Ch.4747. Advancement (1)

Jeong Dong-geon stopped advancing after hearing shocking statements from a female survivor.

The advance team immediately contacted Yu-na at the cult headquarters to request support.

“Let’s make this intersection our forward base. Going any further with our current forces would be too risky.”

“I agree, Captain.”

They declared a building near the intersection as their forward base for the expedition and rescued a group of survivors in the vicinity.

After rescuing the survivors, who were all in weakened conditions, they placed them on the military transport bus that had been carrying Jeong Dong-geon and his forces to allow them to rest comfortably.

Since one transport bus wasn’t enough to accommodate all the survivors, they first loaded those with serious injuries and provided tents for the remaining survivors to rest in.

“We have emergency medical kits, so we’ll provide first aid for everyone. Once evacuation vehicles arrive, you can receive proper treatment at the hospital.”

“Th-thank you. Thank you so much.”

They unloaded medical supplies from the bus and began treating the survivors one by one.

For survivors who had been lacking medical supplies, the medical kits provided by Jeong Dong-geon were gifts from heaven.

Survivors who had been suffering without even basic painkillers received emergency treatment from the medical kits, and their complexions gradually improved.

For the most serious cases, they could only reduce pain with painkillers, but Jeong Dong-geon personally assured these patients that he would arrange emergency transport to a hospital.

“By the way, are you the leader of this camp?”

“Yes. I’m Son Sang-hui.”

Now he could finally have a sincere conversation with the leader of the survivor camp at the intersection, though it wasn’t really necessary.

The female survivor Jeong Dong-geon had first discovered was actually the leader of the intersection survivor camp, and after receiving emergency treatment from the medical kit, she spoke with him more calmly.

‘She’s younger than I expected. But then again, considering Yu-na, age doesn’t matter much for the Awakened.’

He hadn’t noticed in the dark building when she looked so haggard, but the survivor leader Son Sang-hui was quite young.

She appeared to have just reached adulthood, which gave Jeong Dong-geon pause, but considering that Yu-na herself wasn’t yet an adult, age didn’t matter much for the Awakened.

“Sang-hui, besides your camp, would it be correct to assume all other camps have been wiped out?”

“I’m not sure about that. Pohang is large. If you can avoid those aliens… I mean, the mutant spider zombies, you can certainly survive. Especially the marines and fishermen in the port area could escape to sea by boat, which would be even easier.”

“So there are still survivors remaining within Pohang. That’s good to know.”

“If you look carefully around Pohang Airport, you’ll probably find many small camps still surviving. After all, we’re still alive.”

Jeong Dong-geon first asked about the survival of other groups in Pohang, and Sang-hui answered that she wasn’t sure.

However, she explained that Pohang was very large, and if one could avoid the newly emerged mutant zombies, survival was certainly possible.

She also mentioned that unlike her inland location, those near the sea could escape by boat, confirming to Jeong Dong-geon that there were potential allies within Pohang.

Believing that their cooperation would make reclaiming Pohang easier, Jeong Dong-geon said:

“So the navy has survived as well.”

“Yes. The marines have been reduced in number, but they’re still functioning. When things weren’t so dire, they were taking civilians out to sea on their ships.”

He mentioned the survival of the navy stationed in Pohang.

Sang-hui replied that while many marines had died, the military itself was still intact and was currently evacuating civilians to sea.

Relieved to hear that military forces remained intact, Jeong Dong-geon’s expression showed relief as he said:

“At least they didn’t charge backward.”

“Charge backward?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

He mentioned the marines’ notorious phrase while thinking it was fortunate they hadn’t done so this time.

While it was disappointing that the navy hadn’t reclaimed Pohang, he judged that they could still cooperate since they were rescuing civilians and working toward reclaiming the city.

At least the naval base in Pohang hadn’t abandoned its military duty yet.

“In any case, we plan to use this place as a forward base to attack Pohang. Could we count on your help?”

