Rest
The mart had been thoroughly cleared, and the clock now pointed to midnight. The time for a choice had arrived.
“Good work! There’s nothing left on the mart side. No matter how much noise we make, not a single sound comes back.”
“Thank you!”
“I’ll give you a bat. Use it well. This isn’t an ordinary one.”
“It’s heavy.”
Of course it was. Overseas, that thing could smash through brick and whatever else you threw at it.
“We’ve got roughly ten days of food, but with fewer people it’ll last longer. We’ve secured the mart again, so move as you see fit.”
The ones who’d grown resentful of An Suhyeon would be seeing him again soon enough. Not that there were many of them left. Still, leaving a few loyal people on this side would make things easier for me. The real problem was the lack of long-range communication.
“So the question is what I do next…”
The external threats had been dealt with for now. The next objective was Gwangjin-gu. From what I’d overheard at the school, there was definitely a military unit over there—and a mutiny had broken out. People had taken shelter in the subway, and Gangbuk-gu had a serial killer running around. If I could just push through Gwangjin-gu, I’d reach the area around Ttukseom, and beyond the bridge, Seocho-gu—where that loathsome Hyojin might be waiting. Bypass the bridge and you’d hit Yongsan, which already looked like trouble. In short, Gwangjin-gu was a critical foothold. I just had to be careful.
“No idea if they’ve still got ammunition.”
A military unit meant people who could punch through the defense of a stab-proof vest.
“I need body armor.”
The fifth expedition toward Gwangjin-gu was going to require serious preparation. Drones and body armor were non-negotiable before I went anywhere near it.
“Haa… I’m exhausted.”
Which brought me back to the choice in front of me. I’d spent myself thoroughly on my women and then on killing zombies; my stamina was shot, but the lust was still there. Where to go—that was the real question right now.
Woohee would obviously need at least until daylight for anything involving her rear, plus an enema. Soyeon was out until the afternoon because of her period. That left Seol-hwa…
Seol-hwa was definitely sulking. High-school girl that she still was, she’d be stewing over the other women, and I could thoroughly re-educate her for it. The problem was that after a full day of this, my body was physically spent. Bringing Seol-hwa back under heel would take more than I currently had.
Here, lust had to be ruled by reason.
I drew a deep breath and swung the electric bike around—not toward Seol-hwa’s place, but straight for my house in the present world. Forcing down the seething desire, I finally arrived at my real home.
An Suhyeon’s hands were trembling with excitement. Last night’s chaos—if it had been the old him, he would have just watched from the rear. Instead he had stepped forward, risked himself, and fought the zombies.
I did that? For real?
Even he could barely believe the miracle. It meant he had changed that much.
“Everyone listen carefully.”
There was force in his voice now, and a weight of authority that hadn’t been there before. In a single day, the man had become someone else.
Haha. Now it’s all mine. I’ve been recognized.
Only four people left, but it was enough. He was absorbing the shock that powerful male had delivered and making it his own. Bat in hand, he barked at the handful of survivors.
“We finished the mart. From now on we can go back over there.”
“Really?”
“Is that true? H-how…?”
People stirred—over the achievement he claimed as his. The feeling was more electric than any drug.
“That guy and I killed all the zombies together! So the food situation’s a little safer now.”
“Whoa…”
A cascade of admiration. Right then he was riding a far more extreme orgasm than anything he’d felt handling a woman earlier.
“So tomorrow we all move to the mart and live there. Leave a couple of people here on watch. You two take it.”
He issued the sentry order to the two remaining men.
“Th-that’s…”
“What? Don’t want to?”
The moment An Suhyeon’s expression shifted, the two men lost their words. The power structure had flipped completely. From the one everyone looked down on, An Suhyeon had become the absolute ruler of this place.
I have to push harder here.
Just as Jin Dohyuk had done, he too let his eyes flash cold and sharp.
“Hey! So are you doing it or not?”
“N-no… we’ll do it.”
They submitted. The scales of power had tipped all the way over. An Suhyeon’s trembling chest filled with desire. Everything was his to command.
He immediately dragged one of the women into the room that had been Woohee’s.
It’s all up to me, right? This woman too? That one too?
He had the authority now, and he could use it. The woman in front of him couldn’t even speak. Mine. All mine.
Without hesitation An Suhyeon laid her down and began to indulge. Who was going to say a word?
He spent a thoroughly satisfying night that way—until, out of nowhere, old memories surfaced.
No one looks down on me anymore.
He savored the sweet rush of triumph, but a small regret lingered in his chest. Between the candlelight, the sleeping woman’s face after sex looked ordinary in the dim glow.
Not really my type, though.
He’d just finished devouring her and now he was complaining—but the truth was there weren’t beauties falling from the sky. Average and ugly women existed as a matter of course. In this era, being picky about women was practically a luxury. As long as she wasn’t ugly, satisfaction was the normal response. An Suhyeon was no different.
Should I wake the other one?
