Chapter 227
Chapter 227
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 227
Chapter Title: 97. Small Changes
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"Like I said before, I'm not trying to mooch off your bunker. I just want to be neighbors. Doesn't even have to be next door. Just close enough that we can stay in tight contact if something goes wrong and back each other up in a fight."
I'd vaguely guessed that Cheon Young-jae's mind was made up on this from the start.
Ever since the war, he'd always lived alongside people in similar situations, and he was used to life in a group like that.
So bending his stubbornness with a few words wasn't going to be easy.
That's why I asked why it had to be here.
"Why not just keep living in the subway? Instead of coming to some rural backwater like this with nothing around. Right? There's more people there, way more resources."
Cheon Young-jae chuckled brightly and shook his head.
"It's gonna turn into a warzone anyway. Those Incheon evacuees. They act like they're obediently following the Legion faction's orders, but those guys have already split into factions per shelter long ago. Right now, they're playing along because the uniformed soldiers are feeding them and handing out supplies, but the second things go south, they'll show their true colors."
"Yeah?"
"More than that, the Legion faction... when push comes to shove, they've got nothing. Flat broke. They're barely scraping by feeding their own crew, and now they've got to carry the rejects from Incheon too? How long do you think that'll last?"
Three months.
The point when Cheon Young-jae predicted the Legion faction's supply lines would collapse.
"They'll all fend for themselves soon enough. That's how it goes in this country. Every man for himself. The idiots waiting for the government always die first, while the ones who ignore the government and find their own way survive to the end."
Cheon Young-jae stretched out flat on the hood of the small LPG car he'd driven here, blowing at the hair falling over his forehead.
His half-lidded eyes flicked toward me as he spoke.
"When those every-man-for-himself packs push this far, even Senior Park won't be safe, right?"
"...I'll just lay low for a bit."
"If that's the case, can't you lend me a corner of the bunker?"
"Not even if a knife's at my throat."
"Running forever isn't the answer."
Cheon Young-jae sat up on the hood and stuck something in his mouth.
It looked like a cigarette.
When he lit it, it was definitely a cigarette.
"As you know, the mess isn't just in the capital region. The provinces got wrecked ages ago, and now erosion zones and evacuees are all mixed up living together. In that kind of situation, the cult fanatics just keep multiplying endlessly."
"..."
"In my view, that bastard Kim Byung-cheol will abandon Seoul soon too."
"Probably."
"What I'm saying is, you can't run forever."
Cheon Young-jae offered me one straight from his pack of ten.
I lightly waved it off.
He tucked the offered cigarette back into his pocket.
I eyed the homemade, ragged cigarette and blurted out,
"Around next year, won't most of them be dead?"
Truth be told, that was my real inner thought.
Time solves most problems in this world.
This chaotic world now, and the every-man-for-himself groups Cheon Young-jae was worried about—they'd all lose their edge once enough time passed, that absolute value.
Whether it's the ones roaming the wasteland eating people like them, or the stubborn survivors clinging to life in some wasteland corner, none could escape that fate.
Most would die.
Expanding my bunker into the territories left by those vanished people was one of the main visions I'd drawn up when I first built this bunker.
But.
"What if they don't die?"
Cheon Young-jae presented a new perspective.
Not an entirely new one.
It was another possibility I'd vaguely known and acknowledged.
That humans are tougher than we imagine.
Take that group of old folks.
Who could've imagined dozens of spry seniors surviving in that isolated mountain area?
"What if humans are still wandering around next year? You gonna keep running then too?"
Cheon Young-jae kept pressing.
"...That would be."
He was shameless and good at lying, but I had no good comeback to Cheon Young-jae's counterquestion.
Because I knew it better than anyone.
Just how tenacious and vicious human vitality could be—I'd seen it with my own eyes.
It tied directly to the facts I'd confirmed and experienced with my own two eyes since the war began.
"Let me tell you about the shelter I was crashing at for a bit. The captain there is Park Penguin."
"What?!"
"Park plus Penguin."
"Penguin?!"
For a split second, I imagined this Park guy looking like a penguin.
Nothing like that.
"He was a hardware store owner before the war. Took over as shelter chief after the previous ones all died. Just your average neighborhood ajusshi—no standout skills or anything. But during last winter's cold snap, he saved the entire shelter. You heard about that shelter where people huddled together like penguins, spinning in circles to survive the freeze?"
Yeah, I'd heard that story.
To be precise, it was about boldly abandoning a government-provided shelter in Incheon, hunkering down in the subway, and proactively handling the cold snap to save everyone.
"It wasn't just Park Penguin's leadership. The people there were on another level. They all wanted to survive. They had the will to live, even doing penguin cosplay. That's why they made it."
"..."
"I don't think those humans will die off that easily. Even if monsters erode the whole country, some will survive and keep going. So hiding until everyone's dead is a seriously complacent mindset."
Cheon Young-jae's words rubbed me the wrong way, no doubt.
Honestly, I wanted to punch him in the mouth right then.
But his words rang true.
Hiding out for one or two years wouldn't wipe out all the humans who'd survived over three years post-war.
"...So. You wanna set up camp around my turf?"
I asked Cheon Young-jae, lacing my tone with a bit of displeasure.
He blinked.
"If things go south, we gotta help each other. How many armed guys can you take on alone, Senior Park?"
"Depends on the situation."
"If they're attacking you one-sidedly?"
"Even two could be a threat."
"Exactly."
Cheon Young-jae walked over to his car.
He turned the ignition,
and with a puff of black exhaust,
putt-putt-putt—
the rattling engine noise echoed across my entire territory.
"Let's see."
