Light Novel: Volume 1 Episode 8
Manhwa: Chapter 7
The group that followed Yeom Iljung was disbanded. This was because both Yeom Iljung and his henchmen were found dead. Their corpses shocked the children who were busy quarreling in the underground cave.
As food decreased, murder became a routine, but never did so many children die at once. Moreover, one of the deceased was Yeom Iljung, the leader of a group.
Although he was humiliated by Pyo-wol once, no one could ignore Yeom Iljung.
Yeom Il-jung was one of the strongest in this underground community, and even the strongest group headed by So Yeowol could not afford to do anything about him.
But Yeom Iljung and his henchmen were all killed.
No one among them admitted that they killed the group of Yeom Iljung.
So Yeowol, Kang Il, and Go Youngsan were silent.
The children knew the meaning of their silence.
‘It’s Pyo-wol.’
‘He killed the whole group of Yeom Iljung.’
After the murder amongst the children, Yeom Iljung openly talked about killing Pyo-wol. That is why the children knew that the Yeom Iljung would one day visit Pyo-wol.
Yeom Il-jung went to Pyo-wol to get revenge, but he ended up losing his life.
‘How strong is he? To kill four people alone.’
‘That demon-like child.’
‘You can’t be enemies with that bastard.’
It was a moment when the fear toward Pyo-wol was deeply engraved in the minds of the children.
Since then, the children’s fight for food continued. Children continue to die day after day, but no one dared to go to the place where Pyo-wol was staying.
“He’s clever and spiteful. He obviously knows how to make people fear him.”
Go Youngsan murmured. He was also the leader of a group. As he tried to save his group, he, too, was forced to kill.
Some children even said this.
“Why don’t we negotiate with the other groups instead? If we reduce the amount we eat even a little bit, we don’t have to kill each other like this.”
But in spite of his words, those who locked them here had their food distribution reduced to almost three quarters. They couldn’t tell how much food would be further reduced.
In order for the children to survive, they had no choice but to kill.
“Haa…”
Go Youngsan sighed and looked at his group.
In the beginning there were twenty, but now only seven of them were left. Some went out to live separately, and some lost their lives in the process of fighting.
The size of Go Youngsan’s group shrank.
There was another thing that changed.
The eyes of all those who survived were full of poison. The children, who had never even killed a dog before being kidnapped here, have now become toxic enough to kill without hesitation.
In order to obtain food, they had to kill others.
Even though it was already difficult to get food, they still always end up hungry because of the lack of quantity.
Because of the circumstances, there was always a vile intention in the eyes of the children. There are still some food left so they can still endure it, but if the food is cut off, they might start to crave human flesh.
“Pyo-wol, that guy had predicted this moment would come. That’s why he took Yeom Iljung’s eyes at that time and didn’t align himself with any group”.
They all knew they were going to be murderers anyway. And at the most opportune time, he killed one of the leaders and imprinted in everyone’s mind the fact that he was the absolute strongest amongst them.
Go Youngsan once again trembled at Pyo-wol’s scheme.
He was one of the older kids here. He had a lot of experience and had met a lot of people. However, there were not many people who had a vicious heart at such a young age as Pyo-wol.
He told his other members.
“You guys, never touch Pyo-Yeol. He’s a different kind of guy.”
“But he’s alone…”
“That’s what makes it scarier. There’s nothing scarier than a bastard who has nothing to protect. Don’t even try to approach him, alright?”
“Yes!”
“Okay.”
The children could not help but agree.
“Boss!”
Then a child came running from the other side. It was the child Go Youngsan sent for reconnaissance. His feet are fast and he is quick-witted.
“What? Why are you running?”
“Uh– there are two kids over at the red house in the north, I guess they’re the ones who fell out of the So Yeowol’s group.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah! I checked it several times.”
At the child’s confident answer, Go Youngsan bit his lips for a moment.
“What about their food?”
“I’m sure that they have potatoes in their arms. If we don’t go now, they’ll eat it!”
At the words of the boy who had been scouting, an urgent expression appeared on the children’s faces.
The children were hungry enough to consider murder for just one potato.
Go Youngsan frowned. He thought about it for a while, but he had already decided.
“What about the opening?”
“I already figured it out.”
Most of the children were scattered and living in a war zone that someone had made. Although only the outside looks satisfactory and the inside is crude, a ray of hope still shines through. Because it’s better than living in an unknown underground area.
It was the same reason why children were unable to leave the war zone even after the food scramble broke out. Most of all, it was here where the baskets of food came down.
Leaving this place meant moving away from the food source, and for the children, it meant falling behind in the food battle.
They had to stay here, dead or alive.
Because of these circumstances, they were enamored with the geography of the area.
Where can they sneak in and where can they get out?
They clearly knew which places were advantageous for a surprise attack and which places were unfavorable. It was the same with the other groups.
After fighting fiercely, they had completely mastered the geography of the interior of this place. But nevertheless, there was bound to be a secret passage that others did not know.
The dog hole Go Youngsan mentioned was one of those places.
They moved to the dog hole.
As the boy who scouted said, there were two children peeling potatoes.
The moment they saw the potato, the eyes of the children led by Go Youngsan changed dramatically.
“Potatoes!”
“Kill them!”
Even before Go Youngsan gave an order, the children rushed towards the two who were holding the potatoes.
“N… No!”
