Chapter 2151 – 2151. Eternal Eden
The battle between Buildings 101 and 103.
The cause was food distribution. I distributed food in the plaza. I divided the food fairly and gave the leftovers to Building 103. The reason? Because Building 103 had entertained me. They pleased me with money and women.
The saying “give and take” was the way of society. I gave the surplus food to Building 103.
For the record, I don’t distribute the food myself. Why would I do such manual labor? I made the underlings do it. Most of them were from Building 103. Kang Sang-gi was quick on the uptake in this area, if nothing else.
The residents of Building 101 were dissatisfied with this.
“Why are you giving the leftover food only to Building 103?”
“There’s talk that they’re giving money and women to Seong Yu-jin. It must be true. Seong Yu-jin is often seen visiting Building 103.”
“Damn it. There’s a rumor that the government will be reducing food aid soon… Are we going to end up in a situation where only Building 103 has plenty of food? Those bastards will do all sorts of crazy things with the food.”
Buildings 101 and 103 were already not on good terms. And now, rumors about food were spreading? Even Building 101, which was usually calm and orderly, couldn’t help but feel uneasy. And unease shakes people’s reason.
Building 103 was just as, if not more, uneasy than Building 101.
Plenty of food? The biggest worry for Building 103 wasn’t food, but the vote.
More than half of the residents executed by vote were from Building 103. The population of Building 103 was significantly lower than other buildings. Voting was by majority rule. It was much more advantageous to have a large population.
“At this rate, we’re the only ones who are going to die.”
“Most of the people from Building 101 vote against us. Yesterday and the day before, residents of Building 103 were executed. And they weren’t even parasites!”
“Those bastards are trying to kill us under the guise of parasites. They’re the ones who are reporting us!”
The root cause of all this was Seong Yu-jin. At least if Seong Yu-jin hadn’t been around, things wouldn’t have escalated to such an extreme. But their anger was directed at their fellow apartment residents. The cause was the already built-up bad feelings, and Seong Yu-jin was in a position to step back as the administrator of the vote. Above all, they were aware that turning Seong Yu-jin into an enemy would only lead to their own one-sided slaughter.
Then, on the day the fight broke out, the people of Building 101 demanded of the people of Building 103.
“Please exchange some of the food. As you can see, the canned vegetables here are rotten. If the condition was just a little bad, we’d eat it without complaint, but… this is 100% going to cause food poisoning.”
“The food distribution is over. All the other food has owners. We can’t exchange it, so get lost.”
“Bullshit! You guys take all the leftover food! You deliberately distributed bad food to us, didn’t you?! Be honest! Didn’t you exchange the food you received last week and distribute it to us?!”
“You’re really making up a scenario! This is the food we received today! We carried it ourselves from the rooftop to the plaza! Do you know how hard it was to carry this? You bastards, you were just sitting comfortably, and now you’re complaining!”
The voices grew louder.
As people became agitated, the pent-up complaints began to leak out.
“These bastards don’t even know how precious food is…! We’re going to distribute food again anyway. People don’t die from starving for a few days! Just deal with it and get lost!”
“How do we know what kind of tricks you’ll play with the food again? Shut up and exchange it! No, share the extra food! We know you’re hoarding food! Let’s share it among the people of the same apartment! You’re going to be executed tomorrow anyway, so you’ll have plenty of food, right?!”
“You bastards!! You’re the ones who are reporting us, aren’t you? You’re the ones who voted yes in the vote, aren’t you?!”
“Then what are you going to do about it? If you wanted to get a no vote, you should have been nicer! It’s all your fault!”
“You bastards!”
“You sons of bitches!”
Thud.
Fists flew.
Bang.
Somehow, a gunshot rang out, and the battle began. One gunshot called for dozens more.
The battle was calmed by others who came out of the apartment after hearing the gunshots. Or rather, it was suppressed.
There were 15 deaths, 6 seriously injured, and 11 lightly injured.
More than half of them were residents of Building 101.
Seong Yu-jin executed the instigators of the incident, five residents of Building 101 who were dissatisfied with the food distribution and asked for an exchange.
“You’re making a fuss about an exchange when the food distribution is already over? Why do you think there are rules? Rules are there to be followed. Building 101, you should reflect on your actions.”
Seong Yu-jin executed the residents of Building 101 without a second thought. Distributing rotten food? It was none of Seong Yu-jin’s concern. Seong Yu-jin was filling his stomach with the high-end meals delivered from Seongak Elementary School.
However, in the eyes of the other residents, it seemed that Seong Yu-jin was favoring Building 103.
Lee Ye-bin of Building 102, who should have been mediating, remained silent. It was because of Seong Yu-jin. What if she recklessly stepped in and ended up antagonizing Seong Yu-jin? It would be worse than doing nothing.
And so, the rift between Buildings 101 and 103 deepened.
