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After subduing the fire caused by an evil survivor, time passed.

The sacrifices recruited by the flies occasionally came to provoke us and ended up dead by our hands, while I and the flies exchanged resources.

I hid a note in the corpse’s pocket with the location of the hidden resources, and the flies handed over the sacrifice, a handgun, and information. It wasn’t a bad exchange.

If we were lucky, we could capture the sacrifice alive and raid their base to get resources.

“Do you have any special information?”

As I was staring at the note at home, Sajihyeok came over and asked with interest. Being a scammer, Sajihyeok knew the importance of information well and was always interested in the flies’ intel.

I looked down at the note and smirked.

“Good news. The Zombie Luring Drone failed.”

The Alliance had been testing the Zombie Luring Drone nearby. But the results weren’t good. They hung an alarm clock on the drone to provoke the zombies, but the zombies didn’t react.

In the early days, zombies would go berserk at the slightest stimulus, but now they seemed to have learned enough to deal with it cunningly.

Sajihyeok quickly grasped the situation and let out a sigh of relief.

“The Alliance failed in weapon development. That’s a relief. The luring drone can be used over and over, but a suicide drone means losing the drone forever.”

“Drones are ultimately expendable resources.”

Suicide drones are powerful, but the number of drones is limited. Once exploded, they turn into scrap metal, and getting new drones is hard.

This meant the Alliance would have to think twice before messing with us. They’d have to use resources they couldn’t replenish.

But I focused more on the fact that if a fight broke out, the Alliance would lose even their drones.

‘That’s right, where the pillagers pass, only ashes and trash should remain.’

If the Alliance and I fought properly, nothing would be left. A wildfire would burn the world, and the Alliance would lose all their weapons.

I chuckled to myself, and Sajihyeok looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Are you that happy? It doesn’t seem like something to be that joyful about.”

“Another’s misfortune is my happiness. The Alliance failed, so I’m happy.”

“Your personality is something else…”

Sajihyeok’s personality is even stranger. He talks weirdly. Only when he’s scamming does he speak smoothly; otherwise, he often seems like he has personality issues.

We briefly stared at each other like we were observing a weird person, and Sajihyeok looked away.

“Anyway, that’s not the main point. I came here because of the resource issue.”

“Resources? Are we running out of ammo?”

Ammo shortage is a big problem. I quickly hid my smile and tapped my thigh with my fingers.

I roughly compared the amount of ammo I had seized from the military and traded with the police to the number of bullets I had used so far.

“We should have plenty of machine gun ammo left. Is it the rifle ammo?”

“Yes. The rifle ammo will run out after a few battles. We have some pistol ammo, but not much. And it’s not just ammo that’s running low.”

Sajihyeok pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. It looked like a report. True to his scammer nature, the neatly organized graph showed a downward curve, with the bottom point marked as January.

“I reorganized Park Yang-gun’s food list in my own way, and it’s predicted that we’ll run out of food by early January at the latest. In the middle of winter.”

I immediately snatched the report from Sajihyeok and glared at it.

“It’s almost December.”

“The weather is already almost winter. Did you see the frost this morning? You can see your breath. If you don’t bundle up, it’s cold even inside the house. We need to gather more food resources before it’s too late.”

Winter makes foraging and scavenging difficult, so we need to work hard now to stockpile food.

A thought flashed through my mind.

‘If I kill half of my companions, we can last until spring.’

The reason food is running out is because people eat. So if I reduce the number of people by half, the same amount of food will last twice as long.

But I quickly dismissed the thought. If I did that, I’d face a ‘rebellion.’ My companions would have a 50% chance of dying, so they’d rather kill me.

“You’re thinking something weird again…. Please suggest something productive.”

Sajihyeok quickly caught on to my thoughts and scolded me.

I awkwardly laughed and handed the report back.

“I had a pointless thought for a moment. This isn’t an easy problem to solve. There are no survivors around to pillage, and it’s winter, so farming isn’t an option.”

“That’s true.”

This isn’t a problem that can be solved by just thinking about it. The world is like this, and a few people putting their heads together won’t come up with a solution.

Sajihyeok stared at the report for a while, then let out a heavy sigh.

“Lately, I feel like we’re trapped inside, slowly dying. We can’t go outside, and the food inside is slowly running out, like we’re withering away.”