Go Youngsan shouted late, but he could not control the children whose eyes had already turned over. The children ran like an ogre. So the children holding the potatoes were startled and ran away.
‘Something is strange.’
A light of doubt appeared on Go Youngsan’s face.
Pak!
Suddenly, an intense scream rang out.
Go Youngsan looked up and saw a child running from the front with a broken head and collapsing. Behind the alley, someone swung a club and smashed the child’s head.
The children who had been hiding in the alleys and nearby fences were revealed.
“Damn it! It’s a trap. Everyone back off!”
Go Youngsan realized that they had fallen into a trap and shouted, but it was already too late.
The children, led by So Yeowol, completely surrounded them.
“So Yeowol!”
As Go Youngsan yelled, So Yeo-wol and Song Cheonwoo appeared from among the children.
“Ho-ho! I caught a big fish with just one potato, we can reduce the mouths to feed by a lot this time,”
So Yeowol let out a cold laugh. Her face was painted with a victorious smile.
“How dare you–!”
“What can you do by staring like that?”
Crack!
Go Youngsan grinded his teeth. Their situation was really grim. They were outnumbered, and the terrain was to their disadvantage.
‘To make a mistake like this…’
He felt the agitation of the crowd. Everyone was clenching their teeth, but there was an uneasy feeling in their eyes.
Go Youngsan stepped forward and said,
“Can’t you just end it with my life?”
“The food situation is not good for that—”
“Will you only be satisfied after killing them all?!”
“If you were in my position, you would have done the same thing too. Why are you pretending otherwise?”
The request of Go Yeongsan did not work for So Yeowol.
Her face remained cold.
Food coming from the outside was becoming less and less. If the number of people is not reduced accordingly, everyone will end up starving to death. This was not the time to care at the situation of the other group.
“Kill them all.”
A cruel command fell from So Yeowol’s mouth.
The group following her rushed towards the group of Go Young-san.
“ARGHH!”
“Kill them all!”
The children twisted together and fought. The children’s movements were clumsy because they haven’t even learned the basics of martial arts. However, their intention to kill their opponent was no less than that of an adult who had mastered martial arts.
So it appeared more brutal.
The sight of children pounding their opponents’ faces until they shattered with clenched fists and biting their opponents’ flesh with their teeth looked devastating.
It is never easy for a man to kill another person with his bare hands.
Children are doing things that are difficult for adults to do. They didn’t look like people at all.
The children look like beasts that have gone wild.
“KUGGH!”
“H-HELP ME!”
Screams and clamors rang out dizzyingly. It was Song Cheonwoo who faced Go Youngsan.
Song Cheonwoo put Go Yeongsan into a corner with such agility that others wouldn’t be able to believe that he was a child who still hadn’t mastered martial arts.
So Yeowol did not intervene in the fight.
Instead, she looked around and monitored carefully the other children who had gathered because of the commotion.
But the other groups did not dare to intervene in the fight.
This is because the power of the group led by So Yeo-wol is much stronger. A sense of danger that they could be annihilated by a counterattack made them hesitant in trying to aim for So Yeowol.
Pyo-wol watched the two groups fight on the roof of a nearby pavilion. The fight was about to end in favor of So Yeo-wol’s group. It was a one-sided victory.
Pyo-wol watched their fight from start to finish.
From So Yeowol planning a trap to Go Youngsan being properly caught, he saw everything. They used the terrain thoroughly. They tried to deceive each other’s eyes using open holes and all sorts of shortcuts, and lead the situation to their advantage.
What Pyo-wol paid attention to was how skillfully they used the terrain, just like the courtyard of their house.
Suddenly he muttered.
“So it was like that…”
Now it seems Pyo-wol understood what the captures wanted from them.
The way the children are now will be what they want them to be.
“There is a high probability that this place is a miniature or replica of an actual place. And there is a high possibility that it is a gentian blood that cannot be compared with this place.”
One of the things that Pyo-wol felt while watching the entire fight was that it would be almost impossible to infiltrate if there were proper security everywhere.
The creators of this place wanted children to get accustomed to this place. They seemed to want no hesitation as they tried to kill each other.
There was only one answer.
“They are going to use us in the same terrain someday. In a place with such a large army, of course, there is a high probability that it is a manor of a large clan in Jianghu or a very influential person.”
The red light in Pyo-wol’s eyes grew even worse. Thinking up to this point, the question of why he had kidnapped himself and his children was resolved.
“We are tools that will be used once and thrown away, so that’s why they’re treating us so harshly. What they need is a usable tool, not a human who can think. In order to prevent a person from thinking and to forge them into the tools they want, no matter the nature of the person, when they are exposed to such an environment, they cannot think properly.”
What’s more, the people here were young and their identity had not yet been established. If they stay in this environment for a long time, there is a high probability that they will gradually stop thinking.
Children who do not have troublesome thoughts and would follow whatever orders they have.
Everyone would turn out to be ferocious and fearless. Since they’ve already experience killing in this underground cave, there would be no hesitation in taking another person’s life.
There is nothing more suitable as a tool.
Pyo-wol stood up and muttered.
“They’re going to turn us into assassins.”
Editor’s Notes
I cannot find the novel version of this manhwa anywhere so I decided to do it myself. I cannot read nor write in Korean so I mainly use Machine Translation and edited it to make it readable.
Those in the underline are sentences I don’t quite understand even with MTL. So I added the raw version. If anyone can help translate it would be highly appreciated!