Chapter 208: Leaving the City

Once everyone gathered, they began discussing it all at once, and several of them even pointed out the locations of agricultural machinery shops to Joo Joowon.

Unfortunately, shops like those were rarely located inside the city.

Most of them were built around the outskirts instead.

As a result, even though Joo Joowon now knew their locations, they were of no immediate use.

After everyone finished discussing the matter, they came to the conclusion that searching construction sites for an excavator was still the most reliable option.

Construction sites that used excavators were usually those that had only recently begun work and were still leveling the ground or digging foundations.

Judging from all the information everyone had shared, the construction site the young man had mentioned earlier was actually the closest one in both time and location.

Even so, whether the excavator was still there remained completely uncertain.

At this point, gambling on luck was the only option.

Otherwise, he would have no choice but to walk or perhaps try driving a heavy truck.

Considering the current condition of the roads, no one knew whether even a truck would be able to make it through.

When Joo Joowon first mentioned looking for an excavator, Jin Hunseok had not immediately understood why.

After everyone started discussing it and he finally had time to think calmly, he gradually arrived at a guess.

"You... are you planning to leave the city?" he asked.

The moment those words were spoken, everyone immediately looked toward Joo Joowon.

After all, not everyone’s family lived far away.

Some of them still had relatives in the suburbs around the city.

If he happened to be traveling in the same direction....

Joo Joowon shook his head. "I just want to take a look at the outskirts. There are too many mountains around here."

Too many mountains also meant too many wild animals.

There was even a huge nature reserve near Sabi City.

In the past, while driving on the highway, people occasionally encountered protected animals crossing the road, enough to get someone into serious legal trouble if they hit one.

That alone was enough to show how abundant the wildlife had been.

Now, no one knew how many of those animals had become mutated beasts or how many had turned into zombies.

Everyone present had lived in the city for so long that they rarely thought about such things.

Once Joo Joowon pointed it out, a trace of worry immediately appeared on their faces.

After all, if the wild animals in the mountains began flooding into the city that would be bad.

Jin Hunseok cautiously asked, "If the situation out there is still alright... would you consider establishing a territory nearby?"

He was not an ambitious man.

Although he had never given up on becoming stronger, the repeated harassment from other survivor groups over the past two days had already made him realize something.

As long as they continued trading supplies, incidents like this would never stop.

Sooner or later, they would run into a group they simply could not deal with.

If they were lucky, they might survive.

If they were unlucky, every single one of them would die.

Under those circumstances, Jin Hunseok found himself much more inclined to follow a truly powerful leader.

Previously, Jin Hunseok had been thinking far too simply.

He had believed that as long as he seized the opportunity early enough, he would at least avoid having an unbearably miserable life after the apocalypse.

Now he understood something even more important.

If someone wanted to live comfortably in the Age of Apocalypse, it was not enough to merely possess strength.

They did not necessarily have to remain among the very strongest, but they at least needed to maintain a position somewhere in the middle tier.

The greatest problem lay precisely there.

Within their team, everyone’s status was equal.

Zombie kills were rotated among the members.

There was no way to concentrate all resources on a single individual.

Although that system greatly reduced internal conflict, it also slowed everyone’s leveling progress.

At the same time, they did not dare confront higher level zombies head on.

They relied almost entirely on low level zombies for experience.

For safety, several people worked together to kill each zombie and then divided the experience among themselves.

Under those circumstances, having more people still allowed them to appear powerful during the early stages.

However, once everyone’s strength continued increasing and individuals became capable of defeating ten or even a hundred opponents by themselves, numbers would no longer be an advantage.

When that time arrived, their situation would undoubtedly become much more dangerous.

Even though he understood all of this, there was no easy solution.

He had never built the team through personal strength.

Nor could he bring himself to sacrifice people’s lives simply to defeat an elite monster or a boss.

If he had been someone short sighted, it would have been easier.

The problem was that he clearly understood the flaws in their current situation.

That only made him feel even more anxious.

The most difficult part was that, even if many other people had already realized the same thing, very few would willingly abandon the current system because of their own personal interests.

After all, why would someone help another person level up in order to protect themselves when they could simply level up themselves instead?

As long as everyone’s levels remained roughly equal, no one really feared anyone else.

Even Jin Hunseok himself could not make up his mind.

He clearly understood that he did not yet possess enough authority to turn the team into a place where his word alone decided everything.

Nor did he have any highly destructive weapon capable of instantly providing everyone with a huge amount of experience.

It was not as though they had never considered searching the nearby police station.

The problem was that smaller police stations were out of the question if they hoped to find grenades or similar weapons.