Chapter 88
“So you’re saying it’s hard to search a place this big, and that there’s no guarantee they haven’t already run away. What’s your point?”
“Honey, it’s only been two hours. Do you really think an entire camp could pack up their belongings and flee in that time? At best, they escaped in a hurry with just the clothes on their backs. Honestly, even their quick response was unexpected.”
Jeanie pointed along the perimeter with his finger.
“Look at the shape of the perimeter—it’s a square. That makes it easy to monitor from all four corners. Honestly, building a wall like this inside a city is a bold but stupid idea. But surprisingly, they only blocked off the entrances. It’s an efficient and well-planned design. Their leader must be smart.”
“And what does that mean for us?”
“These corners—if they set up camps at the edges, they could handle shelter, supplies, and defense all at once. We just need to search the corners.”
Gae Baek-jeong raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
“Interesting. Smart people sure have a way of thinking alike. I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
“Good. Let’s split into four teams.”
“Wait, honey. Also, look at these buildings—their entrances are all destroyed.”
“And?”
“A locked safe has money inside, but an open one is empty. They broke every single door in the area before building this wall. That means they made sure that when the wall was up, there wouldn’t be zombies hidden inside the buildings. Search the ones with intact doors.”
Even as Jeanie laid out his strategy, an unease still lingered.
This enemy was different.
The scout team had been wiped out. Kim Seol-hwa had been captured. The two separate strike teams had lost contact—completely unexpected setbacks.
Nearly half of their force had been neutralized.
And those weren’t just expendable foot soldiers; they were backup strike teams, positioned to flank any attackers if things went south. They had even chosen an approach route their enemies couldn’t have predicted.
Yet they had been ambushed.
The most unsettling part was that less than two hours had passed since Gae Baek-jeong had spoken to their leader over the radio—yet in that short time, the survivors had already been evacuated.
Their response defied logic.
Their leader didn’t just anticipate an attack—he was certain it would happen.
What kind of opponent were they dealing with?
As Jeanie scanned the area, his eyes locked onto a villa at the perimeter. The main gate was intact, and solar panels lined the roof.
A perfect shelter.
A strategic leader would love a spot like that.
Jeanie pointed it out immediately. Gae Baek-jeong nodded toward Dwarf.
Dwarf cocked his rifle, loading a K201 grenade launcher attachment.
Thunk!
The explosive sailed through a window.
Crash!
Glass shattered, and the grenade detonated inside.
Screams erupted.
A wicked grin spread across the faces of the twenty fighters watching.
Dwarf pulled the trigger again.
With cold precision, he rained down grenade fire across every floor of the villa, ensuring maximum chaos inside.
As Gae Baek-jeong observed the situation, he signaled his men once more.
This time—
Smoke grenades were hurled inside.
Thick, white smoke billowed out from multiple points within the villa.
With the next signal, his men stormed the building from all sides.
—
Meanwhile inside the villa.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
Gunfire erupted.
The camp’s survivors fought back with everything they had, but the difference in skill was overwhelming.
Most of them had only ever fought zombies.
They had no experience shooting at living people.
The hesitation in pulling the trigger—the dread of taking a life—cost them seconds.
And in battle, seconds meant death.
“Drop to the ground if you want to live!”
Dwarf swept the room with suppressive fire, sending bullets ricocheting off the walls.
At that moment, Lieutenant Ahn fired his pistol—
And for the first time, Seo Sang-yeon, one of the enemy combatants, took a direct hit to the chest.
A rare, genuine injury.
The man staggered, clutching his wound.
That single act of defiance lit a fire in the defenders.
Breaking free from the haze of grenades and smoke, the survivors returned fire.
Most of their shots were wild—bullets struck walls, floors, and ceilings.
But a few—those who had been trained properly—managed to land precise shots on the enemy.
One by one, the invaders started dropping.
But the difference in gear was brutal.
Those in body armor slowly pushed themselves back to their feet, gripping their wounds.
Survivors assumed they were dead—only to watch in horror as they stood back up and charged at them, wielding knives.
The tables turned instantly.
One by one, the resistance was crushed.
Yet amidst the chaos, Lieutenant Ahn shined.
When an armored attacker attempted to stand after being shot, Ahn fired again, this time directly into his forehead.
“Ack—!”
The man crumpled, lifeless.
Dwarf’s gaze locked onto Ahn.
Rage flashed in his eyes.
He fired—
Bang! Bang!
Two rounds slammed into Ahn’s feet.
With a pained groan, he collapsed.
“Lieutenant Ahn!”
One of the sergeants rushed forward—
Only for Dwarf to smash the back of his head with a rifle butt.
As the sergeant fell, Dwarf swept his legs out from under him and pressed the barrel of his rifle against his skull.
Then, with zero hesitation, he dragged him away.
—
The villa was filled with the sounds of groans, screams, and gunfire.
But the battle was over.
A one-sided slaughter.
Those who were still alive had been captured—severely wounded, unable to resist.
Three survivors had been killed instantly.
The rest, injured from gunfire or blunt force trauma, moaned in agony.
Seeing their comrades fall, the last remaining survivors abandoned all hope.
