May 18, 2025, 7:00 PM. Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.

“Wow, lettuce really grows fast. Maybe I should’ve planted less.”

“I told you. I said you’d regret it later.”

Choi Hyunwoo clicked his tongue at Han Areum, who once again came back carrying a basket overflowing with lettuce.

As the weather warmed up, Han Areum had started growing lettuce, green onions, potatoes, and other crops in the vegetable patch in the yard.

Back then, Hyunwoo had warned her—quoting some “beginner weekend farming story” he’d once seen online—that she should only plant a little lettuce.

And this was the result of her ignoring him completely.

“We’re having seasoned lettuce salad and lettuce pancakes again today.”

“I’m going insane. We’re not cows, but we’ve been eating lettuce all week.”

“Hehe. It’s okay though. We still have lots of cooking oil and flour. There’s still plenty of sesame oil and gochujang too. If you season it properly, it tastes amazing.”

“No, I’m saying I’m not okay.”

“Ahem. People outside are desperate just trying to find food. You shouldn’t be picky.”

Watching the two bicker, Kim Taeyoung came up from the basement and clicked his tongue.

“You two fighting again? It’ll be dark soon. Did you close all the curtains?”

“Yep. We taped everything up tight too.”

Recently, the three of them had started spending time in the house itself instead of staying only in the basement.

Because of the PTZ camera and CCTV system, somebody always had to remain downstairs, but they had established a rotation schedule for that.

“I’ll make dinner, so Hyunwoo, head downstairs. Areum, grab the plum extract and frozen garlic from the fridge.”

“Yessir!”

“Yes, Mom.”

Since Kim Taeyoung was the only one of the three who actually knew how to cook properly after years of living alone, the other two obeyed cheerfully like children listening to their mother.

And it wasn’t merely habit.

There was a deliberate reason they consciously acted that way.

It had already been nearly ten months since the world changed like this.

During the cold winter, survivor activity had quieted down somewhat, but over the last couple of months, people had started coming back outside again.

In most cases, it was because they were searching for food.

And once people started moving around again, zombies followed.

Chases and massacres between hunters and hunted broke out constantly.

Because of that, even going to the city integrated control center had become exhausting now.

There were hardly any houses along the roads leading there, but survivors from the apartment complexes had finally begun expanding all the way onto the major roads.

Even during the dead of night, when the three of them usually moved around.

As the situation changed, Hyunwoo, Han Areum, and Kim Taeyoung had finally begun to truly understand what Junho had meant in his notebook by the phrase the real apocalypse.

Only now did they painfully realize why he had said the true apocalypse would begin half a year after the initial outbreak.

And so, whenever the three of them were together, they intentionally tried to stay more cheerful.

Because otherwise, there was no way to shake off the exhaustion and depression buried deep inside them.

***

“Should I eat one? Ah, forget it. Let’s see...”

Hyunwoo considered eating one of the emergency rations Junho had left behind—a snack cake brand—but held himself back since it was almost dinner time.

He dropped into the chair in front of the computer desk.

The split 32-inch monitor still displayed the PTZ camera feed and the house’s CCTV footage.

And as always, Hyunwoo focused mainly on the PTZ camera.

“Man, if we didn’t have this thing, we’d seriously be screwed.”

Being able to safely monitor a radius of several hundred meters day and night from inside the house was outrageously overpowered.

It had already been invaluable when they first moved here, but lately—with both survivors and zombies roaming around outside more often and in greater numbers—the PTZ camera had become even more useful.

Especially when traveling to the city integrated control center, being able to identify dangerous and safe routes in advance was huge.

Not only the area around the house, but even the major road leading toward the control center and the direction of Bucheon Sports Complex all fell within the PTZ camera’s observation range.

“Tch. They’re at it again today. There’s nothing there.”

Seeing several survivors peeking around the vinyl greenhouses lined along the roadside, Hyunwoo clicked his tongue.

Most of them grew flowers, and although some edible plants had been cultivated there, anything useful had already been looted long ago.

Naturally, Hyunwoo himself had been one of the looters, and most of the crops Han Areum was diligently growing in the yard had originally come from those greenhouses.

“The Alpha bastard definitely knows about that place by now. They’re seriously gonna get screwed at this rate... damn it...”

At this point, most survivors already knew that Alphas possessed intelligence and hunted through ambushes and surprise attacks like clever predators.

But since Alphas usually claimed densely populated residential areas or high-rise buildings as their territory, people probably assumed these open roadside areas with barely any houses nearby were relatively safe.

But Hyunwoo knew better.

After all, he had spent a long time scouting this area using the PTZ camera and drones.

“The Alpha already took over one of the apartment buildings across the street, you idiots. It’s probably watching from the windows or rooftop.”

The distance between the apartment building closest to the road and the greenhouses was around ninety meters.

If it were pitch black at night, that would be one thing, but at this hour, before sunset had fully passed, even zombies could see perfectly well.

“Please... just leave already.”

He couldn’t exactly warn them.

They might be looters.

They might even already be murderers.

But regardless, Hyunwoo had no desire to watch people get torn apart and eaten alive by zombies in real time. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“Ah...”

But his wish went unanswered.

Dozens of figures suddenly appeared on camera from the flower beds inside the apartment complex across the road.

Once beautifully landscaped like a small park separating the apartment complex from the eight-lane road, the flower beds had long since turned into something resembling a forest.

Slowly pushing through the tangled overgrowth and branches—

they emerged.

Not humans.

Zombies.

One of the survivors standing outside the greenhouse belatedly spotted them.

“Ah, what the hell are they doing?”

Hyunwoo unconsciously groaned and clenched his fist.

