Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 70.2: Delivery (2)

The boy didn’t seem like a high-tier Awakened.

There was no pulsating aura, and the faint glow in his eyes wasn’t particularly bright.

He was likely a lower-tier Awakened, below level 5.

If I handed him over to Woo Min-hee, she wouldn’t be too happy about it.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on such thoughts.

"Run away," the boy whispered in a low voice.

"You seem like a good person, so I’ll tell you this: leave now."

He wasn’t just saying it to be polite.

The boy’s face was eerily serious for someone so young. He kept glancing behind him, his eyes darting nervously.

Sure enough, I heard a metallic sound from beyond the slightly open door.

The sound of guns being prepared—ammo loaded, safeties off, and firing modes switched.

I hesitated for a moment, then smiled at the boy and climbed onto my motorcycle.

"Thanks."

I rode away from the house.

It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of a door bursting open and someone running out in a hurry.

Larger kids from Sergeant Jang’s group came rushing out, pointing in my direction and shouting.

"There he is! He’s running away!"

"Shoot him! Kill him!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots rang out from behind me.

I ignored them.

At that distance, with so many obstacles in the way, whether the bullets hit or missed was up to luck and the alignment of the stars. Still, it was a jolt to my system, like a splash of cold water waking me from a daze.

Just minutes earlier, I’d been groggy, half-asleep, wandering through a fog of hope.

Hope.

I let out a bitter chuckle and sped up.

When I returned to my familiar snow-covered bunker, I saw a figure waiting for me.

There was no need to draw my gun.

In front of the decoy bunker entrance stood Defender’s younger sister, bundled in a parka, her face slightly flushed with cold.

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Hearing my motorcycle, she lit up, waving cheerfully.

Judging by the heavy bag in her hand, it wasn’t hard to guess why she was here.

"SKELTON!"

She’d run away from home.

The signs of discord had been there for a while, and now it had come to this.

"Can I crash here?"

"It’s almost morning. What’s going on?"

"Why are you so cold? Don’t you want me here?"

Her demeanor was different from usual.

Unlike her typical reserved nature, she was meeting my eyes directly and speaking with a soft, almost flirtatious tone.

"You’re always welcome, but... shouldn’t you have told your brother?"

"Why should I need his permission?"

Her cheerful expression shifted to irritation.

I watched her, her face pale from the cold, and gestured toward the bunker.

"Let’s talk inside."

After helping her out of her winter gear, I set about organizing my equipment and boiling water.

While the kettle heated, she sat silently on the sofa, lost in thought.

Her face was blank, but her eyes, staring into the void, were a storm of fleeting emotions.

I poured tea and sat down across from her.

"Where were you coming from?"

Avoiding my gaze, she asked about my morning.

I gave her a brief summary of what had happened.

"Ah, so it’s like a form of pseudo-begging?"

Pseudo-begging.

That was a fair way to put it.

"People don’t change much from what they’ve experienced. If begging is all they know, it’s all they’ll do," she said, sipping her tea and letting out a long sigh as her arm dangled limply by her side.

"My brother’s the same," she muttered, her eyes distant.

"He hated our father so much, yet he acts just like him now."

She mumbled curses under her breath, quietly insulting her brother with words too vulgar to repeat.

"The damn genes of a born pushover," she said, looking at me.

Her gaze held a hint of hesitation and defiance, but it quickly resolved into determination.

"SKELTON, what do you think of me?"

I knew what she was getting at.

She was likely about to propose cohabitation—essentially, something akin to marriage.

Though sudden, it was a scenario I’d already considered.

Living with someone as attractive and charming as her would undoubtedly bring happiness and comfort.

It’d be a lie to say I didn’t have any desire to hold her in my arms.

But I had to refuse her.

There were many reasons, but the root cause of the situation stood out the most.

"You’re beautiful and attractive. I like you," I admitted.

"R-really?"

"But what about you?" I asked, meeting her gaze directly.

"Me? I like you, SKELTON. Why else would I be here?"

Relationships aren’t just about truth and lies. There’s a spectrum, a degree of intensity that determines so much. From what I could tell, her feelings for me were somewhere between fondness and love.

Maybe just slightly above fondness.

I knew this because I felt the same, and that clarity allowed me to stay level-headed.

If you added physical attraction into the mix, it might tip into “extreme fondness.”

As expected, she struggled to hold my gaze before finally looking away.

I continued, watching her as she stared into the void.

"Are you fighting a lot with your brother?"

"...Yeah."

She let out a heavy sigh, slumping into the sofa.

