Living Life, the World Ended?
The childhood home of Kim Jun had always felt like a fortress.
Even after fifty years and several renovations, the building remained top-grade construction. For a single resident, it was almost absurdly spacious.
The first floor housed shops and storage, the second floor contained three bedrooms, and an additional penthouse had been built atop the veranda, effectively turning the standalone house into two separate living units.
All the tenants had long since left, but back when he lived there with his grandfather, the place reliably brought in a steady one million won per month in rent.
Kim Jun had grown up in that house, forgetting the early loss of his parents, simply living as he pleased and indulging in his hobbies.
He immersed himself in movies and anime, tinkered with motorcycles out of a love for machines, and when he joined the military, he applied to become a non-commissioned officer at the earnest request of his superiors.
Before he could even make sergeant, he decided the military life wasn’t for him and was discharged. Afterward, he helped his grandfather in their hometown, making a living by repairing farm equipment and trucks.
After his grandfather, who had lived in Sosa-beol City, passed away and left him the house, Kim Jun took the hunting hobby he’d developed in the countryside—chasing pheasants and roe deer—and officially obtained a hunting license.
He mostly made ends meet by culling roe deer that targeted crops in autumn and clearing magpies and crows from transmission towers.
That was how he lived his slow, easy life—comfortable, without a single inconvenience, enjoying a peaceful existence in his hometown.
But it looked like the inconvenience was about to begin.
EMERGENCY ALERT ISSUED! EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST SHELTER AND LISTEN TO BROADCASTS!
WARNING ALERT ISSUED. UNKNOWN VIRUS SPREADING. HUMANS ARE BEING ATTACKED.
“Huh? What the hell is this bullshit? Did a missile drop somewhere?”
Kim Jun had been planning to head out that evening to watch the idol variety show being filmed at the Sosa-beol Comprehensive Stadium. Suddenly, an emergency bulletin was ordering people to stay inside.
What appeared on the TV screen next was horrifying.
The broadcast showed people screaming, infected patients suddenly increasing in number, convulsing in the streets…
Without warning, monsters that tore into human flesh had appeared across the country. Anyone bitten became infected and turned into the same kind of monster.
“Holy shit… what the fuck is that…?”
When Kim Jun tried to call around on his phone, the networks had already collapsed. Nothing went through.
“What the—why isn’t this working either?”
Even the radio was filled with nothing but static and beeping. A few channels carried desperate screams of “Aaaagh!” and “Help me!” before cutting out completely.
Soon after, every TV channel went black.
The life of a former non-commissioned officer and current hunter was over. Zombies had spread across the entire world, and civilization had collapsed.
That was how the first day went.
TV, internet, and phones died one after another as the zombie outbreak began.
[Static… Citizens, please pay attention to the radio… static…]
“Are you fucking kidding me? At least finish the sentence before you cut out!”
There wasn’t even time for them to broadcast any survival guidelines.
Once all media went dark, the world became a complete lawless zone.
Kim Jun locked every door in the house and peered through the curtains. Countless zombies were already tearing into people on the streets.
As more and more of them appeared outside his windows, he put on his headphones and forced himself to sleep.
The next day.
Hoping yesterday had just been a bad dream from watching a movie shoot, he pulled back the curtains. Blood was splattered everywhere.
If even this quiet rural neighborhood looked like this, he couldn’t imagine what had become of Seoul with its ten million people.
His phone didn’t work. Neither did the internet or TV. There was nothing to do.
Not knowing when the power and water might fail, he filled the bathtub with as much water as he could.
And that was when the things his grandfather had prepared—turning their home into a fortress—began to shine.
“I don’t know exactly what’s happening… but I need to prepare. One thing at a time.”
Kim Jun first secured the front gate, then decided to tackle the water situation.
He opened the lids of all the rainwater tanks in the backyard, preparing for any heavy rain that might come.
Worried about anything that might try to climb the walls, he took adhesive and discarded glass bottles from the garage, smashing them and spreading the sharp shards thickly along the perimeter.
“If they grab on, their hands are getting shredded.”
After setting up barricades around the house, Kim Jun looked up at the solar panels covering the entire roof.
