Chapter 52: Preparation
Chapter 52: Preparation
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Clomp. Clomp.
"Hello. We've come because we'd like to have a brief conversation. We're coming in, so please don't attack."
Before Seon-yeong could reply, the door opened and the men walked in.
What if we had attacked without thinking? Why announce themselves and stroll right in?
Were they that confident?
"That's far enough. Stop right there. Any closer and we'll consider it an attack."
"Whoa... She's pretty."
"Shh. Everybody shut up and stay still. They're on guard."
Four men filed into the pool hall one after another.
When one muttered that Seon-yeong was pretty, the man who appeared to be their leader hushed the others and stopped them.
The man at the front looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties.
He had a pale face with thin silver-rimmed glasses and was neatly dressed in a white shirt and black slacks.
There wasn't a single bloodstain on his spotless white shirt, and he was so immaculate from head to toe that it actually put me on guard.
It was absolutely not because the bastard was handsome like some damn pretty boy.
Sniff sniff.
Beneath the sweet smell of the drinks covering the floor, I caught an oddly sensual scent.
The smell grew stronger when the man raised one arm and spoke to Seon-yeong.
No way... was he wearing cologne too?
"Please, calm down first. My name is Lee Jae-hyeon, and I lead the Prugia Alliance. We're gathering people and pooling our strength to survive. We mean you no harm."
"Then why are you here?"
"We were wondering where you might be from... we saw you fighting zombies, and all three of you were impressive. So we came to ask if you might be interested in joining forces with us."
The man in silver-rimmed glasses spoke to Seon-yeong in a calm, courteous voice.
Seon-yeong's wariness seemed to ease slightly at his friendly tone.
So they called themselves the Prugia Alliance because they'd lived in the Prugia Apartments.
Their nonaggressive tone and talk of people cooperating to survive put me somewhat at ease as well.
Ah, but that damn cologne smell was seriously weird.
"I can't tell you where we're from just yet, and joining up isn't a decision I can make on my own. Is that all you came for?"
"Yes. We have no ulterior motive, so the other two can come out without fear. I imagine the three of you will need time to discuss this, but may I explain a little about our alliance first?"
Could cologne really carry this far?
The scent kept growing stronger, cutting through both the metallic reek of blood and the sugary drinks covering the floor.
"Yes... please, go ahead."
"Thank you for giving us the time. We started as a survivor alliance formed when the people who survived in one apartment building banded together. Currently..."
With Seon-yeong's permission, the man launched smoothly into his prepared introduction.
He explained that their group now numbered around ten, that everyone used their abilities to clear areas and scavenge supplies, and what their long-term plans were.
But Seon-yeong, the men behind him were inching closer. Why were you doing nothing?
And why had she invited him to continue?
Had she forgotten the protocol we'd agreed on for encounters with other survivors?
There was no way Seon-yeong could have forgotten.
Tap. Tap tap. Tap tap tap.
The cologne had grown strong enough to make my head ache. I drummed my fingers against the pool table.
The man in the silver-rimmed glasses flinched briefly at the sound but soon continued talking.
If even that man heard the tapping, there was no way Seon-yeong and Ga-yeong had missed it.
But neither of them reacted at all.
Ga-yeong had even stood up at some point, her upper body now exposed above the pool table.
"If you join us, we'll provide a secure place to live, and you'll never need to worry about food. If the two women prefer, they can avoid outside work entirely and remain indoors..."
After glancing at Ga-yeong, who had risen to her feet, the man continued without pause.
He had been talking for over a minute without stumbling once, as though reciting a prepared script.
The three men behind the one in silver-rimmed glasses continued edging closer to me.
The nearest man's hand drifted toward the axe strapped to his thigh, while the man beside him rested a hand on his shoulder.
Tock.
I quietly set the hand mirror on the floor and drew a billiard ball from my pocket.
My instincts screamed a warning, as though someone had struck a bell inside my skull.
I didn't need instinct to tell me anything. The scene before my eyes made it clear that these bastards meant us harm.
It infuriated me that his clean-cut face and pleasant voice had lowered my guard even slightly.
"So quit making this difficult and come with us quietly. Tch."
Whoosh. Whoo-whoo-whoosh.
The moment his mask slipped, an axe curved around the pool table like a boomerang.
I heaved the pool table toward the clustered men, then rolled toward Seon-yeong as the axe swept past my head.
Shrrrk. Crash-bang-bang.
I felt the tips of my hair shear away as the flying pool table crashed noisily into the men.
I came out of the roll on one knee, steadied myself, and hurled the billiard ball.
Shooook. Thwack.
"Aaargh!"
The pool ball struck the axe guy's hand dead-on.
The axe struck the wall and fell. It trembled briefly, then went still.
I seized Seon-yeong's ankle, yanked her down, and pulled her behind the pool table for cover.
