I Acknowledge You
Jun-ho climbed onto the electric scooter with Purdy and set out on patrol once more. Outside the massive safety zone, which spanned an area the size of Yeouido, the situation was slightly better than yesterday—which had been nothing short of a war zone—but the number of zombies wandering the streets, roads, and villages had more than doubled. I estimated that in just one day, about 25 to 30 percent of the population had either died or turned. Since this was a suburban area with a low population density, it was relatively better off; in densely populated cities like Bucheon or Seoul, where I used to live, nearly half would have been wiped out. Out of a population of 50 million, roughly 15 million were no longer in a state that could be called "living."
Regardless, while the outside remained a living hell, the safety zone was secure. From the vicinity of the closed tunnel to the access roads and the ends of the bypasses—anywhere connected to our shelter was devoid of even a single stray dog. Having finished his morning patrol, Jun-ho returned to the shelter and immediately sought out Yun Yeong-su.
"How are Choi Jung-woo and the kids?" he asked as he entered the control room. Yun Yeong-su, who had been gnawing on potato chips like a rabbit with his feet propped up on the desk, quickly lowered his legs and replied.
"The little ones ate, played outside for a bit, and then went into the container dorms. The technician and the middle-schooler are working."
"Working?"
"Yeah. I was a bit dumbfounded myself... just take a look."
Yun Yeong-su pulled up the feed from the CCTV cameras installed outside the container village onto the main monitor. There, Choi Jung-woo and Kim Ha-yun, who had changed into the tracksuits from the supply bags delivered yesterday, were—
"The technician is using a multi-tool knife to fashion a snow shovel, leveling out the yard, and the middle-schooler is pulling weeds and gathering stones to dump in a pile."
With their faces covered by towels like country folk, the two were working diligently in the yard—which measured about 40 by 20 meters, roughly 250 pyeong—wiping sweat from their brows as they labored.
"I suppose they're just trying to make a good impression since it's their first day?"
"That could be it. But Yeong-su, you know how it is, right? Usually, people lose their minds, lock themselves in their rooms, and tremble or collapse from the shock."
"I acknowledge that."
"Anyway, keep an eye on them. Watch what the kids are doing inside the dorms, too."
"Oh, and Boss." Yun Yeong-su called out to Jun-ho just as he was about to leave.
"I don't usually say things like this, but..."
"...?"
Yun Yeong-su, uncharacteristically hesitant, let out a deep sigh and continued.
"As you know, Boss, I'm not just sitting around here. I'm programming, constantly refining algorithms, and checking Akina and the server equipment for any issues. On top of that, I'm monitoring the CCTV and drone feeds."
"I know. So, what is it?"
"We're short-handed."
"..."
"I don't care about anything else, but someone really needs to be in charge of power. Baek-sensei is already swamped with workshop duties. He's maintaining the vehicles, checking facilities like the cold storage and the wastewater treatment plant, and on top of that, he checks the solar power arrays morning and night. No matter how well-automated things are, there’s just too much to do. So, I was thinking..."
Yun Yeong-su clasped his hands together, putting on an expression of desperate, pitiful pleading.
"Can't we bring the technician up as soon as possible? If he could just take over the power room and the solar energy sector, the workload for both me and Baek-sensei would drop significantly. We could use that time for other things."
***
Jun-ho, having told Yun Yeong-su he would consider it, took Jun-hyeok—who had just finished inspecting the greenhouse and the chicken coop—to the underground shooting range. Although plenty of live ammunition remained, the supply was finite, so they limited themselves to 20 rounds each for the AR15, KP9, and Glock 17. They finished the training by firing 200 rounds from the replica air rifle, which had effectively unlimited ammo.
"Don't hesitate. Whether it's a zombie or a thug, if you see them, you shoot. Two shots for the 9mm with a double-tap, one shot for the air rifle."
"Okay. Got it." Jun-hyeok nodded calmly at Jun-ho's words.
"And what do you do if a crowd chases you or you're about to be surrounded?"
"Shoot the lower bodies—the legs—of the ones in the lead, and run."
"Right. They can't feel pain, but they still take the impact. If they take multiple hits to the legs, humans obviously fall, and zombies do too. Especially since zombies always run at top speed, if the leader falls, there's a high chance they'll trip and fall like dominoes. And..."
Jun-ho once again emphasized to Jun-hyeok information that, based on his own experience in the apocalypse before his regression, almost no one else currently knew.
They ate the gimbap Choi Ha-neul had carefully packed for them at their respective workplaces, and they pushed through the afternoon without rest. By 5:30 PM, the sun had dipped significantly toward the west. At that same moment, the Bionic 5 armored car, carrying Jun-ho, Jun-hyeok, and Purdy, arrived near the communications relay station.
Before turning onto the side road leading to the residential townhouse village, under the perfect surveillance support of the drone, Jun-ho sent a transmission.
"Sunset time?"
