Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 142.3: Coin (3)
Just as the battle was beginning, Cheongbaeksu’s words flashed through my mind.
Cheongbaeksu: This is just speculation, but you know... Cheonsaek feels like a girl, and Suzume? Probably her boyfriend.
At this point, it doesn’t really matter whether the bastard is male or female.
The root of all evil, Cheonsaek, just sent me a 1:1 chat request with admin privileges.
Cheonsaek: Who the hell are you?
Cheonsaek’s Mother: I’m your mother.
Cheonsaek: Cut the bullshit. Who are you? What fucker are you? You think you can survive on this island after pulling this crap?
Cheonsaek: If I wanted, I could completely ruin your life. So start talking and bow your head while you still can.
Cheonsaek: Depending on how deep you bow, I’ll decide whether to let it slide or crush you.
Cheonsaek’s Mother: ㅇㅅㅇ
Cheonsaek: ?
Cheonsaek’s Mother: Sex
Depending on your perspective, you could say my remark was reckless, vulgar, and downright infantile.
But is there really any point in speaking reason to a beast?
If anything, it’s etiquette to match the tone to the other party.
In any case, my message seemed to get Cheonsaek riled up.
Cheonsaek: You piece of shit?
Cheonsaek’s Mother: Riled up? ㅇㅅㅇ
Cheonsaek: Who even uses ㅇㅅㅇ anymore? Get lost!
Cheonsaek’s Mother: :)
Cheonsaek: Even your emojis are goddamn infuriating.
[Access to the Red Archive board has been denied.]
Thus began the real battle for revenge.
If nothing else, I had to see this through for Ballantine’s sake.
For the record, back in school and on the battlefield, I was always the persistent type. I’ve never avoided hard work, and I’m not afraid of it.
“......”
Click.
CheonsaekMom: Exposing the disgusting actions of the game board admin “Suzume,” who never talks about the game. (3rd try)
[Access to the Red Archive board has been denied.]
CheonsaekParty: Exposing the disgusting actions of the game board admin “Suzume,” who never talks about the game. (4th try)
[Access to the Red Archive board has been denied.]
CheonsaekMother: Exposing the disgusting actions of the game board admin “Suzume,” who never talks about the game. (5th try)
[Access to the Red Archive board has been denied.]
CheonsaekMuter: Exposing the disgusting actions of the game board admin “Suzume,” who never talks about the game. (6th try)
[Access to the Red Archive board has been denied.]
...
...
“......”
Tap tap tap
CheonsaekUmum: All right, you bitch Cheonsaek. Let’s see this through to the end.
CheonsaekUmum: I have no money and all the time in the world. :)
CheonsaekUmum: Exposing the disgusting actions of the game board admin “Suzume,” who never talks about the game. (112th try)
[Access to the Red Archive board has been denied.]
It’s been six hours since the online war began.
“Skelton. You not eating breakfast today?”
“Just a sec. I’m in the middle of something really important.”
“Even with today’s juicy stuff?”
“What I’m doing is way juicier. Tell everyone I’ve got a hot scoop straight outta Jeju coming up!”
Yeah, I was the one who made the “everyone-eats-breakfast-together” rule, but this is different.
This is more important than anything.
“......”
Click.
CheonsaekMommy: Exposing the disgusting actions of the game board admin “Suzume,” who never talks about the game. (113th try)
This may well be the fiercest battle of my life.
Looking back, fighting isn’t always about ugliness and violence.
A noble struggle can ignite something in people’s hearts.
And it’s happening now.
MargarineCookie: Isn’t this going too far?
Someone has finally spoken up in support of me.
They say “well begun is half done,” meaning that the moment something starts, conditions for change have already been met.
After that first voice, a flood of others who’d been silently watching this six-hour standoff began to speak.
GENNA: I mean yeah, the sniper’s kinda weird, but 100 bans? That’s insane, right?
Chikimayo: Pretty sure that’s way over the line.
