17. Antlion Mart (3)
The sizzling smell of roasting meat hung thick in the air.
Being underground, the smell wouldn't dissipate easily, and these bastards had started grilling meat to eat.
The reason was simple. A simple reason: "Let's eat the meat fast before it goes bad."
Actually, they had a point.
The mart's refrigeration was still running without issue. But meat is food with an expiration date.
On top of that, there was no telling how long the electricity would last. So their judgment that they needed to eat the meat quickly was correct.
The problem was that watching it was pure torture.
I was chewing on biscuits while those bastards were grilling meat.
And the smell was wafting over like crazy. Goddamn it.
Why does meat smell so good?
Honestly, before those bastards started grilling, I hadn't thought much of it.
Just something like: ugh, they're grilling meat in a basement like this? What morons.
But once the meat started cooking, the whole situation changed.
All I could do was mutter fuck, fuck, and chew my biscuits. Like a total loser.
Should I just kill them? Kill them all and eat that meat?
If the reason for murder was meat, that would be legendary. But eating that meat would probably taste fucking amazing.
Still, I had to hold back. I'm a civilized person, after all.
So I set the biscuits aside and chewed on jerky this time. To at least feel some meat flavor.
Those guys were wolfing down meat and washing it down with soju.
Impressive bastards. Drinking when they had no idea who might show up and when. Lunatics.
Guys cracking open soju bottles while saying the kind of shit drunk drivers say: "Hey, hey. A drink or two is fine, you fucker."
I felt both contempt and admiration at the same time.
Usually people like that died first. It was a death flag. One of the top three ways men got themselves killed.
Actually, come to think of it, there was no reason to keep these bastards alive.
The laser guy who originally held this spot was dead.
So their role was basically over. Better to just kill them and take the Coins.
But if I did that, the mart would be empty again. And huddling in a place like this didn't suit me.
So I was keeping them alive. Until just before they gathered enough Coins to spend.
After finishing the meat, the guys cackled and played rock-paper-scissors.
Then the one who lost grumbled and cleaned up what they'd eaten. The other two went over to the two bound women with nasty grins.
Each grabbed a woman by the hair and dragged her off to a separate spot, then got straight to business.
The woman's pants were pulled off, and the man wet his fingers with spit, shoved them inside her cunt, fingered her a few times, then pulled out his cock and started pounding.
The other side was more or less the same.
How should I put it.
It was unpleasant. More than turning me on, it put me in a bad mood.
A woman grimacing and a woman crying. A man slapping her and telling her to shut up. A man panting like a dog and moving his hips.
It was a provocative scene, but I didn't want to keep watching.
This was probably because of self-loathing. Since I'd done the same.
I turned around, took the moving walkway up to the first floor, and left the mart.
I just wanted to get out. What I do doesn't matter, but watching others do it is hard.
Since I was out anyway, I went to the hospital to check on the people I'd tied up.
Three still alive. The water bottles noticeably emptied.
Maybe these bastards would be better off dead. Rather than existing like this.
Or not? Maybe it's better to cling to a sliver of hope and stay like this?
I don't know. And I don't particularly want to know.
I refilled their water and came back out.
Then I thought once more about this condition on my skill.
A person who resents me. It was a more unpleasant condition than I'd thought. If it weren't for this one thing, it would've been a much more convenient and excellent skill.
Well, what can I do. For now, I just have to use it.
There's no guarantee a better skill will come along. So to meet the condition, even by force, I have to keep those bastards alive.
As I was heading back to the mart like that, I spotted a group of people.
Ten men, all male. Ages ranged from their twenties to their fifties.
They scanned their surroundings and headed for the mart entrance, and one of them stepped forward, grabbed the shutter, and yanked it straight up.
Abnormal strength. Seeing that, it was clearly a skill. Probably something that makes you stronger.
Anyway, having opened the door like that, they went inside without hesitation.
No, what kind of nerve is that? Why are they acting like that?
They must have something to rely on. But can you really be that bold?
As if familiar with the place, they headed straight for the moving walkway down to the basement. So I watched them with great interest.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they clashed.
How would it turn out? This is getting fun.
The guys in the basement had a near-perfect barrier. They had Electric Shock too. As for Blindness... I wasn't sure.
What could these people have? For starters, they probably don't know who's down there.
If I followed like this, I wouldn't get a proper view of the clash.
So I ran ahead, got in front of them, and went down the moving walkway to the basement.
Something I could do because no matter how much I ran, I made no sound.
Naturally, the guys below couldn't notice me either. So I went down and found a decent spot.
The people coming down the moving walkway.
