Red Dot - 112

Chapter 112

Inhan City, an abandoned factory.

The sky was filled with dark clouds, making it feel dark and damp even though it was still daytime.

Matching the atmosphere, corpses were scattered messily around the abandoned factory.

Some of the corpses had their heads blown off or showed signs of being pierced by sharp knives. They all had their eyes wide open, covered in a layer of red bl00d that didn’t wash away even in the rain.

Above these bodies, five men lay sprawled, looking pathetic.

“Wait! Please, let me go!”

The man who had fallen quickly got up and looked at the guns aimed at him. More specifically, he stared at the small hole at the bottom of the car engine oil filter attached like a silencer and swallowed dryly.

“If you let me go, I swear I’ll—!”

Before the man could finish his sentence, a loud bang echoed, hitting his ears.

The engine oil filter worked well enough as a suppressor, so the sound of the gunshot wasn’t as loud as it would’ve been without it, but the sharp sound in his ears couldn’t be avoided. Even if a silencer was used, this was something to be expected.

Still, because of the suppressor, the sound didn’t travel far, and zombies beyond a certain distance wouldn’t notice the gunfire.

The big man, who had hesitated to pull the trigger before, was the first to fire, replacing the man who had hesitated. The other four, who had gone on a mission with the first man, were also quickly dealt with in the same way.

A freshly dead head, still warm with bl00d flowing from it, was grabbed roughly by a strong hand.

“Clear them out quickly before we start again.”

The man who had disposed of his failed comrade spoke, moving first, and the others followed, starting to clean up the surrounding bodies. The bodies of the five men, just dead, were thrown into a pile with the zombies, discarded like trash by their comrades’ hands.

While the men outside the factory hurried to gather the bodies during a break in the rain, the large man who had been watching them entered the building.

Inside the factory, there was nothing particularly notable. The vast, unmanaged space only had a few drums and some construction debris left since their first visit.

But now, in the center of it all, a brand-new clean mattress lay alone. Next to the mattress, there was a sturdy iron pole, and connected to it was a rope neatly coiled on the bed, with rough handcuffs like those used by police lying nearby.

The large man glanced at the items, which raised some questions, then continued walking. He approached a person sitting in a chair next to the mattress and asked.

“Hyung, are we waiting here today?”

The man, who looked like he was in his forties, addressed the younger-looking man as hyung without hesitation. The lack of awkwardness showed that their relationship was based on authority rather than age.

The man, Nam Ki-hyuk, who had been resting with his eyes closed, lifted his head. His unbandaged right eye silently turned to look at the man.

“Why? You don’t want to rest while you can?”

Ki-hyuk smiled faintly and put on the glasses he was holding. They were the same glasses that had been broken early in the morning, but these were the spare ones he had prepared.

However, not satisfied with them, he took off the glasses and casually threw them at the man, as if it didn’t matter if they broke. The man, who caught the glasses without complaint, wore a perplexed expression.

“It’s not that. But…”

“I won’t move until midnight. You take that and bring back the optician you’ve caught by then.”

One of Ki-hyuk’s trusted subordinates, Seo Seok-jin, was one of the few who knew about his deteriorating vision. He had been tasked with preparing glasses that Ki-hyuk could use sequentially, considering his worsening eyesight.

But even the glasses he had prepared were no longer a proper fit. The decline in his vision was happening much faster than expected.

‘It’s probably better this way.’

He thought to himself, but he didn’t say anything out loud.

Ki-hyuk enjoyed hearing his subordinates’ suggestions and ideas. He liked using force or intimidation to silence others, but he would happily praise truly useful suggestions.

However, that was only true for issues that weren’t related to a specific person.

When it came to matters connected to that specific person, no one’s interference was tolerated. For example, his closest four subordinates were now down to just him and Seok-jin.

Seok-jin dared not voice any concerns, as he did not want to end up like his colleagues, already silenced by Ki-hyuk.

Swallowing the many words that came to mind, Seok-jin simply replied, “Understood,” and then switched the topic from his vision to something else.

“Should we send more people tonight?”

“No, it’s fine. There are plenty of people, right? Around 30 or 40?”

“38 people, including Kang Chae-yi. But since there are old people and children among them, only about half of them can actually fight.”

Ki-hyuk shrugged at Seok-jin’s words.

“I sent them with that in mind, but they still got caught and came back. By now, they’ve probably moved to another place. Finding and capturing them again would take too much time and manpower.”

“But if Kang Chae-yi joins them, waiting here will be pointless.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Ki-hyuk said with a smile, stretching his arms up as he yawned. There was no trace of anger or worry on his face regarding his failed plan.

“I’ll still wait. If they come, it’ll all end then.”

Ki-hyuk looked at Seok-jin with a distant gaze, his one good eye looking faintly down as he smiled.

“Things never go the way we want. Right?”

Despite his bright smile, a bitter expression flickered across Ki-hyuk’s face.

“Just like I’ve felt all week, today’s no different. Things won’t go as I planned.”

“Hyung…”

Seok-jin, who had felt that Ki-hyuk seemed unusually down, was about to speak when he suddenly heard a sinister laugh coming from him.

“Do you know why it feels even more intense now? It’s because I already know. I know exactly how things are going to play out, so I come up with a plan that fits the situation, but the pieces don’t click together like they’re supposed to, and it just makes me even more frustrated.”

Amidst his childish laugh, his voice was laced with madness.

“Ha, really… It’s so fun…!”

A dark aura, like storm clouds, gradually clouded Ki-hyuk’s eyes.

“I wanted to destroy all of Juseong’s preconditions by today… but that’s a bit of a letdown.”

Half of the preconditions that Juseong had laid out for his plan to navigate reality had survived. At the very least, he should have succeeded in capturing Kang Chae-yi or killing Gwak Du-jae. If things continued like this, Juseong would keep evading him until the disaster situation eventually came to an end.

Ki-hyuk had no intention of letting that happen.

“The documents are all burned, right? Not a single one left?”

“Yes, of course.”

The research materials from the underground laboratory of the Inhan Bl00d Bank.

He had brought them to be burned, following the solution he had predicted when he first glimpsed Juseong’s plan. Juseong would only move along a safe route for the sake of his other companions, so it wasn’t hard to go ahead and solve things before Juseong arrived.

Juseong, who had no idea that his dream would one day become reality, had only been planning to move on the day itself. But on the other side, preparations had been made a few days earlier. Despite the risks, it was easy to enter the Bl00d Bank.

The solution to the zombie crisis was already gone.

The surviving researchers were gone, and even the director of the Bl00d Bank, who had provided the exact location and the means to open the research lab door, was dead.

So, the zombie crisis wouldn’t end like this. They would have to watch as it engulfed all of South Korea and spread further.

How would Juseong view him, the one who created this hopeless reality?

Ki-hyuk imagined Juseong’s face, and just that thought sent a chilling thrill through him as he wrapped his hand around his neck.

It was the place where he had been stabbed multiple times in his dreams. The feeling of his throat and vocal cords being torn apart by the blade full of resentment and anger toward himself, who had enjoyed choking him, was still vivid.

‘It hurt. Very much.’

Unlike Juseong, who couldn’t feel pain in the dream, Ki-hyuk had to experience all that pain in the recurring dreams, unable to control anything.

On the day he was brutally killed by the approaching blade, seeking revenge…

In his narrowing vision, he saw a smile he had never seen before.

It was so beautiful and pure, a smile filled with pleasure that he would never see again.

“Ha…”

Ki-hyuk let out a long breath, his body shuddering briefly.

If he could see that face again…

He would do anything.