"Right now, Geumho Station is split into the 'mainstream group' and the 'marginalized group.'"
It was unfair, but there was nothing to be done about it.
If you didn't have ability, then you had to cling to someone who did if you wanted to survive.
That didn't mean I liked those bastards calling themselves the mainstream group.
'The moment Dokja gives the signal, I'll crush them.'
I'd already all but wiped out those assholes called the Cheolsu faction or the Cheoldupa or whatever, but they couldn't be the entirety of the mainstream group.
"Food distribution is being decided by the mainstream group, but we're almost out of things to eat, so they've been drafting people and sending them out on food expeditions."
Put simply, the ones with power got the food themselves, then handed it out as they pleased.
The hardship fell on the marginalized. The authority belonged to the mainstream.
Twist it however you wanted, what could they do? If they wanted to survive, then even if they were powerless and shoved aside, they still had to obey orders and go out.
No, because they were powerless, they had to go out and secure food, yet couldn't properly use that food themselves.
"Heewon, who used to move around with us, was one of the people drafted too."
"Heewon...?"
"That's the name of the woman you two rescued."
"Actually, besides Heewon, a few others went out too, but only the people from the marginalized group failed to come back. This is the first time members of the mainstream group haven't returned."
Even setting aside the Cheoldupa bastards I'd killed, the fact that only the marginalized group had failed to return until now definitely wasn't a coincidence.
"Hyunsung. Are the mainstream group especially stronger than the marginalized group?"
"Huh? Yes. Generally, that's true. But why...?"
[Dokja.]
[I know. I already know.]
The first thing I'd suspected was that they were throwing people out as bait for the monsters, then having the mainstream group safely bring back the food.
But then I considered a second possibility.
The message that had appeared when I'd killed Kim Namwoon.
And when I'd killed the other Cheoldupa bastards, the Coins they possessed had come to me too.
In other words, you could gain Coins by killing people, and Coins were spent to strengthen your stats.
Those mainstream group bastards were probably especially strong because they'd killed members of the marginalized group and used the Coins they got that way to strengthen only themselves.
At first, I'd wondered if that was too much of a leap, but after hearing Lee Hyunsung's words, I was sure.
"...It's a wonder you didn't end up over there, Hyunsung."
"Now that I think about it, that's true. Someone like you should've gotten quite a few invitations to join them."
"Exactly, Oppa."
"... ... It just felt like I had to do that. I don't really know anything grand about morality or ethics, but..."
Lee Hyunsung was a soldier, and a soldier's role was to protect the country and its citizens. These days, people didn't seem to understand how precious soldiers like that were.
But now, instead of protecting those citizens, he had to kill them to survive.
The self-loathing that came from having to do something that contradicted his resolve and convictions.
That was what was shaking Lee Hyunsung.
"It just felt like that side was... 'wrong.' Maybe thinking about 'right and wrong' at a time like this is hypocrisy, but..."
'Is this why Kim Dokja likes Ways of Survival?'
It was an arrogant thought, but even after the world had turned into this mess, I'd still treated Lee Hyunsung as just a 'character from a novel.'
Just a puppet following the story written in a book.
But that wasn't true.
The moment it stopped being a novel and became reality, I'd admitted this was a ruined world, yet still recognized the people in it as 'fake.'
Nothing could be more absurd than that.
Lee Hyunsung was human. Not just a character from Ways of Survival.
I'd never read Ways of Survival myself, but if it was a work that contained this kind of anguish and handled it this well, then whatever anyone else thought, it would've been a masterpiece to me.
Though according to Dokja, it dragged on forever in weird places, so I probably wouldn't have lasted that long reading it anyway.
"Even hypocrisy is good. Don't forget that feeling."
"...Dokja."
"Just look at the mainstream group first. Whether it's killing people or watching people die, they're all people who already think that's natural now. Even while they themselves don't want to die."
I simply started saying, in an even tone, what I'd been thinking about Lee Hyunsung.
There was no real reason. I just wanted to.
"The fact that you still feel that way proves you haven't lost your humanity yet, Hyunsung. That's the hardest thing to keep in a world like this."
Why was it that in ruined worlds, there were always more rotten villains than kind heroes?
Was it just for the protagonist's growth and tension?
That was true too, maybe, but realistically, who was more likely to survive? Someone who helped others more than herself, or someone who would do anything to survive?
Once society collapsed, being altruistic wasn't a strength. It was a weakness.
That was exactly why characters like protagonists, the ones who still held onto their convictions and saved people even in a world like this, shone brighter.
"...Dokyun."
'So what? Dokja said even hypocrisy is good.'
Maybe he was moved by what we'd said, because Lee Hyunsung kept looking back and forth between me and Dokja.
I wished this warm little conversation could've gone on a while longer.
"Kim Dokja, Kim Dokyun."
Then that bat-faced bastard I couldn't stand showed up.