Slate on the warehouse roof for solar thermal energy, and photovoltaic panels on the penthouse roof.
All of them had been installed years ago when the government offered rural subsidies.
“I can maintain those somehow. Next up is food…”
Muttering to himself, Kim Jun opened the warehouse. Inside were countless sacks of rice stacked high—enough to make anyone’s stomach hurt just looking at them.
“Hmmmm~”
They had been left there by his grandfather’s friends who asked to use the empty space.
While negotiating with the agricultural cooperative over unpolished rice from their farms, they’d paid storage fees in the form of ten boxes of soju to the auction house guys.
Thanks to that, he had more than enough rice and soju to fill his belly and soak his liver.
“Still… it’s a relief these are here.”
After double-checking the warehouse lock, Kim Jun returned inside and opened the wardrobe in the master bedroom. He pulled out his air gun.
He had received it from the police station. Originally, it was the weapon he took with him to hunt magpies and crows on the transmission towers. Now the world had ended while he still possessed it.
“The world suddenly became a zombie apocalypse, and I’m perfectly set up for self-sufficiency…”
He’d only ever heard the phrase “prepare for the unexpected” from a junior soldier when talking about insurance and savings, but it seemed the universe had poured all its luck onto Kim Jun.
***
Three days later, Kim Jun still hadn’t taken a single step outside. He stayed in the house and waited.
The internet was down, but he could still watch movies on the VCR using the TV as a last resort.
He went through the entire Resident Evil series, Shaun of the Dead, The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later—everything.
“Grrrrraaaahhh!!!”
Ratatatatatata!
Zombies charging without any sense of stamina, survivors gunning them down.
Every time he watched, he would occasionally peek through the curtains. Seeing a lone zombie shambling in the distance put his mind at ease.
“They’re not running around like in the movies.”
If things stayed like this, the military would eventually show up in helicopters like in the final scenes of those films and wipe everything out.
Kim Jun decided to wait for that moment.
But after watching so many zombie movies, staring at the situation outside and only watching the same thing felt pointless, so he turned on the computer.
“I should’ve downloaded more…”
He settled for playing the classic videos he had saved.
“Ahh~ Ahhn~ Haa~ Sugoi~!”
Since there was no one to see or hear, he turned the speakers up and spent the night enjoying adult videos.
***
A week had passed, and there was still no word from the military.
Figuring they were probably rescuing Seoul first, he ate a bowl of ramen and finally took a long-awaited bath.
“The fact that the water and electricity haven’t been cut off yet probably means there are still a lot of survivors inside their homes, right?”
Not knowing when it might end, he had been holding his urine for as long as possible before flushing, only doing it once a day. For the bigger business… he had held it until he could flush twice at once.
But staying quietly inside the house wasn’t easy.
“Uuuuurrrrgh…”
The door of the house across the street opened, and his neighbor emerged as a zombie.
That old man had once fought with his grandfather over an irrigation ditch, even pointing a sickle at him and nearly getting dragged to the police station. Their relationship had been terrible.
The moment the zombie started heading this way, Kim Jun immediately grabbed his air gun, loaded a lead pellet, and fired.
Ting—
The lead pellet, propelled by compressed air instead of gunpowder, struck the zombie in the head. It staggered and collapsed.
“Son of a bitch…”
Since he was already outside, Kim Jun decided to check out the neighborhood mart. He took out his camper van.
Outside was complete chaos. The moment he spotted a zombie, he reflexively fired the air gun.
Ting— Clack! Ting—
He felt the weight of having killed people, but ironically, both of them had been bitter rivals who used to drink together at the agricultural cooperative.
One shot, reload, another shot. In the end, he had taken down ten zombies with perfect headshots.
Kim Jun looked for paths with the fewest zombies and headed first to the gas station he frequented.
It was attached to the mart. The owner he had known for years was already long decomposed, buried in a rice paddy. Kim Jun took out the three zombies inside.
After killing more than ten, the feeling of having murdered people began to fade inside Kim Jun’s heart.
He filled jerry cans to the brim with diesel and gasoline at the station, then loaded up on canned goods, ramen, and somen noodles from the attached convenience store. He also stocked up on bottled water and tea bags. Finally, he discovered cigarettes.
