Free Web Novel“Khh....”
Jeon Yohan could not come to his senses.
Even with his eyes shut, afterimages still remained, his vision washed white.
A heavy ringing filled his ears so he could not distinguish sounds, and his sense of balance had vanished completely, making it feel as if the floor were heaving under him.
“Fuck....”
Even in that state, Jeon Yohan clenched his teeth and tried to push himself up, but his body immediately tilted to one side.
His shoulder slammed into some hard structure, whether a wall or a display cabinet he could not tell, and as he flailed to catch his balance, he collided with someone beside him and collapsed again.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo....”
He breathed hard, squeezing his eyes shut and opening them over and over, and at some point, blurry outlines began to appear. Using every bit of strength he had, he braced his hand against the floor and stood up.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo....”
Jeon Yohan tried to look around, swinging his muzzle from place to place.
But his sense of balance still had not fully returned, making it difficult to judge direction.
His vision was still dizzy, and the afterimages of light remained in blotches, making it hard to tell what was what.
After a moment, the tinnitus ringing in his ears settled somewhat, and though everything was still muffled, outside noise began to reach him little by little.
The feeling that his eyes were out of focus and the afterimages still remained, but now that he had secured his vision, he could look over the living room properly.
“Hhk...!?”
All the LED lights were out, but bright moonlight entered through the full-length windows, showing him the state of the living room in full.
Old men were crawling across the floor, and only the two subordinates who, until just moments ago, had been perfectly fine while aiming down the hallway from behind the sofa and a table turned on its side were gone.
No.
They were there.
Just in several pieces.
When Jeon Yohan saw the corpses of his two subordinates, their heads and upper bodies separated from their bodies in a pool of blood, his body froze like a statue.
And at that moment—
“You’re Jeon Yohan, vice chairman of the Daeseong syndicate, right?”
At the low, cold voice from behind him, goosebumps raced over Jeon Yohan’s body, and he felt as though his blood had frozen solid.
Flinch.
Along with a stinging sensation at his neck, that horrifying low voice burrowed into Jeon Yohan’s ears again.
“You capture zombies and do some half-assed bullshit with them, don’t you? Where is that bastard CEO of Celenix right now?”
“......!”
Jeon Yohan was horrified by the other man’s words, which sounded as if he already knew everything.
But as someone who knew all too well how to act in situations like this from his long life as a gangster, he slowly bent his wrist, stealthily moving the pistol muzzle behind him, and spoke in the calmest voice he could manage.
“...I don’t know who you are, but even now—”
Crack.
“Augh!”
At the monstrous grip clamping down on his wrist, Jeon Yohan dropped the pistol.
At the same time, the blade dug a little deeper into his neck, and an even lower voice sank into his ear.
“Looks like you’re misunderstanding something. You’re going to die. The only thing that changes depending on how you answer now is how you die. Whether you go cleanly like your men, or get tossed out as zombie feed.”
“......!!!”
“Finding where that bastard Yoo Youngjae is won’t be hard either. It’s not like you’re the only one who knows where he is. I’m only doing this because it’s annoying and I don’t want to waste time. So.”
Grab!
“Krgh!”
Junho violently seized Jeon Yohan by the hair and turned his body around to face him.
“If you want to live even a few more hours, talk, you gangster piece of shit.”
***
Pang...! Pang...!
“Gotcha.”
After shooting down yet another drone sent by the gangsters with only two shots, Park Deokcheol checked the tablet screen synced to the controller.
The tablet, loaded with the program Yoon Youngsu had made, immediately identified other drones when a shelter drone detected them.
On top of that, thanks to the laser sight mounted on the gun, aiming at night was not especially difficult, and since the stupid gangsters had left their drones hovering in the sky, they were easy to hit.
By contrast, the shelter’s drone, true to its expensive high-performance model, was observing the entire battlefield from much higher altitude than the gangsters’ drones. freewebnovel.cσ๓
On top of that, every part that leaked light had been sealed with tape, so there was no need to worry about the gangsters spotting it.
Ta-tang...! Ta-ta-tang...! Tang...! ƒrēewebnovel.com
Even then, intermittent gunshots rang out below.
Maybe because it was a large apartment complex, the gunfire somehow sounded even louder.
