Marauder of the Apocalypse
Chapter 155: Epilogue

It had been a very long time since he'd visited the survival zone.

Park Yang-gun looked around the survival zone with fresh eyes. Even without entering, he could see it had changed beyond recognition. A murderous atmosphere hung in the air.

The alleys and streets were strictly blocked with barricades, allowing passage only through the entrance. Beyond the entrance, alliance members wore cloth bands with letters written on their shoulders or arms.

'Friend-or-foe identification bands?'

Props used in the military to distinguish allies from enemies. Seems they had created countermeasures after being tricked by Kim Da-in once.

After briefly surveying the surroundings, Park Yang-gun's eyes darkened.

There was no gap to sneak through. The only passage was the entrance guarded by police armed with shotguns.

'Only two pistol bullets left...'

After a brief moment of contemplation, Park Yang-gun sighed shortly, then headed straight for the entrance, ignoring the line stretched out before it.

People queuing to trade in the survival zone frowned and raised their voices.

"Mister! Aren't you going to line up?"

"Line?"

Park Yang-gun turned around, pulled out his pistol, and fired into the air. As the entrance police aimed their shotguns at him, Park Yang-gun spoke calmly.

"Weren't you looking for me?"

"...Park Yang-gun? The one under Kim Da-in?"

The police reacted in shock and rang a bell loudly.

"Don't be fooled! He wouldn't raid alone! It's a diversion!"

"Emergency! Emergency! Prepare for fire, attacks, virus terrorism, everything! Watch out for people already inside too!"

Park Yang-gun looked at them incredulously. How deeply had Kim Da-in cast his shadow that they would react this way to someone coming alone?

The lined-up survivors quickly fled, and the police were busy sounding the alarm rather than dealing with him.

After silently moving his lips for a moment, Park Yang-gun raised both hands.

"I came alone. You said you captured my family."

"You think we'd believe that?"

"..."

Park Yang-gun was struck speechless. Even honest words wouldn't work, which was frustratingly maddening. No, if this was how they'd react, why spread such talk in the first place?

Eventually, after a drone circled the area once and the police had fully entered combat mode, the conversation began.

A police captain with a shotgun slung over his shoulder approached lazily, stopping a few steps away.

"Did you really come alone?"

"Of course I came alone."

"What gives you such confidence?"

Eyes full of hostility. Killing intent flowed from his pupils, showing his immediate desire to kill.

Park Yang-gun smiled. Since they had lured him in with bait, he would use bait too. Bait they couldn't resist.

"Kim Da-in. You lured me here because you want information about that bastard, right? You want to know where he is and what he's doing?"

Click—he aimed his pistol at his own head.

"Let's make a deal. Show me my family first, and I'll tell you honestly. If you refuse, I'll die right here. And you'll never know Kim Da-in's purpose."

The police captain stared intently at Park Yang-gun before gritting his teeth. The sound of teeth grinding was audible through his mask. A voice mixed with much malice and a little respect followed.

"You crazy bastards. Aren't you afraid of dying? How can you all use your lives as bargaining chips?"

In the end, the police prioritized the lives of their family-like comrades. Their goal was to survive together. With survival as their purpose, they couldn't throw away lives.

Park Yang-gun grinned.

"If I feared death, would I have come here like this?"

The two men briefly locked eyes, until finally the police captain turned away, kicking the piled snow roughly.

"Damn it. Can't even disarm you. Follow me. The rider, that woman, is waiting."

***

Park Yang-gun observed the survival zone as they walked, noticing it had significantly declined. There were fewer people, and traces of electricity were hard to find.

Looking briefly at the rooftops, solar panels that should have been shining in the sunlight were covered in snow piles.

"Fewer people? And it seems you can't use the solar generators either."

"People!"

The police captain suddenly spun around and pressed the shotgun barrel against Park Yang-gun's forehead.

The cold barrel, chilled by winter air, pressed hard against his forehead as the police captain's eyes, filled with hatred, glared fiercely at Park Yang-gun.

