The Stage's Turning Point (3)
The moment that utterly abnormal announcement finished broadcasting — an announcement that, from any survivor's perspective, reeked of something deeply wrong — the reactions began.
Northern Gyeonggi Province.
PG City, a place that had once sat uncomfortably close to the old 38th Parallel.
"Hey, Jeongho. You heard that just now?"
"What, that announcement? The one that came out in a totally different voice instead of the usual piece-of-shit one?"
"Yeah, that one, dumbass!"
"So what about it?"
"What do you mean, so what? That means—"
"—! —!"
"Ugh, those screams are loud enough to hear from outside. Somebody gag her already, seriously!"
"Must be Hyomin's hole again. Heh heh...!"
In what had once been one of PG City's largest buildings — a big-box supermarket now reduced to a fortified ruin — a gang of men had set up shop.
The harsher the world became, the more selfish bastards crawled out of the woodwork, determined to survive at everyone else's expense. But these men had long since blown past ordinary selfishness into something far more vile.
Robbery. Murder. Extortion. Assault. Rape.
In peacetime, they would have been pointed at in the streets and dragged before a court of law. Now they committed those same atrocities without a second thought. That was how they had stayed alive.
And they had been even more vicious about it than the trash who had done a little looting down in Gangnam. While the monsters poured into northern Seoul and the dark clouds grew ever thicker, these men had ruthlessly drained every survivor they could find of blood and resources.
Even now. Without a drop of pity. The only thought in their heads was how to suck the next survivor dry the moment they laid eyes on them.
"Haa..."
Among those men was one who committed his atrocities without so much as a change of expression. Wanting a breath of outside air, he turned his back on the screaming, opened the door, and stepped out.
"Oh, Hyomin!"
"H-Hyomin hyung-nim! You're out!"
Some greeted him with easy familiarity and open goodwill. Others stammered honorifics, trembling as they made the hierarchy plain.
The irony was that the man who had just walked out was neither particularly tall nor particularly imposing compared to the ones chatting outside.
"Hyomin. You hear the announcement?"
"Of course I heard it, you fucking idiot. Was not hearing it even an option?"
"Yeah, but... what are we gonna do?"
Even so, among all the scum gathered here to commit their outrages, there was no one whose eyes looked more vicious than his.
"What are we gonna do? What do you want to do?"
"Well... you know... we talked about this before, right!? If somebody ever made one of those 'Clean Zones' or whatever, we'd go crawl up to them, kiss ass, then stab them in the back and take everything! This time it's a 'Sanctuary' or some shit — you're not gonna make an exception for that, are you? No way, right?"
"No exceptions."
No — he truly was a vicious creature. After all, among everyone here, he had been the first to commit murder, robbery, arson, extortion, deception, and rape without the slightest hesitation.
"Hmm... Seoul, huh... The water's gotta be better there than in this backwater, right?"
"Water? Of course it's better. The Han River runs through—"
"You dense motherfucker, acting like you don't get it... I mean the women. The women. The quality of the women is gonna be better, you dumb shit."
"Ah— ahh! That? Hell yeah, obviously... it'll be better, right?"
Right up until the apocalypse hit, he had been an ordinary man living a quiet, unremarkable life. Looking at him now, it was almost impossible to believe. And yet this was the man currently leading this vicious band of bandits — Kim Hyomin.
"In that case... shall we pay Seoul a little visit?"
And in that moment, without a shred of fear, Kim Hyomin chose the road to Seoul.
"Huh? But it doesn't open for another month—"
"Who the fuck doesn't know that, you moron? Does that mean we actually have to wait a whole month? At times like this—"
A young man well-suited to surviving a zombie apocalypse — if you ignored how thoroughly twisted his worldview had become — launched into one of his usual half-baked philosophies, explaining the plan to his subordinates and companions the way he always did.
Somewhere in the mountains of Gangwon Province.
Exactly thirty minutes before the announcement went out.
"S-Salute!"
"Huh? What is it?"
"C-Colonel, sir... it's just that... the men watching Seoul, they, uh, filed a report!"
"And?"
"Well... they say the dark clouds have cleared. Those enormous dark clouds just... vanished all of a sudden..."
"What?"
The Republic of Korea Army.
In an office that looked like it belonged to a commissioned officer or senior NCO, two men in military uniforms — proof enough of what they were — were talking.
"Since when?"
