Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 67.4: Hero (4)

The enemy wasn’t a soldier, but a marauder.

They had a number of vehicles, but no heavy artillery, and their combat capabilities seemed questionable.

There weren’t that many of them either.

There were over 50 of them, but on our side, we had 30 fully armed soldiers with armored vehicles. When it came to a real fight, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

"They must have something they’re relying on," Captain Kim Min-ho said.

I agreed with him.

Even if they were marauders, by now, no one would be considered weak.

They had drawn up a plan, brought people along, and even dared to threaten us to hand over Yang Sang-gil.

"Artillery support seems to be the expected card," he continued.

The difference in opinions between Ha Min-gi and Kim Min-ho didn’t seem to be just a matter of command structure.

"Our reconnaissance resources are keeping an eye on them. If the Legion faction takes out artillery from the caves, we’ll be informed right away. Honestly, if we’re scared of a handful of civilians, then what are we? A bunch of unorganized rabble?"

Ha Min-gi looked at me.

After hesitating for a moment, he turned to Captain Kim Min-ho.

"By the way, who is this? I’ve noticed he’s been in every meeting, as if he belongs there."

"He’s a freelance hunter," Song Yu-jin answered in place of Kim Min-ho.

She seemed a little unsure, but her tone was much more serious and professional than when she was speaking to me, making me think that my student had truly become a competent part of society.

"He’s in charge of protecting and monitoring Yang Sang-gil."

"Is that so?"

Ha Min-gi looked at Song Yu-jin’s uniform and badge with a disapproving glance, pretending to accept her explanation.

"But, now that the stakes are so high, shouldn't the military take responsibility for Yang Sang-gil’s protection?"

"I agree," I responded without hesitation.

I didn’t want to get involved in this fight.

And now, fighting right outside my front door.

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Half of this mess was of my own making, but it was undeniable that my front yard was now noisier than the one over at Keystone.

"I’ll step out. This doesn’t seem like a fight I need to be a part of."

"Sir, Sir!"

Song Yu-jin followed me as I tried to leave.

She must have called me "Sir" only when others were around.

"Are you sure this is okay?" she asked, her face filled with concern.

"What’s wrong?"

"I mean, it doesn’t seem right for someone like you to be treated this way."

"What’s that? Are you worried about me?"

"Isn’t it obvious?"

Song Yu-jin looked at me seriously.

"I’m your student, Sir."

"I haven’t even taught you much."

"True, but I don’t have much else to show for myself... I’m only level 2."

Song Yu-jin lowered her head with a downcast look.

"I was treated like a nobody in school, and even after going out, I wasn’t anything special. I ended up being a level 2 after all. But once I said I was your student, people started seeing me differently. Like... even Sir Woo Min-hee started looking at me differently."

"So that’s how it was."

Now I understood a little of the over-the-top kindness.

It seemed that my connection to her had been beneficial.

Just as I was about to turn away with a familiar feeling of disappointment, her voice followed me like a shadow.

"But still, I studied hard on your record! The more I learn, the more impressive you seem! You hunted medium and even large-sized monsters without an Awakened ability, just using conventional weapons! Isn’t it true that people over level 10 have to risk their lives just to hunt medium-sized monsters, but you did it without even disabling their reflective force fields?"

"...I didn’t do it alone."

It seemed that her studying wasn’t empty words after all.

She knew a bit about my past.

"I could do it because I had comrades who could take my place if I died."

I thought about the faces of my comrades who had passed and mounted my motorcycle.

"Sir!"

Song Yu-jin called me again.

"Are you going to make dinner for us?"

"Maybe. We’ll see how things go."

I didn’t think the battle would last long.

In this desolate world of Park Gyu, there was no one but me who would want to stick around for long.

But since I promised, I should get ready.

Inside my empty bunker, I prepared a meal using boiled potatoes and started preparing for dinner.

I was planning to make curry.

"Skeleton. What’s going on?"

Just as I was preparing the curry ingredients, I received a message from Defender and Rebecca.

"Yang Sang-gil? Did you hear the radio too?"

I avoided answering and quickly ended the transmission.

Once I finished preparing the ingredients and took a short breath, gunshots rang out.

Was the battle starting?

I left the bunker and climbed up the hill to observe the golf course.

The soldiers and the marauders were in a standoff.

Boldly, the marauders, seemingly unfazed by bullets, sent a few men to stand right in front of the soldiers.

Four, no, five of them.

Though I couldn’t hear the sounds from this distance, it seemed the soldiers had warned them not to come any closer, and a single shot was fired as a warning.

"Hm?"

The marauders were advancing.

Whether or not the soldiers aimed their guns, they slowly moved toward the soldiers' position.

