Chapter 102
Chapter 102
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Hiding a House in the Apocalypse
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"This is my last favor. I know I'm in no position to ask, but just this once, please, one final time!"
Baek Seung-hyeon bowed his head.
The way he lowered his head looked oddly familiar.
It had that soft humility you see in people who make a living out of bowing.
"This puts me in a tough spot."
I didn't want to grant this guy's request, and I sure as hell didn't want to see his face online either.
But then, unbidden, Philcrum88's words flashed through my mind.
He'd said satellite gear wouldn't be hard to bring on board.
"Is it really impossible to bring it in?"
"Yeah. They said no devices with signals that could pinpoint our location because of Chinese submarines."
Baek Seung-hyeon cooed at the baby while giving me a desperate look.
"How could it not be possible?"
I stared at him for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"I'll swing by the lab."
"You will? Really?!"
It wasn't because I liked the guy.
I was just curious.
Curious about why Philcrum88 could pull it off but Baek Seung-hyeon couldn't.
"...Okay."
After parting ways with him, I returned to the hunter district entrance and poked around the lab's front.
I could tell the guards my destination and go in that way, but if I ran into a researcher I knew, things might go smoother.
Luck was on my side today.
A female researcher I recognized was out front, smoking and drinking coffee with her colleagues.
I started toward her when someone grabbed my arm.
I'd noticed him.
The skinny, dark-skinned old man who'd been staring at me from the hunter district entrance.
Ignoring people was basic survival etiquette in the crumbling cityscape of the apocalypse.
So I'd been treating him like he didn't exist—until he suddenly grabbed my wrist.
I twisted my arm away with slow but firm force and fixed him with a steady gaze.
"What do you want?"
The old man stared straight back at me.
"If you get on that ship, you're all dead."
"I'm not getting on."
"No, that short-haired guy you were talking to earlier. The one carrying the baby. He said he's boarding too."
"Talk to him yourself."
"It doesn't feel like someone else's business. My son got on that ship. With my grandchild."
I could tell the old man's mental state was unstable within three seconds.
His uneasy eyes, slurred speech, gaze flicking toward me one moment and some distant point I didn't want to know about the next.
"...I killed them. Even that newborn baby."
More mumbling.
I was pondering how to shake him off when a sharp yell rang out from the street.
"Hey! Get lost!"
It was Baek Seung-hyeon.
"I said scram, you bastard!"
He unbuckled his belt like he was about to whip the old man, and only then did the geezer bow his head reluctantly and shuffle away.
After scaring off the old man so viciously, Baek Seung-hyeon flashed me a grin, pressed his palms together in a begging gesture.
"..."
I really didn't want to do this, but it seemed luck followed Baek Seung-hyeon around.
The female staffer smoking spotted me and came over first.
*
"What brings you here? Director Woo's been talking about you a lot lately, Hunter Park Gyu."
I didn't bother reading the name on her ID badge pinned to her chest.
"Oh, it's about the ship heading to Jeju tomorrow."
There were plenty of reasons, but the biggest one was probably resentment.
In an era where everyone—even my school alumni—was living miserably, it grated that they still had that pre-war innocence and carefree vibe.
I wouldn't drone on about the dying masses.
I just didn't like it.
It pissed me off that some unprepared schmuck who'd lucked into connections was living better than me.
"I see. Anyway, got a minute? Director Woo's meeting should wrap up soon; you could probably see her."
"Yeah. Please."
Separate from any ill will, things were falling into place smoothly.
Had my business ever gone this smoothly before?
I didn't think so.
Baek Seung-hyeon's luck, maybe.
Well, he deserved about three times my luck.
Unlike me, living alone, he had a wife and kid.
"Senior. Long time no see."
I came face-to-face with Woo Min-hee.
She hadn't changed much.
Her usual blank expression overlaid with that faint, cynical smirk mocking the world, sitting calmly at the compact black metal desk.
This time, I paid special attention to her prosthetic arm.
It had three hook-like fingers, and I wondered how the hell she painted wave patterns with that thing.
But she'd hate it if she noticed me staring.
Before Woo Min-hee could catch on, I got straight to the point.
"It's about Baek Seung-hyeon."
"That guy?"
Her smirk vanished the instant she heard his name.
"...He's the baby's dad. You know he's raising a kid, right?"
"Not interested."
