Daejeon Isn't Just About Dungeons
The brothers fled quickly on the drone. Once they'd put enough distance between themselves and the pursuing zombies, Dohyun spoke.
"Let's get off."
Kang Dohyun and Kang Dohun dismounted the drone. As soon as they did, the drone was recalled.
"I think I'm about to pass out."
With that, Dohyun collapsed.
He'd taken a heavy blow from the Presidential Skeleton, and the moment he'd regained consciousness, he'd escaped on the drone. He'd held on through sheer willpower, but this was his limit.
"Hyung... I'm sorry. And thank you."
Dohun felt guilty for not pulling his weight in the fight, and grateful to his brother for solving the problem no matter what.
He hoisted his brother onto his back and began walking toward the base camp on the mountainside.
Twelve hours passed.
"..."
When Dohyun opened his eyes, he was inside a tent.
"Hyung? You're awake."
And the person nursing him at his side was his younger brother, Kang Dohun.
"Ah... it hurts..."
His entire body ached, but his face was particularly swollen. That was from the solid hit he'd taken from the Presidential Skeleton.
His brother had been tending to him with cold, wet compresses, but the pain was still considerable.
Even so, now that he was conscious, Dohyun checked the message windows he hadn't been able to read.
'Two achievements!'
He'd earned one achievement that was effective in dungeons, and another that granted a permanent wind-attribute buff.
'This is insane.'
"Dohun, did you get two achievements too?"
"Yeah."
Knowing they'd both received the same achievements, Dohyun's mind began to race.
"We're probably top-tier when it comes to speed now."
"Really? But..."
Dohun spoke with a determined expression.
"I think I need more training."
He was supposed to have better combat specs than his brother, but he hadn't performed better. So he made his resolve.
"Alright, I'll help you."
If he was lacking, all he had to do was help him improve.
On top of that, killing the Presidential Skeleton had raised his level, and he'd also gained a new skill.
'Recoil Control?'
It was a skill that controlled recoil right after firing a shot.
'With this, firearms are going to become the mainstream among ranged weapons.'
With the skills Aiming, Ambush, Gunpowder Amplification, Recoil Control, and the trait One-Shot, this combination gave him the highest attack power when using a shotgun.
While Dohyun was organizing his thoughts by looking at his status window, Dohun spoke.
"Hyung, eat dinner."
Dohun had prepared a ration pack and handed it to him. The two brothers began eating dinner right there.
"Ah..."
Because he'd taken such a hard hit from the Presidential Skeleton, even chewing food was painful. But Dohyun gritted his teeth and ate anyway.
Not wanting his brother to feel guilty, he changed the subject.
"Let's rest today and move tomorrow."
"Move tomorrow. But where are we going now? The uninhabited island?"
"We're going to the island, but I want to take care of one thing first."
They had arrived in western Daejeon. There was one more thing Dohyun wanted to get here.
Hyunchungwon-ro, the western entrance to Daejeon. This long road was the key passage heading west out of the city.
When the apocalypse struck, one group took control of this road.
The Daejeon West Youth Group. It wasn't an official name, but many people called this group that.
The Daejeon West Youth Group was a neutral organization of over two hundred people that controlled Hyunchungwon-ro. They managed the road and regularly cleared the zombies on it.
Their main source of income was collecting a small toll in food from passersby.
It wasn't exactly robbery, though. They charged a fee for safe passage since they regularly cleared the zombies on the road. They let people with nothing pass through for free.
Furthermore, if a passing group turned out to be bandits who had kidnapped someone, the Youth Group would fight and rescue the victims.
It started as a decent organization. But over time, it began to deteriorate.
Initially, it had a slightly benevolent inclination, but after a year, some of the fighters would reveal their true nature and start acting like bandits.
"So? What do you want to do?"
After Dohyun explained about the Daejeon West Youth Group, Dohun asked. He wanted to know why his brother had brought it up.
"Let's clean this place up."
"Do we have to?"
"I have my reasons."
Dohyun had his reasons for wanting to dismantle this group.
