episode_0006

A peaceful morning… no, a busy morning. I woke up to a man moving around busily, wondering what he was doing.

“What is this morning breeze…”

“Wake up, Danhwa. This time it’s a little big.”

It was rare for the old man to hear the word “big deal” come out of his mouth, and since he had eaten the peach without any regrets the last time, he suppressed his discontent inside, thinking that he had to make up for it.

Fall is almost over. When winter comes, the time and opportunities to be outdoors decrease. Because the days are shorter.

As the days get shorter, the days naturally get colder, and when it gets colder, people’s bodies tend to shrink.

Zombies also can’t avoid the cold, so they say their activity slows down, but compared to our position, where we have to avoid combat as much as possible and move around, and the zombies, who have to stand still and sink their teeth into the flesh of a living person even if their body slows down, this is by no means a plus.

Extreme weather events such as extreme heat waves that felt like death or torrential downpours that were unbearable have all disappeared, but is this the opposite of global warming or is there another reason we are unaware of?

As the winter grew colder, it was solidifying its position as the last remaining abnormal weather. In any case, it was clear that in order to reduce unnecessary activities during the winter, which was colder than last year, it was necessary to prepare for the end of late autumn.

I asked the old man, roughly shoving my feet into thick tights.

“If it’s a big deal, who’s the client? Park Seung-ho, that guy?”

The man nodded, saying that my guess was correct.

As expected, it’s that old man…

Park Seung-ho, the leader of a group of survivors based in the Pureun Apartment Complex. He was someone who was familiar with the old man.

Personally, I would say he wasn’t the type of person I preferred.

A human who seems to have been created by combining a fiery personality, a tendency to raise one’s voice, and violence. He is so large, like a bear, that when viewed from the side, it feels like a stone statue is moving.

Well, aside from personal preference, if you evaluate him as a business partner, he is someone whose evaluation is the complete opposite.

This is because, just like the NPCs in the game who seem to have something going for them, they throw out missions with great rewards, so is that old man Seungho Park.

Because there were many times when the rewards given were more than expected, and not disappointing, as much as the difficult requests given.

To put it simply, it was Mr. Seungho Park who provided a boiler to boil hot water in our shelter.

Just thinking about the winter of the year before last, when we didn’t have a boiler and had to boil water in an empty drum and pour it in, was terrifying.

Anyway, since I had suddenly scheduled this in late fall, I thought that if I could just take care of this, I could relieve myself of my worries about winter.

“Are you ready?”

I was about to snap at him, saying, “Don’t you know when you see me?” but I knew I would soon meet a tired person, and I didn’t want to get into trouble with the old man, so I nodded instead.

When I saw the old man nodding his head in satisfaction at my gesture, I thought to myself that it was a good idea.

“It’s frosty… It’s a bit cold.”

The old man glanced out the window and said those words. After hearing the old man’s words, I also turned my head and saw, indeed, that there was pure white frost everywhere.

“That’s right.”

“I’m sorry, this request came in so quickly.”

“There’s no need for you to apologize, sir. I know it’s going to be winter soon anyway, so it’s weird to hope that it won’t be cold in the morning. And when have we ever received a request that wasn’t urgent?”

“That’s true too.”

The old man chuckled at my words and opened the shelter door. Anyway, it seemed like the old man didn’t even remember what he had done.

I was able to cross the sewer, which still boasted a stuffy air despite it being late autumn, and arrive at a manhole connected to the Pureundae Apartments.

Land! Land! Land!

The man deftly took out a hammer from his pocket and tapped on the manhole. It was a signal shared by all the survivor camps operating in this area.

Combatants of the camp are number 1, non-combatants are number 2, and visitors are number 3.

We were visitors to Park Seung-ho’s camp and Pureun Apartment, so number 3 was correct.

After a while, the manhole opened and I pulled myself out of the sewer, hearing a few brief greetings.

‘Blue Hill Apartment – Eusha Eusha!! Let’s live well.’

As I crawled out into the bright light, I noticed that there were barricades with placards with slogans written on them that were obviously bad to look at.

There were places where people set up camps by blocking the main roads with barricades and other obstacles in areas where houses and villas were gathered, like where my uncle and I live, but in places like this one, where the scale was a certain size, it was common to occupy an entire apartment complex and set up camps.

It’s always so shabby here.

It’s not that the facilities are outdated or the standard of living is poor, but it’s just that the sensibility itself seems old, so I felt that way. Honestly, I didn’t envy the fact that the apartment was the main location at all.

