Chapter 264
Chapter 264
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 264
Chapter Title: 109. A Modest Voyage (1)
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"Nice to meet you. Name's Park Mansu."
Valentine had joined our camp.
But if you asked whether he was fully part of our team now, I'd say no.
DS Erae, the leader who could be called the pinnacle of group survivalism, had said that simply accepting someone into a group—giving them a place to stay and a role—wasn't enough.
He insisted that only after earning trust from the rest of the group could you truly call them a full member.
He had a point.
I knew it well from a lifetime of team operations.
Though I'd dragged Valentine here on the spot, for him to become a complete part of our team, he still needed approval from the other members: Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae.
In that context, asking what else he was good at besides networks was a natural follow-up.
"Before the war, I ran a PC bang. After, I worked under Old Man Gu as a scavenger."
Valentine boasted that he had a real knack for scavenging.
"Raiding that entire bank data center? Even now, I think of it as my life's masterpiece. Some other scavenger crew went in before, but what did they know? They just looted the PCs. The truly valuable, irreplaceable stuff? They left it all intact."
Valentine's skills were focused on computers.
He lacked direct survival expertise like farming, hunting, medicine, or chemistry.
If I had to pick a strong suit, it was that he'd been a communications specialist during his military service.
He knew how to operate military comms gear and do basic repairs.
Outside of that, nothing stood out.
He had combat potential, but it was negligible.
If fighting broke out, the best use for him would be handing him a gun and sticking him at some unimportant defensive spot.
After hearing Valentine's story, Ha Tae-hoon called us over.
"Even if he knows computers, we're not starting a tech company here. Well, Professor Park made the call on this one, so it's not my place to complain. But if we keep adding people like this, it won't be good for us."
Ha Tae-hoon spoke from a spot where Valentine couldn't hear.
It was an opinion I couldn't argue with.
I agreed it was the right take.
Even though personal circumstances had forced me to bring Valentine along.
But admitting that outright would make me look spineless as a leader, so I racked my brain for some justification.
"From a big-picture perspective, if we can get info from Jeju..."
I was just about to spout some half-baked nonsense when—
"Ah. Is that it?!"
Cheon Young-jae looked at me with sparkling eyes.
"?"
"Yeah, Professor Park. You've got some grand ambition, right?"
"Ambition?"
"Picking a network expert out of all those people all of a sudden. Doesn't it smell like something's up?"
Cheon Young-jae rubbed his nose and glanced at Ha Tae-hoon.
Ha Tae-hoon tilted his head.
I was just as confused.
No matter how much of an Awakener Cheon Young-jae was, he couldn't read minds.
Soon, Cheon Young-jae started explaining with the smug look of someone who knew everything.
"Recruiting a network expert right after coming back from Jeju. Anyone can see that's not normal, right? It screams strong intent. You said it's to pull info from Jeju, but that alone doesn't explain rushing to snag your first recruit. Right, Brother Ha?"
Ha Tae-hoon furrowed his brow slightly, lost in thought at the question.
"Now that you mention it, picking a network guy out of everyone so urgently... it can't just be about Jeju intel."
Both hunters turned to look at me.
"......"
I said nothing.
But the conversation rolled on.
"Professor Park saw firsthand with his own eyes how rotten those Jeju bastards are. He must've thought to himself back then, 'I can't let these guys run wild like this.' That's why he came back with that idea."
"Bringing in a network expert in a hurry to prepare some countermeasure against the Jeju government?"
"Exactly. That's the only way it adds up. It's Professor stuff."
Cheon Young-jae looked at me.
His narrowed eyes gleamed with triumph as he asked,
"I think I know what you're planning, Professor Park."
"......What do you think it is?"
He'd never guess.
That I'd brought Valentine to get revenge on the Red Archive board that insulted and kicked out this Skeleton.
If he knew that, Cheon Young-jae could be king.
Why? Because the guy could read minds.
A moment later, Cheon Young-jae spoke.
"Failnet."
What?
I was briefly thrown.
"Failnet?"
"Yeah. You're trying to make a Failnet, right? That guy even said earlier in the truck that he handled the last maintenance on it himself."
I hadn't even considered it.
But Ha Tae-hoon was nodding vigorously and jumping in.
"So that's it."
The misunderstanding was snowballing, but no need to correct it.
The bigger role they imagined for Valentine, the more the other hunters would accept him.
It started as a misunderstanding, but it let me hear real people's takes on John_nenon—not just my internet buddies.
"The guy who made Failnet. Why didn't he go into politics?"
"Yeah. That old man... John Lennon, was it?"
I couldn't hold back and cut in on Ha Tae-hoon's words.
"John_nenon."
"Ah."
Ha Tae-hoon glanced at me and continued.
"John_nenon or whatever. Anyway, if that guy had stepped up front and center to call out the Seoul government, history might've gone sideways."
"Couldn't agree more. No president, rumors flying everywhere, Seoul government just a figurehead with no rep. If one superhuman had shown up then, it could've changed everything. Not sure if it'd be a good ending, but at least Seoul might still have people living there."
