“Uwaaaah!?”

“Kyaaaak! Kyaaak!”

Screams like shrill whistles echoed through Wonmi Mountain.

“Aaagh! A— khk!”

Thud!

The woman who had kept screaming at the sight of the man’s corpse suddenly toppled sideways after subsonic rounds punched through her cheek and temple.

“Huaaah!?”

“R-run! Hurry the fuck up, bitch!”

The remaining two women rushed past Kim Jaewoo—who was still collapsed on the ground in shock—and reached the front door of the old one-story farmhouse.

And at that exact moment, someone opened the door from inside.

“Jaewoo! What happened!?”

“Fuck!”

The instant the skinny man in thick-rimmed glasses opened the door, one of the women violently yanked the doorknob.

“Ghk!?”

The frail, undersized man couldn’t resist the force and was dragged outside before falling hard onto the ground.

“Hurry up, bitch— gah!?”

The woman who had been yelling at her companion suddenly screamed.

The friend who had been perfectly fine only seconds ago was now sprawled across the ground, blood pouring from her head.

Now she was the only one left alive.

“Uwaaaah!”

The final woman, consumed by terror, clutched the knife to the very end and rushed inside the house.

“What’s going on? What happened?”

“Aaaah...!”

The sudden chaos in the middle of the night instantly threw the farmhouse into turmoil—a place where kindhearted adults had somehow continued caring for children even after the world collapsed.

***

“.......”

After accurately killing three targets while firing on the move from over sixty meters away using his IR laser sight, Junho walked forward expressionlessly and activated the radio.

“One entered the farmhouse, so I’m going in too. What about the one who ran?”

— Still fleeing downhill. Looks like he’s heading for the university-side forest trail.

“The university?”

— Yes. What should we do? Pursue and eliminate him?

“No. Just keep the drone on him in follow mode and wait. The university area’s dangerous.”

The roughly ten survivors at Catholic University were hiding inside one of the buildings at the highest elevation, having blocked every internal route leading there.

But outside that area, the campus still had plenty of wandering zombies.

And an Alpha nearby could storm the place at any time with its slave zombies.

— Understood. We’ll continue tracking him by drone only.

“Good.”

Ending the transmission, Junho lowered his body and approached the house.

“Ghh...?”

Junho glanced at the male student Kim Jaewoo, who was staring up at him while blood streamed down his head.

“We met yesterday, right? You remember me?”

“Ah... yes. Ugh.”

Kim Jaewoo, who had received food and supplies from Junho only yesterday, answered painfully.

Junho pulled an emergency medical kit from his belt pouch and tossed it over.

“Disinfect and stop the bleeding with that. I’d do it myself, but one bastard went inside the house and I need to deal with her first. You know how to use it, right?”

“Yes, yes... pharmacy major... I-I know how.”

“Good. This’ll be over soon, so sit there and patch yourself up. Ah, where are the kids right now?”

“O-our kids? Why....”

Even in this situation, Kim Jaewoo instinctively showed concern and caution for the children.

Inside, Junho gave him a few extra points for that.

“If it were me, I’d grab whichever kid was closest and start a hostage situation. Most people are weaker when it comes to children than adults.”

***

In one corner of the living room, barely illuminated by several lanterns—

“Waaah! Aaaah!”

“Shut the fuck up, bitch! Stop crying!”

A woman in a cap violently gripped the hair of a little girl who looked around seven or eight years old and wildly swung her knife around.

“Back off, you crazy bitches! Come any closer and this little brat dies! Got it!?”

“Ah!”

“Ugh!”

The children, the nuns, and the university students couldn’t get close to the woman rampaging in desperation.

Then a middle-aged nun who seemed to be the oldest stepped forward carefully and calmly.

“Miss... could you please put that down first?”

“The fuck you mean miss!?”

When the woman spat out vicious curses, the nun trembled and hurriedly apologized.

“A-alright. I’m sorry. That was my mistake. I’m truly sorry. But it’s dangerous, so please lower the knife first—”

“It won’t work.”

“......!?”

At the unfamiliar deep voice that suddenly came from behind them, everyone startled and turned around.

“Gasp!”

“Wh-who....”

The appearance of Junho—who looked unmistakably like a soldier—instantly filled the farmhouse survivors with tension.

