Landlords (3)

We followed the boy up to the third basement level.

"Oh? Those new faces from earlier. Did you come to look at a 'room' by any chance?"

The men standing near the Line 4 escalator spotted us and asked if we'd come to look at rooms. The boy shook his head at their words.

"Ah, sorry. We're just heading to the second basement for a bit…"

"Aww, that's a shame. Be careful out there."

Hearing the boy's answer, the man waved us off without a second thought. Jung Heewon tilted her head and asked the boy about the "rooms" the man had mentioned.

"Hey… I've been hearing the word 'room' for a while now. What exactly does that mean? I don't think it's the kind of room I know."

"A room is… simply put, that."

At Heewon's words, the boy glanced around for a moment, then pointed somewhere. Where he indicated, square tiles were laid out on the floor — green tiles roughly three square meters across. And something was written in the air above them.

"The official scenario name is Green Zone, but around here they just call them 'rooms.'"

Right next to the green tiles, two men were grappling with each other.

It looked for all the world as if they were fighting over that very tile, so Lee Hyunsung asked the boy.

"What on earth is that? Why are those people fighting over it?"

"…You'll understand everything soon enough."

The boy made a reluctant face at Hyunsung's question. Seeing his expression, none of us pressed him any further about the rooms.

And so we kept walking toward the second basement. The higher we climbed, the more often we saw people fighting over "rooms."

Bare-handed grappling. Mob brawls over rooms large enough for several people. Watching it all, Lee Hyunsung and Jung Heewon's expressions hardened with gravity.

Kim Dokja left the two of them alone and carefully surveyed the surroundings as she spoke to the boy.

"From the third basement to the first basement — is all of that the territory of the people called the 'Landlord Alliance'?"

"There are a few minor factions, but the Landlord Alliance has pretty much claimed it all."

"And Yoo Joonghyuk hasn't done anything about it? You said she saved you all."

The boy flinched at Dokja's words. His face visibly darkened, and he answered in a voice that shrank into itself.

"Well… she just told us to get up on our own…"

"That's only natural."

"…What?"

The boy looked at me in confusion, staring blankly.

"After Yoo Joonghyuk saved you, what did you all do? You just freeloaded off her, didn't you?"

"That's going too far…!"

"Yoo Joonghyuk only happened to save you. Just because she saved you doesn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mean she has even one ounce of responsibility or obligation to lead you or take care of you."

I cut off the boy, whose face had flushed red as he was about to snap, and kept going.

"I'll be honest. Listening to your story from a third party's perspective — you lot are freeloaders, nothing more and nothing less."

"W-What did you say?!"

"Earlier you said you and a few others were depending on Lee Jihye, right? You said with your own mouth that Jihye hunted the monsters and asked Yoo Joonghyuk to cook them. Am I wrong?"

"Th-That… I did say that, but…"

Hit with the facts, the boy's face grew even darker than before.

"In that whole process, did any of you help Lee Jihye or Yoo Joonghyuk even a little?"

"…Th-That's…"

"And you still claim you're not freeloaders? You arbitrarily pin your hopes on Yoo Joonghyuk's power, depend on her, and follow her around? Do you people have no shame?"

"…Th-Then what were we supposed to do?! What the hell are we supposed to…!!"

"That's for you to figure out yourselves. Whether you set a goal and scrape by with the bare minimum of effort to survive no matter what — or whether you freeload like this, just eating and dying pointlessly."

"……………"

The boy ground his teeth and hung his head low, his body trembling.

"Don't delude yourselves into thinking Yoo Joonghyuk will keep saving you forever, keep helping you forever. Just as you arbitrarily pinned your hopes on her — she has the freedom to abandon you whenever she wants."

I left the boy standing there with his head bowed and headed for the second basement. The others glanced between me and the boy, then left him behind and followed after me.

"Jinwoo-ssi."

"What is it, Heewon-ssi?"

"Why did you go that far with that boy?"

"He was kind to us and helped us out, so I just gave him a bit of advice that wasn't quite advice."

"Hrmm…"

Heewon listened, then half-lidded her eyes and gave me a sidelong look.

"What is it?"

"No… I just thought you were a pervert colleague who likes bunny girls… but I was thinking you have unexpected sides too."

"Haha! Thanks for saying that!"

"You're not even denying the pervert part…?"

Heewon gave me a look of pure disbelief as I accepted the "pervert" label without protest.

Before long, we arrived at the second basement.

"There are a lot of rooms here too."

The second basement had far more "rooms" than the third.

