The eight-lane road towards Anyang and Gwacheon.
In the morning, it’s filled with cars of office workers commuting from Gyeonggi-do to Seoul.
When the League was held, it was rush hour, so the roads towards Anyang, Uiwang, and Gunpo were completely jammed.
Lee Juyeon and Se Beom deliberately walked along the road filled with cars.
Since the world ended, cars were nothing more than heaps of scrap metal.
Most of the people who were evacuating abandoned their cars and vanished somewhere.
A few remained in their cars, but they were nothing more than frozen corpses.
Se Beom rummaged through people’s belongings in a large sports bag, gathering necessary supplies.
Se Beom began searching inside the cars.
From lighters to medical supplies, Swiss Army knives, cigarettes, masks, batteries—anything that seemed useful, he searched for it all.
Every time he picked up an item, a window displaying information about it popped up.
Even as he picked up the items, Se Beom was sick of the windows that appeared randomly.
And at the end of the road, there was a tank with a bent barrel blocking the evacuating cars.
Beside it were three soldiers who had frozen to death.
Se Beom climbed up there in one swift move and opened the hatch.
A chill emanated from inside the tank.
Two soldiers lay dead inside.
They had guns in their arms.
Se Beom entered the tank and grabbed the gun.
But something felt light.
Upon closer inspection, a notification window popped up.
[This weapon is prohibited.]
“A prohibited weapon…?”
He picked up the grenades and pistols they were carrying, but the same notification window appeared.
For some reason, it seemed that the League prohibited the use of existing human weapons.
Just like in movies or dramas, he pulled the slide of the pistol and pulled the trigger, but the bullet didn’t fire.
“What was it that Zion Kang had…?”
Se Beom couldn’t understand.
But thinking about it wouldn’t change anything.
He left the tank, leaving his disappointment behind.
Before he knew it, Lee Juyeon had approached and climbed onto the tank.
“Did you find anything?”
“No. Nothing.”
Se Beom got off the tank, and Juyeon followed him.
The city after the League was held was eerily quiet.
Partly because the number of people had decreased, but mostly because the players were wary of each other and didn’t show themselves on the roads.
Surviving until the second round meant that everyone had cleared their first round.
Clearing the first round meant, in other words, that they had killed someone.
“It doesn’t hurt to be cautious of them. We’re no different.”
The siblings continued down the road.
Even as she followed Se Beom, Juyeon kept glancing back.
Then Se Beom asked her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh? No… I’m just worried about that girl.”
Juyeon was referring to the girl they had given a red scarf to.
The girl was the only survivor from the mall.
Se Beom frowned.
“It’s none of our business. Forget about it.”
“But.”
“Forget it, sister. You haven’t forgotten what I said in the mall, have you?”
“…Yeah.”
Juyeon nodded slightly.
Se Beom’s words echoed in Juyeon’s mind: don’t make others the object of pity or sympathy.
“Let’s focus on our survival first.”
Se Beom grabbed Juyeon’s wrist and pulled her along.
It was at that moment.
Juyeon suddenly ducked, pulling Se Beom’s head down with her.
Thud!
“…?!”
The siblings pressed themselves tightly against the side of a truck to hide from the threat.
What caught Se Beom’s eye was a gigantic foot.
Literally, just a foot.
He couldn’t tell what kind of animal it belonged to.
But he was certain it was a foot.
The foot was large enough to crush cars with ease.
It wasn’t there originally, but suddenly appeared from the opposite road.
Juyeon instinctively sensed danger and hid with her brother.
She put her finger to her lips, signaling him to stay quiet.
Se Beom nodded slightly and watched the foot.
Thud… thud… thud…
A strange, eerie sound.
It seemed to be searching for something, hopping around the road.
Like a pogo stick, it bounced closer to the truck where the siblings were hiding.
Just when they thought they were trapped, the driver’s side door of the car on the opposite side rattled open.
“Ahhh! Ah!!! I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”
“Aaaaah!”
“Run away!”
Four people burst out of the car door and ran to the other side.
