Chapter 164: Side Story - Bunker (22)
Chapter 164: Side Story - Bunker (22)
Once a directive is saved, it remains unless it is overwritten by a new one. Knowing this allowed us to approach the situation with calm and caution.
However, this wasn't something that could be decided on a whim.
First, there was the matter of the pregnancy.
Mother would return after the pregnancy was achieved.
Explaining the situation would be difficult, and the aftermath was entirely unpredictable.
Yet, ignoring the directive and refusing to carry it out... was something we couldn't realistically consider.
It was an offer of resurrection granted before we could even fully process the fact that she was gone.
So, while accepting it was a foregone conclusion...
There was no need to rush into it. We weren't prepared, we hadn't coordinated what to do afterward, and we had no idea how we would even begin to explain things to her.
"I suppose so. Probably."
Kang Yu-min agreed with my opinion in her usual blunt manner.
Even if she seemed a bit reluctant.
Our relationship with our mother wasn't so bad that we would deny the chance to bring her back.
In fact, we were actually quite close to her.
Though she was stoic and didn't show much emotion—making emotional heart-to-hearts rare—she was a good person regardless.
She worked tirelessly to ensure we never wanted for anything, and after she grew the family fortune through her own ingenuity, she made our education and well-being her top priority.
If there was a way to repay that debt, it was only right that we did.
And so, without a shadow of a doubt, my sister and I decided that we would bring Mother back one day. For now, we sat quietly in the living room watching a movie.
"The world really did end, didn't it?"
The movie was showing a romantic scene between a man and a woman. I was momentarily admiring the performances of the handsome classic actors and the production—which, though crude by modern standards, was clearly made with care—when I nodded silently at Yu-min's words.
"Maybe it's okay somewhere."
"Still, it looks like most of it is gone."
"Probably. With all those nukes dropping."
"Everything must have vanished."
"Most likely."
"Aside from you and me, I don't even know how many humans are left."
I affirmed her thought with silence. Yu-min curled her body up and let out a sigh.
Her head rested against my leg, her hair spilling over me with a soft, rustling texture. I slowly lowered my hand and began to stroke her hair.
In the past, she would have swatted my hand away and told me not to do something so creepy. But now, with the traces of our tryst still lingering inside her, she didn't push me away. She accepted it quietly.
In fact, she almost seemed to enjoy it.
"If we tell Mom that, do you think she'll just let it slide?"
"...I doubt it."
"Right?"
Another sigh. Yu-min blinked slowly, still curled up.
Words to persuade Mother. Nothing came to mind easily.
To both Yu-min and me, Mother’s presence was almost absolute.
In reality, her intellect was formidable. While our father, the original businessman, might have been considered superior in that regard, Mother had... what should I call it?
She had grit.
She was the type to do everything with the intensity of someone willing to die for it, which meant she was a fast learner.
She was also talented and had the intuition to match her efforts.
She became proficient at everything in no time. It was no surprise that she took over and successfully led Father's business after he passed away.
Even if we were a bit poor during that transition.
Because of that, we knew better than anyone what she was capable of.
Mother was, in essence, a woman who could do anything she set her mind to. If such a woman were told that her son and daughter had brought her back to life by committing incest and getting pregnant, what would she say?
In the worst-case scenario...
I shuddered at the dark hypothetical that naturally surfaced. I buried myself in the sofa and stared blankly at the TV for a while.
I rested my arm on the armrest, meeting Yu-min's gaze as she looked up at me from my lap.
"Let's think about it slowly. We still have plenty of time."
"We don't know that for sure."
"What do you mean? It's..."
"Contraceptives aren't 100% effective, you know?"
Is that how it works? When I looked at her with a bewildered face, Yu-min nodded.
"There's no such thing as perfect contraception in this world."
"Uh, well... like condoms and stuff."
"Condoms aren't 100% either."
"Is... is that so? How...?"
"How should I know? Anyway, that's no reason not to think about it."
"What if we just don't do it?"
"If we don't do it, then it's 100%, I guess."
Yu-min looked at me as if telling me not to even consider the option of not doing it.
It was a strange look. The kind of look that made it difficult for me to offer any rebuttal.
