Chapter 95
From the perspective of the Balhut Cult, which was based in South Gyeongju, the route to Ulsan was already under the cult’s control.
This meant that the areas influenced by the cult were effectively safe zones, and unlike the assault on Pohang, the vanguard could travel safely using the towns and villages they had already liberated.
The areas liberated by the Balhut Cult so far were significant.
“The route up the East Sea Highway is also under our control.”
Even bypassing troublesome towns and villages, the route up the East Sea Highway that allowed for a swift entry into Ulsan Metropolitan City was already under the influence of the Balhut Cult.
Frankly, Jung Dong-gun could choose to liberate the numerous towns and villages along the way to Ulsan or ignore them entirely and head straight for Ulsan.
“To be honest, if you want to avoid troublesome battles, the East Sea Highway is the fastest route.”
“That’s true.”
Of course, the two paths to Ulsan each had their pros and cons.
First, the route via the East Sea Highway had the advantage of fewer battles with troublesome zombies.
Although there could be monsters hiding in the mountains near the highway or wild zombies wandering onto the highway by chance, there was a definite advantage in not having to fight as many zombies as in towns and villages where people had once lived.
However, there was also a drawback.
“The problem is that exits are limited, and if even one of the tunnels along the road is blocked, the entire vanguard is at risk.”
“Ugh. If even one tunnel collapses, the personnel isolated beyond the tunnel would be annihilated.”
Unlike Pohang, the East Sea Highway had too many tunnels along the route.
To reach Ulsan via the East Sea Highway, there were eight tunnels to pass through. Unlike Pohang, where passing through one tunnel posed no issues, the Balhut Cult had to manage numerous tunnels along this route.
Particularly, unlike Pohang, these tunnels had not been maintained for over half a year, and no one could guarantee their safety. If a tunnel were to collapse for any reason and sever the connection between Gyeongju and the main force, the isolated unit would face annihilation.
With eight such tunnels, each requiring the risk of life to pass through, this route had significant drawbacks.
“Is there any reason for us to gamble?”
“None at all!”
Frankly, having secured Pohang and completed the graduation of the first generation of Awakened, the military had gained some leeway, but even so, the vanguard led by Jung Dong-gun was the core and elite force of the army.
Even with the increased number of Awakened, not all of them were high-level, and if the key personnel of the elite unit were to be isolated and wiped out, the Balhut Cult’s combat power among the Awakened would rapidly decline.
Given the importance of elite Awakened in the current situation, choosing a path that risked annihilation due to isolation was a gamble.
And the Balhut Cult was not in such a desperate situation to take that gamble.
Unlike other factions on the Korean Peninsula, they had an established government and even conducted exchanges with the U.S., so pursuing a safe victory posed no issues.
Thus, the option of advancing via the Industrial Road seemed more attractive.
“Even if we want to proceed cautiously via the Industrial Road.”
“The area beyond our territory remains unknown. Frankly, to focus on the assault on Pohang, expeditions to other areas were neglected.”
Of course, while the East Sea Highway risked annihilation due to isolation, the Industrial Road route faced challenges in the towns and villages beyond the Balhut Cult’s influence.
To assault Pohang, the expeditionary forces had been deployed for the safety of Gyeongju and the assault itself, leaving the cult unaware of the state of the towns and villages beyond their controlled areas.
Even after the assault on Pohang, no attention was paid to the towns and villages outside the cult’s influence.
Most resources were allocated to ensuring Gyeongju’s safety, including hydroelectric and coastal operations in the East Sea.
Proper expeditions were almost nonexistent, leaving the state of those towns and villages entirely unknown.
“They likely won’t welcome us with open arms.”
“Probably not.”
At this point, using the narrative of being liberators to free the towns and villages beyond their influence might be too late, drawing inevitable criticism.
From the perspective of the towns and villages, it was easy to misunderstand that the cult had aided others while neglecting them, despite having the manpower.
Moreover….
“We know nothing about Ulsan’s state.”
“…Hmm.”
The lack of information about Ulsan beyond was a significant problem.
If there had been information about Ulsan, they could act accordingly. But Ulsan was eerily quiet, with no internal news.
There were no sighting reports, posts about suffering due to zombies, or laments about the apocalypse. The only posts were mundane community messages, leaving the army frustrated as they prepared to head to Ulsan.
“We’ll advance for now.”
“Yes. Open the gate.”
“Open the gate!”
In the end, Jung Dong-gun chose to see, experience, and act for himself.
The iron gates of the outpost were opened, and he led the elite vanguard, including his deputy Son Sang-hui, riding military vehicles along the Industrial Road.
Expecting to encounter numerous wild zombies and Mutant Zombies beyond the outpost, they had made thorough preparations.
“There’s nothing.”
“There’s nothing here.”
The vanguard felt only the chilling winter wind. Outside the outpost, there were no zombies.
There were no wild zombies walking along the road, nor did any Mutant Zombies unexpectedly appear.
The road was completely empty, and the vanguard’s senses detected no signs of life or even shadows.
For this expedition, even Son Sang-hui, a detection-type, was included in the vanguard.
“I don’t sense anything in the vicinity.”
“That means there’s truly nothing—no zombies, no Awakened. This is really strange.”
Son Sang-hui also reported to Jung Dong-gun that there was nothing to be detected around the Industrial Road.
