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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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When I returned to the boarding house, Soo-hyun was waiting for me in the courtyard. “Oh, the inline skaters are in my room.”
“Your room?”
I had told them to put the injured men in the rooftop room.
Soo-hyun nodded.
“They were so badly beaten; there was no way they could climb the stairs. I told them to stay in my room. Six people barely fit.”
Hmm.
The stairs.
They were steep.
Soo-hyun grinned and poked me in the butt. “I put my clothes and things in your room. I’ll be staying there for a while.”
“Oh, okay. But…”
I glanced back. The middle-aged woman was standing outside the gate, staring blankly ahead.
“Who’s that?” Soo-hyun asked, surprised.
Hmm.
How should I explain this?
The woman looked…
…I couldn’t find the right words. She looked listless, devoid of any will to live.
I turned back to Soo-hyun and shook my head slightly. She didn’t say anything, just nodded a couple of times, then smiled and took the woman’s hand, leading her inside.
“Come in. It’s hot outside, isn’t it?”
“…Where… where am I…? I… I have to go home…”
…Tsk…
I leaned closer to Soo-hyun and whispered,
“Take her up to the rooftop room.”
Soo-hyun looked back and forth between the woman and me, a troubled expression on her face.
“What are you going to do? The house is already crowded. What are we going to do?”
I had been thinking about that on the way back. I whispered,
“Don’t worry, I have a plan. Where’s Hoon?”
“Oh, he’s in his room. He went back in as soon as he heard the baby crying.”
“Okay. Go upstairs. I’ll talk to Hoon.”
“Okay.”
I watched Soo-hyun lead the woman upstairs, then knocked on Hoon’s door. After a moment, he opened it.
“Oh, sir. What a mess. They’re all in Soo-hyun’s room.”
“Yes, I heard. Can we talk for a moment?”
“Yes, sir.”
Hoon gestured reassuringly towards the inside of his unit, nodded, closed the door, and came outside.
“What did you want to talk about, sir?”
I sighed and said, “The house is getting cramped. You know that single-family house across the street? I’m going to clear it out.”
Hoon’s eyes widened, and he nodded.
“Oh, that’s a great idea.”
I nodded.
“I’ll rest for a bit and then take care of it. Could you help me move the bodies later? Don’t go anywhere.”
“Of course, sir. I’ll be here.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later. Oh, and one more thing.”
“Yes, sir.”
I cleared my throat and lowered my voice.
“Those inline skaters… they probably don’t have any food left. Could you ask your wife to… help them out?”
Hoon frowned, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and waved his hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry about that at all, sir. We owe you so much; it’s the least we can do. Just let me know if you need anything.”
I smiled. Hmm. Bringing this guy here had been a good decision. He was a diligent worker, and his wife seemed like a good person too.
I patted him on the shoulder and went upstairs. My Accelerate hadn’t recharged yet. I’d go up to the rooftop and smoke while I waited.
The sun felt warm and comforting on the rooftop. Downstairs, the inline skaters were probably tending to the men’s injuries, applying medicine and bandages. And in my rooftop room, the middle-aged woman sat listlessly, lost in her own world. This wasn’t exactly the time to be enjoying the sunshine. But what could I do? The sun felt good.
I lit a cigarette, leaned against the railing, and looked out at the scenery. Ah, this was nice. It made me regret all the time I had spent cooped up inside, waiting for Accelerate to recharge.
There were two reasons why I was up here. First, because of the horde of human beasts I’d seen on YouTube. I was worried they might appear. And second, I wanted to see if any groups of starving survivors would show up.
I walked around the rooftop, basking in the sun, smoking leisurely. Nothing happened. Aside from the occasional scream echoing from somewhere, the streets seemed normal.
I wondered what those survivors who had resorted to violence for food were doing now. If they barged into another store, they would probably be bitten and turned. And then all hell would break loose, with screams echoing through the streets.
I didn’t hear any such screams. Just the occasional, distant cries.
Why?
Those people couldn’t possibly have guns. If they did, they wouldn’t have needed help getting out of their houses. They had only been able to leave after the inline skaters gave them food. It was hard to imagine they had weapons. Had they armed themselves with kitchen knives or something? …I didn’t know.
