Chapter 130 – Parasite (6)
Parasite (6)
Knock.
It would be one of the most inappropriate things to do in a barbaric age where laws and ethics have disappeared.
It’s an act that has become so useless now that you have to check the size and armament of the opponent rather than permission, and you have to follow the rules of survival rather than manners.
But it wasn’t awkward or unfamiliar.
There is also the point that I have already heard this story from Lee Hye-ji’s mouth over and over again, but above all, it is because I have also experienced this kind of ‘polite visit’.
Cheolwon Lim.
It is the same method used by Baeksan Man and the first convert who visited Hyundai Department Store.
“… I don’t know Why didn’t those cautious kids say anything, why did they keep their mouths shut and not breathe?”
A polite knock and a shocking first greeting from Baeksan.
Lee Hye-ji was calmly reciting the situation after that.
The slightly dazed eyes and the body that has stopped vibrating and trembling suddenly come into view, as if vividly reminiscing about the school room of the day.
“Why did you just open the door as if possessed by a ghost?”
It was the power of stories, and the power of ‘talking’.
She was so immersed in her story that she even for a moment forgot her fear, which had already engulfed her whole body and now became a part of her.
I was reflecting on my life so far.
I leaned her hips on the table and listened to her in silence.
“When I think about it now, I think I wanted to believe in the name Baeksan for the last time. Or it could have been a renunciation that it doesn’t matter what happens now.”
“I was so- so so so tired. All of us.”
Also, it was the power of the name Baeksan.
In recent decades, the power of conglomerates has been rooted in the lives of ordinary people like Lee Hye-ji.
Banseokdae was also not completely obscure, but compared to Baeksan, it was like a firefly rubbing against the full moon.
“There were people on the other side of the door. Living people, not zombies that I haven’t seen in a really long time. Office workers in black suits.”
So it was the most obvious but most effective method.
“They put a blanket over us. He asked if there were any injuries—if there was any pain, and comforted me so that I wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”
As if you are really being rescued.
“He protected us all the way from the Solitary Hall to the main auditorium. The auditorium was already full of students covered in blankets similar to ours.”
Numerous Yonsei University students gathered in the auditorium.
I remembered Lee Hye-ji that day as I listened to a familiar story that I was tired of.
I also thought of Lee Hye-ji and the tightly packed students in the auditorium I had visited during the Yonsei University search.
“There were seniors in the department that I thought were really dead, and there were classmates and juniors that I thought I wouldn’t see anymore. I hugged them and cried out loud. Not only me, but Dajeong and Seulah too. Not only Da-jung and Seul-ah, but everyone in the auditorium was full of hugging and crying.”
Yonsei University students realize that they have survived by seeing the faces of their dearest acquaintances again.
The meeting square filled with tears of emotion in an instant.
“At that time, the very loud sound I heard in the classroom was also heard in the auditorium.”
A loud roar resounds that instantly stuns everyone who was crying.
“I overheard a male student nearby whispering that it was a gunshot. Also, a classmate from another department who took the same class whispered to me not to be surprised, saying that she had seen supernatural powers like the Avengers.”
Only then do the sounds that were deliberately ignored come back.
‘Keeeee’
Howling of zombies still reverberates through Yonsei University and multiple gunshots that viscerally give goosebumps.
The world around them was still hell.
“Then there was applause.”
Match-! Match-! Match-!
Three claps to ventilate the surroundings very neatly.
“The Baeksan employee standing on the podium reassured us once again not to worry too much, as safety is being secured steadily, and handed out papers and writing utensils.”
Baeksan men diligently come and go in the auditorium, where the crying and buzzing has ceased.
A piece of paper and a ballpoint pen that they hand out to college students who haven’t caught on yet.
“The staff said that it was necessary to reduce unnecessary waste of time, so please write it accurately according to the form. There may be family members among the survivors who have already been rescued. We have to investigate based on what is written on this paper, so please check it carefully two or three times to see if there are any mistakes.”
It was an evil number.
A wicked but effective method to get what you want by using desperate expectations and hopes.
“So I wrote it in as much detail as I could. Not just me, but everyone in the auditorium.”
Like a test – the crunching sound of a ballpoint pen echoing in the quiet silence.
I shook the paper in my hand, recalling the scene of the day, which might be a bit bizarre, in contrast to the roaring noise outside.
These are the ‘self-introduction letters’ of Yonsei University survivors obtained in this way.
A self-introduction letter written by a person himself, no different from the paper in my hand now.
So, in fact, I couldn’t help but express my admiration for this part.
With less than half the effort I put in, they created results similar to mine.
Of course, the depth of the content was overwhelming, but the number itself was different.
The efficiency itself was so different that it was embarrassing to compare.
Baeksan.
I felt the power of Yeon Si-woo again.
It’s not about how many people with special abilities, what kind of abilities they have, how many actual combatants there are, etc.
I realized the invisible power of Yeon Si-woo.
It was a power that I could not forcibly take away.
No matter how many hundred my total stats have exceeded, no matter what my skill level is—another strength that is different from personal strength in the first place.