"Age does matter, doesn’t it?"

"Doesn’t feel like there’s much of a difference."

"Online, I’m sure I’ve got you beat mentally. But meeting in person? Yeah, SKELTON, you’re definitely the adult here. Not just in appearance but in how you act, too."

"Huh? People I know say I look young."

"Bet they’re your age."

"How’d you know?"

"Just a guess."

"Enough about age. Is this about that friend of yours, Heo Jong-chul?"

She stirred her coffee, glancing around at the radiators gently steaming in my bunker.

"That’s part of it. But seriously, SKELTON, your place is always so well-kept."

"I put a lot of effort into it."

"Except for that toilet..."

She chuckled softly, taking a sip of her coffee.

Through the familiar silence, I caught the faint sound of her sigh.

"...My brother’s talking about leaving here," she said suddenly.

I turned to her, meeting her gaze.

Her expression was serious.

"Leaving?"

"Yeah. In the spring."

She slumped further into the sofa.

"He wants to move to where the Legion faction is."

"The Legion?"

"They’ve apparently built some really well-organized communities. Remember when we went to that quack dentist for treatment?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"There are a few towns like that. They even set one aside for hunters. Seems like there are quite a few of them, and they’re pretty satisfied with the quality of life there."

She gently placed her coffee cup on the table.

"Jong-chul’s been pushing my brother to move to the Legion’s territory. Says next year will be even worse."

"Things have always gotten worse."

"There’s something going on with the Rifts," she said, meeting my eyes and nodding.

"Something’s been detected beyond the Paju Rift."

"Source: the Legion?"

"Yeah."

For the past two years, the Rifts had been strangely quiet.

While eruptions had concentrated in previously safe regions, Paju’s Rift had remained dormant. It seemed its time was finally coming.

Even with the population of the capital region halved, millions still lived there. The Paju Rift, with strength rivaling the Beijing Rift, wouldn’t just release monsters—it would annihilate everything around it.

At a minimum, the entirety of Seoul would fall to erosion.

Since Yang Sang-gil’s resignation, the government in Incheon had been running on inertia, and only the Legion seemed capable of stopping a monster invasion.

I could understand Defender’s perspective.

If a full-scale invasion occurred without sufficient defenses, the hellscape we’d seen in China would replay itself here.

"If things are truly that dire, Defender’s plan isn’t entirely wrong," I admitted.

"You think so too?"

"...I used to be a hunter."

I wasn’t intentionally trying to side with Defender, but seeing Da-jeong suddenly grow so withdrawn, I realized I had unintentionally taken his side.

I’m not exactly a sweet guy, but at that moment, I wanted to make her feel better.

To be precise, I felt that cheering her up would lift my mood too, especially after the sour experience earlier that morning.

Recalling the young siblings who had warned me to run, I turned to her and spoke.

"Da-jeong."

For the first time, I called her by her name.

She jumped, startled, and stared at me.

"S-SKELTON?!"

"Surprised?"

"How do you know my name?! Don’t tell me my brother told you?"

"Well, after knowing you for over a year, it just slipped out naturally."

"SKELTON."

"Wanna go shopping?"

"Shopping?"

Still processing her shock, Da-jeong blinked in confusion as I opened my laptop and displayed the shopping site Melon Musk had granted me access to.

"What’s this?"

Her startled face lit up like a child on Christmas morning.

"Is this for real? The stuff will actually get delivered?"

"Yeah. It’s coming straight from Melon Musk’s headquarters."

"Melon Musk?! When did you even meet him? Weren’t you banned?"

"There’s a story behind that, but it’s too long to tell. For now, just pick something. The deadline’s coming up."

I suddenly recalled a memory of my late sister, one I could no longer hear the voice of. She used to sit me down beside her and shop for cute little trinkets on a clunky old website.

We’d painstakingly fill the cart with items, trying to stay within a meager budget of 12,000 won. Items would go in, then out, as she adjusted options to make everything fit perfectly before pressing the order button.

But, of course, we hadn’t accounted for the shipping fee.

Times had changed. I’d grown older, and the woman beside me was no longer my sister but a much younger girl. The shopping site we were browsing didn’t sell adorable trinkets or plush toys but rather firearms, drugs, and grim survival gear.

Still, watching Da-jeong add and remove items from the cart within the 5 kg limit made the past and present blur together. Perhaps my thin memories of family were why those scenes overlapped.

Breaking free from the bittersweet recollection—both warming and tinged with deep, cold resentment—I issued a warning.

