Chapter 261
Chapter 261
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 261
Chapter Title: 107. House
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Thud.
He landed on the ground.
He immediately unhooked his parachute and drew his pistol, scanning the surroundings warily.
From what he'd observed during the drop, there were no immediate threats, but this wasn't Jeju Island.
This was a land of constant struggle, where danger could strike from anywhere at any moment.
Leaving the parachute behind, he checked his bearings.
He'd ended up farther away than expected, but it was still his intact territory.
He started walking slowly toward his bunker.
Familiar sights came into view.
The distant mountain ridges, the abandoned city, the neglected highways and interchanges, the golf course, the factories and warehouses grotesquely embedded here and there, the fields overgrown with weeds.
Everything was etched vividly in his memory.
A stream came into sight.
Being midsummer, the water flow was abundantly full.
He followed the stream.
His destination was the low hill rising lonely in the distance.
The hill, which had been a barren, treeless slope right after the war, had now transformed into a proper mountain covered in grass, shrubs, and even fairly large trees.
The restorative power of nature, rebounding in just a few years despite taking the full brunt of the nuclear fallout, was nothing short of miraculous.
Now it was time to cross the stream.
He planned to wade through the shallow ford leading to the bunker, but with the increased water level, the stepping stones he usually used weren't visible.
The current wasn't swift, nor was the water deep, so he crossed the ford just as experience dictated.
An uphill slope appeared.
"......"
He checked his pistol and ascended the slope slowly.
It was unlikely, but his bunker might have been compromised.
During the month or so he'd spent on Jeju, the Legion faction could have collapsed, and unleashed hunters might have swarmed this area.
Cheon Youngjae and Ha Taehoon were powerful hunters, but in interpersonal combat, a single unlucky bullet could kill anyone.
Keeping all possibilities open, he quietly made his way up into his territory.
At the top of the slope, he took cover behind the trees and slowly stepped out, revealing the area hidden by the incline.
The usual scenery.
"Hm?"
This wasn't it.
"What the hell is this?"
He muttered unwittingly.
Around his bunker, which was supposed to be a secret hideout known only to him, loomed a sturdy concrete wall.
His pace quickened.
As he reached the wall, a heavy engine roar sounded from behind it.
Vrooooom—
It was an excavator's engine.
The machine's furious movements echoed from beyond the wall.
And between the engine roars, a human voice rang out.
"Stop! Stop! That's good! That's good!"
It was Cheon Youngjae's voice.
The moment he heard it, he shouted over the wall.
"Cheon Youngjae!"
The response came a moment later.
"Huh? What?"
Cheon Youngjae's bewildered mutter carried faintly.
"It's me! Me! Park Gyu!"
He yelled again, and Cheon Youngjae's reply came back.
"What?! Senior Park?! Is that you, Senior Park?!"
"Yeah!"
"Stand in front of the door for a sec. There should be a camera."
"This is my house, you know."
"Just stand there."
He did as instructed and headed toward the door.
"Hm?"
It was a door he'd never seen before.
It looked like one ripped from a factory, but the finish was surprisingly clean.
As he stood in front of a shaded hole likely hiding a camera, a beep sounded, followed by a click, and the door slid open.
It was an automatic door.
One operated by powerful electromagnets on electricity.
"Hmmm."
Not bad craftsmanship.
Beyond the open door, familiar faces waited, drenched in sweat.
"Senior Ha. Cheon Youngjae."
His senior and junior.
"How'd you even get back?"
"Why are you back so soon?"
There was plenty to talk about, but first, there was a matter that needed addressing.
He pointed at the concrete wall encircling his territory.
"No, seriously, what the hell is this?"
*
The bonfire crackled as logs crumbled into embers.
Around it sat three hunters, each nursing a beer, encircling the flames.
Beside the fire, fish skewered on branches formed a tighter circle, closer than their own seating.
"......I see."
He'd had his share of ordeals, but these guys had been through plenty too.
"It was those academy bastards."
Not long after he left for Jeju, a group of intruders had breached his territory.
Surprisingly, they hadn't done any damage and left—but it had been during a heavy downpour in the dead of night, likely chosen for the timing. In the pitch-black storm where visibility was zero, they'd only rummaged through the decoy bunker he'd built earlier and departed.
One curious intruder had triggered a tripwire connected to an old booby trap he'd set, but after years of neglect, it hadn't gone off, merely alerting them to the presence of traps.
