Chapter 61 - Inside Out (8) : Part 1

Home is definitely the best.

The same yet slightly different atmosphere in the shelter. A familiar alleyway where he could name and identify every little pebble on the road. And….

Whiiir— Click!

[Warning: Unauthorized Access. Disarm all weapons and approach slowly with your hands above your head.]

There was an unfamiliar machine voice and an unfamiliar sound of the defense turret activating.

‘This guy. He must be thinking I’ve been taken hostage or something.’

It’s obvious why the turret that is only used for motion sensing was fully activated. Koduro was controlling it. He must be trying to save me or something.

[This is the last warning. The subject has trespassed on private property, and the specified AI is authorized to open fire if the intruder does not comply with the orders—]

“Oi, Koduro! Shut up and just deactivate the turrets!!”

[…..Negative. The specified property does not permit persons other than facility users to enter. Only the person in the front, Ma—, B-beebeep— persons excluding the elderly person and large man is allowed to enter—]

“Just shut it and kill the turrets! These people are my friends, and they’re going to live with us for a while now. This car is owned by these guys too.”

[…..Live…..with us? Then are these my new o-o-ownersss?!!!]

In an instant, the machine voice from the speakers turned into Koduro’s bright, bubbly voice.

Whiiirrr— clank!

Zzzt— Tzzzzz—

“Welcomeeee! It’s great to have everyone here! I am very~ very~ happy to meet everyone! If I may introduce myself, I’m the main AI of this shelter, Koduro. Please let me know if you ever need assistance!”

The defense turret returned to its dormant state, and with a familiar sound, he entered the boundaries of the protection field to find Koduro’s drone outside, greeting them.

“Hepburn. This is the guy you told us about, right?”

“Yeah, this is the guy.”

“Right… So this little thing did all of that….”

Koduro had come out to greet his (to-be) new masters and found everyone looking at him with uneasy expressions.

“Uh… Master? Did you happen to tell them something about me?”

“Yeah. These are the friends that I made in Area 45 as a result of you piling up debt for me.”

“Oh.”

Koduro could then understand why the two new masters were looking at him with that face. Even without speaking, he could read the words ‘Let’s not get involved with this thing’ from their expressions.

“Yes……. Well, it was a tragic event that started from a little misunderstanding, right Master?”

“Of course. It was so tragic that I almost died. I was betting my life over just 200 grand’s worth of oil, and I suddenly got 2.4 million worth of debt.”

“Oi, Gyosu. Just say the word, and I’ll make sure that little tweety bird can only communicate with us through the lights using Morse Code.”

“Kehehe! I’ve never tortured an AI before….. Should downloading a bunch of viruses do the trick?”

“Hah, ahahaha….. The new masters have a thing for h-humor, don’t they?”

“Hey, Vex. You heard that thing? He said we’re joking.”

“Kehehe! So what, Jaw? All those scavengers we slaughtered didn’t believe us at first either.”

“Quit the BS and just come in. I’m tired.”

“Heheheheh.”

“Keheehee!”

As Koduro saw the two new people staring at his drone even as they entered the shelter, he quietly turned off his learning module.

He felt that it would be dangerous for him to learn anything from these masters.

“Yo! Your house ain’t bad!”

“Woah! I didn’t know that a shelter in the Wasteland that isn’t the Dome could be sandless! Did you completely cut off the external air? Then how are you breathing?”

“H-Hey Jaw! Look at this! There’s grass and trees inside the house!”

“Trees? Like the actual ones with green leaves? Not the fake plastic ones?”

The two had been impressed with the decompression chamber when they entered the shelter, but now they were running around the shelter like some five-year-olds who came to Disneyland for the first time.

“Where have you guys been living? My shelter only has the basic options! I did get a couple of nicer things recently, but I still can’t say I’m on the better side of life.”

