Why Are You Calling My Mother by Her Name?
Today is the last day of March. The day of the week is Thursday. It was nice that the sky hadn't been hazy lately.
Well, even so, my place didn't face the main road; all I could see was a narrow alleyway and the building next door. Room 201 and Room 204 have corpses in them, which is a bit of a turn-off. Should I move to Room 202 or 203? You can see Haenggung-ro from there. Actually, forget it. I tore all the doors off with a crowbar and a fire axe, so hanging them back up would be a pain in the ass.
I thought back to yesterday's battle. Even though I had three meat shields, they couldn't stop Jihye's cavalry-like charge at all. They needed to buy at least enough time to fire a crossbow and swing a fire axe. We needed shields and helmets. And to exert proper stopping power, a spear-like weapon longer than a baton would be better. After all, unless there are obstacles like carts or traps, stopping a cavalry charge ultimately requires spearmen to absorb the impact with their own bodies.
I decided to search the empty apartments for materials to make shields.
To protect the innocent and fragile mind of Jeonga, I decided not to take her into any rooms with corpses. Since we also needed to guard our base, I left Minji—who was a combatant—at home, and told Yejeong and Jeonga to wait with her in Minji's apartment.
"Minji, guard the house. Mothers-in-law, it's dangerous, so stay here with Minji."
"We're inside the building, what could possibly be dangerous? Our son-in-law sure knows how to joke. Hehe."
Mother-in-law Jeonga chuckled softly, while Yejeong's expression stiffened slightly. Well, Yejeong shared a room with us, so she probably knew everything without us having to explain every little detail. After all, we had gone out with weapons, returned drenched in blood, and brought back a mountain of water bottles.
Hyeonguk used to be a lathe operator at Baekjin Precision, and seeing how he crafted illegal homemade weapons like the crossbow, the Atlatl, and the Dark Elf Sword, he would definitely be useful. But man, that old guy had some serious balls. Making a crossbow is highly illegal, yet he just went ahead and did it. Ah, or maybe he was just an uneducated high school graduate who didn't know any better?
Jihun had served in the military and worked at a company, so he probably had a decent eye for things. As for Juho, he went to the same Suah University as me, but since he was in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, he might not know much about this kind of manual labor. Still, he seemed useful enough, so I decided to bring him along.
That bitch Minji was an uneducated high school grad who didn't even know the exact name of her own brother's major, simply calling it the "electricity department." But I was a Business Administration major at Suah University—completely different from a brainless airhead like her. Even though I had to drop out after a year due to my family's financial situation, if my family had been wealthy, I was talented enough to have finished a doctorate.
I also needed a bodyguard to protect me, so I brought Jihye along. I couldn't risk bringing Minji, getting ambushed, and dying, could I? Honestly, I just couldn't feel safe with Minji.
And so, Jihye, Juho, Hyeonguk, Jihun, and I began searching the empty apartments—and the apartments that had recently become empty.
First, we decided to search Room 201, where that nagging, petite middle-aged woman had died. As we opened the door and stepped inside, a faint stench of rot hit our noses; she had died last Friday, so it had already been six days. While Minji held her down, I had stabbed her in both lungs with a dagger. Did she die of excessive bleeding? Suffocation? Something like that.
In Room 201, a small pool of blood had spilled onto the floor and hardened, and the lower half of the woman's body was purple, looking heavily bruised.
"Ugh—"
Juho, possessing a weak stomach, immediately covered his mouth. Jihye, perhaps because she was a cop, seemed perfectly fine despite being a woman, and Hyeonguk and Jihun, likely because they were military veterans, looked unfazed.
Juho, are you seriously showing your colors as a former public service agent here? This is exactly why Korean men need to go to the military to become real men. That's why I applied for the non-commissioned officer track, even though I was exempt because I was an orphan.
However, a trace of fear lingered in Jihun's eyes as he turned to look at us. His gaze met mine, then shifted to Jihye. The moment Jihye smirked, Jihun quickly averted his eyes—even though she was his own flesh and blood.
At this rate, that old man is going to get eaten alive by his own daughter. His military life is going to be rough... Ah, wait, this isn't the military.
Come to think of it, I had never actually asked Jihun or Hyeonguk if they were veterans. It was just my assumption. Then again, since Juho and Hyeonguk had been tied up in the same room, they knew the killer had to be someone from Minji's room. It was hard for them to imagine that the tiny, fragile Minji or the big-breasted, airheaded-looking Yejeong had done it. They probably assumed that Jihye and I were the murderers.
Jihye examined the dead woman for a moment before speaking.
"The slightly bloated abdomen and the purplish skin discoloration are typical for a six-day-old corpse. Gas from decomposition has bloated the stomach, and pooling blood has turned into those purple patterns. Normally, by this point, it should be crawling with flies and maggots. But with the nuclear war, the outside is covered in radiation, and since we blocked all the windows and vents, you won't see many flies or maggots."
"Everyone, look around. See if there's anything we can use to make shields."
At my command, everyone scanned the room.
"The only things that look useful are the sink cabinet doors and the wardrobe doors. Maybe the tabletop as well," Jihun said.
Jihun was right.
"We could cut up the wooden bed frame too, but that's a hassle. Let's just unscrew the hinges from the sink and wardrobe doors, then layer two or three of them together to make shields. We can bind them with duct tape and secure them with nails or screws, since we don't have any wood glue."
