Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The government built a refugee camp at the foot of a nearby wooded hill.

The camp was thrown together in just two days.

And calling it construction was generous. They pitched tents, pulled electricity in from a temporary supply line, connected extension cords, and tossed in field cots, blankets, and various other relief supplies. And just like that, a refugee camp was complete.

Our family, who had been staying at a motel, was also sent to the hastily built refugee camp.

“Colonel Cha, this way.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

Thanks to the fact that my father was a commander in the Regional Defense Force, our family ended up living in the best tent.

It was a prime spot—close to the wash area, the shower facility, and the administrative office that distributed relief supplies, yet far enough away from the toilets.

Even so, it was still only one tent among countless others in a refugee camp.

“Huh?”

While I was unpacking our things, I saw Kim Duhyeon walking past with a bundle of electrical wire and metal pipes on his shoulder.

“Hyung!”

Kim Duhyeon recognized me and smiled brightly.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came for part-time work.”

“Part-time work?”

“I already lost my job, so I have to do something if I want to eat. Ha. I used to be a full-time employee, too.”

“What about insurance?”

“If I had it, I wouldn’t be here.”

The insurance we were talking about was [Disaster Insurance].

Put simply, it referred to policies that covered property damage caused by a Transference phenomenon or a Monster Wave.

The problem was that the premiums were incredibly, absurdly expensive.

In this era, disasters did not mean floods or earthquakes, but monster invasions and military bombardments, so it was only natural that the premiums were so high.

And there were not many people who could afford premiums that costly.

How were ordinary people supposed to pay monthly premiums ranging from several million won to tens of millions?

Then what did the government do?

If the government tried to compensate people every time a Transference phenomenon occurred—dozens or even hundreds of times a year—it would have no way to survive either.

In this age, the government’s role amounted to little more than putting up places for people like my family, who had become refugees overnight, to stay in and delivering relief supplies.

South Korea at least managed to keep society functioning because its pool of Hunters was so deep. In poorer countries, governments often collapsed altogether, and people did not even receive this much support.

“What about you, hyung?”

“Same here. How could common folks like us possibly afford those premiums? Still, since my father is in the military, we should at least get some kind of official residence eventually. We’ll have to wait a while, though.”

“That’s good, then. I don’t even have that. Haa.”

Kim Duhyeon let out a sigh so deep it seemed the ground might sink.

“I was living in a studio apartment nearby, but the building collapsed in the bombardment. It looks like I’m not even getting my deposit back.”

.........

Good grief.

It was enough to make even me want to cry.

“What about you, hyung?”

“Me? I’ll manage somehow.”

“I’m seriously jealous of you, hyung. Haa, I want to Awaken too.”

“Looks like we’ll both be staying here for a few days, so say hello if you see me around.”

“Yes, hyung. Take care.”

Kim Duhyeon bowed and then headed toward the area where more tents were being put up.

The guy really was working hard to get by.

But Kim Duhyeon was not the only one.

A large number of the laborers building the refugee camp were residents from our apartment complex.

Having lost their homes and everything else in an instant, they were probably trying to earn at least a day’s wages doing manual labor.

‘Maybe I should help out a little.’

I did not have anything else to do anyway, so I rolled up my sleeves and headed for the work site.

***

“Hup.”

I set down two large water containers filled with drinking water inside our family’s tent.

“Oh my~ That must have been heavy. You worked hard, didn’t you~?”

My mother, who had been preparing dinner, smiled softly.

“Oh, it was nothing. This much is no trouble at all.”

“You’re so dependable, my son.”

We had lost our home and become refugees only a few days earlier, yet there was not a trace of worry on my mother’s face.

That was probably because my mother was an extraordinarily strong person.

My mother had once been an athlete and a coach, and her sport had been badminton.

Back when she had been an active athlete, she had been an Olympic gold medalist, beautiful, and in excellent shape, so her popularity had apparently been tremendous.

Even now, if you searched for my mother online, you could still find pictures of her in her younger days, and even now she was striking enough to make anyone think she had been a great beauty.

But that was not why I thought of my mother as a strong person.

She had practically raised my younger sister and me on her own.

That was because my father, an officer in the Naval Special Forces, had often been away from home due to repeated deployments.

And after humanity began to come under attack from monsters, my father had no choice but to neglect the family, since he had to go out on operations several times a month.

How many people in this world could practically raise children alone, send their husband off to the battlefield day after day, and still face their children with a smile, without a word of complaint?

Even when my father had died, my mother had gritted her teeth and forced herself through the grief.

In a bleak situation like this, my mother’s strength shone all the more brilliantly.

Just as I respected my father, I respected my mother deeply as well.

“I’m going out for a walk.”

“All right.”

I stepped out of the tent and wandered along the foot of the mountain.

Life in a refugee camp was generally dull.

People like my father and younger sister, who still had work or school, could at least come and go each day. But my mother, now a homemaker, and I, an unemployed man waiting to enlist, mostly just spent the whole day blankly staring into space.

But this kind of dull routine helped me quite a lot.

It had only been about ten days since I had regressed into the past, so I needed time to cool my head and think.

It had been only ten days since I had killed, with my own hands, the men I had once believed were my comrades.

And before that, I had spent three years consumed by revenge, my eyes bloodshot all the while. Strictly speaking, I was not entirely sane right now.

