My Friend Embezzled the Price of My Life

The bastard I called a friend embezzled the price of my life.

When the apocalypse broke, the question was simple. Would human beings fight, or would they cooperate? I was one of the people who never stopped arguing about it. Online, of course.

There were plenty of other takes, but in the end they split into two.

Live trusting no one but yourself.

To survive, you have no choice but to join forces.

The day that answer got tested arrived sooner than anyone expected.

Zombies appeared, and weapons like guns vanished with them. To put the conclusion first: both sides had been right, and both sides had been wrong.

At the start, people fought. They committed crimes.

"Die! Die! Die! Where's your stuff?! The world's upside down!"

It went on like that for weeks.

"Damn it. We're out of water."

"Let's head for the river, at least. Even if there are zombies, it's better than dying of thirst."

Months passed.

"Zombies and monsters keep showing up. We can't hold them off by ourselves anymore."

"I heard people called the Awakened have appeared."

"They say folks gathered and built a shelter."

Years went by.

"Hello. I'd like to register with the Association."

"Ah, you're from the refugee wave?"

"Came up from Busan."

"Goodness, you've been through a lot. We'll start with the examination."

People gathered in one place as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The apocalypse had erupted, and monsters were appearing everywhere. As the beasts multiplied, Awakened were born. They were set on the front line, and military strength was built up around them. Groups formed. Shelters rose. The Association was created.

And the Association built a safe city. They called it New Seoul. It felt like a slide back into the Middle Ages, but people were satisfied. At least they could live while keeping a society intact.

"Hoo."

I was one of the citizens of that New Seoul, and I took a certain pride in having survived as hard as I could. The Raid Teams fought zombies beyond the walls and ran the reconnaissance. I had belonged to one, and I had kept working.

I never meant to. Not if my one and only friend hadn't Awakened.

What began as the two of us took on other Awakened. We made a name for ourselves, after a fashion. We saved a lot of people and reported clues that mattered. That work, and those days, were my pride. Up until then, they truly were.

"Hey, Shin Wijun. Have you lost your mind?"

"Aw, come on. No need to get that angry."

"You crazy bastard. You can look at this and still talk?"

I ground my teeth at the son of a bitch in front of me. Leader of the Raid Team. Shin Wijun, whose skill had won him a reputation. My friend — no. The man who used to be my friend. I clenched my fist until it felt ready to crush.

"You skimmed the supplies halfway through and filed a false report? In a place like a company, that's embezzlement."

"It had to be done."

"Hauling our teammates out to drink and screw around had to be done? You piece of shit!"

Shin Wijun had been diverting the Association's support funds, the reward money, and the supplies. My share was in there with the rest. This bastard had pocketed even the price of his friend's life. A vicious betrayal slid down through my chest. It was madness I could never have imagined. It was something a human being simply does not do.

"Haa. You've been loud for a while. Can't you get through a day without shouting?"

"Yeah. Why are you being so petty about that?"

The other members of the Raid Team. More precisely, Shin Wijun's sex partners — Yang Ayun and Choi Ari.

"You two, get out. Empty-headed as you are, you wouldn't understand an important conversation."

"Wow. Wow...! Did you really just say that? A Non-Awakened whose only job is hiding in the back."

Rage surged hotter at the voice of a woman whose skull was hollow.

"What? I do nothing? Who do you think builds the plans, runs the recon, even writes the paperwork?"

"Hmph! I could do that much too."

"I'm saying it because a moron like you couldn't. That's why you still don't grasp how serious this is."

"Y-you — this guy is really...!"

Choi Ari looked ready to lunge, and I ignored her. This was not something I could let slide the way I always had. I had endured it even when these lunatics fucked in front of the zombies. This, I could not swallow.

"Hey, you son of a bitch. How could you do this?"

"The language is a little harsh."

"Quit smirking and listen, you bastard."

He had skimmed it where I, the one writing the reports, would never see. That meant he had set out to do it. Not an impulse. A plan.

"Don't be like that. Stress builds up when you fight. Call it the cost."

"Did your conscience blow a fuse?"

"Ah, fine. I get it. I'll cut you in a little too. That works, doesn't it?"

"You really are insane!"

Was it the women? The money? Or had getting famous simply let his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠real personality out?

"You think this is only a problem between you and me? Those supplies could have fed ten people! The guards stay up all night just to save a little."

A Raid Team lives on the Association's support — enormous rewards, enormous supplies. Out there, people would kill their own relatives for that much. And the Association does not hand it out for free. All of it was what ordinary citizens had ground themselves down to make. Someone breaks their back farming. A sick child drinks muddy water because there is no clean water. We could fight only because of sacrifices like that, sacrifices made on the belief that the Raid Teams would build hope and save people. They were not made so this bastard could drink with women on his arms and play.

"You said you wanted to save people. You said you'd avenge your father. What the hell is this?"

I had endured it when he blew up an operation I had built, just to go on a date. When he ignored me completely so he could fuck, I told myself it was a moment's lapse and waited. This was the result. He had lied to his friend and diverted supplies to feed some petty greed.

"You eat well and live well anyway, being on a Raid Team. Is holding back really that hard?"

"...A person's greed doesn't have an end. You know that."

