Chapter 72
In the slums, Jeon’s life was one of idle repose.
He did nothing, and he thought nothing.
He sat blankly in place all day staring out the window, or lay in bed sleeping.
Because he had lived constantly on edge for the past eight years, he had longed for time like this.
Time to focus entirely on himself, time solely for his own sake.
Jeon was spending that kind of time now.
But rest without end did not exist.
Having been cooped up at home doing nothing for almost half a month, he began to crave the outside air.
Jeon rose from bed and headed to the bathroom.
It had been a place reeking with filth and excrement when he first returned home, but now it had become quite clean.
Jeon washed his face briefly and went outside.
Click!
As he stepped out, the watcher locked the door.
Now he no longer needed to worry about his home being burglarized.
Because the watcher would guard it perfectly.
With nowhere to be in a hurry, Jeon walked down the stairs.
It was when he had descended about fifteen floors.
“Oh, a brother I haven’t seen before.”
A boy coming out onto the stairs spoke to Jeon.
He looked to be around fifteen or sixteen.
For his age, he did not look very big.
A slightly simple-looking face with unfocused eyes. Drooping shoulders with a somehow listless air.
His head was buzzed, and flashy earrings and piercings caught the eye.
As was the case with most children in the slums, the boy likewise looked unmotivated.
Without dreams or hopes, there was no way children who struggled just to survive each day would have any drive.
Jeon asked.
“You live here?”
“Yes! The last house on the fifteenth floor.”
“I see.”
“What about you?”
“The last house on the eighteenth floor.”
“We’re both in corner houses.”
“Seems so.”
Jeon tilted his head.
“My name is Rebin. What about you?”
“Jeon!”
“That’s a cool name.”
“I hear that a lot.”
Rebin was quite the chatterbox.
He jabbered away as if he were not afraid of Jeon, whom he had only just met.
“Are you in a gang too?”
“No.”
“Then what do you do for a living?”
“I have enough money that I don’t need to work for the time being.”
“I’m jealous. Our house has nothing.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s me, my mom, and my siblings, but I have no idea how we’re going to get by in the future.”
“You must have a lot of worries.”
“So, I was wondering, if you have a lot of money, could you lend me some? I’ll work hard and pay you back.”
“Yep! No.”
“Hey, aren’t you being too blunt?”
“Aren’t you being too shameless?”
“Tch! Didn’t work.”
Rebin scrunched up his nose.
Yet his expression was not one of displeasure.
Just because they lived in the slums did not mean neighborly bonds were strong.
They said there had been occasional cases like that before the world came to this, but not now.
At least the world Rebin knew was like that.
In the slums, at the very bottom of the human ecosystem, it was extremely common for neighbors to fleece one another.
Here, affection was just another word for being a sucker.
It was only natural for affectionate people to be exploited by others.
As they shared this and that, they had somehow arrived at the first floor.
Outside, children who appeared to be Rebin’s friends were gathered.
“Why are you so late, you slow bastard!”
“Fuck! This asshole always makes us wait, and he doesn’t even do anything.”
As was typical of boys that age, they too greeted Rebin with curses.
Rebin replied with a nonchalant expression, as if used to his friends’ reactions.
“Sorry! I was late talking to the new brother who moved in next door.”
“Him?”
“He looks like he has money.”
The children’s eyes gleamed with greed.
Rebin draped both arms over the children’s shoulders and squeezed.
“You bastards! Even if you’re blinded by money, learn to pick your targets. If you mess with that brother, you’re dead.”
“What? Did your hunch act up again?”
“I don’t know! Anyway, it’s better for your health not to mess with that brother.”
“Fuck! What a waste.”
At Rebin’s words, the children spat on the ground.
They soon lost interest in Jeon.
Rebin’s nickname was “the Shaman.”
No one knew if he really had divine powers, but most of what he said came true.
Because of that, his friends did not ignore Rebin’s words.
Rebin spoke while pulling his friends along.
“Let’s go! I don’t feel good today.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know! I just don’t feel good. I want to go somewhere else, quick.”
“Then let’s go to Dongdaemun.”
“Why Dongdaemun?”
“It’s hot there these days. Hehe!”
One of Rebin’s friends made a gesture of inhaling something through his nose. At that, the other children burst into laughter.
Rebin said to those friends.
“If you do drugs like that, you’ll die early.”
“Fuck! What’s the point of living long like this?”
“You’ve gotta do drugs to keep from going crazy. Let’s go! To Sinchon.”
Rebin and his friends disappeared from Jeon’s sight, chattering noisily.
“He seems to have been exposed to drugs for a long time.”
The drugs they spoke of were clearly cheap narcotics.
They gave extreme pleasure when inhaled, but they ultimately destroyed the human body.
There was no one who did not know that fact. Still, people sought out drugs.
Because there was nothing better than drugs for forgetting one’s painful reality, if only for a moment.
At least Rebin did not seem to be using drugs yet, but the other friends clearly showed signs of addiction.
Children like them could easily be seen here.
It was not as if Jeon had never heard warnings about it, nor was he the type to casually meddle in others’ lives.
In the end, one had to take responsibility for one’s own life.
Whether one ruined oneself with drugs, or worked hard and earned a lot of money.
Jeon soon shook off thoughts of Rebin and his friends and walked toward the market.
Though it had been quite some time since he last came out, the atmosphere of the market had not changed much.
