Chapter 89

47. Cold

Whether before or after the war, the most important thing to pay attention to is health.

If your body breaks down, you break down.

Though I have a healthy constitution, I was careful about my health throughout my life in the air-raid shelter.

When I say health management, it's not anything grand.

I maintained a temperature that wouldn't let my body temperature drop too much, ate an appropriate amount of food, avoided alcohol and cigarettes, and above all, tried not to be stressed.

Stress not only distracts the mind but also eats away at the body.

I took nutritional supplements regularly, and even though I could take them every day, I still had enough for five more years.

Of course, I didn't slack on exercise either.

I refrained from exercise that would make me pant, but I didn't miss a day of exercises to maintain proper lung capacity, muscle strength, and flexibility.

However, no matter how much health management one does, it's impossible to always be healthy.

A person who was just fine and exercising at the gym could collapse and die from a heart attack in the elevator on the way back, or they could suffer from food poisoning and struggle with death after eating shellfish given as a gift.

This is no exception for me, Park Gyu.

"Cough! Cough!"

I must have overexerted myself in Jeongpho City.

I caught a cold.

And it's a nasty flu.

The thermometer tucked under my armpit read 39.5 degrees.

Cold sweat ran down my body, and chills and fever alternated.

The air-raid shelter was warm with the heat of late autumn, but I had to lie still under a thick blanket.

Rumble—

My stomach growled because I hadn't eaten properly, but I didn't even have the energy to get up, let alone cook a meal.

I had some instant porridge, but it was on the third basement floor, and I had to climb down a ladder, which was impossible in my current state.

I spent the whole day in bed fighting high fever and chills.

I took medicine, but there was no improvement.

My head hurt more, and I started coughing.

The thermometer read 39.6 degrees.

"Cough! Cough...!!"

Humans are tougher than people think, but sometimes they die absurdly easily.

On the second day of my cold, I spent the day in endless pain, drawing and erasing vague images without any coherent thoughts.

I thought about eating and came out from under the blanket, but dizziness prevented me from going down to the basement, so I ate crackers on the first floor that were soaked in water.

That evening, a call came from the communication device, but I couldn't answer it.

I was aware that the communication device was ringing, but in a state of blurred consciousness due to the effects of the medicine, sleepiness, and pain, I couldn't turn it on.

I woke up in the early morning.

Around 2:10 AM.

I felt extreme hunger and thirst.

Thinking I couldn't go on without eating something, I took a lantern and slowly made my way to the ladder leading to the third basement floor.

"Groan..."

The hatch wouldn't open.

To be precise, I didn't have the strength to open the hatch leading to the second basement floor.

I had no choice but to drink water and return to bed, stuffing my mouth with glucose candies until my stomach was full.

Horribly, I couldn't fall asleep after that.

The pain was still there, but my mind was too clear.

The clear mind, intertwined with the aching body, brought a new kind of mental pain.

I wanted to do something with this clear mind, but my body ached too much to do anything, and if I just lay there or tried to sleep, this clear mind would prevent me from doing even that.

In this state of being unable to do anything, I had to wait for the sun to rise, perceiving time in seconds.

On the third day of my cold, the thermometer read 38.6 degrees.

The fever had gone down.

But it was still a high fever.

The throbbing headache and the unusually clear state of mind persisted.

Rumble

I needed to eat something now.

I had to.

I forced my body up and opened the hatch again.

Creak—

I managed to open the hatch with great difficulty.

But then, a bad omen.

"..."

The motion sensor flashed red.

The location was the eastern side of the main air-raid shelter.

No doubt about it.

An intruder.

I barely suppressed a hollow laugh.

It's always like this.

Fate doesn't wait.

Fate doesn't care if I'm sick or in poor condition.

Just like my deceased colleagues.

There was a junior named Park Sun-mi.

She was a talkative woman.

That day, she said she was sick.

She was too embarrassed to say it, but it seemed to be menstrual cramps.

I told her to rest.

But she, with her ambitions, asked for an easier assignment instead of resting.

