Chapter. 10 Lead and Silver Coins (3)
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[‘A father who became addicted to games and neglected his family, and a daughter who wandered around without receiving any attention. One day, the father hears that his daughter has had a serious accident, and although it is belated, he hurriedly moves to resolve the accident…’ Wow – looking at you like this, you really look like trash.] ‘Why would I be
so desperate to play a game? ‘Who was the reason that I had no choice?’
[Um~~~ You?]
Quick!
The professor barely swallowed the swear words that welled up in his throat. This was because Cynthia, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was looking at him with an anxious expression.
“So… are you going to our village now?”
“okay. Anyway, we received protection money from those people in our name, so we can’t just sit back and watch. “I’ll have to check out how that ‘village’ works to find out how I’ll react.”
“….Sorry.”
“I told you not to apologize. People can make mistakes. As I said before, you just have to avoid making the same mistake again.”
Boom!
I started the buggy with one hand and gently stroked Cynthia’s head.
The reason I was angry at Hyde’s words was because those playful words were true.
‘Cynthia… has serious mental problems.’
In my opinion, Cynthia’s kleptomania was a struggle closer to a survival instinct rather than greed.
‘The only people I experienced in my short life were my adoptive parents who abandoned me three times because of the Underdom people who were always fighting. ‘If you’re dragged around empty-handed like a broken toy, you’re bound to become obsessed with what’s left in your hands.’
My adoptive parents abandoned me three times before, so I will be abandoned again this time. So, somehow, I have to have a lot of ‘my stuff’. Then, even if something is thrown away, there will be something left – maybe you didn’t think of it this way?
[You were desperately preparing to become independent?]
‘Strictly speaking, for young children, there is no such thing as something that is 100% their own. These are all things given to me by my parents. In that sense, Cynthia, who changed parents four times, including her biological parents, lost everything she had four times. As a result, I started to think that I should have something that was purely my own rather than something I received from someone else.’
I am partly responsible for this situation happening. A child who had been abandoned repeatedly was brought into the home and no attention was paid to it. It’s strange if the child isn’t anxious.
So Cynthia takes care of it.
“Don’t discriminate against people! “If people can make mistakes like you said, why don’t I take care of it!”
“Even if you get hit, you still cum, you bastard. They say you take responsibility for teaching them. But the kid is spinning around like that and you don’t even know what? Shooting training? Tactical movement in the city? “Are you out of your mind?”
“Since the child is going outside, we need to develop his survival skills even more! I also looked into the community and found that the more important education is, the more effective it is if it is taught at a young age! If I, who have been trained as a guerrilla since the age of sixteen, are like this, then Cynthia, who has been trained since the age of ten, will become the greatest assassin ever to be seen in the wasteland…”
Bah!
“Ahh!”
“I’m proud of you, you bastard. If that happens and the child becomes a fighting machine like Rambo, is that the way for him? This ideology is irreverent, you bastard. “Have you been running around so much since morning that you haven’t even seen your child?”
“I’ve seen it a few times! Since I was doing well on my own, I went looking for teaching materials! Now look! “Here’s what I caught this morning!”
Bex dodged my left hand swinging at the backseat and opened the bag he had been carrying since morning.
“Jiik!”
“Squeak! “Sweet!”
hold. It was a large rat, well over 30 cm long, covered in strange bodily fluids.
“Mouse snail? “Where did you get that?”
“Kihihi! How come your thoughts change? “I’ve been wandering around the wet and humid areas of the wasteland just to catch this thing… Wouldn’t this guy, who is quick, doesn’t die easily, and only gets scratched when attacked, be the best as a moving target?”
“Yes, I guess my thoughts have changed…”
I was convinced as I watched Vex take out a struggling rat snail from a bag. I said I shouldn’t leave Cynthia’s education to him.
‘I had to go to the dome and talk to the president, and stop by the hospital… and I also had an appointment with Speed Wagon.’
As I remembered what I had to do today in my head, my heart became anxious and I pressed my foot on the accelerator with a little more force.
“Um… Professor? Do you know where to go? Shall I tell you?”
“no. “There is one person who I vaguely know.”
I parked my car on the street I had become so familiar with over the past five years, feeling the rough sound of the buggy engine and the number of people around me increasing one by one.
Shopping street three-way intersection.
If I remember correctly, there was someone sitting around here in room 2 at that time to listen.
