Chapter 25

22. Remnant (1)

According to the foreign word notation method announced by the Ministry of Culture and Education in 1986, foreign names should be written according to their local pronunciation.

In China, I did not follow this announcement, and the reasons were complex.

At the time, I neither tried to learn their language nor attempted to understand it.

We were unwelcome guests, and indeed, we came for an unwelcome purpose.

Our goal was not to save China.

The order I received from the government was to collect data on the types and behavior of monsters that appear from intense fissures, the changes occurring in the fissure area, especially their impact on humans.

As a result, we avoided the desperate battles they needed, making various excuses, and only chose the regions and battles we wanted.

The vast experience and data obtained there indeed greatly helped the defense of Korea and also contributed to making me an extinctionist.

In that China, there was a man named Ma Yuanjia.

He was just an ordinary resident of the eroded area, but he gained a great enlightenment when he saw that the monsters passing by him did not show any hostile behavior.

As is often the case with those who gain great enlightenment, he founded a new religion.

The name of this new religion was a great source of ridicule for the Chinese I worked with, as it was the kind of name a person who usually had no job and idled in their room, watching martial arts dramas, would come up with.

However, despite their ridicule, the religion of Wanliugui (萬流歸宗敎) spread rapidly in the eroded area and followed a trajectory similar to the heretical religion that led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Among the Korean dispatched hunters, there was even a leader who killed more of these heretics than monsters.

Perhaps Defender was that kind of leader.

Now, Ma Yuanjia, his religion, and his followers have all been consumed by the flames of destruction, but things that burn have similar properties.

For example, like the trees in a forest, they stand in place, waiting to be burned rather than fleeing.

I knew someone who had such combustibility.

*

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of artillery fire comes from a distance.

Is it starting again?

They said on the radio that they were negotiating.

It has been two years and two months since the war began.

I still haven't heard from Kim Dalram.

Checking the outside temperature, it's minus 5 degrees.

Perhaps due to the nuclear war that occurred globally last year, the weather feels colder than usual.

I got up inside the heated tent, washed my face, and prepared breakfast.

For breakfast, I had half a cabbage I harvested recently.

Before the war, the idea of having a meal with just one cabbage was unimaginable, but at this point, after getting tired of canned and preserved foods, it's a fresh and seasonal delicacy.

While chewing and filling my stomach, I looked around with binoculars.

Another group of refugees is passing through the golf course, heading south.

Is that the direction where the sniper and her daughter live?

We might hear gunfire soon.

After finishing my meal, I went on a light patrol around the area to aid digestion.

There's nothing unusual.

It might be a hasty conclusion, but could today be a peaceful day?

Unlike our peaceful neighborhood, a civil war is raging in Seoul.

A war that could change the fate of the Republic of Korea is being waged, with millions of citizens as hostages, and at this very moment, they are spewing fire and rain at each other in a brutal slaughter.

The civil war has not only had negative effects.

At least for me, it's a short-term benefit.

When the civil war started, refugees appeared, but the annoying pioneers disappeared.

Since the pioneer teams were under military management, they might have been dragged into the battlefield.

However, within the community, it's hard to find any talk about the civil war. Occasionally, there are photos of artillery shells falling near people's homes.

Compared to how the civil war dominated the bulletin boards before it started, this is a drastic change.

The direct cause is probably the silence of the journalist who used to provide information from Seoul, but at this point, the civil war is a topic that doesn't need to be discussed.

It has already happened, and there's nothing we can do about it, especially since the civil war is closely tied to our heavy reality.

Whoever wins, whoever takes power and controls Seoul, the aftermath will greatly affect our lives.

And it will be in a very negative direction.

Is that why?

In the community, bright and trivial stories unrelated to the civil war are flourishing.

An implicit agreement, a turning away from reality, if you will.

I also participated in this collective turning away by posting meaningless posts.

SKELTON: (Skeleton Sound) Skeleton's Beatboxing 23

While such idle days continued, a major event that shook the entire bulletin board occurred.

Big things are done by big people, as they say.

One of the bulletin board's Four Great Kings, former webtoon author Dragon, announced a new series.

DragonC: Starting my latest work, "The Remnant."

"The Remnant," Dragon's latest work, which means remnant or dregs, can be summarized as a story about us, the extinctionists.

As is often the case with those who have entered the world of creation and made it their profession, Dragon is preparing his final masterpiece to make himself immortal, and he has chosen the last humans, who are about to die or disappear, as his subject.

This alone would be enough to turn the entire bulletin board upside down, but Dragon went one step further.

Practicing the idea that art reflects reality, Dragon announced that he would recruit main and supporting characters from our community members.

DragonC: "The Remnant" Casting Announcement

1. Possess a unique personality and background that can be told as a story.

2. Extra points for having a family or neighbors and related episodes.

3. Women are preferred.

4. Appearance doesn't matter; I'll adapt it myself.

*Please refrain from exaggeration.

"......Huh."

When I first saw this announcement, I smiled with satisfaction for the first time in a long while.

I couldn't help it.

This is completely, a condition made for me, right?

Of course, excluding 3 and 4.

I have a unique personality and background that can be told as a story, and I have neighbors and many episodes.

Currently, I'm branded as an unpopular user, but if I can appear in Dragon's latest work, I might not only gain a foothold on the bulletin board but also achieve immortality.

My personal information is classified as a top secret, but what's the point when the country is falling apart?

Without a moment's hesitation, I wrote a new top-secret document and sent it to Dragon.

