None of My Business?
I'll cut straight to the point.
Cheon Inho was garbage. No question.
The reason he'd summoned us was simple enough: he wanted us to join his group.
Of course, Dokja and I both refused. I'd rather bite my own tongue off and die than crawl into a group like that.
His face did twist up a little at the rejection… but so what? None of my business.
We headed back to our original spot and started unpacking the food we'd brought in.
"Are you sure it was okay to turn him down like that?"
"Did you want us to accept?"
"Absolutely not, but…"
"It's what Cheon Inho said at the end that bothers me."
"We'll just have to wait and see, exactly like he said. Anyway—it's dinner time. Isn't anyone hungry?"
Dokja tore open a plastic bag stuffed full of food.
"Everyone take one."
"Oh—really? Are you sure?"
"Hey!"
That grating voice shattered the warm atmosphere all over again.
A crowd of furious civilians had gathered right in front of us.
"Is it true you're monopolizing the food?"
"There's barely enough to go around if we share, and you're just going to hog it all for yourselves?"
…Disgusting.
The sheer audacity of claiming ownership over food they hadn't even scavenged themselves. It made my stomach turn.
Something was rising up from deep inside me.
Attribute ‘#$@ive %@!server’ is on the verge of blooming!
A system window flickered into view, and something cold settled over me.
Should I even bother looking at them? These creatures, whipped into foolishness by a single silver tongue, repeating the same stupid mistakes over and over.
Was I supposed to just stand here and watch?
Maybe I should grab one as an example and beat the lesson into him—
"Stop."
Dokja's voice snapped me back to myself.
It had been a strange feeling. Almost like… the kind of thoughts a person living in the City would have.
"Of course we'll share the food."
"But it won't be free."
"W-what do you mean?"
"Not free…?"
A few Constellations' eyes sparkle with interest.
Constellation, ‘Secretive Plotter’, snorts with amusement.
Ah. So this was that scene.
"That's right. I'm not a volunteer, and I don't trust those people either."
"Th-then how much…"
"No. I only accept…"
"Coins."
"Um… Dokja-ssi, was that really the right call?"
"Fifty coins each seems a little steep…"
"From now on I'll be charging you all ten coins too, so keep that in mind."
The crowd backed off for the time being. Cheon Inho was probably already rewriting his plans around Dokja's move.
"Of course. I'll start paying from now on. I don't need free handouts."
The woman we'd rescued outside had come to her senses and was speaking up.
"I'm Jung Heewon. Thank you for helping me this morning."
"It was nothing."
"Right. It was only natural."
A righteous person, just as expected. I'd liked her even when I was reading the webtoon—someone who aimed for good triumphing over evil and actually put in the work to make it happen. Looking at her always felt like it purified all the filth in my heart.
"Yoo Sangah-ssi. Lee Hyunsung-ssi. Both of you, snap out of it. This isn't the time to be making faces like that."
"These people risked their lives to bring this food back."
"You're not thinking of freeloading off it like everyone else, are you?"
"Ah…"
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I don't want free food either."
"I'll pay from now on as well."
The atmosphere warmed over again, and a smile spread across my face without me meaning it to. In a ruined world, people who still tried to keep their basic human decency shone that much brighter.
Dokja and I collected the coins from them.
Owned Coins:16,050C
More coins had piled up than I'd expected. At this rate I could push every single stat up to twenty.
"Shall we get some rest now?"
"Yes. Dokja-ssi, Hayeon-ssi, you two should sleep as well. I'll take the night watch."
"No. We still have something we need to do."
"Something you need to do?"
"Well…"
"Good god."
"You're telling me all of it sold overnight? Ha. Hilarious. Everyone was just watching and waiting…"
"It wasn't only the fringe groups who bought, though."
"What? What do you mean…"
At that moment Cheon Inho stepped out of a tent and drew every eye in the station.
"Starting today, we will be restricting food distribution."
"The ration is three pieces of biscuit per person."
"What? Three pieces of biscuit?!"
"How the hell are we supposed to live on that?!"
People hurled their anger and complaints at Cheon Inho.
"If you want more food, you're free to volunteer for the scouting parties."
"Almost nobody who joins the scouting parties ever comes back!"
"The only ones who always return are those Cheoldupa bastards!"
