Chapter 171:
Chapter 171
Z-Day. (6)
The members of Awi, who had watched Ian’s filming, got permission from the director to post pictures of the shooting scene on their fan cafe.
[Awi] Everyone, where do you think this is?
In the picture, the members were smiling brightly and making a V sign around Ian, who was dressed as a zombie.
└He looks so handsome with the mask on?????
└?????????Ian oppa??You’re so cool
└Is that Jinhyuk playing a prank in the back???
└What about Taewoong oppa???
-There’s one missing from the group photo again
Jo Taewoong is the reason why they can’t do group activities and he looks like he’s starving for bread crumbs, but they’re making a fuss about taking pictures ??
└Isn’t he still recovering?
└(Author) It’s been over two months, do you think that makes sense?
└└You’re funny?? Do you take illness too lightly? Are you even an Awi fan????
└I also suffered from panic disorder and I couldn’t go to the hospital on time because of people like you ??
└If you have any shame, delete your post
└This guy is an IP troll, report him
The so-called ‘haters’ who sued the malicious commenters did not disappear. There were still some vicious people who did not hesitate to receive the complaints.
They could be from another fandom. Or they could just be jealous of the successful Awi. But Taeban were these kind of people.
They find intentions in simple words. They catch the tail of the words that are uncomfortable and if they don’t go their way, they lash out and attack the person.
-They look happy even though one is missing, am I the only one who feels uncomfortable seeing this? I feel sorry for the one who didn’t show up ??
-They’ve been posting a lot of 6-person photos lately, are they going to kick out Jo Taewoong?
-Isn’t it a fact that Jo Taewoong made the mental illness awareness worse?
They are netizens who are full of hatred and bite until someone dies, without checking the facts, thinking that their twisted beliefs are justice. They were almost like a collective madness.
To them, the thriving Awi was enough to chew on.
They stopped trying to harass using Jo Taewoong and tried to stir up another topic.
-I heard that Byunghun’s company is also having a bad relationship with Awi and sending out rookies
-Did they only bully Jo Taewoong?
-Look at the Y app last year, isn’t the relationship between Jo Taewoong and the others bad here?
There were also signs of ‘fabrication’ to create a bullying rumor.
***
Nawoo Shin, who was caught by Kim Kanghyuk, headed to the zombies’ hideout.
Kim Junhee, who had turned the area where Nawoo Shin’s office was located into a wasteland, entered the hideout.
“Where is Mr. Woo?”
“Over there.”
“You…!”
Nawoo Shin realized that Kim Junhee was the wanted criminal K from his mask and tried to run away.
“Mr. Woo, where are you going? It’s useless to run away.”
“…What?”
Kim Junhee took off his mask and turned on the TV in the corner of the hideout. The TV screen was broadcasting a breaking news.
(This is a breaking news. There was a series of explosions in the B-35 area.)
The screen showed the situation of the B-35 area, which had become a ruin in an instant.
“That’s all….”
Nawoo Shin looked at Kim Junhee with a stupid expression. Kim Junhee nodded his head with a blank face.
(K, the first-class wanted criminal, was confirmed to be at the scene of the terror, and the government has raised the zombie crisis level to….)
(First-class criminal wanted K, zombie. Kill on sight)
(Second-class criminal wanted H, zombie. Capture alive)
“The bounty went up again.”
“It’s only natural since you blew up a whole area. Be careful next time.”
Kim Kanghyuk and Kim Junhee opened the refrigerator door and took out something covered in blood and ate it. The two zombies were proud of the increased bounty.
“What is that….”
That was not all. The screen showed a full-size photo of Nawoo Shin’s ID card.
(Also, we have confirmed that K has a civilian accomplice. The identity of the civilian is Mr. Na, who works as an employee at Hwaun Pharmaceuticals, and the government has designated Mr. Na as a wanted criminal as of now….)
(Second-class criminal wanted Nawoo Shin 29 years old, human. Former Hwaun Pharmaceuticals employee. Report and capture on sight)
Why is my face there. Nawoo Shin grabbed the TV with his trembling hands.
“I was an employee…. Did I get fired?”
Hwaun Pharmaceuticals, a government-affiliated company that makes zombie vaccines, was a dream company for humans who were preparing for a job, as it had no worries of going bankrupt.
How much hardship did he go through to get into Hwaun Pharmaceuticals. His efforts were gone in an instant.
“So you thought you could go back to work? You’re a funny human, Mr. Woo.”
Naowoo became a second-class criminal wanted by the government overnight.
He had nowhere else to go, so he had to hide with the zombies in their hideout. And he was not alone. He was with a terrorist who was the government’s top priority to capture.
***
“It seems that a human with immunity has appeared.”
The subordinate brought a wanted poster with Naowoo’s name clearly printed on it.
“We must capture him alive. Don’t let him get hurt, not even a hair.”
The situation changed drastically when the government also found out about Naowoo’s identity. The soldiers searched the entire area for anyone who looked like Naowoo, and the broadcasts increased the frequency of asking for Naowoo’s whereabouts instead of K’s.
They had to convince the public, so they claimed that Naowoo had a close relationship with K and had stolen government secrets. They also raised his bounty to the first class.
Naowoo watched the situation and decided to live in the zombie hideout as a last resort.
He had grown up hearing that zombies were monsters that ate people and that he should never go near them. But the zombies were different from what he had thought.
“They’re no different from humans…”
They were no different from humans if they received the vaccine from Hwaun Pharmaceuticals. They had to be restrained by K when they lost their reason, but they did not resist. They maintained their own order.
“Is that the human? The one K was looking for?”
“Does that mean we can get the complete vaccine too?”