- Around 7:20. We have about two hours left, so they'll probably come out a little after 6:00.
"Understood."
The armored car, carrying two fully armed men and one dog, moved slowly with its lights off. Equipped with forward-facing thermal imaging cameras and IR night vision, the vehicle could travel at speeds around 30 km/h even at night without lights. Of course, since there was still sunlight, driving without lights wasn't difficult, but Jun-ho intentionally drove while watching the folding monitor on the dashboard. He had practiced whenever he could for over a year, but you never knew what would happen in a real-world scenario.
In the passenger seat next to him, Jun-hyeok focused intently, alternating between the feed from the drone hovering over the townhouse village and the feed from the drone hovering above the armored car, which was constantly monitoring a 300-meter radius.
"Just watch the drone over the townhouses. The AI will notify us immediately if the drone following this car detects any anomalies."
"Okay."
Jun-hyeok replied in a slightly tense voice, focusing on the feed from the drone looking down at the townhouses from high altitude. Sure enough, ten minutes later, the zoom camera captured men emerging from one of the houses.
- Boss, they're out.
"Hyung. They're out."
"Good. Keep watching them."
At the nearly simultaneous words of the two, Jun-ho glanced at the internal vehicle display while continuing to drive. The six men, wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirts like they had earlier that morning, were stepping out of the yard gate with protective gear on and weapons in hand. But this time, they weren't all going together; they split into two groups of three.
Well, even if three generations of a family lived in a townhouse, it was unlikely there were more than five or six people. Excluding the elderly and the weak, there would only be two or three capable of fighting. It would be child's play for three burly, well-prepared thugs to subdue them.
"Those bastards, they're well-prepared."
"We're here."
Before crossing the hill overlooking the townhouse village, Jun-ho hid the armored car in a secluded patch of tall grass he had scouted earlier that day, covering it thoroughly with camouflage netting.
- Boss, the car is out too. Are you watching?
"Checking now."
Jun-ho and Jun-hyeok watched the feed from the drone on their tablet. An electric SUV emerged from Han Chang-sik's garage and, just like in the morning, began to creep toward the back gate.
"Let's go."
They had to descend a mountain without a trail, but if they moved quickly, they could arrive in under 20 minutes. Purdy, wearing a tactical vest capable of stopping 9mm rounds, followed nimbly behind the brothers as they descended the mountain quickly but quietly, supported by the drone's surveillance.
Throughout the descent, the drone feed and Yun Yeong-su's communications continued without a break.
- These guys are so slow. It'll take them over 5 minutes just to get to the back gate. At this rate, they should just walk, ugh...
- They just stopped at the corner. One, two... five are getting out. Huh? What's that?
- These guys are holding some kind of shield? It's huge. Like 1.5 meters? They could cover their whole bodies with it.
- Ah, I see, they're using those to hide while they move so the zombies don't spot them. Wow... I have to give it to those thug bastards.
- They've approached within 50 meters of the back gate. Looks like they're about to shoot with the air rifle.
"We can see them from here now."
While Jun-hyeok caught his breath, Jun-ho examined the back gate of the townhouse village through a digital monocular. This monocular, equipped with thermal imaging, even identified and displayed the distance to the target; it was expensive, but the performance was undeniable.
"84 meters to the back gate, 112 meters to the thug bastards..."
Jun-ho was currently hiding under a tree on a mountain slope that overlooked the back gate and Han Chang-oh's gang at a diagonal angle. Sunset was still 40 minutes away, but it was impossible to spot two men and one dog hidden in the trees and grass from this distance.
- Four, five, six. Wow, that thug is a good shot. Not as good as you, Boss, but he's quite the marksman. Maybe it's because he mounted a scope on the air rifle, but Han Chang-oh's accuracy has improved. Anyway, they're taking out the zombies by having the person in front cover their whole body with the large shield while moving slowly, and when they stop, the shooter behind rests the air rifle on the shield to fire.
It was the best combat method for a low-population area like Gahyeon-ri. 'Han Chang-sik... I'll give you credit for being shrewd and smart.'
While his younger brother Han Chang-oh did all the actual work, Han Chang-sik was the brain and the leader of that gang. Honestly, even if they were real gangsters, it was hard to understand how someone like Han Chang-sik had been pushed out of a honey pot like Mokuri and forced into Gahyeon-ri.
'He must have been a coward, but still...'
Thinking this, Jun-ho took his eyes off the monocular and signaled Jun-hyeok. Jun-hyeok, having caught his breath, checked the drone feed on the tablet, scrutinized the back gate and the thugs' positions through his own monocular, and then lay prone on a flat patch of ground next to a tree slightly further down. He pulled the replica air rifle—now mounted with a tripod—from its hard case and secured it firmly to the ground.
While he finished his preparations, Han Chang-oh, who had killed all the zombies outside the back gate with headshots, waved his scoped air rifle in triumph. Soon, two thugs approached the back gate cautiously with their shields held in front, pulled something out, and rolled it hard toward the outside of the gate.
