Free Web NovelHan Changsik had always been suspicious and cowardly ever since he was a kid.
That was why his much younger brother, Han Changoh, had gone around causing every kind of trouble under the sun because he had no fear at all, while Han Changsik himself had never caused a single incident growing up.
Of course, that did not mean he had not done bad things.
Han Changsik had committed countless acts of evil and plenty of crimes, but he had only ever been caught once.
In a way, you could call him a genius at crime, but the truth was simpler: he was too scared, so he always stayed within the line.
In other words, he only committed petty crimes and had never once pulled off anything major.
But then the apocalypse came, with law, order, and morality all dumped into the sewer, and to seize his chance, he committed a major crime: murder.
Of course, killing people in a world like this had not dramatically changed a personality that had been built over decades, but it had made him somewhat bolder.
That was why, today, he had sent out nearly 80 percent of the combat personnel under the Hanchang Family he ruled to raid the survivors at Gahyeon Elementary School and the National Agricultural Cooperative mart.
Up until then, he had never sent out more than 50 percent of his forces.
He had hostages and slaves scattered around the area near his country house that needed watching, and above all else, Han Changsik himself had to be kept safe.
But there were quite a lot of survivors at Gahyeon Elementary School, and if he wanted to strip the National Agricultural Cooperative mart clean in one go, he needed a lot of manpower.
More than anything, he had judged that today of all days—bitterly cold, with heavy snow pouring down—was the perfect chance, when everyone would be off their guard, so he had sent out more than thirty men, including his own younger brother.
Of course, because Han Changsik was a coward, he had arranged a way to protect himself even if all those men were gone.
It was a Chinese-made pistol he had received along with money as part of the price for handing over his business when he had been driven out of Moku-ri over a decade ago, right when he had finally managed to establish himself there.
The QSZ-92, complete with two fifteen-round magazines and thirty extra rounds of reserve ammunition.
Aside from the time a real gangster—a department chief from Daeseonghoe, a nationwide crime syndicate, who had bought his business for the full price—had fired a demonstration round with it, the gun had slept in his safe for over ten years.
Of course, twice a year, he had taken it apart just as he had been taught, cleaning and maintaining it carefully.
But he had never actually fired it himself.
So when he saw, on the country-house CCTV monitor installed in his room, a man with a gun suddenly appear on the second floor—
and when he shoved one of the women with him out through the door and saw the bastard hesitate for a split second—
the moment he leveled the QSZ-92 and pulled the trigger, Han Changsik felt a brief rush of ecstasy amid overwhelming excitement.
The heavy recoil and gunshot from the pistol seemed to wipe away all his fear and even gave a blazing lift to the masculinity he had always been insecure about.
But Han Changsik had forgotten that all he had ever done was watch someone else fire it in a demonstration more than ten years ago, and that at the time, he had been in a perfectly soundproof underground firing range with thick ear protection on.
KWAANG—!!!
The deafening gunshot, over 150 decibels, tore into Han Changsik’s ears like an explosion and churned his brain.
Even so, he could still see the man he had hit with the pistol staggering hard—
BEEEEEEEEEP!
“Ghk!”
A shrill ringing slammed into the inside of his ears with a burning sensation, and Han Changsik had no choice but to clap his hands over them and squeeze his eyes shut.
At the same time, losing his balance for a moment, he tried to catch himself with the hand still holding the pistol.
But strangely enough, there was no strength in it.
Thunk!
As if it were not even his own arm, all power suddenly drained out of Han Changsik, and he pitched forward right in front of the master-bedroom door.
“Khh... ngh! Khuhp, ngh.”
Only then did the agonizing pain in the right side of his chest arrive, and he desperately forced himself to breathe through air that would not come right.
And then, at that moment—
Tat-tat-tat! Wham!
The man who had clearly been hit by the pistol came charging over at terrifying speed and kicked Han Changsik in the jaw while he was still groaning and trying to push himself upright.
“Ghk!”
A few broken teeth flew from his mouth in the middle of the pain, and after the pistol blast, another massive shock carried straight into his brain.
Han Changsik blacked out.
***
Taaa...!
“...!?”
At the sharp gunshot that came from the country house he had been watching through the scope, Park Deokcheol’s eyes flew wide open.
