The Return
The year 2020, Nanji Hangang Park
'More than anything, I wish I could have a cigarette right now. Has it been six months since I last smoked one? No, it feels like it's been at least eight months.'
"To think that smoking is all that I can think about right before I die." A chuckle escaped his lips. Even he could tell that these thoughts were ridiculous.
Blood trickled down from his torn shoulder and soaked through his shirt. He cringed involuntarily, unaccustomed to the pain. It was the first wound that he had received from a zombie, and, in this damn apocalypse scenario that didn't allow for a single mistake, it would be the last wound as well.
Yohan slowly raised his head as he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. The scenery around where he was sitting stood out to him.
It was complete hell.
It was a complete annihilation without a single survivor visible. His entire party was wiped out again. He had stopped keeping track of the party death count once it hit the double-digits. He had already seen hundreds of his allies die. The names—and even the faces—of those who died near the beginning were faint in his memory.
Yohan shifted his gaze to his right. Next to him was the last zombie that he killed. Just a few hours ago, it had still been his oldest and longest companion. It was someone who had been with him to the very end, even when Yohan had given up his humanity to survive in this fallen world. And it was the one who infected him.
"Haa…"
He was utterly exhausted. It had been three years since the zombies first appeared. He had endured and survived for a long time, but it would all end here. Is there anyone still left alive? His party might have been the very last of humanity.
The final battle between groups, who had been at odds with each other over dwindling supplies, was fierce. It was a battle between two forces who were quite strong and had survived for a long time.
His team was demolished, and the opposing team suffered an irrecoverable blow. Although his team was the one defeated, both sides ultimately lost.
He had already tried his best to survive. He felt like he could take a well-earned rest now.
Yohan closed his eyes.
* * *
It's an odd feeling opening your eyes after you thought you had closed them for the last time. Yohan also had a strange feeling that there was a soft blanket covering his body.
'A blanket?'
Yohan's eyes shot open, and he froze as he was met with an unbelievable scene.
"This place is…"
It was a place that he remembered vaguely. He had opened his eyes and saw that he was in the rented room in Incheon that he had lived in since he was 24.
"What is this…"
Yohan looked around at his surroundings. His room, full of useless things. There was a computer, an air conditioner, and a washing machine. It was just as he remembered it.
*Pick me, pick me, pick me up*
The ringtone from his cellphone snapped Yohan out of his daze. He answered the phone while still a bit disoriented.
"Hello?"
"Hey, you!" shouted a voice through the phone. Yohan frowned.
"Who is this?" he asked.
"Are you out of your mind? Do you know what time it is? Why aren't you at work yet!"
"Uh…"
"Get over here now!" shouted the man once more before he hung up on Yohan. The caller's number was saved on his phone and identified the man as "Deputy Manager Moon."
However, what caught Yohan's eye more was the date displayed on his phone.
September 2016. It was six months before the zombies went rampant — a time when the world was still peaceful.
'Is this a dream?'
Confused, Yohan pinched himself. He felt the pain. Was the apocalypse that he experienced just a dream? He hastily scanned through his three years' worth of memories.
He didn't think that he just had a long, awful nightmare. There was no reason he would dream over three years' worth of content. Additionally, he could remember specific incidents and people very vividly. Though he had early comrades whose names and faces he could barely recall, he could never forget how fiercely he struggled to survive. Even now, his body was still tense, ready to respond at any moment to rotting corpses rising and lunging at him jaw-first.
'If that's the case, don't tell me…'
He had returned to the past. There was no other explanation except that. There was no way to explain it physically, but the idea was already solidifying in Yohan's head. He rested his hand on his forehead and laid back down on his blanket.
He had returned.
Although he never wished for it, Yohan was revived and returned. Initially, he felt resentment towards the fact that he would have to go through the entire ordeal once again. But that was quickly washed away by a feeling of relief. He felt the comfort in being able to breathe in and out peacefully.
Yohan picked up his cellphone and slowly typed out a text message.
His company will disappear without a trace in six months. Rather than going to work, Yohan wanted to enjoy the comforts of the present day. He wanted to rest.
Yohan closed his eyes and buried his face into his pillow. The softness of the cotton fabric was so cozy. It was a feeling of comfort that he hadn't experienced in a long time; it felt almost too good to be true. He fell asleep almost immediately.
* * *
Yohan's eyes shot open. His body felt so refreshed that he felt like he could fly. He had slept more soundly than he ever did in those three years. He had thought he would never experience such a deep sleep again.
Looking at the time, he realized that he had slept for almost the entire day. There were nearly thirty missed calls from work. Yohan ignored them and picked up a coupon from the floor. He ordered chicken, pizza, pork wraps, braised pigs trotters, and whatever else he could get his hands on.
