Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

Chapter 8: Demian04 and Yuri

Most of us doomsday enthusiasts are almost exclusively men, and usually single men at that.

I've never seen a female participant at John Nenon's gatherings, nor have I ever read a post on the community where someone implied they were a woman.

If you think about it for a moment, the reasons become clear.

Doomsday enthusiasts, in other words, are those who pray for the world to end and live their lives in anticipation of doomsday.

If they were grateful for the current state of the world and living in harmony with it, they would probably wish for the present to continue rather than prepare for doomsday.

If the monsters suddenly disappeared and there was no war, what would have become of our fate?

In my case, Park Gyura, it would be utterly fucked...

Not just a downfall, but a plunge into the abyss.

The evidence of this is still intact on my phone, which now has no signal.

[Web Message] (Shinheon Bank) Mr. Park* Gyu, Notice of Scheduled Auction for Collateral Loan

[Web Message] (Sanwang Money) Mr. Park Gyu, Notice of Debt Assignment Regarding Lady's Loan Delinquency

[Web Message] This is Sinra Credit Information. http://sinramoneytaker.co.kr/....

As if pouring cement on a pile of crap wasn't enough, in the end, I didn't have enough money and went so far as to take out a loan with no intention of paying it back.

It was hard to imagine that there would be a cheerful female user in a place where such gloomy guys gathered.

However, recently, a female user appeared without any warning.

It had been one year and seven months since the war began.

Living in a bomb shelter for over a year, everyone experiences a common problem: a lack of excitement.

I don't drink or smoke.

If I'm in a safe place, I might have a light drink, but drinking alone is associated with addiction, and addiction leads to death.

Cigarettes are a reasonable form of entertainment, but they are also valuable barter items and have the power to summon people.

As someone who had been forcibly abstaining from smoking for a long time, I knew first-hand that the sense of smell of a human being was no less than that of a dog.

However, it was not easy to find entertainment elsewhere.

They don't broadcast dramas at the broadcasting station every day of the week, and there are no places to meet friends for a drink.

I don't have a team to play sports like soccer.

If people pursuing group survival were to come, I wouldn't know, but people like me pursuing individual survival can't even play table tennis.

I thought about taking up fishing as a hobby, but I gave up because the radiation levels at nearby reservoirs never seemed to decrease.

As time went by, more guests came, and as the time spent in the bomb shelter increased, my hobbies naturally turned into things I could do inside the room.

Honestly, at this point in time, the most fun entertainment would probably be the "Viva! Apocalypse!" community for us doomsday enthusiasts.

It's a place where people with similar thoughts gather to talk about their common plight.

There are also strange users like AI MJ, Dongtanmom, and Defender, but there are also exemplary users like me.

At this point, more than a year has passed since the war began, and even I, who used to be a lurker for years, were actively posting on the community.

The reasons are complex.

I was bored, of course, and I could feel the joy of communication. And I didn't want to see our precious community disappear as I watched one comrade after another disappear.

The result is as follows:

SKELTON: (SKELTON Daily) Dinner tonight, hehe

SKELTON: (SKELTON Story) Hot news I heard on the military frequency yesterday

SKELTON: (SKELTON Making) I tried making a felt doll!

SKELTON: (SKELTON Video) SKELTON's Beatbox (3)

For some reason, my appearance on the community was becoming more and more like John Nenon.

But I didn't completely imitate John Nenon.

John Nenoneonly added "(John-nenon)" as the title, but I wanted to make it more elaborate, so I added detailed topics like "(SKELTON Video)" behind the title.

However, unlike John Nenon, I had no popularity, and my views, likes, and comments were non-existent.

I had no talent in drawing or writing, and I had no knowledge to teach others.

It was the limit of an ordinary guy with no special skills.

Looking at users like DragonC, a webtoon artist who drew his daily life in a beautiful comic style, or Anonymous 118, who uploaded various homemade games despite their crudeness, I couldn't help but feel like I understood why John Nenon was so heavily criticized.

As I continued to work in the lowest ranks of the popular cast, I naturally noticed friends who were similar to me one by one.

Even though their views were close to binary, they still posted self-written novels with determination, grotesque individuals who took pictures of their own naked bodies with baseless confidence, and those who serialized Simongki's Diary, like Simongki Papa.

