Chapter 101

Yohan carefully reconsidered his plan before assigning people to their positions. The situation was vastly different from when a significant portion of the personnel had been allocated to reconnaissance and security. Now, they were surrounded by nothing but the sea. An invasion by zombies or mutants seemed unlikely, and any intruders attempting to swim in could easily be detected by noise alone.

Given these conditions, less than 30% of the 68 remaining members were combat-capable, but that percentage was still significant. Their combat strength was not to be underestimated.

Yohan’s mind raced.

This required a completely different operational approach.

The most crucial aspects were dividing personnel, establishing new defensive strategies, redefining survival protocols, and restructuring the reconnaissance team.

The biggest change compared to their time inland was granting the residents more freedom—minimizing the stress of survival. That was Yohan’s priority.

“We’ll divide the personnel into four groups of seventeen. In each village, you’ll find houses where people used to live. We’ll assign you to these villages, and you can choose where to settle.”

He then turned to the reconnaissance team and continued,

“The reconnaissance team will split into two units. One will monitor the bridge from Shindo District 1 towards Sindo, while the other will guard the pier from District 2.”

Yohan reassigned personnel in a way that ensured everyone’s comfort as much as possible. They were spread across four villages, each assigned specific duties.

Reconnaissance and security remained the responsibility of the recon team. Aside from Seo-jun, who would oversee the tech team and administrative personnel, the rest would be placed into the production unit, working on gathering supplies for the coming winter.

For now, they would continue sourcing materials from Yeongjong Island, but in the long term, they needed to become self-sufficient on the island.

The key figure in this plan was Old Man Park.

His experience and knowledge of self-sufficient living would be critical to the residents’ survival.

An unexpected advantage was that the harvest season was approaching. The vast fields meant that once they reaped the crops, they could sustain themselves not only for the rest of the year but well into the next.

When they had first chosen Shindo as their base, they hadn’t considered this factor. In hindsight, it turned out to be a stroke of luck.

“For now, reconnaissance will be on hold. Rest up and adjust to life on the island.”

Yohan’s words carried an underlying message.

A temporary pause meant that reconnaissance would resume.

Even if they achieved self-sufficiency and had no need to leave the island, reconnaissance missions would still be necessary. Some resources could only be obtained through scouting.

More importantly, the combat team must never grow complacent.

Combatants were like blades—always needing to stay sharp, even during times of peace.

—

“This place looks good.”

Yohan settled in one of the hillside houses in Shindo District 2, with a clear view of the pier. It was the perfect spot for monitoring the coastline at all times.

“I’ll take this one, then.”

Seri deliberately chose the house right next to his. Her intentions were obvious, but Yohan let it slide—it was harmless.

The following days were a flurry of activity. Old Man Park, Dr. Park Jae-beom, Kim Jung-hwan, Seo-jun, Ji-hye, and other members of the tech team began working on their respective tasks. The reconnaissance team cleared Sam-hyeongje Island and created a map of the surrounding area.

Among them, Yohan was the busiest. He meticulously assessed each person’s capabilities, set task priorities, and established procedures to prevent both freeloading and overwork.

His first stop was Jung-hwan.

Jung-hwan’s top priority was setting up a control room equipped with loudspeakers for broadcasting across the entire island and an amateur radio system to communicate with the mainland.

“In an emergency, we need to be able to gather or evacuate everyone with a single announcement.”

“It’s not a difficult job. The main challenge is getting the generators running to restore power.”

“There are a lot of solar panels nearby.”

“I checked them out. Most were installed for commercial power generation, so it’ll take some time to repurpose them.”

“I see. No rush—take your time. In the meantime, we can use gasoline generators to keep things running.”

Jung-hwan seemed excited. He had acquired an assistant to help him and had more freedom with equipment and workspace compared to when they were in Bucheon.

Meanwhile, Dr. Park Jae-beom selected two apprentices to train in medicine. His former assistant, a nurse, had died in the battle against the Seoul Survivor Union, making it necessary to train additional medical personnel.

Old Man Park was more energetic than ever. He outlined plans for field cultivation and livestock management, estimating daily egg production, goat milk yields, and breeding rates before presenting them to Yohan.

Yohan assigned him the largest workforce and placed him in charge of all farming and livestock operations. The rest of the personnel were assigned to fishing and foraging.

Ji-hye, who had a knack for crafting, teamed up with Grandma Jung to lead the island’s service industry. They converted the community center into a barbershop, tailoring shop, food distribution center, and cafeteria.

Seo-jun repurposed two unused warehouses into an armory and a storage facility, organizing all supplies, resource distribution maps, and resident records.

After months of working together, the remaining survivors had been thoroughly filtered. There were no freeloaders, no selfish individuals.

And there never would be.

Even if someone was secretly hiding their true nature, Yohan was prepared to beat and squeeze every last bit of effort out of them.

They said that in any group of five, there was always one useless person.

Yohan had spent months making sure that one person didn’t exist in their community.

On the island of survivors, only survivors remained.

This was peace.

—

September 2017.

Beneath the slightly murky surface of a reservoir, something unexpected was discovered.

