Chapter 26

22. Remnants (2)

Kyle_Dos: As usual, I was patrolling the area.

It was a sweltering day.

The air-raid shelter was filled with a stifling heat and humidity.

We had a generator, but it was small and the power output was limited, so we couldn't afford luxuries like air conditioning.

Cannon fire echoed from the north.

It seemed that another monster had burst out from a fissure.

We were lucky the last time a super-large species appeared.

It approached to within just 4 kilometers but suddenly changed its course.

However, even Kyle_Dos, who knew little about fissures, found it eerie that the plants around him were taking on strange forms and that the sunlight at dawn and dusk appeared grayish-white rather than red.

At the time, Kyle_Dos's hobby was foraging.

There were plenty of preserved foods and canned goods that had been dehydrated to the point of being brick-like, but eating such food for a long time was not good for mental health.

To combat depression, he had prepared sweet foods like jam and sugar, but if sweet foods alone could cure depression, no one would go to the hospital or commit suicide due to depression.

To change his mood, Kyle_Dos went to a nearby stream.

The benches left by the valley merchants, which had not been removed in time, were covered with the marks of time.

Sitting on an appropriate bench, Kyle_Dos used a military dagger to catch a large crayfish wriggling in the water.

The crayfish, which was as big as a lobster, had a sinister grayish-white color, but other than that, it was plump and tasted quite good.

After catching enough crayfish to fill a large pot, he was on his way back home.

He noticed flowers he had never seen before.

Not just a few, but hundreds, thousands of flowers formed a grayish-white garden that stretched out before him as if by fate.

In the center of the flowers, which bloomed in a spine-chillingly orderly manner, Kyle_Dos discovered something white and luminous, different from the grayish-white, writhing on the ground.

It was a woman.

She was naked and had been severely beaten, unconscious, but the form and curves were undoubtedly those of a woman.

Kyle_Dos brought her to the air-raid shelter and took good care of her.

The heat and humidity in the shelter could not deter him.

Wiping the sweat that formed on his forehead with his sleeve, Kyle_Dos set a splint on her broken arm, applied antiseptic to her cuts, and carefully applied ointment to her bruised face, which was still beautiful despite the beating.

It took a considerable amount of time for the woman to regain consciousness.

When she finally came to, she was startled, covered herself with a thin blanket, and asked in a trembling voice.

"Don't worry. I'm not your enemy. You're safe here. If you need anything, just let me know."

That was the first meeting between Kyle_Dos and the woman he found.

The prologue by DragonC received enthusiastic praise.

Anonymous458: Man, why don't I get a woman like that?

Roka3218: What a beautiful story.

Anonymous848: I'm so jealous! Kyle_Dos! All I see around me are corpses.

Kimcic: I don't usually read comics, but maybe because it's our story, I found myself wiping away tears.

Unicorn18: Is she a virgin?

...

...

But not everyone thought the same.

There were a few negative comments, and I won't deny that I was one of them.

Defender: It's just fantasy. Fantasy. Just show the status screen.

Skelton: Hmm... Is that all?

It was because Defender and I posted one after the other with a mere second between us that the suspicion that I was part of Defender's gang became even stronger, and I even earned the dishonorable title of "troll."

But a few people knew my true worth.

The protagonist of this story, Kyle_Dos, was one of the few who recognized the value of Skelton.

He sent me a message.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Skelton, I'm really sorry, but I have a favor to ask.

The favor was an extension of the previous one.

Another capsule had appeared.

Not just one, but two.

It's not good.

The erosion is progressing faster than expected.

The description in DragonC's prologue and the fact that the plants themselves are changing are clear evidence that the area has entered the initial stage of erosion.

The academic community claims that the erosion zones themselves have no adverse effects on humans, citing the 200 million followers of the Many Religions who have established their base in the erosion zones.

I disagree.

Humans cannot survive in erosion zones.

Just like monsters that disappear from the earth, humans lose something important.

It's as if everything becomes meaningless and pointless.

What happened to the 200 million followers they talk about?

Erosion zones are truly dangerous.

I replied to Kyle_Dos.

Skelton: The place you live is extremely dangerous. The capsules are not the problem. If you can get out, do so.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Where should I go?

I thought for a moment.

I knew the correct answer, but I couldn't just give it to him.

