episode_0173

A few days have passed since then.

In the meantime, I was busy walking around being introduced to people in the industrial complex by Lee Sang.

When I said that I thought I would have to leave the industrial complex, it was a matter decided by Lee Sang.

If I go to Busan again, I need someone to testify.

So, because I was mentally tired, I spent most of my time talking to people except when I could close my eyes.

Roughly speaking, who is this person and what role did he play in the corporation?

This person is not from the industrial complex, but lived in a nearby private house.

From such trivial things to what this force is in charge of.

Of course, we didn’t just talk.

I learned a variety of common sense that I had never been able to learn before.

How to find water in the mountains. How to see and follow the footprints of animals.

I learned how to make simple traps and traps, and I also learned how to do line fishing.

My skill level wasn’t that high, but at least it was to the point where I could survive even if I fell alone with nothing.

With the addition of knowledge about farming and caring for livestock, it was a truly rewarding time.

… Of course, it wasn’t a very rewarding time.

The information I originally needed to obtain was information about the Jinju raiders.

Other than these useful common sense things. Something like the whereabouts of a saint or a plan to plunder something.

I need to figure it out and come back, but I don’t have time to stay like this.

Although this was an important mission, it was a less important mission.

But that too ended today.

Today, when the sun sets, I planned to leave Chukdong-myeon and head to Hamodan.

However, because I had become attached to people during that time, I couldn’t just leave.

I think I just wanted Lee Sang to leave, but whatever.

What should I do if other people are crazy about cigarettes?

At first, Lee Sang was strict, but…

When I offered to pay for the meat and food I ate during my stay, I had no choice but to agree.

After eating a large meal before leaving, I handed him two cartons of cigarettes and sat down on Ochu.

And like the people who were just heading to the outskirts, I headed to the outskirts of Chukdong-myeon and pedaled to increase speed.

I must have memorized the route, so there was no need to hesitate anymore.

It was a matter of taking the Namhae Expressway to Sacheon-eup.

There was a delay because the road was blocked in between, but other than that, everything was fine.

I was able to arrive about an hour earlier than expected.

After arriving at Sacheon IC, I had one thought.

“So… There’s nothing… ?”

It wasn’t really a joke, there was nothing there.

This was quite unusual.

The survivors we have seen so far regard roads as very important.

Beyond simply making it easier to move around, roads served as blood vessels connecting regions.

There was nowhere a zombie couldn’t go even if it just walked along the road without knowing anything.

So the survivors would monitor the roads to guard against zombie hordes or raids.

Right now, people in the industrial complex were guarding all the roads in the outskirts.

Even if you can’t see everything, you can at least monitor all roads in important locations.

Road patrols were important in Busan as well, and that importance seemed unlikely to change here as well.

No, you wouldn’t know if it wasn’t managed at all in the first place.

As we went a little further down the road, we saw that it was completely cleared.

Other than the guardrail being broken here and there, it was possible to drive properly.

Although the roads in this novel are often clean.

It couldn’t have been this clean.

First of all, this is Namhae Expressway.

It was not just a road along the side of the road, but a highway that could lead to other areas.

However, there was no way that there would be enough cars to drive on such a highway.

Removing the car required a significant amount of manpower.

So even though the people in the industrial complex hid under the car and knew that someone could come, they did not clean it up.

However, Hamodan cleaned up the car left on the highway and took it somewhere.

This was definitely strange.

“It’s ominous… ”

A few questions ran through my mind, but I decided not to think about it too long for now.

Now that it was like this, the road was like a double-edged sword.

The fact that the surroundings are open makes it easy to spot enemies, but on the other hand, it also means that you are easily exposed.

So I quickly increased my speed and went straight up the Namhae Expressway.

Then, I turned onto Jinju-daero and headed to a nearby apartment complex.

First of all, there was no one in sight.

There were no zombies in sight.

Only one stray cat looked at me and ran away into the bush.

After thinking for a moment, I took out my baton.

Since I can drive with one hand anyway, I thought it would be better to prepare for emergencies.

“It’s really strange.”

I walked around the apartment complex for a few minutes, but I couldn’t hear anything.

There has to be at least one thing to do to be popular or something like that.

