Landlord (1)
We followed Lee Ji-hye straight into Chungmuro. Yoo Sang-ah, looking at the platform where the screen door had been shattered, said:
"...This place has an ominous vibe."
As we went north along Line 3's tracks, we saw people sitting around, murmuring in small groups.
[You have entered Chungmuro.]
[The third scenario is currently underway.]
[#GIR-8761 channel is active.]
[#BIR-3642 channel is active.]
Starting from Chungmuro, the scale of the scenario increases, and the number of dokkaebi channels grows.
From here on, even Bi-hyung is going to have a hard time.
Just then, a few middle-aged men noticed us and waved as they approached.
"Oh, little samurai. You brought some newbies?"
"Yeah."
Samurai, really? They wouldn't be saying that if they knew who Lee Ji-hye really was. They'll be smitten by divine punishment soon enough. Ji-hye frowned at the middle-aged men.
"Drunk again?"
"Haha! What else is there to do in a world like this but drink?"
The middle-aged men had a warm, real estate agent-like build and seemed unusually relaxed for people stuck in a disaster. Not to mention, they were casually carrying weapons.
Definitely different from Geumho Station.
This must be where the real players are.
"But did your crew come through the Dongdaemun tunnel? That's impressive... You must've racked up a few coins."
One of them suddenly fixed his gaze on Yoo Sang-ah.
"What's the young lady's name? Want to rent a cheap room?"
"...A room?"
"Haha, you're still new to the system, huh? Here's the thing—"
His sentence was cut off by Lee Ji-hye.
"Mister. Don't try anything on the newbies. Just get moving."
"Come on now, they need to know how things work around here if they want to survive…"
"If you don't want to die."
At the sight of Ji-hye unsheathing her sharp blue sword, their faces turned pale.
"Damn... Kids these days sure learn all the wrong things."
"Hey, Kang. Let's go."
The men looked back regretfully as they walked away. Only after they disappeared toward Line 4's transfer corridor did Ji-hye put away her sword.
"I brought you here, so you're on your own from now on. Don't expect a babysitter."
What a rude little brat.
I looked around for a moment.
Chungmuro.
The setting for the third scenario—this place follows completely different rules than the previous ones.
"Sh-shit! Come any closer and I'll kill you all...!"
At the center of the Line 3 platform, a man with a knife was glaring at everyone threateningly.
Beneath his feet was a tile just over a square meter in size, glowing faintly green. Yoo Sang-ah asked:
"...What's wrong with him?"
"No idea."
Though I had a guess, there was no need to scare them by saying it now.
Around Line 3, several others were crouched down like the knife guy, looking similarly disheveled.
Unlike the earlier middle-aged men, these people were all drenched in despair. Watching them, I asked Lee Ji-hye:
"Yoo Joong-hyuk is here, right?"
At the name 'Yoo Joong-hyuk,' Ji-hye, who was about to turn away, snapped her head back toward me, wary.
"...Who are you?"
From her reaction, it was clear Yoo Joong-hyuk had already messed with her.
Understandable. A sponsor of transoceanic-class mental transmission isn't someone you can find easily in Korea. If I were in Yoo Joong-hyuk's shoes, I'd have come straight to find this girl too.
"I'm Yoo Joong-hyuk's comrade, the one who returned alive."
"...Comrade? That can't be right."
Ji-hye stared at me with suspicion. I just shrugged casually.
"Tell him I said that. He'll understand. So, where is he?"
"...Master isn't here right now."
"Oh? That's inconvenient. I've got something I have to tell him."
Ji-hye frowned, staring at me with betrayal in her eyes.
I could already tell how this girl felt about Yoo Joong-hyuk. And calling him 'master' already... I can't let her steal the general away like this.
She called over a boy who had been curled up in a corner trying to sleep.
"Hey, you!"
"Uh? Y-Yes!"
"Watch these people for me! I'm going to see Master."
The boy blinked at us in confusion.
"...Who are they?"
"No idea. They say they're Master's friends!"
At Ji-hye's words, the people lying around the platform began to stir. Half of them looked curious, the other half reverent.
"...You're Yoo Joong-hyuk's friend?"
A boy rushed up, face flushed, peering at us. He looked to be around Ji-hye's age.
"Are you really friends with Yoo Joong-hyuk?"
