Chapter 17
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Live Bait Traps
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"Ugh..."
Just as I thought of a good idea and was about to put it into action, a sobbing sound came from behind me. I turned my head and saw the woman who had been raped by that man staggering to her feet.
White semen was already dripping down between her legs from what he'd done to her, but she didn't seem to have any time to worry about that right now.
I'm human too, so of course seeing her like that stirred a bit of pity in me. But that didn't mean I had any obligation to lend her a helping hand.
I'm not some saintly gentleman who goes around offering aid to everyone in distress.
In this zombie apocalypse world, you have to protect your own body. The reason that woman got raped was because she couldn't defend herself.
If she thought she couldn't protect herself, she should just stick to someone strong like Yejin and survive that way.
I took Yejin in because of her body, and now she's my living onahole doll, so of course I have to protect her.
Alright, then. Time to get to what I was planning.
I climbed over the building and started searching for people.
Along the way, I took care of any zombies I spotted, just to be thorough.
That's when I noticed about five guys gathered together. They were facing each other in a circle, holding knives or rebar as weapons, talking about something.
Curiosity piqued, I sneaked closer and overheard them.
"Brother Kang Jin, I heard there's some good stuff at that place called Taeyang Apartment?"
"I saw some women there too. Why don't we go in, wipe everyone out, and take the women? The boss would love that."
"Places like that are bound to have tons of food. If we kill everyone and loot the hell out of it, the boss'll be thrilled."
They were plotting to raid Taeyang Apartment.
A bunch of rough-looking thugs scheming like this. Perfect—I can use these guys.
I leaped down toward where they were huddled.
Thud!
"You little shit, where'd you come fr—"
Crack!
Before one of them could finish speaking, I smashed his leg with a low kick, just like before, shattering it completely.
"Gaaahhh!"
As he screamed in agony with his leg twisted at an unnatural angle, the others stared blankly for a moment before gripping their weapons and glaring at me warily.
"W-who the hell are you? What the fuck is this?!"
I didn't bother answering the guy who shouted in a voice laced with fear. Instead, I charged straight at them.
The one in front thrust his knife at me, but I easily deflected the attack to the side, grabbed his arm, and wrenched it outward. I felt his joint snap as he howled in pain, and to keep him from fleeing, I stomped on his ankle.
"R-run away!!"
The remaining three, having watched me take out two guys in an instant, turned tail and bolted without looking back.
But no way was I letting them get away.
These clowns couldn't outrun me. They might think they were sprinting at full speed, but escaping from someone like me—who had long ago transcended human limits—was impossible.
I caught up in a flash, pulverized their annoying running legs, grabbed them by the hair, and dragged them back, gathering all five in one spot.
Let's see... To make it easy to check around my house, I can space them out in a circle about 500 meters away. To test if my idea works, I'll use these five for today.
Just like that guy I set up earlier as bait, I'll leave these outside and check tomorrow if zombies gather properly. If it works like I think, I can use this method to lure and farm them.
"Y-you bastard... What the hell are you?"
With my plan set, as I moved to act, the one they'd called "hyungnim" earlier forced his mouth open through the pain.
"Which faction are you from...? Who sent you...?"
"What bullshit is that?"
"N-no way... Did the boss abandon us...?"
Suddenly rambling nonsense only he understood. But I wasn't curious anyway.
"So, who should I start with? Oh, right—in the order I broke their legs."
I could've used demonic energy to move them all at once, but with my reserves already tight, it felt wasteful to spend it here. Better to save my strength, so I grabbed the first one I'd attacked by the neck and dashed to my planned spot. Using a bit of demonic energy, I conjured a transparent cage and tossed him in.
He was yelling something at me from inside, but I ignored the pointless noise and headed back to repeat the process: drop them at the next spot and turn them into live bait traps.
Moving was quick anyway, and setting up the traps didn't take long, so relocating the other four was a breeze.
"Alright, you're the last one."
