Free Web Novel“We are short on combat personnel. The AI is monitoring everything through the CCTV, but we still need proper security.”
In the shelter lounge, Junho went on while looking at the two men sitting there with tense expressions.
“But... you do understand that our Shelter Guards aren’t just ordinary security guards, right?”
“Yes, sir. I know.”
“I understand too.”
The two answering while absently touching their now-cold coffee cups were Baek Suho and Park Deokcheol.
“Deokcheol, you said you used to go hunting a lot in America, right? With your grandfather. Using guns?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But could you shoot a person?”
“......!”
Junho looked at the flinching Park Deokcheol with indifferent eyes.
“The people I just mentioned include zombies too. No matter what, they still look exactly like people on the outside. So? Could you shoot?”
“May I answer honestly?”
Junho answered with a nod, and Park Deokcheol swallowed once with a dry throat.
“I think I won’t know for sure until the situation actually happens. But... if I think about my sister, Sunny, and everyone here, I think I could. If I don’t shoot, everyone will be in danger.”
“...Right. What about you, Suho?”
“I can do it. I mean it.”
Baek Suho continued in a hard voice, not at all like his usual slightly hyper self.
“The truth is, online... I used to check my friends’ social media all the time. I watched a lot of the posts and videos they uploaded too.”
Yoon Youngsu and the AI filtered things, so he could not leave comments or chat with anyone, but from inside the shelter it was still possible to connect to the internet and read posts or watch videos.
Of course, now it was meaningless, since the servers were all dead.
“Some of them had sons who died on the first day. Some held out with their families... and then ended up like that. Some are still hanging on somehow. I can’t access them anymore, but I’ve got a feeling, you know? I don’t know about the others, but Sangyong and Jinsu... I feel like those two are definitely still alive.”
Twenty-two years old. The age when you are supposed to be out having fun with your friends.
And Baek Suho, who had not been discharged all that long ago, had been working part-time with his friends because they were planning to go on an overseas trip before going back to college.
Then the apocalypse hit while he was just taking a short break for a family trip.
“So that’s why you want to learn how to fight? So later you can go to Busan and look for your friends or something?”
“Yes. The world isn’t going to stay like this forever, right? Someday, won’t it be possible to get from here to Busan? When that day comes, I want to look for them. Of course, if my dad and uncle say no, I won’t do it.”
Even while nervously watching Junho’s face, Baek Suho still said what he wanted to say.
It was a childish thought, one born from not knowing reality.
But it was not a wrong thought.
What Baek Suho was talking about right now was hope, and Junho knew very well how important a value that was in the apocalypse.
Hope that things would get better.
That was directly tied to the will to survive.
That went without saying for their shelter, but it was true for the people at Hanaareum Nursing Home, the people of Peach Valley, and the residents of The First Apartments who had defended the mart with Song Gijun too.
All of them were surviving and fighting on because they had not lost hope even in desperate circumstances.
That was why Junho thought highly of Baek Suho wanting to find his friends someday, on the day when reaching Busan became possible.
“Fine. If that kind of world comes someday, do it. I’ll help you too.”
“R-really?”
“Really. If I thought I’d spend my whole life moving around this area only, why would I have bought diesel vehicles instead of just electric ones?”
“Ah...”
At Junho’s words, Baek Suho thought of the diesel armored vehicle sleeping in the parking structure beside the workshop, kept in condition by driving it around the inside of the shelter once or twice a week.
And it was not just that armored vehicle. The shelter had a lot of other diesel vehicles too.
They just had not been properly used yet.
“I’m telling you this because the two of you say you want to become combat personnel....”
Junho looked at the two men staring at him with expectation and tension in their eyes and said,
“The training is going to be brutal. And even after it’s over, for a while you’ll only rotate through the guard posts, and you’ll have to move around with G1. You know why, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
Naturally, both of them knew very well about the shelter’s turrets and drones.
Especially G1, the ground drone. It could shoot faster and more accurately than either of them, so in fact going around with it would make them feel even safer and more secure.
“Then let’s start your training early tomorrow morning. And don’t get lazy with your regular work either.”
“Don’t worry, Uncle!”
“We’ll both work hard.”
Baek Suho, who wanted to save his friends someday, and Park Deokcheol, who wanted to protect his own sister and the people here, the two young men the same age answered at the same time.
And with that, our shelter gained two more combat personnel.
