Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 419



Only Noblemtl

Episode 419 169. Question (1)

Let me ask you a question.

General type.

Will killing this large monster that commands monsters with intelligence end the nightmare surrounding the city?

To be honest, I don’t think so.

Killing him won’t make any dramatic changes.

Even if the General type is a special entity, it makes more sense that it is just one of the cards that is somewhat rare to the immeasurable cosmic entity called the Crack.

But even so, the reason why the general type must be killed is because there is no visible hope other than that.

It’s now been five years since the war began.

Humanity has reached its limit.

It’s not just our city.

A total collapse is occurring in America, Japan, Europe, and other known areas of humanity.

The story is that the end of humanity that I had expected is slowly but surely happening.

I once had a dream that was both terrifying and romantic.

It’s a dream of being locked in my own bunker, waiting for the world to end, and becoming the last human being.

They also left behind records that could be referenced by aliens who might visit someday, or by new intelligent beings who might succeed humanity.

It’s definitely a fantastic dream, but it’s the dream of my alter ego, Skeleton.

The professor has another dream.

No, I should say it’s a long-cherished wish.

There are monsters that I have named, but haven’t decided on a name yet.

That bastard must die.

Because the death of the bastard itself is something that only humans can do, a question that we humans pose to the unknown called the rift.

*

Everything is ready.

17 Hunter teams – including eight regular Awakens – were assembled, along with 31 combat vehicles, five combat helicopters, at least 10 large drones and hundreds more small drones.

The Chinese military, which was criticized for only providing food, is said to have fully prepared with their own weapons, and the US military is also said to have fully prepared for final air support.

The operation is definitive.

It is irreversible and cannot be reversed.

There were some doubts about this operation in some parts of the city, but Woo Min-hee and I had such strong intentions, and this operation was not something that came out of nowhere, but had been discussed as a major agenda item at meetings for a long time, so for those who opposed this operation now, frankly, there is little justification.

However, not all situations help us.

The city’s overall indicators are showing dangerous figures.

But those things weren’t taken into consideration in this operation.

The most important thing we have to consider right now is the weather.

The weather conditions are not very good.

According to forecasters, a strong low-pressure field is moving north, pushing away the current high-pressure field and dumping heavy snowfall.

No matter how unpredictable the weather is on the Korean Peninsula, the fact that it could rain instead of snow brought a hollow smile to our faces as we were fighting frostbite just a few days ago.

Extreme weather conditions mean delays in operations.

This means that the US military’s air support, which would provide more than 80% of the firepower, is blocked.

The outline of the operation is to use kites and disposable drones to reconnaissance the A city area where the target general type is staying, identify the locations of monsters guarding or stationed at the main roads of the city, and then have the US military bomb the area to greatly reduce their numbers, after which the hunter team, including myself, advances from all directions to capture the general type.

The bombing of American forces is not an option; it is the most important defeat in this battle.

The US military said that they could carry out limited missions even in bad weather, but I rejected that plan.

There is only one chance.

As anyone who has ever fired a gun knows, a bullet is a powerful weapon that can kill a healthy man in one blow from a small child, but if it misses the target, it’s over.

This means that no matter how many bullets you fire, if they don’t hit the opponent, it’s meaningless.

If it were the heyday of the US military, they would have made up for their lack of accuracy with an overwhelming number of sorties and the amount of bombs dropped, but things are different now.

There is only one bomb left.

My intention is to strike them with utmost care and precision.

It may sound grandiose to have 17 hunter teams, but they are actually a small number of less than 100 people.

This means that things are completely different from the good old days when more than a thousand hunters were deployed, like in China.

When possible, you should reduce it as much as possible.

In the first place, combat-type machines of medium size or larger are not targets of the Hunter Team.

Kookookookook!

It’s thundering.

The expected bad weather has begun.

Even though I was given a short break, my mind was falling into a strange emotion.

It was the same that day.

There was thunder and lightning.

Under the blazing dark sky we marched and failed.

The problem is quite different now.

At that time, we had the ability to push ahead with operations even in bad weather, but now, as long as the bad weather continues, we cannot even start operations.

The start of the operation was indefinitely postponed as the low pressure area lingered for a long time and showed signs of stagnation, contrary to the weather forecast.

48 hours had passed until the scheduled operation time.

It is natural that suppressed skepticism is raising its head.

The type of general that even I don’t believe in – there’s no way other people would believe his omnipotent theory.

But what’s scarier than that is the addition of new monsters.

A reconnaissance party risking their lives dispatched to the vicinity of Paju reported that a large number of monsters had begun to move towards the new Seoul.

