The Apocalypse Regressor's All-Purpose Shelter

After finishing the briefing regarding the provisional “Nami Island Raider Group,” Junho headed to the control room.

“You awake?”

“Yeah. Just got up.”

“Sorry. You should’ve gotten more sleep.”

“It’s fine. Heard something happened though?”

Yoon Youngsu asked while yawning, slumped into his chair in a tracksuit.

“Yeah. The people you mentioned before finally sent a recon team.”

“The people I mentioned before? Ahhh, Cheongpyeong? Holy shit. Already?”

“Yeah. Except they weren’t from Cheongpyeong. They were from Nami Island. Since it’s pretty far from here, that means they learned about us much earlier than we thought.”

As Junho manipulated the external PTZ cameras with the mouse, the main monitor split into two screens displaying live drone footage tracking the enemy teams.

“These guys.”

“Damn. They’re pretty serious about this....”

Yoon Youngsu pushed up his glasses and muttered under his breath.

The recon team moving by land had already passed through Daeseong Tunnel and was approaching the Yeongho-ri direction through the mountain routes.

Another team had gone downriver by boat toward Paldang Lake before turning back upstream, scouting the entire Bukhan River.

“Okay, sure, the boat makes sense. But those mountain electric bikes are expensive as hell. Guess there are actually people besides you who prepared stuff like that, boss?”

Junho shook his head at Youngsu’s half-impressed comment.

“No chance. Nami Island and the surrounding areas are packed with resorts and leisure-tourism facilities. They looted all of it from pensions and resorts nearby.”

The group possessed all kinds of powered boats, jet skis, even ATVs.

And because they had been looting continuously this whole time, they apparently had plenty of fuel stockpiled too.

Thanks to solar panels, they didn’t even have electricity problems.

“Pool villas, pensions, leisure centers. After the outbreak started, they looted every worthwhile place along the Bukhan River around Gapyeong and Chuncheon. Apparently part of the Gapyeong police force joined them too.”

“The police? Then they’ve got guns?”

“Yeah. They emptied the entire police armory.”

Every police station stored firearms and ammunition.

And in regions like Gapyeong, police stations actually possessed more guns than urban precincts.

Because of hunting rifles.

The region had plenty of wild boars and deer, and since it was a major leisure-tourism destination, the police also stored a large number of civilian-owned firearms.

“I always thought it was strange that one group managed to dominate such a huge area. But if they’ve got that many guns, it changes things.”

On top of that, their base itself was an island, making it difficult for rival groups to approach in the first place.

“The very first thing Park Gyumin did after taking full control of the island was rip out CCTV cameras and set them up around the perimeter.”

And gasoline or diesel-powered boats were incredibly loud, making stealth infiltration nearly impossible.

Since the area catered heavily to water sports tourism, there weren’t even any slow, quiet electric-motor boats like the one Junho had used during the Bucheon expedition.

“Wow... honestly, hiding on an island really is overpowered in the apocalypse.”

“If you’ve got enough people for round-the-clock surveillance, plus food, water, and guns, it’s not bad. But even that has limits.”

Even islands floating in the middle of the sea eventually got discovered or invaded.

There was no way someplace as famous and visible as Nami Island—sitting right in the middle of a river—could stay safe forever.

“If even a company-sized military unit had shown up, they would’ve been wiped out ages ago. They just got lucky.”

The only reason Park Gyumin and the Nami Island raiders had survived this long while committing atrocities was because they had never encountered a real opponent.

Another reason they’d lasted so long was because the region had originally been a packed riverside tourist destination during peak summer holidays.

There had simply been too many zombies for ordinary military units to approach easily.

Humans—including the military—could cross rivers.

Zombies couldn’t.

Even an Alpha couldn’t make zombies swim across a river.

“Still, they’re not ordinary. Huh? They’re using drones too?”

Yoon Youngsu’s eyes widened when he saw the raiders near Yangsu-ri launching a drone from their motorboat.

But unlike the shelter’s drones, theirs still had altitude restrictions enabled.

Meaning the raiders had absolutely no idea someone far above them was already watching everything.

“So what’re you planning to do with them?”

“Kill them all.”

Junho answered emotionlessly.

Yoon Youngsu unconsciously swallowed dryly.

“Then... are you handling them personally too?”

“No.”

“Huh? Then...?”

Junho shook his head and opened a wireless channel connecting every operational zone within the shelter territory.

“Groups like these need to be hit simultaneously.”

***

“Yes. We confirmed it too. Right. Understood. Don’t worry.”

After ending the transmission with Junho, the staff sergeant turned around.

Seven fully armed squad members were watching him.

“Orders came down from Junho. We’re handling them.”

“Yes, sir!”

“The shelter side will provide drone control and firing support. Check your ammo and life vests. Move out.”

At the staff sergeant’s order, the squad hurried after him.

Lee Wonoh and the Welcome Karaoke Bar survivors watched them leave with tense expressions.

Then one of the young women suddenly called out loudly.

“Hyunjun-ah! Don’t get hurt!”

“I won’t. I’ll be back soon.”

The staff sergeant grinned at the woman his age who had recently become his girlfriend.

Just as Junho had expected, some of the soldiers dispatched to the water leisure sports center had naturally paired off with the women living there.

And it wasn’t just the former karaoke-bar girls.

Most of the young women Junho had rescued from places like Moku-ri had ended up here too.

Not all of them, but some had formed relationships with the young soldiers.