"He wants to load something up for the baby..."
"What?"
"Well, you see."
Suddenly, irritation boiled up.
Watching Woo Min-hee get annoyed sparked a question that flooded my mind.
Why the hell should I suck up to her for some loser like Baek Seung-hyeon?
To sum it up: because of my screw-up senior, the talented junior makes me watch my step and lie.
No way.
I had no loyalty to Baek Seung-hyeon anyway.
I dropped the act and told the truth.
"Oh, truth is, that Baek Seung-hyeon guy wants to bring satellite internet gear on the ship."
Not widely known, but back in school, I was a big tattletale.
Not because I liked snitching.
Young Park Gyu, burning with a sense of duty, was picky as hell about anyone violating school spirit or morals.
Couldn't just dismiss it as kid stuff—we'd fight monsters alongside alumni after graduation.
Better to weed out the dead weight early; that far-sighted vision was Boy Park Gyu's true goal.
Reviving that old habit, I laid it all out for my junior without holding back.
"...He knows it's a compliance violation. But he's not the type to follow rules, right? So after racking that pathetic brain, he remembered I was on your team back in the day and told me to meet you and check if he could illegally bring in satellite gear."
Woo Min-hee stared at me blankly before muttering,
"First time I've seen you talk without breathing, Senior."
"...Got carried away with righteous fury."
Woo Min-hee smirked.
Her smile—face caked in excessive white makeup to hide scars, lips blood-red lipstick—looked chilling even to my battle-hardened eyes.
"Nyam nyam?"
Woo Min-hee probed.
A sneak attack.
"Nyam? Hungry?"
Was this woman still suspicious of me?
"You don't do internet, Senior?"
She was suspicious.
The relentless grilling told me that much.
"Nah, I don't. Didn't we talk about this before?"
"...You seem like the type who does."
"No, I really hate internet."
"Why?"
"It's convenient, sure, but everyone wears masks and spews whatever. Bugs me. You know my history of following rules?"
"SKELTON."
"Skelping? Oh, haven't done that in ages."
"Don't know SKELTON?"
"Ah~ my personal ID code! Why ask?"
"Why SKELTON?"
Woo Min-hee bent her prosthetic—sharp hook fingers—with her other hand, pointing the hooks down, then rested her chin on it and glanced up slyly.
"Why name it SKELTON? Not even a callsign."
Why was she doing this?
What had I done wrong?
I hadn't slipped up once.
Did this girl have mind-reading powers?
Those only manifested in low-level Awakeners, and even then, just sensing hostility or favorability.
"SKELTON? Nickname I got in China."
Well, she asked, so courtesy demanded an answer.
The origin of SKELTON was China.
A tale from the days ruled by blood, war, death, boredom, and baseless faith in humanity's survival.
A new mid-tier species Koreans called 'Brain God' type appeared on the battlefield.
Like other mid-tiers, it was a frontline combat monster, blasting massive currents that turned preparing Chinese hunters into smoking electric roasts.
By the time it neared command, I spotted it.
Some of its current drawn to a lightning rod on a collapsed building's roof.
Team leader then, I hatched a plan on the fly.
Place as many electrical conductors as possible along its path; I, Park Gyu, wrapped head to toe in insulators, approach under covering fire from Kim Daram's ranged team.
After a desperate struggle against the house-sized beast spewing currents and shockwaves nonstop, the Chinese applauded and called me Skeleton Soldier.
Later I learned why: every time the monster unleashed shockwaves and electricity, my body looked like a skeleton.
The footage from behind showed a skeleton soldier with an axe charging and hacking the monster.
"That's why I use SKELTON. Professor's just too embarrassing, honestly?"
"Ah, so that's what happened. Pretty reckless, though. Taking down that type with brute force."
Woo Min-hee let out a scoff.
"So very you, Senior."
After an awkward silence, I spoke up.
"Anyway, pretend you didn't hear about this. Baek Seung-hyeon was just so persistent."
Saving m9 had achieved my goal.
After that, I didn't care.
I planned to ghost Baek Seung-hyeon from here on out.
No reason to ever see him again.
But,
"No, that's a good idea?"
I'd underestimated Woo Min-hee.
"A very fun idea."
Her scarred face twisted into that signature willful, cruel smile.
That's right.
My junior, Woo Min-hee, was impossible to read.
