Chapter 422 – Sea Survivalism
There is a topic of discussion that was often talked about on the Internet before the war.
This is a story about ‘How can we survive safely in a zombie apocalypse situation?’
A lot of zombie media was consumed, and it became popular at the time when conspiracy theories about the Mars spacecraft were emerging.
The best choice has already been decided. No matter what anyone says, there will be no preparedness as perfect as this shelter.
But this city is so off-standard, so let’s be more realistic.
Various ideas came up on people’s lips, but the most common one was individual and family-level bomb shelters.
-Hey, how long do you think you can last with that? Does drinking water fall from thin air? If the war breaks out, the water pipes will also be cut off.
-Uh, underground water?
-Finding a place where groundwater flows and building a bomb shelter is not an easy task.
However, as it was talked about a lot, there were also a lot of refutations.
-The food problem is also big. Even if you pile up the canned food, the day will eventually come when you run out.
-Isn’t stacking it up a problem? There is an expiration date. Do you know when the apocalypse will occur? It would be unfair if you piled up a lot, and it explodes after the expiration date.
Problems with electricity, medical care, heating and cooling, and sewage discharge were also pointed out.
-There are no good countries with four seasons. It’s extremely hot in the summer and freezing to death in the winter. How can I survive in a bomb shelter? Most people would wear it as a ring.
-No matter what you do, steam or smoke will come out, so the location is perfect. Then the robbers will attack.
The deeper I dug into the story, the more it became a total mess.
The land is small, but the population density is high, and the environmental conditions are poor, so it is not good for survivalism.
When discussions turn pessimistic, there is a group that always appears.
-The answer is the sea!
-Why do you have to dig and hide? Do you want to live your whole life without seeing sunlight? We need to synthesize vitamin D too!
-Come to the sea clean from violence! When you’re hungry, you can fish, and when you’re thirsty, you can drink water! You can use solar panels as much as you want without worrying about looting!
They were people who wanted to float a ship equipped with survival facilities on the sea and drift indefinitely.
-It’s a bit like that when it comes to the sea. Storms are scary too. It looks like an uninhabited island, so I think it would be a good idea to go in.
-You can go fishing similarly anyway, and if you have a water source, you don’t need purified water, right?
There are also more moderate desert island factions.
Of course, they could not have predicted that marine monsters would take over the sea after the infection broke out.
-You stupid things. No matter how much you think about it with your lowly brain, it is meaningless in the face of true disaster. Instead of having meaningless discussions, buy a ticket to occupy the shelter that is currently being built. There is no better investment than that.
Some people asked to move into the shelter that was being built at the time. The claim was immediately bombarded.
-The ticket to live there is much more expensive than living in a house in Seoul. What should I do?
-Fuck the way you talk!
-Those guys are the worst.
-That’s clearly the guy who blocked updates, so how does he get in?
-Are you sure you did the gangcha correctly?
-Uh. I can’t even use VPN because it’s a regular member ID.
In the end, most of these stories were consumed as one-time chatter, and few people seriously prepared for survival after the destruction.
Those with personal boats, including fishermen, attempted to escape to the sea in the early days of the war.
At best, medium-sized and larger ships were requisitioned by the government, and small ships either returned to land due to lack of supplies or were sunk by sea monsters.
However, there are people in the world who overcome seemingly impossible odds.
Interest in survivalism.
Sufficient financial resources.
A hobby that goes beyond owning a boat to even operating it.
Early identification of the danger of marine monsters.
The luck of being able to avoid national requisition.
There were people abroad who met all these difficult conditions.
They lived a peaceful life wandering the sea even as the whole world turned into hell.
The inability to know the situation on land due to very poor communication accessibility is not a disadvantage. Because only despairing stories came out all the time anyway.
After six years, they also gradually wanted to settle on land where there was less danger. I can’t live like this for the rest of my life.
While looking for a slightly better utopia, I learned about the Korean Peninsula.
It is the safest and most prosperous land in the world, which swallows Manchuria and is jokingly called Manbando.
* * *
After finishing the morning report to the shelter, while I was hanging out with Artemis, an alarm rang from the manual.
[The yacht you set as a favorite has entered the South Sea.]
“Oh?! Put it on the screen.”
The screen that projected the view of the shelter instantly turned into a blue sea.
Among them, a ship that I have been interested in for some time moves forward.
If you look at the minimap, the location is between the eastern part of Jeju Island and Fukue Island, the westernmost point of Japan.
“That wasn’t a hasty move during an infection situation. “It’s a carefully prepared ship.”
Artemis displayed the yacht model name and detailed specifications on the screen. And the parts of the hull that are different from the original are marked in blue.
“After finishing the treatment, please give me a foot massage.”
“I will follow your orders.”
The wife is lying down on the private sofa and getting her toenails cleaned by Ayla.
The ship in the screen is elaborately arranged with a device to collect water on rainy days and a plastic membrane to collect moisture in the air.
