A day passed. The end of August, with autumn drawing one step closer.
The rain had stopped falling, as if the monsoon season had ended, and the world kept moving at a rapid pace. As the conflict between the alliance and the military settled down, the alliance's capabilities began to truly manifest.
The sounds of hamrs clanging, people shouting busily, and drills whirring filled the air without pause.
I quietly looked up at the general hospital, which could barely be called a hospital anymore.
"Careful with those solar panels! Don't drop them! You know how hard it is to find more!"
On the rooftop, electricity nomads were busy installing solar generators. They were also setting up communication equipnt, including a long antenna they'd scavenged from sowhere.
The building's interior seed similar. Through open windows and doorways, countless people could be seen shouting and rushing around busily.
Many unfamiliar faces were among them.
'This is what a proper group's capability looks like.'
Based on safety, military power, and resources, they attracted various experts like a black hole. If only food supplies were properly secured, they seed poised for endless growth.
I watched as police, firefighters, scavengers, and delivery riders passed by carrying heavy loads.
"We raided so apartnts. But the food's in worse condition than we expected."
The police and firefighters, experts at breaking into places, had apparently searched an apartnt complex together. They shook their heads with grim expressions.
"It's bad enough to make you sick if you eat it. Even the canned goods are bulging."
"At least the kimchi's still decent, thankfully."
Ho, limping as he passed by, heaved deep sighs.
"You too? My findings weren't good either. Tried raiding so seed shops for seeds... but everything was washed away during the last typhoon and monsoon."
He must have been diligently searching for seeds to run an indoor farm. Naturally, the results couldn't have been good.
Many seed shops and agricultural supply stores were typically located on the first floor, which was vulnerable to zombies and floods.
The ti had co when even if you wanted to farm, you couldn't find seeds. The apocalypse's ripple effects were growing. Like dominoes, everything was collapsing steadily and quickly.
A question suddenly ca to mind. I tapped my bulletproof helt as I sank into thought.
'What's the governnt doing? What about other cities or countries? And the zombies?'
It wouldn't be strange to hear news about vaccine developnt by now. And what had happened to the zombies, whose numbers had noticeably decreased? They probably couldn't withstand the heat, disease, and flood damage.
Still, human vitality was tenacious, so I didn't think zombies would decrease rapidly. Above all, the I-virus was even more dangerous. Mutations and such.
Birds, cats, dogs, rats, insects, fish—if it mutated to affect any of these, there would be no solution.
Just then, the rcenaries and my companions approached . A hint of sothing like bloodlust flickered in their eyes.
"Everyone's gathered."
"Is that so?"
I placed the bulletproof helt on my head and slung the light machine gun over my shoulder.
No matter how the world turned, my job remained unchanged. Raiding.
***
"Did you feed your families well?"
"Yes. We had full als for the first ti in a long while."
The rcenaries grinned with satisfaction as they carelessly swung their rifles. They laughed happily, having filled their stomachs with food brought from the apartnts.
The faces of rcenaries with families looked especially bright. Those who were individual survivors showed similar expressions. They displayed confidence as they handled their rifles.
"Having a rifle definitely gives you a different sense of security."
Whatever the case, they had benefited by moving with . That's why I spoke comfortably about what to do next.
"Negotiations with the military have concluded for now. That ans our job is done."
For a mont, the rcenaries' faces darkened, but then their eyes glead ominously as they looked at their weapons, having seemingly reached so conclusion.
They probably thought that since the alliance's mission was over, they'd have to raid to survive. A good sign.
A rcenary with a family abruptly asked:
"So this is it? No chance to join the alliance or anything like that?"
"None. We were rcenaries from the start, weren't we? It ends with us receiving paynt."
"But that paynt..."
His disappointnt was evident. The alliance had recruited these rcenaries by offering food or hospital and electricity access as paynt.
It was temporary compensation. It ant they couldn't keep working to make a living. They couldn't settle in the safe survival zone either.
I casually threw out a suggestion.
"You're free to disband now... but would you consider working under ?"
"Working as what?"
The rcenaries, each deep in their own thoughts, raised their heads to look at . I put down my light machine gun with a thud and grinned.
"The sa thing that military was doing."
Raiding.
"You all ntioned you were lacking many things. Not enough food, almost no masks or soap. Well, then we need to get them."
