Chapter 30
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Unwanted Followers and Double Tribute
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Starting the day with a morning kiss from Yejin somehow felt refreshingly invigorating. At some point, her resistance seemed to have completely vanished, but I never expected her to take the initiative and come kiss me herself.
But if it feels good, that's all that matters.
With that pleasant send-off in mind, I raced toward the Chilsung Faction building. It took less than five minutes before I arrived and descended to the ground.
- Grroooaaar...
Sure enough, as morning arrived, packs of zombies that hadn't been there yesterday were now shambling through the streets.
I quickly absorbed the demonic energy from the nearest ones using Mana Drain, wiping them out. There were fewer than ten around, so there was no need to infuse my blade with Mana Drain for the fight.
Infusing it consumes demonic energy, so unless it's truly necessary, there's no point. Yesterday inside the Chilsung Faction building, I used it because mutant zombies could attack at any moment—I needed to clear out the regular ones fast and test if it worked in real combat.
After clearing all the nearby zombies, I entered the Chilsung Faction building and headed underground. I could hear women's voices talking among themselves.
"Why hasn't he come yet..."
"What if he abandoned us? No, that can't be, right?"
"Don't worry too much. Talking like that just makes us all anxious, so let's not. The one sure thing is that the Chilsung bastards are all dead—they haven't come back here. If we wait, he'll definitely show up."
Two of them were on the verge of tears, while the third tried her best to console them. I could understand their anxiety. After all, they'd been locked in that basement until I came to rescue them.
"But!! What if that guy doesn't come? Won't we all starve to death in here?"
I couldn't listen to this anymore. Couldn't they just wait quietly?
Click!
I swiftly unlocked the door and flung it wide open.
"Alright, I'm here."
At the sound of the door opening, they all turned toward me. Realizing they were finally saved, they broke into wide smiles and rushed over.
"Th-thank you!"
"Thank you so much for saving us!"
"If it weren't for you, I don't know how we would've..."
Among them was the woman who'd been caught yesterday while with her boyfriend. Talk about bad luck. Well, she got saved by me in the end, so maybe she's actually lucky? They call that a blessing in disguise.
"Enough. Let's get out of here quick."
I turned and headed out, and the women slowly followed me up from the basement. They grabbed whatever clothes they could find on the first floor to cover their naked bodies before exiting the Chilsung Faction building.
Now, once I parted ways with these women, I'd be done. Rescuing them from the Chilsung gang's gangbang was all I needed to do. Otherwise, turning them into zombies along with the Chilsung crew wasn't an option.
"Live well from now on. Alright, bye~"
I waved and started toward my next stop, the Haedong Faction building, when...
"W-wait a second!"
One of the women shouted loudly. I turned back, wondering what was up, and she stared at me like I'd done something wrong.
"Where are you going? Aren't you supposed to take us with you?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Why would I take you with me?"
She spouted some nonsense, leaving me dumbfounded. I scanned their faces—they all seemed to assume I'd naturally escort them to safety after rescuing them. But now that I was leaving alone, they looked utterly shocked.
"B-but... didn't you save us women to protect us...?"
"Nope. I just didn't want you caught in the crossfire while I wiped out the Chilsung bastards, so I let you out. Rescuing you from the basement was just a bonus. I've done what I can—now we go our separate ways."
"N-no way! How can a man just abandon women like this!?"
What fresh bullshit was this?
"In this ruined world, who's even bothering with 'man' or 'woman'? Everyone fends for themselves. I have zero reason to take you under my wing. If you're just gonna spout crap, I'm out. Don't grab me."
I said my piece and turned to leave, but then...
"Then why bother saving us at all! You should've just left us!"
Her grating words stopped me in my tracks. I strode over, grabbed her by the throat, and hoisted her up.
"What? Repeat that. Have you lost your mind...? If you wanna die that bad, I'll kill you right now."
If she's begging to die, it only makes sense to grant it, right?
I considered snapping her neck but decided it'd be better to toss her to the zombies, see if she turns into a mutant, then kill her. So I held off on breaking her neck.
"W-wait! She went too far. She's just out of it—her words slipped out. P-please, just spare her this once!"
In the meantime, another woman dropped to her knees, clasping her hands and begging desperately. From her voice, she seemed to be the one who'd been keeping the others' spirits up in the basement earlier.
"Slipped out my ass—she's lost it. She won't last long like this anyway, so maybe it's better to make her useful to me."
"G-gahk!"
"N-no! Please, forgive her just once!"
She's not the one dying, yet she's begging this hard for someone else. Impressive. They're probably just fellow captives from the Chilsung Faction.
"Fine, I'll let her go—for your sake."
I decided to spare her once, seeing this woman's plea. As I released my grip, the woman dropped to the ground, her legs giving out from the near-death scare as she fell on her ass.
"Th-thank you!"
"Whatever. Now let's part ways."