Even if it’s not that number, it’s definitely over 300.

“I can’t wait any longer, senior.”

Woo Min-hee said.

“Now is the time to make a decision.”

A gloomy face that was not like her.

I turned my head and looked at the sky outside the window.

Unfortunately, our planet seems unwilling to extend its good fortune to those of us who fight for it.

Dark clouds still covered the sky, and strong winds, sleet, and sometimes even raindrops blew and beat against the window.

“······.”

I thought about it for a moment.

“senior.”

Woo Min-hee called me again.

He let out a shallow sigh and answered.

“Since I’ve waited, then.”

I looked back at her.

“Let’s wait until it’s close.”

We know very well that patience is not necessarily a good virtue.

But since I’m going to do it, I want to do it right.

I want to do it under the best possible conditions, even if it’s not the best.

Even if the risk increases, the expected value of the possibility will fall rather than rise.

The number of bombers, the amount of bombs, and the skill of the pilots are all the same.

Now all that remains is decision.

The answer is set.

Until it’s close.

Wait until the very end and then execute.

“Calculate the estimated time of arrival of the next group into the operation area.”

Even if the weather gets worse than it is now, I think it’s better than trying at this point, which is already doomed to failure.

As always, the hardest thing in the world isn’t killing monsters or closing rifts.

Humans are the problem.

Humans have always been the problem.

The same goes for cracks.

If humans had seen the merger sooner, things could have been stopped before they got this big.

It’s the same now.

The so-called citizens’ representatives called for a public meeting.

Those who didn’t show their faces during the war are now crawling out from underground to play politics, as they feel somewhat safe.

“Captain Park Gyu.”

At the center of it all is a citizen committee member named Kim Soo-jo.

Rumor has it that he is a human being who receives secret support from Jeju Island.

However, thanks to the resources provided by Jeju, his influence among the citizens is particularly strong.

Although Woo Min-hee wielded an iron fist on the surface, behind the scenes, “Jeju spies” including Kim Su-jo were creating public opinion.

Both Woo Min-hee and I knew that such disgusting behavior was happening behind the scenes, but the immediate threat was so strong that we couldn’t afford to care.

But since the operation is delayed day after day and they have demanded a public meeting with public opinion on their backs, we have no choice but to accept it.

Because this city is not ours, it belongs to all who live in it.

Besides, citizens are more than entitled to make demands, even if they are citizens’ representatives.

Because they fought alongside us in the last battle, endured, were wounded, and yet won again.

But pure public opinion is easily distorted by the dirty filter of a distorted representative system.

“What if this operation, in which we have invested all our resources, fails? What will happen to us?”

It is obvious why Kim Soo-jo, who is at the center of it all, says such things.

I guess he’s trying to bring up Kang Han-min’s story by asking a difficult question to answer.

The order he heard in Jeju was probably to block the execution of this operation by mentioning the “savior” who will never help us.

“As far as I know, US military support is only provided once, so what happens to us if the operation involving the bombing fails?”

I saw the man’s face.

Despite being stained with greed, stubbornness, lack of knowledge and prejudice, the certainty in his eyes is something that makes me feel skeptical as a fellow human being.

After all, even conmen, murderers, and even child molesters claim their innocence and justice.

The corner of belief is obvious.

These are his peers standing behind him.

As I remained silent, their gaze turned from me to Woo Min-hee.

I guess he’s trying to pressure her.

After all, it is Woo Min-hee who decides the fate of this city.

But this is my fight.

It’s my territory.

Woo Min-hee raised her hand to stop him from coming forward.

Their gaze turns to me again.

He answered.

“I guess I’ll have to either die or leave the city.”

There was an outburst of laughter, mockery, and even mild insults.

Kim Soo-jo turned his back on such negative mutterings and asked again with a proud expression.

“Can you take responsibility?”

I held back laughter.

Kim Soo-jo raised his voice.

“I’m asking if you can take responsibility. Does that make you laugh?”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that.”

Looking at him with a serious expression, I continued speaking calmly.

“If the operation had failed, I would already be dead.”

“You alone are going to die······.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

I glared at him.

Perhaps it was because his voice had been filled with life for the first time in a long time, but I felt the air around me turn cold and frozen.

In fact, in all the meetings I’ve been in, I’ve never once been sharp or showed my displeasure to anyone.

There was no need for that, since Woo Min-hee already cut it off for the most part.

Now I have to make it clear.

He looked at the man and spoke clearly.

