Uninvited Guests (4)
After the gift came the bargaining.
“Oh, right away? What do you need?”
I had originally planned to gather all sorts of things. A mattress, blankets, two pillows… and probably a bunch of other stuff that would come in handy for living. If I could obtain them without the risk of facing zombies, variants, or other uncontrolled looters, it was pure profit. And Kang Jihyeong already had the basics of a merchant down pat.
“A mattress, blankets, two pillows… You don’t need sheets? You could just use the mattress, but if you want it to last, sheets are better.”
This looter knew exactly what his customers truly needed.
“Seeing that you want a mattress, are you planning to turn the vehicle into some kind of mobile base? In that case… hmm, how about installing a refrigerator inside?”
“…A refrigerator?”
“Yeah. An induction cooktop would be nice too. You won’t always be able to light a fire wherever you are… And it’d be good to mount a solar panel on the roof…. Hey, Yongtae! Choi Yongtae! Where the hell is that bastard? Go bring Yongtae over!”
Honestly, I hadn’t expected much. In fact, after receiving that gift, I wondered if he could really offer anything more. That was all my misunderstanding.
“Captain, if we remove a few of the mounting brackets inside, we could fit a refrigerator and induction cooktop. The cargo compartment is huge.”
“He says so. What do you think?”
“What’s the cost?”
“Why so formal between professionals? We can negotiate that slowly. Let’s get the goods first and think about it later.”
There were plenty of talented people here.
“We happen to have some new solar panels. We can mount those on the roof. Anything else you need?”
“Detergent, two extra pillowcases, and one spare blanket and sheet each would be good.”
“Taesik, go check the warehouse! Bring the highest-grade stuff!”
“Kang Ahyeon, do you need anything?”
“Body wash?”
“Body wash too.”
There was even an abundance of supplies. Watching all sorts of decent items pile up on the pallet near our vehicle lifted my mood considerably.
“We’ll install the refrigerator and induction inside, handle the wiring, and connect the solar panels. We’ll load them in ourselves, so just clear the space for now?”
“Do that. Hmm, but there’s still some balance left…. Anything else you need? Ammunition, maybe?”
“Then I’ll take whatever fits in an anti-materiel sniper rifle.”
“Ah, sniper rounds are pretty expensive, so one steel box is about the limit… How about regular rounds instead? Accuracy’s a bit lower, but the power’s the same. I’ll throw in a little extra.”
“That works.”
“Hey, go to the ammo depot and bring three more… no, four bundles.”
◈ Contains two steel boxes of 100 rounds each per box
◈ 12.7x99mm Standard Ammunition ×600
After gathering various daily necessities, it was time to pay the price. And by my standards, the price sounded quite reasonable. More than a thousand rounds of ammunition combined, an exoskeleton, an anti-materiel sniper rifle, a mattress, sheets, blankets, and pillows that would have required considerable effort to find in good or new condition. On top of that, things we wouldn’t have even considered installing without my sister earning extra points to learn the necessary skills.
Compared to all that, the expenditure was trivial. Ten standard-issue assault rifles we weren’t using, three assault rifles in poor condition, one completely broken one. Six .22 caliber powder rifles, thirteen military ammo belts, and sixteen magazine pouches. After handing over eight broken exoskeletons and two that were still somewhat usable, four remained. One X7, the Saint’s Shroud, my sister’s X8P, and the full-body reinforced suit X6 we had just received. For handing over useless junk and items that were excessive for just the two of us, it was a decent haul.
There was even a service thrown in.
“Looks like you don’t have any gun maintenance tools. I’ll throw some in as a bonus. I’ll toss in some spare parts too.”
They would be needed eventually. I felt satisfied watching the accumulating gun oil, tools, and parts. Kang Jihyeong then led me and my sister inside.
It was the principal’s office. On the second floor, a room with comfortable, dust-free chairs arranged like a reception area, complete with a low table and sofa.
“Go ahead, sit comfortably… Shall we talk?”
We sat down for a private conversation with Kang Jihyeong.
“First, I’d like to confirm something. Did you kill the President? Or was it your pretty little sister beside you?”
I glanced at my sister before answering.
“My sister did it.”
“Self-defense? Or…”
“Self-defense. The President pointed a gun at me first.”
