Chapter 152 – Isolation (4)
Isolation (4)
Whiiiiing—
It was like hearing the invisible sound of the wind.
It was a contradictory statement, but the miser had no other words to express it.
A restaurant with a luxurious interior that can be seen at a glance.
Inside, the miser stared at one wall for a long time.
If there had been a window, it would have been a space where a high, blue sky could have been seen, but that was impossible because of the wall.
However, the miser could hear and see it again.
The wind blowing around the tall building and the sunlight hitting the building.
It is a scenery no different from any other daily life.
A landscape that would not have felt anything special in the past, less than a year ago.
Enjoying the cool breeze that cools your sweat for a moment-
Looking up at the sunlight shining warmly on me-
The miser must have hurriedly walked toward his next destination.
Today is no different from that day.
A cool breeze is still blowing, and the warm sun is shining.
But-
It’s contradictory.
The miser mumbled and laughed.
Whiiiiing—
The wind still blows, and the sun shines.
The wind was more desolate than calm, and the sunlight was stinging rather than warm.
It’s different.
Everything was the same as that day, but it was different.
What is different here?
“… Ha.”
It was even weirder to worry about what had changed.
Apocalypse.
A world filled with monsters that crave human flesh.
Hell, where humans are no longer predators of the Earth.
The word 21st century, which meant the cutting edge of the era-
This is an era that may mean the last era of humanity.
The more I think about it, the more the siren sounds loudly instead of the green light.
The world couldn’t be beautiful.
“… Moreover, it even included a historic death game…”
It couldn’t have been an easy environment for people to live in.
No, to put it a little more precisely –
We were constantly creating an environment in which it was difficult for people to survive.
“…”
Someone created this hell.
The miser looked quietly at another wall, the ceiling, and then turned her head again.
Hwieeeeeing—
Chasing the inaudible sound of the wind, now something I will never forget for the rest of my life-
I recalled a moment engraved in my mind.
The end of a peaceful era and the beginning of hell.
The howling of zombies began with a strange mechanical sound.
A translucent system window projected in front of zombies that ravenously eat people.
Multiple stats as if playing a game.
And his common name written there.
‘Miser’.
It felt like I was seeing an alter ego.
It was an unfamiliar nickname with an unfamiliar concept, but the miser understood it immediately when she read the nickname.
Why are you a ‘miser’?
Why did this suspicious system call itself a ‘miser’?
‘… I saved it like crazy.’
Whether it’s money or time-
He fanatically saved anything he could use.
I thought that was the way to succeed in this society.
To be more precise—
It was the only way left to the miser.
Parents, siblings, relatives-
As he had no friends, the only thing he could do was to conserve what he had to the utmost.
Even now, that thought still remains unchanged.
The miser is the first principle that the era in which he lives
He just did his best to become a successful person.
But times have changed, and principles have also changed.
Now people had to follow new principles, not just succeed.
Surviving.
The miser was someone who adapted to the new principles relatively quickly.
That’s why he was able to survive until now.
Even though he stubbornly saved what he had in order to succeed –
On the contrary, he had to live so stubbornly to have anything because he had nothing –
He was able to quickly adapt to the new era.
It was contradictory.
Again, it is contradictory.
The miser nodded again and laughed.
Anyway-
The current era is definitely different from the days of the past.
From the principles necessary to live in this era to the blowing wind and shining sunlight.
Because it is a contradictory era where everything has changed.
Now is not an era where we have to frantically save something like in the past.
Rather, it was a time when something had to be written.
From visible food and resources to invisible and intangible ideas.
A transaction with someone, a promise made with someone, the trust that is created from that, and even doubt.
No matter what you have, you can only survive in this era if you can use it in the right place.
At least the miser herself believed so.
With that faith, the miser gathered the three people where she is sitting now.
Not suitable for the common name ‘miser’-
Even though we took risks, we sat down at the table and talked.
A brat, a quick gets rich, a young master.
Three people who clearly shine with their own colors.
That’s why I rolled my tongue toward the roof of my mouth, thinking of them who would never mix with each other.
Whatever the reason for bringing them together in the first place-
The three people who accepted the invitation without any intention of agreeing with that opinion.
From the meeting that went astray from the beginning to the chaebol family who left the meeting.
“… It’s so frustrating…”
And he recalled the sarcasm that the chaebol master used to pierce him until the very end.
An arrogant look that looks down on the person itself, saying that the interior is messy.
“What on earth is so annoying? In my eyes, everything is good.”
“… “What is it?”
A miser mutters while looking around and a question is asked in a calm tone.
The miser smiled slightly and answered the question of the delivery man, Lee Do-jun.
“There is. “Even if you guess, it’s very difficult to guess.”
“… Ah, yes.”
“What, did you understand right away when I said it?”
“… What – right?”
The answer keeps coming one beat late.
The miser narrowed his eyes and asked Lee Do-jun again.
“Are you sure you understood?”
“… What – right?”
“… “This guy didn’t understand.”
“… Ah, yes.”
“If you’re going to answer so insincerely, why did you ask in the first place?”
“… That’s because I’m bored.”
Whirling-
Lee Do-jun turned the chair he was sitting on, looked at his employer, and shrugged his shoulders.
“Anyway, there’s nothing to do now except wait for the temporary protection period to end.”
“…”
It wasn’t wrong.
There was nothing they could do now.
Other than quietly waiting for the temporary protection period to end.
“Are you still that embarrassed and annoyed?”
Lee Do-jun asks the miser again, who silently agrees with the delivery man’s grumbles.
The miser answered Lee Do-jun’s question, which had turned serious, with a slight smile.
“Not at all.”
“…”
“I forgot all those feelings the moment I sat down at the negotiation table with you.”
It wasn’t just bravado to a direct subordinate; it really was like that.
Those feelings of inefficiency no longer remained in the current miser.
However, it is just a little absurd.
Temporary protection period.
The flimsy, flimsy back of this seemingly absolute protective shield.
It was the moment when I realized that the temporary protection period was really only ‘temporary’.
“Of course, all we have to do is buy time until the internal purge is over.”
This was the reason why we established a cooperative relationship with Hansegae in the first place.
Buying time to resolve the complicated internal situation.
The miser just needed someone to hold the hilt of the knife while she finished cleaning the interior.
It really didn’t matter who that person was.
Little brat, one world-
Or maybe you are a master or Yeon Si-woo.
However, I did not expect that the cooperative relationship would be reversed in this way.
“… It’s a threat.”
They were threatened.
Life-threatening threats.
It was quite a vulgar method for a master who criticized such a luxurious interior as being too expensive.
However, because it was so blatant, it was more effective than anything else.
This is also the major loophole in the temporary protection period mentioned above.
The temporary protection period protected the ‘present’, but did not protect the ‘future’.
One day, Yeon Si-woo suddenly appeared leading a procession of luxury sedans and threatened them with their future.
He showed a show of force in advance, saying that if they did not cooperate with him, he would be the first to burn down their camp.
Sudden and blatant threats.
A psychopath with a protection period that doesn’t last forever and a psychopath who is drenched in madness at a glance.
It wasn’t something the miser had to worry about for long.
However, I just realized it again.
That force is always the most effective means of negotiation.
“It is still too early to erase the traces that have been applied, and the temporary protection period is coming to an end…”
Before the storm.
An urgent night as we soon escape from the eye of the typhoon.
“… If there’s just one thing that bothers you-“
He was a miser who was fully prepared to survive, but there was just one thing that was holding him back.
“White ox and black ox.”
Who of the two works better?
I’m not sure about that…
The miser muttered and tapped his fingers on the table.
