Apocalypse Tyrant

Jenga (1)

So—

“You didn’t say anything to the two of them?”

The two minions hurriedly nodding their heads at my words confirming the facts again.

Park Woojin who had been filling his stomach relying on the flashlight light quickly supplemented the explanation.

“The senior, no, Park Taeha only asked how we killed zombies downstairs, that’s all.”
“So what did you answer?”
“…Since this kind of thing would immediately show if we lied, I vaguely brushed it off saying the team leader mostly handled everything.”

The vice president, that is Park Taeha, asked how we kill zombies downstairs…

I smiled slightly at Park Woojin who kept glancing at me from the corner of his eye after finishing his answer.

“Well done.”
“Hehe—”

Park Woojin laughing cunningly as if imitating Ko Janghun who was in a somewhat senior-like position to them.

I held out a water bottle to Park Woojin who was smiling with crumbs all over his mouth.

“Thank you—!”

Park Woojin now quite boldly and naturally accepting and drinking the water.

And I alternately stared at Kim Minjun next to him who was busy filling his hungry stomach.

Ding—!

[‘Park Woojin’, ‘Kim Minjun’ are ‘weakly’ ‘submitting’ to you.]

[Common factors: Trust in the team leader, ‘Strong’ fear of violence.]

The two minions who have finally moved from ‘surrender’ to ‘submission’.

Perhaps thanks to that, the status window message had changed quite a lot.

First, the ‘positive factors’ of the two minions finally updated in the status window.

Trust in the team leader, that is trust in me, was clearly accumulating more and more as time passed.

Moreover, a positive factor without modifiers like ‘very weakly’ or ‘very strongly’.

It seemed the method was to remove modifiers for literally middle states that were clearly neither weak nor strong.

“Hehe—”

Kim Minjun who felt my continued gaze raised his head and smiled like an idiot.

Kim Minjun bowing and lowering his head again at my hand gesture to keep eating.

Also their negative factor.

It was notable that the ‘very strong’ fear of violence had changed to just ‘strong’ fear.

The not-so-friendly status window naturally didn’t explain the exact reason to me, but—

Roughly guessing, it was highly likely evidence that they were becoming accustomed to this ‘surrender’ and ‘submission’ relationship.

Simply put, it meant they had voluntarily learned the line that shouldn’t be crossed— that is, where violence occurs.

So instead of the quite faded fear of violence, trust in me had taken its place.

It was a very desirable change.

I don’t have much intention of refraining from violence that can easily subdue opponents, but I have no intention of ruling everything with violence either.

Moreover, fear of violence was a simple weapon that could be pulled out anytime if I wanted.

Even if their heads don’t, their bodies will remember the terror very clearly.

Moreover, the most pleasing thing about the status window changes of those two minions is—

[Royal Authority: 6]

Above all else, the fact that Royal Authority increased.

I didn’t know at which point new skills would unlock, but for now I was planning to aim for Royal Authority ’10’.

“Um— Team leader.”

Park Woojin very carefully opening his mouth to me as I was calmly organizing the next plan.

“If you’re worried, should I secretly ask the others behind Park Taeha’s back?”

Park Woojin who had misunderstood my silence for a different reason continued speaking while watching my reaction.

“Of course I won’t ask directly. If I speak a bit indirectly, no one will know.”

What, now you’re even saying quite praiseworthy things.

I smiled while roughly messing up the hair of the minion who had become quite proactive.

It was now a clear statement and action showing which side they think they belong to.

“It doesn’t matter.”
“…Pardon?”
“It doesn’t really matter what those parasites upstairs think.”

I stared at the food bag placed in front of Park Woojin and Kim Minjun.

The two minions staring at the food bag together following my gaze.

“If we disappear, they’ll be the ones who have to go get food.”

In that sense, we were the core of the camp entrusted with a very important mission.

Irreplaceable.

“Of course, even if they exclude us and come down to basement floor 1, it’s too late now, right?”
“…Hehe—”

The two minions laughing cunningly as if affirming at my smile.

I looked around the now empty basement store with the flashlight.

“We’ve already stored the food in a place only we know.”

The vast locker area of basement floor 1.

We cleared out all the overflowing personal lockers there and hid all the food from the basement store.

Moreover, we placed lockers so heavy that several strong adult men would have to cling to them to barely move them at the entrance—

The possibility of the library camp getting their hands on food without our help was very slim.

Unless they pioneer a new route themselves.

“So don’t show any signs unnecessarily. Only snack here.”
“Hehe— Of course, team leader!”

The two minions nodding their heads like robots at my warning.

“We were already a bit self-conscious since we were the only ones fine while all the other kids were whining about feeling sick.”

Kim Minjun who seemed to have filled his stomach quite a bit now opened his mouth first, not just responding to my words.

