Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

Screeeeeech—

The rise of drones as a dominant force in human warfare became indisputably clear during the wars that broke out between humans immediately after the Rifts opened.

China’s original strategy, backed by its formidable drone force, had been to deploy a massive wave of troops onto the Korean Peninsula first and then swiftly subdue the Korean military using drones and other advanced weaponry.

However, that grand strategy never came to fruition—because before their forces could even land, they were all turned into fish food beneath the waves.

There was a brief period when drones were considered highly effective against monsters—so much so that they were even hailed as the natural enemy of the creatures.

Academics might deny that monsters evolve in response to human strategies, but those of us on the battlefield accepted it as an undeniable truth.

When firearms became a problem, monsters developed the ability to detonate guns. When drones became a problem, they gained the power to knock them out of the sky.

Before the erratic, unidentified waves that radiated across vast areas, drones became nothing more than expensive scrap metal.

For those of us staring death in the face, there was no reason to doubt it.

In fact, Western nations, including the United States, abandoned drone development for monster warfare altogether, throwing their full weight behind the Awakened system instead.

The only ones foolish enough to cling to drones were China and North Korea.

That’s probably why they collapsed so quickly.

However, in wars between humans, drones remained an effective weapon.

“I got them.”

As soon as Ha Tae-hoon muttered those words, a flash of light erupted from the road.

Boom!

A sharp, staccato explosion.

Where the black smoke dispersed in agitation, only blood-soaked corpses remained.

“One of them is still twitching. Yeong-jae,” Ha Tae-hoon said, checking the enemy’s condition on the infrared screen.

Bang!

“Tango down.”

Cheon Young-jae’s cold voice crackled over the speakers.

“I set up the retrieval net ahead. Go down and collect it.”

Together with Ha Tae-hoon, I descended to the lower floors.

Sure enough, an enormous pile of green netting was heaped up near the road.

“Damn. Where did you get so much of this?” Ha Tae-hoon asked.

Cheon Young-jae sighed. “There was a golf driving range.”

“Golf again.”

“Aren’t you good at golf, Ha?”

“I can play, but I don’t enjoy it.”

A metallic scraping sound came from Yeong-jae’s speaker.

“Damn. These guys tied this thing tight. I’ll just cut their arms off.”

Rip!

A dull tearing sound, followed by the clinking of lightweight metal tags hitting the ground in quick succession.

“I’ve collected all their dog tags.”

The insignificance of that light metallic jingle, contrasted against the weight of a soldier’s life, suddenly left me feeling empty.

After hauling the netting back up to the third floor, we set to work.

“Check the enemy’s situation. I’ll set this up.”

“Got it.”

We began wrapping the entire skeletal structure of the building in the netting.

Thunk! Thunk!

Climbing up a discarded ladder, I draped the net over the frame and secured it to the pillars with a nail gun.

Since this was a golf-course-grade net, it was large enough that we didn’t have to worry about running out, making the work proceed quickly.

The purpose of this netting was to counter self-destruct drones.