“They’re coming in! Over a hundred! All armed with firearms!”
At that moment, the drone operator from Major Lee Seokjin’s unit raised his voice, and Lieutenant Jeong and over twenty soldiers aimed their muzzles down from the apartment.
Most of Golden Heights had not a single light on, but more than half of the streetlights inside the complex were still lit.
Click! Click!
The soldiers, armed with K2C1 rifles and K15 light machine guns, released their safeties and finished preparing to fire.
“Platoon leader! Should we prepare grenades too?”
One soldier asked.
The rooftop of the apartment they were on was roughly sixty meters high.
If they threw hard enough downward, the grenades would hit the ground and explode within the fuse delay.
But Lieutenant Jeong shook his head.
“No. Even now, zombies might come because of the gunshots. If grenades start going off on top of that, they’re coming for sure.”
There were villages around Golden Heights too, but their population was only around six hundred, and the Daeseong syndicate had already cleared them out.
The nearest other apartment complex was across the highway, and the distance to it was about eight hundred meters.
The gunshots would be audible, but not enough to stimulate the zombies. Especially if they were indoors.
...Recalling what Junho had told him, Lieutenant Jeong continued.
“They say ten decibels is almost double in perceived loudness. If grenades go off in the middle of this, it’ll be a real disaster, so absolutely do not throw them.”
“Yes, sir! Understood!”
The active-duty soldiers, who knew very well that the sound of a grenade explosion was on a completely different level from what appeared in movies or dramas, immediately accepted it.
“They’re almost here! About two hundred meters from the rear gate!”
When the drone operator raised his voice again, Lieutenant Jeong and the soldiers under him stared through their optical sights and put their fingers on the triggers.
Because this was the first time they had to shoot not zombies, but fellow “humans,” every one of them was tense.
But the comrades below were fighting after overcoming that tension and fear.
“Open fire!”
They were able to pull the triggers at the vicious gangsters, men who could hardly be called human anymore.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-bang...!!!
Dozens of 5.56-millimeter rounds tore through the darkness and poured down over the bastards’ heads.
Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tang...! Ta-ta-ta-tang...!
At the same time, the troops positioned near the rear gate also opened fire in unison, as if they had been waiting.
The gangsters knew that the rear gate had already been breached, and that the soldiers positioned near it were shooting down their comrades on sight whenever they approached.
But because all their drones had been shot down, they had no idea how many people were positioned where or how.
They were literally swept away.
There was no need to fire much.
“Cease fire! Cease fire!”
The rifles had fired only one magazine each, and the light machine guns only around thirty rounds apiece, but among the gangsters who had been clustered together by the dozens and swarming in like a colony of ants, not a single one remained standing on two feet.
“Machine gunners! Snipers, stand by to fire! Everyone else, we’re going down!”
At Lieutenant Jeong’s excited order, the soldiers, every bit as excited as he was, rushed after him in a group.
Despite the fierce wind, Park Deokcheol shuddered as he smelled the still-thick scent of gunpowder.
He thought he understood why Junho had been so reluctant to encounter military units.
Thanks to his grandfather in America, he had fired guns often since he was young, but the military’s concentrated fire was truly something on an entirely different level, far beyond anything he had imagined.
“Snap out of it. Get it together, Ducky.”
Feeling that his ears were muffled even though he was wearing a headset, Park Deokcheol hurriedly checked the tablet screen.
The camera of the drone hovering in the sky near the main gate of Golden Heights was pointed in the direction of Misa Bridge and the highway.
Because of that volley just now, zombies from the other apartment complex across the highway might come rushing in.
And not in the same number as the gangsters they had just killed, either. It would be an overwhelming number with a different first [N O V E L I G H T] digit and one more zero at the end.
“Don’t come here. Please don’t come.”
Park Deokcheol murmured low as he moved the drone camera from place to place.
***
Beep-beep-beep, beep-beep... click!
When Jeon Yohan entered the passcode with trembling hands and pressed his thumb against the reader, the culture center door opened.
There was no blade or gun muzzle pressed against him, but feeling the killing intent from behind him, he was gripped by fear so intense it felt like it would drive him mad, and he stepped inside.
