Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 111.3: The Cold Coffin (3)

“Well...”

How could I possibly understand the thoughts of this cold-blooded person?

Still, since they’re curious about my thoughts, I should at least answer.

As I briefly gather my words, innocent children walk past us.

A boy stares at the corpse with vacant eyes, but a girl tugs at his ear and drags him away in another direction.

“Children are nice.”

Dies_Irae grins as she watches the children leave.

“Where there are children, the group looks peaceful. The same goes for a happy couple. These things act as buffers, making the place seem like a good place to live.”

“Are you saying they’re just decorations?”

I asked, watching the children getting farther away.

“That’s not it. They serve a purpose.”

Dies_Irae shakes her head.

“Even animals find their own enclosures. Humans are the same, aren’t they? People with nowhere to go are fine anywhere, but there are sometimes decent folks. The ones with decent skills, clear thoughts, and firm resolve. To those kinds of people, would they rather be in a garbage heap of drugged-up, live-for-today human scum? Or would they prefer a community with happy families?”

“The latter, I suppose.”

I answered briefly and looked back at the corpse.

“What crime did they commit?”

It’s a neutral enough question.

There’s no need to clash with this person here.

Dies_Irae grinned.

“Our community has over 50 people now. More than twenty of the original Viva! Apocalypse! members. But you know, when the numbers increase, problems arise. It’s the same everywhere, right? The dilemma of the stone that’s been stuck and the one that rolled in. Honestly, some of the initial members weren’t very impressive. They’re precious friends, but what can you do about that? But to me, both the stuck stone and the one that rolled in are precious.”

Dies_Irae gazes up at the corpse hanging from the gallows with a meaningful smile.

“As the conflicts deepened, we made contact with a group of survivors. They were from some merchant guild, I think. From the beginning, I had a feeling about them. Ah, these people. They’re all pathetic.”

“Pathetic people?”

“You’ve seen them before, right? Loud, rude, always comparing themselves to others and ranking them, and most of all, ungrateful.”

“Did you take them in with the intention of killing them from the start?”

I asked coldly.

Dies_Irae smiled contently and pointed at me with a finger.

“Exactly.”

Is that an English term for 'exactly'?

“I knew from the beginning that these people would cause trouble. Especially this woman. She was the type who thought her strength was something to boast about. She made a scene. And after that, everything went as expected.”

Dies_Irae picked up a stone from the ground and pretended to throw it at the corpse.

“Especially this woman, who was the most despised. I had her tied up and had everyone throw stones at her. I made sure no one would escape, except the child. Everyone had to kill her with their own hands.”

This is the part where I felt the most disgust toward Dies_Irae.

Dies_Irae uses people as tools.

He has no hesitation, no second thoughts, no taboos when using them.

“Even a sheet of paper is easier to lift when carried together, right?”

“...”

I just hope this person never comes near my territory.

The best outcome would be if he died at the hands of another enemy before ever meeting me, but I don’t think it will be that easy for him.

“I’ve got one question I’d like to ask.”

I guess I should get something in return for listening to this revolting story.

What I wanted to confirm, as John Nae-non asked, was the final fate of the people who chose hibernation.

With over 10 satellite devices to boot.

As much as his humanity is questionable, Dies_Irae’s abilities are exceptional.

“Oh, there.”

He knew exactly the situation of the place I was headed.

“It’s better not to get too close.”

“Are there monsters?”

“There’s something even scarier than monsters.”

Dies_Irae grinned and stared towards the northeast.

“There, the spirits live.”

*

The skeletal figures gathered at a specific point, the old and decaying tripwires set up everywhere, the warning signs scrawled in what looked like red paint, and the damp, yin-like energy inherent to the land.

It certainly seemed like a place where spirits could reside.

“This place used to be called Deokdae-gol. They say it’s where children who died before their parents were buried, just wrapped in cloth and discarded.”

The guide was a young couple.

The man had connections to this area, and the couple had fled here, where they met Dies_Irae and ended up sharing a fate.

Dies_Irae didn’t assign the couple any orders. That wasn’t just for my safety.

Dies_Irae, cunning as he was, made sure not to direct the couple in any way.

So, there were no obvious habits like probing or watching, typical of rookie spies.

They were simply guiding me to my destination, the place known as Deokdae-gol.

Afterward, they’d probably ask a lot of questions.

If anyone could guess my intentions from even a tiny clue, it would be Dies_Irae. He would personally check it out if he had any inkling.

