Chapter 89. The Navy.
Chapter 89. The Navy.
I walked for about forty minutes following the signs, then spotted a place with an enormous sign reading "1st Fleet Command." Maybe because it was tucked away in a corner, there weren't nearly as many corpses as I'd expected. Regrettably, the main gate was thoroughly barricaded with buses emblazoned with "Republic of Korea Navy."
'Still, stealing something that clearly belongs to someone else felt a little off...'
Shaking off the disappointment, I headed toward my original goal: the sea.
'But no matter how sparse the population is, there are way fewer bodies than I'd imagined...'
But one thing stood out as I wandered the streets: zombies appeared only occasionally, and far fewer than I'd imagined. Corpses were piled off to one side, as if someone had been clearing them regularly. I assumed the navy had taken care of it.
Truth be told, I'd been worried about whether animals might turn into zombies too, but so far I hadn't seen a single zombified animal. So, the sea ought to be fine as well, right?
As I looked around, I eventually reached the harbor where the sea came into view. Along the way, I got the impression that normally the food stalls would have been packed with people, but now it was so desolate it didn't feel like a port at all.
I quietly walked to the end of the breakwater and stood taking in the salty scent of the sea.
"Anyway, can a bird swim...?"
I glanced at the little guy dozing on my shoulder and muttered to myself. I climbed down from the breakwater and stepped onto the water's surface. I expected my foot to sink and get wet, but I walked across the water as naturally as walking on a road.
I was making soft splashing sounds with each step when the little guy suddenly woke up and started making strange noises.
ㅡ Skreeeeeech!!!
"Hm?"
ㅡ Whooooosh!!!
Out of nowhere, several missiles came flying at me from the sky. Without a moment to panic, my ingrained habits took over—I gripped my sword and sliced off every one of their ignition devices.
ㅡ Shnk! Shnk! Tscht!
The missiles, their explosive force cut short, dropped harmlessly into the water. I channeled mana into my eyes to check the direction they'd come from, and spotted several warships.
"Firing missiles at me out of the blue—whose ugly face do I need to see for this?"
I quickened my pace and rapidly closed in on the warships. The machine gun mounted on the deck swiveled and started taking aim at me.
ㅡ Whirrr... Rat-tat-tat-tat!!!
"Hoh...!"
ㅡ Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!!!
Deflecting every bullet flying at me at an absurd speed, I leaped up onto the deck. Steam rose from the hot barrel, and the hail of bullets stopped.
The expressions I saw there looked like they'd seen a ghost. And no wonder—I'd sprinted across the water, shrugged off missiles, shredded every bullet that would have turned anything else to dust, and then jumped aboard.
'I was having a nice walk enjoying the sea breeze, and now this...'
I reined in my somewhat sour mood and crooked my finger at the nearest soldier, beckoning him over.
The little guy on my shoulder, maybe sensing hostility, fluffed up his feathers and glared at them.
"Don't be a pain in the ass. Come over here and let's have a chat."
They approached cautiously, keeping their rifles trained on me. Then someone who looked like he had more experience spoke up.
"Uh... P-please wait just a moment..."
He said that and then scurried inside the ship, but the others still hadn't let down their guard. Since they weren't actually threatening, I simply plopped down on the deck with a whatever-happens attitude.
"Alright, everyone, that's enough. Lower your guns. My mood's about to turn sour."
Hearing that, they hesitantly lowered their muzzles a little—fingers still on the triggers.
I waited a bit, and a man who looked like he was in charge came running out. He saw me and immediately asked,
"Are you... human?"
"?"
"Ah, never mind that. Please, come inside and talk."
Following his invitation, I passed through the narrow interior of the ship and entered a room labeled "Captain's Quarters." After a brief silence, I spoke first.
"Is it normal to fire missiles at a person out of the blue, and when that doesn't work, hose them down with a machine gun...?"
"Ahem... I'm truly sorry. The truth is..."
He said they'd been having a lot of trouble with flying zombies lately. When they saw me walking on the water, they assumed I was some new type of zombie and fired the missiles. Then, when I was still in one piece and sprinting toward the warship, they opened up with the machine gun.
'Well... if you see someone casually walking on water...'
"No real damage was done, so it's fine."
He'd already seen the missiles were useless and that I'd deflected every bullet, but hearing me say it so directly seemed to fluster him even more.
"Ah, I'm Captain Choi Jong-hyun, commander of this vessel."
"Yes, I'm Cheon Sihu."
