“You sure you can carry that?”
Junhyeok asked because he could not stop worrying about his brother, who would have to haul a ground drone weighing twenty-five kilograms on his back, even if he himself was armed only with stab-resistant tactical clothing, a Glock 17, a machete, and a commando dagger.
“It’s fine. It’s not like I haven’t done worse. I carried a high school kid down this path before, and I didn’t just walk back up—I ran.”
“Right. You did.”
That finally put Junhyeok a little more at ease, remembering that his older brother’s strength and stamina had reached a level that was nearly beyond human.
“Basically, Youngsu—or rather, the AI—will handle autonomous control from the control room. If that gets difficult, you take over and pilot it instead. And don’t forget: unless you absolutely have to, don’t kill them. Aim off-center and hit the arms and legs.”
They had already tested and trial-run the ground drone several times, so there was no difficulty at all in operating it.
“Okay. You be careful too.”
“Yeah.”
Carrying the air-rifle hard case and a spare air tank, Junhyeok ran off with Purdy toward the point they had picked out in advance.
Junho slung the drone onto his back and headed down the mountain road he had never once taken before, not even the time he rescued the three high schoolers and the cram-school instructor.
- Drone 01 is following resident Lee Junhyeok. No hostile targets within surveillance range.
- Drone 03 is following Master Lee Junho. No hostile targets within surveillance range.
- Boss, the Hanchang Development thugs are almost at The First complex’s rear entrance. Looks like they’re trying to circle around toward the market.
- Drone 05 is standing by at full charge. In twenty minutes, it will rotate with Drone 02, which is currently following the Elimination Target.
Listening to the reports from AI Akina and Yoon Youngsu, Junho ran down the mountain road at full speed.
In a little over ten minutes, he was able to reach the mountain trail Han Changoh and the Hanchang Development group had already passed through.
- Huh? Boss, the thugs just launched a drone. Wow, I’ve gotta give it to the thug uncles. Real cutting-edge stuff, huh?
“What model?”
- Looks like a hobby model. Did they salvage it from one of the townhouses? Ah, and the one piloting it isn’t a thug. Seems like one of the residents from over there.
A drone...
There was no real need to worry.
Most civilian drones sold in South Korea had a built-in altitude limit of one hundred fifty meters in the software.
And even if they did not, between the drone’s own performance and sensor limitations, stable surveillance filming above two hundred meters was difficult anyway.
Of course, if the drone Hanchang Development was using happened to be some high-end professional model, that would be a different story.
“Shoot it down.”
- Roger that.
If it fell out of the sky, problem solved.
A little over ten seconds after Junhyeok, who had already reached the firing point below the reservoir post, gave his answer—
the drone flying toward The First Market, a little ways from the apartment complex, suddenly jerked hard to one side and dropped straight out of the air.
Watching that on the tablet mounted to the reinforced plastic panel of his tactical vest, Junho said,
“If the thugs hit the market, use the ground drone to cut off their escape route.”
- Yes, sir.
- As your wish, Master.
Hearing Yoon Youngsu’s voice, and then the exact same signature line from shelter AI Akina that the AI character Akina used in the game Eternal Galaxy,
Junho set down the ground-attack drone, pulled his ballistic mask up over his face, and drew his machete.
***
“W-what the hell?”
The townhouse resident piloting the drone while watching its monitor looked up in alarm.
Far off, the drone flying toward the market was spinning like a severed kite and falling from the sky.
“Ah, my drone. My drone...”
“What? What happened to the drone?”
“It crashed out of nowhere. Doesn’t look like it hit a bird either... damn it.”
“Maybe because it’s some cheap Chinese junk?”
“What are you talking about? Commercial drones are best when they’re Chinese. That thing cost over five hundred thousand won...”
“Well, what can you do? We’ll go find it later and see if it can be repaired. Anyway, what did you see before it crashed? Did you get anything?”
As a real-estate development company with a foot in both construction and building work, Hanchang Development had handled everything from terrace work and sunrooms to lawn construction in the Gahyeon-ri townhouse complex.
