Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Hunting Humans (4)

“It fucking hurts…… I’ll kill them…….”

Orange kept muttering like a broken radio.

Thanks to that, I suffered along with him while pushing his wheelchair.

Right now, I was circling the hospital with White, Orange, and Blue.

Wandering through a space with a monster in it was, in itself, tremendously stressful.

And with Orange constantly groaning in the middle of it, my nerves stood on even sharper edge.

Still, he was a patient, so I was enduring it, but then Orange suddenly picked a fight with me.

“Hey, Otter. What’d you do to end up here?”

“What are you going to do if you know?”

“I just asked, but you’re being fucking hostile. Everyone except you told us, you loser bastard.”

How long had this bastard even known me for him to act like he was my assigned bully?

Did it not occur to him that I could tip over his wheelchair?

It was absurd, and I had no desire to speak at length, so I answered him roughly.

“What about you? What did you do?”

“Me? Hey, you’ll be shocked when you hear. In the place I was in, there was a locker that turned objects into money.”

The moment I heard those words, chills ran down my spine.

But Orange, unaware of that, kept swaggering.

“At first we put in stuff like watches, and then someone got crushed flat and died, so we tried putting him in, you know? But quite a lot of money came out. Holy shit. So when we tried putting in a human who’d died intact, money just poured out. We printed fucking money with that. I probably made about a billion won then.”

So it was you. The trash Sol talked about.

Nauseated, I clenched my jaw.

Apart from everything else, I could not understand how he could talk about this as if he were bragging.

This bastard had done something that deserved divine punishment, so why was he so shameless?

Perhaps thinking something similar to me, White admonished Orange.

“Mr. Orange, we’re being punished right now because we did bad things. Then you should reflect at least a little.”

“Bullshit.”

Orange snorted.

He really was a shameless bastard.

White had been the first to take care of him when he got hurt. Was he not even grateful?

That shameless bastard started picking at me again.

“Hey, now tell us your story.”

I did not want to exchange words with this bastard.

Just then, White raised her hand.

Then, with her wheelchair against the corridor wall, she whispered,

“Over there, the 「Moving Gun」 is passing by.”

My heart dropped with a thud.

Just as White said, beyond the far corner of the corridor, the 「Moving Gun」 was moving slowly.

The distance between us was only about 30 meters.

I grabbed Orange’s wheelchair, intending to run away at once.

But White whispered again.

“Shall we follow it?”

“Pardon?”

“If we follow behind at about this distance, it won’t notice. That monster is more sluggish than you’d think.”

I was so flustered that I ended up speaking politely.

In place of the dazed me, Orange reacted hysterically.

“Why the hell would we follow that thing, you idiot! Don’t you remember how everyone died when that fucking thing went crazy?”

Orange was right about this.

They had said the 「Moving Gun」 had rampaged just before this and killed three people.

On top of that, you people don’t know the conditions that make that monster go berserk.

Then instead of letting your guard down because it’s sluggish, shouldn’t avoiding it as much as possible be the obvious thing to do?

But White’s footwork was different from that of a coward like me.

“That’s why we should follow it. If we know the dangerous thing’s location, we can prepare for it.”

Damn it, this also had a point.

Even Blue, who had remained still all this time, agreed with her.

“She’s right.”

“Right? What do you think, Mr. Otter?”

I…… hate it…….

While I hesitated, Orange grew furious with a metallic rasp in his voice.

“Are you ignoring me? If your head’s empty, then shut up, you stupid bitch! Don’t you know what happens if I die?”

At Orange’s verbal abuse, White let out a deep sigh.

I thought that would be the end of the situation.

But at that moment.

CRASH—!

White suddenly grabbed Orange by the collar and threw him down.

Then she jumped down from her own wheelchair and pinned Orange beneath her.

“Ghk……!”

Orange squeezed out a clumsy scream.

That was because White had seized his vocal cords with her hand.

Orange thrashed, but he could not shake off White, who was only half his size.

In a strange mounted position, White was thoroughly neutralizing Orange.

