The Apocalypse Regressor's All-Purpose Shelter

'Lucky.'

The plan to use the drone to identify the highest point on Maebong Mountain, climb up there, and attempt radio contact with the UDT team at Nanji World Cup Park had succeeded, but in truth, Junho himself had thought the odds were fifty-fifty.

According to Park Seongtaek, the active-duty Marine whose specialty was communications, the PRC-999K equipped with a long antenna had an effective communication range of around eight kilometers.

And the distance from here to World Cup Park was exactly eight kilometers.

On top of that, there was no guarantee the UDT operators would even be using a PRC-999K, or that they would know the Capital Recapture Force code name “Halla” and have the channel open.

Still, there was nothing to lose, so the moment the radio battery reached thirty percent, they tried it.

And somehow, it had actually worked.

“Damn, though. This place is even worse than Wonmi Mountain.”

Beside Junho, hidden together in the bushes, Shin Hocheol whispered quietly.

Earlier, in the middle of this deadly serious situation, he had jokingly quoted a famous line from a Vietnam War horror movie over the radio and gotten showered with curses and irritated yelling for it.

But Junho did not think it was a bad thing.

In situations this brutal, a single joke helping keep not only yourself but your comrades mentally together was far more valuable than people realized.

“This mountain’s much lower than Wonmi Mountain, and there are apartment complexes all around it. Plus, most of the residents lived here long-term, and nearly the entire mountain was developed into parkland, so there were probably tons of people exercising here even before the outbreak.”

Chunui Mountain and Wonmi Mountain had also been right in the middle of Bucheon, so many survivors had hidden there or used them as movement routes, but they could not compare to Waryong Mountain and Maebong Mountain.

And unlike Wonmi Mountain, where there had been relatively few zombies, this place had zombies scattered all over the parks along the foothills near the residential neighborhoods and apartment complexes.

There was a very high probability that many of them were slave zombies sent by an Alpha, which was why the group had no choice but to quietly sneak past them instead of killing them.

Fortunately, though, Saekkeut Grace Church owned an enormous amount of land, and the property sat directly against the foothills, so getting close was not especially difficult.

***

“Damn. Looks like these cult bastards had a lot of money.”

“No kidding. Even if it’s the outskirts, owning this much land inside Seoul is insane.”

The reservists stared at the tablet screen linked to the drone controller and muttered in admiration.

“This church has been established here for over thirty years. The original pastor died, and his son inherited it and expanded it even more. They had thousands of followers. People even came from other neighborhoods to attend services.”

And it was not just the church itself that had grown.

There were numerous businesses registered under the family’s name as well.

As far as Junho knew, they probably had not reached full mid-sized corporation level, but they had definitely surpassed the scale of an ordinary small business.

“Seriously? But how do you know all this so well?”

“One of my acquaintances used to go here. Born into the religion.”

Naturally, Junho could not exactly answer that he had once lived there before the regression, so he simply gave a bitter smile and brushed the question aside.

“Ahh. But there are a ton of people there. How the hell have they survived this long?”

“Yeah. Looks like there are definitely over a hundred people.”

The reservists muttered doubtfully.

Which was understandable.

Even now, past nine at night, dozens of people could already be seen moving around the compound through the drone camera.

And considering the size of the church, that clearly was not all of them.

There were probably at least two or three times more people inside.

“The church store must’ve been huge.”

“You think?”

“Oh, wait. The church I went to as a kid had a massive store too. It was basically a convenience store.”

Just as one of the reservists said, the store inside Saekkeut Grace Church had been exactly the same.

Weekend services alone brought in thousands of worshippers, so they had operated a fairly large convenience-store-sized shop inside the church.

And that was not all.

'The outbreak happened literally the day before their summer church camp started.'

Like most churches, this one also held multi-day youth retreats every summer vacation.

And by sheer luck, the second summer camp session had been scheduled to begin the day after the infection outbreak started.

