Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

Bang! Bang!

If people were still living here, there’d be quite a few noise complaints.

Bang! Bang!

That sound wasn’t gunfire.

It was the sound of tires being blown out on the abandoned cars in the village.

Son Tae-gang gave me a disapproving look.

He had run his mouth for ages, only for me to go in a completely different direction from what he wanted. It clearly didn’t sit well with him.

“...Then why ask me anything at all?”

The way he muttered, obviously for me to hear, made it clear he was pissed.

“Must be because you're one of the elites. So assertive. So sure of yourself.”

But truthfully, a big part of why I chose this method came from his own suggestion.

He’d claimed the ones who killed the villagers were professional hitmen sent by some powerful figure.

A reasonable theory.

The internet streamer, unlike the other villagers, had clearly been killed recently and with deliberate brutality.

Which meant the murderers were still here.

Probably to keep a lid on things—to stop more flies from swarming in.

They’d taken over this village under orders.

So I thought about what would matter most to them right now.

A means of escape. Something they’d need desperately if things went south. To run from the law. To enjoy the spoils of murder.

Bang!

Another tire burst.

The noise echoed through the entire village.

One of the guys on perimeter duty came up to me.

“There was a quick flash of light from that isolated house on the northeast hill.”

“Yeah?”

I stared at the house he pointed to.

Then nodded.

“Keep going.”

Bang! Bang!

We had overwhelming firepower.

Didn’t matter if the enemy were North Korean mercs or deranged psychos who enjoyed killing—against thirty well-trained troops, they wouldn’t have much of a chance.

Bang!

Which is why we didn’t need to make the first move.

All we had to do was force them to come out.

That was one of the few useful lessons I’d gotten from Jang Ki-young.

Sure enough, the isolated house on the ridge showed subtle movement.

I burst another tire and called the team together.

“We capture them alive.”

We surrounded the house.

It was nestled in the middle of a thinning forest, the leaves beginning to wilt in late autumn.

The house itself was a prefab—nothing fancy—but the wide property showed traces of care: an outdoor deck, a gazebo, a brick pizza oven. Personal touches were scattered everywhere.

The yard had once been maintained but was now overrun with weeds and strewn with random trash.

A large doghouse stood empty.

Faint tire tracks ran through the weeds, garbage, and the space near the doghouse.

I signaled to Lee Sang-hoon.

There was a hidden spot behind the house where a car could be parked.

If we messed with that, the bastards would definitely react.

But we weren’t about to play into their expectations.

Clack—

I raised the large-caliber rifle.

Sighted in on the center of the house.

Bang!

The heavy recoil slammed into my shoulder as the bullet tore through the wall of the prefab house.

As the echo of the gunshot rolled across the ridgeline, I watched the building carefully.

Movement on the second floor.

Bang!

I fired again.

“This is like some American mafia movie.”

Son Tae-gang muttered behind me with an incredulous expression.

I ignored him and kept firing.

It didn’t take long for a result.

“Surrender! We surrender!”

Two scrawny, disheveled men came stumbling out with their hands in the air.

Lee Sang-hoon and the others pinned them to the ground and restrained them.

I walked over to the men lying prone and asked:

“Just the two of you?”

“He’s dead!”

One of them shouted in a raspy voice.

“Got taken by the monster!”

The other one nodded, face pale.

“It’s still here! Somewhere around here! It’s hunting us! We need to run!”

They were terrified.

Their eyes were fixed on the withering slope of the mountain.

“Is it some kind of large predator?”

They nodded.

“It was huge. Black. We were talking and smoking and it just came out of nowhere and dragged Dong-won off.”

There was no lie in their fear.

I left the rest of the interrogation to Lee Sang-hoon and began scouting the area.

The so-called mutations—these giant, twisted beasts—were still poorly understood monsters back then.

Biologically, they were animals native to Earth. But no one could explain how or why they had become so massive and cunning.

Some claimed Earth creatures had simply mutated under unknown causes. Others dismissed it as physiologically impossible.

The biggest issue was the absence of a “missing link.”

Sure, animals had mutated under certain causes. But no one had ever found a creature caught in the act of transforming—until I discovered a mid-mutation specimen in China, long after this.