Honestly, it felt satisfying!

But thinking this was not the time, I tried to stop White.

Then Blue grabbed me and shook his head.

Meanwhile, White spoke gently.

“Mr. Orange, it’s true that if you die, all of us will be in trouble. But if you’re going to threaten people with your life, you need to have the courage to die first. Mr. Orange, your voice is only loud. You don’t want to die, do you? In the end, all Mr. Orange can do is be protected, so why don’t you understand your place?”

“Ghk!”

“Mr. Orange, don’t you remember why you got injected? You were selected by majority vote because you were the most useless. Even though I was here with an injured leg, Mr. Orange got every vote. Do you not understand what that means? Even Mr. Orange’s own gang abandoned him.”

“U-ugh!”

“Now that you’ve become useful, we’re going out of our way to take care of you, so why are you throwing a tantrum like this? If you keep doing this, we may have to remove your remaining hands and feet too. As long as you’re still breathing, that’s enough. Do you understand?”

“Hngh…….”

White’s voice was as monotonous as a lullaby.

But its contents were so cruel that even Satan would applaud.

In the end, Orange went beyond tearing up and began sniffling.

White left Orange like that and climbed back into her wheelchair on her own.

Then she said to me and Blue,

“I’m sorry, but could you seat Mr. Orange again?”

They said the darker the armband color, the more dangerous the person.

That seems like bullshit. These people are all just insane.

I watched anxiously, worried that White might really chase after the 「Moving Gun」.

But then Blue looked at his wristwatch and said,

“It’s been five minutes since we came out. We need to go back and switch.”

That was the most welcome thing I had heard.

Fortunately, White also agreed with those words, and we returned to the operating room.

Just then, Black and Red came outside, and White spoke to them.

“The monster went toward the children’s hospital.”

“Really? It doesn’t particularly seem to be chasing Orange, then.”

“Yes. It seems that even if it saw his face, that doesn’t mean it can detect his location.”

“Understood. We’ll move while keeping track of the monster’s location too. We marked the areas where the work is done on the sotdae poles.”

With a simple exchange of information, we changed roles.

Since Orange had to keep moving around, Black and Red took him with them.

They looked at the dispirited Orange a little strangely for a moment, then left without saying anything, pulling the wheelchair.

After that, White, Blue, and I began excavation work beneath the 「999 Sotdae Poles」.

The goal was to dig up something I could not tell was clay or flesh and find an intact organ.

Scraping together that mushy substance was quite unpleasant.

So I desperately thought of something else.

For example, the identity of Orange I had just heard.

“A cruel but charismatic villain” was a fantasy possible only in fiction, and villains in reality were mostly pathetic and incompetent.

Because truly capable people would not become villains in the first place.

Even knowing that already, the true nature of the villain of the 「Railway Station」 I saw in person was so pitiful it was absurd.

Far from having charisma, he was a deficient bastard who only got himself into trouble by putting on ridiculous bravado.

That was the true nature of the villain who had committed horrible atrocities.

“Mr. Otter.”

“Hrk……!”

Lost in thought, I was startled by the sudden call.

When I looked back, White was looking at me with her head tilted.

“Wh-what? Why?”

“I startled you earlier, didn’t I? I suppose I’ve gotten a little sensitive after being here so long.”

White laughed hoho, as if embarrassed.

Not at all, it’s fine, please spare me.

I barely held back the urge to say that and asked calmly instead,

“How long have you been here?”

“About three hours.”

She had been here far longer than I had thought.

Then had she already experienced the 「Moving Gun」’s active phase and dormant phase twice each?

Come to think of it, there were 12 convicts written on the order.

But the number of people left now was only 5.

……As expected, the Bureau bastards seem to have the strongest flavor of hell here.

Hey, was this what you meant when you said the Survival Rules were still being produced?

But if you were going to use them like this, couldn’t you at least tell them something about the 「Moving Gun」?

Why did you tell them nothing?

Were you afraid they would get other ideas if they knew too much?

