Marauder of the Apocalypse
Chapter 127: Karma

Stress really was the cure for laziness. As soon as they learned about avengers seeking revenge, uneasiness crept onto my companions' faces.

Their eyes wavered with anxiety, as if they'd never known joy. Yet those anxiety-filled eyes showed no trace of guilt. These were people who had already rationalized everything. They worried more about future attackers than about the children who had died by their hands.

"Should we move again?" asked one companion calmly. This person, whom I'd mentally labeled as a "mercenary troublemaker," looked around the mountainside and spoke with disturbing composure.

"When the Delivery Vigilantes come to investigate their dead member, our location will be exposed. And once that happens, even a single person seeking revenge could set the mountain on fire."

When someone harbors malice, a mountain itself becomes a weapon. A giant pile of firewood ablaze causes more damage than several artillery strikes.

If a fire spread properly, its range would be horrific. And by destroying the firewood supply, it would make winter unbearable—similar to a biochemical weapon in that respect.

But did that mean we should flee? And follow the advice of this mercenary I didn't trust?

"Moving is pointless," I said curtly.

Moving? A raider running away because he's afraid of enemies? Of course, strategic retreats for guerrilla warfare were fine, but fleeing just to flee was unacceptable.

Above all, this was karma, a chain of revenge.

"This is our karma. And you can't escape karma. The only solution is to kill them all."

The end of a fall is collision, and at the end of a collision, either one or both must die. Avoidance was never an option to begin with.

My companions sighed. I heard the clicking of guns being readjusted, regretful murmurs.

"We should have killed them all back then."

They meant that day at the market street, when we killed the teacher and children—we should have taken all of them hostage and eliminated them completely.

The dulling edge of my raiders was being sharpened again. This was good.

Fighting back the smile that threatened to appear, I quickly developed a scenario.

"Right now, the Delivery Vigilantes don't know what happened to their missing member. They'll come to investigate first. Let's deal with that."

We had the information advantage. I glanced at the motorcycle and corpse.

"Let's set these up as bait and kill whoever takes it."

A cycle of revenge. I killed the market street children, their survivors wanted to kill us, so I would kill the survivors and the Delivery Vigilantes in turn. A proper apocalyptic virtuous cycle.

As long as this cycle continued, we wouldn't lose our edge. Even if it ended with all of us dead, it didn't matter. People die anyway.

Sa Gi-hyeok, wearing his bulletproof helmet askew, raised his hand nervously.

"This will make us complete enemies with the Delivery Vigilantes. We should consider our relationship with the alliance too. If we just hide the body and motorcycle well, or if we explain things properly..."

"Mr. Gi-hyeok."

I cut off Sa Gi-hyeok's words and stared at him quietly.

There was much I could say. The Delivery Vigilantes were already our enemies. Our relationship with other alliance organizations was still fine. The alliance itself was a potential enemy. Hiding things would become a weakness and cause mental anxiety...

But all of that was unnecessary. Only one thing mattered.

"There's no avoiding this."

Even if we wanted to escape, we couldn't.

"Hide it, you say? For how long? As long as avengers live, conflict is inevitable. And if a fight is inevitable, we should naturally take the initiative. Unless..."

I paused briefly and let out a hollow laugh.

"Are you suggesting we could resolve this through dialogue or reconciliation? You know there's no such thing in this world anymore."

"..."

Sa Gi-hyeok pressed down his crooked helmet, covering his eyes. His head tilted downward.

Perhaps, true to his con artist nature, he had been planning to fabricate the facts. He could have claimed we only stopped the rider from starting a fire, or questioned if the Delivery Vigilantes were declaring war—trying to temporarily patch over the conflict.

"Why so serious? Whether we move or fight, what we need to do next seems simple enough."

Just as the atmosphere grew heavy, Park Yang-gun spoke with an intrigued voice, then nimbly jumped over the barricade. His movements were light, befitting a thief.

Park Yang-gun approached the motorcycle, removed the key, and turned off the engine.

"This is a chance to steal motorcycles. If we draw in a few more delivery riders, we'll get more bikes. The fuel comes as a bonus."

I blinked. He had a point. Even if the time came for a strategic retreat, having motorcycles would give us a huge advantage.

Raiding truly was the best. Just kill people and you get all kinds of resources.

"Alright, let's set up the trap."

