Chapter 98. Removal or Recruitment.
Chapter 98. Removal or Recruitment.
"First, everyone calm down and let's just talk."
"Calm down? After what you bastards did to us?!"
A murderous tension hung in the air, as if they were ready to level their crossbows and pull the triggers at any second.
'Try talking them down? Or just subdue them first?'
The reality didn't match what I'd heard from the Operation Commander or what was written in the files. Right off the bat, these people weren't fundamentally bad.
While I was mulling it over alone, arrows came flying at my arms and legs—probably aimed with the intent to disable.
— Thwip! Thwip!
I caught the arrows like it was nothing and tossed them to the ground in front of me; their eyes shook wildly—they clearly hadn't expected me to snatch every single one out of the air.
"It's true I came from the Command Headquarters, but I only came here at their request; strictly speaking, I'm not one of them. There seems to be a misunderstanding."
As I kept explaining, the killing intent I felt from them began to diminish bit by bit, though they were still just as suspicious and wary of me.
"Can you show us definitive proof that you're not with the Command Headquarters?"
Words alone meant nothing as persuasion. So the way to persuade them was...
Carefully, I lowered my hand, pulled the phone from my pocket, opened the photo album app, and tossed it to them. These were photos I'd taken occasionally, thinking they might be nice to keep as memories when I had nothing else to do.
'They need to know about the president...'
They swiped through the album one photo at a time, then stopped at a certain point and started murmuring amongst themselves.
"Th-The president is clearly dead..."
"What? He was alive?"
"Hold on, what the hell is going on?"
I let out a sigh as they stared at the pictures, utterly confused.
"I think I've been more than patient, honestly. If I'd had no intention of talking from the start, I wouldn't have shown myself so openly in the first place."
They stared at me and swallowed hard.
"And give the phone back, please. Those are important pictures..."
Seeming too scared to come closer, they threw the phone back from a distance. Then, after whispering among themselves for a moment, a few of them hurried inside the building.
"Just a moment, please..."
I made a vague, unconcerned gesture with my hand and leaned back against a barricaded car to wait. After about ten minutes, several people came rushing out of the building. What surprised me was that the person leading them—apparently their representative—was a woman.
'Well, that's not what matters.'
"Are you the man who says he came from the Command Headquarters?"
"Yes."
She stared at me intently, as if checking something, and then mana began flowing out of her body, probing me. I didn't block the mana flowing toward me at all. I just let it come.
As expected, it was completely beyond her. She broke into a cold sweat, her face going pale.
"Urgh..."
"Couldn't get much, right?"
The atmosphere started turning murderous again, as if they thought I'd done something to her.
"What did you do to her?!" "This is why you can't just trust people blindly!"
I stretched out a hand to stop them as they looked ready to lunge at me. She probably understood perfectly well, too. That even if every last person in the building came running—not just the ones here—they wouldn't be able to hold me back a single step before being swept away.
"Who exactly are you?"
I grinned as I gave her an answer.
"Now you're ready to talk. I'm a bit worn out after running all the way here—would it be alright if we go inside and continue this?"
My attempt to break the ice made her chuckle, and she looked around as she spoke.
"Everyone, return to your posts. This man is not our enemy. No—I doubt he even considers us enemies to begin with..."
And so I followed them inside the Jung-gu Office building, to what looked like a conference room. The man who had first confronted me and a few others took their seats one by one. Once I saw everyone was seated, I spoke up.
"What exactly happened here to make you all fly off the handle the second you heard 'Command Headquarters'?"
"First, I'm curious what you were told before you came here."
I told them everything—the vicious acts, the soldiers being captured and killed, everything I'd heard from the commander. For good measure, I tossed the file he'd given me onto the table and nodded toward it. Slightly puzzled, she picked up the file and started reading it slowly.
As she read, her expression shifted beyond mere anger into outright shock, and soon her eyes reddened, clearly fighting back tears.
— Crinkle!
The shock must have been severe, because her hands trembled and she squeezed the file with enough force to crumple the pages. Unable to contain his curiosity at the sight, the man I'd first met earlier took the file from her and read it.
— Bang!!!
His reaction was different from hers, who had swallowed her fury inside; he slammed his fist against the desk and vented his rage outwardly. Then he looked at me with a cold glare and asked:
"Is what's written here true?"