Afraid they would fight while choosing a sacrifice?

Even so, if you do it like this, doesn’t the survival rate and efficiency drop too much?

I don’t know. A small, ordinary citizen like me can’t understand the thought processes of devils…… wait, hm?

Hold on. Don’t tell me?

At the thought that flashed through my mind, I swallowed a hollow breath.

Then I glanced at White’s armband and, pretending not to know anything, said,

“If you’ve wandered around that long, you must know the structure here pretty well.”

“Roughly.”

“Then draw me a map.”

“Pardon?”

“So I can learn the geography too.”

At my request, White looked at me for a moment.

The eyes visible through the gaps in her mask drew gentle curves like a deer’s.

I waited for her answer, hoping that look would not suddenly change.

A few seconds later.

White’s eyes curved thinly.

“That’s true. It would be a big problem if you got lost.”

White smiled brightly, then began drawing a cross-section diagram on the back of the order she had given me.

“Here.”

White quickly completed the cross-section diagram and handed it to me.

I accepted it and bent over as if I were working again.

Then, when White’s back was turned to me, I secretly unfolded it and looked.

Ha, seriously?

A sigh came out on its own.

The “Special Advice!” handwritten at the bottom of the order.

And the explanations written on the cross-section diagram White had just drawn.

The handwriting of the two was the same.

---

Ten minutes later, Black’s group returned.

Black and White shared information just as they had earlier.

After repeating that several times, 30 minutes had passed before we knew it.

Nothing special happened in the meantime.

Except that one of Orange’s ears disappeared.

It happened when Black’s group was circling the hospital with Orange.

They said a wall was suddenly pierced through, and one of Orange’s ears flew off.

In any case, nothing else happened.

The 「Moving Gun」 was still roaming alone.

We still had not found an intact organ.

And right now, I was in an extremely anxious state.

The 「Moving Gun」 was truly sluggish, so it had not managed to hunt anyone yet.

So at this rate, it would soon go berserk.

How was I supposed to get through this?

Now that the watch on me had gotten lax, should I run?

Even if I ran, could I avoid that great disaster alone?

Could I get lucky and have the rescue team arrive a few minutes earlier?

Should I just tell the others this?

Or should I sacrifice someone?

……Just thinking about it made my stomach feel tight.

Many people wish for the punishment of evil men.

But if told to carry out that execution themselves, most would hesitate.

Because it is normal to feel burdened by another person’s life, whether that person is a heinous criminal or not.

I was the same, and if possible, I did not want to cross that line.

I absolutely did not want to become a broken human like Orange.

Cornered, I agonized by the second.

But I was not the only one scheming.

I was on the way back to the operating theater after finishing a hospital circuit with White, Blue, and Orange.

White and Blue, who were walking beside me, suddenly stopped and muttered to each other.

“What should we do?”

“Who knows.”

But Blue was speaking deferentially, while White was speaking down to him.

Just as I was puzzled by the change in their speech.

Something burst out from between the chairs and lunged at me.

As I flinched back in surprise, Blue grabbed it and slammed it to the floor.

THUD—!

“Urgh, get off!”

The man thrown down by Blue, his arm twisted, shouted.

It was none other than Red.

Ignoring Red’s resistance, Blue shouted at me.

“Behind you!”

At the chilling feeling, I reflexively dodged.

CLANG—!

Immediately afterward, an iron rod drove down into the spot where I had been standing.

“Ha, he dodged that?”

The one who had swung at me from behind was none other than Black.

The bastard was holding up something like a pipe he had picked up somewhere.

Waving that pipe, Black said to Blue,

“Mr. Blue, move. We have our reasons for this.”

Blue did not listen and continued pressing Red down.

Then Black sighed and said to me,

“You, there’s something you didn’t tell us, isn’t there?”

Black adjusted his glasses and gave a nasty smile.

“For that monster to stop, one person has to die. Am I wrong?”

Damn it, he figured it out.

But I figured it out too.

So it was you after all, the Archimedes of the railway station.