She was about to get married.

Her plan was to earn more points on the battlefield, get promoted, and start her honeymoon under better conditions.

I denied her request, but she joined the operation through my superior and died.

She was usually a terrifying runner, capable of running 100 meters in the 12-second range, but she was slower than usual and that's why she died.

Now, I'm in a worse situation than her.

I can't control my body due to high fever and chills, I can't eat properly, and my mind is confused due to the strong components of the cold medicine.

I have to fight in this state.

Click—

I couldn't even pick up an axe, so I didn't even take it out.

I only trusted two rifles and three pistols.

I didn't have the time to set up traps, and the entrance to my main air-raid shelter, which I had dug during the rainy season, was still open.

The killers Kim Daram sent would probably be confused to find two entrances to my air-raid shelter, but they would soon realize that one of the shelters was empty and turn their attention to the main shelter.

The motion sensor continued to flash.

From east to south.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

No particular scenery came to mind.

No particular person came to mind.

Strangely, I didn't have much regret.

I'm just going to die.

That's all I feel now.

Maybe it's the result of suffering from high fever and chills, but when I think about it, I didn't have any desperate desires in life.

I wasn't a power-hungry person like Lee Sang-hoon, nor did I try to gain practical benefits like Kim Daram, chase dreams like Gong Gyeong-min, or follow impulses like Woo Min-hee.

I just wanted to erase the existence of monsters from this world.

That's it.

No, there's one more thing.

There was one thing I wanted to do.

A wish I always dreamed of but never wanted to do.

I put down my weapons and stumbled to the laptop, turned it on, and connected to the internet.

"Welcome to Viva! Apocalypse!"

"..."

Tap tap

I saw the deaths of countless friends through the bulletin board.

Some disappeared quietly, while others went out with a bang.

There were some who left a strong impression on me.

Those who, before they died, before they were killed, vented their final curses on the internet.

Like Dongtanmami, who was now reborn as Baek Seung-hyun.

Anyway, if I had to go, I wanted to do it like them when the real moment came.

SKELTON: (Skeleton Crisis) Fuck it!

-There are people outside trying to kill me.

I'm going first. Bye!

That's the internet curse I wanted to leave.

I couldn't take a photo and upload it, so I quickly wrote the content and closed the laptop.

"..."

Wish list completed.

A smile naturally formed on my face.

How happy it is to be able to smile in such a terrible situation.

Thud

Footsteps were heard.

They were human.

The strange thing about the human body is that the clear mind I had from dawn to morning is now turning into sleepiness, pressing down on my eyelids.

I'm so angry I want to shout, but I don't want to reveal my position.

Even if I die, my mission is to take as many of them with me as possible.

The front sensor flashed.

They are now at the entrance to my air-raid shelter.

I hid under the concrete platform where the central toilet was placed, aimed my gun at the toilet, and fixed the barrel.

"..."

There was no movement.

What are they preparing?

Dynamite? Welding machine?

If they brought dynamite, I'm dead.

By the way, my last post.

Did anyone comment?

I hope my final curse didn't get buried without any response.

I would really be angry if that happened.

Really.

Knock knock

Fate is knocking on my door.

I waited motionless with my gun fixed, waiting for the door to open.

"Skeleton?"

Ah.

"Skeleton? Are you there?"

I had completely forgotten.

"Skeleton? Hey, Skeleton!"

That I had neighbors.

"Why didn't you answer my calls? Huh?"

The intruders turned out to be the Defender siblings.

Maybe it was the relief of knowing they survived, the accumulated fatigue and pain, or the reaction to writing my final curse on the laptop, but Park Gyu lost consciousness as soon as he opened the door for the Defender siblings.

*

Before our family was wiped out by monsters, we lived in a 79㎡, or 24-pyeong, apartment.

It was 24-pyeong, but it had three rooms and two bathrooms, which were clearly smaller compared to larger apartments.

So, when I was lounging in the living room, I could see my mother preparing dinner right next to me.

