Chapter 201
Chapter 201
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: 90. Fox Game (5)
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I don't like D.S. Irae.
He gathered innocent people just to see one outcome and left them to die.
I won't condemn using humans as means in itself.
But someone who does that will always treat others as convenient tools to be used up whenever needed.
Yet an unexpected opinion came from that guy's mouth.
"Think about it. If you were a raider, would you have kept a gloomy-looking middle-aged man around for a year and a half, when he wasn't even a pretty woman or a cute kid from the original residents? You'd have killed him right away. If you needed info, a few days of beatings would get it all out of him."
His thinking matched mine.
I didn't want to kill that family either.
No, I couldn't find a reason to kill them.
That's why, knowing Fox Game would hate me for it, I did nothing and ended up getting chased out of his bunker like that.
"Plus, this Fox Game guy. His story kept changing."
D.S. Irae drew a gleaming weapon from his waist.
Shring—
A greatsword.
No, not quite a greatsword—it was fairly long with a curved blade.
A kukri.
The sturdy weapon used by mercenaries in the Himalayan mountains.
It was also standard close-range gear for American hunters.
Its moderate curve and balance gave it powerful cutting force despite its relatively short length and light weight.
I didn't know if he'd carried it before.
Probably—the weather had been cold then, and it was nighttime, so he'd been wearing thick clothes.
He spun the kukri in front of me with flashy moves.
With its sharply honed edge and hefty weight, it was a weapon that could easily sever a finger or two if mishandled, yet he wielded it without hesitation. It was clear he'd used it for a long time.
While I was briefly distracted by the kukri, D.S. Irae sheathed it at his waist and smirked.
"At first, he said they were from the same company, developing games together, but their relationship soured over disagreements. Then a month ago, he claimed they used old company personal info to track down and break into his bunker."
"When was the first contact?"
"Around when it started getting cold."
"When the cemeteries were popping up in Monster Park?"
"Before that. So before he started whining in front of us about how too many dead people were making it tough."
"……."
D.S. Irae glared at me.
"You got a similar offer, right?"
"Turned it down."
"Knew you would."
D.S. Irae glanced back at the bunker.
"So what's Fox Game's real game here?"
"Beats me. More than that, I can't figure out why he'd do something like this."
Fox Game was widely known as a good guy.
Even behind the mask of the internet, you could feel his human charm and warmth.
How much had he done for us?
It didn't add up.
The image we knew from online and the reality in front of us.
"He's broken too, probably."
D.S. Irae said.
I thought the same.
Honestly, what else could explain it?
And it fit best.
In this harsh world where everything's crumbling, how many people can keep their pure selves intact?
"Anyway, I've got a plan."
D.S. Irae stared straight at me.
*
When I first got the message from Viva Bot, I never imagined I'd go along with D.S. Irae's plan.
Now I was following it.
First step: I head back to the bunker.
"Fox Game, it's SKELTON. Forgot something. Can you open the door?"
The door opened, and Fox Game came out.
He wasn't showing it openly, but faint irritation clouded his weary face.
I approached and whispered to him.
"D.S. Irae's coming."
"What?"
"While I distract them, they'll slip in. Hide outside for a bit."
"S-SKELTON?!"
At this point, he was less the bunker owner and more like background.
I ignored him and headed to the cafeteria.
A single boy sat alone there, watching TV.
I glanced at the kids' show on screen, then asked the kid.
"Where are your parents?"
"In the workshop."
"Wanna come with big bro for a sec?"
I didn't want to resort to this, but just in case.
I took the kid hostage and went to the workshop.
Just one man inside.
"What's this about?"
He knew I was coming.
"Come quietly."
"What?!"
I shot a cold look at the kid.
The kid noticed and tried to pull away, but my hand gripped his shoulder tight.
Of course, I added a bit of pain to keep him quiet.
Squeeze—
I tightened my grip on his shoulder.
"Aaaah!"
I nodded at the man.
"Hurry."
The man took the kid.
The woman was in the security room, as expected.
She held an assault rifle, but upon seeing her husband and kid hostage, she surprisingly gave up resistance fast.
"What the hell are you thinking?"
"Not my call."
I lightly tapped the mic on the common radio frequency.
Soon, two guys entered the bunker with guns.
The security monitors clearly showed Fox Game greeting them.
"That bastard...!! I knew it! Fucking asshole!!!!"
The woman ground her teeth, then glared resentfully at her husband.
"I said we should've taken him out first!"
The man said nothing, just hung his head.
The slight misunderstanding about Fox Game cleared up a bit.
But I wasn't the judge here.
D.S. Irae entered the security room with Fox Game.
"M-Mom!"
The kid ran into the woman's arms with a scared face.
