“Ah, seriously, what do I do...?”

Watching the situation unfolding across the monitors, Han Areum panicked.

She’d thought she could somehow deal with the intruders approaching the house.

She had trained for situations like this several times with Choi Hyunwoo and Kim Taeyoung, and with the equipment Junho—the owner of the house—had left behind, she believed she could easily handle a few robbers even by herself.

But fully armed soldiers were a different story.

One gunshot and she’d be finished.

Getting shot was one problem, but the moment anyone fired a gun, every zombie within several hundred meters would come swarming here.

“Stay calm. Just wait. Breathe.”

Han Areum took a deep breath as she recalled Junho’s “sacred text” notebook.

The basement door was hidden behind a cabinet, making it difficult to find.

And even if someone discovered it, the thick blast door wouldn’t be easy to open or break through.

No lunatic was going to blow the place apart and summon every zombie in the area just to open a single basement door.

“Please... please....”

That was why Han Areum prayed the midnight raiders and soldiers were merely passing by this place by chance.

She desperately hoped the soldiers would quickly shoot the robbers, then either continue on their way or flee into the mountains, while she stared at the monitor with trembling eyes.

But then something strange happened.

The three soldiers were clearly wearing night-vision goggles like the ones Han Areum also possessed, and they were armed with guns.

Yet despite the darkness, even though they could easily hit the robbers from here, they didn’t fire.

After confirming the men approaching the house, they simply crouched low beneath the wall and waited.

“What...?”

Meanwhile, the robbers moved closer to the house wall.

The wall around the property had deliberately not been reinforced with barbed wire or anything similar to avoid revealing that someone lived here.

Which meant the one-and-a-half-meter wall was easy for any adult to climb.

The six raiders glanced around a few times before boldly starting to hop over the wall one by one.

And in the very next moment, Han Areum understood why the soldiers hadn’t fired first.

“Ah...!”

The instant the robbers dropped down into the yard from atop the wall, the soldiers opened fire with suppressed weapons.

The robbers, shot directly in the head, collapsed the moment they landed.

But because the night was so dark, the raiders didn’t immediately realize their companions had been shot.

And since people naturally made noise while jumping down from a wall, they seemed to mistake the sound of their comrades collapsing for ordinary landing noise.

“Wow....”

Even in the middle of this terrifying situation, Han Areum couldn’t help admiring the soldiers’ meticulous response.

But then—

The last robber about to jump down must have sensed something wrong, because instead of leaping into the yard, he hurriedly twisted his body back outward.

At that, the largest soldier suddenly sprang to his feet.

With one hand, he seized the man by the back of the neck mid-jump, covered his face with the other hand, and slammed him violently into the yard.

The impact left the robber completely limp.

“That’s insane....”

Han Areum unconsciously gaped at the lightning-fast display.

But she snapped back to her senses when the three soldiers gathered together and began talking among themselves.

Those terrifying soldiers had just eliminated six raiders quickly and decisively—and now they were standing inside the yard.

“Please just leave. Please....”

Watching through the CCTV feed, Han Areum prayed over and over in her head.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened.

While one soldier stood in the yard operating what looked like a tablet, another tied up the unconscious robber and began dragging the bodies piled across the yard.

“Ah....”

It was obvious they intended to stay here for a while, and Han Areum bit down hard on her lip.

But the remaining soldier was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is he? Don’t tell me he came inside? No, that can’t be right....”

Hurriedly operating the PC, Han Areum enlarged the various CCTV feeds one after another across the monitor.

But she couldn’t find the largest soldier anywhere.

“W-wait...?”

As a thought suddenly crossed her mind, Han Areum felt her heart pounding wildly and quickly enlarged the rooftop PTZ camera feed.

At that moment—

“Ghk...!”

Han Areum involuntarily stopped breathing.

Because the large soldier was standing on the roof, staring directly into the PTZ camera.

She’d been found.

“Ugh....”

Looking into the cold eyes behind the goggles fixed straight on the camera lens, Han Areum felt the strength drain from her entire body.

She was bolder than most men, but that icy, emotionless gaze—like a warning that she’d end up just like the men from moments ago—made her body tremble involuntarily.

As if he had sensed her fear, the soldier staring into the PTZ camera slowly lowered his mask.

And Han Areum, watching with shaking eyes—

“...Huh?”

Her mouth slowly fell open.

“Uh? Uhhh...?!”

Then she let out a stunned cry.

***

“Everything cleaned up?”

“Yes. All done.”

After piling the bodies of the raiders they had just killed into a secluded corner of the yard, Yoon Seolhee dusted off her hands and walked over.

Bzzzzzz!

The drone, after thoroughly scouting the area around the house one last time, landed in the yard, and Kim Jimin retrieved it.

The three soon gathered in front of the house’s entrance.

“What’s the plan? We can’t exactly break down the front door. Should we search around a bit more first?”

“No. I already warned them through the PTZ camera. If someone’s inside, they’ll either open the door or stay buried in the basement. Those are the only two options.”

They had intentionally killed the raiders right in the middle of the yard where they could be clearly seen.

Whoever was inside had watched everything through CCTV, so there was no way they’d think about fighting back against this group.

If they’d had that kind of resolve, they would’ve come out and fought at least one or two of the raiders before those men ever entered the yard.

There was an air rifle and even a crossbow inside. Hiding in the house out of fear against only six men made no sense otherwise.

“For now, let’s scout the interior with the mini drone first—”

Just as Junho said that—

Thunk... thunk-thunk....

A dull sound echoed from inside the house.

“...!?”

Startled, Junho immediately signaled the other two.