My mother's cooking wasn't as delicious as my friends' mothers', but the serene atmosphere, the colors of the sunset, and the bubbling sound of the pot are scenes that come to mind when I'm alone.

That mother also died.

She died instantly.

Her neck was bent to the side, and her eyes were half out.

A person who never raised her voice in life had to die like that.

That anger woke me from my unconsciousness.

When I came to, the scene in front of me was strangely similar to what had woken me.

The serene atmosphere, the colors of the sunset, the bubbling sound, and a woman standing with her back to me.

"Skeleton?"

The woman tasted the food with a spatula and turned to me.

She was gentle.

"Are you awake?"

Next to me, Defender was sitting in front of a monitor, doing something.

It was a game.

He had connected a game from the IAmJesus house to the monitor and was playing with it.

"If you were sick, you should have said so."

He looked at me and laughed, then turned back to the monitor.

Boing~

I turned my gaze from the jumping game character on the monitor.

I was lying in bed.

There was ice on my forehead.

"..."

I froze for a moment, dazed.

I honestly didn't know what to say or think.

I wanted to express gratitude, but I didn't think it would be easy for the words to come out.

I might seem like a strange person, but I am.

"..."

I lived a life where I couldn't do anything else.

Anyway, the food seems to be ready.

Da-jeong turned to me and lightly tapped the pot with a spatula.

"Skeleton, it's ready!"

In the Defender family, they express "let's eat" like that.

A fragrant smell wafted through the air.

Defender's sister, who had forgotten where I was, put on oven mitts and brought out the freshly cooked porridge.

The white steam and the aroma of cooked rice brought back a lost scene to my mouth along with my appetite.

"Please eat."

"..."

"Thank you."

"It's nothing."

Defender's sister smiled and served the porridge in a bowl and brought it to me.

"Should I feed you?"

"No, no, I'm fine."

"Why?"

"No, I'm fine, really."

I scooped up the hot porridge with a spoon, blew on it, and brought it to my mouth.

It was bland, but it was surprisingly delicious.

The siblings looked at me at the same time.

"If you need anything, call us. Are you still uncomfortable with us?"

"No, it's not that."

I avoided their gaze and hurriedly ate the delayed meal.

The bowl of porridge was empty in no time.

"The rest is in the pot. Heat it up and eat it slowly."

"Can I borrow the game console?"

The Defender siblings, who had suddenly appeared and given me a sense of crisis, disappeared as suddenly as they had come.

Their considerate act of closing the door gently made me stare at the closed door for a long time after they left.

"..."

I need to learn how to rely on others more.

A small lesson left by the illness.

By the way, what was the reaction to my final internet curse?

Honestly, I think a few people might be worried.

I went to the laptop, recovered by Da-jeong's porridge, and checked my internet curse.

"..."

No comments.

"Baek Seung-hyun, you bastard!!!!"

*

SKELTON: No, isn't it too much to ignore someone who almost died?

I'm human too.

I'm so disappointed in the sentiment of our bulletin board.

How can you ignore an internet friend and old-timer in a life-threatening situation?

Is that reasonable?

dongtanmam: Munch... You're alive... Munch...

Now comments are coming, but it's a comment I don't want to see.

Anonymous848: As expected, it was a lie.

mmmmmmmmm: Are you bored? Is life meaningless? Want to come to my house? Every moment is dynamic.

unicorn18: Wow... You acted like the boy who cried wolf by not getting comments, and now you're writing a whiny post because you didn't get comments... Have you given up on people's hearts now?

gijayangban: ?

"..."

What did this Skeleton do wrong?

Should I release IAmJesus' ban to restore order?

No, that might be a bit dangerous.

Anyway, I can only think about such things because I'm healthy.

I picked up the communication device to express my gratitude to the Defender siblings.

Coincidentally, the communication device rang.

"Skeleton!"

It was Defender's sister.

But her voice was unusually urgent.

"What's wrong?"

I answered immediately.

"O, Oppa!"

"..."

"I got shot!"