It was the first time in three years that he had delivery food, and it tasted incredibly delicious, to the extent that it brought tears to his eyes.
Yohan binged in decadence. Even though he was shoving food into his mouth non-stop, there was still piles of food to go through.
With his most urgent desires, sleep, and food fulfilled, Yohan's thoughts became more evident. Then came the memories of the past three years.
March 2017. Exactly six months from now, zombies would appear all over the world. They were a mysterious existence that some called the undead, while others labeled them as monsters.
Those who were bitten or scratched by these creatures, and had zombie blood enter their wound, would experience pain akin to having their bodies torn and eaten alive by bugs before dying. Then, they would return as zombies. It could happen as quickly as five minutes post-mortem, but no later than one hour.
Zombies weren't reliable or fast since they were just a moving corpse. The only problem was their numbers.
The Republic of Korea had utterly failed in its initial attempt to suppress the outbreak. The zombies appeared everywhere and spread quickly through the large, densely populated cities of Seoul, Busan, and Daegu, shutting down these significant cities' functions in under a month. And while it took a month for a town to shut down completely, half a day was enough for the city to fall into chaos.
Zombies kept coming no matter how many were killed, and food supplies kept decreasing. Yohan speculated that less than 1% of Korea's population remained after the first year.
At first, people were scared of the zombies, but time proved that other people were the actual danger. The Republic of Korea descended into anarchy, filled with murder, robbery, and sexual assault. Even within groups, betrayal existed, and it always resulted in the group's annihilation.
Yohan had witnessed scores of comrades dying. Not twenty people, but twenty groups of people. He survived and suffered through extreme situations alone and thought of suicide many times. However, he survived for three years.
For three years, he teetered on the line between life and death. Every time he was about to fall over that line, he would claw his way back. If Yama were real, he would have yanked on his beard to pull himself out of the underworld to continue to endure living hell.
Now that he had returned to this time, he knew what lay in his future. He could have dismissed it as a dream, but he ruled out that possibility. He had decided to put everything on the line and prepare for the apocalypse. It would be a thousand times worse to be unprepared for the apocalypse than to have his life be messed up because the apocalypse didn't come as he predicted.
Yohan excised extraneous thoughts from his head and focused on only one thing.
'In six months, the world will come to ruin, and only I know that the apocalypse is coming.'
The next day, Yohan went to the bank
and took out a loan for as much as he
could. He also amassed cash from
other financial companies and even
some more questionable sources. The
world was going to be destroyed in six
months anyway. He wasn't afraid of
loan sharks at all.
He pushed aside any concerns of
zombies never appearing. He was more
worried about not having enough time
and resources to adequately prepare
for the approaching zombie
apocalypse. That day would come. The
instincts that helped him survive
through three years of hell were
already screaming out that there was
danger approaching.
He had even found a real estate agent
to help him sublease his place. Since
housing was currently in high demand,
it would probably get rented out
quickly.
After his loans were approved, he
handed in his letter of resignation.
Since he had been working in the same
place for nine years, ever since he
graduated from high school, the
severance pay was quite good.
Yohan was lost in thought as he looked
at his bank account balance. It was an
excessive amount of money that one
would typically struggle to amass in a
lifetime. It was the kind of money that
you would have to sell your soul to
accumulate.
Immediately, Yohan began preparing
for 'that day! He wrote down in a
notebook all the things he needed to
prepare for the disaster.
Hideout
Food Supplies
Weapons
Survival Gear
Transportation
The first thing was the hideout. He
needed to create a place that., in the
future, would commonly be called a
'shelter:! The site needed to be big
enough to store a massive amount of
food supplies, and he wanted it to be
near convenience stores and
supermarkets. Most importantly, it
required auxiliary facilities. If the place
didn't already have water tanks and
solar panels installed, it needed to be
able to accommodate them.
Yohan went house hunting. There
weren't many places that met his
conditions, so it took him nearly a
month to find a place that he liked. He
signed a contract for an entire single-
family house in the Kkachiul Complex
in Bucheon City. The deposit was a
whopping 30 million won, and it had a
monthly rent of 1 million won, but no
one would be around to enforce the
contract in six months anyway.
The hideout had the solar panels on
the roof and an emergency water tank,
precisely what he wanted. There was a
large convenience store in the center
of the apartment complex, and there
was a strip of various stores, including
a supermarket and department store,
just a short distance away from the city
hall.
"By the way, I know there are already
solar panels on the roof, but would you
mind if I installed some extra panels?"
asked Yohan as he signed the contract.
The current solar panels were set up to
heat water. What Yohan wanted was a
standalone power system. He didn't
wish to solar thermal, but solar
photovoltaics. He wanted a self-
sufficient place that could generate
Yohan bought 12 household solar
modules and inverters in a set. It was a
worthwhile investment, even if the
installation process and buildingregulation approvals took over a month to complete.
