Chapter 45

Deserters (3)

An old building standing in a corner of Gangwon Province.

Inside one of the rooms of the building, where almost no traces of normal times remained, a man was fiddling with a firearm.

The man cleaned the gun with an oil-stained cloth.

At that moment…Someone opened the door and walked into the room where the man was.

“I’m here.”

“Jinyoung, you’re here.”

The two seemed to be on friendly terms. They exchanged light greetings when they saw each other.

If there was anything a little unusual…It was probably the fact that both of them were wearing military uniforms.

“How’s business, did it go well?”

“Flopped again today.”

“…Tsk.”

“Looks like it’s getting hard to operate around here.”

The man who had come into the room.

Jinyoung set the gun down in the corner and continued speaking.

“Seems like rumors have spread.”

“What rumors?”

“What else? That there are deserters around here.”

“…Hey. Do we really have to call ourselves deserters with our own mouths?”

“It’s not wrong. If that kind of thing bothers you, you shouldn’t have run in the first place.”

“Hmph.”

Jinyoung put down the gun and plopped onto the worn-out sofa.

Then he continued in a serious tone.

“It was good that we settled here, on the route people take toward where a large survivor group is forming, just based on rumors. But I overlooked the fact that rumors about us could spread too.”

“It’s already hard enough to move around because of monsters and zombies, how are rumors spreading this fast?”

“Anyway, things went to shit. Damn it. The slave bastard died recently too, so I was planning to grab one of the next survivors we meet.”

“That’s why I said we shouldn’t kill them unnecessarily…”

“Ah! How was I supposed to know that survivor traffic would suddenly dry up completely!”

At Jinyoung’s shout, a brief silence fell between the two.

After a moment…The man who had been cleaning the gun opened his mouth.

“Hey.”

“Ah, I already apologized last time for killing the slave.”

“Not that, idiot.”

“Huh?”

The man spoke with a weary expression.

“You said no one’s coming around because the rumors spread, right?”

“Yeah. It’s a damn shitty situation.”

“Then… how about we stop doing this soon?”

“What?”

At his companion’s words, Jinyoung wondered if he had misheard.

“We can’t keep living like this, looting people forever. We’ve got guns. How about we hole up somewhere like a mountain where there aren’t many people, claim some land, farm… wouldn’t that be enough to survive?”

It didn’t seem like he had misheard. Jinyoung couldn’t help but blank out for a moment.

After a pause.

Jinyoung let out a hollow laugh and said, “Hey. Are you out of your mind?”

“What?”

“Ha… you flower-brained idiot.”

Jinyoung raked a hand through his hair in irritation.

“Guns? Sure, they’re great. That’s how we’re surviving. But you know too, right. How loud gunshots are.”

“…”

“Farming in the mountains? Then what if monsters come looking for us?”

“We can take care of most monsters with guns—”

“Say you take care of one with a gun. What about the monsters that come swarming after hearing the gunshot?”

“That…”

“Have you already forgotten? The monsters that swarmed our base.”

Even as he said it with his own mouth, Jinyoung felt goosebumps rise on his skin.

It was only one or two months ago. The monsters that suddenly invaded their perfectly fine base. Because of the sudden attack, most of the soldiers died.

The survivors resisted with weapons, but…

‘It didn’t do shit.’

All outside connections were cut off too.

If things went on like that, it was obvious they would be wiped out.

When the soldiers were at a loss and tried to hole up inside the buildings, Jinyoung and a few others…had a different idea.

After securing as many bullets as possible, they stole vehicles and broke through the monsters’ encirclement to escape.

‘Honestly, I almost died too… but I got lucky. Staying there would’ve meant dying anyway.’

Less than half of those who attempted to escape with Jinyoung survived.

By escaping, the direction that Jinyoung and his companions had been guarding would have been completely breached. It was a base that would have been wiped out before long anyway. But they had probably sped up that process quite a bit.

Still, Jinyoung thought, ‘So what? Even if it wasn’t me, someone would’ve tried to run.’

If so, what was wrong with him running first? Having already stabbed the other soldiers in the back and escaped, they no longer had anything to hesitate about.

“If monsters swarm in like that again, there’s no answer. Doing something obvious like farming is basically suicide. Compared to that…”

Jinyoung said with a crooked grin.

“Isn’t dealing with humans way easier?”

If you fire a gun, monsters come swarming because of the noise.

“You don’t even have to shoot when it’s humans.”

