Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 105.3: Stay (3)

“I’ve thought about it, and I think it would be better to talk face to face.”

Her outfit had changed.

She had worn a training suit with a national emblem before, but now she was in a neatly pressed uniform.

Her face, which had a neutral expression, looked slightly older than before, but still carried an intense aura that dominated the surroundings.

She handed me a paper bag.

Inside the bag were four cups ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) of takeout coffee, neatly wrapped.

As I stared at the coffee, Na Hye-in seemed to sense my gaze and quickly explained.

“I wasn’t sure what you’d like.”

It was a small gesture, but it still stirred up memories.

Yes, Na Hye-in was always someone who prepared a lot.

Nearly ten years had passed since we were apart, but a person’s nature doesn’t easily change.

“I’ll have an iced Americano.”

When I nonchalantly picked a menu item, a faint smile appeared on Na Hye-in’s lips.

As I looked at her silently, she handed me the coffee.

“I thought you might want that.”

We sat across from each other in an unnamed café, sipping coffee for a moment.

I felt bad for Na Hye-in, but the coffee in Jeju wasn’t as good as the one left by Dragon씨.

More bitter than the coffee was the awkward silence between us.

There was so much to say, but I couldn’t quite find the right words.

The awkwardness from our school days lingered, and the silence seemed to solidify between us.

Meeting face-to-face and talking in real life was a lot different than chatting in forums or group chats.

After a few glances exchanged, I was the first to speak.

“I know I’ve said this before, but thank you.”

It was a natural thing to say, but my tone was much closer to the Park Gyu of the past, the one who had fought on the battlefield, rather than the skeleton persona I had adopted online.

The way I looked at her probably hadn’t changed much from those days either.

“Thanks to you, I’m alive.”

Na Hye-in smiled faintly and took a sip from her coffee cup.

“No.”

Her gaze turned toward me.

“You should be the one to thank me.”

She shifted her gaze out the window.

Outside, the high walls and a gentle mountain covered with mist filled most of the view.

“Wait, I have somewhere to take you.”

Na Hye-in stood up.

She looked at me and asked.

“Can you come with me?”

*

Na Hye-in led me to a cemetery.

To be precise, it was a well-maintained and landscaped graveyard.

It didn’t take much to realize that the gravestones here belonged to those who fought monsters.

As Na Hye-in walked calmly through the gravestones, holding a bouquet, she placed a flower on each grave when she saw a familiar name.

When five flowers had been placed in front of the gravestones, she softly spoke.

“Do you know what’s missing in this graveyard?”

I paused to organize my thoughts.

Before I could even speak, Na Hye-in answered herself with a sad smile.

“Remains.”

Does she mean that there are no bodies?

So that means...

“The cracks, right?”

Na Hye-in nodded indifferently as she stared at one of the gravestones.

“They all disappeared in the cracks.”

I looked around the cemetery.

There were easily more than 500 gravestones.

If they were all part of the cracks, then they must have been over level 5 Awakened.

I had heard the stories, but I never imagined so many Awakened would be sacrificed.

“Why did so many have to die?”

“Not everyone died.”

“...”

I think I understand what she’s saying.

The face of the boy who had always followed me, the one I saw back at the Gaeseong facility, passed through my mind.

“They just... disappeared.”

Na Hye-in knelt and placed another flower in front of a gravestone.

I looked at the name on the gravestone.

<Ryu Dasul>

I didn’t know the name.

But the birth and death dates engraved on the gravestone told me that the person who had died was still in their twenties when they passed.

Na Hye-in gently touched the gravestone.

She must have cared a lot about this child.

Watching her, I quietly asked.

“Was this a teammate you cared for?”

Na Hye-in nodded.

“She was smart and kind. She had a strong will, and I thought she would never disappear.”

“Fate is something we can’t predict.”

“What’s worse, this child is the one who introduced me to the Red Archive.”

