Dokja-" Hyunsung begins before being rudely interrupted by someone who has walked up to their side.
"Kim Dokja."
Turning to look, the speaker is revealed to once again be Inho, who asks to have a word with him.
'Just because the situation was unavoidable doesn't mean it didn't happen, and it must not be forgotten that what happened can never be justified'
"I'm going to get straight to the point." Inho continues. The scene focuses on Gilyoung and Sangah sitting by Heewon while holding onto the stash of food gathered by Dokja.
"Join our group." Inho is making a demand of him, like it's an expectation and not an offer. Hyunsung gasps.
'So, that's how it's going to be?' Dokja thinks, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I can offer you a high position. I hope you will lead this group with me."
"And if I refuse?" Dokja asks, clearly unimpressed. He's no fun, making demands like that.
An unappealing close up of Inho's frozen face pops up,-
There are several gagging sounds beside Dokja, and when he looks over the kids are looking at each other and making exaggerated grossed out faces.
-his eyes narrowing into slits as he chuckles. "Refuse? Now, that's funny. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind."
He tries to guilt Dokja into leading the group by claiming that he's a hero. It's a classic pressure tactic and Dokja knows it. He's actually disappointed that this is all this man seems to be able to do.
"I'm not talking about something grandiose. I'm asking you to cooperate for everyone's survival. Can't you see those poor people suffering?" As Inho's words continue, the camera pans over the crowds of people looking hopefully over in their direction. It cuts back to Dokja's face, which looks thoroughly unimpressed.
Han Sooyoung bursts out in high cackles, she hits her knee with her fist as she just keeps laughing. Another laughter joins her. Snapping his head over to the left, Dokja finds a laughing Jihye. She's not as exaggerated, but she's still laughing at the screen.
"What are you even laughing at?" Dokja snips at them a little. They're being very loud. Jihye pouts at him once she has her giggles under control.
"Ahjussi, your face looks- it's-" Jihye whines at him, obviously trying to fight off more giggles. Used to her complaints about his face, he rolls his eyes and waves at her to continue quickly.
"Your face compared to the other guy is just funny, you rat." The witch gripes at him, gasping for air, her laughing dying out.
[The Constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' agrees it's funny.]
Dokja is then suddenly shook a little as Yoo Joonghyuk chuckles. Snapping his head over incredulously, he looks on in shock.
That's- This is betrayal!
Later, Dokja and Hyunsung are sitting on some chairs, going through the bags of food, as Hyunsung peeks around nervously.
"Should you have refused like that?" Hyunsung asks.
"Did you want me to accept the offer?" Dokja replies flatly.
"No, of course not- I can't stop thinking about what Inho last said to you."
He clearly remembers what the man had said: "Come find me if you have a change of heart."
Though Dokja had thoroughly shot him down, Inho hadn't seemed convinced.
The quick flashback ends as Dokja continues the present conversation. "It's as he said. We'll see what happens."
"Anyways, it's dinnertime. Aren't you all hungry?" Dokja asks Gilyoung and Sangah, offering some fo the snacks he found at the store. "Here, take one."
"Really? Can we?" Sangah asks, thankful to be getting some food.
"Hey!" A voice calls out, causing them all to pause in their snack acquisition.
They look up to see an angry crowd of people looking at them. Multiple people then begin yelling at them simultaneously, accusing them of monopolizing all the food for themselves and stealing it. They want the food to be controlled and distributed by a central government force -someone like Inho.
'The most dangerous type of person in an apocalyptic world isn't someone driven by despair like Bang Cheolsoo.'
Through the crowd, Dokja can clearly see Inho on the other side.
'Yes, I remember now. Cheon Inho from Geumho station. The truly dangerous type is the type that uses other people's despair as a fertilizer for power,' Dokja muses while his party members attempt to defuse the situation.
"Choose."
That's what Dokja can clearly read from Inho's scummy lips as he wordlessly questions whether Dokja will become a hero after sharing his food, or if he will become the villain who monopolizes it.
