The Apocalypse Regressor's All-Purpose Shelter

“Thank you, sir. It must have been exhausting coming here from dawn, so please get some rest.”

“Huh? Ah, yes. But, um... c-could I have a few more Choco Pies?”

The man, who said he had spent nearly half a year crossing national roads and mountains from the east coast of Gangwon-do, sucked on his chocolate-smeared fingers and scratched his head sheepishly.

“Of course. President, bring him some more.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lee Wonoh, who had been waiting nearby, quickly brought the man several more snacks.

Most were chocolates that could be stored for a fairly long time even at room temperature, and whose shelf life increased exponentially when completely sealed and kept frozen.

Since the beginning of the year, Junho had been supplying one thirty-liter airtight container of them every three months to this water leisure sports center and to Gahyeon-ri, where dozens of children lived.

Junho knew very well how much power sweet snacks held over humans in the apocalypse, just like preference goods such as alcohol or cigarettes.

So he had stacked more than a hundred sealed boxes filled with chocolates like this in our shelter’s cold storage and ultra-low-temperature freezer warehouse.

Among the shelter members, the only people who liked sweets were Jo Yuna, Park Sunhee’s best friend and fellow member; Ahn Yujeong, a member of Blossom; and, unusually, Yoon Seolhee.

According to AI Akina’s calculation, even if those three and young Choi Jiwoo each ate one every day, it would take roughly eighteen years to finish them all. Yoon Youngsu had asked her to calculate it because he thought it would be amusing.

Although Junho had built the shelter and stockpiled all kinds of supplies in order to survive for as long as possible, he did not truly intend to live exactly the same way for eighteen years with nothing changing.

That was why Junho had decided to give one box of chocolates per quarter to the water leisure sports center and Gahyeon-ri.

“Th-thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Take your time eating.”

While Lee Wonoh displayed the service spirit appropriate to this place’s original purpose, Junho stepped outside.

***

“Boss, that thing’s heavy, you know? I think it’d be better if two people carried it.”

“Oh, really? It doesn’t look that heavy—urk. Huh?”

“See? Told you. If you carry that alone, you’ll throw out your back.”

As Baek Suho giggled, the man who had tried to lift an airtight box packed full of tungsten rounds looked embarrassed and carried the box to the boat together with a companion.

Today was the day our shelter supplied Kangho Resort with necessary goods, and likewise received and exchanged the things Kang Baekho had sent.

Our shelter sent tungsten rounds for air guns, medicine, and other supplies.

The resort sent raw materials and machinery they had farmed from nearby logistics complexes and industrial parks.

Using mountain ATVs and electric carts, Kangho Resort had already secured a radius of three to four kilometers around itself, as well as parts of Yangpyeong County, and had succeeded in expanding its sphere of influence all the way to the famous Chowol Industrial Complex in Gwangju.

And if one moved only a few kilometers beyond Kang Baekho’s current sphere of influence—

“Gonjiam Station.... The KTX Central Inland Line is probably there, right?”

Muttering the name of the railway commonly called the Gyeonggang Line, Junho took out his tablet.

After bringing up the latest aerial map he had downloaded offline before the world ended, he moved the map along the Gyeonggang Line.

Then Junho’s finger, which had been sliding across the screen, stopped abruptly.

“Chungju....”

He could travel along the rail line to Chungju, then transfer again to the Chungbuk Line and go down from there.

If he considered safety, there was also the method of taking the Jungang Line from the beginning.

But whatever method he chose, Ulsan was far too distant from here.

Even if he somehow used vehicles, he would have to assume at least a month for the round trip.

And even if he prepared thoroughly, there was no way to know whether they could safely travel such a distant and dangerous route.

Nor could he spend months using mountain roads and national roads like the man who had just delivered the information.

“It’s not as if I can do anything about it immediately.... Akina.”

For now, Junho called AI Akina.

—Confirmed. Please speak.

“I want to run some simulations. The fastest and safest route from our shelter toward Ulsan Port or the Onsan National Industrial Complex. The personnel will probably be....”

Junho stated the conditions he had kept in mind for the day when a situation arose requiring him to go toward the east coast, Pohang, or Ulsan.

