Taaang...!
As another gunshot rang out, Junho slightly increased the speed of the electric truck.
Wiiiiing!
The two G1 attack drones diligently followed behind the vehicle.
The electric truck rounded the corner at high speed and climbed the concrete road leading toward the unit’s main gate.
Then—
“Junho, over there! Over there!”
“Tch.”
Junho clicked his tongue low as he looked ahead.
More than a hundred zombies were swarming in front of the main gate.
It seemed that because the entire area around the unit was surrounded by tall trees, and because this place was over a kilometer away from the earlier battle site, aggro had not spread this far.
Still, fortunately amidst the misfortune, the zombies in front of the gate appeared to be ordinary entities not under an Alpha’s control.
If there had been an Alpha present, the zombies would not have been mindlessly body-slamming the iron-bar gate like idiots.
“Boss, what do we do?”
“What else? We ram through.”
“Whaaaat!?”
Wiiiiiing!
The moment Junho abruptly accelerated, Baek Suho instinctively screamed and grabbed the safety handle.
***
Normally, electric trucks like this were speed-limited to around 120 kilometers per hour.
But the shelter’s electric trucks had long since had their speed limiters removed by the combined efforts of Yoon Youngsu and Baek Hail.
And the two electric trucks Junho had mobilized for this operation were originally ordinary commercial electric cargo trucks—commonly called one-ton box trucks—out of the shelter’s total fleet of ten, which Baek Hail had “slightly” modified.
First, ballistic panels had been attached to the sides and rear of the cargo compartment, and openings had been cut into the roof to allow firing while moving ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) and emergency escape.
Foldable seats had been installed on both sides so the truck could carry either cargo or personnel.
And the bumper had been removed, replaced with a blunt reinforced-plastic ram protruding from the front.
As a result, the trucks became heavier, reducing their maximum range on a full charge to barely one hundred kilometers, but since they were only intended for use inside Namyangju, that did not matter.
In any case, although Baek Hail was skilled at handling and repairing everything from machinery and construction equipment to electronics, he had always been especially obsessed with cars. His university major reflected that, and back when he ran the hardware store, he had even operated a repair garage as a hobby.
Using ballistic vehicles built by specialty manufacturers as references, he had spent several years before the apocalypse disassembling and “playing around” with a few identical truck models until he perfected the modifications.
That was the origin of this electric truck.
And now, that heavier, stronger, faster electric truck surged forward in an instant.
Wiiiiing! Deolkeong!
“Uwaaah...!?”
Kim Jimin and the squad members sitting on the crude seats—which had not been designed with passenger comfort in mind—were all startled.
Cheolkeok.
“H-hey, what’s going on!? Why all of a sudden—!?”
The moment Kim Jimin opened the observation hatch between the cargo compartment and the driver’s seat and spoke in alarm—
Tuh-tuh-tuhng...!!!
Dozens of zombies struck by the ram of the electric truck charging at one hundred kilometers per hour were flung away like mannequins.
The truck swept away everything in front of the main gate in one go, smashing through even the iron gate wrapped in chains as it entered the base.
Kkiiiiiik!
After obliterating both the zombies and the main gate, the electric truck skidded around the parade ground and stopped.
The AT tires, capable of demonstrating exceptional performance not only off-road but also in debris-covered urban terrain thanks to their powerful durability, perfectly stabilized the vehicle even during the violent acceleration and sudden stop.
“W-what the hell!?”
“A vehicle!”
People scattered throughout the base stared in horror at the electric truck that had suddenly smashed through the main gate and barged in.
Cheolkeok!
“Out! Move out!”
Ignoring them, Junho opened the cargo compartment door from the driver’s seat and shouted, prompting Kim Jimin and the squad members to disembark rapidly.
“Run straight to the point!”
At Junho’s command, everyone except him sprinted toward a designated location.
Tatatatatak!
Before departure, they had already thoroughly memorized the terrain and entry routes of the base through drone footage, and they had reviewed everything once more inside the truck.
There was no hesitation in their movement.
— Survivors at 3 o’clock have no firearms. They may be ignored.
— Survivors at 9 o’clock approaching. G1 units initiating warning fire.
On top of that, Akina continuously provided situation updates and warnings while maneuvering the attack drones to suppress threats.
That was when—
— Zombie horde entering through main gate. Approximately eighty entities.
The report that zombies were pouring in through the destroyed gate made everyone’s hair stand on end.
— They may be ignored.
But at the voice that immediately followed, nobody even glanced toward the gate and simply continued moving toward the predetermined location.
Because the person remaining behind them would handle those things.
Which meant they really could ignore them.
***
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Junho fired the Benelli M4 shotgun again.
For some strange reason, the Daeseong syndicate’s armory had possessed almost as many shotgun shells as it did 5.56mm and 9mm ammunition.
In particular, there had been over a thousand rounds each of buckshot and slug shells.
And since Lee Seokjin had decided there was not much use for shotguns, he had handed all of it over to Junho.
Junho, who wanted to conserve not only subsonic rounds but even standard NATO ammunition whenever possible, had decided to make frequent use of shotguns depending on the situation.
Especially in a remote area like this, where there were almost no other zombies nearby and only a fixed number present.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In such a case, he could freely use a shotgun despite its enormous noise.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In particular, slug rounds could hit targets more than a hundred meters away in the hands of a skilled shooter.
Cheolkak! Chachachachak!
