“.......”

Still, high probability was not the same thing as certainty.

In the southern half of Seoul alone, where millions of survivors were likely still scattered around, there was no guarantee those people were specifically from that place.

'Besides, because of me, a lot of things have already changed.'

Before regression, they had definitely escaped around this time.

Back then, survival from one day to the next had been the only thing that mattered, so he had never paid attention to exact dates. He only vaguely remembered that it had been sometime in May.

'But I can’t just ignore this.'

Junho spoke to Lee Wonoh, who was busy looking around every corner of the leisure sports center’s first floor.

“Mr. Lee Wonoh. Something urgent just came up. Feel free to look around, and if you have questions, ask Manager Yoon or Assistant Manager Gu.”

“Ah, yes!”

Leaving the relocation work for the karaoke-bar people and the women rescued from D-Mart to the others who had come along, Junho headed up to a quiet area on the second floor of the leisure sports center.

Before long, he established a direct radio connection with the resort’s head of “military affairs,” Manager Park Cheolwoo.

“You’ve been doing well, right, Manager?”

- Yes. Things are fine over in Namyangju too, I hope? I hear updates from Manager Yoon from time to time.

“Couldn’t be better. More importantly, about those survivors you secured today. Exactly where are they from?”

- Hmm. We only confirmed they came from the Guro area, but these people absolutely refuse to open their mouths. Threats don’t work either. Honestly, they look like the type who wouldn’t talk even under torture.

Park Cheolwoo was a former Special Forces master sergeant who had participated in classified operations alongside the National Intelligence Service.

If he said something like that, there was no reason to doubt it.

“You said they were captured wandering around the Namhansanseong area, right? Was there any fighting?”

- No. They were armed, but surrendered the moment they saw us. We only figured out they were from Guro after searching their belongings.

“Their belongings?”

Junho narrowed his eyes unconsciously as he asked.

- That’s the strange part. They had church flyers? Advertisement pamphlets? Something like that. Two of them did. Carefully folded too, like they treasured them.

“...What was the church called?”

Feeling his heartbeat gradually quicken, Junho asked the question.

- The name’s unusual too. Saekkeut Grace Church.

“......!”

It was them.

The cult in Guro-gu—more specifically in Oryu-dong.

The lunatics who regarded zombies as sinners, Alphas as fallen angels, and regularly offered people as sacrifices to nearby Alphas.

Junho unconsciously clenched his fist tightly, but forced himself to stay calm as he spoke.

“Manager.”

- Yes. Go ahead.

“Could you maybe try probing them a little? See who they came looking for... no, searching for?”

- Hm...?

As expected, Park Cheolwoo immediately seemed to grasp Junho’s meaning.

- Looking at the stuff they were carrying... yeah. They definitely don’t seem like ordinary refugees who ran into the mountains to escape zombies. Understood. I’ll put together a little scenario. But do you have some kind of guess?

“My hometown, Bucheon, is close to Oryu-dong, isn’t it? An acquaintance once told me about a rather strange... cult-like church in that area.”

For now, Junho decided to reveal only half the truth.

- Ah....

“If those people really are connected to some cult religion, then they probably had some kind of purpose for coming all the way there, don’t you think?”

- True enough. Hm, this definitely isn’t something to brush aside lightly. Anyway, understood. If we learn anything important, I’ll contact you immediately.

“I’d really appreciate that. Then stay safe.”

- Roger that. We’ll talk again.

After ending the communication with Park Cheolwoo, Junho repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist as he sank into thought.

It finally felt like the time had come to do something he had never managed to before because he only knew vague estimates and not the exact timing.

***

“Boss, how’s the condition?”

Junho asked the question after entering the workshop-slash-garage where Baek Hail spent more than twelve hours a day.

“It’s a damn mess. Considering it was the first live-fire test, the impact was worse than expected.”

Baek Hail had already been working on the Bionic5 armored vehicle for several days.

The K4 automatic fire system mounted on the armored vehicle had performed perfectly, and both its power and effectiveness had been overwhelming.

But there had been one thing the simulation failed to account for.

The effect on the armored vehicle itself.

Even the simulation had failed to fully calculate the impact of the K4 high-speed automatic grenade launcher’s immense recoil.

“Look at this.”

Baek Hail lightly tapped a seam in the vehicle frame with the wrench in his hand.

A strangely dull metallic sound rang out.

“Hear that? Recoil damage.”

“But we only fired one round every two seconds.”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s not just vertical recoil. The shockwaves accumulated through the vehicle frame. Since we reinforced the welding like crazy when converting it into an armored vehicle, the roof-panel welds only ended up this bad. Those specialty-vehicle guys really know what they’re doing.”

