The Regressor Only Protects Me Chapter 27

#Episode 27. Beyond the Boundary (2)

An eight-lane road toward Anyang and Gwacheon.

In the morning, the road is 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 clogged.

Lee Joo-yeon and Lee Se-beom intentionally walked on a road full of cars.

After the world was destroyed, cars were nothing more than mere pieces of scrap metal.

Most of the people who fled abandoned their cars and disappeared somewhere.

Some remain inside the car, but they are already frozen corpses.

Sebeom went through people’s belongings in a large sports bag and grabbed what he needed.

Lee Se-beom started searching through the car.

I searched through everything I thought I might need, from lighters to medical supplies, MacGyver knives, cigarettes, masks, and batteries.

Every time I picked up an item, an information window about that item kept popping up.

Even as he picked up the items, Sebeom was shocked by the randomly popping up information windows.

And at the end of the road was a tank with a bent gun, blocking the fleeing cars.

Next to him were three soldiers who had frozen to death.

Lee Se-beom went up there in one breath and opened the hatch.

A cold air rose from inside the tank.

Two soldiers were found dead inside.

They had guns in their arms.

Sebeom entered the tank and grabbed the gun.

But something was light.

As I looked closely at the gun, a notification window popped up.

[This is a prohibited weapon.]

“Forbidden weapons… …?”

They picked up the grenade and the pistol they were carrying, but the same notification window popped up.

I don’t know what happened, but it seems that the existing human weapons cannot be used in the League.

I pulled the pistol slide and pulled the trigger like I’ve seen in movies and dramas, but no bullet was fired.

‘What did Kang Shi-on have…?’

Sebeom couldn’t understand.

But thinking about it didn’t change anything.

He got off the train with a heavy heart.

Before I knew it, Lee Ju-yeon came and climbed onto the tram.

“What happened?”

“No. Nothing.”

Sebeom got off the tram, and Juyeon followed him.

The city was extremely quiet after the league was held.

It was partly because the number of people had decreased, but most players were wary of each other and did not show up on the road.

Surviving until the second round meant that everyone had cleared their first round.

Clearing round 1 means, in other words, that you have killed someone.

‘It can’t hurt to watch out for them. We’re no different, after all.’

The siblings continued on their way.

Even as he followed Sebeom, Jooyeon glanced back.

Then Sebeom asked her.

“what’s the matter?”

“Huh? No… … I’m worried about that kid.”

The person the protagonist was talking about was the girl who had wrapped a red scarf around her head.

The girl was the only child to survive in the shopping mall.

Sebeom frowned.

“It has nothing to do with us. Forget it now.”

“but.”

“Forget it, Sister. You didn’t forget, did you? What I said at the shopping mall.”

“……huh.”

The protagonist nodded slightly.

Sebeom’s words that we should not treat others as objects of pity or sympathy.

“Let’s just think about how we’ll survive first.”

Sebeom grabbed Jooyeon’s wrist and moved.

That was the moment.

Jooyeon grabbed Sebeom’s head and bowed.

thud!

“… … ?!”

The siblings huddled close to the truck, hiding from the threat.

At that moment, what entered Sebeom’s eyes was a giant foot.

Literally just feet.

I couldn’t tell what animal’s foot it was.

But I was sure it was a foot.

The feet were large enough to easily crush a car.

The foot wasn’t there originally, but suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the road.

The protagonist sensed danger in an instant and hid with his younger brother.

The protagonist held his breath by placing his finger in front of his lips.

Sebeom nodded his head quietly and looked at his feet.

Guh… … Gung… … Guh… …

A strange crying sound.

And then he ran down the road, thumping, as if looking for something.

He ran around like a flying fox and approached the truck where the siblings were hiding.

Just when I thought I had it figured out, the driver’s door of the car on the other side rattled open.

“Ahhhhh! Ouch!!! I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

“Gyaaaah!”

“Eww! Run away!”

Four people jumped out of the car door and ran to the other side.

Bona Mana was a group of survivors who survived the first round.

Boom, boom, boom!

The giant foot leaped up and headed straight towards the people.

I couldn’t actually see it.

Lee Se-beom and Lee Joo-yeon were holding their breath and hiding their bodies completely, so they didn’t have time to look at the sight.

I just heard the sound.

