Home 6
Putting everything Sim Geum-a had said together, the surest way to deal with that Spider Mutant was to bring the entire building it was hiding in down on top of it.
"…So for our home to be safe, we have to smash that thing's nest to pieces."
When I muttered that under my breath, Sim Geum-a's eyes lit up. "Oh! You guys have bombs too?"
I pointedly ignored her and turned to Nam Jin-ju beside me.
"Jin-ju, let's go."
"Just a second, Oppa!"
Nam Jin-ju, who'd been wrapping up some last bit of conversation, gave Choi Eun-ji a light goodbye and came over to me. Choi Eun-ji followed her and asked me one final time, as if to confirm.
"So we really just need to prepare the scrap materials for you? Any impurities still attached…"
"Yes. It'd be better if there weren't any impurities stuck on, but for now, just secure as much material as you can. We can handle the rest ourselves."
I answered. Right then, Sim Geum-a walked up to me and, as naturally as breathing, hooked her arm through mine. She gave the trade list Choi Eun-ji had put together a cursory glance and said,
"Eun-ji, you made it crystal clear that next time they come, they're bringing a ton of water, nails, and food trays, right?"
"Yeah. I asked mainly for drinking water for now."
For all the playful way she'd looped her arm through mine, the look on Sim Geum-a's face as she studied the paper was dead serious.
"Good. Well, we've unloaded everything, so we'll be heading out."
I said, extracting my arm from hers.
"Huh? Leaving already? Shame."
"We've got a problem that needs dealing with too."
"…I'm saying this because I'm genuinely worried, so listen carefully."
For the first time, she looked at me with real sincerity in her eyes.
"If you're set on taking that thing down, I don't know your full strength, so I can't stop you… but be careful. That spider bastard is genuinely terrifying."
I nodded silently at her warning. Then I put the suit back on and left the room with Nam Jin-ju.
Once we were outside the building, Nam Jin-ju spoke up with a dejected look.
"Oppa… I feel like I made way too many mistakes today…"
I ruffled her hair gently and reassured her.
"No. You didn't do anything wrong. That woman just isn't ordinary, that's all. So don't let it get to you. Chin up."
When we reached the truck, the man who'd guided us into the parking spot earlier came over.
"The fuel—filled it right up, just like you asked!"
We nodded our thanks and climbed into the truck.
After Seo Yeong-chan and Nam Jin-ju left, only Sim Geum-a and Choi Eun-ji remained in the conference room. The two of them stared down in silence at the paper summarizing the trade.
"They're saying they'll collect payment for everything they brought this time… all at once, next visit?"
Sim Geum-a asked, as if she couldn't believe it.
"Yeah. I double-checked three times. They said they'll just take it next time they come, so all we have to do is gather up the scrap materials we owe them and stack them somewhere."
At Choi Eun-ji's answer, Sim Geum-a squeezed her eyes shut and muttered,
"For people who want resources… they don't seem all that desperate. Our young husband… might be richer than we thought. So why the hell is he bothering to trade with women like us?"
"Look at this."
Choi Eun-ji pointed at the drinking-water line item.
"The water—I checked it myself. It's incredibly clean. To safely haul that much drinking water, they'd need at least a groundwater source and some kind of purification setup of their own."
At that, Sim Geum-a stared blankly toward the door Yeong-chan and Nam Jin-ju had gone through.
"…How far was the travel distance?"
She asked. Choi Eun-ji answered.
"…Three hundred eighty-three kilometers."
"You sure?"
Under Sim Geum-a's sharp gaze, Choi Eun-ji nodded.
"I'm going to lose my mind…"
Sim Geum-a clutched her head.
"Those bastards drove that patched-up, rickety one-ton truck three hundred eighty-three kilometers round trip? You're telling me that?"
"This trip seemed special—like they went to pick something up, the way they mentioned before… but we don't know anything for certain."
At Choi Eun-ji's words, Sim Geum-a kept her hands on her head and murmured,
"People that capable, taking that much risk for something they needed that badly… what the hell was it?"