It wasn’t particularly bothersome.

The 10 satellite devices were a waste, but my goal was simply to confirm, with my own eyes, what John Nae-non had been eager to see— the outcome of hibernation.

If you come, you die!

Watch your step!

This is where the 亡靈 (spirits) live!

These were the writings scrawled around the foot of the mountain.

A childish threat, but the neat handwriting caught my eye.

It was likely written by someone older.

“Are you a friend of the captain’s?”

The man spoke up.

“Captain?”

“Yes, I heard you talking earlier.”

“Oh, yes.”

Was he referring to Dies_Irae, not Mgu?

But then, even Roka-hun had referred to Dies_Irae as ‘Captain’ before.

“Yes, we have some history together.”

“The captain doesn’t usually take the time to chat like that.”

“Really?”

“Yes, so I thought maybe you two were alumni or something.”

For some reason, the young couple seemed to be reading me.

It was as if they expected something.

That if I were close with Dies_Irae, and if I spoke well of them, their treatment might improve.

It was surprising that they’d be thinking of such things in this eerie place.

I was constantly on guard, and yet they were thinking of that.

“We’re internet friends. Aren’t there some people from that side in the village?”

I «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» answered absentmindedly, while shifting my gaze.

“Yeah, but it’s a different atmosphere there.”

They stubbornly pursued.

The feeling of irritation was growing.

The forest’s ominous energy was intensifying, and the number of tripwires I could see was steadily increasing. I stopped briefly and gave them a warning.

“Hey, isn’t this place a bit dangerous?”

I looked around demonstratively.

It was the middle of summer, near noon, yet the forest was dimly lit.

The random bushes and vines growing all over blocked the sunlight, casting shadows and a chilling atmosphere within the forest.

The eerie warning signs were written here and there, and on the ground lay rusty, disabled tripwires that still held their malicious intent.

There might still be someone around.

Someone who wrote those warnings and set those traps.

However, the young couple seemed unbothered.

“They’re probably dead,” the man said.

“From what I heard, there was a recluse murderer around here a couple of years ago, but they disappeared one day. They must have died.”

The expression on their face seemed to say, There’s no way anything is wrong.

As I looked at them with an unimpressed face, this time it was the woman who spoke up.

“We didn’t just follow you for nothing. Let’s go there. There’s a house where the recluse used to live!”

I could understand the source of their confidence.

They must have explored this area before.

That experience seems to have numbed their fear.

“The captain, too. You must know that there’s nothing here, yet you’re making your acquaintance walk in vain.”

They kept trying to steer the conversation toward Dies_Irae.

It’s a moment that clearly shows just how much of an influence Dies_Irae has on their lives.

I’m not sure exactly what they think of him, but I’m sure a big part of their feelings is fear.

No matter how much you dress it up or decorate it, there aren’t many who would view favorably a leader who executes dozens of people openly.

They probably sensed that someday, they too might end up in a similar situation.

“Over there.”

In the midst of my doubt, something moss-covered and hard to distinguish from a rock appeared.

A bunker.

It wasn’t recently built, but it looked like a facility repurposed from the Korean War era.

“This is where the recluse lived.”

Just as the man had said, the bunker was littered with filthy bedding, leftover food, and cloth scraps that couldn’t even be recycled. Traces of life were left in a grimy and dusty heap.

“Did you find any bodies?”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

I asked the man, noticing there were no signs of bodies.

“No, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“There were some drug bags, though.”

The woman’s eyes sparkled as she spoke, seemingly recalling something.

“You know the bags people with chronic illnesses get from the pharmacy? There was a huge pile of them. Our village doctor, Dr. Jeong, said they were for diabetes and high cholesterol. He stopped taking them halfway through, just left them abandoned.”

While I appreciated the information, I couldn’t ignore the uncomfortable gaze they kept on me.

They were clearly trying to score some points.

“...”

I deliberately ignored them and started to scan the surroundings.

There must be some kind of secret facility with hibernation chambers around here.

“What are you doing?”

“Just a moment.”

Under the cold gaze of the couple, I continued my exploration.

The first things I found were the ventilation system and drainage pipes.

There had to be something, considering it wasn’t a grave.

Wherever people enter, there must naturally be a way for air to flow in and out.

“Still nothing?”

“There’s nothing here. Don’t waste your time.”

It was late afternoon when I finally found a trace.

The couple’s incessant nagging was becoming unbearable.

