“Director.”
“Yes, sir. Go right ahead.”
Park Chanyeong, the head of Woorim Engineering Design Office and a man past fifty, answered politely.
The fact that Junho was young enough to be his son wasn’t a problem at all.
This was the first major project he had taken on in nearly three years, and Baek Hail—who had long been like a brother to him—had already told him all about the client in advance, so he was fully on edge in the best way.
“You’ve probably already heard from President Baek Hail, so I’ll speak plainly. This place won’t be taking ordinary guests. It’s going to be a private site used only by thoroughly vetted VIPs.”
“Yes, yes. President Baek has told me that several times already.”
“Right. First, the materials should all be top-grade, but the exterior can’t look flashy. If something happens, it has to look like an ordinary pension. Outside and inside, it needs to look very normal. Especially from the outside, I’d prefer it to read more like a research building or a mixed-use commercial residence. Like this—keep it as simple as possible.”
When Junho held out the tablet screen, Park Chanyeong studied it carefully, then nodded.
“I understand exactly what you mean. So basically, I just follow President Baek’s lead here, right?”
“Yes. I’ll stop by from time to time, but President Baek Hail will practically be on site. Anyway, I hope you’ll coordinate well with President Baek and with CEO Hwang Sejun here so the construction can start without issues and finish cleanly.”
“Don’t you worry one bit. Country house, farm storage building, factory, special warehouse—we’ve done all of it.”
“Woorim’s reputation speaks for itself, even in Busan. President Lee, I’ll keep a close eye on everything myself, so don’t worry.”
Since there were several people present, Baek Hail used formal speech with Junho.
“All right. By the way, CEO Hwang Sejun, what did you decide on for the solar generation equipment and the batteries?”
“Yes. Woorim will be purchasing the products we sourced. But for sensitive products like the hybrid ESS batteries, we decided our side would handle those directly.”
After Hwang Sejun answered, Baek Hail stepped in.
“After looking into it, it seemed better to let Dawoo handle everything except the panels, the flooring materials, and the automatic cleaning robots. The power equipment has to be matched to the AI computers and servers.”
Junho nodded.
“Okay. Then the three of you can coordinate that side among yourselves and move forward. Work freely within the budget. Just remember that the shorter the construction period gets, the bigger the bonus each of you gets.”
Excluding the land purchase cost, the total budget allocated to completing the main body of the shelter was 8.2 billion won.
That was significantly less than Junho had originally expected.
The reason was ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the pandemic recession.
It wasn’t even that Baek Hail had hammered prices down. Both Woorim, which was handling the design and construction, and Dawoo Computing had voluntarily given up part of their margins.
So Junho had made an offer to the two companies other than Baek Hail.
If they carried out the construction carefully and reliably while shortening the build time, he would pay each company a bonus of up to 250 million won.
The deadline was October of this year.
At that, both companies had responded very enthusiastically, saying it was entirely possible if they actively used parallel workflows.
From Junho’s perspective, it was perfect. The budget, which he had originally thought would go well over 10 billion won, had been reduced, and through the bonus system he had secured both construction quality and speed.
More than anything, something about having the total come out to exactly 10 billion won, even with the land purchase included, felt strangely satisfying to him.
Though once it’s finished, buying the first round of machines and equipment for the workshop and maintenance shop will probably cost another four or five hundred million.
While he was thinking that, Baek Hail, who had been talking with the two company heads, casually turned and spoke.
“Uh, President Lee. Director Park from Woorim says he has something to tell you.”
“Hm? Ah, right. Director, go ahead.”
Park Chanyeong held out the tablet as he spoke.
On the screen was an aerial map showing the pension site and the surrounding area.
“It’s this. One of our staff made a loop around the property and found a mountain trail that doesn’t show up on the aerial map.”
“A mountain... trail?”
Junho frowned and peered at the tablet screen.
Pointing with his pen near the rear mountain where the ultra-low-temperature freezer warehouse and fuel storage depot were supposed to be built, Park Chanyeong continued his explanation.
