“Are you saying you want to keep fighting? Even though we’re willing to give up both the base and the man to you?”
“What do you mean ‘give up’? I can take them by force anytime I want.”
It was an absurd statement not even worth laughing at. Seeing them flinch and stiffen, perhaps realizing this themselves, Sa-yoon shrugged his shoulders.
“Wouldn’t it be better to swallow your pride once instead of wasting time on pointless arguments?”
“How do we know you’ll keep that promise?”
“That’s ridiculous. By that logic, how can I be sure you’d quietly let me go if I just took this guy?”
“If you take something, wouldn’t you have at least the minimal conscience not to do that? Even if you don’t, the person on your shoulder seems like he would.”
“……”
They had an unnecessarily good intuition.
While Sa-yoon himself had thrown away his conscience, Han Geon-joo certainly wouldn’t harm people easily, and being compassionate, he wouldn’t be able to attack a group willing to leave their leader behind. Sa-yoon narrowed his eyes and glanced at Geon-joo. With his stomach draped over Sa-yoon’s shoulder, his expression wasn’t clearly visible.
He didn’t want to pass the responsibility to Geon-joo. Realizing he needed to change the subject before the woman suggested asking Geon-joo directly, which seemed likely at this rate, Sa-yoon surveyed the man’s companions.
As he lightly scanned their lower bodies, he noticed a man with blood on his legs trembling anxiously inside the base.
He was the only one with so much blood on his clothes that one might think he had been critically wounded. Instantly realizing this man, along with the woman in front of him, must have been the ones who deceived Geon-joo, Sa-yoon spoke.
“How about this then? If you hand over yourself and that man too, I’ll let the rest go unharmed as you wished. As you said, since I’ve received something, I promise not to touch the others. Should we even write up a contract?”
As he pulled out a low-grade contract from his inventory and floated it in the air, he saw the eyes of those not singled out momentarily sparkle. In contrast, the eyes of the woman who had been speaking boldly until now and the man hiding behind her trembled severely. It was a stark difference in reactions.
It was interesting to see such a contrast of joy and sorrow. When he added that he could really write up a contract if they wanted, the difference became even more pronounced.
“Y-you were the one who told us there was a base here in the first place, Lin!”
“That’s right, you and Wei instigated this, so you should take responsibility!”
“Run was also involved in deceiving that person’s companion with Lin…”
They were such an amusing bunch.
They could debut as a comedy team without any problem. As Sa-yoon stood there staring blankly, unsure if he was watching comedy at home or if he was really in a gate, the spark of discord he had ignited grew increasingly ugly.
People’s voices rose, and curses appeared. In the end, he couldn’t hide his sneer at the conversation that even led to physical scuffles.
They were perfectly demonstrating what destruction meant.
There was no morality to uphold, no compassion to harbor. Not knowing what to protect, even the dictionary definition of lawlessness became vague. This scene of people pointing knives at each other while clinging only to survival was no different from the dregs of humanity in the gutter.
The sound of retching was heard once more from above. This time, it seemed he had really vomited, as the sound of something being expelled accompanied it.
Watching this scene continuously made even Sa-yoon feel disgusted, and he frowned. He let go of the S-rank man’s head he had been holding all along and gripped his sword. He was about to decide to just kill them all.
“Rao!”
In the end, the woman and man Sa-yoon had pointed out were abandoned by their group and pushed down, landing on their bottoms. They looked at those who had pushed them with resentment, but the person ignored the couple called Lin and Run and looked at Sa-yoon.
“Please write the contract as promised. At least A-rank or higher. Lin is a high-level awakened one, and Run is upper-middle level. I think they’re worth that level of contract.”
The words he spat out while abandoning his comrades were outrageous. Feeling they weren’t even worth dealing with anymore, Sa-yoon silently took out an S-rank contract. He wrote the terms, signed it, and threw it to the remaining group. After urgently checking the contents of the contract, they looked at Sa-yoon with worried and distrustful eyes before hesitantly disappearing.
“Rao! Song Yang!”
The woman called out the names of the two retreating people, but they didn’t look back. The remaining awakened one who had been watching the situation also followed them. Those who had been completely abandoned looked back at Sa-yoon with stunned expressions.
Meeting their eyes was disgusting.
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
It’s a wonder they’ve survived this long.
He wasn’t sure if the world’s destruction had corrupted them to this extent, or if experiencing countless events had worn down their emotions to the point where they could make such choices.
Not wanting to think about it anymore, Sa-yoon frowned at the two trembling eyes and swung his sword.
“Arghhhh!”
Those who lost their eyes screamed. Sa-yoon, looking down at the literally blinded individuals, spotted S-rank monsters running from afar. They were monsters stimulated by this group’s noisy behavior.
