Everyone except a few men left on perimeter watch gathered inside the village hall.
The village hall, abandoned for a long time, was filthy and smelled stale and musty.
“Manager. Wouldn’t it be better to head straight to the resort? I don’t get why we need to sit here and talk things out first...”
At the KW Cops employee’s words, Yoon Seolhee shook her head.
“We still haven’t sorted things out with those people. We can’t bring them to the resort like this. That’s probably why Mr. Lee Junho wants to settle things here first and decide what to do next.”
“Well, sure, those bastards were shooting at you an hour ago, Manager. Fuck... what the hell is there to even talk about with pieces of shit like that?”
As the employee muttered while glancing at Junho and the men he had brought with him, Yoon Seolhee turned a gaze on him that had gone cold at some point.
“Mr. Bae Ingyu. Do you not realize that if it weren’t for Mr. Lee Junho, you and everyone else here might not be sitting here alive right now?”
“Uh, well, Manager, that’s not what I meant...”
“What do you mean that’s not what you meant? He’s the man who saved our lives. And he’s also very close with the boss. He came all the way here, in a world like this, purely because of the boss—because he wanted to help him. Could you do that?”
“...I’m sorry, Manager. I spoke out of line.”
“It’s not that you spoke out of line. You shouldn’t have thoughts like that in the first place. The rest of you too. Understood?”
“Yes, Manager.”
“Understood, Manager.”
The employees, watching Yoon Seolhee carefully, answered in a rush.
After living and working alongside her for more than half a year, the KW Cops employees knew all too well what kind of person she was.
Even their direct superiors—the team leader and the department head, neither of whom was here right now—couldn’t do a thing against Yoon Seolhee.
The team leader in particular had tried to size her up early on, only for her to tell him flat-out to take off the rank insignia and settle it properly. They had actually gone at it.
And the employees had seen with their own eyes what it meant to get beaten like a dog in the peak of summer, to get pounded so hard dust would fly off you in the rain.
If Yoon Seolhee hadn’t held back, he probably would have left with several bones broken—or maybe he really might have died.
He had served in the Marine special reconnaissance unit, sure, but as a middle manager at a security company called KW Cops, he had been living in comfort. He was no match at all for Yoon Seolhee, a former Special Forces NCO and current bodyguard to the company’s CEO, who had kept herself honed without pause.
On top of that, nearly all the guns and ammunition the employees were carrying right now had been taken by Yoon Seolhee after she killed gangsters and stripped them off the bodies.
Even setting aside the man she treated with such obvious respect, some of them might not have been here at all if not for her.
“Manager Yoon Seolhee.”
Junho called out to the woman who had so neatly brought the room under control.
“Use this for the wounded first.”
From the backpack he had hidden in the greenhouse, Junho took out an emergency treatment kit and handed it to her.
“Thank you. That’s a huge relief. Mr. Ingyu.”
There were no dead, but two employees had sustained gunshot wounds, so Yoon Seolhee brightened at once, accepted it, and passed it to Bae Ingyu.
“You said you had gunshot casualties, right? Can you remove bullet fragments?”
“Y-yes. We have someone who used to be a medic, so we can handle it.”
“Good. Tell them to be careful when they use the antibiotics.”
“Yes. Th-thank you.”
He hadn’t quite realized it when he’d seen him from a distance, but standing right in front of him, Junho’s build and presence were overwhelming enough that Bae Ingyu instinctively bowed his head at once.
Of course, more than that, he was simply grateful that Junho had handed over two full emergency treatment kits without hesitation—something unimaginably precious in a world like this.
“Then, Manager, come this way.”
“Yes.”
When Junho and Yoon Seolhee entered the small room where Kim Sunwoo and his group were waiting, the KW Cops employees finally let out the breath they had been holding.
“Damn... those eyes, that whole vibe. He looks like he could bury people for real.”
“He did bury people. He killed over ten gangsters just today.”
“Exactly thirteen. And most of them were headshots.”
“He’s seriously insane... Think he’s former Special Forces too, like Manager Yoon Seolhee?”
“I heard he was some kind of unit even beyond that—one of those special teams that works with the NIS and goes in and out of North Korea and shit. Supposedly he killed dozens of gangsters by himself in Namyangju. They say he’s killed a ton of zombies too.”
