Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 115.1: Happiness (1)

Bzzzzt---

The radio transmission carried a voice from a distant companion.

"Yeah, I'm alive. I wouldn’t die so easily from something like this. Ah, and of course, my mother is doing well too."

Bang Jae-hyuk, a 15th-generation survivor, spoke in a slightly hurried tone, confirming his well-being.

"Here? Incheon. I can’t take my mother too far. What? How is it here? I'm just living, that's all. Not like I have anywhere else to go. What? The Professor’s bunker? No, they’re building a settlement around it? How many people? What kind of equipment do they have? Any warlord factions or raider camps nearby?"

Despite his fast speech, Bang Jae-hyuk’s cautious and calculating nature became evident.

I wasn’t sure if he was satisfied with the conditions, but he expressed his willingness to join my territory.

"Of course, I’ll bring my mother along. And I have some supplies too. I could leave them behind, but honestly, it'd be a waste. If your place is big enough, they might come in handy."

Bang Jae-hyuk requested a vehicle.

At that point, I turned to Cheon Young-jae and asked about him again.

"Bang Jae-hyuk’s mother? She’s a good woman. Well-mannered."

"She’s an excellent cook," Ha Tae-hoon added from the side.

"She can make delicious meals out of almost nothing."

Cooking, huh.

A valuable skill.

Cooking wasn’t just about taste—it expanded the range of edible ingredients.

I had no idea which of the countless weeds growing around my territory were edible.

There had been a series of posts on the old forums about identifying edible wild plants, but the one time I tried it, I ended up with food poisoning. I never made that mistake again.

"Alright. Tell him to bring his mother along."

Honestly, my instincts pointed the other way.

No matter how you sugarcoat it, an elderly, non-combatant person was just dead weight.

But Bang Jae-hyuk was a skilled marksman and well-connected with the hunters from Incheon.

If I was going to accept new people, it was better to take in someone who wouldn’t clash with my existing members.

Besides, I was starting to wish for more combat-ready personnel—enough to set up proper night watches.

And Defender seemed eager to show me something.

"You have to come with me for this one," he said.

Defender was infamous on the forums for his killings, but from what I’d observed firsthand, he was just as skilled at scavenging.

According to Da-jeong, he had a knack for finding hundred-dollar bills in the trash.

If Defender and I were going to spend more time outside scavenging, we needed someone capable of guarding the base in our absence.

The timing worked out.

There was no need to hesitate.

All we had to do was bring Bang Jae-hyuk and his mother back.

I had just started preparing for the trip when—

"Young-jae."

Bang Jae-hyuk spoke.

"Yeah? What is it, Bang-senpai? Your knee acting up again?"

"I saw Moon-hee."

Moon-hee? ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

A woman’s name?

I wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation until I saw the change in Cheon Young-jae’s face.

"Moon-hee?"

For a brief moment, the usually unreadable man with his ever-present cheerful mask showed raw emotion.

Pure surprise.

Joy.

Then regret.

The three emotions flickered across his face in rapid succession.

"She was in Geyang. I took my mother to the market there, and I saw her walking by. I couldn’t have been mistaken—she still has that ankle tattoo."

Cheon Young-jae didn’t say anything in response.

Once the transmission ended, I turned to him.

"You’re going after her, aren’t you?"

He hesitated briefly before meeting my gaze and nodding.

*

The danger of Mutations often gets downplayed compared to Monsters.

In terms of sheer destruction, Monsters are a far greater threat.

But that’s only on a macro scale.

If you put one Monster and one Mutation side by side, the one that poses the more immediate threat to human survival is the Mutation.

Monsters, existing outside the boundaries of life as we know it, don’t consume food. They simply exist, occupying space.

Mutations, on the other hand, need to eat—just like humans.

And most of them see humans as prey.

With firearms and group tactics, ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) humans could theoretically hunt and consume Mutations in return.

But in environments where those conditions weren’t met, humans were nothing more than easy prey.

The most terrifying thing about Mutations wasn’t just their large, powerful bodies.

It was their intelligence—the ability to chase a human right to their doorstep.

Intelligence breeds experience.

A Mutation with a history of hunting humans could be as deadly as a seasoned soldier.

"Why is that bastard following Senpai?"

The "Black" that appeared in my territory was one of them.

Like "Gold," who I had once formed a connection with, "Black" was nearly human in intelligence.

Which meant it needed to be taken out as soon as possible.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

The problem was—it was one of the most troublesome types of Mutations.

"That thing is a ‘Three Sacred Beasts’-class."

In the past, certain Mutations in the Seoul region had earned names.

There was Red, whom I first met when I encountered Defender.

There was the infamous Murder Owl couple.

Most of them had frozen to death in the brutal winter, but back then, they were such a major threat that the Incheon government had put a bounty on them.

"There were the ‘Seven Calamities,’ the ‘Five Mysteries,’ the ‘Three Sacred Beasts,’ and then... the ‘One Supreme.’"

"What’s the ‘One Supreme’?"

"No one knows. There was a report about an unidentified beast appearing near an outpost. Shortly after that, entire bases started disappearing. We’re talking fully armed platoons—wiped out overnight."

Ha Tae-hoon was driving.

For this trip, I had only brought hunters from Incheon.

They knew the area best.

