Heading to Gwangjin-gu!
An Suhyeon distributed hygiene supplies to the people on his side.
Food conditions had improved considerably, but even so, these people still focused on absolute conservation. Naturally — while they effectively saw Jin Dohyuk as an unlimited source, everyone else treated the food as something that could run out at any moment.
"Toothpaste and soap… Thank you so much. We were completely out of soap."
As Gim Daejin grinned and fondled the items, An Suhyeon slapped his hand away.
"Hey. Don't touch them carelessly."
"…Yes."
"I'm the one managing this. Only use water that can't be used for drinking when you wash. Showers… are a luxury."
An Suhyeon controlled water with particular strictness. Of course, under these circumstances, his judgment was perfectly reasonable. The problem was simply that his women had been using it a little too freely.
"But, Suhyeon."
A man who looked older approached with a dissatisfied expression.
"But those other two have been using water without permission…"
"Women are a little different. A bit is fine. We still have plenty, and that guy said resupply is possible."
An Suhyeon held back his irritation.
What do you want me to do about it? We have sex, so they need a little water to wash.
He considered this level of discretion acceptable. It was the fruit of his own labor, after all. What he didn't like was Gim Daejin getting praise and acting up — or daring to talk back to him.
"Follow the controls while I'm still being nice. Don't push it."
"What, did I do something wrong?"
The man who'd voiced the complaint looked wronged, but under An Suhyeon's sharp, cutting presence, he soon averted his eyes.
An Suhyeon was satisfied with that, but separately he also felt that his control wasn't perfect.
Gim Daejin, that bastard's getting cocky after a little praise too… I need to catch him on something and put him in his place one of these days.
Crush him and reaffirm his own position. An Suhyeon resolved to do just that.
But why do I feel so stifled?
There was nothing bad about the situation. The former loser he used to be now had new women at his side and could do as he pleased.
But his heart still felt tight.
As I please…
As he pleased — but everything had been made possible by Jin Dohyuk. And the best of everything went to that man.
No, what am I even thinking?
The moment impure thoughts surfaced, An Suhyeon shook his head.
It made no sense. Whose grace was his current position built on?
It was just that Woohee kept floating up in his mind.
He must have had his fill of Woohee and left. I'm jealous.
An Suhyeon thought of Woohee from high school and sighed.
Pretty and vicious.
Every time she insulted and looked down on him, An Suhyeon had dreamed of revenge.
But before that revenge could be realized, everything had been settled — and that was the present.
So that's it. Because of Woohee…
Only then did he understand the emotion sitting in his heart.
Not Jin Dohyuk — Woohee.
The feelings toward Woohee, who had tormented him years ago and still treated him like a subordinate even in this era.
…
An Suhyeon's gaze drifted somewhere.
When going somewhere new, caution was always required.
With drones in existence, there was a chance of being spotted — but conversely, you could also confirm the enemy with certainty.
Use it against them.
If there were people, the drone could confirm them. Conversely, if the enemy were people, they could confirm the drone too.
If someone was desperate enough to grab any lifeline, they'd come just like those two last time.
Whether for plunder or information, I had to take the advantageous position.
I had to target the enemy from a favorable position.
I deliberately climbed toward a two-story house.
Higher than where the drone was set to return. Wait until they got distracted by the drone.
Even if they didn't come right away, it didn't matter. The information the drone filmed would reach me, and I could move based on that.
"But the GPS not working is really weird."
In situations like this, sending signals by shortwave radio was common in apocalypse comics and movies.
And when ground conditions were bad, satellite communication was what you used.
But everything was dead now?
For me right now, I wasn't planning to use a radio anyway, so fine. But other people?
"Is there something going on here?"
A slight sense of unease. Was it just because I had too much free time?
Focus! Focus!
Until the drone returned, I hid in the two-story house and concentrated everything on my hearing.
In a quiet space like this, there was no way I wouldn't hear running footsteps.
"I should set some traps too."
Just in case, I laid traps around the house and settled in to wait.
At the same time, I was mulling over various scenarios.
Looking at those soldiers — the fact that the two of them had abandoned their original place and immediately followed…
There were definitely people. The only ambiguity was whether those two had been sent as a scouting party, or whether there were only two of them and they'd come all-or-nothing.
"During the day, people should be visible."
Hoping this drone would scout a little more thoroughly, I waited for hours.
A strong drone noise rang in my ears.
"No one could miss this."
Hearing it from inside the house, it was genuinely at the level of a wasp buzzing nearby.
Not noticing this? Impossible. At the very least, if there were people, there was no way they wouldn't know about the drone's existence.
In other words, this drone was fully exposed to the enemy.
What came next was important. Did the enemy chase it immediately, or something else.
I deliberately left the drone and waited all day.
Remembering those two from last time, they sometimes came about a day later.
The drone was bait.
I waited like that, but whether luck was good or bad, no one came.
So what was I doing? Waiting endlessly while watching videos I'd filmed of my women.
I'd shot new material this time, so it was even more vivid than before.
"Next time I should bring a proper camera for filming."
Even so, phone storage had its limits. And damn, time was crawling.
After waiting a full two days, the drone still sat there in serene silence, as if in a meditative pose.
Finally, after two full days, I went to retrieve it and scanned the surroundings.
"Looks like no one followed."
Were those two from last time the unusual ones? I quickly recovered the drone and checked the contents.
"Junggok-dong."
Junggok-dong, which I could reach directly from here… was full of zombies.
"Those two came through this? Impressive."
Along the streets of Junggok-dong, more than thirty zombies were positioned.
The unusual thing was that every single one was wearing a military uniform. They must have been taken out fighting here.