Na Hye-in let out a shallow sigh as she continued to stroke the gravestone.

After a brief moment of mourning, she turned to look at me.

“...Do you remember when I talked about my worries on the forum?”

“I remember.”

Looking at her mysterious eyes that still radiated even under the sunlight, I replied.

Na Hye-in turned away from the gravestone.

“It’s a big worry, but what scares me more is the fear of disappearing, just like this child.”

She turned her gaze toward the northwest.

That direction must be where the cracks are.

“...When you’re inside, you hear all kinds of voices. No, should I even call them voices? No matter how hard you try to understand, they don’t fit into our thinking patterns. They come freely into our heads, and those fragmented flashes of light come together in a way we can’t comprehend, whispering to us.”

Na Hye-in, staring in the direction of the cracks, silently clenched her fists.

“...They want us to cross over.”

If this were before the war, her statement would have been shocking enough to destroy our understanding of the cracks.

The phenomenon we once thought was just an “event,” a mere occurrence, now seemed to have its own will, transmitting something akin to an intention to humans—a reality that our knowledge and experience couldn’t fully explain.

It’s like the world itself having a will.

“...”

But now, I too could vaguely feel it.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

What our enemy is. What the essence of the disaster trying to destroy humanity is.

Monsters, and the cracks themselves, are not merely chaotic forces—they seem to have a goal, an obscure will to destroy our world.

“I think that’s what it means. That’s what I understand.”

I thought to myself as I watched Na Hye-in, who was gazing at the graveyard with a lonely smile.

How much despair and loss has she faced?

The number of those losses is likely not fewer than the number of gravestones without remains in this cemetery.

That’s all.

There was nothing I could say to her here.

The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

Not even a light comfort.

I know better than anyone that I don’t have the right to speak to her, someone who had stood on the front lines, when I chose to escape from fate.

“But.”

Na Hye-in turned back toward me.

Her eyes, with a clarity visible even in the sunlight, were now focused directly on me.

I stared straight into her eyes.

I was the first to look away.

With her gaze averted, she awkwardly held her wrist, standing in a sluggish yet definite manner as she continued in a calm tone.

“I saw you fight that day.”

There was no doubt.

"So, you must have come to save me, right?"

“DongtanMom's video was boring. I got distracted and only watched the middle, so I didn’t know who it was. Plus, she didn’t show her face, nor did she say a word. But when the fight started, I knew right away.”

She turned her body back toward me after briefly averting her gaze.

“It was you. No, it couldn’t have been anyone else. There’s only one person in this world who could fight monsters so well with a human body that has no special abilities.”

With a shallow sigh, she added:

“Professor.”

“...”

“Seeing you fight so fiercely without saying a word in such a precarious battle, I felt something stirring inside me. I don’t know how to put it into words, but it felt like an old emotion I had forgotten was coming back to life. At least one thing was clear.”

She closed her mouth and stared at me intently.

It seemed like she was expecting a reaction.

Surprised by her fresh demeanor, I asked quietly:

“What was it that was conveyed?”

Before I could finish my sentence, she immediately responded.

“That we should leave the house soon.”

Na Hye-in smiled brightly.

I realized then.

I had never known that the always quiet and mysterious Na Hye-in could smile like this.

That was roughly the outline of the conversation we had in the hazardous cemetery.

We exchanged a few more words, but they weren’t all that important.

Of course, we didn’t talk about Viva! Apocalypse! or the Red Archive forums.

Not bringing the online world into reality is the most basic internet etiquette. After all, we are veteran users of the internet.

Before we parted ways, Na Hye-in asked me:

“Are you going to stay here?”

If I had been asked this question just a week ago, I would have answered without hesitation.

I would have said I’m definitely leaving.

But human nature is incredibly fickle.

Honestly, right now, I have no complaints.

It's comfortable here, and the danger of getting shot while sleeping—something that used to be my worst nightmare—is close to zero.

I don’t have to do terrifying morning exercises or stand at attention.

