Only Human Bastards Beg to Be Killed
The abandoned logistics warehouse on the outskirts of the shoreline. It was the third coordinate.
Jin's rugged jeep rolled to a stop at the warehouse entrance. The mercenaries who climbed out gripped their weapons and moved inside with wary precision.
The interior was already a slaughterhouse thick with the stench of blood. Eve, first aid kit in hand, stepped down and swept her gaze across the bodies littering the floor with clinical detachment.
She picked her way carefully around the pools of blood and examined the wound on one corpse's neck.
"It's so clean~ Every single one of them was killed instantly with perfect hits to the vitals. As expected of Master!"
"Ban, this bastard... what the hell kind of speed was that..."
Jin scanned the area. The killings were clean, almost mechanical.
"Hey. Don't space out. We still need to finish cleaning up properly."
Jin raised his rifle toward the pile of containers deeper inside the warehouse.
"Even if the boss cut through them all by himself, he wouldn't have had time to hunt down every rat hiding in the corners. Sweep the place and put a bullet in every breathing scavenger you find. Confirm the kills."
The moment the words left his mouth, a looter who'd been trembling behind a container in the corner burst out screaming.
Bang—!
Jin's shot slammed the man into the floor. The Blackhead members silently fanned out and began mopping up the rest of the warehouse.
At the same time. Fourth coordinate. An abandoned big-box mart.
Ban killed the engine on his bike in a dark alley a short distance from the barricade blocking the mart entrance.
Four guards stood on the ramp leading down to the underground parking garage. Ban leaped from the top of the ramp straight into their midst.
He drove his knife into the back of one man's neck, then swung the machete in his other hand and took the head off the guy beside him.
"Wh-what the fuck is this?!"
The remaining two recoiled in shock at the figure who had appeared from the darkness and slaughtered two of their own in the blink of an eye. They fumbled to raise their crude rifles.
Ban jumped, kicking the first man's raised gun hand, then twisted and drove his boot into the side of the man's head while hurling the knife. It buried itself dead center in the second man's forehead.
This was practically plague-tier. The pathetic guards who had been standing watch so diligently left the world in seconds.
Ban yanked the knife free, wiped the blood off on one of the corpses' faces, and strode deeper into the parking garage.
The numbers were on a completely different scale from the previous camps. Forty to fifty scavengers were gathered throughout the vast underground lot, clustered around multiple bonfires.
Ban hid behind a crumpled wreck and swung the assault rifle slung across his back forward. He smoothly racked the charging handle.
Ratatatatat—!
The sudden full-auto burst ripped into the largest group clustered around the central fire.
"Graaaagh!"
"Fuck! What the hell are the guards doing?! Intruder!"
A sloppy alarm went up. The scavengers scattered behind wrecked cars and concrete pillars, swinging their weapons around.
Bang! Bang!
Bullets rained in from every direction, sparking violently off the wrecked car shielding Ban.
He stayed low and moved fast, using the pillars for cover. He exploited every blind spot, slipping into their flanks.
Thud! Ratatat!
Short, controlled bursts from his rifle blew the heads off anyone who dared peek out from cover.
"Over here! Kill him!"
The instant his magazine ran dry, three men wielding iron pipes and axes charged the pillar where Ban was crouched.
He hurled the rifle at the first man and drew both a revolver and combat knife from his waist in the same motion.
He severed the arm of the one swinging the pipe, then pressed the revolver against the man's stomach and pulled the trigger. As the man's guts exploded and he crumpled, an axe whistled in from the side.
Ban arched back just enough for the blade to miss, then drove his knee up hard. The sickening crunch of bone was followed by his knife plunging deep under the man's jaw.
The last scavenger tried to scramble backward in terror, but Ban's revolver was already leveled at his forehead.
Bang—!
Ban didn't stop. He climbed atop the largest truck for a full view of the garage and opened fire with the revolver.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Armor-piercing rounds shattered the edges of concrete pillars and punched straight through the thick main water main hanging behind them.
Booooom—!
A colossal jet of water exploded outward under massive pressure, flooding the underground lot like a waterfall.
"Aaaagh! What the—water?!"
The raging current rose rapidly, soaking the ankles of the scavengers hiding behind wrecks and pillars.
In that moment Ban fired another armor-piercing round. The bullet slammed into the high-voltage distribution panel mounted on the exposed wall.
CRACK!
Sparks flew as a cable as thick as a man's arm tore free, thrashing wildly before dropping into the wide puddle spreading across the floor.
BZZZZZZZZZT—!!!
A blinding blue-white flash swallowed the entire parking garage.
"Gaaaaaaaaaaah—!"
"Krgh—hack—ugaaaaaaaah!"
Crackle—!
The sickening sound of electricity and a piercing high-frequency screech filled the air. Tens of thousands of volts raced through the water, spreading across the entire lot. Every scavenger who had scattered for cover was standing in water up to their ankles. They had no chance to escape. They all began twitching and jerking like they were performing some grotesque breakdance, foaming at the mouth before collapsing.
In mere seconds the parking garage had become a giant oven filled with the stench of burning hair and the nauseating smell of cooking meat.
Ban looked down at the human barbecue with dead eyes and calmly swapped the revolver's cylinder.
A massacre that needed no explanation. Every living thing in the garage had been reduced to charred black lumps floating facedown in the water.
Ban stepped across the trunk of a wrecked car and landed on dry ground. Ignoring the carnage, he walked straight toward the management office at the very back of the lot. Its heavy iron door was shut tight.
He tried the handle. Locked from the inside. Without hesitation, Ban slammed his combat boot into the door.
