Hour of Judgment (5)
“Haaah….”
Kim Dokja clutched her throbbing temples, the stress pounding behind her eyes, and let out a long, heavy sigh as she surveyed the scene around her.
“U-ugh…!!”
“H-how could anyone kill a person so cruelly….”
“If only they’d blown his head off clean like that guy earlier…. How can a man do something so vicious…! He’s not even human… not even a man!!”
The people who had watched the Mainstream Group man die in an instant—castrated by Park Jinwoo’s gun and left to perish—either gagged at the sight of the mutilated corpse or went deathly pale with terror.
“Everyone, did you hear what Jinwoo said just now?”
“Just now? The trash-cut thing?”
“…No. The part where he said, ‘I killed this guy and got coins.’”
Kim Dokja corrected the person who had latched onto the wrong detail with a look of pure exasperation.
“…What? You get coins for killing people?”
“W-what the hell is that supposed to mean?!”
“H-huh?! Is that real?! You get coins for killing people?!”
At Kim Dokja’s words the crowd began to murmur, glancing at one another. Across from her, standing among the Mainstream Group, Cheon Inho’s face twisted with sudden unease.
“Haha, Miss Dokja! What on earth are you—”
“Why do you think the Mainstream Group people are stronger than you and have more coins than you? Just because they’re thugs? Don’t be ridiculous.”
Sensing the atmosphere flip against him in an instant, Cheon Inho tried to cut her off, but Kim Dokja—having anticipated exactly that—spoke faster, pouring out everything she needed to say.
The people listened with dawning doubt. Why hadn’t they thought of this sooner? the same question ran through every mind.
“N-now that you mention it… how does Mr. Cheon have so many coins….”
“Haha, you all know, don’t you? I sell various things, and also—”
“Do you honestly believe that alone could give him those stats and that many coins? Really?”
Cheon Inho’s mouth snapped shut. Watching his expression harden, Kim Dokja slowly turned her gaze across every face in Geumho Station and continued.
“A few days ago, when Jinwoo and I first arrived at Geumho Station… there were eighty-eight people here.”
“……….”
“How many are left now? From where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like more than fifty. Do you know why?”
“Th-that’s because the morning patrols went out in shifts and got hit by monsters…!”
“Monsters? You still believe that?”
“Th-then what….”
“Still can’t put it together? You idiots—! Use the brains you have. Do you really think those people died to monsters? Then why hasn’t a single one of the Cheoldupa bastards died?”
The station fell silent.
“And why did those bastards come back stronger?”
The Constellation, ‘Secretive Plotter’, nods at your powers of deduction.
Kim Dokja pointed a finger straight at Cheon Inho. Every eye in the station swung toward him at once. Under that collective stare and her words, Cheon Inho’s face locked rigid.
“Think back to what Jinwoo said earlier—‘I killed this guy and got coins.’ Now connect that to the patrols the Mainstream Group has been running for days. Doesn’t it all click into place like gears meshing?”
The Constellation, ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband’, excitedly yanks out his hair!
“C-could it be…?”
Shock and horror flooded every face as the crowd locked their eyes on Cheon Inho.
“Why did the Mainstream Group pick certain Marginalized Group people for the patrols? And why did only the Marginalized Group people who joined those patrols end up dead? I’m spelling it out for you—do you still not get it?!”
“Th-the Mainstream Group people have been killing us for coins…?”
“Yes! That’s why their stats and coins are so high!”
One by one the survivors turned to stare at Cheon Inho and the Mainstream Group. Under those eyes the Mainstream Group members flinched and edged backward.
“Y-you people….”
“Inho! Is that true?!”
“Shut up! This is slander!!”
Cheon Inho bellowed at the ones who dared doubt him and retreated. The moment he stepped back, every Mainstream Group member drew their weapons and leveled them at the crowd.
Hahaha! Seven minutes left!
“U-ugh….”
“I-Inho….”
“H-how could this….”
“Cheon Inho—!! I trusted you…! And you stabbed us in the back—?!”
Terror-stricken people staggered and whimpered at the sight.
Kim Dokja watched them for a moment, then stepped forward in front of the crowd.
“If you still have any pride left, fight with your own hands!”