Unlike zombies and monsters that rush in no matter what, even when you show them a gun, but humans were different.

Guns…In the 21st century, the most representative symbol of power.

Their power was already firmly engraved in people’s minds. Just pointing the muzzle and threatening them was enough.

Survivors would bow their heads and hand over their belongings on their own. Even with the recent appearance of superpowered individuals among humans, it was the same.

Superpowers or whatever…If you get holes punched in your body, you die all the same.

“At least we need to secure enough supplies to hold out until this situation is resolved. Until then, I won’t stop this shit even if I die. If you don’t like it, don’t ruin the mood and get out on your own, asshole.”

“…No.”

As Jinyoung growled, the man who had been wiping the gun replied, “I guess I was thinking wrong. We’re basically the ones who killed our fellow soldiers anyway, so there’s no reason to worry about things like conscience now.”

“You’ve come to your senses, you bastard. Ha. I thought you suddenly ate something weird.”

“Ah, you’re really going hard just because I said one wrong thing.”

“I said I’m sorry. Satisfied?”

Because of Jinyoung’s persuasion, the conversation seemed to have wrapped up reasonably well. But Jinyoung himself was thinking differently.

‘This bastard still seems a bit shaken.’

If one of his companions left on his own because his conscience got to him, that didn’t matter.

The problem was the guns and the bullets. If he took even a portion of them, it could become a big problem.

They were practically their lifeline.

After a brief moment of consideration, Jinyoung made a decision.

‘Since there’s a risk he might run, it’d be better to just kill him appropriately before that.’

He was a companion who often showed signs of wavering even normally.

If he used that as an excuse and killed him, the other companions would probably understand to some extent.

It was at that moment…

“Hey. Sorry to interrupt in the middle of your talk, but.”

A companion who had been keeping watch on the building’s balcony spoke.

“Someone’s coming over there.”

“What?”

They had just been talking about how it seemed rumors had spread. And yet there were survivors coming this way.

“Did they not hear the rumors?”

“They might be guys who just came into this area from somewhere else.”

“Heh heh. Either way, it doesn’t matter.”

Business had been pretty bad lately anyway. Wasn’t this actually a good thing?

“Let’s grab a few humans we can use as slaves this time.”

“No. Wait.”

“Huh?”

“Looking closer, something’s weird.”

The companion doing reconnaissance with binoculars frowned.

“They look like soldiers.”

“What?”

Jinyoung snatched the binoculars from his companion and brought them to his eyes.

In the distance, he could see men in military uniforms walking over.

“Damn, you’re right.”

“They don’t seem like guys from our unit. I didn’t recognize any faces.”

“They might be deserters like us.”

“If they’re soldiers too, it’s better to just let them go.”

Jinyoung’s companions also seemed to recognize the uniforms.

If they were deserters too, they would have guns, so intimidation wouldn’t work.

The companions looked disappointed. But…

“No.”

Jinyoung thought differently.

“Look closely. Those guys. They don’t have guns.”

“Huh?”

As he said.

The group in military uniforms were holding things like hammers and knives, but none of them were holding guns.

“Really? They’re soldiers but they don’t have guns?”

“They probably went out on some errand and just happened to survive the monsters or something.”

“If that’s the case…”

“What are you hesitating for?”

Jinyoung grabbed his K2 rifle that had been propped up in the corner of the room.

“You guys just stay here and threaten them a bit.”

“You’re going?”

“Before we deserted, I was the youngest, remember. I should go.”

He slung the K2 over his shoulder and went down from the building.

When he came out of the building’s entrance, he could see the people approaching from afar. People in military uniforms approaching without knowing anything.

Jinyoung shouted at them.

“Hey, you guys over there!”

“…?”

“If you’ve got anything on you, put it down and leave.”

* * *

‘What’s with this guy now?’

When a survivor first came out of the building, I wondered what was going on. But that military uniform he was wearing.

The gun he was holding while swaggering around and the last thing he said directly.

“They seem to be deserters, like the survivors we met earlier said.”

“We just found out about their existence and we already run into them.”

The deserter was looking at us with a confident expression.

As I looked at his face, I fell into thought.

‘What should we do?’

Just ignore him and pass by… that wasn’t really an option. They clearly wanted the supplies we had.

And besides, they were guys I had been thinking we should deal with sooner rather than later anyway.

“Minjae hyung.”

“What is it?”

“Can we win against soldiers with guns?”