Sa-yoon grabbed both people by the collar with one hand and threw them towards the approaching monsters. Then he threw their leader as well, leaving the monsters to deal with them. He then properly picked up Geon-joo, who had been uncomfortably draped over his shoulder all this time.
“…Please put me down.”
His voice had become very hoarse in that short time. Sa-yoon moved to a place untouched by dirty blood and set Geon-joo down as he requested in a subdued voice. His expression was dark. Covering his mouth with a pale face as if nauseous, Geon-joo dry heaved a couple of times.
Pat pat.
Sa-yoon emotionlessly patted his back. After retching a few times and spitting up stomach acid, Geon-joo turned his head in the direction where the awakened group had disappeared.
They had fled so quickly that the three surviving awakened ones were already out of sight.
“…How can people be like that?”
His voice was considerably shocked.
Sa-yoon firmly grasped and then released Geon-joo’s shoulder, signaling it was time to go in, as he watched Geon-joo trembling at the fact that they were the same species, beyond mere shock.
“It’s because they’re human that they can be like that.”
“……”
“Animals are true to their instincts, so it’s hard for them to be that nauseating.”
Sa-yoon felt equally disgusted.
Throughout his time as the head of Night Rat, he had seen a sickening variety of human nature, but it had been a while since he’d seen something this revolting.
Indeed, humans were born evil. That’s why when there are no norms, conscience, or people to keep themselves in check, they collapse into chaos.
His appetite had completely vanished, and he felt the food he had brought wouldn’t serve its purpose. Thinking the timing was bad, Sa-yoon grabbed Geon-joo, who was standing like a person whose soul had left his body, and entered the base.
He used his frost skill to create an ice door to repair the fortress entrance that had collapsed during the brief battle. Accepting Geon-joo’s opinion that he didn’t want to use the first floor because it reminded him of those people, they headed to the top floor where they had been before.
Suddenly, Sa-yoon wondered how Geon-joo had planned to come down to the first floor and open the door, given that there might be traps. Unable to resist asking, Geon-joo retorted, asking what idiot would set traps inside their own house.
Hearing that he thought it would be safe inside, having already broken through one trap to enter, unless it was the top floor close to the exit, Sa-yoon’s churning stomach from seeing disgusting things began to settle. The gentle voice was pleasant to hear.
“Still, refrain from that in the future. There might be traps set up in some bases.”
“Yes.”
The response was obedient. Sa-yoon arrived at the room they had stayed in before and claimed the ice sofa. Just a few hours ago, he had been lying here before going to find food, but in that short time, there had been quite a commotion, leaving his head somewhat fuzzy. It might also have been due to lack of sleep.
With plenty of time left until the next wave, Sa-yoon took out the food he had brought.
“It’s probably cooled down a bit, but try eating it anyway, pretty boy. It shouldn’t be bad.”
It would have been best eaten warm, but it had cooled while dealing with those peculiar individuals. Geon-joo stared blankly at the black-horned rabbit skewer Sa-yoon had brought.
“……”
He’s practically performing a ritual in front of the food.
After quietly staring for over 10 minutes, Sa-yoon told him not to eat if he didn’t have an appetite and picked up one skewer to put in his mouth. Though cooled, it still tasted good. Even without any special seasoning, the meat was savory and appropriately salty as he swallowed it. It was then that Geon-joo spoke.
“…Those people.”
“Hm?”
“Why did you let them go?”
“You mean those guys just now?”
“Yes. It’s not like you to do that.”
What do you mean, ‘not like me’?
He frowned at the sudden confrontation. He wanted to question it, but having an idea of what the answer might be, he finished eating all the meat on the skewer and shook the empty stick.
“I didn’t see any need to deal with them personally.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was obvious they’d end up destroying themselves by backstabbing each other.”
“……”
“Isn’t it more pathetic for them to die pointing knives at each other than for me to kill them? That’s why I let them go.”
They’ll die more miserably on their own, so why should I bother exerting effort?
They weren’t worth it. After defining this in a nonchalant tone, Sa-yoon watched Geon-joo, who seemed lost in thought, and patted his head.
“Think of it as bad luck and forget about it. There’s nothing good in dwelling on dirty things.”
Despite this personal advice, Geon-joo’s expression remained unchanged. Sa-yoon picked up a rabbit skewer and poked it at the corner of Geon-joo’s mouth as he stared out the window.
Geon-joo turned his head as if refusing to eat.
“Turn your head one more time. I’ll make you find your own food from now on.”
Sa-yoon threatened. As he started to speak, saying wasn’t it because of getting this food that the earlier incident happened, Geon-joo, sensing the start of a lecture, concluded the conversation by saying he had already apologized and put the skewer in his mouth.
Chewing the meat with a reluctant air, Geon-joo’s expression brightened for a moment.
“Is it good?”
“……”
There was no answer to the question.
Sa-yoon decided to trust the rapidly decreasing number of skewers instead of waiting for his pretty boy to verbally express his approval.