Chapter 4
“I found it. For all of you!”
At Park Ji-in’s words, Soccer Guy next to her quickly nodded.
“That’s right, isn’t it Mom?”
“Huh? Uhh… I guess so.”
I noticed Mom avoiding eye contact with me by lowering her gaze.
‘Hmm…’
I narrowed my eyes and observed the three who had explored the food room.
‘Has it begun?’
As an apocalypse and doom genre maniac, I knew well how vile humans could become when survival is threatened.
Should I expose their wrongdoing right now?
…No.
I decided to observe the situation a bit more first.
It would do no good to heighten everyone’s anxiety and suspicion immediately.
In this situation, if I suddenly accused them of hiding the food supplies, no one would believe me, and if asked how I knew, I’d have nothing to say.
Having made up my mind, I kept my mouth shut. The discovery of food had excited the man with glasses.
“They said they found a radio in the other room!”
“Yeah, a radio! The radio should work!”
Soccer Guy quickly chimed in, shouting.
“No need to get excited over this cheap food! The military will come soon, drive away that monster, and rescue us anyway.”
Everyone’s faces, except for mine and Baek Yi-heon’s, filled with hope.
✦
In the large room, the nine people gathered around the radio.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen a real radio.”
“The phones are still out, but the radio broadcast is working?”
“Uh, how do you operate this thing? I’ve only used smartphones for so long, I’ve forgotten the frequencies.”
“Try tuning between 88 to 108 megahertz.”
I casually threw that out.
I felt Baek Yi-heon’s piercing gaze on me from where he stood beside me.
What? Never seen a survival genre maniac before?
Meeting my gaze, he was the first to look away.
Glasses Guy slowly turned the frequency wheel on the radio.
Starting from 88, the static noise rose and fell as he tuned right in small increments.
And just as the frequency passed 100,
“Huh? I hear something!”
《We repeat. Due to the emergence of strange creatures around 2 PM today, April 1st, most areas of Seoul have been destroyed.》
“…What?”
“Seoul… destroyed?!”
Despite the shock among the people, the voice on the radio continued in a grim tone.
《The military is fighting with all their might, but the creatures are impervious to any physical attacks including guns and missiles, making suppression difficult.》
Right.
I inwardly nodded.
That was the very reason the monsters could destroy human civilization so quickly.
The creatures emerging from the tower didn’t belong to this earth.
They are demonic minions belonging to Asura’s Realm.
Therefore, to inflict damage on them, one must awaken special abilities by contracting with the Guardian Deity.
‘And the first to awaken was the protagonist.’
With a strange feeling, I gazed at Baek Yi-heon, listening to the radio broadcast before me.
《I, Kim Dae-gi from DBS News, pledge to report the current situation until the end as my duty as a journalist. Citizens in hiding, please stay strong.》
With that, the radio broadcast ended.
“……”
“……”
For a moment, a deathly silence enveloped the air-raid shelter.
No one could easily speak.
“…Unbelievable.”
Finally, Glasses Guy quietly muttered, his complexion pale as a sheet.
“A dream? This can’t be real, can it…?”
Park Ji-in mumbled.
No, maybe this reality is actually a novel.
I inwardly muttered as I gazed at Baek Yi-heon’s solemn, statue-like face.
✦
For a while, the people were reeling in shock, but it didn’t take long for them to came to their senses.
With survival at stake, they couldn’t afford to wallow in despair.
Staying alive was the priority.
The first to grasp the reality of the situation was the middle-aged woman with a child.
“So, what do we do now? We don’t have enough food to stay here forever.”
She spoke while tightly hugging her frightened child.
Then the man in the soccer outfit stepped forward.
“We have a radio here, and more importantly, food supplies. Wouldn’t it be better to remain here and wait for further government instructions?”
“I agree.”
“Me too!”
Mom, Park Ji-in, and Glasses Guy nodded.
“I don’t really care either way. Not like I can do anything even if I go out now…”
Suit Guy sighed and mumbled in complaint, which essentially meant agreement.
Only the middle-aged woman feebly expressed disagreement with an anxious tone.
