Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

"Nice to meet you. My name is Park Man-su."

Ballantine had officially joined our camp.

But if you asked whether he was fully a part of our team, the answer would be no.

Dies Irae, a master of group survivalism, once said that bringing someone into a group wasn't just about providing them shelter or assigning them a role.

He claimed that a person only truly became part of the group once they earned the trust of the other members.

He was right.

Having spent my entire life working in teams, I understood this well.

I had brought Ballantine in, but for him to truly become part of the team, he needed to be recognized by the other members—Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae.

Given the circumstances, it was only natural to ask what other skills he had besides networking.

"Before the war, I ran a PC café. After the war, I worked as a scavenger under Gu-hyung."

Ballantine joked that he had quite a talent for scavenging.

"Even now, I still think raiding that entire bank data center was the greatest achievement of my life. Another scavenger crew had gotten there before me, but what the fuck did they know? They only took the PCs—left all the truly valuable, irreplaceable stuff behind."

Ballantine’s skills were entirely focused on computers.

He had no expertise in agriculture, hunting, medicine, or chemistry—things essential for survival.

The only minor advantage he had was that he had served as a communications operator during his military service.

He knew how to operate and perform minor repairs on military radios.

Beyond that? Nothing special.

And as a combatant, he was barely worth considering.

If a battle broke out, the best we could do was hand him a gun, stick him somewhere that was easy to defend but not too important, and hope for the best.

After hearing Ballantine’s story, Ha Tae-hoon called us over.

"No matter how much computer knowledge he has, it’s not like we’re starting a fucking tech company. I mean, whatever—this was Park Hunter’s decision, so I won’t argue. But if we keep bringing in people like him, it’s gonna be a problem for us."

Ha Tae-hoon spoke where Ballantine couldn’t hear him.

And honestly, I couldn’t argue with him.

I agreed.

I had no choice but to bring Ballantine in because of personal reasons.

But as a leader, admitting that outright would make me look spineless, so I forced my brain to come up with some kind of justification.

"If we gain access to intelligence from Jeju, we could take a broader strategic approach..."

I was about to spout some total bullshit, when—

"Ah, is that it?!"

Cheon Young-jae's eyes lit up as he looked at me.

"?"

"Yeah, Park Seonbae. You’ve got big ambitions, don’t you?"

"Ambitions?"

"Out of all the people you could’ve picked, you chose a network expert. Doesn’t that smell fishy to you?"

Cheon Young-jae rubbed his nose and turned to Ha Tae-hoon.

Ha Tae-hoon tilted his head, confused.

I was just as lost.

There was no way Cheon Young-jae could read my mind—not even as an Awakened.

Then, with a knowing expression, Cheon Young-jae spoke.

"You recruited a network expert right after returning from Jeju. That’s not normal. That has to mean something, right?

I mean, Seonbae says it’s about gathering intel from Jeju, but come on. That alone doesn’t explain why he rushed to recruit this guy. Right, Ha Seonbae?"

Ha Tae-hoon furrowed his brows in thought.

"Now that you mention it... yeah. If it was just about gathering intel, he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to find a network expert this fast."

Both hunters turned to look at me.

"......"

I said nothing.

But the conversation kept flowing anyway.

"Park Seonbae saw firsthand just how rotten the Jeju government is, didn’t he?

So naturally, he must’ve thought to himself:

‘Shit. I can’t just let these fuckers do whatever they want.’

That’s why he came back ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) here with a plan."

"You think he brought in a network expert to prepare for a fight against the Jeju government?"

"Exactly. What other explanation is there?

This is Professor we’re talking about."

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Cheon Young-jae stared at me, his eyes narrowing with smug confidence.

"I know what you’re thinking, Park Seonbae."

"......Oh yeah? What do you think I’m thinking?"

There was no fucking way he knew.

There was no way he could’ve guessed that I had brought in Ballantine purely out of spite—to get revenge on the Red Archive forum for insulting and kicking me out.

If he figured that out, then he should be crowned King of this fucking place.

Because that would mean he can literally read minds.

Then, Cheon Young-jae spoke.