It turned out that this place was so abundant with fish that simply casting a line guaranteed a catch.

Gurgle.

Air bubbles drifted to the surface from below.

Seri was swimming in the reservoir.

Seri swam smoothly like a freshwater fish, a long hose held between her lips. In her line of sight, a largemouth bass about 40 cm in size came into view.

Scraping the bottom lightly, she mimicked the sounds of small fish, luring the bass closer as it sluggishly approached.

Just a little more. Just a bit closer.

The moment it came within reach, the fish spear in Seri’s hand shot forward, piercing straight through the bass’s body. It thrashed violently, but soon enough, it was secured with a strong fishing line hooked through its mouth.

‘Eleven.’

In her other hand, nearly ten bass were already strung together on the line.

‘Guess I’ll stop here.’

Having made up her mind, Seri glided smoothly to the surface.

“Puhah!”

She emerged, pushing her diving goggles up onto her forehead and glancing around.

“Oppa!”

She called out toward the center of the reservoir, where Yohan sat comfortably on the pavilion railing, legs dangling over the side, watching her.

Struggling slightly, she lifted the string of bass onto the pavilion.

Yohan gave her an obvious look, making Seri squint her eyes into a crescent shape as she smiled.

“What? Am I just too sexy for you?”

Yohan let out a small chuckle at her usual antics. Of course, a young woman in her mid-twenties, fit and curvy, clad in a tight rash guard that clung to her water-drenched body, was undeniably attractive.

“Why are you acting extra flirty these days?”

Seri simply shrugged with a bright smile.

“I always feel like there’s an endless supply of these fish.”

“They have incredibly high reproduction rates.”

Once considered an ecological disaster, the bass was now nothing more than a convenient source of fish stew and sashimi for the island’s residents.

In a world where survival itself was uncertain, ecological preservation was the least of their concerns.

Seri split the fish into two bundles, threading them onto separate laundry lines.

“Here, take this.”

She handed Yohan one of the bundles, and he silently accepted it.

The two of them crossed Gubongsan Pass toward the supply warehouse.

Inside the makeshift freezer, hundreds of bass were already stored, frozen solid.

Nearly a month had passed since they settled on Shindo. For the past twenty days, Yohan had postponed all off-island tasks, focusing solely on stabilizing life within the island.

Most aspects of daily life had settled into a routine. It was far from the pre-collapse world, but at the very least, it was stable enough to feel like they had retired to a rural farming life.

There were no major issues.

Or rather, if there was one, it was that there were no issues—and that, in itself, was a problem.

With stability came Seri’s increasingly bold advances.

Before, Yohan had been able to ignore or brush past them, but lately, her approaches had become much more direct, making things awkward.

Like now—standing in front of him, wearing nothing but a one-piece swimsuit beneath her rash guard, dripping wet, smiling at him in a way that was difficult to ignore.

When Yohan glanced at Seri, their eyes met.

She beamed at him, her expression utterly carefree.

Yohan felt slightly uncomfortable.

He wasn’t oblivious—he knew exactly what her actions meant.

But it was still complicated.

He didn’t want to push her away or draw a firm line, yet he wasn’t interested in romance either.

It wasn’t about worrying what others thought. Seri had already shut out everyone else herself.

Jung-hwan had long since shifted his attention to Ah-young.

Looking at them now, it was hard to believe they had ever had a complicated relationship in the past—it was surprisingly platonic.

Jung-hwan was involved in some rather risky business, looking after Ah-young like an overprotective older brother. Some might have raised concerns about him keeping a minor by his side, but given that it was Jung-hwan, no one really worried.

On a side note, their dog, Heukgu, had grown tremendously in just a month.

It wasn’t just Jung-hwan and Ah-young.

With life stabilizing, the young, lonely men and women on the island had naturally started pairing off, finding comfort in each other.

Yohan didn’t interfere.

In such extreme circumstances, post-apocalyptic emotions were impulsive and fleeting.

As long as no murderous love triangles erupted, personal affairs remained just that—personal.

As Yohan and Seri crossed the mountain, they picked edible wild greens and mushrooms along the way.

They would take the mushrooms to Jae-ho, who was skilled at distinguishing between edible and poisonous varieties.

“Oppa, there’s another one.”

Seri called out, prompting Yohan to walk toward her.

What she referred to as “this” was a footprint.

“How many now?”

“Eight.”

It looked somewhat like an animal’s footprint, but there was no known species on the island that would leave such a mark.

A deep indentation at the center of the footpad, surrounded by four sharp claw-like imprints.

It was a shape they had never seen before—almost like a small dinosaur’s footprint.

Even Jae-ho and Old Man Park had shaken their heads when they saw it.

When they had first discovered these prints, they had assumed that a mutant might be lurking on the island and spent days combing the area.

The conclusion?

There were no mutants on the island.

The best explanation they could settle on was: “There used to be a mutant here, but it’s gone now.”

And now, this was the eighth time they’d found these tracks.

A strange sense of unease crawled up Yohan’s spine, his survival instincts flaring to life.

His eyes gleamed sharply.

For too long, things had been too peaceful.

It was time to raise their guard once more.