I locked myself in the room and did nothing but write. Ignoring whatever my marauder companions were doing, I busily moved my pen across the notebook.
I drafted the fundantals of raiding, refined that draft, and finally made multiple copies of the completed text by writing it over and over.
The mindset of staining people's hearts with malice and venom. The thodology of using malice and venom effectively for raiding. Instructions for making various weapons for that thodology. The fundantals of raiding completed with examples from all the situations I had seen and experienced.
anwhile, companions would sotis bring als, and occasionally I heard them shouting or crying miserably.
One day, then another—as ti passed, my companions seed to gradually accept the situation and find their own paths.
Scratch, scratch—finally putting the period on the last copy of my raiding fundantals, I glanced sideways at the window.
"The snow has stopped..."
A week had passed. The heavy first snow that had fallen like a blizzard had stopped, and even the occasional light snowflakes had ceased.
Beyond the window stretched a winter sky cleared of dark clouds. Under the pale sky, the city, resembling ruins, was completely blanketed in snow. A world bleached white.
It was ti for my marauder companions to move. Whether continuing to escape the city or turning against each other.
Sure enough.
Bang, bang, bang!
Gunshots rang out in succession. Not an attack, but internal strife. There was no sign of movent in the pale street, and the gunshots ca from inside the building.
I grinned as I pulled out my pistol.
"Division? Interesting."
Our marauder organization was split between the infected and the uninfected. Division was inevitable.
What I was curious about was who had taken control. Who would replace ? Who had caused the division, and by what thod had they purged their opponents?
I lightly swung my pistol as I waited for unwelco visitors, and soon the victor of the civil war opened the door and carefully stepped in one step at a ti.
It was the thug rcenary. Behind him stood the cup noodle rcenary with downcast eyes, aiming his rifle at .
"Have you been well? What have you been doing?"
Despite having blood spattered on him, the thug rcenary greeted as usual, displaying a docile deanor as if he hadn't hard a fly.
I looked at them with interest, then fixed my gaze on the cup noodle rcenary.
"You. I thought you were infected. Ah. Your son wasn't infected?"
I could understand the situation now.
The uninfected thug rcenary had beco the new leader, gathered as many people as possible, and purged the infected.
The uninfected would naturally have followed the thug rcenary in search of survival, and so infected seed to have fallen for his words as well.
The cup noodle rcenary muttered as if to himself, unable to et my gaze.
"Boss. I'm sorry, but... my son has to live, doesn't he?"
It seed he had joined the thug rcenary's surprise attack in exchange for promises to take care of his son. A quite cunning thod, typical of the thug rcenary.
I waved my pistol around, then turned my gaze back to et the thug rcenary's eyes. He intrigued as soone I couldn't quite figure out.
"I'd like to crack open your head and see your thoughts. What do you want?"
A person who seed similar to , yet I couldn't understand what he was pursuing in life. If he was after power, he'd had several opportunities to rebel against . But he didn't seem to enjoy raiding either.
I really couldn't understand what thoughts drove his life.
The thug rcenary answered in a calm voice.
"Nothing in particular. I have no reason to live, but no reason to die either, so I just keep on living."
"That's... disappointing."
So he was just soone who lived without purpose. I had hoped he would beco sothing like my successor and continue raiding.
After brief consideration, I tried to think positively.
'Still, not bad.'
At least he was soone like , without moral concepts. In fact, without intentions like enjoynt or self-realization, he might coldly commit even more terrible acts than I would, solely for the sake of survival.
"Take it."
"What's this?"
I tossed a copy of my raiding fundantals onto the floor. The thug rcenary looked at the bundle of papers on the floor with subtle wariness.
As if looking at a bomb rather than paper, he even took a step back. His expression showed fear that I might be using this as a ans for so new sche.
I waved my hand dismissively.
"Think of it as my will. I wrote about what thoughts drove to do what I did—it'll be useful when dealing with people. Even if I die and beco a zombie, my ideas should live on."
"..."
The thug rcenary hesitated montarily, then obediently bent down to pick up the papers. At that mont, I aid my pistol at the crown of his head. His movent stopped.
I moved closer and whispered softly.
"Pick that up and stand. Then turn around without trying anything."
I still had much to do. At this rate, I'd die at his hands, but I couldn't just passively accept that. I disguised it as a leader's final testant to lower his guard, then threatened his life.
The cup noodle rcenary fidgeted nervously, placing his finger on the trigger, while the thug rcenary slowly picked up the raiding fundantals, rose to his feet, and looked into my eyes.
Suddenly, the thug rcenary let out a hollow laugh.
"You'll be a zombie in two weeks. Are you going to be like this until the end? Why not die cleanly here?"
