Brothers
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Kang Dohyun woke to the beeping of his wristwatch. "Ah... ah!" He sat up from his sleeping bag and immediately began stretching. I had a lot of sex yesterday, but since I enjoyed it, my condition isn't bad.
Yesterday, the women he'd bought with food tickets turned out to be former cheerleaders; they'd exercised a lot, and their grip was incredible. So he'd spent a full five hours in strenuous exercise with three women. It's probably because I was chosen by the God of Exercise, but my body feels light. He'd thought he might have overdone it, but after sleeping, his body was fine. After finishing his morning stretches, Kang Dohyun quickly washed up and packed his gear.
By the time he packed and left the motel, the sun was just beginning to rise. I'll arrive home today. He began walking quickly through the dawn streets of Osan. Because it was early morning, there were a few patrolling soldiers and some military personnel moving about, but no civilians were visible.
When Kang Dohyun reached the northern passage of the barrier surrounding Osan city, the guard soldier spoke. "You're going outside now?"
"Yes."
"The north is a dangerous area."
"I know."
At the acknowledgment, the soldier readily opened the door, and Dohyun stepped out. From northern Osan to Suwon was about 10 km — not an enormous distance — but this was a lawless zone, a place no different from hell.
He passed the checkpoint and entered the southern area of Suwon. Perhaps because it was still early, the streets were quiet. Looks like they've cleared out the zombies near Osan. His Presence Detection didn't sense any zombies nearby, but it did detect people. There's nothing good about running into them. The ordinary people in this area were staying in Osan. And since all the soldiers and police were also in Osan, anyone outside Osan was almost certainly a lawless outlaw.
Kang Dohyun began walking very quietly, using Presence Detection to choose routes where there were as few people as possible. He knew the Suwon area well — it was where he was born and raised, and before his regression, he had survived in Suwon for two years after the zombie apocalypse began. Because of that, he knew not only the main roads but also the small alleys, back streets, and even the locations of the large apartment complexes. He carefully walked along paths that were both empty of people and inconspicuous.
After about thirty minutes of walking, a massive apartment complex came into view. This area hasn't been cleared of zombies yet. It was a complex of over five thousand households, the starting point of numerous apartment districts. Since a lot of people lived here, there are a ton of zombies too. Moving into the apartment complex would be suicide. Kang Dohyun's eyes fell on the residential area of villas and houses across the railroad tracks. That place has a mix of outlaws and zombies. It would be chaotic, but Kang Dohyun was used to such areas. So he unhesitatingly headed toward it.
In the villa and house area, outlaws who couldn't handle the apartments operated here, so the number of zombies wasn't that high. So he deliberately killed the lone zombies as he moved. Avoid them, he thought, and he avoided meeting other people, outlaws, as much as possible. He could win a fight, but winning wasn't the priority right now. What mattered was arriving quietly at the house where his younger brother was staying. And so he moved carefully and slowly.
Sarang Apartment 1202. In a house completely sealed off from the outside, from door to window. "Huff, hah... Huff, hah... Huff, hah..." There was a person struggling to lift a barbell, exercising. Kang Dohun was following his brother's words and training very hard.
Since the apocalypse began, he had only exercised at home. He stayed inside, but he occasionally looked out the window, and even that was enough to know how terrifying the world had become. Screams rang out constantly from everywhere every day, and people were terrified. And at some point, only zombies roamed around the apartment complex. No matter how scary the outside was and how safe the house was, staying home and only exercising was not easy. Nevertheless, Kang Dohun always kept his status window open while exercising. To remind himself that this situation was real, and above all, to follow his brother's words — who had predicted the apocalypse — he trained hard.
As Kang Dohun was lifting the barbell earnestly, bang bang bang. Someone knocked on the door. But he ignored it. Since the apocalypse, many people had knocked on this door. But Kang Dohun always ignored them. My brother told me to absolutely ignore them. Because people who came were diverse — those asking for help, begging, wanting to ask questions, and even those trying to loot. And he always followed his brother's words and completely ignored them, and so far, most people just gave up and left.
But this time was very different from usual. "Dohun. It's me, your brother."
"!"
