Chapter 13
“Where's this place I can't find?”
The moment Eunwol's figure emerged as she stepped over the broken iron door.
“...!”
The Oasis hideout, where everyone had been scrambling around, packing their things and screaming just moments ago, froze in an instant.
In the silence where even screams and breathing had vanished.
It was none other than Oasis Guild Leader Choi Tae-su who broke that silence.
Thud-!
“H-Head Mod! I-I was completely in the wrong! P-Please spare me...!”
Choi Tae-su knelt and pleaded in a servile voice.
“I-I'll restore the water price...!!! And I'll keep distributing to the refugee camps just as before.”
“Hmm.”
“I'll give you all the mana stones I've stashed away too!!!! I'll obey you to the letter, just like our contract says. If you tell me to crawl, I'll crawl; if you tell me to bark, I'll bark like a dog.”
The tyrant Choi Tae-su who had been raging moments ago was gone.
Faced with his life hanging by a thread, Choi Tae-su threw away all his pride and dignity, crawling and clinging to Eunwol's feet.
“I was arrogant... Sob, sniff...! If you could overlook it just this once... Just this once...!”
His face, a mess of tears and snot, was enough to inspire pity, but.
“Everything you just promised me can be done without you, you know?”
“W-What...? What?”
“I told you. We have the shop. We don't need you.”
“Ah, ah...”
Not the slightest flicker of emotion crossed Eunwol's red eyes.
“I'll find a suitable manager and hand over the water source you were running, and the slush fund? I can just recover that after taking your head, can't I?”
“H-Head Mod...!”
She kicked away Choi Tae-su's hands clinging to her feet and drove the point home in a calm voice.
“...Grrr.”
At that, Choi Tae-su's face twisted into madness in an instant.
“Y-You fucking bitch!!!! Shoot! Shoot her!!! I'll give every mana stone I own to whoever kills that bitch!!”
At Choi Tae-su's desperate outburst, the guild members who had been frozen with fear jerked their weapons up.
Rat-a-tat-tat! Bang! Bang! Boom-!!
Small arms spat fire from every direction.
On top of that came fireballs and ice arrows hurled by the magic Awakened.
The narrow hideout was instantly engulfed in a barrage aimed at Eunwol.
“Dieeeee!!!”
“You crazy bitch!!!”
But Eunwol's expression did not waver even as she faced the barrage.
She merely extended her empty hand forward lightly, as if annoyed, and murmured.
“Block.”
At her brief command, the space itself in front of Eunwol warped.
Rat-a-tat! Fwoosh-!
Dozens of bullets flying toward her stopped in midair.
Every attack—the bullets, fireballs, ice arrows, and all—failed to reach Eunwol, frozen in midair and spinning pointlessly.
“Huh...?”
“W-What is that...?”
The moment they witnessed the impossible gap with their own eyes.
Clatter-!
A rifle slipped from someone's hands and fell limply to the floor.
“S-She's a monster...!”
“Run!! Ruuun!!”
Realizing there was no hope, the guild members scattered in every direction.
“H-Hey!! Where the fuck are you going, you bastards!!”
Tae-su shouted uselessly at them, but it did no good.
“S-Save meeeee!!!”
“Aaaagh!!”
The guild members had long since scattered in every direction to save their lives.
Now only Eunwol and Choi Tae-su remained in the room.
As Choi Tae-su looked around the empty hideout, his face soon twisted with utter terror and madness.
“Ugh... Ugh! You fucking bitch, dieee!!”
He lost all reason, picked up the rifle lying on the floor, and frantically pulled the trigger at Eunwol, but it was a futile resistance.
The bullets fired into the air still merely stopped helplessly in front of Eunwol.
Step. Step.
Eunwol slowly walked forward, passing like a ghost through the bullets stopped in midair.
“Eek...!”
Backing away in terror, Choi Tae-su was eventually blocked by the wall and sank to the floor.
“Just as you said, Oasis is permanently banned. From reality and the gallery alike.”