To catalog all the resources on the second floor, we went through the apartments one by one.
"In Room 202, there's nothing to strip besides the built-in sink doors."
The owner of Room 203 had apparently gone to Seoul for a trip and died there, never returning, so there was still a decent amount of furniture left.
"We can strip the wardrobe doors and the tabletop from Room 203 as well."
When we entered Room 204, the corpse there only had blood pooled around the head, and the lower half of the body was purple.
The skinny male college student in Room 204 had been on high alert. Minji had used her Presence Erasing skill to sneak up behind him, kicking the back of his knees. The moment his head dropped, she took a full swing with a monkey wrench, killing him instantly.
When we killed those four people on Friday, March 25th, we had wiped up all the blood splatters on the floor, dragged the bodies inside, and shut the doors. But for Room 204, there was barely any blood to begin with, so there was nothing to clean.
Room 205 was completely bloodless.
The well-built, chubby feminist bitch in Room 205 had proven too much for Minji to handle, so Jihye had electrocuted her with her whip, and I had strangled her to death with a cord.
Room 206 was also vacant, so there was nothing to salvage except the sink doors.
In Room 207, a severed head rolled on the floor, and the room was completely drenched in blood. Since six days had passed, the metallic scent of blood was gone, replaced instead by the stench of rot.
The muscular day laborer ajussi in Room 207 had refused to open his door. While I was prying it open with a crowbar, he had suddenly flung it open and swung a wooden baseball bat. I blocked it with my left arm, but the pain forced me to back off. Right after that, Jihye shot a taser dart straight into his thigh.
Then, Jihye channeled mana into her whip, slicing through his skin and the front door alike. Terrified, he fled deeper into his apartment. After that, he took one of my traditional bow arrows to the stomach, and Jihye's whip severed his bat and both of his hands. I stepped out because I couldn't bear to watch, and in the meantime, Jihye used her whip to decapitate him.
By Saturday, April 2nd, it would be exactly two weeks since the nuclear war broke out on Saturday, March 19th. I figured we could dump the bodies then.
"Since the mister here did manual labor, he has a lot of tools. A hacksaw, an angle grinder... there are also hammers, nails, screws, and screwdrivers. Even a power drill. But since we don't have electricity, we can't use most of them."
I used to do day labor occasionally myself, but did this guy do something more specialized than just carrying materials? Looking at his muscles, he seemed like the type who just hauled cement bags all day.
Room 208 was also empty, so we only salvaged the sink doors.
"Fortunately, just stripping the furniture from the empty apartments will give us more than enough to make shields for all eight of us. Jihye, keep a close eye on them so no one steals a hacksaw or wire. I'm going to take a quick break."
Jihye glared at me, but it wasn't like I could stand there and watch them myself, right? Ah, I could just send Minji. Even though Minji was Hyeonguk's daughter and Juho's younger sister, she was branded. Surely she wouldn't betray me, right?
"Don't worry, Jihye. I'll send Minji over too. The two of you can take turns keeping watch."
Jihye's face soured at my words, but unlike Minji, who had been getting cocky lately, she didn't dare slap my back.
Come to think of it, what the hell is that bitch Minji thinking, slapping my back like that? Just because I call her my primary wife, does she actually think she's my real wife? Hahaha.
I went to Minji's room and saw her sleeping on the bed, curled up in Yejeong's embrace. Seeing her like that, she really was tiny. Yejeong was short but had a voluptuous build, whereas Minji was small all over, looking just like a baby rabbit.
Fuck, she has such a flat, straight body. Even looking at her underwear wouldn't get me hard at all.
Still, to check if she was properly following my order to wear skirts inside the officetel, I flipped up Minji's skirt to check the color of her panties.
Ivory? Did she learn that from looking at Jeonga's panties?
Well, the color of her panties didn't really matter. It wasn't like I was going to get turned on by the underwear of a girl with a body like a wooden plank.
Slap!
Even so, I smacked Minji's thigh to wake her up.
"Ah, who is it?!"
Minji woke up, sounding thoroughly annoyed.
That girl's reaction is so different from Jeonga's. I feel like Minji used to be much tamer before.
"Minji, get up. It's time to work. Go with Jihye and make sure your dad, your brother, and Jihye's dad don't try to hide any hacksaws or wire. I ordered them to make shields to earn their keep."
"Why aren't you doing it, Oppa?"
"Your biological brother can do the work. Your 'Oppa' is scheduled to rest with Yejeong from now on."
"Why are you calling someone else's mother by her name so casually?"
Minji didn't react to my double-meaning pun, only to the fact that I had called her mother by her name.
"Ah, I must be getting old, my tongue slipped. You're young, so be understanding. Now, hurry up and get to work."
At my words, Minji grumbled with a face full of discontent as she headed out, asking:
"So where am I supposed to go?"
"They're probably gathered in Room 207. You remember that muscular day laborer ajussi, right? The one Jihye decapitated. He had a lot of tools, so they'll probably start there. Once you get there, one of them can go with you to strip doors from the other apartments."
Minji would definitely never forget him. That bastard had tried to sexually harass or rape her, only to get caught by Jihye, which started a fight that ended with us killing him.