"It's because of that bastard Kim Da-in."

Park Yang-gun maintained calm eye contact, as if it were nothing. What could be more frightening when he had already resigned himself to death? Even if scared, he couldn't show it.

'Is it because of the arson terrorism and raiding fundamentals?'

They had faced a zombie wave head-on because of the arson terrorism. Many people must have died then. Additionally, as the raiding fundamentals spread, police who searched and patrolled outside became recognized as prey.

Killing just one police officer yielded complete equipment, and Kim Da-in had taught how to hunt efficiently.

Park Yang-gun voiced a passing thought:

"Kim Da-in would say something like: be grateful, I reduced your food consumption."

The police captain ground his teeth again before turning away.

Eventually, they stood before a door of a building, and the police captain said:

"You'll wait in here. ...I can't stand seeing that woman, so go in by yourself."

Park Yang-gun entered the room without knocking.

A room like a personal office. A room with a chill in the air from lack of heating.

RiderZero sat at a desk with her back to the window, her face hidden in shadow. She lifted her head, putting down a copy of the raiding fundamentals she had been holding.

"So this really works."

She looked at Park Yang-gun with darkly sunken eyes.

***

"Where's my family?"

Park Yang-gun looked around. In the not-so-large room, there was only RiderZero sitting at the desk and a young rider on the sofa beside her.

As if not hearing Park Yang-gun's words, RiderZero muttered while stroking the document:

"He was right about using bait that the target can't ignore, like a fire attached to their house."

"...My wife and daughter?"

Finally looking directly at Park Yang-gun, RiderZero darkly smiled as she observed the pistol in his hand.

"A pistol? The police captain must still want me dead. He left your weapons intact. Does he hope you'll kill me?"

"I'm asking for the last time. Where is my family?"

Park Yang-gun's voice sank. In contrast, RiderZero's voice rang out lightly, tinged with laughter.

"Well. It was just bait. Does the truth matter? You took the bait anyway."

"It matters. If you don't show them to me, I won't tell you about Kim Da-in. You originally wanted information about Kim Da-in."

"No, that's not it."

RiderZero laughed quietly.

"I'm not interested in someone who has likely already become a zombie. Even that rumor about him returning as a zombie king is just propaganda that only fools would believe. My interest is..."

She waved the raiding fundamentals.

"Eradicating what that man left behind. Killing you, Kim Da-in's executive."

At that moment, Park Yang-gun realized.

'My family isn't here.'

No, they probably weren't in this world anymore. They were likely dead. The alliance must have looked for them to use as bait, but failed to find them.

Should he escape then? He briefly looked at the window behind RiderZero, but gave up on escaping.

'The alliance couldn't find them. They might have escaped the city. Maybe they're hiding somewhere in this city.'

If he stayed alive, he'd remain a target for the alliance. They could use him as bait. So, for the sake of his family who might still be alive, to prevent the alliance from pursuing them, he needed to die here.

Hiding these thoughts, Park Yang-gun smiled brightly.

"Then I have no information for you either. As I said at the front gate, I'll die here."

"That won't do."

Just as Park Yang-gun aimed his pistol at his own head, RiderZero laughed softly.

"You can't die like that. Child, do as you please."

"Yes. Haha. Finally. Finally."

The young rider stood up, drawing a knife. As the rider who looked like a student approached with murderous intent unfitting for such a young face, Park Yang-gun's hand paused.

"Those students?"

"That's right. The friends, siblings, teachers your people came and killed."

The young students in school uniforms from the market street. Park Yang-gun unconsciously started to speak. To say he hadn't killed them. That he'd only kept watch outside.

But he quickly closed his mouth. It was meaningless.

While Park Yang-gun stood frozen, the market street avenger approached and stabbed him deeply in the stomach. Park Yang-gun blinked and aimed his pistol.

"Your police vest won't help. Now, you're my hostage. Make any funny moves and I'll shoot."

