Chapter 24: Bread and Candy (1)

“B…. Boss….! We’re in big trouble….! In our territory…. those drug cartel b*stards….!”

==============

Los Jaguares Cartel.

One of the mega-crime syndicates smuggling drugs into Omega Detroit.

Their influence reached not only law enforcement, such as the police, but also the political and business circles that controlled the city.

They were less a simple smuggling ring and more a massive corporate entity with structure and financial power.

And the force threatening these streets now, was one of that cartel’s subcontracting organizations, the Ricardo Family.

In terms of scale, they were absolutely no match for the main family, but their cruelty alone was notorious in the nearby streets.

And they were said to have recently begun expanding their sphere of influence at a terrifying pace.

The gangster brothers, who had clearly been beaten up somewhere, explained this to me.

“All the gangs in the neighboring districts have already been wiped out! Now it’s our turn!”

As Donnie, the younger brother, finished speaking, Danny, the older brother, his face a mess, continued the story.

“Those b*stards suddenly showed up last night and warned us to clear out of this area immediately. They said they’d kill us all if we didn’t.”

The wounds from the merciless beating proved that their threat was not an empty one.

After hearing the gangster brothers’ entire story, I fell into thought for a moment.

“……..”

Actually, incidents like this were commonplace.

Weren’t they just routine events in the original game?

Territorial disputes unfolding in the city’s outskirts.

It wasn’t a large corporation with significant influence, just small to medium-sized gangs pushing and shoving each other.

I had never paid attention to such things, nor had I any reason to.

Was that why?

Until then, I had been thinking about this situation a little too lightly.

“Can’t you all just… wash your hands of it and back off?”

Although I had briefly ‘cooperated’ with them, they weren’t truly loyal to me; they had merely succumbed to ST’s threats.

Our connection was only that tenuous.

To feel sympathy, weren’t they also criminals, gangsters, in the first place?

I didn’t want to get involved in a fight between scumbags who were all cut from the same cloth.

But the two brothers simultaneously beat their chests, as if frustrated by my naive reaction.

“No! Absolutely not! Those guys are truly…. on a different level of evil from us!”

Donnie protested, almost wailing.

“Most of the gangsters in this neighborhood were born and raised here! So no matter how trashy they act, they don’t cross certain lines. At most, they do some pickpocketing, run illegal gambling dens, and extort some protection money from businesses, that’s it!”

“But those cartel b*stards, those drug addicts, their way of thinking is completely different….!”

Danny, interrupting his brother, continued, his voice laced with contempt as he spat out the words.

“Do you know what happens when those guys take over a neighborhood? Of course, they start flooding the streets with drugs. Fentanyl, cocaine, whatever they can get their hands on. Then it’s just…. over. The damn thing about drugs is, if there’s a supply, demand just creates itself. Because of their schemes, even decent people become addicts in an instant, and once you’re hooked…. you can never get out.”

Danny slammed his fist on the ground.

His bruised eyes flickered with desperation.

“When that happens, the neighborhood residents don’t eat, don’t wash, don’t sleep, they just do drugs all day. Naturally, they don’t go to work, all the shops close down, and the town itself just dies. The streets are left with nothing but corpses of people who starved to death while high on drugs….!”

Danny’s shoulders slumped as he spoke mournfully.

“That’s why they call drug organizations locust swarms. Once they suck a place dry and move on, not even a blade of grass is left….. So… please help us, Boss.”

“……..”

At the desperate attitude of the two brothers, I began to take the situation a little more seriously.

‘Honestly, no matter what, it won’t directly affect me.’

Whether it was a drug cartel or whatever, their target wasn’t me.

It wasn’t a story intertwined with the secret of the ‘miracle’ either.

So, in the worst-case scenario, I could just leave this area.

‘However….’

Faces came to mind.

The owner of the part-time shop who always treated me kindly.

Karen and Sophia, the mother and daughter who had shed tears thanking me for their treatment.

And… Joseph, who had begun to walk a precarious path of atonement, and his sister Yoanna, who had just taken her first steps back into the world.

This neighborhood was home to all of them.

They wouldn’t be able to leave as easily as I could.

Recalling the faces of those I had connected with here, one by one, I couldn’t bring myself to turn away.

‘Still…. I don’t have the strength to fight directly.’

Of course, physical confrontations could be resolved by asking ST.

With her skills, she might be able to subdue the cartel’s minions without much difficulty.

But the more I relied on her, the more I had to remember: strictly speaking, she wasn’t my subordinate.

Her contractual duty was, above all, to protect ‘my safety.’

It didn’t sit right with me to repeatedly push her into all-out brawls between violent organizations, especially for matters not directly related to my personal safety.

I swallowed a sigh and asked the brothers again.

“First… is there no room for negotiation with them? What exactly is their objective? Is it simply territorial expansion?”

At my question, Danny and Donnie shook their heads with dejected expressions.

“We don’t know. That’s what’s frustrating us too. It was just…. get out if you don’t want to die. They’re just pushing in indiscriminately.”