“You, or rather, anyone can fill your empty spot, but mine will be difficult to fill.”

“There are a lot of hunters, right?”

Even though the man has pride, he is intimidated, but he looks around and gathers his courage to speak.

I stood up, closed my eyes tightly, let out a sigh, and looked at him again.

“Then let me ask you, who can replace the professor?”

“That, that.”

The man looked back and tried to look around.

But before that, someone acted faster.

This is Kim Da-ram.

She stood silently behind me, taking a deep breath.

As if you were supporting me.

When we met her gaze, she looked as if nothing had happened and glared at the citizens’ committee members in front of her with leopard-like eyes.

That was just the beginning.

Ha Tae-hoon and Bang Jae-hyuk, who had been sitting loosely behind her, stood behind me.

Seung-hwan Ahn and Haru Lee followed behind.

Kim Han-na and Jeong-gu Awaken stood up from their seats.

As if you were supporting me from behind.

Shim Hyeong-do also got up from his seat.

As he stood up, almost all of the veteran hunters known as Academy Hunters stood up.

The faces of the Jeju traitors, including Kim Su-jo, showed a look of bewilderment.

Perhaps he recruited a few school hunters.

But now there is no one supporting them.

Even if I had talked to them beforehand, it would be difficult to come forward in this atmosphere.

One thing is certain.

At least this small world has chosen me, the professor.

I stood up from my seat in silence and nodded to the people who were expressing their support for me.

“······The operation will proceed as planned. We will not entertain any further objections.”

“I heard there’s a huge number of monsters coming from Paju right now?”

It was not Kim Soo-jo, but another human being who spoke.

It doesn’t really matter to me who he is.

What’s important is the content of the question he asked.

That’s a pretty sharp question.

As a greedy human being who was taken in by Jeju.

Of course, I can’t give a clear answer to this question.

The only reason for postponing the operation was the vague hope that the weather would improve.

“that.”

Still, I guess I have to give you some kind of answer.

Because that’s the responsibility of the new Seoul Hunter leader.

But before I could open my mouth, someone stormed into the conference room.

She is a woman whose face I know, but whose name I don’t know.

He is a government official who is in charge of miscellaneous tasks.

“Someone came from Jeju!”

She shouted, receiving everyone’s attention.

“person?”

When people looked puzzled by her rambling, she took a deep breath to calm her breathing, then told everyone the name of the person who had surprised her.

“Na Hye-in, the savior has arrived!”

Na Hye-in.

The moment I heard that name, I remembered the message I had sent a few days ago.

By any chance, is she here too?

The woman laughed heartily.

“Na Hye-in, the savior, will help us!”

*

Na Hye-in, who arrived in the new Seoul, brought only a few attendants.

They are all Awakens with a gentle glow in their eyes.

She went straight to Woo Min-hee.

The two talked in the closed room for quite some time.

No matter what, Kim Da-ram and I are seniors and juniors.

Unlike me and Kim Da-ram, who only cooperated strictly for official purposes, I remember that the two of them were quite close as same-sex people.

Given Woo Min-hee’s personality, if it was someone he didn’t like, he would have cut ties with them a long time ago, so it must have worked out pretty well.

It was only natural that tension flowed throughout the conference room when Na Hye-in appeared at the meeting table.

No matter what, Na Hye-in was the shield of the Republic of Korea, called the savior along with Kang Han-min.

“I can block the entire A zone.”

She nodded slightly at me.

I could read her mind from the faint, yet playful smile that followed.

As expected, you came at my call.

I stared at the map, feeling my empty heart being filled once again.

All the pieces are complete.

It was even more than I imagined.

All that’s left is to do your best.

“······We will begin the operation at 6 a.m. tomorrow.”

The day of the operation.

17 hunter teams, hundreds of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians stand watching us.

I saw the dawn sky.

The pitch-black night sky was even darker due to the thunderclouds and the faint sound of thunder was ringing, but I could see.

The thick clouds and the stars that occasionally appear between the clouds.

“······.”

Our hope is the same.

As expected.

“uh?”

“what?”

“I see it! I see it! I see stars!”

The clouds are clearing.

For the first time in a long time, a sea of ​​stars decorated the night sky of Seoul.

The radio rang.

The US military plane arrived in the airspace.

The sharp sound of jet aircraft drowned out the soft thunder that was heard in the distance.

Woo Min-hee approached me with a faint smile.

“The American soldiers are asking if they can start?”

He nodded in response with a smile.

“Leave it to destruction.”

As soon as he finished speaking, huge birds of death flew over our heads.