“Yes. It starts here, then loops around the back of the mountain like this. He says it’s a little over two meters wide. He went about five minutes in and then came back, but from the feel of it, it seemed like a hiking trail or walking path. It might even connect all the way over the mountain. Shouldn’t we check it out?”
“Ah... yeah, we should. Let’s go to where the trail was found first.”
Inside, Junho was rattled.
When he had stayed here before the regression, there had absolutely been no such mountain trail.
He was certain of it, because he had done several days of scouting.
“Should we launch the drone before you go in person?”
“Ah, the drone. Let’s do that.”
These days, construction companies basically treated drone filming as standard for site surveys, and Woorim was no exception.
Bzzzz!
Soon the drone rose into the air with a sound like a swarm of hornets taking flight.
Junho and the others huddled around the laptop that was displaying the live video feed.
“Huh? It really is a trail.”
“It is. The trees are so thick it must not have shown up on the old aerial map. Looks like it was originally a walking trail used by the campground, doesn’t it? Then after the place went under, it got left alone and turned into that.”
“Hm.”
At Hwang Sejun’s words, Junho stared at the monitor with a serious look.
Then suddenly, he realized why he hadn’t found the trail before the regression.
Even now it looked like this. A few more years, and the trees would have grown enough to cover it completely.
Watching the drone footage as it flew slowly above the mountain path, Junho asked,
“Director. How far do you think the drone can check?”
“This far, probably. Any farther than that and the signal’ll cut out.”
The terrain was rough, and since no repeater or amplifier had been installed yet, the drone’s controllable range was still less than one kilometer.
In the end, the drone had to turn back once it reached the limit of its flying range.
Taking his eyes off the monitor, Junho said,
“I’ll check it myself. You all keep working.”
“You... no, President Lee, yourself? You sure that’s okay?”
Baek Hail said it with a startled expression, clearly a little worried.
Junho grinned and rolled up his shirtsleeves.
“Of course. I brought something just in case, and I might as well test the performance while I’m at it. It probably won’t even take an hour.”
“...?”
***
Bzzzz...
With the low hum unique to an electric motor, the mid-drive electric mountain bike Junho was riding sped down the mountain trail with Purdy alongside him.
It was limited to 25 kilometers per hour, but it was just as fast as pedaling with your own legs and much less tiring.
“This time, I’m testing it myself.”
Junho put force into the pedals.
In an instant, the MTB shot forward like an arrow.
The slope was gentle, but the speed shown on the display hit a full 32 kilometers per hour, enough that Purdy briefly couldn’t keep up.
And Junho still wasn’t even going all out. At this speed, it was practically on the level of a professional mountain biker.
But he had no trouble at all tearing down the rough mountain trail at high speed.
That was thanks to his insane dynamic vision and reflexes.
“Good. Not bad.”
Once again, Junho let the motor do its work as he rode the mountain path.
Matching the bike’s speed, Purdy adjusted his own pace and started running alongside it.
Since arriving at the shelter site, the dog had barely rested, constantly running around and exploring, yet he didn’t look tired in the slightest. If anything, he looked excited.
Smart and durable, just like always.
“This model should do. We’ll need about twenty of them.”
As he rode, Junho muttered in satisfaction.
After the apocalypse, most survivors moved around on foot.
But some used rides of one kind or another.
Cars too, usually diesel or electric. Some used rollerblades, skateboards, and some rode bicycles, like Junho was doing now.
From Junho’s perspective, electric bicycles—especially MTBs built for rough terrain—were the best option whether it was the city, the mountains, or open fields.
And in the apocalypse, the law no longer existed, so most people removed the speed limit on their electric bikes.
Because zombies and humans who could run at an e-bike’s restricted speed of 25 kilometers per hour weren’t rare.
Even among ordinary people, there were plenty who could run 100 meters in 14 or 15 seconds.
But beings that could sustain over 30 kilometers per hour outdoors—the equivalent of covering 100 meters in 12 seconds—were extremely rare.
And that was on top of the fact that this wasn’t a running track. In outdoor environments full of obstacles and uneven terrain, continuing to run at that speed long enough to catch an electric bike was nearly impossible.
