Chapter 122 – Starting Pistol (4)

Starting Pistol (4)

“Haa—the Empire is a piece of shit.”

A black sedan driving on a busy road in broad daylight.

Cheol-Won Lim, the man in the passenger seat, frowned and frowned.

“People say that the Republic of Korea is the Republic of Baeksan or an empire, so they really act as if they are nobles.”

Dirty assholes.

Lim Cheol-won continued to grumble while seeking consent from the driver’s senior.

“How come those bastards are the nobles of the new country? They’re just dirty assholes.”
“… Pooh.”
“… Huh?”

However, the only thing that came out of the senior’s mouth was a smile with the corner of his mouth raised too much to be sympathy.

Lim Cheol-won shouted once again with his face slashed with resentment and betrayal.

“Senior! Aren’t you angry, senior?! It’s a company life that I have to say no matter how much I say, but this is a bit too much! Even the army these days doesn’t beat the time so blatantly!”
“Interim? What do you mean by hitting the spot?”
“… Whoa—they hand over their work to their successors.”
“Aha~ Hit the spot. Whoops—that’s right.”

Clearly, this situation is our time.

A high-pitched voice murmured while bending the steering wheel with her slender fingers.

Lim Cheol-won quietly stared at the senior with long straight hair neatly tied up.

Senior, staring blankly at the profile of Chief Kim Joo-hee, who is passionate about driving—

“… Hmm?”

As if he felt his gaze, he hurriedly turned his head to avoid the senior who was approaching him.

The scenery of the windshield that comes back into Lim Cheol-won’s field of vision and the anger that cannot be subdued.

He felt his heart pounding and frowned again.

It couldn’t be like this today.

It really shouldn’t have been like this to us today.

It had been a while since I was on duty for an outside search.

It was also an opportunity for the future planning team to clean up the zombies and farm the bonanza they passed through.

How could I take that opportunity away casually?

Not from anyone else, but from us who have done all the chores for them.

“Bastards named Boss.”
“They sure are bastards.”

This time, while entrusting him with garbage chores that cannot be compared to external searches.

“You scumbags with no conscience.”
“Certainly a lot of people don’t have a conscience.”
“… No.”

Lim Cheol-won’s head flashed and sparks flew at the sympathy of Kim Joo-hee, who accompanied him like Chu Im-sae.

“Why did someone who knows that well laugh at me earlier?!”
“… Pooh.”
“Uh-? If even seniors do this, I really-“
“No, what if I laugh when I am listening to my juniors’ grumbles?”

A new core department of Baeksan, which was newly established after the catastrophe of the zombie outbreak.

Kim Joo-hee, head of the Baeksan Crisis Management Team, smiled at Cheol-won Lim, an employee who was ordered to check the noise at Hyundai Department Store once again.

“If you listen to our juniors quietly, our junior Lim Cheol-won is not angry with our bosses who act as if they are nobles—”

A neat eye smile perched on the sharp bridge of the nose is directed at the assistant shooter.

“I think he’s angry that he didn’t fit into that aristocratic class.”
“…”

‘Baeksan Man’.

It was a reward from my school days when I endured when others were playing hard and put my head in the test paper, and it was the fruit of my life.

A magical job that makes everyone’s eyes sparkle with admiration, and that arouses favorable impressions from others just by hearing their job.

1% of Korea in name and reality.

As the saying goes, well begun is half done, but that day came to Lim Cheol-won, who was relieved that half of his life had already been successful.

Eh eh eh!

The outbreak of zombies seen only in novels and movies.

As I struggled to survive and avoid the zombies that roamed the company—

Before I knew it, I was gathered together with the surviving employees, and before I knew it, I belonged to the ‘crisis management team’ newly established by the first president.

From the day he was assigned to the crisis management team, Lim Cheol-won had imagined a flower path that was more solid than he is now.

A catastrophe in which a country larger than a company called the Republic of Korea collapsed without being able to properly resist.

A giant tree called ‘Baeksan’ proved its strength by showing restraint even in the midst of the cataclysm.

Because I became a member of the ‘crisis management team’ that will surely serve as the root of that giant tree.

Perhaps they had a hunch, no, they were convinced that they would become a new ruling class in a new era.

However, the reality was not so rosy.

Even if countless seniors and superiors roll on the ground with their heads pierced—

There were still too many seniors and bosses left here, in Baeksan.

There are new people with abilities that cannot be imagined in reality.

“… It’s like having a dream of becoming a prince.”
“Where is it anyway?”

In the lamentation of the junior, the gentle senior’s understanding came back.

“Don’t beggars have a class too? A beggar employee would be better than a beggar intern.”

Intern.

Lim Cheol-won let out a laugh as he repeated his title, which was completely different from before the disaster.

After the disaster of zombies occurred – and after the emergence of a new type of people called ‘persons with special abilities’.

The sudden implementation of the ‘internal discipline establishment period’ within the company.

After some of those who reported that they had a ‘status window’ and ‘supernatural abilities’ quietly disappeared—

Lim Cheol-won recalled the days after the days of fear when the wind blew.