And the guys below heard it too.
The three exchanged glances, then gathered near the shield guy and stared toward the moving walkway.
Eyes like they were eyeing prey. A posture that seemed to say: come on down.
The people coming down frowned and sniffed. They'd probably caught the smell of meat.
And that smell wasn't one you'd normally find here. So they slowed their descent and tensed up.
They do have some caution. The basics are there.
But since they were out in the open, they were obviously at a disadvantage.
I was curious how they'd overcome that disadvantage. What kind of skill did they have?
And I found out soon enough.
"Huh!"
The people coming down all flinched at the same time. And simultaneously squeezed their eyes shut.
And at that same moment, one guy vanished like smoke. The others ducked down quickly.
The electric-shock guy below wore a panicked expression. Then he urgently gestured for the other two to fall back.
Judging by the situation, he'd used his electric shock. But instead of passing out, everyone just flinched.
But didn't they flinch at the same time? What's that?
Then, behind the three who were falling back, the guy who'd vanished like smoke appeared and kicked one of them in the head.
With a crack, the electric-shock guy went down.
With a shout, the other two tried to grab the smoke guy, but he vanished like smoke again.
Meanwhile, one of the people coming down the moving walkway threw something.
It flew at tremendous speed, precisely toward the guys below.
But it hit the barrier and bounced off with a clang. Looking at what fell, it was a stone. Just an ordinary pebble you could see anywhere.
The situation grew chaotic.
The electric-shock guy was down, so the shield and blinding guys had nothing they could do.
The blinding guy was clearly using his skill, but the people coming down the moving walkway ignored it and charged straight at the shield and blinding guys.
"Aaaagh!"
So the shield and blinding guys tried to flee in a hurry. But suddenly their bodies locked up with a jolt, and they stopped dead in place.
That ended it.
The people from the moving walkway reached the shield and blinding guys, who couldn't move a muscle, and swung their weapons without hesitation.
But the weapons were blocked by the shield.
Even with his body frozen, the shield activated faithfully, and no matter how many people swung weapons and threw punches, everything was blocked.
"What the hell!"
"What is this!"
"Is there no way? 201! Does that thing block punches too?!"
They'd caught them but couldn't finish them off.
But the man called 201 threw a few punches at the air, frowned, snapped his fingers once, and then grabbed the blinding guy by the neck.
The man offered no resistance as 201 seized him by the neck. Seeing that, 201 grinned and tightened his grip.
"Gurk."
And just like that, the blinding guy's neck snapped and he died. Ah, I'm not certain he died, but if he survived having his neck snapped like that, that would be astonishing too.
"Got it!"
Then he grabbed the shield guy's neck this time. At that, one man shouted urgently.
"W-wait! Let me do this one!"
"Ah! Right. 411. You do it."
Then the man called 411 grabbed the shield guy's neck.
But instead of snapping it, he strangled him. His arms trembling, he held on for a long while, and then the shield guy's head lolled to the side.
"Done?"
"Yes! Done!"
"Coins? How many?"
"27!"
"Whoa. He was a vicious one. So now 411 can get a skill too! How many did you get, 201?"
"Me? I got 42."
"Damn. That's insane. How many people did he kill?"
Then they looked at the downed electric-shock guy.
This time another man stepped up and strangled him to death.
The three died with almost anticlimactic ease.
Right. The barrier had looked decent, but it wasn't enough to feel safe. So they deserved to die.
"Over here! Here! There are people!"
And soon they discovered the two captive women.
So I watched them with some interest.
Two women, captured and bound. They were fairly good-looking too.
So what would these guys do with two women like that? Would they rescue them like gentlemen? Or would they have other intentions?
The men exchanged glances. Then soon wore lecherous expressions.
"Uh. No way..."
"You never know. These women could be with them. So we can't just untie them carelessly. We need to investigate first. You know what I mean?"
A man who looked to be in his late thirties stepped forward and said that.
That bastard's expression was a sight to behold.
What he was thinking, what he was about to do—it was obvious. I didn't need him to say it.
"I understand. But I won't be doing it."
The man who'd said "no way" said that and backed off.
Then the man in his fifties and two other men also quietly stepped back. As if they wanted no part in it.
"Yeah? Got it. Everyone go grab what you need first. We'll be done soon too."
"But we need to stay near me..."
"Don't worry. There doesn't seem to be anyone else here besides these guys, so what's the worry."
"Hah."
"So go take care of business. We'll take care of some business too."
At that, the man shook his head and backed off. As did the other three who'd said they wouldn't do it.
And the remaining six started playing rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go first.