She fell silent for a moment, thinking, then looked at Choi Eun-ji.
"…We might actually have grabbed hold of one hell of a good line here… but honestly, Eun-ji, it scares me a little."
Choi Eun-ji gathered the papers on the table, stood up, and said coldly,
"Not we. You grabbed that line. If something goes wrong, just like last time—throw your body around and figure it out yourself."
With that, she left the room without a backward glance.
"…That bitch… doesn't have a single bacterium's worth of friendship in her…"
Left alone, Sim Geum-a could only spit a quiet curse at the door Choi Eun-ji had walked through.
It was evening by the time Nam Jin-ju and I finally made it back to the Shelter. We dragged our exhausted bodies into the dining hall, where the three of them had already set out dinner and pushed the better dishes toward us with worried faces.
Over a warm meal, we carefully reported the results of the trade and everything new we'd learned on the way back.
"So for that Spider Mutant… for now, we'll look for a way to bring the whole barn it's hiding in down on top of it, and leave it at that for the moment…"
After the meal, over the hot coffee Kang Po-gyeong had made, Yeong-ju raised the most important item on the agenda.
"…The process by which mutants are born. That's the real problem."
"I'm sure of it. I saw it clearly. One zombie tore into another zombie while it was still alive. Bit into the nape of its neck, chewed and swallowed… and right there on the spot, its body started twisting and changing."
When I said that, everyone at the table fell silent, stunned.
"If… if Oppa's right… then if there are a hundred zombies, in the worst case as many as fifty of them could turn into mutants… That's… way too serious."
Yang Jin-ju said, her expression dark. Kang Po-gyeong nodded in agreement.
"Mutants… even with guns, ordinary survivors can barely fight them. Seo Yeong-chan-nim was wearing a suit, and even then it took the Shelter's Defense System to put one down."
She paused to steady her breath, then continued.
"People outside the Shelter… when they run into a mutant, they either hide, or do what Sim Geum-a did—build themselves a massive wall. There probably isn't any other option."
At her words, a silence heavier and grimmer than anything before settled over the dining hall. Without us even realizing it, the outside world had been evolving far faster—and far more horribly—than we had imagined.
"For now… the mutants that form later are a problem for later. First we deal with that spider bastard right in front of us."
It was Yeong-ju who broke the heavy silence.
"And if we raise the Shelter level, we can build robots and things, right? I don't know if they'll be able to fight mutants head-on, but something's better than nothing."
I agreed with her and opened the system window to check the next level-up conditions.
Shelter LV.4 Upgrade Conditions: ???
But the Level 4 conditions, unlike before, had no quantity displayed—just three question marks covering everything. If anything, it was more frustrating.
"…Doing it Sim Geum-a's way—using a ton of bombs to bring the whole building down—isn't possible for us."
Yeong-ju said, looking at the map.
"In the end, we'll have to use the Foundation Suit's energy saw to cut the barn's support pillars and drop it ourselves."
"But to do that… someone has to lure the thing somewhere else. We need time while the work's going on. Which means a diversion with the Walker Suit."
Yang Jin-ju picked up her line of thought.
"That spider… didn't look like it hit harder than the muscle-armor ones… so in a suit, we should be able to take a few hits…"
I said it as much to reassure myself as anyone else. Our discussion went on late into the night.
Two teams—lure and demolition—to hunt a giant spider.
"I'll take the lure."
At the strategy meeting, Seo Yeong-ju spoke without hesitation. She pointed at the Walker Suit.
"I wear the Walker Suit and draw its attention. You wear the Foundation Suit and bring down the barn—its nest. That's the most efficient way."
But I shook my head.
"No. I'll take the lure. You wear the Foundation Suit and cut the pillars."
"What are you talking about? Mobility is everything for the lure team. The Walker Suit is way faster, and it'd be better if I—"
"Last time, when that grenade went off at Park Seok-su's base, I froze. Couldn't make a single decision… If I see you in danger again like that and can't think straight, I'd rather just take the more dangerous job myself. It'll sit better with me."
