He had thrown grenades before during his military service.
And at Redrock Academy, he had tossed practice grenades countless times during CQB training.
But when a real grenade exploded inside a building barely twenty meters away, the destructive power was on an entirely different level.
The windows blowing out completely and spewing debris and dust everywhere was one thing, but the violent vibration that shook even the ground was beyond imagination.
Of course, before the regression, he had seen attack helicopters, tanks, and armored units bombard targets from afar several times.
But experiencing such a powerful explosion from this close for the first time meant even Junho could not help being shaken.
“I’ll need to be more careful from now on....”
No matter how far his physical abilities surpassed normal human limits, getting caught in an explosion like that guaranteed he would be reduced to chunks of meat.
Because of that, Junho reflected on how, recently, he had grown a little overconfident and slightly arrogant.
“What’s the situation?”
— Assessing the blast site.
— No reaction yet from the other buildings containing the Alpha and subordinate entities. Survivors also remain stationary.
— Some of the entities surrounding the objective point are moving toward the explosion site. More than one hundred entities. Approximate distance: 900 meters.
That meant the zombies near the reserve-force unit would reach this location in roughly five minutes.
Of course, if no further loud noise occurred, they would probably stop midway and turn back.
And normally, this would be the point where retreating became the standard move.
If he caused any more commotion, he could easily end up surrounded by nearly three hundred zombies once the Alpha and slave zombies in this area were included.
But Junho had no intention of retreating.
“So this bastard’s still testing the waters.”
An Alpha controlling more than 150 slaves was basically a feudal lord in a rural area like this.
More than seven months had already passed since the apocalypse began, meaning it likely had extensive combat experience against survivors and had probably defeated competing Alphas as well.
In other words, even if it had fewer slaves than Alpha D from Gahyeon-ri or the Parking Lot Alpha, it was several levels more cunning.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A warning alarm suddenly rang through his headset.
— Large number of zombies emerging from the residential area behind the road. More than 300 entities. Advancing through the alleys.
“What? Toward where?”
— Toward the direction where Group Two and Group Three are waiting.
— The Alpha has exited through the rear doors of the buildings it had been hiding in. Subordinate entities: seventy, eighty or more.
— Alpha confirmed joining them. Moving at high speed. Estimated contact with Group Two and Group Three within three minutes.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
— Zombies waiting inside four buildings are beginning movement. Exercise caution.
“...!”
Grrraaaah...! Kyaaaak...!
The moment Junho stiffened, loud noises erupted from four buildings beside and across from the billiards hall.
“Oh, look at this little bastard...?”
His expression turning icy, Junho immediately issued rapid instructions to Akina.
“Warn Junhyeok’s side and Groups Two and Three. Have them fall back immediately. Slowly, no rushing. Deploy all G1s for cover support and launch the A1s.”
— Confirmed.
Gwoooork!!! Kraaah!!!
At that moment, more than a hundred zombies burst out from the four buildings, charging while surrounding Junho from the front and both flanks.
Junho moved {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} with machine-like precision, rapidly raising the M4 shotgun and pulling the trigger.
KWAAANG!
A deafening blast tore through the air, accompanied by recoil so powerful it could not even be compared to the AR-15.
Had it been his body from before the regression, he would have been shoved backward and staggered.
But Junho merely twitched one shoulder as if an ordinary person were firing an air rifle, his shooting stance not wavering in the slightest.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
After emptying the remaining seven shells from the tube in an instant, Junho grabbed multiple shells from his pouch at once—ammunition ordinary people had to load one by one.
Using only the feeling in his fingertips to confirm their position and orientation, he moved his fingers rapidly.
Tak-tak. Tak-tak.
Four shells slid into the tube magazine in the blink of an eye.
Then, repeating the same motion once more like lightning, Junho fired continuously at the zombies that had already closed to within ten meters.
BANGBANGBANGBANG!!!
From starting the reload to emptying the shotgun again took barely four seconds.
