Hiding the House in the Apocalypse

40. luck (2)

“Are you going to do my cosplay?”

Defender’s brother’s proposal sounded a bit unrealistic.

It was because it sounded like a story from a completely different world that I was being played by someone other than myself.

Are you going to imitate Park Kyu?

This professor Park Gyu?

“……It won’t be easy.”

Uneasy.

It’s never easy.

“I’m only going to borrow an account, so what’s the difficulty?”

Hearing that, it sounds a bit easy.

“······hmm.”

“listen? Let me tell you why I brought this up all of a sudden. Is your brother okay?”

“uh. Skelton. Listen carefully to my brother.”

Unlike Defender’s words, he wasn’t listening to Defender’s brother’s words.

It was looking like it always was.

Message from Defender: Our Viva! Apocalypse! Did you know that accounts and equipment are traded on failnet? It often comes up on used bulletin boards. Probably from people who died a long time ago. It seems that looters or scavengers hoarded them at first without knowing what they were, and then slowly sold them after learning how to use them.

Message from Defender: One of the guys who bought the account is watching us.

Defender’s brother showed me a message from the man in question.

A message from JUSTICE_MIN: Defender. you are viva! The crazy guy from Apocalypse!? Just kill people and authenticate them hahahahaha f*ck hahahaha

Message from JUSTICE_MIN: Now I know you. That this warrior of justice knew you. I will hunt you starting today. I will hunt you down and “authenticate” you. wait. It won’t be long. It won’t be long.

“What. This? Are you in middle school?”

“I hope so.”

Defender’s brother sighed.

“But if you’re human enough to get our equipment in the world right now.”

“I’m sure he’s not an ordinary guy.”

Defender added.

The Defender siblings seemed to be taking the situation quite seriously.

“Maybe it could be a group of looters or a group of pioneers.”

“I cannot rule out that possibility.”

“It’s pretty risky for us to be known as a duo under these circumstances. you know? Is that our own weapon?”

“hmm······.”

“It’s not a flaw, listen to the end!”

Dajeong’s plan is for her to film a beatbox video and upload it to her Skeleton account.

“It will definitely enjoy explosive popularity.”

Dajeong said with confidence.

“I used to upload videos on Pictok often.”

“Kuhmm…”

Views will come.

It’s because our bulletin board friends didn’t talk about it, but there are quite a few friends who can’t be bothered when it comes to girls.

But what about me becoming a woman?

The country of Skelton is to damage the image of another self.

A skeleton is a skeleton.

I have my own image.

The evaluation on the bulletin board is not good, but for the sake of his friends on the bulletin board, he takes the lead before anyone else, soothes his solitude with a beatbox from time to time, and above all, Viva! The last user of Apocalypse.

“You don’t seem to like it?”

Dajeong asked carefully.

“little.”

Scared to answer, Defender interrupted.

“Skelton. If you’re a human like you, I’m sure there will be people who will recognize you.”

Involuntarily, I nodded my head.

Yes.

It is 100%.

“To be honest, even the last beatbox video was so crude that I couldn’t watch it until the end. If you reveal your real body or face, won’t you be caught right away?”

“Maybe.”

My last beatbox video also pays attention to security. If I had revealed myself just a little bit for self-satisfaction, Woo Min-hee would have revealed my identity right away.

“I don’t know if Failnet didn’t come in, but at the time the Failnet kids are spying on our bulletin board, I think the more vague our identity is, the better. What is it? Strategic ambiguity?”

“Strategic ambiguity…”

“Isn’t that the shield of anonymity? One day, I became a woman, then a man, then an old man, and then I became an old man.”

“······hmm.”

Regardless, I don’t like the proposal of the Defender siblings.

However, I would like to raise my hand to the idea of obscuring our identities.

In a situation like now where anonymity is a lifeline, there is nothing good to be specific.

Right now, Defender is being threatened by an influx of bulletin boards called Justice Min, and I could also be threatened by people who knew me in the past, including Woo Min-hee.

“Don’t you hate looking like a skeleton woman?”

Da-jeong suddenly asks.

“That’s kind of it.”

