## Chapter 93 – Zombie Parade
My sharp movements made the thugs hesitate.
“…What? What’s with that ridiculous stance?”
Only the boss, who had been talking to me, stood his ground. Whatever else, the price for underestimating my martial arts skills would be very high. Murderous intent surged. I had to kill that bastard, no matter what.
“Hold on, boss. Isn’t that a martial artist?”
“A martial artist?”
“His stance looks like it.”
“Then what’s with the sword?”
Then they started whispering among themselves. They looked quite flustered. Stupid bastards. Even if they recognize my true worth now, it’s already too late. I’m a monster who has mastered Taekwondo up to the 3rd Dan, and a killing machine who has learned professional swordsmanship from the guild.
I’m skilled enough to slaughter back alley thugs like chewing gum.
There’s a saying that a man who has drawn his sword must cut something, even if it’s just a radish.
It was time to put that old adage into practice.
“A martial artist with a sword… Could it be!”
“Could it be?”
“A Martial Sword Master!”
“A Martial Sword Master!”
Then they started falling over in shock.
What the hell.
Just call me Taekwondo Swordsman, you idiots.
“Hmph!”
I swung my sword wildly at the guys who were acting like fools. The blade cut through the air, making a fierce whistling sound. Whoosh! Just the sound alone made it seem like it could easily slice through a pile of human flesh.
“Kuhuk!”
The other thugs besides the boss flinched at the sword strike.
As expected of a boss, he seemed to have some guts. But that was it. He only had guts, but he was stupid and had poor judgment. That’s why he’s wasting his life doing things like robbery.
In the first place, picking a fight with someone like me…
“Heh, heh… So what if I am? You don’t think you can take on six of us alone, do you? Well, it’s a shame you got pickpocketed by our cat. But we have to make a living too, don’t we? Why don’t we settle this nicely before things get ugly?”
“You’re the ones who are going to get ugly. Hey! Kid!”
The black-haired girl was hiding behind the boss. As if she firmly believed that the boss and his underlings would somehow take care of me. I called out to the girl.
“…Why?”
“This is your last chance. Give me back my wallet.”
“N-No way! Guys! Let’s kill that bastard quickly! I saw it, it’s 5 silver, 5 silver! There were 5 silver in the wallet!”
“What?! 5 silver?!”
Haa.
“5 silver…!”
The thugs’ eyes started to light up at the mention of 5 silver. They wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of such a large sum. If poor bastards get greedy for money, there’s no stopping them.
“Heh heh, we can’t give up such a large sum, guys! Attack!”
“Woooaaah!”
At the boss’s command, five thugs charged at me all at once, knives in hand. I couldn’t tell if they were stupid or fearless. The black-haired girl was standing behind them with her arms crossed, watching.
Disgusting brat.
“You idiots. You think you can beat me?”
I, who had been preparing to run away, immediately kicked off the ground and ran in the opposite direction. Even so, it would be a little dangerous if five of them attacked at once. Those poor bastards who are greedy for money sometimes exert power similar to that of fanatics.
I need to find an opportunity on my side.
If I had been wearing armor, I would have just relied on my defense and charged in, but it was a shame I didn’t have it.
“That bastard’s running away!”
“Chase him! He has 5 silver! He might have more!”
When I started running away, the thugs got completely excited and cheered as they chased after me. When I turned around slightly, the one who seemed the most motivated among them overtook the others and started to come forward.
“Keke!”
This is a good opportunity.
ㅡThwack!
“Idiot!”
Without hesitation, I turned around and swung my sword at the guy who was alone. The guy who was running towards me was horrified by my sudden change of direction and tried to stop, his face pale. Too bad, it was too late. The shining tip of the sword aimed at the guy’s belly.
“Heok?!”
ㅡThwack!
With a terrible death cry as his last words, the guy became a skewer. When I pulled out the sword that had pierced through to his back, blood gushed out through the pierced hole. The blood splattered on my precious everyday clothes, making me feel very bad.
