The Uninvited Guests
The Paldang Dam had long since switched to its automated discharge system. With the central control systems severed and the personnel who once managed the floodgates either dead or turned into zombies, the discharge volume had increased significantly. This caused the water level of the Han River to rise higher than it had been before the apocalypse, creating a situation where sections of the river that were previously inaccessible or off-limits to boats were now perfectly navigable. It was entirely possible for the gangsters to use boats to reach the vicinity of Paldang Station.
Or perhaps...
"Yeongsu, which station on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line is in Namyangju? The one near the Han River."
"Ungilsan is the closest to here, right?"
If that were the case, they could have traveled along the line to Ungilsan Station, which was adjacent to the North Han River, and then either crossed the mountains or traveled up along the river. Unlike the Gyeongchun Line, which cut through the heart of the densely populated Namyangju, the Gyeongui-Jungang Line where Ungilsan Station was located had been built along the Han River. This meant they could reach this area while drawing less attention from the zombies. Ungilsan Station, in particular, was in such a rural area that the population around it was less than a hundred.
"...No."
Ordinarily, he might have wanted to catch them and beat the truth out of them, but Jun-ho answered that way. The reason he had wanted to capture them was to find out exactly how they were traveling back and forth. It wasn't just about a few people moving; he was curious how they managed to capture an Alpha and transport it over such a long distance. He needed to know that to prepare and form a minimal plan. However, there was no need to provoke them further here. If those guys didn't return, the organization would surely send more personnel. Besides, he had already roughly dealt with the ones directly related to his death in the previous life. Above all, Jun-ho knew which factions the group that controlled the southern part of Guri and Deokso in Namyangju would end up clashing with.
"Let's just watch for now."
"I'll handle that."
With that, Jun-ho increased his speed. He was currently riding the electric MTB he had used when he first discovered the trail behind the shelter in the past. When he first went to Mokuri using this route, he had gone on foot, but after checking it himself, he had concluded that it was perfectly passable with a mountain bike. Of course, it was impossible for an average person because some sections required carrying the heavy bike, but that didn't apply to Jun-ho. Eventually, after about 20 minutes, Jun-ho passed the route the gangsters had taken several hours to traverse. He hid his body on a mountain overlooking the junkyard and focused on watching the video sent by the drone.
After a few minutes, the gangsters sent by the organization emerged from the secret passage of the junkyard. Having checked the state of the Cheongsan Building, they left the area, acting much more cautiously than when they had entered. Moreover, there were only four of them, one fewer than the five who had gone in, and judging by their appearance, it was clear they had fought a battle with the zombies inside the building. The men climbed the mountainside and boarded their electric carts again.
"I'm following them."
At Yun Yeong-su's words, Jun-ho smiled slightly and said, "Me? Or them?"
Jun-ho hid his bike well in the mountain and moved along the hillside, keeping his body low.
Wearing a light grayish-brown snow camo combat uniform, Jun-ho was following the gangsters riding the electric carts from about 100 meters behind. The drone's video feed had cut out, and communication with the shelter had been severed long ago. In other words, Jun-ho was continuing the pursuit entirely alone, without any support.
'Reminds me of the old days.'
Before his regression, he had almost always moved alone like this. Of course, his health hadn't been good because he couldn't eat properly, and his equipment was pathetic, so he had to move like a frightened animal, constantly checking his surroundings. But the Jun-ho of today was different. He was armed with optical equipment and suppressed firearms, and his physical abilities and combat skills were on a level incomparable to back then. He moved quickly through the mountain path, staring at the gangsters in the carts with the eyes of a predator and a hunter.
The electric carts were slow by nature, and since it was mountainous terrain, the pursuit wasn't difficult. After passing the Onaeri direction, the gangsters rode the hills of Guam-ri, which bordered the North Han River. It was truly mysterious why there were mountain paths in a mountain where no one even lived, and how the gangsters knew all these paths. After passing through bumpy, unpaved mountain roads and concrete-paved rural roads, the gangsters' carts finally stopped at a desolate water leisure sports dock where several cars had been abandoned.
Jun-ho lay prone on the slope of a low hill overlooking the dock and watched the area through his digital monocular.
"Just as I thought."
The roof of the dock, which served as both a restaurant and a cafe, was densely packed with solar panels. At that rate, they could produce 30 to 40 kilowatts of power every day. It was clear the gangsters were using the electricity produced there to charge their electric carts. Furthermore, there was another means of transportation there that used electricity.
"Electric motorboats..."
Unlike motorboats that used gasoline as fuel, boats equipped with electric motors were extremely quiet. Expensive electric motors had long operating times, and especially when cruising at low speeds, it was possible to travel dozens of kilometers on just the base battery.
"..."
Jun-ho watched until the end as the gangsters split into two boats equipped with electric motors and headed down the North Han River. Because he couldn't fly the drone, he couldn't confirm their final destination, but he was almost certain it would be Jinjung-ri, where Ungilsan Station was located. The North Han River and the Han River were blocked by the Paldang Dam, making it impossible to travel by boat, and to get to their base in Guri and Deokso, they had no choice but to follow the Gyeongui-Jungang Line from Ungilsan Station. And that meant...
"I can use it too."
During his large-scale shopping spree that lasted nearly a month, one of the items Jun-ho had purchased was several electric motors that could be attached to boats. Since Namyangju itself was a region attached to the Han River, that was an obvious choice. And Jun-ho hadn't just prepared electric motors. The shelter was equipped with all the necessary snorkeling gear, especially high-performance underwater scooters. Jun-ho thought that he might have to use them to leave Namyangju sooner or later. Because, although it was a bit earlier than expected...