For an ordinary person, it usually took over fifteen seconds, and even someone experienced with shotguns or a trained soldier would need around ten.
It was an absurdly unrealistic speed.
But using a shotgun against a horde of a hundred zombies rushing you was not merely inefficient—it was downright stupid.
Even so, the reason Junho deliberately reloaded and fired the shotgun again was simple.
He needed to keep drawing the zombies not controlled by the local Alpha, along with the ones coming from the reserve-force unit’s direction, toward himself instead of Groups Two and Three.
Bang! Bang!
After instantly erasing the heads of seven zombies with seven shots, Junho threw the shotgun straight to the ground and simultaneously hurled a grenade—with the safety pin already removed—into the middle of the incoming horde before drawing his machete and commando dagger.
KWA-AAAAANG...!!!
Another thunderous explosion erupted, blasting dozens of zombies into chunks of flesh.
“Hsss...!”
Quickly regulating his breathing, Junho launched himself like a spring toward the cannibal monsters, their hair disheveled, jaws stretched wide to reveal teeth stained beyond yellow into brown.
***
— Plan B. Initiating Plan B. All personnel form up and retreat.
“Oh, fuck! Hey! It’s Plan B!”
“Goddammit!”
Cursing loudly, the squad members scrambled to their feet and formed up.
Wiiiiing!
The four G1 attack drones that had been spread around on overwatch rapidly returned and positioned themselves in front of the squad.
“Just do it exactly like we practiced! Assistant squad leader group moves first!”
So rushed that he accidentally used the unit’s original designation instead of “Group Three,” Staff Sergeant Park Jiyong lowered his body and took a firing stance.
“Move! Move!”
At his command, the assistant squad leader and Group Three sprinted behind the paddy ridge.
About thirty meters into their retreat—
Krrrroooooar...!!!
Hundreds of zombies could be seen charging toward them from afar.
— Distance: 410 meters. Group Two, begin retreat.
“Move!”
Staff Sergeant Park Jiyong and Group Two ran while the G1 attack drones retreated backward at their pace, gun barrels still facing forward.
Meanwhile, the assistant squad leader and Group Three dropped into kneeling firing positions and aimed at the approaching zombies.
— Distance: 340 meters. Group Three, begin retreat.
Group Three immediately turned and sprinted back without looking behind them, while Group Two took position and raised their rifles.
“Don’t run too fast! Jog! Keep it at jogging speed!”
Their bodies were already weighed down by weapons and equipment. If they sprinted at full speed, their sights would become unstable when firing.
So the soldiers moved at a controlled pace, exactly as Junho had instructed.
— Distance: 310 meters. Group Two, begin firing. Group Three, continue retreat.
“Single shots at first! Less than ten rounds! Less than ten!”
Tat-tang! Tang! Tat-tang!
Gunfire erupted, and several lead zombies collapsed into the fields.
But most either stood back up or began crawling along the ground, meaning none had been killed outright.
— Distance: 250 meters. Group Three, begin firing. Group Two, continue retreat. G1 units engaging.
Pa-pang! Paang! Paang! Paang!
As Staff Sergeant Park and the squad members moved, the attack drones retreated in sync with them while firing tungsten rounds.
Unlike the soldiers, the drones directly controlled by AI Akina possessed extraordinarily high accuracy.
In just over ten seconds of moving fire, the four attack drones either killed outright or rendered combat-ineffective more than twenty zombies.
— Group Two, continue retreat. Group Three—
Following Akina’s instructions, humans and drones retreated in sequence while maintaining uninterrupted fire.
Tat-tang! Tang! Tang-tang!
Wiiiiing! Paang! Paang! Pa-pang!
The combat was so fluid and natural it could only be described as the textbook example of manned-unmanned integrated warfare.
But compared to the sheer number of incoming zombies, they had far too few people.
And that meant insufficient firepower.
More importantly, these were not ordinary zombies.
They were entities operating under an Alpha’s command.
