Chapter 235: This Actually Works?
“What are you going to do?”
Junhyeok, who had come out with them for the first time in a while because they were near shelter territory, asked.
He did not look flustered.
After preparing for and fighting through the apocalypse together, Junhyeok had gained what people called “time in the field” too.
“It’ll be difficult to fight here. How about we pull back first?”
The KJM Brothers, led by Kim Jaemun, and the others were the same.
They were armed with firearms, all kinds of drones, and advanced equipment, and all of them had accumulated a considerable amount of experience.
Most importantly, Junho was here with them now.
Everyone had the appropriate tension that came before combat, but not a single person was panicking or afraid.
“Where exactly are they headed?”
—If they keep moving straight, it looks like Cheondo Tunnel. They’ll pass the road beside the reservoir within twenty minutes.
After hearing Yoon Youngsu’s report, Junho looked around at everyone and said,
“Stop work and pull back toward the tunnel.”
“Okay.”
“Deokcheol! Just load that onto the truck!”
“Yeah, Bro!”
At Junho’s order, the five members of the combat team, including Junhyeok, moved in perfect order.
Since there was a lot of heavy lifting to do, Junho had deliberately not brought any women along.
Junho walked toward the ballistic vehicle while maintaining communication with the shelter.
“Youngsu, get every A drone we have ready to sortie at any time. And load what I’m about to tell you onto delivery drones and send them to the entrance of Cheondo Tunnel.”
—Yep.
“What we need is....”
While Junho communicated, the shelter combat team finished wrapping up the work and boarded the electric truck and the ballistic vehicle.
The two vehicles quickly left the area, got onto the road, and drove toward Cheondo Tunnel.
***
“Bro. These bastards are one hundred percent going to pass through the tunnel and head toward Yeongho-ri, aren’t they? What are you going to do?”
Watching the drone feed that continued to show the zombie horde, nearly a thousand strong, Junhyeok asked from the passenger seat with a somewhat worried expression.
They themselves could simply fall back to the shelter, but if by any chance the bastards did not just pass Yeongho-ri by and attacked it, the survivors there and the soldiers at the National Agricultural Cooperative warehouse would be in danger.
“We have to take them down.”
“Yeah, figured.”
Junhyeok’s face brightened at his brother’s answer, but then he clicked his tongue with a regretful look.
“But it’s kind of a waste.”
“What is?”
“This tunnel. We barely got it usable, and now not even a day later, we won’t be able to use it anymore.”
At Junhyeok’s words, Junho narrowed one eye.
“What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t we be able to use the tunnel?”
“Huh? To kill all those bastards, don’t we have to collapse the tunnel?”
It was a massive zombie horde numbering close to a thousand.
When it came to eliminating bastards like that, what better method could there be than trapping them inside a tunnel and bringing it down?
“What kind of nonsense is that? Why would we collapse the tunnel?”
“Whoa?”
“Really?”
Not only Junhyeok, but Park Deokcheol in the back seat also looked surprised.
And for good reason. Back when they farmed Moku-ri D-Mart and fought off the zombies that chased them, they had only barely repelled them with several times more people than they had now, all fully prepared.
On top of that, they had also had the people from Welcome Karaoke Bar helping them back then.
But although there were slightly fewer zombies now than there had been then, it was still a scale too heavy for their current number of people to handle.
Moreover, they had no obstacle zone stretching over a hundred meters, no positions built on high ground, and no tall, solid defensive wall of containers.
Everything was unfavorable, and nothing was prepared.
Even so—
“There’s a way, so don’t worry.”
“Uh....”
At Junho’s utterly calm words, Junhyeok and Park Deokcheol had no choice but to nod.
***
The vehicles drove through Cheondo Tunnel, where the zombies had already been cleared, with their high beams on, then stopped at the tunnel entrance.
Keeeeeeeeng...!
Less than a minute later, the delivery drones AI Akina had sent with perfect timing rapidly descended.
The delivery drones, modular drones that Baek Hail had modified appropriately, had a maximum takeoff weight of forty-five kilograms including their own weight, befitting aircraft originally meant mainly for spraying agricultural chemicals.
In other words, they could carry close to thirty kilograms.
“Whoa?”
