Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 452



Only Noblemtl

452 180. Yuldo-guk (1)

A long-awaited message arrived at the Skeleton account, which was closed for a long time.

I wish he was Kang Han-min, but in some ways he was also a determined person.

Message from dongtanmom: You were Park Gyu? Let’s have a drink. We have a lot to talk about.

This is Dongtan Mom, Baek Seung-hyun.

“······.”

Knock knock

[ Do you want to block dongtanmom? ]

It’s true that I was briefly tempted to block him.

No matter what, I can’t say that our relationship on the Internet was good.

But I guess it would be nice to meet you anyway.

Because Dongtan Mom is Dongtan Mom and Baek Seung-hyun at the same time.

Of course, I will never do anything that would benefit that gentleman.

Although I decided to meet Dongtan Mom with such a firm mind, I forgot one fact.

That means Baek Seung-hyun is a traveler.

He wandered the sea.

People who sail the seas always have more stories to tell than those who don’t.

Of course, it is up to the person receiving the story to decide whether it is fiction or true.

*

Incheon Pier.

I met Baek Seung-hyun at a dock where several ships were anchored.

“Who is this? Isn’t this the legendary hunter Skeleton?”

Baek Seung-hyun’s style remains the same.

Short bob cut, leather jacket, and jeans of moderate fit.

It’s probably intentional that the gun holster on the chest is clearly visible.

“Long time no see. Park Gyu.”

His wife was standing next to him, and my gaze was directed a little lower.

Before I knew it, the child was standing on two feet and staring blankly at me.

I look more like my mom than my dad.

Baek Seung-hyun made the child greet me.

“Hyunsoo. Say hello. This is Mr. Park Gyu.”

“······.”

“What’s wrong? Park Gyu?”

“I don’t think I’m old enough to be called uncle.”

Baek Seung-hyun snorted.

“Don’t you always call Woo Min-hee ‘auntie’?”

I left out the rest of the story, but you can tell by looking at Baek Seung-hyun’s strange expression.

I guess he’s trying to make fun of the fact that he’s okay with being called an auntie, but he himself doesn’t want to be called an uncle.

Baek Seung-hyun suggested drinking alcohol, but changed it to just having a cup of tea.

There are many grudges against drinking together and we are not close friends.

Changed seats.

He set up shop on the second floor of a dockside building that he now uses as his campaign office.

There are several desks and signs that people have worked there until recently, but now it’s just the two of us.

Baek Seung-hyun sat down in the empty chair first and opened his mouth.

I don’t know about anything else, but it is an undeniable fact that Baek Seung-hyun is not an easy person.

“Smile. I have no intention of asking for favors.”

He knew the true nature of the guard I had been secretly keeping on my guard.

And that’s not all.

“It’s obvious that it’s going to be a sham election anyway.”

I also had a vague insight into the nature of the election currently underway.

He put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.

It’s indoors, but I don’t care.

I saw a cigarette.

I thought it was a government warehouse stockpile, but it wasn’t.

These are imported cigarettes.

It also appears to be made in India, not China.

“Ah. Is this it?”

Baek Seung-hyun read the direction of my gaze and snickered.

“Want to smoke one?”

He shook his head.

Instead, I asked.

“Where did this come from?”

“Ah. This is it.”

Baek Seung-hyun answered with a bitter smile and muttered.

“At the sea.”

“ocean.”

“Yeah. I used to post updates on the bulletin board often.”

That’s what it was.

There was a time when I read it without fail.

At some point I started not seeing his posts.

It must have been at the point where discomfort overtook curiosity.

Anyway, from what I saw, Baek Seung-hyun was sailing around the various seas on the Hope Ship.

As far as I know, I have sailed through various seas in East Asia, including the East China Sea, the waters near Japan, and the sea in front of Jeju Island.

Anyway, Baek Seung-hyun’s wife brought out some refreshments.

He glances at her from time to time, as if he has something to say, but when Baek Seung-hyun gives the signal, he asks curtly as if he has been waiting for something.

“By any chance. Is Hunter Park Gyu really that guy named Skeleton?”

The expression is strangely hostile.

“······.”

Well, I understand.

To be honest, I have sincerely spoken ill of Baek Seung-hyun and Dongtan Mom on several occasions.

But it’s not all my fault.

The real reason lies in Baek Seung-hyun’s ugly internet etiquette that made a lawless person like me spit out such venomous words.