Baeksan can become someone’s last hope and open the door on its own, but Rock cannot.
Baeksan can talk about rescue and follow-up measures without any sense of rejection or separation, but Banseok can’t.
In the first place, this power was a power that could never be built up in a short period of time.
It is a name value that can be obtained only when it permeates into the minds of the public for a very long time.
I thought of Lim Cheol-won, the first convert.
The moment he vomited out everything he knew about Baeksan.
Even at the moment of moving the community of destiny from Baeksan to Rock, the pride as a former Baeksan man came to mind.
He said that he was a rotten and corrupt group, and that he was a tyrant who was crazy about women.
When Baeksan was passionately explaining how great a company it was and what a great enemy it was, his mouth twisted as he recalled the so-called mulberry filling.
It’s great, but it’s all a thing of the past anyway.
In the first place, if Baeksan was the past Baeksan, I would have moved a little more cautiously and prudently.
A conglomerate with 150,000 employees― It was the same with Macro No. 1, which Cheol-Won Lim used to talk about.
It was pointless to mention the sum total of employees spread evenly around the world and across the country.
The people who remained at the headquarters on the day the zombie disaster broke out.
It was clear that the number of people who escaped the mayhem at the beginning of the disaster would be less than 150,000 people, even less than the tip of their toes.
Of course, I don’t know how many new Baeksan Mans I got after passing the tutorial and taking over Seodaemun-gu, but it was clear that there wouldn’t be that many.
The reason for this certainty is food.
If Baeksan goes back to being a dinosaur company, he must first obtain the enormous amount of food that the dinosaurs will eat every day…
If so, Baeksan would have already faced bankruptcy.
No matter how good he thought of Baeksan, it was absolutely impossible.
Even if they wake up to cannibalism like in the Aztec Empire, there will be a huge shortage of people to use as food, and unless Yeon Si-woo is an idiot, there is no way to make up for it with points.
Yeon Si-woo, whom I have seen so far, was an arrogant bastard, not an unanswerable idiot.
So now is the low time.
Baek San and Yeon Si Woo were the first competitors to kill among the enemies they faced after passing the tutorial.
A very dazzling, past that can no longer be returned as a halo―
The most intimidating competitor with a power I can’t have.
However, the true face hidden behind that dazzling halo is shabby.
It was clear that the past conglomerate, which looked like a magnificent and huge castle, would be empty inside, no different from a rock.
No, rather, it was more likely to be seriously festering than the rock.
So now was the right time.
The best timing to take out the most dangerous competitor with the least damage.
“… I also wrote that there is a large mole on my mother’s ear lobe. The fact that she has a pretty big scar on her father’s chin also means that her younger brother…”
Name, gender, age, family relations, majors attended, specialties, etc.
Hyeji Lee had been reciting to me exactly what she had written for quite some time.
I looked at Lee Hye-ji, who was searching for her memories with her eyebrows narrowed.
In the auditorium, I looked at Lee Hye-ji, who desperately wrote about her family.
That’s it.
The more you learn about Baeksan, the more you want to take away from Baeksan.
It’s not a new camp member, new food, or a new person with special abilities–
I wanted to have the know-how to deal with people efficiently like that.
Just a moment ago, it was said that only a halo of name value remained, but it really does not mean that there is nothing left in Baeksan.
The skills and systems to deal with that person, which he would have accumulated over decades of running the company, would remain intact.
Compared to Baeksan like that, my rock is still no different from a rule of thumb.
No, to be more precise- I didn’t deliberately develop further from that rule of thumb.
This is because it is more advantageous and comfortable for me.
The most important thing to me was ‘royal authority’, and the people I needed the most were those who obey and obey me.
So I didn’t need a big criterion to classify people.
All I had to do was distinguish between those who obeyed and obeyed me, and those who did not.
Going a little further, a man could distinguish whether or not he had the power to kill zombies, and a woman only distinguishing how good her appearance was.
But now it was slowly reaching its limit.
The more camp members he had, and the wider the territory he owned, the more he could not efficiently manage people with such a large standard.
The simple organizational system of search and strike teams could not efficiently manage the entire Rock.
A more specific and detailed system was needed.
I needed the know-how of a group that must have realized this need before me and went through trial and error.
“… I could see Baeksan Town through the bus window. The staff led us to the headquarters auditorium, which looked a bit narrower than the main auditorium.”
Before she knew it, her story was ending her long self-introduction and leading her to Baeksan Town.
After completing their self-introduction letter, Yonsei University students were led to the headquarters auditorium.
“After telling us to rest comfortably while we organize our place to stay, all the staff disappeared outside the auditorium. The staff obviously told us to relax, but none of us did.”
He was rescued by a large company called Baeksan, but that was not enough.
Those who survived until then were all survivors who somehow managed to get through the mayhem at the beginning of the disaster.
That survival instinct cannot be easily quelled.
Rather, thanks to the unfamiliar place, he would have sharpened his blade.
“After about 10 minutes, the closed auditorium door opened again. The staff who had disappeared came back into the auditorium with their hands full of something.”