Novel Bin Chapter 15: Burden
Chapter 15: Burden
The location where the human hunter took the photo can be estimated. It was once a fertile farmland, bathed in golden hues before the war broke out.
It's marked as farmland, not a mountain or forest, and digging up the land and conducting construction there isn't an easy task.
In reality, I have never seen any signs of construction work in that area, despite frequently passing by.
The human hunter must have passed by that spot by chance. He sometimes emphasized that he was around Gwanggyo, and the landscape reflected in the murder confirmation photos he persistently uploaded hinted that he lived in mountainous terrain with dense forests.
Perhaps this guy, the human hunter, isn't the type to wander around conspicuously?
However, it doesn't seem like he's using a vehicle or any other mode of transportation.
Around the tracks left by my SUV, all I found were footprints from men's-sized sneakers. The footprints pointed eastward, but they abruptly disappeared in the overgrown reed marsh.
But why would he be heading east? I don't want to know, and I don't have a way to find out.
The problem is this guy's recent activities.
[Defender has sent you a friend request.]
Viva! Apocalypse! has a friend feature; this was the first time I had learned about it. Why? Because I've never received a friend request.
But why does it have to be this guy?
Honestly, I don't like this guy. It's inevitable that people have to be killed in this world, but his actions of eagerly waiting for the war to start and then killing and certifying multiple people were somehow twisted.
Even after unblocking him, my feelings didn't change much.
[Accept] [Reject]
There are two clear choices here.
For some reason, I still haven't pressed the reject button.
It's been 1 year and 10 months since the war started. Today, the external temperature is 32 degrees Celsius, in the middle of summer.
I'm not afraid of summer. The indoor temperature is 24 degrees Celsius, which is the current temperature of my shelter.
Yes, my shelter has air conditioning.
On the dining table, there's the pasta I made earlier, and I've just prepared shaved ice with syrup and canned red bean.
If you take a bite of the pasta, which has been adequately warmed, and then add the shaved ice to your mouth, "Ah~," a feeling of happiness tinged with pain floods over you.
It's one of the joys of summer.
I'm a person who knows how to live comfortably.
I didn't post a picture of the shaved ice on the community. I'm already disliked for no apparent reason, and if I were to engage in such trivial pretense, the only people left to read my posts would be weirdos like the human hunter!
Although I'm not as popular as other users on the forums, it's no exaggeration to say that the quality of my life is top-notch.
No, you might have to look for someone who lives as well as I do among the chaebols who built fortresses.
The core of my luxurious life is more than anything, ample electricity.
Starting from the power facility, it's different. Most community users use small generators like gasoline or gas, but I run a large diesel generator suitable for factory use.
Named Skeleton Heart, this generator boasts an enormous size that surpasses even a single fortress. It's rightly called the heart of my hideout.
The performance is certainly impressive. With just fuel, it generates an immense amount of power, instantly filling dozens of batteries and still having surplus energy to spare.
The disadvantages are the installation cost, noise, and the enormous gas emissions. The installation cost was covered by buying a cheap piece of land, and the noise is not a problem since it's set up in a neighbourhood with no people around. However, the gas emissions have been a persistent headache throughout the entire construction of the shelter.
I had to drill a total of seven ventilation holes and go through numerous trials and errors to establish a duct system.
Even with all that, when the generator is running, black smoke billows out through the ventilation holes. I tried installing a dust control system to reduce the smoke, but from a distance, you could still see seven smoke pillars rising from the area where my shelter can be observed with the naked eye.
So, the generator is usually operated only at night. But, especially on rainy or windy days, I intentionally run it even when electricity is not needed to charge the batteries.
However, there are conditions for this abundance. There must be no people around.
The smoke is masked by the darkness of the night, but the noise and ground vibrations caused by the generator operation can be felt within the area where it can be observed with the naked eye.
Bang! Bang!
That afternoon, the sniper and her daughter were actively firing shots in the south. It felt different from usual.
Was a battle taking place?
Soon, K-Walkie Talkier sounded, accompanied by noise and muffled Korean.
- Chijijik! Skeleton. A group of people is heading your way.
Since the day the typhoon came, the sniper and I have maintained a somewhat loose alliance as neighbours in the area.
We haven't officially joined forces, but our relationship has improved somewhat.