“Don’t just stare. Put them on. Everyone else, hurry and get ready too.”
“Ah, yes.”
At Junho’s words, everyone took the items out of the delivery boxes.
They were night-vision goggles, IR laser pointers, and boxes of tungsten rounds.
Since they were essential equipment for fighting inside a lightless tunnel, the combat team mounted the night-vision goggles on their helmets and attached the pointers to their guns.
In the meantime, Junho took equipment from the two delivery drones he had specifically requested.
“Holy shit!?”
“K4? Bro, you’re going to use that here?”
As everyone’s eyes went wide, Junhyeok asked.
With fast, practiced hands, Junho assembled the K4 automatic grenade launcher and said,
“I’m just getting it ready for now. And I’m not the one who’s going to use it.”
After finishing the assembly of the K4, Junho shoveled dirt into empty burlap sacks, then quickly built a firing position about fifty meters away from the tunnel entrance.
“Mr. Jaemun, you take it. You said you fired one at the Marine training unit, right?”
“Excuse me? Ah, yes.”
Kim Jaemun hurriedly answered and lay prone.
When he gripped the handles, the heavy sensation came through his hands, and soon he grinned.
“It’s been a really long time.”
“I already set everything, so there shouldn’t be anything you need to adjust. You can just spray it into the tunnel if needed.”
“Yes, sir.”
Junho returned to the tunnel entrance and spoke to the others, who had finished putting on their equipment.
“Now, here’s the plan. First, you’ll keep the air guns at effective range....”
***
Woooooo...!
At the sound of wind blowing from deep inside the black tunnel, Park Deokcheol shuddered.
Because the zombies had not even reached the opposite side of the tunnel yet, everyone had their night-vision goggles lifted onto their helmets for now and was waiting behind abandoned vehicles they had dragged into place.
“Sir, but is this really going to work?”
When Park Deokcheol asked in a whisper, Junhyeok clicked his tongue and said,
“No idea. But my brother says it will, so we’re doing it. Besides... it’s pretty plausible, isn’t it?”
“Yes. That’s true. But I’m just worried Big Brother is taking too much risk alone....”
“I feel the same way, but what can we do? He says it’ll be fine.”
Junhyeok still could not relax.
He knew his brother’s abilities better than anyone, but as his brother, being worried was being worried.
—They’re entering now!
At the sound of Yoon Youngsu’s voice, everyone’s eyes fixed on the tunnel entrance.
Cheondo Tunnel was about 1.2 kilometers long.
Judging by the zombies’ walking speed, they would arrive within fifteen to twenty minutes.
“Bro, you heard that, right?”
—Yeah.
“You really need to be careful, bro.”
—Kid, don’t worry. I told you. I’ve done this once before.
“Haa... yeah.”
If Junho had not said he had succeeded at something similar in a precognitive dream, Junhyeok might have opposed it until the end.
But his brother Junho had personally demonstrated it, and just as he had boasted, there had been no problem, and it had seemed plenty possible.
That was why Junhyeok and the shelter combat team were at the tunnel entrance, while Junho was currently alone inside the tunnel.
—Junhyeok, if anything happens, I’ll blow them all away, so don’t worry. I was an expert marksman.
At the voice that came then, Junhyeok turned his head slightly.
Seeing Kim Jaemun holding the K4 some distance away from the tunnel entrance eased his mind at least a little.
Cheondo Tunnel was about seven meters wide.
Just as Kim Jaemun had said, if he poured fire from the K4 into it, the bastards inside that narrow space would be swept away with nowhere to hide or run.
***
Drip... drip... drip....
Listening to the regular sound of falling water droplets, Junho lay still and prone.
Whoooooooo...!
Then the sound of wind echoed inside the tunnel.
Gwoooooooo....
From far away, the noise made by zombies carried toward him.
Click.
After chambering a round in the KP9 and activating the IR pointer, a laser visible only through night-vision goggles stretched out in a straight line.
—All individuals have entered. Density is five to six per square meter. Total length is approximately one hundred thirty meters.
Based on the footage filmed by the drone hovering on the opposite side of the tunnel, Akina delivered the calculated density and length of the zombie horde in her usual businesslike voice.