Yes, I could understand that it was all over and no one was visible.

But I couldn’t understand why there were no zombies in sight.

The number of people who mutated into zombies at the beginning of the incident was quite large.

And those who have failed to survive so far will also die and become new zombies.

As long as the population was not small, zombies were bound to always exist.

Even if you kill zombies as a group and catch rats, zombies always reappear somewhere.

Even though I chased away weak zombies, this didn’t make sense.

Still, it was normal for a few to be found.

After thinking for a while, I moved to a nearby elementary school.

There seemed to be more information to be collected than the apartment complex.

And my prediction was correct.

At least there was more information to find than in the apartment complex.

The elementary school was quite a mess.

In the past, I would have thought this was just a mess, but now it was different.

Using all the knowledge I had hastily acquired, I looked at the traces and began to make inferences.

And I was able to come to one conclusion.

The survivors were rescued by other survivors and headed somewhere.

In this case, then, what mattered was where it was headed.

I didn’t look at the map closely so I couldn’t tell where I was headed.

But survivors usually thought the same thing.

The most convenient place to defend around here.

I thought I could just go there.

“Maybe not, but… ”

Anyway, all I had left was time.

So it didn’t matter even if I made a mistake.

So, I went straight out of elementary school and searched around.

But no matter how much I walked around, I didn’t feel like I was popular.

It felt like I was in a ghost town.

At this point, it was a moment when I wondered if I had come to a strange place alone.

“… Jeongchon-myeon office?”

I opened the door to the office in a daze and went inside.

The inside was messy, as if it was natural.

Documents fallen on the ground. A liquid whose identity can be guessed. Broken furniture or computers.

And a large map attached to one wall.

“Ah.”

Only after looking at the map did I understand why there were no people.

What Park Sang-cheol explained came to mind again.

Jeongchon-myeon was not included in Hamodan’s territory.

And Sacheon-eup below it was not included.

Naturally, people from Jeongchon-myeon or Sacheon-eup must have moved along Hamodan.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to survive.

People who don’t welcome Hamodan would have moved somewhere else a long time ago.

I felt like I couldn’t hear anyone, but there was a reason why there was no one there.

“… Idiot.”

Even though I’m not from Jinju, I was a fool for not even trying to get a map.

At the very least, it was okay to ask Park Sang-cheol in detail.

Don’t just ask for directions to Hamodan and that’s it.

But now that I knew the way, it didn’t seem to matter.

I stared at the map for a moment, memorizing it.

At least there shouldn’t be this mistake next time.

After roughly memorizing the map, I tried to go out but ended up failing.

This myeon office building had up to the third floor.

It was a bit difficult to finish after just looking around the first floor.

Since it was a township office, there could have been something different.

So I went straight up to the second floor, but as expected, there was nothing special.

It looked almost similar to the first floor. Only the tense moments from the early days of the situation remain.

There seemed to be almost nothing that could be salvaged.

“What.”

But something was strange.

There were footprints that were not mine, but someone else’s.

It wasn’t my fault, it was definitely someone else’s footprints.

There wasn’t just one type.

“At least… Three nuts?”

I slowly turned my gaze elsewhere.

First of all, it didn’t seem like there were people on the second floor.

If there was someone there, there was no way I wouldn’t have noticed.

And it didn’t seem necessary to come to the first or second floor.

Need to visit the township office periodically for several months.

It was probably on the remaining third floor.

I slowly got ready to swing the baton and walked up the stairs to the third floor.

The stairs were fairly clean except for a little dust.

That was foreign. It was like a signal telling me not to come.

But I couldn’t help but come here and check it out.

I slowly went up to the third floor and looked inside.

First of all, there seemed to be no other problems inside.

Other than the fact that there was one room that appeared to be an employee lounge, it was more like a space where knick-knacks were kept.

“As expected, in the break room ― !?”

The moment I was about to safely enter the break room, something suddenly appeared nearby.

Because it suddenly appeared out of sight, I couldn’t determine what it was.

Even though I hit him hard with the baton, I couldn’t help but scream in surprise and run away.

It seemed like he really knew how to surprise people.

That was a simple doll. A ghost-shaped figure holding a prop that looks like a kitchen knife.