Clank—

I heard something crunch underfoot.

It was unmistakable.

An artificial object.

I dug through the dirt with my hands.

Sure enough, beyond the wriggling bugs, I could see the concrete drainage pipe.

From its position, I could tell where the secret facility was.

Could it be there?

I saw a spot that could be tunneled into, just like my bunker.

The dense trees and plants pointed toward it, but despite that, the faint traces of artificial structure couldn’t be fully hidden.

With a rustle—

As I peeled back the camouflage that blended with nature, a rusted iron door appeared before us.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

The young couple, who had been grumbling endlessly, swarmed over.

“Do you need help?”

Their intentions were obvious, but I decided it was better to let them help than to get shot in the back.

Thud!

With the combined strength of the three of us, we forced open the tightly closed bunker door.

“Ugh!”

“Ugh!”

Inside the bunker, a terrible, rotting stench filled the air.

The smell of corpses.

It was so strong that we had to ventilate the place for a while.

After the smell cleared a bit, we donned masks and entered.

Inside, there were ten circular chambers, neatly arranged along the corridor.

They looked strikingly futuristic and high-tech.

Anyone could tell that a lot of money had been spent on them.

Each of the ten chambers seemed to have an occupant, but there was one person who hadn’t made it into a chamber.

“Look there.”

In the dimness, a pair of feet floated in the air.

It was a suicide victim.

The young couple shone a lantern on the face of the corpse.

“Hmm? Who’s that?”

The cold, dry environment had withered the body, but even in its shriveled state, it seemed to have been someone famous enough to be recognized by people who didn’t even know them personally.

“Isn’t that Jeon Yu-gyeong?”

“Do you know him?”

I asked them.

*

It was no surprise that the hibernation chambers were a sham.

Inside the chambers, withered corpses lay as though sleeping, their eyes closed.

Each one of them was dead.

Though we didn’t know when they had died, the state of the bodies suggested they all perished around the same time.

The man who John Nae-non had cursed, Nelson Yongbeom, was revealed to be a fraud.

But John Nae-non, in the records he left behind, repeatedly raised one question.

“I’m telling you, that person—should I call him an elder—was really smart and sharp. He was even better with IT than me, even though he was old enough to be my father. That’s probably how he made all his money, right? I just can’t understand why such a smart person got caught up in a scam. That’s why I wanted to check out that place.”

After a long silence, I found out that John Nae-non had left one more thing to say.

“...I wonder if that elder really signed that contract.”

The man who hanged himself alone in the cold, lavishly designed chamber was a well-known figure in the region.

He was the so-called local bigwig, someone who always returned to his hometown around the holidays, giving out donations and the like.

Though John Nae-non didn’t mention the VVIP’s real name, I was certain this corpse belonged to that very VVIP.

The young man, staring at the body lying on the floor, spoke.

“There were rumors that he didn’t get along with his spouse and children. He even had a big fight with them in a hotel lobby, and everyone knew about it.”

“Why did they fight? They’re from a wealthy family.”

“You know the type. The old man, with all his wealth, tried to control his family with his money. The older he got, the worse that trait became.”

The man clicked his tongue as he looked at the body.

“I thought he was dead after the war since we hadn’t heard from him in Seoul. But he was here, huh?”

The woman muttered as she looked at the body.

“Such a sad life. Even with all that money, he couldn’t even get into a proper coffin and ended up hanging himself. Life really is futile.”

They didn’t realize this was a hibernation chamber.

They probably assumed these people, in their hopeless condition, had chosen euthanasia in a luxurious coffin as a comfortable escape.

“...”

A lot of thoughts were running through my mind.

Among the jumbled thoughts, the largest chunk was connected to John Nae-non’s question.

This old man must have known that the hibernation chambers were a fraud.

I don’t know why he put his family into those chambers, nor the emotions behind it.

I can’t judge why he returned to the place where his deceased family was, refused to take his medicine, and chose to hang himself alone.

He’s dead, and his story is over.

So, what I’m saying now is just unfounded speculation.

But there’s a definite, unresolved story here.

“Excuse me, sir. I’m really sorry, but could we say we discovered this together?”

“Yes, please. We’re getting a bit of a cold shoulder from the captain. It’s dangerous! Haha...”

The bodies inside the chambers weren’t the only ones.

There was another cold coffin, and inside it, people still alive, though they hadn’t died yet.

So, even though their story might end here, the conclusion won’t stay speculative for long.