“Magi, Magi. Eat this.”

Choi Jiwoo was giving the crow a piece of meat.

“Oh, Jiwoo. You can’t give beef to a crow.”

“Our Magi eats everything. She eats Kkamsoonie’s food, and worms, and tomatoes, and rice. She catches mantises too!”

The shelter’s mascot and official baby had, amazingly, turned into something almost like a druid.

Purdy and Kkamsoonie especially liking and obeying Choi Jiwoo was one thing, but even the crow they had rescued and treated not long ago refused to leave the little girl’s side.

Caw, caw.

The half-grown crow hopping back and forth between the small child’s head and shoulders while snapping up meat was honestly pretty cute.

And what was even more surprising was this.

Caaaw.

When the crow saw Junho, it came down to the ground instead of flying and hopped toward him.

Nobody had taught it, but it was smart enough to know it should not flap around and fly when people were gathered for a meal.

Which was why Junho could not help thinking—

“Could this actually work...?”

The half-joking idea of using crows as “aerial surveillance and warning devices” might genuinely become reality.

Because the crow they had named Magi, strangely enough, followed Junho better than anyone except Choi Jiwoo, despite having seen him only a few times.

Caw-caw.

“.......”

Junho silently looked down at the bird hopping around and pecking at his leg with its beak, then raised his head.

Far away, on the roof of the shelter’s main building, ten or so crows—Magi’s family or companions—were watching this way.

Magi was performing this not-quite-cute display of charm because she wanted him to give those birds something to eat too.

“Sunhee.”

“Mmph? Yesh, Juno.”

Park Sunhee, who had neatly wrapped a pumpkin leaf, stuffed it into her mouth, and was chewing with a blissful look, answered in a hurry.

“Eat slowly. Where’s the raw chicken we prepared for Purdy and Kkamsoonie?”

“We just chopped some up and gave it to them. Two more are thawing so we can make chicken porridge for them tomorrow morning. Do you need it? Should I bring it?”

“No. I’ll do it. Keep eating.”

“Ah, no. I’ll—”

Junho lightly pressed down on Park Sunhee’s shoulder as she tried to jump up with soybean paste smeared around her mouth, and smiled.

“It’s fine. I can do it. Also, you’ve got soybean paste on your mouth.”

“Ah.”

Leaving behind Park Sunhee, who for some reason instantly turned red and started fumbling in panic, Junho headed for the kitchen.

The kitchen had three large commercial refrigerators lined up, the kind used in restaurants.

And that was not the end of it. There were two additional large-capacity kimchi refrigerators, and at the very end stood a beverage refrigerator as well.

Since he had thought of it, Junho opened each refrigerator once and checked the contents, then muttered quietly.

“We’ve still got over half the meat and seafood left, and things like frozen dumplings should last at least another year.”

Once the food here was almost used up, they would finally bring over the same types of food from the ultra-low-temperature freezer warehouse and refill everything.

After that, they planned to set roughly one year as the rotation period and consume their food stores in the same way.

If the current number of shelter members stayed the same, they could probably eat for about thirty years.

And that was under the assumption that they did no farming or livestock raising at all and simply ate through the food already stored.

Caw? Caw!

Just then, Magi, who had been specially allowed inside the shelter after going through thorough quarantine not long ago, cried from Junho’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I get it. You’re a filial little bastard, huh?”

Setting aside his thoughts, Junho took one raw chicken from the refrigerator, butchered it with lightning-fast knife work, then carried it outside and placed it in a suitable spot.

The crows flew down as if they had been waiting and began pecking at it frantically.

“This is special, you little punks. Always take good care of Jiwoo, and while you’re at it, warn us if anything suspicious comes near the shelter. Got it? Damn, what am I doing talking to crows?”

Thinking he sounded a little stupid even as he said it, Junho gave a dry laugh and turned away.

Behind him, the largest crow quietly watched him as always, its eyes shining like obsidian.

***

— So, Manager Yoon and the employees are doing well, right? No problems?

“Of course. Everyone’s diligent, capable, and easy to get along with, so our people like them a lot too, Baekho.”

