Apocalypse’s Teacher

Chapter 97

The war ended in a half-hearted way.

The first reason was that continuing to deploy forces after the terror Gihyun and I caused became a loss.

And the second reason was that the Mapo Shelter secretly took over Dongdaemun during the war.

"What a mess, suddenly that rural Mapo has become one of the largest forces in Gangbuk."

Mr. Park's words during his rare visit.

After saying those words, Mr. Park waved at Gihyun with a mischievous smile and shouted.

"Hey, Rocket Girl!"

Gihyun flinched noticeably.

Gihyun frowned at Mr. Park, looking like a monster straight out of a movie, but that was all he could do.

After all, Mr. Park, who supplies cola in this kind of civilization, is someone even Jung Gihyun can't do anything about.

Nobody wants to make an enemy of him.

"Heehee!"

Mr. Park chuckled.

Bang-!

Gihyun slammed the door shut so hard that the whole house shook.

After laughing for a long time, Mr. Park finally gathered himself and spoke to me.

"But what were you thinking, using up all six rounds? That was all you had."

He was talking about the anti-tank weapon rounds.

I shrugged my shoulders and replied.

"It's fine. It's not like I'd have another chance to use them if I didn't, and I can always raid other shelters to get more."

I didn't feel particularly regretful about it.

It was something I had picked up by chance from a military unit while running wild back then.

Besides, there were several large shelters that had stockpiles of rounds, so I could always get them if I needed.

"You're already thinking about stealing again."

"Stealing? It wasn't even theirs, to begin with."

Saying that, I let out a deep sigh.

"Will things finally calm down now?"

"No way. How could it calm down when it's spring?"

"Right, damn."

Come to think of it, there was something I had forgotten, being so caught up in the war.

Spring is coming soon.

It's the time when the wretched corpses that drove this land to its end would become active again.

"Since we have cold snaps in spring, we should be fine until the end of March."

"Only one month left?"

"Well, one month, at least?"

I groaned and scratched my head roughly.

'There's so much to do.'

The series of incidents had left us understocked on supplies.

On top of that, Juyeong, who recently arrived, needed to be trained to become a capable scout by spring, and Helen needed to be made capable of short-range scouting during this winter.

Not only that, but since the Mapo Shelter had taken Dongdaemun, we now had to keep an eye on their movements too.

In short, we were in a situation where we had to completely rearrange the exploration and travel routes.

"This is driving me crazy."

"The one who's going crazy is the Mapo Shelter leader."

"Huh?"

"Ah, I came here to tell you this today."

Mr. Park turned to look at me.

And then he delivered this message.

"The Mapo Shelter leader has been desperately looking for you. They want an introduction to a rider."

What on earth is this about?

*

Blacklist Rider.

He was a man true to his name.

What do I mean by that?

I mean, he's a real rider.

A lunatic riding a motorcycle around in this kind of world.

"Why do they want to be introduced to that guy?"

"...Have they heard the news?"

Inside the Mapo Shelter leader's office.

I asked, munching on chocolate.

I didn't forget to pocket some too.

I'd give them to Hyesung later.

The shelter leader sighed deeply at my behavior and spoke.

"Thanks to you, we were able to expand our territory. The manpower shortage, which was a problem, has also been resolved, and we were able to absorb the resources Dongdaemun had stockpiled...."

"Just get to the point."

"...We need the 'map' that the rider has."

I finally understood the shelter leader's intention.

"Come to think of it, you would need that guy's help to go back and forth between Mapo and Dongdaemun."

Map.

It was why the rider was called a rider, and at the same time, why he was on the shelter blacklist.

He's the guy who traveled this land on a motorcycle, even to the exhaust pipe.

He's the guy who still managed to survive all this.

How is that even possible?

Such a question seemed laughable.

'He learned it through experience.'

A guy who had worked as a deliveryman all over Seoul for 10 years before the apocalypse.

That's why he knows Seoul better than anyone else.

The map was a kind of 'safe road network' he had completed by piecing together the routes he had mastered over 10 years and verified after the apocalypse.

Think about it. From the shelter's perspective, he's a guy who could always reveal the shortest route to their shelter to the world. Of course, they'd hate him.

"There's no way he'd give it."

Now I understood why the shelter leader came looking for me first.

We have some sort of history together.

Not after the apocalypse, but from before.

'So connections get used like this.'

That guy, he's a junior who I used to boss around back in school during my aimless years.

He's also the guy who inherited the foundation I built when I decided to focus on studying.

Maybe because of that, he has a tendency to revere me like some kind of god.

