Not All Eggs in One Basket
Noh Changhun nodded slowly. From what he’d heard, there were more ways to watch movies than I’d expected. There was even a DVD room near the defensive line, and they had a few players to go with it.
“It’s pretty good for boosting morale.”
“Oh, I see…”
“We’ve got batteries, thanks to the power plant.”
“Then that’s settled. Shall we head back?”
“Yeah.”
There wasn’t anything else worth taking. We’d already grabbed whatever seemed useful. Still, just to be safe, we gave the place one last sweep before splitting the load and heading back to the high school.
“Come to think of it, Changhun.”
“Hm?”
“I need a place to stay. Where does everyone usually sleep?”
“Sleep?”
“Yeah.”
I’d assumed everyone just crashed in the classrooms together. It would be easier to manage and quicker to gather in an emergency. But the look on Noh Changhun’s face told me that wasn’t how it worked.
“Some people have houses nearby, so they sleep there.”
“What? You don’t all stay in the classrooms?”
“Aside from the minimum garrison needed to defend the school in an emergency.”
“Why?”
“That way, even if the school falls to a surprise attack, not everyone dies.”
“Ah.”
It was the old “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” idea. I could see the logic. Unlike our campus, this place had too many points to defend. No matter how well they prepared, some zombies were bound to slip through. Better to lose a few than risk total annihilation.
“So where do you sleep?”
“I stay in the classroom.”
“Isn’t that uncomfortable?”
“Not really. As an officer, I get a room to myself, and I brought a mattress from one of the nearby houses.”
“Oh… Then I can just sleep with you.”
“I’ll tell them to set up another mattress.”
“Sounds good.”
I didn’t want to cause unnecessary worry by showing any weird symptoms. Sleeping next to him was the safer option. My sleepwalking—or whatever it was—hadn’t completely gone away. It had only been manageable because I’d been sleeping alone in my own room.
“By the way, are we done for the day?”
“Why? Bored already?”
“Yeah.”
I was itching for something to do. Back at our campus, I’d always had orders from Kang Siwoo to keep me busy. Here, there was no one giving commands or assigning tasks, so I had too much free time. Just sitting around felt wrong.
Luckily, Noh Changhun came up with something right away.
“Let’s drop by the defensive line and give Gwangil some clothes.”
“Might as well do some scouting while we’re at it?”
“Yeah.”
It sounded like a solid plan. Plus, with Jeokto, scouting would be even easier for me.
“More importantly, we’re about to start pushing forward, so we need intel.”
“Right, right.”
I remembered what Noh Changhun had said before. Because I’d wiped out the zombies Baron sent, the enemy would lie low until their mutations were complete. That gave us a window to advance north. It was going to be busy—clearing zombies, rescuing civilians. Heavy work.
“Hey, Changhun.”
“What?”
“The nobles up north… they’re literally nobles, right?”
“Pretty much.”
“Doesn’t that sound like some northern archduke from a novel?”
“Heh.”
“See? You laughed too!”
Noh Changhun immediately wiped the smirk off his face, pretending he’d never found it funny. I felt genuinely wronged. He’d chuckled just a second ago.
“If you keep being this bad at taking a joke, you’ll never get a girlfriend.”
“I only laugh when the joke’s actually funny.”
“Fine, fine. Let’s just go scout. We can head in a different direction this time, right?”
“Yeah. Boredom’s worse than anything out there.”
“Got it.”
“Besides, you already have a girlfriend.”
“…Ah.”
The sudden jab caught me off guard. I had nothing to say. Technically, we were dating—even if it was just for show. Still, I was annoyed enough to kick him lightly in the shin.
“Ow.”
“It’s not like it hurt.”
“True.”
“Whatever. Just tell me which classroom you use. I’ll drop my stuff off before we head out.”
“Second-year, Class 10.”
“Got it.”
It was a pretty average spot. I’d half-expected him to be using a first-year classroom since he had seniority, but after passing by the rooms, I could see why second-year ones made more sense. Most first-year classrooms were already claimed by soldiers—turned into storage or break rooms. They were too cluttered for sleeping, with desks, chairs, and lockers piled everywhere. Second-year rooms were the practical choice.
