NC Department Store
The drone carrying Kang Dohyun soared high into the sky.
Looking down from above, he took stock of the streets below.
Definitely a lot of zombies.
The farther south he flew, the denser the hordes roaming the streets became. That alone was enough to make the danger clear.
After about twenty minutes of flight, Shin-Haeundae Station came into view.
Crowded with people.
A sweep of his presence detection confirmed a considerable number of people inside the station. Kang Dohyun set down nearby and slipped quietly into the station building.
"Anyone looking for lodging, come this way."
"All goods must be traded through the merchants at the shop. Private deals are illegal in this area."
"Everyone keep order."
Shin-Haeundae Station served as a rest stop for the lawless types operating out of Haeundae New Town — a place to rest, wash, relieve yourself, and sleep.
The military's got this area locked down.
Everyone managing the place wore army fatigues. Kang Dohyun wandered the station for a while, taking it in, then stepped back outside.
Following the road from Shin-Haeundae Station, he came to a short underpass. Passing through it brought him into Haeundae New Town itself.
Apartments on the left, schools on the right.
That explained the dense concentration of zombies on the left side, while the right had been cleared to a reasonable degree.
Even so, the occasional zombie still wandered the streets.
Thwack!
Kang Dohyun put down every zombie he met with a single swing of his axe and kept walking along the road.
He continued killing as he went, but the deeper he pushed toward the center, the more zombies began to appear.
Whoosh, thwack! Whoosh, thwack!
Still, he dropped them one at a time with each swing of the axe — until he stepped into the large intersection by the elementary school.
"Kueeeek!"
Now the numbers had truly swollen.
How do I play this?
Fighting here was the worst possible option. He could kill them, sure — but even if he dropped the twenty-odd zombies in sight, the noise would draw more. That much was certain.
Summoning the drone is also a bad idea.
Calling the drone and flying around was the absolute worst play. He still couldn't afford to let too many people know he had special abilities.
Then I run.
Using presence detection, Kang Dohyun sprinted toward a commercial district where the zombies were sparse.
The commercial area had fewer of them — but the ones that had spotted him at the intersection gave chase.
He kept running deeper into the shops. Presence detection had already confirmed people holding out somewhere inside.
Fleeing the pursuit, he eventually came upon a zone ringed by tall barbed-wire fencing.
A sign hung over the market district: Jwadong Traditional Market.
Kang Dohyun sprinted to the entrance.
"Help me!"
At his shout, the closed iron gate swung open. The moment he ducked inside—
"Kueeeek!"
—the zombies slammed against the gate. Men at the second-floor windows stabbed down with spears and hurled stones, finishing off the ones clinging to the iron bars.
"Hah..."
Kang Dohyun let out a long breath of relief. The man who had opened the gate spoke.
"You've received the aid of the Jwadong Traditional Market Merchants' Association. Pay five coins as an entrance fee."
The merchant held a weapon and spoke with deliberate intimidation. Kang Dohyun smiled.
"Sure. Here you go."
He handed over five coins without protest. The man looked satisfied.
"Entrance fee paid. Rest easy while you're here."
That was the end of it. Pay the toll and the Merchants' Association left you alone — no further hassle.
The Jwadong Traditional Market Merchants' Association controlled the area, but few people were actually doing business there.
Another rest stop, basically.
It filled the same role as Shin-Haeundae Station — a place where warriors who roamed the surrounding streets hunting zombies could eat and sleep. All it offered were restaurants, a tent village, and an inn.
It was a little early, but he decided on lunch and stepped into a restaurant.
"Welcome. Meals are one coin."
"Do you take goods instead?"
"No coin, get out."
The proprietress was firm. Kang Dohyun paid the single coin.
"Just a moment."
While waiting for his food, he studied the room.
Plenty of armed outlaws sat around, but almost none of them were talking.
Boring.
He'd wanted information and couldn't get any. When the food arrived, he ate and struck up a conversation with the owner.
"So — what's the power situation around here?"
"First time?"