I can live a plentiful and prosperous life thanks to the credits.

To put it bluntly, I can do almost everything I could do before the war.

And most importantly, I can still use the internet here.

There’s even a luxurious option like the Red Archive board to choose from.

Why would I leave such a paradise?

“...”

I smiled at Na Hye-in, who was staring at me, and responded:

“I’ll think about it.”

*

The intranet news bulletin displayed another headline about the return of the savior Na Hye-in.

After a long seclusion, she was now assisting the savior Kang Han-min in the final stages of closing the Rift operation.

“...”

Closing the Rift, huh?

I had heard about it before coming to Jeju, but honestly, I wasn’t sure.

But now, things are different.

I think we can close the Rift.

It seems that humanity can end the disaster that’s bringing about its downfall with our own hands.

Even though Jeju has the weakest Rift, closing it is a different matter altogether.

If we can close the Rift in Jeju, maybe humanity can survive after all.

At least the issue about the survival of humanity raised by the Chinese scientist can be postponed for later.

As I crossed my arms and watched Na Hye-in surrounded by the welcoming crowd, my phone rang.

“Mr. Park Gyu? Yes. I’m calling after hearing that you’re uncertain about leaving Jeju. Once you’ve made up your mind, please feel free to contact us.”

Na Hye-in had been a bit lost for a while, but it’s widely known that she handles her affairs efficiently.

Even though she had been absent, she made sure to use her authority to give me the option to return to my original territory if I changed my mind.

The call I just received was to confirm that option.

“Hmm.”

It’s been two days since I last talked with Na Hye-in.

I still haven’t made up my mind about my future.

The biggest reason? Well, it’s because life here is comfortable.

As expected, it’s a Level 1 Zone.

It’s a place where all the privileged class of pre-war Korea have gathered.

Apparently, there’s a Level 1+ Zone above this one, but that’s not somewhere I’m going.

That’s for the high-ranking members of the National Crisis Committee or Awakened individuals above Level 10 like Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in.

Rumor has it that Filkrum also lives here, so if I’m lucky, I might run into him at the supermarket.

To be honest, the Level 1 Zone is exactly like the Jeju I imagined when I first fled from my own territory.

If this life is guaranteed, there’s no need to leave.

But my position here is still precarious.

The higher-ups in the National Crisis Committee are still the low-level Awakened like Park Seung-su.

Right now, I can live here thanks to Na Hye-in’s consideration, but if something happens to her, my fate will be grim.

I can’t stay here forever.

But I might be able to rest for a while.

Recently, I’ve received unjust treatment in the Viva! Apocalypse! community.

I’ve been making excuses for the petty reasons, but once a person’s mind is set, it’s not easily changed.

I’ve got a plan.

If they can’t accommodate someone like me, a “major user,” then I’ll have no choice but to leave on my own.

Here in Jeju, there’s the Red Archive board.

Objectively speaking, compared to our global-level board, this one is small and the age group doesn’t match mine.

But it’s younger, and the future is guaranteed.

Since Jeju isn’t about to fall apart, it will probably last longer than our board.

For someone like me, a “major user,” it’s a good place to move to.

“...”

I read the notes I had written in my phone’s memo.

Spin the gacha and get game content verification.

Block skldqe82.

Block Melongman, postmomentum, DKFUDDL.

Accept friend requests for Quantum Tunnel.

Right, I had decided to roll the gacha.

That was the next content I would post here.

I logged into the game and looked at the recruitment screen.

<Special Recruitment Ongoing!>

Yakumo (Limited), Yoriss (Limited), Hwaiba (Limited) pickups!

5% chance for a 3-star!

Seems like there’s a lot of noise around it.

Special recruitment? Is this a special event?

The characters labeled as “Limited” look like the type you can’t recruit anywhere else.

“...”

Should I give it a try?

I, Park Gyu, personally think I’m lucky when it comes to these things.