Chapter 8

8. Demian04 and 1 more

Almost all of us, the doomsday enthusiasts, are men, and more specifically, single men.

At Jonnaen's discussion, I have never seen a female participant, nor have I read any posts in the community that hint at being written by a woman.

If you think about it, the reason becomes clear.

We, the doomsday enthusiasts, are, in other words, people who pray for the world to end and perform rituals for its destruction.

If one is grateful for the current world and living in it, they would wish for the current state to continue rather than prepare for its end.

What if the monsters suddenly disappeared and no war broke out? What would have become of our fate?

In my case, Park Gyu,

It would be a complete disaster...

Not just a disaster, but a descent into hell.

The evidence is still clearly written in my phone, which has no signal.

[Web Sent] (Shinhan Bank) Notice of Auction Execution for Mr. Park * Gyu's Collateral Loan

[Web Sent] (Sanwang Money) Notice of Creditor Transfer for Mr. Park Gyu's Ladies Loan Overdue

[Web Sent] This is Shinra Credit Information. http://sinramoneytaker.co.kr/....

Not only did I pour cement over the construction equipment, but in the end, I took out a loan with no intention of paying it back due to a lack of funds.

It was hard to imagine that a place filled with such gloomy people would have a user as bright and cheerful as a flower.

However, recently, a female user appeared out of nowhere.

It was 1 year and 7 months after the war began.

*

When you live in a bomb shelter for over a year, there is a common problem everyone faces.

The lack of entertainment.

I don't drink or smoke.

I might have a light drink in a safe place, but drinking alone can lead to addiction, and addiction can lead to death.

Cigarettes are a decent pastime, but they are also valuable barter resources and have the power to attract people.

I know from experience that the sense of smell of a person who has been forced to quit smoking for a long time is as good as a dog's.

Finding entertainment elsewhere is not easy either.

There are no TV dramas broadcast on specific days, and no places to meet friends for a drink.

If you want to play a physical sport like soccer, there's no team.

I don't know about those who pursue collective survival, but for someone like me who pursues individual survival, even table tennis is impossible.

I thought about taking up fishing as a hobby, but I gave up because the radiation levels in the nearby reservoir didn't decrease.

As time passed and the number of visitors increased, I spent more time in the bomb shelter, and my hobbies naturally shifted to activities that could be done indoors.

To be honest, at this point, the most entertaining pastime is our doomsday enthusiast community, Viva! Apocalypse! It's not an exaggeration to say so.

It's a place where people with similar thoughts gather and share their similar situations.

There are strange users like IAmJesus, DongtanMom, and HumanHunter, but there are also many exemplary users like me.

At this point, more than a year and a half after the war began, I, who used to be a perpetual lurker, have become actively involved in the community.

The reasons are complex.

I'm bored, and I can feel the sense of communication, but I also don't want to see our precious community disappear as my fellow members gradually vanish.

The result is below.

SKELTON : (Skelton's Daily Life) This evening ㅎㅎ

SKELTON : (Skelton's Story) Fresh news I heard on the military frequency yesterday

SKELTON : (Skelton's Making) I made a wool felt doll!

SKELTON : (Skelton's Video) Skelton's Beatboxing (3)

For some reason, my presence in the community has started to resemble my mentor, Jonnaen.

However, I haven't completely imitated Jonnaen.

Jonnaen only added (Jonnaen) as a prefix, but I added more specific topics like (Skelton's Video) after the prefix to consider the reader.

However, unlike Jonnaen, I have no popularity, with views always in the single digits, and no likes or comments.

It's the limit of an ordinary person with no talent for art or writing and no knowledge to teach others.

Seeing popular users like DragonC, who draws his daily life in a stylish comic style, and Anonymous118, who uploads various crude but diverse homemade games, I can understand why Jonnaen was so heavily criticized.

Operating in the lowest tier of the popularity caste, I naturally began to notice friends similar to me.

A writer who stubbornly uploads his own novels despite the views being close to binary, a weirdo who posts grotesque photos of his naked body with unwarranted confidence, and Cimongi Papa, who serializes Cimongi's diary, among others.

If Cimongi Papa had cultivated something else, he might have been more popular...

