Chapter 123 – Starting Pistol (5)

Starting Pistol (5)

An unfamiliar voice from the nearest cultural center classroom.

The sound of glass shards being stepped on outside echoes the sound of hedgehogs that have begun to straighten their thorns.

“… New interns, really, as we expected.”
“Yeah, I guess.”

It was only after hearing the voices of the unknown laggards that Lim Cheol-won moved the flashlight he was holding in his mouth to his hand.

Looking at Kim Joo-hee as if she was relieved, Kim Joo-hee responds with a smile as she shrugs lightly on her shoulder.

“… Then, as per the rules, I’ll wait outside.”
“Yes, sir.”

Soon, Cheolwon Lim pointed at her escalator with her chin and continued her playful salute as if telling her not to worry.

According to regulations.

When the crisis management team acts as a team of two, in case of emergency, it is divided into an action and a report.

Among them, in preparation for emergencies, the reporting agent waits outside the danger zone.

Ever since, there were long rules like a code of law, but there was no need to memorize them.

After all, it’s nothing more than circling around and talking about why a higher-ranking employee in the management team should become a reporting person anyway.

Build a cause to be in a safer position than your successor.

It was one of the most disgusting politicos I’ve had since joining the company, but I don’t feel bad about it now.

It is because he realizes that this method is more reasonable while hiring numerous interns.

Lawless happiness enjoyed by the strong in this hell full of only flaws.

To the interns who enjoyed the pleasure to the fullest, the existence of women is only an obstacle that only fuels violence and excitement.

… Especially if it’s a striking beauty like Kim Joo-hee.

“Wait for a sec.”

The scent approached Lim Cheol-won, who was about to enter the cultural center.

Chief Kim Joo-hee, who should have been evacuating outside, suddenly blocked his way.

Chin-!

Kim Joo-hee quietly reached out with both hands, holding the flashlight she was holding in her mouth.

With her eyes narrowed as if she was concentrating, she moved Lim Cheol-won’s necktie around.

“…”

The scent wafting from so close, the touch clearly felt through the shirt.

Lim Cheol-won lowered his head, forgetting to exhale.

Took-!

“In front of the new interns, I have to look as neat and tidy as possible. You are disqualified from the tie, junior.”

After finishing arranging his tie, he playfully tapped his shoulder—a hand pushing him.

“…”

Lim Cheol-won stared blankly at her lips without saying anything.

Pink lips full of moist water that had been holding a flashlight a while ago.

“… Seniors.”
“Huh?”

Kim Joo-hee answers his low-key question in a casual way.

Lim Cheol-won looked at her lips that opened gently to answer his question, and continued to speak her words that were hanging in her throat.

It’s just a bunch of dirty talk.

Unsubstantiated rumors that I saw manager Kim Joo-hee go up to the chairman’s office late at night several times.

Bullshit with no evidence that all the female employees who remained in the company had a crush on each other and visited the chairman’s office without exception.

The voices of the seniors giggling, saying that this is our new country, the ‘Baeksan’ style of early night.

But we know how many times Manager Kim has been in-house couples—

What kind of supernatural power is that?

The laughter of the seniors who laughed along with cigarette smoke, asking if there is a first night without a virgin, lingers in my ears.

“… No.”
“What is it, nothing. You really don’t know that senior is dog poop, do you?”

However, Cheol-Won Lim smiled again today as he put the words stuck like thorns back in.

“Let’s finish this and join us for dinner tonight.”
“… Suddenly, what kind of dinner are you having together? After all, you ate dinner with your teammates every night, didn’t you?”
“Therefore-“

Let’s eat together today.

“… Well, did you?”

Kim Joo-hee nodded her head while staring at Lim Cheol-won as if it were strange.

She finished arranging her tie and looked at Kim Joo-hee as she walked towards the escalator, then pointed her flashlight at the cultural center classroom.