Clack. Snap.

Yoon Seolhee and Kim Jimin instantly flattened themselves against either side of the entrance and aimed their guns at the door.

Junho also stepped slightly away from the entrance and leveled his Glock 17 at it.

Clack! Clack!

But the moment he heard someone frantically unlocking the front door, Junho lowered his weapon.

After watching everything through CCTV and even confirming his face through the PTZ camera, there was no way someone who didn’t know him would openly open the door like this.

Who could it be?

Only a handful of people even knew this basement existed, and Junho felt his heart beginning to pound slightly as he waited for whoever was about to emerge.

Bang!

The front door flew open.

“Ugh....”

Someone standing inside the entrance let out a choked sound while looking at Junho.

“...!?”

The instant their eyes met, Junho froze slightly at the sight of a young, pretty girl.

She looked strangely familiar....

“Huaaah....”

Meanwhile, Han Areum swallowed back her bursting sobs and ran straight toward Junho.

“Junho oppaaa... hhk, huuuh....”

Right in front of his bewildered companions, Junho had no choice but to catch Han Areum as she clung to him like a koala.

***

Phaaaat!

Ignoring everyone’s stares, Han Areum blew her nose loudly again before giving the three an embarrassed smile.

“Hih... sorry. I don’t usually cry like this. I was just so tense, and then I saw Junho oppa too....”

“It’s okay. Take your time.”

Yoon Seolhee gently patted Han Areum like she was a much younger sister.

Watching the girl who had tried to face the raiders all by herself somehow made Han Areum seem both admirable and pitiful at the same time.

“Right. I get the situation now. So after all that, you stayed here with Hyunwoo and Coach the whole time? And then those two went out a few days ago and still haven’t come back?”

Now that the shock of the first meeting had faded somewhat, Junho spoke calmly, and Han Areum nodded.

“Yeah... so I’ve been really worried and trying to figure out what to do.”

Han Areum’s expression darkened again.

After hearing the full story from her, Junho fell into thought.

It was honestly shocking that Han Areum—the part-time worker from the Sang-dong gym he used when first building his body—was here in this house.

In fact, half the reason he’d stopped going to that gym was because she openly flirted with him every time she saw him, which made this even more surprising.

But whether it was coincidence or fate, she’d become connected to Coach Kim Taeyoung—one of the few people who knew about this house—and eventually ended up here.

On top of that, Han Areum attended the same school as Choi Hyunwoo and knew him extremely well.

'At this point, it has to be fate.'

Thinking that, Junho spoke again.

“Tell me more about those soldiers. Are you sure they rescued people from the flower-shop greenhouse near the roadside?”

“Yes, oppa. I think those soldiers didn’t really have anywhere to go. After seeing them, Hyunwoo oppa immediately flew the drone to track where the soldiers and the rescued people were headed, and then....”

Han Areum continued her story.

“...So Hyunwoo oppa disguised himself and went to meet them. But things actually worked out pretty well. The soldiers didn’t have anywhere to go either, and the people they rescued barely had any food.”

“He told them he’d share supplies and equipment if they helped rescue his mother in Jung-dong?”

“Yeah, yeah. Apparently Hyunwoo oppa’s mother is some high-ranking official at the Bucheon Police Department. And she was definitely still alive right up until contact got cut off with him. So the soldiers agreed. They didn’t really know the situation around here and needed help. They figured a police executive would know a lot.”

“Hmm.”

Thinking about it, Junho couldn’t really blame him.

If his own parents had still been alive, he probably would’ve tried to rescue them too.

It wasn’t even far away. His mother was alone in a house only three or four kilometers away at most. Very few children would simply do nothing in that situation.

If anything, Choi Hyunwoo deserved praise for restraining himself and observing the situation for over half a year before acting recklessly.

“Taeyoung oppa opposed it at first. But Hyunwoo oppa’s apartment and the MMA gym director’s mansion were really close together. So Taeyoung oppa didn’t really have a choice.”

That made sense.

Choi Hyunwoo’s home and the MMA gym owner’s mansion were only around two hundred meters apart in a straight line.

They practically lived in the same neighborhood, and Junho remembered being slightly surprised by the addresses himself when he sent supplies to both places right before the apocalypse began.

“So we told the soldiers about the city integrated control center we found. They stayed there for about two days, and then they decided to deal with Sosa Station first.”

“They were planning to move through the train tracks.”

“Yeah, yeah. We flew the drone around, and once you got to the station it looked manageable somehow. The real problem was getting there in the first place. But then those crazy bastards showed up.”

“.......”

<MZ Family faction>.

Remembering the worst raiders in the area—a mix of failed streamers and MZ thugs operating around Bucheon Station—Junho’s eyes turned ice-cold.

Apparently Choi Hyunwoo and Kim Taeyoung, who had left for Sosa Station with the soldiers three days ago, had run into trouble with those bastards.

And judging from what he’d heard, the <MZ Family faction> wasn’t the only problem.

The territory around Sosa Station had already been reorganized under several powerful Alphas.

Which meant Choi Hyunwoo’s group might now be facing not only human trash even worse than zombies, but also Alphas controlling slave hordes numbering in the thousands.

“Sniff! So I was thinking maybe I’d go check the control center building myself soon. If I launched the drone, I figured I could at least see some of what’s happening.”

“No. You did the right thing staying here, just like Hyunwoo said. Don’t worry anymore.”

Han Areum’s eyes reddened again with worry for Choi Hyunwoo and Kim Taeyoung, her lips trembling slightly.

Looking at her, Junho quietly added one more sentence.

“I’ll go.”