“Then there are ways to preserve the Skelton identity, whether it be digital weathering, making it look like a theft, or making it look like family.”

“Does anyone know my face?”

“Only they will know. But will they get confused too?”

“good. Let’s get started. whatever it is.”

Once the M9 came to fight.

It doesn’t matter if you win or lose in a childish fight with him, but as Da-jung said, this is an opportunity.

If I suddenly upload a beatbox video, it will be buried with a terrible number of views like before, but now that M9 has laid the plate, there is a guy who will watch my video.

It is said that there are people who will naturally spread my new video even if me and Defender do not have to do viral marketing to force it to air.

If it wasn’t me, if it was affectionate, it would have enough ripple power.

More than enough to spread the “tactical ambiguity” the Defenders siblings want.

With that thought in mind, it was time to end the communication.

“ah. and Skeleton. don’t hang up I have business on my side too.”

This time, Defender himself has something to say to me.

This guy who often puts in a chuimsae, but doesn’t say much, is suddenly a business to me.

I asked out of curiosity.

“What?”

“You remember the legionnaires around our house when we moved in?”

“ah. those guys what are you doing? They’re building troops as if they’re going to go to war right away.”

It’s been off topic for a while, but it’s a confirmed fact that the legionnaires’ troops will be a variable.

The fact that we are concentrating such strong forces in this period of destruction is itself a foretelling of some event.

But what their purpose is is unknown.

There are several opportunities to take over Seoul, but there is no movement at all.

I’ve seen combat helicopters come and go, but I’m not sure if they sent them or if they were sent from the provinces.

Looks like Defender has found something in those quietly crouching creatures.

“Those guys.”

A gloomy shadow cast over Defender’s voice.

“Like contacting a fanatic.”

“what?”

I jumped up from my seat.

“Their territory was also tightly attached, right? Well, I’m not sure as I’ve only watched it from a distance, but I don’t feel good.”

“······okay?”

This is no ordinary story.

In a way, it is a story that is thousands of times more important than the Jeju Island evacuation fleet that is currently on the bulletin board.

Legionnaires and fanatics join hands.

This is the sound of the birth of an army with Awaken.

It is an unprecedented event.

Western countries, including Korea, strictly separated the hunter group to which Awaken belonged from the military, and China defined Awaken as an enemy until the end.

According to international agreements, Hunters – including Awakens – are not “soldiers” within the meaning of the Geneva Conventions. They act like soldiers and do similar things, but they are treated as civilians, or civilians with special status.

An old-time hunter like me is no different from an ordinary soldier, but Awaken has a terrifying attribute that can change the face of war in this era following nuclear weapons.

The military utility of Awaken is infinite.

As little is known, the possibilities are almost limitless.

If they turn their guns on humans instead of monsters, they can confidently say that their danger is more than monsters.

It means that even those who are below level 5 and cannot be used in battles against monsters can turn into the most difficult enemies.

Let’s think of the fresh blue junior who found me when I went to Lee Sang-hoon’s funeral the other day.

said the woman who found me.

He didn’t “discover” me, he “sensed” me.

That detection ability is useless against large monsters.

It’s because monsters don’t hide, cover, or ambush like humans do.

So, it is treated as a waste ability against monsters, but it is completely different when fighting against humans.

No matter where you hide or how you ambush, you will be discovered the moment you enter the Awaken’s detection area.

The fighting power of a lung-class Awaken with only one sensing ability is insignificant, but what if that Awaken acts alongside a well-trained soldier?

It means that you can face a kind of danger that you have never faced before.

“How did you find out? Did you see it yourself?”

I asked Defender, hoping it wasn’t true.

“I forgot something at my house, so on the way I saw a group of zealots walking to the Legion garrison. The soldiers didn’t stop me.”

“Really?”

“I saw it from a distance, but it’s real.”

“That’s not normal.”

“I’m going to go one more time anyway.”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

“Honestly, it’s nice that this neighborhood is quiet, but since no one comes, it’s rather boring. I want to go there one more time.”

“・・・・・Take care of yourself.”

That’s the only thing I can say to Defender right now.

Right now, I’m wounded in the leg, and active reconnaissance seems to be more suitable for Defender than me.