Among this subgroup, there was a user named Demian04.

He consistently uploaded self-drawn pictures done with a ballpoint pen, and in terms of talent, not even a hint of it was visible.

His subjects were always long-haired women (at least that's how they appeared), and he drew their breasts ridiculously oversized (even if we excuse it as overly exaggerated).

But Demian04 went a step further by attaching two rice cookers to the women.

Did you have trouble eating during your infancy?

Demian04 mainly uploads contemporary art drawings and rarely writes posts expressing his thoughts or opinions. His consistency in uploading grotesque and poorly drawn chest monsters (that's how they appeared) might be the reason why I remember him.

But suddenly, this guy started talking a lot.

(Search Results: Semian04 - 4,553 results)

...

Demian04: Yuri, you're so beautiful~

Demian04: I picked a flower for you and took a picture today.

Demian04: Current status of Demian's food storage.jpg

Demian04: (Demian04 Food) Dinner tonight, a bit lonely to eat alone~ hehe

Demian04: (Demian04 Art) Fanart of Yuri!!

Demian04: (Demian04 Story) Just chased away refugees...

...

"Hmm?"

No, why is this person suddenly imitating me?

Actually, those strange titles are John Nenon's trademark, but I took it over and improved it nicely.

Demian is imitating me, not John Nenon.

I have a rough idea of the reason.

Not to brag, but I've gained some modest popularity lately.

SKELTON: (SKELTON Story) Memories with Chairman Jepungho (1)

I unravelled stories about my encounters with chaebols in a charming way, which captivated the hearts of users on the demanding Viva! Apocalypse! Korean board.

The third part, which could be considered a climax, even made it to the popular posts.

It seems that Demian also read that post.

But why did this guy suddenly become so talkative?

In times like these, during the apocalypse, it's not uncommon for people to suddenly go crazy or engage in behaviours they didn't do before.

Accumulated stress, hidden truths, external threats, diseases and radiation, drugs, anxiety about the future, and so on there are plenty of things that can drive us insane.

In Demian's case, it was clear that he had gone mad through a different route.

Demian04: (Demian04) Fanart of Yuri!!

I clicked on one of Demian's posts to check the content.

As always, he had drawn a long-haired woman, his speciality.

Although it was terribly drawn, not much different from before, there was one noticeable difference in Park Gyura's eyes, who had enjoyed all of his drawings.

He put in effort.

A lot of effort.

I suddenly had a question.

Who is this person, Yuri?

A real person? Or a girlfriend from his imagination? I've never seen such a person on the community.

In the first place, there are no women in this world.

Unable to find an answer, I asked the community for advice.

SKELTON: (SKELTON Question) Who on earth is Yuri?

The person who helped was unexpected.

Message from Defender: Seems like you blocked her. Try turning on the function to show blocked user posts.

It was the Human Hunter.

This guy is a psychopath who randomly commits murders in real life, but in the community, he's a user who stammers a bit but only speaks the truth.

So, in real life, he's a complete lunatic, but on the internet, he's a wise sage. Isn't it usually the opposite?

Anyway, I accepted Human Hunter's advice and turned on the "show blocked user posts" function, and the hidden truth was revealed.

Yuri_need_man: Yuri's here~

Yuri_need_man: Took a selfie after doing makeup for the first time in a while

Yuri_need_man: Feeling down

Yuri_need_man: Wanna go to Starbucks

...

...

"What is this?"

It's a woman.

Moreover, a young and beautiful woman. Although she didn't reveal her entire face in each post, the glimpses showed a flawless early 20s beauty.

She had a provocative style of dressing that emphasized her figure, and I remember she had quite a few tattoos.

The location wasn't inside the bunker; these were not past photos but current ones.

However...

"Huh?"

My sense of righteousness, dormant for a long time, suddenly solidified.

This is a trap.

Why on earth did I block this user, Yuri?

I didn't block Yuri.

I blocked the person using Yuri's account.

I checked.

Yuri_need_man's Account Information

Account ID: viva103472

Nickname: Yuri_need_man

Number of posts: 10,323

"As expected."

In the Viva! Apocalypse! forum, nicknames can be changed anytime, just like chat room nicknames, but account IDs are unique and cannot be changed.

