100. Raider Group (1)
June 26th, dawn.
A dark night.
I flew through the quiet sky.
Flying over Cheongju, where the lights were still on, and heading upward.
Since I didn't drag a vehicle and came with just my body, no one could see me in this dark sky.
Even if they did, they'd think it was something else, not a person. Who would think someone is flying around?
'About 40 minutes, I guess.'
To Chungju... it's doable now.
A round trip of about 1 hour and 20 minutes is manageable.
It would be dangerous if it took any longer, though.
Our base can hold out for about 40 minutes.
'The weather is fine, too.'
It's early summer, so it's sweltering.
It's actually refreshing to be flying.
Our base is at the point where we're working in short sleeves, so that says it all.
'......'
And the change in weather has also adapted to the Infected.
'They've become more active.'
I expected it to some extent in spring, but their movements have become freer.
It means the cold winter weather had restricted the Infected to some extent.
The Sentient cluster moving inside downtown Cheongju below was just like that.
I had seen the battle between the Sentient cluster and the IN Company personnel at Future Girls' High School in Cheongju before.
Their movements were definitely different from back then.
Despite it being night, unlike the Infected in the previous winter, there were many who were awake.
Lit-up apartments.
Swaying Walkers and Runners.
I passed through Cheongju while watching the sleeping Infected.
For starters, the right side of Cheongju—the place where I had wandered around for a long time—didn't seem to have any groups.
A quiet extinction.
Well, if I walked around with Seol-hwa and So-young, I'd find people, but... I don't think those people would have the abilities I need.
Now is not the time to waste energy.
I passed through Cheongju.
Because passing through the right direction in a straight line would be the fastest.
#
Like that,
I was passing through Naesu-eup, northeast of Cheongju.
I narrowed my eyes, looking at the rooftop of the medium-sized mart in front of me.
I could accept that there were people.
The problem was that people were tied up and hanging from some sticks?
Naked men and women were lined up and hung, and seeing something I'd only ever seen on Mexican news in real life was pretty grotesque.
'What the.'
I'd never seen warlords or any raider group do this shit.
I was planning to go to Chungju to find a Communication ability user and new warlords, but this caught my eye too much.
'Is it a new Infected?'
That could be it.
Hunters kill people and hang them up, after all.
Well, I can just go and find out. I headed toward the medium-sized mart, the name is...
'K-Mart, is it?'
I landed on the rooftop.
ㅡThud
Only the sound of my feet touching the ground could be heard on the rooftop.
Unexpectedly, there was no one on the rooftop except for the tied-up people.
To be precise, they weren't people, but corpses.
Most seemed to have died recently, but their condition wasn't very good. Regardless of gender, there were signs of sexual abuse.
The women were full of dried semen, blood, and wounds in their privates and anuses,
And the men had signs of violence and wounds on their penises and testicles.
Well, those were the young men and women, and those middle-aged or older were mutilated even more severely. It seems they couldn't get any sexual gratification, so they just resorted to violence.
Looking at this, it was hard to call it the work of Infected.
Infected would just kill them; they wouldn't do this shit.
If there were sexually abusive Infected, it might be possible, but I've never seen such bastards.
'Dead, and dead.'
It means someone killed them and hung them here for display.
I wonder if there's something inside the mart.
ㅡCreeeak
I opened the rooftop door and headed inside.
#
The smell.
It smells a lot, but it didn't seem like anyone was here.
The things that had been displayed inside the mart had long since disappeared, and the floor was full of trash, corpses, and blood.
However, there were no Infected, and only their traces remained, which meant someone had come here and killed the Infected.
'There are bullet holes, though.'
It would be more accurate to see these as revolver rounds that police carry rather than rifle bullet holes.
Anyway, it's a situation where there are plenty of human traces, but no actual people.
'Is it for display?'
Come to think of it, if you enter Naesu-eup, this mart is clearly visible.
If you hang people up there, it would be perfect for showing off or as a warning.
Of course, if there were Infected, that would be useless, but there don't seem to be any strong Infected around here.
It seems like a raider group, but it's definitely right to check them out.
They seem like bastards who found their own way to live 6 months into the apocalypse.
Since we can't leave these things in our front yard.
I went outside.
#
I floated into the air and looked around.
Looking for traces of people.
Since doing something like that suggests a group, it seemed like I could find them easily enough.
As I circled inside Naesu-eup, I found out where they were and what kind of bastards they were.
A village spreading out next to the Naesu-eup logistics center as the center.
A backyard that I couldn't tell if it was a pension or a house.
ㅡ1@$!
ㅡ1@$!
Three men of unknown age, giggling and smoking cigarettes in front of that.
They were harassing a woman they had tied up, and the woman's condition wasn't very good.
If you were to turn the word 'wasted' into a person, I think that would be exactly her state.
Her face and body were full of bruises, and she was gasping as if she were about to die.
One man slapped the woman's cheek.
Then the woman shut her mouth tight.
Then the men took out their dicks and started fucking the woman excitedly.
Watching them, I moved to the rooftop of the logistics center where the village was clearly visible.
And I grasped the surroundings.
A few people were standing guard in front of the village. It was something like a night watch, but unlike other places, it seemed like they were only set up formally.
One man standing guard was dozing off, and one man was smoking.
The other side was the same.
There was a building like an administrative office on this side, but the two men inside were just sleeping.
Two entrances where red lights could be seen.
'Area Surveillance?'
I don't know what kind of bastards they are. They didn't look like they were farming or doing anything around there.
Because the village itself is attached to the logistics center, so there is no farmland itself.
I could at least understand Choi Hyuk's group where Jin-woo used to be. Because they were looking at the future and trying to use people to farm while looting logistics centers or marts.
'I don't get it.'
How are they planning to live?