Information sharing is one of the aspects of this improved relationship.
I asked with a wry smile into the radio, "Did you guys chase them away?"
There was no answer on the radio, but just before the transmission was cut off, I faintly heard the laughter of the daughter.
The ones the sniper drove away were refugees.
Once a hot topic on the community, refugees have become rare visitors lately.
In the year following the outbreak of the war, many refugees left the harsh environment of Seoul for the provinces, but most of them failed, and rumours about their failures spread.
In addition, as the war stabilized, the government began to show hopeful messages and actions, causing the number of refugees to decrease dramatically in the past few months.
But now, of all times, refugees are here.
They headed straight for my territory.
"Ah, damn it."
I was annoyed.
Out of all the places they could have chosen, why did they have to come to my territory?
Could they be looters?
Their level of armament isn't impressive. Most of them are armed with homemade crossbows, and only a few have firearms.
They had reached just before my outer airlock.
I turned off the air conditioning, took out my firearm, loaded the bullets, and secured two axes to my waist.
I'm neither the sniper and his daughter nor the human hunter. My strategy is to avoid combat as much as possible and not reveal my location.
I used all the eavesdropping and surveillance equipment to monitor their movements.
"Why are you coming here when there's nothing here?"
"That's right. Isn't this area heavily radiated due to the nuclear bombing?"
"I heard that used to be a U.S. military base. Are you changing our goal to retake the U.S. military base?"
A voice echoed through the speakers, and a man in his mid-40s wearing military attire replied.
"Our goal has changed to retaking the U.S. military base, as long as we have this area with higher terrain and low hills that can monitor the surrounding area. As you know, there are issues with residual radiation, and there may be looters hiding like before. So, let's set up here and observe the surroundings while taking it back slowly. As you can see, this area looks ominous, doesn't it?"
I only learned the man's name later; he was called Choi Jungryeong. His attire, as well as those around him, suggested that they were more like reserves than active duty soldiers. They were all men, mostly around Choi Jungryeong's age.
They weren't trained soldiers. Most of them seemed nervous and uncertain in their movements. I wanted to ignore them if possible.
But the moment I saw them setting up tents inside my territory, I knew the situation had taken a serious turn.
To make matters worse, one of them discovered the hidden auxiliary shelter.
"What's this? A shelter?"
It was empty inside, containing only explosives that I could detonate from my main shelter. It was bunker-style, designed for defence, with straight, elongated holes serving as gun ports and observation windows. However, it was not intended for residential use. Most importantly, this auxiliary shelter concealed a secret passage leading to my main shelter.
I stepped out of the shelter with my gun.
I decided they were probably not looters since they had not shown any signs of hostility. I addressed them after emerging from my main shelter.
"This is private property. Please leave."
People mumbled among themselves. Some showed signs of hostility, but most of them were clearly surprised and afraid of the individual with a firearm.
Choi Jungryeong was the one who confronted me. He looked me up and down before gesturing for the others to stay calm. He took a step closer.
He had a pistol holstered at his side.
"Hello?"
He cheerfully shouted, but I only nodded without responding.
"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Choi Hyukchan. We received permission from the Ministry of Land to develop this area."
"Development?"
I signalled for him not to come any closer with my gun aimed at him, and he reluctantly put the documents he was holding back into his pocket.
"You seem to have a lot of caution for someone so young. Did you get beaten up a lot when you were in school? Anyway, have you been living here alone?"
"We don't need to have a long conversation, so keep it short."
"Haha. Sure, I'll keep it short."
Choi Jungryeong smiled amiably but suddenly turned serious, raising his voice.
"You said this is your property, right? Well, that's all in the past now."
"What do you mean?"
"Your ownership has been reset. All the land registry records have been wiped out. Except for major cities, the provinces are now under commune control. The one who settles first and occupies the land becomes the owner."
He took out the documents again and waved them around.
"This is the permit."nove(l)bi(n.)com
It finally clicked. This explained why the refugees, who had disappeared for a while, suddenly reappeared. I realized that the situation in Seoul might be even worse than what I had witnessed.
"Judging by your appearance, you seem like one of those doomsday preppers or something. We won't touch your land. Our goal is over there."
Choi Jungryeong pointed to the U.S. military base.
"We'll be borrowing this area for a while until we finish dealing with that side. You can understand that much, right? As the previous landowner?"
