The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 113

113. A Brief Company: Ha Yunha (1)

The subjugation of the Mangyeong remnants proceeded swiftly.

The surviving Doan warriors were divided into two groups:

Those who hid in the ruined downtown area, and those who surrendered with their hands raised.

The captured warriors were transported to Mangyeong, while those who resisted were executed on the spot.

Kang Si-on’s army entered the Beomgye Station area, the heart of the Doan forces.

Traces of Lord Park Ji-soo were visible throughout the Beomgye Station area.

Rotting corpses hung from lampposts, half-built ramparts stood decaying, and monster carcasses were scattered everywhere.

All sorts of foul odors permeated the streets.

In the central fountain of the Beomgye Station’s main shopping district, surviving citizens were staging a protest.

They weren’t warriors, but Doan citizens who hadn’t participated in the war.

“Step back! Step back!”

“Get lost! Just get lost! You dirty police stooges!”

“Lord! Lord Park Ji-soo! Free our Lord……!”

Since Kang Si-on had ordered no violence against unarmed civilians, the soldiers ignored them and continued on.

Choi Hyun-ji, a player from Mangyeong, walked among the soldiers, observing the Doan citizens.

They were in such a wretched state that it was hard to believe they were once citizens living in 21st-century South Korea.

Mangyeong’s citizens didn’t groom or adorn themselves as much as they had before the Collapse.

However, if their beards grew too long, they would cut them with scissors, or tie their long hair with rubber bands.

They also periodically trimmed their fingernails and toenails.

They maintained a minimum level of ‘grooming’ so their daily lives wouldn’t be inconvenient.

But the Doan citizens were different.

They wore clothes haphazardly, their fingernails and toenails were grotesquely long, and their skin was either blackened or covered in filth.

Above all, the most serious problem was the terrible stench.

It wasn’t a smell that could come from a human body.

A dead corpse?

No, even corpses would smell better than them.

The Doan citizens weren’t receiving even the minimum of humane treatment.

But there were more than one or two strange things.

At that moment, an old man’s voice echoed throughout the Beomgye Station intersection.

“Get lost-! You goddamn descendants of the police-!”

Choi Hyun-ji covered her nose and mouth and looked up in the direction of the voice.

On the 13th floor of the shopping mall at the Beomgye Station intersection, a section of the wall had collapsed, exposing the interior to the outdoors.

A naked, white-haired old man was clutching a flag with both hands and waving it.

It was the Doan’s symbolic flag, with an X marked over the Taegeukgi [South Korean flag].

The old man continued to shout at the Mangyeong soldiers in the street.

“Get lost-! You goddamn descendants of the police! You oppressors! You don’t deserve to live! Why are you still acting like police even after the world has ended! It’s a hundred, a thousand times better to die than to be your dogs! You filthy police bastards! Ruling above the law and tormenting the citizens! You dirty sons of bitches! Get out of here-! You’re trying to confine our free people in law and order again! You cowardly bastards! You dirty sons! Look! I will not yield to you! Never!”

After those words, the old man staggered and moved to the edge of the building, then threw himself into the void.

As the old man committed suicide, the archer next to Choi Hyun-ji slowly released the bowstring, though it’s unclear if the arrow was meant for the old man.

The commotion ended with the old man’s suicide.

The Mangyeong soldiers resumed their march as if nothing had happened.

Only Choi Hyun-ji remained, stopped among the moving soldiers, staring at the space where the old man had fallen.

To others, it seemed the Doan citizens were living like beasts, not humans.

But in reality, it was different.

They were simply returning to a primal state and enjoying the pleasure of it. Strictly speaking, they were beasts living only for instinct.

Choi Hyun-ji could understand.

She was a wanderer who lived on information.

The Doan citizens believed the laws and order created by humans, a higher species, were oppressing them.

A world where, if they wanted to eat, they would kill someone who had food and take it, where they would sleep anywhere they wanted, where they would go and eliminate others if they wanted to get rid of them, and where, if food appeared among them, they would fight each other regardless of age, gender, or disability, and only the strong would win.

A group of humans without the order defined by society was who they were, and where they lived was no different from the animal kingdom.

In the animal kingdom, it doesn’t matter how dirty or tired the body is, only instinct and pleasure remain.

That’s right.

The Doan citizens had regressed from a human group to a monkey group.

Choi Hyun-ji looked around again.

Choi Hyun-ji had traveled through many forces so far.

Each force had different cultures, decrees, and lords, but no lord had ever gripped a force as strongly as Park Ji-soo of Doan.

Park Ji-soo’s crowd control was superior to Kang Si-on’s.

Kang Si-on at least made the lives of the citizens human and gained their fervent support in return, but Park Ji-soo did not.

He gave the citizens nothing and instead made their lives more miserable and wretched.