“Since you saved us, of course we’ll cooperate with you soldiers. But what help could we possibly provide?”

After assessing the situation in Pohang, Jeong Dong-geon requested cooperation from Son Sang-hui.

Local cooperation was essential for reclaiming Pohang, and Son Sang-hui was the only local he could currently recruit as an ally.

Naturally, she expressed deep gratitude toward Jeong Dong-geon for saving them and promised to cooperate, though she wondered how she could be of help with a gloomy expression.

“You can be of great help. We’re new to Pohang. Of course, we can see satellite images of Pohang through Starlink, but we know nothing about what kinds of survivor camps exist in current Pohang or which survivors we can cooperate with. If you’ve survived in Pohang until now, you must know about them well.”

“Yes! Yes! I know them well.”

However, they could indeed be very helpful.

While satellite images of Pohang could be checked through Starlink or apps, they knew nothing about the attitudes of the numerous survivor camps within Pohang.

Internet community posts couldn’t be completely trusted, and to understand these internal matters, help from local collaborators who had been active in Pohang was essential.

Through this collaboration, they needed to contact survivor camps willing to cooperate and prepare to take Pohang.

After Jeong Dong-geon’s respectful explanation, Son Sang-hui looked at him with a flushed face, appearing truly impressed.

“That would be most helpful to us. For now, we’ll send those who need urgent medical care to hospitals in Gyeongju via transport vehicles that are on their way.”

“Gyeongju… Gyeongju… Isn’t that where that cult was located?”

“Ahem!”

However, Jeong Dong-geon’s slip of the tongue nearly destroyed their cooperation.

He mentioned Gyeongju too casually, and upon hearing this, Son Sang-hui repeated “Gyeongju” and then mentioned the cult—the Balhut Cult.

At this, a soldier cleared his throat and looked away.

‘Oh no!’

Jeong Dong-geon realized his mistake.

Mentally exclaiming “oh no,” he wondered how to smooth over this situation.

‘Well, that’s actually the normal reaction, which is somewhat sad.’

The soldiers watching understood Son Sang-hui’s feelings.

Before the apocalypse, if a group like the Balhut Cult was mentioned, it would immediately be labeled a cult—this was the normal, sensible reaction before the end times.

“It’s fine. Gyeongju is now stabilized. I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about, Sang-hui.”

Jeong Dong-geon tried to calm Sang-hui to fix his mistake, but:

“B-but I saw posts in online communities saying a dangerous cult was running rampant in Gyeongju. They said North Gyeongju had fallen to the cult and was suffering.”

“Those are just provocations and rumors. All lies. The tyrant of North Gyeongju, Jo Sun-do, has fallen, and North Gyeongju has regained its freedom.”

“R-really?”

She was troubled by rumors spread by Jo Sun-do’s remaining faction who cursed the cult.

He declared it all lies and explained that North Gyeongju had a tyrant who was overthrown, bringing freedom back to the region.

However, seeing Son Sang-hui’s skeptical expression, Jeong Dong-geon was wondering what to do when:

“Captain, Yu Su-seong has arrived.”

“Bring him here immediately!”

Just then, Yu Su-seong arrived with the rear guard, and Jeong Dong-geon ordered him brought over right away.

This was Jeong Dong-geon’s desperate measure to escape this awkward atmosphere, and when Yu Su-seong entered the temporary tent, he greeted him with genuine delight.

“Yu Su-seong, you’ve arrived.”

“Yes. I couldn’t miss the construction of a forward base. But why are you so cheerful?”

Yu Su-seong looked at Jeong Dong-geon suspiciously, as if wondering what was wrong with him.

However, Yu Su-seong’s help was essential to resolve this awkward situation, so Jeong Dong-geon desperately sent him Morse code signals.

“And this person is…?”

“Well…”

It was difficult to explain.