Of course, he doesn't give me the map either.

"...I don't need much. Just one route to connect Mapo and Dongdaemun. And we'll make sure the rewards are satisfactory."

"Well, I'll ask him, but...."

Saying that, I clicked my tongue.

It was a blatant action to reveal my intention.

The shelter leader clicked his tongue and continued speaking.

"We'll make sure to prepare a generous intermediary fee."

As expected, it's nice that they're quick-witted.

"Thank you for the meal."

"Let's decide the exact time and meeting place later if we manage to get in touch."

"Okay, then I'm leaving."

As I was about to leave after roughly finishing my business, the shelter leader, who had been silent, finally spoke.

"...Is that child doing well?"

Pause-.

My body froze in place.

'Ah, right. Now I get it.'

Gihyun was put on the blacklist.

Considering the rumors in Seoul about me raising a child, if this guy had been in the same shelter with the kids, he could have deduced Gihyun's identity from just a few clues.

It makes sense, as this guy isn't lacking in wits and, location-wise, it had to have been Gihyun.

Right now, Seoul doesn't have many kids like that.

"I don't mean anything by it. I was the one who taught survival skills to that kid when they were in the shelter."

The shelter leader said nonchalantly.

The thought crossed my mind that I truly couldn't figure this guy out.

'What exactly is he?'

I found myself as curious about this guy as I would be about someone on the blacklist.

'Judging by his intuition, it feels like he knows I have the other kids too....'

The fact that he doesn't ask outright must mean he's gauging my reaction.

Or maybe he just doesn't care.

"...I really can't figure this guy out."

"I don't want to hear that from you."

The shelter leader sipped his tea with a slurp.

"The kid was smart enough that I remembered them. Though I didn't expect them to grow up to be a terrorist."

"It's Rocket Girl, you idiot."

Pfft-.

The shelter leader spat out a bit of the tea he was drinking.

Then he quickly composed his expression.

'You think it's funny, too, don't you?'

His sense of humor, surprisingly, seemed intact.

"I'm really leaving now."

Thinking that this conversation would never end otherwise, I paused for a moment to cut it short.

As I was about to leave, I stopped and looked at the table.

'Tsk, there's too much left.'

There was way too much chocolate and candy left.

It wasn't mine, but I couldn't help feeling it was a waste.

"Hey, don't you have a handbag? Let me take some of this with me."

The shelter leader's face twisted into a frown.

*

One week passed.

Nothing much happened during that time.

I spent time educating Juyeong, who was still unfamiliar with the outside world.

Since it was the end of the season, I took Helen out to gather medicine, which ended in a commotion.

And hearing the news that spring was coming soon, I prepared a flowerbed with Hyesung and Kongkong, and Dabin introduced a new character who shoots rockets into her comic.

...Come to think of it, I guess it wasn't nothing.

I went down to the first floor of the hotel and stood blankly, waiting for the person I was supposed to meet today.

It was the rider.

"...Can't we just tell him to come up on his own? Why go out to greet him too?"

Next to me, Gihyun grumbled while curling his body.

I scratched the back of my head and replied.

"He's an old school junior of mine. It's only polite to greet him."

Gihyun looked at me with a peculiar expression.

"You have friends?"

Was that what you were thinking?

It felt like that, but maybe it was just my imagination.

"...I had a lot of friends back in the day."

It's true.

I don't know how they felt, but at least I thought of them as friends.

Thankfully, Gihyun showed no further interest in my story.

Then he yawned widely, as if he had already forgotten most of what happened during the war.

Somehow, that made me proud and grateful, so I spoke with a smile.

"Still, greet him warmly. I think you two might get along quite well."

"Why should I?"

"That guy used to be in a band back in the day. If you talk to him, you might even get some guitar lessons."

Gihyun's eyes lit up.

I grinned widely.

'Don't think I don't know you've been stuck at the same part all week, you brat.'

I wasn't blind to the fact that he'd been struggling with the same section for a week.

No way.

Every so often, when I secretly peeked, I saw him huffing and glaring at the guitar.

"...I'll think about it."

Right after Gihyun said that.

Kuaaaang-!

A sound like an earthquake came from far away.

Then another sound followed.

Babarabarabam-!

The ridiculous honking noise, tuned and tuned and tuned again.

It woke up the whole city.

The zombies in the distance flinched at the sound.

Yet the noise didn't diminish.

"He's here."

It was none other than the guy who could be considered the top among the blacklist for sheer madness.

The rider, my middle school junior, Choi Seungdeok.