Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 128.6: The Tower (6)

There is no such thing as a meaningful death in this world, but records remain.

What is recorded and how it is recorded depends on the one who keeps the record, but any record is more valuable than nothing at all.

Back in China, what made me famous was a series of achievements I had accomplished, but to be honest, what the professors appreciated the most was my meticulous reporting.

I never once missed submitting a detailed and structured report.

Even if I were to die on the battlefield, I believed that what we felt and saw, our actions, and their consequences had to be passed down to future generations. I put more effort than others into preserving records.

Even after retirement, that habit remained.

Especially when it came to important tasks, I used to save records in screenshots.

The Eomchang incident that once shook all of PaleNet was no exception.

I took screenshots of every step and stored them in a separate folder: the preparation process, the provocation against Woo Min-hee, the one-on-one chat that became an issue, and Woo Min-hee’s furious reaction.

All of it is stored in my folder under “Internet First-Person Perspective.”

roxanneGIRL: (I’m Skelton) Soo! I have a favor to ask!

I never thought I would have to use these records.

I had intended to take the secret of being Eomchang to my grave.

But given the current circumstances, I can't afford to be picky with methods.

I asked Soo to enter my bunker, find the hidden folder on my computer, and send me all the files inside.

roxanneGIRL: (I’m Skelton) Memo – TS – UC folder. Send everything inside to me.

roxanneGIRL: Ah, but don’t touch the South America folder next to it!

I could have asked Rebecca, but Soo was smarter and better at keeping secrets, so I made the special request to her.

Message from COOKIEMONSTER18: Okay! I’ll send it soon. But Skelton, why can’t I touch the South America folder?

roxanneGIRL: Privacy.

Message from COOKIEMONSTER18: (Soo, disappointed) So this is the kind of woman Skelton likes...

roxanneGIRL: (Skelton, innocent) ?

Message from COOKIEMONSTER18: Sending the files now~

“......”

I won’t dwell on unnecessary thoughts.

Pushing aside distractions, I sorted through the screenshots Soo sent.

As expected, everything was still intact.

A page of history from when I once clashed with the monster named Woo Min-hee on PaleNet.

Now, I will upload these records.

Under the name of RoxanneGirl, not Skelton.

roxanneGIRL: To commemorate the one-year anniversary of PaleNet’s demise, here’s a confession.

The only things I need are the proof saved in my “Internet First-Person Perspective” folder.

And a simple but powerful confession.

—I am, in fact, Eomchang.

“......”

Next step: mobilizing votes.

roxanneGIRL: Soo! Use this account and all my bunker alt accounts to upvote this!

I’d like to mobilize the Defender siblings’ accounts too, but considering what kind of unspeakable horrors might be in their folders, it’s best to spare Soo from exposure for educational reasons.

A moment later, a comment appeared.

Anonymous458: What the hell is this?

Anonymous458, huh.

A pureblood oldbie I respect, reacting swiftly as expected.

However, the response was not as enthusiastic as I had hoped.

The reactions I was looking for came not from the old guard, but from the newer users, the ones closer to fresh recruits.

Anonymous1702: What? LOL Eomchang?! LOL is this for real?

Anonymous1844: Whoa, seeing this brings back memories! PaleNet was a million times more fun than this miserable forum.

Anonymous2033: This is peak PaleNet energy. The world went to hell, but the internet was at its most entertaining back then.

Ah, they were PaleNet veterans after all.

Must have been exhausting pretending to be normal users when it didn’t suit them.

Anyway, one thing was clear—they were nostalgic about the infamous internet persona “Eomchang.”

More and more users, most of whom were probably murderers, started commenting on my post, and the number of upvotes soared accordingly.

And just like that, my confession post hit the trending section.

A minor detail, but this was further proof that Soo was smarter and sharper than her mother.

SKELTON: What’s this? Eomchang? What’s that...? So scary...

She even made up an alibi without being told.

I’ll have to prepare something juicy for her as a reward.

Anyway, amid the growing storm, today’s main guest finally made an appearance.

Ding!

A message arrived.

Message from gijayangban: Hello? ^^

It was Woo Min-hee.

“Ballantine, let’s begin.”

But Ballantine didn’t look happy.

“Right now...?”

As expected.

This was a reaction I hadn’t seen from him before.

This whole situation was purely my selfish initiative.

