Chapter 73. Stopover in Busan.
Chapter 73. Stopover in Busan.
"Still, this trip's going to take quite a while, isn't it..."
Just then, Lieutenant General Go Seong-hyeon handed us two walkie-talkies, stressing his instructions again and again.
"Chief... these are some of the few radios we have that can do satellite communication. Please treat them with extreme care...!"
"Yes, don't worry."
The Japanese side had requested a period of two months. That was the time frame they'd calculated, since the advance reconnaissance party had already brought enough supplies to set up camp.
With more leeway than expected, we decided to spend a while going about our daily lives. And because the Research Complex group was still in the process of joining us, we agreed to depart a week later.
A few days later, the transport of the Research Complex people and various supplies was finished. Then, since everyone needed time to get used to each other, we all gathered in the open area and shared a meal.
"Chief, if I'd known it would be like this, I would've come much sooner."
"You can just settle in and get accustomed to life here now."
"By the way, I heard you'll be making a brief trip to Japan."
I explained about the nuclear material the power plant needed and the strange phenomenon unfolding in Japan. Chairman Lee then voiced a hint of concern.
"Hmm... I know you're strong, Chief, but won't it be dangerous?"
"Chairman, don't worry. No matter how many of those things show up, my dear Sihu will handle them all, don't you think?"
"Ho ho, if what Miss Jia says is true, then I have nothing at all to worry about."
Chairman Lee looked warmly at Jia, as if gazing at a granddaughter. Her words always added a spark of energy to our group.
"Now that all of you are here, we plan to depart tomorrow."
The traveling party would be the regular members who had trained under me, the special forces operatives, and Chief Petty Officer Lee Geun-cheol—that was all. Terion decided to stay in Gimpo to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances. After the meal, Chaeyeon, Jia, my father-in-law and mother-in-law, and I had a quiet little drink at our place.
It was Chaeyeon who brought it up first.
"Do you remember we mentioned there are a few people in our group who are pregnant?"
"Hm? Yeah, what about it?"
"What do you think it would be like if Jia and I got pregnant?"
What would I think if they got pregnant... Honestly, I had never thought about it. Not on Earth, and not on Titan either.
"I think having my child would make me incredibly happy. But..."
"But...?"
"Honestly, I'm not really sure. I'd only vaguely assumed that if we ever started a family, children would come along naturally. But the one thing I'm certain of is that there wouldn't be anything unfortunate about it."
"Mm... that's a 90-point answer."
'...?'
Maybe because the subject was their daughters having children—and by extension their own grandchildren—my father-in-law and mother-in-law were actually even more excited.
"Still, if it's our son-in-law's child, I feel like it'll be running around the moment it's born~" "Ahem... being healthy is what really matters."
No matter what, a newborn baby couldn't possibly run around...
"I think a child that takes after Sihu would be blunt but also incredibly cute."
Hearing Jia's comment, Chaeyeon's cheeks turned faintly red, as if she were imagining something. We tidied up so we could leave early in the morning, and everyone went to bed.
The day dawned, and the time for our first overseas deployment(?) approached.
'Come to think of it, I'd never even been to Jeju Island, let alone a foreign country, but here I am going now, of all times...'
Nearly everyone in the group had gathered in front of the helicopter to see us off as we formed up for departure.
"Sihu, take care of yourself, and please let us hear from you at least once a day."
"Don't worry. First, we'll arrive in Busan, stay a day or two, and then cross straight over to Japan."
Once everyone had boarded the helicopter, Chief Petty Officer Lee Geun-cheol's voice came through the headset attached to the helmet.
"We'll be taking off now."
The helicopter's rotor blades roared with incredible noise as we lifted off and headed for Busan.
* * * * * * * *
The flight to Busan took about an hour and a half. During that time, people started chatting about all sorts of things.
"Haha, so the Captain, the other day..."
"Hey man, that was ages ago!!"
"Did something like that happen?"
I listened quietly to their conversation. Then the Captain of the special forces unit caught my eye and asked:
"Chief, have you ever been to Busan?"
"A very long time ago, back in college, I went once for an extracurricular activity. I've never been there for fun, though."
"There's a milmyeon restaurant in front of Busan Station. That place is seriously delicious."
We dozed off a little and chatted during the flight, and before we knew it, we had reached Busan's airspace. We landed at the most convenient harbor in Haeundae, and once everyone got off, we established a perimeter.
"Surprisingly, the harbor is quiet."
"Yeah, I really thought zombies would come running at the noise at the very least..."
"Let's take it easy for a bit. We need to refuel anyway, and once we leave, we'll probably have to move around frantically."
'Should I try doing some of the traveling I couldn't do back then...?'
With that thought, I absently stepped outside the harbor and headed toward the city center.
