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"Eek!"

The kkondae hunched his shoulders and backed away, straight into the person behind him. A minute ago he would have led with a curse. This time he didn't even turn his head. Mouth hanging open, he stared at nothing but the pistol in my hand.

"Not going to answer?"

"I— no..."

"You leaving, or are you gathering materials?"

He stole a glance around. People had retreated several steps to watch us, and the one man whose eyes met his turned his head away entirely.

"...I'll do it."

"Do what? Say it properly."

"The materials... I'll gather them."

Should've done that from the start, you idiot. They say preying on the weak and groveling to the strong is human nature, but watching it from the side makes me sick.

I lowered the muzzle.

"Same goes for the rest of you. Stay, and you work. Don't like it, leave."

People looked around with vacant faces—confusion, then acceptance. It didn't take them long to realize that staying and doing as I said was the best option they had, and their expressions hardened with resolve.

I led them to the warehouse beside the command center. If this world followed the game, the gathering tools would be lying around in there.

The door shrieked open, and sure enough, axes and pickaxes were stacked in heaps.

"Whoa... what is all this...?"

"Who even is that guy...? How does he know about all of this...?"

They murmured as if they'd just seen a prophet.

I pulled out an axe and set it down in front of them.

"All right! Tools, coming around. Four to a team. Teams that get an axe cut wood. Teams that get a pickaxe mine the shiny ore."

"Um...! What if something happens out there...?"

A serious problem. Come to think of it, I hadn't planned any way to stay in contact.

I pulled my phone from my pocket. My clothes had come with me, and so had the phone. Now I needed to find out whether a call would even go through here.

"Does anyone have a phone?"

The woman who'd asked drew hers from her pocket.

"Yes. I do, but..."

"Give me your number."

I dialed the number she recited. She looked down at her phone, and her eyes went wide.

"Huh? It's ringing!"

"Pick up."

"Hello...?"

Her voice came back through my speaker.

It works. Why? Did Melon Musk hand out free Starlink or something?

The world had gone to hell, and the phones still worked. We were following the grammar of a game, so it wasn't completely incomprehensible. And a working phone beat a dead one.

"If anything happens outside, call this number. One person from each of the other teams, swap numbers with me too."

I hung up and saved her number. After that, while I handed out the tools, I registered them into squads of four, picked a contact for each team, and took their numbers.

"Wood comes from that forest over there. Minerals are over by the rocky hill."

I pointed out the gathering spots, then looked past the forest with the rest of them.

I should know what's around here, too.

What I could see from where I stood was one thing. I needed to know how many zombies were beyond it, how close this place ran to the game, and whether anything was different.

I called back one of the teams about to leave.

"Instead of gathering, I need you to look around. Zombies or people—if you find anything, call me. And remember the path you take."

"If there are zombies, we just come back?"

"Yes. Don't try to fight them."

The four walked off in the direction I'd indicated. The others took up their tools and headed for the gathering sites. I sent them on their way and returned to the commander's office.

I sat down and picked up my phone.

If calls work, does the internet?

As a test, I typed zombie into the search bar.

I tapped the third result and immediately backed out. It was some garbage post written years ago after a variety show.

Is the guy who wrote that even still alive?

I scrolled on, skipping past the trash.

"Oh?"

In the thumbnail, people were sprinting across bare dirt. Off to one side, a man was crouched over someone he'd pinned to the ground, and everyone else was fleeing the two of them. No different from what I'd seen myself. The description begged anyone who knew where this place was to please, please say so.

Under it sat a title in the same vein.

I opened the post.

Apocalypse Minor Gallery. I checked the date ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it had been created. Today. And people had already piled up hundreds of threads.

Someone out here is thinking about farming a gallery in the middle of this.

I started skimming the list. Posts searching for family sat tangled with posts begging to be saved.

At this rate, didn't the whole country get dragged over?

I'd figured only a few unlucky people had been pulled in. This was a much bigger mess than I'd imagined.

Not everyone was treating it like a disaster.

Right beneath it was the exact opposite.

Hmm. At least he got in.

I hadn't received a single acceptance call in two years. In a sense, he might have had it better than me.

I kept scrolling until I hit a proof post buried under an unusual number of comments.

Jesus. This place is a complete shitshow.

I set the phone down.

How far have the scouts gotten?

I was about to call, then remembered the perk I'd just picked up. I could look for myself. No need to ask.

"Status window."

From the commander window, I selected squad-member vision share. I chose Squad 1, the one I'd sent on recon, and then its member, Kim Minsu.

I pressed the button, and a forest path unfolded in front of my eyes.

A man was walking just ahead with an axe, pushing aside a low branch as he passed. Kim Minsu ducked as well, and for a moment I saw the ground at his feet. He stepped over a root jutting from the earth and followed the man in front.

Deeper in, there was a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠path that looked walked. The recon team followed it, then turned left at a fork.

Hmm... nothing worth noting.

After that I kept checking their view between gallery posts. Nothing that warranted concern, of course.