"...I'll have to go to Gwangju."
It seemed it was finally time to make contact with Kang Baek-ho, who would have completely established himself in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do by now.
February 27, 2025, 09:30 AM, Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do.
"Ooh, it's cold, it's cold."
"Shouldn't you have dressed more warmly?"
"Then I'd look like a waddling penguin. This is just right. A man has to have his pride."
Yoon Seol-hee shook her head as she looked at Kang Baek-ho, who was wearing tight-fitting padding and thick fleece-lined pants, with a bushy beard grown out.
"Huh? Manager Seol-hee, what's with that look? Is this insubordination? It's exactly that kind of look."
"If I were going to commit insubordination, I would have done it a long time ago. We've suffered enough and barely managed to survive, so what insubordination?"
"Look at this, look at this. Your speech has become casual, and you're acting very strange."
"The Representative told me to speak comfortably."
"Ah. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have said that. Anyway, how is that Lab Dragon guy these days?"
Yoon Seol-hee wrinkled her nose slightly, thinking of the rapper Lab Dragon, who had chosen his stage name using 'Lab' instead of 'Rap' because his highest degree was a Master's.
"He's been a bit worse lately, but he's fine. He hasn't crossed the line yet."
Lab Dragon, one of the celebrity survivors at Kangho Resort, bothered Yoon Seol-hee immensely. He hit on her frequently, but since he hadn't quite crossed the line, she was still letting it slide. Above all, he was a good talker and highly respected in the entertainment industry, so if she took action over a little flirting, it was highly likely to escalate into a bigger problem.
"We've arrived, Representative."
At the words of the Kangho Resort security team leader, a former KW Cops manager who had been driving silently, Kang Baek-ho and Yoon Seol-hee got out of the golf cart. About ten other people from the other vehicles that had traveled with them also disembarked, and they arrived at the summit after trekking along the mountain for over 20 minutes.
"Aigoo, I'm tired. Give me the binoculars. It's that way, right?"
"Yes."
Kang Baek-ho, who received the binoculars commonly used on golf courses, looked in the direction Yoon Seol-hee was pointing. It was hard to find any human presence in the typical rural village attached to the Gyeong-an Stream, which flowed in from Paldang Lake on the North Han River.
"It's too quiet..."
"It's probably because it's especially cold today. According to our observations so far, there are no survivors, just over 200 zombies."
"That's strange. Don't small villages like that usually not have zombies?"
The security team leader replied to Kang Baek-ho's words as he handed the binoculars back.
"The vinyl greenhouses on the other side of the river are all ginseng farms."
"Is that so? Well, there were so many of them that I thought it was strange."
An enormous number of vinyl greenhouses, too many to count, formed a large complex on the other side of the 100-meter-wide river.
"Yes. Quite a few foreign laborers working in the ginseng greenhouses lived on the other side of the river. We judge that the zombies from there flowed into that village."
"Aigoo, then there's nothing we can do about it. Anyway, we're going to take that place, right?"
"Yes. It's the optimal condition for farming."
They had dealt with the gangsters and taken over the golf course, but there were simply too many survivors at Kangho Resort. Furthermore, in the process of taking over the golf course, the survivors from the nearby villages whom the gangsters had treated like slaves had also come to rely on Kangho Resort. The survivors led by Kang Baek-ho now numbered nearly 3,000. To feed all those people, farming at the resort and the golf course was nowhere near enough.
"What about the village zombies?"
"Most of them are elderly. There are no people in their 20s or 30s at all, and the 50-year-olds are the youngest."
"Then if we just deal with them first, we can clean it up without much effort. Let's start right away."
"Yes, Representative."
One of the security team members launched a drone. Kang Baek-ho said, watching the drone fly toward the village with a loud noise, "Wiiing!"
"Kuh. This wouldn't exist if it weren't for Juno-Juno, would it? That was super expensive, right?"
The resort originally had drones, but they weren't industrial ones like that; they were low-end models. Their performance was poor, and the batteries were small, so it wasn't easy to use them for reconnaissance in such mountainous environments.
"Yes. It must have cost over 10 million won per unit. It's a model used at construction sites and the like."
Kang Baek-ho nodded in satisfaction at Yoon Seol-hee's answer.
"If it weren't for that, it would have been difficult at the golf course, and even now, we would have just charged in blindly. Juno-Juno, you bastard, when I see you again, I'm really going to cherish you."
Because he had benefited greatly from that drone since the apocalypse broke out, Kang Baek-ho grinned repeatedly, thinking of Jun-ho.
"There's nothing on the way down, and there are no moving zombies in the village for now."
"Then let's go."
"Representative, you stay here. Just in case..."
"Huh? Wait a minute. Something is moving."
"What?"
At the words of the security team member operating the drone, everyone who was checking their equipment to head down toward the village turned their heads.
"People, it's people. They just came out of the village hall. Ah... some of them are holding guns!?"
"...!"
Kang Baek-ho, eyes wide, hurriedly looked at the laptop screen connected to the drone controller. About ten people had come out in front of the village hall and were doing something while checking their surroundings.
"What the hell are those bastards...? And what's with those guns?"
"Representative, those are real guns. They're what the Chinese military uses."
Yoon Seol-hee, a former Special Forces soldier who was well-versed in Chinese and North Korean firearms, said with a serious face to the bewildered Kang Baek-ho.