The Regressor Only Protects Me Chapter 32

#Episode 32. Cold

Lee Cheong-chun’s reconnaissance team was barely able to reach their target after digging through the snow for two hours.

We patrolled the same streets every day, but the snow that had piled up during the night had to be dug up again each time we went out to patrol.

So the three leading members of the reconnaissance team continued to shovel the snow.

They did work that was close to hard labor, and the place they went to was the largest commercial district in Anyang City.

Anyang 1st street.

When they finally arrived, the sun was approaching noon.

In the biting cold, the midday sun gave them a moment of respite.

Before entering Ilbeonga in earnest, Sergeant Lee Cheong-chun gave his team some rest.

They had to go inside the building whenever they needed to take a break.

Because the streets were full of monsters.

‘Phew.’

Lee Cheong-chun smoked a cigarette and looked out the window at Ilbangae Street.

Today, we finally enter Anyang’s largest commercial district.

Up until now, we had been searching and procuring food in this area, but now we had to go a little deeper.

This is because although the number of citizens increased day by day, food did not.

The only people we could trust were the reconnaissance team.

They had to perform.

Lee Cheong-chun carried out his duties as a police officer even though the world was destroyed.

Because the police’s mission is to protect citizens’ property and lives.

After finishing his cigarette, Lee Cheong-chun ordered the people to move forward.

Chook-!

Lee Cheong-chun pulled out the three-stage staff.

And the people who finished their break prepared to enter the commercial district.

As this is the largest food supply base, the number of strange people and monsters here will be on a different level than other places.

Of course, it was only Lee Cheong-chun’s idea, but everyone agreed with it.

Having plenty of food meant there were plenty of predators after it.

Lee Cheong-chun stood close to the corner of the building and looked out at the wide eight-lane road.

Silence, stillness.

And the sound of the wind blowing.

Silence soon gave way to fear.

Dozens of fellow police officers have died in the line of duty so far.

It was a noble sacrifice during a national emergency.

But Lee Cheong-chun didn’t want to lose any more colleagues.

We had to secure food supplies within the Ilbonga shopping district by any means necessary.

Lee Cheong-chun’s heart began to pound like crazy.

The two pupils shook as if there was an earthquake, and their breathing became ragged.

It was the fear of death, the fear that could kill you at any moment, something that all living things cannot avoid.

‘I can do it. I can do it. Let’s do it.’

As he was leaning against the wall, nervous, a man came trudging towards him.

He was Kang Shi-on.

There was no fear in his gait.

“Hey. Hey, wait a minute!”

Lee Cheong-chun stopped him, but Kang Si-on had already set foot on the first street.

Kang Si-on entered the eight-lane road first, followed by Jin Jae-hee.

Seeing his fearless appearance, Lee Cheong-chun leaned against the wall and looked at his back.

At that moment, tentacles branching out from the snowfield on the left appeared.

Ssassassassasss …

He was a monster who had been killing his fellow police officers.

Lee Cheong-chun was so surprised that he shouted at the two people walking ahead of him.

“It’s dangerous!”

Before his voice could reach their ears, the tentacles flew in quickly.

But his shouting was so embarrassing.

Crunch-!

Jin Jae-hee cut off the flying tentacles with his sword.

Literally plain.

With just one swing, the tentacles fell limply before her blade.

And then they walked forward as if nothing had happened.

“her…….”

Lee Cheong-chun was left feeling empty at that precious scene.

* * *

The first place I went to was a convenience store at the entrance of Ichiban Street where a part-timer was lying dead on the counter.

As soon as he arrived at the convenience store, Lee Cheong-chun immediately used the walkie-talkie to communicate with headquarters.

About 30 minutes had passed.

People carrying sacks full of loot walked through the snow.

It took hours to dig through the snow to get here, but those following the same path took less than 30 minutes.

Police officers carrying sacks of food were carrying it one by one by the citizens.

It took less than an hour to rob a small convenience store.

According to Lee Cheong-chun, one convenience store is equivalent to the daily food intake of the entire police station.

I looked at the cash register as I heard those words.

Jin Jae-hee was taking cigarettes from the shelf and putting them in his bag.

As if that wasn’t enough, he stuffed cigarettes into all his pockets.

I stared at her blankly and then asked Lee Cheong-chun again.

Before he knew it, he was smoking a cigarette.

“How many people are involved in food procurement?”

When I asked, Lee Cheong-chun looked at me blankly, then shook off the ash from his cigarette and answered.

“There are about forty of them. Of them, there are about twenty-nine police officers. They are divided into two teams. The reconnaissance team and the food team. There are two groups, and each group has about ten people.”

The smoke from his cigarette dissipated.

I inhaled the smoke and coughed.

I wasn’t used to cigarette smoke.

Then Lee Cheong-chun turned around and apologized to me.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t normally smoke… … This is really.”

Even though he was older than me, he turned around and started smoking a cigarette.

