Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Theme Park (2)
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Since I hadn't revealed my name, and neither had the siblings, I decided to classify them as Defender and Defender's Little Sister for convenience.
"Skeleton."
Defender's Little Sister called out to me in a small voice and beckoned me over.
When I glanced over, it was none other than the community forum.
She was composing a new post.
The mouse cursor hovered right in front of the button.
"No no no! Don't. Don't do it. Don't post that."
"...Why?"
"Why post nonsense like this?"
She pouted her lips, then suddenly opened Notepad and hammered away at the keyboard with glee.
"So what?"
"Your image isn't all that great either."
"..."
"Can't you just say it out loud?"
"Typing works, though?"
Who communicates with someone right in front of them using Notepad?
"She's always been like that, my little sister."
Defender said as he slipped a fully loaded magazine into his pocket.
I stared at him, wondering if there was some dark backstory, and he chuckled before continuing.
"Nah, nothing like that. She's just preferred tapping keys over talking since she was little."
Click.
I watched as he deftly locked back the bolt, checked the chamber.
"There were a lot of them. You planning to kill every last one?"
About twenty in red pants. Their gear was leagues above Colonel Choi's crew that had wandered into my turf.
All armed with assault rifles, and they even had an armored vehicle.
I'd have to check the individual soldiers' skills, but on numbers alone, they were a serious threat.
I was curious how he'd handle such a tough fight.
"Gotta start with the little shits, right?"
Defender said without batting an eye.
"If you kill the kids, won't a couple come sniffing around?"
He meant it.
He was dead serious.
"Pick 'em off one by one, thin their numbers. If they start swarming, flank 'em and wipe out the camp."
"What about the armored car?"
"My sister's a drone wizard. Master at dropping stuff from them. She's even killed with bricks instead of bombs."
His sister pointed both thumbs at herself proudly.
"That's as far as we've planned. What do you think?"
"Impressive plan, but no exit strategy."
"That's war for you. Especially against rabble like that—plans don't mean much. They scatter unpredictably, but set it up right early on, and they crumble on their own."
"Do you really have to kill the kids?"
"What, let 'em live?"
Defender smirked.
His sister spun her chair around from the monitor and stared at me intently.
Feeling the silent pressure, I spoke up.
"Wouldn't it be better to spare them?"
"Why should I? They're not my kids."
Defender glanced at his sister, who nodded with a strange smile.
He turned back to me.
"Or are you gonna take 'em, Skeleton, and raise them yourself?"
"...That's."
"If you're taking 'em and raising them, I'll reconsider."
Defender grinned, while his sister stared me down coolly.
The siblings were both asking what I'd do.
I thought for a moment.
How much does a kid weigh?
I have almost no memories of my own childhood and no experience raising kids, so I don't know exactly.
But their weight isn't light at all.
The fact that I couldn't easily answer that weighty question said it all.
"See? Can't answer, can you?"
Defender lined up his prepped weapons on the table and looked at his sister.
"What do you think, sis?"
She spoke in her signature whispery tone, like she'd been waiting.
"By this point, the moment they lost their parents, those kids were already dead. Bad luck. The world's not on their side."
In that instant, it clicked for me.
Defender wasn't a solo act—it was both of them.
No one's solo show.
The two siblings together created the horror flick known as the human hunter.
After a brief silence, Defender offered another option.
"We could ignore them. This place is steep, roads are crap—kids can't climb up. They stick to the roads."
"Then we don't have to fight at all?"
Avoiding unnecessary fights is my policy.
"Yeah, but we'll have to eventually. Can't hide forever. Plus, before that..."
Defender stared at the monitor.
"Our friends'll die."
His sister pointed at the screen and added.
"Our forum buddies."
"The community..."
He had a point.
Even if we posted warnings on the board, how many would have a serpent's heart like Defender?
Not even I was confident.
"Combat experience?"
I asked Defender.
He caught my drift and his eyes lit up.
"Gonna fight with us?"
I nodded.
"Gotta protect the community."
That was the biggest reason, but not the only one.
The red pants' methods were too vicious, and seeing Defender's condition and gear, I quickly calculated it might be easier than expected. Better to fight with backup than solo anyway.
Of course, I won't deny there was some shallow hypocrisy satisfaction mixed in.
Yeah, guess I've gotten older.
A drone lifted into the dark night sky.
Defender's Little Sister was piloting it.
"Sis is gonna smash that armored car. Those idiots always leave the hatch open."
I'd known since the Demian04 incident that Defender's combat prowess was no joke.
He kept his mouth shut, but probably ex-Hunter.
His ingrained habits and moves weren't far off from academy training.
Likely 17th or 18th class.
If it was that cursed batch where the future fled mid-term, it might explain his twisted personality a bit.
"That's where they keep the women locked up. Weakest defenses there. Guards inside, not out."
Defender was a meticulous killer.
He already had the enemy's layout, weak points, even little habits down pat.
Right before the fight, Defender shivered lightly.
"Man, feel that thrill running through me? This is the best part."
Through my earpiece, I heard his sister's ragged breathing.
She didn't say it, but she was buzzing with tension and excitement too.
"Shall we start?"
Defender gave a hand signal.
Seeing those combat signs after so long, I had a flashback—like crossing time and ocean to a Chinese battlefield.
Thousands of sprawled corpses, comrades blankly firing into ruins, Chinese troops yelling in unknown tongues as they torched bodies, medium mutations emerging one by one from the hazy ruins.
Above all, a slight headache and ennui.
"..."
Not just battlefield dangers put so many comrades to eternal sleep.
We were in a lax hell.
So slow and boring it made you yawn.