“That’s unexpected.”
“Unexpected how?”
“Usually, if someone’s pointing a gun at you, it’s hard to kill them without getting hurt at all, right?”
Ah, that. Well, that was normal. A gun pointed at your head? If it had been my sister before she obtained the System, the moment he pulled the trigger, my head would likely have been blown apart too. That must have been what the President was thinking. At best, he probably assumed that if the only System users were the cult leader and Oh Jin-uk, their reflexes wouldn’t be that impressive.
And there was the matter of rationality too. He must have calculated that if my sister tried anything that put me at risk of death, she would act cautiously. Just like with the Serpent of Eden, overthinking had led to his defeat. In the first place, it was an impossible outcome without her elevated perception, agility, and shooting skills.
“She doesn’t look it, but she must be quite skilled.”
The gap between her appearance and her ability made Kang Ahyeon even more dangerous. That was exactly why I often used her that way.
What was surprising was something else.
“Yeah, I did think she seemed different. How should I put it… From her posture alone, it hit me right away like, ‘Oh, this girl is fucking strong.’”
It was that Kang Jihyeong’s eye for people was no ordinary thing. Even Kim Chae-hyun, who possessed the Nanggojisang trait, hadn’t seen through her and ended up dead. To run a den of thieves like this, you probably needed at least that much insight.
As I sat there in admiration, Kang Jihyeong spoke.
“Need anything else? I saw quite a few things inside your armored vehicle. As long as the price is right, I can get you just about anything.”
Straight to the main topic from the start. I glanced at my sister and met her eyes.
“I want to hear what’s happening outside.”
“Outside?”
“Yeah.”
A puzzled expression. One that said he didn’t understand. But Kang Jihyeong was quick on the uptake.
“Well, if that’s what you want…”
He didn’t ask why I was inquiring about something so basic, or what my true intention was.
“First… where should I start?”
“From the beginning.”
“From the beginning?”
“Yes.”
It was certainly an unusual request, but he didn’t press further. He rolled his eyes, organized his thoughts, and began.
“It started with a biochemical terror attack.”
The beginning itself was information I already knew.
“The perpetrators were never caught. More precisely, they couldn’t be caught. The weapon used in the biochemical attack was a modified aerosol spray device. It had multiple nozzles and was designed to spray simultaneously in several directions.”
The New Heaven Rapture Mission Church’s biochemical terror. I wasn’t sure whether he didn’t know the cult was behind it or was simply omitting it, but that was how Kang Jihyeong explained it.
“At the time, no one thought it was a biochemical weapon. There were no symptoms, though some people complained of breathing difficulties, but there were no serious signs. The problem came six hours later.”
What the cult had simply described as “it was done” and moved on from.
“The terror occurred during the crowded morning commute, so it happened simultaneously in multiple places. Offices, schools, restaurants, and even… government buildings. Dozens to hundreds of random assault reports flooded in, and the paramedics and police who responded to the scenes became infected. Some were bitten while trying to subdue them, others failed to subdue them entirely…”
Hearing about the situation at the time felt strangely unfamiliar. There was even information the cult had never come across.
“I don’t know how much of this is known to civilians, but… after the first infections began, the National Security Council was convened. They considered it the work of the New Heaven Rapture Mission Church and its affiliates and tried to respond quickly. The problem was—”
“The problem was?”
“They all died. Crushed inside the building.”
Kang Jihyeong picked up a tablet, fiddled with it for a moment, then turned the screen toward us. What appeared was a shaky photo that was hard to make out at first glance. But the moment I saw it, I knew.
It was a monster. A creature with countless red legs, wearing an entire building on its back like a hermit crab. A variant.
“After that—”
The explanation that followed was clear.
The President had gone missing. Just as I had guessed, the moment he sensed danger, the President had taken his personal helicopter straight to Exodus Arcadia. He never declared a state of emergency, which delayed the nation’s response. To make matters worse, those acting in his place while assuming he was dead had all become nutrients inside the variant.
The silver lining, if there was one, was that the Minister of the Interior had survived.
“That’s why in Seoul right now, the police and some soldiers who have rallied around the Minister of the Interior are struggling to maintain order.”
“…It would be dangerous to head up there right now.”