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Kang Geum-pil. He thought that making quick choices in life had made him who he was today.
Despite my parents’ opposition, I studied technology early on instead of going to college. By the time I was forty, I was able to become the owner of ‘Geumpil Steel’ and make a living. Even when the war broke out and soldiers flocked to the shelter and lined up for men only, there was no other way. Instead of standing up like other people, he stepped forward and announced that he was an engineer.
Unlike other men who were drafted, he was able to enter a safe underground shelter with his wife and son because he was a metal engineer who knew how to fix important facilities such as air conditioners and refrigerator gas systems, and that he could make anything with the right tools and materials. I later found out that it was a refuge created only for the rich, and among those people who had no production ability, he was able to live an enviable life as one of the few professional engineers.
Having survived after numerous choices, he now completely trusted his own judgment.
That was the reason why he took out his old business card, the only thing left, along with a photo of his departed wife, when the person who had been waiting impatiently with the alarm of the crime prevention device installed after moving into the new house appeared.
“It’s an honor, Professor Park! This is Kang Geum-pil, the president of ‘Kumpil Steel’!”
It could be said that his intention worked quite well. First of all, I succeeded in confusing the professor.
The professor carefully examined the gold business card he had suddenly received. A business card that is a bit worn at the corners, but still has beautiful gold leaf. Nowadays, it is impossible to make such elastic business card paper or apply gold leaf on it, so this business card itself was a kind of certificate proving that he had been working in this industry since before the war.
“Let’s see… You are the person who is active in the Whitesmith community under that name, right?”
“Yes yes! you’re right! You remembered! “I didn’t expect you to come visit me in person…”
“Because he sent the address in the chat room. “I came down at the right time to ask a question, and although I didn’t intend to, I happened to be a neighbor, so I came down to see his face.”
“I… told you the address? “I don’t remember doing anything that dangerous…”
“I know everything.”
As I leaned back in my chair and spoke as if I ‘knew everything,’ I noticed that a man named Kang Geum-pil and his son sitting next to him were nervous.
‘This is the only place in the collapsed shopping center intersection that can be used as a residence.’
This is an alley that I have been searching through for five years. Which alley is good for cover, which is a good place to ambush, this is a good place to take refuge when the shelter is occupied, etc. I have all the places in my head that could become major bases in the neighborhood. This is the place that immediately came to mind when I heard in a chat room that it was located near a three-way intersection.
Sure enough, as soon as I stepped near the entrance, a loud alarm sounded and this man came out.
Slurp –
The professor took a sip of the mushroom decoction water that Park Geum-pil had brought for tea. Bex, with a slightly nervous expression, took a quick peek and ate it and reported that there was nothing wrong with it. I quite liked the unique bitter taste.
“Okay, Mr. Geumpil. “The fact that you showed out your business card and said this… must mean that you want to work in this area in the future, right?”
“That’s right! Since I was moving in a hurry, I only brought portable equipment, so I am confident that I can make anything made of metal as long as I can bring all the equipment I used from where I was before!”
A man who shows strong pride when talking about work. The professor became suspicious of his actions.
technician. They are valuable, high-quality human resources who can handle everything from the first step of processing materials to repairing low-quality electronic products.
Five years had passed since the end of the war, and most of those who survived had already established themselves. No matter how much I thought about it, it seemed nonsensical for a technician like this to abandon the stable foundation he had built over the past five years and devote himself to a group called BDSM, a group of which there were only rumors and no special achievements.
Two hypotheses immediately came to mind. Either the claim that he was a technician was a lie, or he was someone who left the previous group because something went wrong.
The first thing I could see the moment I stepped into the house. A pile of miscellaneous iron and coal piled up in one corner of a fairly neatly organized house. Shovels and pickaxes that shine like new, as if they were just made. It seemed clear that the person doing this work was because they had piled up that much coal, which is not as expensive as gasoline but is quite expensive as a heating material.
As if the man had sensed the professor’s suspicion, he opened up about why he came here before asking.
“You were in an underground bunker for the rich, but things turned strange and you escaped?”
“Yes. I was busy repairing facilities all day and didn’t think much about it, but the rich people who couldn’t do anything productive were going crazy one after another after living in that small space for years. Because someone had intentionally destroyed the external communication device, no one knew what was going on outside, so no one knew about the end of the war or about the mutant virus. “When people realized that the building on the ground had collapsed and the entrance was completely blocked, they lost their last semblance of reason.”