Choi Jungryeong holstered his pistol.
I hesitated for a moment.
Should I kill them all or let them be? Thoughts of the human hunter and his killing spree briefly crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed the idea.
"I can tolerate you for about two days," I conditionally permitted.
I didn't want to cause any trouble, and they didn't seem like looters.
"Two days? That's a bit short, but alright, I understand," Choi Jungryeong replied.
And so, an uneasy coexistence began.
Everything was unsatisfactory, but the biggest issue was that I couldn't operate the heart of my territory. The power of the batteries quickly dwindled. The temperature inside the bunker soared uncomfortably, and candles replaced electric lights. But the most critical problem was the rapid increase in temperature inside my underground freezer.
At best, it would last a few more hours. The freezer that had maintained sub-zero temperatures for so long would succumb to the summer heat, potentially causing my valuable food supply to spoil.
Not being able to connect to the community added to the agony.
"..."
Once again, I thought of the human hunter. He had sent me a friend request, which I hadn't declined.
Choi Jungryeong's group didn't approach my territory during the first day, but after that, they started exploring various areas, like curious children. They showed particular interest in the pile of shelters that led to my main bunker.
Each time, I blocked their way with my firearm, but fear was easily diluted.
People who were initially surprised to see me now approached and talked to me casually.
"Hey, mister. How do you survive here? Do you have any food?"
When the thermometer inside the freezer indicated minus one degree Celsius, Choi Jungryeong came to find me.
"We're in a tough situation. Could you spare some food?"
"Food?"
"There must be some, right? You're a doomsday prepper, aren't you? You must have stocked up in the bunker."
"Even if I do have some, why should I give it to you?"
"Because we're all Koreans. We should help each other."
Choi Jungryeong chuckled, looking at his group.
"Even though you seem to live alone, can you handle all of us?"
The agreed-upon date had passed, but Choi Jungryeong hadn't kept his promise. Two days later, he and his group continued to roam around my territory casually.
That afternoon, things took a turn.
Someone knocked on the emergency door of my main bunker. It was the entrance to the twelve shelter entrances that I had built, leading to my main bunker.
"Hey, there's a door here!"
They had found it. My precious main bunker.
"Push it! Push it!"
"Yo, open up!"
After an agonizing moment of shouting, a moment of silence followed. Then Choi Jungryeong's voice echoed loudly from right in front of me, separated only by the steel door.
"Are you in there? Huh? Beyond that door, isn't your bunker? I know everything. I know it all."
He was taunting me.
I was determined to take action.
"I have something to discuss."
For the first time, I appeared unarmed in front of them. In my hand was a cigarette.
"The sun is strong right now, so it must be hot inside. Wait inside the bunker, and I'll bring some drinks and food. Start with the cigarettes."
Choi Jungryeong smirked and spoke informally.
"You should have done that earlier."
He looked at me with accusing eyes.
"I know there's a bunker over there behind that steel door. I know it all."
He seemed to revel in his victory.
He took a long drag of his cigarette, the smoke streaming into the air as he grinned.
"Your place won't be plundered. You've worked hard to prepare it, haven't you? You and us, we're going to be neighbours when we settle in the U.S. military base anyway. Right? It seems like you live alone, but when we bring our families later, I'll introduce you to some nice women. All of my friends' daughters are pretty. Like idols!"
His friend request ended with an explosion.
I hunted down the person who had barely survived the explosion with my firearm. It was Choi Jungryeong.
"H-How can this happen...? How..."
His death didn't bring me any satisfaction.
There were more important matters at hand.
I quickly turned on the generator and supplied power. The freezer, which had gone off, began cooling again, and the bunker's comfort returned after the sweltering heat. I smiled with genuine satisfaction for the first time in a while.
Was that why?
[You have accepted Defender's friend request.]
I finally accepted the friend request I had postponed. The human hunter seemed quite pleased.
Defender: (Defender Touched) Skeleton, this guy used to avoid me like crazy, but now he finally accepted my friend request! Thanks!
"..."
I had momentarily forgotten.
Both the human hunter and I were just ordinary people trying to survive in this apocalyptic world. We both had burdens to bear, and when those burdens were touched, we would struggle. The only difference was that the human hunter's burden was a bit too heavy.
That's it.
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