Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 17



Only Noblemtl

Apocalypse in Water Episode 17

Episode 17

The case was not initially classified as a homicide.

Because it seemed like a normal, ordinary death of an old person.

The old man was old, but he had several chronic illnesses, so it would not have been strange if he died at any time.

Of course, I didn’t pay any attention.

But then, by chance, I saw my son’s eyes wavering.

‘What’s in that?’

The detective’s intuition told him.

I took action, and soon the old man’s death turned into a case of familial murder.

During questioning, the son said he was tired of caring for his father for so long and despaired that he would never get better.

Eventually, he confessed that he suffocated his father to death by pressing a pillow against his face.

This time too, by any chance,

I looked at the pillow that the old man was holding.

The pillow contained no evidence.

I couldn’t tell if what I had imagined was really happening.

An uncommitted crime cannot be punished, but the motive for the crime seemed sufficient.

When Mr. Choi dies, his son will inherit this house.

Old man Choi’s eyes became blurry.

The drooping lips along with the gaze looked similar to when a sexual assault occurred.

Old man Choi suddenly screamed hysterically.

“You’re not Youngsoo. You’re the person from the nursing home who came to get me. No! I’m not going!”

“Sir, please be quiet. If you keep doing this, a monster will appear.”

I tried to shut Old Man Choi’s mouth with a warning.

But where did such strength come from? Old Man Choi shook off my hand and got out of bed.

I didn’t expect it at all, so I ended up losing sight of Old Man Choi.

Old man Choi ran out and yelled for the apartment to be taken away.

“Youngsu! Our son Youngsu!”

I hurriedly followed after him.

But, Choi was so fast that it made you wonder if he was really an old man who was dying.

I kept calling my son as I ran up the stairs.

“Kang, kang!”

At that moment, as if responding, the water buffalo barked.

I quickly ran up, but Old Man Choi was already facing the water polo.

How did the guy who was supposed to be in front of the broken stairs get down so quickly?

Did you miss it during drone reconnaissance?

“Youngsoo. It’s Dad. Dad.”

Old man Choi approached the water polo.

“No. That’s a monster. That’s not my son.”

I ran to stop him, but I was a step too late.

The water polo bit the old man’s neck.

I heard the old man Choi’s breathless voice.

“Yeah, you’re doing well, Youngsoo. Dad is okay. He’s okay.”

I had no choice but to turn around and go down.

In a world submerged in water, Old Man Choi knew that it was impossible for him to survive.

Even if I help, it will only extend your life for a little while.

It might be a blessing for Mr. Choi that things have turned out this way.

But somehow it tasted bitter.

* * *

The children accepted the death of the old man without saying anything.

I didn’t bother to describe the process of Mr. Choi’s death, but simply summarized it as he stopped breathing.

I didn’t want to upset the children who had recently experienced the death of their parents.

After dinner the sun set and we drew the blackout curtains.

I turned on the camping light after making sure there was no light leaking out.

Hoyoung and Bomi played like children, perhaps relieved of their tension by the comfortable atmosphere created by the light.

After filming a death-defying action movie all day, I guess I need this kind of healing.

I turned on the radio.

I had a feeling it might be the case, and it was as expected.

I tried changing the channel, but all I could hear was noise and no human voices.

When I gave up the radio, Hoyoung played with it as if it were a toy.

Chijik, chijik, belt, belt― chijik.

At that moment, a buzzer-like sound was heard through the noise. This sound was… … .

“Wait a minute. Hoyoung, turn around.”

I gave urgent instructions to Hoyoung.

Belt, belt― belt―

The sound came through the noise again and I picked up my pen and began to write it down.

[All troops, assemble at 37.XX, 126.XX. I say it again. All troops… … .]

As soon as I finished the interpretation, my excited heart calmed down.

But Hoyoung and Bomi were very excited.

“It’s Morse code, sir!”

“So this is what came out on the radio. So. There are people in this 37 something.”

“Those numbers are probably GPS locations. If they’re transmitting, there’s definitely someone there. Wow! We’re alive.”

I shook my head and answered.

“This is probably a military communication. It seems to be gathering the surviving troops. There’s no mention of civilians. I don’t know if we’ll be welcomed even if we go.”

“What does that mean? The country should protect its citizens.”

Bomi got angry and shouted.

“That country will no longer exist. The soldiers there will know this, so wouldn’t their own survival come first? That’s why they’re gathering those who can fight. And above all, we don’t have a ship to get there.”

The place where the coordinates were taken was probably Pyeongtaek Port.

When I heard the call to arms, I thought it would be better to seek survival in my apartment.

The apartments stood firmly in the sea, with water remaining in the water tanks and food for each household.

The water monsters and water zombies are a threat, but if you can just defeat them, you’ll be safe.

I decided that rather than venture out into uncertain waters, I would make my apartment a fortress.

The only concern was whether the giant trout would approach the apartment.

I looked up the name of the monster cutlassfish that brought down the plane in the monster guide, and it was called the Giant Cutlassfish.