On the day of the next food distribution.
20% of the food distributed to the residents of Building 101 was rotten. At least the canned goods were okay.
Since Seong Yu-jin happened to be at the food distribution site, the residents of Building 101 immediately protested to Seong Yu-jin.
“Seong Yu-jin! Look at this! This is the food distributed by Building 103! It’s rotten! It smells terrible!”
His mistake was that Seong Yu-jin was in a bad mood. Because of the information that the prostitute he had slept with last night had been killed by a parasite.
“Damn it. Are you yelling at me right now? You’re a parasite, aren’t you? You son of a bitch. You’re executed.”
“I, I’m sorry. Please spare m…”
Chop.
It didn’t even take 10 seconds for his head to be cut off and roll on the floor.
It was the moment when silence descended on the noisy plaza.
“There’s a parasite outbreak right now, and you’re making a fuss about some food problem? Damn it. If you keep being treated well, you think it’s your right. You guys are going to starve this week. Gather the food and burn it.”
Lee Ye-bin and Kang Sang-gi were startled and stepped forward.
“W-wait a minute. Even so, how can you burn all the food?!”
“Y-yes, that’s right. The next aid is in five days. We can’t survive on just water until then…”
“You talk too much. Are you parasites by any chance?”
Seong Yu-jin drew his sword. Seeing him exuding such murderous intent, Lee Ye-bin and Kang Sang-gi had no choice but to shut their mouths. If they messed up here, they would really die.
“Burn the food.”
Whoosh.
In the end, the food was burned to ashes.
The residents watched the disappearing food with blank faces.
“There have been too many reports lately. Most of them are false. We haven’t even caught any parasites lately. So, the vote will be suspended until next week. That’s all.”
The dictator spat out his annoyance and left.
“……”
Silence descended on the plaza.
Kang Sang-gi desperately tried to lower the corners of his mouth, which were rising. Because there was unused food stored in the warehouse of Building 103. If he used this food well, he could not only screw over Building 101, but also shake Building 102.
‘Seong Yu-jin is unknowingly favorable to Building 103. That guy who likes women. The entertainment effect is quite good.’
Kang Sang-gi had figured out that Seong Yu-jin was a guy who was crazy about women. He would grant almost any request a woman made. That’s what he had learned while entertaining him. In particular, Seong Yu-jin was weak to beautiful women.
‘Lee Ye-bin is pretty, but… it seems like Seong Yu-jin has a grudge against her. Irina. That girl doesn’t even want to show her face, and she’s so proud that she’s not the type to offer her body to Seong Yu-jin. This situation isn’t bad.’
• • •
The next day.
Three people went missing in Building 102.
It was the work of parasites. Most of the recent missing people were from Building 102. Parasites were running rampant in Building 102.
“Ye-bin! My wife! My wife has disappeared! She was attacked by parasites! We have to kill those parasites! We have to kill them!!!”
“…Please calm down. We don’t know who the parasites are.”
“Number 606! That man is probably a parasite! He’s been looking at my wife strangely for a while now! We have to execute him by vote! If we leave him alone, we’ll all keep dying!”
“Voting is temporarily suspended.”
“We can do it among ourselves! If we stay still like this, we’ll all die!”
“Anyway, we can’t. We can’t execute someone from the same building without solid evidence.”
Their power could collapse. They had to prevent the execution of someone from the same building at all costs.
“…Why are you so hesitant to deal with the parasites, Ye-bin? Maybe…”
“Watch your words. We must always be calm. And even if we can’t find the parasites, there are ways to stop them from being active. Right now, people are working in groups of three, right? Increase that to groups of five. When you sleep, gather together and have at least three people on watch. Report anyone who tries to act alone to me.”
It was ineffective. The parasites were now active not only at night but also during the day. When people’s attention decreased, they mercilessly killed humans.
The people of Building 102, who had to starve because they had no food, began to become more and more edgy as time passed. At that time, the people of Building 103 contacted them with food.
“Lee Ye-bin. That bitch isn’t doing anything for you. Come to Building 103 with your family. We’ll share our food.”
“…Ye-bin said she needed me. We can hold out with a little food.”
“Your neighbor’s child was attacked by a parasite. Tonight might be your turn. There hasn’t been any parasite activity in Building 103 recently.”
“There really aren’t any parasites?”
“No one has been attacked by parasites recently. There’s not much difference between Building 102 and Building 103. It’s just a change of residence.”
“…Okay. We’re all people of the same apartment.”
Some of the residents of Building 102 moved to Building 103.
Lee Ye-bin protested to Kang Sang-gi.
“Are you crazy? Return our residents right now!”
“Don’t interfere with what the residents have chosen.”
“……Do you think I’ll just let this go?”
“You’re not the representative of Saetbyeol Apartment.”
Saetbyeol Apartment was gradually descending into chaos.
