Hiding the House in the Apocalypse

18. Paradise

My air-raid shelter is not just a shelter.

It is a fortress carefully designed and built with enormous resources to maintain life in the past even if the world perishes.

It may not reach the citadel of some chaebols, but everything you need is over-prepared.

Food and fuel, daily necessities and medicines, all sorts of equipment, and miscellaneous items that even I didn’t know the use of were all prepared.

Even with the lack of firearms and ammunition, now my fortress is completely flawless.

The citadel is only for me.

From the design stage, the factor of accepting others other than myself was not considered.

Right now, even the toilet is open, and it is located right in the middle of the residential floor of the air-raid shelter.

The location is like this after considering the convenience of design, such as optimization of the plumbing.

Same goes for stockpile.

If I was alone, I could live in abundance, but if I share it with others, it won’t be.

Yes.

My air defense shelter is my own paradise.

“I don’t know if I should go there.”

There are people who try to break into that paradise.

A person you know well.

If there are no special circumstances, it is a person who has a relationship that will remain even if you accept it.

But not alone.

“…three people?”

too many.

It’s too much for one person, but bring two more.

Even those who have nothing to do with me.

You can guess who it is.

It must be Kim Da-ram’s husband and his son.

A person who has nothing to do with me.

Her husband only exchanged handshakes at the wedding, and her son knows only the name Dong Tak, but has never actually met him.

“Sorry senior. Were you surprised that it was such a sudden story?”

Da-ram Kim was one of the best people I’ve ever met.

More than anything, I liked the positivity.

No matter how desperate and hopeless the situation was, he was a guy who never lost his smile and hope.

Now that she has become a man’s wife, a child’s mother, and a high-ranking member of a group, her appearance at the time has been diluted, but Kim Da-ram, whom I first met, was not.

An awkward silence took me back to the past.

It was a time when he was the team leader and led the hunting team.

At the time, I was not a welcome person.

Rather, it was an object of avoidance.

It has no choice but to be because Park Gyu of the past was sharp-edged, did not know compromise, and was harsh to both himself and others.

Because of his terrible personality, his classmates fell away first, and his seniors also kept away from school. The juniors heard rumors and did not even approach.

“You, get out of my team. I don’t need a hesitating guy on my team.”

He was also feared by his teammates.

“It’s not a platform made for people without talent to come in and become celebrities. Stop if you can’t keep up. I don’t want to die because of you.”

He always spoke harsh words and pushed team members who did not meet my standards to the limit.

As a result, in my first year as team leader, I made the highest kill score team of the year, but few people were interested in my team.

“I don’t want to say bad words in the yard. Senior is sick of it.”

“Why do you talk about everything according to your own standards? Not everyone can be the same. Even if this is a place that demands such uniformity, there are individual differences, right?”

“Let’s not see each other again.”

Who would have tried to join the team when the people who were already there were also leaving?

Oh, I did have a friend who was interested.

“ha ha ha! Another 2nd place! Second place again!”

Lee Sang-hun, now liberated, burst out laughing and approached me.

“But next year will be different. Professor.”

Lee Sang-hoon, who always likes girls, brought a girl he hadn’t seen before to the year-end party that day.

“Are your skills improving as the years change?”

I deliberately stared at the cast wrapped around Lee Sang-hoon’s left arm.

“It’s not like that. you. Can you find a team member?”

“…”

“Rumors have already spread. If you are under the professor, you will die with a vase first before being killed by monsters.”

“I’m sure you’re saying this because you’ve never been hit by a monster.”

“Now, you are very hungry now. There are two restaurants. One has good food but the service sucks, and the other has good food but good service. Where would you like to eat?”

“the latter.”

“You know.”

“Are restaurants and battlefields the same?”

At the time, I didn’t think much of it.

Because I was steeped in hatred for monsters, I thought everyone else would too.

To be honest, I didn’t care if someone like me was a superior or colleague.

I was willing to accept any kind of cold and harsh treatment if I could only kill the monsters, if I could kill them with my own hands, who took everything from me.

There are no results as plain as reality.

Lee Sang-hoon’s words, which sounded like the curse of a foolish shaman, came true.

No one wanted to come to my team even if I recorded the best performance or the team leader took on the most dangerous job.

I applied for a transfer to another team as a team member, but even that was not easy. no one accepted me

As the team leader, I wasn’t the problem.

The human Park Gyu himself became the object of shunning by everyone.

While I couldn’t do this or that, I saw my colleagues leaving for China one by one, and I was deeply disappointed. It was probably around that time that I drank for the first time.

