Human or Zombie, Which Is It?
The road to Namyangju was quite rugged. As the crow flies, it was a little over six kilometers, but the mountainous terrain made it difficult. However, thanks to the shortcuts I had discovered while traveling back and forth several times, it took just over three hours in terms of time.
“It would be a bit tough to walk back and forth, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. That’s why I was thinking of relocating some of our people to that village entirely.”
“The people who don’t listen well and have a lot of complaints?”
“Ah, yes. How did you know?”
“I just had a feeling. But you shouldn’t do that.”
“……?”
To Yoon Seol-hee’s questioning gaze, I replied calmly.
“Even if those people want to leave on their own, you shouldn’t send them to that village. You said you were going to farm in the vinyl greenhouse complex there, right? There will definitely be problems.”
“Ah….”
“If the farming goes well, they’ll try to use it as leverage to throw their weight around. If it goes poorly, they’ll blame you for dumping them in a place where it’s hard to survive. Either way, it’s a negative for the resort. It would be better to have trusted people stay there permanently and have the manager commute.”
“That’s certainly true. I should suggest it to the Representative… no, it would be better if you told him directly, Lee Jun-ho.”
Yoon Seol-hee smiled faintly.
“Yes, well….”
I was slightly surprised by her smile. We hadn’t seen each other that often, but in the few years I’d known her, this was the first time I’d seen her smile like that. Perhaps realizing what I was thinking, she suddenly stiffened and turned her head away sharply.
“Ugh.”
Because she had moved so abruptly, the pain in her shoulder flared up, and she grimaced with a groan. Even if it was just a graze, a bullet had still pierced her, so walking around like this was pushing it.
“Give me that.”
“…Pardon?”
“The gun.”
“Ah, no. I can carry it.”
“Just give it to me.”
I took the firearm from Yoon Seol-hee and placed it on top of my backpack. Honestly, it wouldn’t have been difficult to carry her on my back, either.
“You know better than I do, but you’re only okay right now because of the painkillers. Don’t overdo it.”
“…Understood. Thank you for your concern, Lee Jun-ho.”
“Don’t mention it. We’re family.”
I grinned. Considering the help I’d received from Yoon Seol-hee back when I was building the shelter, this was nothing. Thanks to her, I’d been able to learn parkour from a professional crew and easily enter domestic and international private military academies. Above all, I had a reason to stay on her good side.
“By the way, Manager, is there a doctor at the resort?”
“Yes? Ah, yes. We, we have one.”
Startled and flustered by my use of the word ‘family,’ Yoon Seol-hee replied in a rush. Feeling her face grow hot, she consciously put on a stern expression. But seeing her like that, my expression turned serious.
“Are you in a lot of pain? Should I change your gauze and bandages? Why don’t you take another painkiller?”
I thought her injury had worsened.
“No, no. It’s fine. I’m okay. You don’t need to worry.”
At first, she had been so shocked and flustered, and treating the injury was the priority, so she hadn’t had the time to care. But thinking about it now, she had received emergency treatment from me while she was shirtless, wearing only a sports bra. To receive that again, and in front of the staff who had been glancing at us since earlier?
“I’m really fine.”
Bowing her head, Yoon Seol-hee hurried forward.
“Hmm…?”
I couldn’t fathom why, so I just tilted my head.
“Oh?”
Just then, Park Deok-cheol, who had been walking while checking the drone’s reconnaissance footage, approached me in a hurry.
“Boss, people are coming from over that mountain pass. There are more than ten of them, and they’re all carrying guns and weapons.”
“What?”
My expression hardened in an instant as I checked the tablet. Indeed, over ten armed individuals were crossing the mountain pass. However.
“Hmm? They have a drone?”
I tilted my head at the sight of a drone flying at a lower altitude than the one I’d brought from the shelter. I zoomed in with the wide-angle camera of the drone, which was in auto-follow mode, and scrutinized the armed personnel who had just crossed the pass.
