Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 453



Only Noblemtl

453 180. Yuldo-guk (2)

Yuldo-guk is an imaginary island nation established by the legendary thief Hong Gil-dong by gathering people who believed in him and followed him out of the sea.

If you ask if Baek Seung-hyun has a Hong Gil-dong-like side, then I’m not sure.

He is neither a thief nor a user of magical powers.

We don’t know if he was an illegitimate child or had older brothers, but at least it’s quite Hong Gil-dong-like that he was an outcast from society and that he gathered other outcasts to form a gang.

Baek Seung-hyun has considerable recognition not only in real-life crews but also on the Internet.

Despite his frowning words and actions, Dongtan Mom had the ability to create quality content and had a considerable fan base, especially in the West, where people had no chance to see his bare face.

That Dongtan mom posted an advertisement.

The fact that he distributed flyers not only on the Internet but also on industrial printers suggests that his advertisements were backed by the government as well as his own financial resources.

The advertisement he posted was meant to stimulate the trauma of those left behind in Seoul.

[ Legendary Paradise – Recruiting courageous pioneers to leave for Yuldo Kingdom! ]

Take a boat to paradise.

It’s one of the most horrible lies the government has ever told us.

Baek Seung-hyun himself was a victim of that lie.

It is not uncommon in criminal history for a victim of a crime to commit the same crime against another innocent person.

For example, there are cases where a female victim of prostitution becomes a pimp and is arrested for exploiting another woman in a more vicious and cruel way.

People’s eyes upon Baek Seung-hyun’s actions were not kind.

Pee-yee: Dongtan Mom, why is that kid like that?

Choco Muffin: So where is Yuldo Country?

ㅇㅇ: Are you using the water ghost strategy because it seems like you’ll lose the election?

Dead 4213: Baek Seung -hyun

Shaman Frog: You’re not going to leave it like that, are you?

Anonymous458: Hmm.

Kaiserenberg: Yum yum… lol It sucks to copy it lol

…

…

Even in reality, the gaze was not kind.

“Dongtan Mom was Baek Seung-hyun? Hmm. I don’t really like him. You’ve met your senior before, right?”

Kim Da-ram, who still hasn’t given up hope for the election, said this while picking off the fluff from his neat suit one by one with his hands.

“That person is a bit of a creep. You know what I mean? He’s the kind of person who makes you feel bad when you’re around him. I don’t believe he had good intentions when he did this.”

Defender also expressed similar opinions.

“······This time, you want to be the one in charge? When I see things like that, I feel so wronged, don’t you think?”

It’s not hard to understand the Defender’s grievances.

Some people turn thousands or tens of thousands of people into fish food just by clicking on a document without saying a word, but it must be unfair that they are labeled as murderers when they kill people one by one.

Well, Defender didn’t do anything right either.

I would also like to hear Woo Min-hee’s opinion, but it has been difficult to see her since she returned from Jeju.

Anyway, both online and in real life, the “Yuldo Project” was met with criticism.

Nevertheless, the Hope Ship, which brought our Dongtan Mom and the multinational gang, began preparing to set sail.

Food, fuel, and miscellaneous supplies were loaded onto the huge tanker, and starting with the Dongtan Mom crew, several people boarded the ship one by one.

As the news of Hope’s return to port stirred up a stir throughout the city, dark rumors began to spread across the Internet.

It was to force anti-government figures onto the Hope Ship.

Dead3821: It seems like the government is secretly capturing people they don’t like and putting them on the Hope Ship. One of my friends who used to criticize the government at work suddenly disappeared, so I tracked his location on his phone, and oh my, his location was right there on the Hope Ship.

The Jeju government had lost the people’s support since long ago, but because they had the resources, organization, and military power, the people had no choice but to comply with them.

The first month or two were fine, but as the elections they had promised became more and more frequent and it became clear to even elementary school students that the elections were simply an extension of the conspiracy they had waged in Seoul, there was a noticeable increase in anti-government figures.

They say you are anti-government, but if you criticize the current election situation, you are anti-government.

Among them, there were those who actively went to the square to protest, but there were also many who expressed critical opinions to their coworkers within the government-assigned workplace.

The news that such people had disappeared and were being forcibly removed from the Hope liner brought to mind an urban legend of some past authoritarian government in East Asia putting dissidents on planes and jettisoning them somewhere in the Pacific.

Anyway, amidst these ominous rumors, a post by an anonymous user claiming to have escaped from the Hope Ship in Viva! Apocalypse! has risen to the top of the list of popular posts.

Dead Man 99211: The story of being dragged to the Hope Ship and escaping.txt

-I think it would be hard to tell if I talk about the little things, so I’ll just talk about what happened after I was dragged to the Hope Ship.

In a dark room, amidst a group of grumpy Indian men, a man with short hair asks me questions.

What do you do? What are you good at? Do you have a family?

Later on, they started asking me questions like where I went to college, what my major was, and whether I had any work experience, so I thought it was an interview.

When I told him that I didn’t know how to do anything, that the work experience listed on my profile was fake, and that my school was also false, he shook his head and told me to get lost.