She leveled her unbroken conviction at Cheon Inho and the Mainstream Group while addressing the people. Tears and rage welled in their eyes.
“At the very least, take back what they stole from you with your own hands!”
Before anyone noticed, every member of the party had moved to stand behind Kim Dokja, weapons trained on Cheon Inho and the Mainstream Group exactly as she had. Seeing them, the people broke into tears and fury and seized whatever tools they could find.
“Because this world is that kind of place now.”
The instant Kim Dokja finished speaking, the Mainstream Group charged her as if they had been waiting for the signal. She charged right back. Then someone roared at the top of their lungs.
“F-fine, you sons of bitches!!”
“You bastards!!”
The people surged forward with her, ready to fight the Mainstream Group.
“Kill them—!”
“You scum! Who do you think we are…!!”
Mainstream Group, Marginalized Group—it no longer mattered. Every single person inside Geumho Station tangled together in a single brawl.
“M-Mom!”
“Dayoung, come here! Take this! Do exactly what Mom tells you!”
A mother and child were in that fight.
“You fucking bastards!!”
“Kill them! Kill those sons of bitches!!”
Teenagers and middle-aged people were there too.
“Kyaaaah!! Die! Just die!!”
“Guhhh…!!”
Inside that chaos the Marginalized Group fought with everything they had. Yet little by little they were being pushed back by the Mainstream Group.
The numbers on both sides were roughly even, but the Mainstream Group—who had raised their stats by hunting humans for coins—possessed far superior combat power. From the start it had been an unfair fight the Marginalized Group could never win.
If Kim Dokja and Park Jinwoo had not been there.
“Kill that bitch! Kill her right now!!”
“Die, you whore…!!”
Slash!
Kim Dokja fixed a calm gaze on the Mainstream Group men charging her. She swung her blade lightly; arms and legs flew free as if she were slicing tofu.
“Gyaaaaah—!!”
“F-fuck!! My hand…!”
Human limbs parted with sickening smoothness. For a moment Kim Dokja’s hand trembled at the ghastly sensation of cutting through living flesh.
The Mainstream Group men she had instantly crippled looked up at her with pitiful faces.
“S-spare me…! I-I won’t do anything bad ever again…!!”
“R-right! Please, just let us live…!”
In that instant—
Thud!
Someone stepped past Kim Dokja and drove a blade straight into the mouth of a fallen Mainstream Group man.
“I told you I’d kill them.”
All evolution conditions for Incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’’s attribute ‘Crouching Figure’ have been met.
Incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’’s attribute is blooming.
A dazzling, beautiful radiance bloomed from her body.
Kim Dokja looked at Jung Heewon and gave a small nod.
It’s time.
Kim Dokja stared at the message announcing Jung Heewon’s attribute had become Judge of Destruction and felt genuine shock. Even she had never expected Heewon to awaken the strongest of the Three Great Judge attributes—Judge of Destruction.
“Dokja, step back for a bit from now on.”
Jung Heewon looked at her with eyes flickering with blue light, her expression full of quiet confidence.
“These bastards are mine.”
She finished speaking, slowly exhaled, and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, a single set of scales began to materialize behind her back.
Incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’ activates her exclusive skill ‘Hour of Judgment’.
Constellations of the Absolute Good alignment consent to the use of this skill.
‘Hour of Judgment’ has been activated.
Bang! Bang!
“Guh…!”
“S-spare…!”
Incarnation ‘Park Jinwoo’ has slain Incarnation ‘Yoo Cheolgi’!
400 Coins acquired.
Incarnation ‘Park Jinwoo’ has slain Incarnation ‘Moon Hyeongbae’!
500 Coins acquired.
Park Jinwoo fired on the Mainstream Group men. The bullets found vital points with perfect accuracy; the men let out short death rattles and went still.
“Th-thank you for helping me!”
“…Yeah.”
A Marginalized Group survivor who had been getting double-teamed by Mainstream Group members offered a shaky thanks. Park Jinwoo answered briefly and swept the surroundings with a quick glance.
“D-Dayoung! Hurry and swing the hammer at him!”
“O-okay!”
Farther away he spotted a mother and daughter attacking a Mainstream Group man. The man’s higher stats kept them from finishing him quickly.
“Tch.”