"Could I have a moment of your time?"
Yeah, go on then. Let's hear your bullshit.
With that shallow little confidence that something like this could move us.
"I'll be direct. Join our group."
'You really can't go even a little outside our expectations, can you?'
"If it's the two of you, we could even give you high positions. I'd like you to help lead the group with us."
Just from the fact that she'd hung from the ichthyosaur for four days, Dokja probably could've wiped out the Cheoldupa bastards by herself too, but since I'd done it first, there was no way he knew her true value.
Still, the ones he was trying to recruit were both me and Dokja.
Maybe at first that had just been politeness, but the fact that he was trying to recruit Dokja too, not just me, meant he wasn't quite that stupid.
Cheon Inho didn't know Dokja's true worth, but he'd realized that the real center of this was Dokja.
He knew that if he recruited only me, I obviously wouldn't come, and if he recruited only Dokja, she wouldn't come either, so he'd chosen the route of trying to recruit both of us.
If even one side showed a favorable reaction, then the other would follow along to match.
"And if we refuse?"
"Haha, refuse? That's funny. I hadn't considered that possibility."
Look at that. The second things stopped going his way, he couldn't even keep his expression under control.
The one who wanted to recruit us was the one in need, and we, the targets, held the upper hand.
When he should've been trying to win us over, he was instead busy plotting how to use us. Why the hell would we ever join him?
"You are heroes who saved people from monsters. Don't you think that, with power like yours, you have a duty to lead everyone?"
Cheon Inho must've been pretty rattled, because he outright used the word "you," like I was his real target after all.
And as if trying to show that he was the righteous one, he even tried to use the people around us to stir up guilt.
'Looks like he thinks he can pressure us by using the eyes around us, but we don't give a single fuck about that.'
"So even while trying to recruit us, your real goal is only my oppa, huh? Looks like you don't need me, so I'll be going."
"W-wait a moment!"
Dokja seized on that tiny opening and refused him.
Grab
And then Cheon Inho, flustered, grabbed me.
"In a world like this, of course it's natural to look after your family, but how long are you going to let your little sister push you around—!"
"Pfft!"
"What's so funny, Dokja?"
"It seems you don't know my oppa very well. If you have even the bare minimum of manners, let go of my oppa and get on with whatever you were doing."
No matter who it was, even Dokja couldn't tolerate someone laying hands on family instead of herself. No, she wouldn't tolerate it.
And if that family was someone who, in a world where even blood relatives killed and were killed by each other, openly possessed nothing but skills meant to protect Dokja, then all the more so.
If it was family who had already thrown away his own life for his blood relative even before the world fell apart, then even more than that.
"Was it really okay to refuse him like that?"
"Did you want us to accept?"
"Absolutely not, but... what Cheon Inho said at the end is bothering me."
"If you change your minds, come find me anytime."
"Don't worry too much, Hyunsung. Our Dokja will take care of everything."
There was no way Dokja had refused without any kind of plan.
And even if she hadn't, I had the strength to smash through Cheon Inho's schemes by force, so what did I have to fear?
'...Except Yoo Joonghyuk.'
If I ran into her again, I wouldn't win.
"We'll know if we just wait and see. More importantly, it's evening. Aren't you all hungry? Have one each."
"Ah, really? Is that okay?"
"I'm good."
"Fine. I'll set yours aside separately, Oppa."
"Thanks."
Strangely, I wasn't that hungry.
Was it because the heat had climbed all the way to the top of my head?
"Anyway, Sangah and Hyunsung—"
"Hey!"
Why was it that every single time I tried to say something, someone interrupted me?
When I looked up, there were angry people standing there.
'What's their problem?'
"Is it true you're hoarding the food?"
"When there's not even enough to go around if everyone shares, you're going to keep it all for yourselves?"
"You said everyone gathered it together!"
"How can only you people keep it all?!"
"Leave the food with Inho! Then receive fair distribution!"
Dokja recalled 'Cheon Inho from Ways of Survival.'
The type who was truly dangerous in a ruined world: the kind of bastard who used other people's despair as fertilizer for power.
Dokja read Cheon Inho's lips.
Normally, this would've been a bit of a crisis for Dokja too.
Because in a world like this, reputation mattered.
No matter how strong you were, you couldn't survive alone.
If you could, Yoo Joonghyuk would've had no reason to regress like that.
But there was one lunatic here who didn't care about reputation at all.
A blind fool whose eyes were fixed only on his little sister.
Cheon Inho's defeat was that he had failed to properly judge just how much Dokyun cherished Dokja.
'Stage.'
Dokja spoke to Dokyun with the shape of her lips.
Just like Cheon Inho had done to Dokja.
KWA-BOOOOM!!!!
"Ah, fuck. You're all so goddamn noisy, chattering on and on. You leech bastards."
Geumho Station fell into silence.