Of course, there was not a single bit of authentication or credibility to that article.

It seems that the absurd interview and ending with the kidnapping and imprisonment of an anti-government figure and the expulsion through an appeal for a dismissal suited the people’s sense of humor.

However, there were also users who expressed meaningful opinions among them.

Hermit382: It is said that in the past, during the Khmer Rouge regime, if the hands were soft and had no calluses, they would put a plastic bag over the person’s face and execute them. In the end, the ones who caused trouble were the intelligent ones, so at least from the dictator’s point of view, it wasn’t such a bad decision.

Anyway, this somewhat comical story seemed to have been consumed as just a one-time popular article.

There was one more.

Dead22334: Hope Ship kidnapped and imprisoned confirmed

The Necropolis now functions as a secret security tool that guarantees complete anonymity.

Any article that carries a risk of revealing one’s identity was uploaded via Necropolis, to the point where it was absolutely necessary.

This latest revelation was one of them.

However, although this latest exposé had similar content to a previous post by another anonymous user, its tone and the evidence it contained were different from the previous popular post.

“This is real.”

Cheon Yeong-jae clicked his tongue while looking at his cell phone.

“Senior. Those Jeju kids really seem to be catching people and shoving them onto that boat.”

The post by the Necropolis user contained a scene in the early morning where people in plain clothes, but armed with guns and bludgeoning weapons, were tied up with ropes and forced onto boats with emaciated and battered bodies.

The problem is that there are more than just one or two photos.

The poster uploaded 82 fairly clear images of the president on the Viva! Apocalypse! board, even with the slow upload speed of Necropolis.

People are all different and times are all different.

The kidnapping by the government and the forced boarding of the Hope Ship now seemed like undeniable facts to anyone.

It was around that time that Woo Min-hee, who had been staying at home, showed up in our office room 803 for the first time in a long while.

“Did you see what Dongtan Mom did, too?”

Woo Min-hee was not angry about the incident itself, but she was clearly showing her antipathy towards what her friend on the bulletin board called Dongtan Mom was trying to do.

“No matter how much I think about it, it’s not good to do something like that again this season. Not for the Jeju government, not for Dongtan Mom.”

She looked straight at me and said.

“Shouldn’t I stop it?”

Perhaps she came forward not only because of the fate of those who were forcibly taken on board the Hope Ship.

Now that she’s become commonplace, her true purpose is probably to stop an old friend from the message board from crossing the river of no return.

If Dongtan Mom becomes a person who dumps people into the sea as people worry, then there will be nothing to see.

He alone will take full responsibility for all the sins.

This is a story about the annihilation of not only the human Baek Seung-hyun, but also an internet personality called Dongtan Mom, who has been met with mixed reviews.

I answered her.

“Let’s just watch for now.”

*

Let’s turn back the clock to the time when we met and talked with Baek Seung-hyun in person.

He said, looking into the distance.

“Honestly, I know you don’t like me.”

“······.”

“It’s true that I don’t like you, so there’s no need to feel embarrassed, Park Gyu.”

Baek Seung-hyun took the cigarette out of his mouth again and put it in his mouth.

What he took out of the metal cigarette case was neither Indian nor Chinese.

It was your precious domestic product.

“But it’s true that I was able to use the Internet thanks to you, and it’s true that I was able to survive until now thanks to the Internet. If it weren’t for the supply of Melon Mask, I would have died in China long ago.”

Baek Seung-hyun chuckled.

“Now that I think about it, that senior guy is really narrow-minded. It was the junior guy who bowed his head first, so he only now felt like speaking honestly.”

He stared at me.

It was difficult to define in a single word what exactly was in that face with its strange yet mysterious smile.

He seems to think a lot.

“thanks.”

He bowed his head.

He didn’t say anything.

When he raised his head again, instead of staring at me, he was staring out the window, at the vast ocean beyond the plastic covering that covered the window.

“······I feel like I’m going to do something shitty soon.”

“Is that so?”

“But I wish you wouldn’t come forward. Instead, please remember one thing.”

“What kind?”

Baek Seung-hyun answered with a sigh, emitting white smoke.

“I too, have been fooled many times.”

He didn’t tell me at the time what he was up to, and knowing his personality, I didn’t ask him.

All I remember is the scene before leaving where Dongtan Mom was waving her hand to see me off with her child, comforting and soothing her grumpy wife.

“Sketon.”

That’s what my child called me.

He left with a gentle smile on his face.

Again time returns to the present.

The ship is preparing to set sail.

A large crowd of protesters gathered at the dock.

It was a number I had never seen before.

They all had angry and furious faces.

I have seen protesters gather many times before, but this is the first time I have seen so many people gathered together with one mind to criticize the government.

“······Maybe this is a picture drawn by Dongtan Mom?”

The defender next to him said something.

Seeing him, Da-jeong, wearing a mask, continued to explain.

“I’m talking about the post by that anonymous user.”

She glared at the dock with sharp eyes.

