Chapter. 10 Lead and Silver (13)
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The world became like this and many strange things happened.
A teenage boy whose life was all about books, movies, and games took up a gun, lost his father, dug in the jungle, farmed, stole, and even became a survival expert.
I wandered after losing my mother, learned how to live alone, and fought monsters that made it impossible to believe that I was originally human, from resurrected corpses.
I had a strange military family in my head, I made good friends, and although I didn’t intend to, I was also labeled a hero.
But I can assure you that I have never had such a strange experience in my 24 years of life.
“We’ve known each other long enough to say it’s my first time meeting you, right?”
“Uh, well… right.”
“Then it would be more appropriate to say it’s nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, ‘professor’. I am Speedwagon Dana Elisha Hyacinth. “You can call me Dana.”
A friend of mine who has been with me for 5 years on the Internet, whose pale skin blushes slightly as if it would stain when he touches it, as if he is embarrassed to introduce his name with his own mouth. It was truly my first time experiencing something like this.
‘Oh, it’s awkward. No, it went beyond the awkward level and I started to feel a sense of disconnect from reality!’
A white and clean bed and equally clean blankets. It was a bed for patients, so the top of the bed was raised so that the patient could lean back and raise his upper body. However, she was so physically weak that even the slightest movement of straightening her posture to lean back was so difficult that she had to catch her breath.
Every time I take a deep breath, my feminine body is clearly reflected in the light blue thin hospital gown, so I don’t know where to put my eyes, but that is the friend I have relied on for the longest time in my wasteland life.
‘Oh my God. You’re being a bit playful. It would have been less shocking to learn that Ian was a legendary, decadent handsome man.’
[LOL Even though I’m less than two years old, if I were to sit here and look at your life, I would definitely know that something is very wrong with my life. LOL]
Even now, if I open my eyes, I feel like this is all an illusion and a dream, so I close my eyes. I tried to close it, but what was in front of me was Speedwagon, who was adjusting his clothes with very feminine gestures.
——
– Speed Wagon: Is he an asshole? I dont understand?
‘You can call me Dana.’
[Are you an asshole?]
‘Dana-’
[Are you an asshole?]
‘Dana~’
.
.
.
.
——–
‘Fuck, there’s no match, match! How can that be the same person?!’
In my confused mind, I remembered Hyde playing Speed Wagon on an endless loop, and I heard him laughing heartily. Even when I try to talk to him, he doesn’t respond, and he’s really acting like a loser, flashing past videos and the video of Dana from just moments ago in his head. This situation seems to suit his taste quite a bit.
In the end, unable to endure the silence, I responded to her greeting with a sentence so disjointed that it was difficult to tell whether she was talking or throwing words away.
“Hmm. Well… nice to meet you… everything. Dana. “I am ‘professor’ Professor Park.”
It’s an awkward sentence that even when you say it yourself, all you can think is ‘I want to die’.
“Puhup!”
But what came back was not an awkward silence, but a light laugh.
“Ah really. The professor must be quite awkward? When I see you being uncharacteristically nervous. Or… is it a harsh tone that was deliberately prepared to match the clothes? “I heard it’s so popular in the dome. Do you think you’re thinking of starting a new trend?”
Dana gently takes my awkward words and turns them into jokes to encourage conversation.
As a person who makes a living by speaking, I say, ‘I’m an expert!’ The same thought crossed my mind for a moment, but that wasn’t important right now.
They say conversation is the catch of language. Since the opponent threw a good ball towards me, I must catch it well and pass it cleanly back to the opponent. What is the topic? Dom attire is popular. It’s not a bad topic. There are so many stories to tell. I’m talking about you, Professor Park! It shows the true worth of a man who can fool around the impregnable world of March with just his tongue!
Like when figuring out an enemy’s plan in GG, among the words that were running around in the back of one’s throat and saying that they were the correct answer, I chose the one that seemed the most plausible and threw it into the awkward atmosphere.
“The house… is really nice. “There is an atmosphere.”
“….uh? Oh well. yes. “It’s a bit of an unusual place to live, isn’t it?”
“That’s right… I mean. It has a quiet atmosphere and is nice and quiet. Ha ha ha ha ha.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha.”
“….”
“….”
“….”
-Silence again.
[Cow! Ah, the left wall! This is a home run that flies with great disregard for the opponent’s favor! A batted ball that goes completely off topic and flies in the opposite direction! Finally, a frown appeared on the sickly woman’s face! It was almost like an awkward reaction like ‘the weather is nice today’ ahhh!]
Inside, Hyde was beyond sarcastic and glowing, while
Dana in front of him… was sighing with a slight frown.
“…Whoa.”
At that small sigh, the faint remaining confidence was torn to pieces like fallen leaves in a typhoon.
‘I can’t do anything. Help me, Hyde…. Shift me…. Either a leg or both arms! Whether it’s the heart. I’ll give you everything. So help me…’
[Ding! That’s the wrong answer, Professor Park! What you should do now is not lie down! How do I make this rawhide-like atmosphere feel like soft velvet!]
‘Damn, if it were as easy as it sounds, I’d be here chatting with you….’