BAM—!
The door tore off its hinges and flew inward.
Ratatat—! Ratatatatat—!
The instant the door went flying, a mad storm of bullets poured out from inside. When the gunfire finally paused and the shooter fumbled with shaking hands to reload—
A black shadow slid into the room and squeezed the revolver's trigger twice.
Bang—! Bang—!
"Gaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Both of the large man's kneecaps exploded. He dropped his rifle and collapsed.
Ban walked slowly into the room. The stench of cheap liquor and sex hit him like a slap. The man on the floor hadn't even finished buckling his pants.
Ban's eyes swept the room in an instant.
Small, ragged clothes torn to shreds and scattered across the floor. On the ruined mattress, a small white head tilted back, eyes vacant and staring at the ceiling.
It was Ann.
Her slender neck was covered in vivid purple-red bruises from being savagely strangled with rope. Her small body lay limp like a discarded doll. The tips of her fingernails were all broken and bloody—clear signs of desperate resistance.
Ban stared down at the ugly scavenger still trying to buckle his belt. His face showed nothing. No hatred. No rage. Only a bone-chilling, arid killing intent.
He adjusted his grip on the blood-slick knife.
"N-no! Please! I didn't do it! The guys outside were already messing with her for a long time! It was noisy out there so I just wanted to shut her up by the neck—"
"Why are you answering questions I never asked?"
Ban's voice was so dry it sounded like it might crumble to dust.
"U-uhh…! Spare me—kgh!"
Without hesitation Ban shoved the machete handle into the man's mouth and stomped down, shattering his jaw so no scream could escape.
"Breathing is already a crime for bastards like you."
Ban planted his combat boot on the man's crushed, bloody throat. The scavenger was still alive. Killing him quickly had never been part of the plan.
Ban slowly turned his gaze to Ann's corpse, abandoned like a torn rag. In his cold, blood-red eyes, a murky crimson sank deep.
He drove the knife into the scavenger's thigh.
"Grrruuuup!"
The man with a machete handle jammed in his shattered mouth could only roll his eyes back in silent agony. Ban gripped the knife and slowly twisted it. The wet grinding of bone and flesh filled the room.
"If I hadn't stuck my useless nose in and given her that canned food..."
The dry murmur slipped from Ban's lips. He wasn't talking to the man. He was asking the question to himself.
"If I hadn't thrown that stupid completion ceremony, grilling meat and pretending we were having some kind of company dinner... would this kid still be alive?"
Squelch.
He pulled the knife free and drove it into the man's other thigh. Blood fountained up, soaking Ban's pant legs.
"No. In this fucked-up world, protecting your own body is the only law that matters. The weak die. The strong survive. That's just how it is here."
Ban ripped the knife out and slammed it deep into the man's shoulder. The body convulsed like a frog being electrocuted.
"Kind, weak people dying is just everyday life. Whether someone starves on the street or gets eaten by walkers, I used to live without giving a single shit. It wasn't my problem."
Ban's eyes returned to Ann's corpse.
"So what the hell is this feeling?"
He whispered the words. Was it because the kid he saved had suffered and died? Because the kind old man who grumbled but still cooked stew for him had been tortured to death? No. It wasn't some cheap sympathy like that. The feeling was just filthy. It twisted his guts and made him want to vomit.
Ann's pale face filled his vision. For a split second, other faces overlapped on top of it.
Yui, the cheeky little brat who always complained but still looked after him. Eve, who smiled brightly while calling him Master. Haze, who acted indifferent but quietly supported him from behind.
If I let my guard down. If I stay complacent like I did today. The people beside me could end up like this kid someday—torn apart and violated by trash like this, left as hideous corpses.
The moment that thought crystallized, one taut string of reason inside Ban's mind snapped with an audible twang.
"Ah."
A short sigh escaped his lips.
The Super Lucky Solution Group. It was because he now had people he wanted to protect—family that had entered his domain. The disgusting possibility that his territory could be invaded at any time had completely torn his mind apart.
Ban's gaze returned to the scavenger boss at his feet. The man was already gasping weakly from blood loss. His eyes begged. They screamed just kill me already.
"Who the fuck said you could?"
Ban pulled a hand axe from his belt. Leaving the machete buried in the man's mouth, he stomped down hard on the wrist that had committed those filthy acts.
"You need to feel a hundred times—no, a thousand times—the pain this kid felt before you die."
Thwack.
The axe blade chopped off all the man's fingers at once. A pathetic, insect-like gurgle scraped out of his ruined throat.
"This is for the old man's torn-out nails."
Thwack.
Fingers and then the wrist hit the floor one after another. Ban had become a machine. Without the slightest emotional tremor, he severed bone after bone.
"This is for laying your hands on the kid."
The room was filled with nothing but the sounds of flesh being cut, bones breaking, blood spraying, and the man's grotesque death rattles.
How long had it been? The blood-soaked lump of meat was no longer recognizable as human. It had stopped convulsing long ago, yet Ban continued swinging the axe for a long time afterward.
Plop.
Ban finally dropped the blood-caked hand axe to the floor. His entire body was drenched bright red with someone else's blood.
Staggering slightly, he walked over and knelt on one knee in front of Ann's body. He removed his outer jacket and gently covered her small frame with it. Then, as carefully as if he were lifting a sleeping child, he picked her up in his blood-soaked arms.
Urgent footsteps echoed from outside the room. Jin and the Blackhead mercenaries had finally finished clearing the parking garage and caught up.
But Ban didn't turn toward the door. He simply held the cold little body close and stared into empty space with hollow, vacant eyes.