Zauber: Why not just declare martial law at this point? LOL
FriendlessAndLoveless: To be fair, Suzume has been kind of obnoxious.
NoTomorrowMan: Who’s deleting all this? Can we see the admin logs? Wasn’t this board supposed to be a free space for Red Archive discussion?
The users rose up.
This wasn’t some overnight rage.
They’d known about the inequalities on the board for a long time.
They just pretended not to.
Because keeping the peace and scraping together scraps of comfort from the internet was easier.
All I did was redirect their gaze toward the rage they’d been ignoring.
SayokoCushion: My friend got banned—what the hell? Power trip?
MontyArmpit: I’m at a PC café, and the guy next to me just got banned.
RoseKimchiCheeseSweetAndSour: So we can’t even express objections now? When did our board get this strict?
BaldLittleLeet: Everyone knows S***’s been weird for a while, right?
ChaUniversityManAllPlatinum: Is it just me, or is this whole situation fucked?
Like throwing water on a grease fire, the flames only burned hotter.
And those flames soon summoned one man.
YangJahampok: What the hell is going on?
My old classmate. Possibly Gong Gyeong-min.
Whatever the case, on this board, he liked me.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
And he’s clearly the real power behind the curtain here.
YangJahampok: Everyone calm down for a sec.
YangJahampok: I’ll go through all the posts.
YangJahampok: I’ll figure out who’s right and who’s wrong.
YangJahampok: Just bear with it for now, okay?
The moment he showed up, the entire board was “frozen.”
No new posts, no new comments.
During this window, I returned to home base.
Not hard to do.
All I had to do was hit send on a pre-written message from the spare laptop on the central toilet tank.
“......”
Click.
I sent the secret weapon I’d prepared to my homeland board, Viva! Apocalypse!
Foxgames2: Dropping the Jeju Intranet access link! (link)
Foxgames2: Dropping the Jeju Intranet access link! (link)
Foxgames2: Dropping the Jeju Intranet access link! (link)
...
...
User3921: What? Jeju Intranet?
User11341: Foxgames? Is this an alt?
User8321: Is this a virus or something?
User382: Feels shady... Doesn’t even seem like the real Foxgames. freeweɓnovel~cѳm
mmmmmmmmm™: I don’t know what this is, but I’m going in~~~~!!
User7821: Yo, it’s legit. It’s actually the Jeju Intranet.
Anonymous458: It’s real. Holy crap. It’s the real Jeju Intranet.
User66423: Let’s f***ing gooo~
“......”
A wave is coming.
A massive tidal wave that Jeju won’t be able to withstand.
Anonymous458: Holy shit. These Jeju bastards are living the high life, huh?
User4231: That rumor about celebrities heading to Jeju? Totally true. Can’t play videos right now, but there’s a crapload of them already.
User55312: Wait—Filkrum was in Jeju? He’s been publishing a webtoon from there.
User4121: Why’s the whole site feel so bleak?
User3211: No joke, it feels like North Korea.
...
...
And in the eye of the storm I created, I sent a private message to the sly—slightly dirty—friend who had joined hands with me.
“......”
Tap tap tap
SKELTON: Proceed.
SKELTON: ㅇㅅㅇ
For a Jeju security officer hired through connections rather than skill, this is going to be a heavy, heavy burden.
*
This happened while Foxgames and I were preparing our infiltration into Jeju's intranet confidential folders.
Foxgames decided to tell me a few truths.
Foxgames: You know, about Kkamang.
Skelton: ㅇㅅㅇ?
Foxgames: No, seriously, stop using that. Do you even know that emoji is used by internet crazies?
Skelton: ㅇㅅ:)ㅇ
Foxgames: Whatever. Anyway, about Kkamang.
Skelton: Kkamang?
Foxgames: She's dead.
Skelton: Yeah?
Not really surprising.
That poison is extremely toxic.
Toxic enough that if a rat eats it and then a predator eats the rat, and then that predator is eaten by another, even the final predator can die from it.
