Chapter 27
The life in a zombie apocalypse would be nothing short of hell for ordinary citizens.
Everything they once enjoyed has disappeared, and the everyday routines they used to take for granted have now become luxuries in this world.
Many people suffered from and lamented the disaster called the zombie apocalypse, considering it to be hell on earth. But there were also those who saw this zombie apocalypse as a paradise.
Do Josoon, who proclaimed himself as the King of Gyeongju, ruling over the northern Gyeongju region beyond the Gyeongju Bridge, had gained much that he could never have obtained before the apocalypse.
‘A good world indeed.’
Yes, while it was an era that was practically hell for others, it had become a time like no other for him.
In the past, indulging in luxury, holding beautiful women, or getting high on drugs would have been nearly impossible in an era when South Korea’s law enforcement was functioning.
Do Josoon neither had enough money to live in luxury, nor did he have the looks or physique to date beautiful women.
He had no power, and the only thing he could do was commit petty crimes for a living.
He had been involved in smuggling drugs into South Korea and distributing them as part of an organization, but ultimately, he was just a disposable courier for the organization. The only pleasure he could enjoy was stealing a little of the drugs he distributed and indulging in them himself.
“Come here, darling.”
“…Yes.”
However, everything changed when the disaster known as the apocalypse struck.
The weakling and disposable card of the organization, Do Josoon, vanished, and in his place stood Do Josoon, the King ruling over northern Gyeongju.
He was fortunate.
That day, high on drugs, he had killed a zombified member of his organization without fear, and that incident had made him an Awakened.
Moreover, he was the first in Gyeongju to realize that not only killing zombies but also taking the lives of others could enhance the abilities of an Awakened.
“I can give you anything you desire.”
“Y-Yes, of course.”
What followed was truly simple.
He quickly abandoned common sense and rationality and, like a natural instinct, began hunting not only his organization but also wandering survivors. He plundered their supplies and mercilessly took their lives.
It was incredibly easy to hide the traces of his murders and crimes.
The CCTV cameras in the city were no longer operational, and he would throw the corpses of those he killed to nearby zombies as bait.
Then, he would hunt down the zombies that devoured the bait.
Ah! How efficient it all was!
For the raider Do Josoon, the zombie apocalypse was not a hell, but rather a heaven prepared by the gods, allowing him to acquire things he never could before!
“But darling, why do you look like that? Did I do something wrong, huh?”
“No, n-no, Do Josoon, you’re the hero of this place.”
As long as one had power, any act was acceptable.
Literally, anything.
“Are you trying to make me the bad guy?”
“Gasp!”
Even his current wicked deeds were permitted.
There was more than one woman who pleased Do Josoon, and many young, beautiful women surrounded him, yet they remained silent, watching with bitter expressions as another unlucky victim suffered.
The victim was truly innocent, but none of the women dared to resist Do Josoon.
It was a given.
Here, Do Josoon was truly the King of Gyeongju.
“Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. Please, I beg you…”
“Why are you saying that, darling? Did I do something wrong?”
With a tear-streaked face, the victim desperately begged Do Josoon for mercy, but her pleas meant nothing to this devil in human form.
In this apocalypse, Do Josoon’s words were law, and they were the truth.
As he continued to beat the woman’s body, she couldn’t resist and could only let out pitiful screams.
With every scream that echoed through the room, the women around Do Josoon trembled, clenching their fists in anger, but there was no way for them to help the woman suffering from the violence.
“What’s this? She’s already passed out? I thought she’d last longer since she’s an Awakened.”
With the strength of a trained Awakened, Do Josoon struck the woman a few times, and she collapsed limply, her tongue lolling out.
She was in a state where she should have been immediately taken to a doctor, but to Do Josoon, she was just a beautiful toy he had lost interest in.
“Hey, make sure she survives, got it?”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Of course, he did not forget to treat the unconscious woman.
Do Josoon’s twisted hobby was to crush under him those elegant women who had never paid him any attention before.
The woman he had just beaten was once a capable career woman whom he would have never dared to even look at before the apocalypse, and crushing such women had been his way of venting his base emotions.