And now that Junho had become proficient enough with shotguns to complete a reload into the tube magazine in only four seconds, he could fire far faster and more accurately than most active-duty soldiers or reservists using semiautomatic rifles.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Moreover, Junho was not firing from a fixed position or while retreating.
He was advancing directly toward the zombies while firing.
The reason was simple.
He needed the zombies focused entirely on himself rather than on the others.
No matter who ultimately became the owner of this base, he needed to negotiate with them afterward. If people died or turned into zombies because of the horde he had dragged in, the entire thing would become pointless.
— Fifty meters remaining.
Cheolkak! Chachachachak!
During the roughly twenty meters he advanced, Junho completed three full reload-and-fire cycles.
When Akina informed him the distance had closed to fifty meters, he switched to loading shells from a pouch filled with buckshot at lightning speed.
From this point onward, there was no need to aim for individual heads anymore.
If he simply aimed around neck or face level and fired—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The spread shot would scatter, striking two or three other zombies near the intended target.
And if he aimed around thigh level—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Kwaaaak! Kyaak!
Zombies with shattered knee joints, femurs, and shinbones collapsed two or three at a time, sliding across the parade ground from the momentum of their charge.
In the end, by the time the eighty-plus zombies from the front gate reached within roughly ten meters of Junho, only a handful remained.
Shiik! Shwing!
The rest crumpled to the ground with their torsos and heads separated by the machete.
“Hoo....”
Using nothing but a Benelli M4 shotgun—considered one of the worst weapons imaginable in the apocalypse—and a machete, Junho wiped out the entire horde and lightly steadied his breathing.
Grrr...! Kyaa...!
Quite a few zombies were still crawling along the ground with their lower bodies destroyed, but Junho ignored them and turned around.
“You’re just going to stand there watching!? You can handle things like that yourselves, can’t you?”
He shouted toward the people hiding behind barricades piled high with lockers, military beds, desks, and furniture, staring at him with their mouths hanging open.
***
“Th-thank you. Thank you so much.”
A man in his mid-thirties who introduced himself as Kim Sangmin repeatedly expressed his gratitude toward Junho.
The other survivors—filthy and ragged from being unable to properly shave or even cut their hair—looked at Junho with mixed emotions of gratitude, fear, and awe.
“U-um... how exactly did you end up here? Are you perhaps active-duty military?”
Between the tactical multicam uniform, tactical vest, and firearms, Junho clearly did not look like Republic of Korea military personnel, but Kim Sangmin cautiously asked anyway.
At that, the faces of the dozen or so survivors behind him became even more tense.
Because no matter how one looked at it, the current situation was civilians assaulting a military base.
“I’m not military. But those guys are active-duty.”
“......!”
When Junho pointed toward his group carefully approaching the barracks building, Kim Sangmin and the other survivors’ expressions stiffened instantly upon seeing the squad members.
“Anyway, I came here because I had business to handle. And I already more or less know what’s been happening here.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that...?”
Without answering, Junho pointed toward the sky.
As if on cue, everyone looked upward simultaneously.
“Gah?”
“A d-drone? Is that a drone?”
It hovered at an unbelievable altitude of around two hundred meters, but because it was industrial-grade and fairly large, anyone who looked carefully could tell immediately that it was a drone.
Birds did not hover motionlessly in one place like that.
“I’ve been observing the situation here for around two hours. So I roughly know what’s been going on.”
In reality, it had not even been a full hour, but Junho deliberately exaggerated.
He wanted to pressure them with the implication:
'I watched everything you people did from the beginning.'
And on top of that, the person saying it was someone who had just slaughtered that many zombies with a shotgun and chopped off heads with a blade like some martial arts monster.
Under those circumstances, it became almost impossible not to tell the truth.
“Y-you’re serious? You saw all of it? Then you know what those fucking soldier bastards did too, right? Those sons of bitches—”
“.......”
The situation already seemed very different from what he had initially assumed, so Junho remained silent for the moment.
Taaang...! Taaang...!
At that moment, gunfire erupted again from the barracks area, and Junho reflexively turned his head toward the sound.
“They fired at us?”
— No. Looks like the soldiers fired at the civilians who stormed the barracks. Ah! One just went down. What should we do?
After hearing Kim Jimin’s report, Junho rapidly finished calculating the situation and spoke.
“Rescue them first, then pull back. Akina, can you send the A1 drones to draw their attention?”
— Possible. A1 rapid deployment initiated.
“When the drones start suppression fire, move in and extract them.”
— Understood.
As soon as Junho ended the communication, Kim Sangmin hurriedly spoke up.
“Are more people coming? Are you helping us?”
He did not know what Akina or A1 meant, but Kim Sangmin could at least tell more reinforcements were arriving.
“We’ll save your group first. Whether we help beyond that depends on the situation.”
“Ah....”
Kim Sangmin’s face darkened instantly with disappointment.
He and the other survivors all looked like they wanted to say more to Junho, but none of them dared.
Because regardless of his oppressive physique, Junho was still holding the shotgun.
“E-excuse me.”
Just as Kim Sangmin, apparently acting as their representative, finally gathered the courage to step forward—
— Chik! Chiiik!
— Ahhh, ahhh! I warn all unauthorized personnel who have illegally infiltrated this unit!
— Immediately disarm yourselves and surrender! This area is under the operational control of the Republic of Korea Army! Failure to comply will result in armed response!
— I warn you again! This unit is currently—
A voice dripping with arrogance echoed throughout the base over the loudspeakers.
“...Is this bastard insane?”
For the first time in a long while, Junho caught the strong scent of a genuine villain, and his eyebrow twitched.