“Ah....”

Looking beneath the vehicle roof, Baek Hail continued.

“Anyway, the frame rigidity dropped a bit. If we leave it like this and keep firing the K4, the welds could tear apart.”

“...You can reinforce and repair it, right?”

“Of course. First, we’ll install a new reinforcement plate on the mount base. Tomorrow Jeongwoo and I will seal the cracks with the MIG welder. While we’re at it, if we add shock-absorption rubber mats and damper pads inside, it should be fine. That’ll distribute the recoil properly.”

“What about the suspension? Is it okay?”

“Yeah. We also kept spare rear springs, so that’s fine. I overlooked road impact while working on it, but the vehicle itself is sturdy enough to handle it. The AI should’ve factored that in too when running the calculations. My mistake.”

“No. Nothing in the world is perfect.”

The AI Akina was indispensable to the shelter.

But that did not mean it was truly omnipotent.

Without an outstanding engineer like Baek Hail, it inevitably had limits.

“Anyway, I’ll check the chassis mounts, driveshaft, and torque links. As for the sensors and all that, Youngsu said he’d inspect them with AI assistance. Seriously, AI really is some freaky shit. It helped a ton even during inspections.”

“That’s a relief. But you don’t have anything urgent right now, do you?”

“No. Why?”

“There’s something important I need to tell you. Come with me for now.”

“......?”

Confused by Junho’s deeply sunken gaze and serious tone, Baek Hail still nodded and followed him.

***

“W-what the hell!? Bucheon? You’re going to Bucheon now?”

Baek Hail practically screamed.

Junhyeok, who had come to Junho’s room with him, widened his eyes in shock as well.

“Seriously? Hyung, why Bucheon? Is this about Hyunwoo?”

Looking between the two men who clearly could not hide their shock—and Yoon Youngsu, who looked strangely unconcerned by comparison—Junho spoke.

“Hyunwoo’s part of the reason, but not all of it. Anyway, Hail hyung, Junhyeok, Youngsu. You all trust my prophetic dreams one hundred percent now, right?”

“Is that even a question?”

“Ah, obviously.”

“Of course we do.”

After everything they had seen and experienced, there was no room left for doubt.

Junho spoke to Baek Hail first.

“Hyung. You know where I met you in my dream, right?”

“Yeah. That weird cult or whatever.”

“Yes. The Final Judgment Society. Originally, it was called Saekkeut Grace Church. The Kangho Resort people secured individuals believed to have come from there.”

“W-what...?”

“So here’s what happened.”

After briefly explaining the situation, Junho continued while Baek Hail stared at him with wide eyes.

“...Originally, in my dream, you died a month ago. Of course, that never happened in reality, and it never will. But it seems the other events still happened the same way.”

“W-what does that mean? Don’t tell me... you know the people the resort captured?”

“Probably. There’s a high chance they’re people I know.”

“......!”

Looking at Baek Hail and Junhyeok, both horrified, and Yoon Youngsu, who now wore an expression full of curiosity, Junho calmly began talking about something he had never properly explained before.

“The cult bastards in Oryu-dong offer human sacrifices to Alphas. But recently, survivors probably found out about it. So a few people escaped, and the ones captured at Namhansanseong today were probably sent to track those escapees while also gathering information about other regions.”

Junho was almost certain.

Even though, unlike before regression, neither he nor Baek Hail’s family had been there, the same incident had still occurred.

“Jesus....”

“But what does that have to do with you going to Bucheon?”

At Junhyeok’s question, Junho turned his head and answered.

“If that were all, then nothing. Whatever those cult bastards do in Oryu-dong isn’t my problem. But around a month after the first five or six people escaped, something happens.”

“Something? What?”

Displaying a map of western Seoul metropolitan areas—including Incheon and Guro-gu—on the large monitor in the room, Junho recalled a memory that was now more than five years old.

***

One day in May 2025, before regression. Saekkeut Grace Church, Oryu-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul.

“Did you hear? More people from the center escaped again.”

“Seriously? Then all that chaos last night was...”

Stepping out from one of the tent clusters behind the church’s main building—which had once been a parking lot—Junho glanced at the people whispering among themselves in groups.

Unlike Junho, who wore worn-out, ragged everyday clothes, they wore faded but still decent gray training uniforms.

They were people undergoing training after deciding to follow the Head Pastor—no, the cult leader—and because Junho was an “unbeliever,” his status was different from theirs.

Unless they spoke to him first, he could not approach them without a specific reason.

Even so, Junho had no choice but to endure life here.

Whatever else it was, Saekkeut Grace Church was a huge church compound with grounds so enormous it even had its own nearly one-hundred-meter access road. As long as they blocked that road, zombies could not get inside.

