No Room for Redemption
“Uh…”
The commotion here didn’t draw much attention in such a noisy place, but the man who had been about to slit the captured boy’s throat saw everything clearly.
“……”
The head spun five full turns.
Like twisting off a bottle cap, he wrenched the seated man’s skull around and tore it clean off.
The others who had been eating beside him could only stare blankly, stunned by how suddenly it had happened.
The man who had been sitting crookedly now spewed blood like a fountain, head and spine ripped free.
They had seen such sights many times before, and beside a nighttime campfire it hadn’t seemed particularly remarkable. But this was something they had always done to others, never something done to them.
Perhaps realizing the difference too late, one man reached for a hand axe lying nearby. He gripped the handle and stood up.
“Much obliged.”
By the time he rose, the man who had been standing far away was suddenly right in front of him.
Gulp.
The newcomer was actually shorter than him. Looking down, he met a pair of indifferent eyes. Below them was a blood-soaked combat uniform. The camouflage pattern was so drenched it looked merely wet.
The man glanced at the name tag on the chest, then swung the axe without hesitation, aiming to cleave the other’s neck.
Yet in that instant, as he brought the weapon down, he finally understood why the stranger had thanked him.
The axe he swung with all his strength stopped dead in midair, caught in the other man’s hand. The impact was like striking a stone wall; his grip went numb.
Kang Tae-sung took the hand axe as casually as stealing candy from a child, then swung it at the dazed man.
Crunch.
Even a light swing buried the blade more than halfway into the neck. Despite being a cheap Chinese-made axe, it felt better than the expensive weapons from the other world.
Was it a difference in craftsmanship?
When he twisted and yanked the axe free, blood that had been trickling out burst forth like a ruptured pipe.
The man was still breathing, clutching his neck and making choking sounds, but he must have known it was already over.
Kang Tae-sung didn’t bother finishing him off. He adjusted his grip on the axe and glanced around.
The area had gone silent. Everyone—both those who had been gathered here and those over there—had risen to their feet, staring at the spot where he stood.
“Never seen that face before.”
Someone spoke. The man beside him nodded in agreement.
“Don’t know what your deal is, but take it easy.”
“You’re getting blood all over our side.”
They still showed no real hostility. They simply said their piece, then either sat back down or continued watching.
One man even sidled closer, his eyes drifting toward the meat roasting over the campfire whose owner had just died.
Beside the meat—clearly from some unknown beast, probably a monster—lay the very reason its owner had died, still untouched.
Yet neither the approaching man nor anyone else seemed to understand why the dead man had been killed.
From what he had heard, everyone here was supposed to participate in tomorrow’s “hunt.”
Once people start seeing others as food, there’s no saving them.
It had been the same in that place.
If he didn’t kill them, the same thing would happen again.
After sweeping his gaze around once more, Kang Tae-sung began moving again. The head of the man who had been fiddling with the ownerless slab of meat flew into the air.
When he put real force into the swing, it came off cleanly, though it didn’t feel as satisfying as he had hoped.
Still, it was better than bare hands. Tightening his grip, Kang Tae-sung charged toward the men who were now pulling out various weapons, apparently realizing this wouldn’t end with just a few deaths.
“What the hell is this?”
“Is he insane?”
By the time the fifth life was taken, some of them shouted and raised long spears. The expressions of those backing away while keeping their distance looked as though they had no idea what they had done wrong.
But when the spears were effortlessly snatched away and their skulls were caved in, the surrounding men finally came to their senses.
“Surround him!”
“Kill him first!”
They realized the man intended to slaughter every last one of them—nothing else could explain his movements. They reacted quickly.
Some moved with exceptional speed, their bodies clearly sturdier than ordinary people.
Probably Awakeners.
Among them was the man who had stopped just short of finishing off the remaining boy.
“Don’t tell me he came to save those brats?”
The speaker shook his head and let out a sigh-like breath.
“That kind of pathetic heroism only hastens your death.”
Drawing a heavy-looking machete from a long, thick sheath on the ground nearby, the man muttered and moved into position.
Outside the encirclement, several archers drew their bows and aimed at Kang Tae-sung. Someone licked their lips.
But Kang Tae-sung, who had barely moved until now, suddenly twisted his body as if he had made a decision.
