Ye-eun's Birthday! Auntie Min-jung's Surprise Event! [Arriving at Jo Yu-mi Camp] [2]
"For today, let's start with these — unmanned alarms that signal when something gets within a certain range, plus wall traps that nothing short of an Awakened could climb over."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…! I've seen these! They're the same ones installed on your wall back home, noona. I spotted them when I was on a call with Hyung outside!"
About forty minutes after Geum Tae-yang and Kim Min-jung had gone inside the warehouse building, Park A-young got down to business in earnest.
The job was to reinforce the defenses of Jo Yu-mi Camp.
In other words, those forty minutes A-young had spent trailing after Na Yun-kwon and Han Byung-tae had been a preliminary survey — a thorough mapping of the building's structure.
"Install these from here to over there, Byung-tae. Someone like you should be able to set them up just from reading the manual. Just put them where noona marked."
Thud!!
Park A-young handed Han Byung-tae a crate of wall-reinforcement traps.
Byung-tae had a gift for machinery. Even after leaving the Hope Shelter, he had worked in machine-related jobs. When the apocalypse hit, worry for the orphanage had sent him racing straight back. In short, most of the machines and equipment currently installed at Jo Yu-mi Camp were things he had modified himself.
"Yun-kwon, set up these sensors at every spot noona pointed out earlier. I've already enhanced them with my Awakened ability."
After handing the crate to Byung-tae, A-young turned to look at Na Yun-kwon, who was standing blankly beside him.
Where her gaze fell, about five sensors already stood, faintly glowing with mana light.
"With these, you'll be able to keep a continuous CCTV-style check through the app, so you won't have to hang around outside alone at dinner tonight."
Then she specifically brought up the evening meal.
"Damn… that smell is unreal, Auntie…"
Just as A-young had said, dinner was well underway in a corner of the warehouse. Geum Tae-yang stood diagonally behind Kim Min-jung with a look of pure bliss on his face, murmuring under his breath.
"Seafood stew… something I never even got to eat in the bunker…"
Bubble! Bubble! Bubble! Bubble!
On the gas range in front of him, a pot of seafood stew was bubbling away, throwing off a killer color and an even deadlier aroma.
"I'd been saving the ingredients to make this around monsoon season, but look at all this rain today. So I brought them along."
"Auntie's going to cook it delicious for you, so eat lots and lots, okay, our Tae-yang?"
"Hahahaha!!! Three bowls!! I'll go for four, Auntie!!!"
Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop!
Born housewife Kim Min-jung wore a bright, sunny expression as she chopped green onions on the cutting board with her kitchen knife.
Truth be told, Jo Yu-mi Camp had nothing that could properly be called a kitchen. There was just one small refrigerator, and they got by stacking canned goods and dried rations. Knowing that full well, Min-jung had wanted to give them a real meal — so she had brought kitchenware along, too.
Of course, these weren't ordinary kitchen tools. They were appliances and utensils enhanced through her daughter Park A-young's alchemical magic. That meant no need to run separate power, and they were easy to carry — which was how she had managed to bring them at all.
She had set everything up in a partitioned corner of the warehouse and was hard at work cooking.
"Can I taste a little, Auntie? It looks like it's boiled enough."
The rain had eased slightly, but the temperature was still low. Watching that seafood stew bubble away in weather like this was driving Tae-yang half out of his mind.
"Want a taste? Here — the ladle."
The gentle, maternal Kim Min-jung handed him a small ladle.
"Alright then — let's see!"
Swoosh…!
Face full of anticipation, Tae-yang dipped the small ladle Min-jung had given him into the bubbling seafood stew and scooped up a spoonful of broth.
"Sluuuurp!"
He closed his eyes slightly and downed the thick, rich broth.
"Khhh!!!!"
The exclamation burst out of him. His expression was pure rapture — as if he had just knocked back a shot of soju.
"Does it taste okay, Tae-yang?"
Grin!
For a woman in the middle of cooking, that kind of reaction was pure delight. Min-jung's smile bloomed wide as she pressed for a more detailed review.
"I want to pour it over rice and eat it right now. Kyaaah… it's seriously too good… Sluuuuurp!"
Shake…! Shake…! Shake…!
Tae-yang even shook his head as he polished off the rest of the broth in the small ladle. It was so insanely delicious that hunger hit him all at once.
"Hmm?"
After a few more gulps of stew broth, Tae-yang looked toward a corner of the makeshift kitchen, eyes going round.
"Are those some of the things Auntie packed separately this morning????"
There were three or four boxes stacked there that he didn't recognize. Tae-yang had prepared for today's expedition so thoroughly that he knew every single item in the trunk and the cleared-out back seat. The only things he hadn't accounted for were the goods Min-jung had bundled up and carried that morning.
"Well, today is a really important day."
Grin…!
At Tae-yang's mention, Min-jung answered with a warm smile — and something meaningful behind it.
"An important day?"
Tilt?
But Tae-yang clearly didn't know the full story; he just looked puzzled.
"Whoaaa!!!!! This is incredible!!!"