The third basement had small rooms marked 0/1 and larger ones marked 0/7, but the second basement displayed rooms with a much wider variety of numbers.

"The atmosphere on B2 feels a lot more hostile than B3, doesn't it?"

"Right. On B3 there were people touting for customers, but down here on B2…"

Hyunsung and Dokja nodded at our words.

On B3 we'd seen people soliciting, but here on B2 there were only people with weapons and hostile eyes standing guard over the Green Zones.

We were a little unsettled by how different B2 felt from B3, but we pushed it aside and headed toward the restrooms the boy had told us about.

"There's a big crowd of people gathered in front of the restrooms."

"Yeah… there is. Why are they all stopped here? The restrooms are right ahead…"

We murmured among ourselves as we looked at the dozens of people clustered at the last passage leading to the restrooms.

"Pildu-ssi! Please take us back! We won't do it again!"

"Please, please! Just let us stay one more day! We'll get the coins even if we have to go into debt!"

People crying out Pildu's name, begging to stay just one more day.

"Shall we go up front first?"

"Yes, we need to know what's going on. Let's move forward."

Dokja said that and pushed through the crowd ahead.

"Alright, alright. Step aside. Make way."

Facing the clustered people, individuals who looked like the "Landlord Alliance" the boy had mentioned stood in formation with weapons drawn.

"For landlords, why are there so many octopus heads? Is this a seafood market?"

"Pfft…! Ahahahaha!"

I tossed out a line looking at the Landlord Alliance members, and Heewon burst out laughing.

"What…?! What did you just say?!"

"…Shit. Bald as he is, his hearing's still sharp."

Dozens of people were shouting and murmuring, countless voices echoing — and somehow the bald man had heard exactly what I said.

Whether he'd understood me perfectly or not, he twisted his face into a vicious scowl and glared at me.

"You really need to apologize. Even if those people are bald, saying right out loud 'those octopus-head bastards are shamelessly milking coins like crazy. May you suffer the eternal curse of hair loss' is going too far."

"Wh-What? I-I never said anything like that?!"

"Ha…! So now you're saying I framed you? I clearly heard you say things like 'they're so greedy for coins, they deserve to go bald' or 'I want to grab that bald head and bowl with it.' Are you still going to deny it?"

"Bald constellations, shut up. Can't you see I'm busy?"

I grabbed the arm of a complete stranger next to me and framed him with the insults. The man looked utterly panicked as he vehemently denied it.

"You son of a bitch! I know it was you who said it! Get out here right now!!"

"Me?"

"Yes! You, you bastard!!"

"Hey, mister. Don't turn so red. You look just like an octopus or squid thrashing around as it gets boiled."

"Y-Y-You!! You little punk?!!"

The Landlord Alliance man pointed a wooden club at me, his face flushed bright red as he bellowed.

I looked at the man hopping around with his face so red, let out a long sigh, and walked over to the shouting man.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"You called?"

"You, you! I'll tear you apart…!!"

"Mister. Before you get angry, hear me out first."

I put a hand on the bald man's shoulder and stared intently at his head.

"Wh-What?"

"Mister. Is that circular baldness?"

"Y-Yeah. So what?"

"…………Hmm."

I carefully examined the man's circular bald spot.

"Mister. How long has this circular baldness been going on?"

"Th-This? It's been six months now."

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

"Then it might not be too late yet!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Just wait a second. Ah, I'm not pulling out a weapon, so don't tense up. I've got something really good for people like you with circular baldness or early-stage hair loss."

I pretended to dig through my pockets and bought a few items from the general store.

"Ta-da!"

"…What is this?"

I held out several syringes, the hair loss treatment My■■, and a few bottles of anti-hair-loss shampoo to the man in front of me.

"These are hair loss scalp injections, the famous hair loss treatment My■■, and anti-hair-loss shampoo."

"…What?!"

"Mister. The world suddenly turned upside down, so you know how hard it is to get stuff like this, right? These might be things you can never get again for the rest of your life."

Gulp——!

The circular-bald man in front of me and the bald man standing next to him swallowed hard, their eyes lighting up as they stared intently at the items resting on my hands.

"I'll admit I said some harsh things to you. This isn't exactly an apology, but I'll sell you these items a bit cheap. How about it?"

"H-How much?"

"Ha… well, you see. At Seoul Station these go for at least 500 coins each. But for you gentlemen, I'll sell them for 300 coins. How's that? Ah, and there's no guarantee they'll work for sure. But how about grabbing onto that one strand of hope and investing in your hair?"

"………Ugh."

Watching the men freeze into serious, contemplative expressions at my words, I smirked inwardly.