Then I transferred the pool ball from my left hand to my right and immediately threw it.
"Ghurk!"
The man with silver-rimmed glasses was crawling out beside the pool table when the ball struck his temple. He made a strange noise and collapsed.
"Tae-sik?"
"Mister?"
The man in silver-rimmed glasses sprawled where he'd been crawling. Seon-yeong pushed herself up from the floor and stared at me in bewilderment.
Ga-yeong was also staring at me from the right, crouched down behind the pool table.
"Cover me."
Both women seemed to have returned to normal, so I grabbed my baseball bat and advanced toward the entrance.
"We surrender."
"Surrender, we surrender! Please spare us."
Two men shouted from behind the pool table.
Unsure what the bastards might try, I leaped forward and kicked the pool table off them.
Tap-tap-tap-tap. Crash.
#
I bound the other three men with rope, leaving their dead leader in the silver-rimmed glasses where he lay.
The two men who had shouted their surrender were unconscious. The axe wielder, one wrist bent at a grotesque angle, appeared to have lost all will to fight and obeyed meekly.
"How are Seon-yeong and Ga-yeong doing?"
"I'm fine, other than feeling a bit dizzy."
"Me too."
I dragged the two unconscious men out by their hair and threw them into a corner.
Then I walked over to the axe guy, who'd tied his own ankles together.
Hoooh. Thwack.
I drew a short breath, hardened my resolve, and swung the baseball bat into the axe wielder's uninjured left wrist.
His remaining good wrist shattered, and an agonized scream tore from him.
"Gyaaaargh!"
"Shut up! Name. Age. Ability. Where you live. Talk fast. If I don't get answers right away, your skull's next."
"Ughh... Jeong Min-su... 27... Creation: Guiding Line... Prugia Apartments, Building 201, Unit 102... please spare me..."
I fired questions at him without giving him time to think.
As silver-rimmed glasses had said earlier, they were indeed a survivor alliance.
It was also true that they'd cleared all the zombies in the Prugia Apartments and established a residence there.
There weren't ten survivors but nine: the four men here and five women back at the apartment.
Ah, well, silver-rimmed glasses was dead, so now it was three men.
"We were under the influence of our leader's ability too, we couldn't help it. Please spare us."
"Shut up. Answer only what I ask, and keep your mouth shut until I ask."
This was no alliance in which survivors pooled their strength and lived together peacefully.
Apart from the four men here, they'd killed every male survivor or fed them to zombies. They'd also murdered every woman they considered too old.
At first, everyone had worked together to gather food, clear the apartment building, and secure the nearby shopping complex. Afterward, the man in silver-rimmed glasses revealed his true nature, chose who to keep, and killed the rest.
The three who'd come with him were a kind of personal guard.
All three were around the same age, in their mid-twenties, and their abilities worked well together. They traveled with their leader, killing zombies and hunting for women.
The leader had an ability that charmed people, and the axe guy had an ability to guide projectiles wherever he wanted.
The man who kept a hand on the axe wielder's shoulder wasn't applying a buff. His ability worked like a charger, allowing others to use their abilities more often.
The remaining one had a tracking ability.
That bastard had spotted us through binoculars from the apartment rooftop, placed a tracking mark on our group, and followed us here.
"Jeong Min-su... This one is named Min-su too? Damn it. Axe guy, were all of you under the Charm effect?"
"Yes, we were also under the charm and it was hard to defy the leader's orders. So we had no choice but to do as that person said..."
"Alright, that's enough."
Thwack. Flump.
"Tae-sik? Isn't he dead?"
"No, look, he's breathing. I was just copying something I saw in a movie. Guess it actually works."
I had struck the back of the axe wielder's neck with the edge of my hand, holding back slightly.
It was my first attempt, and I had no idea exactly where to strike, but somehow I'd succeeded in knocking him out.
"With your strength, hitting almost anywhere would probably either kill someone or knock them unconscious..."
I ignored Ga-yeong's quiet muttering and headed toward where the two tied-up men were lying.
"You two really are okay? Earlier, you didn't react even when I sent the signal."
"Yeah, I'm really fine now. Earlier, it felt like being in a dream—everything was hazy. Everything the man in glasses said felt true, and I felt compelled to obey him."
"It was the same for me. I remember what happened, but it feels blurred. Only his voice is clear. Everything around me and every other sound are smeared in my memory like wet ink."
"That's strange. I wish we understood why. I felt nothing like that. Let's ask the prisoners too."
Had he simply not used the ability on me?
"Anyway, I'm glad you're both all right now. If either of you still feels unwell, rest for a while. I can handle the questioning alone."
"Wake them one at a time and ask each of them the same questions. This one could have lied about something, including how many people are in their group."
I'd been planning to cross-examine them anyway.
We conferred briefly, listed the information we needed to verify, and then woke the Charger.