Meaning supplies for nearly a thousand participants had already been fully stocked in advance.

That included large quantities of seeds for the church-owned gardens and vinyl greenhouses, prepared for youth “hands-on farming activities” and similar programs.

That was how nearly a hundred people had managed to survive until now.

Of course, that was not the whole story.

Junho knew perfectly well how they had really survived this long.

But he could not tell these men that.

If he revealed details that were too specific, suspicion would inevitably follow.

“Um, excuse me.”

At that moment, Park Seongtaek, the only active-duty soldier among them, carefully whispered:

“Are those people really all cult believers?”

“No. Probably not all of them.”

“Huh? Then....”

Junho looked around at the eyes staring at him—eyes clearly asking whether they really intended to kill innocent people too, not just fanatics sacrificing humans to zombies—and answered calmly:

“If we open an escape route, the ones who aren’t believers will run on their own. Watch the screen carefully.”

“...?”

The men huddled together, helmets nearly touching as they focused on the tablet display.

Then all of them widened their eyes slightly.

“They blocked the road right in front of the church entrance.”

Saekkeut Grace Church owned such a huge property that, when the outbreak happened, they had already prepared around ten tour buses to transport summer-camp participants.

And they had dragged those buses across the road, completely blocking not only the roadway but the sidewalks on both sides as well.

“No, if they blocked everything like that, how are people supposed to escape?”

“Look carefully. What’s running parallel to the road?”

“Huh? Ah...!”

Oh Hyunsu flinched before nodding.

“The subway tracks. They made a passage there.”

“Exactly. And on the other side of the tracks...”

Junho maneuvered the drone to show the area beyond Line 1.

“Holy shit.”

“A redevelopment district... it’s all factories and warehouses.”

The opposite sides of the church property bordered schools, apartment complexes, and residential areas.

But directly across the road and subway tracks from Saekkeut Grace Church were nothing but factories and warehouses.

Even though Seoul was a megacity, the outer districts were often like this.

“Once you get past that area, there’s a mountain immediately behind it, right? That mountain range continues all the way to Gwangmyeong.”

And once you crossed through the mountains into Gwangmyeong, there were fields and vinyl greenhouse farming areas.

From there, people could continue through mountains and expressways, passing Gwanak Mountain and Cheonggye Mountain before eventually reaching Namhansanseong.

It would be hellishly dangerous and brutally difficult, of course.

“The cult fanatics probably won’t leave church property unless they absolutely have to. But the people trapped there against their will—or those just surviving because they have no choice—will probably hide in factories or warehouses beyond the tracks, or flee into the mountains.”

Of course, zombies would probably move that way too.

“So we don’t need to worry too much about the people inside. What matters is this...”

Junho’s eyes sharpened coldly.

“We need to kill as many of those bastards as possible and make the biggest mess we can.”

That way, all the zombies in the surrounding area would converge here.

And the resulting chain reaction would draw even some of the Alphas from Guro-gu and Yangcheon-gu.

“Remember this. The more we attract, the better.”

This operation might become the single greatest achievement since the apocalypse began in Korea.

***

May 17, 2025 — 22:30 hours.

West Sea XX Fleet, Daegu-class frigate XX.

“...That’s absurd. We can’t trust unverified information and act on it.”

“That’s exactly why I’m saying we should at least send reconnaissance assets! A helicopter or drones!”

“No, why are you saying this when you know better than anyone how low our fuel reserves are? We only have enough for three or four flights left. We can’t waste them.”

On the bridge, a naval officer and a government official in a suit argued heatedly.

The cause was the transmission they had received from the UDT team infiltrated near the Han River several hours earlier.

“You’re telling me some unknown special-forces group entered Bucheon through the Ara Waterway, killed zombies, survived, moved all the way to Guro, discovered some cult organization, and those cultists are performing human sacrifices for zombies to strengthen them? Ha! Does any of that sound believable to you?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“Sir!”

