Free Web Novel—Rear side! Another zombie group just entered the platform from the Sosa Station direction! More than seventy contacts! Looks like they were inside the station!
It seemed the zombies inside the station had been stimulated after hearing the Alpha’s roar.
This was exactly why fighting multiple Alphas simultaneously in an urban environment was considered extraordinarily dangerous.
The ordinary infected weren’t directly controlled by the Alpha, but once they heard the roar and reacted to it, their numbers could double or triple within mere seconds.
A literal wave would erupt instantly.
The fact that only around seventy had joined was thanks to the nighttime conditions, the soundproof walls blocking visibility and noise along both sides of the tracks, and the long distance that caused infected from nearby residential zones to eventually give up while trying to run over.
If those conditions hadn’t existed, Junho never would have planned this operation in the first place.
—No Alpha confirmed. I’ll set the A2 drone to auto-return and take out whatever I can snipe from here.
The commercial building where Yoon Seolhee was positioned stood four stories high, placing part of the subway tracks within her firing range.
But even she couldn’t eliminate over seventy rapidly charging zombies by herself.
Junho made a quick decision.
“Then I’ll enter Bucheon Station. If they’re just ordinary infected, they’ll eventually give up once they stop seeing anything.”
—Understood. Wait... huh? Is that a person?
“A person?”
Just as Junho repeated Kim Jimin’s words, Han Areum’s excited voice burst through the comms. freewebnovel.cσ๓
—Ah! It’s Hyunwoo oppa and Taeyoung oppa! There are soldiers with them too!
“......!”
Junho flinched and turned his head.
Sure enough, far away near the subway train, a group of people was moving while firing from atop the subway cars.
Switching to magnified night vision, Junho immediately confirmed that two of them were wearing the exact same motorcycle suits he had stored back at the Bucheon house.
“Hyunwoo... Coach....”
His body trembled involuntarily.
In this merciless apocalypse, seeing those two survive exactly as he had hoped and prepared for filled him with indescribable relief.
The two of them were moving across the subway roof in low crouches alongside armed soldiers.
“Manager Yoon, provide support for them with the A2. And stop them from entering Bucheon Station. Give them a rough briefing on the current situation too.”
—Understood.
The A2 had been fitted with a microphone during modification.
Originally it was meant for warnings, but it worked perfectly fine for communication in situations like this.
“Keep one drone hovering over Bucheon Station. Communications are going to cut out soon.”
—Yes.
—We’ll be waiting.
—Oppa, seriously be careful.
Listening to the voices of the three people wishing for his safe return, Junho crossed the collapsed barricade and vaulted up onto the Bucheon Station subway platform.
Grrrghhh... Kyaaak!
Passing the low groans of zombies crushed beneath the barricades or trampled into the tracks but not yet fully dead, Junho descended into the underground shopping district of Bucheon Station.
***
Thud! Thudthud! Thud! Pang!
The dull, suppressed reports of 5.56mm subsonic rounds fired from suppressed K2C1 rifles mixed continuously with the sound of modified air rifles.
Normally, even with suppressors attached, nearby zombies would still have been able to hear the shots.
But the sound was drowned out by the roaring zombies and the noise of countless feet pounding across the gravel-covered tracks.
Because of that, Choi Hyunwoo, Kim Taeyoung, and the former special-forces reservists were able to move steadily across the subway roofs while continuing stable suppressive fire.
Then—
Whiiiiiiing...!
A drone flew in low overhead with a sharp rotor noise.
“Holy shit...?”
The startled group widened their eyes, while the zombies entering the tracks simultaneously whipped their heads toward the sound.
“No, fuck, what are we supposed to do if someone’s flying a drone around here—”
The moment Kang Juyoung muttered irritably—
Pak! Pak! Pak!
The modified air rifle mounted on the A2 drone opened fire.
Because of the shortened barrel, its effective range had dropped to around fifty meters.
“What the hell is that thing?”
“That’s fucking insane.”
Its accuracy wasn’t particularly high, but the attack drone effectively distracted the zombies while still inflicting meaningful damage, making everyone stare in disbelief.