"Senior, you know Yang Sang-gil?"
She asked slyly.
"Yang Sang-gil?"
Yang Sang-gil.
A name I hadn't heard in ages.
The guy who'd clawed his way to the top of the National Crisis Committee through luck and politics—no Old School, no Awakener, not even military. Lee Sang-hun's boss, in name only.
Lee Sang-hun never saw him as such.
But why was his name coming out of Woo Min-hee's mouth now?
"The Jeju fleet? Yang Sang-gil's handiwork."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Yang Sang-gil, Director. As you know, he's a nobody. But it's been three years since the war started. People are starting to question how he got that position—no merits, no Awakener powers, just passing the civil service exam."
"...What did Yang Sang-gil do?"
"You'll see."
Woo Min-hee glared into space, scattering a vicious grin.
"..."
She looked at me.
"Tell Dongtanmom it's okay to bring it."
"Who's Dongtanmom?"
"Wow~ Senior, you're airtight. True Professor material."
As if.
Trying to rattle Park Gyu, who's a corpse without grit and resolve.
That aside, did she really 100% believe I was SKELTON?
From the Je Phong-ho story, maybe?
That alone wouldn't be enough evidence.
She was probably fixating on the similarity between the forum nick and my ID code.
Anyway, Woo Min-hee had said something I couldn't let slide.
I asked her seriously.
"By the way, the Jeju fleet. Any issues?"
"Probably? But no one saw it heading to China."
So the China trip was real.
"Some kind of accident?"
Just as the story got intriguing, Baek Seung-hyeon's borrowed luck ran out.
The wired phone on the desk blared noisily.
She waved me off with her three-hook prosthetic.
"We'll talk later. Fun stuff's about to happen soon."
For a split second, I saw her prosthetic move like it was alive.
*
"Aww, who's my wittle guy~? Kyat-hoo~! There there. Good boy. Such a good boy."
Coaxing the baby was always Baek Seung-hyeon's job.
His young wife sat nearby, working on the computer.
Tap tap tap
I eyed her typing like a hawk.
"?"
In that instant, I felt one of the walls inside me crumble.
Was Dongtanmom actually Baek Seung-hyeon's wife, not him?
For a fleeting moment, I felt a twinge of guilt toward Baek Seung-hyeon.
No matter how rotten he was, pinning Dongtanmom on him was a clear crime.
"Hey, check this. m9's bitching again?"
His wife turned to Baek Seung-hyeon with a grin, and he sat at the laptop with the baby in his lap, typing at a furious pace.
"..."
Birds of a feather, or rotten apples in a barrel?
In this era where age gaps meant less, those two becoming a couple felt almost fated.
Anyway, this hopeless newlywed pair had news for them.
"For real?! They said we can bring it?!"
"Yes."
"As expected, Professor! Even washed up, your clout's leagues above a scrub hunter like me! For real!"
Baek Seung-hyeon looked genuinely thrilled.
His wife too.
But the baby in his arms, who took after him, gazed at me innocently with wide eyes.
Suddenly, the baby spoke.
"...Dat one."
Baby talk?
First time seeing it up close.
But apparently not for them.
"He talked!"
"His first words!"
The same people spewing venom online now embraced their milestone with pure, unadulterated joy.
I tried not to think anything watching them, but apparently, I was just a normal guy here.
"Hey."
I told him the truth.
About how the China route might be dangerous.
But like happy fools everywhere, Baek Seung-hyeon let it go in one ear and out the other.
"What? They're saving the artsy-fartsy types and killing us off?"
"Just a rumor. But better safe than sorry."
"Nah, even you, Park? Listening to those fearmongers?"
"Can't hurt to be cautious, right?"
Departure day.
I stood at the dock with the crowds, watching people head to the promised paradise of Jeju.
First, I spotted Philcrum.
Easy to find.
He was in line with the other celebrities, flashbulbs popping, boarding the same ship.
His vessel: the Hope, a refitted tanker, flagship of the second fleet.
Next, Baek Seung-hyeon.
In the back, ignored by all, he boarded with the baby.
His ship: the Hope too.
Baek Seung-hyeon and Philcrum on the same ship.
"...Huh?"
Stunned by the unexpected turn, I turned to leave.
A sharp scream erupted behind me.
In the alley, an old man was getting beaten by some boys.
```