Moreover, even unbelievers received two meals a day as long as they obediently did the work assigned to them.

So until recently, Junho had thought it was not a bad place, even if it was a cult.

But—

“Fucking bastards....”

Baek Hail, whom he had regarded like an older brother, had been murdered.

And after learning the filthy “truth” of this place, Junho could think of nothing except escaping somehow.

Human sacrifice to zombies?

And unbelievers like him were apparently future candidates to be offered up as zombie feed?

The real monsters were this cult, its leader, and the followers serving that old hag.

'Should I’ve escaped yesterday?'

If he had known more people from the center building—which was separated from the main compound—had escaped again, he would have used the confusion to flee as well.

No, he should have boldly taken the chance several weeks earlier when one of the first people to escape had secretly urged him to come along.

But that opportunity had already passed.

And seeing the cult leader’s personal guard corps—the ones who watched people constantly with burning eyes, especially unbelievers like him—it felt like another opportunity would never come.

Then—

Fiiiiii....

“......?”

Hearing a strange sound that still felt oddly familiar, Junho instinctively raised his head.

And then—

KWA-BOOOOM!!!

A deafening explosion erupted from the roof of the church’s main building.

Tat-tat! Bang! Tatatatang!

Gunfire rang out chaotically.

Unlike the air rifles used by the personal guards—made by the now-dead Baek Hail—

these were unmistakably K2-series rifles.

The same rifles Junho himself had once used.

***

“You know how the forces sent from Jeju got wiped out and scattered, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Here. These mountains between Bucheon and Siheung. Geoma Mountain and Seongju Mountain. A lot of soldiers gathered there.”

The people who attacked the cult were said to be a group formed from a handful of special-forces soldiers whose airborne insertion had failed, along with scattered remnants from Bupyeong and Bucheon Jung-dong.

“These soldiers caused one huge incident over in the Sosa area, then moved into the mountains near Oryu-dong. And there... they discovered the Final Judgment Society cult.”

“What? Th-then don’t tell me...”

“Yeah. No matter how scattered and beaten they were, the Republic of Korea Army was still the army. They couldn’t just ignore cult lunatics offering living people to zombies. Besides, the soldiers themselves needed a place to eat and sleep too. So they attacked.”

“Ah....”

“The problem was...”

Looking around at the three men, Junho continued with a hardened expression.

“The soldiers had heavy weapons. And the cult bastards had several gasoline tanker trucks and other explosives. Everything exploded.”

“......!!!”

“Oryu-dong. Sosa nearby, Yeokgok, Gaebong. Even Sinwol and all the way over the mountains into Gwangmyeong... zombies from all those densely populated areas swarmed toward the explosion site. Tens of thousands of them.”

It had truly been an enormous “wave.”

Back then, Junho had used the chaos to escape and watched the scene unfold from the mountains.

Even remembering it now made chills run down his spine.

“But when tens of thousands of zombies converged on one place simultaneously, naturally gaps formed elsewhere. And the people hiding throughout those regions risked their lives to escape through those openings. Tens of thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands. But do you think that could happen safely? Without anyone dying?”

“.......”

No one answered.

There was no need to think about it.

“The Alphas knew humans were heading south. And some refugees realized the Alphas were guarding the southern routes. So what options remained? Right. East. Places like Gwanak Mountain and Cheonggye Mountain. But do you think the Alphas just sat still? Of course not. They moved east too. And the ones in areas like Anyang, Gwacheon, and Pangyo noticed the massive human migration and joined in.”

“.......”

As Junho continued speaking, not only Baek Hail and Junhyeok, but even Yoon Youngsu—who until now had been listening with fascinated curiosity—gradually realized something and stiffened.

“In the end, they all got pushed toward Gwangju, Hanam... and even Namyangju across the river. The number of zombies multiplied several times over from what started in Oryu-dong. Whew.”

Taking a slow breath, Junho spoke almost like a declaration, his expression hard but resolute.

“So we’re going to Bucheon, bringing Hyunwoo back, and making sure that never happens. Or at the very least, making sure it doesn’t spread as far as Gwangju and Namyangju.”

The cult members captured by Kangho Resort had been near Namhansanseong.

And if someone traveled from Guro to there on foot through the mountains, just as Junho had before regression, it would have taken less than ten days.

Which meant the attack on the cult would occur somewhere between two and three weeks from now.

The timing had finally been narrowed down precisely.

“We’ll get there on time and finish everything within a week. If we want to save Hyunwoo’s people and bring them back, this is the only chance we’ll ever have.”

At last, Junho officially declared that he was going to Bucheon.