Thud!
The hand axe buried itself in the face of a man about to attack from one side of the circle. It sank so deep it nearly protruded from the back of his head—his brain couldn’t have survived. Instant death.
By the time the body toppled backward with a dull sound, Kang Tae-sung was already gripping another man’s throat.
He yanked the man forward and used him as a shield. Arrows thudded into the body instead.
“You son of a—!”
When he casually swung the corpse aside like a scarecrow, the man with the machete who had been charging in cursed and barely dodged.
He never expected that split second to become an opening. Just as he tried to press forward again, he realized Kang Tae-sung had vanished from in front of him—and felt something pierce his side.
The burning sensation of red-hot metal gave way to agony.
Before he could even scream, Kang Tae-sung’s hand had driven through his flank up to the forearm and crushed the heart beating inside his chest.
“Guh…!”
The scream was cut short as blood flooded his throat.
He probably never imagined dying like this. Viscera and blood poured from the hole in his side as Kang Tae-sung withdrew his hand.
“Urgh… Ugh…”
The man reached out as if trying to push his organs back in, then collapsed, staring blankly at Kang Tae-sung picking up the dropped machete and beginning to butcher the others.
How many Awakeners had there been?
Everyone had said that with that many, they could kill anything that came, or at least buy time to escape.
Yet as his consciousness faded, the man finally understood.
The one whose face had been split by the axe, the one whose neck had been broken and used as an arrow shield, and himself—all of them had been Awakeners.
Kang Tae-sung had deliberately targeted and eliminated the Awakeners first.
It wasn’t only the dead who realized this. Even as more than half their number fell, those still maintaining the encirclement finally noticed that the only ones left standing were ordinary people.
“……”
No one voiced the thought aloud. They simply began edging backward, each calculating how to flee on their own.
The blood-drenched man slaughtering their comrades was clearly an Awakener. The idea that non-Awakeners could escape him was absurd.
Since someone had to stay behind to buy time, those unwilling to take that role openly retreated.
They didn’t realize they could even consider such thoughts and actions only because Kang Tae-sung had been moving slowly.
After twisting the hand axe free from a corpse’s head, Kang Tae-sung looked around and nodded.
No more Awakeners left.
Because he didn’t know the full extent of their abilities, he had killed them early.
The remaining men didn’t seem like much of a threat, but he had no intention of letting any escape.
With the hand axe in his left hand and the blood-dripping machete in his right, Kang Tae-sung’s feet slid forward with deceptive speed, as if his previous movements had been a lie.
“Huh?”
The man who had been swinging his blade wildly felt something like a sharp wind pass by. When he turned his head, his severed neck slid off and fell.
The man beside him had his stomach split open. Another lost a leg at the thigh, blood gushing out.
The dulled machete was driven vertically into someone’s skull and abandoned. At some point the hand axe’s handle and blade separated and flew off.
But the deaths continued, undeterred by the lack of weapons—until someone managed to fire a gun.
Bang!
“……”
Kang Tae-sung, who had been moving toward another target, felt a sharp pain in the middle of his back and stopped.
They had guns.
He had foolishly forgotten.
Because everyone had been using crude weapons and tools, he had let his guard down.
Yet the gunshot wound closed in an instant, visible to the naked eye. The small bullet that had lodged inside was pushed out as the flesh mended.
Perhaps the man hadn’t seen it because it was night.
The shooter fired again. Kang Tae-sung shifted slightly, letting the bullet graze his shoulder to minimize the damage.
After two shots, he pinpointed the shooter’s location and hurled himself sideways, snatching up a nearby corpse and throwing it.
Bang! Bang!
More gunshots rang out, but no more bullets struck Kang Tae-sung. Startled by the flying corpse, the shooter lost sight of him and began firing wildly while fleeing.
“……”
The shooter looked no older than twenty, but Kang Tae-sung casually picked up a severed head from the ground and threw it.
============== Author’s Note ==============
Thank you, as always.
In the previous chapter, the protagonist mentioned there were no people here, but I forgot there was still one more boy. I realized it after reading the comments.
Since it’s difficult to fix, I’ll just leave it as is.
Please think of it as him speaking in that sense.
Until next time…