Chapter 83: The Reality Borne by Justice
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 83: The Reality Borne by Justice
Oh Se-i didn't particularly like this place.
Compared to the multiplex, of course, it had seemed nice at first.
But ever since she rejected Seo Se-hu, who had gone out of his way to hit on her and seduce her, she had been paired up with people weaker than herself and sent to places where her life was in daily jeopardy. The sheer pettiness of it was so blatant that she despised it.
She had hated that kind of thing from the very beginning.
Because she was a woman. Just because she was a woman.
Having grown up watching her father, Oh Yoon-seop, who had been an honest soldier since her childhood, Se-i wanted to live like him. She wanted to become a soldier just like her father.
That was why she worked harder than anyone else, and she had no desire to become a soldier famous only for her looks.
Yet, the moment she became a soldier, her appearance became the talk of the town.
But putting those trivial past details aside.
Even when she faced death and ended up having sex with a strange man in exchange for her life, she hadn't felt much aversion because of her desperate urge to survive.
The saying that people can feel when their time has truly come was no lie.
Se-i had genuinely felt that she was dying.
Whether she was infected or not, the high fever and agony radiating from her bite wound had scorched her entire body all day long.
So, if she was going to die anyway, what did a little sex matter?
Once dead, she wouldn't even be able to feel resentful about having sex with a stranger or giving away her first time, so she had just accepted it.
But now that she was alive...
Setting aside her gratitude toward the man who saved her, she didn't like his actions.
More than that, she hated seeing her father working so hard under such a man.
Se-i had said to Oh Yoon-seop:
"Dad. Don't worry about Mom and me. Just act according to your principles."
"Se-i. This is my principle now."
"It's not right."
"The world's definition of 'right' has changed."
On the surface, there wasn't much wrong with it.
In a way, gathering faction members and taking care of them was understandable.
She knew all too well what had happened to the Seongsu Multiplex after blindly gathering faction members without a plan.
However, the closer she got to the core of the operation, the more her dissatisfaction grew.
They said it was the man's ability, but food flooded into the warehouse in overflowing quantities every single day.
Even though countless people came daily to buy it, paying exorbitant prices relative to the food they actually had, the supply just kept coming and coming.
Not only was there a massive surplus, but at this rate, they would soon run out of warehouse space.
The only people who knew this were the man, a woman named Kim Ji-hee, and Se-i, who helped with the work.
With this much food, they could at least distribute it for free to the members of their faction.
Instead, he strictly divided them into classes and grades to control them.
Dozens of people who couldn't afford a single meal because they lacked 10 Coins came and went every day.
While ingredients rotted away in the warehouse, he never once considered offering a discount.
She was bombarded daily with pleas to do something about the membership prices, if nothing else.
Dealing with people was exhausting.
Especially when they appealed to her emotions.
Seeing how coldly Kim Ji-hee rejected them, despite her appearance, made Se-i realize that birds of a feather truly flocked together.
Her mother wasn't that kind of person either, but here, she strictly focused on her work.
She turned a blind eye and ignored them.
It felt like the world was spinning out of control.
The mother and father she knew...
Seeing the very people she had looked up to and learned from act this way made her feel all the more lonely.
That was why she did it.
Even if it's just me, I have to stand for justice.
It was only a tiny fraction of the food that was rotting away anyway.
Even if she couldn't give it to just anyone...
Couldn't at least a little bit go to those who desperately needed it?
Children had to eat.
Even in war, they said children weren't targeted.
But Se-i had now seen the raw, ugly truth hidden beneath that sense of justice.
A faction made up entirely of children.
Children who used their youth to gather Coins and food without giving anything in return.
And beyond that, children who betrayed goodwill and committed evil.
It was a shock.
"You have to be punished, right?"
Se-i knew she had done wrong.
But she still disliked the man.
Even so, she couldn't refuse him.
Not only did she lack the strength to resist, but she wasn't the type to blindly oppose him just for the sake of opposing.
Knowing how to admit one's mistakes was something her father was good at, too.
It was a mistake.
She had given it away thinking it was for those who were struggling more and truly in need.
She had no choice but to admit that they were not the weak, helpless victims she thought they were.
"You need to wake up."
Yet, his words—spoken as if he had known all along that this would happen—still repulsed her.
She wanted to push him away.
Her mind knew she could just reject him forcefully, but she couldn't bring herself to bite down on what was sliding in and out of her mouth.
She couldn't let her parents suffer because of her mistake.
Refusing to give the man the reaction he wanted was her final shred of pride.
She knew that the man wanted her to submit.
He felt a thrill of pleasure when he pinned a woman beneath him and she finally accepted him.
So, she would never give him that.
Even as the semen slid down her throat.
She spat out the remaining cum in her mouth, making it clear that this was an act she had never wanted.
The man didn't care.
And so, her hell began.
---
"Don't feed her, and register her on the membership blacklist. Naturally, she's barred from using any of Paradise's systems."
"...Understood."
I called Oh Yoon-seop and Lee Mi-sook over to notify them.
Lee Mi-sook had already witnessed what happened, and Oh Yoon-seop had returned immediately upon receiving my message, hearing the details while I was away visiting the orphanage.