They were undoubtedly survivors from the first round.
Thud, thud, thud!
The gigantic foot bounced straight towards the people.
Se Beom and Juyeon couldn’t actually see what was happening.
They were holding their breath and hiding completely, unable to witness the scene.
They could only hear the sounds.
Thud, thud, screams, squelching noises, the sound of something being flattened.
The siblings held their breath, waiting for the monster to pass.
Suddenly, the screams of people echoed, followed by a few cries.
And soon, the monster’s footsteps faded away.
Juyeon was the first to lift her head.
She slowly approached the spot where the people had been.
Se Beom cautiously followed her.
“…”
“…”
Faced with the crushed bodies, the siblings froze in place.
The corpses were pressed flat against the asphalt road.
Blood, intestines, and flesh were mixed together in a round shape.
From a distance, it looked like four severely crushed blobs.
“Ugh.”
Juyeon covered her mouth and turned away.
Se Beom looked towards the opposite street.
There, something transparent shimmered.
It wasn’t far from where they were.
Se Beom approached it cautiously and reached out his hand.
It felt like touching a window.
The air had hardened.
The siblings couldn’t escape from this place.
It was another boundary, different from the mall’s outer wall.
And so absorbed in this, they failed to notice the people approaching from behind.
When Se Beom turned around, dozens of people were advancing towards them, holding knives.
The strange thing was, they were all women.
And they were wearing masks.
The woman at the front of the group looked at Se Beom, then lowered her mask and smiled.
“Ah, found you… Haha. Today’s quota.”
* * *
Creeeeak.
A foul stench wafted through the gap in the open door.
The rotten smell heightened my anxiety.
From the inner room, I heard something rustling.
My heart began to race wildly.
I took out a flashlight from my pocket and shone it into the room.
Crunch. Crunch.
The room was filled with crushed ramen, half-eaten canned food, and plastic bottles.
I grabbed a kitchen knife that was lying around.
Then, I slowly approached.
The bedroom door was slightly ajar, and something was moving inside.
I opened the door.
Creeeeak.
“Rustle… Rustle…”
“Slurp… Slurp…”
There was my aunt.
And with her, a young woman.
They were wearing so many layers of clothes that they looked larger than an average adult man.
And the two women were devouring preserved foods like pigs.
Canned food, ramen, frozen dumplings, instant rice, drinks, and more.
All those foods were the preserved supplies I had collected over the past few months.
I hadn’t gathered them for a situation like this.
I simply bought frozen and preserved foods because they were cheaper than steaming kimchi stew or soybean paste stew, those healthy meals.
I had thought it was a good idea to stockpile those preserved foods all the way here.
Because if my brother was here alone, he could survive just by eating the preserved foods.
I hoped my brother would eat the preserved supplies I had stocked up and endure.
Those thoughts shattered when faced with the two beasts before me.
Rustle, rustle, slurp, slurp… gulp, slurp, slurp.
The two beasts were so engrossed in devouring the food that they didn’t even notice I had entered the room.
They were truly no different from pigs.
They crushed ramen into small pieces, scooped it from a plastic container like porridge, and stuffed it into their mouths.
Then my aunt, or rather the pig that was once called my aunt, looked at me.
The old pig stared at me for a moment, then shrank back in fear.
“Zion… Zion! Zion!”
She suddenly crawled towards me and grabbed my pant leg.
“Zion. Zion. Zion Kang! You’re alive! It’s been so long. It’s been so long!”
The old pig crawled back and pulled the young pig’s arm.
“Ye Young. Ye Young. It’s your cousin. Zion. Zion.”
“Ah, let go! Don’t bother me while I’m eating!”
The young pig pushed the old pig away and continued to devour the food.
The old pig crawled back on her knees and grabbed my pant leg again.
I couldn’t say a word.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Huh? Huh? Huh? If you haven’t eaten, come here and eat with us. Auntie made the food. The food. The food is delicious.”
Eat that?
That slop isn’t even fit for pigs.
You want me to eat that slop mixed with rotting food and your saliva?