Whatever their origin, there was no denying mutations were extremely dangerous.

Survivor testimonies pouring out of India at the time made it clear: they were just as deadly as any monster.

“...Guess it depends how you look at it.”

Clearly, Son Tae-gang was more interested in me than the case.

Even now that the killers had been found and the incident more or less resolved, he still had his camera on me.

“You’re not filming the murderers?”

I usually didn’t show irritation, but that line got to me.

It was obvious his interest wasn’t out of admiration. It was the petty obsession of an older man who wanted to teach someone a lesson.

“Doubt that’d make a good shot.”

He didn’t even bother with polite phrasing anymore.

He looked up at the hazy autumn sky through dried-up leaves.

“Shooting victims is more impactful.”

“Victims?”

Gunshots rang out in front of the house.

I rushed over.

One of the hitmen was convulsing with a bullet through his skull, while one of the female trainees was being restrained by the others, trying to kill the second one in a blind rage.

“What happened?” freēwēbnovel.com

I didn’t remember her name clearly, but I remembered her type.

A churchgoer.

A devout believer. Principled. Not prone to violence or extremism.

“They found the VIP’s kid.”

Lee Sang-hoon answered.

His next words explained why that calm, collected woman snapped.

“We don’t know about the boy, but the girl was found. She was alive until about an hour ago. When we started closing in, they strangled her. But...”

Lee made a bitter expression.

“...she’d been seriously abused. It was bad.”

He spat on the ground, face pale.

I looked at Son Tae-gang.

What he’d said just moments ago about “victims”—the current scene was a perfect counterpoint.

But he didn’t seem inclined to walk it back.

“It’s all relative.”

“You’d say that in front of a murdered child?”

He met my gaze.

“Probably.”

I considered it.

Whether or not to kick him out.

“Park Gyu, you’ve heard the term ‘frame,’ right?”

I ignored him.

Instead, I turned toward the forest.

Sure enough, there were several unnaturally broken branches.

Some were quite thick.

Done by something bigger and stronger than a human.

No footprints, but something had killed people and terrified those hitmen.

I followed the path of broken trees up the slope.

Even on a steep incline, Son Tae-gang followed closely, ranting like he was giving a lecture.

“Outside of a few absolute values, most things in life are relative. That’s why I called those North Korean hitmen victims. Sure, to the dead girl, they’re monsters—but if you compare them only to animal-type monsters, they’re just more scared prey.”

He grinned.

“That’s what a frame is.”

“...”

“Same incident, completely different meaning depending on how you shoot it. I wanted to teach you that, Park Gyu.”

“Why me?”

I stopped searching and turned to glare at him.

Later, even Jang Ki-young would say that look of mine was cold enough to make his skin crawl.

So it wasn’t surprising that Son Tae-gang flinched.

Back then, I was sharper, more dangerous.

“There are plenty of other cadets.”

Maybe he was trying to laugh it off, maybe not. But with a forced grin, he said:

“Because you’re the most promising one.”

Jang Ki-young knew how to use the media—but he didn’t let it use him.

He normally forbade interviews with students.

But this time, he allowed it.

Which meant he and Son Tae-gang had reached some kind of deal.

“He’s still just an instructor, right? Anyway, he said you’d rewrite history once you get to China.”

“...”

“I know him well enough. Never praises anyone. But he went on and on about you. That alone made me think—maybe it’s worth sticking near Park Gyu, even just for a while.”

His words didn’t matter.

My ears were open to more than just his babble.

They picked up something.

Something beyond.

While Son Tae-gang kept his focus squarely on me, with the ridge behind him, I sensed it.

A shift in the air.

A moist breath hiding in the silence.

Clear, deliberate killing intent.

I silently switched my rifle from safety to single-shot mode.

He kept talking.

“Like monsters, right? People say monsters and rifts will destroy the world—but maybe that’s just narrow-mindedness.”

I let him talk.

Because I knew how mutations thought.

They were as smart as people. Smart enough to understand the meaning of our behavior.

They knew humans dropped their guard during conversation. Whether by experience or intuition, they got it.

Even those killers mentioned it.

They were chatting and smoking when the beast suddenly appeared and snatched their friend.

