Taesoo’s sight turned to the cup on the table as the smell of coffee filled the room. It was a familiar scent, but one that he hadn’t had the chance to smell for months.
“Coffee? Have you grown it here?” Taesoo spoke in disbelief. There was a lot contained within that question.
“Yeah. I brought it over to this world.”
Taesoo nodded and took a sip from the cup. His body trembled as he felt the familiar, bitter taste of coffee.
‘It’s amazing. What happened in those years?’
Taesoo seemed to be very calm, more than what any normal person would show. He even withstood Jinpok’s vicious presence when they met at the beginning without any problems. His presence was enough to make people cower and even pee in their pants in fear if they were weak-minded. Taesoo always had courage, but it wasn’t to this extent based on Joonbum’s memory.
“I guess you’ve been through a lot,” Joonbum calmly commented.
Taesoo nodded. “How about you go first? Or you want to hear me out first?”
“You can go first, man,” Jinpok replied. It seemed that he was still salty about Taesoo.
Taesoo smiled, “Sure, I can go first. So, should I start around the time you two disappeared through the gate?”
“Yeah.”
“So… when you- uh, Your Majesty? Should I mind my manners?” Taesoo asked as he glanced at Jinpok and Doral. Joonbum glanced at both of them and shook his head.
“It’s okay. Let’s just address each other like the old days.”
“Is that so?” Taesoo nodded.
“Hah! You’ve got some nerve!” Jinpok scoffed but Taesoo just smiled.
“So I used the medicine you gave me when you disappeared that day. I think I was crazy back then though. To think that I would use some weird medicine on my wife and daughter…”
Taesoo’s body shook as he reminisced about the old days. Jinpok also seemed to realize the gravity of the story to come and calmed down.
“Thank you.” Taesoo bowed to Joonbum. Joonbum nodded.
“As you warned, I never said a word to anyone. It was easy to see why you warned me when I saw my wife and daughter recovering in front of my eyes at that moment. What if I didn’t trust you? What if I let people know about what happened? Maybe I would be dragged away somewhere…”
Taesoo shook his head.
“I was so glad, but that also made me afraid. I quickly sent them to a remote countryside so no one would know that they recovered. I couldn’t even let my relatives know. It was then that the problems started. People came to the shop you gave to me.”
“Came to you?”
“It was the government intelligence.”
Jinpok became curious and so was Joonbum. Taesoo took another sip and continued.
“So you had sold gold. Very high quality too.”
“Oh, yeah. I did… along with some gems.”
“The gold you sold wasn’t just normal gold – it was very pure. I think the video you uploaded also became the root of their questions. They said it was just a routine investigation, but they were trying really hard to find you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I think some foreign intelligence was also looking for you.”
“Whoa, was it like the FBI? CIA? So? What happened then?” Jinpok asked excitedly. It seems like he’d forgotten about his saltiness. Joonbum and Doral smiled at that.
“Haha, well, what could they do? They had their eyes on me for a while, but how interesting could I be?”
“Huh? Is that all?”
Taesoo nodded. “Yeah. Oh, can I get another cup?”
Joonbum nodded as he received the cup to refill it. Taesoo then smelled the coffee as he continued.
“It’s so nice. It was two years later when the actual problem surfaced. The precursor was a worldwide drought. People panicked, but world technology had advanced enough to endure such a drought. However, it was only the beginning. Then came the earthquake. Land began falling and the disaster came down upon the world. People died and countries were destroyed. About 70% of the world’s population died with that earthquake.”
“WHAT?!” Jinpok stood up in shock. Joonbum was also shocked by that.
“It wasn’t just a huge tremor. Some cities were even swept down into the ground. Countries like the USA, China, or Russia with large landmass lost 90% of their land because of it.”
It was an unbelievable story, but it was still only the beginning.
“So, with that earthquake, the world was taken back to the Stone Ages. Everything that civilization had built up after thousands of years was gone within years. The earthquake also caused hundred-feet tsunamis by the coasts, killing the remainder of the survivors of the Great Earthquake. Then, it finally stopped. I heard that only 5% of the entire population survived.”
Everyone became silent after they heard that.
“Hmm, this one’s nice too.”
“We made that one here.”
“This meat – it’s not as soft as chicken, but it has a good taste.”
Taesoo smiled as he tasted the fried Basett and whiskey.
“So, survivors began to gather together. It was horrible, but we survived. Then, another problem struck us. Cold, hunger, disease… It was like hell unleashed on the world. Some people quickly turned unruly as means to survive became scarce. But I can’t blame them. Everyone was just trying to survive.”
Taesoo paused for a second as he recalled the memories of that time.
“I guess you all are curious about those monsters?”
Joonbum nodded as Jinpok became tense. They already knew that some of the monsters were once humans.
“It was after about a year after the disaster that some people began to turn. We didn’t know why. It began with their skin changing, and then they lost their sanity. It took about five months for them to turn entirely. Those humans-turned-monsters began to mate and bred baby monsters at an amazing rate. They made ten babies each time and bred again after four months. They ate a lot too. We had to hide from those monsters then.”
Taesoo shook his head. It looked like it was painful to even recall those memories.
“Their numbers grew to the point where we couldn’t handle them anymore. And that was when the giant ones appeared. The small monsters that the humans turned into were just food for them. The one we killed with the helicopter just now is only a medium-sized one.”
“What?!” Jinpok exclaimed in shock. The monster had been the largest they had seen. It was shocking to hear that there were larger monsters out there.
“I am not sure what kind of monsters you have seen, but there are larger and more powerful monsters on Earth. Humans are now hiding like rats to survive.”
“Even with those weapons?” Joonbum asked, but Taesoo shook his head hopelessly.
“All of our infrastructures was destroyed. Those weapons are powerful, but we have limits. Those weapons will soon be depleted. I’ve witnessed that humans are nothing without civilization.”
Doral nodded quietly.
End of Chapter