Nearly 50 million won was spent just
preparing the shelter and its facilities.
Yohan bought food in bulk with the
rest of the money. Rice, instant
noodles, water, and all kinds of canned
foods. Additionally, he stocked up on
various vegetable seeds. He chooses
vegetables that were easy to grow and
quick to cultivate, such as potatoes,
tomatoes, lettuce, and yams. He
planned to develop his food after his
supplies ran out. It was going to be
hard to find food on the street in a
year.
Through the black market, Yohan
ordered several sets of large knives and
got information on where he could
acquire bows and crossbows. Of
Course, guns were the best weapons,
but he could only get hunting rifles
from the gun stores, which weren'tvery useful at the beginning of the
apocalypse. They were noisy and
awkward to reload, on top of other
things. Yohan knew that guns would
always be available, even after the
panic. The issue was finding a weapon
that would help him last until then.
From his experience, the best weapons
against a zombie were the 60cm
hunting knife, the kukri, and the
crossbow. These were easy to carTy
and wield and allowed him to attack
while maintaining some distance.
For survival gear, he needed maps, a
bulletproof vest, combat boots, leather
gloves, and more. Yohan carefully
packed them away, making sure not to
forget anything
Transportation was satisfied by a
motorbike and a supply of gasoline.
Finally, all of his primary preparations
were complete. Yohan used the
remaining money to prepare a secondshelter. This was in case his first
shelter was taken over by others or lost
to the zombies. In the previous
timeline, he had lost more than ten
safe houses, and they were heavily
fortified.
The second shelter needed to be a
remote place where drinking water and
food could be procured from the wild,
it had to be a place that people
wouldn't accidentally find, even after a
long time. It also needed to have a spot
where he could store items so that
they wouldn't be found, yet if the
shelter was discovered. Yohan checked
a list of islands in the Republic of
Korea.
Three months had passed since he
started preparing for the zombie
apocalypse. Yohan focused on physical
training throughout these months and
felt that he was in better shape thanbefore his return. He gazed at his
storage full of food with a satisfied
look. Just looking at all the different
canned foods that filled the space
made him feel that his hunger has been
filled. The amount here was enough to
last him 4-5 years if he lived alone.
Of course, he did not intend to be
alone that long, he couldn't. There was
an explicit limitation in going solo. He
didn't make all of these preparations to
live as a hermit and survive only for a
few years. No, Yohan had a clear goal.
He wanted a safe shelter and reliable,
capable comrades that he could trust.
In other words, an organization. Yohan
had realized something while surviving
all alone in the previous timeline. When
you were alone, you would either turn
into a savage that stole from others or
become too weak to defend yourself.
Yohan visited a shop near Yeouido. He
was here to pick up the crossbow thathe had ordered. He wasn't happy that
he had to go far away from his shelter,
but he had no choice. After all, it wasn't
easy to acquire contraband like this.
After he obtained the crossbow, his
preparations would be complete. There
was only one thing left to do. Before
the zombies appeared, he had to
practice shooting with the crossbow.
The crossbow was light. He already had
experience using it in the previous
timeline; three months of practice
would be enough to bring him back to
form.
After picking up his order, Yohan felt
hungry, so he went to a food stall that
he used to frequent back when he was
working. It was a place that he often
visited with his co-workers. It was akin
to a haven, a place where he was
relieved of the stress from his hard
work life.
They called it a food stall, but it was more of a dining bar. Its name,
'Romantic Stall, gave it a homey and
welcoming atmosphere. The entrance
was covered witha vinyl tent, and
there were plastic tables and curtains
inside, which made it feel like you were
inside a food stall.
He had the stall's udon for the first
time in a long time, and it was
exquisite. As he slurped and devoured
the plump, soup-soaked noodles, the
door chimes rang, and several office
workers came in fresh off work.
'Is it already time for people to get off
work?"
Several more customers came in,
loudly chatting with one another. It
was a large group.
"Oh? Yohan!" said a familiar voice.
Yohan turned around. They were his
co-workers, the security team from the
Gyeongseong Industrial Facility.
Evervone. from his immediateSuperors to hs COeagucs and
subordinates, was crowding in. They
were probably having a get-together
meal.
Yohan's heart grew heavy. Even though
he had reunited with the people of his
past life for the first time in years, he
had immediately spat out a short,
single-paged resignation letter, leaving
his colleagues disappointed.
Deputy Manager Sung Chul Moon
approached Yohan and smacked him
on the back. Deputy Moon seemed
happy to see him, but Yohan couldn't
reciprocate the sentiment. When the
company turned into a zombie swarm
in the previous timeline, Deputy Moon
sacrificed several colleagues and barely
survived. Yohan forgave his actions
when they were reunited at a survivor's
camp, but then he did something even
worse. He leaked the camp's
information to hostile forces to save his
hide once again, leading to theannihilation of the campsite and its
people.