The thug who tried to go 5 minutes faster ended up going 50 years faster and met his death.
“Let’s not cross at a red light, people. Let’s obey the traffic laws.”
“Kkeu… Heuk…”
I kicked the fallen guy. Now there were six people left, including the girl. When I looked around, the thugs who had been chasing me had stopped long ago.
Seeing a person die in an instant seemed to have made them lose their will to fight.
These guys aren’t soldiers, they’re just guys who don’t even go outside the castle walls because they’re afraid of monsters, they’re just guys who extort money from the poor, so there’s no way they can maintain their fighting spirit in this situation.
Take on five people alone?
That’s not it.
If you take down one person, that’s the end of it.
“P-Paison died!”
“…”
The guys who had been chasing me so enthusiastically shrank back and looked at their boss. The black-haired girl also looked very surprised. In her small world, these shoulder-hyungnims were the strongest and scariest people.
Of course, I’m dozens of times stronger than these thug bastards.
“Boss!”
“…!”
Where would these guys have had a chance to face a true expert? At most, they’ve only killed one or two poor people groaning in the back alleys, so there’s no way they can beat me, a veteran warrior who has survived the true realm of hungry ghosts.
“You’re next!”
ㅡWhoosh!
This is what it means to seize the victory.
I immediately ran out and swung my sword at the guy in the front. The guy convulsed and tried to avoid it, but since he was already within my range, his death was certain.
“Keuhak!”
The guy whose shoulder was split in half grabbed the severed part and fell. A shower of blood spurted out.
“E-Euaaaah!”
Then a scream erupted from behind him. The thugs, terrified by the continuous deaths of their comrades, started to run away in a panic. The boss also seemed to realize that something was wrong and turned to run away. The girl was the same.
“Run away!”
It was truly a family disintegration.
The guys each found a way to survive and scattered like chickens out of a yard.
Among them, I only followed the boss and the girl with my eyes. I didn’t care about the rest of the guys. Unfortunately, the two didn’t run away together, but ran in different directions. I had to choose one of them.
“I will never forgive the guy who stole my money!”
Of course, my real target was the pickpocket girl. Ignoring everyone else, I ran after the girl. The girl, who was running away, turned around and screamed, stuttering as if she was terrified.
“Why, why me!”
“Run faster. You’re going to die if you get caught now.”
I felt a little sorry for her.
The world is like this, so even a kid like that lives by stealing money. If you’re a man, you can at least become an adventurer or a back alley thug, but in fact, it’s a little more difficult for women to cross that threshold.
To put it extremely, girls in slums have no other way but to sell their bodies. So they fell into pickpocketing. Selling their bodies also involved great risks, so they chose the relatively less dangerous theft.
Whether they’re adventurers or poor people, they each risk their lives and compete in their own places.
If you lose that game, there’s only death.
“Kid, run faster. The guys you believed in weren’t very useful either.”
“Keuheuk!”
“It’s a shitty world, but you should live a little longer. Faster. Cheer up.”
She just chose the wrong target. It just happened to be me, and it just happened to have 5 silver in it. Unlike the girl, who was getting more and more tired, I was calm. Maybe it was because I had just seen blood, but I didn’t feel tired or anything like that.
“Haa…! Hak! Hak!”
Squeezing out the strength of desperation, the girl ran away. I followed calmly. The road was really like a maze, so I would lose her if I was distracted even a little. Then my 5 silver would disappear like a mirage.
Mental unification! I concentrated hard to not lose the girl.
I’ve been making a lot of money lately, but that doesn’t mean 5 silver is worthless. That’s worth my life.
I chased her for a long time,
“Got you.”
I was able to catch the girl who had collapsed from exhaustion.
“Oh, my pretty little sister.”
