Chapter 34

27. Tooth Decay (1)

Snowflakes gently accumulate.

A brazier made of stacked bricks.

Gentle branches and a fire that burns low.

A kettle boiling and emitting steam, and a packet of instant coffee ready to be opened.

Pouring the right amount of water into a stainless steel cup and adding the coffee mix makes up my morning.

Despite various events, this winter has been peaceful.

Even without considering the intense autumn, compared to last winter, it has undoubtedly been a peaceful time.

Perhaps it could be called the positive effect of the civil war.

While thousands die in Seoul every day and millions flee, it feels like a distant world to me.

Now, thinking back, it’s embarrassing, but even when I was in school, I had a bit of a savior complex.

At that time, Jason Choi, “The Last Explorer,” had a lot of persuasive power.

He was the first of 8 billion humans to step into the other side of the rift and tread on the land of another world, receiving worldwide media attention and making a shocking declaration.

“The rift can be closed.”

Before I even graduated, Jason Choi had already contributed to lowering the status of Korean Americans in American society.

Everything was a lie.

He had never entered the rift, and he had never even faced a monster.

The landscape he described beyond the rift was so different from what we knew, and the friendly small animals he claimed to have seen there only appeared before him.

When the small creatures we call “miniatures” began to kill humans beyond the rift, the man who claimed to have been the first to enter the rift fled faster than anyone else.

Jason Choi didn’t go to jail but was swept away by the aftershock of a nuclear explosion while struggling in a legal quagmire.

There are still people on American forums who claim he is alive, but it’s more of a meme than a serious opinion.

I don’t know if Jason Choi is alive or dead, and I don’t care, but at least one person has risen from the dead on our forum, like Jesus.

SUNBI: ㅎ곤디? 1234

Sunbi.

He was more faithful to his desires than anyone, but he was also a man of manners and style. He was killed along with Demian04 during the Yuri incident, which once heated up the forum.

This was confirmed by Defender, who cleaned up the scene at the time.

However, the dead Sunbi resurrected and appeared on the forum, causing a chilling fear among the users.

Even I, who am not easily scared, felt a chill.

It wasn’t just the sudden appearance of a dead person; the message he sent was hard to believe was written by a human.

Message from SUNBI: ㅎ뉘곤누? ㅎ넛누후누

Soon, it became known that Sunbi had sent bizarre messages to many other users, and one user proposed a sharp opinion, which quickly dampened the fear caused by Sunbi’s resurrection.

Anonymous848: Didn’t Sunbi die with the air-raid shelter left open? Could it be that someone else took over his air-raid shelter and accessed the forum?

I also found this opinion reasonable.

Defender: I buried Sunbi myself. He’s definitely dead.

Defender reaffirmed Sunbi’s death.

However, one friend consistently presented a minority opinion different from others.

berkut_break: Could it be Sunbi himself?

He’s a friend with no particular connection to me.

He used to pretend to be knowledgeable, discussing avant-garde films and postmodernism in the corner of the forum with friends of similar tastes.

But he seemed to enjoy Dragon’s comics and Foxgame’s games quite a bit...

Anyway, this Berkut friend unusually raised his voice on the forum.

berkut_break: Let’s say the person behind Sunbi’s account has changed. But does that mean it’s not Sunbi? The Sunbi we know is a user of viva112578 with the nickname SUNBI. Even if the person behind the account has changed, isn’t it still half Sunbi?

It’s a pointless argument.

Perhaps he just wanted to engage in a keyboard battle.

They often exchanged “discourses” using bizarre terms, especially those created by German philosophers, as if they were directly translated from Japanese.

However, his intention was shattered by a sharp comment from a user in a similar ecological position to me.

unicorn18: What a lunatic?

Seeing unicorn18’s comment become popular was, in a way, a result of the times, but I felt a bit of jealousy.

That jealousy turned toxic.

“...Ugh.”

My tooth hurts.

I have a cavity.

*

Being a doomsday enthusiast doesn’t mean you can handle every situation.

Dental problems are one of them.

I have weak teeth, so I did prepare somewhat.

A cheap handpiece that runs on 110 volts, lecture materials, and a high-lumen light, among other things.

However, it’s not easy to drill into your own mouth while looking in a mirror.

I quickly gave up and sought another solution.

That solution was to ask for help on “viva! Apocalypse!”

This is actually the intended function of the community, created by the founder Melon Mask.

The “viva! Apocalypse!” satellite internet network was designed to help post-apocalyptic humans cooperate and live without being constrained by communication.

SKELTON: (Skelton in pain) I have a cavity. Is there anyone who used to be a dentist? I can offer a reward if you can help me.

After 10 minutes of no response, my only internet friend finally answered my desperate call.

Defender: Dentist? Try asking dolsingman.

Dolsingman?

Who is he?

He’s a straightforward friend whose life story is evident from his nickname, but like me in the past, he’s a lurker.

He’s probably one of those lurkers.

I asked for help from this dolsingman.

Fortunately, dolsingman was alive.

Message from dolsingman: Treatment is possible, but you don’t have the equipment you’re thinking of. We’ll have to use a hand drill, and there’s no filling material, so the hole will have to be left as is. Are you okay with that? Oh, the most important thing. I’ll tie you down before the procedure.

“...”

I thought about it for a moment.

I could imagine what he meant.

The treatment he described sounded more like torture.

I asked if there were any other dentists.

