Extortion at Geumho Station

"Urgh…."

"Fuuuck…."

Fifteen gangsters, all shot amicably through the legs, rolled around on the ground spewing curses and pained groans. Blood from the bullet holes in their legs stained the floor here and there, but that wasn't my problem.

Look at that. His own incarnation is dying of pain with a bullet in his leg, and he's loving every second of it.

"Kkeueuk…."

True to form for a constellation who enjoyed watching his own incarnation get beaten, the Lord of the Riffraff was sponsoring me coins. I looked down with a pitying gaze at Cheolsu, who was clutching his freshly perforated leg beneath my feet and bawling his eyes out.

"Where's your group located?"

"You fucking bastard! You think we're just gonna tell you that?!"

Having successfully cleared the sub scenario, I asked the gangsters for the location of the group at Geumho Station. One of them spat curses at me and thrashed about. I quietly stared at the gangster who had just sworn at me.

"Wh-what are you looking at, you son of a bitch?!"

"The clear condition for the sub scenario was simply to neutralize you."

Still failing to grasp his situation, the gangster kept spewing curses. I calmly approached him, crouched down in front of him, and met his eyes.

"Looks like you're getting cocky now that I've fired all fifteen rounds and supposedly have no more bullets. Enchant."

"Flame Enchant on the Glock 19."

With a sizzling hiss, the muzzle of the Glock 19 glowed red-hot. I rested that Glock right above the bullet hole in the gangster's leg, looked him in the eye, and offered a gentle smile.

"But now that the sub scenario is over, I can do whatever I want with you, can't I?"

Right, buddy?

Feeling the intense heat radiating from the pistol resting on his leg, the gangster broke out in a cold sweat all over his body and swallowed hard, as if he already knew exactly what was about to happen.

"Your leg's got a hole in it. Hurts, right? I'm sorry. As an apology, how about I disinfect it for you?"

"N-n-no, sir…."

I'm fine…. R-really, I am…! I misspoke!!

The gangster trembled violently, stammering as he frantically refused. I felt a little hurt that he couldn't appreciate my pure-hearted desire to disinfect his injured leg.

"Is that so? I'm a little disappointed…. Because of you, there's a scratch on my pure heart of reinforced glass."

How are you going to take responsibility for that?

"Y-yes? Wh-what do you mean?!"

"What, you're not going to compensate me? Should I just sear it?"

"N-no, sir! Just say the word! I'll do anything you ask!"

S-so please just move that gun away, please!

I made a slight motion as if to lower the Glock 19 toward his leg. The gangster flinched hard and nodded his head up and down so fast it was almost a blur. A smile tugged at my lips.

"Then first, give me 100 coins."

"…Pardon?"

I said give me 100 coins. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Because of you lot, I had to spend a fortune of 500 of my precious blood-like coins.

"I-I'll give them…."

At my demand for 100 coins, tears welled up in the corners of the gangster's eyes as he handed them over.

"See? If you'd just told me where the group was the first time I asked, this all would've been so much easier."

Right?

"Y-you're right. H-haha! It's all my fault!"

"Don't snicker. Not before I actually sear you."

"………."

"I'm kidding, kidding. You can laugh!"

"H-haha…."

The gangster's face, cycling between tears and forced laughter with every single word I spoke, was a little funny. I considered tormenting him a bit more, but we'd already wasted too much time, so I decided to stop.

"Alright, I'll ask that question again. This time, answer properly, okay?"

Where are the groups?

"If you go further inside from here and head down, there's a subway platform. People are gathered there…."

"See? How nice is it when you just answer obediently without resisting?"

At the gangster's answer, I removed the pistol from his leg, canceled the Enchant, straightened from my crouch, and stood up. The gangster let out a sigh of relief at the sight of me rising. The other gangsters around us also looked relieved, thinking I was about to move on somewhere else. That slightly soured my mood.

Who said you get to feel relieved?

"Hey."

"M-me?"

I approached Gangster Number Two, who was near the one I'd just shaken down for 100 coins, crouched down again, and spoke to him.

"Why are you looking so relieved? You give me 100 coins too."

"…What? N-no! Weren't you only shaking down that guy?!"

"When did I ever say I was only shaking him down?"

"Th-that's…."

Well, he never did actually say that….

"Ah, so you wound my reinforced-glass heart and now you don't even want to compensate me?"

"Th-that's not it…!"

I deliberately showed Gangster Number Two the process of ejecting the empty magazine from the Glock 19 and loading the 9mm rounds I'd just bought from the General Store into it one by one.

"…………."

Watching me load bullets into the magazine right under his nose, Gangster Number Two gulped and started reading my expression carefully.

"Alright, buddy? I'll give you two options."

"………."

"Give me 150 coins and live? Or die?"

"B-but earlier it was 100 coins…!!"

"Yeah, well, because of you I had to spend extra coins. You know how much one of these rounds costs? Thirty coins a shot, you idiot."

Because of you I burned through another 1,500 coins? After spending that kind of fortune on top of everything else, of course the price goes up from 100 to 150. And don't feel so wronged. I'm collecting from the rest of the gangsters too.

Gangster Number Two's face went blank with shock. He looked around at the other gangsters as if pleading for help, but the others seemed to have different ideas. The gangsters who had been tearing strips from their own clothes to first-aid their perforated legs and watching the situation carefully were already resentful about having to hand over 100 coins. Now, thanks to Gangster Number Two, it was 150. They glared at him like they wanted to kill him themselves.

Cowled by those stares, Gangster Number Two hung his head low and fell silent.

In truth, a single 9mm round was only worth 4 coins, but I'd scammed them with 150. The reason I was scamming these gangsters was extremely simple.

These bastards deserve to get scammed.

They already knew that killing people earned coins. They'd been drafting some of the survivors at Geumho Station into recon teams, killing them, and farming coins that way.

If it were up to me, I'd just kill them all.

If I were only thinking about coins, and if I wanted to skip past every frustrating plot beat, the easiest and simplest path would be to just slaughter every last one of these gangsters.

I glanced over.

I briefly shifted my gaze toward where Kim Dokja and Jung Heewon were. Both of them were staring at me with expressions that said, What kind of person is this? I turned my eyes back to the gangsters and thought.

For the sake of making a good impression on the future members of Kim Dokja's Company, I should hold back a little.

From the look of things, Kim Dokja seemed to have already decided to take me on as a companion, which was a relief. But I still hadn't even met Yoo Sangah, Lee Gilyoung, Lee Hyunsung, or Han Myungoh yet. If I killed all of these guys now and then met the others, got introduced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through Kim Dokja, and joined as a companion, they might form a bad impression—This murderer is becoming our comrade?—or even develop outright hostility. So I'd put off killing them for now. The moment to kill these kids would come soon enough anyway.

"Well? Decided? Coins, or death? Pick one."

"I-I'll give you the coins."

"You too. Hand it over."

"Fuck…."

…

…

…

Having decided to put off killing them, I went one by one to the remaining fourteen gangsters—including Cheolsu—excluding only the first one who'd already paid 100 coins, and shook each of them down for 150 coins, netting a total of 2,100 coins.

After collecting from them, I approached Kim Dokja. She shot me a look that said, What kind of thug is this?, but I casually ignored her gaze and carefully hoisted Jung Heewon onto my back. She was still leaning against the wall, barely able to keep herself upright.

"Shall we go, Dokja-ssi? We've gotten everything we can here."

"I've never seen anyone more gangster than the actual gangsters, Jinwoo-ssi."

"…Everyone, please be quiet. Let's hurry to where the people are."