Chapter 80

44. Construction (1)

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

Destruction has risen to our necks.

The lives of the refugees I saw in Incheon were miserable.

They were just barely surviving.

They had to continue a dependent life, relying entirely on the government, whose representatives were unknown, for their basic needs and even their fate.

At least in the cities, it seems that instead of cockroach-colored nutrition bars, they are now providing some kind of unidentifiable nutritious porridge.

It’s said to be much better in taste and nutrition than the nutrition bars.

The issue is the ingredients of this nutritious porridge, and people are making all sorts of guesses about what they are.

Mutated meat, human flesh, zombie meat.

Regardless of what it is, the people in the city have no choice but to rely on this nutritious porridge.

If they don’t eat it, they can’t survive.

Eating this unidentifiable food and enduring while boarding the fleet to Jeju Island is the only hope ordinary people can dream of.

The situation for our forum friends, who are doomsday enthusiasts, is not much better.

Anonymous424: My food supplies are running out. What should I do?

Doyourbest321: I’m in Busan. Does anyone have food to share? I can trade for fuel.

RKKArA: I’m so hungry. When will the barley ripen?

Although they occasionally appeared before, as summer approaches, more and more friends are revealing their worsening food situations.

The average food reserve of our forum users is generally three years. Originally, it was two years, but since Jonnaenon argued that three years was safer, the three-year reserve theory became the mainstream, and most people followed the trend and prepared more than three years' worth.

But now, it’s almost three years.

Moreover, food spoils and is consumed faster than expected.

This means that some of us might die of starvation.

When I saw SeedMonkeyPapa the other day, his food supplies were also almost gone.

In addition to food, some people are suffering from external threats.

Users who were hiding in the northern part of Seoul have been wiped out.

There are even more ominous movements in the south.

An unknown cult is rapidly spreading among the starving people.

Although the name of the religion is unknown, it’s clearly a Manryugyujonggyo (a cult that preaches coexistence and harmony with monsters) from the way they talk about coexisting and harmonizing with monsters.

The flames that burned China have now spread to this land.

With both the north and south in difficult times, I, Park Kyu, am no exception.

I couldn’t live in that hellish neighborhood anymore, so I returned to my beautiful home, but it’s no longer safe here.

I need to prepare for a fight.

I don’t know when the Legion soldiers will come.

“You don’t need to worry so much.”

Defender had a different opinion.

“Seriously, are you that high-value a target? To the point where they need to break the ceasefire and send a special forces team to eliminate you?”

“No, I’m not.”

As Defender said, I’m not a VIP.

Unless it’s someone like Woo Minhee, sending elite troops to capture a hunter who is no different from a regular soldier would be an excessive investment.

But if I think about what they would gain by killing me, the answer becomes clear.

Let’s consider a few possibilities.

Satisfaction from killing the informant?

Setting an example for traitors?

Or just a simple act of venting?

No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t make sense.

But people often do things that don’t make sense.

I need to be prepared.

Considering how many people lived carelessly before the war, it’s a good idea to be prepared.

But when I actually try to prepare, I feel lost.

The enemy is the military.

How do I prepare to face the military?

No matter how much I think about it, I can’t come to a conclusion on my own.

“Rebecca? Rebecca? I’m Skeleton. Hey, can I use the internet for a bit?”

This is for that purpose.

*

“I don’t like it. Use your own. Why do you keep trying to use mine?”

“Ah, come on.”

I have two friends with a "Viva! Apocalypse!" account: the sniper mother and daughter, and Defender.

However, Defender is a well-known figure on the Korean forum.

It’s not a good thing for him to post every little thing he does, for both him and me.

Especially since Defender is already being targeted by someone even stranger than himself.

On the other hand, the sniper mother and daughter are free from domestic threats.

She operates on the English forum, and the account she uses belongs to a dead noble.

So, I decided to borrow Rebecca’s account for a while.

“Just for an hour?”

I started my anonymous activities under Rebecca’s cold gaze.

COOKIEMONSTER18: (Urgent) I think I’ve been spotted by soldiers. What should I do?

Activity name: Save me.

While waiting for replies, I looked around the mother and daughter’s hideout.

Both ammunition and food supplies had significantly decreased since the last time I saw them.

Ammunition was still in stock because they haven’t been shooting lately, but the food situation was serious.

“Is this all you have?”

