Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 435



Only Noblemtl

5 172. The Savior (3)

It is virtually impossible for an ordinary person like me to kill an Awaken above level 10.

There is a reason why I, who cannot say that I broke up with Kang Han-min on good terms, was not searched during our private meeting.

Even Kang Hanmin’s most loyal followers judged that there was zero chance of me killing him.

Awakens of the level of Kang Min-jung have all the powers shown by the Nemesis type, plus special powers that have not yet been observed.

Kang Min’s power is absolute.

That is something I personally saw and experienced with my own eyes when I was at the top at the time.

If he puts his mind to it, I’ll literally be torn to pieces on the spot.

This is what it means literally. It is not a metaphor or an allegory.

But Kang Han-min is also human.

He too lets his guard down, makes mistakes, and does foolish things.

People are surprisingly tenacious creatures, but they also die surprisingly easily.

A human dies when his heart stops beating.

When you look at people dying in hospitals, there are many causes of death, but the end result is cardiac shock and arrest.

Just once is enough.

Even a strong man can die with one axe strike.

I don’t enjoy killing and try to avoid it whenever possible, but it is a fact that I have killed many people with cold weapons.

After deciding to have a conversation with Kang Han-min, the choice to kill Kang Han-min among the choices I made was not based on any rational reason or basis.

A hazy past, suspicious circumstances, intentions that can only be guessed at, and simply my feelings.

Still, Kang Han-min is more dangerous than any human I’ve ever known.

It’s not because I’m greedy or have an ugly side.

There is no cruelty or obsession with power.

But he believes.

That he was the only one who could save this world.

He would do anything for that one answer.

Anything.

The problem is, I don’t know what he wants.

I discovered during my school and Chinese days that he had the same flame of hatred as I did, but how easily the human heart can change.

Perhaps he is following in the footsteps of many dictators we have seen so far.

“······okay?”

Of course, there is a way to turn away from Kang Han-min’s actions.

The idea is that I could go back to my bunker and watch the world end in the darkness, where I used to be friends.

But I saw hope.

Nemesis type.

By killing my enemies I discovered the possibility of killing them.

It’s still dim and vague, but it’s definitely better than wandering around in the fog without a compass like in the past.

“Why do you think it’s heaven?”

Kang Han-min is almost the only person who can implement the solution that is not organized inside him.

Yes, that’s right.

The best option is to talk to Kang Min and find a compromise.

This is the real reason I met him.

I think there is a possibility of compromise.

If the flame of hatred he carried had not been extinguished, we could still continue the conversation.

The chances are 50/50.

I waited for Kang Min’s answer, feeling the texture of the axe as if it were a part of me.

After a while, Kang Han-min asked me.

“Have you ever thought about particles?”

particle.

Although it is known in the dictionary as an object with both physical and chemical characteristics, among our hunters, the particle refers to a particle of light that appears when a monster disappears.

It couldn’t be helped because there were so many names for the particles that appeared when a monster was destroyed.

Just remembering the Capel particles, Xiaojun-Maoliai particles, Nomura particles, Turenne-Savoy scattering particles, etc., there are more than four of them.

Because the naming rights for these particles were considered a matter directly related to each country’s pride, they continued to be called and used simply as “particles” until the war, without having a name that would become a world standard.

“Particle.”

In my case, I don’t have any special thoughts.

What can we say about a phenomenon that cannot be analyzed, that merely appears as reality?

“Well, I never really thought about it.”

Kang Han-min smiled faintly.

Soon he turned around slowly, carrying his luggage on his back.

The texture and weight of the axe, held firmly between my waist and hips, once again dominated my senses.

“······.”

As I was measuring the distance between him and me, Kang Han-min opened his mouth.

“That’s true.”

I don’t have a hobby of predicting or guessing what someone will say, but I figured Kang Min-gang would probably say something formulaic or give a boringly long explanation.

It can’t be helped.

Because if I try to explain something that is difficult to explain, it will inevitably become long-winded.

But Kang Han-min is different.

“That’s true.”

He doesn’t twist things around or give long, disjointed explanations.

He asserts with conviction.

“It’s information.”

For a brief moment, I felt the weight of the axe I had been feeling all along fade away and asked him.

“······Information?”

Kang Han-min nodded, turning his back.

“The alien species first discovered inside and outside the cracks and the monsters that appeared afterward are treated completely differently, but they still have one thing in common. That is, particles. When their life activities cease, they both disappear by turning into particles of light without leaving behind a corpse. And where those particles head is······.”