Among this lower group is a user named Demian04.

He consistently uploaded his own drawings made with a ballpoint pen, but in terms of talent, he showed no signs of it.

His subjects were always long-haired women (or so they appeared), and while it's understandable that he couldn't draw them well, he exaggerated their breasts to an extreme degree.

If it were just exaggerated, I wouldn't have said anything, but in Demian04's case, it was like attaching two rice bags.

Did he not eat well as a child?

Demian04 mainly uploaded modern art, but he rarely wrote posts expressing his thoughts or opinions.

His consistent posting of the hideous, talentless breast monsters might be why I remember him.

However, this guy suddenly started talking a lot.

*

(Search Results: demian04 – 4,553 results)

...

Demian04 : Miss Yuri is so beautiful~

Demian04 : I picked a flower for Miss Yuri today and took a photo.

Demian04 : Current state of Demian's food storage.jpg

Demian04 : (Demian04 Food) This evening, it's a shame to eat alone~ ㅎㅎ

Demian04 : (Demian04 Art) Fan art of Miss Yuri!!

Demian04 : (Demian04 Story) Just chased away a refugee

...

...

"Hmm?"

Why is this guy suddenly imitating me?

Actually, that peculiar prefix is more of Jonnaen's trademark, but I was the one who improved it.

Demian is imitating me, not Jonnaen.

I have a rough idea why.

It's not boasting, but I have recently gained a bit of popularity.

SKELTON : (Skelton's Story) Memories with Chairman Jeungpung (1)

A serialized story about my experiences with a tycoon, told in a folksy manner, stirred the hearts of the picky users of Viva! Apocalypse! Korean board.

The third part, which can be considered the climax, even made it to the popular posts.

Demian must have read that story.

But why did this guy suddenly start talking so much?

In such a doomsday era, it's not uncommon for someone to suddenly go crazy or start doing things they never did before.

There are plenty of things that can drive us mad: accumulated stress, ignored truths, external threats, diseases and radiation, drugs, and anxiety about the future.

In Demian's case, it was clear that he went crazy through a different route from the usual causes of madness.

Demian04 : (Demian04) Fan art of Miss Yuri!!

I clicked on one of Demian's posts to check the content.

As always, he drew his nymph, a long-haired woman.

The drawing was as terrible as always, but there was one noticeable difference to my trained eye, Park Gyu.

He put in a lot of effort.

A lot.

I suddenly wondered.

Who is Miss Yuri?

A real person? Or an imaginary girlfriend? I've never seen anyone like her in the community.

In a world where women don't exist.

Unable to solve the mystery, I sought advice from the community.

SKELTON : (Skelton's Question) Who is Miss Yuri?

The help came from an unexpected source.

Message from Defender: It seems you've blocked them. Try turning on the "Show Blocked Posts" function.

It was HumanHunter.

In real life, he's a psychopath who kills indiscriminately, but in the community, he's a good user who only speaks the truth, albeit a bit grumpy.

So, a real-life bastard and an internet sage, you could say.

Isn't it usually the other way around?

Anyway, following HumanHunter's advice, I turned on the "Show Blocked Posts" function, and the hidden truth was revealed.

Yuri_need_man : Yuri is here~

Yuri_need_man : A photo after a long time of putting on makeup

Yuri_need_man : Feeling down

Yuri_need_man : Want to go to Starbucks

...

...

"What is this?"

A woman.

A young and beautiful woman.

She attached a photo to each post, not showing her entire face, but the glimpses of her face revealed a genuine beauty in her early 20s.

Her figure exuded sensuality, and she enjoyed wearing revealing outfits.

I remember she had quite a few tattoos.

The location was inside a bomb shelter, and these were current photos, not old ones.

However,

"Huh?"

My usually kind face hardened.

This is a trap.

Why would I have blocked the ID "Yuri_need_man"?

I didn't block Miss Yuri.

I blocked the person using Miss Yuri's account.

I checked.

Yuri_need_man's account information

Account ID: viva103472

Nickname: Yuri_need_man

Number of posts: 10,323

"Sure enough."

On the Viva! Apocalypse! board, nicknames can be changed at any time like in a group chat, but the account ID is a unique value that cannot be changed.