“That’s fucking nuts...”
Rumors—nobody knew where they had started—began spreading, mixed in with the truth.
What they didn’t know was that before long, those stories would spread south of the Seoul metro area, with Gwangju at the center.
***
“I’m Kim Sunwoo. My rank is lieutenant, and I was with the police special operations unit.”
“I’m Yoon Seolhee. I work at Kangho Resort.”
Under Yoon Seolhee’s icy expression, Kim Sunwoo bowed politely again.
“I’m truly sorry. I wouldn’t have enough mouths to apologize with. Let me apologize once more.”
Kim Sunwoo offered no excuses of any kind, only a respectful apology, and that softened Yoon Seolhee’s expression a little.
“...You had your reasons. I’ll accept that.”
She looked over Kim Sunwoo and the men with him before continuing.
“You’re all former or current police officers? Were you all with police special operations?”
“Oh, no. Only Lieutenant Kim was police special operations. The rest of us were detectives or riot police. We trained under him.”
“I see.”
Yoon Seolhee looked at Kim Sunwoo with renewed interest.
Even if they were former or current police officers, it was never easy to teach tactical movement that would actually hold up in live combat over a short period of time.
Which meant Kim Sunwoo was an exceptionally capable man.
“Alright, then. Let’s talk about what matters.”
Once some of the resentment between Kim Sunwoo and Yoon Seolhee had eased, Junho stepped in.
“As I told you, Lieutenant Kim Sunwoo is going to cooperate with us. Normally, this is something we should discuss in front of Brother Baekho, but there’s no time, and the situation is too urgent. So Manager Yoon Seolhee, you’re the one who’ll have to make the call.”
“The call? Me?”
“Yes. First, the plan I proposed—and that Lieutenant Kim and these men agreed to take part in—is this.”
Junho gave her a brief explanation of the Daeseong syndicate, the situation these police officers were trapped in, and Major Lee Seokjin’s unit.
A few times Yoon Seolhee’s eyes twitched, but she listened to Junho in silence.
Then, at his final point, her eyes sharpened as she asked back,
“You really think that Army unit is going to hit the Daeseong syndicate?”
“Yes. I think there’s a very high chance they will. I fought alongside that unit before and saw what their commanding officer was like. More importantly, they need somewhere to establish themselves too.”
“......”
“Their original destination was the border area around Gwangju and Yangpyeong County. I heard they planned to organize a garrison there, refit the unit, and then decide what to do next.”
“But didn’t you say they were a unit from Pocheon? Why go out of their way to leave there and come all the way down here?”
At Kim Sunwoo’s question, Junho turned toward him.
“There are too many military units up there. And if you cross a few mountains, there’s a remnant Capital Mechanized Infantry Division force that’s already turning into a warlord faction. If they get absorbed into that, they’ll end up thrown into the most dangerous operations as cannon fodder. Major Lee Seokjin didn’t want that.”
“Ah...”
“By comparison, northern Gwangju along Paldang Lake or Yangpyeong County near the Namhan River makes it easy to secure drinking water, and the Gyeongui-Jungang Line runs through the area, so movement in an emergency is manageable.”
“That makes sense. That’s why we were trying to seize this village too. It’s right on the Gyeongan Stream.”
At Yoon Seolhee’s remark, Junho nodded.
“Right. Anyway, because of that, Major Lee Seokjin’s unit decided to move on Deokso. The residents there are being used like slaves by gangsters, and once the place is secured, it becomes self-sustaining.”
“That fits the Army’s duty, and it solves the food supply problem too. And you said Yeongho-ri, right? I think there’s a reserve forces base near there. Could it be...?”
She hadn’t even let him finish, yet had already guessed what he had planned to propose to Major Lee Seokjin later. Junho found himself impressed all over again.
“That’s right. Depending on how things develop, I’m thinking of taking our people and the soldiers left in Yeongho-ri to check out that reserve forces base. For ammunition.”
Between 5.56 and 9mm subsonic rounds, they had fewer than three thousand left now.
That was despite using modified air rifles whenever possible.
So Junho needed 5.56 and 9mm ammunition, even if it was regular ammo and not subsonic.