If the guy hits the apartment with his body, the apartment will collapse.

But if you try to avoid the guy by forcefully making a boat out of it, you might get eaten by the guy instead.

First, the guy thought of it as an inevitable disaster like an earthquake or volcanic eruption, and decided to pursue survival.

Once I had a clear goal, things to do and plans started to come to mind.

First, we need to check what cards we can use.

“Hey, let me take a look at the note that Bomi Jiyeon sent.”

The notebook I received looked no different from the regular notebooks students used.

When I opened the notebook, it was completely empty, with nothing written on it, just as Bomi had said.

“You’re saying that Jiyeon sent this like an arrow?”

“Not only the note, but also the note with the arrow was sent by Delay.”

Bomi handed me a note.

The note was written in ballpoint pen: ‘If the world goes underwater and monsters appear, shoot an arrow.’

The last ‘shoo’ letter was slightly slanted and appeared to be slanted.

I somehow felt like there was more content to come.

Could it be that for some reason you couldn’t write the rest of the content?

Bomi looked at me with a confident expression, as if telling me to look.

But is it really Jiyeon who wrote this note?

I still didn’t believe that Jiyeon was alive.

It was because he knew the persistent and cruel methods of the Ark Church.

Rather, I suspected that the notes and other items might have been sent by someone who was dissatisfied with the ark church, which was like a water mole.

I shook the pages of the notebook to check that it was double-layered.

And I looked at the bookshelf with the light, and carefully looked through the blank pages of my notebook.

I didn’t find any hidden marks in the notes, and nothing seemed particularly strange.

No matter how you looked at it, it looked like an ordinary notebook, but considering the power of the arrow sent with it, it was likely not a simple object.

“I already checked everything. There’s nothing.”

I opened the bottle of water without saying anything and sprinkled some water on the blank paper in my notebook.

A surprised Bomi screamed.

“The notebook is wet. What are you doing? Sir!”

“Ah! Are you trying to check out this disappearing secret ink?”

Hoyoung answered for me.

Bomi opened her eyes wide and asked back.

“Secret ink? What is that?”

“It’s a technique that often appears in mystery novels. If you use ink made from chemicals, the letters disappear. Then, if you wet it with water, the letters reappear.”

“Oh! There was something like that?”

Bomi looked at the note with an excited face.

But as time passed, no changes appeared in the notes.

“Hey, what is this? Nothing is coming out.”

The kids looked pretty disappointed, but I didn’t really care.

Of the numerous pieces of evidence secured, only a small portion actually constituted conclusive evidence.

If you have a suspicion, you have no choice but to try to secure as much evidence as possible until you have proper evidence.

But have I ever seen disappearing ink in a mystery novel?

I rarely read mystery novels, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.

So where did you get the idea to soak your notes in water?

I tried to recall my memories, but nothing came to mind.

Well, it will come to me someday, and when it does, a new way to discover the secrets of the notes may come to mind.

“Bomi, can I have your notes?”

“There’s nothing, so please do that.”

Bomi coolly handed me the note.

The next day, as soon as I woke up, I slapped myself hard in the face as if it were a ritual.

I came to my senses in a flash of pain that made my cheeks tingle, and confirmed that it was not a dream.

Then I opened the window and looked outside.

All that could be seen was an endless, hopeless, vast ocean stretching out beyond.

A cold, unfamiliar and unbelievable landscape approached me.

It seemed as if at any moment a giant sea monster like a swordfish would leap out of the water and destroy the apartment.

But once I had the goal of fortifying my apartment and surviving, my existential fears were greatly reduced.

The children were sleeping late even though the sun had risen.

I felt like letting her sleep a little longer, but being a babysitter in a world submerged in water was out of the question.

I woke up the kids in military style.

“Get up! Get up!”

The children woke up with a start at my shout.

But I kept rubbing my eyes because I couldn’t sleep, and when I saw the vast ocean outside the window, I came to my senses and got up from my seat.

We ate breakfast and started our day.

The kids probably thought they would just play when the school was flooded, so when I listed the things they had to do today, they looked like children who had been fooled by their mother.

“Why is there so much to do?”

“We have to be thoroughly prepared to survive. We haven’t even defeated the monsters in our own ward yet. We don’t know when the water zombies and other monsters will invade. And we haven’t even visited the other wards yet. We have to check on the survivors and secure food and water.”

At my words, the children began to move.

Bomi practiced her bow with a stick, following my instructions.

I shot the branch well yesterday, but I thought I needed to adjust the zero point because I tied the fishing line to the branch.

Since there is only one precious branch, it must be recovered.

So what came to mind was a harpoon.

The reason for tying a line to a harpoon is not only to retrieve the harpoon, but also to bring in the target fish.

I was a little worried that when catching a monster with a spear, I would have to fish in a showdown of strength, like a fish on a harpoon.

This is because when you shoot flesh at the corpse used as a target and pull the fishing line, the flesh is not pulled out, but the corpse is dragged in.

It seemed necessary to think about how to utilize the short string.