In a separate space set up at the back of Jo Yu-mi Camp's logistics warehouse, Na Yun-kwon let out a cry of pure amazement. It was the area the camp's Awakened used for training whenever they had a free moment.
"Hahahaha! 'Incredible' doesn't even cover it! The durability on this thing can take a hit from a decent rifle, I'm telling you."
Arms folded, Geum Tae-yang basked smugly in Yun-kwon's reaction.
That was right. Tae-yang had brought suits from the bunker and handed them over to Na Yun-kwon and Han Byung-tae.
"Of course, these are older models, so while the durability is insane, the other functions are a bit lacking. Still, they're way ahead of any protective gear you've worn so far — functionality included. The helmets are a lot better, too."
They were among the Goryeo Special Police suits Park Do-chul had stockpiled over time. The early models had too many constraints for Tae-yang, who needed a wide range of performance options. But for Sharpshooter-class Awakened, whose work centered on safety and relatively simple performance, those drawbacks wouldn't stand out much — or so he had judged.
"By the way, can you tell me a bit more about that Nam Seong-chul guy, Yun-kwon?"
Tae-yang put the question to Na Yun-kwon, who was already wearing the ballistic suit and cycling through various shooting stances.
On the way here, Tae-yang had mentioned fighting the Zzam Tiger. While they were talking about it, he had heard that the Zzam Tiger seemed to have set up that barricade while moving with Nam Seong-chul in mind.
"Nam Seong-chul is a sociopath bastard. On the surface he acts like the nicest guy alive, but underneath he's a filthy piece of work who stops at nothing."
Yun-kwon launched into the full Nam Seong-chul rundown.
"Ohh… so that's the type he is!"
Nod…! Nod…! Nod…!
Tae-yang folded his arms and nodded with genuine interest.
"The most distinctive thing about him — true to being a sociopath — is that his gaslighting game is ridiculous. Word is he was even running businesses off it before the apocalypse."
"I already told you he built his power base starting from that shelter, right? He pulled that off with the gaslighting, Hyung. The way he sweet-talks people and eats them alive with politics is next-level."
"Especially in an apocalypse — that stuff would land like a cult, wouldn't it?"
"Khh~ As expected, Tae-yang Hyung gets it."
Yun-kwon had clearly heard plenty of rumors about Nam Seong-chul; his face twisted with distaste as he laid out the man's history. When Tae-yang matched him with a sharp, analytical comment of his own, Yun-kwon lit up with an excellent reaction.
"Anyway, his tongue is so damn good that some of the rumors get weird. Like — supposedly his Growth Power as an Awakened is tied to gaslighting?"
He tilted his head slightly as he continued. The look on Yun-kwon's face said he had heard it often enough, but still couldn't quite picture how it worked.
"What's that supposed to mean? Can you be more specific?"
One thing Tae-yang had noticed while investigating the state of Awakened was that, surprisingly, people didn't know much about Growth Power. Which, conversely, meant he understood it better than most of them.
Thinking it through himself, he figured it was because his side had started out with no fewer than three ultra-special-gene-or-higher Awakened whose Growth Powers were abstract. From Tae-yang's perspective, the idea that gaslighting could link to Growth Power was entirely plausible.
Yun-kwon and Byung-tae don't even know about Yu-mi's Growth Power. Most ultra-special-gene types are probably like that.
Even someone as easygoing as Jo Yu-mi would have a hard time telling her little brothers that she grew through sexual pleasure. So Tae-yang understood Yun-kwon's puzzled look all the better.
"Hmm, so basically — the bigger his faction got, the stronger Nam Seong-chul's Awakened ability seemed to get? And when he got his hands on a pretty powerful female Awakened, people who used to be under him said it looked like he leveled up."
That was the substance of the rumors Yun-kwon knew, and he laid it out for Tae-yang.
"Wooooaaaahhh!!! Warm meat, it's meeeat!!!"
"Look, oppa, this is ham!!! I really, really love ham!!!"
Night had fallen and the area around Jo Yu-mi Camp had gone dark — but inside the camp, everything was bright and noisy.
It was mealtime, and the nine little kids seated in the newly made dining area had completely lost their minds over the food Kim Min-jung had prepared.
"There's so much food!!! But I wanna eat all of it!!"
"Na-eun, you still need an apron, okay? Unnie will put it on for you."
"Okay! Ye-eun unnie!"
This was the scene of Kim Min-jung's wish coming true — to give the children a proper dinner, not something that felt like combat rations. Faced with a real feast for the first time in ages, the kids of Jo Yu-mi Camp truly didn't know what to do with themselves. In the middle of it all, the responsible little Ye-eun looked after the youngest, Na-eun.
"Hey, that! Isn't that a cake?"
And today —
"That's right. Our Ye-eun, who's been taking such good care of the little ones — Auntie Min-jung made this to thank her and celebrate her birthday."
Grin…!
Step! Step! Step! Step!
It was also Ye-eun's birthday. Jo Yu-mi walked slowly toward the table carrying a birthday cake studded with candles to match Ye-eun's age, and spoke.