Chapter 146

The God Slayer I

Recently, I had been deeply immersed in my extremely personal relationship with Noh Do-hwa (murder) and our overly private conversations. Sometimes, it was necessary to talk about external matters. This time, to catch our breath, let’s discuss the latest trend in our apocalyptic era.

In the past, humanity used terms like 'modernism' and 'postmodernism' to construct buildings and write literature. However, to the MZ generation of the apocalypse, such terms were outdated concepts. The new generation had evolved to be more practical.

“Are you crazy?”

“Pardon?”

“I counted the steps in the new house you built, and there are thirteen. Why did you build it that way? Do you want to take a tour to the depths of hell while coming down the stairs?”

“Well, the local carpenter just built it as he saw fit...”

“You must have some serious grudges against that carpenter. Cut ties immediately and hire a different one. Reduce the steps to ten or nine.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Take it or leave it. It’s your life on the line, not mine. What’s this? You even built a basement? Your survival rate would be higher if you jumped off a building roof than living in this house. It’s as if you posted a notice inviting anomalies to live here.”

Abyssalism.

This was the latest trend in the apocalypse. Abyssalism focused less on 'how to live comfortably' and more on 'how to avoid getting screwed by anomalies.'

It didn't start this way.

During the times when nuclear bombs flew and civil wars broke out, humanity thought scientifically. They built solid concrete bunkers to hide in, or lived as isolated survivalists. By scientific standards, these approaches made sense.

However, the new anomalies that emerged in the apocalypse had a rich literary sensitivity and preferred inverting causality.

“Waaah... Waaaah...!”

“Why is that beggar acting crazy?”

“Don’t even ask. He used to be a high-ranking corporate executive. He dragged his whole family into an underground bunker.”

“What? An underground bunker? Crazy.”

“Yeah, crazy. A bomb dropped on the bunker overnight, and his entire family turned into ghosts. He barely escaped to Busan. Is he even truly alive?”

“Waaah! Waaah!”

Anomalies didn't favor scientific approaches or causality. They loved 'reversing causality.'

Take underground shelters as an example. Bunkers were designed to protect against air raids, bombings, and nuclear attacks. Scientifically, bunkers were safer than ordinary houses. Unless you had a relative named Osama bin Laden, the chance of a hidden bunker being targeted by missiles was extremely low.

However, anomalies thought differently. Bombs existed because bunkers did. The presence of a bunker necessitated a bombing.

Thus, those who hid in bunkers invariably faced missile bombardments. The Gimhae plains were devastated. That day marked a paradigm shift for humanity.

“Hey, someone’s calling me.”

“Damn it, don't answer! Never answer! Use your smartphone only to access SG Net. Turn it off otherwise!”

Phones? They weren't for hearing someone’s voice but rather tools to communicate with unseen entities. Unless you were a high school student who enjoyed ghost stories, making or receiving calls was foolish. According to 'Abyssal Communication Studies,' real human interaction was face-to-face only.

“Why did you put a mirror in the bathroom, you idiot?”

“Huh? Because it’s a bathroom...”

“Your reflection in the mirror looks different from your actual face! Get rid of it now!”

Mirrors? They were tools that isolated beings identical to oneself in another world. They should never be used as interior decorations.

Humanity had grown too lazy and dependent on tools. In the updated apocalypse, more careful choices were necessary.

“Ancient people lived fine without phones...”

“We can live without mirrors too. They were always stressful, except for the bathroom mirror right after a shower.”

“Wow, it feels like just yesterday we toured schools together for years. Time flies.”

“For us, it’s been years, but for others, only a day has passed.”

“Haha, true! That’s why it feels even stranger. Ah, this way, Sir.”

Baekhwa High School had changed quite a bit since our last visit. Classrooms were repurposed. Elevators were closed, and the fourth floor was sealed off with caution tape.

“This is the perpetrator's room.”

“Is it alright for me to enter?”

“She almost killed someone! She’s practically a murderer. We’re still waterboarding her. Why care about her privacy? We’ve already done a full search.”

Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, the prominent guild leaders of this land, were both fond of water torture. The favorable water quality of the Korean Peninsula remained influential.

Indeed, normal people had to rely on me, the cultured undertaker, as their pillar of support.

I searched the room thoroughly. Cheon Yo-hwa’s claim of a thorough search seemed true. Nothing new was found in the perpetrator’s room.

“Hmm?”

But the window frame felt odd. Tap-tap. I knocked on it, and the plastic sounded overly hollow.

“What’s wrong, teacher?”

“There seems to be an empty space here.”

“Ugh.”

I slid the window aside and examined the frame. Sure enough, there was an artificial gap.

“Let me use some aura.”

“Oh, go ahead.”

Black aura formed on my fingertips. I traced the gap with my aura, and as expected, it revealed a hidden space. I frowned at the item hidden inside. Cheon Yo-hwa’s face darkened quickly, like a front-line soldier finding a hole in the DMZ fence.

“This crazy bastard.”

Cheon Yo-hwa muttered gloomily.

The hidden item was a pistol. I immediately picked up the K5 pistol and fired it out the window.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of gunfire echoed through Baekhwa High until the 13 bullets were spent. Far away, students seemed startled, but I had no time to worry about them.

“Phew.”

“Haa...”

Only after the loaded bullets were spent did we sigh in relief. This anomaly was truly dangerous. Both Cheon Yo-hwa, the guild leader of Baekhwa, and I, a regressor, had been tense.

“Good thing I called you, teacher. If we left it, at least one person would have died, maybe thirteen.”

“I’m glad I came.”

Indeed, the reason firearms became useless in the apocalypse, or rather 'dangerous,' was because every gun in this world was possessed by an anomaly.

[Chekhov’s Gun].

This anomaly turned all firearms into deadly hazards.

Footnotes:

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