“...So I’ve been cooperating with those bastards for two months now. A-and I swear, I’ve never killed anyone. I only lured people, like earlier.”

“Really? Does that make you innocent? How many of the people you lured are still alive?”

“.......”

Kim Taesu, tears dripping down his face, lowered his head, and Junho stared at him silently with ice-cold eyes.

Assuming Kim Taesu was telling the truth, he had a family and had run a pension in Yangpyeong.

Then the apocalypse had broken out, and after hiding in the pension for about two months, he had gone through one thing after another before bringing his family to this farm, owned by people he had known well for a long time.

There were a few private homes nearby, but everyone had known one another for years, and luckily, no zombies had appeared around this area, so the twenty or so people had survived by helping each other as best they could.

But a group that had come to the South Han River for vacation over the holiday, then turned into looters after the apocalypse broke out, had attacked this place in the middle of the night.

At that time, the elderly couple who owned the farm and several residents had been murdered, and Kim Taesu’s wife and son had been taken hostage.

So in the end, he had had no choice but to obey the looters.

It was a very common story in the apocalypse.

“Where are the people who originally lived here?”

At Junho’s question, Kim Taesu hurriedly lifted his head and pointed at one place.

“That building with the blue roof over there. It used to be a storage building. When they’re not making them work, they shove everyone in there and lock them up. Those dogshit bastards only give them water and food twice a day, so everyone’s barely holding on.”

“Bastards? There are women too?”

“Yes, yes. There’s this real bitch named Oh Heeju. That bitch does things to my wife every day... kgh.”

Whether his wife had suffered something awful, Kim Taesu clenched his teeth with bloodshot eyes.

Junho had little interest in that part, however, and swept his gaze across the entire farm as he said,

“You said there are six of them left over there?”

“Yes. Three women and three men.”

Then including the ones he had shot earlier, there were twelve.

Considering the characteristics of the area, that was a fairly large looter group.

“U-usually only two stay out near that tunnel from earlier, and the rest are here. But the guys there reported that they’d found you and your group, so they rushed the operation. They said it looked like you had guns, so five more went out.”

No wonder the whole thing had felt a bit clumsy in several ways.

Compared to the looters who had survived until now in the middle of cities and residential areas, these bastards were no different from amateurs.

Then again, even vicious urban looter gangs would grow dull if they spent months in a place like this with no zombies and no other looters, grilling beef every day.

“So the others are lying around in the owner’s house and the other houses?”

“Yes. But if the ones from the tunnel don’t come back when they should, one or two of them might come out.”

The looters occupying the farm had no radios or anything like that, so if they wanted to go look for their comrades from here, they would have to walk almost two kilometers through the tunnel to the bridge.

“But I don’t know exactly where they are right now, or how many are inside each place....”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Looking down toward the farm from behind a tree, Junho spoke quietly.

“Wireless still reaches this far, right?”

— Boss, it’s Youngsu. You’re barely on the edge.

Yoon Youngsu, having finished his business, spoke to Junho instead of the AI.

— But be careful, because if you go a few hundred meters farther into the mountain from there, you might lose comms. The drone can operate while maintaining altitude within about a three-hundred-meter radius right now. It can’t come any lower because of the mountain.

“That’s enough. In any case, zoom in and recon this farm properly. They said the two-story house is the owner’s house, so focus especially on that side.”

— Ryokai!

When Junho took the tablet out of his backpack and checked the footage being transmitted by the drone, Kim Taesu, who was nearby, widened his eyes and kept glancing at Junho.

After seeing the terrifying marksmanship and massacre Junho had shown on the bridge earlier, and now seeing him handle advanced equipment like this, he seemed to realize all over again that Junho was no ordinary person.

Then it happened.

— One woman and one man are coming out of the blue-roofed building, dragging a kid with them. Can you see them from there?

“......!?”

At Gu Jeongmok’s words, Junho turned his gaze toward the storage building where the people were supposedly locked up.

A young man and woman were forcibly dragging out a boy who looked about twelve or thirteen.