Thud- thud-

“… I can hear? I can hear?”
“… Damn it – be quiet. Work, let’s hide this quickly. How did you get food and supplies, but you can’t be taken away like this?”
“… That’s right. Well, but where do you hide it?”

Food and supplies.

As if there is no such thing as an idiot, the people who are going to join the company vomit important information on their own even while they are approaching.

Feeling the heavy feel of the revolver in her hand, she adjusted her tie and clothes once again.

It wasn’t that Manager Kim Joo-hee arranged her own clothes.

A suit and neat impression always add credibility to a horse.

Smart-!

“Hello, teachers?”

As soon as a soft knock and voice rang out, the classroom became quiet.

Lim Cheol-won continued to speak very familiarly.

“I am Lim Cheol-won, assistant manager of Baeksan’s Crisis Management Team.”

Mentioning Baeksan, which Koreans would not know about, and deliberately raising their ranks.

It was a device to make those inside everyone feel trust.

“We are here to help teachers.”

Trust enough to mistakenly believe that the world has not yet collapsed.

“We are running a temporary shelter for you at our nearby headquarters in Baeksan.”

Those confined to the temporary shelter go through a week-long basic training period before joining Baeksan as an intern.

“The temporary shelter has shelter with enough food and enough space to keep you safe.”

“We came here after the noise the teachers made to find food and supplies. Of course, I understand that teachers do not immediately believe me. Why don’t we meet each other face to face and finish talking?”
“…”
“Okay, twice. I will knock exactly two more times and enter slowly. I will knock twice and go in slowly.”

Interns with food and supplies left.

They were a very rare type of intern these days.

‘Tonight’s dinner, I’ll be able to eat a full meal with my seniors.’

The privilege of only the crisis management team.

Lim Cheol-won intended to use the collection right to collect food and supplies they had in advance.

The senior’s face naturally comes to mind in his mind.

I hurriedly knocked on the lecture room with my hand holding a flashlight, imagining the senior’s face sweeping his stomach with a happy smile as if he were full.

Smart-!

Twice as previously announced.

The classroom door opened quietly after just two knocks.

“Hello—”

As he always does, Lim Cheol-won’s mouth stops as he puts on a picturesque smile.

In the light of the flashlight illuminating the classroom—

The empty scenery of the lecture room where nothing is contained.

Even the prospective interns whispering stupid things to each other—

Lim Cheol-won’s pupils see the empty lecture hall without food and supplies that they have been talking about.

“…”

The only thing in the empty lecture hall is the one emitting light in the middle of the lecture hall—

“… Cell phone?”

Only one cell phone.

Thud- thud-

Quiet steps, as if possessed, slowly flowed into the classroom.

Cheolwon Lim bent down with narrow eyes and picked up a mobile phone placed in the middle of the classroom.

An audio playback screen embedded in a brightly lit liquid crystal.

I touched the play button on the screen where the play bar had already reached the end of the audio.

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

And a familiar voice coming through the phone.

Lim Cheol-won’s eyes tear as if they’re going to pop out at the voices of prospective recruits spewing out from his cell phone.

In an instant, she feels exhausted, her dizzying head and her pounding heart.

The voices of the seniors who searched the forefront resonate in the buzzing head that cries out that it is a trap.

A variant that traps survivors by mimicking human voices.

If it’s not a device called a mobile phone, isn’t it a hunting method that resembles the variant?

Like-

“… Sirens—”

Coo-!

The classroom door slammed shut before the murmur was over.

“It’s a trap that mimics the hunting method of —.”

An unfamiliar voice was heard through the darkness that could not be solved by two faint lights.

“Coming to think of it, it would be more correct to say that I developed it rather than imitated it.”

“The reason people help people is because of greed rather than sympathy.”

“Isn’t this trap wagging its tail with food and supplies more attractive than the whining siren asking for help?”

Unfamiliar bass that fills the classroom with a low voice.

Lim Cheol-won swung the flashlight in her hand and tried desperately to find the source of her sound.

