SALT 08

Chapter: 08

Enemy of Humans (5)

Before dawn, in the early morning.

A time when silence is an unspoken rule.

Visitors who broke that rule were walking through the shopping mall.

“First, we’ll go up to the first floor and check the situation of the larvae at the intersection. After that, I’ll explain the plan moving forward.”

“Ah… yes, understood. But… I have one question. May I ask?”

A woman holding a flashlight asked the man walking ahead.

“No.”

“Ah, seriously. You were going to answer anyway.”

“Who said I would answer you?”

“….”

At Minjun’s cold reply, Sohee glared at him. With a sigh, Minjun eventually nodded.

Once permission was granted, Sohee immediately asked her question.

“What’s the real reason we had to leave at this early dawn? The others who were on the opposing side already packed their things and left yesterday evening.”

“I believe I mentioned that since you and I had a rather exhausting day, we should rest and take care of personal matters before leaving.”

“Don’t lie. That’s not it. You remember I said my intuition is good, right? Stop bottling things up and just tell me clearly. You’ll get sick at this rate.”

Struck at the core by Sohee’s words, Minjun looked at her silently before finally speaking.

“…It’s nothing major.”

“Come on, hurry up and tell me. It’s written all over your face—‘Please ask me.’ Are you perhaps bothered by those people you scolded?”

“What about my face…?”

Finishing his sentence, Minjun rode the escalator and looked at his reflection in the glass.

‘Was it that obvious?’

In truth, when he first arrived at Golden Apartment after escaping the larvae, he saw the faces of those who told him to get lost. And later, when he tried to enter Jamsil Station, the people who pushed him away—those same types of faces were present among the opposing group.

He didn’t want to fight over it now, but he also didn’t want to face them again. That uncomfortable feeling.

That was all—just that much emotion—his honest reason for leaving today.

“It’s nothing much. I just… am grateful to Sohee.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing. Ah, we’ve arrived.”

As soon as he finished speaking, they reached the first floor. Minjun passed Sohee and walked toward the center of the lobby.

Then, when the main entrance of the shopping mall came into view in the distance…

The two of them saw someone who had arrived before them, waiting nearby.

‘Why is someone here right now?’

In the darkness before sunrise, the silhouette blended into the shadows. Minjun sensed something was off and stopped approaching, calling out instead.

“Who’s there?”

“….”

The figure remained silent despite Minjun’s repeated question. Only after Sohee’s flashlight illuminated them did the person reluctantly speak.

A man drenched in blood, wearing clothes that could only vaguely be guessed as once being a suit.

“Greetings, our citizen hero. I am Assemblyman Lee Gidong.”

As Gidong stepped forward, the face hidden in darkness was revealed by the light.

“I can’t tell you how worried I was that our hero might have left before me. Heh.”

With a faint smile, Gidong’s face was smeared with dark red stains. His eyes gleamed not with white sclera but with a glossy red glow.

Sensing something was terribly wrong, Sohee asked in a trembling voice:

“Assemblyman, it didn’t seem like we were in a relationship where we’d wait for each other—so why did you appear in front of us?”

“Well, that’s because of this…”

Snap! Whirrr—

Mid-sentence, Gidong severed a steel cable beside him. The cable snapped upward at high speed with a whirring sound.

Minjun caught the movement and reflexively shoved Sohee with all his strength. Propelled by his enhanced power, Sohee was flung into a pillar and lost consciousness.

Minjun tried to move away as well, but—

KWA-GA-GA-GA-GAANG!!!

A massive chandelier dropped from the fourth floor, smashing the central lobby where Minjun had been standing.

“Cough… cough… Ah, it seems the staff didn’t clean the dust properly. Haha! Ah, but perhaps you’ve already died and can’t hear me? Hahaha!”

Step. Step.

Though the wreckage and shattered chandelier filled the air with dust, Gidong walked through it with a smile on his face.

“You left quite an impression on me when you killed the giant larva and ruined my plan. So I had to resort to such an inconvenient method. Please don’t be too upset…”

As he muttered, Gidong reached the center of the lobby, where the wreckage of the chandelier had piled up like a small mountain. There was no trace of a body left.

No human could survive being struck directly by a chandelier falling from four stories up, weighing dozens of kilograms.

Certain that Minjun was dead, Gidong turned toward Sohee.

“Minjun really is considerate. He even left behind some entertainment for me… It would be impolite to refuse such sincerity. I’ll have fun playing with that woman…”

He paused.

‘…What was that sound? Did I mishear it?’

Even after listening again, the sound did not return.

Thinking he was just imagining things, Gidong was about to take another step when—

Rustle—

This time, it was unmistakable.

A faint rustling came from the pile of debris.

‘No way.’

Gidong turned, drew a dagger, and gripped it in reverse before slowly walking toward the rubble.

Five steps… four steps… three steps.

As he drew closer, and finally stood right in front of the chandelier—

Rustle— Grab!

A red hand burst out from the debris and seized Gidong by the neck.

“Ugh! W-what—what is this!”

Startled, Gidong swung his dagger, but it only left minor scratches on Minjun’s arm and failed to inflict any real damage.

Crack-crack.

Minjun’s entire body was drenched in blood as if painted in red, yet his sharp eyes pierced through the darkness, locking onto Gidong.

Suppressing his panic, Gidong repeatedly stabbed at Minjun’s abdomen.

“What… what is this! Why is this happening all of a sudden!”

However, the blade only penetrated about halfway each time, never going deep enough.

“I knew you were a shady person… but I didn’t expect this much.”

“Why… won’t the knife…?”