“Exactly. Recovery is less than half done, there are way too many people stranded, zombies everywhere you go, and looters all over the place.”
The further he went, the more it sounded like personal experience. How familiar he was with Seoul’s situation, the reference photos— it felt like he had either gone through it himself or had subordinates who had told him the stories.
“What about other places?”
“Pretty similar. Gyeryongdae has gone completely isolationist, and most other units are about the same. They’re taking in refugees from nearby cities and towns, and until the President’s death is confirmed, they won’t follow the Minister of the Interior’s orders. The US forces in Korea are even more complicated.”
He added one more thing.
“Don’t go around telling people you killed the President. There will definitely be units that come after you. If they’re stubborn and stupid, that is.”
Stupid. I looked at Kang Jihyeong in front of me.
“What about you?”
“Me? I’m wise.”
It was true. He had vaguely sensed the power my sister and I possessed and realized there was nothing to gain from antagonizing us.
The government had failed. The President had fled, and the situation had only grown worse because of the variants, the cult’s biochemical terror, zombies, and looters. The possibility of this country recovering? I saw almost none. If even I thought so, others would feel the same.
It had been roughly two months since the Rapture began. In such a situation, the sensible response from military units was to lock their gates, faithfully carry out their original duties, and act passively. But they would soon realize it too. The situation wasn’t going to improve, and from now on, it was every man for himself.
If things had reached this state in just two months—
“When your house is on fire, it’s fucking stupid to stay inside trying to put it out and die, right?”
Kang Jihyeong had realized that early.
“So I started a new household.”
And he had acted wisely. The moment he became certain that the law no longer functioned and the state’s hammer would never come down, he had taken immediate action.
“There were civilians the unit was taking care of. People from nearby villages and towns. Refugees. Useless people. They were just consuming food day after day.”
If the government had still been intact, there might have been some way to make use of them, but since it wasn’t, they were people with no other options.
“They were noisy, screaming and complaining. Asking what we thought people were, what a soldier’s duty was. So I shot them.”
Fragging, they called it. A captain normally didn’t command a unit of this size. The original officer in charge of this unit was dead. What remained were a capable leader and the looters clinging to him for scraps.
Kang Jihyeong’s rule was the contempt of the weak.
“Thanks to that, the bastards who used to just waste food are now farming or making themselves useful. They do construction… build buildings. And if they’re still useless? If they have no skills other than selling their bodies? Then they sell their bodies. For the people working hard everywhere else. Warming their souls. How about it? A fair contract, right?”
And the feeling I had listening to him was… not particularly good, but not entirely bad either. My brain knew it was wrong, yet also understood there was no other way. If my sister and I had been powerless, we would have become part of that so-called “fair contract.”
“Ah, that expression. I know it. I know. I know I’m a piece of shit. But I don’t bother hiding it.”
Kang Jihyeong was trash. A piece of shit, an undeniable looter. If we had come here weakened, if we hadn’t had enough power? We would have had our armored vehicle stolen, been killed, or captured and forced to live as slaves.
But that wasn’t the case. We had power. And Kang Jihyeong treated those with power with respect.
“And the ones who hide the fact that they’re pieces of shit are the real scum. You know that, right?”
I thought of the President. The ones who hid that they were pieces of shit— the President fit that description perfectly.
“Yeah, I suppose so. It’s rational.”
In exchange for protection, he demanded something. It was only natural. The world had gone to shit. Nothing came without a price anymore. Even the things I once thought were given freely, if you looked closely, demanded intangible or tangible compensation.
“Right?! Wow, I never thought you’d understand. Honestly, I was nervous you might attack me, you know?”
Kang Jihyeong, whose Busan dialect crept into his speech even as he forced himself to speak standard Korean. As long as we had power and were useful, this guy wouldn’t betray us. And that dry transactional relationship felt more comfortable to us than any other.
In this fucked-up world, the only one I could trust without expecting anything in return was Kang Ahyeon.
Kang Jihyeong is extremely pleased that you have become a new customer.
I asked while looking at the Gamilbokgeom notification floating in the corner of my vision.
“Can we stay here for a while?”
A short rest before deciding on our next destination.
“Hm? Of course! Just say the word if you need anything! I’ll treat you to the full course!”
We decided to enjoy what we rightfully deserved.