Red Dot - 157

Chapter 157

One morning on the fifth day.

Junseong and Ki-hyuk had formed a group with others since the first day, and they currently had eight other companions besides themselves.

Among them, some people wanted to save their isolated families, while others, like Junseong and Ki-hyuk, aimed to resolve this situation.

Junseong decided to divide the total of ten people, including themselves, into two teams of five, and naturally, he and Ki-hyuk joined the team tracking the virus’s origin.

Junseong cheered for the team determined to save their families, set a meeting point for later, and sent them off. Then, he gathered the other three remaining companions with Ki-hyuk.

Junseong had repeated this situation endlessly, gained information through the process, realized he felt no pain because this was a “dream” to him, and searched for clues to find a safe route and solution. He shared his story and information with those he thought were somewhat trustworthy after working together.

Ki-hyuk’s influence made this possible.

Junseong had told the same story to a few people before. Some called him crazy, some put him in unfair situations, and in extreme cases, people treated him like a monster who felt no pain, tortured him for fun, and threw him to a zombie horde.

Because of those experiences, Junseong hesitated to trust most people deeply. He thought it was better to hide his story since he didn’t know how others might react.

But now things were different.

Ki-hyuk, who had gone through similar situations, believed everything Junseong said, even if their experiences weren’t exactly the same. Ki-hyuk protected Junseong almost blindly, a reliable ally.

That was enough.

Junseong, who had nearly closed his heart while carrying everything alone, could now speak his secrets again, holding Ki-hyuk’s hand tightly.

The result was, as expected, disappointing.

The three companions treated Junseong like a weirdo, and they viewed Ki-hyuk the same way. Even when Junseong pointed out the routes they avoided due to his foresight and the predictive abilities he had shown, they only called him crazy and feared his strange powers.

Still, it was okay.

When they, as expected, didn’t believe him and said they’d go their own way because they felt uneasy, Junseong only felt a slight bitterness.

Ki-hyuk was there.

Junseong thought he shouldn’t care too much since Ki-hyuk, who believed in him, would always stay by his side. If he died in this cycle, he could find new companions in the next cycle who would believe his story and use it as a weapon to move forward.

By searching and gathering repeatedly, Junseong could eventually assemble a group of people bound by perfect trust, like him and Ki-hyuk.

So, this situation only left him slightly disappointed.

But at some point, the three companions disappeared. Junseong thought they were preparing to leave or scouting ahead.

He would have kept thinking that if he hadn’t seen someone’s body parts and organs neatly arranged on the building’s rooftop.

He found another scene elsewhere. Not only were body parts lined up evenly like on the rooftop, but next to them, organs were mixed and arranged to form a grinning face.

The sight was so horrifying that Junseong’s limbs trembled, and he collapsed on the spot.

More terrifying than the dismembered and cut-up person was the fact that it was neatly “displayed” on a pool of bl00d. The calmness to arrange organ pieces like a drawing horrified him.

The culprit wasn’t a zombie.

It was definitely a human.

A viciously insane human.

“How could someone do this…?”

Suddenly, Junseong recalled something he heard from others in a previous cycle.

– Someone who escaped from the shelter in that tunnel said a crazy murderer was roaming around.

– I heard from Mr. Kim last time, too. They said the murderer cuts off limbs, laughs, and kills. They even slit people open alive…

– Yeah, they kill like that and have their followers collect and display the bodies nicely. Ugh, so creepy…

– My gosh, what kind of psycho does that?

When Junseong heard their stories, he thought that since the world had collapsed, all sorts of strange people were emerging.

He had seen many cases of people becoming mentally unstable overnight, their personalities completely changing, or gentle people turning beastly. He thought the murderer might have always been like that or gone mad because of the world’s state.

Avoiding such a person was the best course. Someone who killed and dismembered people so casually was clearly not normal, so Junseong needed to stay cautious.

He had heard similar rumors about the murderer in other cycles as well.

Based on those rumors and information from past cycles, Junseong predicted the murderer’s movement patterns. He chose routes that avoided direct encounters, even if it meant taking longer paths.

