Finale (1)
"Alright, eat up."
Whir. At Jun-hyeok's words, Purdy let out a low bark and began to eat the canned food. It was a good thing they had the transport drone; otherwise, he might not have been able to keep the dog fed. After patting Purdy on the head as he ate his dinner, Jun-hyeok went to the window in the main room and pulled the curtain back slightly. As a high-end, large-scale apartment complex with more and larger units than The First Apartments, Edu Town had its own solar power facilities, so some of the streetlights within the complex still operated at set times.
The inside of the complex was nothing short of a hellscape. With no one to clean up, all sorts of trash and debris were scattered across the snow that hadn't yet melted, and dozens of corpses were left lying around carelessly. They were all zombie corpses; there were no humans. That was because the bodies of humans who died without being infected were all dragged away by the zombies.
"Damn it..."
Jun-hyeok muttered a curse without realizing it. Although he had already heard about it from his brother, Jun-ho, the sight of zombies under the control of an Alpha dragging corpses around like pieces of meat was shocking. According to Jun-ho, an Alpha viewed humans as 'lunchboxes.' Furthermore, an Alpha that had survived for a long time and eaten many people, gaining stronger control, had a habit of making areas with the largest possible population its 'territory.' To them, a territory was a concept similar to a safe or a farm for humans.
Just as a person wouldn't dispose of all the money or valuables in a safe at once, and a farmer wouldn't slaughter all their livestock at once, the Alpha would catch the humans in its territory little by little whenever it had the chance. However, nothing in the world lasts forever, and the humans in an Alpha's territory would eventually all die or be eaten and disappear. Moreover, since there is about a 70% chance of turning into one of their own when a zombie bites a person, only one in three or four humans is actually edible. That was why the Alpha not only had the zombies it controlled drag in and stockpile food, but also tried to expand its territory to places with more prey whenever it had the chance.
The ones who appeared suddenly today and killed those who had fled after being hit by The First Apartments' Slayer Squad were exactly that kind of Alpha and the zombies it commanded.
"Over 500. And the zombies from Buildings 8 and 9 all flocked here too..."
The zombies from the other buildings had returned to their original locations after the hunt ended, but the Alpha and its subordinate zombies had not. It was clear that the creature intended to make Buildings 1 and 2 of this Edu Town apartment complex its territory. As proof, they were all currently inside the apartment's underground parking lot.
"Phew. I want to take care of it all myself, but..."
Jun-hyeok sighed, recalling his brother's earnest request to hide or avoid them unconditionally if he saw a zombie suspected of being an Alpha. Even just hearing the story of the Alpha that attacked his brother during the battle at Gahyeon Elementary School was enough to make his blood run cold. In the midst of that chaos, the Alpha had heard the unique sound of the AR15's silencer, realized that its prey was distracted by attacking other zombies and, above all, that it was alone, so it had led a group up to the rooftop to launch a surprise attack. Furthermore, as soon as it realized its opponent was not prey but a natural predator, it had immediately attempted to flee, and even while escaping, it had ensured its safety by having other zombies surround it.
According to his brother, that was the level of a low-grade Alpha that only controlled about 300 zombies—a level that wouldn't even be worth mentioning in the city. But the Alpha that had taken root here was a monster controlling a whopping 500, and by successfully hunting today, it was now commanding nearly 700 to 800 zombies. It was the right judgment to wait for his brother, Jun-ho, rather than attacking first and giving away his position. Jun-hyeok had halted the operation and was currently hiding in the safe house.
- Jun-hyeok.
"Oh, brother."
Jun-hyeok brightened at the sound of Jun-ho's communication.
- I've arrived. We're starting in 10 minutes, so get ready.
"Okay. There aren't any zombies there, right?"
- None. Anyway, go up to the roof immediately. Start as soon as I give the signal.
"Got it. But what about the A1 Drone? I don't think they'll be very effective against zombies."
Unlike the G1 Drone, the A1 was an attack drone built with the assumption that the enemy would be human. Its accuracy was extremely low, but if it continued to fire from the air using trees or high-rise buildings as cover and concealment, humans would inevitably fall into fear and confusion. However, zombies didn't know fear, so it would be ineffective. Moreover, since they wouldn't die unless it was a headshot, Jun-hyeok thought the low-accuracy A1 was unnecessary.
