Chapter 80: Information Gained During the Exchange
After visiting the temple for the first time in a while, Kim Jun headed toward the rural house where Myeong Guk and his wife lived.
Normally it wouldn’t have taken this long, but he drove slowly, almost at a crawl, picking off any zombies he spotted along the way and swerving around burned-out cars that blocked the road like obstacles. The trip ended up taking quite a while.
“Now that I think about it, we’ve only heard about that couple. This will be our first time actually meeting them, right?”
At Emily’s question, Kim Jun nodded.
“They recognized Rana and Mari right away even though it was their first meeting. If the two of you show up too…”
“They’re gonna be so jealous of you, oppa. The guy who keeps swapping out world-class women like they’re accessories.”
He wanted to ask if saying something like that with her own mouth didn’t make her cringe.
Anyway, as they continued searching for the right path, Kim Jun drove past the clothing store they had looted last time.
“Ah, here!”
“Where is this?”
“The place where we grabbed some clothes. Looks like there’s still a ton of usable stuff left?”
Seeing Emily’s eyes sparkling from the back seat, Kim Jun thought for a moment before stopping the car.
The three of them scanned their surroundings together. After confirming no one was around, they slowly got out.
“If there’s anything you want, grab it now.”
“Okay!”
They had found a decent looting spot along the route, so both Nanika and Emily moved quickly.
Even though they had properly cleaned the place out last time, there were still plenty of underwear and dresses left.
“You’re gonna wear something like this in this weather?”
“It’s for wearing inside anyway.”
Emily, who was picking out tank tops and hot pants, gave a mysterious smile as she held them up to her body and glanced at Kim Jun.
It looked like she would soon be coming into the master bedroom wearing those and suggesting they have some fun.
Nanika also searched for clothes in her size, then held up a ribbon-patterned dress in front of the mirror.
Even in this situation, it seemed girls couldn’t help but snatch up pretty clothes whenever they saw them.
Once the no-money-required shopping session ended and they had gathered plenty of clothes, they stopped by the other shops nearby as well.
Then Emily suddenly spotted something and called out to Kim Jun.
“Ah, over there!”
“Hm?”
“Should we take some?”
What Emily pointed at was a school uniform store.
It was a fairly well-known franchise, and there were posters of idols wearing the uniforms. For a moment, a dangerous thought crossed Kim Jun’s mind.
“I’ve never gotten to shoot anything like that before.”
“Ah, I’ve done it once. Not this brand, but the one that makes your legs look longer…”
As Nanika recalled her days as a school uniform model, she suddenly thought of her old group members.
“We’re… actually taking these?”
“Do you hate school uniforms?”
“Who the hell would wear that?”
“We’ll wear them for you.”
“…”
Looking at Emily’s sparkling eyes, Kim Jun let out a sigh and headed into the uniform store.
When they entered through the open door, they saw uniforms that had been left untouched for a long time, covered in a thin layer of dust.
Seeing the school uniforms he remembered from his childhood, Kim Jun felt a rush of mixed emotions.
Even though he had never dated during his school days, he could always tell which school a passing student belonged to just by their uniform. And now those same idols were picking them out.
“The sizes are good, and the designs from the schools around here are nice too?”
There were uniforms from Sosa-beol Girls’ High and Eun-gwang Girls’ High near Kim Jun’s house, as well as the co-ed Han-buk High and others from the surrounding area.
He felt a slight sense of immorality, but since they had already done everything there was to do, he simply let it slide.
After loading up on a huge pile of clothes for the day, something else caught Kim Jun’s eye.
“Hold on!”
“?”
“We should take this too.”
Kim Jun went back inside the uniform store and tried to pull out a large piece of equipment.
“Oh my?”
“A sewing machine?”
Seeing that the uniform store had a sewing machine set up, Kim Jun put some strength into pulling it out along with the thread.
It was quite heavy and looked old, but since there were many girls in the house who could sew, bringing it back would definitely be helpful.