I'm not entirely selfless.

Skelton: Anywhere but there. Staying there is a death sentence. Go and see for yourself. Your area has already been eroded. It's now the territory of monsters.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Thanks for the advice, but I have no intention of leaving. My wife is happy living here. Or should I come to your air-raid shelter?

"......"

Message from Kyle_Dos: That's ridiculous. For various reasons, you know better than anyone what I'm worried about?

Skelton: I understand.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Besides, it's not right to ask you to come here. There's a war going on down there. I'll figure something out.

That was our last conversation.

*

DragonC: I can't get in touch with Kyle_Dos. Anyone in contact with him?

When I heard that Kyle_Dos had disappeared, I felt more like it was inevitable rather than shocked.

But wasn't it too soon?

There was still time.

Didn't he have a wife?

If she had said something, Kyle_Dos would have used any means necessary to escape and create a new haven for himself and his wife.

Maybe he would have come to me, causing me trouble.

Various opinions about Kyle_Dos's disappearance were posted on the board.

Anonymous848: Was he taken by the soldiers? Honestly, they're more scary than the pioneers, right?

The theory that he was taken by soldiers received the most support.

It's the most plausible.

But there are no soldiers in that area now.

They all went to Seoul to fight the civil war.

If there were deserters, it might be possible, but who would be bold enough to wander around an erosion zone where capsules appear?

There were other opinions.

Defender: Kyle_Dos's wife. To be honest, wasn't she kidnapped rather than found? I mean, why would a beautiful woman willingly enter a stinky, rat-infested air-raid shelter? There's a possibility that Kyle_Dos beat her up.

Defender's twisted but somewhat truthful opinion received a lot of criticism, but to me, it seemed quite plausible.

After all, not everything people say on the board is true.

Given the nature of internet communities where people wear the mask of anonymity, lies are more common than truths, right?

In my case, even when I tell the truth, it's often dismissed as a lie.

Various opinions about Kyle_Dos's fate were posted, but none of them resonated with me.

"......"

I sipped my coffee and thought about it.

But I didn't think too deeply because I knew it was meaningless.

The only way to know Kyle_Dos's fate was to go and see for myself.

Just as the doubts and questions were gradually fading, the civil war stopped.

It ended as suddenly as it began.

A shortwave radio announced a temporary ceasefire.

Among the various reasons for the ceasefire, the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for refugees was included.

The moment I heard this, I sensed a call of fate.

I had to go.

*

I left the air-raid shelter at 3 a.m. and headed to the nearest refugee camp as directed by the shortwave broadcast.

I had no business with the refugees.

What I was looking for was a soldier, preferably an officer with authority.

"I'm very sorry, but my parents are in Paju. I'm worried because I haven't heard from them since the civil war started, so I want to go and check on them."

What moved them was not my detailed story but the cigarettes.

"Here's your pass. Take this route. I can't guarantee your safety on other routes. Especially, do not enter Seoul under any circumstances. The ceasefire is in place, but the situation is still tense."

Following their advice, I entered Incheon via Anyang.

The area controlled by the military was surprisingly secure, and the roads were in good condition.

It was my first time visiting Incheon since the war started, and the old scenery was almost unrecognizable. Instead, enormous refugee camps occupied the area.

On the streets, an unknown porridge was being sold.

I didn't eat it because the smell alone made me feel nauseous, but I offered it to someone else and got a few pieces of information in return.

A massive refugee fleet was about to set sail for Jeju Island.

A huge fleet of hundreds of thousands of people.

"It's a kind of revenge."

The old man who gave me the news spat on the ground.

There seemed to be foreign objects in the porridge.

"They're sending human bombs to the bastards who fled to Jeju Island first, thinking they could live well there. They wouldn't sink their own people, would they?"

I headed straight for Paju.

It took some time, but I found Kyle_Dos's location without much difficulty since I had been there before.

I stopped my bicycle at the entrance of the unpaved road leading to the air-raid shelter and stared at the grayish-white land for a while.

I looked at the grass and trees.

The surface of the trees was shriveled and dried, the branches were bent in a shape that seemed to be endlessly curling, and at the roots, disgusting, worm-like, reddish plants grew abundantly.

The erosion was progressing faster than I had expected.