That was why one of the employees who already knew the townhouse residents communicated first with the residents who had come out cooperative before anyone had to start throwing punches.
“There was one person on the market rooftop. Didn’t see any zombies nearby. I could see maybe four or five figures through the second-floor windows, but I couldn’t tell if they were people or zombies.”
“Then even if there are a few on the first floor too... still less than ten, right?”
“Well, maybe. Or maybe the others are hiding deeper inside somewhere safe.”
“Understood. Manager? Manager Han?”
- Yeah. Talk.
The employee relayed what he had just heard to Han Changoh over the radio.
- Good. No zombies on that side, right? Then you guys approach openly from that direction and see how they react. While they’re busy with you, we’ll circle around and break in through the back door.
“Yes, sir. Good luck.”
Han Changoh was impatient and swore like breathing came naturally to him, but he was not the type to avoid difficult work.
If Han Changsik—his older brother and the boss of the company—gave an order, he was the one who took the lead and got his hands dirty.
And today too, he had taken responsibility for personally going into the market, which might well be the most dangerous place.
“All right, gentlemen.”
The men who had been staring tensely at The First Market turned toward the employee.
“First, let’s move in and see how they respond. There aren’t any zombies around, so don’t get too spooked. That market runs on solar power, so the refrigerated and frozen food in there should still be good.”
“...!”
The moment food was mentioned, life returned to the men’s faces.
“If we haul it out today, all of that goes to you and your families. So you’re gonna have to work hard, right? In a fucked-up world like this, if you want to feed your family, the men of the house have to step up. Isn’t that right?”
“Damn right.”
“That’s why we came out here ourselves!”
“Let’s do it!”
Watching the men wave their weapons around, the employee from Bandal smiled in satisfaction.
The boss—no, the big boss—really is a genius.
Proud of himself for repeating Han Changsik’s words without changing so much as a syllable, he raised his voice.
“All right, then, let’s go!”
***
“S-somebody’s coming down from the mountain! Looks like about ten of them!”
The man on the rooftop of The First Market, a very large building even though it was only two stories tall, shouted into the radio.
- People? Who are they? What kind of people?
“Hell if I know. They’ve all got weapons. Huh? Is that a bow? One of them’s got a bow too!”
- A bow!?
“Yeah! You know, like a hunting bow? Anyway, one of them definitely has a bow!”
- Shit! I’m coming up now!
A moment later, three men came up onto the market rooftop.
Armed with a spear made from a sharpened metal pipe, a jungle machete, and a crossbow, all of them wore long-sleeved leather jackets or tough hiking clothes, along with hard hats and masks.
“There! Over there!”
The man guarding the rooftop pointed in one direction.
The man in the black mask checked that direction through the market’s coin-operated toy telescope, then muttered under his breath.
“Ah, fuck... we’re screwed.”
“Daewoo’s dad, why? Are they weird?”
“I don’t know. But they’re all armed to the teeth. And... shit, that really is one of those foreign bows, isn’t it? Where the hell did they get that?”
“Move, let me see.”
Handing the telescope to another man, the one the others called Daewoo’s dad looked around at the group.
“Looks like they’re coming here to hit this place. Judging by the direction they’re coming from, they’re probably from the country houses or the townhouse complex.”
“Then what do we do? Should we at least try talking first?”
“The hell kind of talk are you planning to have with bastards sneaking up here with knives and bows? Let’s just take them out first. Grab one or two alive and ask questions afterward.”
“And if their whole group swarms us after that? Edutown’s already after this place too. How are we supposed to defend it by ourselves?”
“Then we kill every last one that comes—”
“All right, all right. Everyone calm down for a second.”
Daewoo’s dad pulled down his mask and went on.
“There are only about ten of them, so me and Yoonseok’s father go out through the back and—”
“We’re fucked! There’s more of them!”
“What!?”
Daewoo’s dad and the other men all whipped their heads around at once.
“There! They’re circling around right now!”
The moment the man with the telescope pointed them out, and they saw five fully armed men just coming around the market parking lot toward the back door—
Tang!
