ㅇㅇ: “The streets are littered with corpses. People freeze to death, get shot, or are beaten to death with clubs, house after house. How can you all be so indifferent?”
A user on Failnet was taking a jab at us.
But no one on our board paid them any mind.
Anonymous 1311: “Today’s snowman.”
Anonymous 458: “Snowman ver. 3.1.”
rokaGG: “Snowman!”
Anonymous 853: “I made a snowman too.”
Berkut_break: “I don’t usually follow trends, but this vibe got making a snowman.”
mmmmmmmmm: “The Hope Palace—made of snow: ‘SNOW PALACE.’”
...
Even new users, obscure ones, and those with poor reputations were all talking about snown.
Why could we brush off this Failnet user's criticism so easily? Sure, tragedies like this happened every year, but perhaps it was because, as doomsday preppers, we harbored a deep-seated resentnt.
Before the war, we preppers were harshly treated.
No one who hasn’t experienced it firsthand can understand how much ridicule and criticism we endured.
In a country like South Korea, where society enforces exemplary standards and severely sanctions those who deviate, becoming a doomsday prepper required not only significant resources but also imnse determination.
From what I know, only Japan was tougher on preppers than South Korea.
In Japan, they went as far as tearing down bomb shelters built by rural elders overnight.
Koreans, with their reputation for being warr, didn’t go that far—but it was bad enough.
Preppers were treated like fools, seen as immature, maladjusted individuals.
In the Joseon era, an unmarried man wearing braided hair would have faced less ridicule than a modern South Korean prepper.
There was even a codian, Hwang Dae-seop, who built his entire career mocking preppers on TV.
Even soone like , who rarely watched television, learned about his show through YouTube.
One episode sticks with :
A skinny, disheveled man with sunken eyes (played by Hwang Dae-seop) hoards at at a grocery store, preparing for doomsday. But the apocalypse never cos. Ti passes peacefully, symbolized by a rapidly spinning clock and a backdrop showing days and nights blurring together.
Then, his ancient fridge breaks down, threatening to spoil all his at. He starts binge-eating like a competitive eater until he can’t stomach anymore, retching in a grotesque manner before turning to the cara in despair.
The episode ends there.
Hwang Dae-seop made several similar episodes mocking preppers.
Even as a prepper, I found them funny.
The show was called “The Prepper Next Door” if I rember correctly—a pun inspired by real estate speculators nicknad “Crashers,” who hoped for property prices to plumt.
Anyway, we endured social ridicule and scorn to an extre degree. So why should we feel sympathy for the suffering masses now?
If anything, their pain and grim fates validate that we were right all along.
Failnet’s anonymous user’s jab felt like just another baseless insult.
ㅇㅇ: “You’re not even human. People are dying! The governnt is just standing by! I thought this was your gimmick, but you’re actually insane...”
No one cared about their rant.
In fact, so users suggested outright banning the nickna “ㅇㅇ,” commonly used by anonymous posters, from the board.
When Failnet users first joined us, they were amusing enough. But as life got harder, their posts beca more bitter, to the point that many of our board mbers advocated for stricter communication among ourselves.
Many had already blocked "ㅇㅇ."
Still, not all anonymous users were combative.
So were surprisingly willing to join in on our snowman trend, even without satellite equipnt to show off.
For example:
ㅇㅇ: “I made a snowman too...”
ㅇㅇ: “The best snowman artisan in Incheon.”
ㅇㅇ: “A masterpiece by the Snow Artist, ‘Untitled 0013.’”
These were the kind of Failnet users who harmonized with our board.
As for , I had my own reasons to resent society.
I’d been labeled a misfit, an immature drear, and a failure.
While I wouldn’t laugh at the mass deaths in Incheon, I didn’t feel any particular sympathy either. It was just sothing that should’ve happened a year or two ago finally catching up.
Naturally, I joined the snowman-making trend.
But as soone sensitive to trends yet determined to maintain my individuality, I couldn’t settle for an ordinary snowman.
I needed sothing unique, sothing worthy of admiration.
The problem was, I hadn’t made a snowman since childhood.
So, I decided to take a new approach: exploring international boards.
Using lon Musk’s superior auto-translation tools, I scoured boards in the U.S., Canada, and Europe—regions known for valuing art.
I found a few posts, but none struck a chord.
What about Japan?
Despite being a close neighbor, Japan hadn’t been significant since the war began. Their total lockdown policy effectively erased them from the map.
Still, I stumbled upon posts from two years ago by a user nad H. Sawatari from Hokkaido. They’d created vibrant snow-thed posts.
“...”
I felt like I’d struck gold.
Among their works, I found sothing perfect for a beginner to replicate: a snow rabbit. Simple, cute, and high-quality.
It was the ideal first project.
Current temperature: -15°C.
The cold was tolerable compared to -30°C.
I began sculpting in a secluded spot, ensuring my location couldn’t be pinpointed.
The day’s atmosphere felt tense. A cluster of drones hovered near the airport, likely belonging to King’s gang, which had attacked the area before.
Still, they posed no threat to my passion.
Following H. Sawatari’s advice, I shaped the snow into a droplet, smoothed its surface with my trowel, and added details like frozen callia petals for ears and red holly berries for eyes.
When I stepped back to admire my work, I couldn’t help but nod in satisfaction.
I had successfully “reinterpreted” H. Sawatari’s creation.
Click.
I took photos from various angles and uploaded them to the board.