Looking at the meager food supplies, I asked, and Rebecca sighed and nodded.

“Yeah.”

“We won’t last until summer.”

“Yeah.”

“I can share some of mine, though.”

“Why don’t we just team up? Skeleton?”

“What?”

“We can form a team!”

Rebecca, with a rare serious expression, stared at me intently and spoke.

It was a light comment, but the weight of her words was not light.

It was a matter of her and her daughter’s fate.

Soo stood next to Rebecca, looking up at me, suggesting they had discussed this for a long time.

Perhaps they had been waiting for the right moment to say this.

I also know how difficult it is for them.

I’ve thought about bringing them into my territory.

It’s not easy.

Even couples who love each other and get married can’t stop fighting, so living together with neighbors armed with guns can lead to numerous misunderstandings and conflicts.

The end result of those conflicts would likely be the death of one or both parties.

As I pondered, Soo approached me.

She stood there, holding a U.S. Army rifle like a brave soldier.

“Skeleton, we can shoot.”

I looked at Soo.

She has grown a lot.

When I first met her, she was only a bit taller than my waist, but now she’s almost as tall as my shoulder.

Kids grow fast at that age.

Maybe she takes after her mother.

Rebecca is as tall as me, at 181cm.

She might even grow taller than me.

But for now, I looked down at the still smaller girl and spoke the reality.

“...Well.”

I briefly explained my current situation.

I told her that I’m now a target for the soldiers and that they know my location.

“Is it because of that battle before?”

Rebecca asked, looking at me.

“Yeah. It was unavoidable.”

Although my situation is dangerous, I have no regrets about the decision I made then.

At least, I now have a glimmer of hope.

The atmosphere became heavy due to the serious topic.

Neither the sniper mother and daughter nor I spoke.

I asked for their understanding and checked the laptop.

There were a few replies.

Anonymous848: If you’re spotted by soldiers, you’re dead, right?

Anonymous1011: You should run. What else can you do?

Defender: It depends on the soldiers.

ㅇㅇ: If you’re caught by the Legion, consider yourself dead.

Roka_hun: Even deserters have their own groups.

Dies_irae69: If you adopt a group survival strategy, you can easily repel small-scale forces. Arm yourself to the point where the enemy feels threatened, and they won’t dare to attack.

...

...

“Hmm.”

Most of the opinions were negative.

Of course, I didn’t expect our forum friends to have a clear solution when I couldn’t figure it out myself.

But then Rebecca suddenly told me to move aside.

“What’s up?”

“Move. I know a way.”

I reluctantly gave up my seat.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap---

Rebecca, with her more skilled fingers, entered the English forum.

She searched with the expertise of a seasoned moderator and showed me a long article filled with dense English, like a brick wall.

“Here.”

“I can translate, but it’s a bit slow.”

“Let me see. I’ll translate it.”

Rebecca pressed the auto-translation button and gestured to Soo.

Soo copied the auto-translated text into a notepad and, though not as fast as her mother, corrected awkward or strange sentences.

She also looked up unknown words in a dictionary from time to time.

After a while, Soo proudly showed me the corrected text.

“Look at this, Skeleton.”

Callum: How we dealt with being discovered by a large-scale looting group in our bunker

The title caught my attention.

Isn’t this exactly my situation?

It turned out to be a popular article on the English forum.

I suddenly thought of Jonnaenon.

If such a talented person were still around, they might have translated and provided information on our forum.

Feeling the absence of the great user who is now a star, I carefully read the article.

-My bunker is quite large. I have three companions and heavy equipment. I also have an experienced carpenter. That’s me.

When the enemy’s reconnaissance team found our bunker, we successfully killed them all with my companions, but they requested reinforcements.

They are a quasi-military group with nearly three hundred members, essentially an army.

They have good equipment, including drones and even helicopters.

If they decide to kill us, we will definitely die.

However, the chances of us surviving if we leave here are slim.

The three of us, who are doomsday enthusiasts, invested almost everything in building this bunker.

So, what did we do?

We hid the bunker.

“Hmm...”

It’s a pretty good idea.

Hiding a bunker that has already been discovered is an unexpected approach.

The latter part of the article explains how to hide the bunker.

They did construction work.

They used their heavy equipment to alter the terrain significantly.

Of course, there are many conditions.

The enemy must have a vague idea of our location, be uncertain whether we are still in the area, and we must have the time to do the construction.