“Doesn’t matter what it is. It’s friendly. Keep firing.”
At Shin Hocheol’s words, the reservists resumed shooting.
And within only a few minutes, every zombie that had entered the tracks was dead.
The nighttime conditions limiting zombie vision, combined with the fact that everyone possessed night vision equipment and suppressed firearms, had made it possible.
“Hoo... hoo... hoo....”
“Haaah....”
But real combat drained both physical and mental stamina even within a few minutes when lives were on the line.
By the time the fighting ended, they were drenched in sweat, breathing heavily while collapsing onto the subway roof. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Then the nearby drone spoke in a voice neither loud nor quiet.
—Choi Hyunwoo, Kim Taeyoung. Can you hear me?
“WHOA!?”
“Jesus fucking Christ!”
The rotor noise partially obscured it, but it was unmistakably a woman’s voice, startling everyone badly.
Especially Choi Hyunwoo, whose mouth fell open before he suddenly realized the voice sounded incredibly familiar.
—Mr. Choi Hyunwoo, this is Yoon Seolhee.
“Gah!? Bodyguard goddess noona?”
Remembering the face of Yoon Seolhee, whom he had seen several times at the Gangnam Krav Maga gym, Hyunwoo nearly shouted in shock.
—I came here with Lee Junho. The person who just entered Bucheon Station was Lee Junho. Han Areum is with us too right now.
—For now, stay where you are and keep watch on your surroundings. The drones are maintaining surveillance, so we’ll inform you immediately if anything happens.
“W-Wait....”
—Do not move from there. And absolutely do not even think about entering Bucheon Station. Lee Junho said so personally. Unless you want to get beaten to death.
Whiiiiing...!
After using its remaining battery—less than twenty percent left—as efficiently as possible, the A2 drone immediately rose back into the air.
“So... should we just wait here, then?”
“...Yeah. We only have one magazine left each anyway. But who exactly is that woman? A bodyguard? Goddess?”
“Ah, that’s Manager Yoon Seolhee. She’s a bodyguard for some huge company CEO. She’s insanely good at Krav Maga too. Former Special Forces NCO.”
“Holy shit....”
Shin Hocheol shook his head in disbelief, thinking that someone associated with that “madman” would naturally have a background like that.
“Hey, Hyunwoo.”
Then Kang Juyoung carefully spoke to Choi Hyunwoo, who had removed his helmet and was wiping sweat from his face.
“That last thing she said... that was directed at you, right?”
“What thing?”
“The part about listening if you don’t want to get beaten to death.”
“Probably? Why?”
“Huh? No reason. Nothing....”
With an awkward expression, Kang Juyoung shook his head and slowly peeked over the edge of the subway roof.
The other reservists quietly followed suit, glancing down at the tracks.
There were countless zombie corpses sprawled everywhere, every single one decapitated, crushed, or stabbed through the head.
The few zombies they had killed were only a tiny fraction.
The overwhelming majority were the result of one man alone.
Which was why—
'I should probably listen carefully.'
'That’s not even human....'
Pulling their masks back on against the thick smell of blood and rot rising from below, every reservist found themselves thinking something similar.
***
The moment Junho entered the dark underground shopping district, a horrific stench of mold and decay pierced even through his ballistic mask.
All the ceiling lights were dead.
Far away, flashlight beams shook wildly through the darkness.
GWOOOOOO...!!! KYAAAAK...!!!
“Fuck!? AAAAAAH...! Kyaaah...!”
Zombie shrieks mixed chaotically with frantic footsteps, curses, and screams.
Faced with the sudden assault of hundreds of zombies, the panicking people failed to follow the absolute rule of survival:
Don’t make noise.
“AAAAAH!”
“G-Go together! KYAAAAH!”
Several people burst out screaming in panic.
Stupidly enough, every one of them carried flashlights either in their hands or mounted on their heads.
And behind them, dozens of zombies flooded through the corridor in pursuit.
Junho immediately flattened himself against a pillar.
“AAAAAAH!”
KYAAAAAH! KYAAAK!
Both the people and the zombies sprinted right past the pillar where he hid without noticing him at all.