I tried to leave for real this time, but the woman who'd just begged for the other's life stood up and blocked my path.
"Thank you so much... but is there really no way you can take us with you?"
"I already said no. You're no use to me—why would I drag you along, feed you, house you? You're all dead weight."
"But if you keep us around, we might be useful somehow!"
"No, absolutely not. Unless you can at least satisfy my needs as a woman... you're all out."
My place already has Yejin, who's basically my onahole doll. Compared to her, these women fall way short in looks. If Yejin's charm is a 6, these are mostly 1s or 2s. This one in front of me might be a 3 at best.
So no reason to take any of them.
"In that case... you don't have to keep us. Could you at least drop us off somewhere safe?"
"Somewhere safe? As if that exists..."
Agh, fine—maybe dump them at the Haedong Faction?
Kang Jin had spent the entire day yesterday in constant anxiety after Jaehwan's visit, with too many things piling up at once.
Not only had their boss, Lee Younggil, been suddenly killed by Jaehwan, putting Kang Jin in the leader's seat, but Jaehwan had also demanded they leave the area—or find some way to prove their usefulness if they didn't want to.
No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't think of anything beyond one idea. Recalling Jaehwan's overwhelming display, physical help was out, and he didn't see any tasks he could assist with either.
So the plan he came up with was to offer Jaehwan a steady tribute of coins collected by the Haedong Faction. Even someone as powerful as Jaehwan couldn't easily refuse that.
But considering the chance Jaehwan might reject it anyway, Kang Jin's head throbbed like it was splitting.
Of course, refusing Jaehwan and leaving was an option, but not feasible right now. The Zombie Wave from Main Quest 1 was about to start soon, and rejecting him meant losing their defensible base.
Just the name sounded ominous, and the quest's demand to survive seven days only heightened the dread. They needed a stronghold to endure the Zombie Wave.
They'd stockpiled daily necessities and resources here to last a week against it—abandoning everything to find a new base wasn't realistic.
With about twenty Haedong members, any safe spot big enough was likely already claimed. No sane group would take them in without question, so getting kicked to the streets now was basically suicide ahead of the wave.
"Haa, this is driving me crazy. He has to accept the offer..."
"Boss, he's here!"
"What? Just in case, call him 'sir,' not 'that guy.' And tell him to come in quick—any problems?"
Kang Jin noticed his subordinate's odd expression and asked.
"Well... he brought others with him. Three women."
"Women? Why the... Just let them in!"
He couldn't fathom Jaehwan's actions but couldn't turn him away either, so he had them enter the building. A few minutes later, Jaehwan strolled in grinning, followed by the three women into the room.
"Hello, sir Jaehwan."
"Yeah, hello. Given it any thought?"
"Of course. We've come up with ways we can be useful to you. But those women behind you..."
Kang Jin pointed at the women eyeing the room nervously, and Jaehwan beamed.
"I wiped out the whole Chilsung Faction yesterday. Those bastards were scum—kidnapping women and using them as sex slaves. So I rescued these and brought them along."
"Ah, the ones captured by Chilsung... Wait, Chilsung? You don't mean..."
"Gone. I eradicated every last member yesterday. You won't see them again."
Kang Jin was speechless at Jaehwan's casual revelation of annihilating an entire faction overnight. He knew Jaehwan was strong, but this was beyond imagination.
"These are the captives. They needed a place to stay, so I brought them here."
"Huh? What does that have to..."
"The Zombie Wave's starting soon, right? Figured they'd die on the streets, so they tried clinging to me. I don't need them, so I asked if they'd go to your Haedong Faction instead, and they followed."
With that, Jaehwan turned to the women.
"There, happy? I brought you to the only place I know. Decide for yourselves—sell your bodies here to survive, or leave. Up to you."
The women nodded uneasily at his words.
Ending up in another male-dominated group was terrifying, but Jaehwan had explained en route that weaklings like them needed to stick with a group to survive the impending Zombie Wave. Two opted out, hating the idea of being under men's control again, and left. The remaining three followed Jaehwan.
They could only hope Haedong was better than Chilsung.
"Anyway, that's the women sorted... Shall we pick up where we left off?"
"Y-yes! We've thought of something useful. How about a monthly coin tribute?"
Kang Jin spoke nervously, and Jaehwan smirked.
"Yeah, that's probably the only thing you can offer. So, how much?"
Kang Jin had fretted over rejection, but Jaehwan's reaction showed he'd anticipated it. He sighed in relief.
He planned to offer 200 coins monthly. It felt steep—even his lieutenants had balked during meetings—but he insisted on starting high to avoid offending Jaehwan with a lowball that might sour things. Better to overbid and build goodwill for smoother relations.
"We were thinking two hun..."
"Hold up."
As he started to speak, Jaehwan cut him off.
"Double it."
"Pardon?"
"Double whatever number you were about to say. And if you're planning to lowball from what you originally thought? I'll kill you all."