"Don’t fill the whole cart. I need to order stuff for Rebecca and Suе too."

"Rebecca? Suе?"

She turned to me, her face puzzled.

"Who are these people with nickname-like names?"

"The sniper and her daughter."

"Oh, the ones you mentioned shooting up the place in that southwestern town?"

"Speaking of them, should I call them over?"

Part of why I suddenly suggested a surprise meeting was to stop Da-jeong from using up the precious 5 kg allocation. But another reason was that the alluring vibe she was unconsciously radiating was starting to pull my thoughts in a dangerous direction.

Apparently, I was still just a man after all.

The growing heat inside me was becoming hard to ignore. But crossing a line like that required a level of determination I wasn’t ready for. Anonymous848’s sacrificial lesson had taught me that well.

"SKELTON! We’re here~!"

"SKELTON, I want something juicy!"

Rebecca and Suе arrived at the bunker.

They quickly spotted Da-jeong hiding behind me.

"SK-SKELTON? Who’s that?" Rebecca asked, surprised.

Suе tilted her head slightly, glaring at Da-jeong with a curious but firm expression.

"SKELTON? Who’s this woman?"

While I explained the situation to the sniper mother and daughter, Da-jeong stayed silent, hiding behind me.

Come to think of it, she’d acted similarly when we first met.

She must be pretty shy, especially since she couldn’t even make eye contact with Suе, a little girl.

"Hi, Defender’s sister," Suе said suddenly, extending her hand.

Surprisingly, Suе seemed willing to accept Da-jeong.

Da-jeong hesitated, then typed something on her tablet and showed it to Suе.

-Nice to meet you.

With that little hiccup resolved, we returned to the fiery grill that is shopping, which always manages to ignite a woman’s enthusiasm.

Rebecca and Suе, now engrossed in the countless items on the shopping site, scrolled frantically, their previous wariness toward Da-jeong entirely forgotten.

"There’s nothing in stock! Damn you, Melon, son of a...!"

"Oh! That jelly! I had it back in Seattle! It was super juicy!"

"Uh, Miss Suе? That’s the one I added to my cart. Why are you removing it...?"

"Stay out of this, Firefox."

Amid the chaotic squabbling, I watched them with a faint smile.

It felt like something I’d lost that morning was being restored.

Perhaps this replenishing warmth and the creation of fond memories were the greatest rewards these people could give me.

*

Life hasn’t handed me many warm pages, but this moment felt like one I could treasure.

The day the stratospheric delivery drone—Cygnus S—was set to arrive, the sky was fortunately clear with few clouds.

The temperature was -31°C. Standing still in such cold could lead to freezing, but we forgot the biting chill as we gazed expectantly at the vast, achingly blue sky above us.

From the sky, my eyes shifted to those around me.

The Defender siblings, reconciled in a way that felt more tepid than dramatic but still genuine, stood side by side, a small distance between them. Beyond them, Rebecca held Sue close as they looked up together.

When this winter ends, they’ll likely leave my side, each carrying their own stories and reasons.

It’s a thought that brings a tangle of emotions, but for now, we simply awaited the arrival of the delivery from above.

Bzzt

The K-walkie-talkie crackled to life.

"Help! Help!"

It was the kids from Sergeant Jang’s group.

"We’re freezing to death here! Somebody help us! Please! It’s just kids here! We’re begging you!"

I reached to turn off the power, irritated, but the thick double-layered gloves made it difficult. Just as I pulled the walkie-talkie out to press the button directly, I heard a voice laced with unexpected childlike excitement.

"Oh? What’s that? Hey, look up! Look at the sky!"

It had been a while since I’d heard such innocence over the radio. Almost simultaneously, Sue’s delighted exclamation rang out behind me.

"Ah!"

Sue, who had been scanning the skies with her sniper-grade observation gear, pointed upward.

"There!"

Following her gesture, we all looked to see a silver metallic object descending straight toward us. It resembled a bomb, with its metal casing glinting ominously in the sunlight.

"Should we get out of the way?" Defender glanced around, clearly calculating the best escape route. But Sue’s laughter cut through his anxiety.

A parachute deployed.

On the capsule’s surface, black marker scribbles were visible:

-Recipient: SKELTON (First discoverer of human-mutant harmony)

"What the...? What’s that?" Defender cocked his head, puzzled, while his sister looked at me with equal confusion.

Rebecca and Sue turned their questioning gazes toward me, but I stayed silent, watching the slowly descending package. It drew closer, carrying with it 5 kilograms of hope.