“Huh.”
Class 10 was surprisingly clean—almost obsessively so. Only the bare essentials were stacked around the edges; everything else was spotless. I’d been hoping for a bit of mess to tease him about, but there was nothing.
“Seriously, this is…”
Apparently the whole “physics textbooks are comforting” thing was real. One entire wall was lined with physics books, complete with a makeshift shelf and stacks of workbooks. Just looking at them gave me a headache. Still, I couldn’t completely dismiss it, so I dropped my things and headed back downstairs.
Noh Changhun was already waiting.
“Let’s go. I’ve already told them we’re heading out.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll probably start the advance in a few days. You’ll be coming along too.”
“Really?”
It was obviously going to be a brutal fight, but I wasn’t particularly worried. I could handle hundreds of zombies on my own. With Noh Changhun added to the mix? Nothing short of some freakishly strong mutant would stand a chance.
“…You look uneasy.”
“What? Why!?”
“You’ve got that ‘I’m about to cause trouble’ look on your face.”
“Oh, come on! Can’t you just back me up for once?”
Noh Changhun grumbled, clearly unconvinced. He added that I’d never actually accomplished anything good when I got all fired up. I opened my mouth to argue, but no counterexamples came to mind. So I just glared at him—then, annoyed, kicked him again. He didn’t even flinch.
“By the way, you said we’re advancing on foot?”
“Yeah.”
“How exactly does that work?”
Noh Changhun stared at me for a moment. I explained that I didn’t have much connection to the military and probably never would. I had no idea how their chain of command worked or how they conducted operations in this kind of situation. Once he realized I was genuinely clueless, he started explaining.
“We have to conserve fuel and electricity, so outside of certain zones, everyone moves on foot.”
“Really?”
“We barely use guns either. Mostly close-quarters combat. Only the best marksmen are allowed to shoot when a dangerous mutant shows up.”
“It sounds organized… but also not really?”
“We don’t have any proper doctrine for this.”
“Oh.”
The military had always trained to fight other humans—people who needed to eat, sleep, and breathe. Zombies were an entirely different kind of enemy. They’d have to rewrite everything from scratch. Without prior data, they were basically starting from zero.
“They must be desperate for skilled fighters. If we want to minimize losses, we’ll be on the front lines, right?”
“Something like that. You understood that pretty well.”
“Hmm…”
I wasn’t afraid of fighting. Pain and getting hit were familiar by now. What bothered me was something else. The regular soldiers weren’t used to this kind of combat. Even if someone had written up new rules, there weren’t enough people trained to follow them.
“Something on your mind? You’re hesitating, which isn’t like you.”
“People might die…”
“People die. That’s how it works.”
“No one died at our campus. A few injuries, sure, but no deaths.”
“Hah. Don’t worry. Most of the people you know are competent enough to survive.”
“Even the ones I only know by face… it still feels wrong when someone dies.”
I could instinctively tell how dangerous someone would be in a fight—whether my radar worked on humans or I’d just gotten better at reading people, I wasn’t sure. Even Lee Yeji’s father would probably be fine on this march. We’d mostly be clearing zombies and searching buildings. With only basic mutants around, injuries were the worst-case scenario.
What worried me were the ordinary soldiers. The average people.
Yeah. I wasn’t stupid. I knew what happened at our campus had been close to a miracle. Kang Siwoo’s competence was the only reason no one got hurt. Still…
“Even so, when someone you’ve at least seen around suddenly turns up dead, it leaves a bad taste.”
“Hah.”
“I don’t think I’d be able to sleep easy knowing that.”
“Then fight harder.”
“Kek. That’s… actually solid advice.”
“It is. Got anything better?”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
The thought didn’t last long. No matter how hard I tried, some people were still going to die.
“Screw it. If things get dangerous, my radar will warn me. Let’s just go scout. Or take a drive.”
As long as Noh Changhun didn’t die, that was enough. Once I settled on that, my mood improved quite a bit.