“What in the world is going on? Mr. Lee Junho, why are you here?”
Seeing Junho ard in a way completely different from the last ti they had t, almost like an overseas special forces operator, Lee Seokjin was glad to see him but could not hide his shock.
Because of the way Junho had shown himself when they last parted, he now knew Junho was no ordinary person, but this was beyond that level.
The two lieutenants with him were the sa.
They stared in disbelief at the multi-pattern combat uniform, tactical vest, AR-15, Glock 17, and other gear and weapons Junho was wearing.
'A civilian in Korea has gear and weapons like that?'
'Where did he get all that? What the hell is this guy, really?'
Even in a world like this, it made no sense.
The expressions with which they looked at Junho were a complicated mix of gladness, surprise, and suspicion.
But Junho did not answer right away. Instead, he leisurely looked around Lee Seokjin’s living space, set up in one part of the water-treatnt plant office.
Several office desks had been pushed together with a sleeping bag laid over them, and on the table, military equipnt such as a ballistic helt, tactical vest, and magazines lay scattered in a ss.
“Do you eat and sleep here? Looks like you’ve been here a while.”
“That’s right. About a week. But... did you co here alone? Why did you co? And what is that outfit?”
Lee Seokjin’s attitude, questioning him almost as if interrogating him despite the fact that they had fought zombies together.
It would have been more than enough to make soone feel offended, but Junho was actually satisfied.
Do not trust people easily from now on.
Lee Seokjin had faithfully followed the advice Junho had given him last. If he had simply welcod Junho without question, Junho might have been disappointed instead.
“I didn’t co alone. I have people with . And I’ll tell you why I ca here in a little while. Lastly, this....”
Junho looked over his own body here and there, then continued.
“This is what I normally look like. When I t you and this unit, I had only disguised myself for a while.”
“Wh-what?”
“What!?”
Lee Seokjin and the two lieutenants widened their eyes.
“I told you back then, didn’t I? Not to trust people easily from now on. I said that because I fooled you. Of course, the result was a win-win for both sides, and I knew that from the start. But I guarantee you, there aren’t many people like in the world right now.”
“...This is the part where I’m supposed to get angry, right?”
“Yes. You may get angry. But don’t try to kill . You’ll definitely fail.”
At Junho’s utterly shaless attitude, Lee Seokjin could only let out a hollow laugh.
More than anything, Junho’s guarantee that any attack would definitely fail did not sound like a bluff.
That was how powerfully the person nad Lee Junho had been engraved into Lee Seokjin’s mind.
“Hah... fine. Then let’s hear it. From beginning to end.”
“Sure. First, the reason I....”
Except for information about his shelter, Junho told him relatively honestly how he had discovered this unit and why he had deliberately approached them and let himself be captured.
“...So you’re saying that even if we hadn’t been there, you would have raided the National Agricultural Cooperative warehouse with those Gahyeon-ri residents?”
“Yes. It would have taken a little longer, but it would have succeeded one hundred percent. You rember the air gun I had back then, right? I have dozens of guns just like that. On top of that, I have things like these.”
At the sight of Junho tapping the suppressed AR-15, the Glock 17, and the night-vision device attached to his helt, the three officers lost their words.
“Of the zombies in Gahyeon-ri, which was much larger and busier than Yeongho-ri, I killed about half? At least a third of them. And I took care of all the delinquent bastards and gangsters who were using the Gahyeon-ri residents like slaves too.”
“......!”
They were appalled by the way Junho casually said he had even killed people.
“I don’t want to say it was all thanks to , but anyway, Gahyeon-ri is safe now. Most of the roads have been blocked off with vehicles or wire fencing, and the residents are living well by farming and hunting. At least when it cos to zombies, unless tens of thousands swarm in at once, they won’t have a problem.”
“At least when it cos to zombies...?”
“Yes. Zombies aren’t the only things killing people in the world right now.”
“.......”
The three n understood the aning contained in Junho’s words and fell silent.
“Do you understand now why I guided you and this unit to go sowhere else?”
“It sounds like you an... the army might be the most dangerous. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“No, isn’t that a bit harsh?”
“That’s right. What’s wrong with the ROK Army?”
The two lieutenants flared up and stepped forward.
But Lee Seokjin himself simply kept his mouth shut and looked at Junho.
