Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: 64. Visit (1)
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Woo Min-hee was coming to my place.
I asked why, but she just said she was curious.
I didn't pry any further.
Needling her would just get me a "Are you hiding something?" in return.
Fortunately, there was still some time before she arrived.
She'd be here around noon tomorrow.
Sixteen hours left.
Long if you think about it that way, but plenty short if you don't.
There were two big things I needed to hide.
The laptop and the satellite gear.
The laptop was relatively easy to stash.
Small and light, it could fit just about anywhere with a bit of space.
I planned to wrap it tight in waterproof plastic and tuck it somewhere out of sight.
The satellite gear was the problem.
Right now, it was cleverly hidden between rocks on the steep hillside above my bunker, facing the hill.
Like a bamboo shoot barely poking out of the ground.
The genius businessman Melon Mask had developed a spire-type satellite receiver because he saw the old dish-style ones as death traps in a drone-filled world—not just useless for survival, but an invitation for raiders.
Everyone calls it satellite gear, but the official name is Obelisk.
It weighs 8.9 kg.
1.2 meters tall, 32 cm wide.
Doesn't guzzle power for its size and performance, and even without external power, the internal battery can handle over two hours of use unless rifts are popping off nonstop.
Melon Mask's miracle, you could say.
Rental was only about $110 a month, but the thing's worth at least $2,000.
The issue was its size.
Not just the weight, but the distinctive shape—anyone on Viva! Apocalypse! would spot it from a mile away.
How to hide this thing?
Woo Min-hee was tenacious.
Just look at how relentlessly she'd latched onto her suspicion that innocent Park Gyu here was a total scumbag.
Fooling her was no easy feat.
You could tell what kind of woman she was from stories from when I was dispatched to China and she was on standby.
She'd gone missing for three days once, only to be found locked in her boyfriend's trunk.
Not kidnapped by him—she'd suspected him of cheating, somehow gotten herself in there on purpose, locked it, and stayed put for three days.
He turned out innocent, but that was the end of them, obviously.
To fool a woman like that, you needed serious resolve and skill.
"..."
According to the sharp instincts of this Professor Park Gyu, she'd comb every inch of my turf, especially spots where satellite gear might be, with 100% certainty.
Hell, she might even bring in an expert.
So, I consulted an expert from our board.
I'd asked Foxgames, our board's top computer whiz and game dev.
Foxgames sent a message.
A link to some site that logged me into a special account he'd made just for me.
Thanks to Foxgames, the odds of my worst-case scenario dropped.
In other words, no need to move the satellite gear.
Moving it wasn't easy anyway.
Undoing the perfect camouflage meant digging deep and leaving traces—fresh earth has a distinct smell and color.
The two big ones—laptop and satellite gear—were sorted.
But tricking a suspicious type like Woo Min-hee would take more than that.
It had to feel natural.
What do you do in your free time?
Any hobbies?
Play computer games?
I needed smooth answers for every question.
In short, "natural human touch."
I'd prepped a scenario.
For the computer, I swapped in a dusty desktop where the laptop had been, cosplaying its contents for her visit.
Cleared knickknacks, hung Jang Gi-young's portrait—the one he'd forced on me—in plain view, since she hated him.
My bunker transformed into an experimental stage to showcase "Human Park Gyu."
"...Whew."
Cleaning done.
Now, just wait.
The rest was up to my quick thinking and composure.
Most important: stay calm.
Considering what I was dealing with tomorrow was more monster than human, it was a perfectly reasonable call.
"Sunbae. We'll be there soon."
The helicopter's roar echoed from afar.
Rendezvous was the old U.S. airstrip.
Plan was I'd pick her up in the truck and bring her to the bunker.
The chopper kicked up a typhoon of dust and debris as it touched down.
Door opened, and Woo Min-hee stepped out.
Metal arms and legs, scarred face, but still echoes of her old elegance.
White coat befitting her lab director title, she descended unfazed by the gale, waving her metal prosthetic at me.
"Min-hee! Good to see you!"
I greeted her with a bright, fake smile.
But there was one more.
Trailing her was a woman in hunter uniform like military fatigues, glancing nervously at Woo Min-hee as she disembarked and stuck close behind.
Who was she?
Early to mid-twenties.
Vaguely familiar, but women's faces all blur together for this Park Gyu, and honestly, I didn't know her.
That sleek hunter uniform marked her as a fresh Awakener academy grad.
"That's it? The limo picking us up?"
Woo Min-hee eyed my truck with an ambiguous smile.
"Yeah. Nothing fancy."
"Nah. Sunbae coming out personally makes it a limo to me."
She strode to the truck first, the Awakener hunter peeking at me warily while following.
"..."
Lackedey to Woo Min-hee, getting the rough end of the stick.
She hopped in the cargo bed without a word, after all.
I climbed in with Woo Min-hee and took the wheel.
"This is something. You volunteering to tour my bunker."
"Hey, I'm your junior. Gotta see how the sunbae lives, right?"
"Shall we head out?"
"Hold on."
She stuck her prosthetic out the window and beckoned.
Two soldiers hopped out, unloading something from the chopper.
Synthetic fuel drums, up close.
"What's that?"
"Gift."
"Gift?"
"You know I don't show up empty-handed."
Though she hadn't chipped in a dime for Kim Daram's wedding.
