Chapter 233
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The One Who Ignites II
"Call me Nenet."
"I'm Undertaker. A pleasure to meet you."
"Undertaker (Гробовщик)? Unless you're a wrestler, that can’t be your real name. What a grim nickname."
The man who introduced himself as Nenet lived in a shabby tent whose walls were reinforced with reindeer hide to improve insulation. It was far too crude a structure to survive the apocalypse.
Probably not his main base, I decided, but rather a temporary shelter.
‘He doesn’t trust me enough to reveal his real home.’
The man was cautious. I had sensed it ever since reading his post.
"Your name is just as unique as mine. Nenet means 'person' in the Nenet language, doesn’t it?"
"...You know about the Nenets?" He looked surprised, almost as shocked as when I had split the glacier with my Aura.
Though most Koreans wouldn’t recognize the Nenets, they’d feel a sense of familiarity if you mentioned their traditional clothing. The parka we wear in winter comes from the Nenets culture. The man in front of me was also wearing a parka made of reindeer fur.
"Of course. They’ve lived around here for a long time, a minority group known for their nomadic lifestyle, right?"
"That’s right. I am a Nenet."
At that moment, he became much more welcoming. He brought in firewood and lit the stove, then personally brewed tea and served it to me. He even brought out biscuits to go with the tea, along with pieces of Hershey's chocolate. It was probably the finest hospitality one could offer a stranger in the middle of an apocalypse.
I couldn’t be outdone, so I pulled four bottles of distilled liquor from my backpack and offered them as gifts.
The man immediately began treating me like a long-lost relative.
"I have another name." His face flushed red from the alcohol as he spoke. "But after the city was destroyed and I was the only one left alive, I changed my name to Nenet. I didn’t think anyone would ever call me by that name again... Who would have thought that website was real?"
"Was there a particular reason you chose the name Nenet?"
"Like I said, I was the last one left." A sigh escaped him, causing his beard to quiver. "I used to be just a regular person. Or at least, that’s how I saw myself. My parents were Nenets, but I never thought of myself as having any special connection to their bloodline."
But when the Void descended and wiped out the people of his city, one of his surviving relatives said this:
“Hey. We might be the last remaining Nenets on Earth. If we die, who will know that we ever existed?”
The man took another swig of liquor.
"That was my uncle. He was always a bit eccentric. He worked at a bank, but he also ran a small reindeer farm and always wore traditional Nenet clothing... Oh, did you see the reindeer outside? They originally belonged to him."
"I see."
"He was always serious about preserving native culture, but after the world went to hell, he became even more obsessed with tradition. It was kind of ironic—he didn’t even speak Nenet as well as I did."
Amusingly, both the man in front of me and his uncle were ordinary city dwellers. Their attempt to live like nomads after all this time was inevitably bumbling.
"And your uncle...?"
"He died two years ago. One of the reindeer he raised turned into a monster. It grew to nearly 10 meters in size, with massive antlers that were absolutely majestic." The man’s mouth opened slightly, his gaze distant as he recalled the memory. "Those antlers were magnificent. My uncle was skewered by one of them."
"What happened to the reindeer?"
"I don’t know. I couldn’t defeat it. I just hid until it wandered off into the snow. Then I rushed over to my uncle, but he was already dead."
"My condolences."
"Don’t be. He was killed by the animal he loved so much—it’s almost a good death. He was a troublesome guy."
Nenet set the bottle down.
"That’s why I’m clumsily trying to preserve the Nenet traditions. Raising reindeer. Living in a tent..."
"I think it’s admirable."
"Not really. I’m not proud of my bloodline. But like my uncle said, if I die, the Nenets will be extinct. No one will be left to speak our language..."
"......"
"It’s just something I’m doing."
We spent the rest of the night warming the air near the stove with our breath, drinking liquor, nibbling on biscuits, and munching on cheap chocolate.
The next day, after only a few hours of sleep, Nenet guided me to another location.
"Sorry to have kept you in the cold all night. Follow me."
It didn’t directly aid in survival or enhance combat capabilities.
But this ability carried potential. I felt the same excitement I had when I first discovered Seo Gyu’s Ubiquitous.
‘If I could build beacons like this every 1,000 kilometers across the world...’
We wouldn’t be able to exchange detailed information like we did on the community.
‘But at the very least, we’d know instantly which regions are in danger.’
I stayed with Nenet for a few more days, testing the beacons. Just as he had promised, the beacons remained lit even in blizzards.
It was an extraordinary discovery.
"Nenet, I think Sacred Fire would be a fitting name for this ability."
"Sacred Fire? Like the Olympic flame?"
"Exactly."
Legend has it that in ancient Greece, the fire from the temple at Delphi was carried to other city-states.
To the Greeks, Delphi was the center of the world. The fire, which originated from the heart of the earth, was passed from city to city and eventually found its way into the hearths of ordinary citizens’ homes. Thus, the fire in each household was linked to every other household, and as the world breathed, so too did the fire in the heart of the earth.
The world was made of fire. Sacred Fire was, in essence, the reality of Ubiquitous—‘existing everywhere at once’.
"That name seems a bit grandiose..."
"Not at all. Nenet, I will carry your flame and spread it across the world."
Nenet scratched his cheek. He hadn’t expected me to be this enthusiastic.
"Well, if you say so. Make good use of it."
There’s a short epilogue.
When it was time for us to part, I asked Nenet, "Would you consider moving to Busan?"
"Busan?"
"Yes. I wouldn’t call it a great place to live, but it functions well enough as a city."
Nenet pondered for a moment. "No, I think I’ll stay. I don’t want to leave my homeland at this point."
"I understand."
"I don’t have much attachment to life. Posting that message on SG Net was more for fun. Meeting someone like you at the end feels like a blessing."
Nenet stroked the neck of a nearby reindeer.
"I can’t abandon the reindeer my uncle left behind... If you’re really grateful, why don’t you teach me some of that Aura or whatever?"
"Sure. I’ll give you a crash course."
In the end, Nenet chose to live out his days in the White City.
During my 669th cycle, I was extremely busy traveling the world, testing the effectiveness of the Sacred Fire. Perhaps someday I’ll get a chance to talk about the global beacon-building project.
After several years, when all the work was done, I returned to Naryan-Mar with a bottle of the finest liquor.
"Nenet?"
But Nenet was nowhere to be found.
He wasn’t in the tent where he had served me biscuits and chocolate, nor was he at his hideout on the hospital roof.
Only the ever-burning beacon remained.
I eventually found Nenet’s body far away in the snow.
The last Nenet had died, impaled by the antlers of a reindeer that had grown to 15 meters in size. It was a mutual kill.
"......"
The reindeer had grown so enormous that neither Nenet’s body nor the reindeer’s corpse was fully submerged in the snow.
As I buried the man who had clung to the traditions of his ancestors, even though they were no longer relevant, I had a thought:
It’s said that people begin to reflect on their past as death approaches. If so, might something similar happen when an entire race faces extinction?
Perhaps the fires and smoke rising gently across the world were Nenet’s final legacy.
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