The Butterfly Effect
"……."
The security team's gazes converged on Kang Baek-ho. Every one of them was a veteran who had served at least in a search unit. Because of that, they understood the power and danger of real firearms better than anyone.
"They've even fitted all their rifles with suppressors. That means they're likely using subsonic ammunition, too. That’s almost impossible to get unless you're in the military…."
"Manager, are you saying they’re Chinese soldiers?"
At the guard's question, Yoon Seol-hee shook her head.
"No, that’s unlikely."
"……?"
"For starters, the one in the white puffer jacket and the one in the beanie are carrying QBZ-97 rifles, but they’re export models. They’re primarily used in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar or Cambodia, and the current Chinese military doesn't use them as their main service weapon."
"Ah…."
"And the one in the old-fashioned field jacket is holding a QCW-05, a submachine gun that uses 9mm rounds. Like the 97, it’s a bullpup design, and it was built from the ground up as a suppressed submachine gun. It jams a lot and, frankly, it’s a piece of junk, but the rate of fire is decent."
Everyone nodded, listening intently to Yoon Seol-hee’s explanation.
"Even though the QCW-05 is Chinese-made, the export version is compatible with MP5 magazines. The one that guy is holding has one of those inserted right now. But, if they were Chinese soldiers, wouldn't they avoid using MP5 magazines? They’d use the proprietary magazines they were originally issued."
"Ah, that makes sense."
"Then, Manager Seol-hee, are you saying they’re Koreans?"
"That’s likely. Between the MP5 magazines and the fact that they’re using the export-model 97s found in Southeast Asia, I don't think they’re Chinese military."
"Not Chinese military, but carrying Chinese guns? Then…."
"I suspect they’re Chinese or ethnic Korean gangsters under the Heuksaehui (Black Society) that operates primarily out of Incheon. Or perhaps Korean criminals with close ties to them."
"Ha. So they were the ones bringing in the drugs?"
"Nine times out of ten, yes."
At Yoon Seol-hee’s answer, Kang Baek-ho fell into deep thought. As the second-generation heir to the Kangho Group and someone who had long been involved in the show business side of things as an MMA sponsor, he was well-acquainted with the dark underbelly of domestic conglomerates and the so-called social elite. He also had a rough idea of who supplied drugs to those high-ranking figures.
"Those bastards, they might even be the Daeseonghoe."
"Daeseonghoe…? What is that, Representative?"
"There’s this nationwide gang that clawed their way up after the regime change. They’re the amazing assholes who get escorted by customs even when they get caught smuggling drugs."
"What?"
Everyone’s eyes widened at the unbelievable story.
"Anyway, let’s watch and see what they’re actually doing. Whether they’re the Heuksaehui, ethnic Korean gangs, or the Daeseonghoe, I’m curious why they crawled all the way out here."
At Kang Baek-ho’s cold remark, the security team stood behind him, staring intently at the laptop. About ten men were literally dragging someone out of the village hall. They put a hood over the person's face, bound their body tightly with rope, grabbed their legs to drag them across the dirt, and then three or four of them hoisted the person up and loaded them into a truck.
"They came all this way with guns just to kidnap someone…?"
It didn't make sense. In a world crawling with zombies, to come to a village like this—which, while in the capital region, was essentially the middle of nowhere—and do nothing but kidnap someone?
That was when it happened.
"Ah, shit!"
"What?"
"One of them saw the drone!"
The guard operating the drone moved his hands frantically. As the drone, which had been flying at an altitude of about 300 meters in a straight line, performed a rapid maneuver, the laptop screen blurred, and Kang Baek-ho hurriedly scanned the village with his binoculars. One of the men pointed at the sky and shouted something, causing the others to look up simultaneously. Soon, those with firearms opened fire into the air.
But that wasn't the problem.
"Damn it! Drone, drone, not this way, go the other way…."
Kang Baek-ho spoke in a rush, but it was already too late. The guard operating the drone had, quite naturally, brought the expensive and precious drone back toward their position. This meant that the people shooting at it would now be able to pinpoint the drone owner's location.
"Everyone, get down! Hit the dirt!"
Yoon Seol-hee, realizing the situation, barked the order, and the security team reflexively lowered their bodies without a second thought.
"Damn. I think we’re too late. Those bastards saw the direction."
Kang Baek-ho clicked his tongue. Of course, those bastards didn't know their exact location. But they had already figured out the general direction through the drone's flight path, and that meant they would soon discover the existence of the Kangho Resort.
"Let’s head back for now. Looking at them, it doesn't seem like they’ll come right away. It would take them over two hours to get from there to here."
"Yes. It would be best to return to the resort and discuss countermeasures. And Choi Jin-seok, Oh Chang-yong. Erase the tracks here, and you two head toward Sang-ri before returning."
Yoon Seol-hee quickly issued orders to the security team. It was to ensure that even if they did make it up here, they wouldn't easily find traces and would be confused about where they had moved.
"I, I’m sorry, Representative. I was in a rush and made a mistake."
The guard who had operated the drone bowed his head with a deeply dejected expression. But Kang Baek-ho shook his head.
"No. Even if it were me, I probably would have done the same thing instinctively to save the drone. And, you know."
Finally, Kang Baek-ho, who had confirmed the men at the village hall pointing toward them through his binoculars, turned his head and grinned.
"You all know my gut, right? Strangely enough, I don't feel anything special from those guys."
It wasn't a lie meant to put his employees at ease; it was the truth. And though Kang Baek-ho didn't know it at all, originally, he and his staff would have entered the village today without drone reconnaissance. As a result, they would have collided with them, and one-third of the current personnel, including Yoon Seol-hee, would have been destined to die or be seriously injured. However, thanks to the high-performance drone, such a tragedy did not occur. And this was thanks to the butterfly effect created by a regressor’s prior intervention. In other words, unlike his original fate, Kang Baek-ho was now facing them with thorough preparations.
