Yuseong University (3)
"Kyaaahhh!"
A scream pierced the air. I turned to see two women trembling in terror. One in a skirt, collapsed on the floor of Reading Room 2, clueless and panicked; the other in jeans, expressionless but shaking uncontrollably.
Thwuck. I yanked the pickaxe free from the chunk of flesh.
"Keep it down. I'm the one who just saved you."
I shook the blood from the pickaxe—straight from a Liberation Army bastard's skull—and narrowed my eyes. The women clamped their mouths shut instantly. They seemed quick on the uptake.
Truth be told, their noise didn't matter. We'd already been made. My senses not picking up on it wasn't the issue. What mattered was that these two guys hadn't shown up on my radar.
I had no idea if there was a detector in the library, but the Liberation Army scum surely had one among them. Kim Yuna and Choi Hyeok, sent to Yuseong Station, were detectors, and according to Seol Juyeong, they'd dispatched one to the library too. We could use that to our advantage.
Tsking, I rifled through the men's pockets and pulled out ammo.
Click. I ejected the M16 magazine, then propped the two rifles in a triangle at the top of the stairs leading up from the seventh floor.
'This way, they'll make noise for sure coming up.'
We could grab or ditch them on the way down. The elevator was stopped at seven, so chatting right in the hallway behind should work fine.
Thud. I stood and turned to the jeans girl.
"Name and ability."
"..Huh?"
The jeans girl blinked blankly.
"I said name and ability. You've got a skill, right?"
"...Oh. Uh, that..."
She hesitated. Fair enough—some random guy shows up, kills two people, then starts talking. I'd be thrown off too.
But.
"......"
I scowled. This wasn't the time.
"I-I'll go first," the skirt girl cut in, swallowing hard, eyes gleaming.
"...Yoo Soyeon. And, uh, detection."
Yoo Soyeon. Black hair, glasses, huge tits. She'd stayed quiet and compliant earlier, so I'd pegged her as timid, but she stepped up when it counted.
I ignored the jeans girl's dumbfounded stare at her and turned to Yoo Soyeon.
"Got it, Yoo Soyeon-ssi. What does detection do?"
"W-Well..."
"...Well?"
"Ah! N-No! L-Like this."
Yoo Soyeon spread her palm flat. A square hologram map popped up, like a grid of white dots, red dots, and a broad blue smear.
"...What's this?"
I leaned in to inspect, then asked her. She pointed at the dots with her other hand.
"Th-This detects l-lifeforms nearby... White's people, blue's a-animals. And red..."
"...Red?"
I watched the white dots darting around and the stationary red ones.
Then.
"......Z-Zombies or non-humans."
"...So there are monsters downstairs?"
Liberation Army? Or zombies and remnants?
But Yoo Soyeon shook her head.
"....No..."
"...Then what?"
The red dots below. No way.
"You saying these assholes show up red?"
I jabbed the pickaxe at the corpse bleeding from the neck. Liberation Army registering as non-human?
"...I-I'm not sure..."
"Hah."
She shook her head. I grimaced.
'Possible.' Maybe tied to the seventh remnant, or those faceless ones. But their faces hadn't vanished post-mortem, so less likely the latter.
'Could be both.'
Not certain, though. I narrowed my eyes.
"...So people split too? White and red. Those guys were red, right?"
This was key.
"...Not sure on that either..."
Then what did she know? Her next words cleared it up.
"...B-But probably! S-Some in military uniforms showed red..."
Good enough. Given the Liberation Army's bullshit, whatever they were tangled in, they needed killing. And without a clear way to distinguish, testing by killing was it.
'Gotta wipe 'em anyway.'
I tossed another question.
"But with that ability, how'd you end up captured here?"
"......"
Detection—fancy name for a radar picking monsters and animals. So why get nabbed by Liberation Army?
'Weird.' At Yuseong University, spotting red dots on them should've raised flags.