“Enough to make me forget I was following the footsteps of desperately searching for food and supplies in the first place.”
“Who is it!”
“I can only think of the face of the senior I love, and her face goes crazy like an asshole.”
“I asked who you are, you bastard!”

The finger on the trigger—

The hand that grasped the revolver aiming in all directions…

I can clearly feel the trembling and swaying.

Lim Cheol-won shouted at the top of his voice as if dispelling fear and looked around the entire classroom.

“Is that important to us now?”

A low-pitched voice flowing into the classroom very calmly, as if laughing at him.

“What matters to us right now is that you entered the classroom and—”

“You who entered the classroom are the employees of Baeksan, whom I have been waiting for so eagerly.”

The long-awaited employee of Baeksan.

A low-pitched whisper quickly mixed in Cheolwon Lim’s head.

It was waiting for someone with a very elaborate trap for some purpose.

He was waiting for Baeksan’s staff.

Nom was waiting here to set Baeksan’s staff into a trap.

Enemy.

The name of a single syllable uttered by repeated reasoning.

As soon as he thought of the name, a lot of information popped into Lim Cheol-won’s head.

“Im Cheol-won, an employee of Baeksan’s Crisis Management Team.”

Information that can be known because it is the crisis management team, which is the backbone of Baeksan.

The reason Baeksan’s armed forces agency, the Future Planning Team, is searching Mapo-gu.

Baeksan’s 2nd president, Yeon Shi-woo, is the next target Baeksan is aiming for.

Temporary name ‘baby’.

“Hot-!”

The moment he remembered the clear enemy, a smile of relief lingered on his lips.

Blinded by greed, he fell into a trap, but that was all.

Haha—you young god of rice—! You think I’m just going to scare you with something like this?!”

Temporary Protection Period.

“Couldn’t you have forgotten the temporary protection period?! What are you going to do by trapping me in, you bastard?! You can’t even lift a hand on me anyway, you asshole! Do you think I don’t know that, you asshole!”

Lim Cheol-won sprays saliva in all directions and shouts at the baby whale.

“Yes, temporary protection period.”

Despite Cheol-Won Lim’s ridicule, a cool positivity comes back.

“Certainly, during the temporary protection period, I cannot even raise a hand to you.”
“If you know that, stop pretending to be a siren and get out of here!”
“However.”

The reason why people die is not necessarily about people, right?

A low-pitched whisper broke through Lim Cheol-won’s shouts and flowed into the classroom.

“Someone could die from being bitten by a zombie, someone from a mutant, and someone else from tripping over and dying.”

I saw this in a book.

“Some people died because the floor collapsed and drowned in feces. About 60 people.”

“Why are you so sure you quietly escaped the deaths of 60 or so people?”
“…”

As soon as he finished his question, Lim Cheol-won’s head hurriedly swept the floor.

The playful laughter that comes from Cheol-Won Lim, who is diligently searching for slanted lines on the floor.

“Don’t worry like a poopy puppy. You won’t drown in dung.”

However, the form of death is different…

“You’re going to die any other way than drowning in shit now.”

The cause of death will be the same.

“… What?”
“Well, if it’s really unfair – I thought I drowned in feces.”

Eh eh eh!

Because this situation itself would be no different from falling into shit.

In an instant, a howling reverberates throughout the department store beyond the lecture hall of the cultural center.

Lim Cheol-won’s mouth slowly opens at the roar of the zombies full of hunger.

Death by drowning in feces when the floor collapses.

Whether the building is aging, or the floor is unable to withstand the weight due to poor construction—

There must be a reasonable reason attached to their death, but no one expresses their death that way.

Those who have just heard of the gruesome death conclude their deaths for the same reason.

Bad luck.

“That’s why you die today.”

Temporary protection period does not protect—

Lim Cheol-won’s death.

Rather than a violent act.

“I’m out of luck.”

It was bad luck.