Junho smiled faintly as he communicated directly with Kang Baekho for the first time in a while.

— Knew they would. They’re all aces. Anyway, thanks for the supplies and the cattle. The modified air rifles are good, but they’re single-shot, and you have to change the air tank after twenty shots, so a lot of the employees found them inconvenient. Anyway, Manager Park Cheolwoo got really excited when he saw the heavy weapons you sent.

“That’s good. I’m glad they helped. By the way, have you heard anything from other regions yet?”

Junho had asked Kangho Resort to tell him no matter what it was if they heard news from other regions.

Especially news about the capital region, Gangwon Province, and Gyeongsang Province. Even minor details could become important clues for Junho.

— Ah, that? Listen to this. Just yesterday, our employees went pretty far out on recon and rescued a few survivors. Guess where they came from? Gwangmyeong. Gwangmyeong.

“......!”

Junho’s eyes widened before he knew it.

Gwangmyeong City, along with Siheung City, directly bordered Bucheon.

— I was seriously shocked. It’s forty kilometers from there to here in a straight line. So I asked how the hell they got here....

“They probably kept moving through the mountains. From Gwanak Mountain next to Gwangmyeong to Cheonggye Mountain, then from Cheonggye Mountain to Anreung Mountain. Once you pass Gachon University, there’s forest toward South Wirye, and if you follow the road up from there, you reach Namhansanseong. From there, if you take the mountains, you can get to Gwangju or Hanam.”

— What the hell? How did you know that?

Realizing his mistake, Junho gave a bitter smile and made an excuse.

“Satellite maps. I’m looking at the map now, and that route stands out. Guess I was right.”

What he had just described was the route he had taken before the regression, starting from Oryu-dong where the cult had been, passing through Gwangmyeong City, and eventually reaching Namyangju.

“Anyway, what did those people say?”

— Yeah. About a month ago? Around then, they say troops the government sent arrived in Incheon. But they got wiped out hard. Almost annihilated, apparently. Fuck.

The video the government had uploaded to the National Library server had been real.

Before the regression, Junho had already left Bucheon by this time, but he had heard the news a few months later and suspected it might have happened around now.

— But there are apparently a lot of defeated soldiers? Stragglers? Soldiers like that. Some of them went into the mountains, and some seem to be trapped inside the city. Anyway, it’s chaos because of that. Gunshots day and night all over the place, stuff bursting and exploding....

As he listened to Kang Baekho continue, Junho sensed that the time was almost here.

The time to go to Bucheon.

“Thank you, Baekho. Let’s communicate directly from time to time. I’ll keep counting on you.”

— Don’t talk like you’re asking me for favors, man. Do you know how much you’ve done for me? Just take good care of our people over there. That’s enough.

“Yes. Take care.”

— Sure.

After ending the communication with Kang Baekho, Junho pulled two of the dozens of CCTV screens up onto the main display.

They were the PTZ camera feed and wide-angle CCTV feed installed at Jaeseong Building in Moku-ri.

“.......”

The situation unfolding in real time in Moku-ri entered Junho’s sunken gaze.

It had already been a month since the weather had warmed and zombies that had mostly stayed indoors began appearing in the streets.

And the survivors who had barely endured the brutal winter were now coming out into the streets every night to find food and water, only to be killed by zombies or by other humans.

Through the PTZ camera and CCTV, Junho had been watching Moku-ri’s cruel April.

Watching other people struggle for their lives and die horribly was not even remotely pleasant.

If he kept watching, it felt like his mind might start going wrong.

In fact, Yoon Youngsu had watched the real-time Moku-ri feed Junho was looking at now only once or twice, then never again.

He simply received unusual reports from the AI.

Not because it was so brutal and shocking that he could not bear to see it. While assisting Junho in combat, he had seen countless scenes brutal enough.

Rather, it was because other people’s deep despair and fear seemed to pierce straight through the monitor screen.

But Junho endured all of that and continued to keep the Moku-ri feeds in his eyes.

Which Alpha was the most dangerous one, where its territory and main activity zones were.