I'd already written the scenario. We'd place the bait at a commercial building below the path leading up to the townhouse. To make it impossible to ignore, we'd dress the corpse in a school uniform.

"Find a school uniform if possible. We need to change the corpse's clothes."

"That doesn't seem necessary."

"No, it's important."

It was staging to make them want to investigate the body. In summary, my companions began moving busily.

***

Going down from the townhouse, there was a commercial building with convenience stores and cafes. Anyone coming up to the townhouse had to pass through there.

We set up our bait and trap there.

We placed the motorcycle with its engine off and the uniformed corpse in front of the convenience store. A few companions waited on the second floor with banners woven into nets.

"If possible, kill them with weapons other than guns. Make it difficult to examine the bodies. And remember we need to steal the motorcycles."

"Yes."

I swung the sling back and forth while surveying the area.

We'd made the kill today, so at the earliest, they'd come to investigate tomorrow. I had time to refine my scenario. How far this conflict would go, how we should move.

'I can fabricate the incident. Say the rider was trying to start a fire. I can use my connection with the police too. With luck, I might divide them.'

And if we fought? Arson. Starting with this mountain and burning the city would leave them no energy to fight me. Meanwhile, I could escape from the city.

As I tapped my thigh with my finger, lost in thought, I heard Jeon Do-hyung's gloomy voice from behind.

"What comes after this? If we kill the surviving kids and the Delivery Vigilantes? What if more people come seeking revenge? What about other survivors who escaped? Can we handle all of that?"

I turned my head to see Jeon Do-hyung crouching in a shadowy corner, looking at me. I blinked calmly.

If we couldn't handle it, we'd die. Simple as that. But I couldn't say that out loud.

I looked at Jeon Do-hyung with pity.

"What month is it now?"

"October. Why are you suddenly asking that?"

Jeon Do-hyung stared at me blankly, tilting his head as if wondering what I was talking about.

I looked out the window. Full autumn. The temperature was dropping steadily, and now we could feel the cold in the early morning and at night.

"When winter comes, how many will survive?"

"Well..."

This winter would be a season of death. In a season bleached by white snow, a season where snow covered corpses, how many could survive?

"We don't need to handle everything. When winter comes, most will freeze to death. So we need to raid now, before everyone dies."

Being autumn, we could harvest karma too. In fact, if not now, we couldn't harvest at all. When winter came, we'd need to focus on scavenging rather than raiding.

I spoke at a volume loud enough for my listening companions to hear.

"With motorcycle fuel, we can run cars for heating. If we handle this situation well, we might even get resources from the Delivery Vigilantes or the alliance."

"What...? Why would they give us resources?"

"Why?"

I grinned at the incredulous Jeon Do-hyung.

"That unidentified rider tried to set fire to the mountain. For some reason, they attacked us."

Though this wasn't my preference or plan, I told my companions what they wanted to hear. It was an exit strategy I'd learned from Sa Gi-hyeok.

After all, even for my companions, the basic goal was survival. Not everyone was like me, content to die anytime as long as I'd enjoyed myself.

A situation hurtling toward death could trigger betrayal from my companions, so I needed to guide their thinking with plausible justifications and goals related to survival.

"You're talking nonsense again... No, I suppose it's possible."

Jeon Do-hyung sighed, lowering his head.

I observed him quietly. Was there any sign of betrayal? A human with a bit of goodness remaining. He seemed satisfied with the goal of companion survival, but you never know.

"We're all just trying to survive. Don't overthink it. Everyone in this world has killed someone. Us too. We've just killed more than most to live better."

When you think about it, we weren't special.

All survivors fought over the city's limited resources. We had just raided more aggressively, but our basic principles of action were those of typical survivors.

Just then, a companion muttered in a low voice.

"That's right. Everyone is a murderer who has killed someone's family. Maybe those seeking revenge are the strange ones. In a world where death is common."

What's with this one? A companion whose face I couldn't recall, looking extremely depressed. The atmosphere had grown unnecessarily heavy.

Companions who had experienced loss began to speak up.

"My wife was killed by zombies, but I never thought about revenge."

"My mother died suffering because she couldn't get her medicine. I don't even know who to blame."

"Someone I attacked came back for revenge... I took revenge again, but it felt empty."

Suddenly everyone was competing with their death stories. I looked at my companions in disbelief before leaning my back against the wall.

I could hardly brag that my parents died before the apocalypse, sparing them from witnessing this horror.

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