I took out a mask and covered my nose and mouth.

Scholars claim that the air in the erosion zones is harmless, but based on my experience, it is definitely harmful.

I spotted Kyle_Dos's air-raid shelter through the faint, grayish-white mist.

It appeared to be a prefabricated, buried air-raid shelter, and like such cheap models, it had a ladder for entry and exit.

The hatch was open.

I prepared my gun and axe and surveyed the area.

There were no signs of life inside the air-raid shelter.

Instead, the smell of decaying corpses was so strong that it penetrated even the mask.

I turned on my lantern and went inside.

When I pressed what seemed to be a light switch, to my surprise, the lights came on.

The moment the lights came on, my field of vision was filled with dozens of women in swimsuits.

The walls of the air-raid shelter were almost entirely covered with women's photos, including some explicit ones.

But even the many beautiful women could not hide the cramped space.

On the bed, a corpse was hanging and decaying.

Due to severe decomposition, it was hard to identify, but the clothes, the long hair stiffened with maggots and pus, and the bone structure indicated that the owner was of the same gender as the women whose photos covered the walls.

The time of death seemed recent, but there were no signs of looters.

The food, laptop, and satellite equipment were all intact.

There was enough food for about a year?

The abundance of medical supplies caught my eye.

I opened the laptop.

It was in sleep mode, but it magically booted up at my touch, showing me the work the previous owner had been doing.

It was a bulletin board.

Kyle_Dos was writing a message.

- I'm going to the flower field with my wife. To the place where we met. I'll gather my thoughts there and tell you the next story. Just wait a little. Don't rush me.

The recipient was DragonC.

Was he trying to discuss the next plot of the webtoon?

I pulled out the corpse and looked around.

I found two more corpses.

The decomposition was much more severe than the woman's, making it difficult to determine the cause of death, but both were male and appeared to have been shot from behind.

"......"

I continued to look around.

Where the capsule had been before, a new capsule was there, and behind it, another one was calmly occupying the space, like a tumor.

Transporting them was impossible.

They were too large and heavy to fit on my bicycle.

I gathered all the valuable items, especially painkillers, from the air-raid shelter, closed the hatch, covered it with dirt and leaves, and marked the surrounding trees.

I was about to leave when I remembered the last message Kyle_Dos had intended to send to DragonC.

He mentioned going to a flower field.

I decided to look for it.

The flower field he mentioned was nowhere to be found.

I followed the valley in the webtoon, but it was in vain.

It was the season when flowers would have withered and died, and the forest was too dense to allow a flower field to exist.

Just as I was about to give up and turn back, a hypothesis flashed through my mind.

Kyle_Dos claimed that he found and rescued the woman, and they slowly became close and formed a marital bond.

But what if it was a lie?

What if his story contained distortions mixed with the truth?

There are a few possibilities to consider.

The first is that the woman was dead from the beginning.

The woman who was severely beaten and unconscious was already dead when he found her.

Kyle_Dos brought the corpse to his hideout, stitched up the wounds that would not heal, talked to it, confessed his love, and even shared a bed with it.

When the corpse began to decompose, he cremated it and tried to stand it up with a rope, but eventually, he left the air-raid shelter and disappeared.

The second possibility is even more horrific.

Kyle_Dos discovered a group of survivors, including a young woman, while patrolling.

He intended to let them go, but seeing the woman's beauty, he awakened his suppressed instincts.

When he came to his senses, the others were all dead, and Kyle_Dos had taken the woman for himself.

The violent and coercive honeymoon ended with the woman's suicide, and only then did Kyle_Dos realize his mistake and leave the air-raid shelter, disappearing somewhere.

The last possibility – and I hope this is the truth – is that everything, including the woman, was a fabrication by Kyle_Dos.

In other words, the woman never existed, and he never brought her to the air-raid shelter.

Trapped in a small, confined space for a long time, where the madness of another world seeped in, he could no longer bear the loneliness and created an ideal woman out of his imagination, reaching the love he desired.

In a state of blurred dreams and reality, Kyle_Dos went out with his wife and went on a date, and afterward, an unrelated woman came and hanged herself in the air-raid shelter.

This is probably the whole story.

I am watching.

The flower field that Kyle_Dos intended to go to with his wife.

It was made up of thousands of capsules.