A Matter of Shields and Bets
Maybe I should make a bet with Jihye's mom?
"Here I come." Since this was a practice run and not a real battle, I let them know I was starting. Time for them to taste the speed of a man who had dumped almost all his points into Agility.
The battle began with both sides facing off. Last time, Minji's side lacked a heavy hitter, forcing her to lead the charge. But now that I was on her team, it would be much more effective for me to disrupt their formation and sow chaos first, allowing her to slip in undetected for a sneak attack.
Staring them down from across the room, it was glaringly obvious that their shields were far too small.
Whoosh—thwack!
"Ugh." Hyeonguk, standing at the front, took an arrow to the thigh where his shield failed to cover him. However, deciding he wasn't completely incapacitated yet, he gritted his teeth and held the line.
I closed the distance in a flash, lowering my stance. Hyeonguk instinctively lowered his shield to protect his thigh. Anticipating this, I dropped even lower and swept my sheathed Hwando hard against his shins.
"Argh!" Hyeonguk collapsed to the floor.
Crack!
"Tsk." I clicked my tongue and leaped backward. Jihye's whip lashed the exact spot I had occupied a millisecond ago, forcing me to abort my follow-up.
"Ah!" Right then, Jihye gasped as Minji's dagger bit into her flank. As per our pre-arranged rule—where anyone sustaining a simulated fatal wound had to withdraw—Jihye stepped out of the fray.
Seizing the opening, I lunged back into their formation. I grabbed the shaft of Jihun's thrusting spear with my left hand while ducking under the massive sledgehammer Juho swung from the right.
Thwack!
"Gah!" I struck Juho's exposed neck with the butt of my sheathed Hwando, sending him stumbling out of bounds.
Jihun quickly abandoned his spear and drew his expandable baton. Huh, the old man actually has some decent combat instincts. If an infantryman clings to a spear once the enemy closes in, he's as good as dead. Still, an expandable baton has a shorter reach and far less stopping power than my Hwando; he won't last long.
Whoosh—thud!
"Ngh!" Something flew through the air, and a sudden, sharp pain bloomed in my abdomen. I had been so focused on taking out Jihun that I completely dismissed Jeonga as a weak, harmless female. I hadn't factored her into my calculations at all, and now a crossbow bolt was buried in my stomach.
"Uh... wow, Mother-in-law. Nice shot." I was so flabbergasted I ended up stammering like some brainless schoolgirl.
"Right? I did good, didn't I?" Jeonga beamed, her smile as bright as a sunflower. Whenever I saw a smile that pure, it felt like fresh winter snow—and it made me want to trample all over it, staining it with my own colors.
With me stepping out, the match was down to Minji on my team against Yejeong, Jeonga, and Jihun on Jihye's team. Team Doyoung without Doyoung, and Team Jihye without Jihye. But honestly, the game was already over. Minji activated her skill, vanishing like a wisp of smoke, only to materialize behind the two middle-aged women. She tapped their backs with her dagger, simulating fatal thrusts to the lungs and heart. Just like that, they were out. Now, it was down to the final duel. Well, neither of them was actually the leader, but still.
Jihun stood his ground, holding a large shield in his left hand and his expandable baton in his right. Minji, with a small shield strapped to her left forearm, shifted her dagger from a standard grip in her right hand to a reverse grip in her left. Then, she drew her own expandable baton with her right hand, flicking her wrist downward to extend it.
Jihye only briefly explained the reverse grip to her in passing, but she's already figuring out how to use it on her own. I felt a strange swell of pride.
Thwack! Thud! Smack! Crack!
"Ow!"
Clatter!
...But her tactics were incredibly stupid. She had literally just used her stealth skill right in front of Jihun to sneak up on Yejeong and Jeonga. If someone vanishes right before your eyes, obviously you're going to watch your back. Minji took a flurry of baton strikes to her head, shoulders, and wrists, instantly dropping both her dagger and baton.
"Let's call it there," I announced. "Minji's lost all her weapons. In a real fight, assuming she had mana left, she would've either transitioned to grappling or fled."
Reviewing the battle, Hyeonguk had been difficult to hit because his shield protected his thighs, forcing me to aim all the way down at his shins. On the other hand, Juho, who had lowered his shield, left his neck completely exposed, making him an easy target.
"For the three on the front line, when the enemy is at a distance, hold your shields high to protect your necks. Once they close in, duck your head and upper body to cover both your neck and thighs. We'll protect our heads with helmets once we scavenge some. Since the shields are small, standing straight makes it impossible to protect both your neck and thighs at the same time—unless you're as tiny as Minji."
Smack!
Minji slapped my back again. Seriously, just because I pampered her as my Primary Wife, she was starting to act up again, forgetting her place just like women did before the apocalypse. Didn't she know? Men are the sky, and women are just holes.
"Earlier, Mother-in-law Jeonga suggested using books to protect the thighs. Why don't we try duct-taping some books to Father-in-law Hyeonguk's thighs, since he's on the front line? Let's give it a shot."
