A day after letting Seongcheol’s gang go.
Rrrk!
"Hup…! Whew, I somehow managed to bring it back."
In front of my apartment door.
After wiping away my sweat with a towel, I looked at the metal briefcase I had hauled over.
Why the sudden metal briefcase?
You’d understand once you looked inside.
Click.
"Mm, it’s all still here, just as expected."
The moment I opened the case, I was greeted by stacks upon stacks of tightly packed banknotes.
It was the principal and interest I had paid back so far.
I found it stored in a corner of their hideout, so I took it.
Like I said before, it came to twenty-five million won.
They had gouged me for two and a half times the original amount. You could tell just how vicious those bastards were.
"Now that I think about it, this is pretty unfair. Maybe I shouldn’t have let them go?"
Regretting my past mercy just a little,
I carefully put the case away and lay down on my bed.
Regrets were regrets. I still had to browse the gallery.
[Chat] : Rookie, I Seriously Love You ★
Author: EightSpiderLegs
I was going to send this in a private chat, but that felt too half-hearted, so I made a post.
(Photo of baby spiders sharing energy bars.)
(Photo of baby spiders happily spreading their front legs.)
Thanks to you, my babies are doing well!!
They haven’t gone hungry a single day since then ㅠㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠ
The ones being born now think of you as their dad.
They keep asking if you’re out hunting for foodㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
I want to meet you and thank you in person, so let me know whenever you have time.
Any time is really fine!
I’ll come running even if it’s noon. I’ll be waiting. Thank you always.
[Total comments - 10]
MadamRabbit: Ugh… Spiders are so gross.
└MadamRabbit: Shouldn’t you at least put a warning in the title?
└[Author]EightSpiderLegs: Where do you live?
└AshesMimic: That’s what she always says, but this time she’s the one hearing itㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ProtectJustice: Wow, this is kind of heartwarming.
└FenceLover: But don’t people usually say any time at night is fine?
└FenceLover: Why noon?
└BeQuiet: Spiders are nocturnal, you idiotㅋㅋ
└LovePlease: Squishy? Uh-huh-huh.
└CleanlinessKing: Heartwarming, you crazy bastard? Heartwarming;;
"Oh wow, something of mine just got hard."
Of course, I meant my sense of pride.
A whole family had become happy thanks to me. Of course I was proud. Naturally.
Forcing down the corners of my mouth as they rose, I sent EightSpiderLegs a private message.
Anonymous (999.1): Aw, no need to thank me.
└Anonymous (999.1): Just sharing my talents, that’s all.
└EightSpiderLegs: Those shared talents saved several anomalies…
└EightSpiderLegs: I’ve been praising you half-jokingly until now, but
└EightSpiderLegs: we really would’ve all died without you.
└EightSpiderLegs: I sincerely mean it. Thank you.
"You don’t have to go that far… You’re making me embarrassed."
Anonymous (999.1): Anyway, let’s meet sometime soon.
└Anonymous (999.1): I’ll message you when I have time.
└EightSpiderLegs: Okay! I’ll bring the babies along so they can say hello!
└Anonymous (999.1): Please don’t do that;;
After finishing my private chat with EightSpiderLegs,
I continued browsing the gallery with a satisfied heart.
"…Hm?"
One post caught my attention.
[Chat] : IIIkidnappedfoooooddddd
Author: Anonymous (99.2)
(Photo of an unconscious human woman lying on a display counter.)
(Photo of countless people tied up and hanging from ropes.)
Idiotidiotidiotidiotidiotidiotidiotidiot
Eve?Eve?Eve?Eve?Eve?Why eat?Why eat?Why eat?Why eat?Why eat?Why eat?
IIIIIwillleleleateateateat
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㅋㅋㅋ
[Total comments - 4]
DontTurnAround: Low IQ is low IQ.
└DontTurnAround: Why eat humans when there are such delicious energy bars?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Hotelier: For realㅋㅋ
└WhiteBear: Just a low-intelligence anomalyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
The usual shitpost from a low-intelligence anomaly.
But this time was different.
"The boss…?"
The woman in the photo whom the anomaly claimed to have kidnapped—
was the owner of the convenience store where I worked.
**
Meanwhile, at a certain butcher shop.
An ominous place where various kinds of meat hung from ropes, lit only by dim yellow lights.
"Huff, huff… Did we lose it…?"
Han Seoa crouched down and hid beneath the kitchen counter.
