The Scent of Forgiveness
I woke up, drawn from sleep by a delicious smell. When I walked into the living room, a table was already set with rich beef bone soup, salted squid, cubed radish kimchi, and an array of other side dishes.
“Thanks to you, Auntie, I’m living like a king.”
“Hearing you say that makes me want to cook even more. Just tell me anything you’re craving.”
“I’ll let you know if something comes to mind. Thanks for the meal.”
“Eat well, hehe.”
The way her eyes crinkled into a warm smile sent a rush of heat straight to my groin. Today at the shopping center, I’m definitely bringing back a bunny girl costume.
“Everyone assembled?”
“Yes!”
Group A carried bags or pulled carts. Group B, fully armed, formed a protective escort around them. Just as planned, we were going to sweep the shopping center for supplies today. After that, I could head out to collect Han Chaei.
I had given the residents a quick briefing on the plan.
“Move out.”
“Move out!”
“Keep the line tight!”
“Lady in front, hurry up!”
Group B surrounded Group A as the column advanced. I sat in the passenger seat of the fire truck and followed behind. Even I hadn’t expected to see a procession like this in the apocalypse.
When we reached the shopping center, I spotted zombie corpses with thorns densely packed through their skulls. Those were killed by the Thorn Towers. The same went for the bodies scattered everywhere. It was rare for the Thorn Towers to kill zombies in a single strike, but the ones killed by arrows had taken three hits each.
“Begin.”
“Understood.”
To draw out any zombies still inside the buildings, we needed to provoke them. I ordered one of the men from Group B to bang on a steel plate.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Growling immediately echoed from within.
“Khaaaak!”
“Krrrk, krrk!”
This much should be easy enough for Group B to handle.
“I’ll pull aggro!”
“Smash their heads from behind!”
Thwack! Crack! Thud! Crunch!
Dealing with a few zombies was no longer difficult.
“Secure the carts first, then split into teams and start loading supplies.”
I had already mixed members of Group A and Group B into balanced teams beforehand.
“Understood!”
“Yes!”
The residents filed into the shopping center buildings. While they worked, I circled the area and summoned towers on top of the taller structures.
Looks like there are survivors over there.
During my patrol I discovered nearly a hundred zombie corpses. It was near Jeonil Apartments. Zooming in, I saw people watching us through telescopes from inside. Before long, a crowd poured out of the apartment complex.
“Would you look at these bastards?”
They handled the charging zombies with surprising skill. Their group numbered around forty. Once they finished organizing, they formed up and started marching toward us. The fact that they were coming even after spotting us suggested they were ready for a violent clash.
Crazy fuckers. They see a group that just cleared out a zombie swarm and still decide to interfere with us looting the spoils. Anyone who knew even a little about WAW would never pull something this stupid. A moment’s thought was enough to realize how strong the group that wiped out that many zombies had to be.
This was exactly why food was the most critical resource. If they weren’t on the verge of starvation, they wouldn’t be acting so recklessly.
“Assemble Group B.”
I gave the order to the short-haired man in the driver’s seat.
“Understood!”
He dashed off without a single question.
“Group B, assemble! Group B, form up! Assemble, assemble!”
They immediately rushed out from the surrounding buildings and fell into formation.
“A survivor group is approaching.”
“Are there other large groups besides us?”
“About forty people. Prepare for combat.”
“You mean we’re going to fight other survivors?”
“Why the hell wouldn’t we?”
The man who had asked stared back with a dazed, open-mouthed expression.
The survivor group couldn’t move quickly. They had seemed confident in their fighting strength, but apparently that wasn’t the case. The noise from their battles was drawing even more zombies, trapping them in a vicious cycle.
Of course. If they actually had real combat power, they would have cleared the shopping center and taken the supplies long ago. They had probably rushed out on impulse the moment they saw us looting.
In the end, nothing happened until our residents finished filling every cart to the brim.
“Group A, organize the supplies and wait in the central plaza of the apartment complex.”
“Is it okay for us to go alone?”
“Stop asking questions and move.”