Dokja's face twists in anger, his lips curling up and his eyes narrowing. He sees now. This was why he backed off so easily. This is the type of person he is dealing with here. 'Cheon Inho!'
Sighing at himself, Dokja leans back from where he had subconsciously leaned forward. Maybe it's only because it's in hindsight, but he swears he should have been able to predict that slimy bastards moves.
Grumbling, he complains about his own ignorance. That was a critical slip up that he made there. It won't do too much, considering he handled it fine, but it rubs him wrong that he hadn't been able to predict that man.
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is wondering what you're thinking.]
"Maybe-" Joonghyuk mumbles, narrowing his eyes at the screen. "-I should have killed him."
Yeah, that's what Dokja had been hoping the protagonist would have done. It was unfortunate that he had to deal with it on his own, but he got a powerful ally out of the situation at the very least.
The crowd only gets more and more riled up the longer Dokja stays silent, yelling for Dokja's hard earned food to be either shared or given to Inho.
'Now, Kim Dokja-ssi. Make your decision. Making the people act is nothing to me.' Inho smirks in the most unappealing way, knowing that Dokja is backed into a corner in this situation. 'You must have realized by now that you can't survive here if you don't follow me.'
Inho then approaches the crowd, pasting a placating expression onto his face. "Everyone, please calm down. I think all of you must have misunderstood. Kim Dokja-ssi agreed to share food with us."
"Of course, we will be in charge of distributing the food properly." Inho says while glancing at Dokja, and it's obvious that he feels incredibly smug. 'Now you have no option but to follow me.'
Like hell he would do that.
Thinking everything is going according to his plan, he proceeds with the rest of his manipulative statement. "And I promise I will work for our safety till rescue comes-"
"Fine." Dokja states, cutting Inho off with a flat voice.
Dokja is seated with his head down, still surrounded by the crowd, but he begins to speak. "I'll share plenty of my food with you all."
'Isn't that obvious?' Inho thinks, naively believing that Dokja has fallen into his trap.
"But," Dokja continues firmly, "it won't be for free."
"Like hell he would be able to manipulate you." Sooyoung barks out while laughing. It sounds a bit strained if Dokja listens hard enough. "Did he really think that he had you backed into a corner?"
Jung Heewon snorts, leaning forward above Dokja. She hangs her head so she can look the reader in the face, her eyes full of mischief. Her smile is blinding, but it makes him sorta nervous. What is she-?
"You've scammed too many people already, there's no way that simpleton was going to one up you." She chuckles, knocking her forehead into his own before pulling back to speak again.
Dokja brings his hand up and rubs the spot on his forehead that got hit. He scoffs at her, but doesn't say anything. He just listens. "He is not smarter than a dokkaebi, apparently."
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' snorts.]
"Is that our new benchmark for who this guy tricks?" Sooyoung points an accusatory finger at the reader, actually jabbing him with it on his shoulder. That actually kind of stung.
[The constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' remarks that it would be a fun game.]
[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' declares that it would be funny.]
Dokja grumbles at the notification windows, waving them away with an annoyed hand.
He smacks at Sooyoung's hands, rubbing at the spot on his shoulder that she had been poking at. Scowling at her, he snaps his teeth around air in a proclamation of a threat.
They just laugh at him. Heewon leans back and Sooyoung returns to looking at the screen while chuckling. This is bullying. They're bullying him.
Inho freezes, his hands half raised and eyes wide, and his now-strained smirk is still present on his face as he processes what Dokja said. The crowd behind him fill with faces of despair as they realize what he is implying when he declared as such.
Despite the people beginning to question his choice, Dokja refuses to budge on his answer.
[The eyes of a few constellations are sparling.]
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' snorts.]
"That's right. I'm not a volunteer..." Dokja says as his gaze lands on Inho's face, noticing his clenched jaw and frustrated expression. He nods in the direction of the upset man. "...and I don't trust him."
