16. Cockroaches. (1)

I walked towards the alley.

“Open the damn door! What, you’re going to hoard everything for yourselves? Are you trying to let everyone else die? Does that make any sense?!”

A middle-aged man’s voice.

“Open the door, open it!”

A middle-aged woman’s voice.

I turned into the alley leading to the convenience store.

People were standing there.

The alley was packed, at least forty people, it seemed.

…A survivor group, huh.

But…

…What the hell are these bastards doing?

Standing in front of someone else’s house.

Thump, thump.

I walked out of the alley towards the boarding house.

The people’s eyes were on me.

They flinched when they saw me.

I was drenched in blood from head to toe.

My face was almost completely pale.

Blood was dripping from my hair.

I walked like that.

The noisy crowd fell silent in an instant.

They just stared at me.

A blood-soaked man with a sword on his waist walking towards them was certainly a scene that would grab attention.

The man who was shouting the loudest at the front.

He was quite large.

Bulky, a laborer’s build, not the kind of body you get from training like Hoon-ssi, but someone who probably worked out a bit when they were younger.

Judo?

I don’t know, but maybe.

And the woman behind him, who was shouting to open the door with her neck veins popping out.

…These two are the leaders, huh.

I could tell just by looking.

I walked calmly.

Blood dripping as I went.

Thump, thump.

The people’s faces were a mix of confusion and fear.

Their eyes were like they were facing a human beast.

The large man was tense but didn’t back down.

The woman didn’t either.

Are they a couple?

I stopped in front of the man blocking the gate and looked at him.

He’s quite tall.

About my height.

The man was staring at me.

He didn’t move.

He just stared without blinking.

…This guy is blocking someone else’s gate…

My face is getting worse.

I slowly opened my mouth.

“Move.”

The large man scanned me from head to toe.

“Who the hell are you to tell me to move, you little punk.”

His voice and tone were different from before.

The way he talked to a blood-soaked guy and the way he talked to easy targets were quite different, it seemed.

I smiled and drew my sword.

Swoosh-

Oh!

The people gasped in tension.

I calmly pointed the sword at the man’s chest and pushed it forward.

I’ve pierced hundreds of human beasts with this sword.

Though it’s been a short period, I’ve used it day and night. With the grip of the maintenance gloves, it feels like an extension of my body.

My actions were without hesitation.

Smooth and natural.

Calm and quick.

I didn’t plan to ambush him, but it turned out that way.

As I calmly pushed the sword into his chest, a bit of blood seeped out.

“Huh.”

It was sudden.

This large man was completely unprepared.

The man flinched, gasped, and took a step back.

I took a step forward.

“…I said, move.”

I continued to push the sword.

The man took one step, then two steps back, and started breathing heavily.

I stopped in front of the gate.

The man took another step back, breathing heavily and glaring at me.

The woman was shocked, and so were the people.

No one expected me to suddenly point a sword and pierce his chest.

It was as if, in a rule-of-law country, how could such a thing happen calmly in front of everyone, still not believing their eyes.

The rule of law died the day the apocalypse began.

These people still don’t seem to realize that.

They have that look on their faces.

The large man, not believing the blood seeping from his chest, pressed his hand to it and looked at his hand.

He had a face of someone who had just experienced something terrible.

Really, they’re just playing around.

I spoke softly.

“So, what do you have to say? Why are you here, all of you?”

“Hey!”

The woman next to the large man shouted viciously.

“Who the hell are you to stab someone! What, who the hell are you! What are you doing here! What?!”

She walked up and waved her finger at me.

Waving her finger…

She has a ring on her hand?

Jeong-eun’s face came to mind.

“Hey! You think you can just stab people with a knife?! What? Do you know how many people are here?! Where do you get off stabbing people?!”

The viciousness was from the woman alone.

The only one who could yell at a blood-soaked man with a sword like that would be a brainless idiot.

I looked up.

Across from the boarding house, the inline skating women were peering out of their windows.

They looked scared.

Among them was Jeong-eun.

I pointed the sword at the woman who was still yelling.

She flinched and took a step back.

I looked at Jeong-eun and said:

“Was it this woman who slapped you?”

Jeong-eun looked between me and the woman.

The people looked at the opposite house.

The woman’s face turned pale and her expression changed.

She recognized Jeong-eun.

Jeong-eun nodded.

The woman shouted:

“Hey! You deserved it because you were wrong! Is that my fault? What? Why is it my fault! You were the one who was wrong!”

I said:

“Shut up.”

At the same time, I slashed the sword sideways.

The woman’s ear was cut in half.

