Chapter 313
Chapter 313
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 313
Chapter Title: 126. Specter (2)
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In stock trading, there's a method known as taking a short position.
The lower the stock price falls, the more profit you make. Applying that to the apocalypse, you could say we doomsday enthusiasts took a short position on the fate of the world.
It's no boast, but it's a plain fact that we doomsday folks have lived far better lives than those who weren't prepared.
While most ordinary people—excluding a few unlucky friends—were reduced to bugs, peeking at the heartless government's moods, munching on those rumored nutrition bars, shuffling between squalid shelters, and even getting dragged off by pioneer squads to meet their ends, we lounged in our cozy bunkers, free from worries about our next meal, popping popcorn as we watched the world crumble.
Ji Chang-su and his daughter weren't prepared like us.
Unlike us, they lived thoroughly in the world of light, trying to bloom like flowers within it.
I'd seen with my own eyes what kind of lives they led after the war.
Every time I met them, I figured the next encounter would show them living worse off than before. But as if mocking my predictions, Ji Chang-su and his daughter always appeared before us in even better shape than last time.
Defender offered some explanation.
"Rumor has it they laid their lines brilliantly. Always siding with the powers that be, and when those lines looked like they'd snap, they'd scout out new big shots and hitch their wagons to them."
Ji Chang-su and his daughter wielded massive wealth and influence from behind the scenes in the Legion faction.
That's probably how they managed to roll up to my turf with multiple armored vehicles in the past.
I have no way of knowing if he found the legacy of the chaebol chairman he'd desperately sought, but it's clear he rose to become one of the most successful businessmen under the Legion regime.
So, in a way, they're the "chaebol" of the apocalypse.
If someone unprepared for the end times achieved that level of growth, they deserve the title.
But unlike the public's assessment, at least Ji Chang-su and his daughter apparently thought they still fell short.
That's why, perhaps.
They ceaselessly sought opportunities to elevate themselves from "mediocre rich folks" to "chaebol."
With the Legion faction showing signs of fracture and decline right now, it looked like downhill all the way for Ji Chang-su and his daughter. But once again, they pulled it off.
The legendary secret facility of the old government, shrouded in mystery, finally revealed its hidden form.
*
This discovery is tremendously important.
In a way, it could even affect us.
If a base capable of housing hundreds of thousands springs up in Seoul, that means a major shift in the power dynamics around the capital region.
I called all my comrades and showed them what was happening in Seoul right now.
As expected, they were all shocked.
"My god. Who'd have thought something like that was hidden under that leaning apartment."
"Right? Who'd expect anyone to stash something like that under an apartment that looks ready to collapse any second?"
"Come to think of it, that was around the time they were doing that lottery thing, wasn't it?"
Opinions varied, but arms crossed, I reminisced about M9's leaning apartment from back in the day.
When I'd visited in person, it hadn't left much of an impression.
Just a faint sense of dread at The Hope's precarious tilt—like it could crumble any moment—and the vitality of M9 surviving in such a place.
What was more closely tied to this incident was probably M9's appearance on the old Live! Apocalypse! broadcast.
After sending everyone off, I replayed that crude show from the past where M9 introduced his leaning apartment, alone in my bunker.
After M9's ridiculous parkour show, monkey-bar antics, and ugly slapstick comedy passed, the bathhouse scene provided by the old apartment community came into view.
"......"
Sure enough, hot water came out.
I'd been amazed back then too.
How could a crumbling apartment like that have running water and power to fill a tub big enough for twenty people with warm water?
But back then, people's attention was stolen more by the mutation egg M9 found in the bathhouse.
M9 cradled the huge egg, babbling about raising the hatchling if it hatched. But to my eyes, that egg was already dead.
He probably cracked open the back we couldn't see, sucked out the yolk, and then put on his show for us.
Anyway, the hot water in that tilting bathhouse back then was the foreshadowing for this incident.
"Thinking about it, after the war, the biggest and only major civil engineering project was building The Hope."
Bang Jae-hyeok tossed out an intriguing hypothesis.
"Maybe The Hope was bait, and the real goal was constructing that facility? They built the apartment and deliberately designed it to collapse, so they could hide government assets in the rubble."
No way to know the government's true intent, but it's certain there's secret government assets under The Hope.
M9 revealed an unidentified machine to us.
It was a line that looked like it'd be used in a food factory—huge dough mixer, conveyor belt, industrial oven, and such—with opinions split on what it was until M9 dropped the answer.
In the photo M9 revealed, sacks filled with brown powder—what Seoul citizens called cockroach-colored—were stacked high.
"Nutrition bars?"
Ha Tae-hoon said, grimacing.
The text on the sacks backed up his guess.
The moment the official name of those infamous nutrition bars that once fed Seoul's bellies was revealed.
High-protein, my ass.
M9 inspected the sacks for ingredients, but being government gear, there was no origin label or detailed list.
Beneath the leaning Hope lies a vast underground parking garage made of rebar and concrete.
Due to the nature of underground spaces, M9 said he hadn't explored the area too meticulously.
Danger always lurks in dark spaces, and since construction halted before completion, there was no hope of finding supplies.
Plus, all sorts of debris was tangled hazardously, blocking human access.
That labyrinthine underground garage went down to basement level 4, and at the far end of B4 was a hidden passage.
At the end of that narrow, winding, pitch-black tunnel waited a vast, open space.
A subway track.
At the end of that subway line stood a massive iron door blocking the tracks like a fortress wall.
No doubt about it.
More precious than the legends swirling around Seoul.
The hidden assets stashed by the government that fled Seoul, in preparation for their return to the capital, were behind that hulking iron door.
True to form as a seasoned Viva! Apocalypse! user, M9 subtly showed off his formidable force through his comrades in the shots.