* * *
"Yu-na, could you go to the cold storage and bring back a carton of eggs?"
"Yes, Auntie!"
Jo Yu-na, who answered Choi Ha-neul’s request in a loud voice, walked with a lively step into the cold storage next to the kitchen.
Whirrr. Whoosh!
With the sound of the air curtain activating, Jo Yu-na entered the cold storage and walked with familiar steps to where the airtight containers of eggs were kept. The cold storage, built as a two-story structure using stainless steel panels, kept all kinds of food items in airtight containers, always maintained at a temperature of 5 degrees Celsius.
"I don't think we could ever finish all this, even if we ate it for the rest of our lives…."
Even though the shelter family had been eating three or four full meals a day for the past six months, the food in the cold storage didn't seem to have diminished at all. Moreover, there was another ultra-low-temperature freezer built behind the mountain with almost the same amount of food as there was here. As the family members who had been here from the start said, they could live for 30 years without doing anything and just eating what was there. But the shelter even operated its own greenhouse.
"I’m so lucky. If I hadn't met Jun-ho Oni-san back then…."
It was a past she didn't even want to think about, but Jo Yu-na no longer trembled like she used to. She was just grateful to Jun-ho and the family here at Our Shelter.
"I brought them, Auntie."
"Oh, good job."
"Hehe."
At Choi Ha-neul’s bright smile, which was the same as always, Jo Yu-na giggled. She liked everyone at Our Shelter, but she liked Choi Ha-neul the best. Of course, Park Seon-hui, who had suffered with her since their trainee days and eventually debuted in the same team, was her favorite….
"Sunny? Why are you like that? What are you thinking about?"
"…Huh? Oh, yeah. N-nothing. It’s nothing."
Jo Yu-na tilted her head at the sight of Park Seon-hui, who was blankly peeling garlic. Then, Choi Ha-neul stepped in with a somehow mischievous smile.
"'Nothing,' my foot. You just saw President Jun-ho, didn't you?"
"What!? M-me? No, I didn't!"
As Park Seon-hui was startled, Jo Yu-na’s gaze naturally drifted to where her friend had been looking just a moment ago. She saw the sturdy back of a man running rapidly around the track below the main building.
"I was looking at Purdy and Kamsuni? They were just so adorable and cute today…."
Even though it was the tail end of winter and still cold, Jun-ho was running in just a short-sleeved t-shirt and training pants, with Purdy and Kamsuni running excitedly beside him.
"Well, even if our Jun-ho is incredibly muscular, his face is kind of cute."
Choi Ha-neul cast a fishing line (?). And then.
"Right? Even from your perspective, Jun-ho Oppa is cu… Ah! Ouch…!"
As expected, Park Seon-hui took the bait. Although Park Seon-hui was incredibly sharp and neat when it came to physical work, she occasionally showed this naive and dim-witted side, and Choi Ha-neul, who had the intuition of a master, couldn't possibly be unaware of the hidden true nature of Park Seon-hui, whom she had lived with for several months.
"Anyway, this girl has a real eye for men."
When Choi Ha-neul glared at her, Park Seon-hui’s face turned red in an instant.
"E-eye for men? I, I don't know anything about that. Aww, I don’t know anything about that. I don't know any men besides Deok-cheol."
"Miss, Deok-cheol is your brother. And that brother of yours isn't a man, he’s a nuisance."
"A, Anyway. I don't know. I’ve peeled all the garlic here."
Park Seon-hui, whose ears were burning red, pushed the basket of garlic toward Choi Ha-neul, stood up abruptly, and said,
"I have to finish organizing the underground exercise room. I, I’ll go and work."
"Oh, that girl…."
Choi Ha-neul watched Park Seon-hui leave the kitchen with a gait as stiff as a robot, then turned her face to Jo Yu-na.
"Yu-na, you’re her friend, so you know, right? Since when has Seon-hui been like that?"
"Oh, that…."
Jo Yu-na hesitated. Even so, it felt a bit wrong to talk about her best friend’s private life to someone else. And above all,
"Does Sunny see Jun-ho Oni… no, Ollaborini (older brother) as a man?"
Having been raised with high-class education in Japan, Jo Yu-na, like Park Seon-hui who was practically raised by a strict grandfather, was a lifelong single. That was one of the reasons why two people with completely different upbringings had become close.
"Oh my…."
At the sight of the 'true young lady' tilting her head with innocent eyes, Choi Ha-neul’s energy just drained away.
"Forget it. You just go ahead and whisk the eggs."
"Yes. Oh, but, Auntie."
"Yeah?"
"Jun-ho Ollaborini. He said he was going somewhere before spring comes. Where is he going? Is he going far?"
At Jo Yu-na’s question, Choi Ha-neul’s face stiffened slightly. Unlike the other shelter people, she had heard this and that from Baek Ha-il, so she roughly knew what Jun-ho was planning.
"Jun-ho is going to the Nonghyup Warehouse soon… and then he’s going a bit further. But you don't have to worry. Is our Jun-ho someone we need to worry about?"
"That’s true. Hehe."
Following Jo Yu-na’s bright smile, Choi Ha-neul smiled too, but her heart was not at ease. She didn't know exactly where Jun-ho was intending to go, but she knew one thing.
'He might even cross the Han River in this cold weather? Oh my, what should I do….'
She would keep her mouth shut until Jun-ho told the shelter people himself, but Choi Ha-neul couldn't help but worry about Jun-ho, the master of the shelter and the protector of them all.