Let’s Settle the Score
"How many people are on the first and second floors?"
"There are six, no, seven people on the first floor, including the women. There are six more on the second floor."
"Why are the women here?"
"We're keeping them here to make sure no one steals the food. The mart's car wash draws up groundwater, so we use that for water. We take turns doing laundry and bathing here."
Jun-ho nodded at the words of the man who had introduced himself as Dae-woo's Dad. It wasn't much different from what Song Ki-jun had told him in the previous timeline.
"That thing." Jun-ho pointed to the crossbow Dae-woo's Dad had set down and continued. "Can you shoot it well? Is your aim any good?"
"It's decent. If I fire ten shots from ten meters away, eight or nine hit where I'm aiming."
"You're a good shot."
That was a marksman in the apocalypse. Moreover, judging by his confident attitude, it seemed he could hit moving targets like zombies or people, not just stationary ones.
"Then, let's agree that you only shoot when I tell you to."
"Yes? Then before that…."
"Follow me and provide rear support. You have a knife, right?"
When Jun-ho glanced at his waist, Dae-woo's Dad drew his hunting knife and nodded.
"Ah, yes. I understand."
"Don't ever act on your own. Just do as you're told. That'll be enough."
"Yes, yes."
Dae-woo's Dad nodded vigorously. A couple of months ago, the incident where the 'Mansion Slayer' had wiped out dozens of bullies was famous. Since the incident took place only a kilometer away from the apartment complex, some residents living on the high floors had seen the fire at the mansion that day. And one of the survivors from that neighborhood, whom he had met by chance outside the apartment complex, had described the 'Mansion Slayer's' appearance in relatively detailed terms, so most of the survivors at The First Apartments, including Dae-woo's Dad, knew about him.
'So this is the guy who killed over 50 bullies alone in ten minutes?'
Dae-woo's Dad swallowed hard without realizing it and stuck close behind the 'Mansion Slayer'.
Creeeak.
Soon, the emergency exit door opened with a sound.
"…Huh?"
The moment a thug a few meters away looked toward them, the Mansion Slayer pulled something from his waist like lightning and threw it.
Thwack!
"Aaaargh!"
The thug, with a palm-length blade buried more than halfway into his thigh, screamed, limped, and immediately collapsed.
"……!"
"Shoot his arm."
Without even a moment to be surprised by the ghostly knife throw, Dae-woo's Dad quickly aimed his crossbow and fired at the instruction.
Thwip!
"Gaaah!"
As the bolt embedded in his shoulder, the thug finally dropped the iron pipe spear he was holding, even while falling.
Thwip-thwip-thwip! Thud!
The 'Mansion Slayer', moving with a speed that belied his muscular build, ran out and kicked the guy in the chin. Passing by the thug who had collapsed backward without even being able to scream, he said,
"Reload and follow me quickly."
"Yes, yes."
Dae-woo's Dad, who skillfully loaded a bolt with the crossbow wedged between his legs, quickly followed behind him.
"Hey, you bastards used your heads, didn't you? You tied the zombies up here?"
Hiss! Grrr!
Han Chang-oh laughed as he looked at the four zombies struggling to run toward them, their waists and chests tied with sturdy climbing ropes connected to the building's pillars.
"Well, there's no law saying only we can do this. Hey, clear those out. No, wait, I'll do it."
Han Chang-oh aimed his air rifle at the zombies, who were drooling blood-mixed saliva with their mouths wide open, their grayish-white eyeballs glistening.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The zombies, hit in the eyes by the pellets from about ten meters away, slumped to the ground one after another.
"Wow, Department Head. Your shooting skills are getting better by the day."
"This much is basic now."
Han Chang-oh shrugged his shoulders and turned around. Among the men who had been hit by pellets, stabbed with spears, or beaten, lying on the floor and groaning, the women who had been guarding the large refrigerator in the mart's meat section were huddled together, trembling.
"They're all married women, but there are two or three hot milfs. What should we do?"
"Sob!"
"Ah, aaaa…."
The young married women in their early to mid-30s, singled out by the thug, shuddered and trembled even more in shock.
Han Chang-oh licked his lips while looking at those women.