The soldiers looked back at Ha Min-gi.

Ha Min-gi raised his hand.

The next moment.

Boom!

The sound came from the marauder’s side.

I knew that eerie sound and the rhythm of it very well.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Like the rhythm of a beating heart.

And in the center of it all, there was something humanoid standing.

"Awakened."

Fortunately, the shape of the energy wave wasn’t over level 10.

It was lower.

Meaning, it was something I could handle.

I immediately rushed to my motorcycle.

Praying silently that no shots would be fired.

Tatatatatang!

Despite my earnest prayer, gunshots echoed.

When I mounted the motorcycle and looked at the golf course, the situation was already over.

A few soldiers were lying on the ground, and the remaining ones were retreating.

As I spotted a familiar uniform among the fleeing soldiers, a woman with her hair tightly tied at the back like a tail, I let out a sigh of relief and steered the motorcycle in their direction.

*

Out of the 34 people in the squad, 7 had died.

No, 8.

The soldier who had been screaming in agony from his injuries suddenly stopped twitching.

"Da-jung! Da-jung!"

One of the soldiers buried his head in Da-jung's chest and cried uncontrollably.

The atmosphere in the camp was grim.

We had protected Yang Sang-gil and his family, but casualties had occurred, and the backup road had been blocked.

It was a complete defeat.

But what made the soldiers even more despondent than the defeat itself was the fact that there was no way to make up for it.

There was an Awakened in the enemy ranks.

One that could deflect bullets, like a monster, accurately reflecting them in the direction of fire.

"...So the information about the Legion faction accepting North Korean zealots and supplementing their Awakened members was true," Captain Kim Min-ho muttered, his usually confident demeanor faltering in the face of what he had just witnessed.

Colonel Ha Min-gi, though silent, looked even worse than usual, his already troubled face sinking further.

He was the one who had given the order to fire.

I couldn’t understand why he had issued the command knowing they were Awakened, but that kind of mistake wasn’t rare.

Even among soldiers, there were those who underestimated the Awakened, clinging to the mystic belief that they could easily kill one if given the chance.

"So, what do we do now?" Ha Min-gi finally spoke.

"I don’t know," Captain Kim Min-ho replied, sighing heavily.

"What should we do?"

It was a small change, but it seemed like the veneer of respect that Kim Min-ho had maintained toward Ha Min-gi, his superior, had completely worn off.

The prediction turned out to be right.

"Should we bring the armored vehicle and just charge at them?"

Kim Min-ho’s disdain and frustration were clearly apparent.

Ha Min-gi’s face twitched, but he suppressed his emotions and spoke quietly, acknowledging his mistake.

"Can you bring an armored vehicle? We’ll send you a truck."

"That’s not a match," Kim Min-ho responded sharply.

"I’ll contact HQ and request a new one," Ha Min-gi said.

"Just saying you’ll try doesn’t solve anything. You need to give me a firm answer."

"Don’t be ridiculous!" Ha Min-gi’s voice boomed.

"No matter how bad the world is, there’s still rank!"

The eyes of the junior officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers around them clashed with intensity.

"...What a bunch of nonsense," Kim Min-ho muttered.

"If you want to show respect for your seniority, why didn’t you do something when the National Crisis Management Committee was slowly seizing military power?"

"Captain Kim!"

"I’ve got nothing more to say," Kim Min-ho said, turning away and backing off slowly.

Ha Min-gi didn’t respond, but Kim Min-ho couldn’t resist one last jab.

"...By the way, did you really contact your direct superior? Why hasn’t there been any response?"

Kim Min-ho and his soldiers climbed into the armored vehicle.

"Sir, I mean, Instructor," Song Yu-jin called out before getting into the vehicle.

"I’m heading out now," she said with a bittersweet smile.

"I’ve prepared dinner."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it’s fine. I’ll eat alone."

"If I get the chance, I’ll drop by next time. When Incheon falls, please take me in."

"There’s no room."

"Why?"

"Just go. Captain Kim’s got a lot on his mind."

Song Yu-jin made her way to the armored vehicle.

Before getting in, she turned to wave at me.

The armored vehicle started up with a roar, the exhaust fumes and engine noise filling the air.

The vehicle was heading toward rugged terrain with no roads.

"..."

Maybe Yang Sang-gil was right.

Seeing Kim Min-ho, who liked his superior, abandoning him so easily—like it was expected—made me realize how chaotic things had gotten.

I turned my gaze to Ha Min-gi.

"At this point, let’s just take Yang Sang-gil with us," he suggested.

This man was about to get us into more trouble.

"I think the southwestern direction is the least rough. We’ll send the truck with Yang Sang-gil there first, and the rest of us can slowly move on foot and join the truck."