“Is this the story of Beyond the Cracks?”

“okay.”

Kang Han-min turned around.

“Monsters are not just tools of erosion.”

Confidence remains in his eyes.

“All their activities are recorded in particles in a similar way to human genetic information, and when it is removed, it cracks back into particle state.”

No one has ever made such a claim.

Because I don’t know.

Because I don’t know.

So they fought over trivial things like particle names.

On the other hand, Kang Han-min’s eyes, filled with brilliance, see a realm that the criminal cannot see.

“······And the crack creates something newer and more powerful based on the information carried by the particle. As you know, the monsters we deal with are not independent entities like us humans, but rather are closer to the lower tissues of some gigantic being, like cytoplasm.”

This is not an entirely new claim.

It’s the kind of material that might appear somewhere as a minority opinion or as an anonymous submission in a science magazine.

What makes Kang Han-min’s opinion different from theirs is the presence or absence of conviction.

“That is to say, our act of killing monsters is equivalent to providing data to improve monsters or create new monsters.”

There is only confidence in his voice and eyes.

There is not even the slightest hint of doubt or hesitation.

“······So that’s why you called it heaven?”

I asked him.

Kang Han-min nodded with a faint smile.

“Isn’t it true that the soul ultimately goes to heaven?”

If that’s what you meant, I guess I can put aside the murderous intent I felt for a moment.

The heaven that Kang Min-i spoke of was not the utopia we speak of, but rather the souls of monsters – that is, the servers where information and data are circulated.

That doesn’t mean I’ve completely given up on killing him.

Just one less misunderstanding.

Let’s move on to the next topic.

“Do you know how to destroy that heaven?”

Kang Han-min looked at me.

We looked at each other in a brief silence.

But there’s probably not much that either of us can discover about each other.

After a while, Kang Han-min nodded.

“To some extent.”

“Can I ask what method it is?”

It wasn’t a question that required an answer.

but.

“Adam and Eve.”

Kang Han-min confidently spoke about his plan.

“Adam and Eve······?”

The first human man and woman in Christianity.

According to him, we humans are the vast descendants of that one pair of humans.

“Sorry, Brother. That’s all I can tell you right now. It’s not a concrete plan, it’s just a concept.”

“······Are you Adam?”

I asked jokingly.

Kang Han-min showed an unexpected reaction.

He scratches the back of his head with a bitter smile, embarrassed by my question.

“It could be, it might not be. But it probably won’t be.”

He looked straight at me.

“Of course, if you are qualified, I will gladly give you the position.”

“why?”

“Why? Because you’re my brother!”

Even though it was just for a moment, I felt sincerity from him.

He was a strange guy overall, but strangely enough, he was always sincere to me.

“It wasn’t that great of a plan. I just got some vague inspiration from an observation that Aniki made, and from that inspiration I made a rough draft.”

“Could you tell me roughly?”

“······Well, if it’s my brother, then it’s okay.”

Kang Han-min slowly approached me defenselessly.

He stood side by side with me.

His eyes, standing side by side, stared blankly at the gray-white canvas that mimicked the cracks beyond.

“You said you met a boy in a vision you had right after you defeated the General type, no, the Nemesis type?”

He nodded.

“I think I saw that guy too.”

“okay?”

“From beyond the cracks, not of this world.”

“······Is that true?”

This is a difficult claim for me to accept.

I spent nearly a month beyond the rift.

What I saw there was infinity, stillness, and eternity.

“There is a place where particles gather.”

For a moment something stirred inside my head.

A similar memory image lay unpackaged deep in my consciousness.

okay.

It was in the pile of information that was thrown into my head right after I defeated the Nemesis type.

There was a place with a similar purpose and feeling.

“Are you trying to do something there?”

Kang Han-min nodded slowly.

For a moment, something else that had not been visible before became visible.

Kang Han-min is letting his guard down.

Right now, with just one swing of the axe, I could drive it into the side of his neck or the back of his head.

There will be no mistakes.

Because there hasn’t been a single mistake or failure so far.

Especially against humans.

Kang Han-min opened his mouth again as the presence of the axe on his back rapidly grew and consumed my consciousness.

“I can close the crack.”

He spoke in a low but firm voice.

“You guys, you can kill monsters forever.”

For a moment I looked into the guy’s eyes.

A single flame was burning within his pupil, shrouded in a soft glow.

