Chapter 34
Chapter 34
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Toothache (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Snow piling up softly.
A brazier built from stacked bricks.
Gentle twigs and a fire steadily burning away.
A kettle steaming as it boils, and instant coffee mix ready to unwrap.
Pour the right amount of water into a stainless steel cup, add the coffee mix—that's my breakfast this morning.
A lot had happened, but this winter had been peaceful.
No need to go back to the turbulent fall; even compared to last winter, these were undoubtedly tranquil days.
Could call it a positive side effect of the civil war.
They said thousands were dying in Seoul every day, and millions were fleeing as refugees, but that was just a distant tale from another world to me.
Looking back now, it was embarrassing, but back when I was in school, I'd harbored a bit of that "save the world" sentiment.
At the time, Jason Choi, the "Last Explorer," had some pretty convincing words.
He was the first among eight billion humans to step beyond a rift and set foot on otherworldly soil. He grabbed the world's media spotlight in an instant and made a shocking declaration.
"Rifts can be closed."
Before I even graduated, Jason Choi had done his part to tank the reputation of Korean-Americans in American society.
It had all been a lie.
He'd never even entered a rift, let alone fought a monster.
The scenery beyond the rift he described was nothing like what we knew, and the friendly little critters he claimed to have seen only appeared right in front of him.
Once the small types we call minor species started emerging from rifts to kill humans, the man who'd supposedly been the first to enter fled faster than anyone.
Jason Choi didn't go to prison, but he got tangled in lawsuits costing astronomical sums. He floundered in that legal quagmire until he was swept away by the fallout from a nuclear blast.
Some folks on American boards still claim he's alive—not as a serious opinion, but as a kind of trendy "meme."
I don't know or care if Jason Choi is alive or dead, but at least on our board, there's one guy who resurrected like Jesus.
SUNBI.
This pleasure-seeking romantic, more devoted to his desires than anyone yet knowing style and flair, had been murdered alongside Demian04 during the Yuri incident that once set the board ablaze.
Defender, who handled the scene back then, confirmed it.
Yet this dead SUNBI resurrected from death and showed up bold as brass on the board.
In a world where the living dead already walked, his revival sent a chill of horror through the users.
Even I, Park Gyu, started sleeping with the lights on at night.
Anyone would feel the terror.
Not just popping up out of nowhere after being dead, but sending messages that didn't look human-written.
Soon it came out that SUNBI had sent creepy messages to multiple users besides me. When one user dropped a sharp take, the fear from the resurrected SUNBI fizzled out fast.
I agree that's the reasonable explanation.
Defender reconfirmed SUNBI's death too.
But one persistent guy kept pushing a minority opinion that differed from everyone else's.
A guy with no real connection to me.
He was the type lurking in the board's corners, trading pretentious talk about auteur films and postmodernism with like-minded folks, pretending to be deep.
Still, he seemed to enjoy Dragon-si's comics and Foxgame's games diligently...
Anyway, this berkut_break unusually got heated on the board.
Utter nonsense, not worth a dime.
Probably just itching for a keyboard battle.
They exchanged "discourse" all day using bizarre terms straight-translated from Japanese, especially those weird ones from German philosophers.
But his intent got crushed by a sharp jab from a user in the same ecological niche as me.
unicorn18's jab hitting the top post was somewhat a product of the times, but I did feel a twinge of jealousy seeing it there.
That jealousy must have turned toxic.
"...Ugh."
My tooth hurts.
I have a cavity.
*
Being a doomsayer doesn't mean you're prepared for every situation.
Dental issues are one of those things.
My teeth are on the weak side, so I'd made some preparations.
A cheap 110-volt handpiece, lecture props, fairly bright lighting, and so on.
But jamming a drill in your mouth while staring in a mirror alone isn't easy.
I gave up quick and looked for another way.
That other way? Asking for help on "Viva! Apocalypse!"
That's actually what founder Melon Mask intended for the community.
A satellite internet network made for apocalypse humans to cooperate freely, ignoring radio waves.
Ten minutes after posting a help thread true to its purpose, no replies—then my one and only internet friend answered my pathetic call.
dolsingman?
Who's that?
The straightforward nickname screams life story, but like I used to, plenty of users just lurk.
Probably another lurker.
I asked dolsingman for help.
Luckily, he was alive.
"..."
I pondered for a bit.
I could roughly imagine what he meant.
The "surgery" this guy was talking about.
Torture disguised as treatment.
Asked if there were other doctors.
But the quack has good gear, apparently.
Even active on this board.
The quack's nickname dolsingman gave me was none other than "Dentist_Kim."
Way more trustworthy than dolsingman's just from the name.
I dug into Dentist_Kim's history.
True to his word, Dentist_Kim was a veteran user active three whole years before the war.
Total posts: 5.
That's everything Dentist_Kim ever posted.
Sporadic activity that cut off exactly one month before the war started.
He didn't post much, but you could tell from the content he was seriously gearing up as a doomsayer.
And he seemed to be—unintentionally, probably—the one who brought down John_nenon.
I clicked one of Dentist_Kim's posts.
...
...
A translated post recording post-disaster prep from a dentist's POV.
Clicked another.
Unlike the first translation, I read the second to the end.
A doomsayer from a different background pondering and laying out his survival path—it intrigued me.
Come to think, pre-war boards had tons of useful posts like this. Some users now called crazy were normal then.
I, Park Gyu, wasn't well-known, but my image was better than now, I think...
Anyway, this Dentist_Kim clearly has dental knowledge and experience.
Just the house in Pangyo from his verification pic screams top-earner among dentists.
I messaged him.
Reply came three days later.
Dentist_Kim sent a photo.
Looked like some building's basement, fully equipped with pre-war dental clinic chairs and gear.
No doubt.
Perfect apocalypse dental setup.
About five years ago, he'd revealed his ambitions in a post.
He laid out terms.
Feels disconnected from today's world.
Like a whiff of lost wealth and leisure.
But I don't have what he's after.
Some smokes left, but sold most pre-war—not a full carton.
Tried haggling.
No dice.
Had to call my internet friend.
Only got one, of course.
Good friend to have.
But this guy's got a surprise proposal.
"..."
Asking the obvious. Obvious answer.