Can You Kill a Person?

Clearing out more than half of the cargo bay’s contents was surprisingly quick. It was all thanks to Choi Hyun-woo, whose strength and stamina—fitting for his massive frame—were truly exceptional.

"Man, but when am I supposed to organize all this?" Choi Hyun-woo scratched his head vigorously, staring at the boxes filling his room.

"Let’s see. For now..."

He stacked the boxes labeled "Bottled Water," "Instant Rice," and various canned goods neatly in the veranda next to the kitchen. Since he ran out of space, he moved the remaining ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠boxes—combat rations, biscuits, and the like—into his father’s study, which doubled as a guest room while his father was away.

Still, there were other items left. "Medicines, electrical, electronic? Tactical...?"

Choi Hyun-woo brought four boxes into his room—boxes that would have been impossible to identify by their stickers alone if not for the words [For Hyun-woo] written on them. He carefully sliced the tape on the box labeled [Tactical] with a utility knife.

"Whoa..."

It was a genuine "whoa." The items weren't just loose in the box; they were packed inside airtight plastic containers.

"No wonder it sounded weird when I hit it..."

Muttering to himself, Hyun-woo opened the tightly sealed container.

"......!?"

It was, quite literally, a comprehensive survival and tactical kit. There was everything: a folding survival knife, a hunting slingshot kit, bolt cutters, a set of folding tools, a hand axe, a stun gun, a high-output tactical flashlight, a solar-powered digital watch, and an analog compass. There were folding binoculars, digital night-vision goggles, a small emergency tent, a waterproof sleeping bag, a portable water filter, and dry fuel. He even found windproof goggles, two sets of dust masks with replaceable filters, and gas masks. There was a portable radio, earphones, and even a high-end walkie-talkie.

He had wondered why the box felt so heavy, but it contained almost everything a person would need to survive in an extreme situation.

"This is insane... but why send me this...?"

While organizing the items, Hyun-woo suddenly remembered the message Jun-ho had sent. He searched the box more thoroughly and found a white envelope. And inside it was...

"...Absolutely, under no circumstances, leave the house before 8:00 AM tomorrow. Even if your family calls you, stay in your room... If you happen to be outside, go to our house... Move the black cupboard in the kitchen to the side, and a door will appear..."

After reading Jun-ho’s letter, Choi Hyun-woo blinked, still not quite grasping the situation. But soon—

"I don't have a clue what's going on, but... wouldn't it be fine to go check it out now? The house where Hyung-nim and that punk Jun-hyeok lived..."

Choi Hyun-woo smirked. He sent a text saying, [Mom! I'm sleeping at a friend's house tonight!], then grabbed only the cool-looking sunglasses-style goggles, the digital watch, a small flashlight that could clip onto his T-shirt collar, and the survival knife. He hopped on his bicycle and left the house.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The moment the alarm went off, Jun-ho’s eyes snapped open. After showering with just water—avoiding soap—he headed down to the first-floor cafeteria. Choi Ha-neul and Baek Su-ah were just finishing up the meal preparations.

"You're here, Jun-ho. You worked hard all day yesterday, did you sleep well?"

"Yes. It’s become a habit, so I wake up at this exact time. How about you two? Did you sleep well?"

Baek Su-ah’s eyes were visibly swollen, but Jun-ho pretended not to notice.

"Honestly, I was worried about our part-time son, so I didn't sleep much. But well, what can you do."

Jun-ho nodded silently at Choi Ha-neul’s sad smile and drank some water. Soon, Jun-hyeok and the others entered the cafeteria.

"Alright then..."

Just as Jun-ho was about to speak, looking around at everyone seated—

"What the heck is this? What is this?"

"Oh my? Who is talking?"

Even amidst the people’s surprised reactions, the voice of the AI computing system, Akina, continued.

And so, the AI computing system Akina finished its first morning report—the first of many that Jun-ho and everyone in "Our Shelter" might hear every single day for a long time to come.

"What’s the situation?"

Jun-ho, having finished his morning exercise routine, arrived at the control room. Yoon Yeong-su replied.

