©NovelBuddy
Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 56: Resurrection
People believe what they want to believe.
The truth is rarely important.
To them, the truth is only valid if it aligns with their preconceived notions. Anything else is a lie, unworthy of discussion.
The reason Dongtanmom's "awakening" failed to stir as much impact as expected might be because she didn’t follow up with more posts. But the primary reason was likely that too many people couldn’t bear to lose Jeju Island, their last beacon of hope.
ㅇㅇ: So, who the hell is Dongtanmom anyway?
ㅇㅇ: Why should we listen to her? What’s with that blurry photo she posted? What does it even prove? If it’s China, what difference does it make?
ㅇㅇ: Dongtanmom says she went to China, but how do you explain celebrities like Park Joo-hyuk, Jung Seol-woo, and Lee Min-hye making it to Jeju?
ㅇㅇ: People who can fake satellite images can’t fake one measly boat photo? Give me a break.
ㅇㅇ: Filkrum, who we thought was dead, supposedly arrived on Jeju too.
ㅇㅇ: You lot could tell me the entire Korean Peninsula has sunk into the ocean, and I still wouldn’t believe you. Nope. Not gonna happen.
These responses encapsulate the dominant sentiment on PaleNet.
Even when faced with destruction, they deny it.
Like ostriches burying their heads in the sand when confronted by predators baring their fangs.
Not everyone chose the ostrich's life.
Some chose the life of stray dogs.
These were the ones who fled the government-run pens, seeking a new existence in the wilderness.
Reports of “new refugees” began surfacing across the forums.
Anonymous883: This feels... familiar, doesn’t it?
RKKArA: Yeah, it really does.
Keystone: Fuck, just when things were finally quiet for a few months.
Lone_wolf: Is this Season 2 or what?
The upheaval caused by Baek Seung-hyun did not simply end as a tempest in a teacup.
It’s beginning to shape our lives in broader, more tangible ways.
In truth, this disaster had been foretold.
The only reason it didn’t come sooner was because the death of the giant had been artificially delayed.
Click.
The brief peace is over.
Now begins the true era where humans will devour one another.
Ironically, as I stand at this crossroads of a new era, the person who comes to mind is my internet friend: Defender.
*
If John Nae-non had lived just a little longer, could this have been avoided?
ㅇㅇ: Results from the Viva! Apocalypse! forum search—here’s a map of possible bunker locations.
ㅇㅇ: How to tie restraining knots even a monkey can learn.
This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.
ㅇㅇ: How to use a Judge Killer.
ㅇㅇ: A list of people I want to kill on Viva!
ㅇㅇ: U.S. Army manual—Bunker Suppression Tactics (1).
ㅇㅇ: How to beat people (especially women) into submission.
ㅇㅇ: Viva users are just a bunch of Aspie loners. If there are two or more people, just find the entrance, and the bunker’s yours.
ㅇㅇ: Human anatomy.jpg.
The light of his influence had been tainted with malice.
There had always been people with blind hostility toward us, those who exchanged inhumane information.
But in the past, they lingered in the shadows, buried at the bottom of the forum rankings, quietly sharing their depraved interests amongst themselves.
Baek Seung-hyun's madness, however, quickly consumed PaleNet, dragging those shadow-dwellers into the daylight.
The catalyst wasn’t the nauseating pro-Jeju fleet defense posts or the Viva board wars. It was a new kind of post altogether.
Anonymous Post: How to Steal a Bunker—Step-by-Step Guide Even a Monkey Can Follow
Materials Needed: At least five people and firearms.Identify all exits.Use tear gas on the ventilation system to incapacitate occupants.Follow the stench of excrement.Look for satellite equipment—small protrusions that stick out of the ground like bamboo shoots.They might blow themselves up, so bait them into conversation with a fake promise to spare them.Use Viva! Apocalypse! posts to reverse-engineer their location.It wasn’t a well-written post.
The content was sloppy and poorly detailed.
But in life, timing is everything.
