Chapter 39

30. Golf (1)

Defender: Authentication

The people who appeared for the Defender's rare killing authentication were all soldiers.

They were adorned with various medals and decorations, much like the soldiers of Nazi Germany during World War II.

While they claimed these were the products of a country that, despite officially transitioning to a volunteer military, had no choice but to maintain a conscription system, to an outsider, they were far from a pleasant sight.

The larger the decorations, the more senior the soldier, a common knowledge known not only among soldiers but also civilians.

The soldiers killed by the Defender were all densely adorned with decorations that covered their shoulders.

They must have been long-serving soldiers stationed on the front lines.

Defender: The cold wave saved me.

The bodies of the soldiers in the Defender's authentication had no external injuries.

They all froze to death.

In the sudden cold wave, they fell asleep, helpless, and that led to their deaths.

This unexpected cold wave caused massive casualties.

People living in harsh conditions with no proper insulation, let alone heating, were hit hard.

Countless people died, and even more suffered from frostbite.

The warm days that hinted at spring before the cold wave struck also contributed to the disaster.

Just like the people who died in my territory.

In Seoul, it's said that every other house had a victim of the cold.

Just three years ago, every house in Seoul emitted white steam from their chimneys, but now black smoke rises everywhere.

They were burning piles of bodies in every corner and square, and many people were warming themselves by the burning corpses, as if to comfort the frozen dead.

Seoul's decline had been ongoing, but this cold wave dealt a fatal blow.

Fortunately, we, the doomsday survivalists, managed to survive this cold wave.

A few users who were rarely active have disappeared, but none of the users I know have died, and the population on the forum hasn't significantly decreased.

However, everyone knew the situation would not improve.

And it didn't.

Message from Defender: Deserters from the Legion are turning into small-scale looting groups and raiding everywhere.

Message from Defender: We might need to move soon.

Deserters from the Legion are rampant in the east.

Their threat is more lethal than any enemy we've faced so far.

Worse still, users living around the front lines admit that their territory is now half-monster and half-mutation territory.

lifeismagic: With the soldiers no longer guarding the front lines, monsters and mutations are freely crossing over from North Korea.

Anonymous213: I live in a rural area, and a monster walked into the outskirts, and the area started to change strangely. It's turning gray, and no one can do anything about it.

qwer740128: I'm in Hwaseong, and I saw a mutation for the first time. You guys have been living with this?

The western region where I am is relatively safe.

The military and government are maintaining their strength in Incheon and the western part of Seoul, and the government is functioning to some extent.

However, problems have emerged in the outskirts.

Boss_domingo: Are the pioneers causing trouble again?

keystone: I thought the previous ones all froze to death, but another group has crawled in.

Anonymous848: When it gets warmer, more will come. They call themselves pioneers, but the government is just abandoning them.

The weakening of the Legion means the Parliament faction is regaining its strength.

It seems they are redeploying the pioneers who were previously stationed on the front lines.

The peaceful winter ended, and the new year brought a harsh bill.

My territory is no exception.

Crackle—

The K-walkie-talkie picked up a noisy frequency.

"Mr. Park Gyu? Mr. Park Gyu?"

A familiar voice called my name.

Whose voice was it?

I definitely recognized it.

"Baek... here... here..."

The noise indicated interference, either from nearby radio signals, solar flares, or simply the distance.

Adjusting the sensitivity for long-range reception, the voice became clearer.

"Baek Seung-hyun here. Please respond if you can hear me."

It was him, after all.

My senior from the same year.

He used to do all sorts of dirty work under the Parliamentarian, but what could he want from me?

The last time I saw him, he was being called "uncle" by a junior and doing menial tasks.

I'm glad he's alive, but also a bit worried.

Especially since he's looking for me from such a distance.

"I heard from Kim Dal-ram that you're in this area. Please contact me if you're there. I have something important to discuss."

Hearing Kim Dal-ram's name stirred something inside me, but my cold rationality quickly suppressed it.

I held my breath and waited for his next words.

"Kim Dal-ram said you're in this area. He's in great danger and needs rescue. Mr. Park Gyu, you're needed to save him. Are you around? I heard you're in this area."

Baek Seung-hyun kept talking.

But the longer he spoke, the more diluted the sincerity in his words seemed.

A faint grumbling sound, as if from a distance, echoed through the speaker.

"Is this the wrong place?"

It wasn't Baek Seung-hyun's voice.

Another, unidentified man's voice.

There were at least two of them.

The communication soon cut off, but the sound of a motorcycle engine, which I recognized, continued to echo from a distance.

Baek Seung-hyun is leaving.

Leaving a chilling and unsettling question behind.

"..."

A book I read once said that when the collapse reaches a certain stage, people start eating each other.

It seems we've entered that stage.

*

The incident occurred three days after the mass deaths at the golf course.

"This is the 22nd Pioneer Corps headquarters. This is the 22nd Pioneer Corps headquarters. If there are any survivors from the 333rd Pioneer Squad, please respond. Repeat, if there are any survivors from the 333rd Pioneer Squad, please respond."

Pioneers reappeared in my territory.

[22nd Pioneer Corps]

The flag flying on the distant 5-ton truck is familiar.

I saw it at the apartment where the elderly were abandoned and killed.

"It seems they're all dead. Rest in peace. We'll take care of the bodies and equipment."

Despite causing so many deaths, the voice on the radio sounded very cheerful.

"Uh?"

The radio fell silent after the strange tongue movement.

A moment later, a clear, male voice, tinged with a mocking laugh, echoed through the radio.

"Is anyone around here? Yeah? Any human beings? I took the good guns and left the useless ones?"

Human insight isn't that great.

Ultimately, you have to judge from a first-person perspective.

