Chapter 22 of 100

Chapter 22

10 min read2,570 words

19. Theme Park (2)

Since the siblings didn't reveal their names, just like I didn't reveal mine, I decided to call them Defender and Defender's younger sibling for convenience.

"Skeleton."

Defender's younger sibling called me with a small voice and gestured with her hand.

When I looked, it turned out to be the community.

She was writing a new post.

Defender: (Defender Breaking News) Skeleton came to our house!

- Skeleton is so sweet. I thought an actor had come. He's just a walking sculpture. Two meters tall, wearing a crisp tuxedo, and driving a Bentley! Even though I'm a guy, I fell in love at first sight.

The mouse cursor was pointing at the "Send" button.

"No, no, no! Don't. Don't post it."

"Why?"

"Come on, what are you trying to do by posting such nonsense?"

She pouted and suddenly opened a notepad, enthusiastically tapping away at the keyboard.

- You're not popular. That's why.

"So what?"

- I'm trying to boost you.

"You don't have a good image either, you know?"

- I'm still a named character. Listen to me, Skeleton.

"..."

- Besides, everyone else is networking, so why can't we?

"Can't we just talk about it?"

- There are things that can't be expressed in words.

"Can you express them by typing?"

I couldn't believe there was someone who communicated using a notepad in front of people.

"That's just how she is. My sister."

Defender said this while putting a fully loaded magazine into his pocket.

I stared at her, wondering if there was some dark backstory, but she chuckled and continued.

"No, nothing serious. She's just always preferred typing to talking since she was little."

Click

He checked the chamber while expertly retracting the bolt.

"Seems like there are a lot of them, but are you planning to kill them all?"

About twenty of them, wearing red pants.

Their armament was far superior to the group of majors who came to my territory.

All of them were armed with assault rifles, and they even had an armored vehicle.

I would need to assess the individual qualities of the soldiers, but in terms of scale alone, they were a formidable force.

I was curious how he planned to handle such a difficult battle.

"First, I'll have to take out the kids, right?"

Defender said this without batting an eyelid.

"If we kill the kids, won't a few of them come to investigate?"

He was serious.

Dead serious.

"One by one, reducing their numbers. If it looks like they're going to swarm us, we'll flank them and sweep the camp."

"What about the armored vehicle?"

"Little sister is good with drones. She's a master at dropping things from drones. She once killed someone by dropping a brick instead of a bomb."

She pointed to herself with both thumbs.

"That's as far as I've thought. What do you think?"

"It's an impressive plan, but it lacks follow-up."

"Isn't that what a fight is? Especially against such cannon fodder, plans don't mean much. They're unpredictable, but if you set it up well at the beginning, they'll collapse on their own."

"Do we really have to kill the kids?"

"Then what, keep them alive?"

Defender chuckled.

His sister, who had been watching the monitor, turned her chair to look at me intently.

Feeling the silent pressure, I spoke.

"Isn't it better to keep them alive?"

"Why should I? They're not my kids."

Defender looked at his sister, who nodded with a strange smile.

Defender looked back at me.

"Or are you, Skeleton, going to take them and raise them?"

"..."

"If you're going to take them and raise them, I'll reconsider."

Defender grinned, and his sister stared at me calmly.

The siblings were asking me what to do simultaneously.

I thought for a moment.

How much would a child weigh?

I have almost no memories of my childhood and have never raised a child, so I don't know exactly how much a child weighs.

But their weight wouldn't be light.

The fact that I couldn't easily answer a question that felt heavy in its weight was telling.

"See? You can't answer either."

Defender aligned the weapons he had prepared on the table and looked at his sister.

"What do you think, little sister?"

She spoke in her characteristic whispering tone, as if she had been waiting for this moment.

"At this point, the moment they lose their parents, they're already dead. It's just bad luck. The times aren't on their side."

At that moment, I understood.

Defender was not just one person, but two.

It wasn't the dominance of any one individual.

The two siblings together had created a horror movie of human hunters.

After a brief silence, Defender suggested another option.

"Actually, there's a way to ignore them. This place is steep, and the road isn't well-maintained, so the kids can't climb up. They move along the road."

"Then we don't have to fight, right?"

Avoiding unnecessary battles is my principle.

"That's true, but eventually, we'll have to fight. We can't hide forever. Besides, before that—"

Defender looked at the monitor.

