Chapter 90
After wrapping up, we parted ways.
Choi Soo-Hyun and Hwang Deok-Rok moved to Shelter Silence's accommodations while Hwang Ji-Hye headed to the meeting room to inform the others. The survivors filled out some simple paperwork in order to join Shelter Silence, then followed Kim Beom-Jin to the hospital.
Kim Hyeong-Jun and I went back outside to take care of unfinished business.
'What are you going to do? It's already been an hour.'
'I think it’s safer if we don’t eat it.'
I stared at the head of the dong leader of Hwayang-dong that my underling was holding, lost in thought.
Kim Hyeong-Jun rubbed his chin, then clenched his fists as if he had made up his mind.
'I'll eat it.'
'And what if something happens to you?'
'If anything happens, kill me, ahjussi.’
'What kind of nonsense are you talking about?'
I frowned at him, and Kim Hyeong-Jun’s expression soured.
‘Something like this can happen anytime. Are you really going to overthink it and get anxious every time?’
'Well, risking your life for something that’s not worth it is the stupidest thing to do.’
‘And what if nothing in particular happens? If we don’t take the chance, we might be losing our opportunity to get stronger.’
‘Ha… Let’s just throw it away. Please?'
‘Well then, why’d you even bring it in the first place? Didn’t you bring it because you still wanted to eat it, ahjussi?'
I kept on telling him to throw it away instead of eating it. Kim Hyeong-Jun avoided my gaze, acting hesitant.
Suddenly, he snatched the enemy leader’s head away, giving me no chance to stop him.
'Hey!'
My eyes widened as I tried desperately to stop Kim Hyeong-Jun. But he gulped the enemy leader’s brain down, and just like that, it was already in his stomach.
Kim Hyeong-Jun smirked as I looked at him.
'I'm going to sleep now.’
‘You idiot! You crazy bastard!'
As I peppered him with swear words, he started swaying from side to side, as if he was about to fall asleep any second. In moments, he collapsed to the ground helplessly.
I got to Kim Hyeong-Jun before his head hit the ground and started slapping his cheeks.
No matter how hard I slapped him, he showed no intention of waking up.
‘Now what am I supposed to do if you just go to sleep like this all of a sudden?’
We were supposed to meet Do Han-Sol the next day. He really knew how to make things more complicated than they had to be.
‘You foolish bastard…’
I sighed and looked around. Kim Hyeong-Jun’s underlings were standing motionless in front of the first defense line of Shelter Silence. I sighed continuously out of frustration.
There was only one reason why I was frustrated with Kim Hyeong-Jun's unexpected behavior. It was because of the stage-two mutant in Majang-dong, a.k.a. Mood-Swinger.
I had no clue how Mood-Swinger would react if something happened to Kim Hyeong-Jun. I resented Kim Hyeong-Jun for making such a foolish choice without even considering the possible risks.
Left with no other choice, I hoisted Kim Hyeong-Jun onto my back and carried him to the building where my scouts were. After laying him down on the rooftop, I gave orders to my underlings.
'You two, let me know when Hyeong-Jun wakes up.’
GRRR!!
The scouts answered with their throat-rending cries, and I hurried over to Majang-dong.
Instead of watching over Kim Hyeong-Jun, I knew my priority at that moment was to observe Mood-Swinger.
If Mood-Swinger went through any changes, that would majorly disrupt everything I’d done so far.
* * *
On the same day, sometime in the night, seven people sat in a meeting room in a building in Jongno.
After a moment, a man opened the meeting room doors and stepped in. The others rose from their seats and bowed deeply from the waist.
The man walked over to the seat at the head of the table and gestured for everyone else to take their seats.
As the seven people sat down, the man seated at the head of the table spoke in a low voice.
“Reports?”
A woman among the seven stood.
“The Gangnam Project is going smoothly. The mutants are currently gathered in Bamseom, and are scheduled to enter Yeouido two days from now, on October 31st, at six o’clock in the evening.”
“And who’s in charge?”
“Officers one, two, and three have been assigned as the advance party. Officers four and five will form the reinforcement team and arrive on the following day, November 1st.”
The man nodded silently, then sighed.