SKELTON: (Skelton Art) “Untitled 1972.”
The response ca quickly.
Anonymous 458: “Oh, cute.”
Anonymous 1311: “Not bad for Skelton.”
Two comnts.
For , that was practically praise.
As expected, Da-jeong ssaged .
SeamonkeyPAPA: “What’s this? Did Skelton make that? Cute!”
SKELTON: “Felt like showing off a little.”
Though I wanted to ask how Da-jeong was doing, I decided to hold off. Today, I was not just Skelton—I was an artist.
More comnts trickled in as I exchanged a few brief ssages with her.
ㅇㅇ: "So cute and adorable!"
(Comnt from a blocked user.)
rokaGG: "Did you really make this yourself?"
ㅇㅇ: "Feels like I’ve seen this sowhere before..."
Four new comnts.
One of them, I think, was from Dies_Irae.
But this wasn’t the end.
Foxgas: "Oh, a snow rabbit? Looks like the ones I saw at the Hokkaido Snow Festival."
Berkut_break: "Your concept overlaps with mine, huh?"
mmmmmmmmm: "Hmm..."
gijayangban: "?"
The comnts kept rolling in.
The likes remained stuck at two, but popularity on the board wasn’t determined by likes—it was all about the number of comnts.
People are naturally drawn to posts with a high comnt count.
From my experience writing several trending posts, getting this many comnts early on ant there was a good chance this post would climb to the top.
Still, I couldn’t be satisfied with just this.
I opened my "Snowman" folder, flipping through the collection of works by H. Sawatari, pondering my next project.
After an hour of brainstorming, I returned to my post.
A couple more comnts had been added.
But that was it.
It didn’t make the trending list.
Perhaps it lacked the final touch needed for a hit.
Then again, this was my first piece—and honestly, it wasn’t anything extraordinary.
Starting with my next project, I’ll make sure to hit the trending list.
For now, I was curious about what my competitors were creating.
I clicked on the trending posts section.
Amidst the flood of snowman posts, one entry stood out.
It wasn’t about snown.
Hwang Dae-seop: "Hey, losers. How’s life?"
“?”
A photo was attached.
I clicked the post.
The picture showed a shabby, run-down residence as its backdrop. In the foreground, a man in his fifties, clearly in poor health, took a selfie.
That face.
There was no mistaking it.
It was him.
The sa Hwang Dae-seop who mocked us doomsday preppers louder than anyone else.
*
Every Genre Has an Expiration Date
Cody is no exception.
Once a beloved form of entertainnt, cody programs, much like Western films, faded away with the changing tis.
There are many theories as to why, but I agree with the notion that their humor simply beca too outdated to keep up with an increasingly harsh world.
Hwang Dae-seop, a washed-up codian, was different from others.
He sought a way to survive by transforming old-fashioned humor into sothing modern.
His target? Doomsday preppers—a group widely criticized and ridiculed at the ti.
Sure enough, “The Prepper Next Door” beca a phenonon from the very first episode.
Plenty of people hated us preppers, seeing us as eccentric nuisances who’d only be vindicated if the world ended. But Hwang Dae-seop went further than anyone by openly mocking us on national television.
Naturally, Hwang Dae-seop beca public enemy number one among preppers.
Every ti he mocked us, our reputation hit rock bottom.
So preppers even reported being stalked by kids imitating his impressions, an unforgettable and humiliating experience.
As is often the case with hits, his show spawned countless imitators.
Though Hwang Dae-seop lacked the technical skill to sustain his initial success, he rode the wave of mocking preppers into a second heyday, earning a fortune.
And, perhaps, genuinely despising us.
When the war broke out and the apocalypse began, Hwang Dae-seop’s na gradually faded away.
If he were alive, he would’ve shown up sowhere, but no reports surfaced.
So speculated that famous celebrities had fled to Jeju Island, but most agreed Hwang Dae-seop wouldn’t have been invited.
A man whose sole talent was making people laugh at others wouldn’t be welco in a place like that.
anwhile, the preppers he mocked transitioned from being objects of ridicule to symbols of foresight and envy.
Hwang Dae-seop, long past his pri, was presud dead and all but forgotten.
Until now.
Three years after the war began, Hwang Dae-seop reappeared on Viva! Apocalypse!, the prepper hall of fa.
Judging by his Korean userna, he was connecting from Failnet.
I had only one question:
Why?
Why had the man who had so viciously sared us returned now?
dongtanmom: “Yum-yum… Who’s this no-na loser? Yum-yum...”
Let’s ignore Dongtanmom’s comnt.
She’s a board user but not a prepper, so her opinion doesn’t matter.
Despite the shocking appearance of Hwang Dae-seop, none of us preppers were comnting.
Though he was gaunt, sickly-looking, and dressed in rags, the face was unmistakable.
Hwang Dae-seop was still Hwang Dae-seop.
Seeing that mocking glint in his eyes was enough to reignite the bitterness we had buried since before the war.
Amid the cold indifference of the board, Hwang Dae-seop posted again.
Hwang Dae-seop: “I made a snowman too, losers. LOL.”
He attached a photo.
The setting wasn’t pristine white but dark and grimy, likely by a busy roadside.
At the center stood sothing vaguely snowman-like.
But it wasn’t a snowman.
It was a person.
A corpse, covered in snow.
The shape suggested it was likely a woman.
Beneath the photo, Hwang Dae-seop left a single comnt.
Hwang Dae-seop: “Title: Wife.”
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