- Graduate of the 13th batch of the hunter training institution "Guard" (top of the class)

- Former S-class hunter (highest rank before the level system was changed)

- Active in Beijing, China for 5 years, codename "Professor"

- Made significant contributions to the discovery of the mutation mechanism

- Really cool

- Has neighbors (including a cute girl)

...

...

When I sent the application via message, I believed without a doubt that the lead role was mine.

I was so confident that I filled in the blanks with topics other than the provocative subject of the Defender siblings.

The reply came in just one minute.

Isn't that too soon?

No, maybe he was so impressed by my impressive resume that he contacted me immediately after seeing the materials.

Message from DragonC: Are you kidding?

"?"

SKELTON: I'm not kidding. It's real.

Message from DragonC: You expect me to believe that exaggeration? Even a middle schooler could write better.

SKELTON: Better, not good.

Message from DragonC: Isn't your strange username and "better" your only unique traits? Anyway, thanks for applying, but please don't exaggerate.

SKELTON: (Feeling wronged) No, it's really true.

Message from DragonC: Don't push it. You don't have a single story worth telling, do you?

SKELTON: Actually, I'm a woman...

Message from DragonC: Should I block you?

My appearance in the work fell through for an unclear reason, but I wasn't the only one who got rejected.

Many users were rejected from the casting, including some I knew well.

Defender: With my personality, I should at least get a supporting role, right? Right?

Defender showed considerable enthusiasm for appearing in "The Remnant," but Dragon, being someone who has serialized on a major portal site, adhered to the review standards and tended to avoid provocative materials other than school bullying.

According to those standards, Defender was naturally out.

However, Defender was quite persistent, and Dragon, uncharacteristically, publicly embarrassed him.

DragonC: Defender keeps sending DMs, but you can't be in it. If you appear, the genre changes.

Defender: What genre?

DragonC: A psychopath thriller, or maybe a splatter film?

Defender: ㅠㅠ

It was natural for Defender, who had been rejected by Dragon, to send me a message.

Message from Defender: Skeleton, if I reveal that I'm a woman, will it be a big deal?

SKELTON: Your brother?

Message from Defender: Did you miss me?

SKELTON: What about your brother?

Message from Defender: He wants to appear in the comic. I don't even read his comics. Honestly, Dragon's comics are really boring.

SKELTON: They are boring.

Message from Defender: Right?

Defender is a strange guy, but he won't reveal his true identity.

Revealing the Defender sibling means giving up one of the killer moves of the murderous duo, a male and female, working as a team.

Anyway, unlike Defender, who is permanently blocked from appearing in "The Remnant," I still have a secret ace up my sleeve.

That ace is written in the casting application I sent to Dragon: the sniper and her daughter living in the south.

If I take a photo with them and send a touching story, Dragon might react.

They say a hard task is easier to accomplish quickly, so I immediately contacted the sniper and her daughter.

"Skeleton? What's up?"

"Can I see you for a moment?"

"Med, sure?"

"What med?"

"Morphine, fentanyl, etc."

They say a dog trained for three months can recite poetry, and the sniper's Korean has improved significantly.

It's inevitable, given that her daily job is to listen to radios and radios on building rooftops.

"Skeleton!"

Her daughter greeted me.

It's been a while since I saw her, but I might see her soon.

Christmas is coming up.

"Skeleton, what did you eat today?"

"Cabbage."

"Cabbage? What's that?"

"Like primitive kimchi?"

"Primitive kimchi?"

While chatting with a smile,

"Med."

Her mother interrupted.

"No meeting if you don't have med."

"Just a second. One photo. Okay? Chocolate!"

The communication was cut off.

The plan failed.

There's nothing I can do.

Drugs are a last resort used only when surgery or extreme pain cannot be endured.

I barely managed to get them, and I only have a small amount, so I can't just give them away for no good reason.

Still, I wonder if this mother and daughter will survive this winter.

Assuming they have food, surviving two Korean winters is not an easy task.

In any case, my ambitious plan to appear in the webtoon ended in failure.

*

Three days later.

That is, the day when a fighter jet flying overhead was hit by a missile and disintegrated in the sky, falling to the west.

Dragon announced the main character of "The Remnant."

Surprisingly, it was someone I knew well, one of the few people I had seen face-to-face in the community.

DragonC: The main character of "The Remnant" is Kyle_Dos!

Kyle_Dos.

He was a regular on the bulletin board with a good reputation and was part of the close-knit families like Anonymous848 and Anonymous458.

But he was just that kind of user.

There was nothing particularly likable or dislikable about him.

When I met him in person to get a capsule, he was an ordinary Korean man in his early 30s.

He was not a hunter and not a trained soldier.

What made him so special that he caught Dragon's eye?

The reason was in a post Kyle_Dos wrote himself.

Kyle_Dos: Actually, I found a wife recently.

The story begins shortly after I collected capsules around the air-raid shelter.

With one less worry, Kyle_Dos, a seasoned extinctionist, conducted intense patrols around the air-raid shelter every day, not allowing even the slightest change.

One day, he recalls, it was probably late spring.

Kyle_Dos encountered something he had forgotten but always thought about.

A woman.

Young, attractive, and most importantly, in need of protection.

The process of the unassuming Kyle_Dos and the attractive woman meeting by fate, struggling, becoming close, and eventually merging into one was not only a universal story but also carried a strong pheromone that stimulated the fantasy of a lonely man.