Thump, thump, screams, creaking, even the sound of something being pressed flat.

The siblings held their breath and waited for the monster to pass by.

Suddenly, people’s screams were heard, and a few cries were also heard.

And soon the sound of the monster’s footsteps faded away.

The first one to raise his head was Lee Ju-yeon.

She slowly approached where the people were.

Sebeom followed behind cautiously.

“… … .”

“… … .”

The siblings froze in place as they faced the trampled body of the man.

A corpse stuck to the asphalt road.

Blood, internal organs, and flesh were all mixed together to form a round shape.

From a distance, it looked like four badly trampled gumdrops.

“Ugh.”

Lee Ju-yeon covered her mouth and turned her head away.

And Sebeom looked at the street across the street.

There was something transparent rippling there.

It was not far from here.

Sebeom approached the place and carefully placed his hand there.

It was like touching a window.

The air was frozen solid.

The siblings couldn’t escape from here.

This was another boundary different from the outer wall of the shopping mall.

And the two siblings were so absorbed in it that they didn’t notice the people approaching them from behind.

When Sebeom looked back, dozens of people were approaching the siblings with swords in hand.

What was strange was that they were all women.

And he was wearing a mask.

The woman in the front row looked at Sebeom, then lowered her mask and smiled.

“I found the car… … hahaha. Today’s assignment.”

* * *

Squeak-.

A foul smell rose through the open crack of the door.

The foul smell that tickled my nose further amplified my anxiety.

A stirring sound was heard from the inner room.

My heart started pounding like crazy.

I took a flashlight out of my pocket and shined it into the room.

Sabak. Sabak.

The room was filled with ramen crumbs, half-eaten cans of food, and plastic bottles.

I grabbed a kitchen knife that was lying around in the kitchen.

And then slowly, little by little, I approached.

The bedroom door was slightly open, and something was stirring inside.

I opened the door.

Squeak-.

“Dreamy… … Dreamy… … .”

“Ugh, ugh… … .”

There was an aunt there.

There was also a young woman with her aunt.

They were wearing several layers of clothing and were larger than the average adult male.

And the preserved food that the two women were eating with their hands like pigs.

Canned food, ramen, frozen dumplings, rice, drinks, etc.

All of that food was preserved food that I had been collecting and saving over the past few months.

I hadn’t been saving up for something like this.

I bought frozen foods and preserved foods because they were cheaper than healthy meals like kimchi stew or soybean paste stew.

I kept thinking to myself all the way here that it was a good idea to stock up on those preserved foods.

Because if my brother were here alone, he would be able to survive just by eating the preserved food.

I hoped that my younger brother would survive by eating the preserved food that I had been storing up, one by one.

Those thoughts were shattered when they faced the two beasts right before their eyes.

Thump, thump, thump, thump… … thump, thump.

The two beasts ate the food in a hurry, not even knowing that I had entered the room.

It was literally no different from a pig.

He was crushing the ramen into small pieces, scooping out the food from the plastic container he made into porridge with his hands, and continuously putting the food into his mouth.

Then my aunt, or rather the pig that used to be called ‘aunt’, turned to me.

The old pig stared at me blankly, then quickly became frightened and cried out in horror.

“Zion… … Zion! Zion!”

Then, all of a sudden, he came crawling towards me, as if crawling on the floor, and grabbed my trouser leg.

“Zion. Zion. Kang Zion! You’re alive! It’s been a long time. It’s been a long time!”

The old pig crawled over again and grabbed the little pig’s arm.

“Ye-young. Ye-young. Your cousin. It’s Zion. Zion.”

“Ah, let go! Don’t disturb me while I’m eating!!”

The young pig pushed the old pig away and ate the rest of the food in a hurry.

The old pig crawled back to his knees and grabbed my trouser leg.

I couldn’t say anything.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Huh? Huh? Huh? If you haven’t eaten, come here and eat with me. Because Auntie made the food. The food. The food was delicious.”

That?

It’s not even as good as that pig’s food.

You want to eat some rotten, rotten food mixed in with your saliva?

“Is it cold outside? It’s really cold. It’s really cold. It’s really cold. Really. Really. Auntie, I’ll turn on the boiler. The boiler. The boiler. Before that. This first. Eat this first.”

The old pig picked up a handful of the unidentifiable food with his hand, which was wearing four gold rings, and brought it to me.

