The Wave

"Kuaaaak! Gwooooar!"

Listening to the roar of the zombies erupting from behind, Jun-ho kept sprinting at full speed, repeatedly hurling his drawing knife at the large glass windows. Clang! Crash! The sound of shattering glass and the subsequent explosions of noise rang out incessantly. As the number of windows broken by his knife increased, so too did the number of zombies bursting from the buildings to pursue him. But Jun-ho never looked back; he focused entirely on sprinting along the route he had mapped out in his head.

- Turn left. Entering Route 2. Route 2 to 1...

Akina, as usual, did not use polite language, speaking only in a strictly report-oriented format.

- Pursuing B. Over 2,000.

Kwakwakwakwa!!! Goaaaaar...!

Amidst a deafening roar that felt as if the earth itself were shaking, the cries of thousands of zombies echoed through the air.

- Turn left. Entering Route 3. Pursuing B. Over 3,000.

- Route 3 to 1, 2, 3...

Kwang! Kwakwa...!

A thunderous sound erupted from the alley Jun-ho had just passed, and hundreds of zombies surged out. Whether their own kind tripped and fell, or were crushed and burst open underfoot, they ignored it all, running like madmen with their eyes locked on a single 'prey.'

- Left turn soon. Entering Route 5.

Immediately after Akina’s voice, several abandoned vehicles appeared at the corner. Whoosh! Kwang! Because his speed was so high and the force of inertia was at play, Jun-ho had no choice but to lunge forward as if he were about to collide with the abandoned cars. In that instant, he threw his body as if performing a side kick.

Whoosh! Kwakwakwang!

Using the side of the largest delivery truck abandoned on the roadside as a springboard, he changed his direction of travel.

Kwakwakwa! Kuaaat!

However, the zombies, lacking such technique, were pushed by inertia and tumbled over every time they hit the corner. But Jun-ho, indifferent to their fate, continued his sprint.

- Re-entering Route 4.

After ten seconds passed, the report came that he had completed a full lap of the entertainment district centered around the Jaeseong Building.

- Warning. Two entities presumed to be Alphas detected. Some B entities are bypassing to the back alley of Route 3.

Finally, the report came that the Alphas had begun to use cunning tactics in earnest. They likely planned to circle through the back alleys of the tightly packed commercial buildings to block Jun-ho’s path. However, that would only have been possible if Jun-ho were merely a fast ordinary person, someone who could run 100 meters in 13 to 14 seconds.

- Encounter with bypassed entities expected in 7 seconds.

Papapapapapak!

Still having plenty of energy left, Jun-ho ran like a madman.

- 44 kilometers per hour. Probability of encounter with bypassed entities: 0 percent.

Having finally reached his top speed, Jun-ho passed the point where he was expected to run into the entities circling behind the building a few seconds early.

Gwoooaaar...! Kwakwakwakwa!

The hundreds of zombies that arrived late tried to force a change in direction, but unable to overcome their inertia, they tumbled across the road.

Kwakwang! Kwang!

Dozens of them collided with the building, their bodies mangled.

- Re-entering Route 3. No B observed within the route.

- Recommend reducing speed slightly.

At Akina’s words, Jun-ho slowed his pace. If he were too fast, the zombies might give up.

- Re-entering Route 1.

Thus, Jun-ho successfully gathered all the thousands of zombies in the entertainment and commercial district—a rectangular area over 600 meters in total length centered on the Jaeseong Building—and focused them entirely on himself.

- Arriving at the point soon.

Just as he had when he first entered the Jaeseong Building, Jun-ho stepped on a flower bed, leaped up, grabbed the second-floor railing, and jumped into the restroom.

Kwakwakwa...! Kuaak! Kaak! Gwooooor!

The zombies that arrived late collided with the building walls, scrambling and clawing in a frenzy to climb up. The number of zombies, which had been only a few dozen at first, quickly multiplied several times over. Before even a minute had passed, the six-lane road in front of the building, starting from the point where Jun-ho had climbed up with his rope, was filled with an uncountable number of zombies.

By the nature of zombies, most entities—excluding those controlled by Alphas—would have scattered back to their original locations after a few minutes. But that did not happen.

Bang bang bang! Thud! Kwang kwang!

"Ugh! Aaaah! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Aaaaaah!"

"Over here! Over here, you monster bastards!"

The third floor of the Jaeseong Building contained only a beauty salon, a hold'em lounge, and a karaoke room; the rest were vacant. In other words, there had been no one on the third floor since the morning the apocalypse broke out, but two hostesses had opened the back door of the restroom connected to the external balcony and were screaming at the top of their lungs.

Gwooooor!!!