I moved to help the soldiers, but she stopped me.
"Stay put. Gotta give them something to do."
Her short words gave me a glimpse of how she saw people.
A hefty load—generous, almost too much—filled the cargo bed.
"Isn't that a lot?"
"Nah. Might even be short."
"Why so much?"
"This winter? Gonna be brutal cold."
"Y-yeah?"
"Yeah. They say it'll be freezing."
Loaded up, the soldiers waved.
Woo Min-hee nodded, tapping the window frame lightly with her prosthetic.
"Alright. Let's go?"
The woman in back nagged at me a bit.
But with both silent, ignoring her felt natural.
We left the airstrip, hit the familiar road, straight to my turf.
"Here?"
I parked, and she scanned around.
"Hmm."
Ambiguous smile as she took in my territory like a critic.
"Sunbae. You live out here?"
"Pretty barren, huh?"
"Where's the bunker? There?"
Unlike usual, garage door was open.
Just dropping off a guest quick, and I had monster Woo Min-hee beside me.
Honestly, part of me wished Legion Wave would crash now.
With her here, numbers and gear wouldn't matter.
But the no-shows of the past months stayed gone.
No such luck. We entered the garage.
"This is it. Garage and bunker."
"Whoa."
Woo Min-hee eyed the garage.
"Pretty big, well-built. Tons of gear. Didn't skimp on cash, huh?"
"Threw plenty at it."
"What do you think, Yujin?"
Woo Min-hee teased the stranger casually.
"I-it's well made!"
Twenty-two, twenty-three maybe.
Clearly our junior, she was intimidated by Woo Min-hee, barely meeting eyes.
Woo Min-hee hummed, strolling around.
"Bunker where?"
"Here."
I invited the two into my chosen-ones-only sanctum.
"This is..."
No way I'd say its true name, Skeleton Royal House, with her here.
"My bunker."
Plain and boring.
That was my ace stance for handling Woo Min-hee today.
"This my bed, that's the armory. Ammo stocked heavy, see? Maintenance weekly at least."
"Hmm. What's that? Toilet?"
"Yeah."
"Ah~. Vent there? Classic sunbae setup."
After her tour commentary, Woo Min-hee clanked straight into my territory.
Sure enough, to the computer.
Turned it on without asking.
"Min-hee?"
"Yeah?"
"What're you doing?"
"Computer."
"Why mess with someone else's PC outta nowhere...?"
"Oh my."
Her eyes lit up.
Must've seen the wallpaper.
Probably a busty Western babe in a skimpy bikini on a tropical beach.
Not my taste, but hand-picked.
To sell Park Gyu's "natural human touch."
"Sunbae, you into this type?"
"Ugh, who turns on someone else's computer like that? Embarrassing. Haha."
"Huh? What's this?"
Found something else.
"Oh my."
I knew without looking.
The "Straightforward" folder of Western bikini photos.
“Sensual shots, also known as lewd angles.”
Toned down to avoid backlash, paired with the wallpaper for maximum "natural human touch" effect.
For the record, all sourced from a Viva! Apocalypse! Korean board post two years back.
Before that reporter got active.
No way she'd know or guess.
Old lonely dudes swapping pics and vids was ancient history now.
Click-click—
Her irritated mouse wheel scrolling.
Frustrated at not finding what she wanted.
"..."
Her growing annoyance meant victory neared.
But one left.
"Yujin."
Woo Min-hee called her screen-like shadow.
The moment she did, I felt our invisible cat-and-mouse chase—scumbag vs. Min-hee(18)—hit its climax.
"Y-yes, D-director!"
"Take a lap around? Use your Awakener ability."
"Y-yes! Got it!"
Face pale, Yujin bowed frantically, then scanned my turf.
That's when I spotted it.
The faint glow in Yujin's eyes.
Woo Min-hee smirked triumphantly.
"Yujin's got x-ray vision."
"..."
"Yujin~. Skip the walls, check overhead? Satellite gear might be up there~. You know what it looks like? I showed you."
"..."
Composure.
Woo Min-hee loved toying with people.
Her snake eyes licked every corner of my face right now.
"Sunbae. No internet for real?"
"Nope. How? Out here?"
"Really?"
"Why keep harping on internet? I said no."
Then Yujin gasped at thin air.
"D-director! Something up there!"
"..."
"Oh~? Looks just like satellite gear~?"
"..."
Woo Min-hee eyed me slyly.
"Sunbae. Anything guilty?"
"Huh? What?"
I'm the Professor.
"Guilty about what?"
Reasons he named me that numbered in thousands, but Jang Gi-young admired my unshakable calm most, no matter the crisis.
"And whose satellite gear?"
This calm wasn't dumb endurance.
It read the essence from split-second cues and held steady.
Two things confirmed it.
First, Yujin's gaze direction.
Close, but not quite.
Mine was further back.
And her wooden acting—textbook recitation tone—sealed it with her eyes.
"Hmm."
Woo Min-hee's smile faded.
"I see."
She sighed like deflated, stroking her hair with her real hand.
The scars hidden before stood out clearer.
Shrapnel at close range.
Lucky not to go blind.
After a sigh, she stared blankly across the empty bunker and murmured,
"Sunbae, what do you think of Yang Sang-gil?"
This was probably her real reason for coming.
Judging by that heavy expression and tone alone.