I hadn’t properly considered Ballantine’s feelings at all.

Subconsciously, I had treated him lightly, assuming that since he wasn’t a combatant, he didn’t contribute objectively to survival.

But in truth, Ballantine was feeling immense pressure from this mission.

Though he hadn’t shown it before, my reckless plan had piled on another reckless plan, and he was finally letting his discomfort and anxiety slip through.

“...Sigh. If I have to do it, I’ll do it. No choice, huh.”

Of course, he was about to spend three days alone in that pitch-black warehouse, taking on an entire workload by himself.

All while living with the fear of Woo Min-hee arriving at any moment.

“...Sigh. Sorry for complaining, but this is going to be rougher than I thought.”

I felt guilty toward him.

But this was something that had to be done.

It wasn’t optional.

It had to be now.

I was even willing to risk my life for it.

“I’ll stay with you. I’ll protect this place till the end.”

Whether my feelings reached him was uncertain, but at least Ballantine adjusted himself to match my resolve.

“If you say so, Skelton.”

Ballantine let out a bitter smile and pulled out an old, faded photograph from his coat.

“Hm? What’s this?”

It was a picture of John Nae-non.

Before the radiation exposure, back in his prime, armed with absurdly exaggerated muscles, standing alongside Ballantine and now-deceased comrades.

“Oh, this? It’s from when we were drafting PaleNet.”

“There were quite a lot of you.”

Five, no—six, counting the woman standing in the back, who didn’t seem like a core member.

“Yes. Back then, John Nae-non was still fine, and Seoul still had some stability. More than anything, there was hope that the world would return to how it was. We believed PaleNet could serve as a bridge between the war’s devastation and the recovery period.”

Everyone has their own perspective.

And I had just heard one I had never considered.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

A bridge between the war’s devastation and the post-war recovery—PaleNet, as something more than just chaos.

Someone like me, steeped in ruin, could never have thought that way.

Only someone who still viewed the world with hope could.

Ballantine stared at the photo and murmured softly.

“I hope there’s an afterlife.”

Then, he walked toward the shattered ruins ahead.

“I’d like to have a drink with our old leader there and hear his thoughts on what I’ve done.”

The fact that I had no words of comfort for him stung.

Our bond was one of necessity, formed because I needed him.

There was no grand speech I could offer him.

All I could do was follow his mood.

“...If I get there one day, can I join you?”

“You too, Skelton?”

“Yes. Hopefully, there’ll be a black-market raw meat joint in the afterlife.”

Ballantine looked slightly surprised.

His face seemed to be asking how I knew that name.

Without a word, I raised a fist.

Ballantine did the same in response before stepping alone into the darkness.

“Ballantine, entering.”

Through the transmitter, I heard Hong Da-jeong’s voice.

It was time to begin.

Beyond that half-open door lay the all-seeing eye that detected every intruder.

The moment Ballantine stepped into that space, his presence would be encoded as an intruder and transmitted to Woo Min-hee’s comms in Paju.

But I would trap her.

“......”

Tap, tap, tap.

roxanneGIRL: Hi~

This is what I, as a professor and an internet user, Skelton, can do.

Message from gijayangban: Who are you? Hm? Tell me the truth~ You know who I am, right? ^^

roxanneGIRL: ?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I never had much of a fantasy about Eastern-style enlightenment, but right now, I needed to forget myself.

Forget myself, forget Buddha, forget the world.

What remained was Eomchang—another, separate, detached self.

I had to play that role.

“......”

Tap, tap, tap.

roxanneGIRL: Who are you?

roxanneGIRL: Are you... my aunt?

Message from gijayangban: Aunt, my ass, lol... You're older than me, dumbass.

roxanneGIRL: Huh? Why are you getting ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) mad all of a sudden? Do you know me?

Message from gijayangban: You’re Park Gyu, aren’t you?

“......”

Looks like Woo Min-hee has completely lost it.

Calling a senior by name without even a respectful title?

The thought of the violence she might unleash sent a chill down my spine, but that chill was also a sign that things were going well.

roxanneGIRL: Yeah, I’m Park Gyu. And who are you? Mini? Mini-mini?

roxanneGIRL: Ten years younger Mini~

roxanneGIRL: Mini in mind~

Message from gijayangban: Say one more word, and you die. ^^

roxanneGIRL: Thx.

