82. Turning Point (1)
82. Turning Point (1)
I returned to I-Pension.
May 10th, daytime.
Nothing had changed. For now.
ㅡPeep peep
The chicks are waddling after their mother hens.
Up ahead, the women have come out and are playing with the chicks.
They are cute, aren't they? Chicks.
'I need to find feed for them, too.'
I've racked my brain too much because of IN Company and the Cheonan Warlords. And it's not even over yet.
But hey, does thinking about it now change anything?
In the end, I have to get moving. That's a fact.
I, with my unwashed body,
Came out to the pension yard and looked up at the sky.
'......'
Nothing has changed from yesterday.
But a lot has changed.
"Oh, oppa, you're up?"
"How are the kids?"
"They're there. Just... existing."
"I guess so. There's nothing for them to do anyway."
"Right. But, there was a lot of talk about that person we caught yesterday."
That figures.
Since Cheol-woo spilled everything.
"What are they saying? The others."
"Just that things will be tough going forward, you know. More importantly, they keep calling me Chairman."
"Why, because the IN Company Chairman is a Contract?"
"Yes."
That's funny.
Though you don't seem to think much of it yourself.
The death of Cheol-woo and the INSS members.
What I did is the equivalent of smashing their heads in first.
Their circumstances.
Soldiers, warlords, IN Company, civilians, Infected.
An act of cutting off the head, ignoring all the tangled relationships involved.
I don't know what kind of results this will cause.
Right now, a problem could arise at the Cheonan Hive and everyone could die, or the situation could get even worse.
According to Cheol-woo, the IN headquarters was also wiped out by a powerful Infected.
'No, there will definitely be problems.'
But I have no regrets about what I did.
They were bastards doing fucked-up things, and they were obstacles to my movements.
On top of that, they were the ones who spread the infection in this world, catching people to extract superpowers.
'Maybe there were innocent people, and maybe I did something bad.'
I ignored all that and just cut off their heads because they were fucking annoying.
However,
I killed Park Young-ho, Park Si-woo, and Cheol-woo, but the people who followed them are still there.
'Except for IN Company.'
The soldiers and civilians remain.
Plus, to be precise, the Communication ability user Ha-yoon remaining in Jeungpyeong is definitely alive, and there's Kim Sang-chul who is supposed to be at the Jeungpyeong County Office or the bunker.
Ultimately, our goal is survival.
But to survive, one cannot do it alone or with just this small group.
That is why I must gather people, focusing on Seo-yoon's ability.
'I need to think coldly.'
But useless people are not needed.
The guys currently at the GP Biotech factory, Cheonan University, and the Jeungpyeong County Office that I haven't visited yet are useless.
'Because the IN Company guys would have already extracted the good ones.'
Besides, they are assholes.
They are guys I could wipe out with my ability right now, and I have the power to do so.
Less than a month after the collapse, they killed people, and they are the kind of guys who even committed rape and murder.
I'm willing to kill all dangerous humans.
The bunker was the same. The people who tried to kill me. I grabbed them in a bunch and beat them to death.
GP Biotech factory, Cheonan University, and even the Jeungpyeong County Office, all of them.
I crossed the line a long time ago.
However,
People are manpower.
Agriculture, livestock, fishing, etc. Ultimately, people are needed.
That's why I debated whether to use those people.
'But people associated with IN Company might have that thing.'
You know.
The thing where Cheol-woo and the INSS members died, that bothers me a bit.
Plus, they are guys who made a contract to catch civilians and hand them over to IN Company.
I'm a bastard too, but those guys are bigger bastards.
And bastards holding guns at that.
'......'
I finally made a decision.
I made the decision, but.
I decided to go take one more look.
The bunker, the GP Biotech factory, Cheonan University, and even Jeungpyeong, where I haven't been yet.
'Let's go.'
#
First, I came back to the bunker.
Cheonan Goryeosan High Hotel Bunker.
There isn't a single survivor.
The High Hotel is still smashed up.
Since I killed them all, the inside is in a state that's a bit... difficult to enter.
I went up.
Cheonan University is visible.
'......'
I see corpses of civilians.
Looking from afar, it seems something happened inside.
'The numbers are low.'
When I came a couple of days ago, I saw quite a few civilians.
Now, they are barely visible.
Wait? That doesn't look like a civilian, it looks like a soldier who changed clothes.
'What happened?'
Did the head disappear and control become impossible?
There are too many civilian corpses.
Forget it for now. Let's check other places first.
'......'
After that, I came to the GP Biotech factory.
This place doesn't look much different on the surface either. They are still standing guard, patrolling, and I thought about why this is, but it was obvious.
'Because they don't know.'
They don't know where the bunker is.
They gathered only the important people and put them in the bunker.
There must be criteria. For IN Company, it would be the INSS members, and for the soldiers, they probably brought in the sharp ones, the ones with tight lips, or people with decent superpowers or human abilities.
Since March, that is, from the time Park Young-ho made a deal with IN Company and entered the bunker, they must have been thoroughly isolated from each other.
I headed from the GP Biotech factory side upwards, that is, toward the northern checkpoint.
Because there was one more place to see.
#
Battles continue sporadically here.
ㅡBang!
I can hear gunshots even now.
It means there are quite a few Infected crawling down from above.
Hive. An Infected that creates Infected.
A powerful Infected. An Infected that Cheol-woo said seemed to have originated inside the Cheonan branch.
I intended to go up further from here to examine the place where that thing is.
'Because I'm curious.'