I scanned the atmosphere once. As expected, no one showed any aversion. My companions, experienced raiders, looked bored, while the apocalypse survivors among the rcenaries glanced between their guns and , nodding slightly.
None of them had clean hands. Raiding and cri were almost basic qualifications.
After all, these people had participated in killing soldiers.
If anything, they showed interest in what would fall into their hands.
"Will the distribution be equal?"
"Of course. And naturally, those who contribute more to this work will receive more."
Like finding addresses of survivors worth raiding, or killing enemies alone.
The rcenaries slowly agreed to my proposal.
"Alright, let's do it. Even with a gun, if you get ambushed while wandering alone, that's the end."
"If we're raiding, who are you targeting?"
No one refused. I smiled with satisfaction. I'd finally expanded the size of my group. When I'd gone around trying to create one myself, everything had failed, but when I seized the opportunity, this happened.
'Luck really has to be on your side.'
I opened my mouth.
"People are everywhere. Surely we're not short on raiding targets."
***
During the monsoon, while holed up at ho, I'd had a thought: finding living people. thods I kept revising while conversing with Park Yang-gun from ti to ti.
The things Park Yang-gun had ntioned about which houses to avoid because people lived there had beco a ans to find survivors in this world.
We left the hospital ard with guns. Our destination was quite far from the alliance's survival zone.
Park Yang-gun looked around and clicked his tongue.
"Doesn't look like anyone's here."
Fallen streetlights lay abandoned on the street. Cars and the road were covered in dirt. Looking at the buildings on either side, many windows were broken.
I tilted my head. It felt similar to our villa district.
"Could soone be disguising it? Making it look uninhabited?"
"No. Look at the entrance and windowsills."
Park Yang-gun pointed sowhere. Just a building entrance and broken windows. I couldn't tell what he ant.
Park Yang-gun explained.
"The dirt on the ground is undisturbed. No footprints. No one's here. The windows too. If soone climbed over the windowsill, traces would remain. Look at the dust that's accumulated."
"Is that so?"
Now that he ntioned it, it did seem that way.
I thought briefly and examined the windows carefully. They were broken irregularly, and there were no obstacles set up to cover them.
"It might be difficult to find anyone during the day."
"That's right."
It seed like we'd need to move during altis or at night to easily find traces of people.
The sll of cooking rice or preparing food. Or lights illuminating the darkness. The timing wasn't right to detect these things.
Just then, Do-hyung, complaining that he was dying from the heat, said in an irritated voice:
"Do we really have to wander around looking for people? Can't we just go to apartnt buildings?"
"Apartnts?"
Not a bad idea. Since I'd properly organized a raider group today, I wanted to raid sothing as a commoration. Honestly, just rummaging through ruins felt too much like being a scavenger.
But perhaps because of the heat, everyone looked exhausted.
Was this form of raiding inefficient? Just wasting energy on hunting with little to gain?
'Setting up like bandits in a fixed location or moving with precise targets from the start is the standard approach.'
I eventually pointed to a building nearby.
"Let's go inside to escape the heat and search around for a bit."
We went into a multi-family house and searched every corner of the rooms. There was almost no yield. The rcenaries who had scattered returned, laughing awkwardly.
"Everything's been cleaned out. Toilet paper, soap, detergent. Nothing left."
"Just insects and mold everywhere."
I loosened the strap of my bulletproof helt and sighed.
I could feel the city's resources hitting bottom. Even the ruins were empty.
Six months since the zombie outbreak began. It wasn't a tifra you could survive on what you had or prepared. It was a ti when you had to kill others or search abandoned hos to survive.
Or produce sothing yourself, or raid what others had.
Then, out of curiosity, I looked around at the rcenaries.
"Does anyone know how to pick front doors?"
The rcenaries looked at each other and shook their heads. But one rcenary awkwardly smiled and raised his hand.
"I can't pick locks, but I've done sothing similar when I was really hungry. I lowered a rope and climbed down it to get in."
It was dangerous, but when facing starvation, nothing was impossible.
Probably so people living on upper floors had done similar things. So buildings would have ergency escape equipnt installed, making it even easier.
'In that case...'
Buildings with survivors probably had a high chance of being looted. No, that's not right. Those looted items wouldn't go anywhere. The surviving residents would have claid everything.
Just like I'd cleaned out my villa and monopolized the resources.
"Finding survivors is still the right approach."
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