"Our friends will die."

His sister added, pointing at the screen.

"Our community friends."

"Community..."

It's a valid point.

Even if we post a warning on the board, how many people will have a heart like Defender's?

I don't even have much confidence myself.

"Combat experience?"

I asked Defender.

Defender, recognizing my intention, his eyes sparkled.

"Planning to fight together?"

I nodded.

"We need to protect the community."

That's the biggest reason, but it's not the only one.

The red pants' methods were too cruel, and seeing Defender's condition and equipment, I calculated that it might be an easier battle than expected. If we're going to fight anyway, it's better to do it with more people than alone.

Of course, I won't deny that there was also a desire to satisfy my shallow hypocrisy.

Yeah, I guess I'm getting old.

A drone took off into the dark night sky.

Defender's younger sister was operating the drone.

"Little sister will destroy the armored vehicle. Those guys always leave the hatches open."

I had known since the Damian04 incident that Defender's combat skills were not ordinary.

Though he kept his mouth shut, he might be a former Hunter.

The habits and actions that seeped out were not much different from what I was taught in school.

He was probably from the 17th or 18th batch.

If he was part of a cursed batch whose future had fled during his studies, it might explain his twisted personality to some extent.

"That's where they keep the women. So that building has the weakest defenses. The guards are inside, not outside."

Defender was a meticulous killer.

He already knew the enemy's layout, weaknesses, and small habits.

Just before the battle, Defender shivered slightly.

"Hey, look at the thrill running through my body. This is the most exciting moment for me."

Through the earphones, I could hear his sister's ragged breathing.

Though she didn't speak, it was clear she was also feeling considerable tension and excitement.

"Shall we start?"

Defender signaled.

Seeing the combat signal, I had a vision of being on a battlefield in China, crossing time and sea.

The mangled bodies of thousands, my expressionless comrades firing into the ruins, Chinese soldiers setting fire to the bodies and shouting in an unknown language, and the medium-sized creatures gradually revealing their outlines in the dim light of the ruins.

Most of all, I felt a slight headache and fatigue.

"..."

Many of my comrades didn't fall into eternal sleep just because of the dangers of the battlefield.

We were in a loose hell.

Slow and boring, to the point of yawning.

"Skeleton?"

Defender's voice brought me back to reality.

"Let's go."

The plan was simple.

Two trained killers, armed with specific information and a plan, would ambush the disorganized cannon fodder in the dead of night.

It was a fight with a predetermined outcome.

While coincidences can change fate, I won't let one kill me.

The base of the red pants' pioneers was an abandoned theme park.

There were no rides, but there were many empty buildings, roads, and resources to use.

We approached the staff dormitory where they kept the women they had captured.

Hearing the women's sobs and men's shouts, I observed the soldiers guarding the entrance along the outer wall.

Defender aimed his gun.

I shook my head, drew two axes, and moved toward the sentry.

I didn't crouch or overly reduce my footsteps.

Soon, one of the men noticed the sound and turned his head toward me.

Thud!

The axe embedded in the man's neck.

As he staggered and fell, another sentry turned his head.

"What?"

Thud!

Two bodies lay on the ground.

I stepped on the temple to pull out the axe and wiped the blood on their clothes when Defender approached, raising his thumb and whispered.

"Skeleton, double kill."

As soon as he finished speaking, his sister's excited voice came through the earphones.

"Skeleton killed? Really? Two of them?"

Her voice was much louder and more lively than when she spoke directly.

"I'll take care of the inside."

Defender drew a dagger.

"Can you handle it alone?"

"I'm having fun, so I can handle it alone. Just keep watch outside."

I nodded and looked around.

Under the pale streetlights, I saw the armored vehicle.

Soon, the women's screams echoed, and Defender's soft voice could be heard.

Soon, Defender walked out.

"The kids. They were there. But there were five of them?"

"..."

"There are two options."

"Two options?"

"Create chaos by letting the women escape."

"What's the other one?"

"Silently kill them all."

"Let's go with the latter."

"Are you trying to be too good?"

Defender slightly frowned.

"Since we're pretending to be good, why not do it halfway?"

"It already feels like halfway."

Judging by the result, my method was wiser.

They were gathered in one dormitory, drinking or sleeping, without proper security or dispersion.