Message from gijayangban: ?

roxanneGIRL: Thanks.

Message from gijayangban: I’m tracking your IP right now, lol...

roxanneGIRL: Eomchang is tracking IQ too!

As the suffocating exchange of attacks and counterattacks continued, a familiar voice echoed from the comms.

“We’ve arrived.”

It was Ballantine.

He had successfully entered the warehouse and boarded the vehicle in question.

“I’m activating the equipment now. Don’t disconnect the Wi-Fi. I need to follow the manual to operate this thing.”

The operation moved to the second phase.

While Ballantine remained in the warehouse, motionless, operating the equipment from inside the vehicle, I spread another bait on the internet.

roxanneGIRL: Where PaleNet sleeps.jpg

This second bait was, in a way, a tribute to a lost era.

I had a simple set of photos: an old apartment building where my role model, John Nae-non, had once lived, the stairs leading underground, the lead-sealed iron door, and the server room that had once been filled with light.

I still regretted not taking a picture of John Nae-non himself, but I understood his wish not to be captured in his current state. I didn’t dwell on it.

What mattered was preserving a fragment of PaleNet—an era that would never return.

Gruman_B: Was this PaleNet’s headquarters? Looks like a dump.

Anonymous2033: They ran a massive server out of this?

Anonymous1702: No wonder it went down. No wonder. But thanks anyway.

SergentKP: This is interesting.

...

...

Users I didn’t recognize were getting nostalgic.

Anonymous458: Wow. So that’s where it was?

Dies_irae69: John Nae-non. A real one.

keystone: That bastard John Nae-non. I didn’t like him, but at least he did something before dying.

Rkkara: Tch. John Nae-non. Sorry, man!

SKELTON: Holy moly.

...

...

Users I knew well were also reminiscing about the ones who had left.

Of course, this gathering wouldn’t be complete without the internet’s ever-present lunatics.

MORUS: I wonder what John Nae-non’s skin felt like?

Anonymous1941: That guy probably raped and killed women too, right? I bet he did. Lol.

KIM_DONG_HUNG: Beautiful man, so moving~! ! ! !

...

...

It had been a while since I last felt it.

The internet was a place where everyone could exist.

The dark side of that wasn’t up for debate right now.

It simply was what it was.

The internet was another world where people lived.

A world without problems was just a fantasy.

Perhaps the only place where that phrase would apply was a world where all of humanity had been wiped out by monsters.

What mattered was connection.

“Yes. The communications are online. Send the message to DeadmanWalking quickly.”

Connecting people to people.

It wasn’t John Nae-non’s original intent, but in the end, it was the value he exchanged his life for.

As the one inheriting his will, I followed in the footsteps of the giant he had been.

“......”

Tap, tap, tap.

roxanneGIRL: As promised, I have activated a large-scale broadcasting system in Korea.

Now, I wait.

For the response of the one who delivers the voices of the dead.

“......”

Woo Min-hee’s continued silence was slightly concerning.

No way... she’s not heading straight here, is she?

No way she already knew from the start that Eomchang was Park Gyu and just got angrier playing along, right?

“......”

What’s done is done.

All that remains is to see the outcome.

Woo Min-hee.

No matter how hysterical she is, she wouldn’t actually kill me... right?

Not to brag, but I’m pretty good at groveling when I need to.

As the tension-filled moments passed, a message arrived.

Message from Deadman_working: Confirmed. I will now send the stream of the dead’s voices your way.

Does this guy even sleep?

Doesn’t matter.

The faster, the better.

To be honest, I didn’t want to meet Woo Min-hee here.

“Skelton! It’s coming! It’s happening! A massive transmission is being received!”

Message from Deadman_working: Sending you the Necropolis manual. Follow these steps, and anyone will be able to hear and speak to the voices of the dead through their phones without needing a special app.

Message from Deadman_working: But even without all that, they’ll figure it out. The signal makes their antennas glow.

Message from Deadman_working: The thirsty will find the well.

roxanneGIRL: I just need to run it for three days, right?

Message from Deadman_working: The system’s in better shape than I thought. Two days. Two days will be enough.

The momentum was good.

Very good.

But then—

Message from Deadman_working: Remember that minor issue I mentioned before?

A minor issue?

I checked my messages.

Oh.

Right.

I had mentioned this before.

Message from Deadman_working: The voices of the dead attract monsters.