If he introduced Yu Su-seong as a Balhut Cult executive to Son Sang-hui, it might raise more suspicion, so as Jeong Dong-geon’s concern deepened:

“…He’s the commander of the engineering unit.”

“I-is that so?”

After much deliberation, he explained that Yu Su-seong was the commander of the engineering unit.

Son Sang-hui looked at Yu Su-seong and asked if it was true.

“Haha. If you mean the person in charge of building this forward base, then yes, that’s me.”

Yu Su-seong quickly played along.

Sensing from Jeong Dong-geon’s desperate expression that something was wrong, Yu Su-seong received his frantic Morse code signals and appropriately backed up his statement.

“We should unload all the construction materials from the trucks and use the buses that transported the workers to evacuate the seriously injured.”

“That’s a good idea. Once the buses return from the hospital, we can use them to return the workers to Gyeongju.”

But this was the Pohang expedition.

After brief introductions, Yu Su-seong got to the point and suggested using the buses that transported workers to evacuate survivors.

Since they couldn’t accommodate survivors who couldn’t fight due to injuries, Jeong Dong-geon agreed with Yu Su-seong’s suggestion.

This forward base needed to send injured survivors to the rear and keep only those who could fight.

“Where’s the rest of the expedition?”

“They’ve all responded to the summons. Yu-na is leading them.”

“Everything’s going according to plan.”

It seemed the expedition members had all assembled and were being led by Yu-na, the leader of the Balhut Cult.

If the expedition arrived safely, the attack on Pohang would begin.

Relieved that everything was proceeding according to plan, Jeong Dong-geon thought of someone who should be appearing soon:

“That’s good. Then what about Tae-hyun, who’s always following us around?”

“I’m right here, Captain Jeong Dong-geon!”

“Haha. That guy is everywhere.”

Sure enough, Kim Tae-hyun had arrived to do business with the advance team.

At Kim Tae-hyun’s appearance, Yu Su-seong smiled wryly, commenting that his face could be seen everywhere, and slowly got up.

While Jeong Dong-geon, as the advance team leader, had completed his duty by securing the forward base site, Yu Su-seong now needed to transform this location into a space the expedition could use.

Since Yu Su-seong’s work was just beginning, he couldn’t waste time chatting and immediately went outside to start working.

And then:

“I’ll pay, so give these people something to eat.”

“Of course. It’s on the house.”

Jeong Dong-geon opened his wallet to provide warm food for the survivors.

Of course, Kim Tae-hyun declared he would provide it for free:

“Come on, everyone! We have warm fish cake soup and cool drinks. Help yourselves!”

“Wow!”

“If you go to Gyeongju, don’t forget Kim Tae-hyun Company!”

He really began distributing food to the survivors for free.

Of course, Kim Tae-hyun’s actions weren’t purely altruistic—they were selfishly benevolent, aimed at raising the value of his branded business.

However:

‘In these times, even that kind of goodwill is necessary.’

Jeong Dong-geon knew that even such goodwill was a luxury in these times, so he had no intention of stopping Kim Tae-hyun.

If that goodwill could save even one life, it was a small price to pay.

“Um, is it really okay to distribute supplies like that?”

Of course, seeing Kim Tae-hyun distributing supplies for free, Son Sang-hui asked if it was really okay.

Her look suggested she thought it was wasteful to give away so many supplies, and to that, Jeong Dong-geon replied:

“That guy, despite appearances, is rich.”

He could only answer that Kim Tae-hyun was wealthy.

In reality, he had been selling supplies to the cult’s army every day without fail, and considering the promissory notes he had obtained from soldiers, he had probably amassed enough wealth to easily buy a building near the cult’s main hall.

“Rich? Does being rich even matter in this disaster?”

“I suppose… it does?”

Of course, at the mention of wealth, Son Sang-hui looked at Jeong Dong-geon with an expression of incomprehension.

Under her gaze, which was like looking at an alien life form, Jeong Dong-geon avoided her eyes.

Indeed, what meaning did wealth have in these times?