That was why stocking electric MTBs at the shelter and later removing their speed limit was an obvious choice.
Of course, they would also prepare regular vehicles and things like electric utility carts for farm use, but situations would absolutely arise when they had to move on foot or by bicycle.
Even if they were a little expensive, high-performance electric MTBs that could still go at least forty to fifty kilometers on mountain terrain on a full charge were essential.
Bzzzz—
The sound was a little annoying, but at this level, whether it was a zombie or a human, they would have trouble noticing it if they were more than ten meters away.
“Definitely passes.”
Satisfied with the performance of the electric MTB he was using for the first time, Junho kept riding along the mountain trail he had failed to discover while staying at Haneul Forest Campground before the regression.
Had it been a little over ten minutes?
At last, Junho crossed the mountain and reached a point overlooking a fairly large village.
Stopping the MTB, he gave Purdy water, then drank some himself and narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the village.
“Gahyeon-ri....”
Centered around an elementary school and a middle school, it had two apartment complexes of three to four hundred households, a luxury country-home complex where people with money lived, and even commercial strips and clusters of villas, most of them five stories or less.
Gahyeon-ri had everything.
And Junho knew that place.
Because it was an incident there that had forced him to go all the way into the busy district of Namyangju.
And in the end, it was there that he had met his own final end.
In the memories rising vividly back to the surface, Junho’s gaze sank deep.
And among those memories were the faces of several people he could never forget.
All of them were probably living ordinary lives right now.
Woof!
Purdy snapped Junho out of his brief immersion in the past.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
After patting the dog on the head—Purdy looking like he was asking why they weren’t running again—Junho climbed back onto the electric MTB.
And then, slowly, quietly, he started descending the mountain trail.
A few minutes later.
From far away came the sound of cars speeding along a road, and then Junho’s eyes sharpened.
“It’s blocked...?”
The mountain trail connected to the back mountain of the shelter site, but at one point it was completely cut off.
It wasn’t a natural obstruction.
Several barricades with signs reading No Entry—Construction in Progress, a rusted iron gate, and five-meter-high soundproof walls stretching long to either side were blocking off the mountain and the road.
“Hm....”
Getting off the bike, Junho carefully examined the separate metal door built between the barricades and the soundproof wall.
It was badly aged and rusted, clearly something that had been installed at least a year ago, probably longer.
And judging from the various materials and trash scattered messily around the area, it looked like a place workers had used during road construction or while putting up the soundproof wall.
“That means...”
There was a high chance that nobody had come through this path before the apocalypse, and nobody would come through it after the outbreak either.
Unless someone was insane, there was no reason to cut through the chain and climb a mountain.
On top of that, Junho had ridden here from the shelter in under twenty minutes on the electric MTB at an average speed of 25 kilometers per hour.
But if someone came on foot?
“Since it’s a mountain path, probably three or four hours. Considering the physical condition of apocalypse survivors, more like five.”
That was close to half a day.
Unless their life was in danger, nobody would cut through a chain, open an iron gate, and spend half a day crossing a mountain.
And beyond the gate was a highway.
Only vehicles passed there. There were no people, and no buildings either.
But once the apocalypse hit, there would barely be any cars on the highway at all.
“But right now, I’m the only one who knows about this path, aren’t I?”
Junho’s mind started turning fast.
At present, there was only one road leading to the shelter: the one he and the company heads had driven in on today.
But what if he blocked that road off right before the apocalypse, or right after it started?
And what if he secretly used this mountain trail, which was wide enough for an SUV or truck to get through?
“It’s definitely possible.”
He could build something like a watchtower at the spot where he and Purdy had rested earlier, and monitor this place using the same kind of high-performance CCTV cameras he had installed at the Bucheon house.
And that wasn’t all.
“In daylight, I could probably even see all the way to Gahyeon-ri from there. This is insane luck.”
Scouting, surveillance, and a secret passage.
An unexpected opportunity had fallen into Junho’s hands, one that fulfilled all three things crucial to the shelter’s survival at once.