As people begin to ask how much money it will cost to get food, Dokja informs them that it's not money he wants in return, but coins -50 coins per food item, to be exact. Despite that, even his friends think that the cost is too high, and mention their concerns.
"Speaking of coins, you guys owe me 10 each," Dokja reminds them, glancing over at all three of them who are clutching some food items Dokja brought back, while Hyunsung and Sangah pull innocent looking faces.
[A few constellations are relieved that you're not playing favorites.]
[A small number of constellations have sponsored you 100 coins.]
"Yeah, it's no issue. I'll pay you right now," Heewon states, speaking up for the first time since their return. "I don't need any charity."
Heewon seems to be in a better condition than before, but still not perfect. Her neck is still bruised and she looks as exhausted as ever. She does seem to be in better spirits at the very least. Or, as good as it could get in the middle of the apocalypse.
"I'm Jung Heewon. Thank you for saving me this morning." She shakes Dokja's hand in greeting.
"Don't mention it." Dokja replies, still looking her over to try and see if she has anymore lasting damage. She looks okay for the most part, if what little he can see is anything to go by.
Heewon them turns to the rest of the group firmly. "Yoo Sangah-ssi, Lee Hyunsung-ssi. You two need to wake up. This isn't the time to make stupid faces. This guy risked his life to get this food. Surely you guys didn't expect to get handouts like everyone else did?"
Hyunsung and Sangah glance at the floor remorsefully, looking like twin kicked puppies at Heewon's chiding words.Ah." The duo reply glumly, moping as they just stand.
"I'm sorry, I was thinking too selfishly. I don't need any charity either," Sangah apologizes, raising her head to look at Dokja once again.
"I'll pay from now on too." Hyunsung immediately follows Sangah's example and agrees after her.
"If you guys insist. You know how to transfer coins, right?" Dokja asks while lifting his pointer finger to meet Sangah's foe the coin trade. She confirms she had learned a few days prior.
This is good. This will assist him with his current plan. Since they're cooperating with him, it will be easier to unravel the amateur scheming that Inho is trying to do...
Dokja explains the transfer process as Gilyoung begins his transfer, lifting his finger to touch it to the kids own.
[The character 'Lee Gilyoung' has transferred 20 coins.]
"Huh? Why did you give me that much?" Dokja asks the younger boy, laying his hand on the kids head as he asks. The kid looks at him with a small frown and the reader picks his hand up from his head. Maybe that wasn't the best action.
"It's for the chocolate bar you gave me this morning." Gilyoung replies to him curtly. Ah, so that's what it was. This causes Heewon to remark that Gilyoung is much more mature than some of the adults as he walks away with his pocky, leaving Dokja and the other adults stunned.
[A few constellations are showing interest in the incarnation 'Lee Gilyoung'.]
"Those people can't even soo that the Major group is the one monopolizing all the food," Heewon scoffs. With a sigh, she begrudgingly compares everyone sitting around and accepting handouts to pigs being brought to a slaughter, including herself. Everyone in this situation is just a marionette in the Major group's hand.
"I know there wasn't very much we could have done at the time," Hyunsung speaks up, wringing his hands with a complicated look on his face. The soldier bites his lips, probably trying to find the words to continue his thought.
"There wasn't much I would have let you do either." Dokja interrupts him. It's not that he doesn't want to hear what he has to say, but it's no use trying to put insecurities into words. It never comes out right. "I already had a plan by the time this situation had rolled around."
The reader points behind him to Heewon, looking Hyunsung in the eyes as he does so. "Sometime soon I will check her profile and find something that I like. The things that happened needed to happen."
Dokja is not sure he said that right. It sounds off as it leaves his lips, not resembling how it sounded in his head. Biting his cheek, he resolves to finish the thought anyway. "Heewon needed to get stronger."
Hyunsung gets this certain look in his eye, something that looks halfway between sadness and halfway to determination. Dokja... He's not quite sure what that means or how he should take that, but Hyunsung says nothing further.