A woman who seemed to be the child’s mother tried to rush out of the storage building after him, only to be kicked by the man and knocked back inside the doorway.

“Se-Sejin...? Sejin’s mom...!”

Kim Taesu, seeing his son and wife, almost raised his voice without realizing it, then shut his mouth under Junho’s gaze.

But he stared toward the storage building with bloodshot eyes, both fists clenched, his whole body trembling.

Soon, after shutting the storage building door, the young man and woman shoved the boy around until he fell, and then the woman slapped the child across the face several times.

“Hey, you little shit! You stole food, didn’t you? Already a thief at your age? Did your mommy and daddy put you up to it, you little shit?”

“That fucking... fucking biiitch... kgh!”

Seeing his own child being beaten without mercy, Kim Taesu clenched his teeth hard enough to make a sound.

— Boss, aside from the two near the storage building, everyone seems to be inside the owner’s house.

At Yoon Youngsu’s voice, Junho spoke quietly.

“Good. Assistant Manager Gu, keep watching the owner’s house.”

— Yes.

“If anyone comes out of the house with a weapon, just shoot. They said all the people who originally lived here are locked in the storage building.”

— Understood. You’ll handle those two yourself, right?

“Yes.”

Junho answered indifferently and immediately aimed the air rifle toward the storage building.

And the moment the woman, who had been grabbing the fallen boy by the collar and continuing to hit him in the face, straightened up—

Pang!

The tungsten round flew across roughly seventy meters and struck her in the abdomen, knocking her flat on her back.

Pang!

The round fired at the same time buried itself in the startled man’s head, and he died on the spot.

“......!!!”

“Stay here for a bit. Come when I signal you.”

Junho spoke coldly to Kim Taesu, who was looking at him with eyes filled with shock, relief, gratitude, and several other emotions all at once.

Then he slung the air rifle over his back, took the commando dagger in hand, and walked toward the farm.

***

Kim Sejin, who would originally have entered middle school this year, sat collapsed on the ground, trembling as he looked around.

“Kkeu... kkeuheuu....”

The witch-like woman who had beaten and tormented him and his mother every day was spilling blood from her stomach and shedding tears.

The witch’s younger brother lay beside her with his arms and legs spread wide, not moving an inch.

“Ah, ahheuu. Blood... so much blood... it hurts. It hurts....”

Though she did not even know whether her own younger brother was dead or alive, the witch only flailed as she stared at the blood soaking her stomach and hands.

Thud! Thud, thud!

“Sejin...! Sejinaaa! Open this! Open this door!”

“M-Mom.”

At his mother’s voice from inside the storage building, Kim Sejin struggled to stand and tried to head toward the door.

But.

“Ah...!?”

The instant he saw the large man walking over from that side, young Kim Sejin’s body froze.

It was an extremely cloudy day, but for some reason, the knife in the man’s hand seemed to flash, drawing his eyes straight to it.

Thud, thud! Thud, thud!

“Sejin! Sejinaaa!”

His mother’s desperate voice kept ringing out, but because he could feel the man’s eyes, visible through translucent goggles above his mask, looking at him, Kim Sejin could not move a muscle.

“Uaaah? Aaah...?”

The witch, writhing in pain, also noticed the large man, but she only groaned and could not scream.

Then, after coming within a few meters of Kim Sejin, the man glanced at the witch and spoke to the boy.

“I came with your dad, so stay there for a bit, kid.”

“...Yes. Yes.”

Just as Junho was about to pass by Kim Sejin, who had stiffened completely and could only nod—

A man opened the front door of the owner’s house a short distance from the storage building and came out.

“Uaaahm! Why aren’t they coming? Did they find some woman or what, fu— huh?”

The man, who had been muttering as he stretched, met Junho’s eyes.

“F-fuck, who are y—”

Pang...!

The drawing knife that had left Junho’s left hand buried itself between the man’s brows, and at the same time, the tungsten round fired by Gu Jeongmok pierced his chest. The bastard collapsed forward without even finishing his final words.

Thud.