[If a guy whose best strength is being able to speak well can’t speak, oh my god! I think I came to work, not to meet women! Just like with Senadis! The enemy is deceiving you with his beguiling appearance and voice. Try hypnotizing him like this!]
Conversation as human-to-human rather than reason. It’s good. Conversation is also the field I am most confident in.
Speed Wagon So, if only Dana Elisha Hyacinth had been in a different situation, there would have been some way to put it together. It’s business. As the leader of a caravan that came to seek information, I spoke softly and neatly, focusing on business-like conversations! It would have been possible to treat him as a wasteland person vs. an unusual survivor.
‘But with this mess… I just can’t do that!’
Look at this.
A woman with a pale complexion smiling softly while lying on a hospital bed, and
a man dressed like a 60s mafia sitting across from her. He even had an awkward paper bouquet in one hand.
Just by looking at the outside, I would immediately kneel down and say, ‘I wanted to tell you this before you left me.’ It looks like it needs to be a serenade of love.
That was the situation I was facing now.
Ian prepared by asking for measurements, saying, ‘Before a big deal, we all need to look like professionals in the business,’ but the problem was that his old-fashioned tastes were fully reflected in this outfit. It looked amazing, but since there were no chemical fibers, the suit was made entirely of cloth, so the end result was something that a milk mafia would wear during the Prohibition era. The guys who were high-fiving me with happy expressions behind me sent it to me.
Thanks to this, I became like a man who came to meet his lover in a very traditional and classic way.
The atmosphere has already cooled down.
The moment I watched Ian, who I couldn’t see from afar, jump over a pile of books with great enthusiasm, I thought it would be easier if he came and made a mess.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee0eveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
me my of my of this at the attic at the top of my head.
Crack, crack, crack.
– Speed Wagon: Was it awkward? I guess this is more convenient?
“….”
Cracking, crackling.
– Speed Wagon: It’s been so long since I’ve met someone in person that I didn’t know how to treat them. sorry.
Familiar black letters floating on a pure white screen.
When I looked up, I saw Dana holding an old keyboard on her lap and slightly waving her hand.
‘….It’s really him.’
The ID that pops up in the chat window and the person typing it in real time. Only then did I become convinced that this woman was my friend, Speedwagon, who I was looking for.
Even though we are obviously at the same distance as before, I can’t believe that I can feel so much at ease with that little trick. It was obviously a chat room conversation, so there should have been more distance, but for some reason, it felt like an old friend had come and sat next to me.
“It was a bit… unexpected. The way you talk is the same. The same goes for what you say. “I expected a dirty, skinny, bearded bespectacled guy holed up in an alcove with dozens of radio receivers.”
– Speed Wagon: So you think that would have been better?
Dana combs her hair like an actress with awkward hand movements and the sound of typing. At that mischievous appearance, I involuntarily chuckled and burst into laughter.
“I really wish I could say that was better, but I can’t bear to say that because you are so attractive.”
– Speed Wagon: ‘Damn it. It’s a good harvest.’
The words flowed out so softly that I wondered if I had said it well, and it flowed to the other side in the melting air. A soft, wavy hair caught my eye along with a muffled laugh.
Crack, crack, crack –
– Speed Wagon: I have had a chronic illness since I was young. Since I couldn’t leave the hospital, the online world was everything to me.
“no wonder. He was connected non-stop to the point where he was called the ghost of the community. He used to live like that.
– Speed Wagon: Honestly, I want to do everything other people do and stop eating bad hospital food. Out of resentment, I once prayed, ‘If only the world were ruined.’ But it really was ruined. To be honest, I have also tried the ‘status window’ thing. It didn’t come out.
Tsk tsk tsk tsk –
It’s really strange. Now, you can see Dana smiling slightly and waving at the ID Speed Wagon. With just a few sentences of conversation, the boundary between the two characters, Speedwagon and Dana, was broken down.
[Look at that. It’s as easy as this.]
‘I think this was entirely Ian’s problem. You stupid bastard, outsiders and shy people have their own way of talking. ‘A stork can’t walk like a stork.’
The moment I thought of the word ‘walking’, I got up from my seat on the pile of books far away from Dana and started stretching my legs.
Tap, tap, tap.
It’s not that I became more confident or anything, it just became more natural. It’s funny that I’m talking to him from such a distance when the guy who jokes and chats with me every day and is anxious to find out if I don’t know something is right in front of me.
Crack, crack, crack.
I walked past the staggering drone, crossed the library, and stood in front of my old friend. When I saw his slightly surprised eyes, I felt like I wanted to pick on him.
‘The way you speak matches your clothes. Then you should act accordingly.’
After standing in front of her bed, he politely took off his hat and bowed.
“It’s been a long time since I last met you, Dana Elisha Hyacinth Speed Wagon.”
Dana bursts into laughter at the paper bouquet placed on her keyboard with a playful tone. A smile formed on her lips as she took the bouquet and took a deep breath as if it were real flowers.