He just stares at the reader, not bothering to look away to the screen like everyone else had. It's a little off-putting, Dokja admits to himself, to have someone observing him in the same way he does everyone else. It makes his skin itch.
Dokja scratches at his forearm, flinching when his nails catch on scabs there. Ah, so they haven't gone away yet. Yes, it takes longer for things like that to heal. He knows that.
"I wish there was another way." Hyunsung finishes his statement from earlier, his voice firm and stern. Snapping out of his earlier trance, Dokja nods along.
[Exclusive skill 'Fourth Wall' stabilizes.]
There was no reason to be so unsettled by a mere gaze. It was just Hyunsung.
It was just Hyunsung.
Hyunsung agrees, stating that's why Dokja's declaration was important, but that he still can't understand why their party was offered a discount, since he's truly a good person and believes that they shouldn't be the only ones who benefit from it. Dokja simply tells them to wait a little longer.
Hours pass and it's nighttime. Sangah and Heewon are sleeping seated against the wall, and Gilyoung, as a child, is getting the best treatment of the group -he's lying down with his head on Sangah's lap, and he's covered with Dokja's filched coat as a makeshift blanket.
"Dokja, you should get some sleep too. I'll stay up and stand guard," Hyunsung says to Dokja in an attempt to convince him, but Dokja disagrees and says that there's something he has to do first. This confuses Hyunsung, but before he can get any answers from Dokja, they are interrupted by a few people approaching them.
In the morning, Heewon is looking at something, stunned.
"You've got to be kidding me..." she says in surprise, shaking an empty bag upside-down as Sangah and Gilyoung watch on. "You sold out overnight?! All those people finally gave in and paid you?!"
'I'm starting to wonder if you're the same woman I met before,' Dokja muses in amusement, refraining from smiling in case he makes her more upset than he's about to. "Well, it wasn't just the Minor group."
They glance over, seeing Inho and Cheolsoo standing in front of a sectioned off area. Inho announces that they are limiting food rations to one biscuit pack a day, causing outrage among the Minor group as he tells them that to get more they must join the scouting teams. However, considering the high fatality rate of scouts from the Minor group, they're only getting angrier. In response, Inho informs them that they can either hunt for themselves or find other ways to get food.
"I don't want to do this, but... yesterday, Kim Dokja over there made a good point." Inho states with a slimy smile plastered on his face.
'Hmm, I wonder what it is now.' Dokja wonders, observing the man making the announcement with a tilted head and a blank expression. He has a bad feeling that this will be a move that requires a good bit of maneuvering from him.
Dokja thinks of what Inho had told him, about how he had made a terrible choice and that he was going to regret it. Naturally, the scumbag would find a way to turn the public opinion against him.
'Last night, the Major group bought more than half the food I was selling. Of course, they paid in full.'
Ooo, yeah, that wasn't going to go over any better than it had the first time. There was even a bigger group to be upset about it.
"You just... let them have a bigger monopoly on the food?" Yoo Joonghyuk is surprisingly the first to say anything about it, hostile in his questioning. He sounds upset.
[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is upset with incarnation 'Kim Dokja']
Dokja snorts at him, genuinely nearly cracking up. He doesn't laugh though. That would get him killed he thinks. "Did you forget the food ended up getting removed anyway?"
A calloused hand suddenly grabs the collar of his robe, nearly going for his neck. Dokja is jerked around to face a scowling Joonghyuk. Maybe that was a little to sarcastic.
"It's not like anything I would do could change what he was planning. I just got coins out of him in the process." Maybe that's a better answer.
It was not.
Yoo Joonghyuk is still glaring at him. He look likes he's expecting something, the protagonist's muscles coiled up in wait. Dokja doesn't really have much else to say to him...
"I knew the food would disappear." Dokja relents. Grabbing onto the bastards wrist, he digs his fingernails into the skin there. That guy doesn't even blink.
"You were smiling." Joonghyuk states, not even asking at this point. "Did you plan this?"
Dokja is hesitant to answer. "Something like that."