"S-Starting exactly two hours ago they began to lift, and... th-thirty minutes ago the sky was completely clear! I-I saw it with my own two eyes, sir."
"You little—! And you're only telling me this now... Haa!"
The man they called Colonel didn't shout. He took a breath instead. It was a habit he had drilled into himself from the moment the zombies started swarming.
The political instincts that had gotten him commissioned as a field-grade officer snapped him back to cold composure. Right. This was not the time to tear into the clueless subordinate in front of him — a kid who still couldn't get his act together even four years after pinning on his rank.
Because something far more urgent had just landed on his plate.
"Get the gear checked and prepare to move out, now! We leave for Seoul in three hours... no, two! What the hell are you standing around for, you little shit!? Run and pass the order! You know the broadcast equipment doesn't work!"
"Y-Yes, sir! Salute!"
Even in that situation, the Colonel's subordinate managed to snap off a salute before bolting from the office.
The moment the door shut, the Colonel pulled a cigarette from his pocket and flicked his lighter.
"Shit... What the hell is even going on anymore...!"
For now, one thoroughly military thought filled his head.
Retaking the capital. Even though they were relatively close to Seoul by Gangwon standards, they hadn't been able to move. Not until now.
He already knew the source of those dark clouds. The system announcements had driven it into his skull that an "Area Boss" had taken root in Seoul. Reconnaissance reports from his men had only confirmed that the Area Boss was the culprit.
But if the report was true — if those clouds really had cleared...
The ambitious man gazed out at the broad mountain range beyond the window and sank into thought.
Of course, a short while later — the moment he heard the announcement describing the situation in Seoul with his own ears — he had no choice but to cancel the deployment immediately and summon his officers for a meeting.
XX City, North Chungcheong Province.
Right after the new administrator's businesslike announcement finished ringing out.
"We're going."
"B-But... Yujeong unni!"
Inside a ruined building — a villa-style structure tucked into a particularly remote corner — the surviving companions of a man who had once worked a miracle were gathered.
They were the people who had followed a man named Kim Jaehoon, risking their lives to defeat a Field Boss and claim a Clean Zone.
Of course, most of their companions had died in the process of killing that Field Boss. Even their leader, Kim Jaehoon himself.
The survivors had tried to cling to life using the Clean Zone as their inheritance. But the moment the Clean Zone vanished, their situation had plunged straight back to where it had been before — no, into something even more nightmarish.
Ugly human greed. People who had achieved nothing and offered no help, yet still tried to snatch the crumbs from someone else's accomplishment... no, who simply stole the accomplishment itself.
Ground down by that extreme selfishness, these people had been pushed to the absolute brink — mentally and physically.
"We're going. It'll take a long time to get from here to Seoul anyway... and wouldn't the area around Seoul be a lot safer than here? And who knows? A month from now, if that man allows it, we might even be able to live in the Sanctuary."
"B-But... will it be okay, unni? We have no idea what kind of person that man is...!"
Remembering the horrors of the past few weeks, her companion couldn't even finish the sentence. The bleak past was eating away at her mind.
Hearing that, the woman — Shin Yujeong — trembled at the corners of her mouth, yet still shook her head hard, trying to deny her own fear. At last she managed a bitter smile and spoke.
"Whatever kind of person this Jeong Hoon turns out to be... leaving this place has to be the priority, doesn't it? Honestly, whether we can get into the Sanctuary or not... won't anywhere be better than right here where we're stuck now? Don't you all think so?"
The eight people gathered there had no choice but to agree with Shin Yujeong, however bitterly.
And so, with one great evil gone, countless new beings began to open their eyes.
Every last one of them was taking an interest in what Jeong Hoon had accomplished, slinking closer like hyenas that had caught the scent of prey.
...Of course, not a single one of those opportunists had the faintest clue what kind of man Jeong Hoon — the man who now held the heart of the Republic of Korea, Seoul — truly was.
May 7th. 3:00 a.m.
At an absurdly early hour, I found myself waking up. Carefully, I pushed back the blanket and sat up.
"Mmm..."
"Zzz... zzz..."
"Mnyah... mnyah..."
Around me came the sounds of my companions sleeping soundly. Evidence that people exhausted past their limits had sunk deep into dreamland filled the room.