My firm tone silenced any further objections, and they set off on their own. Ten minutes after Group A departed, the other survivor group finally arrived. They looked exhausted and in terrible shape.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked, opening the fire truck’s window.
“We’re residents of 302-dong in Jeonil Apartments,” a middle-aged man answered as their representative.
“And?”
“We saw you taking supplies. Don’t worry, we won’t ask you to share. We’ll just take what’s left.”
“Haah…”
These people were genuinely out of their minds.
“By what right?”
His face colored with confusion. The men behind him scowled and gripped their weapons. Tension stretched taut between the two groups.
“I didn’t mean we’re going to take what you already gathered! Just the leftovers…”
“I’m asking by what right you think you can take them.”
“Then are you saying you’re taking everything?”
“Obviously.”
Click. I got out of the fire truck and walked up to him.
“Listen, you son of a bitch. We’re the ones who cleared out the zombies, so why the fuck do you think you can just waltz in and take stuff?”
The representative stared at me blankly, as if he’d been slapped across the face.
“This fucking bastard!”
“Hey, where’s your name on it?! Did you rent the whole place?”
“Don’t you know what happens when you get greedy in a world like this?!”
There was no reasoning with them.
“I’ll give you one last chance.”
Groooan. Groooan. Grooooooan.
Wooden stems erupted everywhere, twisting upward into towers.
“Leave quietly, or die?”
They took one step back. I had expected them to run, but they actually had some spine.
“Our food supplies are gone! We can’t leave like this!”
His tone had become noticeably polite.
“Fuck, if we go now we’ll starve to death!”
“If we’re going to die anyway, we might as well fight!”
“Let’s fight, old man!”
I briefly considered just killing them all, then an idea occurred to me.
“You need food, right? Then buy it.”
“With money?”
“Are you brain-dead? What the hell can you buy with scraps of paper? Of course I mean things that actually have value.”
They exchanged bewildered glances.
“What exactly?”
“Essences, items, stab-proof vests—anything of real value and I’ll accept it.”
“We don’t have stab-proof vests. What are essences and items?”
“Sometimes mysterious weapons or armor drop when you kill zombies. If you don’t have any, the deal is off.”
My decisive attitude made them huddle and whisper among themselves.
“How many zombies do we have to kill for those to drop?”
“Essences haven’t appeared yet. Items only start dropping after you kill over ten thousand, and the probability is abysmal. Still, if you’re lucky you might get one quickly.”
His face twisted.
“Don’t worry. If you trade with items, I’ll give you more than a week’s worth of food.”
“You fucking bastard!”
It looked like the trade had fallen through.
“Kill them!”
“We can rob scum like this!”
“You son of a bitch!”
I pointed my finger at the charging men.
Whoosh— Thunk! Squelch! Crunch! Thud!
Arrows fired from the towers on every surrounding building pierced them. Bwoong— Crack!Swish— Squelch! The skull of the man rushing toward me caved in like it had been smashed by a hammer. The one beside him had his stomach run through. The next man, staring blankly at the scene, had his head shattered by a flying stone.
“Kill them all.”
“B-but they’re still people…”
“Want to die in their place?”
“No, sir!”
The moment battle began, the enemies—who had already lost all morale—put up almost no resistance. One man fought fiercely, but an arrow took him in the chest. The ones trying to flee met the same fate. I felt no particular emotion. In the end, they would have starved to death or died fighting; it made no difference.
Only three men who had raised their hands in surrender remained.
“Are there any other people in the apartment besides you?”
“Th-there are.”
“Tell me the details. If it’s not satisfactory, the guy next to you gets the next chance.”
“There are twelve women in their twenties and nine in their thirties!”
Something felt off.
“Why only women? And only young ones at that? No elderly?”
“N-no, none!”
“You guys are obvious. Either you only accepted women or you kidnapped them to use as sex slaves. One of the two, right?”
The man avoided my gaze. Jackpot.
“W-we didn’t make them sex slaves.”
“Who said anything?”
The way he squirmed made it suspicious.
“If any of them has a useful skill, I’ll spare you.”