"I have a lot to do in those two weeks. Now that I've beco a virus generator, I should enjoy the rest of my life."
A week had passed. Now I could infect others with my breath. Having gained poison as a weapon, shouldn't I use it thoroughly?
The thug rcenary flipped through the papers and nodded.
"This will definitely be helpful."
"Then get going. Change your route and destination too. Jeon Do-hyung leaked information to the alliance."
"Is that so?"
Speaking to convey that I had no ti to waste with him, the thug rcenary examined my head. He seed to be considering whether to kill . I offered him an incentive.
"I'll hold them back. I need to kill as many as I can before I die."
Suggesting that keeping alive would be beneficial to him, the thug rcenary blinked.
"Is there anything you need?"
"Two weeks' worth of food. Plenty of lighters. And lots of candy."
"I don't know what you're planning, but I'll support you. ...Let's go."
With that, the thug rcenary turned and walked away one step at a ti, and the cup noodle rcenary lowered his gun with relief, then bowed his head.
"Thanks to you, my son and I have lived without want. Thank you."
"No need to thank . By the way, you'll beco a zombie soon—what are you going to do?"
"When the ti cos, I'll have to leave alone, what else can I do? ...If we et when I'm a zombie, please treat well then too."
I smiled faintly. I waited without dropping my guard until they left, and watched the survivors busily moving away.
'The real estate guy survived. Did Gloomy die?'
Though the group had shrunk considerably, they still had plenty of weapons and food. With fewer people, each survivor's share of food had increased. They also had the machine gun.
They would probably continue as a fairly decent marauder group sowhere else.
The snow that had fallen covered the roads in white. Corpses and garbage were buried beneath the snow. My companions walked with difficulty, step by step, along that path.
I watched their retreating figures for a mont, then began preparing my own things.
"I should get moving too."
I packed the food they had left into a bag, along with copies of my raiding fundantals. I also unwrapped individually packaged candies, put them in a glass jar, spat on them, and mixed them together. I stuffed all the lighters into my pockets.
Finally, I looked around the empty house.
A house where I remained alone. No one left by my side. Silent and cold. I couldn't help but smile.
'I will die and disappear, but people who raid as I taught them will remain.'
That was enough.
***
My tasks weren't anything special. Being just one person with limited capabilities, I needed to focus on turning more people into threats.
Having removed my mask, I enjoyed the crisp winter air as I wandered around the city all day. Looking for soone to give my raiding fundantals to, looking for soone to pass on my malice to.
"Why is it so hard to find anyone."
I grumbled as I walked. My feet sank deep into the snow piles. Perhaps because the road conditions were so poor, people were hard to find.
But using the keen eye I had learned from Park Yang-gun, I tracked signs of people. Footprints in the snow and snow piles that had been scooped out, probably for drinking water.
I followed these traces straight into an abandoned comrcial building and encountered a group of zombies.
"Kraaak?"
Several zombies wearing tightly squeezed clothes huddled together like penguins, shivering. They showed signs of wariness upon seeing .
I grinned.
'Found them.'
One of my targets. A group of zombies.
The zombies didn't react violently to , an unmasked person, perhaps seeing as one of their kind, but they didn't welco warmly either. They seed to covet my good clothes.
"Kraak."
The shivering zombies approached, ambling along. I reached into my pocket, took out a lighter, and lit it. Then I set fire to the garbage scattered around.
The zombies' eyes lit up like people who had found what they'd been searching for, and they imdiately began grabbing garbage and throwing it into the flas, building the fire.
'Have they used fire before?'
They knew how to use fire. They must have previously encountered sothing like a survivor's bonfire. They just didn't know how to start a fire.
That made things a bit easier.
When I tossed them a few lighters and demonstrated how to use them, they imdiately began using the lighters.
I looked at the zombies with satisfaction.
'This way, they won't freeze to death in winter.'
Rather, they would beco resource-wasting monsters. They would burn unused clothes, furniture, possibly chanical devices, and eventually firewood that humans could have used.
My city-burning attempt had failed, but I would leave embers behind. Let zombies and humans compete for firewood.
The zombies sat around the decently sized fire.
"Kraaaak!"
I let out a monstrous cry for no reason, then joined them and taught them a few more skills. How to make slings using shoelaces and fabric, how to load firewood into those slings and throw them.
Having taught everything I wanted to teach, I got up. I needed to share fire with more groups of zombies.
"Kieaak."
But the zombies slunk along after . The atmosphere suggested they wanted to accept as their new leader.
I frowned and let out a monstrous cry to drive them away.
"Kraaaaaaak!"
I couldn't even distribute all my raiding fundantals yet—why would I want to drag zombies around?
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