I searched using the account ID to find this account's original nickname.

kurogod: My dad's fortune is around 120 billion won.

kurogod: I miss caviar~ American prime steak can't satisfy my taste buds~

kurogod: The Bentley I used to ride before the war~

kurogod: If I had gone all-in, I could have built a much better bunker than you guys~

...

Kurogod. This guy is one of the four people I blocked, along with Defender.

He used to write fake diary entries and spew nonsense.

From his behaviour, he seemed young, but I remember that the texture of the skin on his hands in his verification photos made him look older than me.

The problem is that this guy has been missing for a year now.

A friend who wrote a diary every day without fail suddenly disappeared for one reason and one reason only.

He was robbed of his bunker and murdered.

But the people who killed kurogod are playing a very interesting game.

After taking everything Kurogod had, they discovered our community, and they're targeting my cheerful comrades with a young and beautiful woman as bait.

Human Hunter said one word.

Defender: Do you think anyone would fall for this idiotic fishing?

Yes.

Demian04: (Demian04) Yuri~ You're really beautiful today too~ (Heart-fluttering emoticon)

It's Demian04.

He chased after Yuri in every post she made, enthusiastically pressing the like button and praising her.

Some of the users with big mouths tore him apart.

Especially a user named SUNBI was the most aggressive in criticizing Demian04.

SUNBI: Well, if a young friend does this, what can you do. Learn to control yourself. I'll send you a video privately, so have a good time with yourself and be a philosopher~

That's fine up to that point. It's healthy for a man to be infatuated with a beautiful woman.

Besides, the real-time photos of Yuri in leggings that she took had a destructive power that even I felt like saving.

However, everything comes to an end.

The looter soon revealed her true intentions.

Yuri_need_man: I'm lonely and need protection. Is there a man who can let me stay for just one night?

The looter dangled the bait of death.

An irresistible weapon, along with a brain-melting picture of a woman in lingerie.

One result flowed past me as if it were a prophecy.

Demian04: Y-Yo!

The prophecy had come true.

Demian bit the bait in less than a second.

"Oh... damn it."

One year and a half have passed since the outbreak of the war, and our community users, while not as close-knit as Rupert Leichter Palace, had a somewhat strong sense of solidarity. Therefore, everyone joined forces to criticize him, even Psycho Human Hunter.

Of course, I, Park Gyura, played my part as well.

SKELTON: (SKELTON Advice) Demian, please, you can follow my lead, so please look at reality.

The most vehement criticism of this situation came from Sunbi.

SUNBI: Yuri, I warn you. If you lay a hand on our community as a whole, you will never get away with it!

As the community's backlash grew, the looter changed tactics.

Yuri_need_man: Many people are jealous, so let's talk via DM~

Direct messages, meaning private messages among themselves.

It's a natural course of action, but after that, no one saw Demian04 again.

Sunbi, who had been trying to correct Demian's behaviour, seemed disappointed by the incident and disappeared without a trace.

The most mysterious outcome of this incident was Yuri's disappearance.

Perhaps they had planned to have a little fun and then disappear, the wolves who had disguised themselves as community users. They never appeared on the forum again.

***

A week passed since then.

For some reason, I became curious about Demian04's past.

What kind of person was he before and during the war?

He first started his activities immediately after the war.

Back then, he posted only artwork without much talk.

At that time, his favourite subject matter was landscapes, not crudely drawn women with large breasts.

Unlike his crude portraits, his landscapes were outstanding, particularly a landscape he named "No. 04," which depicted a sunset over the sea with a solitary lighthouse island. It was incredibly beautiful, to the point where I printed it out and hung it in my bunker.

I thought that had concluded the Demian episode, but there was more to the story.

Defender: It might be a bit late, but here's Yuri's verification

Demian04 was not the only one who attended Yuri's murder conspiracy.

Our human hunter was also there, and he mercilessly killed all the looters and the women, and now he had posted the verification photos on the forum.

What he posted was not just looters.

Our former brothers also verified, concealing their faces.

The bodies of those who were stripped and beaten to death had a different feel from the looters killed by the human murderer.

But it's not just one, it's two.

Why two?

Defender: Who do you think is the other one?

Who could it be?

Defender: 10

10?

Defender: SUNBI.

"Ah."

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