Jun-ho, their original target, had already vanished, but because they could hear the vivid voices of two pieces of fresh prey, the other zombies swarmed toward the back door of the building like a pack of dogs. And some of those who ran there late began to behave strangely. They began to trample their own kind to climb on top, reaching for the balcony railing.

Kuaaat! Kuak! Kyaaa!

When the faces of the zombies, revealing black teeth and drooling saliva, appeared just 4 or 5 meters below, the women panicked.

"O-oh, unni!"

"Let's run!"

The two hostesses, already briefed by Jun-ho, quickly opened the back door of the restroom and went inside. They immediately locked the door from the inside and struggled to push the beauty salon refrigerator they had left in the hallway to block it.

Gwooooor...!

Even though the two had disappeared from the balcony, the zombies continued to climb over their own kind to reach them. However, most of them, excluding those controlled by Alphas, would have given up within a minute or two. But about a minute later, another hostess and a male employee on the fifth-floor balcony did exactly what the two women had done on the third floor.

"Uaaaaah! Come on up, you bastards!"

"Kyaaa! Kya! Kya!"

The entities that had climbed past the second floor and were nearing the third-floor railing scrambled even more fiercely. Like a giant tomb or worker ants carrying food, they clung to the outer wall, and the gaps left by those climbing were naturally filled by the other zombies flooding the road in front of the building.

Ultimately, while the karaoke bar staff and hostesses repeated the same actions every two minutes, moving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the third floor to the fifth, seventh, and finally the ninth-floor headquarters, the thousands of zombies that had filled the road in front of the Jaeseong Building were all drawn to the sides and the back door of the building. This meant that Jun-ho, who had entered the fifth floor via rope, had been granted about eight minutes.

* * *

Jun-ho, steadying his breath while listening to Akina’s aiming assistance, pulled the trigger toward the target in his scope. Pang...! 0.7 seconds after the suppressed gunshot, the target, who had been leaning halfway out of the rooftop to watch, fell backward with his head snapped back. Another target right next to him was startled, but— Pang...! With the gunshot, he too fell with a hole in his head.

- All surveillance personnel on the final destination rooftop removed. Action drone. Commencing operation.

One of the two drones hovering above the Cheongsan Building quickly descended to the rooftop and installed a rope. Seeing this, Jun-ho quickly grabbed his rifle and ran toward the rooftop stairs. His appearance was different from when he had dragged all the zombies in the area just a moment ago. The body armor wrapping him was as heavy as medieval armor, and the black Dragon Scale, arranged in overlapping irregular patterns, shed light in different directions, adding to his sharp impression.

Although it looked like he was wearing thick black armor, the ballistic plates extending from his shoulders to his chest, abdomen, and thighs were mechanically interlocked layer by layer. Far from restricting his movement, it made him look strangely more solid.

"Hoo, hoo, hoo..."

Armed with Level 4 Dragon Scale body armor, an AR-15, and various other equipment, Jun-ho quickly descended the stairs. The weight added to his body reached nearly 40 kilograms. For an ordinary person, descending the stairs would have been impossible, and even an athlete would have taken forever, but the weight Jun-ho felt was similar to what special forces soldiers felt when moving in full combat gear.

- Road in front of the point. No threats.

Tak, tak, tak tak!

Jun-ho quickly descended the stairs and hung from the escape rope on the third floor that the karaoke bar employee had installed in advance. The moment Jun-ho’s feet touched the ground was exactly when the male employee and the hostess were screaming at the top of their lungs on the fifth-floor balcony of the building’s back door.

- Time remaining: approximately 4 minutes.

Listening to Akina’s cold, rational voice, Jun-ho sprinted again across the wide six-lane road of the Mokuri entertainment district, which was now completely devoid of zombies. In the face of the unprecedented situation where thousands of zombies were swarming and climbing a single building, the survivors remaining in the area were on edge, their senses focused on the Jaeseong Building in terror. Some even saw Jun-ho, armed in his Dragon Scale body armor, running across the six-lane road. But Jun-ho didn't care at all. As long as it wasn't the gangsters of the Cheongsan Building, his final destination, it didn't matter. Since the two sentries on the rooftop had been killed, there were no gangsters left who could see him heading to the back door of the building.

* * *

"What? What's going on?" asked An Jun-tae, the information chief of the national organized crime syndicate, as he walked to the window. Then, Son Je-guk, the boss of the Namyangju branch who had joined the organization two years ago, pointed with his finger.

"Look there. You see that Jaeseong Building over there? It's the biggest commercial building in this neighborhood. All the zombies from the entertainment district have swarmed there. Holy shit, this is insane. It's terrifying. Wow..."

Although the distance was a bit far, thanks to that, the overwhelming sight of thousands of zombies rushing across the road was visible at a glance.

"Zombies? Suddenly? Nothing happened, right?"