Once they realized there was nothing left at the milk delivery depot, they would look for other options. And that meant targeting smaller stores. But based on my experience, even the smallest stores had at least two or three human beasts inside.
Human beasts were ferocious.
They were fast.
They didn’t care about losing limbs or suffering fatal injuries.
There was no way ordinary people could stop them with just kitchen knives. How could you stop something that lunged at you, intent on biting you, regardless of whether it was stabbed or not? This wasn’t a fantasy novel or a martial arts story.
Performing acrobatic maneuvers and striking pressure points… that was practically impossible in real life. And these weren’t rational humans; they were human beasts, driven by instinct. For ordinary people to approach them with kitchen knives… that was suicide. If that were possible, the world’s militaries wouldn’t have been so helpless.
In other words, that group of survivors who had been helped by the inline skating club wasn’t raiding any unfamiliar stores.
That was the only logical conclusion.
…Which meant…
…They knew.
About me.
They must have seen the pile of burned bodies the inline skaters had created. They knew who had created that pile and how the supermarket had become safe. The inline skaters must have told them.
And they knew which houses were safe to approach for food and which houses were infected. They would have heard the growls.
…This was tricky.
What should I do about them? I didn’t care if they were bitten and turned—in fact, it would be beneficial for me; I could level up by killing them. But wasting Accelerate on humans who didn’t give experience points… that was annoying. They were a nuisance.
I wasn’t a savior. I had no reason, and no desire, to feed them all. I had already taken on more people than I intended; I didn’t want any more. And they had beaten up the inline skaters, who I had actually liked. I had even less reason to help them.
So, since I didn’t want to waste Accelerate or help them, my only option was to ignore them. Damn it, this was inconvenient. Why couldn’t they have just stayed home and starved? Those overly kind inline skaters had created this mess. …Well, it wasn’t entirely their fault.
I could just ignore them.
Oh, you’re starving? Then let them eat cake, like Marie Antoinette.
I shrugged indifferently. That was my gesture, my way of saying, “So what? Not my problem.”
“What are you doing?”
Uh… um…
“Uh… my shoulder is stiff.”
I turned around, awkwardly rotating my shoulder. Soo-hyun frowned at me, then chuckled. “I’m going downstairs to help Ye-eun prepare lunch. Keep an eye on the ahjumma.”
“Hmm. How is she doing?”
Soo-hyun gave me a troubled look and shook her head. It seemed like communication was impossible.
“Okay.”
I nodded and went into the rooftop room. The middle-aged woman was sitting there demurely, her knees together, tucked to the side—an awkward yet elegant posture that looked good on women. …Not so much on a middle-aged woman.
I grabbed a 500ml bottle of cider from the refrigerator, twisted off the cap, and sat down on the bedding. The scabbards clattered against each other.
“Hoo…” I took a long gulp of cider. Ah, refreshing.
I glanced at the woman; she was staring blankly at the wall. …She looked like she hadn’t processed the apocalypse at all.
“Ma’am, this is the apocalypse. The world you knew is over.” I wanted to say that.
“What did you do before all this? Were you a housewife?”
The woman blinked slowly and mumbled, “…It’s… over now… it’s…”
This was crazy. She looked about the same age as my mother.
“Have you been able to contact your children?”
She didn’t answer. I took another sip of cider and said, “I haven’t been able to contact mine either. My parents, my sister, my friends… none of them.”
I pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
“But I’m going to find them. I won’t believe they’re dead until I see it with my own eyes.”
The woman blinked slowly. I continued,
“Aren’t you curious if your children are alive or dead? If they were bitten or killed… then they’re gone. But they might still be alive.”
The woman still didn’t answer. I understood why Soo-hyun had looked so troubled earlier. It felt like I was talking to a wall. I clicked my ton
“Those people were awful. Why did they beat up those nice kids like that? They even gave them food. That’s just infuriating.”
The woman slowly turned to look at me. “…How… how are they…?”
…Oh.
Maybe we could finally have a conversation.
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