“Ah, that’s right! There were quite a few kids whining that their stomachs hurt, maybe from eating frozen food raw.”

Park Woojin hurriedly agreeing with Kim Minjun’s words and bowing his head to me.

He whispered to me as if delivering important information, imitating Ko Janghun exactly.

“Frozen food itself is already cooked then frozen again, so complaining about stomach aches is just them being spiteful.”
“That’s right, team leader. The girls are acting like they’re having their periods every day, and they told the boys to clean up the poop and pee they made, so the boys were about to have a fight which Ku Yeri stopped.”

The two minions whispering the camp’s information to me like twin spies.

I gestured with my eyes for them to continue at the quite interesting information coming from them.

“Of course we just need to clean up a little bit in basement floor 1, but there are quite a lot of people on the 2nd floor, right?”

A survivor camp of exactly 17 men and 15 women.

Among them, excluding those two with me now, exactly 30 survivors were hiding on the 2nd floor.

“They’ve run out of toilet paper so they’re tearing up books to use as toilet paper. And the smell is fu— Ah, I’m sorry. The smell is really awfu—”

Park Woojin furrowing his brow as much as possible without finishing his words in the end.

For some reason, looking at that expression naturally made a foul odor seem to reach my nose, making my brows furrow mercilessly.

“It really feels like walking on thin ice when we go up to the 2nd floor. Even the bitches who were trying to suck up to Seolhee at first have been quiet like they ate shit these days.”

Park Woojin explaining that their complaints had reached the limit while raising both fingers to his head.

I asked Kim Minjun who was nodding his head very earnestly next to him.

“What’s Park Taeha doing?”

Kim Minjun’s face crumpled slightly at the question about what the camp leader was doing in this situation.

“I don’t know, team leader. That bastard barely talks or shows off since that bastard Sim Yuhan died.”

Sometimes it seems like Ku Yeri is the vice president.

I recalled the vice president’s face while listening to Kim Minjun’s addition.

His behavior quite different from the first encounter.

His eyes still burning with anger, but for some reason those hesitant pauses.

Perhaps he’s realized quite a lot of things after his close friend died like that.

I didn’t know the details, but I didn’t particularly want to know either.

He just needed to remain an excellently incompetent leader like now.

That way, I would stand out in contrast as a counterexample.

He was just a small foothold to secure justification for me to dominate the camp.

The problem was Ku Yeri rather than the vice president.

Well, it didn’t seem necessary to pay much attention to Ku Yeri’s side either.

Rather, she’s easier to predict since she’s trying to use her brain somewhat, compared to the vice president who might do something impulsive.

“Well then, shall we get up?”
“Yes sir! We’ll wake up Janghun senior too!”

The two minions quickly getting up as soon as I stood up and starting to wake up Ko Janghun who had been taking a catnap in the corner.

We had pretty much finished everything we needed to do in basement floor 1.

We packed all the food, and thoroughly cleaned up any zombies that might be hiding.

We even blocked off places where they might enter by densely packing lockers taken from the locker area.

Unless there’s as much chaos as a university festival inside the library, basement floor 1 probably won’t be breached.

“Hehe— Team leader. Thanks to your consideration, I had a very sweet nap, hehe.”

Ko Janghun bowing and sticking close to me as soon as he woke up, as if showing the dignity of the original.

“Then shall we go to the basement passage?”

I lightly shook my head at Ko Janghun asking about the place where we always smeared rotten blood before going up.

It was time to move locations from basement floor 1.

I needed to kill zombies again to gather remaining points, and we had to clean up the entire library anyway.

“If we delay too much after showing off like that upstairs, we’ll look too incompetent again, right?”

The two minions smiling awkwardly while holding the half-full food bags at my question.

It was time to drive them more harshly.

I continued speaking while gesturing with my chin at the food bags they were holding.

“Tell them that’s all when we go up.”

The food remaining in basement floor 1.

Screech—!

The 2nd floor internal stairway door opening wide with the sound of door hinges just like usual.

However, the student council group that always waited for us in front wasn’t there.

Thud—!

I stopped in place and raised then lowered my right hand.

The tails sticking close to me in sync with my hand signal.

I gently muffled my footsteps and waved the metal pipe in my right hand tick— tick—.

An intense smell I was smelling after quite a while.

The smell of blood so hot it could be felt was vibrating through the 2nd floor.

Moreover, footsteps that seemed full of something disorderly and chaotic.

I approached the 2nd floor camp while tracking those noises.

Splat—! Splat—!

“…Hic—! Hic—!”

Noises becoming clearer as we got closer to the camp.

The sound of something being repeatedly struck down and multiple people crying echo through the 2nd floor simultaneously.

“Haa—! Haa—! Haa—!”

A large back is the first thing that enters my sight as we arrive at the library camp area.

The large back looking down at what appears to be a zombie corpse was heaving up and down violently.