At a checkpoint on a small bridge in the middle of Hyunchungwon-ro, Kim Harin and Kim Jihun, brother and sister, were standing guard.
"Aaah... this is boring."
Her older brother, Kim Jihun, yawned in boredom.
"Oppa, you hit level 10 a while ago, right? How's your status window? Any changes?"
"It's a secret?"
When his older brother answered playfully, Kim Harin asked again.
"Tell me."
"Fine, I'll tell you one secret. When you reach level 10, you get a new trait. I got a combat-related one."
"A trait? Aren't traits better than skills?"
"That's right. It means your oppa has gotten that much stronger. Hahaha!"
Kim Jihun was the ace of the Daejeon West Youth Group, their top combatant. Being level 10 at this point was quite high, and he was a skilled warrior.
He told his sister about his status window.
"I'm jealous. I haven't gotten any combat skills."
Harin had also reached level 5 by fighting zombies bravely, for a woman. But she was disappointed because the trait and skills she'd gained had nothing to do with combat.
"It's okay. I'm here."
"Sigh... But oppa, aren't your friends a bit strange?"
When she mentioned his friends, Jihun frowned.
"Why? What about my friends?"
"They're weird. Sleazy and unsettling."
"Hey, they're all good guys. There's nothing wrong with them."
His sister didn't like his friends, but Jihun defended them because they were his buddies.
But Harin's instincts were right.
They were already acting like bandits.
Secretly, they were robbing, raping, and killing ordinary people. The dead couldn't speak, so their crimes hadn't been discovered by the rest of the organization.
While Harin and Jihun were talking, someone was watching them from a very high vantage point.
Kang Dohyun, riding the drone, was observing them through binoculars.
'There's the target.'
His target was Kim Harin. She was the one he was after.
"Let's go down."
He said to his brother, and the drone carrying the two of them descended rapidly.
Jihun was talking to his sister.
"Hey, my friends are really good guys. You'll see when you get to know them."
"..."
"I'm serious. They look a little... no, a lot superficial, but they're good guys. I mean it."
"..."
He spoke, but his sister didn't answer.
"Why? Answer me...!"
When he turned his head toward her, her mouth was already covered with a cloth. Dohun, having descended behind her on the drone, had perfectly subdued her according to his brother's orders.
"What the hell! You bastards!"
Jihun jumped up in shock. He grabbed his weapon and charged, but Dohyun's fist connected with his jaw.
'Thud!'
Kim Jihun passed out on the spot.
At the loud noise, the men in the checkpoint poked their heads out.
"What's going on?"
"An ambush!"
"Counterattack!"
The men of the Daejeon West Youth Group came out with weapons, but Dohyun just smiled grimly as he pulled out his axe.
"Since I don't know who's good and who's bad, let's just kill them all. To wake our brother-in-law up."
He walked slowly toward the men.
When Kim Jihun woke up, thirty minutes had passed since he'd been knocked out. As he opened his eyes, he saw...
"Ah..."
He was tied to a tree with rope, and the area around him was a bloodbath.
Not only the men at the checkpoint, but additional combat personnel from the Daejeon West Youth Group had been dispatched, but they had all been killed by Dohyun.
It was an organization of over two hundred people, but with fifty core fighters dead, the group's dissolution was only a matter of time.
"Th-this can't be..."
Jihun screamed when he saw the severed heads of his friends.
"You crazy bastard! Murderer! Aaaagh!"
As he screamed, he saw his sister still bound by Dohun.
"Ha-Harin... Let Harin go."
"Ah, Miss Harin."
Dohyun walked up to him with a smile.
"Miss Harin is going to be my woman from now on."
"What?!"
"So, please take care of us from now on, Brother-in-law."
Dohyun had a reason for sparing Kim Jihun. He planned to take Harin and make her his woman, so he couldn't kill her brother.
"Please, please! Let my sister go!"
Jihun began to beg, but Dohyun spoke coldly to his brother.
"Dohun, let's go."
"Yeah."
Dohyun summoned the drone again, and the two brothers climbed aboard with Kim Harin. They left Kim Jihun behind and flew far away.