Chapter 6: 6

“Kugh!”

Yeom Iljung, whose eyes were pierced by Pyo-wol’s fingers, screamed and struggled. However, Pyo-wol grabbed Yeom Iljung’s neck with his opposite hand and made it impossible to move.

The index finger of his right hand was still inserted into Yeom Iljung’s eye.

From the perspective of Yeom Iljung, a mixture of liquid and red blood was flowing out. Many children shut their eyes at the terrible sight.

For the past few months, living in isolation and full of poison, he was just a child who had not yet matured. They might have instinctively gathered and formed a group, but no one here was prepared to kill the other children.

That was the difference between them and the Pyo-wol. 

He was the only one who survived in the harshest environment.

He was willing to kill other children in order to survive.

So the result was a finger stuck in Yeom Iljung’s eye.

“I told you to say it again”

“AH!”

Yeom Iljung gave all his strength to get out of Pyo-wol’s hand, but he remained immovable.

While the other children hoped and waited for the iron door to open, Pyo-wol trained his body. The difference was huge between the growing children.

“Let go of that hand! You crazy son of a bitch.”

“Fuck! Let go of him right now!”

Children following Yeom Iljung surrounded Pyo-wol.

At that moment, Pyo-wol put his finger deeper into Yeom Il-jung’s eyes.

“GAH!”

The desperate screams of Yeom Iljung continued to echo in the underground cavity.

The eyes of the children, who were about to run to the creepy sight, fell down. This behavior of Pyo-wol was far beyond their imagination. They could never have imagined that there would be such a person in the same age group as them. 

They remember a viper from the figure of the Pyo-wol. A small snake with a lot of poison that once bites it, it never lets go.

No one dared to stop Pyo-wol. They felt like they were going to get beaten up by Pyo-wol if they dared to do something.

So Yeowol came out. She came in front of Pyo-wol.

“He’s not in a situation where he can answer. Stop it.”

“Why should I?”

“He should have understood after you did that much.”

“What about food?”

“No one will touch your share.”

So Yeowol’s last words were directed towards the other children.

No one opened their mouths to answer, but their intentions were conveyed to Pyo-wol.

At that time, Pyo-wol pulled out the finger that had been stuck in Yeom Iljung’s eye and released the hand that was holding his neck.

“Ugh!”

Yeom Iljung sat down on the spot and covered his pierced eyes with the palm of his hand. He looked at Pyo-wol gritting his teeth. 

“You, you bastard…”

“What? Do you want me to do the same thing to your other eye? If you wish to be blind then go ahead. My fingers are strong enough to pierce your other eye.”

“Crazy– you bastard!”

Yeom Iljung grinded his teeth. In his heart, he wanted to hit him to death, but the atmosphere in the hall was dominated by him. The other children have already been devoured by Pyo-wol’s momentum.

It was impossible to expect a reversal in this atmosphere.

In the end, Yeom Iljung had no choice but to step back while covering his wounded eye. Pyo-wol looked at him for a moment, then backed away holding his portion of food.

So Yeowol whispered to him.

“What are you going to do now? You turned them all into enemies.”

“Even if they didn’t turn into my enemies, I already consider everyone here as my enemies anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

Instead of answering, Pyo-wol shrugged his shoulders and moved on. The children in front of him stepped aside. Pyo-wol passed by them and climbed onto the roof of a nearby building.

The roof of the building has the best place to monitor the area. With what he did to Yeom Iljung just now, Pyo-wol made all the children in the underground cavity hostile. The highest place was chosen because it was necessary to monitor whether children would secretly approach him during their eating time.

The food in Pyo-wol’s hand was a rice cake. It had been a long time since they had been made, so the rice cakes were hard and tasteless. However, Pyo-wol silently chewed the rice cake without complaining.

As he sat on the roof and surveyed the view, he could see the surrounding landscape in more detail.

‘This is a test, a test to filter out useful children.’

Throwing the children one by one in a space completely cut off from the outside was a clear process to filter out useful children. Such a process could not end immediately. This process would be repeated over and over again, and it was clear that many children would continue to die in the process.