As if to celebrate the end of the purge, the search began with colorful fireworks hanging from the top of the skyscraper.

Survivors outside, who were secured there, were barely enduring the harsher environment than the headquarters.

Now, it is not an exam or an interview, but a new employee who is determined to be used by his or her specialty.

He shook his head, thinking of the lowest class of Baeksan, which is still being consumed in the forefront of Baeksan like cannon fodder.

“Beggar superintendent is better than a beggar temple.”
“That’s right.”

Kim Joo-hee winks one eye and smiles at her junior who is looking at her.

Lim Cheol-won hurriedly lowered his head to hide his reddening cheeks.

“Even if you’re not a noble noble, you’ll never go hungry, and you won’t be able to wash your body until your whole body itches, right?”

For interns with limited food and water rations, the “Crisis management team” Was also a tree they could not climb enough.

“Live while looking down at the people who are already well below you, not the top you can’t climb even if you use evil. That way, I can endure this hellish company life even a little longer.”

Not the bosses who would still be taking their shifts and grabbing daily necessities and food little by little in the area where the zombies were cleaned up—

Looking down at the interns who are serving as bullet fodder for the future planning team in areas where sufficient safety is not secured.

“I can’t say anything like gold and okjo, which is filled with your blood and sweat.”
“…”
“Baeksan Man, who is not another person, shouldn’t say such a thing.”

The gaze of the sunbae poking at the face of Cheol-Won Cheol-Won, who flinched.

Lim Cheol-won made eye contact with Kim Joo-hee and lightly shrugged her shoulders.

“Always compete with the top, not the bottom.”
“…”
“The employees of Baeksan must not disobey the words of the first president, Baekgi Yeon.”
“… If you can’t speak.”

A car that stops its wheels as it slides down the road with Kim Joo-hee bursting into laughter.

Kim Joo-hee, who stepped on her brake, turned off her engine and chinned her outside.

“Stop talking nonsense and get down quickly.”

She said one after another to her assistant gunner, gently exiting her driver’s seat.

“Even if it’s handed over, you have to handle it properly so that you can get at least bean curd from your seniors.”

… Time processing.

This time, Lim Cheol-won smiled and lifted her head at Kim Joo-hee, who was using the words she must have heard for the first time today.

Hyundai Department Store.

It is a large building that comes in full view of them, and was the goal of Kim Joo-hee, head of the crisis management team, and Lim Cheol-won, her employee.

“Multiple vehicle horns and suspicious noises.”

Kim Joo-hee repeats the reason why they came here.

“Even though the area has already been cleaned by the Future Planning Team?”
“Is it only the future planning team? E-Mart over there and Hyundai Department Store here. It’s an area where our crisis management team has scraped away every single speck of dust.”
“… Hmm-.”

Lim Cheol-won grumbles while staring at E-Mart and Hyundai Department Store.

At that grumbling, Kim Joo-hee frowned between her brows and let out a fine saliva.

A future planning team made up of people with special abilities and those who back them up.

And even the Crisis Management Team, which lost its first department to the Future Planning Team, but is still the top core department.

Noise occurred in an area that went through not one but two careful checks?

And that was certainly enough for people passing by to report upstairs…

“Ah~ What are you so worried about? It must have been the sound of the new interns who were stuck in a corner, at least.”

Lim Cheol-won speaks the same words as the bosses of the crisis management team who sent them here.

“No matter how savage it may be, it’s still not enough to forget hot places like department stores. Isn’t it a must-visit destination in the zombie apocalypse at least once? Department store.”

Lim Cheol-won, who repeated the words of his superiors like a dodol, slowly stood in front of Kim Joo-hee.

Lim Cheol-won is checking the remaining ammunition of the revolver that he has been rationing quite skillfully.

“… It is very likely.”

If all the unlikely jumps were erased, that was the most likely prediction.

The sound of interns belatedly rummaging through department stores after exhausting their stockpiled supplies.

“Let’s work now, junior.”
“Okay, then let’s go inside, senior.”

To identify the cause of the noise in the department store and, if the cause is, as expected, the new interns, to direct them to the new hires.

That was the task assigned to them for the day.

Click-!

The flashlight in Kim Ju-hee’s hand emitted a clear sound and emitted bright light.

The gloomy inside of a department store with a buttoned-up flashlight.

Basrak-!

“I heard you scraped it off without a speck of dust?”
“… It is a figurative expression, a figurative expression.”

The sound of stepping on glass accompanied by footsteps on the first floor of the department store.

Cheol-Won Lim answered with a laugh as if he was dumbfounded at the question of the senior who pouted like a pin-up.

“And you shouldn’t be scratching the dust, senior. So that-“

He paused for a moment and swept the flashlight he was holding down.

“We can also figure out the number of interns who will be joining the company.”

Some people’s footprints revealed by Lim Cheol-won’s flashlight.

Footprints in the dust that had accumulated as thin as snow led somewhere.

The end of the flashlight that was shining while gently retracing the footsteps.