To avoid the gaze of the monster with a mouth split wide open, which had chased her with a butcher knife the moment she woke up.
"I-I think so."
"We can catch our breath now…"
She wasn’t hiding alone.
She had escaped with a female college student and a middle-aged man from the place where the monster had gathered people to kill them.
"What the hell is going on here…? Does anyone know anything?"
Thud.
The middle-aged man sat down on the metal floor and asked in a low voice.
"I-I don’t know. I was just heading back after finishing an assignment, and then this happened…"
"Same here. I was watching the store, then when I came to, I was here."
"Tch. You’re no help."
The man pressed a finger against his philtrum, visibly irritated.
Seoa nearly snapped at his reaction, but swallowed her anger.
If she made too much noise, the monster might notice them.
"Haa… Forget it. Let’s find an exit first."
"R-right. We need to escape while the monster still can’t find us."
Clutching her handbag tightly, the student agreed with Seoa.
"…Fine. But you two go first."
"Huh? U-us?"
"Then should I go? Kids these days have no guts at all!"
Shove, shove.
The man pushed the student and Seoa forward with both hands.
The two moved onward as if forced along.
Once they left the kitchen, a corridor came into view.
Bright-red meat hung from the walls, blood dripping steadily onto the floor.
None of the three dared consider what kind of meat it was.
"Move up front already! At this rate, the monster’s going to catch up!"
"We’re going as fast as we can. And keep your voice down."
As they carefully moved forward, watching out for the blood on the floor—
Squelch!
Someone stepped on something.
Seoa hurriedly turned to look behind her.
The middle-aged man stood there with his foot on a piece of meat, at a complete loss.
"You just…!"
"I-it’s not my fault! If you two had moved faster in the first place, I wouldn’t have stepped on it!!"
As the man reddened and shamelessly turned the blame on them—
"Y-you here?"
"…!!"
"Y-you’re heeere??"
At the end of the corridor they had come through,
a monster in work clothes appeared, pointing a huge butcher knife in their direction.
Everyone froze solid.
The first one to move was Han Seoa.
"…Everyone, run!!"
"Y-yes!"
Tap-tap-tap!
They fled toward the other end with all their strength.
The monster began chasing them the instant it saw them move.
And so, a desperate chase began.
Thud thud thud!!
"D-don’t ruuun."
"Damn it, it’s catching up!!"
But the monster’s physical abilities were monstrous in the most literal sense.
When Seoa briefly looked back,
the monster was already right behind them.
Just as the monster’s blood-stained hand was about to reach them—
"…Fuck it!!"
"W-what are you doing!?"
The middle-aged man lunged at the student, trying to shove her toward the monster.
But he slowed down first in the process.
In the end, the monster caught him,
Shnk!!
and its swinging butcher knife sliced his body in half.
"A-ahhhhhh…!!"
The student collapsed forward in shock.
She desperately tried to crawl backward using her arms,
but she kept slipping in the blood and couldn’t get away from that spot.
Splish, splash.
"N-neext."
"W-what are you doing?! Run, hurry!!"
"S-save me…!"
The student pleaded with the monster through her tears.
No—she pleaded with both the monster and Seoa to save her.
Seoa could have abandoned her and run, but her feet would not move.
It wasn’t because of terror or fear.
It was because the sight of the student on the floor, desperately begging for help,
overlapped with someone from one winter.
…If it were you, you definitely would have done this, right!?
Whoosh.
The butcher knife rose high into the air.
It came rushing down with enough force to tear the student apart.
After swallowing hard, Seoa—
"Hup…!!"
ran toward the monster with all the strength she had.
She intended to take the butcher knife in the student’s place.
"M-miss!?"
"I-it’s overrr."
With the monster’s chilling expression as the last thing she saw, Seoa shut her eyes and waited for the pain to come.
Just as the middle-aged man had,
she would die in a single blow if that butcher knife cut her.
Ding! Ding!
Ha, I’m hearing things. If I’m going to hear things, I wish I could at least hear his voice.
As she resigned herself, ignoring the notification sound—
"U-um, miss?"
"…?"
"What’s wrong with it…?"
The student said something Seoa could not understand.
Wondering what was happening, she opened her eyes.
"Uh, uhhhh."
The monster’s face, which had been full of mockery just moments ago,
was now colored with confusion.
Anonymous (999.1): Hey.
└Anonymous (999.1): Touch those people and you’re dead.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register