He could think of cooperating with other children to fight back, but Pyo-wol did not believe that things would turn out so smoothly.

It was their intention to drive so many children into one place.

It will certainly put the children at risk by testing them in one way or another.

Until now, they still haven’t appeared and were still forcing the children to survive on their own. If so, it was clear that the same method would be used this time as well.

Making children kill each other or making them suspicious of each other. 

‘If that happens, everyone will be each other’s enemy.’

If they were going to be an enemy anyway, it doesn’t matter if they become his enemy a little earlier. Because he would be able to examine the situation a little more clearly.

Pyo-wol looked at the panoramic view under the underground cavity for a long time.

* * *

Food came down once a day, always at the same time.

As the food came down, each group fought a nerve war to get even a little more food.

Food was directly related to survival, and in order to increase the probability of survival even by a little, the children tried to secure even a little more food.

As time passed, the children’s antagonism grew more and more intense. The more it happened, the more prominent the presence of the children who served as the heads of each group became.

It was definitely So Yeowol, who showed the greatest presence among the leaders. So Yeowol, who is a woman, secures the most food for her group. Then after securing as much food as possible, she still only ate the smallest amount.

And she took good care of the children who followed her. The strong loyalty of the children who followed So Yeowol was natural. 

The next largest group was Kang Il’s group. 

Kang Il had a very quiet personality. He was so silent to the point of not saying a word all day. Nonetheless, he took great care of the children who followed him. He was the type of person who showed his leadership through actions instead of words.

The group led by Go Youngsan has a strong personality. It may be because Go Youngsan has a bubbly personality, but the personalities of the children who followed him were somewhat similar.

Finally, there was a group led by Yeom Iljung. At first, many children followed Yeom Il-jung, but when they saw him lose one of his eyes and was humiliated by Pyo-wol, many children left.

For that reason, Yeom Il-jung harbored great resentment towards Pyo-wol. Pyo-wol knew that, too, but he didn’t pay much attention to it.

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He would only take his share of food and disappear somewhere else. 

Many children thought of him as  a thorn in their eyes. However, the brutality of Pyo-wol when he dealt with Yeom Iljung had left such a strong impression on them that they were reluctant to confront him.

So they can just monitor Pyo-wol’s actions from afar. 

Pyo-wol was constantly the subject of their attention. Numerous children were keenly aware of his movements. Except when eating food, Pyo-wol was confined to the underground area where he was imprisoned. Each room was cleaned by putting the scattered bodies in one place. 

The other children did not understand Pyo-wol’s actions, who preferred to stay alone in the deepest part. The place where Pyo-wol occupied was in the deepest darkness where it was impossible to see anything ahead.

Pyo-wol, who returned to such a place on his own feet, would only look strange in their eyes. But Pyo-wol didn’t care about what others thought at all. He chose the underground space where he was confined because he thought it was the safest place. 

It was good to live in an underground communal space, but there was no freedom of movement because it was open on all sides. No matter how secretly they move, they cannot escape the gaze of the children.

For that reason, Pyo-wol spent most of his time in the space where he was first confined, training his stamina, or developing his tolerance to poison by being bitten by a snake.

Having lived with snakes made them his close friends. 

At some point, even when he was bitten by a snake, he no longer felt any pain. It seemed that he now had complete tolerance for their poison.

Pyo-wol came out, rubbing his wrist that had recently been bitten by a snake. As he came out of the dark room, he could feel the secret glances the children threw from everywhere. The other children are watching him come out.

The children were hostile towards Pyo-wol, who chose a lifestyle greatly different from theirs. They could not understand Pyo-wol, who chose to live alone without a group. However, Pyo-wol looked at the ceiling, not paying any attention to their gaze.

Now it was time for the food to come down.

When the basket came down, the leaders such as So Yeowol and Kang Il were already there.

Still, because they were the leaders, they were quite proud. Yeom Iljung was staring at Pyo-wol with his one eye. Despite the ferociousness in his eyes, there was also a fear. 