"Failnet."

What the fuck?

For a split second, I was genuinely confused.

"Failnet?"

"Yeah. You’re planning to make something like Failnet, aren’t you?

That guy even said in the truck that he was the last person maintaining Failnet."

I had never even thought about that.

But then, Ha Tae-hoon, nodding enthusiastically, jumped into the conversation.

"So that’s what it was."

The misunderstanding kept growing, but honestly, I didn’t see any need to correct them.

The bigger Ballantine’s role seemed, the more the other hunters would respect him.

Even if it was based on a total misunderstanding, it meant that Ballantine would be fully accepted into the team.

Because of this wild misconception, I even got to hear an outside perspective on John Nae-non—not from internet friends, but from real people.

"Why didn’t the guy who made Failnet ever get into politics?"

"Yeah, seriously. That dude—what was his name? John Lennon or something?"

I couldn’t hold back and interrupted.

"John Nae-non."

"Ah."

Ha Tae-hoon glanced at me before continuing.

"Yeah, whatever. John Nae-non. If that guy had gone full force against the Seoul government, history might’ve turned out completely different."

"I agree.

The president was gone, rumors were flying, the Seoul government was a headless husk.

If some superhuman had stepped up then, history would have changed.

I don’t know if it would’ve been for the better, but at the very least, Seoul might still be livable today."

To me, John Nae-non was my internet idol, my hero.

But to regular people, he was just a political force, someone who had public support and potential political power.

I guess it made sense.

Since Failnet had become the only public forum, it was only natural that the person who built it gained massive influence.

Would he have ever become Seoul’s leader?

That was a different question.

But he could have been the one to keep the Seoul government in check.

Either way, Ballantine’s recruitment was settled—even if it was based on completely different reasons than I intended.

Ha Tae-hoon and Cheon Young-jae genuinely welcomed him, accepting him as one of us.

But our business had only just begun.

*

"Yes. With an environment like this, I can work just fine."

As expected, Ballantine liked my base.

Especially the sturdy outer walls—they gave him a sense of security.

"When I glanced at it before, it didn’t seem all that secure.

It doesn’t look like you used any real professionals to set it up, either.

I might run into a few trial-and-error issues, but compared to hacking Viva! Apocalypse!, this should be a walk in the park."

Ballantine spoke with strong confidence.

And considering he wasn’t the type to talk big, it meant he was genuinely sure of it.

But something felt off.

If you could go to Jeju without Awakened abilities, that meant you were at the absolute top tier of your field.

So how could he claim that the security was weak?

I had to ask.

"Aren’t there any skilled people in Jeju?"

Ballantine responded without hesitation.

"There probably aren’t."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Because IT work has a high barrier to entry—you have to major in it.

But once you cross that hurdle, it becomes the perfect place to stick some big shot’s kid into a cushy job.

People on the outside wouldn’t notice, would they?"

"Well, yeah, that’s true."

"And it’s not like we’re talking about normal internet security.

We’re talking about a closed intranet.

I highly doubt the people handling that security got in based on merit.

Most likely, they had the right connections.

To be honest, the best way to stop an internet attack is to just unplug the LAN cable.

But in our case, you’ve already set up a way in, Skelton, so we actually have a shot."

"Call me Skelton."

"Sorry?"

"When it’s just us, call me Skelton."

"Ah... yes, of course..."

I gave Ballantine one of my decoy bunkers as his living quarters and workspace.

Naturally, I removed all the explosives from inside first.

While Ballantine and I cleaned and organized the bunker, I could hear the sounds of work coming from the outer walls, where Cheon Young-jae and Ha Tae-hoon were busy.

The constant noise of activity everywhere made it really feel like a community was taking shape.

With more people, we needed more resources.

For now, we could reuse the old toilets, but four people meant that a single water tank wasn’t enough for bathing.

At some point, Ha Tae-hoon and I would have to drill a new well to secure a stable groundwater source.

By the time we finished setting up Ballantine, the sun was setting.

Ballantine was working on connecting the internet satellite equipment.

"I’ll head back for today."