“W-well…”
He rattled off various skill names, but none were useful. He didn’t even have combat experience.
“Guide us.”
“Y-you’re really sparing me?”
“Killing you is just more trouble, so shut up and walk in front.”
He walked ahead with a relieved expression. In the apocalypse, women were valuable. Men wanted women. Under the right circumstances, trading was possible. But that wasn’t the kind of value I had in mind.
Whether male or female, everyone had the same potential in WAW. Stats, skills—everything was identical. Women were easier to control than men, who might rebel or betray me at the slightest opportunity. If I was going to raise and train people properly, women were better than men.
After reaching the apartment where they had lived, I installed Thorn Towers. We would farm experience here.
“Assemble them.”
“Yes!”
A short while later, all the women had been brought out.
“How did these men treat you?”
“W-we only did housework…”
The representative seemed to have explained the situation; they were all frozen stiff. I spoke to a woman who had retreated to the very back.
“You.”
“Yes?”
“What did they do to you? If you don’t tell the truth, you die.”
Grooooooan.
A Wooden Hammer Tower surged upward. The woman, face deathly pale, spilled everything.
“K-Kim Namhyun and his men raped me! Those bastards took turns tormenting me every night! Those fucking sons of bitches—hic, ughhh…”
“Hey, what’s going on? I thought you said you didn’t make them sex slaves.”
“Th-that’s… The boss only made her his sex slave. He said the group would stay stable only if he could relieve his desires.”
“Then why only her?”
“I-I don’t know?”
She wasn’t even pretty enough to ignite that kind of lust. I examined the other women’s expressions. Seven of them wore faces that said they were displeased with the crying woman.
“You people stand on this side. You people, over there.”
“Why?”
“Are you going to spare us?”
“Shut up and stand. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
They were split into two groups. I asked the group on the right.
“Do you want to come to our apartment? There are plenty of empty units left.”
“Yes! We’ll go! What about food…”
“Me too!”
“I’ll go too!”
The group on the left immediately reacted.
“We want to go too!”
“Please take us!”
“No. You can’t come.”
“Wh-why not?”
“I don’t cultivate seeds of discord. And you.”
I pointed at the woman who had become their representative.
“Yes?”
“You knew, didn’t you? That these bitches encouraged the others to rape her. Did you join in the torment yourself?”
“I had nothing to do with it!”
“So it’s true they ordered it.”
She couldn’t hide the panic on her face.
“I can’t leave liars alive.”
“W-wait just a—!”
Swish— Squelch!
A Longbow Tower’s arrow sank deep into her chest.
“Krrraaaaagh!”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
“Kyaaat!”
As the woman collapsed, the others screamed.
“Hey, you bitches tormented her too, didn’t you?”
“We were just following orders…”
Swish— Thunk! Splat!
“Krrraaagh!”
“Gurgh! Hrrk!”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
“Uwaaaaang!”
If I was going to cut out the buds of trouble, I had to be thorough. Half-measures were worse than doing nothing at all.
“Shut up. Scream again and I’ll kill you.”
Only then did they cover their own mouths and quiet down.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes?”
“What do you think I should do with them? Tell me honestly.”
“I-I hope they die.”
“This bitch!”
Swoosh— Thud!
“Ack! Kehuk, ugh…”
“I said I’d kill you if you screamed, didn’t I?”
The women couldn’t even cry out anymore; they simply shed silent tears.
“Well, I was just asking. They did torment you, right?”
“Yes!”
“Those who decided to join us, gather supplies and come down. Group B, go with them and collect your share of the loot.”
“Wh-what about us?!”
“You stay here and wait. Move and you die.”
They reassembled in ten minutes.
“All right, we’re moving out.”
In the distance, the women stared after us with hollow eyes. Then they began crying and trying to return to the apartment.
Swoosh— Squelch! Thud! Thunk! Splat!
In the end, they never made it back.
“I told you not to move.”
They never begged for forgiveness until the moment we left. If you’re going to torment others when you have no strength of your own, you should at least beg for forgiveness or pay the price. Group B and the women we took never looked back, as if deliberately ignoring the salt pillars we left behind.