Yet the citizens were loyal to Park Ji-soo.

‘……Perhaps Park Ji-soo intended to let the citizens roam freely as they do now, and fill the city’s labor shortage with Mangyeong citizens.’

In fact, the biggest purpose of Doan’s war was to create ‘slaves’.

But Park Ji-soo’s ambition was thwarted by Kang Si-on.

In the end, Park Ji-soo was also devoured by someone stronger than himself.

“…….”

Choi Hyun-ji let out a short sigh and began to walk down the street again.

She was looking for Ha Yunha.

She had a feeling that Ha Yunha was still alive.

The basis for this was that Ha Yunha was a player.

The fact that players are valuable resources to lords is something that even the young children of Mangyeong know.

As long as Park Ji-soo was the lord, he wouldn’t have killed a player easily.

So Choi Hyun-ji wanted to find Ha Yunha first.

If the Doan forces completely collapsed, Ha Yunha could be in real danger.

She searched all the likely places.

All that remained was the Anyang City Hall and Pyeongchon Station area.

Choi Hyun-ji headed there.

* * *

Anyang City Hall.

Deep inside the building was an air-raid shelter prepared for wartime situations.

Of course, now it was just one of Lord Park Ji-soo’s treasure troves.

Quite a variety of treasures were stored here.

Handheld game consoles, batteries, prohibited handheld rifles and bullets, cosmetics, as well as piles of various liquors and cigarettes.

Most of them were luxury goods from modern civilized society that could no longer be made or found.

Like most people, Park Ji-soo kept his most prized treasures hidden away.

At the innermost part of the air-raid shelter was an iron door.

The iron door was locked with a huge padlock that only the lord knew.

Inside the iron door was Park Ji-soo’s most secret space.

“…….”

“…….”

Two women walked towards it.

The older woman was shining a flashlight down the dark corridor, and the younger woman was holding tightly to the older woman’s bag strap and following her.

The older woman approached the iron door and opened the padlock.

Creak-.

A foul odor wafted out along with the loud creaking of the hinges.

The older woman shone the flashlight inside.

Three people were trapped there.

One man and two women.

The three people were clinging to different walls, barely breathing.

In the center of the room was a top-quality bed, and next to it was a rusty, three-tiered iron drawer filled with adult products.

In front of the bed was a luxurious sofa facing the bed.

This was Park Ji-soo’s ‘viewing seat’.

On the table in front of the viewing seat were plenty of whiskey, beer, fruit, and snacks.

A screening room filled with Park Ji-soo’s desires.

The three people clinging to the walls slowly raised their heads.

The older woman, her face covered with a black hood, said nothing.

But soon, she lowered the hood.

“…….”

The older woman was Lee Soo-eun, the reconnaissance captain who had been Park Ji-soo’s closest aide.

And next to her was Ha Yunha, a player from Mangyeong.

She looked around at the three imprisoned people and then opened the iron door wide.

And she said to the three imprisoned people.

“You are free. Go.”

“…….”

“…….”

Even at the word freedom, the imprisoned people only hesitated and didn’t move.

Then Lee Soo-eun frowned and said.

“Or die.”

Thump-.

Lee Soo-eun grabbed the iron door again.

Then the three people hurriedly stood up and rushed out.

Thud-.

It was as if rats discovered by humans were running away.

Even if they go outside, it is unknown how long they will be able to live.

They were already sick, both mentally and physically.

But Lee Soo-eun didn’t stop the liberation.

This was the only thing she could do.

Ha Yunha was silently looking up at her.

Lee Soo-eun asked Ha Yunha.

“Where to next? We need to hurry. Monsters roam at night.”

Ha Yunha nodded and led her outside.

Ha Yunha is an artifact ability user.

She can store objects or information she has seen in her head.

Like a computer’s memory, she could remember the information and pull it out at any time.

And Yunha had another ability.

It was an ability that came about when the artifact evolved to ‘Awakening Stage 1′.

It was the ability to recall the memories of someone she touched.

Like a computer’s USB, if she held the person’s body for a few seconds, their memories would be transferred to her head.

Ha Yunha, who had previously been in contact with Lord Park Ji-soo, had her memories, and based on those memories, she was freeing the slaves that Park Ji-soo had imprisoned.

Of course, this was planned by Lee Soo-eun.

Secretly from the lord.

Even if she does it secretly, if she violates the lord’s command guaranteed by the decree, the target will be penalized.

Lee Soo-eun was aging by the second.

The lifespan she had lost in the past month by violating the decree was a whopping 18 years.

She would now have difficulty surviving more than a week.

But Lee Soo-eun couldn’t stop walking.

The two women walked towards the next place.

Walking through the ruined downtown, the whole city was quiet.

Screams were occasionally heard, but these sounds felt natural here.