“Fuck!”
One of the men dropped with a scream as something smashed into him and knocked his hard hat clean off.
“What was that? What is it!?”
At the fear-filled voice of the man who had instinctively thrown himself flat against the rooftop floor, Daewoo’s dad glanced at the hard hat that had landed beside him and said,
“A gun. An air rifle. Nobody stand up, no matter what. Crawl. Crawl to the door and let’s—”
Pak! Pak!
“Fuck, he’s still shooting! Just get up and run, run!”
Daewoo’s dad was the first to leap up and sprint in a crouch, keeping his body as low as possible.
The others scrambled after him in a blind panic.
Thwack!
“Aaagh!”
One of them took a pellet in the leg and collapsed on the spot.
“God fucking damn it...”
Daewoo’s dad had just yanked open the rooftop door and was trying to decide whether to go back for him when—
- Aaaagh!
- You motherfucker!
- I-it’s a gun! Run!
A burst of noise and screaming came one after another from the first floor of the market, as if the bastards who had broken in through the back had already started something down there.
“Fuck...”
Cursing himself for failing to respond properly even to such a basic pincer attack after being so careful,
he was just about to step back toward his fallen companion, who was groaning on the rooftop with a pellet in his thigh, when—
Powww... pow...
A strange noise that had clearly started from fairly far away drilled into Daewoo’s dad’s ears one shot after another.
One of the intruders trying to climb over the parking-lot wall thirty-some meters away
twisted violently and toppled backward, spraying something like red paint into the air.
And that was not the end of it.
Pow... pow...
Each time that strange sound rang out, not quite like a normal gunshot, another intruder crossing over the wall and rushing through the parking lot crumpled where he stood.
“W-what the hell...?”
Without even realizing that the air-rifle fire aimed at the rooftop had stopped at some point,
Daewoo’s dad just stood there half-crouched, staring.
“D-Daewoo’s dad. H-help me...”
“Ah!”
Finally snapping out of it at the moan from his fallen companion, Daewoo’s dad hurried over and helped him up.
“W-what is it? What’s happening?”
“I don’t know. But maybe... maybe somebody’s helping us. Anyway, just sit here, all right? Sounds like those bastards made it into the first floor, so I’m going down.”
“B-be careful, Daewoo’s dad.”
Daewoo’s dad nodded at the man, who was gritting his teeth and clutching his thigh, then rushed down the stairs.
Taking two or three emergency-stair steps at a time, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° he reached the first floor in no time.
- Aaagh!
- You cocksucker, put that down! Huh!?
- There are women down here too, for fuck’s sake!
- Kyaaah! Kyaaaah!
Listening to the curses, frantic shouting, and terrified screams echoing across the first floor of the market,
Daewoo’s dad steadied his breathing and loaded a bolt into his crossbow.
Then, just as he was about to open the emergency-exit door as slowly and quietly as possible—
“You fire that once, and then what?”
“Hhk!”
At the sudden voice, Daewoo’s dad froze solid.
“I came here to take care of those bastards. Did you see someone outside shooting the others with an air rifle? That’s my partner. So there’s a good chance we can help you people. Put that thing on the floor and turn around slowly.”
He wanted to spin and shoot right then and there.
But between what he had just seen on the rooftop and the inexplicable chill crawling over his skin, Daewoo’s dad did as he was told, setting the crossbow down and slowly turning around.
And the moment he finally saw the owner of that cave-low voice—
“Ah...”
His eyes widened, and the words slipped out before he could stop them.
“T-the Mansion Butcher...?”
Black combat gear. A black helmet and mask. And on top of that, a long, dark machete.
“The Mansion Butcher? Seriously? Whatever. So what do you think? Want to fight with me? For the record, I don’t need any of the food in this market.”
A big man dressed exactly like the rumors of the “Mansion Butcher”—the one who, people said, had wiped out an entire pack of delinquent punks in one night in an empty mansion where he was living, slaughtering them all—
was standing there with ice-cold eyes fixed on him, blade leveled in his direction.