I waved my hand at him like that.

“It’s okay. I’d like to know more about the structure related to the book.”

“Seo… … Are you talking?”

“Yes. How did the police finish the first round?”

To be honest, this is something I’ve been curious about ever since I came here.

It’s not like each building received a different theme, nor is it like this building was the only one exempted from round 1.

Most of the police officers and civilians at the police station appeared to have survived, and there were no signs of a fight.

It was a stark contrast to the shopping mall, which was filled with corpses, battles, and bloodstains.

Lee Cheong-chun thought for a moment while smoking a cigarette, then answered.

“I voted.”

“Vote?”

“Yes. What should I do? Well. That kind of thing.”

Chick.

Lee Cheong-chun put out the cigarette he was smoking by rubbing it against the glass door of the convenience store.

He was now looking back at me.

He placed both hands on his hips and continued speaking, looking outside the convenience store.

“We killed the gangster. On the third day. Our detectives’ specialty is finding the king. Fortunately, the gangster in the detention center was the king, and we killed him while he resisted. We didn’t think of this situation as a simple terrorist attack or someone’s prank. Above all, it was a decision made by the chief after gathering everyone’s opinions.”

“okay.”

He put the pack of cigarettes in his pocket and tried to leave.

But I stood in his way.

I looked up at him, and Lee Cheong-chun’s pupils were shaking slightly, as if he was a little embarrassed.

“What about the second one?”

The undisclosed king.

I haven’t heard about the king of the black team.

Lee Cheong-chun looked into my eyes and then shook his head.

His voice was shaking a little.

“I don’t want to talk about that. I’m sorry.”

He forced himself to turn and go outside.

I watched his back.

For me, there was one thing I had to confirm.

How much sense of justice do these cops have?

From the police’s point of view, I am a murderer.

He killed dozens of people in a shopping mall, and he also killed someone with a pistol.

The police should have arrested me, and I didn’t belong in the police station.

But it is unlikely that one would have survived to this day without committing such a murder.

Will the police see us as criminals or as ordinary disaster victims?

Looking back on his actions now.

They too seemed to have something troubling about them.

Should I say that I am lucky?

Rather, it felt like things had gotten easier.

I followed him out of the convenience store.

There were already dozens of sacks filled with food piled up there.

People carried it on their backs and moved to the police station one by one.

A road full of snow.

There was a long line there.

* * *

The authority to distribute food rests solely with the police officer in charge.

Priority was given to the citizens and police officers who had gone out on reconnaissance.

Additionally, those in the reconnaissance team were given an additional toilet and food stick, separate from the general public.

It was an allowance.

At least inside this police station, plastic sticks were being used as currency.

The number of sticks was close to 1,000, and they were said to have been purchased from a nearby stationery store.

They say it’s a children’s toy, but no one here knows what it’s for.

Its value as food has not yet been established.

A cup of ramen could be one stick, or an expired lunch box could be one stick.

After the second round began, the police distributed them for free for a day or two, but then adopted the current method for control.

It was the police chief’s policy.

By 5 p.m., when the reconnaissance was over, a long line formed on the 5th floor.

The sight of people starving all day was beyond words, and the stench was terrible.

“The toilet problem is the most serious. Since there is nothing to eat, there are fewer cases of feces, but the urination problem is serious.”

Lee Cheong-chun said as he walked up the line next to the one standing in a row.

After that, Kang Si-on and Jin Jae-hee followed.

“Our reconnaissance team is like that. They say they solve the toilet problem when they go out for reconnaissance, but inside here, they have to melt the snow every day and put it in the purification facility. If there were a few dozen people, it wouldn’t be a problem, but as you know, there are 741 people here.”

They ignored the long lines and went to the front row.

It was the privilege of the reconnaissance team.

The right to first procure food.

Inside the noisy distribution center, the people who had gone on this reconnaissance were selecting food.

The food was neatly organized in the warehouse, most of it having been sorted by police officers in charge of internal processing.

Kang Si-on chose a lunch box rich in carbohydrates, and Jin Jae-hee chose frozen convenience store raw chicken.

Lee Cheong-chun picked up one of the breads.

“But that doesn’t mean you can urinate indiscriminately outside. You can’t control it.”

Lee Cheong-chun returned to his seat, opened his personal drawer with his key, and put the bread in there.

Lee Cheong-chun continued to speak to Kang Si-on and Jin Jae-hee.

“Anyway, Mr. Zion. And Mr. Jaehee, you’re saying you’re going to continue with the reconnaissance team?”

“yes.”

Zion answered, and Jaehee just nodded.

“Let’s see.”

Knock knock-.

Lee Cheong-chun opened another drawer, took out a folder from there, licked his finger a few times, and then flipped through the documents.

And at the very end of the scribbled names, I wrote their names with a Monami pen.

Zion glanced at the reconnaissance team nametags.

I saw some names that were crossed out.

These were the people who died during reconnaissance.