“But, but I have a family. I wonder what my husband is doing…”
“So? Does anyone not have family?”
Soccer Guy, who had been pretending to be friendly, suddenly scowled menacingly.
“You wanna go out alone and open that iron door, with the monster still out there? You tryna get us all killed?”
“Th, that’s not it…”
Cowed by his menacing attitude, the middle-aged woman trailed off. The child seemed uneasy, burrowing deeper into his mom’s embrace.
“Until we hear new outside news, let’s just obediently, safely, stay here, okay?”
Then Soccer Guy’s gaze turned towards the child huddled tightly in her arms.
“….Think of your child.”
At his gaze, the woman hurriedly pulled the child deeper into her embrace.
I stared intently at the child clinging like a cicada to his mom’s waist.
“So, everyone agrees, right? What’s that saying, unanimous consent, right?”
With no one objecting, Soccer Guy’s mood quickly improved as he nodded.
“What about the food supplies?”
Park Ji-in swiftly asked.
“Um… I dunno. Can’t we just share them amicably?”
“‘Just share’? We don’t know when outside contact will come. We need to divide them fairly!”
Glasses Guy angrily stepped up.
The others nodded in agreement.
“Fairly? Divide them equally you mean? …Hmm. But.”
After pausing as if in contemplation, Soccer Guy spoke up.
“Don’t men generally need to eat more?”
“What kind of nonsense is that!?”
Park Ji-in immediately raised her voice in protest.
“No, blindly dividing equally isn’t fair either! And then, what about the kid… no, the child? Should we give him an equal share too?”
At Soccer Guy’s words, Park Ji-in, who had just advocated for ‘equal’ division, wore a troubled expression.
“Let’s just divide them equally.”
At that moment, a deep baritone voice reverberated through the room.
It was Baek Yi-heon, who had remained silent with arms crossed the entire time.
‘I wondered why the moral paragon protagonist stayed quiet.’
I thought grimly.
Soccer Guy opened his mouth, seeming a bit flustered.
However, seeing Baek Yi-heon’s physique that stood out despite the t-shirt and cardigan, taller by two heads, he controlled his anger.
“Well, I, I guess. Dividing equally will be easier too, right? Then…”
Soccer Guy shamelessly added,
“Let’s all take out any food we have and divide it up fairly.”
How is that fair at all?
At his words, I made an exasperated expression.
I couldn’t believe his audacity.
It was clear that his fluorescent soccer uniform pockets were empty. That’s why he wanted to share everything.
The man with glasses, seemingly having the same thought, shouted,
“How is that fair? The food in the bunker isn’t owned by anyone, so it should be shared, but what individuals have should remain theirs!”
The Glasses Guy making this argument had a bulging backpack slung over his back.
“Now, now. This is not the time to fight, but to unite our strength. At least until the military or police come rescue us, we’re trapped unable to open that iron door.”
Soccer Guy, mumbling, threateningly puffed out his slightly muscular torso and said.
“Before that, if we end up fighting over food among ourselves, what good will come of it?”
At those words, Glasses Guy flinched and shrank back.
“……”
“……”
The others seemed to agree, nodding and not objecting to Soccer Guy’s statement.
This time, even Baek Yi-heon didn’t step in, remaining still.
The utilitarian in him must have found the man’s words reasonable.
Looking around the group, Soccer Guy nodded and spoke.
“Alright then, let’s all take out whatever we have and gather it. And we’ll divide up the food supplies.”
Glaring at Soccer Guy with resentful eyes, Glasses Guy eventually gave up and opened his backpack.
All it contained was a 500ml bottle of drink and a pack of jellies.
‘He complained over just that measly amount of food?’
I silently stood, staring at Glasses Guy in disbelief.
Then Park Ji-in’s sharp gaze landed on me.
Noticing that I wasn’t carrying a backpack, she smirked.
Then, suddenly acting concerned, furrowing her brows, she asked me.
“Oh? Noah, didn’t you have a big backpack when you left home?”
✦
Thank you for reading! ♡