“Gunshot! Did you hear that?”
—A gunshot? You heard a gunshot?
“Yes. A gunshot just came from the house.”
—Hold on. Stay in firing position.
Following Yoon Youngsu’s urgent voice, one of the two drones monitoring Han Changsik’s country house and the surrounding area dropped fast.
Eeeeeeeeng...!
Making a loud mechanical whine that had been impossible to hear while it was hovering high overhead, the drone entered Han Changsik’s house through the balcony window Junhyeok had broken and fed the inside of the second floor to its camera.
—Ah, fuck, thank God. Hooah....
Seeing Junhyeok binding Han Changsik’s arms and legs with cable ties while the man lay spread-eagle on the floor, Yoon Youngsu let out a breath.
“Jesus. I thought something had gone wrong.”
Park Deokcheol, looking at the same scene on the tablet screen he had set beside the air rifle, also felt his tension ease for a moment with relief.
But then—
—Mr. Dolsoe. The gangsters are crawling out after hearing the gunshot!
“I see ’em.”
Through his scope, Park Deokcheol watched men come pouring out of the three country houses flanking the largest one and the one directly below it, all carrying knives, axes, spears, and the like.
But they were not Park Deokcheol’s share.
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
The two G1 drones positioned about thirty to fifty meters away from Park Deokcheol opened fire with their compressed signature shots and poured rounds into them.
“Agh! Khurk! Aaagh...!”
The men hit by the rounds screamed and collapsed or rolled across the ground.
They would not die, though.
The shots were aimed at places like arms, shoulders, and thighs.
But the power of the tungsten rounds was terrifying, and every one of the bastards who took a bullet through clothing and into flesh crumpled where he stood, groaning in agony.
“Fuuuuck...”
“Guhk!” freewebnσvel.cѳm
A few of them tried to get back up now and then, but those ones unfailingly got hit again by more tungsten fired mechanically from the G1s and dropped with another scream.
—Coming out!
At Yoon Youngsu’s voice, Park Deokcheol trained his scope on the country house’s front door.
A moment later the door flew open, and someone burst out—not one of theirs, but a man wearing nothing more than a sweater and pants.
The instant Park Deokcheol saw the kitchen knife in his hand, he pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.
Pow!
The tungsten round buried itself in the man’s collarbone, and he dropped the knife with a scream that tore out of «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» his throat.
Two of their own men in full gear came charging out of the front door right behind him and kicked him in the back.
A second later, their side mercilessly beat the fallen man.
“Horrible...”
Muttering something that did not sound like it should have come from the same man who had just shot another man in the shoulder and crippled him, Park Deokcheol kept his scope trained on the country house’s front door and broken windows.
But no one else came out.
—All right, here comes the real thing. Everyone, get ready to move into Plan B.
At Yoon Youngsu’s words, Park Deokcheol quickly swung the muzzle away from the country house and aimed outside.
And then, around ten seconds later— freewebnøvel.com
Grrrrrraaaa....
A chorus of zombie howls rose from the country-house settlement’s main gate connected to the townhouse complex and from the back gate where they had tried and failed to break through last time, and the noise rapidly drew closer.
***
—Plan B. Commencing.
Pow! Pow!
The G1 drones opened fire right after AI Akina’s calm voice.
Plan B.
That referred to the contingency for if Han Changsik fired his pistol inside the country house that served as Hanchang Development’s base, or if some equally loud noise went off.
No matter that it was fired indoors, the sound of a pistol usually reached somewhere around 150 to 170 decibels.
That was comparable to hearing lightning strike nearby, or standing right next to a runway while a jet was taking off.
This was reality, not some movie or TV drama where characters fired pistols indoors and walked away perfectly fine.
Which meant that if someone fired a pistol inside a house in the dead of night like this, anyone with normal hearing within a minimum of three hundred meters and a maximum of one kilometer would hear it.
And if that someone happened to be zombies whose hearing had not changed at all from when they were human, then of course a huge number of them would come flooding in.
Naturally, the ones farther away gave up partway through because they could not see any living people while moving in.
But the ones that had been within five hundred meters of Han Changsik’s country house all burst out and ran straight here.
More than anything, the constant screams and the large and small noises spilling out from this place let them pinpoint their destination even more precisely.
Gwoooaaaarrr...!