“Ah!”
My eyes widened. The person leading the armed group was none other than Park Cheol-woo, one of Kang Baek-ho’s bodyguards and Yoon Seol-hee’s superior.
I was a bit impressed as I stood on the high hill, which had originally been a ski resort but had been transformed through clearing into a place with terraced fields and dozens of vinyl greenhouses. The scenery was spectacular, but the scale of the resort was simply massive.
“We’re growing potatoes and sweet potatoes on half of it. Of course, it’s still not enough.”
Park Cheol-woo, who looked a bit thinner than the last time I saw him but had a much more lethal look in his eyes, approached me. He had crossed the mountain to support Yoon Seol-hee and the KW Cops staff, only to encounter us. The shock he’d felt upon seeing me had mostly subsided. However, he was deeply grateful to me for saving the life of his prized subordinate, Yoon Seol-hee, and for essentially taking out the gangsters almost single-handedly.
“We originally intended to grow rice in these greenhouses. But it was too difficult to bring in water.”
“So that’s why you wanted that village. Because the Gyeongancheon Stream is right next to it.”
“Exactly. We thought about doing it at the golf course, but they used so much herbicide and pesticide that the land was dead. And we have an agricultural professor among the guests who says we need at least 100,000 pyeong of farmland to feed everyone at the resort with rice.”
“Then that village is perfect.”
“Right. We measured it roughly with a drone, and it was nearly 200,000 pyeong.”
I nodded at Park Cheol-woo’s words. Before the regression, although Kang Baek-ho and the resort had suffered great damage from a clash with the Daeseonghoe, they had somehow managed to repel them and take the village. Without enough food, Kang Baek-ho wouldn’t have been able to lead a survivor group large enough to be rumored throughout the capital region.
“Anyway, I was worried sick about those gangsters, but thanks to you, Lee Jun-ho, I can breathe a sigh of relief.”
I shook my head at the ever-grateful Park Cheol-woo.
“No, it’s nothing. The timing was just good. Actually, I came here because I wanted something, too.”
“…….”
Even if he didn’t know exactly what it was, he knew that in a world like this, crossing the river from Namyangju to get here meant it was something very important. And he knew he would be able to hear about it in Kang Baek-ho’s presence.
“Let’s go. The Representative will probably be surprised to see you. He talks about you often.”
“Really? I hope it’s not something like ‘I’m going to beat him to death when I see him.’”
Park Cheol-woo turned serious at my joking remark.
“Of course not. He only ever said he’d dote on you if he ever saw you again.”
“With Baek-ho hyung’s personality, surely not.”
“No, it’s true. I’m holding back the urge to hug you right now, too. The Representative would be even more so.”
“…….”
Following Park Cheol-woo’s rugged face, the image of Kang Baek-ho’s signature sly smile popped into my head, and I felt a chill. And as always, bad premonitions have a way of coming true.
“Juno-Juno! You son of a bitch!”
Kang Baek-ho, who had grown a beard, charged at me like a bull. *Wham!* Kang Baek-ho hugged me tightly and pounded on my back.
“You bastard! You bad bastard! You left your hyung behind and only lived well on your own!”
“Hy, Hyung?”
I was flustered by Kang Baek-ho’s sudden hug.
“Let’s see, my little brother. You bastard, you look even better in a world like this? Your hyung is working himself to death, and you?”
But feeling the deep emotion in his rough hands and gaze as he held my face, I couldn’t help but smile and nod.
“I suppose so. You look like you’ve been through the wringer, Hyung. You looked pretty handsome last year, I think.”
“What? You bastard… Hahahaha!”
Kang Baek-ho burst into hearty laughter and then turned his gaze to Yoon Seol-hee and the KW Cops staff standing behind me.
“Ah, look at me. Manager Seol-hee, are you okay? I heard Kang-woo and Sa-jun were badly hurt?”