Foxgames once sent me photos claiming Kkamang was alive, but I always considered the possibility he was lying.
Foxgames: I lied.
Skelton: Heh?
Foxgames: Kinda pathetic, but you know how using an animal shield makes people like you more?
Skelton: So you figured now was the time to be honest?
Foxgames: Well, we’re in this big thing together, aren’t we? :)
Foxgames: This is about the rift, after all—arguably the biggest thing.
Skelton: ㅇㅅㅇ
Foxgames: Anyway, I’ve been around longer than you, so let me say something—truth isn’t always righteous and bright.
Foxgames: What I’m trying to say is this: closing a rift is massive news, right? Like “My son got into med school!” or “My daughter passed the bar!”—a major personal win, right?
Foxgames: So then why isn’t anyone shouting it from the rooftops?
Foxgames: If you were a government official, wouldn’t you use this as proof that all the stupid shit you've done was for this result? I mean, closing a rift is the same as saying we’ve regained what we lost—hope.
Skelton: (Skelton nods) Yeah. I get that.
Foxgames: Still... I have a bad feeling. Like I said, truth is two-faced. Just like with Kkamang—sometimes the side you don’t reveal is the better one.
Time passed.
Message from unicorn18: Skelton. You there?
After a long absence, Unicorn finally messaged me.
It was right around the time Foxgames had successfully hacked into the Jeju intranet’s classified folders and was knee-deep in decoding them.
unicorn18: The board’s a mess right now, and it looks like the intranet’s crashing too.
unicorn18: Anyway, a promise is a promise. I’ll tell you one thing that happened here in Jeju.
unicorn18: The rift closed.
unicorn18: 72 hours after closure and it hasn’t reopened. I think it’s safe to say we succeeded.
unicorn18: Yeah. We closed the rift.
unicorn18: But we weren’t the first. India closed one before us, and Thailand has recorded closures too. Europe had a few cases as well, apparently.
unicorn18: But the reason none of that is well-known is...
unicorn18: Closing a rift doesn’t mean it’s over.
unicorn18: If anything, it means the opposite...
unicorn18: Reply if you see this.
I didn’t see her message until more than three hours after she sent it.
At that time, I was with Foxgames, parsing the final stages of the confidential data we’d pulled from Jeju.
Foxgames: Look at this, Skelton. The rift was really closed. It actually closed!
Skelton: Yeah. But what’s with that number on the blue background? Names, Awaken level, age... and some unknown data field.
Just like Foxgames said: truth has two sides.
Truth doesn’t always make the world brighter or better. It doesn’t always bring happiness or lead us to something noble.
Some truths grow despair, crush hope, and deny our future with cold, merciless precision.
“......”
I already knew.
I knew what that list was, the one with all the Awakened recorded on that blue screen.
I’ve seen it before, on the battlefield.
How could I not recognize it?
Foxgames: This is...
Foxgames: A death list...
“......”
Of course it is.
Foxgames: There’s an explanation at the bottom.
Foxgames: Just like Thailand warned—we’ve only now realized that even closing the rift was part of the rift’s weapon.
Foxgames: Due to the unexpected closure, all 423 regular Awakened and 1,032 support personnel inside were marked as missing.
Foxgames: Remaining strength: 3%.
Foxgames: Fortunately, Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in are among the survivors, but clearly, the two alone can’t close the next rift.
Foxgames: Summary: The rift was closed, but in doing so, we lost the future...
Foxgames: Addendum: Since rifts can reopen wherever there’s a population, relocation of Jeju citizens is now being discussed.
Foxgames: Based on Thailand and China’s models, the maximum population to prevent a rift reappearance is 1,000.
Foxgames: Each department is instructed to draft a transfer plan for surplus residents.
Foxgames: This task must be completed within 100 days...
...
...
None ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) of it really matters now.
What comes next.
Humanity cannot escape extinction.
That’s the truth engraved on the flip side of the coin.
In front of it, neither I nor Foxgames is anything more than an ordinary human.
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