Over 30 troops armed with automatic rifles.
Including some with high-tech night-vision gear.
Not some ragtag militia.
A properly trained combat unit.
With that mighty group, M9's crew stood before the iron door.
But that door was painted with blood-red warnings like this:
[Property of the Republic of Korea Government]
[Strictly No Entry for Unauthorized Personnel]
[Unmanned Surveillance and Lethal Equipment in Operation]
[DO NOT ENTER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!]
Not your average stuff.
Sprinkled everywhere in a chilling way, like screaming, "Stake your life if you wanna come in."
Well, folks who wanna go will go anyway, but still.
Opening Pandora's box like that—don't you need some prep?
M9, who gave us this unexpected adventure teaser, nailed it by declaring the show ends here for today.
"......"
M9.
The man I acknowledge knows how to play the game.
Declaring a live stream right here—who'd have thunk it.
Seeing Melon Mask's praise stirs the "named" blood in me for the first time in a while, but there's nothing I can do here.
My SKELTON account's comment-blocked, and VivaBot's got eagle eyes on multis right now.
As I chewed on my regret at not joining the wave hitting Viva! Apocalypse! for once, blankly refreshing and scrolling new comments, a familiar nickname caught my eye.
"?"
Na Hye-in, maybe.
What the hell's she doing?
Shouldn't she be in a rift?
The brief doubt was washed away by Unicorn's next comment.
*
"Ah, yeah, that was it. Living-wise, no real hardships. Sure, bragging about money means nothing in this world now, but pre-war, my net worth topped 100 billion won. Yeah. By normal standards, at least gold spoon? Diamond spoon or whatever. Haha. But you know, some might say I'm talking big 'cause I'm stuffed, but there's stuff in this world money can't satisfy. You know those five stages of desire? Nothing that grand, but......"
M9's Live! Apocalypse! showed traces of influence from the now-vanished Dongtanmom everywhere.
Especially in the fairly stylishly produced interview footage—probably pre-recorded—I could feel Dongtanmom's heavy shadow.
But lacking finesse, they used a crude technique like plopping a professor in front of the camera from YouTube days and just switching angles periodically. As a viewer, it fell flat.
What to say—cluttered.
Made me think just filming straight without fiddling with angles would've been better.
"We were primary subcontractors for a chaebol group. Yeah, subcontractors. At my company, I was called 'President' and treated like royalty at department stores or golf courses, but no matter how much flattery I heard or luxurious my life got, the fact I was a subcontractor never changed. It crushed my heart like a stigma."
I'd tried to stop this Ji Chang-su interview.
Meaning, tried to prevent the live stream from happening at all.
Time rewinds.
Way before the live started—back to when M9 and Ji Chang-su's duo discovered the government's hidden assets.
Unicorn18 sparked it.
Why Unicorn was outside the rift wasn't a big deal.
M9 was about to die right now.
He's my rival, sure, but dying so pointlessly like this ain't respectful to a rival.
As his rival, I sent a grave warning.
Between us who'd survived the harsh apocalypse together, no need for fancy words or rational proofs—just the frills.
I believe "named" folks connect through sincerity.
And sure enough.
M9's listening to me.
So I connected Unicorn and M9.
If things had gone right, this show never should've happened.
Whether Melon Mask was disappointed or not, the live shouldn't have gone ahead.
But the show proceeded as planned.
Didn't hear details from M9 after, but probably the show went on not by M9's will, but Ji Chang-su and daughter's.
They had over 35 combat troops in 3 vehicles.
No matter how well M9 rides the wave, there's limits against a bunch of armed folks with guns.
Best he could've done in that spot was tell Ji Chang-su's duo to halt the exploration.
Chilling thought, but I could've been in M9's shoes.
If I hadn't formed a group, got spotted by Ji Young-hee in that state, and got outnumbered and captured.
The chat exploded.
Simple reason.
A woman appeared.
The interview subject switched from Ji Chang-su to Ji Young-hee.
"......Just wanted recognition. That's all. Those people—we're grateful, sure, but still, I wanted to prove we're better than them. No matter how apocalyptic, everything crumbling—can't give up a lifelong dream carried like a curse, right?"
She smiled.
"Wanted to be the owner, not the dog."
A clear, sincere smile she'd never shown me even once.
"......"
She could smile like that too.
But pure as that smile was, I disagreed with her thinking.
She and her father were already victors who'd shone in the apocalypse.
Not even taking a short position like us doomsday prepper, they handled the end better than any Korean businessman, and with a few strokes of luck, built a force even the Legion warlord couldn't ignore.
They're already this era's chaebol.
Je Phong-ho and Park Cheol-ju.
Just look at the ends of those they thought were owners.
Yet they keep seeking validation because they've pegged their dreams to standards of an irretrievable past era.
Chasing dreams in an age you can't return to is for ghosts.
The ghost, unaware it's become the owner, follows its dead master's footsteps.
That ruin will unfold spectacularly, with the whole world watching.
The screen shifted, and the massive iron door loomed before us.
Kiiiiing—
Dozens of armed men from behind, and up front, folks cutting the door with welders.
And in the center, the father-daughter duo side by side.
Just as ruin began, a friendly, hearty face filled the screen.
"Really sorry, but that's it for today's live!"
M9.
He grinned.
The abrupt end drew fierce backlash from the Viva! barbarians watching the live—even Melon Mask posted question marks in confusion—but M9 boldly cut the stream.
After the sudden end, M9 chatted that equipment issues and bad internet meant only recorded footage could be shared, but it was intentional, and timely too.
In terms of preserving the value of the apartment named "Hope."
Thanks to that—maybe—The Hope gained a few more residents.