But just knowing traps were there was enough; the intruders retreated without hesitation.
Because in the center of the abandoned bunker stood a prominent toilet on a pedestal like a stage.
They concluded Park Gyu's bunker had been abandoned long ago and was riddled with traps, then left his territory.
His past efforts had paid off, albeit belatedly.
The next day, Ha Taehoon, living in Rebecca's cabin, spotted the scattered footprints and reported it to Cheon Youngjae.
"As expected, Senior Park has good instincts. Or is it just luck?"
Unable to leave for Jeju like him and unwilling to abandon their territory for a new one, the two had secured safety through a third option.
The concrete wall now surrounding his territory.
It had consumed most of their stockpiled cement—and then some.
"You didn't use up all the cement, did you?"
When he pointed it out, Cheon Youngjae raised his hand.
"I knew a hidden cement warehouse."
He bit into a grilled fish skewer from beside the fire and replied nonchalantly.
"Jeong-ho told me."
Defender must have tipped him off.
Defender, unlike him, had wide connections.
He probably knew more about the surroundings than Park Gyu himself did.
Maybe even the old folks' territory where he'd fled in panic before.
"I did most of the construction."
When asked about the work, Ha Taehoon answered.
The wall's finish and quality impressed even him, who fancied himself an experienced carpenter, so he'd inquired who led it, and Ha Taehoon raised his hand.
"Didn't I tell you? My dad ran a construction company."
"He taught you this stuff too?"
"Dad said college was a waste. Learn on-site."
"Open-minded family."
"All his wage-earning underlings were college grads, but he thought they sucked. That self-made-man confidence, you know?"
"And you still got into a school like that?"
"Mom was the one who insisted. That's why I ended up as a lowly hunter, but looking back, it probably kept me alive this long."
He had a point.
Hunters like them weren't just combat-trained; they'd fought tooth and nail on the Chinese frontlines.
They'd learned to survive hellish ordeals.
Soon, they sat by the fire, eating grilled fish and sipping beer.
The beer tasted a bit off, but it was tolerable.
Staring blankly at the silently burning flames brought a strange feeling.
He, who'd staunchly advocated solo survivalism, now felt not just comfort but security among people.
More precisely, a sense of solidity.
Looking back, he'd always moved in teams.
From school days, he'd learned to operate as a unit, and on the battlefield, to fight as one with his team.
For someone so steeped in group life, solo survivalism might not fit after all.
He still believed individual survivalism offered higher odds statistically than group survivalism.
But circumstances had changed, and he couldn't stubbornly push his views in this environment.
If the world changed, so must he.
Clinging to one idea and dying pointlessly would be foolish.
The key was survival itself.
He'd felt it bone-deep on Jeju.
No need to be picky about methods.
Leaning back in a comfy camping chair, he let time drift by leisurely.
"Alright, I'm heading out."
As they wrapped up, Cheon Youngjae said goodbye.
"What? Don't you live here?"
"Nah, still down in the lower neighborhood."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"Mutations don't go there. Humans? Even better."
Cheon Youngjae flashed a sly grin and strolled toward the outer wall.
Now only he and Ha Taehoon remained.
A bit awkward.
Regardless, Ha Taehoon was his senior.
Just as an uncomfortable silence threatened to settle, Ha Taehoon spoke up.
"I'm still living there."
As he'd heard earlier, Ha Taehoon was still at Rebecca's cabin.
But he didn't seem to like it.
"I hate wooden houses."
"It's decent enough, isn't it? Sauna right next door."
"Koreans need reinforced concrete."
"Is that so?"
Koreans used thatched or tiled roofs, didn't they?
"Wanna see my place?"
He visited the cabin.
Many things had changed.
The most obvious was the log terrace out front, complete with chairs and a table.
But delving deeper, sensor detectors, surveillance cameras, and other security gear he couldn't identify were installed with paranoid density everywhere.
Even on the steep rear slope, multiple Claymores wired to tripwires blocked the path.
The polar opposite of relying on natural features to deter threats.
The biggest change was the sauna's demolition.
"No way."
The sauna he'd built and used well was now a drone storage shed.
"Senior Ha. No more sauna?"
"Nah. High blood pressure."
Ha Taehoon glanced at his shocked expression.
"What? Was it off-limits?"
"No, no. Just thought you'd keep using it."