There were two women here—one in her thirties, one in her twenties. He’d thoroughly used the thirty-year-old; the other was still untouched.
The me I am now can do it. An Suhyeon!
He sat up abruptly and moved toward the room where the other woman was sleeping. He was the administrator here. He could do whatever he wanted. He opened her door.
The soft breathing of a woman deep in sleep brushed his ear. He carefully shut the door and began to realize his desire.
“Ah! Who—”
“Quiet.”
He growled low and tried to take her, but met fierce resistance.
“Why are you doing this—mmph!”
He covered her mouth and whispered.
“You defying me right now? Want me to throw you out of here?”
“Why…”
The threat weakened her struggle, and An Suhyeon was able to violate her as well.
“Perfect.”
As the leader of this place, he was filling his desires at a rapid clip.
…
But deep in his chest, the root of that desire was sending a signal—especially about a certain someone.
“They said shift work was hard for a reason.”
I’d left at night, yet the time waiting for me was the same daylight I’d departed from. Crossing between present and future meant a natural rotating shift was already in effect.
“Ugh, I’m wiped.”
My body was screaming, and the sunlight outside the window only made everything feel more unreal.
“Feels like a day just became thirty-four hours.”
Still, not sleeping wasn’t an option. I lay down, fiddled with my phone, and settled into rest. Recover first. The fifth expedition’s main goal would be information warfare—more weapons and drones.
“Then Seol-hwa first, Lee Soyeon next, and finish with Woohee.”
Of course I wouldn’t head straight for Gwangjin-gu. As their master, I still had three women to play with. The staggered timelines were a blessing—nothing like the unbroken stretch of days I’d been enjoying in the present.
“Food and groceries… I’ll have to order every time I come back.”
No—not every day. What I really wanted was to buy in bulk and store it. With more mouths to feed, the order frequency was already a pain.
“Maybe I should just buy a warehouse?”
In that case, money was the only lever. I contacted a realtor and demanded a place that had been used as a logistics warehouse.
“Yes. A cold-storage unit would be good too. Mister, how many times have we done business? Find me one fast.”
Online I ordered nearly three times my usual volume of groceries, plus wireless transceivers.
“And I need to get the bike repaired…”
The hard-worked electric bike needed servicing—especially after An Suhyeon’s last-minute hard acceleration. A full inspection was basic.
“Aigoo, so much for sleeping.”
Bike repair, gear maintenance—the list kept growing. That wasn’t all. My phone was flooded with delivery texts, and the realtor I’d left handling Gangwon-do property kept calling. Oh, and one more thing: any moment now, a pounding racket would start.
“Kim! Over here! Careful tearing that out!”
The workers’ voices reached my ears, and the thudding began to reverberate through the walls.
“Haha. I’d love to just go on a trip, but who knows how that would turn out.”
That was right. Aside from the semi-basement, the remodeling work had finally begun. One month. Originally it should have taken about twenty days, but my list of conditions was long and the materials were plentiful, so extra time had been added. Sleeping before sundown was off the table.
I went online and searched for body armor. There was a military unit in Gwangjin-gu. If I took a bullet…
I died. Everything I’d built died with me.
So I looked into body armor, and the data came back in bulk.
“What? Full-body protection is so heavy they limit it to the torso?”
Compared to a stab-proof vest, full-body ballistic armor had serious weight and ventilation problems.
“Hmm. Nothing that combines ballistic and stab protection at once.”
A special suit like in the movies would be nice, but of course nothing like that existed. I dug through the internet just in case; the consensus seemed to be that movie-style suits were practically impossible. The closest thing I found was this:
Future-Type Powered Exoskeleton Currently Being Introduced by the United States
The internet said the U.S. military was rolling it out… and surprisingly, it wasn’t much different from current special-forces gear. The only real addition was a powered assist unit supporting the waist and legs.
“Makes walking easy even under dozens of kilos… not bad.”
It suited someone like me who carried a lot. So of course I would have to order one. Private military suppliers in the U.S. and Europe were always ready. The only disappointment was that nothing quite hit the performance I wanted.
“Korea has defense contractors too… though no matter how hard they develop, they can’t match the U.S.”
Still, nothing matched what I needed. A full-body suit would have ventilation problems on top of the defense issues. You’d need a cooling system, and no one was building that artificially.
“Seriously, why doesn’t anyone make this? I’ll buy it! Custom handmade—doesn’t anyone do that? You’ve got the tech!”
I scoured the internet screaming, and still nothing turned up. Unsuitable for military use, maybe, but fine for a private individual—yet the market simply didn’t exist.
“I’ve got unlimited money!”
A market with demand and no supply. I was sighing over the gap when it hit me.
“Wait. Couldn’t I just sponsor a defense company myself and have them build it?”
Why was I waiting? I could just throw money at it and make it happen. Eureka lit up inside my skull. Right—my money was more than enough. In a situation where trillions were a joke, why was I sitting around waiting?
“I go out and do it myself.”
That very day, I began contacting South Korea’s defense contractors.