At that time, Ha Yunha, who had been closely following Lee Soo-eun, fell.

Thud-!

It was because the road was rough.

The asphalt floor was protruding here and there, and the blocked and pitted road was as rough as a jungle.

It was a difficult road for Ha Yunha, who was only fifteen years old.

“…….”

Lee Soo-eun stopped in her tracks for a moment, but didn’t pick up Ha Yunha or ask if she was okay.

“I’m sorry……. I’m sorry. Soon. I’ll be there soon. Soon……. Please don’t abandon me.”

Ha Yunha struggled to get up and hurriedly approached Lee Soo-eun.

Ha Yunha was afraid of Lee Soo-eun.

Lee Soo-eun was originally Park Ji-soo’s close aide.

Originally, the last order Park Ji-soo gave to Lee Soo-eun was to imprison Ha Yunha just like any other sex slave.

But Lee Soo-eun, who learned of Ha Yunha’s ability, began to use her to free the slaves instead.

The two’s companionship began then and lasted for a week.

“Haa……. Hoo…….”

Yunha limped next to Lee Soo-eun, letting out a faint groan.

Lee Soo-eun only turned her eyes again to examine Yunha’s wounds.

Bright red streaks of blood were flowing down her calves from both knees.

Lee Soo-eun stared at Ha Yunha’s wounds and then turned her head forward.

The two women began to walk again.

Into the ruined downtown.

To liberate the sex slaves imprisoned by Lord Park Ji-soo.

While the two women were walking, Kang Si-on’s army was marching towards Beomgye Station in Ilbeonga.

* * *

Pyeongchon Station shopping district.

Lee Soo-eun and Ha Yunha decided to spend the night here.

When night falls, monsters roam the streets.

Therefore, unlike Mangyeong, all the warriors in Doan enter the buildings in the evening and hold their breath to observe the situation.

Even at this moment, unidentified monsters were prowling the ruined asphalt, and Lee Soo-eun held her breath and waited for them to pass.

Finally, when the monster passed, Lee Soo-eun had Ha Yunha run to the opposite building first.

Only after confirming that Ha Yunha had safely entered the opposite building did Lee Soo-eun also run to the opposite building.

Of course, the person who ran second was in more danger. The first person had already attracted the monsters’ attention.

-Kweaaaaaak!

A bizarre creature with a long neck like an ostrich quickly rushed towards Lee Soo-eun.

Barely arriving on the opposite side, Lee Soo-eun hid in the wall and held her breath again.

-Kweaaaaaak…….

Ostrich monsters that peck at human brains with their beaks and suck out only the brains.

They were a nuisance that lived near Pyeongchon Station and had claimed the lives of quite a few warriors.

Lee Soo-eun held her breath and waited for the monster to pass by.

-Kweaaaaaak…….

Fortunately, the monster passed by safely without finding Lee Soo-eun.

Lee Soo-eun took a deep breath, and only then did Ha Yunha, who had been hiding under the front desk, rush to her.

Ha Yunha checked Lee Soo-eun’s body here and there to see if she was hurt anywhere.

“…….”

Thump-!

But Lee Soo-eun ignored her and coldly got up from her seat and walked into the depths of the building.

Ha Yunha remained there and then rushed after her again into the building.

Lee Soo-eun, who had relaxed, leaned against the wall, exhausted.

Ha Yunha took two cans of canned food and brought them to Lee Soo-eun, who was sitting down, exhausted.

It was canned cat food.

“……Hoo.”

Seeing this, Lee Soo-eun sighed deeply and leaned her head back against the wall.

She didn’t want to eat.

She had no appetite, and she had no desire to prolong her life.

But Ha Yunha opened the can of canned food and carefully placed it in front of Lee Soo-eun.

Carefully, so that it wouldn’t make a sound.

Then she returned to her place again.

The two women didn’t talk.

Especially at night, they didn’t talk for fear that the monsters would hear the sound and come.

Yunha carefully opened the can of canned food and ate it with her fingers.

While watching Lee Soo-eun.

Lee Soo-eun was holding the cross hanging from her necklace and trembling.

She seemed to be sobbing.

Humans are said to be animals of adaptation.

The warriors of Doan went to sleep when darkness came and slept until the sun rose.

In seasons like now, they slept for more than half the day.

Ha Yunha, who had finished eating the canned food, fell asleep first, and only then did Lee Soo-eun get up.

She carefully approached and looked down at Yunha.

Ha Yunha was sleeping with her back bent like a shrimp.

The weather was still not warm.

Ha Yunha trembled and twitched several times while sleeping.

She put her hands between her armpits, trembled her lips, and occasionally coughed.

“…….”

Lee Soo-eun, who had been quietly watching her, slowly reached out her hand to Ha Yunha.

(To be continued in the next episode)