"Just what comes free in this world? Especially in a world like this?" Inho continues. "If you want food, you have to prove your own worth. We'll exchange food for whatever we think is valuable."
[The character 'Cheon Inho' used the skill 'Incite lvl. 2']
"Because that's how this naturally works," He says, smiling while surrounded by clearly misplaced sparkles.
'This is how you use your skill, isn't it?'
"Thank you for enlightening us all, Kim Dokja." As Inho continues to speak, the crowd on the screen transforms into shadowy figures. Their eyes turn red, filled with murderous intent and on full display. The figures turn slowly, pining their gazes on Dokja. Their bloodlust is almost palpable, looking almost like a red haze settling over everyone.
'I was wondering why everyone was acting so gullible. It was because of the [Incite] skill.' Dokja muses, slightly impressed that Inho is so good at using his skills this early into the scenarios.
Heewon speaks, breaking Dokja out of his thoughts, "So basically, the Major group managed to stay in control of the food. Wasn't the point of selling the food instead of giving it away to everyone to undermine the Major's monopoly?"
"That's right, I wanted everyone to take action on their own," Dokja replies while mentally praising Heewon's perceptiveness. It will serve her well in the upcoming scenarios.
She then demands to understand why Dokja would sell to the Major group in that case, since they're now right back to square one. He simply replies that he couldn't refuse the amount of coins offered.
'In total, I managed to get 1,450 coins.'
"He's not being serious, right? Sangah, can we really trust this man?" Heewon asks while DOkja stands in the background with a deadpan expression.
"Yes, we can trust him." Sangah just smiles at her, her eyes squinting up.
"You still have enough food for yourself at least, right?" Heewon asks Dokja, nearly frantic.
"Nope, I sold it all." Dokja clarified in that same deadpan, leading to Heewon yelling out in shock. Looks like she's lost all faith in him in a simple instant. Leaving her to her dramatics, he thinks about the outrage that will be cause when the food is set to disappear...
Heewon grumbles behind him, reaching forward a bit to land a head hand on the top of Dokja's head. "You need to tell us these things next time."
Frightened for his life from not one, but two individuals now, Dokja just stays silent in his shared recliner.
"You need to eat more, fool." Joonghyuk continues to scowl at him with his fingers still curled up in his robe. When is this bastard going to let him go?
"How can you believe in a guy like this?!" Heewon shakily asks Sangah, whose smile is now slightly less confident than before. Dokja is then poked on the cheek with a stick of pocky, which makes him look over and notice Gilyoung offering him the snakc.
"You want me to eat it?" he asks Gilyoung while patting his head. The kid nods, but Dokja insists that he eat it instead.
"Ah! Speaking of which... Do you all still have some food leftover from yesterday?" Dokja questions the rest of the group. "If you do, you should probably finish it. It would be for the best if we can get rid of all of it before today ends."
On the other side of the station, there's a crowd of people lining up for the even more overpriced rations that are nwo being sold by the Major group. Instead of Dokja's 50 coins per foof item, the prices have been hiked up to 200 coins each. If anyone refuses to pay the new price, then they're told to just get out.
Later, Dokja looks down the subway tracks curiously, likely planning their route to the next station.
"People who go that way never come back. Even those from the Major group." Heewon says from behind him, which causes Dokja to look back at where she's crouched by the edge of the platform. "Surely you're not thinking of going there yourself."
She pauses for a moment, hesitant. "Did I properly thank you yesterday for-"
"Yeah, you did." Dokja cuts her off before she actually has to say anything.
"Well, I still appreciate what you did." She says again, standing up when Dokja starts climbing back onto the platform.
Heewon gestures over to one of the shady men from the day before, her voice somehow unwavering despite the awful memory she's surely recalling. "You see, that guy over there, with the lame leg? He was the one who attempted to assault me yesterday. No matter what happens, don't lay a hand on him."
The screen sort of flickers a little bit, a red overlay over it as the scene fuzzes at the edges a little bit. There's something there that no one can really make out. It quickly rights itself as Dokja is knocked out of the trance he was submitting to.