The moment every last hope vanished at Eunwol's single sentence.
Resentment and hatred began to bloom in his eyes.
“This is... unfair as hell... Unfair as hell...”
Why did the system have to update right now of all times!
Why did the shop's stock have to increase to 700, turning things into this mess?
“Ghh... Ghhhh!!!!!”
He took a deep breath and let out his final death cry.
“Fuuuuuck!!! System, you fucking bastard!!!!”
*****
Meanwhile, I was laughing in the disaster-control room.
“Yessss, this is it.”
[Featured]
[Trolling NEET] Breaking news ㄷㄷ Current situation of pissed-off veteran Stalkers;;
[Trolling NEET] Oasis Trading Post water price hits 45 mana stones lololol
[Trolling NEET] Taesu, I'll tell you the one and only ‘Tae’-su solution to overcome this crisis ㅇㅇ
...
Most of my trolling posts had made it into Featured.
“Now this is what I'm talking about...”
Trolling NEET << King of mockery
ㄴ This bastard almost killed me laughing
ㄴ My stomach hurts for real;;
I choked on my laughter and spilled all my precious bottled water onto the floor, fuck.
ㄴ Dumbass
ㄴ Why are you suddenly cursing?
ㄴ Your mom
ㄴ 🖕
I hadn't particularly intended this, but the users were enjoying it too.
Even if the world ends tomorrow, I'll troll one more time – Trolling NEET.
“Ah, right. The world already ended.”
I keep forgetting because I've been living so comfortably.
“Hmm... Where'd he go?”
It was fun watching Taesu bro freak out in the comments, but he suddenly stopped commenting.
Did something happen?
“Maybe he's busy...”
He might be racking his brain trying to defend the shit-water price.
Then I'll stop trolling for now.
“So, shall we see what happened to the shit-water price?”
Actually, even if I hadn't trolled them, the shit-water price was structurally bound to keep falling.
To be honest, I was just doing it for my own amusement.
“Come on! Show me the price!”
Just as I hit refresh on the gallery again.
- [Announcement] [Head Mod] Oasis Guild Purge –Complete– and Future Distribution Notice
The Head Mod's announcement had gone up.
“What?”
Click it right away.
Title : *[Announcement] [Head Mod] Oasis Guild Purge –Complete– and Future Distribution Notice
We have completed the purge of the Oasis Guild headquarters, which had been profiteering long before the recent purified-water price issue.
Guild Leader Choi Tae-su has been dismissed (physically), and the remaining members have all scattered.
The Yellow Zone's offline distribution network has temporarily ground to a halt, but thanks to the 700 bottles of water released by the shop, we've put out the immediate fire for now.
We'll put together a replacement supply so that even shit water can be redistributed at a reasonable price soon, so survivors, don't panic—drink the shop's water and hold out.
Holy fuuuuuck!!!!
ㄴ Head Mod! Head Mod! Head Mod! Head Mod!
ㄴ This is fucking insane
Oasis is finally doomed lololol
ㄴ I can finally breatheeeee!!!!
Justice was alive after all ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
ㄴ The dignity of a Hunter ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
ㄴ The Head Mod wiped out that whole place alone? This is fucking insane;;
ㄴ Great Emperor Head Mod
Kyaaa, every time the Head Mod goes on a real-life raid, she makes history lololol
ㄴ ㅇㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Exactly lololol
Okay! I'm giving stuff away again tomorrow!!
ㄴ I'm going too!
ㄴ Be at the place where we got today's giveaways tomorrow too ㅇㅇ
“Oh-ho.”
So that's why Taesu bro had gone quiet—he'd been silenced forever.
“That explains it.”
He looked hotheaded as hell, but the comments suddenly stopped.
Whoa! Live water price: 30 mana stones just dropped!!
ㄴ For real?
ㄴ 30 mana stones?
ㄴ Yeah. The other merchants at the trading post all lowered their prices because of this.
ㄴ It'll probably drop even further tomorrow.
Right, the shop sells this bottled water for 20 mana stones...
ㄴ It makes no sense for shit water to cost more than that.
ㄴ For real.
It's basically all thanks to the gallery shop, yeah.
ㄴ Can't you tell what's going on here? Ah, lol.
ㄴ Right, especially since the stock might increase again in the future.
At the same time, water prices were gradually returning to normal.
“Kyaaa, that's great.”
Hang in there, survivors!
Hang in there and spend even more mana stones on me!!!
But there was something a little strange.
“The Head Mod cleaned it all up alone?”
From what I'd learned while trolling, the Oasis Guild was supposedly a fairly formidable group in the Yellow Zone. That's why they had the nerve to run such a brazen business.
How could the Head Mod have dealt with an organization like that alone? And why had she suddenly gone on a real-life raid?
“Hmm... Is the Head Mod really that strong?”
As I muttered to myself and scrolled down, I spotted a post from some gallery users who had apparently wondered the same thing.
Title : But why did these guys act so cocky in the first place?
The water source they had seized wasn't even pristine water—it was barely drinkable.
If the Head Mod could have cut them down overnight whenever she wanted, why had she tolerated their price-gouging for so long, watching her step around them?
Because those bastards had monopolized the water source entirely.
ㄴ If we'd killed them, the water supply for the entire Yellow Zone would have been cut off immediately, so we had no choice but to leave them alone.
ㄴ For real, they were a necessary evil.
ㄴ They crossed the line this time, and that's what caused the problem.
So if the shop hadn't been updated this time, the Head Mod would've been in a real bind, right?
ㄴ [Head Mod] I'm the Head Mod, and that's right.
ㄴ For real, the update is what made it possible for the Head Mod to kill them.
“Oh, so that's what happened?”
Without intending to, I'd ended up helping the Head Mod too.
But what are the other Hunters doing that the Head Mod has to struggle alone?
ㄴ Other Hunters? Hahahaha.
They gave up fighting on the front lines long ago, after communication between regions was severed and the Control Bureau lost its authority.
ㄴ They’re holed up in Green Zone penthouses, acting as rich people's lackeys lol
Hunters? They're just a gang of superhuman thugs who extort people legally.
ㄴ I bet it's been three months since those Hunter bros last killed a zombie.
ㄴ They do come out for raids when giant mutants cross over from the Red Zone and threaten their penthouses, though ㅇㅇ
When most Hunters went into hiding, gave up, or entered the Green Zone.
ㄴ The Head Mod alone chose to stay behind and continued working on the front lines.
“S-So that's what it was?”
The heroic Hunter everyone had dreamed of didn't exist in this world.
There was only a weak human, disillusioned by the fact that they were merely delaying the apocalypse.
“I-I thought all those ‘Hunter bros’ were good people because everyone kept calling them that.”
So there was a secret like this hidden beneath it all.
To think the Head Mod alone had stayed behind to uphold her mission.
“Damn, the Head Mod was a romantic after all...”
I had thought she was just an unpaid troll-post eraser who camped on the board every day, but I never imagined she was carrying a much heavier cross than I'd ever imagined.
“Hmmm...”
Wasn't the usual Head Mod cliché a shut-in burnout?
Our Head Mod was actually a terrifying person who went on real-life raids.
“Well... Either way, I guess we helped each other.”
Though it wasn't intentional, we'd formed an alliance of sorts to eliminate each other's enemies.
I wrecked Oasis's distribution network with the shop, and the Head Mod had taken advantage of that opening to erase Oasis physically.
"What a strange connection."
I stroked my chin and thought it over.
“A powerhouse this strong could be useful in the future...?”
I wasn't going to stay holed up in this disaster-control room forever, and who knew what variables might arise as I expanded my territory?
This was the best insurance money—or rather, mana stones—couldn't buy.
“This must be pretty rare, right...?"
I picked up a can rolling around on the floor and murmured.
“Heaad Mod. I think I should get a reward, right?”