Perhaps because of this, since meeting Ki-hyuk and becoming companions, Junseong hadn’t heard even a whisper about the murderer. He stopped paying attention to those rumors around that time.

He never imagined he’d witness the murderer’s atrocities before hearing rumors in this cycle.

As the sharp, distinct smell of bl00d, unlike that of zombies, made him nauseous, Ki-hyuk’s face flashed in Junseong’s mind.

“Hyung… Ki-hyuk hyung!”

Without thinking, Junseong shouted Ki-hyuk’s name and bolted up. They had set up a base in a safe area free of zombies, so it was fortunate; otherwise, his loud voice could have attracted zombies immediately.

That’s how desperate Junseong felt.

“Is hyung okay?! Hyung, please…!”

When Junseong found another corpse while searching for Ki-hyuk, he thought he’d go mad. For a moment, he mistook it for Ki-hyuk, feeling the ground collapse beneath him. When he realized it was the third companion’s body, he felt relief, despite knowing he shouldn’t.

As Junseong sat in front of the third corpse and struggled to stand, he heard a voice.

“Junseong-ah?”

Ki-hyuk appeared, running around the building’s corner.

Water dripped from his hair, his new white shirt was damp, and he held his favorite dark blue towel in one hand.

Anyone could tell he had just washed up.

Even though the weather was cold and he wasn’t wearing a jacket, Junseong could have nagged him about it, but his mind was too frazzled to think of that. His only concern was Ki-hyuk’s safety, so seeing him unharmed, Junseong rushed toward him.

“Hyung!”

Despite Junseong’s sudden charge, Ki-hyuk didn’t flinch and naturally hugged him tightly.

“What’s wrong? Did someone mess with our Junseong?”

Ki-hyuk smiled as he spoke, but his tone carried a chilling menace in the latter part. Since it wasn’t directed at Junseong, he felt reassured rather than scared.

“I thought something happened to you, too, hyung… If that happened to you…, ugh, I was going to find that murderer bastard and kill him…”

Junseong had often thought about killing someone since he started having this strange dream. But this was the first time he genuinely felt he would absolutely kill someone.

That’s how special Ki-hyuk was to Junseong.

Even seeing other companions brutally murdered, Junseong only thought about avoiding it in the next cycle.

But if it was Ki-hyuk lying there, murdered like that?

That was unforgivable.

It was partly because Ki-hyuk was his only pillar of support, but there was another big reason.

Unlike Junseong, Ki-hyuk could feel pain. Imagining how much Ki-hyuk would suffer while being killed by such a cruel murderer made Junseong unable to stay calm.

“Hyung…, you’re okay, right? Right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.”

Ki-hyuk patted Junseong’s back to comfort him and looked up. His eyes caught the neatly arranged human body parts and bl00d pool in the distance.

Ki-hyuk’s eyes narrowed without much emotion.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine…”

Junseong nodded in relief, then suddenly snapped out of it and pushed Ki-hyuk away.

“Hyung, this isn’t the time! The murderer is nearby. We need to get out now.”

Though Junseong wanted to kill the murderer, Ki-hyuk’s safety came first. He didn’t know who the murderer was or where they were, so they couldn’t stay defenseless.

Junseong, on high alert, scanned the surroundings, grabbed Ki-hyuk’s arm, and ran. Thinking Ki-hyuk hadn’t seen the bodies, Junseong took a detour to spare him the horrific sight.

Junseong rushed into the base, packed quickly, and ran out with Ki-hyuk. Fortunately, the murderer still hadn’t appeared.

“I absolutely have to prevent hyung from being killed by a ‘person.’”

The psychological impact of being killed by a human versus a zombie was vastly different. Even if it was just at the moment of death, Ki-hyuk would remember this dream in the next cycle, making it even more critical.

“But…”

Junseong glanced at Ki-hyuk, running closely beside him. Water droplets still fell from his not-fully-dried hair.

“He just washed up, so why… does he smell so strongly of bl00d?”

Feeling Junseong’s gaze, Ki-hyuk looked at him.

For some reason, Ki-hyuk’s smile felt strangely terrifying today.