Lee Cheong-chun wrote down their names and filled in simple descriptions and personal information.

And he reached out to them both.

Zion grabbed his hand first, and then Jaehee grabbed his hand.

“Then please take care of it. The police will take care of dangerous matters first, so don’t worry too much.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“The patrol departs at 07:00 every day after the morning roll call. Now, take a rest. You need to replenish your stamina before you can do anything.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Kang Si-on and Jin Jae-hee went downstairs to avoid the long line.

Lee Cheong-chun lay down on the chair and stared blankly in the direction they had disappeared.

“It’s unique.”

Lee Cheong-chun muttered like that.

Because most survivors have a lot of questions.

Kang Shi-on also had many questions.

But other survivors asked, “When will we be rescued?”, “What about the government?”, and “Is there a solution within the police force?”

Of course, that was a normal question.

But Kang Shi-on didn’t do that.

I wasn’t afraid or sad.

He was calm, as if he had prevented this disaster in advance.

At first, Lee Cheong-chun was particularly drawn to Jin Jae-hee, but now he was more drawn to Kang Si-on.

The generosity of Kang Shi-on shown in this reconnaissance.

And Jin Jae-hee’s swordsmanship skills.

‘It’s something to pay attention to.’

He took a sip of cold water from the bottle.

I felt like my esophagus was frozen.

Even though we were inside a police station, every time I exhaled, my breath came out of my mouth.

* * *

Manan Police Station, 2nd floor.

When the sunlight disappeared and darkness fell over the city, the residents here depended on moonlight to survive.

Occasionally, someone would take out a candle, but the candles could not last long in the blowing cold air.

The cold wind hit the window, making a loud noise.

There were coughs and groans everywhere.

The cold was bitter.

Some people, even strangers, pressed their bodies close together to maintain each other’s body temperature.

An old couple at their feet were shivering from the cold.

I stared blankly at it and chewed the frozen rice in the lunchbox.

The old couple had laid cardboard on the floor and were enduring the cold with only a thick padding.

No one helped the old couple.

Even I, who am looking at it.

Helping someone here was tantamount to asking them to die together.

This place was soon going to be a battleground.

I glanced around.

I thought as I watched them suffer.

It is only a matter of time before police order collapses.

When order breaks down, a new leader is elected.

He couldn’t become a leader right away, but he had to gradually establish his position.

First, I had to gain their trust, just like I did in the shopping mall.

Misread.

I chewed a grain of rice and thought of a method.

One way for everyone here to create an environment where only I can exist.

“Kang Shi-on.”

Jin Jae-hee, who was unfolding his sleeping bag, called me.

I looked at her and asked.

“Where did that come from?”

“On the soldier’s transport vehicle when we came earlier. There was only one, but even this is worth it.”

“uh.”

Jin Jae-hee was loitering around the transport vehicle on the way here.

“I packed up the various items that were in the military gear there. A field shovel, a sleeping bag, and this.”

Yeah-.

The light of the blade reflected in the moonlight entered my field of vision.

It was a military dagger.

“It’s sharp because it’s sharpened. It could easily pierce human skin.”

Jin Jae-hee handed me the military dagger.

I accepted it.

Then I put it in my inside pocket.

The night was deepening.

I put the last grain of rice and the frozen sausage into my mouth.

It felt like the roof of my mouth was frozen.

I was thinking of slowly melting it in my mouth and eating it.

Jin Jae-hee, who was organizing the inside of the sleeping bag, went in and lay down.

I also lay down next to him.

I pushed my nose into the padding I was wearing.

Still, a cold wind blew into every corner of my body.

At that time, Jin Jae-hee tapped my left arm.

“Come in. I popped two hot packs.”

“what?”

“You can’t fully preserve your stamina and body temperature like that. We’ll start training in earnest tomorrow. We’ve roughly decided where we’ll train today through reconnaissance. You need to replenish your stamina. I’ll tell you in advance that I never give you any leeway when it comes to training. That’s why you were really lucky to get a sleeping bag today. You need to sleep warmly to recover your stamina.”

At those words, I looked at her blankly.

Then he glanced at the sleeping bag and said.

“It seems narrow.”

“It’s okay. You’re small.”

Jin Jae-hee answered calmly, with only her head sticking out of her sleeping bag.

I thought about it for a moment, then crawled into her sleeping bag.

I had to take off my padding to get in.

It was narrow.

There was a musty smell of a sleeping bag, a faint smell of cigarette smoke, and maybe a hint of blood.

I sniffed around and dug deeper into my sleeping bag.

The inside of the sleeping bag was very warm thanks to the hot pack she had popped.

The temperature was maintained by touching the sleeping bag, hot pack, and even the human body.

It was as if I was in a comfortable cradle.

In this cold building, this small sleeping bag was my only refuge.

We lay facing opposite each other.

Without even having time to think.

I fell into a deep sleep thanks to the comfort I had after a long time.

(Continued in the next episode)