“I’m fine. I already sent the two of them to the infirmary. Fortunately, the wounds aren’t fatal, so they’ll be fine if they get treated and rest well.”
“Ha! That’s a relief, a relief. Anyway, Manager Seol-hee, go get treated quickly.”
“No, I…”
“Manager Cheol-woo.”
“Yes, Representative. Let’s go, Manager Yoon.”
Park Cheol-woo strode over and stood in front of Yoon Seol-hee. Unable to disobey her direct superior from her military days to the present, she had no choice but to follow him reluctantly.
“Juno-Juno, let’s go, too. This hyung has so much he wants to hear from you.”
Kang Baek-ho threw his arm around my shoulder. Since I was a bit taller and his build couldn’t even be compared to mine, it was a somewhat ridiculous sight, but Kang Baek-ho didn’t care at all. That was how happy he was to see me after nearly a year, especially since I had come looking for him in a world that was turning into hell.
“So it was the Daeseonghoe. Those gangster bastards.”
The joy of reunion was brief; after hearing the rough story from me, Kang Baek-ho ground his teeth with a lethal expression. But as a man with a brilliant mind, he soon narrowed his eyes and asked, thinking of something others might have missed.
“But tell me. You said their base was in Guri and Deokso, right?”
“Yes. The guy I caught in Namyangju before said so, and the guy I caught this time said the same.”
That was the reason I hadn’t killed An Jun-tae, whom I’d captured in Mokuri, even though I’d left him half-crippled. It was to cross-reference information later when I caught the leadership or other executives of the Daeseonghoe.
“Then tell me. Namyangju is one thing, but why would those guys go out of their way to come down to Gwangju? You said they were living well among themselves in a huge apartment complex where they could produce their own electricity and food, right?”
“That’s right. In fact, there’s no reason for them to expand their territory.”
No matter how greedy an organized crime group is, they know the value of their own lives. In this world, such people are even more likely to do anything for their own survival and would never take unnecessary risks. Yet, the Daeseonghoe had gone out of their way to cross the river down to Gwangju. And I now knew the reason, which I hadn’t even known before the regression. It was because the story I’d heard from An Jun-tae and the testimony I’d obtained from Lee Woo-jung today were identical.
“Hyung. Do you know about the zombies called Alphas?”
“Alphas…? Ah, you mean the ones that turned into zombies first?”
“Yes.”
“I know. I know them all too well. The one that was in the village below the golf course was a real headache. Would you believe it? The zombie used its own slaves as bait and ran away! And it was laughing while doing it!”
Recalling the memory, Kang Baek-ho shook his head, his shoulders trembling.
“Yes. Unlike regular zombies, Alphas retain some level of intelligence and emotion. Honestly, when it comes to cunning, they’re superior to beasts. If such beings use hundreds or thousands of regular zombies as slaves, it’s only natural that the military can’t retake the cities.”
“My point exactly. If it were just simple-minded brutes like in movies or dramas, we could manage somehow. Tsk…”
“That’s right. But Hyung. If so, can we really call such Alphas zombies?”
“Hmm?”
“They have intelligence and emotions, and they know how to use simple tools. They are completely different from the zombies we know, who only rush at you the moment they see a living person. If so, are those Alphas closer to humans… or to zombies?”
“……!”
“Isn’t it possible that someone might think they’re closer to humans? Especially scientists—wouldn’t they want to study Alphas, who don’t die as long as their brains aren’t destroyed?”
“What? Ah, no, no way…!?”
“Yes. Whether it’s the Daeseonghoe gangsters or someone else associated with them… it seems they are capturing Alphas alive to study them.”
That was it. The reason the Daeseonghoe sent their members to rural villages with small populations or areas that met certain conditions in the capital region. It was to capture Alphas that were still weak, as there were fewer people to use as prey compared to the cities. And the purpose of studying the Alphas they captured was none other than ‘evolution or eternal life.’