As for why he had not made a plan when constructing the shelter—

Even for a regressor, it made no sense to predict the situation in a region he had never even visited at the time and make a plan alone.

He also had not known how Junho’s situation, or our shelter’s situation, would change after the apocalypse arrived and time passed.

So it was better to wait until an appropriate time came, firmly establish the criteria and conditions, and have the AI use those as the basis to run simulations and produce the most suitable options.

Because Akina, after repeatedly learning and learning again throughout the progress of the apocalypse, should now be fully capable of running simulations across dozens of possible cases.

“You don’t have to tell me quickly, so take your time and simulate it. Narrow it down to three or four options and report back.”

—Confirmed. I will simulate using the auxiliary computation server during idle nighttime hours.

“Good. And don’t tell Youngsu about this one either.”

—Confirmed.

The person in charge of the shelter control room was Yoon Youngsu, and Akina had also been programmed by him.

But Yoon Youngsu was a computer engineer who greatly respected both a fellow Eternal Galaxy player and a client who had invested billions of won, so Akina’s highest administrator was Junho, the owner of “Our Pension.”

“A month should be enough, right? Work on it until then.”

—Understood.

Since this was not something that could be solved by rushing, Junho decided to be patient.

There were several more urgent matters immediately facing our shelter and his “territory.”

***

“Preparing for the monsoon...?”

Kim Seokhwan, who had now become less the former village head of Gahyeon-ri and more a lifelong village head, tilted his head.

“Yes. We should also clear the valleys and streams. I think it would be good to work on the drainage channels for the residential areas and farmland, and also the wastewater facilities.”

“Hm. Well, if it’s necessary, then it’s necessary, but do we really need to do it right now? The monsoon is still far off.”

“At best, there are less than two months left. Rice transplanting is already finished, and since we’re reinforcing the farmland anyway, I think it would be best to do the work together.”

“Well, if you say so, Junho, then we should.”

Kim Seokhwan nodded.

Leaving aside the fact that Junho had saved him and the residents of Gahyeon-ri from the ruined world and allowed them to keep living—

Until now, nothing bad had ever come from listening to Junho.

“Let’s mobilize all the tractors and excavators. We’ll support you with the ones on our side too.”

“Ah, then I’d be grateful. I’ll talk to Gijun first too.”

Kim Seokhwan brightened.

Gahyeon-ri did have several tractors and small-to-mid-sized excavators, but all of them were models that used fuel, which was currently in short supply.

But all the heavy equipment Junho had supported Gahyeon-ri with several times ran on electricity, so there was no worry about wasting fuel.

“But what about where you people live, Junho? Is it all right there?”

“Yes. You don’t need to worry about us. In any case, let’s start immediately tomorrow.”

The reason Junho suddenly said they had to prepare for the monsoon—

It was because.

'The monsoon this summer was especially long, and the rainfall was heavy....'

He had even heard that Gangnam in Seoul and several parts of the metropolitan area had suffered water disasters resembling floods due to torrential rain.

And when Junho had come to Gahyeon-ri before regression, he had heard that this place, too, had suffered great damage from this summer’s rain.

Of course, not a few survivors had lost their lives because of the rain, and afterward there had been another disaster caused by waterborne diseases.

So as someone who knew the future, Junho absolutely had to prepare.

'But this summer’s monsoon and torrential rain aren’t necessarily all bad.'

Why?

Even in peaceful times, monsoons and torrential rain were exactly the kind of disasters that caused heavy material and human damage because of incompetent governments and some local administrators.

So what would happen in an apocalypse where social infrastructure had completely collapsed, if record-breaking torrential rain fell for several long weeks?

That was right.

Humans and zombies alike would take a heavy blow together.

***

Whiiiiir...!

Two fully charged electric excavators moved slowly, making the sound leaking from their motors instead of the roar of diesel engines.

“Slowly! Slowly! Good!”

While Electric Excavator One, which had moved along the national road toward the stream, scraped up soil from the water’s edge with its boom—

An electric tractor transferred the wet mud into a dump box.

“Let’s finish this section today! Everyone, keep it up!”