“What was that? Did he fall?”

“I told him to stop drinking so damn much.”

Perhaps the sound of him falling had been a little loud, because men’s and women’s voices came from inside the house.

Pitter-patter....

As spring rain happened to begin falling, Junho walked past the dead body, its eyes wide open, and entered through the front door.

***

Shaaaaaa...!

A few minutes after the rain began falling in a refreshing sheet.

Junho stepped out through the front door again, holding the commando dagger that had turned red before anyone knew it.

After washing the blood and bits of flesh from the blade clean in the rain and putting it away, Junho washed his hands and face in the rainwater streaming down from the edge of the eaves.

“It’s over. Come this way.”

— Yes.

“Youngsu, how much battery does the drone have left?”

— About forty percent.

“Send a new drone, and tell Deokcheol and Mr. Song Gijun to come this way. Tell them there are no zombies on the way, but to be careful anyway.”

— Understood.

After ending the communication, Junho confirmed Gu Jeongmok walking out of the forest behind the farm, then headed back toward the storage building.

The child named Kim Sejin was standing blankly in the rain, still not opening the storage building door, just staring at Junho.

“You listen well. Your mom and the others are in there, right? You can open it now.”

“Yes, y-yes.”

As if Junho’s voice had brought him back to his senses, Kim Sejin hurriedly opened the locked storage building door.

“Se-Sejin!”

“Mom!”

A woman in shabby clothes who looked around forty limped out and threw her arms around her son.

After her, one by one, people who all looked to be in their sixties or older emerged from the storage building.

“Ah....”

“Ugh?”

Their clothes were torn and ragged all over, and regardless of gender, they were all so gaunt, with their hair so wildly disheveled, that it was hard to tell whether they were zombies or humans.

“Assistant Manager Gu, please take care of these people. Use all the emergency rations and medical kits if you need to.”

“...Ah, understood. All right, everyone, come this way.”

Gu Jeongmok, who had briefly lost his words at the sight of their wretched condition, soon gathered the people together.

Then, from far away, someone came limping through the rain.

“Se-Sejin! Honey!”

“D-Dad? Daaad...!”

“Oh, Sejin’s dad! Huaaang!”

The family of three held one another and burst into loud sobs beneath the spring rain pouring down in full bloom.

They were an extremely lucky family, the kind almost never found in the apocalypse.

***

Moooo... mooo....

“They’re all in decent shape.”

Looking at the cattle that had returned to the cowshed as soon as the rain began falling, without anyone telling them to, Junho smiled in satisfaction.

Just as Kim Taesu had said, there seemed to be around a hundred cattle in total.

“Are you going to take them all?”

“No. I don’t have the space to raise them.”

At Gu Jeongmok’s question, Junho shook his head.

Space was one problem, but it would also be too much for Go Jeongnam, who would be turning eighty in a few years, to raise them all alone.

Most importantly, if he took away every cow that had spent its entire life here, large and small problems were bound to occur.

“We’ll take only the calves. And send some to Gahyeon-ri too.”

Junho intended to take only a little over ten calves, still not fully grown, to the shelter.

“What? Then what about the rest?”

When Gu Jeongmok tilted his head, Junho turned.

Then he looked at Kim Taesu and his family, along with the other residents, who were sitting on dry straw in one corner of the cowshed and wolfing down high-calorie emergency rations and combat rations, and said,

“Those people should raise them. And gather more cattle too. From now on, this place will be our shelter’s cattle farm.”

In addition, it would serve as an eastern “forward base” that would first detect anyone who might come toward Namyangju from Yangpyeong, Yeoju, Wonju, and other areas.

And.

“News from the east coast will probably come up to the capital region this summer. If back then....”

Although fate had changed from before the regression.

If, truly if, Volcano Group had formed power bases in Ulsan and Pohang as they had before the regression.

And if Viktor Volk Choi had the idea of coming directly to Korea from Sakhalin and Vladivostok.

In this apocalyptic world, Junho might be able to secure a continuous supply of nothing less than “oil and ammunition.”