Maybe because winter is approaching, Sajihyeok seemed depressed. It’s a season where it’s hard to bask in the sun, the air is cold, and the branches are bare.

I casually said,

“Still, we’ve lasted this long. Many people have turned into zombies or died.”

“…Are you trying to comfort me with that?”

“Yes. Was it inappropriate?”

Sajihyeok let out a disbelieving laugh and turned away.

“Don’t tell me I’m the one who talks weird. Sometimes you seem like the really strange one. Anyway, please think about the resource issue.”

With that, Sajihyeok left my house with light steps. Left alone, I looked at the door Sajihyeok had closed and rubbed my arm.

It’s really cold. Since the heating isn’t working, the chill directly hits my skin.

Winter. The season of death is coming.

***

Our companions, true to their pillager nature, didn’t worry about the future. They repeated the same daily routines, satisfied, and didn’t care about things like resource management.

On a cold morning, they came out of the house to receive food rations made by the supply team, muttering nonsense.

“Doesn’t the clothes fit?”

“I like it, it’s like armor!”

“But you should wear clothes that fit well to move easily.”

“I’ll grow taller soon!”

The Cup Noodles Mercenary was talking to his son, who was wearing ill-fitting winter clothes.

“I misjudged the location. Being on the mountainside in winter, we’ll freeze to death. I need to revise my location analysis.”

The Real Estate Uncle was trying to refine his now-useless real estate knowledge.

“Winter… cold, white snow, bare branches. Everything is a symbol of death.”

The gloomy one was spouting depressing words again. The Deceptive Mercenary was quietly sitting in a corner, eating.

Other companions whose names I couldn’t remember were similar. Rubbing their hands, putting food in their mouths, chatting with family or other companions.

The Criminal Companions were a bit different. They gathered around me, exhaling breath, eating warm rice and soup, and asking me questions.

“Kim Da-in. Have you seen the resource status? We’ll run out by January. If we keep eating like this, it’ll run out even faster. Shouldn’t we steal more before that?”

“We also need to manage the water facilities. No matter how much groundwater we use, if the facilities freeze and burst, it’ll be hard to fix. We need to prepare radiators and heaters too.”

I quietly ate my food and then looked up.

“It seems there are many potential problems. Do you think we won’t make it through winter?”

When I asked, the companions quickly nodded. Sajihyeok rubbed his hands and said,

“Just breathing consumes resources, and we have no income. Without income, we can’t survive.”

“Sounds like the words of an unemployed person.”

I chuckled. Using the word ‘income’ made Sajihyeok’s words sound like something from when the world was normal.

But Sajihyeok didn’t laugh.

“We are unemployed. We’re not pillaging, just holed up in a townhouse. Of course, we catch and pillage those who provoke us, but that’s just pocket money.”

There’s no steady, stable income to keep living.

“If this continues, we’ll all die.”

“Die….”

I looked up at the sky. It’s definitely a situation with no solution. It’s not just because of conflicts with the Alliance.

The end of the fall is approaching. The world our Chairman tilted like a slope. We’ve rolled down that slope, and now the end is near.

It’s hard to get food. The irreplaceable ammo is running out. Pillaging isn’t an option. The whole world is in famine, the city’s resources are all depleted, and it’s hard to find survivors to pillage.

Whether we pillage or do something else, there’s no room to prepare for the future.

I looked down at the flames the supply team had lit to cook the food.

‘From spring to winter. We’ve lasted a year.’

It was the most intense year of my life and the most enjoyable time. So the end of this era should be spectacular.

“What are you thinking about? Winter is the immediate problem, right?”

Jeondohyeong’s grumbling brought me back to reality, and I smiled faintly, scratching my head.

“I’ve been thinking too, but no good solution comes to mind. It seems like the only way is to attack the Alliance and pillage.”

“If we fight the Alliance, winter won’t be the problem.”

“Exactly. Let’s think about it a bit more. We have some time.”

Anyway, with a month’s worth of food left, I comforted my companions and ate the cold rice.

Another thought flashed through my mind.

‘Is the Alliance any different from me?’

The Alliance has a lot of resources, but they also have a lot of people. If they’re not confident they’ll survive winter, they’ll turn into pillagers too.

 

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