I immediately grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and lifted her up. The hood came off, revealing her black hair and face. I was surprised that she was quite pretty, but that didn’t mean I was going to let her off the hook. The girl’s expression twisted in pain.
“Keogeok, Keok!”
How should I kill this bitch?
5 silver wasn’t enough to pull out her intestines alive.
“O, Oppa!”
“Huh?”
While I was having such constructive thoughts, the girl shouted hysterically.
“I, I’ll give you my body, so please spare me! I’ll give you back the money!”
At that ridiculous nonsense, my head went blank as if I had been hit with a hammer.
What is this bitch saying now!
“What the hell are you talking about? Are you trying to make me a criminal!”
“I’m good at it! I’ll let you do whatever you want! I can match all your hobbies! You’ll definitely like it, Oppa! S, so, let go of my hand…”
All the bastards who have such sexual thoughts about a girl like this should be beaten to death. Of course, the seller is also punished the same way. Enraged, I slapped the girl repeatedly.
ㅡSmack!
ㅡSmack!
ㅡSmack!
“You bitch!”
A cheerful sound rang out and her lips burst. The feeling of my thick palm wrapping around her soft cheek was quite pleasant. The girl screamed. The scene was like a girl dying from repeated domestic violence from her stepfather.
“There are things you can say and things you can’t say!”
“Kya, Kyaaak! It hurts! Let me go!”
“I’ll kill you now. It’ll hurt a little. I can find the money on your corpse.”
“Oppa, please…!”
The pretty girl begged with her lips torn, which could have softened my heart, but as I said before, everything else was worthless in front of 5 silver.
It’s an era where a person’s life is worth less than a copper coin. If I let her go here, the surviving guy might spread rumors and all sorts of trash might come around.
The punishment of the law was strict.
I put the blade to the girl’s neck. Her wretched life. I’ll end it here.
I hope you’ll be born as a democratic citizen in the next life.
“T, that’s right! The money! The money is in another place!”
“What?”
In another place?
“Please, please Oppa! I’ll give you back the money, so just spare me! You can’t find the money if I die, right? Huh?”
“You hid the money? Where did you hide it?”
“I’ll tell you if you promise to spare me first!”
The girl, still not understanding the situation, offered me a deal. But she doesn’t know, such a proposal is useless.
If there’s something you want to know, you can just break a couple of fingers and they’ll kindly tell you.
“You’re talking shit, you stupid bitch. How dare you offer me a deal? Tell me where it is before I gouge out your eyes. You should go peacefully when you leave this shitty world anyway.”
“So…”
“I’m gouging.”
“Kyaaaaak! Stop! Stop!”
Then, an unexpected word popped out of the girl’s mouth, who was about to cry.
“I’ll give you everything I have, so please spare me!”
“Everything you have?”
“I, I have money that I’ve saved up! I’ll give you all of it, so please forgive me!”
…Really?
I asked, temporarily suspending my judgment.
“How much do you have specifically?”
“Including Oppa’s, about t, ten silver…”
“Ten silver!”
Strangely, when I heard that, all the anger in my life started to disappear as if washed away.
I immediately put the girl down and carefully dusted her body. Dust flew out. The terrified girl flinched, thinking I was going to hit her, but she soon looked bewildered when I gently dusted her body.
“Y, you’re forgiving me?”
“Of course! Did it hurt a lot? I’m sorry. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“…”
I can’t not forgive her for that much money. No, I can’t stand not forgiving her. She showed sincerity, so isn’t it the duty of an adult to reward her accordingly? A kid might get greedy for money and go astray for a while.
Yeah, that’s right.
10 silver had enough value for that.
“Okay, shall we go? If you lie to me, I don’t think I’ll be able to control my violent impulses!”
“…”
I grabbed the girl’s hands with a smile on my face.
The girl seemed resigned and took the lead.
Anyone who saw us would think we were really close siblings.
In fact, anyone can become siblings if you give them 10 silver under international law.
