The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 27

#27. Beyond the Boundary (2)

An 8-lane road in the Anyang and Gwacheon area.

A road usually filled with cars of office workers commuting from Gyeonggi-do to Seoul in the morning.

Since the League was held during the evening rush hour, the roads heading towards Anyang, Uiwang, and Gunpo were completely jammed.

Lee Joo-yeon and Lee Se-beom deliberately walked along the road choked with cars.

After the world’s destruction, cars were nothing more than scrap metal.

Most of the people who were evacuating had abandoned their cars and vanished.

Some remained in their cars, but they were already frozen corpses.

Se-beom rummaged through people’s belongings in a large sports bag, collecting anything useful.

Lee Se-beom began searching the cars methodically.

He looked for anything he thought he might need, from lighters to medical supplies, Swiss Army knives, cigarettes, masks, and batteries.

Every time he picked up an item, the information window for that item kept popping up.

Se-beom was getting increasingly annoyed with the information windows that appeared every time he touched something.

And at the end of the road, a tank with a bent gun barrel blocked the evacuating cars.

Next to it were three soldiers who had frozen to death.

Se-beom quickly climbed up and opened the hatch.

A wave of cold air rushed up from inside the tank.

Two soldiers were dead inside.

They still had their guns in their arms.

Se-beom went inside the tank and grabbed a gun.

But it felt surprisingly light.

When he examined the gun closely, an alert window popped up.

[Prohibited weapon.]

“Prohibited weapon……?”

He picked up the grenades and pistols they were carrying, but the same alert window appeared.

It seemed that standard human weapons couldn’t be used in the League.

He tried pulling the pistol slide and pulling the trigger, like he’d seen in movies and dramas, but no bullet fired.

‘What was Kang Si-on carrying……?’

Se-beom couldn’t figure it out.

But dwelling on it wouldn’t change anything.

He left the tank, feeling frustrated.

Lee Joo-yeon had already climbed onto the tank.

“Find anything?”

“No. Nothing.”

Se-beom got off the tank, and Joo-yeon followed.

The city after the League was eerily quiet.

This was partly because the number of people had decreased, but also because most players were wary of each other and stayed off the roads.

Surviving until the second round meant that everyone had cleared their first round.

Clearing the first round meant, in other words, having killed someone.

‘Can’t hurt to be careful. But we’re no different.’

The siblings continued down the road.

Even as she followed Se-beom, Joo-yeon kept glancing back.

Se-beom noticed and asked,

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh? No…… I was just worried about that kid.”

The one Joo-yeon was talking about was the girl who had been given the red scarf.

The girl was the only child who had survived in the shopping mall.

Se-beom frowned.

“It’s none of our business. Forget about her.”

“But.”

“Forget it, Noona [older sister or female friend]. You haven’t forgotten what I said inside the shopping mall, have you?”

“……Yeah.”

Joo-yeon nodded slightly.

Se-beom’s words about not seeing others as objects of pity or sympathy.

“Let’s just focus on surviving first.”

Se-beom grabbed Joo-yeon’s wrist and started walking faster.

Just then.

Joo-yeon grabbed Se-beom’s head and ducked.

Thump!

“……?!”

The siblings pressed themselves against a truck, hiding from the danger.

Then, Se-beom saw a huge foot.

Literally, just a foot.

He couldn’t tell what animal it belonged to.

But he was sure it was a foot.

The foot was big enough to crush a car easily.

The foot hadn’t been there before, but suddenly appeared on the opposite road.

Joo-yeon had sensed the danger instantly and pulled her brother down.

Joo-yeon put a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet.

Se-beom nodded slightly and stared at the foot.

Goo-oong…… Goong…… Goo-oong……

A strange cry.

And it hopped around the road, as if looking for something.

It bounced around like a pogo stick and approached the truck where the siblings were hiding.

Just when they thought they were caught, the driver’s side door of a car on the opposite side clanked open.

“Aaaaaah! Ack!!! I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Ugh! Run away!”

Four people jumped out of the car and ran in the opposite direction.

They were clearly a group of survivors who had made it through the first round.

Thump, thump, thump!

The huge foot bounced quickly towards the people.

They couldn’t actually see what was happening.

Lee Se-beom and Lee Joo-yeon were holding their breath and completely hidden, so they couldn’t see anything.