The old armored vehicle parked in front of the dormitory seemed to be the source of their confidence.

After taking out the sentries, we prepared for the sweep.

As the drone's flight sound faintly echoed in the night sky, we began the operation.

Defender threw a grenade and simultaneously broke the window, firing from both sides in a crossfire.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gunfire signaled the drone to approach the armored vehicle and accurately drop a grenade into the open hatch.

With an explosion, the armored vehicle started moving.

It seemed the driver had died with the accelerator pressed.

Bang!

A few red pants inside tried to use the table as cover and counterattack, but the building was already on fire, and smoke was quickly filling the air.

All variables were eliminated.

What remained was a boring slaughter that made me yawn.

"Hey! Skeleton!"

Seeing a red pants running out with his body on fire, Defender laughed loudly.

"Not bad?"

With a grin, he aimed and shot, and the man, who had been screaming in flames, fell and didn't get up again.

"Skeleton, did you think I was funny? Yeah, I know. I can see everything, you know."

His sister was equally excited.

Using a Chinese drone, she shot the fleeing red pants as if playing a game.

"Surrender! Surrender!"

A few red pants raised their hands and came out of the smoky building.

Defender laughed and fired, and his sister's laughter grew louder.

Bang!

An explosion occurred in the distance.

The armored vehicle had crashed into some facility in the theme park.

Just as I was about to dismiss it as an insignificant coincidence and ignore it,

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With explosions, colorful lights flew into the sky, bursting into beautiful patterns that decorated the night sky.

Fireworks.

A large number of fireworks set up in the launch tubes before the war had been accidentally triggered, breaking the long silence and shooting colorful flames into the sky.

"Wow! Look at this! Hey!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

Seeing the siblings enjoying like children, I suddenly thought.

Perhaps to them, the red pants' evil deeds didn't really matter.

They just wanted to kill the red pants and achieved their goal thrillingly.

In that sense, this theme park had fulfilled its purpose, one might say.

Why? Because those who came to enjoy did so sufficiently.

Thinking this, I silently watched the miracle brought by the coincidence that didn't attack me.

The game was over, and it was time to settle the accounts.

"What are you going to do with these people?"

The remaining children and women.

The price of shallow hypocrisy.

"I already said I won't, or can't, take them in."

Defender stared at me intently.

"..."

"I..."

Several thoughts rose in my mind, but I knew the truth.

My gaze had seen only one result from the beginning to the end.

I silently watched the people, holding awkward weapons and looking around, walking into the darkness.

A child looked back at me intently.

I decided not to think about their fate.

Click, click

In the background, Defender was taking a commemorative photo.

"Skeleton."

He approached me and handed me something.

"What is this?"

It was a drawing.

A man, overly beautified and looking like he came from a shoujo manga, was depicted.

"It's drawn by my sister."

Sure enough, at the bottom of the drawing, it said "To Skeleton" in pretty handwriting.

Now that I look at it, it does resemble me a bit...

"Since you're not coming to our house, my sister asked me to give this to you."

Defender definitely has a knack for reading people's minds.

It's the same for both his sister and him.

"Are you curious why I do this?"

"Out of the blue, what kind of self-reflection is this?"

"I know you think I'm a psychopath."

Defender put a cigarette in his mouth and smiled slyly.

His eyes followed the last fireworks.

"This park. I came here with my sister when we were little. Holding hands with our father and mother."

He let the white smoke drift into the night sky.

"He was a really bad father."

"..."

Through the earphones, his sister's voice came.

"Let's talk more after we get closer."

This time, Defender handed me a piece of paper.

Unlike his sister's elaborate drawing, what Defender prepared was a crude table.

"What is this?"

"Send me a DM if you need help."

Defender waved and walked into the darkness.

"I'll take you anywhere."

His sister's voice followed.

"Skeleton, let's network more?"

Holding the drawing and the ticket they left behind, I stood there for a while, looking at the silent mountains, the park, and the sky.

Many things had happened, but all I felt was fatigue.

It was the kind of tiredness you feel after playing to your heart's content at an amusement park and returning home.

That night, Defender spammed the board.

Defender: (Defender Confession) I love Skeleton so much!

...

Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn't see the terrible act in real-time.

"Niimi...!!"

I was being chased by those damn zombies!