Train Like You Fight
With a racing heart, I walked into Minji's apartment, only to find Ye-jeong and Jeong-a chatting.
"Mother-in-law Jeong-a, you're looking quite cute today too."
"Oh, please... What's so cute about an old woman like me?"
Jeong-a's cheeks flushed a faint pink. Heh. Looks like my flirting is working, doesn't it?
"Sigh..."
Ye-jeong let out a heavy sigh from beside her. Was something bothering her?
"Mother-in-law Ye-jeong, why the sudden sigh?"
"It's my husband... or whatever he is. He's just... so pathetic."
Well, I suppose a husband who's been reduced to a chained slave laborer would look pretty pathetic.
"Don't worry too much. Old man Hyeong-uk has been pulling his weight lately, hasn't he? He's participating in combat drills and even helping build the shields."
The only problem is that none of it is voluntary.
"By the way, how is the shield-making going? Do we have to carry those too?"
"Of course. Just imagine a spear or an arrow suddenly flying at you. Wouldn't you feel much safer having a shield to block it?"
"I suppose so."
Seeing Mother-in-law Ye-jeong address me politely with formal honorifics instead of calling me 'Son-in-law Park' casually made me feel pretty damn good. Some females in this world just naturally walked on eggshells around me without even needing to be trained. Meanwhile, that little beast Minji forgot her place the moment I stopped beating or coddling her. She was proving to be a real pain to break.
"Doyoung, isn't that... a bit heavy?"
Oh? Now that Ye-jeong is using formal speech, Jeong-a is starting to slip into that half-polite, half-casual tone, dropping her honorifics. Well, she's still a female, but since she's my mother-in-law, I'll let it slide for now.
"It was too heavy, so I told them to use only two layers of plywood instead of three. They're strong against slashing attacks, but weak against thrusts, so I'm planning to cut up the steel plates from the front doors and bolt them to the front."
"That sounds incredibly sturdy. So we just have to hide behind them, right?"
"They're not big enough to completely hide behind. They only cover the torso and the immediate area around it. For the head, I'm planning to raid a motorcycle shop soon to grab some helmets, but do you have any good ideas for the thighs? The shins are low enough that it's hard for an enemy to target them easily, but if you raise the shield to protect your neck, your thighs get completely exposed. And you can't exactly lower the shield and leave your neck wide open, can you?"
"What about using books? I heard gangsters used to stuff books under their shirts to protect their stomachs."
"That's not a bad idea, but I think it would make moving around too awkward. Especially in situations where we have to fight our way up stairs."
I'll keep Jeong-a's idea in mind for now. But her half-casual tone is starting to get on my nerves. It's not like I can take her to bed and teach her some manners like I did with Ye-jeong and Minji. And honestly, I don't even have the confidence to try that kind of 'education' on Jihye yet.
I took Jeong-a and Ye-jeong with me to the workshop, where I found that they had already finished making all eight medium-sized shields.
"What if we made a spear too? Couldn't we drill holes in the handle of a kitchen knife and a mop handle, then bind them together with wire?"
"We have a cordless drill, so I'll give it a try. I'm not sure how well it'll work since the drilling power is a bit weak, though."
Whirrrr— Whirrr—
Juho brought a mop handle from one of the empty apartments, drilled two holes in it, and then drilled two matching holes into the handle of a kitchen knife.
"Juho, try thrusting it against the shield."
Thud— Thud— Tap! Tap!
"I can't really thrust with any real force. The knife handle and the pole aren't bound tightly enough, so it doesn't hold up under pressure. We can only really use it to poke and prod from a distance to keep enemies at bay."
"For now, wrap the kitchen knife blade in some clothes and secure it with duct tape. We'll use it for combat practice."
I handed Ye-jeong her favorite fire axe, and I gave Minji my dagger. Since I gave my dagger to Minji, I kept an expandable baton as my sidearm, while carrying my traditional military saber (Hwando) and traditional horn bow (Gukgung) as my primary weapons. Since I couldn't use my real arrows, I crafted some practice arrows—similar to crossbow bolts—by wrapping the wooden tips in cloth.
Just like the spear, we wrapped the heads of the sledgehammer and the fire axe in clothes and secured them with duct tape. Minji carried a small wooden stick instead of her dagger, and I wrapped a cloth around the scabbard of my military saber, intending to swing the weapon while keeping it sheathed.
Jeong-a held her crossbow and the crowbar she seemed to favor, while Jihye held her whip. Although we wrapped the crowbar in cloth as well, honestly, I doubted anyone would actually get hit by the clumsy swings of a woman like Jeong-a.
Everyone's standard gear consisted of a stab-proof vest, stab-proof gloves, a shield, and an expandable baton. Minji, Jihye, and I also made sure to pack handcuffs and handcuff keys. I had told them to train like we fight, so even if we didn't need them immediately, it was better to practice while wearing all the gear we'd actually use in a real battle.
"We'll add helmets later once we raid a motorcycle shop and get enough for everyone. For now, we'll practice without them. Also, you see those four shields made by gluing two sheets of plywood together? I'm going to attach steel plates to the front of those later, but since we don't have electricity to run an angle grinder, I haven't been able to mount them yet."
Looking closely, each layer of the shield wasn't a single sheet of plywood; instead, two sheets had been joined horizontally. Perhaps it was because the width of the cabinet doors was narrower than the desired width of the shields. The vertical length was plenty, so they had used them without cutting, but since the horizontal width was slightly lacking, they had staggered the outer and inner layers. The outer layer had a narrow strip of plywood attached to the left, while the inner layer had the narrow strip on the right.