Anyway, that’s that, I guess I should answer the question.

“Ah. Yes. But I don’t use it alone.”

“is it so?”

“yes.”

Sometimes an imaginary cat enters the chat.

Baek Seung-hyun’s wife glanced at me and left.

“······.”

There was an awkward moment.

“You said that before the war, you were naked and out in society?”

“yes.”

If I remember correctly, after Baek Seung-hyun left the battlefield, he went into business once but failed and then moved around to several companies.

The cynical and twisted nature that characterizes Dongtan Mom may have been strengthened during this period.

Baek Seung-hyun was reminiscing about the past with an Indian cigarette in his mouth.

“At that time, among the presidents of the company I was working for, there was one person who was doing particularly well. He was a person who saved so much money that he didn’t even know how much he was earning.”

“What kind of business did you do?”

“Screen golf.”

“hmm.”

“It was very big and fancy in the province. There were many small businesses, but none that big and full-fledged. People thought that rather than spending that much money on an indoor screen, it would be better to invest in an outdoor practice facility. But the owner must have been possessed by a ghost. He pushed ahead with the business that others said would not work, and it succeeded.”

Why did Baek Seung-hyun suddenly bring up this topic?

I know Baek Seung-hyun doesn’t have a very good personality, but he’s also a hunter.

Don’t use unnecessary stories or digressions.

Soon, Baek Seung-hyun collected the long, drawn-out topic in his own way.

“But even that successful gentleman went bankrupt. I heard that he filed for bankruptcy about six months before the war broke out.”

An unusual, childish, bright smile appeared on Baek Seung-hyun’s lips.

“You fucking punk. I thought it was going well.”

Yes, this is Baek Seung-hyun.

“Oh, yes.”

Baek Seung-hyun turned his gaze to me with a smile on his face.

“The reason I brought up the president’s story is because it has to do with my future.”

I was a little nervous for a moment.

At this point, Baek Seung-hyun may ask me to help him with his election campaign.

I have emphasized this several times, but I have absolutely no intention of helping Baek Seung-hyun in his election.

Apart from the fact that Baek Seung-hyun is my senior, what I’m saying is that a psychopath who yum-yums on the internet shouldn’t become a representative body like a member of the National Assembly.

Whether he knew what I meant or not, Baek Seung-hyun flicked his cigarette on the floor, scattering the ashes as he spoke in a low tone.

“······I think I’ll go back to the sea soon.”

“?”

There was a brief moment of confusion.

This is a completely unexpected story.

Before I met Baek Seung-hyun, I considered every possible scenario that he could have told me, but I never expected that he would say something like that to me.

“You’re going to the sea?”

Fortunately, I was able to ask in my usual tone of voice, maintaining the expressionless demeanor that I had practiced for a long time, perhaps even innately.

Baek Seung-hyun nodded with a shallow sigh.

“Yeah. It’s already been decided. Most of our crew has decided to leave with me. Besides.”

Baek Seung-hyun took out his cell phone.

Looking at the screen on the LCD, it is a recording file player.

I don’t know what was recorded, but several recording files, recorded by date, were saved in the LCD screen in a format that could be played back at any time.

“······The Jeju people seem to like it too. When we told them we were leaving again, they said they would provide us with oil and other supplies.”

However, Baek Seung-hyun did not reveal the contents of the recording file.

Perhaps it was prepared as an insurance policy to resolve the matter in case the promise was broken.

“That’s why I brought up the president story.”

When I first came here, I only thought of seeing your face for a moment and then leaving.

For a relationship like ours, that might be right.

However, Baek Seung-hyun, whom I met again after a long time, had changed in many ways, just like his wife, who had a face that looked slightly aged, from a young boy to a mature woman, and from a newborn to a toddler who was now walking on two feet.

“If you look at people who went from doing well to failing, nine times out of ten, they gave up what they were good at and started something else, and then failed. That CEO was the same. He bought a large commercial building, talking about financial freedom. I think his calculation was to make a living from the monthly rent for generations, but the problem was that the building shares were split into hundreds of shares.”

I looked at him and asked.

“Have you seen anything similar in this election?”

I’m not interested in this election.

Not only did he not intend to run as a candidate, he was constantly harassed by people asking him to help with the election campaign.

But I know that this election is not normal.

I also understand that this election is a cover-up to deceive the people, as the Jeju government has always done.