Those bright, innocent eyes… Looking into them, I felt like I couldn't lie. Well, that's what a normal person would say.
"We're very close friends."
Lately, I've been thinking—I'm probably not a normal person.
At least not in this place.
While Yoo Sang-ah tended to the unconscious Jung Hee-won, I talked to the boy about Chungmuro.
He was one of the few followers of Yoo Joong-hyuk, like Ji-hye.
"...So we're following Yoo Joong-hyuk. Um, are you listening?"
"Yes."
Not really.
I didn't care about the heroic tales of psycho Yoo Joong-hyuk.
To summarize:
"Three days ago, Yoo Joong-hyuk appeared, saved a few of you including Ji-hye from a monster horde, and now you follow him. That about right?"
Hearing his experience summarized so bluntly, the boy looked stunned.
"Huh, can it really be boiled down like that...?"
Definitely starstruck by Yoo Joong-hyuk.
Well, if someone with overwhelming power showed up and saved you out of nowhere, it'd be stranger not to follow them.
But what the boy didn't know—
He only survived because he was lucky enough to be with Lee Ji-hye. Not because Yoo Joong-hyuk is a good guy.
"I have a few questions, may I ask?"
While I was lost in thought, Lee Hyun-sung spoke politely.
"Yes, go ahead."
"How do you handle food supplies here?"
"Well, it's kind of embarrassing to call it a 'supply system'... A few of us rely on Ji-hye. She hunts, and Yoo Joong-hyuk helps cook..."
Hyun-sung, who somehow had pulled out a checklist notebook, started jotting things down. What a soldier.
"Then how about drinking water?"
"We trade food or coins with the 'Landlord Union' upstairs to get small amounts."
"...Landlord Union?"
I straightened up.
Now this is getting interesting. The boy hesitated, then spoke.
"There are a bunch of landlord uncles who used to dominate the Chungmuro area. They've taken over the upper floors. We call them the Landlord Union."
The Chungmuro Landlord Union.
A name that even appears in the 'Law of Annihilation.'
"What kind of people are they?"
"Well, how do I explain..."
Not that I needed to ask.
If my guess was right, the ones ruling Chungmuro now were probably one of the "Ten Evils."
"They're just... landlords."
That sigh of an answer was, in a way, correct. They were landlords. Just landlords collecting rent like always.
Just then, Lee Gil-young, who had been quiet, spoke up.
"Um, hyung."
"Yeah?"
"I need to go to the bathroom."
"Is it urgent?"
"Yes."
A bit of an odd moment for that. Gil-young had never brought something like this up before, so it caught me off guard. And standing beside him, Yoo Sang-ah blushed.
"Um, can I go with him too?"
At that moment, the memory of Sang-ah and Hee-won secretly grabbing toiletries at Yaksu Station popped into my mind. Yeah... I think I get what's going on.
The boy listening in chimed in.
"You'll have to go up to B2 to use the restroom, but it won't be easy to get in."
"...Is something wrong?"
"Mm. I think it'd be better if you saw it for yourself... I was just about to head up there too—would you like to come with me?"
"Let's go, then."
I was the one who said that.
Of course, it wasn't because I actually needed to use the restroom. I had a few things I needed to check upstairs.
Lately, Yoo Jung-hyuk's actions had been unfolding somewhat differently from the third round I know. If that's the case, I needed to understand exactly what that difference was.
Still carrying the barely-conscious Jung Hee-won on my back, I went up to B3 with the group.
"Oh, those new faces from earlier. Are you here to check out a 'room'?"
Some middle-aged men near the Line 4 escalator whistled and asked. The boy shook his head in reply.
"Ah, sorry. We just need to go upstairs for a bit…"
"Aw, that's a shame. Be careful then."
The middle-aged man waved without hesitation. Yoo Sang-ah, watching him walk away, tilted her head and asked,
"Um, by the way... They keep using the word 'room.' I don't think they mean the kind of room I'm thinking of. What exactly do they mean?"
"Put simply, it's that."
The boy pointed to a spot covered with square tiles.
The same tiles we'd seen earlier on the Line 3 platform. Again, they were slightly larger than a pyeong (about 3.3m²) and had a greenish hue.
Looking closely, I could see something written in the air above the tile.
[Green Zone 0/1]
"The scenario term is 'Green Zone,' but here, everyone just calls them 'rooms.'"