They just heard the sounds.

Thump, thump, screams, squishing sounds, the sound of something being flattened.

The siblings held their breath and waited for the monster to pass.

Suddenly, the people’s screams stopped, and there were only strange cries.

And soon the monster’s footsteps faded away.

The first to raise her head was Lee Joo-yeon.

She slowly approached the spot where the people had been.

Se-beom carefully followed behind her.

“…….”

The siblings froze when they saw the trampled corpse.

A corpse stuck tightly to the asphalt road.

Blood, intestines, and flesh were mixed together in a circular shape.

From a distance, it looked like four severely flattened gum stickers.

“Ugh.”

Lee Joo-yeon covered her mouth and turned her head.

Se-beom looked at the opposite street.

Something transparent was shimmering there.

It wasn’t far from them.

Se-beom approached it and carefully put his hand on it.

It felt like touching a window.

The air was solid.

The siblings couldn’t escape from here.

This was another boundary, different from the outer wall of the shopping mall.

And because they were distracted by it, the two siblings didn’t notice the people approaching from behind.

When Se-beom turned around, dozens of people were approaching them with knives.

What was strange was that they were all women.

And they were wearing masks.

The woman in the front row looked at Se-beom, then took off her mask and smiled.

“Car, found it……. Hahaha. Today’s quota is complete.”

* * *

Squeak-.

A stench rose through the crack in the open door.

The foul smell that stung his nostrils amplified his anxiety.

Something squirming could be heard from inside the room.

His heart started beating like crazy.

He took out a flashlight from his pocket and shone it into the room.

Rustle. Rustle.

The room was full of ramen crumbs, half-eaten canned goods, and plastic bottles.

He grabbed the kitchen knife that was lying haphazardly in the kitchen.

And slowly approached, step by step.

The master bedroom door was slightly open, and something was moving inside.

He opened the door.

Squeak-.

“Squirm…… Squirm…….”

“Slurp slurp…….”

His aunt was there.

A young woman was also with his aunt.

They were wearing several layers of clothes, and their bodies were larger than those of average adult men.

And the two women were eating preserved food like pigs with their hands.

Canned goods, ramen, frozen dumplings, instant rice, drinks, etc.

All of that food was the preserved food that he had collected over the past few months.

He hadn’t saved it in preparation for this kind of thing.

It was just that frozen food and preserved food were cheaper than making kimchi stew or soybean paste stew, such healthy meals, so he bought them.

He had been thinking all the way here that it was a good thing he had saved that preserved food.

Because if his brother was here alone, he could survive just by eating the preserved food.

He had hoped that his brother would eat the preserved food that he had stocked up on, one by one, and hold on.

Those thoughts were shattered when he faced the two beasts in front of him.

Squirm, squirm, slurp, slurp…… Chomp, slurp slurp.

The two beasts didn’t even notice he had entered the room and were gobbling up the food.

They were no different from pigs.

They were breaking the ramen into small pieces, making it like porridge, scooping the food in the plastic container with their hands, and constantly shoving the food into their mouths.

Then his aunt, or rather ‘the pig that used to be called his aunt’, turned to look at him.

The old pig stared at him blankly, then suddenly got scared and screamed.

“Si-on…… Si-on! Si-on! You’re alive! It’s been so long! It’s been so long!”

The old pig crawled on the floor and grabbed his pants.

“Si-on. Si-on. Kang Si-on! You’re alive! It’s been so long! It’s been so long!”

The old pig crawled back and grabbed the young pig’s arm.

“Ye-young. Ye-young. Your cousin. It’s Si-on. Si-on.”

“Ah, let go! Don’t bother me while I’m eating!!”

The young pig pushed the old pig away and hurriedly ate the rest of the food.

The old pig crawled back on her knees and grabbed his pants.

He couldn’t say anything.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Huh? Huh? Huh? If you haven’t eaten, come here and eat with me. Your aunt made rice. Rice. Rice. Rice deliciously.”

That?

That pig’s food is worse than garbage.

Mixing all the rotten food indiscriminately and eating the feed mixed with your saliva together?

“Is it cold outside? It’s very cold. Very cold. Very cold. Very. Very. Your aunt will turn on the boiler. The boiler. The boiler. More than that. Eat this first. Eat this first.”