— Targets dividing into two groups.
The cunning Alpha split the horde into two directions instead of advancing in a single mass.
“Fuck... this is bad....”
Just as Staff Sergeant Park Jiyong’s face twisted despite his steady firing—
— The flanking entities will be handled by the G1 units. Groups Two and Three, focus on the frontal targets.
Giiiiing. Paang! Paang! Paang!
The attack drones rapidly shifted their gun barrels mid-movement and opened fire on the flanking zombie group.
But with two of the four drones diverted, the firepower facing forward became even thinner.
At this rate, the zombies—more than half of them still remaining—would reach close quarters within seconds.
“Fuck! They’re almost here! Just hold on a little longer!”
“Hahk, hahk, hahk....”
Unlike Junho, these were ordinary soldiers, not superhumans. Their stamina was steadily dropping.
And as their stamina fell, their aim worsened, meaning fewer zombies were being dropped compared to earlier.
The distance between them and the horde had already shrunk to roughly one hundred meters.
“One magazine left!”
“Two here!”
On top of that, the six magazines each man had brought were nearly exhausted.
Even so, Staff Sergeant Park Jiyong and the squad members did not panic.
— Thirty meters to objective point. Group Three, retreat and begin firing. Group Two, continue sprinting to the objective point.
Tatatang! Tat-tang! Click. Click.
“UAAAAAH!”
After dumping every remaining round except for a single magazine into the zombies that had advanced to within fifty meters, Staff Sergeant Park Jiyong let out a roar and turned to run.
His breath was ragged and burning in his throat, but he gritted his teeth and kept running.
— Twenty meters. Ten meters. Objective point reached. Take cover.
Even in this situation, the operator lady’s voice remained so cold and calm she sounded like a machine.
The moment her announcement ended—
Papapapang...! Papapang...!
Tat-tang! Tang! Tat-tang!
The G1 attack drones that had remained behind instead of joining the operation, along with Junhyeok and Baek Suho, opened fire from perfectly positioned crossfire angles.
***
Taaang! Taaang!
Junhyeok was firing not his AR-15 but an ownerless K2C1 acquired from Major Lee Seokjin’s unit.
They needed to conserve subsonic ammunition, and in a battle like this where stealth was unnecessary, there was no reason for him to use a suppressed AR-15 too.
As a result, firing the K2C1—perfectly zeroed and equipped with a magnified scope at the shelter’s underground range—made Junhyeok feel as if he had returned to his active-duty special-forces days.
Taaang! Taaang! Taaang!
Every time the somewhat heavier recoil—different from the AR-15—struck his shoulder, a zombie’s head burst apart inside the scope.
Of course, the things moved so insanely that only about one in every three or four shots landed.
But that was fine.
The A1 and G1 drones were already showing extremely high accuracy, and if they just held out a little longer—
“...Huh?”
Staring through the scope, Junhyeok’s eyes widened.
Dozens of zombies had begun exhibiting behavior he had never seen before.
“B-boss!? That thing, that thing right now!”
Hearing Baek Suho’s flustered shout, Junhyeok muttered in disbelief even while startled himself.
“That bastard just made zombie shields?”
That was exactly what happened.
The zombies were lifting dead or incapacitated members of their own kind, crouching low behind them while covering their faces as they advanced.
And that was undoubtedly an order from their master—the Alpha.
Junhyeok had heard plenty of stories from Junho, but experiencing an Alpha’s cunning firsthand in real combat truly surpassed imagination.
“What do we do!?”
“What do you mean what? Keep shooting!”
The confusion lasted only a moment before Junhyeok resumed firing.
By now, it had already been seven or eight minutes since Groups Two and Three began retreating after hearing the situation from Junho and Akina.
And that meant—
— Master Lee Junho will join within thirty seconds. Estimated rear strike against the entity presumed to be the Alpha.
That boss was about to come charging in carrying a tank—
No, a machete—to smash those bastards’ heads apart.