“By any chance… wasn’t there another exit to the ground in that bunker? “There’s an elevator for equipment behind the management office…”
“You sure know all about that… Ah! Come to think of it, the professor was also present during the recent bunker battle in Area 45! yes! There was an elevator that could take a large car up and down without a problem. The bunker management, who did not know what was going on outside and that a mutant virus had swept the world, said that this terrible virus should not be allowed to go out into the world, so they turned off the power to the facility and crushed the elevator door with a tool. As a facility manager, I escaped through a vent with some of my not-yet-crazy friends.
The professor and Bex listen calmly with motionless expressions. However, under the table, they were poking each other’s thighs and making rapid-fire military hand signals.
[Forward, forward, forward, target survivors passing by!]
[Sudden encounter, hiding civilians!]
Area 45 underground bunker. Park Geum-pil was a survivor of the underground bunker in Area 45, which had long ago become a den of mutants when they arrived.
“I came out like that and was devastated that the war was over and the world was in ruins. Then I was taken by scavengers and lived until recently making armor and swords according to their requests. Among the scavengers killed in the bunker battle were those I was a member of. After becoming free, I was conflicted about where to go and how to live, and then I heard that BDSM had allowed me to live nearby, so I came here right away.”
“Then, the people who escaped from the bunker together at that time…?”
“Some passed away because they could not endure the endless, harsh labor like slaves, but those who survived are now here with me.”
‘yes!’
The professor internally clenched his fist.
How can they eat the technician they are so desperately looking for in the dome raw like this?
To be honest, even if I received protection money, I thought I would just eat up the small amount. It would be a different story if these high-quality human resources came in on their own. Even if they were quietly locked in a bunker until the end of the war and were rolling around among the scavengers, they suddenly burst out and were swallowed up by a hole. I felt a sting on my thigh once again
, so
I glanced over and saw Bex sending military hand signals under the table.
[Wrong information ahead]
[Confirmed. [I am aware of it]
I knew that there were some lies mixed in.
‘If you really behaved like a slave, you wouldn’t have been active in the community under your own name. It meant I was guaranteed break time and had my own personal computer.’
It probably wasn’t a lie that he was captured by the scavenger. Perhaps he was treated roughly at first, but his skills were recognized, he worked faithfully, and he was treated fairly as a member of the company. While actively killing people and brandishing guns in territorial disputes.
‘You said you made your choice with your own mouth. If you played the community, there’s no way you wouldn’t have known that Dome gives such preferential treatment to technicians, but I made a choice… I was trying to get ahead of this guy.’
[Preemption? What?]
‘A position like a founding credit gained by contributing to a newly emerging group. ‘It’s better to have a snake’s head than a dragon’s tail.’
The professor glanced at the man sitting across the table, who was looking at him with confident eyes. That attitude of lying without even blinking an eye in a fairly coercive situation with a body built through hard work. He was moderately greedy and selfish, and was quick-witted and had a good sense of situational judgment. I liked that he lied and said he stabbed me without making a fuss. If he were a docile worker, he would have to take care of every single thing, but if he was this kind of person, he would take care of himself appropriately.
“Well, okay. pass!”
As the professor spoke while putting a business card in his pocket, both Park Geum-pil and his son, who had been looking nervous, also brightened up.
“Ha, if you pass….”
“Until now, you have only listened to my child and been ripped off, but this means that from now on, we will work as a full-fledged member of BDSM.”
Contrary to the judgment that it was a fandom that would flare up briefly and then disappear, the reputation of ‘Hero Professor Park’ did not fade easily, and people had already gathered around his house to form a community.
Turning away from this situation would only make the problem bigger. Since we already had a group of people together, we thought we would put it to good use, and wasn’t there someone who was very suitable for middle management right in front of us?
“Mr. Geumpil. “Aren’t you going to clean up this neighborhood properly instead of doing it in a haphazard manner like you are doing now?”
I knew the answer without having to hear it. Even before I came here, he was making too many shovels and pickaxes for me to use alone.
“I have a friend who has a background in architecture! The people sitting two blocks away said they were working as a dismantler, so just tell them to do it and they will show you the results you will be satisfied with!”
Geumpil grabbed the professor’s right hand with both hands. Thinking that his judgment was not wrong this time too.
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