Marauder of the Apocalypse
Chapter 131: Karma

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Finished the novel! You guys got 1 day to read it. Or download the whole thing from my disc.

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The police sergeant walked straight toward me with his shotgun slung over his shoulder.

His steps were natural and confident, as if he didn't care about the machine gun mounted on the rooftop of the watchtower-like house or the gun barrels aimed by my gathered companions.

"Our friend, no, are we still friends?"

"Of course. I may not be friends with the Delivery Vigilantes, but I'm certainly friends with you and the alliance, Officer."

With the barricade between us, I smiled gently at the police sergeant. Glancing at the sky, I noticed a drone hovering in the air.

'They've come from the alliance level, not just the Delivery Vigilantes.'

The police sergeant, who disliked RiderZero, had come personally. And that drone wasn't borrowed—the Electricity Nomads had come to operate it themselves.

Were they wary of my last resort that I'd revealed to the alliance members before—burning down the city?

"How much of the situation do you know?"

"I know what I know and don't know what I don't. What matters is that regardless of the facts, the current situation isn't exactly pleasant."

The police sergeant adjusted his posture awkwardly, then placed his hand on the shoulder of the rider standing behind him. He gripped tightly and pulled the rider forward by the neck.

"I hear you openly attacked our delivery riders. Do you intend to be hostile toward the alliance? Threatening us with forest fires?"

I didn't respond. Instead, I raised my hand to point behind me. The place where traces remained of the fire I'd started with a Molotov cocktail.

"Let's start by looking at that."

"Huh?"

The police sergeant turned his head to see the traces of the fire. Drawing on his experience as a police officer, he quickly reconstructed the situation from the given clues, based on the information he had.

"Arson? You're saying the rider attacked you first? I don't believe it. This isn't her style."

"I don't know the reason either. I just fought back when a rider tried to commit arson, and once the Delivery Vigilantes became enemies, we fought."

It was a lie. But the truth didn't matter. What mattered was whether it seemed plausible. Whether the lie was beneficial.

I grinned at the rider.

"Shouldn't you ask this friend about the reason?"

The police sergeant slightly lowered his head as if lost in thought, then looked back and forth between the rider and me.

"If you're hiding any information, speak up. And you, friend, are there any bodies left? I'd like to check the condition of the bodies. The location, time, and weapon used when you killed them."

He wanted to perform an autopsy to determine the exact facts.

I subtly hardened my expression. While it seemed fair on the surface, the fact that he was trying to be fair meant the police sergeant's heart had already left my side.

If we were friends, he should have taken my side here. He should have blamed the rider for all this conflict and attacked the Delivery Vigilantes.

Several thoughts flashed through my mind.

'Has the alliance truly united? Are they wary of us as a risk factor? Or is the alliance in a bad situation and building justification to attack us?'

Once doubt starts, everything looks suspicious. In this situation, there was only one response I could choose. Threat.

I calmly returned his answer.

"Well, I can't remember where we disposed of the bodies."

I wouldn't cooperate. Judge as you will. But remember this one thing.

"A forest fire would cause tremendous damage. Since they were people who tried to commit such a terrible act, their bodies wouldn't be in good condition even if found."

If you choose to fight me, I'll set fire to the mountain. The damage I can cause would be devastating even to the alliance.

At my words, which implied he should consider the losses before making a judgment, the police sergeant glared at me with fierce eyes. I could almost hear his sharp breath through his mask.

"Look here. Do I look like someone who'll quietly take threats?"

"Threats? When did I threaten you?"

I calmly returned his gaze, and we continued our staring contest. After a while, the rider who had been standing blankly spoke with irritation.

"Why are you even talking to these people? Officer, you've experienced enough. This guy's out of control. Just look at this."

The rider, who seemed to be an executive in the Delivery Vigilantes, pointed at the machine gun mounted on the watchtower and the mountain, then shuddered.

"How many people would die trying to breach this place? They attacked the Delivery Vigilantes because they're prepared to fight the alliance too. It'll only get worse from here."

I let out a hollow laugh.