Baek Seung-hyun saw one more there.

“······They’re lining up. They’re only saving the candidates who seem like they’ll listen to them. They’re only saving the ones who seem like they can communicate well. They’re killing the rest. They say that elections are supposed to be the people’s choice. If they fill the candidates themselves with assholes, what can the people do? The act of elections becomes meaningless.”

“Is that so?”

Baek Seung-hyun sighed and nodded weakly.

“······.”

As expected.

The dirty behavior is being repeated again, more than I could have imagined.

After all, it was those guys who slowly and surely caused the great city and its citizens, who could have lasted so long, to decline.

“Well, I have a gang, so those guys couldn’t just ignore me.”

Baek Seung-hyun returned to Seoul with a crew of 868 people.

About 200 of them are Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese and even Chinese.

They are said to be people who were encountered while drifting in the sea or who requested rescue while stranded on an uninhabited island.

The reason Baek Seung-hyun jumped into the election race was because he trusted those people.

Perhaps the reason the Jeju government could not ignore Baek Seung-hyun was because of the manpower Baek Seung-hyun led.

Although the exact circumstances are unknown, the fighting power of Baek Seung-hyun and his crew is by no means to be underestimated.

Even though they are located next to the sea, they are people who survived in an eroded area for nearly a year.

Even at sea, the dangers are not trivial.

Since the effects of erosion are less severe, pirates actually become more active.

It is said that Japan, which is currently rapidly collapsing in real time, is pursuing a policy of abandoning the islands and returning to the mainland, just like Joseon did in the past.

In reality, it is said that Tsushima Island was ravaged by pirates and became an uninhabitable island.

The fact that the pirate was Korean rather than Japanese brings to mind a long-standing theme of history repeating itself.

Surviving at sea means fighting and surviving those pirates.

According to Woo Min-hee’s informant, there are probably several regular away-level players among Baek Seung-hyun’s crew.

So, Dongtan Mom has become the leader of a group.

“When I came to Seoul, I was filled with anticipation that I would make a new start here in my hometown, but the reality was still shit. I was reminded of that president. My thoughts began to change. Yeah. What kind of politics is this for me? Let’s go back to the sea. Let’s find new hope there.”

Baek Seung-hyun tries to do what he is good at.

At some point he became a man of the sea.

“······.”

There is a lot of ill will towards him.

Even before Dongtan Mom, Baek Seung-hyun wasn’t a very good person.

He was a man who could be infinitely cruel to others for his own sake.

Even today, the image of Cat Mom, whom he forced to die, remains vivid in my memory.

I don’t remember that face, though.

But, as Baek Seung-hyun said, it was a “shitty world.”

It may be a more vulgar expression, but that is the grumbling he engraved in my memory.

But both of us have experienced many things since the war.

The high score itself may be higher than mine, but my senior’s average score will be higher than mine.

From the moment he was abandoned in China, and had to support his young, reckless wife and baby at the same time.

Maybe that’s why.

He said that he did something that was not planned, or even unimaginable.

“Senior. To be honest, there have been many things going on between us, but as your junior, Park Gyu, I would like to say something.”

I saw him.

And says.

“I hope that wherever Baek Seung-hyun goes, he will do well.”

My sincerity.

“But please refrain from making noise wherever you go.”

This is 120% sincere.

“!”

A change came over Baek Seung-hyun’s face.

A look of obvious surprise crossed his grumpy face.

Although Baek Seung-hyun didn’t express his feelings in words, it was clear that he was shocked by my attitude.

Soon a significant change appeared at the corners of his mouth.

It’s a smile.

It’s closer to a rotten smile, but I believe that’s Baek Seung-hyun’s true smile.

“······Yum yum.”

“?”

“My mom used to use it. She used to work at a real estate cafe. It didn’t seem like much, but people would really stir things up. They’d swear at me. Should I say that it was funny? Should I say it was fun? You know the frog in the tree? That kind of spirit came out.”

“Oh, I see.”

Baek Seung-hyun remained silent for a moment, lost in thought.

Baek Seung-hyun opened his mouth again, his gaze fixed on the sea outside the window.

“Do you know Yuldo-guk?”

I don’t think I’m that old.

So I think it’s a little presumptuous to use the word insight.

And yet, at this very moment, I felt as if a light of insight was flashing within me.

“······It’s the island of legends.”

It must have been an unexpected story.