There are unique facilities here and there, including a device that looks like a crane.
“What are all those?”
“A device for catching undersea crustaceans, a device for catching squid, and net equipment for catching fish in low sea areas. “Most of them are about fishing.”
“Are you trying to sell fish in these times?”
“No. It is not a structure suitable for mass capture. It’s a system that allows you to catch a variety of things in small quantities. I guess I wanted to enjoy a wide range of gourmet food even if I was self-sufficient.”
“It must have cost a lot of money.”
Sure enough? When I look at the yacht price list, the sound of billions immediately comes out.
“Even if I worked hard to save up my salary before the war, it wouldn’t be possible.”
“Purchasing is not the problem. The reason yachts are a hobby for the truly rich is because of the maintenance costs. I don’t ride it a few times a year, but even if I only own it for 4–5 years, it costs far more than the purchase price. At least that’s a medium-sized yacht.”
“Is it because of that moderation that we survived?”
Sailing life after the infection outbreak is much more difficult than expected.
First, it must be a sail yacht. Before the oil supply and demand problem, motor power was impossible to survive due to the marine monster clinging to it.
It is said that a generator can be operated by temporarily anchoring it on an uninhabited island or something like that, but there is no solution for large ships that require a motor for movement.
It needs space to withstand storms and store warehouses and other facilities, so it shouldn’t be too small.
Therefore, it is necessary to have an ‘appropriate’ scale, but being appropriate is the most difficult thing.
Moreover, when it gets to that size, you can’t manage the ship alone. Several people are needed with specialized skills such as navigation and ship repair.
Therefore, it is impossible for a rich person who says, ‘I’m a survivalist!’ To survive at sea just by finding a yacht.
This is only possible for groups that originally had a lot of interest and knowledge in ship operation.
Of course, there are exceptions.
These are people who continued their tribal life by sailing log boats on a remote island far from civilization. They are living well even while the whole world is in chaos.
The Sentinels of leader, famous as the last primitive people on Earth, also fall into this category.
There are several lifeboats containing white bones on the coast of the island.
This is because at the beginning of the infection outbreak, a few survivors came to the island by boat and were shot with arrows and left to die.
[A radio signal is confirmed from the favorite yacht. Do you intercept?]
The manual asked.
An icon symbolizing sound wave transmission appears on the screen, and the Y and N marks blink.
“Of course. “I wonder what people who lived at sea for six years will say.”
“You sure you’ve never anchored? They must have stayed on islands or ports that seemed safe. “If you stay at sea for 6 years, your spirit will break down before the condition of the ship.”
“Is that also true?”
“Jinsu, you said that right now.”
Artemis stretched out her big toe and pointed at me.
“Anyway, that habit of pointing with your foot…”
Well, they watch it because it’s sexy.
“Don’t you remember how, while others were suffering outside in hell, you sang songs about being bored and wanting to go out, even in the fully equipped VIP area?”
“… I was immature back then.”
As a manager, it was difficult to maintain sound judgment in a situation where everyone in the shelter died and turned into monsters.
“I was full because there was a girl next to me who always listened to my complaints. If it wasn’t for you, I would have run out alone to restore the shelter and died.”
“I just need to know.”
Artemis handed the foot that was pointing at me to Ayla.
Even though Ayla’s work was suddenly interrupted, she accepted it politely, as if she was used to it.
I finished trimming her toenails and poured oil into her hands. She carefully applied it from Artemis’ toes to her calves and then began massaging her.
“Huh!”
I pressed the Y button while listening to my wife’s cute moans.
A communication from the yacht survivor was received, and the language is English, no translation required.
[I buy antibiotics and woolen clothes. Those who bring oil or chemical fertilizers will be given preferential treatment.]
It was a businessman’s broadcast.
If in a normal world the beginning of a meeting was a greeting, in today’s world the beginning of a meeting is a transaction.
Because the world is the world, friendship without compensation is questionable. It is said that the situation is less severe in Korea, but it is very severe in other countries.
[There is tuna and snow crab. I brought back many precious delicacies that cannot be found through coastal fishing. We are power technicians. We also provide machine repairs.]
They were also experts in navigation and machinery. Without that, sea survivalism would be impossible.
“I stayed afloat by selling goods and technology.”
At that time, several communications were sent to the yacht from Jeju Island.
It was a kind of message that said I would agree to a deal and told me to anchor somewhere.
In the camp belonging to the fallen government, he spoke fluent English, and in the camp belonging to the civilians, he spoke English with a stutter similar to that of a college student.
But the yacht survivors’ answers were like knives.
[I’m not buying it, I’m not buying it. You know for sure that the island is ruined, so why are you trying to scam me? Are you planning on taking a gun when you dock? Right?]
Artemis, who was listening, laughed.
“Those guys have good information. “This must be the first time it has entered Korean waters.”
