Marauder of the Apocalypse
Chapter 135: Flames

The flies were amateur survivors.

People who had only focused on defending their fortress of a townhouse. Driven onto the streets after losing that fortress, these flies were lacking in many ways compared to survivors who had been struggling on the roads.

They couldn't respond to ambushes immediately or threateningly, nor were they accustomed to urban warfare.

Still, being survivors, their escape abilities were at least average, but they weren't skilled at dealing with various threats.

"Hunted one down."

"Here's the one we captured."

After changing tactics to digging traps and setting ambushes, my companions gradually produced results.

The companions I'd dispatched as hunting parties, despite being tired from standing guard, had bloodshot eyes gleaming with murderous intent. They grabbed the hair of one fly they'd caught and roughly pushed him to his knees in front of me.

"Ugh!"

A townhouse survivor. Someone who had escaped first, quick-witted enough to survive our attack.

I tapped my palm with my hammer, looking at the fly with interest.

"I have so many questions. But you probably won't talk easily."

"No, I'll tell you everything. Ask whatever you're curious about. Why we're doing this, where the pistols came from."

The fly on his knees opened his mouth quickly, but I shook my head. How could I trust someone who was the first to escape? At minimum, I needed time to make him tell the truth.

"No. Keep your mouth shut. And hold back your screams."

I brought the hammer down. Swung in a cute arc, the hammer traced a gentle curve as it tapped one of the fly's knees repeatedly. I heard the cracking sound of something breaking.

"AAAAGH!"

The fly screamed and twisted his body, but my companions firmly held his shoulders and hair, so he could only squirm like a real insect.

I examined my clean hammer, then glanced at my companions and gestured.

"Lock him in an empty house. Tie him up thoroughly, just like before. When we catch another one, we'll question them separately and cross-check."

It didn't matter if we couldn't catch more. What would a captive know anyway? After a few days, we could pretend to have caught someone else and question him, and we'd get somewhat reliable information.

A companion grabbed the fly's arm and dragged him away. I could hear the companion's curses.

"If you lost, you should've just escaped quietly. Do you know how tired we are because of you guys?"

"My leg, my leg!"

"Want me to break your other leg too?"

Even as the fly moaned and went limp, the companion who was overworked from guard duty and hunting didn't care and handled the fly roughly.

They were showing proper raider behavior. I watched them with a satisfied smile before putting my hammer back in my chest.

'How can I use this situation?'

With luck, I might be able to write a decent scenario.

For example, using the fly to get police resources into our hands, ambushing police during contact, or spreading false information.

The police might be good at handling people, but it wasn't something only they could do.

***

"There's been no provocation for days."

"They're survivors after all. They won't fall for the same trick twice."

In my house's living room, I answered Sa Gi-hyeok's comment, and he looked out the window at a certain house. The house where we'd locked up the captured fly.

One leg was damaged, and his fingers, wrists, and neck were tied up. We hadn't assigned anyone to watch him, but screams of pain could occasionally be heard from the house.

Was some companion taking out their frustration by beating the fly? The last time I checked, they were shoving food into his mouth, saying it was feeding time.

Even with a solar-powered house and family nearby, this world was so stressful that military-like absurdities could emerge. Moreover, this guy was an enemy. There was nothing to hold back for.

"Really... I don't know how the world changed so much in just a few months."

Sa Gi-hyeok revealed his bitter emotions with dark eyes. He muttered as if talking to himself.

"While running cons, I felt the world was quite livable. People who trusted easily, people who couldn't withdraw their trust once given—they were all so naive and easy to deceive. But looking at the world these days..."

I understood what he meant. A society where minimal trust existed.

But the apocalyptic world was closer to wilderness, and people thought and moved like beasts in the wild.

When hungry, they killed people for food; strangers were threatening enemies; and the ability to adapt to this world and apply force were considered most important.

"The environment changed, so people changed too. Anyway, I'm thinking of interrogating our captured fly soon. Will you help?"

"What fly are you talking about? Oh, the prisoner. No, why do you call a person that? Even if the world has changed, that's going too far."

Sa Gi-hyeok let out a hollow laugh and spoke unnecessarily again, which I casually ignored.