At the word "brother," Kang Dohun put down the barbell he was holding. He went to the front door and asked again. "Is that you, hyung?"
"Yeah, it's me."
The voice was definitely his brother. So Kang Dohun moved the furniture blocking the entrance and opened the door. "Hyung!"
"Dohun!"
The two brothers, reunited after a long time, embraced fiercely. After the apocalypse, they had only spoken briefly on the phone, and now they met safely. But the joy of reunion was brief. "Let's close the door first."
"Okay."
Kang Dohyun had confirmed there were no people around while he took care of the zombies, but they still needed to be careful, so the two closed the door. "You've been blocking it with furniture this whole time?"
"Yeah."
"Good job. Let's block it again."
The two blocked the entrance with furniture again, sealing it. When Kang Dohyun looked around the house, he saw various exercise equipment set up in the living room. "Oh, you've been exercising? You listened to me well."
"Yeah. How about you, hyung?"
He set down the heavy bag he was carrying and said, "Me? I was on an uninhabited island and came up here." His clothes were covered in blood. From when he left Osan this dawn until he arrived at the Suwon house in the evening, he had killed over a hundred zombies.
"While killing zombies?"
"You think I only killed zombies? I killed people too."
"......"
Dohun froze for a moment at his brother's nonchalant admission of killing people, but Dohyun continued, "Hey, I told you, I regressed. To survive in the apocalypse, killing people is unavoidable."
"Ha... So that bullshit was true. I still can't believe it."
Fortunately, twenty-one days had passed since the apocalypse. Kang Dohun, a realist, hadn't believed his brother's initial words, but now he was acknowledging they were true. So even though he was a bit shocked by his brother's words about killing people, he could accept it.
Since it was evening, the two brothers continued talking while eating dinner. The dinner Dohun quickly prepared was canned chicken breast and combat rations.
"Oh, that's plenty."
"Really? I'm sick of it."
Since Dohyun had bought a lot of food in advance before the apocalypse, there was plenty to eat. But with electricity and gas cut off, combat rations were the only food they could eat warm. "Hey, even so, outside right now, people are killing for food."
"Really? It's only been three weeks?"
Three weeks — not a long time, but... "It's not a short time. The world has already changed a lot." At the words that the world had changed, Dohun nodded in understanding.
After finishing the meal, Dohyun cleaned up and asked his brother. "Hey, have you been exercising a lot?" At this, Dohun proudly showed off his increased muscles. "I sleep 7 hours a day, and I exercise all the time I'm awake." It was the advice of his regressed brother. Dohun had been following his brother's words and only exercising.
"What exercise-related achievement did you get from the first week's settlement?"
"Exercise Fanatic."
He got a decent achievement. Hearing that his brother had continued exercising, Dohyun's mind started calculating. "Wow, nice. Let's have you train really hard for the next ten days." Dohyun had gotten the top exercise achievement in the first week, but for the one-month settlement, his brother could aim for the top exercise achievement. "The first month's settlement is quite generous. So let's aim for an exercise-related achievement."
"Really? It's a bit tedious, but it's important for survival, right?"
"Of course. And you'll exercise much more intensely than now, cutting down on sleep."
"To that extent... Okay."
He was a developer who used to stay up all night coding. And since he usually liked exercise, he could handle training hard with reduced sleep for about ten days.
After dinner and cleanup, the sun had set. The house grew dark. With no electricity, the entire apartment complex — no, most of Suwon — was dark. Dohun naturally lit a candle and placed it in the living room.
"Start exercising right away."
"Okay."
His younger brother started exercising, and Dohyun took out a small notebook from his bag. Then, using Presence Detection, he began scanning the apartment and writing something down. "Huff... huff... huff... hah." As Dohun lifted dumbbells, he paused to catch his breath and asked. "What are you doing, hyung? Aren't you going to exercise?"
"In a moment. I'm planning something very important right now."
Ten days — a short time, but an important one. "I need to make good use of the remaining time."
In the notebook, he marked where the zombies were in the apartment and where people were. The number of zombies in isolated apartments was at most five — the perfect number for hunting. And among the houses with survivors, if there was a house with only one woman... Perfect for rape. He began making various plans to earn good achievements in the remaining ten days.