Then a guy appeared.

He was a junior in his first year who was seriously injured on the battlefield and had been bedridden for quite some time.

Since we only vaguely knew each other, as we were looking at each other, he smiled broadly and introduced himself first.

“I’m Daram Kim. Daram.”

“……Rodents?”

“···hahahaha.”

Dog drip without context may be one of the reasons why I wasn’t popular.

Daram Kim was more generous than others.

“Everyone says that sunbaenim is uninteresting and scary, but I’m fine. I did some calculations. I don’t know anything else, but if you’re with seniors, the probability of dying is the lowest, right?”

That was the first proper meeting with Kim Da-ram.

Time has returned to reality.

The desolate silence still persists.

“what’s the matter?”

I broke the long silence first.

“Why is a high-ranking member of the National Committee suddenly coming to a shabby place?”

“The situation is bad.”

Daram Kim let out a deep sigh.

“What is Yang Sang-gil saying that there is no need for people without abilities in Jeju Island?”

“Yangsanggil…”

It is the name of the chairman of the national committee.

He is neither a hunter nor a soldier, but a pure bureaucrat who has never been on the battlefield, but has been in charge of administration since the hunter organization was incorporated into a government agency.

Certainly the ability is excellent.

Seeing that even though all the non-hunters who were in a similar position were being replaced, they didn’t even keep their seats, and even went ahead as the chairman.

“Yang Sang-gil said this at the meeting. Shouldn’t the old school remain?”

Old school refers to hunters of the old era like me.

He is a hunter in an era when mankind did not yet know about monster-like abilities, a rugged era when he had to fight only with his own skills, senses, guts, and determination.

What is different from him is a new hunter who can use mental energy and psychic abilities through a series of colorfully expressed processes such as opening eyes, don-oh, and awakening.

They were initially called the New Kids, but are now called the Awakens.

Daram Kim and Sanghoon Lee are old school like me.

As the first Awakens appeared and a way to mass-produce Awakens was discovered through them, our old school was quickly culled from the battlefield.

Compared to the cost, the efficiency was mediocre and the mortality rate was extremely high, so it might be a natural result.

No longer needed on the battlefield, they had to take off their military uniforms and wear suits.

Well, that’s a good case for them.

Most of the old school had to take off their clothes or live a second-class life as old hunters.

There were people like Baek Seung-hyeon who had gone the other way and had to come back and lead a miserable life, listening to the voices of the uncle from a junior who was almost ten years older.

“If Mr. Sang-hoon Lee was as capable as those people, it would have been Gil-sang Yang to commit suicide.”

“…”

“Anyway, this is how things turned out.”

“Let’s ask Kim who said it. Seoul, how much do you have left?”

“very little.”

Daram Kim answered without hesitation.

“You know we supplied food and supplies to Seoul this time, right?”

“I almost heard it.”

“That was something that had to go to the front line. It was something I had to go to the military base where my complaints reached the limit.”

“Something like that happened.”

“A few front-line commanders are already showing signs of becoming warlords. How is telling me to stay in Seoul different from telling me to die?”

“So you want to come here?”

“Are you embarrassed?”

“Three is too many.”

“No one can give up.”

“······is it.”

“Of course I don’t intend to go empty-handed. I am also a person with a conscience. I’ll bring you a deposit that’s enough for your senior to nod.”

That was the end of the conversation.

I didn’t give a definite answer, but considering Da-Ram Kim’s reckless personality, it’s an established fact that she will come here.

I thought hard about it.

Daram Kim is a great fighter.

Being in high places for a long time may have dulled her senses, but I don’t doubt her fighting power.

Humans, Mutations, Monsters.

She generously showed her value on the Chinese battlefield.

Above all, I worked with her for a long time.

If the match is the right type, the two of them can kill another monster alone.

Meanwhile, her husband is a doctor.

It’s called dermatology, but a doctor is a doctor.

It’s nothing compared to an unlicensed quack like me.

He’s not a combatant, but he’s someone who can be quite helpful in some cases.

Their son is an infant who has not yet entered kindergarten, so it is not a subject to discuss the value of use.

Objectively, these families are very high among those who can be accepted as colleagues in the age of destruction.

But my citadel is my own paradise.

I did not stand in judgment, so I sought advice from the sanctuary of my heart.

But now I am a veteran user.

I know the laws of the community and what they hate.

I can’t give up as much as the headline of my identity, but I try not to violate the taboo they hate the most.

＜Would you like to change your nickname from SKELTON to Anonymous?＞

After the first time in a while, I wrote a post wearing a mask called anonymity.