Right next to the tile, two men were grabbing at each other.
As if they were fighting over that tile. This time, Lee Hyun-sung asked,
"What exactly is that? And why are they fighting over it?"
The boy looked hesitant, as if telling us might endanger his own survival.
"You'll understand everything once we get to B2."
The higher we went, the more frequent the fights over these 'rooms' became.
Each room had different numbers posted—some as small as (0/1), others as big as (0/7).
The latter number probably indicated the maximum capacity.
I asked while scanning the surroundings carefully,
"From B3 to B1, is all of this territory under the 'Landlord Alliance'?"
"...Yes. There are some minor groups, but almost all of it belongs to the Landlord Alliance."
Since all of Chungmuro's infrastructure was concentrated on B2 and B1, in effect, a single alliance was monopolizing all the power.
"And Yoo Jung-hyuk isn't doing anything? Didn't he save you guys?"
"Well..."
The boy's face noticeably darkened at my question. After hesitating for a while, he finally managed to speak.
"He just told us to stand up on our own…"
Figures. The Yoo Jung-hyuk I know would absolutely say something like that. He probably never told them to follow him.
These people were simply mesmerized by the overwhelming power Yoo Jung-hyuk had displayed and, on their own, began to cling to a faint sliver of hope.
How pitiful.
We soon arrived on B2. Tension crept across the boy's face.
"From here on, you need to be careful."
B2 had far more 'rooms' than the lower floors.
But unlike before, there were no people soliciting passersby. Instead, intimidating figures guarded the Green Zones with fierce expressions.
[Green Zone 7/7]
We passed them and headed toward the restroom.
"Um... Why is everyone stopping here?"
We came to a halt right before the final corridor leading to the restroom. A bottleneck had formed, and dozens of people were gathered nearby.
"Let's go closer."
Saying that, I pushed through the crowd.
"Pil-doo! Please, take me back! I promise I won't do it again!"
"Please, just one more night! I'll even borrow coins if I have to!"
The front of the crowd was heated with desperation.
"Back off, all of you. Step away."
Opposite the crowd stood people who appeared to be part of the Landlord Alliance, armed and lined up in formation. I instinctively knew—
The "Ten Evils" must be here.
I tried to find them through the novel's descriptions, but they all looked so similar, it was hard to tell who was who.
Do landlords all start to look alike once they gain power?
Just then, something wriggled near my leg, and a small head popped out.
It was Lee Gil-young. He seemed to be in danger, so I tried to grab his shoulder—just as someone shoved him.
"Ah."
Losing his balance, Lee Gil-young fell and caught himself on the ground.
[Character 'Lee Gil-young' has trespassed on private property!]
The atmosphere instantly turned cold. A few members of the Landlord Alliance in front turned to look at him.
"Who the hell are you, kid?"
At the same time, the crowd screamed and began to back away.
"Shit!"
"Back up! Hurry!"
As if they'd seen something terrifying, the tightly packed crowd dispersed like a receding tide.
With the crowd gone, a faint red boundary line on the ground became visible.
A man glanced between the line and Lee Gil-young.
"Hmm. Looks like you're lost. Do you even know where this is?"
"Isn't this the way to the restroom?"
"The restroom? Haha, it used to be. But you little punk... Where are your parents?"
"...Huh?"
"Didn't anyone teach you not to walk onto other people's land?"
'Other people's land,' he said.
No doubt about it.
The man gently stroked Lee Gil-young's head with a strange expression.
"Looks like you really don't know. Then let me teach you myself."
[Character 'Gong Pil-doo's' stigma 『Demilitarized Zone Lv.3』 is activating!]
A mechanical whirring sound rang out, and from various points on the floor, mini-turrets resembling Gatling guns began rising in unison.
[Character 'Gong Pil-doo' demands 500 coins for trespassing on private property.]
[Failure to comply will result in immediate fire from all nearby turrets.]
The man said,
"Pay up, kid."
The fully-loaded turrets were now all aimed at Lee Gil-young. Flustered, he stumbled backward and clung to my side.
The man spotted me and laughed.
"Oh, so you have a guardian. Then the guardian should pay the 500 coins."
He held out his hand without hesitation.
I smiled faintly as I looked at it.
...Interesting, Yoo Jung-hyuk.
So this is the kind of trash you just left alone?
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