I made the best judgment I could at the time.

I recovered the usable firearms and removed the bolts from the rest.

If another refugee or looter got their hands on those assault rifles, they would pose a direct threat to me, the closest person.

Who would have thought that a group of pioneers would arrive so quickly and efficiently as soon as the cold wave subsided?

The dead at the golf course had no flag.

Or perhaps they threw away that useless flag, which offered no survival advantage, in the deadly cold.

"I'll give you one minute."

The man on the radio demanded a response in a low tone.

"You messed with the wrong people. I'm Colonel Jo Sung-yong of the 22nd Pioneer Corps. Once I bite, I never let go!"

Several drones rose into the sky from the golf course ridge, followed by pioneers spreading out in different trucks to search the area.

Naturally, no one came to my territory, which looked like a desolate tomb.

A drone flew low but soon moved on.

I turned off all power and water supplies, leaving only the radio on to eavesdrop on their communications.

"Sir, this is Go Min-soo. I thoroughly searched the U.S. military base, but found nothing."

"Here's Ha Chong-soo. I checked all the apartments in the Shin Hwa complex, but found nothing."

"Victory! This is Sergeant Kang Min-jae. I completed the search of the ruins in Dongil-ri but found no survivors. Should I continue searching?"

This group of pioneers is well-armed and equipped.

They brought three trucks, an SUV, and a modern light armored vehicle, and they communicated frequently.

Perhaps because of this, they didn't seem to care much about security.

Or maybe they were deliberately using the public frequency to intimidate.

In a situation where you're forced into silence, the constant radio chatter can be a form of violence.

Jo Sung-yong, knowing his advantage, was skilled at psychologically pressuring people.

"Search the nearby river. If someone is hiding, there will be a smell of excrement. I haven't seen a single doomsday survivalist with a septic tank. They only care about themselves and will let their waste flow freely. Look for sewage pipes with fecal residue."

A doomsday survivalist who fits Jo Sung-yong's description might have felt their world crumble upon hearing this.

But it doesn't apply to me.

I've observed many survivors in China and studied foreign cases meticulously while building my bunker to prepare for the worst.

A septic tank is one of the things Jo Sung-yong is looking for.

I got the idea from a case in India.

Raiders found and killed wealthy people in their bunkers by following the smell of excrement.

Building a septic tank is not an easy decision.

It requires expensive equipment to clean the sludge, and as a solo survivalist, I have to do the dirty work myself.

The effort paid off.

"There's nothing, sir. It's very clean. I found a few irrigation pipes, but no signs of human waste."

The group searching the river approached the valley below my main bunker but found nothing.

"Is that so?"

A sigh from Jo Sung-yong came through the radio.

"Was there a looter around here?"

"No, sir. The only reports are of a group of U.S. military remnants and a pack of mutations in the town. I've heard of a group of roving looters causing trouble in the southeast. Could they be responsible?"

"Recall the drones, recharge them, and thoroughly search the accessible roads. If they moved by vehicle, there will be signs. Gather the troops."

The pioneers, who had been searching in all directions, regrouped at the golf course.

Even without listening to the radio, I could tell from their movements that they hadn't found me and were leaving my territory empty-handed.

My victory.

Or perhaps, the victory of individual survivalism.

While collective survivalism, led by DSIRA, is gaining strength on the forum, they probably haven't faced such a powerful enemy.

When the deserters from the east come down, will they change their minds?

Feeling a bit hungry as the tension eased, I took out a hardtack, a brick-like food, and put it in a bowl, pouring lukewarm water from the purifier.

One of the human foods I eat to survive.

As I mashed the softened hardtack with a spoon, the radio crackled again.

"Go Min-soo, take the kids and clean up the bodies."

"Yes, sir."

"Kang, sort out the worst guns and give them to the new arrivals."

"Understood, sir."

"Jae, contact headquarters and ask for some dogs."

The final radio communication ended with Jo Sung-yong's cold threat.

"Hey, thief? You listening? I know everything. Wait and see. I'll release the dogs soon. It will take about three days. Prepare the stolen guns and compensation and leave them in a visible spot at the golf course. This is not a warning, but a notice."

The trucks honked as fully armed men climbed into the covered cargo areas.

Jo Sung-yong, who seemed to have been in the vehicle the whole time, didn't show himself.

The trucks roared and disappeared over the ridge.

"Phew."

I managed to get through the crisis.

But it's too early to relax.

Leaving a surveillance drone while pretending to leave is a classic tactic.

Sure enough, a drone flew over my bunker in the evening, heading north.

They must have left a drone to monitor the area from a high altitude.

Of course, this isn't the end.

Jo Sung-yong said he would release the dogs in three days.

I prepared accordingly.

I cleaned up the smell, sprayed dog repellent imported from the U.S. in various places, and blocked all bunker entrances with dirt and rocks.

I moved the living supplies from the first floor of the main bunker to the generator room and installed Claymore mines at intervals, a gift from Rebecca.

I checked that the ventilation system was working properly, as attackers often use tear gas.

Finally, I inspected each bullet and sharpened two axes.

Three days later, two buses arrived at the golf course.

"?"

Did they bring search dogs with two busloads?

That's absurd.

But reality was even stranger.

The "dogs" Jo Sung-yong mentioned were ordinary people.

Middle-aged men and women, like neighbors you might see anywhere, appeared, looking around the freezing, windy wilderness at -12°C.

A loudspeaker from beyond the golf course blared.

"Dear citizens, there is a criminal who killed dozens of people here. Your task is to find this bad guy. The person who finds him will receive a first-class family ticket to Jeju Island as a reward!"

For me, Park Gyu, to be found. Over 100 people moved.