“Here? Eh, it’s alright.”
It had been a while since I last contacted Ha Tae-hoon.
I had wanted to reach out earlier, but injuries on my end and poor comms on his pushed things back.
“The U.S. soldier and his daughter are doing fine. Really makes you think—people need a bit of distance to get along.”
Despite being one of the Hunters who took down a Nesis-type, Ha Tae-hoon didn’t stick around to bask in the glory. He returned to my sector.
There was only one reason.
To bring back his wife.
That’s right.
Ha Tae-hoon is leaving my territory too.
Well, he’s now rightfully listed among the first to defeat a Nesis-type, and although there’s still internal noise, he’s working under a governnt-backed organization that manages a city. No real reason to hole up in a shelter anymore.
He could have left already, but he’s stayed for now—probably to get things in order.
I don’t know what takes over a month to prepare, but I’m sure he has his reasons.
And thanks to that, I got to catch up on how things are going in my zone.
“Not bad. But lately, the U.S. base’s been kinda busy, you know?”
“The U.S. base?”
“The Aricans arrived.”
So, they ca after all.
I figured they would, but I didn’t think it’d be this fast.
They must be in a hurry too.
“Looks like it’s just the advance unit for now. From the looks of it, they’re scoping the place out for base refurbishnt.”
“Yeah?”
Not the best news.
My territory’s biggest advantage is that it’s quiet and sparsely populated, but with the U.S. military arriving, it’ll get noisy. Moving freely like before will beco difficult.
The roads we use will likely fall under their control.
And having a heavily ard group next door isn’t exactly comforting.
We could try establishing a friendly relationship and request protection, but those things usually end with one side bowing to the other.
As the demands grow and the ddling gets worse, a choice always has to be made.
“Why? Not happy about it?”
“It’s not that I hate it, it’s just... yeah. Anyway, how’s your wife?”
“Us? Sa old. Though I’ve been a bit tired lately.”
“Sounds like things are just peachy. I’m hanging up.”
I hung up and sat for a mont, replaying the conversation with Ha Tae-hoon.
“Hm...”
People’s attitudes really do change between when they need sothing and when they don’t.
Back before we defeated the Nesis-type, U.S. military support was considered a precious resource even when the city was on the brink of falling. Now that the Nesis threat is gone, the Aricans are just a nuisance—for and for the governnt.
Especially if they settle right next door?
Definitely bad news.
The U.S. military in general are good folks.
They’re allies, after all.
But there’s a huge difference between “the U.S. military” as a whole and an individual soldier.
Let’s say our neighbor is U.S. soldier A—let’s call him Thomas.
Thomas, suffering from hosickness, might start drinking and fire a shot at us in a drunken stupor.
Or maybe, sexually frustrated after a long drought, he sees Ha Tae-hoon’s wife and crosses into our territory with ill intentions.
Or maybe Thomas just wants our shelter, or just doesn’t like our faces, and starts planning to wipe us out.
What if we’re driving our truck as usual and get hit with a Javelin or Claymore?
Or they launch a night raid using elite troops equipped with night vision?
Sure, all this is just speculation.
But in the real world, most victims are attacked by soone close.
Just the fact that it’s possible is enough to reevaluate everything.
In a world where 0 feels more normal than 1, “possible” is more than enough reason.
“Yeong-jae.”
Cheon Yeong-jae had been showing up at my office every day recently.
Maybe because he missed out on the last battle due to injury—he was now working like a full-blown workaholic.
Smart and competent to begin with, his reputation was visibly improving now that he was properly focused.
“Hey.”
Cheon Yeong-jae owns a shelter.
One used by his father.
“About your dad’s shelter—no one’s using it right now, right?”
“Why bring that up?”
“...Well. I was thinking, if I ever decide to leave here, settling down there might not be such a bad idea.”
The shelter itself is well-constructed.
The issue is its surroundings.
It’s deep in the mountains, heavily camouflaged, so it’s unlikely to be raided. But that also ans resources are scarce.