It’s not something an ordinary person can do.

The American who wrote this article is a group survivalist, and the scale of the bunker he mentioned is as large and well-equipped as mine.

“What do you think, Skeleton?”

Rebecca asked, observing my expression.

I nodded and gave a thumbs up.

“It’s good. Really good.”

It’s been a long time since I felt the positive impact of the community.

However, it seems difficult to apply the method of the user called Column directly.

In the U.S., the vast land makes it like finding a needle in a desert even if you know the information, but my bunker is in a specific location: a hill between a U.S. military base and a golf course.

Kim Dalram, who remembers my exact location, is another issue.

Therefore, I can’t completely hide it.

But I need to think about it.

My bunker and I are now inseparable.

“I need to go now.”

“Hey, Skeleton. Another comment was posted!”

Soo pointed to the laptop with a bright smile.

“It might be a surprising opinion.”

But before I could get close to the laptop, Soo’s face turned pale.

“What the...”

The reason was obvious.

dongtanmom: Yum... You’re dead... Yum...

“Fucking bastard?!”

I couldn’t help but yell.

Soo and Rebecca, startled, looked at me simultaneously.

“Skeleton...?”

They were more surprised because I rarely show anger.

I immediately apologized.

“Sorry, really sorry. But this guy is a real bastard.”

“Yeah, he seems like it. Why is he like that? Why is he writing as if he’s eating something?”

“It’s a kind of mental illness.”

I thanked Rebecca and her daughter again and left.

As I headed down the building, Rebecca said,

“If you need help, call us. We’ll help.”

“Yeah, if I need it.”

I got on Baek Seunghyun’s motorcycle and stared at the dashboard.

“Why does your owner live like this?”

The machine won’t answer, of course.

Still, the motorcycle is a very convenient and good means of transportation.

Unlike a bicycle, it can reach up to 180km/h, making it effective against humans, unlike a bicycle that’s useless if you’re spotted.

Unless it’s a guided weapon like a Javelin, hitting a moving object traveling over 100km/h is a matter of luck.

Baek Seunghyun takes good care of it and maintains it well.

Although he’s a person I don’t get along with and don’t like, at least this motorcycle shows one of his few good qualities.

I arrived at my territory on the motorcycle and walked around my bunker with my hands behind my back.

“Hmm...”

How should I modify it?

I definitely need to change the entrance, right?

Or maybe leaving it as it is could be a good strategy.

But just thinking about it won’t lead to the best solution.

I have another friend.

“Hey.”

Defender.

“Is it Skeleton?”

“Can I use the summoning right now?”

“What’s up?”

“It’s not a fight, but I need to discuss something.”

“What? A consultation? Save the summoning right.”

“Bring your sister too.”

“Suddenly?”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t tell me you’re really trying to become a husband? No way.”

“No, it’s not that. I just think it’s better to have one more person.”

“Alright, wait a moment.”

True to his reputation as a well-known figure on the forum, Defender has his own signs before he arrives.

His sister’s drone.

The drone scouts the area.

If there are no issues, the siblings come together, with the sister often riding a kickboard.

Although the road isn’t suitable for a kickboard, she insists on bringing it, showing how much she loves it.

“Hi, Skeleton.”

Daengi, who had just ridden a kickboard, took off her goggles and waved.

“Hey.”

After exchanging greetings with Daengi, I immediately started talking to Defender.

“Skeleton, what’s up? You said you need to discuss something.”

“Right.”

I shared my concerns with Defender and the possible solutions.

“Hide the bunker?”

“Can’t you see something from your war experience?”

“Sure. Let’s take a look.”

Defender, with his sister, inspected my territory like a division commander.

After a while, he stood in front of the main bunker, crossing his arms.

“It’s perfect as it is, but once the bunker’s location is discovered, that advantage is lost, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

I had a vague idea.

That my attempt to hide the bunker might be futile.

“Why don’t you just move? Come to our place.”

“That, that’s...”

“You have a junior who knows about this place, right? You should leave immediately.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but...”

Defender, you know.

Maybe because he’s an internet friend.

He doesn’t say the one thing I want to hear.

That’s his personality, though.

“Why don’t you just build a new one?”

Defender’s sister, chewing on a goral jerky, said with an innocent face.

“What?”

That’s impossible.

Wait a minute.

“...”

Something came to mind.

A way to hide my bunker from the Legion and Kim Dalram.