"Die."

Taking advantage of the gap between the loose vest and his body due to the small stature, the knife stabbed and twisted in his stomach. A blade frozen by winter's chill. As if an icicle had burrowed into his stomach, cold spread before fiery pain blazed through him.

Red blood dripped steadily. The avenger laughed like a madman while continuously twisting the knife, and Park Yang-gun, grimacing, aimed his pistol at the young student's forehead.

"You little brat with no manners."

Bang—the avenger, with a hole in the center of their forehead, fell backward. Clang, the blade fell onto the pool of red blood.

Park Yang-gun also collapsed to the floor, his strength gone. Looking up at RiderZero, he saw she was aiming a pistol at him.

Park Yang-gun let out a hollow laugh.

"Was this child bait too? Were you planning to shoot me while I was distracted by them?"

"Perhaps."

The room was stained with blood. A blood-like red light also reflected in RiderZero's eyes.

Park Yang-gun laughed dejectedly and recalled Kim Da-in's face. Strangely, he felt he understood the purpose behind the infected Kim Da-in's actions.

Doubt, distrust, confusion, fear.

'Kim Da-in probably died alone in a place no one will ever find.'

And so, unable to be found, he became a legend that remained in people's hearts. People would doubt his death and fear his return from beyond the grave.

In that case, he might as well add a few more words.

Park Yang-gun laughed as he coughed up blood.

"Kim Da-in will return. Rallying zombie hordes, with countless zombies, wielding weapons to kill humans, with nothing but the malice to kill people."

RiderZero laughed lightly.

"I'd actually like that. So I can kill him with my own hands."

If he really returned, she wouldn't be fooled like last time. As Park Yang-gun watched RiderZero strengthen her resolve to kill, he closed his eyes and lay on the floor.

"It's cold."

Though cold chill and hot pain mixed together, as his consciousness faded, only the chill remained. Various memories flashed through his darkening vision before settling on memories of the family he had been searching for.

The time of his marriage, when his daughter was born. He suddenly felt warmth, and Park Yang-gun smiled as he embraced death.

***

The police captain leaned against the corridor wall with his eyes closed. He had heard the conversation inside. Thus, he frowned deeply and sighed.

"That woman..."

He hadn't liked her from the first time he saw her. A young woman harboring unrealistic delusions and doing foolish things.

But perhaps it was precisely because of that that she had been able to draw people in.

Because she moved between people, because she pursued her goals without losing goodwill and humanity, the scattered grains of sand might have united into one.

'I might have been wrong, and she might have been right.'

The police captain opened his palm and looked down at his hand.

He had struggled just to take care of his police colleagues. He had killed citizens to survive, killed enemies threatening the police, and raided citizens to feed his people.

He was busy enough fighting such harsh realities.

But she was different. She dreamed of and worked toward a greater future, a better future. That's why she had conceived and proposed the alliance, and the alliance had actually formed.

He had thought she was just someone intoxicated with romance, ignorant of reality, but reality proved otherwise.

The alliance had helped everyone survive. By gathering the strength of doctors, electricity experts, firefighters, scavengers, riders, and more, they had lived better than they would have alone.

But now...

Bang, a gunshot rang out. Followed by a quiet conversation about whether the child was also bait.

"Ha..."

The police captain sighed heavily as he pushed himself off the wall. He found her current self more disgusting than her former self.

"We'll survive the winter."

With her changed like this, no longer maintaining the atmosphere and center of the alliance, this winter would be easier to endure. They could handle numerous problems well—vicious marauders, arsonist zombies, severed electricity supply.

The police captain muttered:

"But will we greet spring with joy?"

The police captain walked away one step at a time. He had heard Park Yang-gun's last words. Nonsense about Kim Da-in returning. The police captain gloomily muttered to himself:

"Kim Da-in won't return. He's already in people's hearts."

He had ruined the world, hope, and RiderZero, casting a deep shadow.