One thing was clear from Ha Taehoon's setup.
This guy had turned his hidden sanctuary into a proper fortress.
100% certain.
He'd taken charge and remodeled the territory to his tastes.
"Got something good to show you."
He led him inside.
Beside the terrace stood a rack with familiar weaponry neatly arranged below.
A mortar.
"A mortar?"
A soldier's weapon hunters rarely used.
They stuck to rifles at most; machine guns and up were almost unused.
Too heavy, too bulky, and in high-firepower fights, they used hunter gear.
Artillery had always been the military's domain, even during his active days.
And cannons had killed far more monsters than hunters.
"Got some shells for drone strikes and snagged this as a bonus."
"Think we'll use it?"
"If those academy punks come at us with mortars, it'll give us the edge to hit back."
"You know how to operate it?"
"Learned from soldiers."
He guided him inside the cabin.
Unlike the cluttered exterior, the interior was as spartan as when Rebecca first built it.
What he wanted to show wasn't the house itself, of course.
On a table larger than a bed lay a large blueprint.
"What's this?"
Ha Taehoon grinned proudly and showed it to him.
"My new house."
He examined the blueprint.
It depicted a sturdy single-story reinforced concrete home, signed neatly at the bottom in what looked like Ha Taehoon's handwriting.
"......"
Pretty serious.
No, this guy seemed to know more than he did.
Having done construction himself, he recognized the difficulty.
Standard for a pre-war firm, but for an amateur solo carpenter, several hurdles loomed large.
Even basic plumbing—he couldn't manage it well enough without building a central toilet—felt a league apart.
"Once the outer wall's done, I'll build it. Told you, Koreans need reinforced concrete."
"Cheon Youngjae lives in a slate roof."
"He'd live in a hole. More precisely, he can't live around people."
"Cheon Youngjae?"
"Seems carefree, but he's suspicious of everyone. PTSD or something. Can't trust people 100%."
"That's a shame."
"Still, him being outside is a good wildcard if we're attacked."
Agreed.
One thing nagged him.
Gazing at the professional blueprint he couldn't replicate, he asked.
"All self-taught at home?"
Ha Taehoon scanned his blueprint and muttered with a wry smile.
"Kids end up like their parents after all."
He lit a cigarette.
"Disowned Dad long ago, but what he passed down still lives and breathes in me."
Ha Taehoon planned to build his house once the outer wall was complete.
Along with upgrades to plumbing and other essentials for communal living.
For him, already forming a group, it was good news.
He'd been thinking of fixing plumbing as numbers grew.
Rebecca and Su were fine neighbors, but more capable ones helped more.
Rebecca had talent in hunting and woodworking, Su in sentry and sniping, but in small groups, specialists made things smoother.
DS probably vetted people so strictly from long group operation experience.
"Seen everything I wanted to show. Time for sweet home?"
Ha Taehoon smiled faintly and nodded toward the bunker.
"Don't worry. Haven't touched a thing."
He looked back at the bunker.
"Yeah?"
"With those academy punks possibly showing up anytime, who'd use it? Nothing touched but the garage. Enjoy your homecoming."
Seniors were seniors.
A few untrustworthy bits, but he came through when needed.
Looking at him sincerely, he said.
"Thanks, Senior."
"......Don't love hearing 'senior,' but anyway, welcome back. Much sturdier with Professor on our side. We'll hear about Jeju slowly."
After bidding him farewell, he finally headed to his bunker.
For some reason, with each step closer, his heart pounded like a boy's entering an amusement park for the first time.
Yeah, a lot had happened.
So many choices, so many unnecessary sights.
Kang Strongmin.
Could a person change that much?
He'd reconnected with Na Hyein.
If she logged back on, they could talk again.
One day, he'd get that sparrow from Red Archive boards, but for now, gratitude was due.
Thanks to him, he could return here.
Creeeak—
The heavy door opened.
He descended the irregular stairs, designed to trip intruders, set foot on the ground, and faced the darkness.
The pitch-black veil he'd once feared as fate.
Now it wrapped him warmly like a blanket.
He was home.
No, not yet.
Click.
He booted the computer and stared at the screen.
"......"
Tap tap tap.
He refreshed several times, watching the screen with no comments, then finally smiled, clasped his hands behind his head, and leaned back.
"Whew."
Yeah. He was finally back.
To his home.