Two years and eight months had passed since the war began.
The world had entered a numb, desensitized phase where nothing seed surprising anymore.
After nearly three years of witnessing countless atrocities and bizarre occurrences, we forum users had grown indifferent to most things. It was to the point where the days when everyone was horrified by Defender’s murder confessions now felt like cody.
But the resurrection of one man was enough to jolt the entire forum back to its sharp, hyper-aware state of the past.
MMMMMMMMM: Hello?
MMMMMMMMM: You bastards? ^^
M9 had returned.
And not just as m9, but as MMMMMMMMM.
Was this so kind of upgrade?
In any case, no one could deny that the sole resident of The Hope, m9, was extraordinary in more ways than one.
His terrifying survival abilities had been proven ti and ti again through an impressive array of photographs, centing him as the ultimate survivor of the era.
I still vividly rember the image of him living in a tilted house, secured by a rope tied around his waist.
Even when news broke of martial law being declared in Incheon, protestors killing soldiers, and soldiers killing civilians, our forum users barely reacted. But the reappearance of an old friend had everyone, quite literally, leaping to their feet.
Anonymous458: No way. Who the hell is this?
Anonymous848: How the f*** is he alive? Wasn’t everyone in Seoul wiped out?
roka3218: Is this really M9?
ㅇㅇ: Who the hell is this guy? Can soone explain?
Defender: Yo, are you so kind of immortal?
ㅇㅇ: Is he one of your so-called legends?
iamjesus: Om mani pad hum.
keystone: This guy deserves genuine respect.
SKELTON: (Skelton gasps) ?!
To sum it up, m9—no, the reborn M9—was indeed the person we knew: the last official resident of Korea’s final mixed-use residential complex, The Hope.
A man who embodied a rich mixture of intense inferiority complex, relentless patience while biding his ti, and unabashed vulgarity unleashed when the opportunity arose.
The return of M9, a living embodint of crude capitalism incarnate, symbolized an era in itself.
And despite his crassness, his presence carried with it the weight of the tis.
*
It had been two years and eight months since the war began.
The era had reached a point where nothing seed surprising anymore.
After nearly three years of witnessing countless atrocities and bizarre events, we forum users had beco desensitized to almost everything. It was hard to believe there was a ti when everyone was shocked by Defender's murder confessions—those days now felt almost codic.
But one man's resurrection was enough to send the entire forum spiraling back to its earlier, sharper days.
The parliantary governnt had made the worst possible misstep.
Everyone knew it.
They had forced an election during a ti when they absolutely shouldn’t have, and the price was steep.
The silent, patient citizens finally rose up, and Incheon descended into chaos.
However, the turmoil didn’t last long.
Both the citizens and the governnt were well aware that the current state of Korea was dire.
Representatives of the citizens and the governnt ca to an agreent.
The deal included the indefinite postponent of elections, the resignation of incumbent mbers of parliant, securing support from the Jeju governnt, guarantees of safety, and access to essential resources like food and other survival necessities.
The citizens’ demands were fully t.
The protests subsided, and once again, the citizens chose patience.
But the discontent wasn’t entirely resolved.
So citizens demanded to know who exactly was representing this governnt they were negotiating with.
One post on PaleNet bluntly laid bare the current issue:
ㅇㅇ: Who the hell are these “governnt representatives”? Why do they keep changing? Why do we keep getting all these new organizations we know nothing about? Who’s really pulling the strings behind the scenes? The leftover parliant? The military? Or those traitors who ran off to Jeju?
It was true—this new governnt made it hard to discern who was in charge.
Ever since the president had fled with senior governnt officials, most key positions were left vacant. Parliant had taken on the role of the executive branch, resulting in a strange, makeshift system.
It was clearly dysfunctional, but no one had the ti to care.
Between civil war and monster invasions, there were more pressing concerns.
The questioning didn’t last long, though.
A bigger topic soon overshadowed the protests.
That topic was none other than the carrot the Seoul-Incheon governnt had been dangling to pacify the people for so long.
The Jeju evacuation fleet was finally about to depart.