“Alpha’s location?”
—Eighty meters from the very front. Moving while surrounded by individuals approximately one hundred eighty-five centimeters or taller.
“Figures....”
At the situation exactly as he had expected, Junho let out a cold sneer.
The Alpha leading the zombie horde that had now entered Cheondo Tunnel was clearly one that had dealt with soldiers or survivors with guns before.
That was why, to protect itself, it surrounded itself in every direction with tall slaves and moved with its body lowered.
Because it knew it would die if it got shot in the head.
But—
“You never imagined this....”
Murmuring quietly, Junho aimed his muzzle toward the front of the zombie horde, which was just beginning to appear in his night vision around the gentle curve inside the tunnel.
Then the laser, visible only through night vision, slanted down from above.
Cheondo Tunnel was about 3.5 meters high.
Junho was currently waiting on top of the steel structure where the lighting fixtures ran continuously along the tunnel.
In other words, inside the tunnel, which was no different from the middle of the night because there was no light, there was absolutely no possibility that the poor-eyed zombies would notice Junho lying prone and waiting on top of the ceiling structure.
And being on “high ground” compared to the bastards meant—
'No matter how much it walks around with tall slaves like a folding screen, it’s useless.'
After confirming a heat source shining bright like an incandescent bulb in the distance, Junho aimed the laser point toward it.
The front of the horde was just passing beneath the structure where Junho lay prone.
Uuuh...! Grrrraaaaa...!
The monstrous noises the bastards made rang out like echoes.
Zombies were not on the same level as an Alpha, but they fundamentally emitted low-frequency sound, and when many individuals gathered and made noise all at once, it affected humans.
For an ordinary person, that sound alone would make their heart beat faster and keep them from maintaining composure.
But Junho only stared at the laser point with eyes like sheets of ice.
Thirty meters. Twenty meters. Ten meters.
At last, the Alpha surrounded by tall zombies arrived at a point only a few meters away from the steel structure where Junho lay prone.
And just before it passed beneath the structure, Junho pulled the trigger at the glowing crown of the bastard’s head, now clearly exposed.
Ttuk-ttuk!
With a clean double tap, the Alpha’s skull shattered, and it collapsed on the spot.
The instant they heard the gunshots from the suppressor, the zombies all snapped their heads up at the same time, but they could not see Junho lying still on top of the structure in the dark tunnel.
And a few seconds later, the zombies freed from the Alpha’s control simultaneously stopped walking and began twisting their entire bodies.
Staring down at that bizarre sight, difficult to describe in words, Junho spoke low.
“Alpha neutralized. Begin.”
***
Fow...! Fow...!
Maintaining a distance of about 150 meters, the combat team burst the zombies’ heads with modified air guns.
Although the speed was slow, they could kill one with each shot, reliably.
Why?
“This actually works...?”
Junhyeok muttered, dumbfounded.
The zombies freed from the Alpha’s control were simply standing dazed in the tunnel like mannequins.
If it had been bright outside, they would have carried out their unique routines according to various noises and the movement of visible objects, but inside the pitch-black darkness, zombies reacted only to sound.
But there was no way in hell the zombies could see the combat team, more than one hundred meters away in the dark tunnel.
And the bastards could not hear the shots from the modified air guns either.
Not only was the sound itself small, but the short, dull burst made by compressed air escaping lost its force before it could strike the walls and reflect back.
In other words, even if they heard it, it was almost impossible for them to pinpoint the location.
That was why the bastards only flinched little by little at the sounds made by their companions collapsing after their heads were pierced by tungsten rounds fired from a long distance, and showed no greater reaction than that.
Which meant—
—If we follow the plan, those bastards will basically be no different from targets just standing still.
—It’ll take a fair amount of time to process all of them, but there’s no better way than this.
—On top of that, we don’t need to collapse the tunnel, and we can save live ammunition too. It’s not particularly dangerous either. If you can think of a better method than this, tell me.
The experience and nerve of a regressor, combined with advanced equipment, had made it possible to easily handle a zombie horde numbering close to a thousand.
Except for Kim Jaemun, who had been full of anticipation about firing heavy weapons, only to have all the wind taken out of his sails.
“...I’m bored all by myself.”