In this ruined world overflowing with flesh-eating zombies, people who had finally regained safety and emotional stability naturally leaned toward those sharing the same protected space.

No—

because the world had become this horrifying, people sought psychological safety and security even more desperately.

And the soldiers of Major Lee Seokjin’s detached unit—personally vouched for by Junho, the strongest shield they knew and the man who had effectively saved them—fit that role perfectly.

“Check the boat camouflage!”

“No problems!”

“Good. Start the motors and standby. Assistant squad leader’s team moves first.”

“Understood.”

Two boats camouflaged beneath tarps, branches, bushes, and floating debris slowly departed the dock carrying four soldiers each.

Mounted on the inflatable boats were electric motors supplied by Junho.

- Distance to target: 2.7 kilometers.

- Target passed Yangsu Railway Bridge.

- Target speed: 10 knots. Approximately 18 kilometers per hour.

- Reduce speed.

Listening to the cold voice of the operator—always somehow sounding sexy—the soldiers lying flat inside the boats checked the tablets Junho had distributed earlier.

Real-time video feeds displayed both the target looter boat and their own positions.

And that wasn’t all.

- Distance approximately 600 meters.

- Analysis of target movement pattern complete. Estimated stationary stop within 3 minutes.

- Maintain current speed and direction.

The operator’s voice—calm and professional, somehow conjuring the image of an office worker in a white blouse and skirt—perfectly predicted when the looters would stop their boat and launch their drone for reconnaissance.

- Distance approximately 230 meters. Contact in 10 seconds.

The operator then guided the speed and direction of the squad’s disguised boats so they would naturally drift past the enemy vessel like ordinary floating debris moving down the Bukhan River.

Then—

- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Open fire.

She issued the firing command in an icy voice.

RATATATAT! THUD! THUD! THUD!

K2C1 rifle fire echoed chaotically across the seven-hundred-meter-wide Bukhan River.

The concentrated volley from only fifty meters away transformed both the raiders and their boat into a shredded wreck almost instantly.

- All down. No survivors.

The operator’s voice still carried no emotion whatsoever.

Which somehow only made it sound even cooler—and sexier.

Suppressing his excitement, the staff sergeant opened his radio channel.

“Situation complete. Reporting once again. Bukhan River sector secured.”

- Confirmed. Good work.

“Yes, bro.”

It wasn’t the operator noona he’d secretly hoped to hear from.

Still, hearing Junho’s steady praise immediately put the staff sergeant at ease.

***

- Targets eliminated. What should we do with their gear?

“If there’s anything useful, feel free to keep it. The electric bikes and drones should still be usable.”

- Oh. Understood.

Because the Yeongho-ri Agricultural Cooperative warehouse was much larger than the water sports center and housed far more personnel, an entire platoon had been stationed there under one of two lieutenants.

- Damn, these electric MTBs are expensive. The drones are decent too.

Even though the shelter regularly supported them with drone operations whenever needed, the lieutenant sounded genuinely excited at the prospect of finally having drones of their own.

Thanks to the solar infrastructure, the warehouse had no electricity concerns, meaning the electric bicycles would also prove useful.

“That’s good to hear. You can keep the air rifles too.”

- Yes, sir.

“And for the time being, tighten your night-watch and guard rotations. Those bastards might try coming through the mountains.”

- Understood.

Things in Yeongho-ri were progressing fairly well.

Following Junho’s instructions, the detached unit at the warehouse had steadily pushed inward from the outer perimeter, methodically capturing buildings and sectors one by one.

And with support from the shelter and the Gahyeon-ri extermination teams, they had recently succeeded in exterminating every zombie remaining in Yeongho 2-ri.

There had been Alphas, of course.

But Junho had already killed the strongest one, and because Yeongho-ri itself was such a small, isolated area, the remaining Alphas had naturally faced growth limitations.

In the end, another Alpha commanding barely a hundred slave zombies had literally melted under the overwhelming firepower of a full platoon.

- Then we’ll return and prepare immediately.

“Prepare?”

- Yes. You’re planning to wipe out the Nami Island bastards, right?

“Ah. That....”

Junho genuinely appreciated how naturally the lieutenant assumed they would participate too.

“It’s fine. We don’t know the region well enough. Too many people would actually make things more dangerous.”

- Huh? Then only your people are going?

“Yeah. For operations like this, smaller teams work better.”

Already fully geared up and checking his equipment one final time, Junho spoke in a cold voice.

The “simultaneous strikes” he had mentioned earlier weren’t limited to the recon teams sent into their territory.

Nami Island itself—the enemy stronghold—needed to be hit immediately too.

According to the man in the black cap, the recon team was scheduled to return in three days.

If they failed to return within that timeframe—or failed to leave their report at a predetermined location—the raiders would almost certainly dispatch a larger force.

And this time, they would all be armed with real firearms.

Which meant Junho had to finish everything within three days.

As the saying went—

the best defense was an attack.

And outside the shelter’s operational range—where AI Akina couldn’t provide direct combat support—it was far more efficient for Junho to move only with a handful of fully proven personnel.

And besides—

“Akina. I’m recording with the body cam this time, so analyze it after we get back.”

- Understood.

Destroying the enemy in retaliation for crossing the line first was only one objective.

After evolving once again during the Bucheon expedition, Junho also wanted to verify exactly how far his physical abilities had advanced.

What were his current limits?

Against the filth of the apocalypse—people who had already killed more humans than most Alphas ever would—

Lee Junho intended to find out.