"Still, it doesn't go any further?"
Like a kind of boundary line, the further the drone went, the fewer the zombies became.
Ah, I could feel it. People were nearby.
Yongmasan was faintly visible too — and there was smoke?
"There are people."
Those bastards might have come from here. If they went via Yongmasan, they could have avoided that large number.
"Up the mountain… better for escaping."
Right, mountain terrain was a decent place to take shelter from zombies.
Confirm the survivors there. If there are women, take them.
The drone advanced through the sky without obstruction, and there were fewer zombies than expected.
Considering that Gwangjin-gu itself was a place where the military had been stationed, they must have slaughtered a huge number of zombies in the early days.
Fortunately, along the drone's path, zombies appeared only sparsely, one at a time, nothing that would pose a major threat.
"…If I play this right, I could just run along the roads."
The drone crossed Junggok-dong and finally showed a place I knew — somewhere I'd gone on field trips as a kid.
Children's Grand Park. Well, no animals left…
"Huh?"
On the camera, people were clustered together, staring at the drone.
Some of them were armed with guns.
"This is where the danger zone starts."
It was time to take off the anti-stab vest.
The drone continued further down that path. Definitely no zombies.
Roads and alleys that should have been packed were truly empty, like ruins.
"This is the power of a military unit."
When it finally reached Konkuk University, people were visible there too, centered around the campus. Their numbers… easily over several dozen.
"A lot of them."
The largest group I knew of.
But students and soldiers were mixed together.
And one more thing.
Suddenly on the camera, they started running in a panic.
"What?"
The drone was flying in a straight line as programmed, and I could sense gunfire.
More than that — people on the roof of Konkuk University holding guns and aiming somewhere.
"An attack?"
The drone passed through once more and finally revealed the situation.
Centered on the road by Konkuk University, dozens of people in military uniforms were splitting left and right with assault rifles.
They were fighting each other.
The moment that entered my head, I focused above all on the number of firearms.
Resupply couldn't have continued, and ammunition had limits — yet they were fighting each other?
This was the perfect opportunity.
"Just from what I can see, over twenty guns."
Of course, only about ten were actually being used. The other side had even more, for reference.
"That side looks like all soldiers."
They'd all been the ones supporting Yongsan from Gwangjin-gu. Suddenly splitting and fighting?
No, don't think about it. In a world like this, people fight over the smallest things.
If those two sides fought and wasted bullets, it was advantageous for me.
Just keep that fact in mind.
"If I can just deal with that entrance somehow, I should be able to run straight through."
I'd check Yongmasan and the survivor side too.
And one more thing. I waited longer in case anyone was following this.
After spending about another day and no one showing up, I charged toward Gwangjin-gu on the electric bike with the cart detached.
Killing thirty of them one by one was enormously difficult.
On top of that, they weren't all gathered in one place — they were spread out a little.
That gap was extremely awkward. Too close for small-group luring, too many to just charge in.
I considered avoiding the zombies while checking the terrain on video, but this damn drone only flew in a straight line, so it didn't know much else.
"Should I go between the houses first?"
If I blindly went where thirty of them were, the bike might tip over and the body armor get torn off.
So I had to go back to my original approach — moving between houses.
If I only had a single grenade…
Once I secured a weapons route, I could smash through without restraint. The fact that it wasn't easy meant the country was a mess.
So various methods were floating through my head.
Luring them from a high wall like last time…
"There it is."
Right in the middle of them stood a villa, bold as anything.
I'd clear a path the same way as last time — using furniture to reduce the zombie numbers.
Once I broke through here, the next stretch would be easy for a while.
I carefully moved behind the building. Even inside the building, zombie sounds kept coming one after another.
From every direction.
One wrong move and I could die. For the first time in a while, that kind of tension rose through my body.
This was a new place, so I had to thoroughly clean the surroundings myself.
I moved behind the building and headed for a villa window.
Like with Lee Soyeon, modern villas basically left the first floor empty.
The only issue was that the veranda was extremely narrow — practically just a railing.
Anyway, as long as it was there, no real problem. I carefully approached — then suddenly felt something rattling under a car.
Ah, for real.
As I'd seen before, there were zombies that oddly hid under cars.
Same thing now.
"Just one?"
"Kyaaak!"
The problem was when it was alone. I fired the crossbow straight at the head that was busy crawling out.
If it ended there, fine — but nearby, zombie sounds grew urgent again.
The moment a clanging sound rang in my ears, I ran for the villa without looking.
That noise would draw the other zombies' attention. So I ignored it.
I sprinted for the villa, and in front of me was a villa at a height hard to reach with my hands. I jumped with the bag on my back, but my hands flailed just below the railing and I dropped.
"Ugh!"
Couldn't reach. In that precarious moment, I threw off the bag.
I used that rectangular military bag as a foothold and leaped up in one go.
I forced a grip on the narrow space that was either a first-floor veranda or a railing and climbed.
"Kyaaaaak!"
Right behind me, a zombie's voice rang out terrifyingly, and soon something slammed into the wall below me.
"Kyaaaaak!"
Zombies were headbutting the wall and swarming toward this spot.
"Ugh!"
Arms straining to climb, and something's hand touched my leg.
"Get off!"
I kicked it away and reached the window in one burst. Open. Open.
No — it wouldn't open.
Wouldn't open? Then…
Without hesitation, I smashed the window and broke in.
"Hoo… hoo…"
Making this harder than it needed to be.
As I stepped inside, a powerful headbutt suddenly hit the door.
"Well, of course it wouldn't be easy."
I aimed the crossbow and waited for the door to break.