“I was only going to give you about 5 points because you went through that difficult time, but since you did a good job of finding the flowers I like, I guess I can give you about 7 points. Mmm, the scent of a book. “It’s my favorite scent.”
“It is an honor for our family.”
Smirk.
Giggling!
We were both dumbfounded by the theatrical appearance and ended up laughing.
I heard a little commotion from behind and turned around to see my friends who were so frustrated that they were killing us, pointing their fingers in our direction and shaking our hands as if they had accomplished a big mission.
Even though it’s not the kind of relationship they think.
The online friend I met after 5 years was a much more special and pleasant friend than I thought.
****
-And he was also an incredibly capable friend.
“Two teams of convoys moved from the Area 47 dome to the Area 38 dome in the past month… I don’t know about the second team, but I know what happened to the first convoy.”
Wow!
“yes! Instead of wandering aimlessly through the cemetery, the right thing to do was to visit her! “Where are they now?”
“….Genie?”
Giiiiing –
At her call, the drone that was busily moving around and organizing books came to her side after a month.
“Did you call me?”
“Could you please upload a file of missing people who have been confirmed to be from the Dome?”
“Geek geek – the file cannot be found. “Pa-pa-pa-file does not exist.”
“Don’t be like that, just look for it. Last month – Missing person – Confirmed – Must be in the dome.”
“check. check. The file was not found.”
“Okay, good job.”
The sight of the housing AI not finding the file, but having to be called by the owner to find it, was as strange a scene as this library.
Dana stroked the old drone, which couldn’t speak and didn’t know how to find any files, as if it were a pet, and showed us the images that appeared on the screen one by one.
“This here, this one, and this one, but you can’t really see it because it’s just a silhouette. “These are all the photos my informants sent me.”
“I’m an informant… Ms. Dana, are you sure you filmed this properly? No matter how you look at this…”
“You can just say it comfortably, Ezel. It’s not like we’ve known each other for a day or two. Yes, it’s a variant. However, I confirmed that the body size, external features, and even the flaws in the equipment they were wearing were all the same. “These people are probably the first convoy that left from your dome.”
“…Then can you send these photos to the inspection department? “It may be cruel to the bereaved families, but solid evidence is needed to determine whether the missing people are dead.”
“What if I pay the right price?”
Fit!
Dana suddenly turned off the screen she was watching and looked around at us with puzzled faces and said.
“Seven years since the destruction began. I had help from many people and lost them all. The reason I have been able to survive until now, even though I have no physical ability, is because I was able to seize information faster than anyone else, value it, and manage it. “It’s like tuning a delicate violin that calculates the changes that occur not just by selling, but by providing that information.”
“Control the situation through information… A little creepy, huh? miss.”
“Thanks for the compliments. “Anyway, the iron rule I’ve always followed is to always receive compensation for any information and to hide myself, but today I broke both of those rules.”
“….The reason is that?”
“Because circumstances put me on that violin. It has become a situation where the information I provide affects my situation. So, after a long period of observation, I showed the most ‘good intentions’ behavior and provided the coordinates to a ‘professor’, a survivor with whom I was acquainted.”
Dana, who spoke without wavering even under pressure from Ian, took a deep breath once more and continued.
“If you want more information about the whereabouts of the information convoy you requested / what is happening in the area below 40 / the movements of the area 38 dome / etc., I would like you to grant a few of my requests.”
dump!
At Dana’s words, Ian sat down nearby with his unique, bizarre smile on his face.
“In return for information… That sounds good. There’s nothing that makes you itchy like kindness that doesn’t cost you anything. Okay, shall we hear how big the request is? “I told you in advance that if the unit price is not right, we can refuse it too?”
“No, I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to refuse. “Because that’s the kind of request.”
Ian’s face, which had been grinning the whole time, distorted slightly.
“…Can you take responsibility for that?”
“of course. “This is not just a problem for me, it’s a problem for everyone who lives here.”
Dana, who looked tired, turned on the drone’s screen that had been turned off, played a video, and said.
“Happy Blinds. I want you to stop those fanatics. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on because all of my informants were also attacked, but at least I got this one thing.”
Crackling –
A video with only video and no sound.
In the video, there was a man carrying a box the size of an adult’s torso and people dressed like prisoners who were rapidly turning into Type 2 mutants in front of him.
It wasn’t dead people. It has been transformed alive. Among them, unlike the common Type 2 variant, there were some with dozens of eyeballs and some with their entire upper body falling off, leaving only the lower body.
“wait for a sec. “This is…”
“Classification-wise, it’s a type 3 variant. Because it is different from Type 1 2, which maintains its human form. Looking at its form, it doesn’t seem like it will show as much power as the famous ones, but Type 3 is Type 3. “Regardless of its power, the fact that it behaves differently from the behavior of the mutants we know is enough to be threatening.”
Dana, who slightly quenched her thirst with water next to the bed, looked into the eyes of each of the group members and spoke strongly.
“What Happy Blind always says. I remember?”
“ [Technological civilization must disappear, and ultimately, all of the older generations of humanity that have memories of the past must disappear.]”
Dana nodded as Ezel muttered as if possessed.
“Okay. I think they found the answer.”
****
