KEG 69

People who act nice disgust me. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m just a twisted person.

“I am simply practicing salvation and love in this village.”

Handing out food and scattering mana stones.

For some, this could be salvation and love. But for others, it meant the power of life and death was placed in someone else’s hands.

Giving food to people on the brink of starvation and incorporating them into the community could become an irresistible coercion.

“In preparation for the apocalypse that will come someday, I wish to become a wellspring of hope.”

The elder adjusted his glasses and gazed at the portal he had created.

That was where all the supplies needed to feed the villagers must be coming and going.

The tax evaders’ financial resources, the elder’s portal, and the vigilante group’s firepower. These three elements must be working together to serve as the village’s lifeline.

“Are you accepting me as a member of the village?”

The elder paused for a moment when I asked.

“Honestly, I can’t trust you yet.”

“What would it take for you to trust me?”

I’d got nothing to lose.

Even if he refused, I’d gathered enough intelligence for today. If he made a difficult proposal, I could just refuse and run away.

“Ha Seongho-ssi.”

I hadn’t introduced myself by name.

My plan to run away was completely revised. If I acted rashly, I’d be the one in danger.

“Would you be willing to become our spy?”

A spy proposal in this situation?

The only factions hostile to the village were the military and the National Tax Service.

In that case.

“You want me to leak information from the National Tax Service?”

“Yes, we know you’re currently staying in the infirmary tent.”

This damn small town. There were no secrets here.

“Ha Seongho-ssi, please help us so we can trust you.”

He called my name once more. A warning not to run away or back down.

The time to choose had come.

Take the risk, or step back to safety.

My answer was.

“I understand.”

And so, I became a spy for the village.

I chose to walk straight into danger. I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, but there was no turning back.

***

“Son Miryeo-ssi, I’m a spy.”

Clang!

Son Miryeo’s spoon, which she had been using to eat dinner, fell to the floor.

Her face, already worn out from searching every house today, turned ashen as she chewed her rice as if it were a rock.

“Wh… What on earth… how did….”

“That’s how it turned out.”

She looked like she had a lot to say. But she couldn’t figure out what to say.

I wasn’t in the mood for beating around the bush.

“From now on, I’m going to leak information to the National Tax Service’s Special Mobile Team.”

“You’re being way too confident…”

“Yes, hand over the information.”

“Wow…”

Today, we had curry. Curry filled with cabbage instead of meat.

Yesterday, we had a bossam set meal without the braised pork. Right, that meant they just served steamed cabbage.

The National Tax Service was also struggling with a food shortage.

“Don’t you want to go home soon?”

“I do. I miss my cat.”

Son Miryeo lamented that it had been several months since she’d left her cat in the care of an acquaintance.

“I can destroy everything.”

Clang!

This time, her chopsticks fell to the table. Maybe her hands were too weak from working so hard.

“If you use me, you could bring the village down from the inside.”

“Uh, oh… Are you saying you’re going to… be a double agent…?”

“I’m not on anyone’s side. I’m just a messenger.”

Son Miryeo wore a pensive expression. Her legs trembled under the table.

She seemed to be weighing her options, but she was wasting time.

I’d finished eating, so I’d like to brush my teeth, take a walk, and go to sleep.

“Why are you doing this?”

She opened her mouth after finishing her contemplation.

“Do you know what you need to do to get rid of bedbugs?”

“Huh? Bedbugs?”

“Yes.”

Son Miryeo looked confused and muttered to herself, “Bedbugs… bedbugs…” Then, with a look of confusion, she asked,

“What should I do?”

What I wanted was chaos in the village.

A disaster so overwhelming that nothing could be done about it.

Only then would the terrorist crawl out, desperate to survive.

“Just set fire to the house and burn it all to the ground.”

***

Taebaek, where snow fell like cotton balls.

The place was now in chaos.

“The government must stop violent oppression and surveillance of civilians!!”

The village vigilante group and the elders took up arms and rose up to raid the National Tax Service Special Mobile Team’s base.

“This is a warning! Members of the vigilante group and residents, disarm immediately!!”

Son Miryeo grabbed the megaphone and shouted. But the villagers’ fury showed no signs of abating.

Her “warning” only served to pour fuel on the fire.

“We will not obey a government that kills people!!”

