Everyone says it.
There’s no place better than your own ho.
M9 had a similar sentint.
But for anyone else to explore M9’s house, which far exceeded the ordinary slope one might expect from a human, it required an imnse amount of resolve.
“What are you doing? Skelton? Not coming in?”
M9 turned to look at from the corridor entrance.
“Oh, no. It’s fine. I was just thinking about it. I already had tea earlier.”
That wasn’t entirely true.
I hadn’t had tea today.
It was just that my instincts scread in warning, telling not to step any further into that dangerously tilted, slanted place.
“...”
M9’s ho was a four-dinsional labyrinth unlike anything I’d seen on a computer.
It wasn’t obvious where to step or where to hold on to move. A small mistake would send plumting to my death, and the place was filled with death traps.
Even I, who had overco a fear of heights through training, found it a perilous place.
Rustle—
After I mistakenly stepped and watched a stone fall into the abyss below, I froze in place.
“Hey. Skelton. What’s going on? You’re not coming in? Let’s have a cup of tea.”
M9, sensing my hesitation, grinned and waited for to enter.
But there was no need for to go.
I wasn’t here to uncover M9’s ecological history; I had only co as an observer.
“Hey. Skelton. Why aren’t you coming in? Are you already overwheld by my The Hope?”
“...”
“Well, nobody’s left here smiling after visiting my house. Just wait a bit. I’ll get the tea.”
As M9 excitedly stepped inside, a loud rumbling sound echoed from outside.
It sounded like a heavy building collapsing.
Such sounds weren’t unusual in this area, but I didn’t want to get caught up in M9’s pace, so I imdiately exited The Hope and returned to the rooftop.
“Phew.”
At least it was better outside.
Unlike M9’s twisted, spider-like maze of a ho, I could at least tell what was up and what was down out here.
As I leaned against the railing and spent so ti waiting, M9 brought out a steaming cup of tea.
“I never thought I’d et you like this.”
M9 and I sat side by side on the railing, looking out at the view.
The gray, desolate streets of the ruined city spread below, but there wasn’t a trace of worry on M9’s face.
“When I first ca here…”
M9 began, almost wistfully.
“This area used to be an object of envy.”
At that mont, I noticed M9 was holding a phone with the cara turned on.
I glanced at him and asked,
“What’s this? Are you filming?”
“Of course, it’s live! Apocalypse!”
“Live Apocalypse, huh…”
“Well, it’s been a while since I had a guest, so I’m going to make the most of it and use whatever I can for material.”
M9 grinned at .
“So, how have you been?”
“What do you an?”
“Is life worth living?”
“Worth living...?”
Was this another expression of the will to live I often emphasize?
I’m not sure.
I’ve never really felt a taste in continuing life.
What sustains is probably the fulfillnt and satisfaction of each day, the small joys that help get through.
“Not much to enjoy these days,” I said honestly, savoring M9’s tea.
M9 nodded.
“Yeah, the internet’s not as fun as it used to be. Fewer people, fewer things to talk about. lon Mask is trying to create sothing new, but it’s just a novelty for a while and always ends up feeling the sa. Yeah.”
M9 looked up.
“Everything’s so half-baked.”
Half-baked.
Maybe that’s the right way to describe all of us, abandoned in this waning era.
We can’t die easily, nor can we end it with grandeur.
Caught between these two extres, we wait for the world to wither and die with us. It’s a natural flow in this world, but...
At least M9 was fighting to break free from that flow.
“You’re going to take down monsters with artillery, huh?”
He asked while filming the streets of Seoul with his phone.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m here.”
“Well, let’s do it. Let’s make as many good shots as we can!”
He stood up.
There weren’t enough monsters yet to justify calling for artillery.
They were slowly forming groups from Hanam City, heading westward.
But dealing with them one by one wouldn’t be too bad.
I put on the special goggles linked to the GPS and focused on the riverside.
The red goggles synced with the GPS and imdiately displayed the coordinates in front of .
I transmitted the coordinates over the radio.
“Coordinates confird. Comncing artillery fire.”
I could hear the dry voice of the artillery unit over the radio, and soon after, there was a deafening sound of shells falling from the sky, followed by the destructive explosion hitting the exact spot I had targeted.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
With the thunderous explosion, several buildings collapsed, and dust billowed into the air. M9 couldn’t help but marvel.
“Impressive.”
South Korean artillery is world-class.
If our old-school hunters specialize in close combat, then the South Korean artillery is the queen of mid-to-long-range warfare.
The Air Force might play the role of a firefighter when needed, but only the artillery can consistently provide reliable fire support at the right ti and with precision.
“We’ll use artillery support to reduce the number of monsters heading toward Seoul.”
Today, we were only dealing with dium-sized monsters.
If we had more resources, I’d want to bombard all the monsters heading toward Seoul, but we didn’t have the strength to block an entire city like we did in the past.
“Coordinates confird. Comncing artillery fire.”
Since the war began, South Korea has steadily weakened, shrinking in size.
The military is no exception.
We can only expect what we can manage.
Thus began the dry, thodical battle.
We observed the enemy from the tilted apartnt, called out coordinates, and directed artillery fire.
The elite artillery unit of the legion responded instantly, erasing the slow-moving dium-sized monsters from existence.
As this scenario repeated several tis, M9 started to joke.
“What’s this? This is easier than I thought. These monsters are nothing.”
From a third-party perspective, it might seem that way.
But the only reason this was possible was because of the superior artillery, observation equipnt, and the stronghold of The Hope standing in the middle of enemy territory.