“And the mutant research?”
“All dong leaders have fully committed their efforts to making stage-two mutants.”
“Didn’t the dong leader of Seongsu make two of them?”
“The dong leader of Seongsu-dong ordered one of them to commit suicide in order to figure out if he could command it, and the other one was confirmed dead along with the Seongsu-dong leader during the battle of Shelter Seoul Forest.”
The man sitting at the head of the table put his head in his hands and remained silent for a while.
The other officers in the meeting room swallowed and waited for him to speak.
After a while, the man in the head seat sighed.
“And the Seongdong-gu situation?”
“You don’t have to worry too much about…”
Bang!
The man at the head of the table slammed the desk, glaring across the room. The other officers quickly lowered their heads.
The man ground his teeth audibly.
“You’ve been repeating the same damn words over and over again for months now, that they're a bunch of wussies, and yet you still haven’t taken care of them?”
"My apologies. We will deal with it as soon as possible.”
“How many dong leaders have you lost contact with?”
“Majang-dong, Seongsu-dong, and Gunja-dong.”
“Except for Gunja-dong, all the dong leaders were strong. The dong leader of Seongsu-dong was supposed to become the eighth officer. But you’re saying he got wiped out by a nobody? You expect me to believe this?”
The man seated at the head furrowed his brow, and the woman who had been making her report smacked her lips.
"Then… I’ll take care of this nobody…”
“Seventh officer.”
The man at the head of the table cut the seventh officer short. The woman swallowed and looked at him. He tilted his head with a frown.
“Do you think you can handle this nobody alone?”
The seventh officer’s eyebrows twitched. She clenched her fists as if he had wounded her ego.
The man massaged his temples gently, then looked at the man sitting across from the woman.
“Sixth officer, which area are you managing?”
“Myeonmok-dong.”
“Myeonmok-dong… Then you’re close to Gunja-dong, no?”
“I’ll take care of this nobody.”
The sixth officer replied with a bow, but the man at the head of the table waved his hand in opposition.
“No. Go with the seventh officer.”
“With the seventh officer? That might delay the Gangnam Project…”
“And?”
The man at the head of the table narrowed his eyes, and the sixth officer swallowed and fell silent.
The man at the head of the table stood.
“I’ll join up with the reinforcement team for the Gangnam Project. Sixth and seventh officers, focus on Seongdong-gu. We can’t let any internal problems arise while our full focus is on Gangnam.”
The officers acknowledged him vigorously with faces full of determination.
The man at the head of the table looked at the officers and continued to speak, his eyes open wide.
“Proceed without any setbacks. Whoever makes a mistake, just kill yourself on the spot. If not, I’ll find you and kill you myself.”
No one dared to offer a retort. Unlike the officers, whose eyes glowed red, the man in the head seat had eyes that glowed blue.
However, it wasn’t a clear or bright blue. Looking into his eyes… was like falling into a never-ending hole.
The man's eyes were like mirrors reflecting an endless abyss.
* * *
I observed Mood-Swinger all night, but nothing significant happened.
I wondered if I’d been overreacting earlier.
Mood-Swinger had been staring at the sky the entire night, its mouth hanging open like an idiot, and nothing changed when the sun rose either.
Mood-Swinger didn't ask for food or harass the other zombies.
It stared blankly at the sky as if amazed by the flow of time, as if it was watching a movie. It didn’t make significant movements other than occasionally scratching its back or bottom.
- He’s up.
The sun was at its zenith when I finally got the message I’d been waiting for. I headed to Seoul Forest at once.
After about twelve minutes, I caught a glimpse of the building in which Kim Hyeong-Jun was resting.
When I got to the rooftop, I was met by Kim Hyeong-Jun’s startled face.
‘Jeez… You surprised me, ahjussi.’
I looked at him calmly, and Kim Hyeong-Jun put his hand on his aching forehead.
'How many days has it been?'
'Half a day.'
Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded his head and stretched, clearly happy with how little time had passed. He then smacked his lips.
'Did anything happen?'
‘That’s what I wanted to ask you. Do you notice any special changes in your body?'
‘Hmm, not really? It feels pretty similar to when I’d eaten other brains.’