I just lowered my eyes and looked at it.

Every time the old pig tightened his grip, little by little, the food would slip out.

“Why. Why. Ah. Aren’t you eating? Ma. It’s delicious.”

I gripped the knife tighter.

My whole body was shaking like crazy.

The face of the monster before my eyes was swirling around randomly.

It was a scene where the black paint, which was a small dot on the palette, seemed to be being haphazardly messed up by the brush.

“Oh my. Eat. River. Poem… … On.”

“River… … City… … Ohhh… … Eat… … .”

“Poem… … … … on… … … … … … .”

Even the voice sounded muffled.

Is this creature before my eyes really the aunt I knew before?

Is this really the aunt who told us two brothers not to worry and that we would be staying at her house after our parents passed away?

Is this the woman who stole all of our parents’ insurance money and then abandoned us and our brother on the side of the road?

It was because of my aunt that my life started to go wrong, no, it definitely started to go wrong.

But up to that point, even though I couldn’t forgive him, I could at least think of him as a human being.

I was able to skip over it.

Because I couldn’t kill my aunt at the time because I hated her and because she abandoned my brother. Because I had to take care of my brother and raise him.

But in this place where the world is destroyed and your little brother is left behind, are you, who eat all the food meant for your little brother, worthy of being called human?

Even the punishment of death seemed lenient to them.

Suddenly, I remembered what Kwon Kyung-soo had said.

This world is hell, and he must escape this hell.

But that was half right and half wrong.

This world was originally hell.

Emotions like goodness and compassion were created by people like Kwon Kyung-soo who struggled to escape this hell.

They try to escape this world through death, but the world they escape to is not heaven.

There is no heaven.

There is only hell.

This world is a place where good is denied.

You can’t live in this world by being good.

That’s how I feel right now.

I made a promise again.

If this world is hell, I’d gladly become a devil.

I will not deny becoming a devil.

I realized it again.

The reason I was able to survive in the shopping mall was because Kwon Kyung-soo refused to become a devil, and I became a devil.

“Zion… … On… … Zion… … Aren’t you going to eat?”

Thud!

I grabbed the hair of the pig that was kneeling before me.

The old pig looked up at me with his hair held in his hands, and I asked him coldly.

“Where did Junho go?”

The old pig pursed his lips and looked up at me.

“Joo… … Joo… … Junho? Well… … Where did you go?”

At that moment, I hit the old pig in the cheek with my fist.

Crack-!

“Kaaaaaaah-!!!! Aah… … !”

The old pig lay on the ground, screaming in pain.

Meanwhile, the little pig was preoccupied with food.

I approached the old pig who was lying down.

He asked the old pig that had fallen over.

“Where did you go?”

Thud.

I grabbed my hair again.

Now the old pig said, trembling with fear.

“Mo, mo, I don’t know! Whoa, we used to be together. Oh, no. Our house was destroyed. It was destroyed. It was destroyed… … So. Your house. I came to look for something to eat… … !! Junho. Junho’s kid. No, that kid. He went out looking for hyung. He, he left three days ago. After the first round. Yeah. Yeah… … .”

“Why didn’t you stop me?”

I asked, grabbing the pig’s cheeks with my hands.

The pig’s lips stuck out.

“My. My. Why. Why? There’s not much to eat. A kid. We don’t need a kid anymore. In this world. B, they’d just be a nuisance. Yeah? Yeah? Zion. You’re a man. An adult. The world is ruled by power now. But a kid. A kid. What use would that be? Right? We can live together. Zion? Right? We’re family.”

Crack-!

He hit the ball again.

The old pig fell to the ground again and screamed.

Only then did the little pig look around, squealing.

His cheeks were full of food and he was chewing on it.

“Where did you go? Tell me. The exact location.”

“Mo, I don’t know!!! You must have gone to a construction site! You! Because you work at a construction site!”

The old pig stroked his cheek and cried out.

The construction site is to the southeast of here.

Because the construction site was in Uiwang-si, which is right below Anyang-si.

Suddenly, I remembered telling my younger brother a few days ago where I work.

If I hadn’t told my brother where I was working back then, would he have stayed here?

well…….

I don’t know.

I slowly grabbed the knife, closed the door, and approached the mother and daughter.

(Continued in the next episode)