There was no need for further threats.
"Fourteen days."
Purely emotional punishment is never a good idea.
Well, at my current level, it wouldn't really matter if I did, but having clear justifications and punishments when running a faction keeps the subordinates in line.
If I wanted to punish someone emotionally, just killing them would suffice.
I set a timeframe.
I told them not to help her, but they would still be anxious.
Even so, knowing that helping her would put the entire family in danger, they probably wouldn't dare to.
Instead, I tossed a Level 2 Vaccine to Oh Yoon-seop.
"I heard you cleared a Level 2 Dungeon. Good work."
"...Thank you."
The dungeon Oh Yoon-seop cleared had yielded a 10% reward for me.
The Coins were barely enough to tickle my throat, but I received 1 Point—the minimum guaranteed reward point—so I rewarded him for it.
This would probably serve as a spare life for Se-i during her fourteen-day exile.
I gave it to him, pretending to turn a blind eye to that extent.
Se-i returned, only to be kicked out.
It was a punishment.
Once she was out there surviving on her own, she would eventually snap out of it.
If not, well, I'd just have to lock her in a room and use her as a daily cum dumpster.
As Se-i left with basic gear and weapons, her steps didn't seem particularly heavy.
She was a soldier, after all.
She must have learned a thing or two from her father, and with her Level 3 Combat Skill, she should have no trouble dealing with the weakened zombies within the Safe Base's range.
But the problem wasn't the zombies.
Even if she had some Coins she'd previously received from Oh Yoon-seop or Lee Mi-sook...
Even if she killed zombies to earn Coins...
Securing food and shelter in a world without a Paradise Membership wouldn't be easy.
Even if she had plenty of Coins, it would be the same.
The righteous world she envisioned.
The weak are good.
We must help the weak.
What would happen to those beliefs once she accumulated experiences of being scammed and nearly subjected to terrible things by those very people?
I was highly curious.
Besides, the Safe Base Communication System had a very interesting feature.
While it allowed calling or messaging membership members, it also had a highly entertaining function that let me view things from their perspective.
Checking in on her from time to time, I saw her enjoying an adventure that reminded me of a zombie apocalypse newbie.
Every single day was a struggle.
In particular, being a beautiful woman—a trait that starving men would go absolutely wild for—was something she had to guard against even more than zombies.
The same went for the middle-aged women who approached her with warm, gentle smiles.
The grandfathers who comforted her with wistful eyes as if looking at their own granddaughters.
The middle-aged men who genuinely worried for her, saying she reminded them of their daughters.
And even the girls her age who urged her to go with them, claiming they understood her pain.
Honestly, does goodness even exist in a zombie apocalypse?
I don't think so.
This belief of mine has never been shattered once throughout my 100,000 hours.
Of course, there were a tiny handful of cases that could have shaken that belief.
But that was all.
Have you heard of the tip of the iceberg?
You don't overturn the other 99% of generalized cases just because of a protruding part that doesn't even make up 1%.
As the days went by, Se-i seemed to feel it too.
On the seventh day.
After following a middle-aged woman who lured her with food, claiming only women were gathered there, Se-i barely managed to escape when two large men suddenly burst in and assaulted her while she slept. Now, she sat huddled in the middle of an alleyway, crying.
She had absolutely nothing left, and her clothes were so torn that her skin showed through.
She hadn't even thought to grab her weapons, and she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten a proper meal.
In front of her, I tossed a hamburger that had come as a Special Meal.
"..."
Her refusal to pick it up even in this state, purely out of pride, was actually commendable.
Of course, her eyes never left the hamburger.
I preserved her pride for her.
"Urgh..."
Subduing a woman who had no strength from starvation and had already exhausted herself escaping earlier was child's play.
Though it would have been the same even if she were in perfect shape.
Like a man crazed with lust, I pinned her against the alley wall, pulled down her pants, and began pounding into her.
I pulled her struggling hands behind her back, pinning them, and lightly choked her with one hand to make her resist even more.
Se-i's specific turn-on points were always so clear, no matter how many times I saw them.
I gave her a piece of advice.
"You see, justice isn't about getting played by people weaker than you and masturbating to the thought of how nice you are. Justice is having the power to do whatever you want. Like me. In the end, I was the one who destroyed the orphanage when you couldn't do a damn thing, and I was the one who saved those women, wasn't I?"
"And I'm the one earning the Points, too."
After covering her in semen—once inside, once on her face, and once on her chest—I left.
If I had intended to end the punishment in seven days, I wouldn't have set it to fourteen in the first place.
Along with the hamburger, I left her a Level 2 Dagger as a "lay fee" before heading back.
On the fourteenth day.
Se-i returned.
"I'm sorry. I will never abuse my authority again."
Her eyes were filled with venom.
The eyes of a survivor.
"Amusing."
Instead of saying she wouldn't do it again, she said she wouldn't abuse her authority.
But it didn't matter.
Because Se-i had found her usefulness, even if she didn't realize it herself.
I wondered how long her usefulness would last.
Leaving her family behind as they rejoiced over their reunion, I headed toward Seoul Forest.
It was time to choose a site for my new home.