"The nursing home is the same. There are seven in front of the main building and the front yard, and eight roaming around the parking lot. There’s no movement inside. Since they blocked it off with curtains and furniture, we can’t see properly."

"Hmm..."

The survivors in the nursing home must have blocked it off like that and piled items at the entrance.

"At least four or five people..."

Excluding the elderly, there were likely that many survivors between their 20s and 50s. And two of them would be the doctor couple.

"What about the detached houses? Anything?"

Yoon Yeong-su tapped his keyboard and pulled up the camera feed from a drone that had just flown in for a shift change.

"There are 20 detached houses in total. Eleven are a mess. There seem to be people in the remaining ones. The problem is that it’s the same as the nursing home. They’ve drawn all the curtains and won't come out at all... Oh?"

"They're coming out."

Jun-ho and Yoon Yeong-su stared intently at the monitor. At the very top of the luxury detached housing complex, built in rows up the hill along a paved road wide enough for two cars, the door of the largest and most flamboyant house opened. Several men stepped cautiously into the yard.

"Those are the guys! Boss, right?"

"......"

Jun-ho nodded silently. They had finally found the base of operations. Or, more accurately, it was likely Han Chang-sik’s house.

"First, let's capture their appearances and upload them to the category... Wait?"

"Whoa? Are those guys... going somewhere now?"

"Probably. Can you lower the altitude a bit?"

"Yes. At 120 meters, they shouldn't hear the sound well. It’s still noisy because of the zombies."

Soon, the drone descended slowly, and the zoom camera was pushed to its limit. The men who had come out into the yard were all wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirts. Furthermore, they were wearing makeshift armor on their forearms and shoulders and even had motorcycle helmets on. They were armed with knives, hand axes, and short spears wrapped in duct tape with awls attached to the ends.

The fully armed men carefully opened the yard gate and stepped out. Then, like stray cats, they crossed the road and went to another detached house diagonally below, jumping over the walls one by one.

"What about that house?"

"It's a house where we judged there to be people. Those guys, they aren't trying to catch zombies..."

"They're trying to catch people."

Just as he muttered that, a car slowly pulled out of Han Chang-sik’s garage.

"That's the car from yesterday, right?"

"Hmm. Can you turn the drone watching the nursing home for a moment? If there’s nothing special, let’s turn it."

"Yes. I’ll follow it in follow mode."

The drone system operated by the shelter could follow specific targets designated by them, not just their own people or vehicles. Soon, the drone that had been monitoring the nursing home flew over at high speed and tracked the electric SUV from an altitude of about 300 meters.

"Oh? Boss, right? They’re heading toward the nursing home now, aren't they?"

"...Seems like it."

It was true. The SUV that had pulled out of Han Chang-sik’s garage was crawling toward the nursing home where the drone had just been. However, the SUV stopped before even two minutes had passed. Beyond the back gate, which was a tightly closed iron grille, lay an area filled with small factories, old villas, and single-story houses. And there, roaming about, were zombies that looked to be well over 50 in number, even at a glance from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the drone’s feed.

The SUV hurriedly reversed and hid around a corner, and two people stepped out from the back seat.

"Han Chang-oh..."

Jun-ho’s eyes sharpened. Han Chang-oh, wearing the same white short-sleeved golf wear as yesterday, stepped out with an air rifle and aimed at the zombies. He fired a few shots, and the zombies outside the iron grille staggered, but they didn't fall. It made sense; with the small-caliber pellets of a standard air rifle, it wasn't easy to kill a zombie even if you hit its head accurately from within 50 meters. Since he hadn't even hit their heads—only their bodies—there was no way they would die.

Perhaps dissatisfied with his own shooting skills or the performance of the air rifle, Han Chang-oh expressed his annoyance with gestures, got back into the car, and the SUV returned to the detached house garage.

Yoon Yeong-su, who had watched the whole process, said as if he were dumbfounded.

"Those guys, they’re trying to occupy other houses and open an external passage at the same time, right?"