Just as people grew tired of the endless Jeju fleet debates, this post shot up the forum rankings, amassing thousands of comments and becoming a top post overnight.
From the start, it was inevitable that we were unwelcome guests on PaleNet.
Yet the uneasy cohabitation persisted because there was still hope.
Now, as that hope begins to crumble, it’s only natural that the fallout would reach us.
Gijayangban: It’s true that a large group of people left Incheon. It’s never a bad idea to be cautious. Just like we’ve leveled up, so have they.
Gijayangban's words struck at the heart of the matter.
We’ve leveled up, and so have they.
Becoming desensitized to cruelty, accepting murder as a necessity, prioritizing oneself over others, embracing selfishness.
It’s a given that the second wave of refugees will be harder to handle than the first.
Just as we shared survival tips on the forums, they exchanged looting strategies and left the cities.
That afternoon, Gijayangban uploaded another photo.
It depicted a wide array of vehicles leaving Incheon.
Bang! Bang-bang!
Gunfire echoed from the far north in the early hours of dawn.
The sounds came from the area controlled by a pioneer who had been forcibly driven out some time ago.
The gunfire seemed to subside, only to erupt violently again in three separate locations by morning.
Perhaps the pioneer launched a flanking attack, or maybe the refugees employed a similar strategy.
Bang!
The first gunshot from the Sniper’s territory in a long time rang out around noon.
“A vehicle tried to rush in,” Rebecca explained over the radio.
“A gasoline car? A small one. It ran off after being fired upon. No other vehicles. At least two passengers. Couldn’t see the backseat.”
This revealed a distinct characteristic of the second wave of refugees.
They had cars.
It’s a simple but terrifying fact.
Having a car means they have mobility.
And I wasn’t the only one who noticed this.
Other forum users emphasized that the second wave of refugees had become “mechanized.”
Perhaps it was from experience.
Leaving a major city on foot to head for the outskirts was tantamount to suicide.
This isn’t an age where walking for exercise is a thing anymore. Move too slowly, and death is inevitable.
Mutations lurking everywhere could easily dismantle even a group of dozens if they decided to attack.
This must be part of what Gijayangban referred to as “leveling up.”
Vroom---
The noisy, tractor-like sound of an engine echoed through my territory.
It was a white van.
Spewing thick, black smoke like disinfectant spray, it rumbled across the fields.
I kept watch, wondering what they were up to.
A man wearing glasses stepped out of the van, followed by a woman, also wearing glasses.
Then two children, a boy and a girl, emerged after them.
A family, it seemed.
It reminded me of a scene I often saw before the war: families coming to the valley below my territory to enjoy a peaceful day.
But this time, each family member was armed with a gun.
The husband launched a drone into the air.
"..."
The drone flew over my territory, clumsily skimming past.
I couldn’t tell if it spotted anything, but the fact that their vehicle came directly here was telling.
What to do?
Click.
There’s only one choice.
Either I die, or they die.
Partial measures don’t exist.
Leaving even a few alive would eventually lead to my death, which means sparing anyone isn’t an option.
“Hey! Look at this! It’s here! A bunker! A bunker!”
The man had discovered my decoy bunker.
But all they’d see was an eerie, desolate ruin.
“What’s with this bunker? It’s weird,” the woman, presumably his wife, remarked.
“Why’s the toilet like that? Was a pervert living here or something?”
I hesitated.
Killing them all wasn’t a bad choice.
But the sound of the children’s voices doused my bloodlust.
“Dad, is this the bunker? Is this our new house?”
“What about the people who were here before? Did you kill them?”
It seemed even the children were part of this “level up.”
I stayed silent, watching as the motion sensors blinked non-stop, tracking their movements.
The couple was inexperienced.
“Should we live here, honey?”
“How can we live here? Look at all the water. Clearly, this place was attacked and abandoned. Nothing works here.”
“Really? It doesn’t look like what we saw on PaleNet.”