"The arsonist sure has a lot to say. Let me be clear—you attacked first. And I don't back down from fights that come to me."

"First attack? Us? We were waiting for your downfall. We're still waiting."

...They weren't revealing that the rider we killed was an avenger? This suggested they had no intention of resolving things through words. They seemed to be building justification to attack us.

From what I could see, this wasn't simply a conflict with the Delivery Vigilantes. It had already left their hands and become an alliance-level issue.

The reason for that was important.

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the rider, then turned my gaze to the police sergeant.

"It feels like you're making excuses to fight. Is the alliance in trouble? Bad enough to target us despite our rifle armament?"

"Excuses?"

The police sergeant gripped his shotgun and aimed it at me.

"You're the one who wants to fight. A man who'd set fire to a mountain when things go wrong moved to a mountainside. Armed himself with military weapons too. And now he's attacked a member of the alliance."

Well. It was a plausible excuse, but not meticulous enough to be convincing.

"Do you think we're overreacting even after all this?"

But one question remained unanswered, so I tilted my head.

"Then what gave you the confidence to come here? If we decided to fight, you'd all die."

If they were prepared for war, they shouldn't have come like this. They should have attacked first with a surprise strike. On the other hand, if they came to resolve things through dialogue, their words were strange.

Could they have come to assassinate me? The police sergeant himself? To eliminate me, the leader, before starting?

As I looked at the shotgun barrel, the police sergeant lowered his shotgun irritably.

"I came to warn you. This is the last warning. If you cross the line just a little more, we won't sit still. See that drone?"

"I see it clearly."

"Next time, drones with improvised explosives will rain down. Remember that."

Warning?

It was called a warning, but it was just wordplay that could be manipulated at will. Just as we had made the arsonist into an avenger, they would fabricate when they felt the need to target us.

And to me, that day seemed not far off.

'The alliance already seems to view us as enemies. Even this warning appears to be preparation for a future attack.'

At any rate, they didn't seem to want to fight right away. I didn't know the alliance's circumstances, but they seemed to be buying time, busy with combat preparations or drought countermeasures.

I grinned and aimed my rifle. Not at the police sergeant, but at the rider.

"The line, you say."

I immediately pulled the trigger and fired. The accurate rifle didn't betray me and hit the rider precisely. The echoing gunshot and the rider falling with blood.

In the stillness that followed, as if time had stopped, I asked the police sergeant:

"Have I crossed the line?"

***

There was no need to follow warnings arbitrarily thrown by future enemies. Especially when the warning itself was a tool for building justification at will. Justification for future combat.

The police sergeant tilted his head slightly to look down at the rider's body, then slowly turned toward me.

"You. Don't words register as words to you?"

"I told you. I don't back down from fights that come to me. You attack first, then tell me not to cross the line when I counter? Haha."

I returned his words with a sharp voice, drawing out a moderate amount of killing intent.

"Officer, do I look like someone who would be threatened and stay quiet?"

"..."

The police sergeant's shotgun aimed at me, and I aimed at him. I smiled without hesitation.

"If you want to pick a fight, don't use words—bring people and attack. I'll cremate you all. Let's all burn to death together. Now that I've got motorcycles too, I can probably burn down the city."

I revealed all the venom I'd been nurturing. Imagining the city ablaze almost made the world seem to turn red.

The police sergeant gritted his teeth, then put away his shotgun.

"We'll see about this later."

"I won't come out to greet you. Oh, and please tell the alliance leadership something. I don't intend to fight with you, but if you pick fights like this, I won't just sit still."

The police sergeant got on his police motorcycle and drove away. I quietly watched his retreating figure.

Anxious voices came from behind me. The voices of my companions.

"Is this okay?"

"Are we really going to fight the alliance?"

I turned calmly to face my companions.

"Don't worry. They have drones, but we have arson. They won't mess with us unnecessarily."

Who knew? For now, it seemed to me that the alliance was already making plans to fight.

'Is it because of the drought? Zombies? Some other problem?'

There must be some external issue causing the alliance's component organizations to move as one.