"Skeleton?"
Defender's voice snapped me back.
"Let's go."
The plan was simple.
Two trained killers with intel and prep ambush a disorganized mob at night.
The outcome was predictable from the start.
Like everything, chance could change fate, but I wouldn't let it kill me.
The red pants' base was an abandoned theme park.
No more rides spinning, but plenty of empty buildings, roads, and scavengable resources.
We approached the staff dorm where they stashed captured women.
Catching women's sobs and men's shouts, I spotted the entrance guards visually along the outer wall.
Defender raised his rifle.
I shook my head, drew my two axes, and advanced on the sentries.
No crouching or tiptoeing excessively.
Soon one guy noticed and turned toward me.
Thud!
The axe buried in his neck.
As he staggered to fall, another sentry turned.
"What?"
Thud!
Two bodies hit the dirt.
I stomped the temple, yanked the axe free, wiped the blood on their clothes. Defender approached, thumbs-up, whispering.
"Skeleton double kill."
No sooner said than his sister's excited voice crackled in my earpiece.
"Skeleton killed them? Huh? Two of them?"
Her voice was way louder and more vibrant than when talking face-to-face.
"I'll clear inside."
Defender drew his dagger.
"You good solo?"
"You're having fun out here. I'll handle it. Watch outside."
I nodded, scanned around.
Pale streetlight under an armored car.
Soon women's screams echoed, followed by Defender's calm voice.
Then he strolled out.
"The kids. They were there. Five of 'em."
"..."
"Two options."
"Two options?"
"Let the women run, cause chaos."
"And the other?"
"Quietly kill 'em as is."
"Go with the second."
"Aren't you playing the good guy too much?"
Defender's face hardened a bit.
"If you're gonna play good, might as well half-ass it?"
"Feels like we're already half-assing."
In hindsight, my way was smarter.
They clustered in one dorm, no proper watch or dispersal—just boozing or sleeping.
The old armored car parked out front seemed the root of their confidence.
We took out sentries, prepped sweep.
Faint drone hum from the night sky signaled go-time.
Defender lobbed a grenade in as we smashed windows, crossfiring from both sides.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
On cue, the drone dove on the armored car, dropping a grenade precisely into the open hatch.
Blast rocked it, and it lurched forward.
Driver probably floored it while dying.
Bang!
A few red pants inside tried countering from behind a table, but fire was spreading fast, smoke filling up.
All variables eliminated.
Just a yawn-worthy boring massacre left.
"Hey! Skeleton!"
Defender laughed big as a flaming red pants burst out.
"Not bad?"
Grinning ear-to-ear, he aimed true—the burning screamer flopped dead.
"Skeleton. You thought I was a joke earlier, huh? I know. Big sis sees everything."
Sis was hyped too.
She gunned down fleeing red pants with her Chinese drone like it was a game.
"Surrender! We surrender!"
A few red pants emerged hands-up from the smoking building.
Defender chuckled and lit them up; his sister's laughter sharpened.
Boom!
Distant explosion.
The rampaging armored car must've hit some park fixture.
I dismissed it as minor chance.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Blasts sent colorful flares skyward, bursting in radiant patterns across the night.
Fireworks.
A ton prepped in launchers from pre-war, triggered by accidental impact, shattering long silence with multicolored sparks.
"Whoa! Check this out!"
"Kyaaaaah!!!"
Watching the siblings squeal like kids, it hit me.
Maybe the red pants' atrocities didn't matter to them at all.
They just wanted to kill red pants—and achieved it thrillingly.
In that sense, this theme park fulfilled its purpose.
Visitors came to enjoy, and enjoy they did.
So thinking, I silently watched the miracle chance gifted us.
Playtime over. Time to settle up.
"What about these people?"
The surviving kids and women.
Price of shallow hypocrisy.
"Like I said, I'm not taking them. Can't."
Defender stared me down.
"...I."
A flurry of thoughts surfaced, but deep down I knew.
My gaze had locked on one outcome from start to finish.
I silently watched them stumble into the dark, clutching unfamiliar guns, glancing around.
One kid stared back blankly.
I decided not to think about their fate.
Click click.
Behind me, Defender snapped proof pics.
"Skeleton."
He approached, handing me something.
"What's this?"
It was a drawing.
Overly idealized handsome guy, straight out of a romance manga.
"Sis drew it."
Sure enough, pretty script below: "To Skeleton."
Come to think, kinda resembled me...?
"She said since you're not staying over anyway."
Defender sure reads people well.
Same for sis and bro.
"Not curious why I do this stuff?"
"Random self-reflection much?"
"I know you think I'm a psycho."
Defender lit a cigarette, smirking slyly.
His eyes chased the dying embers.
"This park. Came here as a kid with sis. Holding hands with Dad and Mom."
He exhaled white smoke into the night sky.
"What a pathetic dad."
"...Yeah."
His sister's voice came through the earpiece.
"We'll talk more when we're closer."
This time, Defender handed me a sheet of paper.
Unlike sis's heartfelt art, his was a crude voucher.
[Defender Summon Ticket]
"What's this?"
"Need help? DM me."
Defender waved, trudging into the dark.
"I'll go anywhere."
Then his sister's voice.
"Skeleton. Buddies from now on?"
Holding their drawing and voucher, I stood blankly awhile, gazing at the silent mountain, park, and sky.
Lots happened, but all I felt was fatigue.
The kind after a full day at an amusement park, heading home.
That night, Defender spammed the forum.
Thank misfortune or fortune, I didn't witness that atrocity live.
"Nuuuomi...!!"
I was busy fleeing from damn zombies!