I speculated that a powerful Infected had appeared, but it's practically a confirmed fact.
The death of Elias Sinclair, the Chairman of IN Company, was a side effect of superpower experiments, but this means that other people here can also mutate at any time.
I went up.
That's how I arrived at the road entering Cheonan.
They said it was a powerful Infected, so I wondered how strong it could be, but looking at the Cheonan city center from the air, I shut my mouth.
'.......'
I could see the entire city center covered in flesh.
Sticky, dark red lumps of flesh were plastered all over the buildings, and next to them, I don't know if they were Stalkers, Crawlers, or something else, but Infected were crawling along the walls.
And in the building next to it, those fucked-up looking Balloons were floating around.
The ground isn't much different.
Far more Infected than the urban Infected clusters I'm used to are staggering and occupying the roads.
Inside the Cheonan city center, where neither people nor IN Company, nor anything else can be seen, only Infected are visible.
What I see is similar to a Nest.
And similar to a Spore, which I haven't caught yet.
But it's different.
Those things occupy one area and make it their territory. But that thing is different.
It has turned an entire city into a field of Infected.
And it moves organically.
'Hive.'
A beehive.
Yes, that's a beehive. A beehive that explodes if you touch it.
Still, I'll have to deal with it someday, but not now. Right now, I'm alone, and if the beehive explodes here, there's no answer.
I have the ability to move 2000kg, but I can't fight an entire city.
Well, I could fight, I guess. But I can't handle the aftermath.
'Is that where the Wave comes from?'
If there's a fortunate point, it's that they don't really like to go out into spaces without those flesh lumps?
Well, they say a Wave comes down occasionally, but if it's to the extent that soldiers can block it, there's no problem. The only thing is that it's a bomb that could explode at any time.
'......'
I headed to the GP Biotech factory.
#
GP Biotech factory.
It is divided into two factories, left and right, and there are several staff housing buildings next to the right factory.
The time when soldiers are changing shifts.
ㅡGrrrr-crunch
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!
A loud noise rang out.
Soldiers wondering if they heard wrong lean against the wall with surprised expressions.
Soldiers who were reinforcing surveillance and soldiers who were on patrol turn their heads.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!
Because the noise kept getting louder.
However, the identity of the noise is not something they can do anything about.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!
Because the factory building to the left of the GP Biotech staff housing crumbled and collapsed from the top.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Screams were buried under the roar.
The building collapses with a crash.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Traces like people being crushed are visible to the eye.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!
As the building collapses, it also hits the building on the right.
The building used by the soldiers.
I can see soldiers walking around outside, but there's nothing they can do.
Some scream and run away, while others look at the collapsed building with devastated expressions.
The two GP Biotech factory buildings overlap and crush the fleeing soldiers.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The forward base of the 37th Division, which had been blocked by walls and barricades, collapsed like that.
Dust rises into the sky.
Of course, that wasn't the end.
ㅡCr-cr-crunch
ㅡBoom!
The staff housing building shakes and slowly collapses from the top.
Perhaps something was touched incorrectly, a fire broke out in the center of the staff housing building, creating a small mushroom cloud in the sky.
ㅡWhoosh!
ㅡRumble rumble
Black smoke rises in its wake.
ㅡAaaah!
Someone who was sleeping inside jumps out of the collapsing building, perhaps because of the fire.
But naturally, they didn't survive.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ㅡPsssssh
The collapsing building.
Acrid black smoke and dust covered the sky.
ㅡKieeee!
And active nearby Infected swarm in.
ㅡ!@$!@$
ㅡ!@$!@$!
ㅡFuck, open it quickly!
ㅡThe guy who was guarding it closed the door and ran away!
ㅡOpen that too!
Survivors outside are trying to escape in vehicles, including military trucks.
However, those humans didn't survive either.
Because the entrance didn't open, as if blocked by something.
ㅡAh, it won't open!
ㅡWhy the fuck won't the door open!
ㅡUaaaaah!
ㅡWhat the!
Heavy rebar falls over their heads.
The GP Biotech factory, which was the headquarters of the Cheonan Warlords, collapsed.
Without leaving a single survivor.
'......'
Black dust rising into the sky.
Following that.
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An explosion rises up.
An explosion that looks like something you'd see on the news or in media.
A cloud of flames rises, covering the collapsed GP Biotech factory site and staff housing.
ㅡWhoosh
ㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I watched it from an apartment far away.
#
Then, I came to Cheonan University.
Back gate.
I killed two of the guys standing guard and caught one to interrogate him.
"So, that guy named Jo Min-hong inside, as soon as Park Si-woo disappeared and contact was cut off, he declared independence? With his own gang?"
"Y-yes, that's right...!"
"Is that possible?"
"In the first place, Lieutenant Colonel Park Si-woo didn't come here often. In reality, Major Jo Min-hong is in charge here...!"
"Then it could be a case where he didn't come often. He could have just disappeared. But he takes control like this right away?"
"The communication ability user in Jeungpyeong contacted us saying Colonel Park Young-ho and Lieutenant Colonel Park Si-woo had died. And that we should cooperate with Lieutenant Colonel Kim Sang-chul now."
"Ah. Communication ability user. That makes sense."
"So that's what Jo Min-hong said."
"Y-yes..."
"Why did you kill the civilians inside?"
"It was an order."
"Tell me in detail."
"There was an agreement to eliminate everyone except for the necessary personnel."
"I bet."
"Where is Jo Min-hong?"
"...It's the dormitory next to the College of Science."