Unless you have a complete self-sufficiency setup, you’ll have to endure extre hardship.
As proven by the fact that Cheon Yeong-jae’s family starved to death there.
Fully isolated zones have drastically lower survival rates compared to those with so external access.
Because they lack flexibility.
And by flexibility, I an the ability to interact with other humans.
“If you want to use it, go ahead.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ve got no plans to use it or go back there. I already cleared out the corpse sll, so just bring your stuff and you should be fine.”
“Got it.”
“But seriously, why bring up the shelter all of a sudden?”
Cheon Yeong-jae looked at silently.
“You’re not seriously thinking about going back to shelter life, are you?”
His expression said he couldn’t understand it.
And honestly, that made sense.
We’re no longer in the days where old-school Hunters like us were treated as expendable parts. We’re now respected as equals to the Awakened.
Just look at Ha Tae-hoon—he’s moving to the city.
Shelters might offer more freedom and privacy, but one wrong step there and it’s over.
One mistake, one slip, or even sheer bad luck, and everything could vanish.
He has a family to protect, so heading to the city is clearly the safer move.
Still... what’s he been doing for over a month?
Cheon Yeong-jae staring at like I’m nuts is probably for the sa reason.
“Senpai... are you really going to leave?”
He asked seriously.
I paused to think.
“I might.”
Even I could see that my current position was solid.
For security reasons, I’m denying being Park Gyu, but anyone who matters knows I’m the one who beat the Nesis-type. Even the arrogant Awakened from Jeju acknowledges that.
I don’t have any specific duties right now, but I’m treated like a respected elder.
So yeah, I get why Cheon Yeong-jae doesn’t understand why I’d want to leave.
But whether I stay or go remains to be seen.
After the Nesis was defeated, the Jeju governnt naturally took over New Seoul.
It was inevitable.
Even though New Seoul held animosity toward Jeju, they were technically part of the sa organization—New Seoul’s administration was practically a subsidiary of Jeju’s.
People were exhausted from endless battles, and the shortage of troops and supplies was dire.
Even if the monster was dead, the Legion faction was still a threat, and the cultists hadn’t disappeared.
Most of all, running a city with hundreds of thousands of people requires a functioning administration.
So New Seoul had no choice but to accept Jeju’s rule.
The biggest reason, however, was Woo Min-hee.
Right after the battle, she called Kang Han-min and transferred all authority to him.
People criticized her, calling her a Jeju spy or saying she’d capitulated in humiliation. But that’s only half the story.
The city was already at its limit.
Her decision was the only way to prevent it from completely collapsing.
The real problem is what cos next.
Factional battles between Jeju people and the original officials, conflicts between those who arrived and those who stayed, resentnt between Legion defectors and regular troops...
Whenever people gather, politics inevitably follows.
And that politics is starting to irritate .
People are constantly trying to recruit .
“By the way, soone else ca by earlier.”
“What for?”
“What do you think? Campaign support.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I turned them down flat. Figured you’d say no.”
“Good.”
I’m equally annoyed by all the political leeches and the Jeju committee’s underhanded attempts to sideline .
They recognize my unprecedented achievent, but clearly don’t want to hold real power.
Fine by .
There’s only one thing I’m watching now.
Kang Han-min.
We had a long talk, but I still don’t know exactly what he’s planning.
One thing’s for sure—he’s planning sothing. And I intend to see it with my own eyes.
If needed, I’ll help.
That’s the only reason I’m still in this city.
If that reason disappears, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) I’ll leave.
There’ll be no reason to stay.
Because if Kang Han-min fails, all that’s left for us... is ruin.
“...”
Click.
A ssage arrived.
From “Anonymous68”: Let’s work well together from now on! Aniki!
Not surprising—turns out Kang Han-min was a Viva! Apocalypse! user too.
We exchanged usernas.
Probably the only real takeaway from that conversation.
He doesn’t use it often.
Just look at his room—there’s not even a spot to plug in a LAN cable, let alone a laptop.
Says he only uses it once in a while. But still—that’s sothing.