Park Jinwoo walked over and spoke to the girl named Dayoung.
“Hey, kid.”
“Y-yes?!”
The girl spun around at the voice behind her, looked up at him, and immediately went pale with fear.
“Oppa’s not a bad guy. Hold this.”
“Y-yes? Okay….”
He pressed a Glock 19 into Dayoung’s hands, laid his own hand over hers, and aimed the muzzle at the Mainstream Group man.
“Close your eyes right now. Don’t open them until I say so. Got it?”
“Y-yes!”
Dayoung squeezed her eyes shut at once. Park Jinwoo pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
The gunshots cracked and the Mainstream Group man crumpled.
“……….”
Park Jinwoo turned Dayoung’s body away from the corpse and spoke quietly.
“You can open your eyes now. Sorry, but this is as far as the help goes. Run back to your mom.”
“Y-yes! Th-thank you, Oppa!”
“Yeah. Be careful.”
Dayoung opened her eyes, thanked him, and sprinted to her mother. The woman scooped her daughter up and bowed deeply toward Park Jinwoo. He gave a small nod and scanned the area again.
Constellations of the Absolute Evil alignment are disgusted by Incarnation ‘Park Jinwoo’’s hypocrisy.
Constellations of the Absolute Good alignment rejoice at Incarnation ‘Park Jinwoo’’s good deed.
“Both sides can go fuck themselves.”
Several Constellations of both Absolute Good and Absolute Evil are outraged at you for flipping them off!
Park Jinwoo offered the floating messages a polite smile and a middle finger, then ignored the fresh flood of Constellation reactions and looked around again.
“Aaagh!”
“Gyaaaaah!!”
“S-spare meee!!”
In the distance Jung Heewon, wreathed in a blood-red aura, carved through Mainstream Group members with merciless, sweeping arcs of her blade. Wherever the edge passed, sprays of blood erupted. That corner of the station had become a pure slaughterhouse.
“………….”
Park Jinwoo watched with a faintly complicated expression, then surveyed the rest of the station. Most of the Mainstream Group were already dead; the Marginalized Group and the party stood among the bodies. Everyone’s clothes were soaked in blood—Jung Heewon, Kim Dokja, Lee Hyunsung, Yoo Sangah, even Lee Gilyoung.
This is a living hell.
He walked across the blood-slick floor toward Jung Heewon. The wet slap of his footsteps accompanied him until only one Mainstream Group member remained alive: Cheon Inho, wounded and slumped on the ground.
Jung Heewon quietly leveled her blade at the seated man. She looked at Kim Dokja; Kim Dokja looked back. Kim Dokja gave a silent nod.
“Heh… heh… you… bitch…….”
Cheon Inho twisted a bitter smile at Kim Dokja.
Slash!
The words never finished. Jung Heewon brought her sword down across his face.
A fountain of blood erupted from Cheon Inho’s head. His body toppled with a heavy thud and lay still.
Every Constellation in the channel feels intense exhilaration.
With Cheon Inho’s death, every person in the station stopped moving.
The fight was over.
Some sank to the floor. Others simply wept in despair. Still others groaned from the wounds the battle had left them.
The party was no different.
Yoo Sangah broke into tears. Lee Gilyoung closed his eyes. Lee Hyunsung bit his lip until it bled. Park Jinwoo lowered his head with a bitter face. Kim Dokja stood frozen, expression cold as ice. Jung Heewon sat in a pool of blood on the floor.
Probability is being settled.
Something burst in several places around the station.
Those who had earned coins by killing lived. Those who had not died.
Park Jinwoo walked over to Jung Heewon where she sat. He draped a white towel over her head, rested a hand on her hair, and stroked it gently as he spoke.
“Hey, Heewon. If you want to cry, cry. Holding it in will make you sick. If you’re not going to cry now, when will you?”
“D-do I… a murderer like me… even have the right to cry…?”
“Of course you do.”
Jung Heewon’s face, full of despair, frustration, emptiness, and regret, dropped at his words. In a voice thick with tears she asked again; Park Jinwoo nodded, affirmed it, and kept stroking her hair in quiet comfort.
At that final answer her shoulders began to shake. Large tears rolled down her cheeks, and the soft sound of her quiet sobbing filled Geumho Station.