Kim Seyeon, asleep with Seo Minji cradled in her arms. Han Sora, lost in dreams in a neat, demure posture. Park Seeun sprawled out beside her with a blissful look on her face. And Yun Mina curled up on her side.
After washing up, they had all piled into one room as if by prior agreement, thrown some blankets down, and collapsed. Kim Seyeon, of course, had lain down carefully cradling her daughter. It was a scene that radiated maternal love... but everyone had been far too tired to even smile about it before surrendering themselves to the softness of the night.
I let out a quiet snort of laughter as I briefly replayed the past, then slowly got to my feet.
My eyes had simply opened on their own, and just like that, sleep had fled completely. Lying back down right now didn't feel like it would do any good.
Well, I had slept plenty. Probably more than nine hours.
By the time we'd heard the administrator's announcement, claimed our rewards, cheered ourselves hoarse, and made it back to Yeouido, it had been around three in the afternoon. After handling various odds and ends, tossing a couple of bastards in a cell — only two of them, for what it was worth — and asking the butler to keep an eye on them, we'd gotten back to the lodging to find my phone clock reading six in the evening. Too wiped out even to eat dinner properly, we'd collapsed onto the blankets exactly as I'd just described.
Then I'd sunk into a dreamless void, opened my eyes, checked my phone, and found it pointing at three in the morning. How long had it been since I'd slept this deeply? For the past few weeks, worry about the vampires had kept me from ever really resting. Those things were nocturnal monsters, so we'd posted watches and I'd stood guard myself — caution cranked all the way up.
That tension-soaked past was truly past now. Our party had reclaimed nights we could sleep through in peace.
The Sanctuary. A region that could fairly be called an upgraded version of a Clean Zone — and we had claimed it. For a full month, outside interference was completely forbidden, and even after that, I could selectively refuse entry. That land, loaded with those staggering benefits, belonged to one person: me. Just thinking about it flooded me with happiness and pride until my heart pounded. The elevated mood only drove sleep further away.
"Haa..."
Feeling that lift through my whole body, I found myself leaving the room and climbing up to the lodging's rooftop. Hands on the railing, I looked out over the cityscape and the pre-dawn sky where the sun had yet to rise.
Becoming a Sanctuary hadn't raised some giant dome-shaped barrier or anything like that. But the smell rolling off the city was unmistakably different. The old stench of death and rotting corpses had faded a great deal.
It wasn't gone completely... but it was no longer thick enough to make me and my companions feel death pressing in.
"Can't sleep?"
A voice came from behind me as I stood lost in the view of the city. Someone approached without the slightest hesitation and slipped her hands around my shoulder and arm.
Wait — when did she even get up? I hadn't sensed a thing. I snorted a quiet laugh and answered her.
"Opened my eyes and couldn't get back to sleep. You should go back in and rest, Seyeon. You pushed yourself hard today — well, yesterday."
"Hehe. I couldn't sleep either. But..."
Kim Seyeon's bare face — no glasses — stared straight through me.
What was this about, I wondered... and then I caught the playful glint in her expression. What on earth had she found so amusing to look at me like that... Ah. My speech.
"Ah, damn..."
"Hehe... It's not just your way of speaking. Your expressions have gotten so much more colorful, too. Almost every emotion shows right on your face. Everyone was too tired to say anything earlier, but... tomorrow you're going to get grilled with questions, you know?"
"Yeah, I figured..."
I couldn't even argue. The reality barreling toward me was far too obvious. If someone's speech suddenly changed and their face started showing every little feeling, how would the people close to them react?
It would start with "Is something going on?" and spiral into a full interrogation. Today everyone had been too wiped out to even think of asking, and I hadn't completely dropped the "Lawful Good" act either, but still...
"I trust you'll explain properly tomorrow... but you can give me a little hint now, can't you?"
"Mm. Well... you could say I had a change of heart. A pretty intense one."
"How intense does a change of heart have to be to flip someone's entire way of speaking overnight?"
"W-Well... it was... extremely intense. Yeah. That's it."
Ugh. What a pathetic excuse. I was definitely going to need a better one ready for tomorrow.
If I stood in front of everyone stammering out nonsense like that, the carefully built prestige I'd managed to scrape together might shatter into pieces — and that anxiety was already settling in.
Anyway, consoling my future self — who was about to be busy with explanations and all kinds of cleanup starting tomorrow — I carefully...
...reached out with the left arm Kim Seyeon wasn't holding.
Grab!