"What do you mean, what? Take them and—"
Tap-tap-tap-tap…!
"De, Department Head! Chang-oh hyung-nim!"
"Ah, what is it, you bastard?"
Han Chang-oh frowned as much as he could and turned his head toward the voice that had urgently come from the escalator connected to the first floor.
"So, someone is currently on the first floor… Ugh!"
The subordinate who had just come up the escalator couldn't finish his sentence, straightened his waist sharply, and then—
"Ugh! Ah, damn, fuck…."
Touching his waist where a black knife was embedded, he walked a few more steps, spat out a curse, and collapsed forward.
"……!?"
"Wh, what is it?"
Han Chang-oh, seeing the knife stuck in his subordinate's waist, widened his eyes, and two thugs who were with him raised their iron pipe spears.
"Hey."
Han Chang-oh immediately aimed his air rifle toward the escalator and gestured to his subordinates. The guys who nodded approached that side, using the display shelves as cover.
"Who is it! Which bastard is it! Hey, you fucking bastard, come out quickly…."
Just as Han Chang-oh was staring at the escalator side through his scope, slowly approaching to create a better shooting angle—
Something black flew out from the escalator to the second floor.
Pop!
Han Chang-oh instinctively fired his air rifle at the black figure. However, at the same time he pulled the trigger, another figure popped out from the escalator.
Thwack!
"Aaaargh!"
Han Chang-oh, with a drawing knife stuck in his right shoulder, had no choice but to drop his air rifle.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
At that moment, the 'Mansion Slayer' Jun-ho jumped in an instant, closed the distance, and struck Han Chang-oh's torso with a dropkick.
"Ugh!"
Hit by the heavy kick, Han Chang-oh flew back nearly three meters and crashed.
Jun-ho, who got up immediately, kicked the air rifle far away, then threw drawing knives again at the two thugs who were looking at him with wide eyes, and charged straight in.
Thwack! Clang!
One knife hit one guy, but the other caught on a display shelf, missed, and rang out with a metallic sound.
"You fucking!"
At Jun-ho's charge, the thug swung his iron pipe spear as if to strike down. Clang! Jun-ho blocked the attack with the reinforced plastic guard on his forearm, dove into the guy's inner guard like lightning, grabbed him by the collar with his right hand, and threw him toward the mart pillar as if performing a throw.
"Ugh…!"
Crash!
The thug, who rotated once in the air, hit the pillar hard with his body and fell. And there were several corpses of zombies that Han Chang-oh had just dealt with using his air rifle. Unfortunately for the thug, there was one zombie that hadn't died yet because the pellet hadn't pierced its skull.
Grrr! Crunch!
"Aaaargh! Aaaargh!"
While the guy whose neck was bitten screamed and struggled, Jun-ho walked toward the other thug who was stabbing with his iron pipe spear even while hit by a drawing knife.
"Fu, fucking what? Who are you, you son of a bitch! Ge, get lost!"
It might have worked against ordinary people, but to Jun-ho, the thug's spear work was so slow and pathetic that it made him yawn. Clang! Jun-ho, who disarmed the thug with a single swing of his machete, threw a cable tie at him and said,
"Are you going to bring that guy over, tie yourselves up together, and kneel? Or do you want to just die?"
"I, I'll tie us up!"
The thug dragged over his colleague who had collapsed and was crawling with a knife in his waist, and tied his own hands to the guy's with a cable tie. That was when it happened.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Han Chang-oh, who had been blown away by the dropkick, started running to the other side as soon as he got up.
"Shoot now."
As soon as Jun-ho's words ended, Dae-woo's Dad, who had come up late, fired his crossbow at Han Chang-oh.
Thud!
"Argh! Fuck!"
Han Chang-oh, with a bolt stuck in his back, spat out a curse and threw his body toward the window.
Crash!
Leaving behind the loud noise of breaking glass, Han Chang-oh's figure disappeared downward. Jun-ho, who quickly went to the broken window, looked down and saw Han Chang-oh, with a knife in his shoulder and a bolt in his back, limping toward the parking lot.
"……."