Splat-

A drop of blood splattered to the side.

The woman flinched and slowly turned her gaze towards me.

Blood dripped from her ear.

She touched her ear.

She looked at her hand.

It was soaked in blood.

The woman’s chubby face trembled.

“B-Blood… My… My ear…”

…Now it’s quiet.

I looked at Jeong-eun.

Again, I pointed the sword at the woman.

And I said:

“…Should I cut off the hand that slapped you?”

Jeong-eun flinched and shook her head vigorously in surprise.

I smiled.

“You’re a good person. You can forgive and forget a slap.”

At that moment, the man who was stabbed in the chest twisted his face and shouted:

“This punk! Where do you get off causing trouble, you bastard! Hey, you damn brat!”

I raised my sword.

The man flinched and shut his mouth.

I said:

“The trouble you caused was blocking someone else’s gate. Are you out of your mind?”

The man, who was stabbed in the chest, was breathing heavily and glaring at me, unable to speak.

His face was a mix of shock and anger.

The woman was trembling, looking at her bloodstained hand.

She was making strange sounds, on the verge of collapsing and crying.

I said:

“I’ll ask again. Why are you here, all of you?”

The sword didn’t lower.

The man who was stabbed in the chest gritted his teeth and said:

“…If you guys hoarded the mart for yourselves, shouldn’t you share it with others? Isn’t that right?”

The man turned around and shouted loudly:

“Everyone is starving to death! Isn’t that right! Look at this. What you did to my wife! You stabbed me! You bastards! Where is the justice in this? What? Everyone!”

The woman, with tears in her eyes, glared at me and shouted:

“You, bastard! Do you think you can get away with this! What? Hey, you brat!”

…Why don’t you yell louder?

You’ll attract all the human beasts around here.

…You’re lucky.

Despite all the yelling, it’s quiet around here.

It’s partly because it’s a residential area, but also because I’ve wiped out everything around, so there’s nothing coming from the street.

Damn.

Maybe I should have left a few.

The man shouted:

“How did we survive! Isn’t that right! We survived! But these punks swept through the mart and are now wielding knives! Does that make any sense? What? Everyone!”

It seems the people were looking back and forth between the man and me.

Their expressions were changing.

They seemed to be realizing they were starving.

I smiled.

“You’re playing around, damn it. I can’t believe it.”

The man turned to me sharply.

His expression was quite fierce.

He was trying to incite the people to attack me.

…Go ahead and try.

I smiled.

“Need food? There are convenience stores all over the neighborhood, you idiots. You’re whining about the mart when there are stores you can raid?”

I pointed the sword at the people and said:

“Do you know why you’re here? Let me tell you. The inline skating club could give you a bowl of ramen because someone cleaned out the mart. Over fifty of those things were killed. By me.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“They were stuck in their homes, unable to go out. These people gave them food and even guided them to the mart. But you, you don’t even know gratitude, you threaten and beat people? You come to someone’s house and yell like this?”

I took a step forward.

I laughed.

“You can’t even raid a convenience store yourselves. You’re too scared. So you’re just demanding what others have done. As if you have some right to it.”

I extended the sword.

“You have no such right. The moment you laid a hand on those who helped you, you lost the right to even a bowl of ramen.”

The man took another step back as the sword touched him.

The people flinched and took a step back.

Even the woman, who was already cut, shut her mouth and couldn’t speak.

I said:

“You can’t even raid a convenience store yourselves, yet you come here and demand things from those who helped you. Are you even human? You’re like cockroaches, gathering around food waste.”

…That’s a good name.

I’ll call this survivor group “cockroaches” from now on.

I took another step forward.

The man took another step back.

I smiled.

“You’re cockroaches.”

The people were breathing heavily, just staring at me.

Some were scared, some had defiant looks, and some were tense.

Commonly, their eyes were terrible.

I said:

“Get lost, cockroach bastards. If I see you again, I’ll cut off your heads one by one.”

The people flinched and took a few steps back, but didn’t leave.

I took another step towards the cockroaches.

“I’ve already hunted hundreds of human beasts. I’ve killed a few of you punks too. Cockroaches.”

I didn’t stop walking.

The cockroaches slowly backed away and started walking backwards.

I walked, and they walked.

After a few steps, the cockroaches started breathing heavily and turning their bodies.

I said:

“…If I see you again, I’ll hunt you down one by one. Don’t show your faces again.”

Thud, thud.

The cockroaches walked away.

The man with the stabbed chest and the woman with the cut ear.

Glaring at me with venomous eyes.

They left.