Once they disappeared down another corridor, Junho lowered his upper body and moved swiftly through the passage in a tactical firing stance.
“Fuck, that was close....”
The moment one raider holding a short spear cautiously emerged near a café sign—
An IR laser dot instantly settled on his forehead.
Tak!
With the soft sound of a casing hitting the floor, the raider’s head snapped backward with a bullet hole punched through it, and he collapsed immediately.
Maintaining his firing stance, Junho delivered stealthy, precise headshots to the raiders emerging from the underground food court.
Tak! Tatatak! Tak!
Using perfectly controlled burst fire—two or three rounds at a time—with skill bordering on mastery, Junho executed the raiders who had survived by hunting people throughout the underground shopping district of Bucheon Station.
Grrrrrr...!
Occasionally groups of zombies ranging from five or six to several dozen sprinted through the corridors.
But Junho ignored them completely.
In this darkness, the infected reacted only to the flashlights carried by the raiders and the noise and screams they made while running.
As long as he hid behind pillars, signboards, or display stands before they got close, the zombies could never notice him.
And a handful of the raiders knew that too.
“Fuck... where the hell did he come in from?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Raiders hiding silently in the darkness without using flashlights.
They couldn’t see Junho.
But through his wide-angle night vision goggles, Junho could see them perfectly clearly.
Tak!
Most died within ten to fifteen meters, subsonic rounds punching cleanly through their heads before they could even scream.
Strictly applying the CQB techniques he had learned at Redrock Academy and continuously trained at the shelter, Junho methodically eliminated the raiders.
Then—
Through his night vision, he spotted two trembling women hiding behind the glass display counter inside a sandwich shop.
As someone living through the apocalypse for the second time, Junho instantly recognized they weren’t members of the MZ Family faction.
They were captives.
Or women being forced to “serve” them against their will.
If they had truly belonged to the group, they wouldn’t have been wearing ragged clothing, nor would their exposed arms and faces be covered in bruises and wounds.
Entering the sandwich shop quickly and silently, Junho spoke in a low voice.
“Shh. Don’t make any noise.”
“Ghk!”
The two women—already covering their mouths just in case they accidentally screamed—collapsed backward in terror.
“Listen carefully. I didn’t come here to rescue you. But I did come here to kill these bastards. Understand?”
“Mmph....”
Even while trembling in fear and crying uncontrollably with their mouths covered, the two women nodded frantically.
“Good. Take these. Just tell me where the leaders are.”
Junho handed them energy bars and painkillers from his pouch.
“Th-thank....”
One of the women unconsciously accepted them.
She was filthy and emaciated, but traces of her former beauty still remained.
Looking at Junho with fearful eyes that nevertheless retained the stubborn will of someone who had endured abuse and survived anyway, she whispered:
“Th-the exit over there... if you turn right, the food court ends and there’s a fountain. I-if you go toward the North Plaza where all the clothing shops are....”
Because the underground shopping district was large and complicated, her explanation went on for a while.
But as someone who had survived here for nearly half a year, she knew every corner of the place like the back of her hand.
She even explained exactly where the MZ Family faction had piled up barricades through the underground corridors, and where the secret route leading to the D-Mart was located.
Junho could easily guess what had happened to her without needing to ask.
“...Understood. What’s your name?”
“Se-eun. Park Seeun.”
“K-Kim Yukyung....”
“Good. Ms. Seeun, Ms. Yukyung. My name is Lee Junho. Eat those and stay hidden here. Once everything’s over, my people will enter this place. Anyone dressed similar to me or who looks like a soldier is one of mine. If you run into them, tell them my name. Understood?”
“Y-Yes....”
Faced with someone utterly different from the trash raiders who treated human lives like flies—
Someone responding to them in a completely normal way from before the world collapsed—
The women forcibly swallowed back their tears and nodded.
They had no idea.
No idea that the man before them was several times more dangerous than even the MZ Family faction, the most vicious predators in Bucheon.
And no idea that from this moment onward, for every raider and zombie inside the underground shopping district of Bucheon Station—
The Reaper himself had descended.
