, is this the Obelisk?”

Ahn Seung-hwan looked like he was itching to touch my stuff.

“Wait, why do you have two of these······?”

“······What did you come for?”

I poured him some warm tea.

It had that artificial orange flavor I got from Woo Min-hee.

Tasted exactly as you’d expect, but in times like these, that made it something special.

A decent enough gesture of hospitality.

We sat across from each other on IKEA-style folding chairs—there was no luxury like a sofa.

Ahn Seung-hwan bowed again.

“I know it’s late, but thank you, and I’m sorry.”

“······Might sound cold, but what do you want? I haven’t even slept yet.”

He sighed, hesitated a bit, then steeled himself and looked me in the eyes with resolve.

“To be honest, I think we should be under your command.”

“I think” is one of those phrases I hate.

I’d prefer someone say they won’t do it. Or that they can’t.

If nothing’s set, saying it out loud is pointless.

I waited silently for what came next.

“I’ll be honest.”

Another deep sigh from him.

“The Regular Awakened here.”

Maybe it’s age or experience, but I already had a good sense of what he was about to say.

“······They’re the ones expelled from Jeju.”

Yep.

Bad feelings never miss.

“Unfit for combat?”

I asked.

“Not exactly from psychological screening. Most of them had trauma from missions, or made serious mistakes and were judged unfit after the fact.”

“Is that so.”

“They were supposed to be sent to the Lighthouse, but contact with that place was lost, so······ yeah. They’ve just been waiting.”

He bowed again.

Some people think it’s rude when young people don’t bow, but I think differently.

I’m not saying never bow.

I’m saying: if you’re young, don’t bow so easily.

Stand tall.

Once your neck bends, it doesn’t go back easily.

“Please. Most of them are in rehab or dealing with fear. And now, with the emergence of a new Awakened monster model, they’re even more rattled. So if you do use us, please assign us to the safest missions possible.”

Whether Ahn Seung-hwan bows out of habit or conviction—I’ll judge that later.

I’ll need to talk with Woo Min-hee.

*

Just getting older doesn’t mean you become an adult.

You need experience, and from that experience, reflection—only then does a person truly grow.

Of course, what defines “adulthood” varies by person, and I don’t deny that I change my own definition of it from time to time.

Woo Min-hee lives somewhere different from everyone else.

Not quite as fortified as The Hope, but her space is the top floor of a slightly leaning business hotel.

The place hasn’t been repaired, so the steel frames and concrete are grotesquely exposed, and cold wind blows freely through the shattered windows. Yet there’s one single room with a proper door.

While the rest of the rooms—and really the entire building—bear the scars and decay of the apocalypse, her space alone retains a hint of its past luxury and splendor. In many ways, it feels unreal.

“Kim Daram said something.”

She greeted me in a bathrobe, fresh out of the shower, drying her hair with a voice lower than usual.

“She said you haven’t aged a bit.”

Her clawed hand moved across the vanity, scraping the marble surface and producing a horrifying screech.

Screeeeeech—

“You’re still stuck in that time. Meanwhile, look at us—filthy now.”

A sigh, and then—

“No, I mean, we’ve grown up.”

A scoff.

“······.”

She turned to face me, curling the iron fingers that had scarred the marble.

Her face was expressionless—void of emotion—but at least she wasn’t hostile.

“We can’t help it. This is what adults do. Even knowing it’ll end badly, they send kids—young people—into war, into labor. People who do that end up seeing things others never will. People who only look after themselves, who only do their own work, can never see that view.”

I haven’t pinned down my own definition of what it means to be an adult, but I knew right away that hers didn’t match mine.

I stared at her calmly and said,

“That view. I’m not curious.”

“The first time is hard. The first is always the worst. But like anything else, you get numb to it. You know that, right? It’s not like we do these things out of malice. It’s romantic, sure, how you always shoulder the dangerous jobs. But romance is just romance.”

“······I get it. I’ll talk to Ahn Seung-hwan again.”

We clearly didn’t agree on what makes ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) an adult, but I understood her point—there was no choice but to make use of those deemed unfit for combat.

Now it was just a matter of who to take.

Maybe Lee Haru.

She followed me to the front lines—that shows some grit.

She did panic when she saw a new monster type, but that’s the kind of flaw that can be corrected with willpower.

“Anyway, thanks for the advice. I’ll select the team and secure the power plant.”

As I turned to leave, Woo Min-hee suddenly spoke.

“Pick the worst one.”

Her profile was reflected in the scattered mirrors.

She was smiling.

“You’re good at it, right? Turning hopeless cases into functioning humans?”

“······Was I?”

“Why not? You made that Kang Han-min guy actually pull his weight, didn’t you?”

Looking at her face, I understood.

My sly junior had known everything from the start.

She called me because she already knew.

Well, I guess showing up here was the right move.

At least I got here before a shell dropped on my bunker.

*

“······Her nickname’s JaeTong. Wonder why? It’s short for Jeju Integrated Hospital.”

Ahn Seung-hwan let out a sigh as he explained about the “volunteer.”

“She fakes being sick every chance she gets. Not even hurt, but she’s always playing sick. Yeah. No one likes her. Who would? She’s a selfish, immature adult.”

The Regular Awakened known as JaeTong was Kim Han-na.

She’s twenty-eight. Female. The oldest among the Regular Awakened.

“Ah, hello?”

Despite her age and those subtly glowing eyes that mark an Awakened, she greeted me awkwardly, constantly checking my reaction. I could see why the others distanced themselves from her.

“Um, I’m really sorry, but I’m on my period today, and I feel really awful. So... could I skip this one?”

A weak, pathetic excuse paired with shameless manipulation.

Behind her, Lee Haru—head bandaged and arm in a cast—winked at me and said loudly enough for Kim Han-na to hear,

“Unni. Didn’t you have it last week?”

Surrounded by the laughter of younger teammates, Kim Han-na’s face turned bright red.

And I let out a sigh in my head.

This... won’t be easy.

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