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow...!
As the zombies’ howls drew closer, the other G1 drone also opened fire.
Then, right after that—
“Target in sight.”
Pow! Pow!
Park Deokcheol began firing his modified air rifle too, and Junhyeok, who had fully subdued the unconscious Han Changsik, started firing his KP9 from the rooftop of the country house.
The sight of hundreds of zombies charging up both roads was terrifying enough, but neither Junhyeok nor Park Deokcheol lost his nerve. They calmly kept squeezing their triggers.
Because right now they had two sturdy allies on their side: the G1s.
And unlike when they had fired on humans earlier, the attack drones now targeted only heads with total precision, so the zombies kept dropping with their foreheads and faces punched in.
And fortunately, Hanchang Development had already wiped out a huge number of zombies in the surrounding area.
Even so, there had still been a few zombies that had remained indoors under the control of Alphas instead of going outside.
And the unidentified Alpha that had instinctively led its pack out at the first powerful blast it had ever heard after mutating—as well as the zombies under its command—fell like dead leaves in a storm.
“Gwohk! Gwohk!”
Still, even if they were nowhere near Alpha D, which Junho had handled, some of the Alphas that had eaten plenty of people and awakened a fair amount of ability realized that their prey was exceptionally dangerous and ordered a retreat.
But then—
—Based on algorithms acquired from Master Lee Junho’s combat. Three entities estimated to be Alphas detected. Prioritizing elimination.
—Holy shit! I made it, but this thing’s seriously the best! Akinaaaa!
Right after the AI’s voice and Yoon Youngsu’s ecstatic shriek burst out—
Giiing.
Leaving alone the zombies charging up the roads toward the country house’s front and back gates, the G1 drones suddenly shifted and opened fire on several dozen zombies pulling back to the rear.
Pow... pow... pow....
In an instant, the backs of around ten heads blew apart.
Then roughly three quarters of the zombies that had been turning to flee suddenly froze and began wrenching their whole bodies into grotesque angles like they had during the first moments of mutation.
But only for a moment.
Once they lost the master controlling them, the bastards either returned to their original territory or some of them turned and came back up toward the country house again.
—Estimated Alpha entities. All eliminated. G1 Unit 05: ammunition exhausted. G1 Unit 06: battery below 20 percent. Will cease operations in five minutes.
One of the drones stopped, apparently having fired all two hundred or so rounds it carried, and a report came in that the other one would soon stop too.
—It’s okay! We’ve almost killed them all! Mr. Dolsoe, you’ve still got plenty left, right?
“Yes sir. Three more air tanks left and plenty of bullets.”
Park Deokcheol answered quickly while sighting and firing at the zombies still coming up the main road through the country-house settlement.
They too had once been living human beings, but Park Deokcheol, who had received some very special early education from his grandfather, only kept pulling the trigger with cold calm.
And the same was true of Junhyeok, firing his KP9.
—We’ve almost cleared our side. Send whatever’s left of the G1 over to Deokcheol’s side.
—Ryokai!
When the one remaining operational G1 moved over to support Park Deokcheol, the zombies coming up from the main gate of the country-house settlement started dropping even faster.
Pow! Pow! Pow! Click!
The instant Park Deokcheol realized he had run out of compressed air in the middle of his frantic firing and hurried to swap tanks, his earpiece crackled.
—Threats neutralized. All of them.
—Repeating: Threat group B neutralized. No active threats remain within drone surveillance range.
—Combat complete.
It was the same emotionless, businesslike voice as always.
But at this moment, that cold AI voice felt steadier and more reassuring than ever.
And Park Deokcheol—a former idol who, in his very first real combat, had racked up a kill count of more than fifty man-eating monsters—
“Huuuuh...”
took off his sweat-soaked helmet, all the strength suddenly draining out of him, and let out a long breath.
***
December 24, 2024. Christmas Eve.
Junho and Our Shelter not only succeeded in subduing every last gangster from Hanchang Development, but also managed to kill off more than 70 percent of the zombies spread throughout the middle section of Gahyeon-ri.
And among the zombies they killed were several Alphas, including D, two of which Junho had taken down himself.
Because of that, Junho would realize the very next day that something in his body had changed—
more precisely, that his physical abilities had taken one step further.