The old pig picked up a handful of that unidentified food with her hands, adorned with four gold rings, and brought it to him.

He only looked down at it.

Every time the old pig squeezed her fist, the food was seeping out little by little.

“Why. Why. Ah. Aren’t you eating? It’s. It’s delicious?”

He gripped the kitchen knife more tightly.

His whole body was shaking uncontrollably.

The face of the monster in front of him was swirling wildly.

It was like a scene where black paint, which was a small dot on the palette, was being smeared indiscriminately by a brush.

“Muuuh. Eat. Kang. Si…… On.”

“Kang…… Si…… Ooooon…… Eat…….”

“Si………… On……………….”

Even the voice was distorted.

Was the creature in front of him really the aunt he used to know?

Was she the aunt who told him and his brother, who were left behind after their parents died, not to worry anymore and that they would live at her house?

Was she the woman who took all of their parents’ insurance money and abandoned them on the cold street?

It was because of his aunt that his life started to go wrong little by little, or rather, it definitely started to go wrong.

But up to that point, he couldn’t forgive her, but at least he could think of her as a human being.

He could bear it.

Just because he hated his aunt and she abandoned them, he couldn’t kill her at the time. Because he had to take care of and raise his brother.

But in this world where everything has been destroyed and his brother, who should have been left behind, is here, did they have the right to be called human beings when they were eating all the food meant for his brother?

Even the punishment of death felt too generous for them.

Suddenly, what Kwon Kyung-soo had said came to mind.

That this world is hell and he is escaping this hell.

But that was half right and half wrong.

This world was originally hell.

What people like Kwon Kyung-soo, who struggled to escape this hell, created were emotions like goodness and compassion.

They try to escape this world through death, but the world they escape to is not heaven.

There is no heaven.

There is only hell.

In this world, good is evil.

You cannot live by good in this world.

That was the feeling he was feeling now.

He reaffirmed his resolve.

If this world is hell, he would gladly become a demon.

He would not deny becoming a demon.

He realized again.

The reason he was able to survive in the shopping mall was because Kwon Kyung-soo refused to become a demon, and he embraced it.

“Si…… On…… Si-on, aren’t you eating?”

Thump!

He grabbed the hair of the pig who was kneeling in front of him.

The old pig looked up at him with her hair grabbed, and he asked coldly.

“Where did Joon-ho go?”

The old pig pursed her lips and looked up at him.

“Joo…… Joo…… Joon-ho? I don’t know…… Where did he go?”

At that moment, he punched the old pig in the cheek.

Slap-!

“Kaaaaaak-!!!! Aaaack……!”

The old pig screamed in agony, lying on the floor.

Even in the midst of that, the young pig was focused on eating.

He approached the old pig who was screaming.

He asked again, leaving the old pig lying on the ground.

“Where did he go?”

Thump.

He grabbed her hair again.

Now the old pig said, trembling with fear.

“I, I, I don’t know! We, we were originally together. Ah, no. Our house was destroyed. Destroyed. Destroyed…… So. Your house. I came to find something to eat……!! Joon-ho. Joon-ho, that brat. No, that kid. He went out looking for his brother. He, he went out three days ago. After the first round. Yeah. Yeah…….”

“Why didn’t you stop him?”

He grabbed the pig’s cheeks with his hands and asked.

The pig’s lips protruded.

“I. I. Why would I? There’s not much to eat anyway. A. A brat is no longer needed. In this world. It’ll just be a hindrance. Huh? Huh? Si-on. You’re a man, right? You’re an adult, right? The world is now ruled by power, right? But a. What help would a brat be? Right? We. We can live together. Si-on? Right? We, we’re family.”

Slap-!

He slapped her cheek again.

The old pig screamed again, lying on the floor.

Only then did the young pig turn around and look at this place, chomping.

Her cheeks were full of food, and she was chewing on it.

“Tell me where he went. The exact location.”

“I, I don’t know!!! He probably went to the construction site! You! Because you work at the construction site!”

The old pig screamed, stroking her cheek.

The construction site is southeast from here.

Because the construction site was in Uiwang City, right below Anyang City.

Suddenly, he remembered telling his brother where he worked a few days ago.

If he hadn’t told his brother where he worked at that time, would his brother have stayed here?