“It’s truly a good world, isn’t it?”
“……….”
It was indeed a good world.
Of course, it was a good world from Do Josoon’s perspective, but the woman who had just been beaten to the brink of death, and the slave treating her, could not agree with him.
The most they could do to resist was to remain silent.
“What are you doing? Answer me, slave girl. Aren’t you going to speak? No, bring her back to life right now. If you can’t, then you die.”
The moral constraints that had once bound them were gone, and now they lived however they wished, with their slaves handling the housework.
Even if a slave or two died, no one dared to voice complaints to Do Josoon.
It had been a long time since anyone with a conscience who could protest against Do Josoon’s evil deeds had disappeared from this place.
“Or do you want to end up like those who tried to rebel against me last time?”
“N-No, sir!”
Anyone who dared to stand against Do Josoon was quickly eliminated by him.
Northern Gyeongju was his kingdom.
If he commanded, they lived, and if he commanded, they died.
When the slaves dared to rebel against him, Do Josoon showed no mercy to the rebellious slaves, as the King of Gyeongju.
He killed every single one involved in the rebellion in a massacre.
Not only the leaders of the rebellion but also anyone associated with them was mercilessly slaughtered.
The only survivors among those involved in the rebellion were the beautiful female slaves who had been subjected to sexual exploitation.
Of course, they were alive in name only, as they still served as nothing more than meat puppets, ornaments in the bathroom for the sexual gratification of Do Josoon’s subordinates.
‘So terrifying.’
To the women who watched the end of that scene beside him, Do Josoon was truly a mad tyrant, and so they, with fearful expressions, foaming at the mouth and convulsing, supported the foaming woman and quickly left the room to try and save her.
Watching the slaves disappear in a hurry, Do Josoon looked around the empty room with a bored expression.
“This too gets boring after doing it for so long.”
Always the same women.
Always the same pleasure.
Always the same luxury.
At first, he lived happily every day because he could enjoy things that he could never have had before the disaster, but now even that had become boring and monotonous.
No longer did he feel any sense of novelty when he embraced a captive woman.
No longer did he think of his current luxuries as anything special; instead, they had become a normal part of his life.
And it wasn’t realistically possible to indulge in greater pleasures beyond what he already had.
The body of an Awakened was resistant to the effects of the drugs he used before.
He could get high if he used more than the limit, but that was one line Do Josoon refused to cross.
“Damn it. Yoo Soo-sung, that bastard Jung Dong-gun.”
Even the house he lived in now was one he had looted, originally the best building in the area.
At first, he thought it was nice, but now, as he looked back, he found it too small for the King of Gyeongju to reside in.
That’s why he had wanted to recruit Yoo Soo-sung, known as a professor of architecture among the survivors, but Yoo Soo-sung had dared to reject his offer and joined the Balhut Cult.
“Yoo Soo-sung, I can understand, but Jung Dong-gun! You should have joined me!”
It wasn’t just Yoo Soo-sung; even Jung Dong-gun, whom he thought was of the same kind, went along with him.
He believed that Jung Dong-gun, who also suppressed dissent with overwhelming power, would understand his noble heart!
But why had that guy abandoned his former status and given up his title as king?
He thought he had found a kindred spirit!
This beastly man could not comprehend the actions of the two.
“Looking back now, there were so many women I should have taken when I had the chance.”
The sisters Lee Hyuna and Lee Sua.
He had countless thoughts of turning their fierce faces into ones of pain and screams.
When they first went to Bahamut’s Shrine, he had thought many times about kidnapping them secretly and making them his.
“There was also that young-looking cult leader. If I’d known this would happen, I should have taken her instead of just testing the waters.”
And lastly, Choi Yuna.
He still regretted not taking her.
There were many times when Do Josoon thought about taking Yuna while she was in the Survivor Camp before he revealed his true nature.
He also wanted to fix her bad habit of caring for useless people.
Of course, the appearance of Mutant Zombies had ruined Do Josoon’s plans, and Yuna had taken the opportunity of the chaos to escape far away.