That flame was not much different from the one burning inside my chest.

*

“Woo Min-hee is under house arrest. He is awaiting trial.”

Gong Kyung-min offered me a cigarette while smoking it.

As always, I declined.

“Well, they’re bringing up all sorts of charges like abuse of power and embezzlement, but the truth is, they’re just being spiteful. Even though he’s one of our people, he helped build a new Seoul that we didn’t want, and he also acted on behalf of the city.”

Gong Kyung-min understood all the issues that I wanted to know and discuss.

Few would deny that his rise to the top ranks of the National Assembly was not only due to his good fortune in the early days of Awakening, but also to his skillful handling of affairs.

He was good at his work, especially paperwork.

“I decided to leave Kim Da-ram’s son alone as you asked. He said he got the okay from Kang Han-min, but actually, getting the okay from him would mean nothing. That guy always makes his goons do all the dirty and difficult work, while he himself laughs and tramples them down as if he were above the clouds.”

“Really? Thanks to that, I feel relieved.”

“Is hell starting now?”

“why?”

“The US military guys are being picky and I have to mix up my friends from Jeju and my friends in Seoul.”

“Can’t we just leave them separate?”

“Separation inevitably leads to excessive conflict. We don’t have the capacity to build a wall around the entire Seoul like Jeju. If we want to run a city with over a million people, it’s better to somehow gather them in one place and manage them. Of course, there will be brief strife, but we should hope that the warmth of the Korean people will be there at that time.”

Spring is coming.

The typhoon has passed and it is time to rebuild.

There’s no telling when the next storm will hit here, but each survivor prepares for the future in their own way.

Anyway, there is only one thing I have to do right now.

“Senior. It’s been a while. How have you been?”

Woo Min-hee, whom we met in a prison without bars, was quite haggard.

You should not be treated badly or treated rudely.

Just the day I defeated the Nemesis type, she also used her power.

Rumor has it that this is also a fierce battle.

That’s understandable, since more than 10 of those Executioner types have come.

“By the way, senior. I heard you met senior Kang Han-min?”

They say he’s been locked up in the mansion, but it looks like information is being spread quite quickly.

Song Yu-jin, standing in front of the fancy wallpaper, smiled awkwardly at me.

No matter what, it looks like I’ll end up writing it again.

Perhaps, such personnel decisions are the few pieces of evidence that can help us understand the woman named Woo Min-hee.

She is a difficult, self-centered, and self-centered woman to understand, but she has a very kind heart inside.

He cherishes his people and tries to protect them.

It’s just that the outer shell that covers her emotions is too ugly and prickly, and the way it’s done is so clumsy and crude that it’s hard to see.

“There’s going to be a trial. I heard it’s just a formality. They’re just going to do a show and then retire.”

“What are you going to do when you retire there?”

“well?”

Woo Min-hee slowly bent and straightened his hooked claws, lost in thought.

She suddenly looked at me blankly.

Soon a mischievous smile appeared on her face.

“Shall we go to our Skeleton Senior’s bunker?”

“What?”

“Why? Can’t I go? The hurdles don’t seem that high. Can I go too?”

“It’s not a problem that it came, it’s just that it happened so suddenly.”

You’re not really being serious, are you?

Looking at the rotating board, I feel like it’s time for me to go back to the bunker, but Woo Min-hee is coming to this already chaotic neighborhood?

A storm so huge that the conflicts of the past will be nothing could come.

Even so, my friends in my area are already appropriately divided.

“I was just saying.”

Woo Min-hee chuckled.

“okay?”

“By the way, senior.”

Woo Min-hee stared at me intently with eyes that held a gentle glow.

“The conversation with Kang Han-min. Did it go well?”

“It’s a story······.”

After thinking for a moment, he answered with a bitter smile.

“It didn’t exactly go the way I wanted it to.”

I had something I wanted to say, but I couldn’t say it.

It was partly due to the atmosphere, partly due to the constraints of the situation and time, but the biggest reason was that I didn’t specifically understand the information I had.

But there was a crucial reason why it didn’t get there.

“······In many ways.”

I was able to kill Kang Hanmin.

There was only one chance.

But I didn’t do that.

That couldn’t be done.

“······.”

Because I confirmed that he, too, is driven by the same flames of hatred as I am.

Of course, the color of the flame is obviously different, but that doesn’t deny the fact that it is the ending we want.

Kang Han-min.

I will watch him.

Whether he is the true savior.