After a moment, he gasped in surprise. I tilted my head, and Kim Hyeong-Jun said in wonder,
'Sixteen hundred.'
'What are you saying?'
‘Fifteen hundred and fifty was my maximum number, but now it feels like I can control sixteen hundred.’
It made sense that the total number of underlings he could control would increase by fifty after he ate the enemy leader’s brain. However, the real question was what had happened to the rest of the enemy leader’s underlings, since it had had more than seven hundred underlings.
Realizing that I could check on this myself, I ran towards Hwayang-dong.
When I arrived at Hwayang-dong, I saw zombies blocking Achasan road. Some of them were purple, while some of them were colorless, just like regular street zombies.
Kim Hyeong-Jun, who had followed me, looked at me.
'So it seems like my underlings are randomly chosen according to the maximum number of underlings I can control.’
‘Well, in that case, what a relief. But check if there are fifty underlings in purple here.’
‘Wait, why?'
I couldn’t help but get annoyed at Kim Hyeong-Jun's stupid question.
'If there are more than fifty underlings here, that means some of your underlings back in Haengdang-dong have turned back to ordinary zombies!’
'Oh… Okay…'
Kim Hyeong-Jun responded to my anger with a puzzled expression and started checking. I pressed a hand against my aching forehead and took a deep breath. After a while, Kim Hyeong-Jun came back, rather exhausted.
'There’s fifty here.'
'Are you sure?'
'I checked three times.'
Kim Hyeong-Jun gave me a sidelong glance. It seemed like he had no clue why I was angry.
Although I admired his determination to get things done, I thought it was a good time to lecture him about the need to consider all the possibilities and risks before making a move. He used to think everything through, but with the Konkuk University Hospital incident and now this one, things had changed. I had to say something about his strategy of just going for it.
I knew it’d be dangerous for me and him in the long run.
It was a relief that everything had worked out, but the unimaginable would have happened if he’d lost his command and control of the second-stage mutant.
When I finished telling him what was on my mind, Kim Hyeong-Jun sagged his head in silence.
I could tell that he was sincerely sorry for his mistake. I looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun, all wilted, and sighed.
'Let’s just move on since nothing bad happened.’
‘I’m sorry, ahjussi.’
'It’s alright. I’m the one who left the option of eating the brain on the table anyway.’
I was the one who’d brought the enemy leader’s head, so I was also at fault.
People who did drugs were a problem, but the people who sold drugs were a problem as well.
As I smacked my lips, Kim Hyeong-Jun came up to me, pouting.
'I’m sorry.'
‘You’re good.'
'Please accept my apology.'
Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me, his eyes as round as Puss in Boots. He was truly acting like a baby at this point. I snorted in disbelief and shook my head.[1]
Kim Hyeong-Jun suddenly smirked.
‘You’re really not angry anymore?'
'You little… YES!’
‘Alright, alright. I’ll make sure to be more careful in the future. I'll make sure nothing like this happens again.'
I clicked my tongue and headed back to Seoul Forest.
I thought Kim Hyeong-Jun was following me, but he quickly stepped in front of me.
'Shouldn’t we take care of the zombies here? Are you just going to go?'
'Wait, why?'
‘Cause… That’s what we should do?'
‘...’
He did have a point. I didn’t feel too comfortable leaving zombies gathered together like how they were. They could pose a threat to the remaining survivors in Hwayang-dong, and there’d be nothing good for us if another zombie with glowing red eyes recruited them.
Kim Hyeong-Jun and I walked toward the zombies blocking Achasan road.
I stared at the zombie in front of me, and it looked blankly back at me.
‘Rest in peace.’
I clenched my fists and hurled a punch toward its face.
Just before my fist smashed into its face, though, I couldn’t help but stop. A chill went down my spine, and my upper body shivered involuntarily. I looked straight into the zombie’s face.
‘Why isn’t it looking away?'
The zombies that were blocking Achasan Road… they weren’t looking away from me or Kim Hyeong-Jun.
We were not in command of them, and yet they were staring at us with empty eyes.
1. Puss in Boots is a cat from the movie series Shrek. He has a famous scene where he looks at Shrek with round, watery eyes. ☜
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