“It’s cold outside, isn’t it? So cold. So cold. So cold. So. So. Auntie will turn on the heater. The heater. The heater. But first. Eat this. Eat this.”
The old pig, wearing four gold rings, grabbed a handful of that unidentifiable slop and brought it to me.
I just looked down at it with my eyes.
With every squeeze of her hand, bits of food oozed out.
“Why. Why. Aren’t you eating? It’s. It’s delicious.”
I gripped the kitchen knife tighter.
My whole body trembled uncontrollably.
The face of the monster in front of me swirled chaotically.
It was like a scene where a small dot of black paint on a palette was being smeared wildly by a brush.
“Eat. Eat. Kang… Si… On.”
“Kang… Si… Oooon… Eat…”
“Si… on…”
Even her voice was breaking.
Was this creature in front of me really the aunt I once knew?
The aunt who said we wouldn’t have to worry anymore after our parents died, who said we’d live with her?
The woman who took all our parents’ insurance money and left us two brothers on the cold street?
My life started to go wrong, or rather, it definitely went wrong because of her.
But up to that point, even though I couldn’t forgive her, I could at least think of her as human.
I could let it go.
Even if I hated her, even if she abandoned us, I couldn’t kill her back then. I had to take care of my brother, raise him.
But in this world where my brother should be, where they ate all the food meant for him, do they deserve to be called human?
Death seemed too lenient a punishment for them.
Suddenly, I remembered what Kyung Soo had said.
That this world is hell, and he was escaping it.
But that was only half right.
This world was always hell.
Feelings like goodness and compassion were created by people like Kyung Soo who struggled to escape this hell.
They try to escape this world through death, but the world they escape to isn’t heaven.
There is no heaven.
Only hell exists.
This world denies goodness.
You can’t live with goodness in this world.
That’s what I felt now.
I resolved again.
If this world is hell, then I’ll gladly become a demon.
I won’t deny becoming a demon.
I realized again.
The reason I survived in the mall was because Kyung Soo refused to become a demon, and I became one.
“Si… on… Zion… Aren’t you eating?”
Grab!
I grabbed the hair of the pig kneeling in front of me.
The old pig looked up at me with her hair in my grip, and I asked coldly.
“Where’s Junho?”
The old pig pursed her lips and looked up at me.
“Ju… Ju… Junho? Well… where did he go?”
In that moment, I swung my fist at the old pig’s cheek.
Smack!
“Ahhhhhh-!!!! Ahhh…!”
The old pig collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony.
Meanwhile, the young pig was too engrossed in the food to notice.
I approached the fallen old pig.
I asked again, looking down at her.
“Where did he go?”
Grab.
I seized her hair once more.
Now, the old pig trembled in fear as she spoke.
“I-I-I don’t know! We-we were together, but… our house got wrecked. Wrecked. Wrecked… So we came to your house looking for food…!! Junho. That brat. No, that kid went out looking for his brother. Three, three days ago. After the first round ended. Yeah. Yeah…”
“Why didn’t you stop him?”
I asked, clutching the pig’s cheeks with my hands.
Her lips protruded as she spoke.
“Wh-why would I? There’s not much food anyway. The brat’s not needed anymore in this world. He’d just be a burden. Right? Right? Zion, you’re a man. You’re an adult. The world is ruled by strength now. What good would a brat be? Right? We-we could live together, Zion. Right? We’re family.”
Smack!
I slapped her cheeks again.
The old pig collapsed to the ground once more, screaming.
Finally, the young pig looked around, chewing with cheeks full of food.
“Tell me where he went. The exact location.”
“I-I don’t know!!! Probably to the construction site! You! You work at the construction site!”
The old pig shouted, rubbing her cheek.
The construction site is southeast from here.
The construction site is in Uiwang, right below Anyang.
Suddenly, I remembered telling my brother where I worked a few days ago.
If I hadn’t told him then, would he have stayed here?
I don’t know…
I slowly gripped the knife and closed the door, approaching the mother and daughter.