Gyosu looked around the shelter. The paint on the walls peeled off, revealing the concrete walls, and the lighting was dim. The table Koduro wiped off was going to get a nice dust carpet in just a few hours. The old sofa’s cushion was sinking in the middle. What’s so good about this place for them to be impressed?

“You’re a filthy rich one, aren’t you? I bet you eat snacks when you’re bored.”

“Right. He’s spoiled. To insult a wonderful house like this!”

“You guys have way more money than me! You! Ian, you even have your own shop!”

“That’s just a little less rundown of an entrance to a bowling alley with a shield and protection field. I couldn’t even think of having a greenhouse like this, and anytime there was a storm outside, the inside was basically buried in the sand.”

“S-So you just inhale all of that when you sleep?”

“I dunno…. I don’t really feel any different in the morning other than a raspy throat. Maybe it got stuck in my lungs with all the tar.”

“Hepburn. I was a scavenger until just a few days ago. I was as poor as anyone could get in the Wasteland.”

“You filthy rich bastard.”

“Enemy of the proletarians.”

“No, that’s, ugh! You idiots don’t even know how to spend your money!”

“Heheheh, Master, do you understand my feeling no—”

“Shut up, Koduro!”

[So fun! This is so fun!]

“Arghhhh*&^%$*_#%$%@&!!!”

This is bad. Still, until now, I felt comfortable inside my own home, but I can’t even expect that comfort anymore! This place isn’t my home sweet home anymore, it’s a home sweat home….

‘O-Okay. Let’s calm these guys down first. We need to decide how we’re going to live from now on, and…..’

Pull!

“Woah! Jaw! Look at this! A carrot!”

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“It’s kinda small, though. Is it not fully grown yet?”

“Noooooo! Our precious caloriessss!!”

Pop, pop!

“Oh! Look at this! There’s a glass case in the middle of the garden!”

“It looks like a shower. But I think it’s a little small, a-aaargh—”

Pop!

“Everyone fucking shut uuuuuup!!! If you don’t come here in five seconds, I’ll bulldoze over that garden and bury you alive!!!”

After many vein pops and enough patience, Gyosu roared out to the two, and only then did Vex and Ian sit quietly in front of Gyosu.

“Hahh…. Okay. Now, let’s talk about how we have to figure out this living situation.”

“Munch munch! Why do you need to think about that? We just need to build a shelter next to yours, and we’ll pop in once in a while.”

Grriiind.

“Bcse tht snt gnna wrk yu bstrd…”

Gyosu tightly clenched his teeth and shut down his dumb friend’s idea, then patiently started to explain it so even an idiot like those two could understand.

“Now, let’s take this one by one. Who’s the one that gave you this meat you guys are eating?”

“Uh….. Gyosu?”

“For fuck’s sake! I said this 30 seconds ago! The Marketplace! Owned by the Dome! The major sellers!”

“Ahhhh, right, right. You said they gave this to us as some kind of peace offering?”

“Yes. They think that I came from some other organization, am a new group trying to set up an outpost, and gave this to us as a greeting. They were wrong, but it turns out that they were kind of right now that the two of you guys are here. We’re three people, and we’re trying to set up another shelter here. Then, why would the Marketplace, owned by the Dome, come this far and even ‘greet’ this newly formed group? They won’t even see us since we live in the Area’s outskirts.”

“Uh…… I dunno?”

“To be friendly?”

Gyosu rubbed his temples with his hand. Wrong. These idiots know a lot about the Wasteland and how to survive in it, but they know less than a toddler about politics and society.

“The answer is because we’re going to see each other often from now on. Whether we want it or not, the Dome is going to approach us, and according to their judgment, they’ll be our friends or become our enemies. Since there was some kind of interaction with the Dome, they predicted that we were going to become a big customer from the Marketplace’s perspective.”

“So we’re getting all tangled up with the Dome’s money hoarders….. That’s not good. Isn’t that, like, really troublesome?”

“That’s why I said so, Mr. Metal Jaw. It’s fine to stay here for a few days, but settling down here and building a whole new shelter is a whole different story.”