"Where are you going?"
"For a walk. I'll wander around a bit, so you all eat first."
Everyone gave me a bewildered look at the idea of taking a walk in a ruin like this, but at the word "walk," Chaeyeon and Jia came after me.
"You didn't have to come. Get some rest."
"I just thought following you around would be more fun."
"Exactly, it's like a date—though there are two girlfriends. Hee hee."
Even after we'd gone outside the harbor, there were far fewer zombies visible than I'd expected. As far as I knew, Busan had a fairly large population, yet this place felt like a ghost town.
'Maybe not many people live in Haeundae... I'm not really sure.'
"Sihu, do you want to go shopping?"
Jia said this while pointing to a huge department store next to the harbor.
"Mm... is the joy of travel really shopping, after all...?"
As we headed for the department store, we saw many things: cars caked in dust, corpses inside vehicles, bloodstains spread across the ground.
We advanced while eliminating zombies one by one. Chaeyeon and Jia, who once would have hesitated to harm them simply because they were human, now dispatched them as casually as squashing insects. If anything, Jia was grumbling.
"Hah... maybe I should have chosen magic like you, unnie. Collecting arrows every single time is so annoying..."
Chaeyeon stroked her hair with practiced ease, as if looking after a younger sister, and said,
"Still, I do think Jia looks way sexier when she's shooting her bow."
Watching a scene like that reminded me of something in particular.
'A cat soothing a puppy...?'
"Don't worry too much. Later, once you're proficient at handling mana, you won't need arrows anymore."
Once inside the department store, they headed into the luxury goods section and began frantically picking up this and that. I was bored too, so I walked around and looked at the surroundings.
'Whoa... a watch costs over a hundred million won...'
We wrapped up our moderate shopping and were walking down a stopped escalator when we saw someone. The moment he saw us, he started running away.
"What the... running away the instant he sees us—that's a bit rude..."
'Well... wouldn't anyone run away if they saw people calmly shopping in a world like this...?'
Afraid it might sour her mood, I didn't say anything. We made an effort to ignore that person and looked through various daily necessities. Our group's supplies were already plentiful, but the more we had, the better.
We checked the items we'd collected and tossed them all into my pocket space. Among the things I'd added were some luxury-brand training suits and sneakers for the operatives who would be joining the operation—something to that effect?
'By now, most of the food section would be spoiled, so there's no real need to go there, right...?'
As I was about to head down to the basement, that thought suddenly occurred to me, and we went back outside.
"We've got plenty of time, so if we get the chance later, let's bring the others out and do some more shopping."
"Hee hee, just imagining the special forces operatives shopping at a department store is already hilarious."
Definitely... I couldn't picture a bunch of huge, brawny middle-aged guys picking up items at a department store.
With no real destination in mind, we began wandering aimlessly, simply following wherever our feet took us.
Then, before we knew it, we had entered a neighborhood full of residential houses. It was a place that evoked a sense of nostalgia, with the feel of a hillside shantytown. No matter how much time had passed, there should have been some traces of maintenance, but instead there were signs that only a handful of people had been living here even before the apocalypse broke out.
And somewhere in an alley, a rich, savory smell wafted out.
'Are there still survivors here...? And it's a very familiar smell—I've smelled it a lot before...'
At the far end of the hillside neighborhood, in a spot where you'd wonder if any customers would even come, a gukbap restaurant had its lights on. In a world where the apocalypse had broken out, the sight of an illuminated store with a lit-up sign was so mismatched that we could only stare at it.
"S-Sihu... over there..."
"I see it too... What on earth is that?"
Right now, a human death is worth less than a single meal. But this place, on the contrary, didn't suit the idea of death at all. Ever since we'd entered the hillside neighborhood, we hadn't even seen the usual corpses or bloodstains.
It was the type of shop where you couldn't see inside from outside. There was only a glass door with light shining out and a very shabby sign that simply read 'Gukbap.'
For a moment I thought I was seeing a hallucination. But that couldn't possibly be the case. No spell art, no mystery, no magic could invade my mind.
"Sihu... shall we go inside...?"
I ran through every single possible hypothesis my mind could conceive. Even the insane thought that a zombie was cooking gukbap to lure us in.
― Grrrrowl...
Chaeyeon and Jia simultaneously sent the signal that they were hungry. Flustered, they blushed and clutched their stomachs.
To be honest, the moment I smelled it, a wave of hunger had hit me too. In the end, I judged that we could handle whatever situation might arise.
And for some reason, I felt an intense curiosity, a persistent urge to open that door and go inside.
So I pulled the handle of the gukbap restaurant door. A moment later, I stepped inside to the sound of the clear, pure ring of the bell attached to the shop door.