- No. Take it with you.
"Huh? Really?"
- Yeah. Perhaps this time, the A1 might play a bigger role than the G1.
"Whoa... Anyway, I understand."
He didn't quite understand, but since nothing his brother said had ever been wrong, Jun-hyeok complied obediently.
Jun-ho, who had ended the communication with Jun-hyeok, examined the Edu Town apartment complex with a digital telescope equipped with thermal imaging. Jun-ho, who had sent his Dragon Scale armor to the shelter via transport drone, was wearing his usual black Bike Suit and a tactical vest with Level 3 bulletproof plates. He had also disassembled his AR15 and sent it to the shelter along with the guns and ammunition he had collected from the gangsters at the Cheongsan Building, and was now armed with a KP9 and a Glock 17. Since there was plenty of 9mm ammunition, it would be a boost to the armament of Park Deok-cheol and Baek Su-ho. And he had left An Jun-tae, the information chief of the Daeseonghoe, at the scrapyard. It was a remote place, and since he had tied him up thoroughly and gagged him, there was no fear of being discovered. He had exercised some "humanity" by covering him well with clothes and putting several heat packs inside, so he wouldn't freeze to death.
Beep. Jun-ho, who had opened Channel 0, said in a low voice.
"Still no accurate location on the Alpha?"
- No, boss. I could have done it normally. But as you know, both I and Akina had way too much to do today. Especially Akina, she was focused on assisting you.
- No, even though we put the workshop, pharmaceutical lab, and medical room systems on idle, it was barely holding on! I couldn't help it either.
Jun-ho nodded at Yoon Yeong-su's protest, which was filled with injustice and regret. As he said, the shelter's AI, Akina, had to handle the most tasks simultaneously since its creation. At the time Jun-ho was running through the downtown area where the Jaeseong Building was located, gathering zombies, Song Ki-jun and the Slayer Squad had entered into a battle with the Edu Town survivors who had joined forces with the gangsters dispatched by the Daeseonghoe. Also, at the same time, Park Deok-cheol was going around the remaining houses in Jung-dong and Ha-dong of Gahyeon-ri with another Slayer Squad to clear out zombies. Baek Su-ho was patrolling the guard post behind the shelter, checking the barbed wire installed in the fall and monitoring the situation outside the shelter's safety zone.
And the number of drones deployed for all these tasks, regardless of reconnaissance, attack, or transport, exceeded 20. And it wasn't like they were flying in a group like a drone show; each drone was individually deployed to perform its mission. Because of this, no matter how much of a computing expert Yoon Yeong-su was, having invested billions over nearly half a year to complete the AI system, it couldn't exceed the limits of power and hardware performance. This meant that there were bound to be gaps in relatively less important missions.
- Boss, I'm not joking. We really need to upgrade our shelter's computing system and server.
- Honestly, we're in a situation where even deep learning inference is concentrated in an edge computing environment. The memory bandwidth is saturated, and GPU resources are already fixed at over 90% occupancy. Even if we leave the essential systems, the Tensor operation accelerator...
"I got it. Let's do it after we completely finish this matter. For now, focus on Edu Town."
Jun-ho quickly interrupted as Yoon Yeong-su, who had been quiet until recently, seemed to be suffering from a relapse of his hatred for the liberal arts, perhaps because he was quite excited.
- Understood. But are you really going to use the A1? Its accuracy is poor, so it won't be very good against zombies.
Jun-ho said to Yoon Yeong-su, who was showing the same reaction as Jun-hyeok.
"That accuracy, it's because you're firing from over 100 meters up, right?"
- Right?
"Is there a need to fly that high and fire when the opponent is a zombie?"
- ...Ah!?
That was it. The A1's low accuracy was partly because the airframe was light and vulnerable to recoil control. But decisively, it was based on the assumption of fighting in the 'high altitude' against humans carrying firearms. In other words, if it fired from an altitude of only 20 to 30 meters, the accuracy could increase dramatically.
"If we put everything except the essential systems in the shelter on idle, how many A1s and G1s can Akina move at the same time? Excluding the reconnaissance drones."
- Seven, no, eight units should be possible! Excluding the reconnaissance drones.
"Good. Jun-hyeok has two A1s, and a G1 is on standby near the armored car. Send four more A1s. Rotating three at a time should work."