“…Huu, let’s take everything.”
He loaded entire cartons of cigarettes until the vehicle was dangerously overloaded, then barely made it back home and stored it all.
Along the way, he killed two more zombies that charged at him near the house. That night, to forget what he’d done, he scrubbed his entire body with a bottle of disinfectant and drank soju like it was his last night on earth.
***
After ten days, he had grown somewhat used to it.
The moment he heard a zombie, he would turn off the lights, stick the barrel of his gun out the window, and put a lead pellet straight into its head with one hundred percent accuracy.
He also learned that once turned, zombies became infected rapidly, and their bodies decayed quickly after death.
When rats or chickens died on farms, the stench of rot would fill the air for weeks, swarming with flies and maggots. But zombies only lasted two or three days after death before they began to melt, leaving only stains on the ground and quickly turning into fertilizer.
If that weren’t the case, every time Kim Jun went out to loot supplies, he would have had to walk past the corpses of every zombie he had killed.
One wrong angle and he might have even made eye contact with them.
That was when something occurred to him.
The rural gun shop that had helped him a lot during his hunting days.
The owner there had gone camping with him before. If anyone had weapons, it would be that place. He thought he might be able to get help.
When he arrived there, however…
“Grrrrraaaahhh!”
Ting!
Clack—
Ting!
He dropped the owner, now a zombie, with two shots.
Approaching the body, he aimed at the head for a confirmation kill and spoke softly.
“I’m sorry, boss…”
Ting!
With the sound of compressed air, three clean holes were punched into the gun shop owner’s skull.
Of all the zombies, this one hurt Kim Jun’s heart the most. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag.
Still, those who needed to survive had to survive. And he needed the supplies inside.
Kim Jun flicked the cigarette to the ground, steeled himself, and entered. The gun shop was in complete disarray.
“Damn it… everything’s smashed to hell.”
Among the ruined firearms, he picked out two shotguns that were still repairable.
When he went behind the counter and saw the safe containing the ammunition, he couldn’t help but laugh. The password was stuck right under the desk.
Opening the safe revealed an absolute goldmine.
“Holy shit… if they caught you with this, you’d be done for!”
Twelve-gauge shotgun shells. Slug bullets.
In Europe or North America they were used for hunting bears and elk, but in Korea, possessing these lethal rounds would land you in handcuffs. There were fifty of them.
Besides that, a whole box of lead pellets for his air gun, plus a gas gun and…
“…What the hell? Why is this here?”
A Smith & Wesson M10 revolver—the kind used by the police. It was even an older, rougher early model.
He opened it just in case, but unfortunately there were no bullets.
He searched thoroughly and found only a single round inside a case.
It looked like it had been bought as a collector’s item. The firing pin hadn’t been removed—they’d simply hidden the bullet.
“A handgun… and a police-issue one at that…”
Kim Jun left the gun shop carrying two shotguns, a revolver, and as much ammunition as he could carry.
With this, he could fight alone for several months.
***
As usual, he went looking for a mart to loot, but three different places were already packed with zombies.
While searching for a better location, he spotted several banners in the downtown area.
Girls Fighting~ Fan Signing Event on xx Month xx Day!
Idols Are Coming to Our Neighborhood!
“Ah, that’s right!”
On the very first day of the zombie outbreak, he had originally planned to go watch the celebrity filming at the Sosa-beol Comprehensive Stadium.
It was a program featuring variety idols from various girl groups, along with actors and singers. He had completely forgotten about it until now.
“They came here too… and now it’s like this… Wait a second!”
Kim Jun muttered to himself, then lit another cigarette and fell into thought.
“…Did they all die?”
He knew the layout of the Sosa-beol Stadium like the back of his hand.
He had done some signboard installation work there in the past. It had originally been built for the national athletic games, so the waiting rooms were large, and since it doubled as an emergency shelter, there was probably a backup generator inside.
“I should probably stop by the stadium at least once on the way…”
After thinking for a moment, Kim Jun turned the steering wheel.
Yeah. Let’s go take a look!
He would check it out first. If it looked too dangerous, today’s looting run was a bust anyway. He could just head straight home and keep hunkering down for a while.