We had no way of knowing how many monsters and zombies were beneath us right now.
“Zombies? The number of them has gone down a lot, but they still roam at night. The sa goes for those strange monsters.”
Without a stronghold like The Hope, it would be impossible to sit in a safe spot and call out coordinates for artillery support.
M9’s "easy battle" continued late into the night.
We called out countless coordinates and eliminated countless monsters.
The fact that there were fewer monsters than expected helped maintain the stable situation.
I didn’t encounter the large monsters I had feared with intelligence, and the monster groups sent sporadically westward but didn’t engage in more coordinated actions.
Once, when we had a bit of free ti, I handed the equipnt to M9 and had him call out the coordinates.
“777! Heavy strike! Artillery fire!”
M9, excited, happily tested his new toy.
As the afternoon wore on, I felt an ominous shift coming from the east.
The fog along the Han River was thickening and approaching.
Underneath that fog, I saw the shadows of several monsters.
I asked Kim Daram about the situation in the western part of Seoul.
“How’s the situation over there?”
“Not good. They’re defending with an old tank, but there’s no end to it.”
To help her, M9 and I spent the night calling out coordinates and doing everything we could to block reinforcents heading toward Seoul.
Aside from a mont where I almost slipped off the railing due to fatigue, there were no major crises or surprises.
We found, killed, and bombarded the monsters.
It felt like just another day in the battlefields I had seen in China.
But this world is no longer forgiving.
I realized that truth after I said goodbye to M9 and returned to a certain part of Seoul.
*
"Good work, Senior."
Was it thanks to M9 and my efforts?
Despite the large monster groups approaching, civilian casualties were low, and the military suffered minimal losses.
While a large part of the credit went to M9 and for eliminating the threatening dium-sized monsters from a long distance, the contribution of the Legion faction soldiers and hunters also played a significant role.
Of course, the biggest reason was probably that the number of monsters that bypassed the Han River was much smaller than expected.
The real problem was what ca next.
When we were heading toward The Hope, I saw countless plus of white smoke rising from various places below the helicopter.
At that ti, when I saw the white smoke, I had a bad feeling.
It reminded of similar smoke and slls I had encountered back in China.
Back on the streets of Seoul, I saw it again.
The charred remains of buildings, burning with white smoke.
My gaze naturally turned to Kim Daram.
"Kim Daram."
I shifted my attention to the corpses.
"What is that? What’s going on?"
Kim Daram didn’t even look at the bodies as she responded.
"They're zombie corpses."
"Zombies? How are there so many?"
She sighed and glared at .
"Just think of them as zombies."
With a tired look, Kim Daram brushed past and returned to the barracks.
As expected of her, she hadn’t forgotten about the favor I’d asked earlier.
"You wanted sothing from , right? I’ll leave my deputy behind, so let know. If it’s sothing I can handle, I’ll take care of it."
After she disappeared, I looked back at the corpses.
A few soldiers and workers were moving the bodies onto carts, still unburned.
I knew exactly who these bodies belonged to.
The fanatics.
As soon as the monster invasion began, the Legion faction had detained the fanatics. While the battle raged on, they likely executed them using so form of gas for mass extermination.
I don’t bla their thods.
Fanatics are enemies of humanity.
If left unchecked, they would assist the monsters and bring even greater harm to us.
But seeing humans mass-executing other humans like this always darkens my heart.
It was the sa back in China.
When soldiers with emotionless faces killed people, burned their bodies, and discarded them, I couldn’t help but feel drowsy.
Seeing people who once lived, laughed, and talked, now forever asleep, dragged by others, burned, and crushed—it was too much for to bear, and it brought about an unbearable sense of apathy.
Now, this sa scene was being reenacted here in Korea.
Countless thoughts filled my mind, but I tried not to think about any of it.
Instead, I focused on the small connections and motivations that had brought here, trying to put them into action.
"Oh, Skelton! Thank you so much! Thanks to you, we’ve been able to send Da-jeong to a hospital in Chuncheon!"
Even seeing Defender’s bright face didn’t ease my heart.
"I’ll stop by with Da-jeong next ti!"
I saw him off with a smile, but the darkness around only grew deeper.
"…"
That day, the Legion faction’s radio broadcast relayed news of a successful defense of Seoul and the armistice agreent between China and Korea.
People were talking about Kim Byung-cheol’s leadership and the Legion faction’s strength, but my thoughts were entirely different.
Humans organizing to kill each other systematically.
This, too, was another on.
That this world is heading toward its destruction.
But there’s sothing salvaged from it.
"What? You think The Hope might collapse?"
It was when I was heading back to Seoul after finishing the operation.
I casually ntioned my thoughts about The Hope to M9.
There’s a 90% chance of it collapsing.
This isn’t just my opinion.
It’s the common consensus among everyone watching from afar.
Seeing M9’s strengths in this battle, I subtly suggested to him.
"If you have nowhere else to go, co by our neighborhood. We don’t have a tilted house, but there’s an empty one you can use."
I gave him the offer with the best of intentions, but M9 just smiled mockingly.
He looked at with a blunt expression and said,
"Co to think of it, you’re way more of a hunter than John Nae-non."
Surprised by the sudden complint, I looked at him, and M9 grinned and patted his building.
"Even if The Hope collapses, don’t worry too much."
M9 smiled as he lovingly patted his building.
"The place I’m at is the hope."
For a mont, I felt the tilt and weight of the building we were standing on once more.
And a thought crossed my mind.
Maybe hope is not so much straight as it is tilted.
The despair I’m seeing is probably not so different either.
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