The big man was carried away on a stretcher, and LD and Kelvin were dragged off by the resort employees.
Junho spoke to the people murmuring as they looked at him.
“Since everyone’s gathered here anyway, I’ll tell you now. You all know that not long ago, gangsters came here shooting and causing a mess. They’re a crime syndicate called the Daeseong syndicate....”
Junho gave them the facts about the Daeseong syndicate, exaggerating slightly.
“...So we joined forces with the resort employees here and dealt with all of them. In other words, for the time being, there’s no one left to threaten you or Kangho Resort.”
Waaaaah...!
The people, who had been tense to the limit, finally broke into cheers.
It was not as if there were no people like the two rappers and the big man from a moment ago, but most of them were satisfied with living at Kangho Resort.
They did have to do physical labor they were not used to, but after everything they had seen and heard before broadcasts and the internet cut off, there was no one left who did not know how much of a hell the outside world had become.
Most of them did not want to go outside, where zombies roamed, and where raiders just as terrifying as those monsters had turned robbery, murder, and every kind of crime rampant.
And in the middle of that, gangsters with guns had targeted the resort, so the fear they had felt had been beyond imagining.
The official news that those bastards had been wiped out was more than enough to make everyone rejoice.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Goodness, you all worked so hard. Ah, really....”
The people surrounded Park Cheolwoo and the combat team, expressing their gratitude.
They were the ones who had eliminated all the zombies inside the resort, and they were the ones who had fought the outside enemy.
The people were sincerely grateful to Park Cheolwoo and the combat team.
“.......”
Junho, an outsider here, quietly stepped back and headed toward Park Deokcheol.
“Boss, here.”
“Yeah.”
Behind Park Deokcheol, Ahn Yujeong and the Blossom members, who had been watching for cues, looked at Junho with eyes mixed with fear and admiration as he put his gear and weapons back on.
They had just heard from Park Deokcheol what Junho had done at Golden Heights.
And they had heard it as vivid testimony “exaggerated” in proportion to Park Deokcheol’s respect for Junho.
'So now we’re going to where this man lives, right?'
'I’m so glad. We really survived now.'
'I’m going to work so hard. Harder than Sunny.'
After collecting all his equipment, Junho was inwardly startled by the way the Blossom members kept glancing at him with eyes that somehow seemed to be burning, but he did not show it outwardly.
Instead, he walked over to Yoon Seolhee and the dispatched combat personnel.
“You’re still injured, Manager, so I handled it because I thought you might push yourself. That was all right, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Good work.”
“Not at all. It wasn’t even enough to count as exercise. More importantly, did you really accept someone like that?”
At Junho’s words, Yoon Seolhee made a bitter expression.
“Of course I didn’t want to. But the CEO decided it. His policy is to accept anyone first and observe them.”
“By sending them here and making them work?”
“That’s right. You know it well.”
As Yoon Seolhee looked slightly surprised, Junho gave her a faint smile.
Everyone at the resort had assigned work too, but the large vinyl-greenhouse area built in this village and along the riverside was where they were farming in earnest, so the labor intensity was higher.
In other words, Kang Baekho intended to send people who wanted to join Kangho Resort here first, make them work, observe them, then decide whether to fully accept them or not.
And that was extremely similar to Junho’s reason for building the container residence below his shelter.
They had never discussed it with each other, yet both of them had chosen almost the same method to sort candidates for joining their groups.
'That’s Baekho for you.'
Feeling a renewed admiration for “Gwangju’s Kang Baekho,” Junho turned his head toward the combat personnel.
“I’m late with introductions. I’m Lee Junho.”
“I’m Kim Jimin. I look forward to working with you, Mr. Lee Junho.”
“I’m Assistant Manager Kim Jaemun. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’ll work hard.”
“I’m Gu Jeongmok. I’ve met you a few times while following Manager Yoon and Manager Park. I don’t know if you remember....”
“Ah, I do. It’s been a while. It’s very good to meet you two as well. I look forward to working with you.”
Junho gave courteous greetings to Gu Jeongmok, whom he had seen once or twice when meeting Kang Baekho, and to the other two men.
The three men who would be dispatched to the shelter looked surprised.
They were startled by how extremely polite Junho’s attitude was, to the point that it made everything they had heard so far, and what they had just seen, feel almost unreal.
“W-we’re the ones who should say that....”
“We’ll do our best.”
They had heard the environment was better than the resort, but that was still something they would only know after seeing it for themselves.
More than that, the three men had been a little worried because of the terrifying history of the employer at the dispatch site, so they were deeply moved.
But....
“Manager, with this, those bastards should stay quiet for a while, right?”
When Junho glanced to one side, everyone looked that way.
There, mixed in among the people, were the delinquent-looking men who had watched Junho’s confrontation with the big man with fascinated eyes after already being beaten once by Yoon Seolhee and the resort employees. Now, completely cowed, they were glancing over this way.
“Yes. Thanks to you, Mr. Junho. Well, they’ll probably try to crawl back up someday, but when that happens, Senior Park will step in, so it should be fine.”
Following Yoon Seolhee’s gaze toward Park Cheolwoo, Junho nodded.
“If it’s Manager Park Cheolwoo, then that’s certain. Still, those people really should know how lucky they are....”
“Lucky...? Ah, because even though they have to farm hard, they still get to live here?”
Gu Jeongmok, who at least knew him by sight, tilted his head and asked.
Junho answered with an expressionless face.
“That too, but if this were a place I managed, they would all already be dead.”
“......!”