"Are you telling us to go die?!"
"If you have complaints, why don't you go gather food yourselves?"
That hard truth left them speechless. They fell back.
Cheon Inho didn't miss the opening.
"Ah—of course, even if you don't join the scouting parties, there is another way to obtain food."
"I didn't want to go this far, but…"
"Yesterday, Kim Dokja-ssi and Park Hayeon-ssi over there taught us something useful."
Look at this bastard.
This is exactly why you don't live with opportunistic bats.
"Kim Dokja-ssi is right, everyone. Nothing in this world is free."
"If you want food, you have to prove your own value."
"If we judge something to be of value, we will exchange it for food—whatever it may be."
"That's only natural, after all."
This was why I hated that bastard. The second anything looked like it might threaten him, he tried to crush it underfoot. Truly stupid. All that kind of behavior ever did was isolate him further.
"Thank you for teaching us something so useful, Kim Dokja-ssi. Park Hayeon-ssi."
The moment the words left his mouth, every gaze in the station swung toward us.
Haa… even if they were under the influence of a demagoguery skill…
"So in the end the mainstream group just monopolized the food again."
"Weren't you trying to encourage trade between people so you could weaken the mainstream group's power?"
"That's right. I was hoping people would rise up on their own."
"Then you shouldn't have sold food to the mainstream group!"
"Nothing's changed!"
"It has. We have coins now."
And quite a lot of them, at that. Dokja and I had each walked away with a cool thousand coins.
"At least you kept enough food for yourselves, right?"
"No? We sold all of it."
"What?!"
Food that was going to vanish later anyway. No point hoarding it. Better to sell every last scrap now and at least walk away with coins.
"Ah, and while we're on the subject—everyone, the food you each bought yesterday is still left, right?"
"Eat all of it right now."
"It would be best if you finished every last bit before today is over."
Dokja and I had come down toward the tracks and were scanning the way ahead.
"Everyone who went that way is dead. Thugs or otherwise."
"You're not planning on going there, are you?"
"Did I thank you yesterday?"
"I think you did. Why?"
"I'll say it one more time anyway. Thank you."
"That limping bastard over there. He's the one who tried to jump me yesterday."
"Don't touch him. I'm going to kill him myself."
Oh my god. Chilling.
"! Ah, for real…!"
"Did you just see that? They're dragging in not just the women but the elderly too…!"
Jung Heewon started forward as if she couldn't stand to watch the mainstream group's atrocities any longer, but Dokja stopped her.
Even if we put a stop to those acts right this second, nothing fundamental would be solved. We had to cut out the root of the problem.
"Jung Heewon-ssi. At the end of the day, the core of this problem is 'food,' isn't it?"
"…It is."
"Then we simply remove the cause of the problem."
"Dokja-ssi. Are you seriously going to do it?"
Dokja didn't answer my question. She checked the time on her phone instead.
Zzzt—
Zzzzzzt—!
A dokkaebi appeared in midair.
"U-um… h-how has everyone been? You must've been bored, right?"
"W-well, the friend who used to manage this channel got disciplined…"
Haa… so it really turned out that way.
"S-so this scenario is being handled by m-me now…"
The dokkaebi floating in the air wasn't Bihyung. It looked around the subway station for a moment, then continued.
"B-but everyone… y-you all look incredibly peaceful?"
"B-Bihyung, that show-off, set the scenario difficulty this low…"
A scenario penalty has been added.
From this moment, food stockpiling is restricted.
All existing stockpiled food will disappear.
"Wh-what…?"
"What the…? The f-food…!"
The food people had been hoarding rose into the air.
"Heh, hehe… i-if you've started a scenario, you should be thinking about clearing it, everyone."
"C-can you really just sit around fretting over food?"
"S-seriously, these e-earth trash…"
The dokkaebi flicked its hand, and the floating food instantly turned to ash.
At the same time, a blue window bloomed in front of my eyes.
A scenario penalty has been added.
The ‘Survival Fee’ item has been added.
From now on, every night at midnight, a ‘Survival Fee’ of 100 coins will be automatically collected.
If you fail to pay the ‘Survival Fee’, you will die.
The ‘Survival Fee’ penalty will remain in effect until the second Main Scenario is cleared.
Constellation, ‘The One Who Burned into Light’, closes their eyes.