A Brilliant Idea
“Caw… Cawww….”
“Oh, brother, use this to wipe it off.”
“Yeah, thanks. Seriously, those bastards… I’m going to kill every single one of them.”
Baek Su-ho wiped his forehead vigorously with the towel Jo Yu-na handed him. He gnashed his teeth as he looked up at the countless crows circling above the shelter, cawing incessantly. But then.
“Huh? Unni, Unni. Aren’t they fighting each other right now?”
At Ahn Yu-jeong’s words, Jo Yu-na looked up at the sky, her eyes widening as she nodded.
“You’re right? Karasu no kenka kowai… (Crow fights are scary…).”
Ka-ak! Cawww…!
With their signature raspy cries, a flock of magpies and crows were attacking each other with beaks and claws.
“Those bird-brains, must be a territorial dispute, huh? Good for them. Yeah, go ahead and peck each other to death.”
As dozens of birds circled the sky, continuing their fierce battle, one of them fell.
“Ah! One’s falling!”
A slightly smaller crow, attacked by several others, plummeted helplessly to the ground.
Woof! Woof-woof!
“Ah, no, Kkamsuni! Don’t eat that!”
Jo Yu-na tried to stop her, but Kkamsuni had already dashed over, returning shortly after with the crow proudly held in her mouth.
“There, there, good girl. Put that down. It’s dirty, dirty. Are?”
Jo Yu-na, who had been coaxing Kkamsuni to drop the crow carcass, tilted her head slightly and looked back at the group.
“It’s just injured, it’s not dead.”
“Good. We’ll just toss it into the incinerator alive, along with the one that died earlier….”
Just as Baek Su-ho was revealing his intent to vent his accumulated resentment and anger in a cruel manner—
“Bird! It’s a bird, a bird! A black bird!”
Choi Ji-woo, having finished her studies, came running over, leaving Kim Jun-seo behind. She grabbed the crow—which even adults found creepy—and hugged it to her chest.
“Ugh…?”
“J-Ji-woo, no.”
The two idols were horrified, but Choi Ji-woo didn’t care, busy examining the injured crow from every angle.
“Is the bird hurt? Does it hurt a lot?”
“Uh, yeah. The crow got hurt a little while ago. But it’s dirty, so put it down for a second….”
“Then I’ll treat it! The doctor said we have to give emergency treatment to injured people quickly!”
“No, Ji-woo. First of all, that’s not a person.”
“Yeah, Ji-woo. And those kinds of birds have tons of bad germs. So….”
“It’s okay!”
Choi Ji-woo pulled up the mask she had been wearing around her chin. She pulled a portable alcohol gauze pad from the Kuromi bag she always carried, tore the packaging open with her teeth, and rubbed it over the crow’s wing.
“Get better soon, bird. The doctor and the teacher said this disinfects it.”
“Ah….”
Since the world was the way it was, Choi Ui-su and Kim Hui-yeong had to teach the children basic hygiene and first aid. It seemed Choi Ji-woo, who had recently learned these things, was practicing her medical skills(?) on the crow.
“Uh… Ji-woo? We’ll take care of the crow, so why don’t you put it down for a moment?”
“Yeah, Ji-woo. If you don’t do it right, the crow might get even sicker.”
“Okay. I understand.”
Choi Ji-woo held out the crow, then continued, her eyes sparkling.
“Then are we taking it to the doctor? Are the doctor and the teacher going to treat it?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Great! Let’s go quickly! I’ll go ahead and prepare for the, the… surgery! Surgery!”
As Choi Ji-woo ran off again, Kkamsuni followed her in a hurry.
“…What do we do?”
Jo Yu-na and Ahn Yu-jeong’s gazes turned to Baek Su-ho. Having had his plan to burn his ‘enemy’ alive thwarted, Baek Su-ho could only let out a long sigh.
“Phew… what can we do? We have to take it to the medical room first. But can Dr. Choi even treat animals?”