“Ah! It’s the man from yesterday. The soldier who gave us food and medicine.”

One of the male students who had received supplies together with Kim Jaewoo raised his voice.

“Ah....”

The nuns and students relaxed slightly.

But the woman holding the little girl hostage did not.

Standing directly before a terrifying killer, she was overwhelmed by pure fear.

“Y-you... d-don’t come closer! Stay there!”

“Waaah!”

The terrified woman stumbled backward while yanking the little girl’s hair even harder.

Her trembling hand brought the knife blade close to the child’s face.

At that moment, Junho swiftly aimed the muzzle of the KP9 directly at her.

“Hiiik!?”

Most Koreans rarely see firearms in real life.

Especially Korean women.

So even when a gun is pointed at them, they usually don’t truly understand how terrifying it is.

Because they’ve never personally experienced how deadly guns really are.

But the woman in the cap was different.

Only moments earlier, she had watched three of her companions die in front of her, blood exploding from holes torn through their heads, necks, and faces.

That horrific death no longer felt distant.

“I-I’ll kill her! I really will!”

“Huaak! Aaaah!”

Whether by accident or on purpose, the knife sliced across the little girl’s face and blood streamed down.

The middle-aged nun hurriedly spoke to Junho.

“Brother, could you please lower the gun first? Nothing will be resolved like this.”

“Y-yeah! Put the gun down!”

The woman in the cap screamed again, but Junho remained silent, still aiming the weapon.

The woman became even more frantic.

“J-just let me go! If you let me go, I’ll give you anything! N-no, I’ll do anything! Slave, whatever you want! I-I’m not bad looking, right? I’m really good at this stuff. So please....”

Instead of responding to her, Junho spoke quietly to the little girl.

“Hey, kid.”

“Hic... hic...?”

The little girl, one cheek stained with blood and tears, met Junho’s eyes.

“Close your eyes tight.”

The child—terrified enough that she had even wet herself—blinked at first, not understanding.

Then she squeezed her eyes shut.

“What are you—”

Thup!

The instant the low, dull sound rang out—

The woman with the hole blown through her cap collapsed before she could finish speaking.

“E-Eunhye!”

A younger nun practically threw herself forward and tightly embraced the little girl, who still had her eyes squeezed shut.

But the middle-aged nun stared wide-eyed at the dead woman who had been killed instantly.

Then she looked at Junho with trembling eyes.

Lowering the muzzle of his KP9, Junho wore the same indifferent expression as always.

The nun slowly made the sign of the cross and spoke shakily.

“Brother... thank you sincerely for saving us. But if only you had given us a little... just a little more time, perhaps there might have been another way... hhk... I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. You saved our Eunhye, and yet I....”

Her voice carried no resentment.

Only heartbreaking sorrow.

People like this existed.

Even in an apocalypse world racing toward ruin, there were still genuinely kind people trying to preserve hope and goodness that no one else would acknowledge.

They were extremely rare, but Junho had seen people like this before his regression too.

Lowering his wide-angle night vision goggles again, he spoke quietly.

“I heard everyone here’s a sucker— no, just good people. From what I’ve seen, that definitely seems true.”

Without looking at the nun, who flinched while wiping away tears, Junho coldly turned his back and continued.

“I’m not mocking you. I just mean... keep living that way, Sister. In a world like this, people as kind and good as you absolutely need to exist.”

“What do you mean....”

“But I’m not one of them. From now on, whether it’s zombies or people, I’ll keep killing and killing. Because that’s....”

Having lived through two apocalypses, Junho’s heart had already gone numb beyond repair.

'...the job that someone rotten like me has to do.'

He swallowed those words instead of saying them aloud.

Then, without meeting the eyes of the good people who shrank back from him in fear even while still using their own bodies to shield the children, Junho stepped outside.

***

“Assistant Manager, W2’s secure. What about the bastard who escaped?”

— He’s reached the area near the university survivors’ building. But the W4 library survivors are almost there too. Feels like something’s going to happen within ten minutes....

“.......”

After silently thinking for a moment at Yoon Seolhee’s report, Junho finally spoke.

“Assistant Manager, come over here for now.”

— Right now?