“Hm. That’s something we need to think about.”

When we tried to escape from the mountain range, we had experienced bullets fired by soldiers who had turned into zombies.

According to the soldier who got hit, it hurt enough to kill. But our military uniforms weren’t ordinary either, so while the impact would remain, it hadn’t penetrated.

If those guys had awakened as marksmen, that would be different, but…

From the looks of it, that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Hm. It would depend on the situation.”

“For example.”

“If they were soldiers who had secured enough field of view and distance and were firmly defending, like when we defended the base, it’d be hard to break through.”

“Then what if one is in front, and the rest are in buildings within 100 meters?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

Minjae hyung answered with a faint smile.

“Inside buildings, the effective range of guns is reduced.”

“Hm.”

“On the other hand, our soldiers can close most distances in an instant.”

“So, in conclusion?”

“A landslide victory is expected.”

‘Well, that’s what I thought too.’

“Alright, everyone heard that, right?”

“““Yes!”””

“Everyone, take out your combat rations.”

The soldiers immediately took out their combat rations. The deserter watching us said with a baffled expression…

“Hey, you guys.”

“I’ll subdue the one in front. The rest, breach into the building. Lieutenant Kim, give the signal.”

“Why are you suddenly taking out—”

“One, two…”

“What?”

Did he think we’d cower just by seeing a gun.

『All stats slightly increase-.』

Even though we were openly eating, the guy just stared blankly.

“Three!”

Toward him.

The soldiers and I charged.

“W, what the hell!?”

The flustered deserter finally grabbed his gun properly.

The muzzle was about to be aimed at us, but…To begin with, we were too close.

“Ghk…!”

“If you’re going to threaten people with a gun, you should’ve kept your distance.”

For ordinary people, the very idea of rushing in to subdue someone holding a gun wouldn’t even exist. But everyone on our side was awakened. With my cooking and Lieutenant Kim’s command stacked on top of that, any reasonable distance might as well not exist.

After knocking his gun far away, I slammed him to the ground and subdued him.

“Let go, you bastard—!”

“Hey now. Calm down, sir.”

The deserter tried to resist in his own way, but…

Crunch!

“H, how do you have this much strength…?”

The physical abilities of awakened ones far surpassed those of ordinary people.

Even I, who wasn’t a combat type, could easily subdue an adult man.

“Feeling calmer now?”

“Ke, keh… you. You must be one of those superpowered people that have been showing up lately.”

“Huh?”

The guy pinned to the ground didn’t calm down at all…Instead, he glared at me and grinned.

“Yeah. You suddenly got that kind of strength, so it’s natural you’d feel confident.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You might be fine, but what about your comrades?”

While I was subduing the deserter in front of me, the other soldiers had entered the building.

“There are close to ten of my comrades inside that building. All armed with guns.”

“Hm.”

“They must’ve seen me get subdued, so they’ll be on full guard.”

Even with his face pressed to the ground, the guy chuckled.

“You might survive as a superpowered guy, but will the ones who went inside the building be safe?”

‘Ah, so that was what he was getting at.’

“Was that all you had?”

At that moment…

“Those bastards subdued Jinyoung.”

“Shit. Kill them!”

From the building where the deserters seemed to be staying, one of the deserters on the balcony aimed his gun this way.

“Heh heh… your comrades won’t die easily. Especially you. I’ll make a special effort to torment you…”

“Minjae hyung.”

Ignoring the nonsense he was spewing,

I looked at Minjae hyung.

“What are you doing? Subdue him already.”

“I was just about to step in anyway.”

As he said that, Minjae hyung raised a finger toward the sky.

A finger pointing at the deserter on the balcony.

“One hundred thousand volts.”

Crackle!

K, kuhh…!

With a playful remark, blue lightning burst forth. The deserter who took a direct hit from the lightning lost consciousness and collapsed. The gun he had been holding also fell to the floor.

“What…?”

His eyes wavered in shock, but that wasn’t all.

Shouts echoed from inside the building.

“Should we shoot? If we do, monsters will come swarming…”

“You idiot! Is this the time to worry about that, ghk.”

“Damn it. Don’t tell me they’re all superpowered.”

Most of it was filled with the deserters’ screams.

“Hm. Looks like things are mostly taken care of.”

“…”

“Ah. Sir. What was it you said earlier? I was busy and didn’t quite catch it.”

More than ten deserters…It took less than five minutes to subdue them all.