Donnie added, his voice laced with fear.

“The neighboring gangs and the ones next to them, they all died without even a squeak. No matter how much of a gang we are, seeing people die like that…. Even the bribed cops won’t lift a finger. Everyone trembles just hearing the cartel’s name.”

After deep contemplation, I let out a short sigh.

It was difficult to fully grasp the situation with only the brothers’ explanations.

“…..First, I need to see for myself what’s going on.”

I wanted to examine things more carefully before making an important decision.

What exactly was happening in this vicinity, and were those Ricardo Family people really committing such horrific acts as the brothers claimed?

============

The next morning, I headed to the neighboring district the brothers had mentioned, 12th Street, with ST.

It wasn’t very far from my original lodging.

Just a few blocks away, but the moment I stepped inside, the atmosphere felt completely different.

‘No people….’

Not even a shadow of a person could be seen on the streets, and a strange silence, devoid of any vitality, had settled over the area.

Most of the shops along the main street also had their shutters down.

‘Where did all the pedestrians go?’

It felt more than just quiet; it was eerie.

A faint, unidentifiable stench wafted through the air.

A smell I had never encountered before, sweet yet nauseating.

I swallowed dryly and moved a little closer to ST.

She too was surveying the surroundings with a somber gaze.

We had taken a few more steps.

When we turned the corner of an alleyway branching off the main street, I inadvertently gasped.

“….!”

There were dozens of people there.

Deep in the alley, between old building walls and piles of garbage.

They were all bent over at bizarrely contorted angles, or leaning as if they would smash their heads against the walls, or swaying precariously as if about to collapse at any moment, frozen in place.

Up close, they looked even more wretched.

Abnormally thin bodies, sallow skin, and eyes so vacant it was hard to believe they belonged to living people.

They were simply existing, indifferent to everything around them.

So-called, ‘drug zombies.’

The living dead that Danny had spoken of, left behind in the wake of the cartel’s rampage.

“…….”

I was momentarily overwhelmed by the bizarre and unpleasant sight.

It was the first time I realized that seeing living beings could be more unpleasant than seeing actual dead bodies.

Thud, thud-

Just then.

New footsteps emerged from further down the alley.

It was a young woman with a gaunt face.

She was leading two small children, who looked like they had just started walking, into the alley.

“Mommy…. I’m hungry…. Hug me….”

“Where are we going? My legs hurt….”

The children cried and whined, clinging to their mother’s tattered trouser legs.

But the woman didn’t even glance at their voices.

Her empty gaze was fixed solely on the drug dealer standing in the corner of the alley.

The woman staggered forward and held out a crumpled bill.

Her voice was urgent.

“He-Heaven Candy, a week’s worth, quick! I need it right now!”

The man spat, counted the money, then shook his head.

“This isn’t nearly enough. Take some crumbs if you want. Or, the rest of the balance… with the usual?”

Before he could finish his question, the woman began to unbutton her blouse.

“Mommy! Moommmyy!”

The children’s cries grew louder, but the woman, as if annoyed, pushed them away and clung to the man.

And as he led her, she collapsed onto a dirty mattress.

What followed…. was a vile scene I couldn’t bear to watch.

‘Oh my god….’

I swallowed a groan that threatened to escape and turned away.

“Waaah, Waaaaaaah!!!”

The children, completely abandoned by their mother, collapsed onto the dirty alley floor, sobbing pitifully.

But no one paid them any mind.

Just a few steps away, only beastly sounds mixed disgustingly, echoing through the air.

After leaving that place, the scenes I witnessed were similar or even more horrific.

People collapsed under the influence of drugs, people selling their bodies to earn money for drugs, and those who indifferently condoned or indulged in it all.

Corpses, apparently dead from drug overdoses, were left abandoned like garbage on the roadside.

The cries of children echoed from somewhere, but no one cared.

I couldn’t breathe.

It wasn’t just the physical stench assaulting my nose.

The most unbearable stench was a problem that had been bothering me for a while from the very sight of humans abandoning their humanity.

I suddenly recalled the [Omega Detroit] from the original game.

Even in the game’s city, there were slums, and crime and violence were depicted, but it wasn’t like this.

Of course.

Games are for entertainment.

Things that would cause excessive discomfort to the player are generally not depicted.

But this world was different.

Without any filter, it was showing the very bottom of humanity.

‘I thought I’d seen all sorts of crazy things in this city until now, but this…..’

It’s beyond imagination.

It has crossed the line, by a long shot.

No matter how blurred the line between guilt and innocence is in this city, this…. isn’t this clearly a wrong sight?

It was then.

“Eve-nim.”

At the low call, I inadvertently turned my head.

Then ST approached with a worried gaze and gently wiped my mouth with a pristine white handkerchief.

“….?”

Belatedly, I saw red bloodstains spreading on the handkerchief.

It seemed I had been biting my lip without realizing it.

“Are you alright?”

“…..No. I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

I said, wiping my eyes with a trembling hand.

“It’s so disgusting…. I can’t stand it.”