Instead of warning his companions and immediately fleeing into the woods behind the greenhouse, the survivors all crowded into a single greenhouse together.

Sure, the weeds and overgrowth around it meant zombies couldn’t see inside once they entered.

But the problem was that these weren’t ordinary zombies.

They were slaves under an Alpha’s control.

And besides, only the roof of the greenhouse was vinyl. The sides were transparent plastic.

The structure was sturdy enough that breaking through wouldn’t be easy, but if dozens of zombies slammed against it and pounded on it repeatedly, the frame would obviously bend or collapse.

“Jesus fucking Christ... why are they so stupid?”

Dozens of zombies swarmed the greenhouse, hurling themselves against the exterior and hammering at it violently.

Unable to bear watching what would happen next, Hyunwoo was just about to turn the PTZ camera away.

But then—

“Huh...?”

His eyes widened.

Some of the zombies surrounding the greenhouse suddenly collapsed like bundles of straw.

“Th-that...?”

Watching the zombies positioned behind the greenhouse—where the area had practically become forest—drop one after another, Hyunwoo slowly opened his mouth in shock and expanded the PTZ camera feed to fill the entire monitor.

“Gunfire? Wait, are those guns?”

But if it were rifles like the K2C1, he should’ve heard the shots from here.

And if it were air rifles, penetrating zombie skulls wouldn’t be easy unless they were modified air rifles like the ones Junho had left behind.

“What the hell...? Ah? Aah!?”

Hyunwoo abruptly shot to his feet.

Several figures had appeared on the PTZ camera from the woods behind the greenhouse.

And they weren’t zombies.

They were people.

Every single one of them wore military uniforms and carried proper weapons.

Most importantly—

“K1As with suppressors? And are those K7 suppressed submachine guns?”

The soldiers, all carrying suppressed firearms, moved low to the ground with the quickness of large cats as they eliminated zombies with precise rifle fire.

Because they were using suppressed weapons with far quieter gunshots and maintaining strict concealment while keeping more than fifty meters away—

the zombies swarming the greenhouse had no idea who was attacking them.

They simply collapsed one after another with bullets punched through their heads.

“Holy shit!”

Once the last zombie fell, Hyunwoo unconsciously clenched his fist and pumped it through the air.

The survivors being saved by sheer luck was one thing—

but this was the first time he had ever personally witnessed the military defeating zombies.

And this, too, matched exactly what Junho’s “sacred scripture” notebook had predicted.

- After about half a year, the military’ll realize suppressors need to be standard equipment on guns.

- They’ll also realize large-scale forces rolling into cities with armored vehicles are guaranteed to get annihilated. Eventually, you’ll start seeing squad- or platoon-sized units armed with suppressed weapons instead.

“Ah...! Areum! Coach! Come look at this! Hurry, hurry!”

Recalling Junho’s notebook, Hyunwoo hurried up the basement stairs.

Because for the first time—

it felt like there might actually be a way to reach Jung-dong.

***

“Huff... huff...”

Yoon Seolhee breathed heavily inside her mask.

But no fog formed on her coated ballistic goggles.

After steadying her breathing, she quickly rounded the corner and fired the instant she acquired her target.

Tak! Tatak! Tak!

Four shots rang out in rapid succession, all striking the target board.

- Good work. Two minutes, fourteen seconds.

At Junho’s voice coming through her headphones, her expression brightened slightly.

“Twelve seconds faster? Is that good enough?”

- More than enough. It’s similar to my first record when I trained in the States.

In truth, Junho’s own time had been nearly twenty seconds faster, but he deliberately boosted her morale.

And even then, Seolhee’s current record would still rank near the very top at Redrock Academy.

Granted, the training facility inside the shelter safe zone had merely been modeled after Redrock Academy and was somewhat rougher by comparison.

Still—

her scores surpassed not only the KJM Brothers, but even Junhyeok by a wide margin.

Click. Clack.

While Yoon Seolhee finished checking her firearm and removed the magazine, Junho and Junhyeok—who had been observing her training through a drone feed—approached.

“That finishes the final training session.”

“Wow! Seriously, great work, noona!”

“Thank you, Junhyeok.”

Now fully immune to Junhyeok constantly calling her noona, Yoon Seolhee simply nodded.

“By the way, hyung.”

“What.”

Junho answered bluntly without even looking at him, already knowing exactly what his younger brother was about to say.

Junhyeok immediately clasped his hands together pleadingly and looked at him with desperate eyes.

“Can’t I come too? We’re rescuing my friend here. Hyunwoo, that bastard, I—”

“I said no. How many times do I have to tell you? When I’m gone, you’re the one who protects the shelter in my place.”

“Ah...”

“Hyuk.”

“......”

Junhyeok smacked his lips and looked at his brother.

Whenever Junho spoke in that low, settled tone, he knew there was absolutely no changing his mind.

“Didn’t I tell you from the moment we started building the shelter? If something ever happens to me, you and Hail hyung are responsible for this place. That never changes. So you stay here. Only Manager Park, Kim Jimin, and I are going to Bucheon.”

Among the KJM Brothers, Kim Jaemun had been a Marine drill instructor and needed to continue training the others, while Gu Jeongmok had to remain behind with Junhyeok to help defend the shelter.

And besides—

“We’ll depart at dawn tomorrow, Manager. Get some rest tonight.”

“Yes, sir.”

Since they would have no AI support in Bucheon, this mission needed a genuine veteran professional like Yoon Seolhee.

“And... thank you again.”

“It’s nothing.”

Her actual assignment was protecting the shelter’s safety—

yet the moment Junho announced he was heading to Bucheon, Yoon Seolhee agreed to join him without hesitation or questions.

And for that, Junho was sincerely grateful.