Although he was higher in the organizational hierarchy, An Jun-tae spoke to Son Je-guk with honorifics because Son was seven years his senior.

"I don't know. It was suddenly so loud, so I looked, and thousands of them were running like crazy. Whoa! Look at that! The ones from the apartment complex came out after hearing the noise too!"

"...!"

An Jun-tae’s eyes widened. It was a truly terrifying sight. Numerous zombies were clinging to the building walls like giant cicadas, trying to climb up while trampling their own kind below. Below them, a number of zombies almost equal to those clinging to the building were swarming, reaching out their hands like ghouls. Even some of the zombies from the large apartment complex across the road had just exited the main gate and were running toward that spot.

"It's a movie, it's a movie. Shit, how many are there? 3,000? 5,000? There are so, so many. Ugh."

An Jun-tae turned his head toward Son Je-guk, who was muttering in a low voice and shivering.

"Just in case, should we tell the boys to wait at their posts?"

"Yeah."

While Son Je-guk gave orders to his subordinates via radio, An Jun-tae watched the situation outside with a grave expression.

"Shit. We can't have any problems with the things in the basement until the boys come from Deokso tomorrow..."

"That won't be a problem. We've blocked every single door. There's no way in or out except by using the elevator shaft to the underground parking lot."

And in the underground parking lot of the Cheongsan Building, there was a secret passage created by Park Il-ho, the owner of this building and operator of an illegal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠business on the top floor, to prepare for crackdowns. The gangsters used that very secret passage to move in and out.

"But... are the things in the basement really helpful to the chairman?"

"They are. So, hyung-nim..."

Kwang!

Suddenly, a powerful explosion erupted from somewhere.

"Ugh!"

"W-what!?"

Son Je-guk and An Jun-tae were startled by the sound, which was like a large firecracker going off right near the building. But soon, the face of An Jun-tae, who had heard 'explosions' very similar to the one that just went off as an executive of the organization, twisted violently.

"Gunshots?"

"G-gun? Who fired a gun?"

"Yes. It’s definitely a gunshot. You fucking... what kind of crazy bastard... Ah!"

"C-could this be...?"

An Jun-tae and Son Je-guk, who had the same thought, looked up. The gunshot was so deafening that even they, inside the building, almost lost their minds. That meant it could perhaps be heard from 200 meters away. For instance, from 'that place' where thousands of zombies were swarmed all at once.

"B-but it was just one shot, so maybe..."

The moment Son Je-guk muttered with a small hope, Kwang! Kwang! Kwang! Kwakwa! Kwang! As if to trample his hope, an AR-15 with the suppressor removed fired subsonic rounds, erupting with 150-decibel explosions in succession. Then, among the zombies swarmed at the Jaeseong Building, the 5,000-strong horde—including the ordinary zombies not controlled by Alphas who were trying to return to their original spots after not seeing humans for several minutes, and those who had just rushed out of the apartment complex—began to surge toward the Cheongsan Building like a giant wave.

"C-crazy!"

The two men, who had instinctively backed away from the window, looked at each other and ran toward the door as if they had made a pact.

Kwang! Kwang! Bang! Bang bang! Bang!

Even in that moment, gunshots continued to ring out, mixed with other sounds. Moreover, judging by the louder noise, it seemed someone had entered this building and was engaged in a firefight.

"Elevator! Let's go through the elevator shaft!"

"Shit, shiiit!"

Even if all those monsters swarmed in at once, the building wouldn't collapse. Since they had thoroughly blocked the entrances, it would be difficult to break through. But what if thousands of them climbed the building walls as they had just seen? What if the large, solid glass windows installed from the third floor up broke and some got in? 'Some' was a nice way to put it; hundreds would swarm in, and even if they were armed with guns, there was no chance of winning here. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠It would be total annihilation.

Kwang! Kwang! Bang bang! Bang!

"Ugh!"

The two men, already gripped by the fear of being torn apart alive by thousands of zombies, lost their reason when powerful explosions that felt like their hearts were shrinking continued to erupt.

"Shit, get out of the way!"

"Ugh!?"

In the end, An Jun-tae pushed the somewhat fat Son Je-guk, causing him to fall, and ran like a madman toward the elevator. Tak tak tak! A sturdy steel ladder had already been installed at the wide-open elevator entrance. Now, all they had to do was ride this down to the basement.

Pang!!!

Suddenly, an explosion and a flash erupted simultaneously.

"Agh!"

An Jun-tae, whose vision turned white from the flashbang and whose eardrums felt like they were tearing, let out a single scream and tumbled to the floor.

Clank, clank.

"Gotcha, you gangster bastards."

And Jun-ho, his Dragon Scale body armor riddled with bullet holes, opened the steel door near the elevator and revealed himself.