So, I quietly shut my mouth. Yu-min squirmed on my lap for a moment as if she didn't care either way.
"I'm going to use the spa."
Yu-min cast her clothes out from under the blanket like a man-eating plant spitting out well-picked bones. Now naked, she walked toward the spa without hesitation.
I was the only one left sitting there with a confused expression.
Our routine hadn't changed drastically, but it felt like our lives had reached a certain level of stability.
Yu-min, well, she had always loved working out, so she continued her exercise.
However, it didn't feel like she was exercising all day long like she did before we had the living room. Once she finished a reasonable workout, she would come find me.
"What are you doing?"
"Reading."
"Does reading manga count as reading?"
"Fifty percent of humanity agreed on it, so just deal with it."
"The other fifty percent didn't agree, though?"
"Then are you not going to read it?"
"I just joined the agreeing half."
I was the same. After some light stretching and a bit of exercise, I would head to the living room to do whatever I wanted.
In a way, it felt like this was where our main life happened.
Our meals were still nutritional porridge, and since we had decided to eat in the kitchen, we did so.
But aside from eating, sleeping, and washing up in the shower room, we were always gathered in the living room.
"...Don't you think we don't really need the bathtub?"
It was a bit late to realize, but we barely used the bathtub.
We used it occasionally, but only in specific situations.
"Still, you need that tub if you want to wash properly with bubbles. You can't do that in the spa."
"Why not?"
"We have to make it last. We don't have many cleaning supplies."
Normally, Yu-min would have snapped at me, asking if I was an idiot, but she answered me gently as she turned a page. I sat shoulder-to-shoulder with her, reading the manga together.
"Then, I hope they give us some cleaning supplies later."
"It's not like we can control that."
Well, that was true. But I thought that maybe we could influence it to some extent.
Regardless, there was no denying that our bunker life had become incredibly stable.
We still had several years' worth of food.
There were no issues with drinking water, and the air filtration was still working fine.
Nothing threatening had appeared from the outside, and the temperature was perfect.
So, Yu-min and I spent every day in the living room reading manga and novels, sometimes debating how a series that had been cut short by the end of the world would have concluded.
Of course, we also played games, watched movies, and binged dramas or anime on the OTT service.
There was an abundance of things to do. It felt as if the cultural essence of humanity had been gathered in this very living room.
The only problem was the sudden waves of emptiness and a strange sense of anxiety.
The thought of 'Is it really okay to be like this?'
To be more specific:
Is it okay to just play every single day without doing any work at all?
Shouldn't I be doing something for the reconstruction of humanity, or at least for myself?
Exercise isn't bad, but is a life consisting of nothing but exercise truly the right way to live?
We were in a shelter, and the society that would have assigned value to my actions had long since vanished, leaving only the two of us... but still.
Is it okay to live like this?
I paused at that thought, and Yu-min shifted her eyes as if sensing my mood.
"Hey."
"...Yeah."
"We haven't checked today's directives yet. Want to look together?"
"Oh, uh? Ah, right."
Since there was nothing urgent, we often forgot to check the directives.
One of us would bring it up, and only then would we check the terminal in the living room.
We would discuss whether to carry them out based on the reward and the difficulty, and if it was simple, we'd do it immediately.
Since it had become part of our routine, we gathered in front of the terminal and tapped the keys.
[Stored Directives]
[Goal: Fertilize Resident Kang Yu-min's ovum with Resident Kang Yu-jin's sperm]
[Reward: Resurrection of Mother, Lee Seon-mi, and relocation to the shelter]
[Progress: 0/1]
I moved past the familiar directive that I had already memorized.
Directive [Change]
The screen flickered and changed according to the selected text. We really would have to carry out that directive eventually, but when would we be ready? When would we have the heart to do it?
Just as I was letting out a sigh at the daunting, unanswerable question...
[New Directive]
[Goal: Resident Kang Yu-min's squirting]
[Reward: Addition of a Seed Storage Room for saplings and seeds, and a Cultivation Room managed by an automated greenhouse]
[Progress: 0/1]
At the directive that appeared as if it had seen right through my worries, I blinked blankly, my fingers trembling slightly over the keyboard.
"...Me again?"
Yu-min grumbled, but her cheeks were flushed with a clear sense of anticipation.