"I'm going to pretend we've caught another prisoner and simulate an interrogation. Please work out a decent scenario."

"That's not difficult."

Sa Gi-hyeok, who had been lost in sentiment, adjusted his clothes as his dark eyes took on a strange gleam.

"Where should we start? To use information asymmetry, we need to act like we have definite information."

Sa Gi-hyeok and I talked for a while after that. We took turns role-playing the prisoner, trying to extract as much information as possible, and considering various questions and answers.

At the end, we headed toward the house where the prisoner was kept.

***

Darkness greeted us as we entered the room where the prisoner was tied up. The windows were completely blocked to prevent him from seeing outside or gauging the time, making the room dark even in daylight.

Groans came from the darkness.

"It hurts. It hurts so much. My leg."

I silently turned on a flashlight. The bright beam poured out, illuminating the pitiful fly.

The fly had become haggard in just a few days. Pale complexion, dark circles under his eyes. And a noose around his neck connected to a table leg.

The slumped fly weakly raised his head and squinted at me with a deep frown.

"What now? I just ate."

"How have you been?"

"You..."

I looked the fly up and down. Surprisingly, there were no signs of being beaten by my companions. The noose around his neck and the restraints on his hands remained the same, and the knee injury was still there.

"Our friends haven't been bothering you?"

"Not really."

Did my companions still have a bit of goodness left?

The fly lowered his pupils, constricted from the flashlight beam, to the floor.

"Someone wanted to hit me, but another person said they didn't know how the captain would react if an accident happened due to carelessness, so they held back. ...I didn't know you guys were so well-organized. I thought you were just a bunch of thugs living however you wanted."

Is that so? I'd thought my position might be shaky due to the conflict with the alliance, but it seems my companions still think of me.

"That's understandable. Our captain can be scary at times."

Sa Gi-hyeok spoke with a confident voice, and I glanced at him before taking out a notebook from my chest.

The notebook of a paranoid old man I'd met when living in the villa district. Already soaked by rain and crumpled, it no longer functioned as a proper notebook, but it was still a good prop when pretending to think.

I flipped through the notebook and spoke briefly.

"Height around 175 cm. Thin build. Mixed with white hair, and has an M-shaped baldness. What's this person's name?"

This was the description of a person my companions had observed while tracking the flies. I naturally spoke as if we had captured this person.

"Sounds like Cho Young-seok."

"Haha. That's different from the name we heard. You shouldn't lie. You never know what our captain might do."

Sa Gi-hyeok pointed at me with a good-natured laugh, and I silently examined the fly.

If I were to torture him, how should I do it? More wounds would likely kill him. Making him stay awake would waste manpower. If we had time to torture him while staying here, we should use that time for other tasks.

'Torture isn't fun and isn't efficient either. Better to just kill him cleanly.'

My eyes moved to the fly's crown. A vulnerable spot to hit with a hammer.

The fly shuddered, feeling my gaze. He spoke urgently.

"Yes, it's Cho Young-seok. He's the one who lied. I'm sure."

"Alright, I understand. Then my next question. How do you make contact with the alliance?"

I deliberately kept it vague, not knowing whether riders or police came, but also implying that I knew they had been provoking us under alliance orders.

This was information we could figure out even without capturing a prisoner. The sudden appearance of pistols, meaningless provocations. There was no reason for all this unless it was the alliance's directive.

The fly answered.

"Riders come to us. They decide the meeting locations, but I've been captured for a while so I don't know."

"Do you not understand the five Ws and one H?"

I closed the notebook and took out my hammer. Information should be precise.

"Who, when, where, what, how, and why. If any of these elements are missing, you lose a finger."

"...If my body gets that damaged, I won't have any way to survive."

A flash of venom crossed the fly's eyes.

"In fact, there's no guarantee I'll live even if I tell you the information. Promises mean nothing."

He looked as if he might throw himself forward at any moment and tighten the noose around his neck. I leisurely stroked my hammer.

"But we can't ignore our interests either. If you work with us on something, if you provide us with benefits, you can live with us."

I said with a grin.

"Can you still pretend to work while diverting alliance resources to us? Ah, don't worry about handling the work. Wouldn't it be enough if we capture a few more people?"