The tiline had been announced before the elections, but in a new update, the schedule was moved forward by an entire month.
As an act of apology to the citizens, the governnt, military, and parliant pooled all their resources to release additional seats.
Over 2,000 new spots were made available.
gijayangban: A view of the national housing complex being built for the Jeju evacuation fleet.jpg
The photo uploaded to PaleNet showed a sprawling landscape of container-style housing lined up in perfect rows against the backdrop of the majestic Hallasan Mountain.
The container hos looked crude but at least thousands of tis sturdier than The Hope—not in terms of materials, but feasibility.
The governnt continued its efforts to appease the citizens.
They announced new policies through official gazettes, posters, street broadcasts, and even direct posts on PaleNet.
Korean Governnt: Post-Apocalypse (P.A.) Plan for the Future of Korea.
According to the P.A. Plan, the governnt intended to sequentially relocate the population concentrated in Incheon to Jeju.
Afterward, they promised job placents based on prior professions and skills, fair compensation for labor, and the rebuilding of the national economy.
To support this, the plan proposed advanced agricultural thods for Jeju’s barren land, the resumption of trade with surviving nations, the establishnt of regional networks, and, ultimately, the reclamation of Seoul and other unrecaptured territories.
People were skeptical.
They had heard empty promises before—countless tis.
But this ti, sothing felt different.
Perhaps it was the atmosphere, the montum, or the flow of events.
Nothing symbolized this shift more than the sudden appearance of the president.
The president, who had long fled to Jeju, finally showed his face on the governnt’s installed billboards:
"Citizens of Korea! The long war is finally over! In Taipei, Taiwan, a ceasefire agreent has been signed between China and Free China. The agreent includes a comprehensive armistice among all warring parties, which ans that our country, as one of the involved parties, is now free from the threat of war. Soon, international trade will resu..."
The sudden reappearance of the president, who had vanished since the start of the war, was striking.
But it also raised questions.
ㅇㅇ: Is this deepfake? Sothing feels off.
ㅇㅇ: The voice sounds synthetic. Isn’t that guy dead?
ㅇㅇ: It’s probably a stand-in.
At one point, there had been a popular conspiracy theory on PaleNet that the president was dead.
There were many versions:
One theory suggested a council mber assassinated the president after he opposed evacuating hunters to Jeju.
Another claid the president fled to Jeju only to be killed in an argunt with a senior council mber.
Yet another theorized the president’s plane crashed en route to Jeju.
Regardless of the specifics, most PaleNet users and Seoul citizens believed the president was dead.
After all, if a president infamous for loving interviews disappeared for years, it wasn’t far-fetched to think he was no longer alive.
And yet, the president—whatever his true nature—returned, just like M9, bearing gifts for the despairing citizens.
“On behalf of our social leaders, I extend my apologies to the citizens of the capital region for your endurance and patience. To show our sincerity, so of our top officials have decided to relinquish their official residences and facilities to select mbers of the evacuation fleet through a lottery.”
The Jeju governnt announced a plan to reallocate official residences and governnt facilities, including luxurious hos with pre-war standards of opulence, to lucky citizens through a lottery.
The resemblance to the Hope Lottery debacle was uncanny.
The governnt once again garnered overwhelming public interest and redirected attention toward the lottery.
And, unsurprisingly, M9 once again struck gold.
MMMMMMMMM: Presidential Residence Winning Certificate.JPG
This was the true reason M9 had broken his long silence and returned to us.
Of course, the forum exploded again.
roka_hun: Wow…
Dolsingnam: I’m kinda jealous, honestly.
gijayangban: Wait, you an the Type 1 residence? The 238㎡ one?
ㅇㅇ: Isn’t this the bastard who lived in that tilted apartnt?
iamjesus: Are you f***ing serious?
keystone: Hey, take with you! I can cook. I’m a chef, I swear!
Defender: Am I the only one who rembers the “엄창이” incident?
unicorn18: Bro, take too. I’m a pretty boy.
Dies_irae69: Patience pays off.
SKELTON: Hmm… is it really that great?
From a tilted apartnt to the presidential residence.