I searched by account ID and found the original nickname of this account.

kurogod : My dad's wealth is around 1.2 trillion.

kurogod : I miss caviar~ American prime steak can't satisfy my taste~

kurogod : The Bentley I used to drive before the war~

kurogod : If I had gone all in, I could have built a much better bomb shelter than you~

...

..

Kurogod. This guy was one of the four I blocked along with HumanHunter.

He was a friend who wrote a diary every day, full of lies.

He seemed young from his words and actions, but the skin texture of the hand in his verification photo looked older than mine.

The problem is that this guy disappeared a year ago.

A friend who wrote a diary every day without fail suddenly disappeared for one reason only.

He was killed and his bomb shelter was taken.

But the guys who killed Kurogod are playing a very interesting prank.

They stripped Kurogod of his few assets and, upon discovering our community, are using a young and beautiful woman as a front to target my cheerful fellow members.

HumanHunter said one thing.

Defender: No one will fall for this idiotic fishing, right?

There is.

Demian04 : (Demian04) Miss Yuri~ You're really beautiful today~ (Heart emoji)

It's Demian04.

He followed every post Miss Yuri made, liked them, and praised her enthusiastically.

Nosy users scolded him.

Especially a user named SUNBI was the most active in scolding Demian04.

SUNBI : Hey, young friend, this isn't right. Control yourself. I'll send you a porn video via DM, so have a good time and enjoy the sage mode~

Up to this point, it's fine. Obsessing over a beautiful woman is a sign of a healthy man.

Moreover, the real-time photo of Miss Yuri's leggings was so powerful that even I saved it.

But everything has a limit.

The plunderer soon revealed his true intentions.

Yuri_need_man : I'm lonely and need protection. Is there any man who can give me a place to stay for one night?

The plunderer cast the deadly fishing line.

With his ultimate weapon, a seductive photo in lingerie.

One result flowed past me like a prophecy.

Demian04 : Yes!

The prophecy came true.

Demian took the bait in less than a second.

"Wow... fuck."

After more than a year and a half since the war began, our community users, though not as tight-knit as the Ruprecht Reichspalace, had a strong sense of solidarity, so they all united to scold him.

Defender: Don't do it. I warned you.

Even the psychopath HumanHunter.

Of course, I, Park Gyu, added my voice.

SKELTON : (Skelton's Advice) Mr. Demian. It's fine to follow me, but please see reality.

The most intense criticism came from SUNBI.

SUNBI : Miss Yuri, I warn you. If you lay a hand on our community, I will not tolerate it!

As the community's resistance grew, the plunderer changed his strategy.

Yuri_need_man : Since many people are jealous, I'll talk via DM~

Direct messages, meaning private messages visible only to them.

Naturally, no one has seen Demian04 since then.

SUNBI, who tried to correct Demian04, also disappeared, likely disappointed by the incident.

The most mysterious result of this incident was the disappearance of Miss Yuri.

Perhaps they only intended to make a quick profit, but the wolf in sheep's clothing never appeared on the board again.

*

A week passed.

For some reason, I suddenly became curious about Demian04's past.

What kind of person was he before and right after the war?

He started his activity right after the war.

At that time, he posted only drawings without much comment.

The theme he liked back then was not a woman with an exaggeratedly large chest, but landscapes.

Unlike his crude character drawings, his landscapes were very good.

Especially the landscape he named "Untitled 04," depicting a sunset sea and a lighthouse island, was very beautiful.

I even printed it and hung it in my bomb shelter.

I thought the Demian episode was over, but there was a sequel.

Defender: A bit late, but here's the verification for Miss Yuri.

It wasn't just Demian04 who attended Miss Yuri's murder plot.

Our HumanHunter also attended and mercilessly killed the plunderer and the front woman, now posting the verification photos on the board.

What he posted was not just the plunderer.

Our old brother, the plunderer, was honored (with his face covered) in the verification.

The bodies of those who were stripped and beaten to death felt different from those killed by the human hunter.

But there are two.

Why two?

The one who went to die was not just Demian04.

Defender: Who is the other one?

Indeed, who?

Defender: 10

10?

Defender: SUNBI.

"Oh."