'What the hell is this bastard? He’s definitely not some regular soldier... Special forces or something?'
Though he had been discharged long ago, he could at least tell that the combat uniform Junho was wearing was not regular Army issue.
On top of that, the rifle slung across his back was not K2-series, and the pistol attached to his chest had a suppressor mounted on it too.
And a soldier carving people apart like that with a machete instead of even a military bayonet?
'Fuck... I’m really screwed.'
Jeon Yohan instinctively knew he would not survive this.
But since he was still alive for now, he had no choice but to do anything the unidentified “monster” walking behind him ordered.
After going up to the second floor of the culture center, Jeon Yohan suppressed the urge to look back and said,
“H-here. This is Yoo Youngjae’s lab.”
“Open it.”
At the low voice still devoid of any emotion, Jeon Yohan gulped down dry saliva and repeated the process of entering the passcode and pressing his thumb against the reader again.
Soon, the door to the management office in Culture Center Building B opened.
“......!?”
Junho saw the man standing in the middle of the room, looking at him.
The man, in his forties and presumed to be Yoo Youngjae, leisurely raised a hand toward them.
“Hi, Director Jeon. Been a week, huh? By the way, it sounds like a mess outside....”
The man shifted his gaze to Junho and continued.
“Was that you people? Which unit? Are you in contact with the government, by any chance?”
“.......”
“If you are in contact with them, could you tell them I’ve developed something incredible? This is really killer. Ah, maybe you don’t have decision-making authority? Then bring your superior or—”
Thwack!
“Ghek!”
The man, who had been chattering away with a friendly smile on his face and an attitude so relaxed it was almost absurd, tumbled to the floor with a drawing knife embedded in his shoulder.
Thud!
Junho kicked Jeon Yohan, shoving him toward the man, then walked toward the two of them with a drawing knife in each hand.
“You and this bastard both can’t read the room. Don’t try some pathetic tough act or pretend like you’ve got something important going on. Keep your mouth shut until I ask a question. If you want to die, keep running it.”
Papak!
The drawing knives flew at a speed barely visible to the eye and buried themselves into the two men’s backs and thighs, even part of the handles sinking in.
“Aaaaagh!”
“Krhek! Auuugh!”
As if proving that before overwhelming violence, a gangster second-in-command and a nouveau-riche biotech founder were all equal, the two men let out screams sharp enough to tear the air.
“Hey, you crazy bastard.”
“Uuugh... hhk?”
With no trace of his initial relaxed attitude left, Yoo Youngjae looked up at Junho through tears.
“How many Alphas are here? How many people have you fed to them so far?”
“Hhk, th-that’s....”
Shnk.
When Junho drew not a drawing knife, but his commando dagger, terror filled Yoo Youngjae’s face.
“T-twelve! There are twelve of them! Uugh, p-people, for each one... about twenty to thirty per....”
“You still haven’t come to your senses, have you?”
Seeing Yoo Youngjae’s eyes darting around even in this situation, Junho realized the bastard was lying and raised the commando dagger.
Thump...! Thump-thump...!
At the small noise from deeper inside the office, Junho snapped his head around.
Then Yoo Youngjae also naturally turned his gaze in the direction Junho was looking.
“Ah....”
In an instant, his face turned deathly pale.
Squelch.
“Krgh!”
“Agh!”
Junho twisted the drawing knives embedded in Jeon Yohan and Yoo Youngjae once, then yanked them out roughly, making the bastards writhe in even greater agony.
Bang! Bang!
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
After stomping down on both bastards’ ankles with his combat boots so they could not move, Junho walked toward the inner door of the office where the sound had come from.
The gray steel door, utterly out of place in an office like this, was locked from the outside rather than the inside. Junho drew his Glock 17 and carefully turned the doorknob.
Click.
“...Ah! Aaah!”
Then, along with a frail voice, someone who had been knocking on the door screamed and fled inward.
At that, the small things inside began screaming too.
“Kyaaa! P-please save us!”
“Aaah! Huaaah!”
Inside the dark room, where a single orange LED light hung from the ceiling, over ten children who did not yet look even ten years old were hugging each other and crying.
The moment Junho saw those children, he realized what their “purpose” was.