Deputy Moon was one of those people
who should never be accepted or
trusted under any circumnstances.
Yohan wanted to kill him right now to
prevent him from causing any
problems in the future.
"You punk, do you know how hard we
had it after you quit without warning?"
"I apologize replied Yohan, with a
quiet bow. Even though preparing for
the zombie apocalypse had the highest
priority, he was still sincerely sorry.
"You were such a hard worker, what
got into you? Huh, have you been
working out?" asked Deputy Moon as
his hand gripped Yohan's shoulder and
then moved down to feel his forearm.
"Senior, please don't touch me. You'lI
die if you do."
"W-what?"
"Just kidding" said Yohan, with a smile
as he grabbed Deputy Moon's hand and
separated it from his body. "Ah, but I
wasn't joking when I told you not to
touch me."
Deputy Moon flinched at Yohan's grip
and retrieved his hand with a frown.
The atmosphere grew tense,
motivating Department Manager Joon
Hyuk Go, who used to be a team
manager, to step in.
"What the hell is with this mood?
Anyways, how fortunate we are to
bump into you. Let's have a drink
together. I was sad that I didn't get a
chance to send you off properly, but
this is great"
"I'm fine"
Department Manager Joon Hyuk Go
ignored Yohan's remark and dragged
some tables over so that the group
could sit with him. He was the
overbearing type, who didn't care ifother people stared or thought poorly
of him. Yohan didn't hate drinking, at
least not in his past life, before the
zombies appeared. Now, however, with
the apocalypse looming, he had no
plans or desire to waste time getting
drunk.
"IIl have a bite to eat before leaving. I
have other business to attend to."
"Jeez, what's up with you? You weren't
like this before, what got you so
worked up these past feww months?
What have you been doing these days,
and what are those?" asked Deputy
Moon, pointing at Yohan's luggage.
Yohan wanted to yell, "I became like
this because of you, you piece of
garbage", but he forcefully swallowed
down the words and smiled bitterly. No
matter what anyone thought, the
bastard's survival instinct was quiteincredible. Yohan would most likely run
across him again one day.
'IfI happen to meet you after the
outbreak, I'll kill you with my own two
hands, muttered Yohan to himself.
As he was thinking this, there was a
loud noise at the entrance. Yohan
turned to look. As soon as he saw the
condition of the man standing at the
food stall's entrance door, his whole
body tensed from head to toe.
It had white pupils, pale skin, and a
dragging walk.
'****'
It was a zombie. The survival instincts
that had been dormant within Yohan
for months quickly revived. These were
his senses for survival that had been
honed through numerous near-death
experiences. Yohan reached for the
hunting knife at his waist and held it
tightly without unsheathing it. Even during a time of peace, he was always
armed. After living through three years
of hell, it was his natural state of being.
The zombie slowly walked towards its
prey while groaning loudly. Everyone
around the zombie was looking at it as
if it was a crazy person. Except for one
person, Yohan, who stood up quickly.
"Ill be heading out first."
"Huh? Are you going already? You
haven't even finished eating..."
Yohan got up and marched out before
Department Manager Go could finish
speaking. He put down two 10,000 won
bills on the counter and deliberately
moved to the door in the opposite
direction of the zombie.
Another zombie was right in front of
him the moment he opened the door.
The unpleasant, grating groans
emanating from its throat was
unmistakable. Yohan drew the knifefrom his waist immediately and ******
it into the zombie's heart without
hesitation. He then kicked the zombie,
which rolled to the ground. It writhed
as it tumbled to the floor.
Screams filled the air, partly because
people just saw him stabbing a zombie,
and partly because the first zombie
was now biting a customer's cheek.
Yohan ignored them and left the
screams and the stall behind. Yeouido
was in an uproar. Although he didn't
know when it started, it already looked
like many people here were infected.
There was blood splattered
everywhere, and screams could be
heard.
Why now?'
He didn't expect the outbreak to occur
ahead of its anticipated time. Yohan
realized that it was a mistake to expect
any scenario prematurely and conclude
that zombies would appear in sixmonths. Even if it was necessary to
pick up the crossbow, it was careless of
him to go somewhere far from the
shelter that he had prepared.
However, Yohan was calm. Most of the
preparations were already complete,
and the supplies needed for survival-
such as emergency rations, maps, and
knives-were always carried on his
person.
It was still too early for the military to
be involved or for traffic to be
completely jammed. AIl he had to do
was to follow the plan. Travel back to
his shelter calmly, and get through the
chaotic starting phase of the zombie
apocalypse.
Either way. things are moving quickly
now.
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