It was the same setup now.

Son Tae-gang was distracted. His cameraman was focused on him.

“The world is all about perspective. You’ll make a great Hunter, Park Gyu—but I want you to remember there’s more than one way to look at things.”

It was right in front of me.

About 30 meters out.

But I couldn’t see it.

The dense forest and shadows blocked visual contact.

A mutation has to be killed in one strike.

If you don’t, it’ll only get stronger and smarter.

That’s a known fact, regardless of what Son Tae-gang believes about “frames.”

“I could easily get a director’s seat at a major broadcaster. I’ve got the résumé. But I won’t. You know why? Because then I’d have to shape my stories to fit the mainstream frame.”

As a Hunter, you have to keep every sense open.

It’s the bare minimum when you’re fighting enemies that defy comprehension.

“I hate that. I want freedom.”

The beast stopped moving.

I instinctively knew it was watching me.

I searched for what was missing—then figured it out.

“I have a question.”

It was my voice.

You can’t have a conversation alone.

The beast in the shadows knew that.

As soon as I spoke, it began to move again.

I stared into the dark and continued.

“Do we really have to break the world into frames like that?”

Son Tae-gang looked confused.

I wasn’t looking at him.

I was tracking the predator moving in the dark.

“I don’t get the point of that question.”

“Why can’t we just see things as they are?”

“Even that’s a frame. People have first-person perspectives, not omniscient ones.”

Before he could finish, I raised my gun.

The crosshairs hovered 5 centimeters past his head.

His face went pale.

Calmly, I said:

“I see things differently.”

Bang!

I fired.

The bullet probably whistled past his ear loud enough for him to remember forever.

Not my problem.

While he sat there stunned, seconds away from falling on his ass, I zeroed in on the enemy.

A massive, dark shape had just leapt toward him from beyond the trees.

It looked like a dog.

A huge one.

It had aimed for the back of his neck—but the bullet I fired—

Thock!

—had pierced its eye.

Its leap failed, and I shot again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The massive body toppled over Son Tae-gang and slammed into the ground in front of me.

I felt the tremor through my feet as I switched to automatic and fired a kill burst.

Tatatatatatatatatata!

The monster’s jaw to belly exploded in a line of shredded flesh, guts, and blood.

I confirmed it wasn’t moving anymore.

Then finished it.

Bang!

I looked down at Son Tae-gang.

He really had been through some tough assignments—still glaring at me with annoyance, even after narrowly avoiding death.

So I said, deadpan:

“I try to see all sides of things. Not just through a frame.”

He scowled.

“Because if you’re trapped in a narrow frame, all you’ll see is less and less.”

The comms crackled.

It was Lee Sang-hoon.

“Kang Han-min just found the VIP’s son.”

“Yeah?”

“They found him cut up, stuffed in a septic tank. Half-dissolved. If it wasn’t for Kang Han-min, they’d have missed him. That guy’s weird like that, right?”

As everything came to a close, Son Tae-gang spoke again.

“You don’t know a thing.”

He left, chilled.

“Nothing’s been resolved.”

Maybe he was right.

The media never covered the incident.

The contract killer we caught? Hung himself in holding the next day.

Not long after, construction resumed on that luxury shelter.

And Jang Ki-young got offered the principal position.

But none of that really mattered to us.

We Hunters fight the threats that come at us in the moment.

And those threats always come from the blind spots.

Which is why we have to see everything.

Even if it’s impossible, we have to try.

Still, I couldn’t deny—I’d been trapped in my own frame, too.

“Sunbae, are you free this weekend? I got two tickets for a play. Want to come? You don’t have a ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) girlfriend, and you’re heading to China in two weeks anyway.”

I brushed off Woo Min-hee’s feelings as curiosity.

“Sorry. I have to attend an event.”

I ignored the clear sadness and disappointment on her face.

Now, after countless days had passed, she stood before me again.

“What? Is there something on my face, sunbae?”

The mood had changed a lot since then, but she was still my lovely junior.

“You look pretty today.”

She gave a little snort and turned away.

“Okay, you jerk. I’ll give you a bunch of likes today.”

Yeah. Still a pretty junior.