Minjun pulled Gidong closer by the neck, speaking as if chewing the words out.

“You’ve done everything you wanted, haven’t you? Then… it’s my turn now.”

For a moment, everything went black. When Sohee regained consciousness, the surroundings were filled with dust.

Feeling something was off, she tried to sit up but instead opened her eyes slightly.

‘Damn it… Minjun…’

What she saw through the narrow gap was nothing short of horrific.

At the spot where she and Minjun had been standing, the shattered remains of the massive chandelier formed a mound.

‘Minjun must be inside there.’

Worried that Minjun had been crushed in her place, she knew she had to pretend to be unconscious for a while in order to save him and kill that psycho.

‘He’s definitely off guard.’

Waiting for a single opportunity—just one chance—Sohee pulled out a hammer and concealed herself in the shadows of nearby debris.

As the grotesque shadow creeping toward her grew darker, she could feel her heart pounding wildly.

To hide her tension, she gripped the hammer tightly with one hand in the shadows.

‘But…’

As Gidong walked, something seemed off to him, and he turned toward the debris instead of continuing forward.

‘What’s going on?’

At the moment Gidong approached the wreckage of the fallen chandelier—

A red figure burst out from the debris and grabbed Gidong by the neck.

‘…Huh? Minjun?’

Though his features were obscured by blood covering his entire body, it was unmistakably Minjun.

The startled Gidong swung his knife at Minjun, but even as he was stabbed repeatedly, Minjun gathered his strength and struck Gidong’s face with his shield.

Thud!

“Wa—wait…!”

Gidong tried to stop him, sensing something was wrong, but Minjun showed no intention of sparing him.

In the silent dawn, the sound of flesh bursting against metal echoed repeatedly.

His nose was collapsed.

His face was torn in multiple places.

His lips were curled inward from missing teeth.

And blood poured from him like a waterfall.

Gidong’s appearance was that of someone at death’s door.

With slurred speech caused by his missing teeth, he begged for his life.

“Sp… spare me. I’ll give you any time I have.”

“Huff… huff… Shut up.”

“Pl… please…”

I grabbed his hair as he was about to collapse and forced him upright. He hung limply like a puppet on a string, staring at me.

His blood-red eyes were filled with a desperate will to live.

I’d heard he had led more than twenty people, and including those who remained at the Golden Apartment, the total likely reached forty or fifty.

‘Crazy bastard.’

He… claimed that he had killed all of them, and that the time he had accumulated could be given to me.

It was disgusting.

Disgusting that he begged for his life using time gained from killing those who followed him.

And disgusting that I hesitated, wondering if killing him would make me just like him—then tried to justify that maybe this was the kind of situation one had to accept to survive.

‘But I can’t let this guy live.’

If I let him go, he would come after me again by any means necessary.

In the end, regardless of any other reason, I had to kill him for my own safety.

Yes, that alone was reason enough.

In this insane world, even if others pointed fingers at me and called me a murderer, I would have nothing to say.

It was just a pathetic shred of hypocrisy—my own minimal standards that I insisted on maintaining.

Focusing only on that, I clung to my fading consciousness.

“You… did you save those who said such things?”

At my words, his pupils wavered.

There was no more time to waste. It had to end.

As I pressed the front of my shield against Gidong’s face, he sensed his death approaching and wet his pants.

KWA-AAAAAANG!!!

In an instant, an immense force burst from the shield, tearing Gidong’s head apart.

Whoooosh—

The headless body sprayed blood into the air, staggering backward before collapsing and convulsing.

Messages began flooding in before Minjun’s eyes.

[You have committed murder.]

[Your karma value has decreased.]

[You have eliminated a murderer.]

[Your karma value has increased.]

[You have taken 1,461 hours from ‘Lee Gidong’.]

[‘Lee Gidong’s’ items have been transferred to you.]

In truth, he had survived only through a series of coincidences.

If he had not chosen the Accumulating Small Shield.

If he had not increased his stamina level.

He would be the one lying there as a cold corpse.

Roll—

The dagger Gidong had been holding slipped from his grasp and rolled across the floor.

Minjun approached, picked it up, and checked its information.

“[Silent Fairbairn–Sykes]

Grade: Common

Info: A dagger specialized for stabbing.

*Special Option: Possesses the [Shadow Step] skill that erases the user’s presence.”

[Shadow Step Lv.1]: When used, the caster’s presence disappears. (Consumes 1 hour of survival time per minute of use)

‘…This is?’

It was the same dagger he had seen in the market. When the power outage occurred, this dagger’s skill must have been used to kill people.

‘Maybe the blackout itself was caused by this guy…’

Guilt from having taken a human life for the first time began to rise, but Minjun’s reason suppressed it.

If he had lived, he would have killed many more.

‘His death, and the people he killed… it’s not my fault.’

For now… regardless of whether his actions were right or wrong, he needed an excuse for himself.

Even if it was clumsy self-comfort, he had no choice.

Because if he broke down here, he wouldn’t be able to regret or reflect on his decisions.

No—he would even lose the value of the time gained from killing Gidong.

He was certain that situations like this would keep happening. If he wavered every time, he would never move forward.

Though his stomach churned, he put the newly acquired dagger into his possession and approached Sohee.

Hearing her breathing, it seemed she had only fainted.

“Sohee? Are you awake?”

“Ugh… ugh… how… what happened…”

Feigning regaining consciousness while clutching her head, Sohee let out a scream the moment she saw Minjun covered in blood.

“Aaaah…!! What?! Minjun?! Is that you? What happened to you!?”

Minjun’s head drooped weakly.