***
While the cycle of snow falling, piling up, and being cleared repeated a few times over,
the people of our shelter nearly finished setting up the areas each of them had been put in charge of.
With Choi Jeongwoo joining them, the workshop became able to handle more work faster, and above all, the power room—something that had to be checked often by an actual person—stabilized.
The medical room was built up by Choi Uisu and Kim Heeyoung into something beyond the level of a neighborhood clinic, able to handle not only most trauma surgery but various emergency situations as well.
And in the dispensary too, Baek Sua, with help from the couple in the medical room and the AI, succeeded in manufacturing various medicines that were used often and needed most in the apocalypse from APIs they had purchased in advance.
Meanwhile, the five greenhouses and the chicken coop, which Junhyeok had mainly been responsible for and which Baek Suho and Kim Hayoon had occasionally looked after, were handed over to Jo Yuna, with Kim Hayoon assisting her.
And the shelter’s all-purpose workhorse role, which had originally been Baek Suho’s, ended up going—not to Park Deokcheol, unexpectedly—but to Park Sunhee.
Despite her glamorous /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ looks, Park Sunhee was diligent by nature and had a strong sense of responsibility. Without once complaining, she got called all over the place and smoothly helped with whatever needed doing.
She moved quickly, was good with her hands, and every member of the shelter liked her, treating her warmly as if she had been part of the shelter from the beginning.
And Park Sunhee likewise quickly grew close to the shelter members, not one of whom had a difficult personality.
With one exception.
The “owner” of our shelter.
***
“Park Sunhee.”
“Y-yes!”
After finishing her bath in the underground bathhouse with Jo Yuna and Baek Sua and heading up to the second floor, Park Sunhee turned her face with a stiff, creaking motion like a robot.
Looking at her with his usual flat gaze, Junho said,
“If you’re not busy, come see me for a minute.”
“A-all right.”
“W-we’ll go on ahead.”
“See you later, Sunny.”
Jo Yuna and Baek Sua, who were both just as intimidated by Junho, quickly disappeared after giving him small bows.
“Come on.”
“Yes...”
Glancing sideways at the backs of those two traitors(?) who had been laughing and chatting so brightly just moments earlier, Park Sunhee followed Junho with unusually demure steps.
‘So this is...’
She had already been living in the shelter for about two months now, but this was the first time Park Sunhee had ever entered Junho’s private room, and she looked around with curious eyes.
Overall, it was not that different from the room she shared with Jo Yuna—
‘N-no, it’s really different.’
The moment she saw the overwhelmingly large main monitor and sub-monitor, along with the PC linked to the shelter AI, Park Sunhee felt herself grow tense all over again.
And on top of that, by Junho’s bed—
‘A gun. And it’s an AR?’
At first glance, it was not exactly normal for a twenty-year-old female idol to recognize an AR-15.
But she was someone with an unusual background, having learned shooting and self-defense from her “Rooftop Korean” grandfather since childhood.
So Park Sunhee looked at the AR-15 with all its attached accessories with something like nostalgic emotion(?), and then Junho said to her,
“You’ve fired one before, back when you were in America?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. A few times. And I mostly used .22 Short tons, I mean, twenty-two—”
“I know. The ammo’s cheap, and the recoil is light, so even women in America can shoot it easily. Anyway, other than .22 and 9mm, have you fired anything else? What about air rifles?”
“I’ve used an air rifle when I went hunting with my grandfather.”
Even as she answered obediently, Park Sunhee found it a little strange.
Because surely this man standing in front of her was a hardcore Psyche Flare fan, which meant there probably was not anything about her he did not know. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
“Good. Then how about taking this chance to learn how to shoot properly along with your brother?”
“M-me too?”
“Yeah. Partly to prepare for emergencies, and also, the more people we have who know how to shoot, the better.”
Baek Suho and Park Deokcheol, who would become Shelter Guards, and Park Sunhee, who would be the only woman becoming reserve combat personnel, would handle only modified air rifles.
There was not enough 9mm and 5.56 ammo even for Junho and Junhyeok to use freely.
Besides, modified air rifles were not lacking in power just because their rate of fire was lower and the air tank had to be changed every twenty rounds or so.
If anything, because they had so little recoil, modified air rifles were better suited for guards and reserve combat personnel who would be focused strictly on defense.
And in terms of preparing for sudden emergencies, it would be good for even Park Sunhee, who had handled guns in America, to practice shooting with the modified air rifle from time to time.