“Oh? You’re still alive.”
Elder Cleksi made a surprised expression upon seeing Jeon.
Jeon sat at Elder Cleksi’s stall and said.
“Did you think I’d kicked the bucket? What are you so surprised about?”
“I didn’t see you for so long I figured you were dead.”
“I was just resting at home.”
“You mean you were cooped up at home for over half a month?”
“Yes!”
“You really are something.”
Elder Cleksi made a disgusted expression.
Because Jeon had not come out at all, he had even pulled back the people who had been watching him.
Because there was no longer any point in monitoring him; it was a waste of manpower.
This was the first time Elder Cleksi had ever withdrawn people in the middle.
“Really! Strange, very strange.”
“What is?”
“Everything.”
In the end, having found out nothing about Jeon, Elder Cleksi was deeply ill at ease.
Jeon was the first person to make him feel this uncomfortable. So it was true that he was all the more curious.
“Have you eaten?”
“I came to eat. Give me anything.”
“Tch!”
Elder Cleksi clicked his tongue and prepared the meal.
While waiting for the food to arrive, Jeon looked around.
For some reason, he felt as though the market atmosphere had settled into an uneasy calm.
“Did something happen?”
“Why?”
“The atmosphere just feels a little strange.”
“A viper has been running rampant these days, so that’s why.”
“A viper?”
“Too cunning and far too venomous to be dismissed as a loach.”
“So what happened?”
For the first time, Jeon showed curiosity.
“Some crazy bastard is going around killing people.”
“A lunatic?”
“After killing people, he cuts them up and displays them like works of art.”
“There’s someone like that?”
“As hard as it is to find a normal person in this world, it’s no easier to see someone this insane.”
Cutting up dead people, drawing pictures with their blood, and decorating with their severed body parts.
It was something no normal person could ever do.
“And yet Goran is just leaving him be?”
Goran was the ruler of Sinchon.
He was, broadly speaking, nothing more than a criminal, but since he claimed to be the ruler of Sinchon, he bore a certain responsibility to maintain order to some degree.
If he left such a grotesque serial killer running rampant, the people of Sinchon might come to distrust him.
“How could that be? He’s already sent a fixer.”
“Then he’ll be caught soon.”
“I wish that were the case…”
“Is he not?”
“Didn’t I say he’s a viper? If you approach him thinking he’s a loach, you’ll pay dearly.”
“Hmm!”
“If you’re so worried, why don’t you catch him?”
“I don’t care in the slightest.”
“You really are an unsociable bastard.”
“Then why don’t you catch him?”
“What strength do I have to catch a murderer?”
Elder Cleksi flared up.
“Come on! You still look hale and hearty.”
“Only on the outside; there’s not a place on me that doesn’t hurt. My arms and legs are all sore.”
“At your age that’s being healthy. Why are you getting so worked up?”
“Wait until you’re my age. You’ll learn that living day by day is agony.”
“Yeah, yeah!”
Jeon answered perfunctorily while picking his ear with his pinky.
Elder Cleksi made an expression of disbelief without realizing it.
Jeon was the first person on this street to speak so comfortably and bluntly to him.
Having always met people who groveled, seeing Jeon felt strangely refreshing.
‘What kind of life has this bastard lived?’
He had a feeling that Jeon had not lived an ordinary life.
Slam!
“Here. Eat up.”
Elder Cleksi placed the food down in front of Jeon irritably.
Broth splashed everywhere, but strangely not a single drop landed on Jeon’s body. This only annoyed Elder Cleksi further.
“Lucky bastard!”
“I hear that a lot.”
Jeon answered calmly and ate the unidentified dish Elder Cleksi had served.
Although his personality was foul, Elder Cleksi’s skills were undeniable.
The moment he took a bite, a smile naturally broke out.
“You bastard, the way you wolf it down…”
Elder Cleksi also chuckled as he watched Jeon.
Jeon demolished the bowl in an instant.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“Are you planning to go straight home?”
“Yes!”
“Aren’t you bored staying cooped up at home every day? How does a young man live like a monk?”
“What’s wrong with staying cooped up at home?”
“It’s a shame to see you waste your youth like that.”
“I’m enjoying myself plenty. You needn’t worry.”
“Tch!”
Unable to get through to him, Elder Cleksi clicked his tongue.
He wanted to find out something, but since Jeon never came outside, there was no way to find out.
He felt completely blocked by a wall.
Whether Jeon knew of Elder Cleksi’s feelings or not, he placed money on the stall and stood up.
“I’ll come again next time.”
“Hmph!”
Leaving Elder Cleksi’s snort behind, Jeon moved on.
The sky had darkened before he knew it.
Conversely, lights were turning on one by one in the slums.
Lights had come on in the building where Jeon lived as well. But for the most part the lights flickered uneasily, so one never knew when the electricity would cut out.
Jeon climbed the stairs, thinking it was fortunate he had bought a mana generator before it got too late.
It was when he had climbed about ten floors.
“Kyaaack!”
“Ack!”
Suddenly, people’s screams rang out from above.
At the ear-splitting, sharp sound, Jeon moved toward it without realizing.
The place from which the screams had come was the fifteenth floor.
At the end of the fifteenth-floor corridor, people were gathered.
Jeon pushed through the crowd and went forward.
The moment he saw inside the house with the door wide open, Jeon furrowed his brow.
A scene of hell was spread out there.