Last night, a tax evader died while on the run. They said it was an accidental fall.

Blood spread across the snow, and that became the spark.

I was the one who tipped off the National Tax Service about the tax evader’s location, and I was the one who warned the tax evader that the NTS was coming.

So this is…

“Ho-hyung, did your double-agent plan go to shit?”

“Yeah, it’s fucked.”

It was a riot caused by my espionage.

“What do you call this… the butterfly effect? A snowball effect?”

“Both. You asshole.”

Lee Yuksam hit me right where it hurt, without any malice. If he’d known what he was doing, I’d just be annoyed, but since he spouted this without a clue, it pissed me off.

Bang!

“Oh, they fired a gun.”

Amid the chaotic riot, the National Tax Service’s show of force began.

No one was hurt.

However, that single gunshot was enough to ignite a fire in the villagers’ hearts.

“They’re killing people!!”

“Is this even a country?!!”

“Get out! Get the hell out of our village!!”

A outcry drowned out the sound of Son Miryeo’s megaphone.

The people had lost their minds.

There was no leader among the villagers who had rioted. Though they were a group, there was no organization.

“Looks like they gathered spontaneously.”

“That old man’s holding a gun.”

“His aim looks off.”

Rat-tat-tat-tat-!

The old man, who had been about to fire his rifle, was thrown off balance by the recoil and fired in a completely different direction.

“Aaaargh!”

The stray bullet struck the healers and medics. They were the Special Mobile Team medics who had tended to my wounds.

They were hit in the shoulder and abdomen.

They were barely holding on, healing themselves as they went.

“Yuksam.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

We fled the scene without looking back.

Today marks the seventh day since I was injured.

The staples lodged in my chest tugged at my skin.

“Ho-hyung! Did you plan all of this?”

“I expected it.”

“Wow, to have designed all of this!”

“I just passed on the message.”

I simply conveyed the facts.

The problem was that every word was true. The National Tax Service’s movements had been exposed, and the tax evaders’ hideouts had been uncovered.

“I didn’t think it would all blow up in just four days.”

The church’s portal closed, and half of the vigilante group was arrested for illegal weapons possession. Now it was the churchgoers who were rioting.

“Wow, it’s all come crashing down.”

In the midst of the riot, a hymn began playing from the speakers in the center of the village.

Of all songs, it was “How Beautiful Is the World the Lord Has Made”

“Aaaargh!”

“Help!!”

Even though I was quite far away, the screams and explosions sounded as if they were right next to me.

From the healers to the injured National Tax Service employees, everyone was staggering. The frail elderly people holding guns and weapons were swaying under the recoil and the weight of the scrap metal before they could even be attacked.

It wasn’t that they were fighting fiercely and had turned into a chaotic mess. It was more like two Jenga towers shaking each other and dancing a wild blues.

“Did you find anything when you joined the vigilante group?”

When I asked, Lee Yuksam thought for a moment and replied simply.

“They were just a corpse disposal squad clearing snow.”

When I asked about the terrorist, he just shook his head.

“I thought ‘vigilante group’ meant they’d be doing something cool…”

Lee Yuksam clicked his tongue in disappointment. It seemed there hadn’t been any confrontations with monsters since the first day.

“What have you been up to, Ho-hyung?”

“I’ve been stalking the elder.”

“How was it?”

For the two days I’d watched him, the elder had done nothing but work. He’d catch a few winks in his office, receive supplies through the portal, and work on something while buried under a mountain of paperwork.

“Huh? If that’s the case, why did he go so far as to post a guard?”

“So he wouldn’t be disturbed while sleeping.”

He had a guard posted every time he took a quick nap.

Even then, he didn’t sleep for more than two hours at a time. It was a life like a special forces hell week.

“Wait a second.”

I stopped Lee Yuksam in his tracks as he was running.

I was out of breath, and the sound of my skin tearing from the wound on my chest was terrifying.

“Ugh, Ho-hyung, the smell of blood…”

Lee Yuksam covered his nose. I was furious at his expression, which looked like he was handling food waste.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“Not yet…”

“Go into any house and eat some food.”

He hesitated for a moment, then actually barged into the first empty house he found.

Even though he acted like that, he was actually quite good-looking, and since he was polite, if he begged for food, they would probably give him something. He was a natural at begging.