“Yes. I think it’d be better to evacuate these people immediately. And honestly... you’re probably better suited for this than I am.”

No matter how much food and supplies he’d handed out, he was still someone who shot people dead without blinking.

Compared to him, Yoon Seolhee—a woman who was tough toward the strong and gentle toward the weak—would naturally put them more at ease.

“Anyway, I’ll handle things over there. Assistant Manager, take these people to the retreat center. Then bring only the ones capable of physical work back to the control center.”

— Understood. But don’t tell me you’re planning....”

Sensing something, Yoon Seolhee trailed off.

Junho answered quietly.

“Yes. Since we’re already here, we might as well finish the ritual.”

At last, Junho could admit it.

Whether a variable like himself existed or not, these were people who would eventually kill each other over what they had—or be torn apart miserably by zombies.

If that was the case, then the best thing he could do was at least provide a little help to the few genuinely good people and to the members of his shelter.

***

“Huff... huff... huff....”

Ju Seongcheol, who had abandoned his companions and fled, felt like his lungs were bursting but still didn’t stop running.

While sprinting through the terraced farm plots built along the mountain ridge, he heard women screaming from the farmhouse behind him.

Most likely one of the three women he’d lived with.

'Fuck! Fuuuck!'

The image of Junho’s cold, indifferent face flashed through his mind.

And because of that, he couldn’t stop running.

Even now, it felt like that terrifying man was chasing him from behind.

'The university! I just need to reach the university! Then somehow I’ll survive!'

He had survived this whole time by acting strong toward the weak and groveling before the strong.

'In a fucked-up world like this, the one who survives is the strong one anyway!'

So he hadn’t done anything wrong.

Was getting a little greedy really a crime worth dying over?

'Right! I was just unlucky!'

“Hek... huff... hek....”

Hypnotizing himself with those thoughts, Ju Seongcheol staggered onward.

Then suddenly—

“Hek...?”

He stopped.

Far away, along the forest path leading toward Catholic University, several flashlight beams flickered.

“Huff... those fucking idiots... what the hell are they doing...?”

Breathing heavily, Ju Seongcheol cursed.

The forest was dense with trees, but below it was an entire residential area.

Mostly three- and four-story villas and multi-family housing.

Anyone moving through a forest trail only a few dozen meters away from that area while using flashlights was basically begging zombies to kill them.

“Huh...?”

But then Ju Seongcheol realized those people weren’t moving somewhere else.

They were climbing toward the university.

And judging by the direction they came from, they had to be the scary older men from the library.

“Uh... what do I do? Ah! R-right! That works!”

After a brief moment of thought, he came up with an idea.

“Fuck, I’m the only one who knows where the university people are hiding. I’ll stick with these guys and tell them.”

And if it failed?

'I’ll just run while Lee Junho deals with those bastards. Perfect. I can survive again.'

Just like long before the world collapsed, Ju Seongcheol once again chose to cling pathetically to the strong and prey on the weak.

***

“You serious? If you’re bullshitting us, you’ll be the first one to die.”

“I-it’s true. I saw them several times while climbing the mountain. They’re all gathered at the top. There are only five or six men too. And they’re all old—”

Facing the rugged man in his fifties, Ju Seongcheol stopped himself from calling the similarly aged university survivors “old fossils” and hurriedly changed course.

“A-anyway, guys like you can definitely handle them. Plus I’m even guiding you there, right?”

“Well, true enough.”

The library group’s leader found Ju Seongcheol suspicious, but after surviving countless hardships over the years, the older man quickly grasped exactly what kind of person he was.

“You lead the way, parasite.”

“Huh?”

“I said you lead the way, parasite.”

“Ah... understood.”

As always, Ju Seongcheol smiled submissively and walked ahead.

'Fucking bastards. Just wait. Someday I’ll get rat poison or something and—'

While thinking that and climbing several meters back up the trail—

Twang...! Twang...!

A sound that should never have been heard shattered the silence from extremely close by.

“Ah!?”

“Fuck....”

The instant the gunshots rang out, the library survivors—

No.

The apocalypse’s accomplished raiders—

Dropped flat to the ground as all color drained from their faces.

Grrrrrrr....

Because the gunshots hadn’t only shattered the silence of the night.

They had awakened the zombies of Yeokgok-dong as well.