“Let’s find a country house instead. It’s better than this damp underground place.”
A bird suddenly fluttered behind them, startling the couple.
“Ahh!”
“Whoa!”
They fired their guns in panic until their fear subsided.
“What the hell? It was nothing.”
“Damn it, wasted precious bullets. Only two magazines left now.”
“This place sucks.”
The children whined to their parents.
“My candy’s gone! Where is it? Who took it?”
“Look in the car. It’s probably in there somewhere.”
“I already looked, and it’s not there!”
“I’m tired, Mom. Do we have to sleep in the car again? Can’t we just go to a shelter?”
“No, we can’t.”
“But I miss my friends. Why do I have the black sticker?”
I was tempted to reveal myself and tell them to return to Incheon.
Tell them there’s only death waiting for them there.
That they wouldn’t last a week in this harsh wilderness.
Maybe they’d survive if they teamed up with a survival expert in Incheon.
But I couldn’t intervene. My existence being revealed meant my death.
I am someone who would sacrifice others to save myself.
They lingered around the decoy bunker, providing me with valuable ideas.
“This bunker’s strange. Why doesn’t it have a ventilation shaft? All the manuals say bunkers need at least one vent.”
“Maybe it got removed when it was abandoned.”
“There should at least be a hole or something. I don’t see anything.”
A plan to add a dummy ventilation shaft to the decoy bunker was instantly formulated.
It wouldn’t be hard: just bury a PVC pipe and attach a broken duct.
The noisy van eventually left, spewing black smoke as it drove away.
I briefly debated whether to erase their tire tracks.
Better to erase them.
Camouflage works only a few times before it becomes useless under relentless traffic.
The vehicle headed west—toward Defender’s territory.
I turned on the radio and contacted Defender.
“Hey, Defender. A vehicle is headed your way.”
There was no response from him or his sister.
A chilling sense of foreboding crept up my spine, but I pushed it aside.
Erasing the tire tracks they left behind was a more urgent task.
As I swept away the tracks with a brush, a cheap candy wrapper caught my eye.
[ Provided by the Government of the Republic of Korea ]
Was this the candy the child had left behind?
I considered returning it, but I doubted I’d ever see them again.
So I popped it into my mouth for a quick energy boost.
"..."
Cheap.
To summarize, the family that gave me insight into the decoy bunker’s effectiveness and areas for improvement, disrupted my peace, and left me with tasteless candy, turned into cold corpses just a few hours later.
*
Defender: Verification
Seeing someone you just met reduced to a lifeless form, and worse, becoming fodder for internet gossip, is far from pleasant.
Defender: Say whatever you want.
Defender: The reason I’ve been quiet lately is because I was moving. As for Justice_Min? That bastard is a piece of work.
Defender: Anyway, since intruders showed up in my territory, my verifications will continue. Hate me all you want. The people who despise me will keep doing so anyway, right?
Defender was back.
And uncharacteristically, he included a lengthy explanation.
It seems that timing truly is everything when it comes to popular posts.
His return post quickly racked up invisible upvotes, skyrocketing to the top of the forum’s trending list.
Now that I think about it, the period when Defender became a notable figure coincided with the height of the refugee crisis.
Back then, after being shamed and driven off the forums, he clawed his way back using the same tactics that turned him into a renowned name. And now, in a similar context, he was reclaiming his place once again.
"..."
Even witnessing my internet friend’s grand comeback, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in my chest.
“Hey, Skelton.”
Defender’s voice crackled through the radio.
“What was that earlier? We were a bit busy.”
“Yeah. Skelton, are you online? Did you see our post? Did you see how the others are reacting?”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah. Congrats,” I replied half-heartedly, tossing him an insincere congratulatory remark before hastily ending the call.
The candy wrapper, stamped with the branding “Provided by the Government of the Republic of Korea,” still sat on my desk.
Whether I’ll throw it away or burn it, I’ll decide tomorrow.
For now, I just want to close my eyes and get some rest.