“Isn’t it obvious? During my six years at sea, I must have anchored more than once, and this means that I have been avoiding plunder all along. The communication and reconnaissance equipment inside the ship will be perfect.”
At that moment, the drones were returning to the ship. There are as many as four. It looks like the local area has already been explored briefly.
Communication between Jeju Island and foreign yachts continued.
The gentlemanly transactional tone of the beginning had disappeared, and they were exchanging abusive language.
[I was suspicious from the first meeting, damn it! Even if you give it to me, I won’t take it, your shitty yacht. Just come close, I’ll give you a bullet hole right away!]
[Pardon?]
Perhaps because of their heightened emotions, they were unable to communicate with each other because they were swearing in Korean.
“Was the route closer to the east of Jeju Island, rather than the west, meant to take refuge on a Japanese island in case of emergency?”
“I guess so. Eastern China, a world full of infectious agents, and Jeju Island, a lawless area. “It’s better than either/or.”
If you look at the ship’s movement line, you can see that it has thought carefully before entering and chose a safe route.
The foreign yacht is trying to communicate again. Their first destination seems to be Yeosu.
Even though I had never set foot in Korea, I had a good understanding of the situation.
[We also deal with copper wire and brewed liquor. There’s no place we haven’t been to. We have everything, whether it’s materials or technology, so please come!]
A white man in shorts and shorts stretched out on the deck and leaned against the railing.
And then he urinates towards the sea. Right next to me, there are two young women collecting laundry fluttering in the sea breeze.
The women were in bikinis because they were working on a hot day.
After finishing urinating, the man roughly shook it off and inspected the field planted on the boat. He placed dozens of rectangular flower pots for agricultural use, and the yield is expected to be significant.
“Edible cacti, tomatoes, and arugula. “They are all crops that require less water.”
Artemis told me.
Meanwhile, if you see communication for transactions continuing to occur, there will be other party members.
“Are the hurdles too high for ocean survivalism?”
As someone who once participated in the survivalist debate, I felt sad.
Because the internet line that was given as an example in the beginning.
‘Come to the sea clean from predators! When you’re hungry, you can fish, and when you’re thirsty, you can drink water!!’
Because I was the one who insisted on that.
For reference, ‘You stupid things. It was Artemis who argued, ‘Why don’t we just buy shelter occupancy tickets while we’re having pointless discussions?
Yacht foreigners entered into negotiations with the Yeosu garrison border unit.
[Can you move to the specified location?]
A communications representative from Yeosu asks in fluent English.
[No problem! Thank you for your hard work day and night!]
Unlike before, this is a friendly voice.
[As I heard, it is an orderly and peaceful place. It cannot be compared to other countries of violence and barbarism. This is probably because the soldiers of the Republic of Korea work hard to protect us.]
These were people who didn’t endure six years at sea for no reason.
The ship suddenly stopped.
Then people come out from inside. There were four of them, all men, including the one who had just urinated.
“Huh?”
Everyone took off their clothes and jumped into the sea. And then he splashes the water noisily.
“What are they doing? Weren’t you going to make a deal? Why did I suddenly want to play in the water…”
“It’s not water fun? Look closely.”
Artemis adjusts the drone carrier’s camera magnification to enlarge the screen.
“Oh, it was washing.”
The last man to jump was holding a basket. What he thought of as splashing with water was wiping all over their bodies with a small sponge.
This would be possible because it is a sea where you can bathe at any time.
“I guess you don’t want to give a dirty impression to your trading partner. Because such little things determine the status of another person.”
Artemis nodded as if she liked him.
“But isn’t seawater bad for your skin? They say the pollution is gone, but there will still be saltiness.”
“There will be separate shower facilities on the ship. However, since we need to save purified water, we will first wipe off the sweat and dirt with seawater. Afterward, wash off the remaining salt with purified water.”
“There was a method like that.”
Men even used soap. Since I was submerged in the sea, it was almost like rubbing my body with soap, and white bubbles spread out.
In the eyes of environmental groups before the war, it looked like it would stimulate the economy, but it would have no effect on the world now that pollution has stopped.
Compared to leader or China, where large trucks are filled with trash and dumped into the sea.
Naked men climbed up the ladder attached to the side of the ship.
After that, it was the women’s turn. Naked female bodies are taken one after another. The number is as many as 7.
There are all kinds of women, including Asian women who appear to be of leadern descent, white women, brown-skinned Latinas, and black women with long straight hair who may be mixed race.
There were no children, middle-aged people, or grandmothers; they were all young women. It seems clear that they are women living together in a business relationship, not family.
As befits the apocalypse era, everyone has a slim body due to a balance between food and labor.
The prints of swimsuits were clear, like those of women who went to the beach to work under the sun.
“These kids, they were forming a harem.”
“Where did we sell our true conscience?”
“Hmm!”
There was nothing to say to her wife’s criticism.