Juho duct-taped books to the front of Hyeonguk's thighs. With the makeshift armor secured, Hyeonguk stood ready with his shield and table-leg club, while Jihun and Juho lined up opposite him.
"Let's see how much protection this actually offers."
Thud!
Juho tapped Hyeonguk's shield with his sledgehammer, clearly holding back out of fear of hurting his father.
Jab!
Meanwhile, Jihun slipped to the side and poked Hyeonguk's flank with his spear.
"Stop," I called out. "Taping books to the thighs restricts movement too much. It's not practical for real combat."
The Medium-Small Shields were vulnerable to arrows earlier, weren't they? Let's just equip the front line with Large Shields. Looking at Yejeong and Jeonga in the back, even the new Medium-Small Shields seem too heavy for them to handle comfortably. A double-layered plywood shield already weighs around 6.5 kg, and adding metal plating would push it to 8.5 kg. There's no way unawakened women can fight effectively carrying that kind of weight. We need to downsize the rear line's shields to the old Medium-Small Shield dimensions. I'll use a new Medium-Small Shield, and Jihye will use an old Medium-Small Shield to block arrows while charging, while Minji can stick to a Small Shield.
"Jihye, what are the exact dimensions of standard police shields? Small, medium, and large? I'm planning to upgrade the front line to Large Shields and downgrade the rear line to the old Medium-Small size, so I need a reference."
"The large ones are about a meter tall and over fifty centimeters wide," Jihye replied. "The new medium ones are fifty centimeters wide and slightly taller than that. The old medium ones are under fifty centimeters tall but over fifty centimeters wide, since they're meant to be strapped to the forearm or held up to block."
"So we can estimate the Large Shield at 60 by 100 centimeters, the new Medium-Small at 50 by 60, and the old Medium-Small at 60 by 40?"
"Yes, that's roughly it."
"Alright. Father-in-law Hyeonguk and Juho, you two will make and carry two Large Shields. Mother-in-law Yejeong and Mother-in-law Jeonga, you'll make and carry two old Medium-Small Shields."
Looking around at the group, everyone seemed exhausted.
"You've worked hard today, making four shields during the day and doing combat training in the late afternoon. Just finish up the two old Medium-Small Shields and then you can rest. Make them the same size as the police shields. Double up the sink plywood just like the new Medium-Small ones. You don't need to make them oval-shaped; just shave off the four corners to make them octagonal. Call me when you're done."
I headed back to the apartments, taking Yejeong and Jeonga with me.
Yejeong showered in Minji's bathroom, and Jeonga showered in mine, using bottled water. Showering with bottled water in the middle of an apocalypse... isn't this a bit too luxurious? Haha. People on the other floors are probably dying of thirst, but that's none of my business. If they come begging for help, I'll gladly trade them water—in exchange for their absolute enslavement, of course.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, click.
Having finished her shower, Jeonga apparently found it boring to be alone, so she unlocked Minji's door and walked right in. She treats this place like public property now, doesn't she? Like a college student's apartment near campus.
"Is Yejeong not out yet?"
Living together for a few days seemed to have brought the two mothers-in-law closer. Jeonga was a year older than Yejeong, right? Even though their children were the same age, Yejeong had Minji during her senior year of high school, while Jeonga had Jihye during her freshman year of college. Judging by her casual, friendly tone, she still hasn't noticed that one of her panties has gone missing. Thank goodness.
"You washed up quickly, Mother-in-law."
"It's drinking water, after all. I have to conserve it."
"Then I'll go wash up in my room too."
I grabbed some clean underwear from Minji's room and headed to my apartment to shower. As I washed up, a thought struck me: Even my underwear is kept in Minji's apartment now instead of my own. Stepping out of the bathroom, my eyes drifted toward my wardrobe for a split second, but I brushed it off and walked out. It wasn't like I was some panty-obsessed pervert like Juho.
When I returned to Minji's apartment, Yejeong was finished showering and was chatting with Jeonga.
"Unni, why did you only have one child?" It seemed they had already progressed to calling each other 'Unni'.
"My husband just wasn't very keen on it," Jeonga replied. "But I'm envious of you. You're so pretty and have such a great figure—I bet your husband couldn't keep his hands off you." Yejeong glanced at me briefly before answering Jeonga.
"Not really. We lived in a camper van, so we were always in the same space as the kids. It's only been a year since Juho went to college and Minji got a job, allowing us to live separately."
"Aren't you two bored?"
"Of course I'm bored, but there's nothing to do, Son-in-law Park."
"Do you have anything fun to do, Mr. Doyoung?" Since I had put on a cool display during the mock battle, Jeonga had reverted to addressing me politely. Ah, this is exactly why men get themselves killed trying to look cool in front of women.
"When I'm bored, I play Omok or chess with Minji. Do you know how to play, Mother-in-law?"
"I know how to play Omok, but I don't really know chess."
"Then I'll teach you. Honestly, I'm a beginner too, but there's so little to do that I've been playing it anyway." As I spoke to Jeonga, a sudden idea popped into my head. "How about we make a bet on a game of chess?"
"A bet?"