"Hey, senior? What's up?"
Woo Min-hee sounded unusually cheerful.
"Good news?"
"Ah, soone posted sothing hilarious on the internet."
"The internet? How are you even accessing that these days? Aren’t all the cables cut?"
"There’s a way. The site I use has soone with the exact sa na as your personal identification number."
"SKELTON?"
"Yeah. At first, I thought they were just a bit odd, but wow, what’s with them? It’s like they’re fundantally twisted or sothing."
"Oh, I think I get it."
It’s you. It’s literally you.
Who has the right to call anyone weird at this point?
I humored her for a bit before steering the conversation to my real agenda.
"Anyway, are there any jobs in Incheon? Things are starting to feel risky here."
"You’re thinking of coming to Incheon?"
I hadn’t made any final decisions yet, but one thing was certain: my bunker was no longer a safe zone.
It was ti to consider alternatives.
What pushed the most was the change I saw in Woo Min-hee herself.
This junior of mine, who once radiated unapproachable madness, had sohow started resembling an actual person now that she was in her thirties.
Honestly, I never thought a year ago that we’d be casually chatting like this.
But on the flip side, others had changed too.
Who would’ve thought Kim Daram would turn out like this?
Once my best partner in cri, my "soulmate" in survival, she now had no qualms about selling out.
Sure, she’d always had a calculating streak, but the fact that it took her no ti at all to tip off Kim Pil-seong about my location was a shock.
"I just want to check it out for now."
I’d already chosen sides in the struggle between the Parliantary faction and the Legion faction.
I chose the Parliantary faction, which ant siding with Woo Min-hee.
"Well, I won’t stop you. After all, you helped resolve a big issue recently. But I’m not sure you’ll like the job. Things here are pretty saturated. And..."
No matter how much people change, their core nature rarely does.
Dealing with Woo Min-hee would still be exhausting in many ways.
"You’d have to co alone. Think you can make it here by yourself?"
"Not sending an armored vehicle to pick up?"
"I don’t need you enough to do that, do I?"
The way she already showed her true colors was telling.
Honestly, the fact that she even answered my call might just be because she was in a good mood.
"I’ll manage on my own."
"Alright, co to the lab when you arrive. I’ll let them know. You know where I am, right?"
"Y-yeah."
To be frank, dealing with Woo Min-hee would an swallowing a lot of unpleasantness.
But what choice did I have?
Survival makes you do things you’d rather not.
For now, I just wanted to see for myself.
What was life like in a city on the verge of collapse?
Could I, soone who’d lived a luxurious life in a well-equipped bunker until now, even adapt to such a place?
"Oh, and senior," Woo Min-hee added with a smirk.
"Have you ever borrowed money in the past?"
"Uh, yeah. A little, maybe?"
The most critical point of all:
"I lost it gambling," I said.
The fact that I’m a scamr? That secret is coming with to the grave.
*
Since I planned to leave my ho for an extended period, I inford my neighbors about my absence.
"What? You’re going to Incheon for a week?"
First, I contacted Defender.
"It might be longer."
"Why would you go to such a crowded place?"
"Well, I’m starting to consider moving. Things aren’t looking great here."
"You’ve been marked by the military, haven’t you?"
"Yeah, sothing like that. This place was good, but now it’s not anymore."
"Do you really need to move? It’s not like the Legion faction will send a million soldiers just to take you out, right? You’re not exactly a VIP."
At the ntion of VIPs, Defender’s sister jumped into the conversation.
"SKELTON is a VIP? Were you a VIP?!"
The hallmark of these siblings is how one gets excited, and the other follows suit.
"Su-seobang?!"
"No, nothing that grand. I’m just being overly cautious—call it paranoia."
"I get it. But, you know..."
Defender trailed off, his tone suddenly serious.
After a brief pause, he asked in a somber voice, "Can you even endure there?"
"It won’t be easy."
I said it casually, but honestly, I had no idea.
I’d slept in collapsing cities before, but only as a passing traveler. I’d never lived in one for any extended period.
But I had a vague sense that life in such a city would be more miserable, impoverished, and horrific than it appeared.
I simply didn’t see it because I didn’t want to.
Hadn’t the second Sunbi laid it bare for everyone to witness?
The fate of the abandoned.
For ordinary people, even a sudden cold snap could an death.
Food was another concern.
Even on our forum, posts about food shortages weren’t uncommon. How much worse must it be in the cities?
It’s been nearly a year since the release of Dog Feed Bars.
I have no idea how they’ve managed to keep feeding the millions still living in the city.
"Ah..."
I don’t know.
And I don’t want to think about it.
It feels like a problem I shouldn’t even start pondering.
After sharing my travel plans with Defender, I next contacted the Sniper and her daughter.
"SKELTON? Can we use your house while you’re away?"
As expected, the Sniper and Rebecca must be struggling quite a bit.
Rebecca’s shaless personality aside, the fact that she imdiately suggested living in soone else’s house as soon as I vacated it spoke volus about how dire their situation was.
Still, my answer was clear.
"Ah, no."
I rejected the idea outright.
"Why not?"
"It’s dangerous here. You saw the helicopters and fighter jets."
"Oh."
"Are things tough for you these days?"
"Really tough."
"Well... let’s revisit this after I co back."
Just as I was about to end the conversation, I heard Suw push Rebecca aside.
"SKELTON!"
"Yeah?"
"We’re fine. We can hold out longer."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Just bring back sothing juicy when you return."
"Sothing juicy, huh?"
Suw, that little fox.
Could it be she knows?
That her request would tug at my heartstrings?
If she did, she might be a natural scher, unlike her clueless mother.
No... there’s no way.
Whether Seoul or Incheon, the distance is about the sa for .