And the me of this era and the me who had spent ten years as a Hunter, enduring every hardship under the sun, were practically different people.

So for the time being, I planned to cool my head in the refugee camp and try to regain some psychological stability.

And think a little about the future.

“Oh? Hyung!”

Had I been walking for about an hour?

On the way back, Kim Duhyeon called out to me.

Seeing him on a motorcycle with a delivery box mounted on the back, it seemed he had reinvented himself as a delivery rider.

His life was turning out to be quite eventful too.

In just a few days, he had changed jobs three times, going from apartment security guard to day laborer to delivery rider.

“So you’re a rider today?”

“Looks that way.”

Kim Duhyeon flashed a grin.

“What about you, hyung?”

“Me? I’m unemployed.”

“Aren’t you going to register as an Awakened?”

“I’m thinking about it. I haven’t decided yet.”

“Come on, wouldn’t it still be better to register?”

“I think that probably would be better. I have to sort out the military issue anyway.”

“Oh, right. You said you hadn’t served yet.”

“I had originally been preparing to enlist as an Officer Candidate, but that probably won’t work out anymore.”

“An Officer Candidate?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t planning to stay in the military for long—”

“Wait.”

Kim Duhyeon suddenly narrowed his eyes and glared at me.

“Didn’t you say you were thirty-four?”

Damn.

“What kind of thirty-four-year-old becomes an Officer Candidate?”

“Uh. Well.”

“Come to think of it, that is strange. Being handsome is one thing, but you don’t have the face of a thirty-four-year-old.”

“T-take care.”

“Where are you going? You need to explain yourself, don’t you?”

“Sorry! See you later!”

“Hey, hey!”

“Drive safely!”

“You’re not thirty-four, are you?! Come to think of it, now I’m pissed! You shot at me!”

“Huh?”

“Get back here, you bastard!”

VROOOOM!

Kim Duhyeon came after me on the delivery motorcycle.

Th-this was bad. He might actually catch me.

“Yes! An order!”

“An order?”

“You! Just you wait!”

Kim Duhyeon spun the motorcycle around and disappeared somewhere.

.........

No matter how badly a man needed to make a living, did he really want to accept a delivery order in the middle of all this?

In more ways than one, he seemed to have an astonishing instinct for survival.

‘Awakened registration...... I should do it, shouldn’t I? There’s no real reason to hide who I am.’

I was thinking that as I nearly reached my family’s tent.

BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG!

Gunshots rang out without warning.

“......!”

By reflex, I drew my pistol and scanned the surroundings.

Of all places, the gunshots had come from the tent right beside my family’s.

“O-oppa!”

Eunha, who had just returned, was looking at me with a frightened face.

“Take Mother and get somewhere safe.”

“All right!”

Leaving Mother in Eunha’s care, I cautiously approached the neighboring tent.

I was at a slight disadvantage without my Plate Carrier, but it was still less of a burden than before now that I had Awakened.

As long as it was not a headshot, I could endure a bullet or two.

Maintaining a point-shooting stance, I carefully pulled aside the tent flap and stepped inside.

“Ah.”

I let out a sigh and lowered the gun.

Inside the tent sat a familiar middle-aged man, slumped down with a half-vacant expression, while nearby a middle-aged woman and a student—presumably his wife and child—lay collapsed with their heads blown apart.

I remembered him.

That man had been the owner of the fried chicken shop in the shopping arcade at our apartment complex.

“Heh heh! It’s over. It’s all over. Heh heh! Fuck......”

He choked out through tears.

“This fucked-up world...... monsters or whatever else...... once you die, that’s the end, right? Heh heh! Hic! Heh heh heh!”

I could not even tell whether it was laughter or sobbing.

But one thing was certain. That middle-aged man, grinning as tears streamed down his face, had completely fallen apart.

Slowly, he pushed the gun barrel into his own mouth.

“Hoo.”

Letting out a long sigh, I stepped back out of the tent.

BANG!

A gunshot rang out behind me.

***

In the refugee camp, suicide was not especially rare.

Just think about it.

What do you suppose the atmosphere is like in a place filled with people who had lost their homes, businesses, and families overnight?

A refugee camp was usually steeped in grief and despair.

That went doubly for a newly built one.

There were people like my family, who stood firm and tried to endure it, but the truth was that there were even more who could not.

‘I should register as an Awakened and move us out first.’

I was fine, but I could not leave Eunha and Mother in the refugee camp.

There was no telling when another suicide or a mass shooting might happen.

“It’ll take some time before official housing becomes available. There aren’t any empty units right now......”

My father must have been worried about the same thing, because he carefully opened his mouth in the middle of dinner.

“Father.”

“Speak.”

“I’ll take care of the house.”

“You?”

“I’m going to register as an Awakened. I have to resolve the military issue anyway.”

Once you registered as an Awakened, you were exempt from mandatory military service.

On top of that, the state gave you a house, a car, and even a generous allowance.

Of course, nothing in this world was free.

One way or another, I would get dragged into all kinds of troublesome work.

But if our family was going to escape this life as refugees right away, registering as an Awakened was the only way.

“Don’t do it.”

“What?”

Wait. What had I just heard?

“Don’t do that just because of the house. Just enlist, live an ordinary life in the military, and then come back out.”

My father’s words were far removed from what I had expected.