About thirty minutes after they'd set out, the recon team called.

"We found a building. There are turrets here too?"

"Oh! One second!"

I switched back to Kim Minsu's sight. He was standing behind a tree, looking toward the building. Turrets flanked the entrance of a gray structure, and in front of it people were coming and going with tools in their hands.

Unlike the game, there are multiple bases. So the rule is that whoever takes the core becomes the commander.

Another faction's base, thirty minutes from mine. My head got a little complicated. I had no idea how unhinged they were. They could hit us first. Zombies had no sense of self, either—they could even lure an entire wave straight at us.

"Confirmed. Don't get any closer for now. Come back. Good work."

I hung up and decided to check the gathering teams as well.

I opened the view of a squad member assigned to wood and saw the base of a tree with his axe buried in it. In another team, two people were mining minerals lodged in the rock.

Nothing wrong here.

Next, I selected the kkondae.

The kkondae was staring at the ass of a woman working beside a tree. When she shifted, he turned his head to follow, looking back and forth between her ass and her thighs.

Ha... what is this bad feeling?

I kept watching through his eyes.

That little shit...

Park Sangchul adjusted his grip on the axe handle. He hadn't swung it that many times, and his palms were already raw. He couldn't understand why he had to be doing this crap out here.

Threatening people with a gun, in front of everyone. Casual speech, barking orders. What the hell had his parents taught him, that he could treat an elder like that?

If he didn't have that gun...

He'd be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing. Just some kid. In the end, he couldn't beat the years and experience of a seasoned old veteran like this. He couldn't hold a gun all day anyway. He'd have to eat. And at night, he'd have to sleep.

So if I slip in quietly this evening and slit his throat...

Every headache would be solved.

Nice. After that, I become the commander. I could do some fine work.

Sangchul looked around at the other members of the team. One had already given out; he'd set his axe down and was panting. Another was grunting, trying to wrench his axe out of a tree. Scrawny little shits, every one of them.

Even if two of those jumped me together, I could handle it.

He turned his eyes back to the woman. She was gathering cut branches off to one side, and even while she worked she kept glancing deeper into the forest. A little earlier, when another teammate stepped on a branch, she'd startled hard enough to spin around. She didn't look like she could walk into those trees alone.

Sangchul scanned the area once more.

Maybe I ought to water the flower. That bitch... one hell of a tempting ass...

Axe in hand, he walked up to her. She turned, and her eyes went to the axe.

"Wh... why? Why are you... looking at me like that..."

"Shut your mouth, you bitch."

Sangchul lunged at her without another word.

Thwack!

He cracked her jaw with the axe handle. She dropped, limp. She didn't so much as twitch. Out cold, by the look of it.

Haa... this is gonna taste fucking incredible. Getting to fuck a woman while she's out. Maybe the end of the world isn't all bad.

Is this guy actually an unimaginable piece of shit?

I called a man on the same team at once.

"Park Sangchul is about to rape that woman! He's holding an axe, so go with the other guy and grab that bastard."

"What? Park Sangchul?"

"Yes! That kkondae from earlier! Where the woman was gathering branches. Hurry, it's urgent. Don't get hurt—just crack him in the back of the head!"

I hung up and switched straight to the man's view.

"Uh... um... that guy from earlier... they say he's trying to rape the woman...?"

"What? What kind of insane— then we have to go right now! Let's go!"

The two ran that way with their axes.

The kkondae had the fallen woman's legs spread and was jabbing a finger into her. Something wasn't going his way. He shook his head and moved to spit.

Thwack!

The man beside him smashed the back of his skull with an axe handle, no questions asked.

"Wh... what... the fu...?"

Dizzy, the kkondae tried to argue in a slurred, drunk-sounding voice.

Thwack!

Thwack!

Fear had the men by the throat, and they kept cracking his head with the axe handles. The kkondae collapsed face-first into the grass.

A moment later, the man called again.

"Um... I think we hit him too hard. He's not moving. What do we..."

He was breathing hard. The other teammate stood a little way off from Sangchul, frozen, with no idea what to do.

"Ugh... nngh..."

Sangchul groaned, face twisting.

"Ah, he's... he's alive. The woman still hasn't woken up either..."

"You did the right thing. Get that bastard's axe away from him first. One of you check on the woman. The other, keep an eye on that kkondae."

"Y-yes."

One man flung Sangchul's axe well clear. The other pulled the woman's clothes back into place and swallowed hard.

I was watching that when a message rose in front of my eyes.

What?

Wasn't this far too sudden? I'd only just finished teaching that walking carcinogen of a kkondae a proper lesson, and I was about to enjoy it.

And five hundred? That really seemed like too much.

The complimentary starter turret could stop a hundred of them at best...

Even if I called the gathering ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠teams back this second, nobody knew whether we had enough materials for an upgrade.

Haa... then there's only one way.

Use that beatdown-baiting son of a bitch as bait, and lure the zombies toward the other base.