“I’ll have to fix it up once we get home. It’s really worn out.”
When he saw rust on the needle area from lack of use, Kim Jun made a mental note to scrape it all off and restore it properly.
After loading the car full, Kim Jun and the others only arrived in the area late in the afternoon.
At that moment, both Emily and Nanika shouted at the same time.
“Oppa! Over there!”
“Aigoo~”
Kim Jun reflexively pulled out his gun.
A zombie wave was happening right outside Myeong Guk’s house.
Over a dozen zombies were rushing at the iron gate, and several corpses with arrows stuck in them were already lying on the ground.
“What perfect timing!”
Click.
Kim Jun immediately opened the window and stuck the barrel out. Emily also quietly opened the rear window and aimed her crossbow.
“Nanika, if you can’t do it, just stay inside.”
After telling the girl who couldn’t step up with her slingshot, they both aimed at the zombies at the same time.
Then, using the same signal from when they first met, he honked the horn three times.
Beep—beep—beeeeeeep—
When the zombies turned their heads at the horn, Kim Jun pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
Whoosh!
One zombie’s head exploded and it staggered. Another that was running toward the camper van took Emily’s crossbow bolt to the chest and stumbled.
“Shit!”
“I told you to aim for the head! The head!”
When the crossbow bolt pierced its chest instead, Kim Jun shouted and finished the zombie off.
Click—bang!
[GRAAAAAHHH!!!]
As one zombie roared and charged, an arrow slammed into the back of its head and it collapsed with a thud.
Myeong Guk could be seen on the roof. When he spotted Kim Jun’s group’s car, he drew his bow with even more strength.
Arrows flew from the rooftop while the shotgun and crossbow in the car took care of the zombies rushing toward them.
Once they were all dealt with, Kim Jun drove straight forward and stopped right in front of Myeong Guk’s house.
Soon after, a fully armed Myeong Guk opened the gate by undoing the chains, and Kim Jun drove inside.
“Hoo… Thank you.”
“Looks like we came on the exact right day.”
Kim Jun looked at the zombie corpses scattered outside and felt relieved that no one had been hurt.
Emily and Nanika, who had come out of the car, greeted Myeong Guk.
“Hello, fellow survivor~”
“H-hello, it’s nice to meet you for the first time.”
“Ah…”
Myeong Guk flinched for a moment at the sight of the two women who looked completely different from last time. Then he studied their faces carefully and his jaw dropped in shock.
“Spinel’s… Emily?”
“Yes I Am!”
Emily proudly puffed out her chest. When Myeong Guk also recognized Hexacore’s Hirayama Natsuya—that is, Nanika—standing beside her, his mouth fell wide open at the sight of top stars he had only ever seen on TV appearing in person one after another.
Once they were guided inside, Su Yeong, who had been waiting nervously, was also shocked to see their guests.
“Oh my, hello? But you two are…”
“Guests!”
Seeing Su Yeong, who had gained some weight compared to last time, Kim Jun greeted her warmly first.
“Have you been doing well?”
“Ah, yes.”
Noticing her slightly protruding belly, he could tell she was no longer in the early stages of pregnancy.
He didn’t know exactly how many more months until she would give birth, but it was still a new life growing even in this harsh world.
“Since you’ve come all this way, we should at least treat you to a meal.”
“I-I’ll do it!”
“Just stay here. I’ll prepare it.”
Myeong Guk moved to the kitchen so his pregnant wife could rest. While Kim Jun sat down and maintained his firearms, the women chatted among themselves.
“The two of you were on TV last time too. I remember seeing you.”
“We’re more popular than those girls.”
Emily shrugged her shoulders while Nanika kept staring at the pregnant woman with a fascinated look.
“When… will the baby be born?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t really know about these things…”
It was definitely a big problem that a first-time mother couldn’t even go to the hospital and didn’t know her own due date.