Even now he only smiled, slick and easy. That smile showed me he was already finished as a human being.

"It's fine. I'm Awakened anyway. Who's going to say anything because I skimmed a little money? You know that. That's why you came to chew me out instead of going anywhere else."

He was right that this alone could not send him to ruin. I would need something more certain. But that was not why I was confronting him. I wanted to give him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one last chance. I wanted to hear him speak. We had trusted each other through all those years. Even that would remain now as nothing but regret.

"...I thought of you as a friend."

"Oh, Minhyung. We are friends."

He patted my shoulder.

"It's just that even between friends, there's rank. You know. Like the school thug and his errand boy."

The school thug and his errand boy. That was what this bastard was calling us.

"...All right. I get it."

I had expected at least an excuse. He was not going to stop. He did not even think this was wrong. The world might have no choice but to accept it. I could not look the other way.

"As of today, I'm leaving your team."

That was the conclusion I had reached. All my effort, my life, my faith — every bit of it felt empty. I did not want to spend another moment beside trash like him.

"Eat well. Live well."

I was about to end it there and go.

"Go? Where do you think you're going?"

"What?"

"You have to stay. If it isn't you, who's going to do the grunt work?"

"...You thought I'd keep working with you after this? Then I must be crazy."

"And if you don't, what are you going to do about it?"

Shin Wijun stepped right up in front of me.

"You have to keep working. Nobody handles the annoying shit as well as you."

"You crazy bastard. If you wanted that, you shouldn't have pulled this."

"Minhyung. I'm Awakened. A man of power who can do anything he wants, if he feels like it. So you'd better stay on my good side, yeah?"

My fist trembled. He was right. The Awakened were people of power. At least, they held far more strength and authority than ordinary citizens — in raw force, and in reputation. Shin Wijun, in particular, was on the popular side. And that guy was looking at me with a greasy smile, from a distance where he could swing whenever he pleased.

"Do a good job. Unless you want some zombie to clamp down on you out there and kill you."

"...I didn't survive this long to clean up after a defective piece of shit like you."

"What can a Non-Awakened like you even do?"

"Good question. I was incompetent, wasn't I. Didn't know what kind of man you were, so I threw you on my back and ran while you pissed yourself in front of the zombies. That's why you're alive."

For an instant Shin Wijun's face hardened. Then he recovered and let a sneer slip out.

In that moment I lost my reason. I seized him by the collar. As if he had been waiting, his fist came in.

Thud!

The blow took me in the gut. I collapsed and rolled across the floor. That was the difference between an ordinary man and an Awakened.

"Kyaa! Mr. Wijun? Even so, a fist is..."

"Hey, hey. Wait. If he's gone, then we also..."

The women tried to stop him. Shin Wijun did not stop.

"You attacked first, didn't you? This is self-defense."

He mounted me.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Then he started beating me without mercy.

"Ghk!"

"Oh? Look at you. You even know how to throw a technique, for what you're worth."

I hooked a leg and fought back, and that was as far as it went. He was an Awakened who worked the front line. I was an ordinary Non-Awakened. We differed from the baseline of the body itself.

"So what are you going to do?"

He pinned me with ease and made me take it. I thrashed my arms and legs, but that heavy body did not budge.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The merciless punches kept coming. Even if I had fought him properly, it was not a match I could win.

"I went easy on you because we were friends! Huh? The likes of you dare chew me out? Arrogant little shit. You want to die that badly! You still think I'm the number two in school who used to lose to you? Trash like you — if I feel like it, I can kill you whenever I want!"

It hurt. Worse than my face. It felt as if my heart were being carved out. Fury, helplessness, shame. When a person is angry enough, even tears well up. The one in the wrong was clearly the bastard on top of me, and still the misery of having to take it, powerless, was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠its own wound.

"Hey, Shin Wijun! Stop already! You're really going to kill him!"

His fists kept falling until Choi Ari made them stop.

"Hoo."

Shin Wijun rose slowly. Smiling as if he had never been angry at all, he hauled me upright by force.

"Hey, hey. You all right?"

"......"

"There. Friends fight. That's how it is. You go at it clean, then you laugh and make up. Isn't that what friends do?"

"...Crazy bastard."

"Heh. Still fronting, right to the end."

He laughed like a psycho and slammed me back down.

"All right. We'll call this payment for the beating. Now you forget all of it, and starting tomorrow you come back to work. Mr. Lee Minhyung."

Smiling to the last, playful about it, he stuffed money into my pocket. The new currency circulating in New Seoul.

"Don't go doing anything pointless. You know what an Awakened is, don't you? Report it and nothing will happen. Unlike you, I've got backing in the Association."

With that, he left. The other two glanced at me, then followed Shin Wijun.

"Hhh..."

I lay there alone for a long while. I could have gotten up. I did not want to. I wanted to remember this humiliation, this rage, a little longer.

"Heh heh heh...!"

Strange. My face had been beaten this badly, and yet my heart hurt more. I could feel it: today's shame and weakness would be a wound that stayed in my chest for the rest of my life.

A new city had risen. Society had been rebuilt, and I had forgotten. Forgotten that this was still an apocalypse. An apocalypse has a way of surviving that fits it. And I was one of the people who knew that best.