[Exclusive skill 'The Fourth Wall' stabilizes.]
When he glances back over at her, Heewon's expression is frightening. She looks almost psychopathic inn her fury as she speaks a promise into existence in a cold voice. "I'm going to kill that fucking bastard myself."
Taking a good long look at her, he understands what she means. Dokja knows what she wants from him, what she really wants. Nodding along, he places a hand on her shoulder and gives her a soft smile.
Jihye hops up in her chair, spinning around quickly to look at Heewon when she starts speaking to her. "You got him, right unnie? Did you get back at that bastard?!"
A glittering grin plastered on her face, she hops in her chair as she waits for an answer. When Dokja looks back, Heewon and Sangah are leaning up against each other. Heewon's face is a little pale and her hands are shaking a bit.
"...yeah- yeah I got him." Her voice is low and cracks when she tries to answer the teenager. Heewon's smile is shaky but she seems a little more solid than when they had talked about it previously.
[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' cheers you on!]
Jihye throws her arms up and cheers, congratulating Heewon on getting her revenge. When DOkja looks over at her, there's a knowing look in her eyes.
Ah, he sees. She trying to make her feel better in the only way that kid knows how.
Dokja's palm itches.
'Jung Heewon, a woman who would have been destined to die if I had not intervened. She might have been a strong candidate based on her background, but why is she registered as a 'character' of the novel?' Dokja wonders, confused, as he pulls up her character profile.
|Name: Jung Heewon
|Age: 27
|Constellation sponsor: None (Three
|constellations are showing interest in this
|person)
|Personal attribute: Crouching Figure (Ordinary)
|Exclusive skills: Demon Slaying lvl. 1, Kendo
|lvl.1
|Stigma: None
|Overall stats: Stamina lvl. 4, Strength lvl. 4,
|Agility lvl. 7, Magic Power lvl. 4
|General evaluation: She is a 'crouching figure'
|with great potential. The attribute information
|has not been verified as the attribute has yet
|to manifest.
Heewon notices the Major group taking women and elderly into the tent as well, feeling outraged. She knows they will never return if they go to the surface, and she prepares to rush in to stop them.
"Then will you let them starve?" Dokja asks suddenly, causing her to stop in her tracks and look back at him with a horrified expression.
'The personal attribute [Crouching Figure]... going by just the name, it seems like it would be a lackluster attribute. In reality, it's one of the few 'super evolutionary' type attributes in TWSA'
Mentally, Dokja also remarks that there was an incredibly powerful incarnation in TWSA who had this attribute, known as the Mad Butcher. They were so powerful, in fact, that they were considered one of the top 100 most powerfil incarnations of the novel. Clearly, [Crouching Figure] is a very impressive attribute to have.
"Should we just stand around and do nothing?!" Heewon yells, clearly frustrated with his nonchalance.
"Yes. As things are, that would be for the best." Dokja answers calmly, but Heewon doesn't seem to take it very well.
Right now there wasn't very much they could do that wouldn't put them in immediate danger. That guy could easily turn a crowd on them with just a few simple words. Those people won't listen to any of them no matter how much they make sense. They'll just get rid of them and go right back to the way it was. It's best to wait for a more ideal moment.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Heewon's glare is incredibly fierce, and she seems more furious than ever before.
'The [Crouching Figure] attribute itself might start out ordinary, but depending on the occasion... Not just 'Rare' but even a 'Legendary' class can be reached.'
"It means that stopping this right now won't solve the actual problem. This is happening because of a lack of food. As long as people are scared of going hungry, this will continue." Dokja elaborates, weaving a careful web of information around Heewon. She must understand by now.
'Jung Heewon, I thought you were just a passing character, but maybe I should consider taking you as a colleague after all. The only thing that bothers me is she's a [Crouching Figure] that has the [Demon Slaying] skill. If I'm not careful, she could turn into a reckless killer...'
Notes: