Chapter 95: The Perilous Price of a Risky Relocation
Kim Jun let out a long sigh as the repeated honking of the horn produced no response whatsoever.
“Oppa, I think…”
Both Gaya and In Ah were gripped by an ominous feeling and couldn’t finish their sentences.
Kim Jun’s mind was racing through countless possibilities, but not a single one of them was positive.
“Huu…”
After exhaling deeply, Kim Jun gathered all his weapons and slowly opened the car door.
He checked the doors on the side where Gaya and In Ah were sitting, then spoke toward the passenger seat.
“Gaya, can you drive?”
“Huh? Ah…”
Last time he had insisted on driving himself despite being in terrible shape, but looking at the current situation, it seemed like he might have to let her take the wheel.
“If I’m not back in ten minutes, honk the horn exactly three times.”
“…”
“If that doesn’t happen, get in the driver’s seat right away.”
“I’ll wait for you.”
“Just in case.”
Kim Jun loaded his air gun and slowly entered the building.
Inside, the longest ten minutes of Gaya’s life began as she anxiously counted each second.
She prayed that nothing had happened. Even in the worst-case scenario, she hoped the building would be empty so they could simply turn around and leave.
She wouldn’t mind being called cold or selfish.
Under the constant threat of those gangsters, simply coming to this area was pure terror for those women.
“Unnie, should we go help him too?”
“Just wait a little longer.”
Gaya opened the dashboard, checked the weapons inside, then stared at the numbers on the car’s digital clock.
Of course, she had no intention of coldly abandoning him once ten minutes passed.
She would go in with In Ah to find him. So she hoped he would return quickly and say, “Come out and give me a hand.”
That was when the countdown continued.
BANG!
“!?”
Crash! Clatter! Thud!!!
The sudden loud noise from inside made both Gaya and In Ah flinch violently.
The door didn’t open, but the sound of something being smashed to pieces continued.
Boom! Boom! Crunch!
A piercing scream tore through the air.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!! Aaaaagh!!”
As the bloodcurdling screams echoed, the two girls’ faces grew paler and paler, having no idea what was happening inside.
Crash! Thud! Thud!
The door burst open and a blood-soaked man stumbled out, collapsing onto the ground and trembling uncontrollably.
“Kyaaaaaah?!”
While both girls screamed in shock, two more figures burst out right after him.
One of them was Kim Jun.
“O-oppa!!!”
Kim Jun barely blocked the flashing sashimi knife with his left arm.
The wound on his left arm, which had only just begun to heal, was sliced open again. One wrong move and the nerves could have been completely severed.
“You son of a bitch… I won’t let you get away with this…”
In that instant, Kim Jun drew the pistol from his waistband and fired at the Jeilpa thug attacking him.
Bang— Bang—
“Ugh…!”
The Jeilpa thug who took two shots to the abdomen rolled his eyes back before collapsing like a dead tree right in front of Kim Jun. Kim Jun took a rough, ragged breath.
“Huu… Huu…”
As his staggering body approached the passenger seat where Gaya was, another Jeilpa thug emerged from the open door behind him. The man clutched his stomach where an axe had struck him.
When the thug raised a steel pipe to smash the back of Kim Jun’s head, In Ah screamed desperately from behind.
Bang— Bang—
“Oppa! Behind you! Behind!!!”
“!?”
“Y-you bastard! Die…!”
The moment Kim Jun turned around, the Jeilpa thug charging with the steel pipe came into view.
At that exact second, the window rolled down and Gaya’s hand emerged beside him.
Zap—
Zzzzzzzzzzt—
“Aaaagh! Aaaaaaaaaagh!!!”
It was the first time she had fired the taser in actual combat.
Gaya herself trembled violently from the intense reaction, while Kim Jun picked up the steel pipe the convulsing thug had dropped and smashed it down on him repeatedly.
Thud— Thud— Thud—
“Uwaaagh! Aaaagh!!”
Kim Jun beat the third Jeilpa thug so brutally that his bones shattered. Only after the man stopped moving did Kim Jun let out a long breath and slump to the ground.
“Huu…”
In the sudden ambush, Kim Jun had barely managed to take down three Jeilpa thugs.
These bastards had been waiting inside Hwang Yeosa’s room the entire time, preparing to launch a surprise attack the moment he arrived.
He had only just managed to defeat three of them, but the damage to his side was also quite severe.
“Fuck… The gun’s destroyed.”
“!”
The air gun Kim Jun had brought was now lying on the ground with its barrel completely smashed. The entire left side of his body was in terrible condition.
When Gaya and In Ah saw the blood flowing from his left hand and covered their mouths in horror, Kim Jun slowly took off his jacket to inspect the wound.
“Haa… In Ah, I’m sorry.”
“!?”
Inside the jacket was the sweater In Ah had spent over a month carefully knitting. It was now torn to shreds by the knife.
Beneath the ripped sweater, the arm guard that had been split apart by the blade was revealed.
If not for that, he probably would have lost the use of his left arm for life, or it might have rotted and needed to be amputated.
“Ah, what happened inside?”
“I’ll tell you after I clean these bastards up.”
Kim Jun dragged the three collapsed Jeilpa thugs by himself down the alley and rolled them into the rice paddy where he had once performed the “lying down and shooting” maneuver.
Some of them were still alive, but with their legs and waists completely destroyed, they could only twitch. Climbing out was something they couldn’t even dream of.
Kim Jun pulled out a cigarette from his blood-soaked pocket, lit it, and took a drag. A short while later, the steel door inside the room slowly opened.
“Uuuuugh!!!”
The moment Hwang Yeosa stepped out, she curled up, unable to move under the blinding sunlight.
“How long have you been hiding in there?”
“A week… I haven’t seen sunlight this whole time.”
“Huu…”
According to her, after the Jeilpa thugs’ advance team that Kim Jun had wiped out last time was annihilated, the main force had returned after a week.
Eunbyeol and Hwang Yeosa had fiercely resisted using the stun gun and slingshot Kim Jun had given them, but they were overpowered by sheer strength. They had hurriedly hidden in the basement storage room.
They had stayed hidden inside, continuously waiting for Kim Jun, while the Jeilpa thugs waited there as well, trying to catch the person who had attacked their comrades.
“Persistent bastards.”
“Uncle… We’re really grateful. You saved our lives twice.”
“I was worried sick… but everyone’s alive, so that’s what matters.”
Losing the air gun in the sudden ambush was painful, but since he had taken out three Jeilpa thugs who posed a threat, Kim Jun decided to call it even.
“If their boss Park shows up next…”
“Boss Park?”
“Park Je Hyeok, the leader of Jeilpa. You said that guy killed the police chief and has a gun, right?”
“…”
Kim Jun had no idea how many members this organization still had left after the zombie outbreak, but one thing was certain.
The boss possessed a firearm, and despite Kim Jun having already taken down nearly ten of their thugs, they still had the power to send more forces here. They were an organization that could operate even in this apocalyptic world.
“Is everyone inside okay?”
“Yeah… we’re a bit hungry, though.”
While puffing on his cigarette, Kim Jun wrapped his left arm tightly with a piece of clothing to stop the bleeding and stood up.
“Let’s move as promised.”
“Y-yes!”
“Gather all the luggage inside. I’ll give you exactly one hour.”
At Kim Jun’s words, Hwang Yeosa and Eunbyeol moved busily.
The women, who had barely survived on business-use fried peanuts and a few expired snacks, struggled to carry out the luggage and piled it in front of the camper van.
In the meantime, Gaya and In Ah quickly approached Kim Jun and examined his wounds with the first-aid kit.
“Oh no, what do we do? The stitches tore open again.”
“Mari will just have to sew them again. Tsk… Give me the red medicine.”
Gaya took out the iodine from the first-aid kit, opened it, and applied it to Kim Jun’s wound. Instead of the contaminated cloth, she pressed fresh gauze firmly against it.
“Ughhh!”
Pressing on the torn wound hurt so much he thought he would die, but without doing so, there was no hope of stopping the bleeding.
While Kim Jun was receiving emergency treatment on his arm, Eunbyeol approached and spoke.
“Jun.”
“What?”
“Take this.”
“?”
Kim Jun received what looked like the cloth wrapper that had once held a bottle of Royal Salute whiskey and examined its contents.
It felt quite heavy, as if a lot was packed inside. When he opened it, he found various gold rings, necklaces, gold keys, watches, and more.
In addition, she handed him a loan-shark bag stuffed full of 50,000-won and 10,000-won bills that might still hold value now.
“What the hell is all this?”
“We scraped up all the boss’s jewelry and the money that was inside.”
“I already received some last time.”
“This is today’s share.”
Kim Jun, who had suddenly received a huge pile of gold trinkets he had no immediate use for, simply tucked them into his pocket and let out a long sigh.
During the one hour they spent gathering bottled water, boxes of liquor, various foods, and other luggage, Hwang Yeosa approached him.
“Boss, is everything ready?”
“We took everything worth taking. The appliances… since there’s no electricity anyway, I was going to leave them all behind.”
“What kind of things are there?”
“Just a refrigerator for the storage room, a rice cooker, a microwave, stuff like that.”
“Take anything you can carry.”
“Huh?”
“Do it. There’s a way to get electricity working.”
“!”
Upon hearing those words, Hwang Yeosa called Eunbyeol over and had the women bring the lighter appliances they could carry.
Although he had said one hour, the soft-hearted Kim Jun gave them an extra thirty minutes, allowing everyone to gather everything they needed.
Once all the luggage was loaded, Gaya and In Ah got into the passenger seat while ten people crammed themselves into the back of the fully packed vehicle.
Kim Jun climbed into the driver’s seat and immediately took a side road, heading toward the Seohae Industrial Area.
“Uncle, I’ll show you the way.”
“I’ll head to the industrial area first.”
Kim Jun stepped on the accelerator and left behind the hellish room in Sinreung-myeon.
But the road ahead was far from smooth.
“Kyaaaaaaa—”
“Kyaaah! Monster! There’s a monster!”
The panicked thumping and screaming from the back made Kim Jun irritably bang on the rear door.
“Hey, boss lady! Keep the kids quiet!”
“Everyone! Quiet! Be quiet!”
Eunbyeol and Nami grabbed the women and calmed them down. Once it finally grew quiet, Kim Jun fired his pistol at the approaching zombies.
Bang— Bang—
Zombies kept appearing along the way, and Kim Jun desperately knocked them down one after another as he drove toward the industrial area.
The number of zombies he had killed on the way here had already been considerable, and the journey back was equally rough.
After three hours, they finally arrived at a building in the industrial area as night was beginning to fall.
Kim Jun sighed and was about to get out to check when—
“Uncle! It’s fine, we’ll go!”
“Ah, do you have weapons?”
“You’ve already done so much bringing us all the way here. We’ll find our own house.”
“…”
Kim Jun told Gaya to open the dashboard and handed over the HD light inside.
Eunbyeol and Hwang Yeosa went up together. While they searched the interior, Kim Jun chain-smoked one cigarette after another.
Ten minutes later, Hwang Yeosa came back down and shouted with relief.
“It’s clear! There’s no one here! Everyone can come up!”
And so the process of moving to a new base continued. While heading up, Kim Jun also brought their own luggage from the camper van.
It turned out the building had a karaoke bar on the second floor. All the windows were covered with wrapping film, so no light leaked out from outside.
In this situation, the elevator was out of order. If they set up a barricade inside, it looked like zombies would have a hard time searching all the way up here.
“Not bad at all.”
Kim Jun carried a camping generator and a fuel can as he slowly climbed the stairs with Gaya and In Ah.
When he saw the spacious karaoke venue that had individual rooms inside, he judged it to be a decent place.
“Hey, Jun. What’s that?”
When Eunbyeol, who was carrying luggage, asked, Kim Jun inquired where the electrical panel was.
He opened the management office on the second floor, cut the internal wiring, and connected it to the generator.
It was a simple task of cutting the existing line and splicing it to the generator. He wrapped soundproofing cloth around the area.
“Good thing there’s a separate storage room.”
After modifying it, Kim Jun brought down all the transformers outside the second-floor karaoke area and created a dedicated power line.
Click.
“Oh my, oh my goodness! The lights are on!”
“Mommy! The lights came on!”
The moment the women inside cheered, Kim Jun let out a long sigh and called Hwang Yeosa and Eunbyeol over to speak with them.
“This is a generator. It only runs on gasoline and lighter fluid. If you use any other fuel, it’ll cause big trouble.”
“My god… you installed something like this?”
“People who want to live have to live.”
He had given them a safe shelter and even provided electricity.
When they went inside to inspect the karaoke bar and looked at the kitchen, the fruits and meat among the ingredients had all spoiled, but it wasn’t the absolute worst.
The potatoes and sweet potatoes for frying had sprouted, but they could still be eaten if the sprouts were cut off. There were also dried foods like beef jerky and dried filefish, nuts, raisins, and boxes of bottled water. It seemed they would be fine for eating and drinking.
“Oh my, they had this too.”
When bartender Nami, who had come out of the band room, brought out various clothes including the revealing outfits the girls used to wear at the karaoke bar, Kim Jun finally understood why they had wanted to come here.
At the very least, this place had the basic necessities of life and was a safe shelter where zombies would have difficulty climbing up to the second floor.
“What’s on the roof?”
“Ah, the old building owner planted all sorts of things on the roof, saying he was making a garden.”
“That worked out well.”
Kim Jun took out the seeds he had prepared in advance and handed them over.
“I brought some bean, radish, and spinach seeds.”
“How did you even prepare something like this…”
“Live well. If I happen to pass by this place later, I’ll stop by.”
“I don’t know how to thank you… I really won’t forget this kindness for the rest of my life.”
“Just the gold you gave us today must be worth a fortune…”
It seemed like he had given them far too much help, but since everyone was alive, it was fine.
As Kim Jun was about to leave, everyone came out and bowed to him together.
The women expressed their gratitude in a chorus of multilingual thanks—sawasdee khrap, kamsahamnida, thank you, salamat—and Kim Jun waved his hand before getting into the car and heading home.
“If there’s anything you want to take, grab one.”
“Ah, no, it’s okay.”
Kim Jun handed the bundle of gold he had received earlier to Gaya and In Ah, then turned the headlights on full brightness and drove down the night road.
This vehicle was currently the only light on the outside roads. In this situation, as long as he took care of the zombies that occasionally jumped out, it was like a quiet drive through the countryside.
Today had been incredibly exhausting, and it seemed like he would get an earful once he got home.
Still, the sense of pride from saving ten people, along with the thought of the more than two kilograms of gold trinkets, jewelry, and cash that could be used once this situation eventually ended, made him feel better.
“You know… once this zombie situation is over.”
“…?”
“I think I’ll start a business.”
In this zombie apocalypse world where currency somehow kept piling up, Kim Jun thought about what he would do in the future and finally found something to smile about.