"If you don't mind my asking, where did you come from?"
"Just... wandering around here and there."
If I said I came from Gimpo, I'd end up explaining a whole laundry list of things, so I just brushed it off. We exchanged a few more words, then the captain suddenly remembered something and spoke urgently.
"Ah, please wait just a moment."
He hurriedly left the captain's quarters and returned about five minutes later.
"Sorry for leaving so abruptly."
He explained that they'd reported to headquarters that I was a new type of zombie, but since I turned out to be an Awakened, he'd had to report again to correct it, which was why he'd stepped out.
"By headquarters, do you mean the place next to the bus terminal?"
"Oh, are you a former navy man?"
"No, that's not it. I just noticed the bus barricade on my way here."
"Yes, that's our headquarters. Since we're the navy, this is the fleet base, and that's the headquarters."
"I was looking around earlier, and compared to other areas, the streets were surprisingly clean..."
"Yes, we were told they'd done some cleanup."
After chatting for a while, I was gradually getting ready to leave. Then the captain hesitated and made a request.
"Actually... our commander asked to meet with you..."
'Hmm... if I do them a favor, will it be easier to get supplies out of them?'
Our village had helicopters, cars, tanks—pretty much everything we needed. The one thing we lacked was ships. And since we didn't have anyone who could repair or maintain them, getting help from these people would be convenient.
"Well... as someone who doesn't belong anywhere and just wanders around, meeting someone isn't too much trouble."
I made it clear I wasn't tied to anyone in order to head them off if they tried to ask me to join their group and lend them my strength.
He apologized for the intrusion, left the room again to make another report, and returned shortly.
"Sihu, headquarters says they're sending a helicopter."
At least this place seemed to have some basic manners.
"It's fine. I even got some tea. I'll just walk over—call it exercise."
"Oh, no, there's no need. Our commander told me to escort you personally. And outside is..."
I chuckled and cut him off.
"Even missiles and bullets don't work on me. A walking corpse's teeth aren't about to leave a scratch."
Honestly, I could lie down and take a nap in the middle of a zombie-infested downtown street and be in no danger. Their teeth would probably break first.
"And I'll explain things well at headquarters, so don't worry too much."
Because he felt he'd done me wrong, he saw me off with a crudely wrapped bag of random snacks and refreshments even as I was leaving.
I jumped off the deck of the warship and headed back toward land, thinking the whole way about what I could do if we got a ship.
'Then again, would I even have any use for one...?'
Truthfully, we didn't have time for fishing, and helicopters worked fine for transport.
'Still, if there's someone who can repair ships, we could at least fix up a fishing boat and use it.'
I walked on, lost in thought, until I arrived at the front gate marked "1st Fleet Command." This time, when I approached, several people were already waiting—they must have been contacted in advance.
"Victory! Are you the person Captain Choi Jong-hyun mentioned?"
"Yes, that's me."
He verified my identity over the radio once more, then guided me to the command headquarters main building.
As I walked to the main building, I looked around. Compared to any other survivor group I'd seen so far, this place seemed the best organized. Apart from a few bloodstains on the asphalt and some minor facility damage, it was clean—the bodies had apparently been cleared away.
The largest building flew the Taegeukgi, and the entrance boldly read "Command Headquarters Main Building." I entered, and the soldier who'd been guiding me told me to go up to the third floor.
'Now that I think about it, "commander"... isn't that an army thing? Or is the navy different?'
When I went up, several advisors were already waiting for me at the top of the stairs. They spotted me and approached with greetings.
"Good to meet you. I'm Commander Kim Chang-woo, commander of the 1st Fleet."
"Hello, I'm the Chief Advisor..."
After a parade of greetings, we went inside a conference room. Oddly enough, they seemed a bit afraid of me.
"Anyway, the East Sea is surprisingly clean."
"It's a small blessing in the midst of all this misfortune."
He went on to explain that on the day the zombie outbreak began, he'd exercised his authority to declare "combat rest." So there hadn't been many personnel on base. However, they'd had military police with issued ammunition, which let them quickly suppress the situation early on.
"After quickly suppressing the internal situation, since the army barracks were right next door as you saw, we immediately rescued people."
'So that apartment complex attached right next door was the barracks.'
"Anyway, I heard you wanted to meet me."
They exchanged glances with each other, as if they'd already discussed this, and hesitated to speak. Then the Chief Advisor beside me began.
"Ahem... I heard that you don't belong to any group and are currently just wandering around."