‘Damn it.’
Thus, Do Josoon’s lowly fantasies ended there.
The women and talents he had desperately wanted were already long gone from his grasp.
They had already established a powerful force in Southern Gyeongju, beyond the Gyeongju Bridge, and he never forgot that they were still threatening him.
However, despite the aggressive expansion of the Balhut Cult, Do Josoon did not dare to attack them.
“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!”
As these thoughts reached their conclusion, the heat of his pleasure began to cool.
Do Josoon could not understand or accept the actions of the Cult.
He simply couldn’t accept the fact that his kingdom was crumbling because of that strange dragon named Bahamut.
Of course, Do Josoon did not remain idle.
He spread propaganda on the Gyeongju Community and other local forums, claiming that Bahamut’s existence was a lie. He also gathered raiders living in the shadows of Gyeongju to form a force against Southern Gyeongju.
But just the existence of Bahamut forced Do Josoon into an unfair battle.
“I can’t understand it! I don’t understand!”
So he blamed everything on Bahamut, shouting loudly that he couldn’t understand why anyone would follow that being.
Why did they swear loyalty?
Why did they follow him without hesitation?
“That thing is a monster!”
That thing is not human. It’s a monster.
Then why are they so unwavering?
Now, when the opportunity for a good life has finally come, why won’t those Cult members recognize me as the ruler of Northern Gyeongju?
They are useless.
They are trash that should be thrown away.
“Boss, I’m back.”
“Oh. Yeah. Did you get the stuff?”
One of his more useful subordinates returned.
Trying to lift his gloomy mood even a little, Do Josoon demanded that the subordinate hand over the goods he had asked for.
“Well, I couldn’t get it.”
“What? How can it be so hard to find a single pack of cigarettes?”
“Well, they said they’re not doing barter anymore.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Nonsense.
It was utter nonsense.
Was he supposed to think that now they would trade using the worthless currency of this ruined country?
Do Josoon was about to accuse his subordinate of secretly consuming the supplies he had given him.
“But it couldn’t be helped! They said that from now on, they would only trade using coins issued by the Balhut Cult.”
“Again! Again! Those Balhut Cult bastards!”
Again, it was the Balhut Cult.
Again, it was that damned dragon ruining his kingdom.
“So, they won’t do bartering anymore?”
“That’s right, boss. Without coins issued by the Balhut Cult, they said trading is impossible.”
“Then what do we do? Do we raid Southern Gyeongju? Or should we make counterfeit coins?”
“Boss, raiding might be fine within Northern Gyeongju, but causing trouble in the Cult’s territory could be dangerous, right? We might end up becoming enemies of the Cult.”
“Balhut. Balhut… Hahaha. So you’re saying it’s dangerous to become enemies with the Cult?”
Why do they trust that dragon?
Why do they not swear loyalty to me, the King of Gyeongju?
Am I not the protagonist of this world?
Am I not a powerful leader with great strength?
“Hah. How ridiculous.”
“R-right? So, it’s safer to… Gah!”
Anyone who dared to insult him died.
It didn’t matter anyway.
He had plenty of followers, and if needed, there were always more slaves willing to die in his place.
“Gather all the men.”
“B-boss?”
So he would show them.
He would demonstrate his rule and influence as the King of Gyeongju.
And he would declare to the Balhut Cult, who dared to oppose him, that he was the true king.
“Do you believe this? Would you believe this kind of coin?”
Yes, the Cult would eventually fail.
Even if they didn’t, Do Josoon would make sure they did.
“Hah. That wasn’t like me.”
Indeed, just standing by and observing was never Do Josoon’s way.
“Yeah. We’ve been playing too cautiously. We’ll do things our way.”
“B-boss? You mean war?”
“Sounds good.”
Raid, plunder, and violate.
That’s the truth of this world now.
Yes, he’ll turn this wretched world back into a paradise.
“I’ll turn this nightmare of a world back into a heaven.”
To the accursed Balhut Cult that was turning this world into a nightmare, he would bring death.
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