Cheon Young-jae hopped onto the roof of the car and scanned the surroundings.
"That spot looks good."
The place he picked was an abandoned village.
"...There?"
"Yeah. Folks like me prefer spots with lots of cover."
"You were an Awakener too, right?"
"Nothing special about it."
I didn't love the idea, but Cheon Young-jae had a point.
And the spot he chose was pretty far from my core territory anyway, so I let it slide.
More than that, I could even agree with his take that people wouldn't die off that easily.
Suddenly, DS Raider crossed my mind.
"..."
He's probably still thriving with his group.
But does forming a group mean they're all the same kind of collective survivalists?
DS Raider's crew was a tight-knit organization fused as one, while me and Cheon Young-jae were just an intersection of independent folks living nearby.
We'd help in a fight or something, but otherwise, minimal interference. Call it that principle.
Not exactly the same as full-on group survivalism.
I rode with Cheon Young-jae to the village.
"What're you gonna do, Senior?"
"...I've lived here a while, so I can at least give some pointers."
We entered the village together.
It had been thoroughly abandoned for quite some time.
We slowly drove up streets filled with debris, trash, and ruins, past cars on the verge of collapse.
Cheon Young-jae poked around several houses before settling on one.
A plain house sandwiched between ruins.
"This'll do."
"You sure?"
"Clean it up a bit, sweep, and it'll be livable. Look—it's got a hearth and even ondol underfloor heating."
Cheon Young-jae cleared trash and sorted debris with practiced hands.
With nothing much to do, I just watched from the side.
Like when he fought zombies, this guy seemed sloppy but was insanely efficient.
Looked like he was half-assing it, but things got sorted at an impressive pace.
"Senior Park. Don't just watch—help out if you've got nothing better."
"You're practically a professor now."
"I got called a genius hunter too, you know."
I helped Cheon Young-jae tidy up his new place.
This drive home really drove it home for me: everyone has different standards for what makes a livable life.
My bare minimum for a human life was pre-war comforts like AC, hot showers, fridge, cool water, running taps anytime.
Cheon Young-jae's minimum? Just space to lie down, a roof from the rain, heat to not freeze.
AC and running water? Nice to have, but not essential for him.
"Whoa. This is palace living now."
I couldn't help but crack a wry smile watching him spread a mat in the barely cleaned, trash-heap-like room and flop down comfortably.
"..."
Guess that just means this Park Gyu is picky as hell.
Being picky isn't bad.
Living humanely is the top condition for not losing our humanity.
Once his makeshift home was sorta settled, Cheon Young-jae pulled something from his car.
Meat.
"What kind is this?"
"Mutation meat. Snagged it from a Legion faction base."
"Safe to eat?"
"Everyone's chowing down on it. Mutations are a pain, but recent studies say they at least help boost food production. The butchers say it feels like killing people, but hey, I'm not the one killing 'em."
Sizzle—
We grilled it on a makeshift stone griddle.
Tasted pretty decent since it was pork-like.
Plenty fatty too.
No luxury like kimchi, but we roasted potatoes, onions, and green onions to go with it.
Given the situation, no booze.
Even in our territory, we couldn't casually use stuff that dulled the senses like alcohol.
As we filled our bellies moderately, I got to hear Cheon Young-jae's thoughts.
This guy seemed lighthearted at first glance, but he had real depth.
"Right now it's just me moving in, but I'm starting to gather people bit by bit."
"..."
"Old hunter street seniors and juniors. My cohorts. Good folks. Decent people making a village together."
Cheon Young-jae looked around the abandoned village.
"I'm talking a real hunter village."
"Hunter village. Sounds kinda weird."
"They've got basic combat skills and shared vibes—should work out, right? If you're grouping up, better with some connections like school ties."
"...You'll draw heavy attacks too."
"If you can't hold, you die. Alone or in a group. In the end, the long-term survivors are all in groups."
"There are people like me who survive solo without help."
"Sure, Senior's strong. But you know."
Cheon Young-jae grinned.
"You've gotta have one or two people you wanna protect, right?"
"I'm thoroughly solo."
"Not now, maybe, but later—when Seoul falls and someone you know asks for help."
"I don't help anyone, and I don't ask for help."
"Wouldn't it be better to set them up in a well-prepped village like this than blindly shoving them into your precious bunker?"
"..."
For a brief moment, Rebecca and her daughter's faces flashed in my mind.
Are they doing okay?
No news is good news, but.
It was a fact that I worried about them.
"Anyway, with me here, you can relax about attacks from the east."
Cheon Young-jae stared east with eyes faintly gleaming.
He came off as sly and carefree, but when he showed his hunter side seriously, there was a sharpness that could slice through an ordinary soul like butter.
Like me, this guy was a killer who'd taken countless lives.
"...Yeah. Take care."
And just like that, I got a neighbor.
At first, I only saw the downsides, but as time passed, it didn't seem all bad.
Was I softening up, or was the world's weight on me growing? Hard to say.
In the end, our goal was the same.
Survive one more day in this apocalypse.
Group or solo—what's the big difference?
I closed my eyes in my territory, no longer alone.
Not sure if it was morning fatigue, but I slept deeper than usual.
*
Message from unicorn18: SKELTON. Reply when you see this.
It was a day after the new resident appeared in my territory that a message came from someone I never expected.
Unicorn18, of all people.
At this point, the one I had the most questions for.
Jeju Island.
What happened to Jeju Island?
Was she finally going to tell me about it?
My heart raced for the first time in ages as I replied.
SKELTON: What's up? Unicorn18.
A reply came from unicorn18 shortly after.
But the content.
Message from unicorn18: You close with Foxgame?
A bit off from what I'd hoped.