Chapter 51: Watching the Small Fry Fight
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 51: Watching the Small Fry Fight
Starting the next day, I began commuting toward Seongsu Apartment.
If I went toward the police station for no reason and ran into the office building group I'd laid bait for, things might end before they even clashed with Seongsu Apartment.
By now, any place where zombies gathered was bound to have one or two Level 2 zombies mixed in, and I also needed to find where Oh Yoon-seop was.
He wouldn't be far.
Even if it wasn't for Oh Yoon-seop, I needed to start checking how the factions in Seongsu-dong were distributed anyway, so I had to wander around rather than sticking to one spot.
I was planning to just pass by Seongsu Apartment once in a while to see how they were doing and check if a fight had broken out, but wouldn't you know it.
The exact situation I wanted was unfolding much sooner than expected.
Two factions were confronting each other across the Seongsu Apartment barricade.
I got a front-row seat to an incredible standoff between the tattooed thugs and the guys from the officetel.
I didn't even have to be careful from afar; they were screaming at each other so fucking loudly that I could watch the whole thing vividly while maintaining a reasonable distance.
"We've never even gone over there, so what the fuck are you talking about, you son of a bitch?"
"Cut the bullshit. The assassin you sent killed two of our sentries and readily confessed that he was from the Seongsu Apartment Autonomous Organization before leaving."
"Are you fucking retarded? You actually believed that?"
"Then who else would it be?"
"How the hell should I know, asshole? Probably someone who has a grudge against us."
"These motherfuckers kill our people and then play innocent? You guys are fucking dead."
Damn... This is truly a fight between weaklings so pathetic it brings tears to my eyes.
To them, it must be an incredibly serious battle, but from my perspective, I couldn't help but find it hilarious.
Even a tattooed thug makes sense sometimes.
Just as he said, no sane person would reveal their own faction while fleeing.
But seeing how they believed it hook, line, and sinker and came here to pick a fight... Well, they probably don't know who I am, but since their faction was attacked, they needed someone to vent their anger on. Plus, they were already thinking of absorbing the surrounding factions, and this place happened to be the one whose name popped up. After looking into it, they probably figured it was worth a shot, so they came.
In other words, whether the Seongsu Apartment Autonomous Organization was the culprit or not didn't actually matter to the officetel faction.
Even to my eyes, the officetel guys looked pretty strong.
Maybe they worked out regularly, because I saw survivors with base stats around Level 2 or 3, and they each had one or two combat-type modes.
You get assigned a random mode at first, but seeing how almost all of them had at least one combat mode makes me wonder if you can acquire them later on too.
Then again, since I'm in the unique position of being the Host, I don't really know how things work for normal users.
On the other hand, the Seongsu Apartment Autonomous Organization was in a sorry state.
Looking only at their combatants, there were a few who could somehow manage to kill Level 1 or Level 2 zombies. But when the executive committee consists of tattooed thugs in the first place, the group's management is bound to be unstable, so there's no way their subordinates would be decent.
Since most of the members were just apartment residents, there were many non-combatants. Even those with abilities probably didn't want to fight, so many of them still had basic stats.
If they had guns, it might be a different story, but if a pure brawl broke out, Seongsu Apartment would probably crumble instantly.
I thought a fight would break out right then and there, but the officetel guys only issued a warning.
"You guys said it, right? Empty the rooms within 7 days, or you'll come and kill us all. We're giving that right back to you, motherfuckers. Within 7 days, the bastard who spouted that shit better come to the front of the officetel and grovel. We'll kill only him and call it even. And as compensation for our two dead guys, bring 500 coins each. Otherwise, in 7 days, we're bringing our entire force to slaughter every last one of you."
"Crazy bastards."
They just screamed at each other like that for thirty minutes before dispersing.
Amusing bastards.
Returning exactly what I did to them. How novel.
It's pretty creative.
Of course, if I had been in their shoes, I would have punished them on the spot.
For now, if nothing else happens, they'll end up fighting each other in seven days. If Seongsu Apartment makes a move first, something will happen before then.
I can just order Kim Ji-hee to extract some information about this place.
I headed up to pass through Seongsu Park.
If it's a large faction of about 200 people, they must have a base of that scale, and the number of zombies around it would be significantly reduced, so it should stand out.
I need to know where they are to at least ask them if they want to come over.
Waiting until Saturday is too long.
They might not show up again, so I'll go look for them while farming Level 2 zombies at the same time.
What should I farm today?
The lingering excitement from yesterday's pharmacy and adult toy farming was still strong, so I was quite looking forward to it.
