Chapter 118
“What a fucking mess…”
Sweeper muttered curses under his breath.
A somber atmosphere that silenced everyone. No one could speak easily—
“Hey, Jung-hwan…”
Jung-hwan was dead.
He died. Just like that. So suddenly, so meaninglessly.
By the time Yohan and the recon squad responded to the radio call and arrived, they were already too late.
Inside the house was Ayoung, now a zombie with both legs torn off, and Jung-hwan’s body—his head gone.
The whole house was soaked in blood, with an unidentifiable stench clinging to the air.
And the mutant had disappeared without a trace.
Yohan’s pupils trembled at the sheer shock of such a meaningless, unexpected death.
“Get everyone to the shelters…”
Even his voice trembled. Though he gave the order, no one moved.
That’s how devastating Jung-hwan’s death was.
Since Yohan first joined the mart camp, Jung-hwan had been with him through countless battles. One of the earliest survivors, a comrade who had faced countless life-or-death struggles. His death was not something anyone could easily accept.
“Yohan. Get a grip.”
A stinging pain hit his chest. (T/N: Shit shit shit. Fuck)
He thought he had become numb to the deaths of comrades. Apparently not. He had grown attached and left lingering feelings again.
Enough to get angry over someone’s death.
Even in this world at the end of days.
A world where no one’s death was surprising.
Subconsciously, he had thought, ‘Surely the people inside my circle won’t die.’
Whether it was Sweeper, Hajin, even himself—anyone could die at any moment, and yet…
“Yohan!”
Hajin shouted, grabbing him by the shoulders, snapping him back to reality.
“I know it’s hard, but you can’t break down. That thing is still out there.”
“…Yeah. Sorry.”
Yohan slapped both cheeks.
The haze clouding his mind began to clear. Gripping his wavering thoughts, he gave orders. His voice still trembled.
“From now on, no one acts alone. Move only in squads. Squads 3 and 4, head to the situation room and broadcast the evacuation to the shelters. Squads 1 and 2 will track that thing.”
“Yes, sir!”
The response rang out.
At least, the one fortunate thing was that the team wasn’t frozen by grief or fear—but were channeling their tears into a burning will for revenge.
“Wait, Captain. Didn’t you say that when that thing appeared, it dragged a lot of normal zombies with it?”
At Jae-ho’s words, Yohan looked like he’d been punched in the face.
Mutant Shark.
An uncharted mutant, and the only two people to ever encounter it were now cold corpses.
Among all the mutants so far, it was without question the most dangerous. Armored, intelligent, hit-and-run tactics. Aside from the fact that it moved alone, it was practically unkillable.
Had the shock frozen his brain along with his heart?
Rina’s foresight had said that around this time, a mutant would trigger a zombie wave.
Which meant something was about to happen on the island—something that would unleash a swarm of zombies.
He had overlooked it. He was so focused on the mutant that he had ignored the possibility—thinking, how could zombies even cross the water?
But Rina’s vision had been accurate. Everything, from the creature’s appearance to its traits. That meant the horde of zombies it was said to bring with it was a real, looming threat.
‘…Ah!’
A bell rang in his mind.
He could now clearly see the image of Camp Yohan being annihilated—if he hadn’t met Rina.
He had assumed the mutant brought the zombies. But that was a mistake. While everyone’s attention was fixed on the mutant’s landing, the real incident would occur.
Just moments ago, Yohan had planned to gather all residents into the shelter and concentrate all forces at its entrance to confront the mutant. But if something happened at the coast during that moment—they would be defenseless.
Now he understood why even with strengthened defenses, the result was total annihilation.
Waterlogged zombies. Zombies in unfamiliar clothing. Hundreds of zombies.
‘The coast… a drifting ship.’
Right now, a large Chinese cruise ship was drifting toward the island.
A completely plausible scenario.
Pieces of boats or zombie corpses had floated to shore before.
South Korea had once attempted a military operation to move civilians and troops from the Jamsil Sports Complex shelter down the Han River to the southern coast. But most missions failed to root out infected people onboard, and their ships ended up drifting at sea. It was something Yohan had seen happen more than once before his first regression.
Even more so in China, where massive cruise liners capable of carrying nearly a thousand people were commonplace. It wouldn’t be strange if one of those ships had wrecked and ended up here.
‘Jung-hwan…’
Jung-hwan died first because they’d met Rina’s group. They’d rearranged living quarters to make room—and Jung-hwan had ended up in harm’s way instead.
Yohan gathered his thoughts and relayed his conclusion.
“It’s a cruise ship.”
“A cruise ship?”
“After the apocalypse hit the Chinese coastal cities, they must have launched a sea evacuation operation. Just like our operation to evacuate from Jamsil through the Han River to the southern coast. And during that process, one of those infected ships drifted toward us.”
“You don’t mean… zombies have the intelligence to steer a ship…?”
“Doubt it. Can’t completely rule it out, but if that’s true, then humanity’s already done for. Most likely, one of many wrecked ships just happened to drift here by chance.”