Well, technically, as gijayangban pointed out, it wasn’t the actual presidential residence but the largest and most spacious Type 1 residence designated for high-ranking officials.
Still, it was M9’s new ho.
“…”
At first, I didn’t feel anything.
That changed after I returned from sowing seeds behind the bunker.
A ssage awaited .
ssage from MMMMMMMMM: Hmm... Is this the best you can do? LOL
"?"
ssage from MMMMMMMMM: Well, enjoy rotting in your damp bunker ^^ I’m off to Jeju, to the sunny presidential residence! Off to eat so tangerines, baby!!!
“…”
I unwrapped the bandages on my leg and disinfected the wound.
“Ouch.”
It stung a little.
The wound had gotten worse from picking at it while removing shrapnel. A classic amateur mistake.
After re-disinfecting and wrapping the bandage, I sat in front of the computer, cleared my mind, and began typing.
SKELTON: (Skelton Analysis) The Dangers of the Jeju Evacuation Fleet.txt
Jeju is small and has low arable land.
This ans there’s not enough food.
Despite China’s fall, naval remnants, especially submarines, still roam the seas.
A large fleet is an easy target for submarines.
The Jeju governnt is unlikely to fulfill its promises.
There’s a chance the fleet won’t even be allowed to dock.
Jeju is run by council mbers who favor only the Awakened. Regular people have no chance.
The odds of being accepted are virtually zero.
After spending a good 15 minutes writing, I uploaded my analysis.
But the response was underwhelming.
Even the clever quip about “elders” in point 8 didn’t garner any comnts or likes.
My carefully crafted post was soon buried under an avalanche of low-effort posts and spam from other users and newcors.
Was this the fate of my work?
No—soone finally comnted.
With a hopeful heart, I clicked.
MMMMMMMMM: LOL
“Ha.”
Fine. That much was expected.
It was, after all, a veiled critique directed at him.
But M9 wasn’t satisfied with just that.
He went further.
MMMMMMMMM: (M9 Video) M9’s Beatboxing (1)
“?!”
This was unmistakably an attack.
M9 was taking shots at , Skelton!
As if on cue, my communicator buzzed.
“Hey, Skelton, are you watching this?”
“Hahaha! This is hilarious!”
It was the Defender siblings.
“What the hell did you do to M9 to make him hate you so much?”
I recounted the story of how I had uncovered the truth about The Hope through a mutual contact and had shared it with M9 out of goodwill. But instead of gratitude, he had twisted my intentions into malice, resulting in our feud.
Clearly, M9 was the one in the wrong.
But Defender didn’t see it that way.
“From M9’s perspective, you might’ve been more annoying.”
“What?”
“Ever heard the saying, ‘The ddleso sister-in-law is worse than the nagging mother-in-law’?”
“Sister-in-law? Bernoulli?”
“That’s why you’re getting roasted.”
“?”
I was at a loss for words, utterly dumbfounded, when Dajeong suddenly spoke up.
"Hey, Skelton, check the forum. M9 is picking a fight with you again!"
Sure enough, M9 had posted yet another new thread.
MMMMMMMMM: (M9 Poll) Who’s better at beatboxing: or Skelton?
Of all the things, M9, that human piece of garbage…
If there’s one thing he never fails at, it’s making his presence felt, even from that tilted house of his.
When John Nae-non hacked the Viva! Apocalypse! network, it weakened its security. This allowed access to our forum's backend tools, which our resident hacker FoxGa used to add so new features—one of them being a polling function.
While it was mainly used for trivial purposes, like deciding als for forum users or Unicorn18's 2D female character popularity polls, M9 clearly saw it as the perfect opportunity to turn the forum into his personal battlefield against .
Anyway, M9 was now enjoying what could only be described as his second heyday.
The voting results below made it painfully clear who had the upper hand.
M9 is better (22 votes, 88%)
Skelton is better (3 votes, 12%)
"…No, this doesn’t feel right," I muttered, staring at the screen in disbelief.
"Skelton!"
Dajeong’s voice suddenly turned serious.
"Let’s turn this into an opportunity."
"An opportunity?"
"I’ll beco Skelton."
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