- Whoa? They really do all sorts of things. How did they think to roll bottles to check?
As Yun Yeong-su said, the thugs had rolled three empty bottles hard toward the outside of the back gate to check if any zombies would react to the sound. But even though the bottles rolled for nearly 20 meters, making quite a racket, no zombies appeared. After rolling a few more bottles and assessing the situation for a few more minutes, the thugs finally opened the back gate. Then, at Han Chang-oh's command, three thugs—excluding him and one other—stepped cautiously outside the back gate with their shields raised. The direction they were walking slowly toward was an old, four-story apartment building closest to the back gate.
"Moving out."
Leaving Purdy with Jun-hyeok, Jun-ho lowered his center of gravity and descended the mountain at high speed.
- Wow... Boss, you're incredibly fast. You were holding back earlier because of Mr. Jun-hyeok, weren't you?
"...I know, so you don't have to point it out every time, Yeong-su hyung."
- Just saying. Anyway, I'll continue the surveillance.
***
Jun-ho, who had descended the mountain in an instant, vaulted over an old wall behind the villa. In his headset, Yun Yeong-su's operating, watching him through the drone, continued intermittently.
- Three of them have entered the apartment. The air rifle guy and the other one are covering them while aiming that way.
- There's a car 10 meters to your side, Boss. If you go around that, there's a 'B'. Looks like its leg is broken, it's crawling.
Approaching the old subcompact car quickly and stealthily, Jun-ho crawled on the ground toward the middle-aged female zombie who was diligently crawling with her arms, and quickly and deeply pierced her ear with a long, sharp awl. The zombie twitched once and then stopped moving. Jun-ho pulled a mini-drone and controller from the small bag hanging behind his tactical belt. It was a model that couldn't be purchased in Korea, but could be legally bought by civilians in some European countries; Viktor Volk Choi had acquired it for him after Jun-ho, claiming drone flying was a hobby, had requested it.
It was small, its sound was hard to detect from just 3-4 meters away, and the video quality was excellent, but it had the disadvantage of only having a 15-minute flight time. Of course, setting that aside, it was an ultra-high-end product that cost over 20 million won per unit. But for searching an old apartment like this, there was nothing better.
Whirrr...
The mini-drone rose into the air, emitting a faint, characteristic high-frequency sound. Jun-ho sent the drone through a small, slightly open window next to the building to check the stairs and hallways.
"Found them..."
At the end of the first-floor hallway, three thugs were standing, trying to open a door. Jun-ho sent the mini-drone to the opposite end of the hallway, left it in a hovering state, and spoke.
"Yeong-su, can you distract Han Chang-oh for a second?"
- Roger. Leave it to me.
A moment later.
- In 10 seconds, I'll graze the tree forest about 50 meters behind the air rifle guy with the drone. He'll probably think it's just a bird flapping its wings. 10, 9...
Listening to Yun Yeong-su's countdown, Jun-ho quickly pressed himself against the apartment wall.
- 3, 2, 1. Now.
As soon as he heard "1," Jun-ho peeked his face slightly out from the wall. Han Chang-oh and another thug turned their bodies backward at the same time. Jun-ho ran quickly toward the apartment entrance. Despite carrying over 20 kilograms of gear, Jun-ho's speed was no less than that of a track athlete, and he was able to enter the foyer within two seconds of starting.
- Don't worry, Boss. The air rifle guy is still looking behind him. Seems like he's a bit spooked.
Having entered the apartment, Jun-ho stood at the corner leading to the hallways on both sides. The drone was still hovering at the end of the hallway furthest from the house where the thugs were, illuminating that area. Before long, the three guys who had picked the lock entered Room 101 cautiously, weapons gripped tight. Jun-ho moved the drone toward them quickly. The idiots hadn't even closed the front door properly. Confirming through the screen that the thugs were examining the living room and kitchen with extreme vigilance, Jun-ho moved quickly toward Room 101. Just as the guy wearing a motorcycle helmet opened the door to the main room, two zombies inside suddenly lunged out.
"Argh...!"
As the motorcycle helmet guy collapsed, the other two thugs thrust their left arms, wrapped tightly in clothing, into the zombies' mouths, and brought axes and hammers down on the heads of the zombies trying to attack their fallen comrade.
Thwack! Thwack-thwack!
The zombies, their skulls split and the backs of their heads caved in, stopped moving and collapsed to the side.
"Huff, hhh... shit, that was nothing..."
The moment one of the thugs spoke, Jun-ho, who had been behind them holding a long awl and a double-edged dagger, approached without a sound and simultaneously pierced the back and side of their necks, which were exposed beneath their safety gear. They collapsed as stiffly as logs.
"......!"
And before the motorcycle helmet guy, who had been struggling until just a moment ago and had spotted Jun-ho, could react, the awl and dagger stabbed into his side and heart four times in rapid succession before being withdrawn.