“That bastard from earlier was spared because of Baekho. I never tolerate pieces of shit like that. Whether I killed him myself or threw him to the zombies, he’d be dead by now either way.”
This was the group led by Kang Baekho.
Because of that, Junho could not carelessly kill people here.
No matter how close he and Kang Baekho were, no matter how much they had helped each other, the leader of this place was Kang Baekho, and Junho could not cross the line Kang Baekho had set.
But Gahyeon-ri and his shelter were different.
That was his territory, and if something similar to what happened today occurred there....
“I don’t leave seeds of discord alone. So all of you need to remember that too, and once you go there, don’t show mercy.”
Since they were being dispatched to his shelter, he was telling them to understand the “line” set not by Kang Baekho, but by him, and to devote themselves to the work they would be given.
“Yes, understood!”
But the three men took those words as a warning aimed at them and, as if on cue, snapped to attention as they answered.
“U-us too!”
“We’ll work hard, sir!”
Ahn Yujeong and the Blossom members also shouted with the discipline of rookies who had just debuted.
“.......”
Something felt subtly off the mark, but everyone seemed to be steeling themselves anyway, so Junho was satisfied.
Beside him, Yoon Seolhee’s lips twitched as she held back a laugh that nearly slipped out despite herself.
***
Early the next morning.
Junho, the Blossom members, and the combat personnel led by Yoon Seolhee left the village.
Communications would be connected soon, and people and supplies would be coming and going frequently, so there were no grand farewells.
The group went to the ferry landing built on the village «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» riverside, boarded the electric motorboat that had been fully charged overnight, and traveled up Gyeongan Stream into Paldang Lake.
The boat was barely within capacity, but the Blossom members were so thin and light, and the others did not have much baggage either, so the boat was able to maintain a cruising speed of seven or eight kilometers per hour as it moved along the river.
“Wow....”
Junho and Park Deokcheol had already seen it several times, so they took it in stride, but the Blossom members were amazed by the mystical scenery of Paldang Lake with water mist rising over it.
But as the fog slowly cleared and the cruel reality of the apocalypse revealed itself in full, the faces of the girls, who were only around twenty years old, rapidly hardened.
They had seen the corpses scattered here and there along the riverside, and the villages near the Bukhan River, which had turned into ghost towns as trees, brush, and vines grew wild because no one could manage them anymore.
“.......”
In that momentary silence, the boat reached the underside of Yangsu Railroad Bridge, where the Gyeongui-Jungang Line crossed the Bukhan River, making only a low vibrating hum.
There, Junho was able to meet the twenty or so soldiers who had left Golden Heights early that dawn, followed the Gyeongui-Jungang Line through Deokso and Paldang Station, and arrived at Ungilsan Station exactly on time.
And unlike Zunix, the doomed boy-idol group Park Deokcheol belonged to, Blossom was a top-tier girl group nearly everyone in Korea knew. The young soldiers, seeing the Blossom members in person, became extremely excited.
But Yoon Seolhee and the dispatched combat personnel clearly had no ordinary air about them, and above all, Junho was there with his eyes sharply open.
So the soldiers only clenched their fists silently or let out heated breaths through their noses, moving quietly exactly as Junho ordered.
***
After taking the electric motorboat back and forth no fewer than three times to move everyone to the leisure sports dock once used as an intermediate base by the Daeseong syndicate gangsters, Junho gave them a short rest, then stepped outside and finally opened the channel connected to his shelter.
Beep.
“Anyone there?”
—Boooooooss!
At Yoon Youngsu’s shriek, Junho frowned, then soon let out a small laugh as he looked at the drone floating in the sky.
“Can you see me? Did you take control of the drone?”
—Yes! I’ve got it now. I can see you cleeearly! Aaah! Seriously, how long has it been? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? I mean, of course, look who I’m talking about. Oh, but what about Deokcheol?
At Yoon Youngsu’s rapid-fire voice, Junho felt again that he had come close to “home” as he answered.
“He’s resting inside the dock. Neither of us is hurt. I brought people from Kangho Resort and soldiers. Nothing happened at the shelter, right?”
—Nothing at all. No, wait, something did happen.
“What? What happened?”
Junho narrowed his brow.
Barely a week had passed. What could possibly have happened?
—First, Hanaareum Nursing Home. Two of the elderly people staying there passed away one after another.
“.......”
That made sense.
They were very old to begin with, and after the world had turned into this, their strength had declined even further. They were elderly people who would not have been strange to pass away at any time.
Moreover, their bodies had weakened, but the psychological problem was even greater. Choi Uisu and Kim Heeyoung, who were staying at the shelter, had gone to the nursing home frequently to look after their health, but there was a limit to what they could do.
—The funerals were held properly. The problem is that Elder Go Jeongnam is also getting frail. I think it’s because the people he lived with at the nursing home for so long passed away one after another. It seems to have hit him hard emotionally.
“.......”
A memory Junho had forgotten for some time rose in his mind, and he closed his mouth.
In the apocalypse, zombies and raiders were not the only things that killed people.
The “apocalypse” itself, where loss and despair were far greater than hope, also killed people.
And now it seemed that very apocalypse was trying to swallow Elder Go Jeongnam, who had been an enormous help to the shelter as an expert in farming and livestock.
'Looks like it’s time. No, if anything, it’s already a little late.'
The surrounding forces that could become major threats had all been cleared out, with the Daeseong syndicate as the last of them.
And now that the Blossom members and combat personnel had joined them, it seemed the time had come to begin the “true purpose” of the container residence built below the shelter in earnest.