After a mont, Lee Seokjin turned his head toward the two lieutenants and said,
“Did you forget everything we saw on the way down here?”
“......!”
In that instant, the two lieutenants’ eyes widened as the “things” done by their fellow ROK Army soldiers surfaced in their minds.
Under the excuse of conscription and requisition during a national ergency, there had been more than one military unit that occupied villages, settled down there, and exploited the residents.
There had even been soldiers who aid their guns not at zombies, but at people, after clashing with residents who resisted.
“Battalion commander, that was....”
Lee Seokjin cut him off with a complicated expression.
“Enough. I feel bad about it and I’m angry too, but I think I understand why Mr. Lee Junho was worried and concerned. We could tell just from how the survivors in that neighborhood reacted when we occupied the National Agricultural Cooperative warehouse, couldn’t we? And most importantly.”
Lee Seokjin glanced at Junho and continued.
“Whatever his reasons, Mr. Lee Junho fought to help us. Thanks to him, none of us were hurt, and we were able to secure a large amount of food. The kids who were struggling were able to stay there safely too. Am I wrong?”
“...No, sir. You’re right.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You understand, then.”
Lee Seokjin soothed the two officers, who accepted it cleanly and apologized, then said to Junho,
“Anyway, fine. I understand that you guided us away to keep us from going to that village, Gahyeon-ri or whatever it was. But why here of all places? Is there a reason the Daeseong syndicate absolutely has to be dealt with? Are you trying to gain so windfall from it, perhaps?”
“It would be a lie to say I had no such intention at all. But it’s not just for my personal benefit.”
“.......”
“What I’m about to tell you may be hard to believe. But I’ll say one thing first. This is information I cross-checked with two executive-level mbers of the Daeseong syndicate. There are also things I saw and experienced myself.”
“......?”
As the three officers wondered what on earth he was trying to say with such a buildup, Junho continued calmly.
“The Daeseong syndicate collects Alphas. Especially....”
Junho told them without omission what the Daeseong syndicate was doing in Namyangju and Gwangju, as well as what he had seen at Cheongsan Building in Moku-ri.
He told them that innocent people were being thrown in as feed to maintain an Alpha zombie’s strength to so degree, and that because of this, other Alphas were attacking survivors in order to grow stronger more quickly.
And naturally, Lee Seokjin and the two officers, rare examples of true soldiers, could not hide their rage.
“Those insane bastards!”
“Those gangster sons of bitches deserve to be chewed apart....”
There was no need to verify whether it was true separately.
Major Lee Seokjin’s unit had already found where the Daeseong syndicate had settled through drone reconnaissance imdiately after arriving here.
And they had confird with their own eyes how miserably the people there were living, like slaves.
If those bastards were committing all kinds of evil deeds that made it feel wrong to even call them fellow humans, then there was no reason they would not be doing what Junho had just described.
“...Ah!”
At that mont, Lieutenant Jeong, whose parents had moved into an apartnt complex in Deokso several years ago, flinched and said to Lee Seokjin,
“B-battalion commander. Then that place. Golden Heights Culture Center Building B. Could that be....”
Unable to continue, he trailed off, and Lee Seokjin nodded with a heavy expression.
“You’re probably right.”
“Ah....”
“Culture Center Building B? What is that?”
When Junho asked, Lee Seokjin sighed and said,
“Hoo. Golden Heights has two cultural centers. Usually there’s only one, but maybe because it’s a luxury complex, that place has two. But Building B is especially heavily guarded. On top of that, once every three days, the gangsters send two or three people inside... and no one cos out.”
“...Yes. They probably keep the captured Alphas there.”
There was no need to spell out what had happened to the people who entered the cultural center, so Junho spoke with certainty.
“.......”
The three officers’ faces turned miserable, and they bit their lips.
“Mr. Lee Junho.”
Lee Seokjin called him.
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“I feel grateful to you more than anything else, but honestly, I still can’t trust you one hundred percent. I think you would be the sa if you were in my position.”
“Of course.”
Lee Seokjin was not alone. He was a ROK Army officer responsible for more than two hundred soldiers.
A person carrying such a heavy responsibility could not easily believe and rashly decide, even if the words ca from Junho.
“But I actively agree that those human trash have to be swept away. And....”
Lee Seokjin stared at the point on the map hanging on the wall where “Golden Heights Apartnts” was marked.