Since there were so many shops tucked away in every alley, it was fun just looking around.
Kim Ji-hee had told me that accessory shops were trendy these days, and most of the items in them here were perfectly intact.
It just goes to show that everyone is focused on survival supplies; no one has the luxury of farming clothes or cute accessories amidst hordes of zombies.
So, this is actually the perfect time for me to farm.
Whether it's adult toys or pharmacies.
The pharmacy was left untouched because it was in an area with quite a few zombies, but if I can monopolize items that others aren't looking for yet, I won't have to struggle to find them later when I actually need them.
As I went past the park and closer to the Han River, I started seeing quite a few users.
Groups of people hunting zombies.
Watching them struggle so hard against mere Level 1 zombies was almost cute.
Is this how veteran players feel?
I briefly thought about helping them, but there was no point in meddling.
I had times like that too.
But in a way, those times had a certain romance to them.
The desperation of barely earning enough food for a single meal with the coins gathered from desperately hunting zombies.
If someone asked me to go back to that, I'd refuse, but for them, it's a literal life-or-death struggle.
I'm not enough of a piece of trash to pick a fight with people who are working so hard just to survive.
I was about to take a detour when another group appeared to pick a fight with the cute newbies.
"Hey. Who said you could hunt zombies in our territory?"
Six men appeared, wearing motorcycle helmets and armed with metal bats and knives.
The hunting group also had five people, but the difference in their armaments was stark.
One might say there isn't much difference if neither side has guns, but wearing motorcycle helmets and carrying properly farmed weapons meant they were well-adapted to hunting zombies—and likely wouldn't hesitate to kill humans either.
There was a clear difference between them and the people sweating bullets just to catch one or two Level 1 zombies.
"I'm getting to see a lot of good shows today."
When the apocalypse first started and I was hunting zombies, there was almost no one around, so I wondered if everyone except the people at Seongsu Apartment had died.
But it seems there were just no people around my place because they either died quickly or moved elsewhere. Seeing how things went when I sold food or looked for part-time jobs, it looks like everyone is hiding and surviving well enough somewhere.
That's why I'm seeing people more and more frequently now.
It also means the time has come where they can't just hide anymore and absolutely have to find food.
"...We'll leave."
"Who said you could? You have to spit out what you hunted before you go."
"What we just hunted here is all we have!"
"How are we supposed to know that?"
But then, the way people pick fights is pretty much the same everywhere.
They find some petty excuse to start trouble, then demand what they want.
The demands of the guys who came to pick a fight were quite simple.
"Hand over 60 coins. If you don't have it, pay with your body. You, in the back. There are six of us, so we'll do 10 coins a turn for you. We're short on time, so whether it's your hands or your mouth, just make us cum."
"You crazy..."
Reality is different from movies or novels.
Even in R-rated movies, showing the truly ugly underbelly of humanity hurts box office sales, so it only appears once in a while. But the reality of a zombie apocalypse is brutal.
Most people, not just a select few, are so driven by their primal desires that it's hard to tell if they're beasts or humans.
I don't really have room to talk since I live like that too, but...
But would pointing someone out so openly and demanding they put out be even conceivable in normal reality?
They can't even get angry upon hearing it.
Because they know the weapons those guys are holding are far more dangerous than zombies.
This is the textbook definition of 'holding someone at knifepoint.'
They're nothing but thugs.
"We'll give you... 60 coins..."
There are only two ways to respond to such thuggery.
Either you pull out your own weapons and charge, daring to see who dies first—which usually scares off the wannabe thugs who aren't actually real gangsters—
Or, like now, you just have to meekly submit to their extortion.
There were five of them on the receiving end, but since three of them were women, they probably figured they would lose if they fought.
I don't really want to think in sexist terms, but unfortunately, regardless of stats or anything else, it's just the harsh reality.
Once the survivors are filtered through the sieve of time a bit more, there will come a day when the elderly, children, and women won't fear adult men and might even beat them... but that time is not yet.
Even as they took the 60 coins and prepared to leave, licking their lips in disappointment, the helmets threw out one last vulgar offer.
"Hey, I'll give you 100 coins, so why don't you put out just once, you in the back? I'll give you food too."
"...Can we go now?"
"Fucking bitch. Playing hard to get."
Is she really that good-looking?
She's pretty, but not that pretty.
Watching the five of them walk away on the verge of tears, I followed behind the helmets.
It was a mindless stroll.
But one of the thoughts that crossed my mind as I followed them was this:
"That bastard's helmet looks pretty cool."