Listening to their conversation, Kim Jun decided he would bring Mari next time so she could get a proper check-up.
Before long, Myeong Guk brought out a table full of food.
“Whoa~”
“Great…”
The generous spread included freshly caught chicken soup, kimchi, fried quail, braised quail eggs, fried eggs, spam, and more.
It was a meal on par with what they ate at Kim Jun’s shelter, and everything had been self-sufficiently produced.
“Oh, but…”
“Sorry. We ran out of rice.”
“Aigoo~ You should’ve told us sooner.”
Kim Jun chuckled when he saw boiled somen noodles in the bowls where rice should have been.
“Good thing I brought some rice and oil through barter.”
“Really?”
“I’ll take them out after we eat.”
“Thank you! Really, thank you so much.”
Myeong Guk and his wife breathed a sigh of relief, while Emily and Nanika looked happy at the sight of so many side dishes served with noodles instead of rice.
After the meal, Kim Jun went outside to enjoy a post-meal cigarette, then opened the car and brought out the remaining sacks of rice.
When he showed them three 20kg sacks plus an extra 500 grams of barley mixed in, Su Yeong’s eyes sparkled.
“Here, this should last you a few months.”
“Thank you so much. We were really worried about running out of rice.”
In the meantime, Emily opened the fridge inside the camper van and took out a vitamin drink. Su Yeong’s eyes widened at the sight and she swallowed hard.
“…Would you like one?”
“Yes!”
Ever since her morning sickness started, she had been craving sour things like crazy. The only sour thing she could get here was vinegar.
So drinking even one small bottle of vitamin drink made the pregnant Su Yeong look incredibly happy.
Meanwhile, loud noises came from the chicken coop as Myeong Guk caught chickens and ducks in exchange for the rice and oil.
“Sorry. They’re still young chicks so they’re a bit small.”
“No, you need to keep some for yourselves too.”
Five rather small chickens and five ducks.
On top of that, Myeong Guk gave them pre-caught and frozen quail, along with eggs, quail eggs, and duck eggs.
But Myeong Guk still felt the balance was lacking compared to the rice and oil, so he guided Kim Jun to the storage shed.
When Kim Jun saw the potatoes inside the burlap sacks and opened one, he noticed something.
“There are some sprouts…?”
“They’re fine if you cut them off. Would you like to take them?”
“Potatoes, huh. Then I’ll take two sacks.”
Kim Jun lifted two full burlap sacks of potatoes.
Seeing the many seedlings saved for planting and the herbs growing in pots inside, it looked like they wouldn’t have any food problems either.
After the trade was finished, they talked about the zombie attack that had just happened.
“It’s been getting worse lately.”
“Our place has been the same…”
After experiencing two zombie waves, both of them felt something was off.
“Do you think other survivors are going through this too?”
“There’s a temple I stopped by before coming here. They said nothing like this has happened at all.”
“Hmm.”
There was no way to figure out the reason.
At that moment, Kim Jun picked up a faint sound coming from inside the house.
“Hm?”
“What is it?”
“Are you running something right now?”
“Ah… It’s getting dark, so we need electricity.”
“…!”
Hearing those words, Kim Jun went inside.
“Myeong Guk, where’s the generator I gave you last time?”
“The generator? It’s in the storage shed…”
Kim Jun headed there immediately and shone his lantern into the dark shed.
The camper generator was running loudly, producing electricity.
Vrrrr—vrrrm—vrrrrrrrr—
Along with the loud noise, he could feel a slight vibration from the floor.
Still, thanks to this, they could safely obtain power along with the solar panels.
“Wait, could this be…”
“The generator?”
Kim Jun moved closer and stared at the noisy generator, then placed his hand on the floor beside it to feel the vibration.
“Ah, fuck. Is this really it?”
“What? Why are you acting like that?”
“I think… I might have found the reason…”
If his guess was correct, this was a seriously dangerous problem. Kim Jun frowned deeply.