What are they going to do when the logistics center supplies run out?
Are they going to live by just eating preserved food?
What about the Infected?
And there's no guarantee that the preserved food will be fine, either.
It seems like there are no Hunters or Abominations around here in Naesu-eup.
Well, I can just ask.
I headed to the place I saw earlier.
The place where three men were fucking one woman.
ㅡSplat
ㅡSplat
I could hear the sound of fucking from the rooftop above the house, too.
"Ugh... ugh."
"Hoo. Hoo."
Sex wasn't anything special.
Men taking turns with a woman whose eyes were dead, and filming it like a video.
Why would they want to stick it in where someone else already has? It's disgusting.
I detached the metal around me and restrained them.
"....!!!"
So they couldn't do anything.
And I unlocked the balcony door and went inside.
It seemed like someone would be inside, but there was no one.
I went further inside and slammed the three men and one woman into the wall.
The woman looking at me with eyes that didn't understand.
The men looking at me with eyes mixed with hostility and fear.
I opened my mouth.
"I have something I'm curious about, so you'd better answer well if I let you go. Unless you want a hole in your head."
Of course, the answer was different.
Because one man broke the metal restraint with his own strength.
"What is this little shit doing right now..."
A hole was punched in the man's head.
#
The man who died in an instant.
The men looked at each other.
I opened my mouth.
"You there, tell me what your ability is, starting from the left."
"Uh... what?"
The man's head was punched through again.
The only ones left were one man and one woman.
The man was frowning, and the woman was somewhat dazed. It felt like she didn't understand the current situation.
The man kept his mouth shut.
However, that didn't mean he was just staying still.
The man who broke the restraint in an instant.
"Ughhh!"
The man screaming.
But at that moment, his head was punched through.
ㅡTap tap tap
At that moment,
The sound of a man coming down from upstairs.
"Hyung-nims! What's that noise...! Huh?"
I restrained the man.
No, I tried to restrain him.
Until the man suddenly slammed his head into the floor.
#
A funny bastard.
I didn't let my guard down and restrained the man's body.
Even his mouth.
Even so, the man stayed still.
"You."
"......"
The man looking at me with wide eyes.
He looks like a total sycophant.
"If you want to follow these guys, try saying something else, otherwise, only answer what I say. I'm going to free your mouth now. I'll take it as an agreement if you say yes."
I freed his mouth.
"Yes, yes."
The man answering snappily.
"Good. I have a lot of questions. These guys, and the people here, and the people dead on K-Mart over there. Summarize it for me."
#
The man talked well.
Not that I was going to keep him alive, though.
Working after setting up a fly-by-night company in Cheongju.
A man named Lee Yoon-hoo who had a Speed ability and the gang that followed him.
The funny thing was that these bastards were the bosses here.
Well, fuck, that's why they were openly fucking women at night.
I looked at one of the corpses with a hole in its head and asked.
"Is this guy Lee Yoon-hoo?"
"Yes."
"What about these guys?"
"They are each right-hand men. One is Restraint, one is Arm Enhancement."
"And this one is Speed?"
"That's right."
"What about you?"
"I am Area Surveillance."
Surveillance.
I know what kind of ability that is.
"What's your compatibility?"
"I remember it being 70 point something!"
So that's how it is.
"Turn that off."
"Yes!"
The man turning it off immediately.
The surveillance visible in front of me turned off.
"Turn it back on."
"Yes."
I guess it's real.
I tilted my head toward the woman.
"What about her?"
"Uh... I don't know."
"So that's how it is. Well, tell me again. You guys."
They were punks who weren't good to begin with, meaning they were guys connected to local gangsters.
Wow, so Cheongju had gangsters too?
That's something I learned for the first time.
Anyway, they ran away to other business sites to avoid Abominations and Infected after the apocalypse.
That was the distribution and livestock business here in Naesu-eup.
"What, gangsters do distribution too?"
"T-these days, they mostly work outside."
Of course, the place they came to was devastated by the Infected.
Lee Yoon-hoo was a Speed ability user. It means he could clear out Infected, like weak Walkers and Runners, in an instant.
And the bastards who occupied the logistics center and the distribution company building were living here.
Not looting, but living.
And they were even doing a meat business.
Wow, doing business in a ruined world. Distribution/Livestock.
"What kind of business are you doing?"
"We're raising pigs!"
"Raising pigs works?"
"Feed and such are enough if supported... and as for raising them, we can raise them with Taming ability."
"Pigs work?"
"There are already some. It's much easier with Taming. Also, pigs grow in 6 months. We can also butcher the ones that are already there..."
"But where do you get the feed supported from?"
It wasn't a captured person, but one of the gangsters had a Taming ability.
Feed was being supported from elsewhere.
"Chungju and Cheonan Jeungpyeong. We supply meat to the warlords there, and they support us with feed."
"What about the people you hung up earlier?"
"That's... an example. If the people we captured resist, or we don't like them, we do that. If they talk back, or don't listen, or resist. We also use it for the purpose of making people not come here after seeing this from the outside."
"And sometimes fuck the women you like?"
"...Yes."
"Well, that's enough, you said warlords."
"Yes. But recently, the Cheonan Jeungpyeong side has been cut off. I heard something happened, but I wasn't high enough to hear about it."
"How do you get supported there? By truck?"
"Yes. Black trucks and military trucks, they come by land, or they come by ability."
...Black truck?
"Is it IN Company?"
"Yes?"
"Is it an IN Company truck?"
"I'm not sure. They're all soldiers..."
I had to see this for myself.
Well, whatever.
"You get support by ability? How? By Subspace?"
"No. There is a Portal ability user in Chungju. They give us goods at a set location."
There's a Portal?
A Portal?
The fuck, the portal I know?