"As for the shields, Father-in-law Jihun will carry the large shield, I'll take the new medium shield, Jihye will take the old medium shield, and Minji will carry the small shield. Everyone else, use the wooden shields made to the same size as the new medium shield."
Status Window.
I called out in my mind, and the status window materialized.
Since I had two Branded women bound to me, my mana was always sitting at zero. Looking at my stats, it seemed like the average adult male had a baseline of 10. Since I had raised my Agility to 12, did that make me twenty percent faster? Or did the numbers not scale in a perfectly linear fashion?
I gave Jihun the kitchen knife spear. I had a feeling that the spear would be a far more lethal threat to me than a sledgehammer. With my high Agility, there was almost no way I'd ever get hit by a slow-ass sledgehammer anyway.
It's definitely better to give it to Jihun than Juho. Juho's mother and sister have both been claimed by me, and he and his father are treated like slaves, so he's way more likely to betray me.
Besides, Jihun still hadn't caught on to me feeling up Jeong-a. Ah, wait, that wasn't sexual harassment—it was a scientific investigation conducted alongside Jihye to study the effects of mana on aging and radiation. How could anyone call it harassment when the daughter was right there watching? It was a vital, necessary scientific inquiry for the survival of our group.
I armed Juho with the sledgehammer and Hyeong-uk with a wooden table leg. Giving them bladed weapons was too risky; they might try to stab me. Naturally, I had Hyeong-uk's table leg wrapped in cloth as well.
"Alright, Minji and I will act as the opposing zombie force. Jihye's side will be Team Jihye, with Jihye as the leader. We've wrapped all the striking surfaces of the weapons in clothes or cloth, but it's still dangerous, so be careful. If you get hit in a spot that would realistically take you out of the fight, step aside."
This time, I positioned our team near Room 204 and Jihye's team near Room 206.
Once again, Hyeong-uk, Juho, and Jihun formed the front line, with Jihye standing to Jihun's right. I guess she stood next to him because he was her father.
Wait, does a handsome face actually work on a daughter too?
My mood suddenly soured. But whatever, that was that. Behind the vanguard stood Ye-jeong and Jeong-a, whose combat capabilities were practically nonexistent.
Anyone could tell that a useless bitch like Jeong-a, who couldn't even break a police station's glass door with a crowbar, was dead weight. But if Jihye and Minji put on a good show at the front, any potential enemies wouldn't realize that the woman in the back was completely useless.
"Mother-in-law Jeong-a, don't be too nervous. Just holding a loaded crossbow in the back will force the enemy to keep an eye on you. That alone is enough to act as a solid deterrent."
Well, since I already knew her limits, I didn't need to pay much attention to her.
"Mother-in-law Ye-jeong, if an enemy gets close, either block them with the shield on your left arm or just chop them down with your fire axe."
Ye-jeong was a woman, but because she had lived a tough, impoverished life and worked all sorts of odd jobs to make ends meet, she was at least capable of swinging a fire axe. Even if she wasn't particularly skilled at it.
Minji would be useless without her skills, but since she had awakened her stealth assassin skill, Presence Erasing, she could easily pull her own weight. Besides, she had already killed the man from Room 204, so she wasn't the weak-willed, timid loser she used to be.
"Everyone loaded their revolvers with live ammo and put them in their vest pouches, right? We won't be using them in our practice drills, but if a real fight breaks out with outsiders, Mother-in-law Ye-jeong will use hers to threaten them from the back. Mother-in-law Jeong-a, you'll aim your loaded crossbow at them."
"But Son-in-law, why do you keep calling the crossbow a 'soenoe'? I've heard of crossbows, but 'soenoe' is a first for me."
"That's because its original name up until the Joseon Dynasty was 'soenoe'. A 'seokgung' actually referred to a stone-bow, which is more like a slingshot that shoots rocks. Since people don't really use those old weapons anymore, the names got mixed up over time."
Well, the name doesn't really matter anyway.
Even if the revolvers wouldn't actually fire because the gunpowder wouldn't ignite due to the mana in the air, they were still perfect for intimidation against enemies who didn't know that. Personally, I preferred to avoid fighting altogether if we could get away with it. If we fought, our side would end up dead or injured too. I'd much rather find a peaceful solution than watch Ye-jeong or Jeong-a get hurt for no reason.
"Instead of a straight line, it'll be better to form a wedge. Father-in-law Hyeong-uk, you stand at the very tip of the triangle. Juho and Father-in-law Jihun, stand diagonally behind him to the left and right. Your weapons have a longer reach than Father-in-law Hyeong-uk's anyway."
"My dad will stand on the right, and I'll stand next to him," Jihye said.
"Hold on. This time, let's use the 1.5-meter whip instead of the 3-meter nylon one. The hallway is too narrow, and if you use that long whip, it completely breaks the balance. Even with my high Agility stats, I'd have a hard time breaking through that."
"Fine. Either way, my mom and Minji's mom will stand in the back, and I'll take the front right. Okay?"
"Sounds good. You'll act as the skirmisher, just like Minji did last time."
"Don't you think it'd be better if Minji's dad didn't stick out so far forward? If he just steps forward slightly, their shields can overlap."
"Is that so?"
Finally, the preparations for our mock battle were complete.