Whether there were survivor groups he needed to watch out for, and which looter groups had to be eliminated on sight, and where they were.

The entry routes and escape routes were already decided, and the rough operation plan had already been established with AI support.

But a densely populated area like that was a place where countless unexpected situations and unfair variables could occur.

More than anything, he had to pass this “tutorial” perfectly before he could prepare for the next stage.

So today as well, Junho focused on the horrifying situation unfolding in Moku-ri, watching it again and again.

***

“Junho, this was seriously too damn much work, you know? The AI kept saying it’d work no matter what, but honestly, I can’t guarantee what’ll happen to the vehicle when you actually fire it.”

With AI assistance—or, in this case, with Akina leading and the two of them joining in—Baek Hail and Yoon Youngsu had barely managed to complete the modification work to attach and detach the K4 from the armored car and electric truck.

“From center of gravity to driving stability, the electrical structure, and the mount design, not one damn thing was easy. I swear I’m never doing this again. Just thinking about maintaining this thing later already gives me a headache.”

When Baek Hail shook his head, Yoon Youngsu grinned.

“Hehe. Still, now you know exactly how amazing our Akina is, right? Without her, the power problem and balance problem would’ve taken months to solve.”

“That’s true. Anyway, I need to rest. Youngsu, you explain it.”

“Yes, sir. You worked hard.”

The job must have been exhausting, because Baek Hail just waved his hand a few times without answering and walked away.

“So, this thing does work properly, right?”

“Yep. We ran over a hundred simulations, and it was judged stable. But please avoid driving over a hundred kilometers per hour if you can. And one more thing.”

Yoon Youngsu opened the armored car door.

“No matter what we tried, we couldn’t change the ejection of the casings from the original design. So we had no choice but to route them between the driver’s seat and the rear row.”

Sure enough, right behind the driver’s seat, Junho could see a newly installed round pipe-like thing.

“So when it fires, the casings are going to be insanely loud. And it’ll be a problem if you fire more than forty-eight rounds per minute. Honestly, firing continuously for more than three minutes is a problem too. Well, in Namyangju, Akina will be controlling the fire anyway, so maybe it doesn’t matter? Anyway.”

Bang!

Yoon Youngsu closed the armored car door and continued.

“The horizontal angle is forty-four degrees, but the vertical angle is sixteen degrees, you see? So when it’s firing automatically, you should basically think of it as only being able to shoot toward the front of the vehicle. Ah, but please understand that even getting this much angle was absurdly hard.”

“I know. You really worked hard. Good job.”

“Hehe. Now then, as for how you detach it....”

For the next thirty minutes, Junho received instruction from Yoon Youngsu on operating the K4 and repeatedly drilled it into himself.

After that, he went toward the closed tunnel where, even before the apocalypse, there had been no houses nearby and barely any cars passed in a day.

Then, using KM385 practice rounds from the one box that had somehow been mixed in among the high-explosive rounds for reasons he could not begin to understand, he conducted and checked firing tests while driving and while stationary.

— Hit rate against moving targets while driving: 65 percent. Hit rate against stationary targets while driving: 92 percent.

— Hit rate against moving targets while stationary: 86 percent. Hit rate against stationary targets while stationary: 99 percent.

— In actual combat, results may vary depending on driving speed and road surface conditions.

The results were extremely satisfying.

They had actually come out slightly better than the simulation results Yoon Youngsu and Akina had run.

Since he was already there, Junho decided to detach the K4 on the spot and try firing it himself.

The machine gun and tripod alone weighed over sixty kilograms, and once a twenty-four-round belt of high-explosive rounds was added to that, the terrifying total weight reached nearly eighty kilograms.

But Junho only felt that it was a little heavy. Carrying the K4 and slinging the ammunition belt over his shoulder, he was actually able to “run.”

He trained for about thirty minutes that way, assuming various situations, handling the K4 as if an ordinary soldier were handling a K3 or K15 light machine gun.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo....”

Dripping thick beads of sweat for the first time in a very long while, Junho was able to smile in satisfaction.

He had obtained a “joker” for the coming group battle against zombies in the city.