Chapter 4: One by One, Step by Step

'This is weird...'

Even with that uneasy thought nagging at him, Junho didn’t stop running.

It wasn’t hard at all, so he briefly considered picking up the pace, but pushing too fast on day one made him nervous, so he dropped it.

A few more minutes passed, and Junho finished ten full laps around the park.

“This is ridiculous.”

It was strange enough that he’d run two kilometers in under ten minutes even though he wasn’t exactly the type to work out consistently. What was even stranger was that, even for a cool November day, he barely broke a sweat.

That was when voices drifted over from somewhere nearby.

“Man, that kid can really run. Ha!”

“Job hunting, huh? Good. Better than sitting at home—at least he’s out here exercising.”

“Shoot, my oldest grandson stays glued to his room all day. That kid’s impressive. Runs like that, too.”

A little embarrassed at the older folks talking about him from the bench, Junho dipped his head in a small bow.

Even during the apocalypse, survivors in that age bracket hadn’t been much of a threat, so he didn’t feel particularly tense. Besides, people over sixty had been pretty rare in the first place.

After leaving the park, Junho bought a bottle of water at a convenience store, drank, and thought it over again.

He’d run more than two kilometers, but he still felt unbelievably calm. It didn’t feel like he’d run for ten minutes—it felt like he’d taken a light stroll.

“Tch... Something’s off.”

Since he couldn’t come up with an answer, Junho forced himself to stop chewing on it. Whatever it was, if it was good then it was good, and it didn’t seem like anything bad. And right now, he had far more important things piling up in front of him.

Back home, Junho took a quick shower and sat down at his PC.

Then he searched a few names.

“Yeah. Nothing.”

Well, of course. They were all ordinary people. It would’ve been weirder if they were easy to find online.

“But I do know where you live.”

He opened a map site and searched for the Hadan neighborhood in Busan.

A section highlighted in blue.

Then he typed in “Hadan hardware store,” and seven results popped up.

Zooming in, Junho carefully examined each store and the surrounding area.

“A hardware store right near the school...”

There were three.

“Huh?”

Junho narrowed his eyes.

He’d been thinking he’d have to check all three in person, but the target narrowed down absurdly fast.

“This one. Suho Tool Center.”

Suho was a person’s name—the son of someone Junho absolutely needed to meet.

That man had talked about the kids more than once, and Junho had even seen one of them in person, so he remembered clearly.

A daughter named Baek Sua. A son named Baek Suho.

The store had to be named after the son.

It was within fifty meters of the middle school, and with a name like Suho Tool Center, there was a ninety-nine percent chance it was that man’s shop.

And when Junho checked street view, he saw a small parking area and a single lift right next to the building—an attached little repair bay.

That made it a hundred percent.

“Just wait a little longer, sir. I’ll come find you soon.”

He had to meet that man—no question—but not yet. The timing wasn’t right.

Junho wasn’t ready yet, either.

After saving the location of Suho Tool Center, Junho thought for a moment, then started searching again, combining multiple keywords.

AI, GPU servers, hosting, building computing infrastructure.

Dozens of company names came up. Junho took the companies on the first page and searched again, tying them to the keywords “Songpa” and “Yoon Youngsu.”

“Nothing...? Hm?”

One company showed up.

Dawoo Computing.

Junho opened the website and checked the company info section, but aside from the CEO, no other employee names were listed.

So he checked the address at the bottom of the page.

Headquarters in Pangyo. Tech lab in Songpa.

“This is probably it...”

It wasn’t as airtight as Suho Tool Center, but if their tech lab was in Songpa, the odds were still pretty high.

Junho saved Dawoo Computing’s location too.

Next, he opened a real estate site and searched for candidate houses to move into.

The area was Bucheon—where he currently lived.

“A house with a yard. Even if it’s only one story, it needs a basement...”

When he filtered for standalone houses and country-style houses for monthly rent, hundreds of listings appeared.

After about ten minutes of serious searching, he narrowed it down to a standalone house near the Chunui Mountain development zone—and three country-style houses close to that area.

He checked satellite images and street views for each finalist, then picked the one whose location and rough layout he liked best and called the realtor.

“Hello. Yes, I’m calling about the standalone house for monthly rent. Yes, the listing I saw is near the Chunui Mountain development zone... Yes, that one. I’d like to see the place. Okay, got it. If you text me the details, I’ll come over tomorrow morning. Yes.”

After hanging up, Junho studied the street view of the house he’d be visiting tomorrow, muttering under his breath.

“Mountain behind it. Fields and an empty lot on both sides. The road out front is a one-way alley. Scrap yard across the street. Within fifty meters, there are only a few houses and one restaurant. Perfect.”

Until the shelter was finished, it was the optimal location to live, prep, test things, and run drills.

And if he extended the lease, it could work for other uses too.

“Good. Unless something goes sideways, I’ll take this place. Next...”

He needed to sign up for a proper gym for real training—and a boxing or kickboxing gym.

In an apocalypse where going down meant either getting beaten to hell by a person or bitten by a zombie, stand-up striking was useful.

“One by one, step by step...”

Trying not to let impatience take over, Junho dove back into searching.

***

A bus arrived almost immediately. Sitting in the very back, Junhyeok pulled out his phone out of habit.

He considered texting his brother—who’d said he was quitting his job today—but stopped.

He’d see him soon anyway, once he got home.

“An apocalypse...”

Even after going through something unbelievable at dawn, it still didn’t feel real.

The COVID pandemic that had swept the world was finally starting to calm down.

Variants, whatever—there were still infections and deaths, but vaccines were working, and at least the younger generation didn’t have to live in constant fear.

And now, after barely grabbing hold of stability and peace, they were supposed to get hit with a zombie apocalypse in just a few years?

“Bullshit... How does that even make sense?”

Junhyeok bit his lip as the thoughts that had been tearing up his head since work kept spinning.

But he couldn’t just dismiss it.

If it were anyone else, maybe. But Junhyeok knew his brother wasn’t just some average guy.

And his brother had never, not once in his life, said something stupid or pointless.

After their father died, that had only become more true—Junho never showed weakness, never got worked up in front of Junhyeok.

And that same brother had laid it out with proof Junhyeok couldn’t deny—predictions that hit perfectly, one hundred percent.

He’d even dumped the money their father left behind into coins for real.

“Then... there’s a high chance it really happens.”

Hyunwoo’s face suddenly popped into Junhyeok’s mind.

Junho had told him not to tell anyone, but not even being able to tell his closest friend felt suffocating. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

“But if I tell him, that idiot will one hundred percent think I’ve lost my mind. Haah...”

A sigh slipped out on its own.

When he got home, he’d have to talk it through with his brother.

At the very least... Hyunwoo was the only friend who’d stayed with him all the way through his father’s funeral even while he was on leave. Junhyeok felt like he had to help, somehow.

With that thought, Junhyeok got off the bus and trudged back home.