Gyosu scratched his head in frustration, then asked Ian.

“You said you didn’t buy the construction materials yet, right?”

“Hmm? Ah, yeah. We couldn’t just order it when we didn’t know the shelter’s coordinates.”

“Good. Then give me the money for the materials. Since the situation has already been decided, let’s seriously pretend like we’re some new group. The stuff Koduro brought last time and the materials we’re going to buy will make them 100% sure that the person under the ID ‘professor’ is making some kind of new organization.”

“Uh, Hepburn? But there are all kinds of organizations. There are pillagers like the Raptors, or morticians that professionally loot mutants and live off of that, or the Scavengers. What are we going to be?”

Vex’s question made Gyosu think. It would be easier to introduce themselves as a scavenger group. A harmless, weak, and unprofitable being that the Dome has no reason to be interested in.

‘But the Dome’s scouts aren’t going to be that easy to trick. No matter how they tried to hide it, that much gunpowder and weapons are impossible to hide. No, it doesn’t make sense that a scavenger group has three cars in the first place.’

“Oi, Ian. Are you thinking of starting up a business again after settling down?”

“Hm? Of course. I didn’t come here just to suck on my thumb and mooch off of you.”

“Good. Then it’s settled.”

Bang!

Gyosu hit the desk with his palm and then announced to the two people in front of him.

“From now on, we’re going to be a caravan (wandering traders) that set this place as a basecamp.”

“Caravan?”

“Yeah. At least, that’s what we’re claiming to be.”

Gyosu thoroughly explained to them how the Dome worked.

Caravan. This group of people, as their name suggests, went around the Wasteland through all kinds of Areas to do business. Honestly, most trades were usually made through the GG Marketplace. It was easy, safe, and had no risk of revealing personal information.

“But as Old Man Woojin said, it’s not completely impossible for people to steal the GG drone. There are people like the scavengers or the Psycho Gang that don’t use pods, so they don’t have a penalty under the GG restriction. So people usually prefer to make direct trades for really important goods, for example, the weapons and gunpower you sell Ian. So caravans go around and sell those kinds of precious materials or things that are hard to get in that Area, or fulfill requests from customers.”

One of those representative groups included the ranker GoldmanSUCKS’s Gold Walking Cane Company. They went through five or six Areas at a time, with ten full trucks’ worth of goods and an incredible amount of guard forces, trading valuables and Area specialty items. He didn’t know the exact amount, but it was rumored that they gained mountains’ worth of wealth every time they went around. Which was probably why that Goldman guy was able to pour all of that money into GG.

“And the Dome has a pretty positive view towards caravans too. Other than them bugging us to update our catalog, the Market won’t really bother us either.”

“And since we introduced ourselves as traders, it’ll match up with my spice business.”

“Right. There isn’t a better option right now. So, does everyone agree? Once the Dome contacts us, we’re introducing ourselves as a caravan that has just recently settled down.”

“Okay. I agree too.”

“You know what’s best in that Area, Gyosu, so do what you want.”

Gyosu tightened his hands in relief under the table once he saw the two easily agreeing with him.

‘Good. They don’t have much interest!’

Gyosu internally let out a sigh of relief, then was about to move on to the next matter when Vex suddenly opened his mouth.

“Name.”

Thunk!

And with one word, Gyosu’s heart dropped back down.

[Let’s go! This guy is sharp like this sometimes!]

‘Damn it!’

“Hmm? What?”

Gyosu prayed that it wasn’t what he thought it was, but Vex crushed down every last bit of hope we had without mercy.

“The group name. We need some kind of name when we contact the Dome, right? Something like ‘We are the Dome, or we are the Raptor Society’. What’s our name gonna be?”

“Ah, right, we need to decide the name. About that, I have a really nice name I’ve thought of….”

“God, please.”

He needed to stop him, no matter what. He didn’t have to hear any of their ideas to know that they had come up with a lot of strange names, like HIV.

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