I said, looking her in the eyes. She realized she couldn't break my stubbornness this time. With a deep sigh and a faint flush on her face, she muttered, …only ever like this, and finally nodded.
At dawn the next day, the two of them stood once more at the entrance to the barn complex. This operation would have to face an evolved mutant with no absolute shield like the Shelter's Defense System—only the two of them, their strength, and their teamwork.
Arriving near the livestock complex, they hid the truck at a distance and put on their respective suits.
(…Can you really do this?)
Seo Yeong-ju's worried voice came through the heavy helmet of the Foundation Suit.
"Don't worry. It's the two of us."
Seo Yeong-chan said, and moved first.
Their plan was simple. Yeong-chan, in the Walker Suit, would provoke the creature as loudly as possible and draw it to the far side of the livestock complex. Meanwhile Yeong-ju, in the Foundation Suit, would slip into the barn and use the energy saw to cut the central support pillars just short of collapse. Once everything was ready, they'd get clear of the mutant's line of sight, regroup at the rendezvous point, wait for the Spider Mutant to return to the barn—then both suits would push together and bring the building down.
Standing in front of the barn, Yeong-chan took one deep breath, ripped a door off a nearby wrecked car, and hurled it with everything he had toward the barn roof where the creature was likely waiting.
KWA-KANG—!
With a massive crash, the thing revealed itself. It was far larger and more grotesque than before. Spotting Yeong-chan as the source of the noise, it used those long limbs to come down the wall—silently, but at a ferocious speed.
(It's started! Now!)
Yeong-chan shouted over the comms and, as planned, sprinted like mad toward the opposite side of the complex. Behind him he could feel the unnerving vibration of the creature kicking off the ground in pursuit.
(Be careful! That thing's way faster than we thought!)
Yeong-ju's urgent voice came over the suit radio. Yeong-chan deliberately headed into complicated terrain full of cover—wrecked tractors, toppled silos, and places where livestock bones were piled in mountains. The creature followed relentlessly, and cleverly.
Meanwhile, while Yeong-chan drew it away, Yeong-ju slipped quietly into the largest barn—their target.
(…Interior entry successful. Situation… is the worst.)
Her hardened voice came over the comms. The inside of the barn was a vision of hell. Dozens of livestock carcasses—the creature's prey—lay rotting in every direction, filling the air with a hideous stench. Scattered among them were ordinary zombies.
(And… that…)
Her gaze went to the rusted rebar frame of the barn ceiling. Two human corpses hung there in a grotesque state, like butterflies caught in a web. Unlucky survivors who'd passed through the area, most likely.
Does it move once the food it's stockpiled here runs out?
The thought crossed her mind as she extended the blue-glowing energy saw from the Foundation Suit's right arm with a weeeng—.
(Starting the cuts.)
The moment she set the saw to the first pillar, a terrible noise rose as the rebar vibrated and the whole barn began to shudder.
That was when it happened. The Spider Mutant chasing Yeong-chan suddenly stopped dead. Then it turned its head and stared—precisely—toward the barn where Yeong-ju was. Something was happening in the place where its food was gathered, and instinct told it to stop that something. It turned back.
(…Damn it!)
Yeong-chan swore.
(Yeong-ju! It noticed! It's heading your way!)
(I know. Almost done!)
She was frantically cutting through the last remaining pillar. The entire barn began to scream with a kigigik— as it started to give way.
Yeong-chan changed direction to cut the creature off, planting himself in its path.
"Come on, you son of a bitch! I'm your opponent!"
But it didn't even glance at him. Its only target was Yeong-ju—the one destroying the nest where it had stockpiled its food. The moment it shot past him, lunged, and clung to the barn ceiling hunting for the intruder—
KWARRRRUNG—!
Whether from the added weight of the mutant or not, the massive barn began to collapse in an instant, like a sandcastle. In that scene, Yeong-chan saw the Spider Mutant—unable to get clear in time—pinned beneath the falling wreckage.