At any rate, Kang Han-min is now one of the few people who can ssage the legendary “SKELTON.”
“By the way, senpai. Are you never going to write posts with the SKELTON account again?”
Cheon Yeong-jae asked while fiddling with his phone.
“...Wouldn’t be easy.”
Not just empty words.
I get what Jon Naenon must’ve felt.
To hold godlike fa and power, yet not be able to say a single word on the internet.
The weight of “SKELTON” is obvious even if you just search the na.
Deceased3411: SKELTON, oh my god!
Anon1521: Where did SKELTON go...? Haven’t seen them in like two months.
Deceased1882: Hey Korean friends. Any news on SKELTON? Been almost two months, right?
Anon2131: I think I saw SKELTON posts before, but now nothing. Were they all deleted?
Deceased28113: Has SKELTON turned into a constellation like Hercules?
Deceased88921: Co back, SKELTON...
...
Everyone’s looking for SKELTON.
He’s gone from living legend... to religion.
And with that kind of weight, I can’t just go back to posting dumb s and friendly banter.
In hindsight, VivaBot was right.
Internet fa needs moderation.
Get too famous, and you can’t post anything.
They say if you’re famous enough, even your sh*t gets applause—but that’s only half the truth.
Get too famous, and you can’t even take a dump in peace.
“Yeah, makes sense. Being that famous, even posting would feel weird.”
“Well, it is what it is.”
I sighed, scrolling in silence like soone nursing a toothache.
“By the way, sothing weird’s going around lately.”
“Weird?”
“Have you heard of sothing called chatCPT?”
“What’s that?”
“So AI chatbot thing made before the war. Thought it was lost, but soone restored the data and rebooted it.”
“So what about it?”
“Well, since SKELTON disappeared and all their posts were deleted, people are trying to use chatCPT to dig up info about you.”
“Really?”
AI, huh.
Yeah, that was all the rage for a while.
Right around when they started replacing humans, the war broke out and everything was blown to hell.
Well, I’ve got so free ti—might as well ask the AI about myself for fun.
[Welco to chatCPT.]
So this is the AI?
They say if you type like you’re chatting, it’ll give answers based on deep learning and accumulated data.
Seeing is believing.
Let’s try.
SKELTON: Who is the Korean forum user SKELTON?
chatCPT:
SKELTON is a well-known user on the Viva! Apocalypse! Korean board.
He is categorized as an “interactive” user who leaves more comnts than original posts.
Interactive users tend to show greater interest in others and are considered to have more emotional maturity.
He beca internationally famous for defeating powerful monsters one-on-one in Live! Apocalypse!
Since then, he has not been seen, leading to global concern among users.
...
“How is it?”
“Not bad.”
Objective, cold—very AI-like analysis.
Makes sense from a third-party perspective.
But the AI had more to say.
chatCPT: Would you also like to view SKELTON’s internet activity?
Why not?
SKELTON: Sure.
chatCPT:
SKELTON’s post history was deleted for unknown reasons, but based on remaining data:
Frequently comnted on trending posts.
On non-trending posts, he often comnted on adult content (including porn), stories, and bunker bragging threads.
His own posts usually included rants, stories, beatboxing, and cody—most didn’t get many replies.
Additionally, SKELTON had a poor relationship with users like “dongtanmom” and “mmmmmmmm,” often writing defamatory posts...
I stopped reading.
There were even ntions of SKELTON’s sexual preferences. No way I’m reading that sober.
“What the hell is this?”
I turned to Cheon Yeong-jae.
“What do you an what is it? It’s an AI.”
“What the hell does a dumb tin can know about judging people?”
Nope. I’m reporting this to VivaBot.
While I was typing out a ssage to VivaBot—
Cheon Yeong-jae’s startled voice cut in.
“Uh, senpai.”
“What?”
“This is bad.”
“What is?”
He showed his phone.
A governnt news feed.
The mont I saw it, my eyelid twitched.
“...This is—”
Woo Min-hee is in danger.
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