In other words, her detection ability indicated the absence of both Mutant Zombies and Awakened.
Mutant Zombies are a common occurrence in this apocalypse, and Awakened are born by hunting such zombies. This situation ignored that basic premise entirely.
“Commander, there’s a village ahead.”
“Let’s check it out.”
Not long after, the vanguard led by Jung Dong-gun discovered a village along the Industrial Road.
To reach Ulsan, they had to pass through this village, so it wasn’t a place Jung Dong-gun could avoid. Despite a sense of foreboding, he decided to enter the village for a direct investigation.
The interior of the village was marked by the apocalypse, with collapsed buildings and an overall desolate appearance.
For Jung Dong-gun, this was a familiar sight. Rotten garbage emitting foul odors or survivors breaking into buildings to scavenge supplies were typical scenes of the apocalypse, nothing particularly unusual.
“There are no signs of combat either. This is truly strange.”
The problem was the complete absence of anything in the village.
No zombies, no survivors, no Awakened—no one.
Everyone who had lived here had vanished without a trace.
If it had been a village overrun by zombies or inhabited solely by survivors, it would have been a scenario the vanguard had encountered before and could understand.
“It’s like a scene out of a ghost story.”
“Did everyone evacuate? If that’s the case, wouldn’t they have tried to reach our territory?”
However, a deserted village with no zombies or Awakened was an unprecedented phenomenon.
The soldiers who had followed Jung Dong-gun also seemed unnerved, casting wary glances around with expressions of unease.
“It seems there’s truly nothing in this village.”
Jung Dong-gun looked at Son Sang-hui, but she merely shook her head, indicating that there was nothing to sense.
“Just in case there are basic zombies, let’s search the village.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Not letting their guard down, Jung Dong-gun ordered the soldiers to search the village, and he joined the search alongside his deputy, Son Sang-hui.
They broke into the unsecured doors of private homes, checking for survivors while also looking for any remaining supplies. However….
“There’s nothing—no survivors, nothing at all.”
“Yes, the homes are completely empty.”
The houses they searched yielded no results.
Electronics like televisions and computers, useless without electricity, were left behind. However, necessities like food and supplies, which were essential for survival, had long been taken.
Even clothes and valuables, often used as barter currency in this apocalypse, were gone. The only things left were electronic devices, now worthless in a world without power.
“Are there any supplies left in the village warehouse?”
“None, Commander.”
“Hmm.”
The village they discovered appeared to be a farming community, typically equipped with a communal warehouse for storing agricultural products.
Naturally, some soldiers searched the communal warehouse, but the results were disappointing.
The supplies stored in the warehouse had also been completely removed.
“Perhaps the villagers evacuated elsewhere?”
“Evacuation, huh.”
“Even we evacuated after seeing Pohang Airport collapse. Although, we got stuck midway.”
Son Sang-hui suggested that the villagers might have evacuated, drawing from her own experience.
She, too, had tried to lead her group to safety after Pohang Airport fell, although they hadn’t been able to escape far due to zombies blocking their path, leaving them stranded and in mortal danger.
Given her personal experience with evacuation, her theory seemed plausible to Jung Dong-gun.
“That’s certainly possible. The question is where they evacuated to. If they did leave, they would have headed for a safe place. And the safest area on the Korean Peninsula is within the territory controlled by the Balhut Cult.”
“…Hmm.”
The problem lay in determining where they had evacuated to.
Based on the village’s location, heading north would have taken them directly into Balhut Cult’s territory. To the south lay several towns and villages, with Ulsan at the end.
To the east and west, however, the terrain was blocked by mountains.
“Crossing the mountains to another region would be a suicidal move. Even though people are focused on the zombie apocalypse, let’s not forget that monsters exist within the mountains, as seen in the U.S.”
While traveling through the mountains was theoretically possible, it was widely known in all communities that monsters lurked within the forests.
In other words, fleeing into the mountains was tantamount to willingly becoming monster prey. For refugees, the only viable options were to escape to Gyeongju or Ulsan.
Although heading north meant entering Balhut Cult territory….
“If they had fled north, they would have been intercepted at one of our outposts or checkpoints. But there have been no such reports.”
The problem was that the cult had no record of encountering any refugees.
The Balhut Cult was already exerting control over the Industrial Road through monitoring outposts and checkpoints. If the villagers had fled north, they would have likely been spotted.
However, there were no such reports from the cult’s outposts or checkpoints.
“It’s possible they snuck in illegally, but if that were the case, our liberated towns would have reported the arrival of outsiders.”
Even if they had entered illegally, any outsiders arriving in the cult’s liberated towns would have been reported.
Towns suffering from zombie attacks were highly cautious of strangers and would have quickly informed the Balhut Cult about any unknown visitors.
The lack of such reports from liberated towns indicated that the refugees hadn’t headed north.
“So, could they have gone to Ulsan?”
“We’ll likely find the answer in the next village we liberate.”
That left the possibility of heading south to Ulsan. However, Jung Dong-gun remarked that the answers would likely be found in the villages they were yet to liberate, closing his eyes in contemplation.
“This is the most unsettling expedition I’ve ever undertaken.”
But the expedition was already underway and could not be canceled.
Suppressing the eerie feeling, the vanguard led by Jung Dong-gun began moving toward the next towns and villages.
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