“… Stomach.”

The search continued along the broken footprints on the escalator to the second floor.

Tuck – tuck –

Footsteps quietly stepping down the motionless escalator and two lights quickly passing by.

“… Uh?”
“Why are you like that, senior?”

Among them, Kim Joo-hee’s flashlight stopped at a luxury cosmetics store on the first floor.

“… Excuse me.”

Kim Joo-hee points the light at the wall of the cosmetics store, which is now empty.

“I’m sure there was a poster of Seolhee Cha there…”
“…”
“When I came before, I remember the poster because it was so pretty.”
“… Oh yeah?”
“Huh. All the other posters are stuck, so why did only Cha Seol-hee’s poster disappear?”

That’s interesting.

Joo-hee Kim mutters softly while looking through the posters of other cosmetics stores.

“… Iknow, right. How amazing.”

Lim Cheol-won showed a stiff smile and agreed with Kim Joo-hee’s recitation.

“Let’s go. Don’t worry about celebrities, but worry about celebrity posters later. Let’s finish the job first.”
“… I wasn’t worried about celebrity posters, it was just amazing.”
“That or that. Then—we will move on.”

As Lim Cheol-won climbs the escalator again, he hears the senior’s grumbling in his ears.

Lim Cheol-won sighed quietly and shook her head.

In fact, he knew very well where the poster had gone.

And that was the fundamental reason why the crisis management team hung up on the outside search duty.

According to senior Kim Joo-hee, ‘bean curd’.

The privilege of the crisis management team that the company knowingly or unknowingly tolerates.

The reason why the poster of Cha Seol-hee, which should have been in the cosmetics store, is hanging in the room of Assistant Manager Seong of the Crisis Management Team.

However, I didn’t have the confidence to explain it to Manager Kim Joo-hee.

Especially since he knows very well what purpose Sung put up the poster in the room.

“… I want you to know, very senior, through dog poop-“

Hearing the whispers of Kim Joo-hee, who was passionate about her company’s discipline, he continued to follow her footsteps.

Footprints from the 2nd floor, the fashion miscellaneous goods floor, to the 3rd floor.

“It was not underground with food courts and food halls, but continued to go upstairs…”
“If it weren’t for the basement, I would have run to the 10th floor, which is the restaurant area, first.”

Kim Joo-hee’s prediction while looking down at the footprints together.

Lim Cheol-won nodded and chinned the escalator to the third floor.

“Yes, keep moving.”

Following the 3rd floor, the 4th floor, the 5th floor…

Footsteps that continue and lead directly to the escalator.

And exactly as they predicted, the pattern of the footprints changed on the 10th floor, the restaurant area.

There are footsteps leading to the 11th floor, but the footsteps to the restaurant street are more messy.

Chin-!

Lim Cheol-won said nothing and held his flashlight in his mouth and grabbed his revolver with both hands.

Except for the footsteps of Kim Joo-hee, who follows quietly, the restaurant street is not audible.

Tuck – tuck –

The footsteps of the two began to quietly echo in the dark restaurant area.

From Korean restaurants with photos of bibimbap to bulgogi restaurants.

The two flashlights look around every nook and cranny, even to the beauty salon along the way.

Just like them, the promiscuous footprints that are stamped in every corner of the restaurant-

Basrak-!

Even a large amount of glass fragments that seem to have been the glass walls of the restaurant.

“…”

Quietly pointing the flashlight in his mouth, Lim Cheol-won raised his head, twitching his eyebrows.

The restaurant’s broken glass walls illuminated by his flashlight.

I turned my head at the broken glass walls in a mess as if I had been vented.

An inefficient act that is too emotional to be Baeksan’s work.

It was the main behavioral pattern of familiar interns.

Traces of venting anger containing desperation and earnestness, and promiscuous search everywhere.

“…”

Kim Joo-hee nodded at Lim Cheol-won’s eyes as if agreeing.

An unknown latecomer who followed Hyundai Department Store later than Baeksan.

After checking the empty restaurant, they couldn’t control their anger and took their anger out on the restaurant’s glass wall.

The next destination for those desperate for food enough to leave so many footprints on the floor is—

“… Stomach.”

11th floor, cultural center.

The top floor of a department store that I know it has nothing to do with food, but I have no choice but to check it out at least once.

Lim Cheol-won chinned the ceiling, remembering the footprints on the escalator heading to the 11th floor.

Kim Joo-hee quietly nods at his signal.

The two climbed the escalator again and headed to the 11th floor.

As soon as they step on the 11th floor, several footprints greet them.

I started searching the 11th floor slowly, retracing the same number of footprints as the 10th floor.

Footsteps towards the first cafe.

As with the 10th floor, the unknown latecomers, who confirmed that the cafe is also empty, hurriedly move forward.

The desk at the cultural center greets them after passing through an optical shop and a screen golf shop.

And-

Basrak-!

“I think you just heard footsteps?”
“… What?”
“Right, apparently someone out there—”
“… Shh-! Shh-! Let’s do it quietly, it’s a baby! “