“Uh… wouldn’t he be able to?”
“I don’t know. Let’s just take it there.”
Unable to betray the kind heart of Choi Ji-woo, the shelter’s official ‘baby,’ the three of them headed to the shelter’s medical building with the crow. While passing through the UV sterilizer, they were only allowed entry after AI Akina flagged the crow for ‘incomplete disinfection’ and ‘unauthorized entity’ once each.
***
“Pest control?”
“Yes, Hyung-nim.”
Baek Su-ho spoke to Jun-ho, who had returned after finishing his business in Gahyeon-ri and Yeongho-ri, with a face full of firm resolve.
“Our shelter, there are over a hundred crows. And there are tons of magpies under the mountain over there, too. Every single day, these bastards fly in to scavenge, poop everywhere, and threaten our chickens. Don’t we have to do something?”
“Hmm.”
“And you know how much they poop and pee on the solar panels? Even if the cleaning robot wipes them, we have to clean up the poop on the robot ourselves. That work is tougher than you’d think. Plus, it breaks down often, too.”
“It’s definitely a problem. Got it.”
Jun-ho nodded slightly. The issue of birds like magpies and crows was something he had overlooked. The shelter was surrounded by fences and electric wire, so animals like rabbits, moles, and snakes couldn’t get in. Larger beasts like wild boars or water deer couldn’t even pass the double defense of the concertina wire and the turret outposts installed along the shelter’s safety perimeter.
However, birds were the exception. While there were several defense turrets, their purpose was to eliminate enemies approaching on the ground, like zombies or raider groups. Their installation positions and firing angles weren’t suitable for aerial interception.
“The turrets do kill them occasionally, but the problem is that their accuracy isn’t a hundred percent. If they miss, they could hit a person. Or they could hit the solar panels or the greenhouse glass, right? We’ve actually broken a few solar panels that way.”
“Oh, is that so? I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah. But since you brought back a lot of panels while clearing out Gahyeon-ri, it’s fine for now. Anyway, we really need to do something about the magpies and crows.”
Jun-ho, lost in thought at Baek Su-ho’s impassioned speech, said,
“The bird habitat is mostly the mountain behind the shelter, right?”
“Yes. That’s why the turrets can’t hit them well. They say the angles don’t work.”
It seemed the flock of magpies and crows had cunningly built their nests and established a habitat somewhere in the vast forest, a perfect blind spot between the shelter and the outposts.
“But since you’re a master marksman, Hyung-nim, couldn’t you do something?”
At Baek Su-ho’s expectant gaze, Jun-ho chuckled.
“I appreciate you thinking that, but I don’t have the confidence to catch every bird flying in the sky.”
“Ah.”
“Think about it. Even if I hit the first one, the rest will scatter, right? How would I catch them all? Even if everyone in the shelter who knows how to shoot a gun came out, we’d catch maybe ten at most. And we can’t waste 5.56mm or 9mm ammo just to catch crows.”
“Ah… then there’s no way?”
“No? Of course there is.”
“What? T-there is?”
“Yeah. After today, the crows and magpies won’t even come near, let alone other birds.”
“Really? Awesome!”
While Baek Su-ho cheered, Jun-ho sent a communication to the control room.
“Yeongsu, tell everyone working outside to go inside the building. It’ll take about an hour.”
After giving the order to prevent any shelter members from being hit by stray bullets, he headed out with Baek Su-ho, carrying air rifles.
***
“Is everyone ready?”
“Yes!”
“Ready.”
“Then, commence firing.”
Pop-pop! Pop! Pop-pop!
The sounds of air rifles fired by Jun-ho, Jun-hyeok, Baek Su-ho, and Kim Jae-mun erupted simultaneously. Five or six birds that had been lingering in front of the greenhouse, looking for a way inside, had their bodies burst open in an instant.