“It looks like all the photos were taken inside the barbed wire fence you see there. But inside that fence, there are always surveillance equipment, drones, and armed guards.”

“okay?”

“It’s an insider’s doing.”

What I heard from Gong Gyeong-min later also supplements this.

“······That guy named Baek Seung-hyun, our senior from the same class. I heard that there was some kind of deal with the committee. I don’t know exactly what Baek Seung-hyun agreed to do, but it’s true that the committee prepared a key position for him.”

Gong Kyung-min added with a bitter smile.

“Well, even if I get that position, I won’t be able to stay there for long.”

The discontent of the citizens who gathered at the dock that day was quelled by Baek Seung-hyun’s personal appearance.

Baek Seung-hyun showed people that he had brought the entire 868-person crew he brought to Seoul with him, including his children and wife, and declared that he would also be going on this voyage.

I also didn’t forget my promise to write a daily log and post it on the Viva! Apocalypse! bulletin board, which has now become everyone’s bulletin board.

Amid such suspicious eyes, the Hope left Incheon again and headed toward the ocean.

dongtanmom: Found a cute finless porpoise! ​​But it’s a mutation?!

dongtanmom: That island over there is awesome! As you can see, it’s still fine!

dongtanmom: Now we’re entering the East China Sea in earnest! If you go south, you’ll reach Jeju! If you go southeast, you’ll reach Japan! If you go east, you’ll reach the southern coast, and maybe even the United States?!

dongtanmom : Aurora observed at 33.2 degrees north latitude.jpg

Personally, I believe that the public sailing log of Dongtan Mom posted during this period was not written by Baek Seung-hyun himself.

It probably wasn’t written by his wife either.

Perhaps it was written by a third party.

Anyway, the adventure diary of Dongtan Mom, whose author is unknown, experiences a drastic change in genre three days after the start of the voyage.

dongtanmom: Suddenly the rudder is not working. The GPS is not responding either. I heard that the satellites are falling, but I thought the guide satellite constellation of the International Maritime Union would hold out a little longer.

dongtanmom: Don’t worry. There’s plenty of food on board and people’s morale is high. I’m worried about spring storms, but well. At least according to the European Medium-Range Weather Forecast satellite observations that are still alive, there are no such signs.

dongtanmom: There’s a hole in the ship. It’s been sealed with a bulkhead, but it needs repairs. I’ll bring you good news soon.

dongtanmom: I hear gunfire. Is that a warship? I don’t think it’s pirates. Pirates don’t have such large-caliber guns.

dongtanmom: It’s sudden, but I think this is it.

That’s the last post by dongtanmom, the named user of Viva! Apocalypse!

After writing a dark and gloomy article with no content, Dongtan Mom stopped posting any more articles.

*

The disappearance of Dongtan Mom and Hope did not become a national resistance or symbol.

The conspiracy theorists’ theory of a deal between Baek Seung-hyun and the Jeju government was rendered worthless in the context of the series of events in which Baek Seung-hyun himself boarded a ship, wrote a report, and then disappeared.

But their disappearance did not lead to mourning.

It was just an unfortunate incident.

As I found out later, most of the people who were taken on that ship were lonely people with no relatives, meaning no one would mourn their loss.

But the people who were there on the day the Hope Ship departed remember.

The fact is that if just one opportunity arises, people with similar interests will gather together at any time.

Fox code.

On a small bulletin board where the original Old Bees and founding members gather, a relay of memorial messages for Dongtan Mom is currently being written.

No matter what, my internet friend named Dongtan Mom is someone who has shared our joys and sorrows with us.

“······Dongtan Mom is going like that too.”

Even the world’s best Woo Min-hee expressed her bitter feelings about Dongtan Mom’s disappearance.

She suddenly stared at me blankly.

“Senior, don’t you have any thoughts?”

“me?”

“huh.”

“well.”

To be honest, I have no idea.

It’s not just because of my antipathy toward Baek Seung-hyun or my dislike for Dongtan Mom.

“I think that guy is alive?”

“what?!”

Woo Min-hee looked at me with a slightly surprised expression, then approached me with his hooked fingers curled and unfolded threateningly.

“By any chance, that person… Did he tell something to his senior?”

There is nothing special to note.

All he told me was about Yuldo-guk and how he had been deceived by the government many times.

Of course, predicting survival based on those two words and actions seems to have little basis.

but.

“······I’ll be alive.”

I trust Baek Seung-hyun, my senior.

He has a wife and children.

Not an ordinary family, but one where everyone believes and trusts in each other.

However, on our Old Bee bulletin board, which is filled with a rare atmosphere of remembrance, Living Legend also added his own tribute to Dongtan Mom, who will never return.

“······.”

Knock knock

SKELTON: Goodbye, Dongtan Mom.

There were several comments on that post, but I won’t mention them here.

But three months later.

I must mention one comment that was left at a point when even the outline of the Hope incident was fading from people’s minds.

daechimom : Yomnyumnyum lol

He chuckled.

And imagine.

A place called Yuldo, a fantasy island nation.