To me, John_nenon was my internet role model and idol. But to regular folks, he seemed like a heavyweight who'd captured public sentiment and wielded real political power.
Makes sense. With Failnet as the sole public forum, its creator was bound to gain massive support.
Whether he'd become Seoul's rep is another story, but he could've at least been an icon checking the Seoul government's recklessness.
In any case, Valentine's recruitment wrapped up nicely amid this unintended meeting of minds.
Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae genuinely welcomed him and accepted him as one of us.
But our business hadn't even started yet.
"Yes. This setup should do nicely."
As expected, Valentine was pleased with my territory.
Especially the sturdy outer walls—they gave him peace of mind.
"From what I saw before, the security didn't look that tight. Doesn't seem like pros built it either. Might take some trial and error, but way easier than cracking Viva! Apocalypse!"
Valentine exuded strong confidence.
This guy, far from bluffing, showing real conviction meant it was that feasible.
But something nagged at me.
To head to Jeju without Awakener powers, you'd need top-tier status in the field, right?
Yet he was saying their security was weak. It didn't add up.
So I asked.
"No skilled people on Jeju?"
Valentine answered flatly.
"None."
"Really? How'd that happen?"
"IT has that high entry barrier of needing a degree, but once you're in, it's a sweet spot for plugging in the kids of big shots. Outsiders wouldn't know."
"Fair enough."
"For something like closed intranet security admin? Probably went to someone with good family connections. That's my guess. Hell, the best defense against internet attacks is just pulling the LAN cable. But in our case, Professor Park made a tunnel, so we get our shot."
"Skeleton."
"Yes?"
"Call me Skeleton when it's just us."
"Ah, got it......"
I gave him one of the dummy bunkers as his quarters and workshop.
Naturally, I cleared out all the explosives inside.
As Valentine and I cleaned and organized the bunker, I could hear Cheon Young-jae and Ha Tae-hoon working on the outer walls.
The bustling sounds everywhere really made it feel like a community taking shape.
More people meant more needs.
The existing bathroom worked for now, but with four of us, one water tank wouldn't cut it for washing.
Soon, I'd have to dig a new well with Ha Tae-hoon to tap groundwater.
Helping with Valentine's move-in, the sun had already set before we knew it.
He was hooking up his satellite internet gear.
"I'll head out for today."
"Yeah, sounds good."
Valentine stood, bowing politely.
"Thanks for the help. And please take care of me going forward."
"Nah, no big deal. We gotta help each other to survive."
Not words I'd usually say.
"By the way, Skeleton. You really planning a second Failnet?"
"......Who knows."
"Huh? The other hunters said earlier you brought me to make Failnet 2.0."
"Well, it's under consideration."
"Ah, I see. Yeah, making a second Failnet isn't simple."
If it were possible, it wouldn't be a bad idea.
The problem was the process and cost in this reality—way too steep.
As I thought that and prepared to leave the bunker, Valentine muttered,
"Ah. Dongtanmom posted."
Not directed at me.
Seemed like musing to himself.
But that one remark had enough punch to stop me in my tracks.
"Dongtanmom?"
He headed toward the sea.
The legendary—no, mythical—Skeleton (aka Twelvesquare) had put on a pathetic pre-launch show right before his live stream, then left Shanghai behind for the open ocean.
To keep the mystique for the Yankees, Dongtanmom hadn't revealed her destination. But most pegged Jeju.
It was her original goal, after all.
Plus, with Incheon and Korea's major cities all turned to ash, where else was there to go?
After that, Dongtanmom hadn't posted.
No word even now, about three days later.
The boards speculated she was bluffing to fool Jeju, but some pessimists said she'd ended up fish food.
And now Dongtanmom had posted.
I could check via Valentine's computer, but real news like this was best on my own setup in my bunker.
My steps quickened noticeably.
"Where's the fire, Professor? Not like you. Bathroom?"
Ha Tae-hoon asked casually, wiping his face with a towel after finishing work.
I brushed it off vaguely and slipped into the bunker, plopping down at my laptop.
In the flood of posts, I hit the popular tab and locked eyes on the top one.
There it was.
Dongtanmom's post.
I clicked it.
Every endeavor carries risk.
Especially unfamiliar territory—the risks multiply.
Dongtanmom was a capable hunter and tough survivor, sure. But on the ocean, she was just a green sailor.
With no sailing experience, she'd discovered the autopilot while fixing the instruments and put blind faith in it.
Like pre-war drivers following nav blindly, people tend to trust machines.
The result? She'd ended up in dire straits.
Dongtanmom was finally asking for help.
True to form, even her plea had an edge.
Despite her warning, the board flooded with Dongtanmom threads as expected.
......
......
Scrolling up and down, nothing useful.
Everyone's clueless about the sea.
Me too.
I don't know much about oceans.
Even Jang Gi-young, who'd trained me in everything, skipped sailing.
If even he ignored it, no surprise nobody else knows.
Anyway, Dongtanmom—no, our senior Baek—seemed at her mental limit.
Dongtanmom had snapped.