Having never been shot at by humans—let alone a full-scale barrage—since settling on the mountain behind the shelter, the crows and magpies were terrified when their friends were brutally killed, and they all took flight at once.
Pop! Pop-pop!
“Ah, damn it, I missed again.”
Baek Su-ho was disappointed after firing a few shots at the flying birds but failing to hit them.
“It’s hard enough to hit birds on the ground, so it’s obviously even harder to hit them in the sky.”
“But they can do it, right?”
“Probably?”
Baek Su-ho and Kim Jae-mun’s gazes turned to one spot. The direction dozens of magpies and crows were flying was, as expected, toward the mountain behind the shelter where their nests were. And that was also the direction where the shelter’s main building was located.
“Going now. Do you have the angle?”
- Target acquired. Commencing fire.
Immediately after Akina’s professional voice was heard—
Pop-pop-pop-pop…! Pop-pop-pop…!
The G1 drones, which had been waiting on the roofs of the main building and the workshop, opened fire simultaneously.
The turrets were useless because the angles didn’t work, and it was difficult for humans to hit fast-flying birds? “But what if the dra… no, what if the drones were deployed?”
“Dro… ne!”
At Kim Jae-mun’s words, Baek Su-ho, who was a member of the MZ generation and well-versed in old memes, excitedly added a chorus. As if responding to Baek Su-ho—
Pop-pop…! Pop-pop-pop…!
The twenty or so G1 drones, which couldn’t shoot targets on the ground from the roof but were perfectly capable of shooting into the sky, unleashed a literally mechanical barrage under Akina’s computing control. More than half of the magpies and crows flying toward the mountain were not just shot down—their bodies exploded on the spot.
“Serves you right! Oh, that feels so refreshing!”
At the sight of countless feathers scattering to the ground like black snow, Baek Su-ho, who had succeeded in his revenge and settled his grudge, clenched his fist and shook it.
“You said there are a lot more of them near the incinerator and the walking path?”
“Yes, Hyung-nim. Should we go right now?”
At the excited Baek Su-ho’s words, Jun-ho shook his head.
“No. You don’t need to go.”
“Yes? Why?”
“You have to clean all that up. Take a few kids and clean it all up cleanly so there’s no trace left.”
“Ah….”
Baek Su-ho’s face turned pale as he looked at the countless feathers and debris scattered not only around the main building but all over the shelter. It was a victory that left behind only wounds and overtime work.
***
“…Why aren’t they here?”
“That’s what I’m saying. I saw them here a lot when I was doing rounds at the outpost….”
Jun-ho and Kim Jae-mun, who had arrived at the incinerator near the path that circled the back of the mountain, tilted their heads. Another flock of crows had definitely been hanging around here every single day, but for some reason, not a single one was visible.
“Could they have seen the others getting killed a while ago and run away?”
“Then they would have been able to see them flying up, too.”
“Ah, that’s true.”
While Kim Jae-mun looked embarrassed, Jun-ho, who was looking around the incinerator, suddenly changed to an absurd expression after seeing something.
“Are those things crazy….”
“Why, what is it? Huh? Whoa….”
Kim Jae-mun, who turned his face toward where Jun-ho was looking, also had a similar expression. Although there were fewer than the flock they had exterminated earlier, over 30 crows were sitting in a row on the roof and windowsills of a specific building, staring at a specific spot.
“Oh, that place is probably….”
“The medical room. The crow that Ji-woo picked up and sent for treatment must be one of their flock.”
Jun-ho was dumbfounded at the sight of the crows lined up on the windowsill, as if a group of gangsters had dressed in black suits and come to visit their boss in the hospital. But suddenly.
The fact that crows were among the smartest birds—no, among almost all animals—crossed his mind.
“…Ah.”
It led to a brilliant idea that might sound absurd at first, but was perfectly realistic depending on how it was used. It was to use the crows as the shelter’s aerial surveillance and alarm system.