"Yeah, go ahead."

Ballantine stood up and bowed politely.

"Thank you for your help. I look forward to working with you."

"Oh, come on. It’s nothing. We all help each other out."

That’s not something I should be saying, though.

"By the way, Skelton... are you really planning to create a second Failnet?"

"......I don’t know."

"Huh? But earlier, the hunters said you brought me in to build one."

"Well... I’m considering it."

"Ah, I see.

I suppose making a second Failnet wouldn’t be easy, after all."

If I could, it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

But the process and cost of doing it in this kind of world were too steep.

As I left the bunker, Ballantine spoke.

"Ah. Dongtanmom posted something."

It wasn’t directed at me.

Just him muttering to himself.

But that one sentence had enough impact to stop me in my tracks.

"Dongtanmom?"

He had gone out to sea.

A legend—no, a myth.

This Skelton, aka TwelveSquare, had orchestrated a grand escape, set sail from Shanghai, and vanished into the open ocean just before his legendary live stream.

Dongtanmom, who clung to his mystique, had never revealed his destination.

But most assumed it was Jeju.

After all, that was his original goal.

And with major cities like Incheon and Seoul completely destroyed, there weren’t many places left to go.

Since then, Dongtanmom had gone silent.

Three days had passed with no updates.

Some on the forum theorized that he had faked his route to throw off Jeju’s pursuers.

Others believed he had become fish food.

But now, Dongtanmom had posted.

I could check through Ballantine’s computer, but news like this was best seen on my own.

So, I walked faster than usual toward my bunker.

"Where the hell are you rushing off to, Professor?

Bathroom?"

Ha Tae-hoon, wiping his face with a towel, asked casually.

I brushed off his question and headed inside.

Sitting at my laptop, I opened the forum and clicked on the top post under the trending tab.

There it was.

Dongtanmom’s post.

dongtanmom: nyam nyam... this is bad... nyam...

I clicked.

Autopilot’s broken. GPS is useless out at sea. Looks like the bastard who "helped" me get this boat to Jeju tampered with the system. I put all my faith in autopilot, but turns out the ship was going the wrong way the whole time. I’m off the coast of Okinawa. I only figured it out after picking up Japanese radio signals.

Every action carries risk.

Especially when it’s your first time doing something.

Dongtanmom was an elite hunter and a tough survivor—but at sea, he was just another clueless rookie.

He must have discovered the autopilot while repairing the ship’s controls and blindly trusted it.

Humans tend to trust machines without question—like drivers mindlessly following GPS directions before the war.

And now, he was paying the price.

Supplies are running low. There was a ton of loot in Shanghai, but if you saw my live stream, you know getting that loot was life or death. I couldn’t carry much. My crew is trying to fish, but it’s not easy.

We need a place to dock, even for a little while. Anyone got ideas? If we don’t figure something out today, fuel will become an issue too.

Come on, forum friends. I know I talk a lot of shit, but I put on a good show, right? Help us out—for my baby. But listen, I’m only taking advice from people who actually know about boats. If you don’t know shit, keep scrolling~

In the most Dongtanmom way possible, he was begging for help—but still managing to sound like an asshole.

Of course, the forum exploded.

Anonymous458: Don’t you even have a compass? How the fuck do you get lost on the way to Okinawa?

Anonymous1429: Just catch a whale. That should keep you alive for months.

berkut_break: Anyone else reminded of the Mig-Nonet incident?

Anonymous1392: If you go to Jeju, you’re fucked.

roka_GG: You chose the sea! Suck it up and survive!

Rkkara: Even his begging is fucking annoying.

...

...

I scrolled up and down.

Not a single useful response.

Because nobody knew shit about the ocean.

Neither did I.

Even Jang Ki-young, who taught me damn near everything, never bothered with boats.

It wasn’t his area of interest either.

Meanwhile, Dongtanmom—or rather, Baek Seonbae—was losing his mind.

dongtanmom: nyam nyam... I fucking knew it... useless pieces of shit... fucking parasites... not a single one of you is helpful when it actually matters... nyam...

Dongtanmom had snapped.