Unless it was a stealth-dependent operation outside, like the one now, if a firefight broke out near their shelter or around Gahyeon-ri, there would be no need to insist on subsonic rounds.
The most important reason to use suppressors and subsonic ammunition was to avoid triggering a zombie wave.
And at least in Gahyeon-ri now, they no longer had to worry about that.
“Anyway, that’s for later. As I said earlier, Lieutenant Kim Sunwoo, you’ll return to Deokso. But take only one other man with you.”
“What? Why?”
Kim Sunwoo narrowed his eyes, and the expressions on his fellow officers’ faces hardened as well.
No matter how you looked at it, it sounded like he was saying he would keep the rest behind as hostages.
“If all of you come back alive, what do you think happens?”
“...Ah.”
“Only two of you barely made it back alive. You understand what I’m saying, right?”
“Yes. Understood. Whew...”
“Why?”
Sensing that he still seemed dissatisfied, Junho asked, and Kim Sunwoo answered with a troubled face.
“Because of the other families. If we’re going to deceive the Daeseong syndicate, that means our families have to be told we’re dead too, doesn’t it? They’ll probably think we died because of them...”
That was true. Every one of these police officers was cooperating with the gangsters because family or loved ones had been taken hostage.
So if word reached them that these men had died, their families would blame themselves terribly.
“There’s no helping it. Still, Major Lee Seokjin’s unit will probably move pretty fast, so they’ll learn the truth soon enough.”
“Yes. By the way, if we’re going to hit the Daeseong syndicate leadership from the inside, we’ll need weapons too. How do we handle that?”
The gangsters only let Kim Sunwoo and the police carry firearms when they were sent outside. Inside, they were kept under tight control and surveillance.
“You know where the armory is, right?”
“What? Ah, yes. But gangsters usually stand guard there, and the door lock needs both a passcode and a fingerprint.”
At Kim Sunwoo’s answer, Junho took something out of his pocket and held it out to him.
“......!?”
Kim Sunwoo accepted it on reflex, and his eyes went wide.
It was a vacuum-sealed finger packed with preservative.
“It’s the thumb of that gangster Lee Ujung or whatever. The first six digits of the passcode are 696974, and the last two digits change from one to seven depending on the day of the week. Since today is Tuesday, it should be 69697433.”
“6969...74.”
“Yeah. Figures those gangster bastards would use a cheap-ass password too.”
At that, the former and current police officers gave short, involuntary laughs.
But Junho continued in a face devoid of all humor.
“And Lieutenant Kim Sunwoo, make sure you remember what I told you earlier.”
“......!”
Kim Sunwoo’s face instantly stiffened.
That was how important Junho’s earlier instruction had been—important enough to repeat like this.
“Yes. If possible... no, I’ll make sure of it. The more I think about it, the more I believe you’re right, Mr. Lee Junho.”
“Your futures depend on it. No point going through all this trouble to clean out the gangsters just to go right back to living hard.”
“...Understood.”
“Good. Then decide who’s going back with you.”
“Sergeant Oh.”
“Yes.”
As soon as Kim Sunwoo named him, a sturdily ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) built man stepped forward as if he had been waiting for it.
“I’ll go with him. He was in Marine reconnaissance, so he’s the best among us. If we say he made it back alive with me, they’ll believe it.”
“I see. Then you two, step forward a few paces.”
“Yes...?”
Kim Sunwoo and Oh Yongmok looked puzzled.
Shrring.
Junho drew the commando dagger into his right hand, clenched his left into a fist, and said calmly,
“It’d look a little strange if you escaped without a scratch. I’ll take it easy on you.”
“Ah...”
At the sight of Junho’s thick forearm, the callused fist, and the blue-cold edge of the commando dagger, both men’s faces darkened in a hurry.
***
An hour later, Kim Sunwoo and Oh Yongmok—after Junho had “taken it easy on them”—left the village hall carrying guns and various pieces of equipment.
Anyone could see they looked like defeated remnants, and their fellow police officers saw them off with eyes full of worry and sympathy.
“Then shall we head out?”
“Yes. Follow me.”
Junho and Park Deokcheol set out for Kangho Resort together with the KW Cops employees led by Yoon Seolhee.
At last, the biggest reason he had come to Gwangju was right in front of him—
meeting Kang Baekho.