Above all, there was also the problem of noise between floors when living in an apartment. I couldn’t help but think that my current villa life was better.

While I was thinking like that, the old man was busy talking to a middle-aged man who seemed to be in charge of security.

“I came to see you because I have something to say to Leader Park Seung-ho. Are you inside?”

“Ah, are we angry? By the way, among the handover items, you said there was a guest today. I guess you are that person. Youngest! Show them around!”

It seemed like the conversation had already been had, as the young man, still green, began to guide us towards the apartment management office.

“Oh! Do-hoon! Are you here? A pretty little girl came with you today. Did you say short hair?”

“I’m not a kid.”

“Hahahahaha! That prickly thing reminds me of my daughter!”

I covered my ears with both hands from the deafening laughter and the strong smell of cigarette smoke, and glanced at the bear-like human who had committed biochemical terrorism.

It was a gesture that seemed to be filled with a hint of protest, but he himself seemed not to care, as he showed his yellow teeth in a fierce smile and turned his gaze towards the old man, perhaps to talk about work with him.

“First of all, thank you for accepting my sudden request so readily. Come to think of it! I should take good care of you, right? We weren’t on good terms since long ago, right?”

Park Seung-ho expertly lit a cigarette, took out his lighter, and handed the man a pack of cigarettes filled with what looked like poisonous cigarettes.

“One to one Fiji but?”

“I hung up. The little girl you like doesn’t like it.”

“Oh, my.”

Park Seung-ho, who had lit a cigarette at the old man’s words, immediately put it out in the ashtray.

Well, it’s a good thing the old man isn’t a slob. This is another example of how humans aren’t bad. They know some manners for non-smokers.

“As you know, we operate several generators ourselves. This time, one of the generators had a coil failure. The technician said it had to be completely replaced.”

“To get to the point, can you please get me that coil?”

“That’s it. I don’t know if you know, but the hospital has emergency generators. Well, we’ll have to bring them to see what their exact condition is, but… Our technician said they’ll be fine. And since the generator model is the same, there’s no need to touch anything else. We only need three coils. If you can get them for us, I’ll be more than happy to pay you.”

As he said that, Seungho Park knocked on the safe on one side of his office.

“It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible. Instead, I’m not a generator expert, so I’ll have to hire an expert…”

“That’s a bit tricky. I don’t want to risk my precious manpower turning into useless zombies.”

Before the old man could finish speaking, Park Seung-ho cut him off. Hearing that, I was so shocked that I couldn’t help but ask him.

“Mr. Park, how are we supposed to get it? If you get an electric shock while disassembling it, can you take responsibility for it? And what if you break it because you disassembled it wrong? What if it’s not even broken, and you’re acting badly? What can we do?”

I pointed out the parts that were concerning me in this request without holding back, and Park Seung-ho’s eyebrows twitched as he listened to me.

That dirty-tempered guy must be pissed. But what can he do? Aren’t they the ones who are in trouble? I don’t understand why they ignore our demands as if they were the ones who begged for help in the first place.

“Little girl, you shouldn’t interrupt when adults are talking.”

“The short story isn’t a kid. There’s nothing wrong with what you just said.”

The old man secretly took my side. In a way, it was probably because I was refreshingly helping him with things he hadn’t thought of or things he found difficult to ask for.

“Hey, Do-hoon, have you ever seen me backstabbing you? I’m the leader of the Blue Apartment, the leader!”

“I’m doing this because it looks like it’s going to be today. If you’re such a great leader, show your leadership or show your distribution. You’re the one who came out looking so petty.”

“Hey! You little brat!”

Boom! As Seungho Park slammed his office desk, a sound as if the desk was going to shatter at any moment erupted from it.

Park Seung-ho’s face was now bright red. He was beginning to wonder if if he were to prick him with a needle, steam would come out instead of blood.

“If you lose your temper there, I won’t take on this job.”

Park Seung-ho, who seemed ready to grab me by the collar at any moment because the old man had given him the advice that was definitely effective, began taking deep breaths to control his surging anger.

“Whew…Whew… I’ll talk to the technicians about that right away and coordinate it.”

“You should have done that earlier.”

I muttered to myself quietly. Park Seung-ho didn’t hear it, but the old man seemed to hear it and looked at me with a frightened expression.

I just shrugged my shoulders at that old man. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I had no reason to care about that nasty old man’s feelings.