- Roger!
Hearing Yoon Yeong-su's answer, who sounded excited for some reason, Jun-ho carefully examined the entrance to the underground parking lot where the zombies had entered in large numbers and the lower-floor houses of each building with his digital telescope. Through the windows, he could see bodies with temperatures different from humans huddled together in houses where the curtains weren't drawn.
"Leave those for now..."
Jun-ho ran toward the underground parking lot entrance while hunched over. But his speed was as fast as a normal adult male sprinting. Jun-ho, who moved only to dark places to avoid the reach of the few streetlights, soon arrived at the parking lot entrance and flew a mini-drone into the underground parking lot after charging it. Since it was quiet and moved by sticking closely to the black ceiling, neither zombies nor people would be able to discover the mini-drone. The mini-drone soon moved deep into the underground parking lot, and Jun-ho, who saw the video sent by the drone, opened his mouth without realizing it.
"...Ha, this is insane."
The sight of hundreds, perhaps over a thousand zombies huddled together in groups of dozens was extremely bizarre. Most were sitting still, but some were standing and slowly circling the edges. It was clear they were sentries sent by the Alpha. And some were lying on the floor, tearing into human corpses; the location of those creatures was the coin laundry room inside the apartment attached to the underground parking lot.
"This bastard, don't tell me..."
Jun-ho, who knew the habits of Alphas and zombies well as a regressor, narrowed his brows and sent the mini-drone to the laundry room.
"...Damn it."
Jun-ho ground his teeth without realizing it. As expected, dozens of corpses were piled up in the laundry room. With that much, the zombies currently in the underground parking lot would probably be able to eat for about a month. However, Jun-ho knew that the laundry room was not a 'food storage' facility. Because in the corner of the laundry room, a male individual with an average build was greedily tearing into a part considered to be a woman's breast. And the area around the creature was full of human bones and blood.
"Two. No, three including the one eating now... Hmm?"
A glint appeared in Jun-ho's eyes as he watched the 'gluttonous Alpha' through the tablet screen, which was already eating its third person this evening. It was when the 'gluttonous Alpha' had just stood up, perhaps full now.
"That guy, don't tell me, a convenience store worker?"
As a creature with some intelligence, it had roughly put on the clothes of a dead person to maintain its body temperature, but what it was wearing underneath was a blue convenience store uniform. And that convenience store was the same brand worn by the convenience store employee Jun-ho had witnessed through the CCTV of a high-rise safe house in this apartment on the first day of the apocalypse. In other words, Jun-ho was seeing the Alpha he had witnessed directly for the first time after his regression again now, just before pacifying all of Gahyeon-ri and facing his final battle.
"..."
At this astonishing coincidence, the words 'meeting is the beginning of parting, and parting is the beginning of meeting' naturally came to Jun-ho's mind. And at the same time, he thought that this might be fate. The first Alpha he saw in Gahyeon-ri had become the strongest Alpha in Gahyeon-ri, and it was appearing at the very end.
"Yeah. This is perfect."
Jun-ho's eyes, watching the creature laughing with satisfaction, sank coldly. The number of Alphas he had killed today was three. If he added this one, it would be the best finale, where he would not only pacify Gahyeon-ri but also fully enter the realm of a superhuman himself.
- Boss, the A1 is arriving soon!
At Yoon Yeong-su's communication, Jun-ho answered in a low voice.
"Send them to the underground parking lot where I am now. Send the G1 near the armored car and hide it at a suitable point in the apartment complex. So we can kill everything that comes out of the parking lot."
- Roger!
"Jun-hyeok. Are you ready?"
- Yeah, brother.
At Jun-hyeok's answer, Jun-ho retrieved the mini-drone and moved to the optimal shooting point he had spotted while coming here. A moment later. From far away, the G1 drone moved slowly, took its place under the slide of the apartment playground, a little distance away from where Jun-ho was hiding, and turned its muzzle toward the back door of the underground parking lot. Immediately after that. Zzzzing...! As 3 A1 drones descended at high speed from the sky and flew toward the underground parking lot.
- Operation, commencing.
With Akina's dry voice, a battle against the zombie swarm began, with Jun-ho, Jun-hyeok, and the ground and aerial drones owned by their shelter all being deployed at once.