"Haven't been here long."
The proprietress smiled and said nothing. Kang Dohyun read her intent at once.
"This thing's heavy to carry around."
He pulled out a can of food and set it on the table. She pocketed it and started talking.
"The apartment districts are packed with zombies — dangerous."
"Small-time hunters usually room and board at Shin-Haeundae Station, here, or Daecheon Park."
"Plenty of groups hold specific territories. The big ones: one at NC Department Store, one at E-Mart, one at Baek Hospital, and one at the driving academy."
"Haeundae Beach, Cheongsapo, and Haeundae Station are all dungeons. Don't go anywhere near them."
She'd given him more than a can of food was worth. Kang Dohyun pressed for what he really wanted to know.
"Among the large groups — is there one with a lot of people who aren't originally from Haeundae?"
"Come on. Do you have any idea how many people live in Haeundae New Town? How would I know that?"
She scolded him once, then continued.
"Still — one or two connections down the line, you sometimes hear about people in those groups. The leadership that took over NC Department Store? Almost all of them are faces nobody's ever seen. Nobody at the market knows them either."
That was the information he needed.
"And the NC Department Store group is selfish. Ruthless."
"Thank you."
As a token of gratitude, Kang Dohyun handed her a chocolate bar on top of the can.
Armed with what he wanted, he left the restaurant and went straight to the market exit. The man stationed there said,
"If you leave and come back, you pay the entrance fee again."
Kang Dohyun said that was fine. The iron gate opened, and he stepped back out into the streets.
His next destination was an empty building. There weren't any.
Guess I'll clear zombies on the way up.
He entered a nearby building with relatively few undead and started climbing, putting down every zombie he met.
Annoying.
Easy work, but tedious. He cleaned the stairwell of the five-story building all the way to the rooftop, then—
Hum...
—summoned the drone. He climbed aboard and rose high into the air.
Keeping clear of other people's eyes, Kang Dohyun landed on the rooftop of a high-rise apartment near NC Department Store.
Good — no zombies on the roof.
The complex and the apartments themselves were crawling with undead, but the rooftop was clean.
He locked the rooftop door, set up a telescope with a clear view of NC Department Store, and settled in.
Let's take a look.
He began observing the department store through the telescope.
NC Department Store — a massive building housing a great many people. At least three hundred, by his count.
That's a lot of people.
And most of them were combatants, weapons in hand.
As he watched, his gaze found the fitness center on the twelfth floor.
Found them!
He confirmed the faces of the two men he'd been looking for.
Those spy bastards!
The men he had been hunting were spies.
The leadership of the group that had seized NC Department Store were spies.
More precisely, they were intelligence assets hired by Japan — and they had banded together to form this group.
Before the apocalypse, Japan had planted or recruited a large number of agents in Korea. Those among them who had been living in Busan naturally gravitated to Haeundae New Town after the collapse. They recruited others, built a group, grew it into a major force, and eventually took NC Department Store.
The two men Kang Dohyun had confirmed through the telescope were Lee Taejin and Seo Dohyun — the core of the operation.
Right now they were nothing more than a selfish local power. Later, when Japan moved to advance onto the Korean Peninsula, they would become a beachhead. Because of this group, parts of Busan would eventually fall under Japanese command.
Only part of Busan — but I still don't want it.
Kang Dohyun had no interest in getting tangled up with Japan. He wanted this group destroyed.
He kept watching through the telescope.
Looks like each floor is assigned by rank.
The twelfth floor belonged to the leadership. Floors eleven through four appeared to be allocated by combat ranking. The third and second floors were for non-combat personnel.
About a hundred non-combatants. Around three hundred fighters.
A force of over four hundred — a genuine large-scale group. Holding a department store right in the heart of Haeundae New Town made them a serious power, no question.
Wiping them all out would be ideal, but killing just the people on the twelfth floor should be enough.
As he continued his observation, Kang Dohyun began working out a plan — how to shatter the NC Department Store group and eliminate the spies at its head.