Right now, he could pierce the guy's head with his Glock 17, or even by throwing a drawing knife. But Jun-ho just turned his body. Han Chang-oh had to stay alive for a while longer to clash with these Jung-dong natives, and he would deal with quite a few zombies on the way there before that anyway.
"What about the others?"
- Just like you said, I hit them mainly in the shoulders or legs. Six are down, and the rest are trying to run away right now….
- Emergency! Emergency! I just heard the glass breaking, and zombies are swarming from the apartment complex! There are over a hundred of them!
"Yeah."
Jun-ho didn't panic, moved his steps, and swung his right arm strongly.
Thud!
"Gaaah… Ugh!"
The thug, who had been screaming as his neck and face were being torn by a zombie, had his head struck by a machete just before turning, his eyes rolling back.
"They say zombies from the nearby buildings are swarming here."
"Eek!?"
"Huk!"
The residents inside the mart and the thugs tied with cable ties, who had been trembling and looking at Jun-ho as if they were seeing a ghost, were shocked.
"Don't panic. Quickly block the escalator first, and everyone get into the emergency exit."
"Everyone, hurry!"
"Yes, yes!"
At Dae-woo's Dad's voice, the residents were startled, but soon got up and brought everything from display shelves to all sorts of furniture to block the escalator.
Grrr…! Graaaah…!
The zombies' monstrous cries could be heard. The zombies, who had swarmed after hearing the sound of the window breaking, arrived at the mart entrance in less than 10 seconds. As about 200 of them clung and pushed at once, some of the obstacles at the mart entrance collapsed under the pressure.
'This is modest.'
In Bucheon before the regression, if a situation like this occurred, nearly ten times as many zombies would swarm at once. Therefore, not only the survivors but even the soldiers had no choice but to be swept away in an instant. If they fired their guns, they would swarm even more after hearing the sound.
"Ugh!? Sa, save me! Help me!"
"Please! Pleaase…!"
The thug and the town house men, who had been crawling on the floor after being hit by the air rifle Jun-ho fired, begged their colleagues for help at the top of their lungs, but—
Hiss! Hiss!
That only drew the zombies' attention.
"Ge, get away! Ugh… Aaaargh! Gaaah!"
Soon, their limbs were bitten, torn, and ripped by a dozen zombies per person. And more than half of them jumped inside the mart, and some jumped toward the escalator.
Thump! Thump! Crash! Grrr! Hiss! Hiss!
Listening to the sound of zombies pushing and striking the obstacles—
"Hup! Huk!"
"Shh."
The people hiding inside the emergency exit endured the screams that were about to leak out until the end and trembled. The only two who weren't trembling in fear were Jun-ho, who was blocking the iron emergency exit door with his back while glaring at the two thugs, and Dae-woo's Dad, who was aiming his crossbow at them.
About two or three minutes passed like that. The zombies' monstrous cries and the noisy sounds were no longer heard. In the meantime, Jun-ho, who had even tied the thugs' legs with cable ties, opened the emergency exit and said,
"You won't be able to run away, but two of you stay behind and guard those guys. The rest, come out."
They were still terrified, but as people who had survived for over three months, they knew the characteristics of zombies to some extent. The people nodded and followed Jun-ho. Then, they lowered their bodies, walked stealthily to the window where the inside couldn't be seen from the outside, and poked their heads up.
"Except for about thirty, the rest are all heading back to their original spots."
"How did you…?"
At Dae-woo's Dad's question, Jun-ho took out the tablet mounted in the center of his tactical vest and showed it to him.
"……!?"
The eyes of Dae-woo's Dad and the residents, who confirmed the real-time footage being filmed by the drone, widened like saucers.
"Then what should we do about the remaining ones?"
"My colleague will take care of them."
A few seconds after Jun-ho's words ended—
Pew…! Pew…!
The strange noise he had heard from the rooftop came from the broken window, and the heads of the zombies wandering in front of the mart and the parking lot began to cave in or be pierced with large holes, and they began to fall one by one.
"Cr, crazy."
"Wow…."
Listening to the residents' sighs of relief, Jun-ho said to Dae-woo's Dad, the only person here who looked 'useful',
"Then, let's settle the score now."
He said this with the machete covered in the thug's blood and brains slung over his shoulder. Settling the score was important.