They turned and fled toward the underground shelter.
But as they ran, the enemy’s eyes followed them.
The underground shelter, meant to be their last line of defense, was breached before its doors could even fully close.
A massive axe wedged into the steel, stopping it from sealing shut.
A man inside tried to push it closed, but a black-armored intruder yanked him back, shoving a gun to his head.
“They’re all in the basement!”
Inside the shelter, nearly a hundred people huddled together—most of them non-combatants from Yohan’s camp.
Their terrified screams filled the room as they watched their comrades, beaten and bloody, being dragged inside by the enemy.
“Ho-hoo~”
Gae Baek-jeong let out a whistle, as if he had just discovered a gold mine.
So this was where they had been hiding.
It was bigger than he expected.
A hundred people.
An entire settlement had been hiding right under their noses.
Behind them, stacked supplies filled the shelter—enough food and resources to sustain this many people for over a week.
Gae Baek-jeong was impressed.
His men, still nursing their wounds from the battle, looked at the survivors like starving wolves eyeing their prey.
The survivors, on the other hand, were frozen in terror.
Who the hell were these people?
Where were the ones who were supposed to protect them?
Gae Baek-jeong’s eyes gleamed, as if even their fear amused him.
This was the biggest haul the Soul Survivor Union had ever claimed.
He casually tapped his rifle’s butt against the floor, making the nervous survivors flinch.
“Well, well. What a warm welcome. Let’s start with a little greeting, shall we? Since we’ve already killed three, we’ll only need to kill two more. Consider it mercy.”
His rifle swept across the crowd, pointing at random people.
Then, he suddenly turned toward Lieutenant Ahn Jun-min, still coughing up blood in Dwarf’s grip.
“A fine soldier of the Republic! The highest-ranking guy here, huh? Lieutenant Ahn Jun-min, is it?”
Gae Baek-jeong grinned mockingly.
Ahn, despite his pain, spat in his face.
Gae Baek-jeong wiped the spit off with his palm.
“Let’s not be so cliché, shall we?”
He twirled his rifle in one hand, smirking—then suddenly swung the butt of his gun like a hammer.
CRACK!
The rifle smashed into Ahn’s face, sending him sprawling to the ground. His helmet flew off, rolling across the floor.
Then—
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Gae Baek-jeong kept swinging, bludgeoning his skull over and over.
The soldiers screamed in horror.
“Lieutenant Ahn!”
But Ahn lay limp on the floor.
Whether he had passed out or died, it was impossible to tell.
Gae Baek-jeong raised his rifle—
And pulled the trigger.
DUDUDUDU!
Bullets tore into Ahn’s head, shattering his skull. (T/N: SHIT! )
Brain matter and blood splattered across the floor.
SCREAMS.
Sobbing.
Terror filled the shelter.
“Whew~” Gae Baek-jeong exhaled, stretching. “That was a good warm-up. One more left. Any volunteers?”
Silence.
Nobody stepped forward.
They shook in terror, desperate to avoid their fate.
“Really? No one? That’s a shame. So… who’s next in line? There’s gotta be a hierarchy here, right?”
Still, no one answered.
The survivors weren’t even thinking about leadership anymore.
They just wanted to live.
Gae Baek-jeong sighed theatrically.
“Fine. How about I mow down five or six of you with a machine gun instead?”
“T-this person! It’s him!”
A trembling voice shouted from the back.
Suhee. (T/N: WHAT THE FK! This fking traitor!! FKKKK!!)
She pointed straight at Seo-jun.
Seo-jun’s eyes widened in shock and fury.
“Oho~” Gae Baek-jeong grinned. “Hiding, were you? A leader shouldn’t be doing that.”
Seo-jun thrashed as he was dragged forward by the hair, but Gae Baek-jeong’s grip was too strong.
His boots scraped against the floor, but he couldn’t break free.
Gae Baek-jeong yanked his face up, grinning.
“Nice eyes you got there, old man.”
He tilted Seo-jun’s chin up, their faces mere inches apart.
“Alright, I’ll give you one last chance to say something interesting. I’m in a great mood today. Maybe if you entertain me, I’ll let you live.”
“…Touch me, and Yohan will kill you.”
Seo-jun gritted his teeth.
They should have stayed hidden in the basement, just like Jung-hwan ordered.
But the damn camp leaders—
The ones who insisted they had to hold high ground, that they couldn’t afford to be trapped—
Now, because of them, everyone was in danger.
If they had fought, they should have died fighting.
Instead, they ran back here, dragging death and destruction with them.
It was infuriating.
In the end, this was exactly what Yohan had warned about.
Fighting for power. Fighting over “leadership.”
And now, because of it—they were all going to die.
But… Yohan will come.
Seo-jun believed it.
He would show up when they needed him most—
CRACK!
Gae Baek-jeong scoffed, then slammed the rifle’s butt into Seo-jun’s head.
His body went limp.
“Quit running your mouth.”
Gae Baek-jeong chuckled.
“Nobody’s killing you. Not yet, anyway. You’re all dogs now.”
His grin widened.
“When I say bark, you bark.”
“When I say sit, you sit.”
“And me? I’m the butcher who kills stray dogs.”