And in a way, this was their problem to deal with.

"Wait."

Ha Tae-hoon suddenly slammed the brakes and threw the vehicle into reverse at full speed.

An ambush.

A corpse—still fresh, not yet bloated—was lying in the middle of the road.

Beyond the body, faintly visible under its leaking fluids, was a spiked metal plate.

A trap designed to shred tires.

As we sped backward, flashes of light flickered from the forest.

Gunfire erupted.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Before the gunshots rang out, I had already ducked.

The front section of our diesel truck was reinforced with steel plates.

Most firearms wouldn’t be able to penetrate it.

However, the windshield was only protected by additional plating on the edges, leaving a large exposed area.

If we were unlucky, a stray bullet could come through and kill someone.

We could have armored the whole thing, but visibility took priority over defense.

A clear view meant we could spot threats first and react accordingly.

"You bastards!"

Cheon Young-jae clung to the truck like a leech, firing back even as the vehicle lurched from sudden stops and starts.

Bang! Tatatatang!

Ping!

A bullet embedded itself in the lower body of the truck, but we ignored it.

One of the advantages of electric vehicles.

Once we made it to a safe zone, I pulled out my phone, checked the stored map, and searched for an alternate route.

As I scouted for another path, we continued our previous conversation.

"That ‘One Supreme’—there were rumors it was an Awakened."

"A Mutation that’s Awakened?"

"It sounds ridiculous, but how else do you explain a single beast wiping out military outposts one after another?"

"Hmm. I’ve never seen a case like that, but... what about the Three Sacred Beasts?"

"One of them was a big cat—a leopard, to be precise. It must have been privately owned before the world collapsed because it still had collar marks around its neck. It was practically a human wearing an animal’s skin."

It wasn’t much of a conversation, but from this brief exchange, I once again realized how battle-hardened Cheon Young-jae and Ha Tae-hoon were.

They had just survived an ambush, any misstep could have killed them, yet they kept talking as if nothing had happened.

"The black one that showed up this time is similar," Ha Tae-hoon continued. "It probably lived in areas with fewer people, which is why there weren’t many rumors about it. But in terms of cunning, it’s at least two levels above that leopard."

Ha Tae-hoon was right.

The "Black" Mutation in my territory was no ordinary creature.

It used feline instincts to detect our position, then positioned itself accordingly.

If there were no obstacles between us, it wouldn’t show itself unless it was at least a kilometer away.

And when it did close the distance, it moved swiftly from cover to cover, shifting its timing just enough to make predicting its movement difficult.

That level of misdirection confirmed one thing: this thing had extensive combat experience against humans.

It avoided gunfire but wasn’t afraid of people carrying guns.

It understood that firearms were dangerous, but it also knew they weren’t invincible.

And judging by the way it mercilessly killed drifters like they were nothing, this Mutation was incapable of coexistence.

It had to die.

But I hadn’t gone after it yet because I needed to be absolutely certain of the kill.

A rushed shot would be a disaster.

A creature that cunning wouldn’t give a second chance—it would relentlessly seek revenge.

Beasts don’t understand human concepts like forgiveness or negotiation. Their grudges can only end in death.

The only way to take down Black was with a long-range sniper shot.

It had to be taken out with a single bullet from over a kilometer away, in a location it considered safe.

How well Bang Jae-hyuk performed would determine everything.

But reputations rarely lied.

"...So she’s still alive."

Ha Tae-hoon’s voice was low.

Thud!

The vehicle jolted violently.

We had moved onto an unpaved road to bypass the broken highway.

Once the truck stabilized, I turned to Ha Tae-hoon.

Wearing his usual baseball cap, he stared at the road ahead, his voice still subdued.

"Young-jae’s girlfriend."

"They split up?"

"Yeah."

"Who dumped who? Let me guess—the girl dumped him?"

"You know him too well."

"Why?"

"That bastard, Young-jae—he’s sharp, resourceful, and knows how to take care of himself. But for some reason, when it came to his girlfriend, he acted like a damn kid. All the stress he bottled up outside, he let it out by whining to her."

"Huh."

I didn’t know that.

Cheon Young-jae was on my side, but he still had plenty of mysteries about him.

Then again, if a person only had one side to them, their life would probably be pretty dull.

Maybe not dull—more like an endless chain of obligations.

"What was she like?"

Ha Tae-hoon didn’t hesitate for even a second before answering.

"Nothing like Jung-ho’s sister."

Da-jeong was cute, but she wasn’t popular.

She was warm to me, but she kept her distance from others.

And according to Valentine, she carried a cold, unsettling aura—something only those who had truly survived the apocalypse could sense.

Some even speculated that the drifter who showed up in my territory yesterday wasn’t killed by the Black Mutation but by Da-jeong.

After all, the drone that had chased the drifter had a brick attached to it.

When the drone returned, the brick was gone.

"She was a bright girl."

Cheon Young-jae’s ex must have really been a cheerful person.

Even Ha Tae-hoon, always calm and indifferent, wore a faint smile just thinking about her.

"She lit up every room she walked into."

Beyond the green jungle, patches of ochre dirt appeared, signaling the approach of a settlement.

Our destination—Camp 73 Refuge.

"Damn! Even after detouring, we made it so fast!"

Cheon Young-jae looked unusually cheerful.