Every keyword clicked into place. Now, they had to prevent a landing. Even just the mutant was overwhelming. If a zombie wave joined in, it would be catastrophic.
“That thing doesn’t lack the ability to trigger a zombie wave—it just hasn’t because there haven’t been zombies nearby. But once that ship docks, we’ll be facing both a zombie wave and a near-invincible mutant. We could really be wiped out.”
Everyone’s faces turned grim. And all eyes turned to one place.
“Captain, your orders.”
Yohan’s mind spun rapidly. The team needed to be split—not to simply protect the survivors and track the creature, but to stop the landing of normal zombies altogether.
If they divided further, there was no guarantee they could win a fight against the mutant. He had to gather the only people who had a real chance of dealing with it—himself, who had immunity, and the four remaining ace fighters aside from him.
“Recovery and mourning… will have to wait. Eliminating the threat comes first. We’re heading to the transmission tower. Reorganizing teams. So-hee, Luca, Jung-hwan… damn it.”
“Captain…”
“Jae-ho, you know the theory of operating a fishing boat, right? So-hee, Luca, Seri, Jae-ho—you’re with me. The rest of you, take the civilians to the shelter.”
“Yes, sir!”
“We’ll take three bikes. Mobility is everything. So-hee, ride with Seri. First, we stop by the supply depot.”
The makeshift team to block the ship’s landing headed immediately to the depot. There, they packed up cloth, gasoline, the arrows Mr. Kim had made—everything they could gather—before starting up the bikes again.
“Oppa, where are we going?”
“To the transmission tower.”
The one place from which the entire coastline could be seen—the transmission tower.
Yohan climbed the tower and widened his eyes, determined not to miss the slightest movement—but the darkness and sea fog obscured everything.
—Oppa! See anything?
“No. The fog is too thick.”
If only the fog would lift, he could figure something out… Yohan shook off his impatience. Once they got closer to the coast, they’d be able to confirm it.
—Hyung, evacuation complete!
“Confirmed. What about the creature?”
—No sign of it. Be careful on your end.
The Mutant Shark behaved like a lone predator—a cheetah, a leopard. It stayed hidden, retreated when threatened, and targeted the weakest point of a group first.
Its intelligence was unknown, but it definitely displayed an instinctive tactical judgment far beyond that of regular zombies.
It was hunting in its own calculated way.
Yohan’s body tingled; his senses were sharp. It had been a long time since he’d felt this close to death.
The hairs on his entire body stood on end.
That primal fear, like facing a top predator… the anxiety that someone might die—or worse, that he might die here.
A storm of emotions swirled through his head.
Would someone else die again? Would he die this time? Yet paradoxically, he felt alive.
“Oppa!”
The Mutant Shark finally revealed itself before Yohan’s eyes.
“Transmission tower. Mutant Shark sighted. No backup needed.”
He gave the briefing and immediately began descending the tower. Now that the creature had appeared, this was where he would end it.
“Everyone back! Do not engage!”
He would kill it here.
Once the creature was down, the regular zombies would be no threat at all.
The three others stood back-to-back, ready to fire at any moment, while the Shark dashed around erratically, trying to throw them off.
Thud—Yohan planted his foot and gripped his machete. He knew bullets were useless.
He’d handle it like he handled [David].
It didn’t attack from range, so aiming at its mouth or eyes was unrealistic.
Even Sergeant Ong wouldn’t be able to land a shot in that flailing mutant’s gaping maw.
Thud!
The mutant lunged at Seri. At that instant, Yohan darted in and swung his machete. The creature paused midair, then leapt backward.
The machete whooshed through the air.
Yohan charged again. His relentless strike targeted the creature’s open jaws. With a slicing sound, the blade wedged between its teeth.
“Eeekk—!”
Yohan gritted his teeth and pushed the blade deeper with both hands.
The others held their aim, but with Yohan so close to the target, they couldn’t open fire.
“HAAAH!”
Yohan let out a battle cry and drove the machete in deeper. At that moment, the creature loosened its jaws, jumped back, and lunged with its mouth wide open once more.
Snap!
Its teeth slashed through empty air.
He found the pattern.
The creature opened its mouth wide when attacking. The answer was close combat. Compared to [David], its melee ability was inferior. He could take it.
Yohan pulled out a grenade and fixed his eyes on the mutant.
Ping!
Just then, So-hee’s arrow slammed into the Shark’s eye.
KRRRREEEEEEE—!
It shrieked in pain and reeled back.
The others followed up with gunfire.
RATATATATAT!
The creature twisted in the hail of bullets, then retreated into the darkness. Its agility was astonishing.
“Oppa! Are you okay?!”
The three of them rushed toward Yohan. Though he was quietly irritated, he nodded without showing it.
“Engaged at the transmission tower. The target fled. Increase security and be alert for ambush.”
—Roger that.
Yohan massaged his numb arm and stuffed the grenade back into his coat. The chance would come again.
“As planned, we stop the ship from docking. Luca.”
“Yes, sir.”
“The helicopter—it’s operational, right?”
“Of course.”
“Then we’re heading to the helipad. If we can’t see it, we’ll have to find it ourselves.”