Kang Il and Go Youngsan were also wary of Pyo-wol, but did not show any particular hostility. The only one who expressed good feelings towards Pyo-wol was So Yeowol. 

“What’s good staying in a dark place where you couldn’t even see anything in front of you? Instead of staying by yourself like this,  why not come and join our group?”

“I believe I’ve already answered that question before.”

“Shouldn’t your answer change depending on the situation?”

Despite Pyo-wol’s blunt words, So Yeowol did not lose her smile. It was so pretty that it made his eyes dizzy when she smiled lightly.

So Yeowol’s face gained some weight because she ate well and was comfortable. As her health improved, her dazzling beauty also came back. Her beauty was also a big factor in leading her group.

In fact, many of So Yeowol’s followers are those smitten with her beauty.

Pyo-wol looked at So Yeowol without saying a word.

He found her beautiful.

After all, he was also a man.

Although he was young, he was mature enough to serve as a man. If it had been before he came here, he would have succumbed to So Yeowol’s beauty and followed her.

But the hellish times of the past few months have instilled in Pyo-Wol a strong patience. He thought more deeply than before, and started to doubt everything around him.  

He didn’t trust the children here yet. No, he couldn’t. 

That was then.

There was a dull sound from the ceiling, and a basket of food came down.

All the children’s eyes turned to the basket.

Kang Il murmured.

“Aren’t there going to be idiots like Gu Ji-pyung again?”

Gu Ji-pyeong was the name of a child who died a while ago.

He made a plan to escape outside by getting in the basket. When the children had all their food, he climbed into the empty basket. However, while the basket was being pulled up high in the air, the rope that tied the basket from above was suddenly cut off. 

In the end, Gu Ji-pyeong fell to the floor and died horribly. 

The basket did not come down for three days after that.

During that time, the children had to starve.

It was a clear warning.

If something like that happens again, they will starve again.

Children who learned the lesson the hard way did not dream of escaping through the basket liek Gu Ji-pyeong ever since. 

Tak! 

Finally, the basket of food came down to the floor.

The expressions of the children looking inside the basket changed.

“Why is there only this much?”

“The amount of food has decreased.”

“What”

The smile disappeared from So Yeowol’s face, and the other leaders couldn’t hide their bewildered expressions.

Securing food was of paramount importance in this closed place.

At first glance, food was reduced by almost a quarter.

It could have been seen that there was not much difference, but the amount was so small that it reminded them of starvation (餓死) for children who were barely satisfying their hunger. 

The evidence was that even the head children could not hide their bewildered expressions. (당장 우두머리 아이들부터가 당혹스러운 표정을 감추지 못하는 것이그 증거였다.)

In the darkness, a red tint lingered in Pyo-wol’s eyes.

‘It has begun.’

He thought they would pick out the children in one way or another, but he expect that they would choose such an extreme and primitive method.

Already, a hideous atmosphere was sensed among the children.

So Yeowol and the other leaders looked at each other. So far they have fairly distributed the food. Although the quantity was insufficient, they were able to fill the stomachs of the children who followed him to some extent.

However, since the amount of food has decreased, it was unimaginable to fully satisfy their hunger. It would be nice if they stopped at this level, but Pyo-wol predicted that the food would decrease further considering their behavior so far.

“I’m only taking this.”

Pyo-wol only took care of his share with a glance. The food in his hand has significantly been reduced as compared to before.

So Yeowol and the bosses’ eyebrows twitched. So far they have implicitly acknowledged the share of Pyo-wol. This was because Pyo-wol left a strong impression.

But things have now changed.

Even the small amount that Pyo-Wol takes seems to be a waste. The only reason they haven’t done anything is that the amount has decreased for the first time today. It’s is not clear how long it would last. 

In their minds, the quantity decreased today, but there was a feeling of expectation that it might return to its original state tomorrow.

That’s why they just let him go even though he looks at Pyo-wol.

But the Pyo-wol knew. 

Those good times will never come back again.

And, as he had guessed, the food was noticeably reduced every day. 

And one day something terrible happened that should not have happened.

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