Message from dolsingman: Other dentists? There’s one with good equipment. He’s rare these days. But...

SKELTON: But?

Message from dolsingman: That guy is a quack.

SKELTON: A quack?

Message from dolsingman: He was active for a short time before the war and tried to pass himself off as a dentist. Last spring, I told him I was a dentist, and he was happy. He said he had something to ask and invited me to his house.

SKELTON: (Skelton curious) Invited you to his house?

Message from dolsingman: I don’t know what he was thinking. He dug his own grave. Or maybe he had my diploma from the same school on display. I talked to him out of kindness, but he knew nothing. I can understand forgetting what you learned in school or the names of picky professors, but how could he not know the name of the building where he supposedly studied for six years? It’s 100% a fake diploma.

But the quack has good equipment.

He was also active on this forum.

Message from dolsingman: I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, but he did say something true. In the end, it’s all about the equipment. If you’re interested, send him a DM. You can get a comfortable treatment, but I can’t guarantee the results.

The quack’s nickname, as told by dolsingman, was “Dentist_Kim.”

Just by the nickname, he seems more trustworthy than dolsingman.

I investigated Dentist_Kim’s past.

As dolsingman said, Dentist_Kim had been an active user for three years before the war.

Dentist_Kim: Hello. I never thought I’d join a site like this, but the current situation...

Dentist_Kim: When the war broke out, I thought about how a dentist could survive long-term.

Dentist_Kim: (English forum repost) How a dentist can survive in a post-apocalyptic situation.

Dentist_Kim: Jonnaeon. You copied and pasted a French user’s post. I sent a DM with questions, but got no response, so I’m making it public.

Dentist_Kim: (Personal photo) This is a used unit chair I bought.

Total posts: 5.

These are all the posts Dentist_Kim ever made.

His sporadic activity ended exactly one month before the war started.

Although he didn’t write many posts, it was clear from the content that he was seriously aiming to be a doomsday enthusiast.

And he seemed to be, perhaps unintentionally, the one who brought about Jonnaeon’s downfall.

I clicked on one of Dentist_Kim’s posts.

Dentist_Kim: (English forum repost) How a dentist can survive in a post-apocalyptic situation.

- While all medicine has benefited from modern technology, no field has benefited as dramatically as dentistry.

Imagine a world without handpieces. You would need to build muscles at a fitness center to subdue patients, develop a tough personality to stand up to complaining patients, and be prepared to face various legal risks if a patient dies during treatment...

...

...

A translated post about preparing for a post-apocalyptic world from a dentist’s perspective.

I clicked on another post.

Dentist_Kim: When the war broke out, I thought about how a dentist could survive long-term.

- In disaster movies, doctors are always treated as essential, maintaining their status as doctors whether they’re under villains or in survivor groups. However, I’ve never seen a dentist in a similar role.

Why? Because of the equipment. A dentist with a sophisticated unit chair and handpieces in a post-apocalyptic world would look out of place.

But dental problems are more closely tied to life and cause significant pain. People eat with their mouths, not their anuses, right?

Imagine a modern-equipped dentist in a post-apocalyptic world. A dentist with a unit chair that can run on self-generated power, handpieces, and suction equipment in a world where everything has collapsed.

What do you think?

Wouldn’t such a person be a uniquely valuable presence?

Unlike the first translated post, I read this one to the end.

It was interesting to see a doomsday enthusiast with a different background and knowledge pondering and presenting their own survival strategy.

I remember that before the war, there were many such beneficial posts. Some users, now considered crazy, were once normal.

I, Park Kyu, also had a better image back then, though it wasn’t widely known...

Anyway, it’s clear that this user, Dentist_Kim, has knowledge and experience in dentistry.

The fact that he has a house in Pangyo, as shown in his verification, suggests he was a high-income earner among dentists.

I sent him a message.

It took three days for a reply.

Dentist_Kim sent me a photo.

It appeared to be a basement of a building, equipped with the same dental chairs and equipment I saw before the war.

No doubt.

This is a perfect dental facility for the post-apocalyptic world.

About five years ago, Dentist_Kim expressed his ambition in a post.

Dentist_Kim: I have a facility like this, and since you’re a rare forum user, I’ll give you a discount.

He proposed his conditions.

Message from Dentist_Kim: An unopened bottle of single malt whiskey or a pack of pre-war cigarettes (menthol is half a pack). However, I don’t accept whiskey under 100,000 won before the war. // Luxury items (watches, bags, clothes) are also welcome, but they must be of high quality, like Chanel or Gucci.

It’s a demand that seems out of place in today’s world.

It feels like a remnant of the lost wealth and leisure of the past.

But I don’t have what he’s looking for.

I have a little bit of cigarettes, but I’ve almost disposed of them, so I don’t have a full pack.

I tried to negotiate, but...

Message from Dentist_Kim: No discounts.

It’s a dead end.

I had no choice but to call on my internet friend.

Of course, I only have one friend.

Message from Defender: Luxury items? I have them. Or I will have them. What? Hermes? Chanel?

What a good friend.

But this friend made an unexpected suggestion.

Message from Defender: In exchange, ask him to treat us. I’ll prepare the items.

SKELTON: (Skelton surprised) What? Us?

Message from Defender: My brother’s tooth also hurts.

SKELTON: Isn’t that a bit sudden?

Message from Defender: (Defender serious) You know he won’t treat us if I mention my name, right?

“...”

A fitting response.