“Anyway, that’s not the important part.”
Junho paused for a moment, then held something out to Park Sunhee.
It was a desk calendar for 2024, now with not much of the year left.
Park Sunhee took the calendar without really thinking and tilted her head, not understanding.
“You see the days circled there?”
“Yes.”
“Those are Jiwoo’s and Baek Sua’s birthdays.”
“Ah...”
At Park Sunhee’s slightly widening catlike eyes, Junho continued,
“It’ll be the first birthdays of shelter members since the world turned out like this. But the problem is, theirs are only three days apart. So I was thinking maybe we should throw one party for both of them together.”
“I-I see.”
Well, yes. With only three days between them, separate birthday parties would be a little awkward.
But that was not why Park Sunhee was flustered.
“You still... celebrate birthdays?”
Even with the world like this?
Park Sunhee was genuinely surprised.
And then—
“Of course. And because the world turned out like this, that’s exactly why we need to celebrate them more. That’s the whole reason I built this place.”
“......” ƒгeewёbnovel.com
At the words that followed, she felt one side of her chest start to tingle for no clear reason.
By now, Park Sunhee knew.
To enemies, Junho was colder and crueler than anyone.
But to “us,” he was the warmest and most dependable person in the world.
That had been true of her and her brother too, but also of Choi Jeongwoo and his daughter Choi Jiwoo, who had no connection to him at all, and the Kim siblings as well.
After hearing that Junho had rescued them on the very first day of the apocalypse without even hesitating, her eyes had burned before she knew it.
And that was when she realized it.
Lee Junho, the owner of this shelter, was not just some ruthless killer.
So although Park Sunhee still found Junho difficult to deal with, the overwhelming fear she had felt when she first met him had eased quite a bit.
And on top of that, because he was a hardcore Psyche Flare fan and perhaps—just perhaps—she herself might even be his favorite, lately she had been feeling a little restless.
And then, right in the middle of all that, she got to see this sweet side of him too, the side that wanted to celebrate everyone’s birthdays.
“Then... will you celebrate mine too?”
Without meaning to, she blurted out the thought that had popped into her head.
“Hm? Of course. Every member of our shelter gets celebrated, no exceptions. Anyway, I want to throw the party, but the more I think about it, the more you seem like the right person for the job. It’s not like I know Jiwoo’s or Baek Sua’s tastes that well.”
Originally he had intended to ask Choi Haneul and put her in charge, but she was far too busy.
As every man who had served in the military knew, cook duty was actually one of the hardest assignments there was.
So asking Choi Haneul—who prepared three meals a day for the shelter members every single day, and at a level far above ordinary home cooking—to take on something like that too would have been a bit much.
“It’d probably be hard to do alone, so take Hayoon and Jo Yuna with you—”
“No! I can do it by myself. I’ll definitely do it. And this is just my idea, but what if we prepare a Christmas party too?”
“Oh, that’s actually not bad. Christmas is only four days after their birthdays anyway.”
“Yes. Leave it to me. Even when I was living in America, I used to help my mom prepare for Christmas and Thanksgiving— I mean, Thanksgiving.”
“Good. Then I’m putting you in charge. I’ll leave the warehouse inventory categories open on the tablet. If you need anything, take it out and use it.”
“Yes!”
After answering with as much energy as she felt, Park Sunhee started to leave Junho’s room, then suddenly turned back.
“U-um, but.”
“Yeah?”
“I know you obviously know my birthday, but... when the time comes, could you maybe let Yuna handle the preparations?”
“That’s fine. But I don’t know your birthday. Ah, while we’re at it, tell me yours, Deokcheol’s, and Jo Yuna’s birthdays too.”
“...What? You weren’t our fan?”
“A fan? Me? I’ve never even properly listened to your songs. What are you talking about?”
Junho, who still occasionally mixed up Psyche Flare’s name, looked at her like this was ridiculous.
But not nearly as ridiculous as Park Sunhee looked.
“......”
Park Sunhee, who until now had been almost certain that Junho was a hardcore Psyche Flare fan and that she might even be his personal favorite, suddenly recalled all the things she had said and done up to now in that short instant.
“Agh, uh, huhk—”
After letting out a bizarre little cry, she went bright red not only in the face but all the way down to the back of her neck, then backed right out the door.
“...What the hell is wrong with her?”
Junho could only tilt his head with a baffled look.