At the words of Song Gijun, who had transformed into the work foreman for the day, the residents moved with shovels and pickaxes.

Near the stream weir below the place where they were working, another excavator dug out wedged boulders.

Right now, the water only flowed up to calf height, but on days when the rain fell even a little heavily, this was a place where the water rose to waist height in just a few hours.

With the “record-breaking torrential rain” that would fall this year, there was a high chance it would overflow.

Then the rice paddies and fields right nearby would be ruined, and that was why they had to dig the stream deeper and widen it.

The area where small and medium-sized factories were clustered was also moving busily.

“All right! All right! That’s perfect!”

As several work-use electric trucks came and went without rest, Baek Hail, who was responsible for this side, was directing the work with several men experienced in electricity and construction—in other words, “manual labor.”

“The emergency storage battery in that factory over there is still alive. If we connect that, pumping out water won’t be a problem.”

“Pull up the whole factory floor and road drainage grilles. If you scrape them out with shovels and deadwood hooks, you can do it without much effort.”

“What are you going to do with all those pallets lying around the factory? Grill something on them later? Pack soil tight into sacks, stack them, then tie them together with the pallets and steel shelves in that factory to make an embankment.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Understood.”

Men who had, in their younger days, boasted that they had been construction foremen and had practically built some apartment complex with their own hands, could not even squeak in front of Baek Hail.

In that way, around two hundred residents, regardless of age or gender, devoted themselves to preparing for the monsoon and torrential rain.

Meanwhile, Junho headed toward the national road hill connecting Gahyeon-ri and Moku-ri together with the shelter combat team and the members of the Gahyeon-ri search-and-kill team.

That place was the point where they had blocked the wave of the Alpha and its slaves from that side several months earlier, when they looted the D-Mart in Moku-ri.

***

“First, lay concertina wire at the points marked on the tablet. Secure it firmly with stakes so it won’t get swept away even if heavy rain falls.”

“Use shovels and pickaxes to make the ground below the barbed wire like a cliff. Make it so even people can’t crawl up easily.”

“You remember the positions we built before, right? We’re changing their locations. We’ll rebuild them on higher ground.”

“And in an emergency, someone with artillery experience will be assigned to each position. Raise your hands. Yes, you people will handle the 81mm and 60mm mortars.”

“Our operators will provide the range and firing data. Everyone here has experienced it once or twice, so I trust you all know our operators’ skill.”

Everyone nodded while listening closely to Junho’s string of work instructions.

Then, suddenly, one of the search-and-kill team members raised his hand and asked carefully,

“Uh, but sir. After listening to what you’ve been saying and looking at the tablet locations, this looks like you’re planning to bombard all the way across the national road and mountain path to Moku-ri....”

As proven by the fact that they had stacked containers on the hill to create a wall and lookout post, and had installed obstacles for about a hundred meters in front of it—

Until now, Gahyeon-ri had continued to deal defensively with Moku-ri, especially the Alpha and slave zombies there, only to the extent that they did not provoke them.

But Junho’s current instructions seemed, somehow, to be changing that policy.

“That’s right.”

“......!”

Looking around at the people who were visibly shaken, Junho continued.

“As you can see, this is a hill, and Moku-ri is down there below, right? Yes, Moku-ri is low ground. If torrential rain falls, there’s no way it won’t flood. Then if it rains so much that flooding happens, what do you think the zombies will do?”

“......???”

Because they had never thought about such a situation, people only looked at one another and blinked.

To them, Junho—the regressor who had witnessed that situation before—said,

“Ordinary individuals instinctively try to avoid water, or simply move in search of higher ground. But intelligent Alphas lead their slaves onto rooftops or upper floors.”

“Ah...!”

Since every one of them was a reservist and they had experience fighting zombies, a few among them showed expressions as if they had realized something.

Junho nodded to them and continued.

“Yes. We’ll use that opportunity to shell and snipe the Alpha in Moku-ri. With mortars and K4 automatic grenade launchers.”

It was extremely rare for an Alpha to lead its slaves and appear on a clearly visible rooftop.

And Junho could not miss that perfect opportunity.