At first glance, it seemed reasonable, but it was pure nonsense.

Trying to cross rough terrain with a truck, especially when the vehicle wasn’t in perfect condition, was unrealistic.

Anyway, this wasn’t my problem.

There was nothing I could do.

I tried to contact Woo Min-hee, but, as always, she didn’t respond when I needed her.

The marauders, however, weren’t waiting for us.

"Final warning. Send Yang Sang-gil’s family over, or we’ll open fire."

They were ready to attack.

The soldiers glanced at Ha Min-gi, but he didn’t respond to the marauder’s threat.

"Is the truck ready?"

He was still lost in his delusions.

It seemed like this was it.

This was the end of my association with these people.

I needed to prepare for my own survival.

It might be better to leave with just the essentials and return once things quiet down.

As I started to leave, I was interrupted.

"Park Hunter."

It was Yang Sang-gil.

"Where are you going?"

"Where else? I’m disappearing."

"You live around here, don’t you?"

He smiled slyly, as if he knew exactly where I was headed.

Without batting an eye, I responded.

"Yes."

"I’ll tell them where you live."

"Go ahead."

"I saw where you and Song Yu-jin went, too."

"Say it."

"Really? Are you sure that’s okay?"

Yang Sang-gil grinned as he tried to probe me with his eyes.

What should I do with this man?

Boom!

A sudden loud explosion came from the west.

The direction the armored vehicle had gone.

As expected, the armored vehicle had crashed into the bunker, sending black smoke into the sky.

"..."

Fatigue and a sense of indifference, like a long-standing illness, washed over me.

"Suicide drone! Suicide drone!"

A soldier shouted frantically as they reported the situation.

Fortunately, the casualties were minimal.

The hatch of the armored vehicle opened, and soldiers, coughing and scrambling, rushed out.

"Cough! Cough! Damn!"

One of my students was among them.

As soon as I saw her, the drowsiness that had been slowly creeping over me disappeared.

I looked around.

The marauders, or rather the armed group disguised as marauders, had formed a slow encirclement, closing in on us.

In the front, the main force, including the Awakened, advanced, while troops of lesser capability were scattered along the road. Above us, the drones had control of the airspace and visibility.

"Bring Yang Sang-gil here! We leave now!"

And Ha Min-gi continued to make the same mistakes.

"Get him on the truck immediately!"

The sharp sound of air being cut by the drone was heard again.

Suicide drones.

Three were left.

"Jammer!"

A soldier in charge of anti-air monitoring aimed a bazooka-like jammer at the incoming drones.

When he pulled the heavy trigger, one of the drones fell helplessly to the ground, crashing into the dirt.

But there was still one left.

It was heading straight for the command table where Ha Min-gi had been shouting orders.

Boom! Boom!

Dirt, smoke, and a little blood splattered everywhere.

"Colonel!"

"Shit! The Colonel’s down!"

The command post had been hit.

At the same time, the enemies began their assault.

Gunfire broke out all around as the Awakened, leisurely but with purpose, strolled toward us, admiring the view of the golf course as if taking a walk.

The soldiers from the armored vehicle joined Ha Min-gi’s forces.

"Damn it."

Kim Min-ho, his head wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage, cursed under his breath, self-loathing evident in his eyes.

"The jammer isn’t working. The active defense system isn’t responding. Why is it that electronics always fail when you need them the most?"

Despite his loss of composure, he was still the highest-ranking officer here.

I approached him.

"Sir..."

Song Yu-jin, who had been tending to the wounded soldiers, glanced at me but pretended not to notice.

Kim Min-ho looked at me.

"You're that hunter from earlier?"

"Should I kill the Awakened?"

"What?"

"I’m asking if killing the Awakened will let us deal with the rest of these bastards?"

"Are you out of your mind? You saw it too, right? A monster that deflects bullets?"

Kim Min-ho’s gaze shifted to Song Yu-jin, filled with disappointment.

She avoided his eyes.

"...I’ve fought monsters like that my whole life."

Her eyes were now on me.

"Give me two people. I’ll take the head of the Awakened and return."

She pointed at Kim Min-ho.

"One is this friend. The other can be anyone who’s not a coward."

Kim Min-ho looked at me with suspicion.

"Why would I give you troops to help you? You’re not even a soldier."

Kim Min-ho sighed and surveyed the soldiers.

"Well, let’s ask. Who wants to risk their life for this guy?"

A heavy silence fell over the room.

The soldiers were all too aware of the power the Awakened held.

Who in their right mind would want to die?

"I’ll do it! I’ll go!"

And there was one who was ready to die.

"I’ll do it."

Yang Sang-gil.