“No, listen. Our people reported the same thing twice. Honestly, I ignored it the first time too. Thought it was bullshit. But then they reported the exact same thing again. Halla One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Those are actual code signs used by the Capital Recapture Force that departed from Jeju, aren’t they?”

“Well, yes, but...”

At that moment, one officer who had remained silent until now because he technically had no place in the discussion finally spoke.

“Excuse me, but the coordinates the operators provided are less than thirty kilometers away. Deploying a Lynx helicopter would not be a major burden.”

“What? Captain, even you?”

“Because I’m the captain. This ship falls under my authority.”

“...!?”

The government representative sent by the administration that had fled to Jeju narrowed his eyes sharply before scowling.

“Are you saying you intend to ignore the orders of the Republic of Korea government? Is this some Chinese or Japanese ship?”

But the large, rough-looking middle-aged Navy lieutenant colonel remained completely unmoved.

“I’m doing this precisely because this is a Republic of Korea Navy vessel. We can send a helicopter, and the coordinates themselves are already within naval gunfire range.”

Not to mention they had not yet fired a single Haeseong anti-ship missile or Haeryong land-attack missile.

If they launched every missile aboard, then followed up with bombardment from the 127mm KMk.45 Mod 4 naval gun—

“We can completely flatten the target radius the UDT boys gave us. And whether it’s the Lynx helicopter or that unidentified friendly force supposedly waiting there... if they continue relaying battlefield information from the target zone, we can conduct even more precise strikes.”

“Captain! If you keep acting like this, it’ll become a serious problem!”

The suited bureaucrat exploded angrily, practically threatening him.

But the frigate captain only stared back coldly.

“A problem? In a world like this, what exactly could possibly get worse?”

“W-Well...”

“Fire me if you want. Handle it yourselves.”

The Navy lieutenant colonel had already decided to retire after the joint military exercise conducted right before the infection outbreak began.

His promotion path had long since collapsed.

He had no lingering attachments left.

“Then Deputy Director, I’ll deploy reconnaissance assets under my authority for now.”

“Do it.”

The captain snapped a crisp salute toward the grinning deputy director.

And the name engraved on his dog tag was:

Choi Gilheon.

***

“Yes. Understood. Then we’ll proceed that way. Right. Confirmed.”

After finishing radio communication with the UDT team at World Cup Park, Junho turned ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) toward the now much larger group of more than ten stranded soldiers.

“The Navy ship off the coast near Incheon is sending a Super Lynx helicopter.”

“Ooooh!”

The men quietly clenched their fists and cheered.

Junho continued:

“But because of fuel shortages, it can’t stay long. And honestly, it doesn’t seem like they fully believe us yet. They said they’re just coming to verify things first, so we’ll need to time the transmission correctly.”

“Still, that’s huge.”

“Right? Fucking finally, we get to smash those zombie bastards properly.”

“And those fucking cult freaks feeding them too. Bastards worse than animals.”

Even though most of them had been conscripted almost by force, they still had not forgotten their duty—or the bare minimum moral obligation they carried as human beings.

'Which is why, before the regression, they attacked without caring about the consequences.'

If Junho had not possessed knowledge from before the regression—

He probably never would have contacted these men, nor coordinated with the UDT to attack the cult.

Because in the apocalypse, armed stranded soldiers and deserters were just as dangerous as looters, and just as impossible to trust easily.

But Junho had personally seen it before the regression.

When these men attacked the Final Judgment Society, they had not fired upon people dressed in ragged civilian clothing like himself instead of the cult’s uniform robes.

So if it was these men...

“We move just before sunrise tomorrow. Once daylight comes, more zombies will definitely gather.”

It might become the first time since the regression that Junho openly attracted not hundreds, but thousands—possibly tens of thousands—of zombies in broad daylight.

But it would also save far more survivors than that.

And bring Junho himself even greater benefits.

Click. Clack.

“Let’s fucking go...”

The reservists’ eyes gleamed with savage intensity.