Jun-ho nodded. There was a side path leading to Cheonghak Mountain, where the main gate of the housing complex and the relay station were located, but the situation at the main gate was worse than the back gate, and the side path only led to the mountain. Of course, they could have gone down the way Jun-ho had driven up in his armored car, but they didn't have the guts to push that far.

To Han Chang-sik, who had lived in Gahyeon-ri for over 10 years as the representative of a real estate development company, it wasn't hard to know that the communication relay station didn't have staff stationed there. So, for the sharp and cunning Han Chang-sik, looting the relay station, which had many "essentials" like solar panels and generators, was an obvious choice. But going out toward the national road, where there were many vehicles and likely many unpredictable zombies, wasn't an option for someone as cowardly as him (though he would package it as being "cool-headed").

Then, only one thing remained.

"They were trying to break through the back gate, which was the easiest option. While looting the detached houses one by one..."

Han Chang-sik—he was quick to judge the situation and had a good head on his shoulders. That must be why he had taken over this neighborhood in just a few years, even after being pushed out of Mokuri by real gangsters.

But then—

"......!"

Things Jun-ho had heard and experienced in Gahyeon-ri before his regression flashed through his mind. A hypothesis—no, a "flow" that seemed almost certain given the circumstances—clicked into place like a puzzle.

"Phew."

Jun-ho caught his breath and said to Yoon Yeong-su.

"Yeong-su. It’s a bit less hot outside now, right?"

"Yeah. It’ll be 29 degrees soon, but it’s much better than in the middle of the day since it’s morning. Why?"

"Those punks, they seem to be planning to move in the morning and evening, not during the day."

"Ah...!"

With that kind of heavy armor, fighting anyone—zombies or humans—in the middle of the day would be extremely difficult. They had moved during the day yesterday because looting the relay station was an urgent priority, but it was clear they intended to do their "combat" early in the morning and around sunset.

And the reason they were trying to open the back gate even at the risk of fighting zombies was—

'It’s the nursing home. It’s definitely those Hanchang Development thugs who set fire to the Han Ah-reum Nursing Home and killed the doctor couple.'

- A doctor? I heard there really was one in the old days. There’s a nursing home across the hill, and they say a doctor couple came there to volunteer?

- But whether they were servants of an Alpha or just looters, a big fight broke out, and both of them died.

- Why would looters go to a nursing home? Are you stupid? Places like that usually stock up on food for like, half a month or a month. Enough for dozens of people to eat. Plus, while it’s not a hospital, they have some medicine.

It was information from a reliable source before his regression, so it had to be true. And in Jun-ho’s estimation, the only people who would attempt such a thing less than a month after the apocalypse started were—

'Han Chang-sik, Han Chang-oh...'

Just those two.

"Yeong-su, keep monitoring them for now and let me know if there are any unusual developments."

"Got it."

Jun-ho hurried out of the control room and brought Jun-hyeok, who had just returned from checking the chicken coop and greenhouse with Kkamsuni, into his room.

"Why? Is something wrong, Hyung?"

To his younger brother Jun-hyeok, who tilted his head, Jun-ho said with the calmest expression he could muster.

"Can you kill a person today?"

"......!!!"

Jun-hyeok’s eyes widened. But—

"By any chance... those punks from yesterday?"

Jun-hyeok regained his composure faster than even Jun-ho—or Jun-hyeok himself—expected.

"Yes. I don't know about Han Chang-sik and Han Chang-oh, but it would be better to take care of a few of those thugs there."

Only then would they be unable to head toward the nursing home. Han Chang-sik wasn't brave or foolish enough to keep insisting on that route after his subordinates had been taken out by an unknown enemy—an enemy they couldn't even tell was zombie or human.

"We’ll exclude the AR-15 for firearms. They might even use knives. Let’s practice at the shooting range with me this afternoon. Oh, and we need to prepare night-vision goggles, too."

"...Got it, Hyung."

Jun-hyeok clenched and unclenched his lightly trembling fists. But he was certain of one thing: he would never disappoint his brother, who had put all his effort into protecting Our Shelter and protecting him, his younger brother.