For transportation, I chose my bicycle for the first ti in a while.
I prepared light travel gear: a Chinese-made rifle, a pistol, a hatchet, so food, venison sausages for bartering, and alcohol and cigarettes for trade.
I was out of cigarettes, but Defender and I had split what we’d taken from Kim Pil-seong’s gang.
As for armor, I debated taking a bulletproof vest but decided against it due to the season. Instead, I opted to keep my stamina and condition as good as possible—a choice I’ve found more effective overall.
As usual, I waited for nightfall and slipped away under the cover of darkness, navigating familiar paths.
For a long ti, my territory had been largely unoccupied.
With the Chinese military presence and the fallout from nuclear strikes, rumors spread that even the governnt had abandoned the area.
It was true that the western regions were deliberately neglected as part of so strategy.
But now, two and a half years into the war, people had started settling here again.
These were pioneers.
So of the pioneers who had survived last winter had ford small communities in the hills, ridges, and abandoned apartnts.
Their behavior hovered between civilians and raiders.
Usually, they acted amicably, but if they saw soone weaker and had a need, they’d inevitably turn into raiders, taking whatever they could.
The safest strategy was to avoid human contact until I reached areas with maintained order.
Along the way, I spotted at least three pioneer camps.
One was a small camp with about four or five people, while the others had groups of at least twenty, all ard with guns and standing watch at night.
Since their camps were close to the road, I had to detour across a stream.
Thankfully, the season made crossing the water relatively easy.
Once I crossed the stream, the partially destroyed city that used to be Siheung ca into view.
From here on, it was under the jurisdiction of the Incheon governnt.
On the scorched earth devastated by Chinese naval bombardnts and nuclear strikes, refugee camps had sprung up. Under military supervision, they had established a system of basic agriculture and minimal industrial production.
As I approached the city, soldiers guarding the area ca into view.
Following Woo Min-hee’s instructions, I ntioned her na and my own.
"Please wait a mont."
One thing was clear as I entered this governnt-controlled area.
The soldiers were using mobile phones.
The signal was working.
Curious, I took out my own phone.
Sure enough, it showed a signal.
While waiting for the higher-ups’ orders, I approached one of the soldiers, handed him a cigarette, and casually asked, "Do phones work well here?"
"Pretty well."
"It feels like the reception is better here than in Seoul."
"That’s right. Fewer people and less land an stronger networks. Plus, we’ve expanded the infrastructure."
"Really?"
"In a world where strange things pop up everywhere, isn’t it better to have everyone carrying a phone and acting as an information source? Add to that the governnt providing sites like Failnet, and it’s a win-win."
This soldier seed under the impression that Failnet was a governnt creation.
I didn’t bother correcting him. Who would believe that such a monuntal site was built by one man’s obsession?
Soon, the higher-ups sent their orders.
"Leave your bicycle here. You’ll be escorted by Jeep."
The soldier smiled as he delivered the ssage.
Relieved, I no longer had to endure the envious, greedy stares of others while riding my bike.
The Jeep took straight to the research lab.
By the ti we arrived at the port, the salty sea breeze greeted , and it was already late at night.
A staff mber on duty assigned a room connected to the lab.
The room had a bunk bed, but no one else was there.
I lay down, waiting for morning to co.
When the sun rose, I began my day.
For the first ti in a while, I showered in soone else’s facility.
The lab had excellent shower facilities, allowing to clean up thoroughly.
For so reason, they even had baby powder, so I used it generously.
It wasn’t sothing I had in my own supplies, so I relished the fresh, soft feeling.
While I rested in my room, one of Woo Min-hee’s subordinates ca to find .
This ti, it was a different man from the one who’d guided before.
"I’m sorry, but Director Woo is currently out."
Dressed in a white lab coat and looking unassuming, the man seed unable to make eye contact as he relayed Woo Min-hee’s ssage.
"The Director ntioned you were a forr hunter. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"She suggested freelance hunting. I was just about to guide you to the freelance hunter accommodations."
"Freelance hunter accommodations?"
"Ah, yes. You see..."
For the first ti, he made eye contact with as he explained.
"Originally, there weren’t any welfare provisions for freelance hunters. But since the Legion faction has been recruiting them aggressively, the governnt hastily implented support asures."
"I see. What kind of work does a freelance hunter do?"
Though I already knew, I asked out of courtesy.
Freelance hunters were essentially problem-solvers.
They handled issues in remote areas where governnt intervention was too costly and inefficient.
Their main targets were usually mutations, not monsters.
Before the civil war, freelance hunters had operated sowhat effectively in the shadows. Mutations appeared unpredictably, and deploying the military for every instance was far too expensive.
However, the treatnt of freelance hunters had never been favorable.
Just look at Baek Seung-hyun.
Once an A-rank hunter by old-world standards, he now fraternized with the likes of pioneer scum.
The freelance hunter accommodations were located behind the research lab.
Between the red-brick lab and the densely packed port warehouses was a narrow alley.
That alley housed the freelance hunters.
A handwritten sign on a white wooden board marked the entrance:
Hunter Street.
"B-23. That’s where you’ll be staying," the staff mber said, stopping at the alley’s entrance.
He clearly didn’t want to go in.
After assuring him I could manage on my own, I ventured into the alley.
In the shadows, I saw people sitting by the roadside.
Old n playing chess, elderly won hanging laundry, children fiddling with phones.
They seed ordinary.
Surprisingly so.
I’d expected a den of old-world hunters, filled with hostility.
Then again, maybe I’d run into soone who recognized .
"Ah?"
In front of a makeshift building marked A-13, a man greeted with surprise.
"You’re here?"
It was Baek Seung-hyun.
Holding a baby in his arms—a baby that looked just like him—he stared at with a stunned expression.
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