The zombies also needed Naowoo, so they did not treat him roughly. On the contrary, they took good care of him. He felt the irony of seeing the zombies protect him more than the government that he thought would protect him.
“Do you have to go?”
“I have something precious in that house.”
But he did not intend to live with the zombies forever.
‘I can’t trust the zombies. If I’m a super-immune human who is sought by both humans and zombies… Wouldn’t the government side treat me better?’
Naowoo was able to get out of the hideout with the help of Kim Junhee, who could not refuse his request.
“Do you really need to get the stuff in the house?”
“I have something precious to me. I have to get it.”
When he went to his house to find his belongings with Kim Junhee’s help, he found that the soldiers had already ransacked his house and left.
‘No, it’ll be safe if I surrender to the government.’
Naowoo guessed that things would not go as he wanted from then on, but the trigger had already been pulled.
“Naowoo!”
Kim Junhee shouted as he saw Naowoo throw himself out of the window.
“There he is!”
“Capture him alive!”
As the police and soldiers who were guarding outside Naowoo’s house recognized his face and tried to approach him, K, wearing a mask, appeared behind Naowoo.
“It’s K! Shoot!”
“Kill them all!”
“No! Don’t shoot! Don’t hit the target!”
In the midst of the breathless confrontation between zombies and humans, the zombies rushed in front of the soldiers to save Naowoo, sacrificing themselves as meat shields.
“K, go!”
They barely escaped with their lives and hid themselves in a deserted place. Kim Kanghyuk grabbed Naowoo’s collar, who was panting.
“You shouldn’t have trusted humans in the first place.”
“Kanghyuk, calm down.”
“Do I look calm? Do you know how many died because of this bastard?”
Kim Junhee pulled Kim Kanghyuk’s hand off Naowoo’s collar. Kim Kanghyuk snorted.
Many zombies died for Naowoo. Some of them were kind to Naowoo. Kim Kanghyuk hit Naowoo with a stick.
“We should have just tied him up and drained his blood! Like before!”
“Kim Kanghyuk!”
Kim Junhee grabbed Kim Kanghyuk’s shoulder hard. He heard a cracking sound from his bones, but Kim Kanghyuk’s expression was full of anger without any distortion.
“Go back to the hideout.”
“…Fuck!”
Kim Kanghyuk eventually lost the staring contest with Kim Junhee and left.
“Did I… did I do something wrong?”
“Yes.”
“You’re zombies! How can I trust you! At least if I’m with the government, they’ll…! Ugh!”
Kim Junhee pressed down on Naowoo’s back and sighed deeply. Naowoo groaned in pain.
“Mr. Woo, do you want to know? The fact that the government won’t protect you?”
Naowoo was scared by Kim Junhee’s flashing eyes and had to shut his mouth.
“Hwaun Pharmaceuticals has the complete vaccine. If you don’t believe me, I can’t help it…”
“…”
“Humans didn’t stop their greed. They deliberately neglected the zombies to become humans like you.”
Kim Junhee then took Naowoo to show him the reality of how the zombies were exploited.
“They’re easy to handle, and if they use the zombies as slaves, the society can somehow function.”
The life of the exploited zombies was something that Naushin didn’t know. The media claimed that the world had regained stability thanks to the government’s efforts, but behind the scenes, there were humans who whipped the zombies and made them do all kinds of dirty work.
“This could be your future, Mr. Naushin.”
Kim Junhee showed him the data that he had stolen from the laboratory, where he heard the sound of zombies being tied up and drained of blood, and the greedy researchers trying to find out their immortality.
“Mr. Naushin.”
“…”
“Do you think this is normal?”
Naushin saw it with his own eyes. He realized that this society was a monstrosity. But he didn’t want to hear it from a zombie.
“Is it necessary to sacrifice the few for the many? Is it really worth it?”
“…”
“You could be one of those few, Mr. Naushin. Think carefully.”
Naushin hated himself for being persuaded, so he answered curtly.
“Don’t shove your ideology down my throat.”
“The government is doing the same thing, Mr. Naushin. They brainwashed you to think that we are dangerous monsters. Do we really look like that to you?”
“That’s…”
He wasn’t afraid of zombies anymore. Rather, he knew that this society wouldn’t function properly without them.
“Mr. Naushin, we were once ‘human’. Not livestock, not slaves.”
But he was too small to know the secrets of the world. He was a mere citizen, a person who could feel the guilt of his conscience. He couldn’t say anything.
“Mr. Naushin, you feel it too, don’t you? That this is wrong.”
“…”
“We can change it, if we work together.”
Kim Junhee sounded desperate as he said that. He tapped Naushin’s shoulder and left the room.
“Think about it. And make a good choice.”
“…”
“Which side you’re going to join.”
The rusty iron door closed with a creaking, chilling sound.
***
Ian enjoyed the high-difficulty action acting while filming ‘Z-Day’.
“Ian, are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, I’m fine. Well, maybe my shoulder is a bit…?”
“Medic!”
The managers who watched Ian’s filming were anxious as they took care of him. He threw his body without hesitation, whether it was hanging from a wire somewhere, a gunfight, or falling to the ground.
“Ian, please die naturally.”
“What?”
“…It’s nothing.”
Ian’s immersion in action acting was enough to make Kim Myungjin, his manager, talk nonsense.
[Did you like this kind of thing in your previous life too?]
‘No.’
He used to be the type who protected his body when he was Kim Yongmin. But thanks to Ian’s athletic body, he adapted quickly and tried new things as his body followed.
‘It’s fun now.’
[Are you going to become a specialized action actor?]
‘That sounds good.’
If Kim Myungjin and Park Dongsoo heard Ian’s thoughts, they might have collapsed while grabbing the back of his neck.
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