“Ah, before that, my brother and I will stop by your air-raid shelter.”

“What, what?!”

“I have to shoot a beatbox video. Skeleton!”

*

It must have been since elementary school that I invited my friends.

It reminds me of the scene where my dear sister, who can’t come back now, gave me a scolding.

“hey. Park Kyu! A friend is coming, but what are you doing without cleaning your room? There is no pig pen!”

My older sister was a nag.

He was a nag, but he took care of his immature younger brother a lot.

The scene of her helping me clean my room came to mind.

Picking up broken garbage and putting it in the trash, arranging the books on the messy desk, and wiping the dust off the plastic model lying on the shelf tired of playing with it and setting it up.

Now my sister is no longer by my side.

As I was clearing out my half-submerged air-raid shelter alone in the darkness, I thought about the bright days I could not return to for a moment.

Those peaceful and small days before the fire of hatred ignited in my heart.

“…”

The flame in my heart is still valid.

Inevitable circumstances exiled me here.

The biggest cause would be my powerlessness.

“Damn it! I can’t move!”

Memories that make me miserable just by thinking about them.

“Hey, it’s telekinesis! that guy! They use telekinesis!”

The guy I met in the rift was someone I couldn’t do anything about.

The guy I named and hunted.

General type.

My ax, which had slaughtered countless monsters, did not move in front of him.

No, I couldn’t move.

Because the near-infinite, intangible power pressed down like a rock on my petite power made of my blood and sinew.

I wanted to prove my worth by killing him, but he rather sentenced me to death on the slightest possibility I had.

“Gagging!”

“Leader!!!”

After that day, the professor died.

I, Park Gyu, somehow survived, but it didn’t mean much.

After all, I left the battlefield and ended up in this dark place.

It seemed that my life would slowly settle and sink forever, like sand on a riverbed.

But the world was wide.

There were many areas I didn’t know that I couldn’t see with my narrow field of vision.

“and. wide. It’s really wide. But what?! Why is the toilet in the middle? It is also stacked up to a podium on a higher floor.”

“I know this. What is it? back pair? Have you ever exhibited a toilet in an art museum?”

“Were you an artist at the studio?!”

I have a friend.

since elementary school.

What will my sister say when she sees this?

Perhaps you will be terribly surprised.

A woman, especially when you see a pretty guy come in with her.

“Welcome to Skeleton Proud Supreme Castle.”

*

Against the backdrop of my air-raid shelter, Da-jung performed a beatbox.

To be honest, her beatboxing was unstoppable.

“Drum, headbutt, chikichiki, headbutt!”

“…”

However, her internet jjambab was not normal.

“I’m going to digitally weather this. That’s how you create confusion!”

Skillfully, she put age on her video, added noise, and even changed the meta data of the shooting date to a time before the war.

“I will still hear the impersonation, but what. That’s a problem that Skeleton has to deal with, right?”

“do not worry. There is nowhere else to fall.”

“Do you know?”

Da-jeong smiled and delivered the remaining message through the tablet.

[Will our skeleton become named? ♥ ]

“okay. Let’s do it!”

That’s how Skelton’s new ambitious work, Viva! Apocalypse! registered on the bulletin board.

SKELTON : (Skelton video) Skeleton’s beatbox (4)

The defender siblings eat my food next to me, Viva! We watched Apocalypse!’s reaction together.

At first, there was no reaction.

but.

unicorn18 : ?

One guy bit the bait.

Defender brother spilled my cookies and laughed happily.

“hey. it’s a unicorn Unicorn! You otaku!”

The unicorn soon sent me a message.

Message from unicorn18: Do you have a skeleton? Nunna…was a woman…???

“and. Look at sending me a DM. This otaku is shady!”

Da-jeong looked at me with worried eyes even though she was smiling.

Maybe he’s worried about me.

But it didn’t take long for her concern to turn to surprise and even slight contempt.

cracking

“S-Skelton?”

SKELTON: I’ll leave it to your imagination~♥

“and···.”

“Didn’t you hate pretending to be a woman…?”

The defender siblings, the two of them, looked at me at the same time.

“…”

It is strategic ambiguity.