The "hyungnim" guy ended up last. That meant he was the fastest runner among those who'd fled without a second thought—using his underlings as bait.
Well, if you wanna survive, that's how you'd act.
"F-fuck... What the hell are you? What did we do to deserve this...? The boss wouldn't abandon me. Is it those Chilsung Faction bastards gunning for me?"
Now fully resigned, he wasn't even looking at me, just muttering to himself. Come to think of it, he'd mentioned a "big boss" and Chilsung Faction earlier. And looking closer, I spotted irezumi tattoos peeking through gaps in his clothes.
Oh, these guys?
The stereotypical movie villains—yakuza types?
That explained his mutterings. He thought I was hired muscle in some gang turf war.
Which means there are more of these cockroach bastards hiding around here? Having them near my house is disgusting.
Might need a thorough cleanup.
Anyway, that's one thing—this is another. Better to test the live bait first. Even if a bunch show up, I'm confident I can kill them all, so no worries.
With that, I placed the six guys I'd caught today at points around a 500-meter circle from my house, and quite a bit of time had already passed.
Hope the live bait traps work well.
One slight concern: someone else stealing the zombies that gather after spotting the bait. They're all my coins, EXP, and demonic energy—thinking of some other bastard taking them pisses me off.
I could prevent that with barriers that activate when a certain number of zombies cluster, blocking others from interfering. But each one costs demonic energy, so it's too much right now.
If I could farm demonic energy easily like in that other world, sure—but for now, I need to conserve wherever possible.
Better to save it for bigger spells later.
Besides, no one's dumb enough to dive into spots swarming with zombies right now. They're probably too busy prepping for the zombie wave coming soon.
Then I'll hunt a few more zombies before heading back.
By the time I got home around dinner, I saw Yejin bustling around in the kitchen.
"Oh, oppa! You're back?"
"Yeah, killed a bunch more zombies today. What're you up to?"
"Well... Being home alone, I didn't have much to do? So I figured it'd be nice to have dinner ready when you got back."
It did feel nice coming home from work to a prepared meal.
"Sounds good. I'll go wash up—set the table."
"Okay!"
Yejin smiled and replied, then started pouring water into a pot with the instant rice.
I headed into the shower and turned on the water.
If I had overflowing demonic energy, I could've just used a Clean spell to blast off all the grime—super easy. But since I can't, I have to scrub off the zombie filth from my body and clothes the old-fashioned way.
Clean seems like a simple spell, but it guzzles demonic energy more than you'd think, which is a real pain when you can't spam it.
Eh, what can you do? Gotta adapt and live with it for now.
After washing up and stepping out, the apartment was filled with the smell of ramen. In the middle of the room, I saw instant ramen and rice set out on the table.
"Alright, let's dig in."
I sat down and slurped a mouthful of ramen...
"Pfft! What the hell is this?"
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"Hey, fuck. You ever boiled ramen before? This is insanely bland!"
Looking closer, the ramen was basically ramen soup soup. Who the hell adds this much water? The noodles were swimming in it.
Yejin, hearing me, dropped her gaze and gave an awkward smile, avoiding eye contact.
"Jeez, how do you even eat this? Whatever, I'll choke it down—but tomorrow I'll grab you a cookbook, so study up. Got it?"
"Y-yes..."
Never imagined the girl in front of me couldn't even boil simple ramen.
Meanwhile, in the basement of a building far from Kim Jaehwan's home, a man slammed his fist on the desk in rage.
Bam!
He hit it so hard the wood cracked.
"What? Kang Jin and the guys he took out today are all gone?"
"Yes, hyungnim! I suspect the Chilsung Faction ambushed them."
"Hah... Those bastards. We agreed not to cross each other's turf, and now they break it first?"
Haedong Faction boss Lee Younggil clenched his furious fist and bellowed.
"Find the guys Kang Jin took first. Drag them right in front of me. Got it?"
"Yes, hyungnim!"
His many underlings bowed 90 degrees in response.