D.S. Irae looked at the family with ice-cold eyes and shook his head.
Me and Rokahun herded the family out at gunpoint.
The woman glared back at me with resentment.
"You're going to hell. You."
"……."
We dragged the family to the 5-meter corridor that had impressed me before when Fox Game followed.
"SKELTON. Sorry about earlier. I misunderstood."
"No, I feel bad for putting on that act."
"Where are you taking them?"
"Yeah, we'll handle it outside. Somewhere away from the bunker."
"Why?"
"Corpses attract mutations, and it'd ruin the view and air, right?"
"Oh, right. Give this to D.S. Irae for me!"
Fox Game handed me something.
Alcohol.
Not cheap whiskey, but decent-looking wine.
The cool temperature on the bottle said it'd just come from a wine cellar.
"Gotta go, busy."
"No, come back after! I'll treat you to the best food!"
"Keep the bunker door shut tight. Saw a chicken mutation lurking earlier."
"Oh, that guy! Got it!"
The door closed again.
Fox Game had exited stage left.
Rokahun's electric truck waited on the road, hidden on the hill.
We loaded the family in.
The woman stroked the kid's head nonstop to soothe his building sobs.
Rokahun drove, D.S. Irae rode in the back.
I followed on the motorcycle.
After some distance, the truck stopped.
"Sorry about this."
D.S. Irae, who'd looked like he wouldn't bleed even if stabbed moments ago, now smiled—as much as his lingering menace allowed—and spoke to the family.
"Straight to the point: the guy you were with asked me to kill you. But I have no intention of taking the job."
The man and woman stared at each other, dumbfounded.
"Th-then why drag us out here?"
The woman asked.
She was bolder, more proactive, and sharper than her husband.
A bit hot-tempered and hasty, but his gentleness balanced it, letting them survive this long.
Life isn't all about rushing.
In the suddenly shifted mood, D.S. Irae asked bluntly.
"If I send you back like this, you'll kill him, right?"
The couple couldn't answer easily.
"I value him and your lives equally. So I've got a proposal."
"Proposal?"
"Yeah. I'm building a small community. It's not much different from a bandit den right now—mostly guys, and the ethics might not sit right with you—but I'll fix that over time."
The man and woman looked confused, but D.S. Irae didn't seem to care much about their feelings.
"More than anything, at this development stage, adding family units feels right. Sustainable groups usually expand around families, don't they?"
"Wait, you can't just spring this on us."
The man pushed back hard this time, but our eyes were elsewhere.
Large wingbeats sounded.
Mutation chicken.
The one from earlier flapped toward us, pissed for some reason.
Maybe we'd invaded its turf.
D.S. Irae hopped off the truck.
Shring—
The sharp kukri came out.
"What are you doing?"
The man shielded his family and asked.
"As they say, seeing is believing. Only action will show you who I am."
D.S. Irae walked forward.
Toward an intelligent beast nearly ostrich-sized, bulkier and more muscular.
Call it a chicken, but that mutation was no different from Cretaceous dinosaurs.
The huge chicken flapped and screeched eerily.
A sound I'd never heard, probably from overgrown vocal organs altering its tone.
"D.S. Irae."
I called him.
He turned at my voice and smirked.
In that moment, I saw it.
The conviction in his eyes.
He didn't fear the mutation.
With just a kukri, D.S. Irae approached it.
The fight ended in a flash.
The raging monster charged at terrifying speed, slamming its double-shovel beak with brute force at D.S. Irae's head—but his kukri drew a messy arc.
Slash—
D.S. Irae staggered slightly, but his kukri cleaved the mutation's neck in one blow.
"……."
Insane strength.
Nothing else explained it.
"How about it, SKELTON? Think our captain's got it?"
Rokahun grinned from the driver's seat.
"Yeah."
It wasn't just strength.
D.S. Irae had conviction.
Confidence he wouldn't die against that monster, courage to stick to his predicted attack point even if off a bit, and skill to gauge distance and swing the blade of death in an instant.
Correction.
D.S. Irae.
He's no ordinary soldier.
By our old-school standards, he's top-tier in skill and guts.
Someone might say one example isn't enough for that assessment.
This isn't an average person's take.
This is the true evaluation from Korea's one and only golden fleece holder, Park Gyu.
Meanwhile, the death-defying show hit the family hard.
"My god……."
"What the hell is that guy? Killed it with a knife?!"
"D-Dad, that guy's no joke."
D.S. Irae wiped the blood off his blade with a broad leaf and returned.
"As you saw, I've got skills like that. To be honest, my community is safer than his bunker."
In this world, "safety" tugs hearts more than comfort.
D.S. Irae's show got immediate results.