Anonymous 1031: I’m trying to bring in a new colleague over there.

The content is about how to bring a couple of active duty hunters and doctors who are roughly attached to an air-raid shelter.

The reason I wrote this anonymously is that asking such a question is itself a form of deception.

Anonymous 458: Oops ㅋ Doctors and hunters ㅋ You have a lot of great acquaintances ㅋ

Kyle_Dos: It’s a fantasy novel, but I think I’ll take it. As long as you have enough food.

Anonymous 848: If it’s a doctor + hunter, you can live with each other. If it’s a brother relative level, I can accept it.

There are a lot of sarcasm, but the evaluation is generally friendly.

The main opinion is that at that level of manpower, it would be better than alone.

I was honestly disappointed with the community.

It’s because I felt that my thoughts were very different.

“…”

Well, the thoughts of the community can’t always be the same as mine.

Still, I had friends who expressed concerns, if not to the extent of agreeing with me.

Defender : There’s nothing more dangerous than a parent with a baby. If you see someone else’s kid making a mess, you’ll want to kill him, right?

There were roughly these opinions.

Daram Kim acted quickly.

“Can I take a look before I go?”

come to see the house

Mushi is my last resort, but meeting her may have been a decided thing from the time she contacted me.

Why, without that friend, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Daram Kim, always positive, became the glue that connected me with my new teammates, and thanks to him, I was able to continue my life as a hunter.

Occasionally, I connected with psychopaths like Woo Min-hee and Kong Kyung-min, but it is no exaggeration to say that my team was maintained thanks to her.

If the game hadn’t changed, he might still be fighting monsters on the same battlefield as her.

Maybe that’s how it happened.

Because he had as much hatred in his heart as I did.

That junior came to my domain.

I rode a military jeep and walked into my paradise with dirt feet.

I looked at her face with a confused mind, but for some reason, the expression was quite different from what I expected.

“and······.”

A very shocked look.

“It looks dreary.”

It seems bleak here.

“What is this? here? what is garbage Is this where people live?”

But is it right to show such disgust?

It’s not like I wanted to be impressed, but it feels like I’m overly ignoring my paradise.

Then, what about my air defense shelter?

I opened my paradise to her, feeling a slight tingle.

He opened the heavy air-raid shelter door and revealed the secret main air-raid shelter to others.

“Welcome to Skelton Proud Palace…!!”

“······!!”

The emotion that appeared in Daram Kim’s eyes was surprise.

Then it is.

Who could make such a big, cool and colorful air raid shelter on an individual basis?

“Your senior made all of this?”

“Proud.”

It’s possible because I am.

However, Daram Kim’s surprise quickly turned to disappointment and contempt.

“What is a toilet?”

Besides, the expression I interpreted as surprise was actually shock.

Daram Kim muttered as he turned around.

“… I can’t raise a child in a place like this.”

It was only then that the trademark, like a hidden symbol, was clearly visible on the clothes she was wearing.

Yes, she used to wear only nice clothes.

I worked in an office with a good smell and a good view, listening to the commissioner’s voice.

No matter how pushed her life is, she climbed too high while I was building an air-raid shelter.

To places I cannot comprehend with my feeble imagination.

“Thank you so much for caring, but it will be difficult to live here. When I thought about it, I noticed that Dong Tak was also claustrophobic.”

She showed a picture of her son.

“Hey, you named the kid well.”

“What do you mean?”

I asked her in half resentment and half relief.

“What are you going to do now?”

“Whatever, I have to figure out how to survive on my own.”

Daram Kim smiled broadly.

“I’m Daram Kim.”

“…Daram.”

“He said he was a person who fell under that professor.”

Da-ram Kim’s face from the past overlapped with her wide-smiling face.

Yeah, this guy was positive.

stupid enough.

“I will not give up on going to Jeju Island, but I will have to contact the military side as well. The warlord side is also being considered.”

Daram Kim handed me an extravagant paper bag.

“Now, present.”

Inside the envelope was high-quality western confectionery.

As she was about to get into the car, she turned to me.

“You don’t look like you’ve aged at all, but looking under the sun, you’ve aged a bit.”

“Is that so?”

“Is it because your expression brightens?”

she stared at me blankly

“Are you meeting a girl these days?”

“no.”

“Anyway, I’ll contact you when I decide where to go.”

I watched her appear and disappear like a gale with a bitter smile for a while.

everything is relative

Someone’s proud paradise may look like hell to someone else.

The sweets she left unmistakably spoke of this bittersweet reality.

“Wow, f*ck.”

These cookies are really luxurious.