"...I d-didn't want to come."
That cleared it too. They weren't Yuseong survivors.
"I w-was living alone in an apartment over there."
Holed up a month straight—until Liberation Army burst in.
"...N-No escape, they p-pryed the door. I h-hid..."
Yoo Soyeon, holding her breath on the balcony. Next thing she knew, she was here.
"Suddenly passed out?"
"Y-Yeah... F-Fell asleep? W-Woke up here..."
"Got it. You're not from the Yuseong camp."
"R-Right..."
Her outfit didn't match the woman descending from Yuseong earlier. And her story checked out.
'Knocked out.' Same MO as grabbing Kim Yunjin's sister—pick locks, gas 'em. Hard to fake.
'That "captain" and the Northdong bastard here too?' Cockroaches, those fucks.
I sighed.
"Understood. Yoo Soyeon-ssi, keep watch with that for incoming dots. Speak up if they move."
"O-Okay... Okay!"
She mashed her face into her palm. Glancing over, white and red dots shifted in unison on her hand. Fast movers.
'And it shows up/down too?'
I hadn't looked close, but whatever—good enough. Frontal assault down from here, women in tow.
Glanced earlier: numbers were high. Library, hidden from Humanities Building, perfect for killing.
"You."
I turned to jeans girl. She'd snapped out of it listening, shook her head hard.
"...I'm..."
Jeans girl ran a PC bang near Yuseong University. Young boss lady.
"Holed up with stock till then... Passed out like Soyeon."
Short version: apocalypse month one, solo in empty PC bang till Liberation Army. Tried hiding, knocked out cold.
"...Outsider like her. Nabbed today."
"Yeah. Attended Yuseong but dropped out... Family stuff. Opened the PC bang instead. Both went to shit, world too."
"Tough break."
"...Alive's what counts. Till this afternoon. Sorry about earlier... Wasn't thinking straight."
"No worries."
I nodded. Near-death then sudden save? Brain fog makes sense.
......
Short silence, then jeans girl spoke.
"Oh, uh, name's Jeong Yena."
Jeong Yena. Weirdly blue-tinged short bob—brighter than blue-black. Sleek college girl vibe.
"Ability's, uh, scarecrow summon."
"...Scarecrow?"
"Yeah. Scarecrow summon."
A dopey straw scarecrow popped up, swaying oddly. Adult woman size—160cm maybe.
I poked it.
"...Real scarecrow."
"C-Can control it free."
Swish swish. It moved, even hopped. No attack vibe.
"...Nothing else?"
"...No. Sh-Share vision with it. Hearing no."
"Surveillance skill, basically."
"Yeah... Used it to spot intruders, run... Got ambushed asleep."
"Happens."
The scarecrow spun solo. Decent skill, I thought. Vision share for scouting, distract enemies by moving it.
I nodded, called Yoo Soyeon.
"Yoo Soyeon-ssi."
"Y-Yes?"
"Come here."
"O-Okay."
She approached, trembling; Jeong Yena faking calm. Feeling their stares, I spoke.
"Lots of questions, I bet. Can't spill everything now."
"......"
Silence. Kept it minimal.
"...Name's Kim Junyoung. Complicated story, but Liberation Army's enemies. Came to clean Yuseong."
"...Liberation Army?... Clean?"
Jeong Yena questioned. Here we go.
"Lunatics 'liberating' from apocalypse. Killing people, etc."
You know? I pointed at the corpses, then them. Mouths shut tight.
I continued.
"They're a threat to our base. Came here and..."
Pointed at bodies—eyes bulging in death—then women.
"Found you. Next on the chopping block."
"Ah..."
"Ugh..."
Yoo Soyeon groaned, flashback hitting. Fair—sight of Reading Room 1 bodies and Room 2 blood pools screamed intent. Without me, obvious fate.
I faced them.
"...So, wiping these guys, heading to our survivor base... Anyone coming?"