“Our unit also has to settle down now. It would be best if we had a place that can generate power internally, sustain itself, and easily obtain water from the river. And if it also made travel along the subway tracks easy, nothing could be better.”
His face was chapped and looked exhausted, but with his eyes more resolute than ever, Lee Seokjin stared at Junho and continued.
“So, like we did with the Yeongho-ri National Agricultural Cooperative warehouse, let’s do this together.”
***
After receiving Junho’s signal that the conversation had gone well, Park Cheolwoo entered the water-treatnt plant.
Lee Seokjin and the officers and noncommissioned officers below him were surprised to learn that Park Cheolwoo had been a Special Forces NCO—and an ace at that, the kind deployed on operations that still had not been declassified.
Park Cheolwoo’s identity was settled simply by having Lee Seokjin confirm with him the nas of several officers who were close to a classmate of Lee Seokjin’s who had gone to the Special Forces when Lee was a lieutenant.
And when the dozen or so combat team mbers ard with guns obtained from the Daeseong syndicate also ca to the water-treatnt plant, they beca even more encouraged.
Then, through an unexpected incident, even the last sliver of suspicion remaining toward Junho, Park Cheolwoo, and the resort combat team disappeared.
“Excuse ... aren’t you a mber of Junix? You’re Ducky, right?”
“Huh? You know ?”
“That’s right! Wow. I liked Your Universe, that song.”
“R-really?”
There was a sergeant who not only knew Junix, a boy group rather than a girl group and a failed idol group at that, but even recognized Park Deokcheol.
“An entertainer? Is he famous?”
“Ah... honestly, he isn’t famous. But they’re seriously talented pop idols. I never understood why they didn’t make it, sir.”
“Oh, really? But how did an entertainer end up....”
At the sergeant’s fussing, Lee Seokjin nodded and asked Park Deokcheol.
“Well, I was with my younger sister....”
“Y-your younger sister? Sunny from Psyche Flare?”
When the sergeant was surprised, Park Deokcheol nodded.
“Yes.”
“Waaah!”
From the conversation that began like that, the fact that several entertainers and many other people were safely surviving at Kangho Resort beca known as well.
In the end, Lee Seokjin and the officers were able to remove their final doubts about Junho, Park Cheolwoo, and the combat team.
And then.
“Good job, Deokcheol.”
“Boss... I really think I’m glad I beca an idol.”
Overwheld by the fact that he had a fan who recognized him even in this kind of world, Park Deokcheol, mber of the failed idol group Junix, was deeply moved.
***
“The problem is that moving our forces to Golden Heights is extrely difficult.”
Lee Seokjin pointed at the map and continued.
“At first, we tried to take the riverside bike path or Gyeonggang-ro, but from here to there, there are more than five large apartnt complexes. Even if we move at night, I’m not sure we can go one and a half kiloters without being spotted by zombies. On top of that, the gangsters have completely blocked off the area under Misa Bridge. In the end, as things stand now, there’s no way to get to Golden Heights....”
“There is. A way to get there without being seen by zombies.”
“......?”
To the puzzled officers, Junho grinned and said,
“I have an electric motorboat. We’ll have to make several round trips, but two hours or so should be enough to move everyone there.”
“Ohhh...!”
Everyone cheered at securing a ans of transportation they had never expected.
With the biggest problem solved far too simply, Lee Seokjin was able to quickly complete the operation with appropriate advice from Junho and Park Cheolwoo.
And the combat team spent one night at the water-treatnt plant, rested fully until sunset the next day to recover their stamina, and then—
when night ca, Junho and the combat team moved down toward the Han River with Major Lee Seokjin and roughly eighty soldiers, following the shallow stream below Geumdae Mountain.
There, using the ten-person inflatable boat that had once again been filled with air and fitted with an electric motor and batteries,
they were able to safely regroup with everyone at the Han River park beside Misa Bridge in less than two hours.
“Shall we begin, then?”
“Let’s. All units, operation start.”
As Junho released the safety on his AR-15 and lowered his night-vision device, Lee Seokjin gave the order in a low but firm voice.
Roughly eighty fully ard soldiers and the combat team moved covertly through the darkness, cutting through the cold, sharp Han River wind.
Their target was the large apartnt complex where lights were lit here and there—
ruled by the nationwide cri syndicate, the Daeseong syndicate.
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