"Yes. The people there know you exactly as it's written."
"In that case... what exactly did they ask you to do, coming here...?"
"If it had been exactly as written..."
I drew out the words, lowering my voice, and at this shift in tone, everyone tensed up, their eyes fixed on me, waiting to hear what I'd say next.
"Total elimination."
"H-How could you..."
"Now, tell me. What exactly happened between you and the Command Headquarters?"
"Just a moment, please."
He said that and went outside. After about five minutes, he returned with a laptop, held it out in front of me, and played a video. What it contained was pretty shocking footage. It was a video of the Operation Commander leading a sizable horde of zombies and storming the Jung-gu Office.
"Astoundingly, it seems the man calling himself the Operation Commander obtained the ability to control zombies."
'No... Not zombies—higher-order undead...'
"Before he first brought the zombies here, he demanded our unconditional cooperation. His words said 'cooperation,' but it was effectively an order to fall in line under him."
"So you must have had a reason for refusing the offer?"
"Yes. That man's reputation is extremely bad. Both my wife and I are former civil servants, so we'd crossed paths with him a few times."
"Your wife?"
"Yes. This woman next to me is my better half."
He pointed at the woman who was the group's representative. That explained why he'd gotten so excessively angry earlier when her complexion had turned pale. There'd been a personal reason.
"..."
"Anyway, after we refused the first time, he kept coming back with offers of power, rewards, and the like. But when we kept refusing, he eventually led zombies in and attacked."
Now I finally understood clearly why he wanted these people eliminated. From his perspective, while taking out the president was an option at any time, wiping this place out would cost him considerable losses. More than anything, given his personality, having a group like this in the same city must have felt like a serious thorn in his side.
As I listened to him talk, I kept watching the video, which was still playing. It looked like CCTV footage from inside the building and the parking lot, and I could see people—men and women, young and old—being mercilessly torn apart and killed without distinction. Then, once a certain amount of slaughter had been carried out, the zombies quietly withdrew.
'Is he planning to bleed them dry, little by little?'
While I was watching the video on my own, she spoke to me.
"Actually, the reason we briefly joined the Command Headquarters..."
Having heard the whole truth, they fell silent, as if they understood.
"In that case, I suppose we'd be a problem for you..."
"C-Could I possibly get the video file from you?"
"Ah, that's fine. I have it saved to memory anyway, and if you need it, the laptop itself..."
I pulled the USB stick out of the laptop, told him this would be enough, and declined.
"I'll come find you again soon. And as for all of you, you're dead as of today."
"What do you mean?"
"I'll tell them I killed the representatives and their close aides. Lie low somewhere out of sight for about three days. It'll all be over before then..."
Ignoring his request for a more detailed explanation, I vanished in an instant. As if I'd never been there from the start.
* * * * * * * *
When I returned to the Command Headquarters, the commander politely escorted me to a lavish meal.
"You've done great work. You must be hungry—please, eat."
"I was hungry anyway, so this works out."
"But anyway, how were they...?"
He was still half-doubtful, probing me a little to gauge my reaction.
"Who knows? Anyway, they were bad people, so I didn't bother asking questions and just cut 'em down. Looked like a 'married couple,' wasn't it?"
The phrase "married couple" confirmed it for him. It was information he wouldn't know unless he'd actually seen it himself. Only then, with the thought that the obstacle bothering him had finally been removed, did he offer his thanks with an expression of pure delight.
"Thank you! Thanks to you, our people can live in safety now!"
'Disgusting bastard...'
The commander's close cronies joined in, starting to flatter me. From the way things were going, it seemed he was the only one who knew the commander could control zombies.
'Not that the bastards next to him are any different.'
Since I had to play along, I made quick work of the meal and returned to my room, connecting the USB to a device I'd brought and showing the video to the women. Then, without drawing attention, I secretly approached the others in our party and showed them as well.
As the video showed a child screaming in horror, the president and the older man turned their eyes away, unable to watch any longer. The women shut the video off not long after it began playing.
'So, what's your path now? Are you going to eliminate me... or recruit me?'
No. In truth, he had no choice in the matter.
I was the one who decided his path, and his road led straight to the underworld.