"You think you can tell me not to go easy on you?! To me, of all people!!"
"Kid, you're right. I am an old man at heart. And that means I know things brats like you don't."
"Yeah? Then I'll teach you something even old bastards like you don't know!!"
Thud
Black energy leaked from Kim Namwoon's hand and slammed straight into me.
But...
That was why. My attribute made this level of pain feel like nothing.
Of course, just as the message said, it reduced pain. It didn't nullify the attack.
The blow had landed all the same, but Kim Namwoon had no way of knowing that even this was far too familiar to me.
How many injuries had I endured for Dokja's sake?
Wounds and bruises I already knew well. At the same time, medals proving I had protected Dokja.
To me, pain wasn't a symbol of misery. It was hope that I could protect Dokja.
Boom
"What the hell is this? I'm crazy strong, aren't I?!"
Boom!
"You said you wouldn't go easy on me! This is you not going easy on me?! Just standing there and taking hits!!!"
Boom!!
Boom!!!
"Ms. Dokja... Mr. Dokyun is..."
"...I can see that too. Why is he..."
'Why isn't he fighting back?!'
Just as Namwoon said, just as Dokja and Sangah were worrying, Dokyun was only taking punches without even guarding.
Even if the pain was reduced, that didn't mean the attacks weren't getting through. He should have gone down long ago from Kim Namwoon's skill, [Blackening].
That would have been true if stats didn't exist in this world.
"Huff... huff..."
"You done hitting me?"
"Why won't you fall?!"
"Because I've got something to rely on too."
My base Stamina was 4.
It was probably thanks to all the hard labor I'd done since childhood to make money and keep Dokja alive.
My Stamina was 4 and my Strength was 5 because I'd lived in circumstances where both had no choice but to improve. There was no way that bastard, who had never trained properly, could be stronger than me.
On top of that, my attribute had activated twice already.
Which meant my current Stamina was 14, and my Strength was 15.
I had thought the overwhelming gap in stats between Kim Namwoon and me would make any attack of his useless against me.
I was right.
Maybe I wouldn't have even felt pain without the pain reduction.
"Just fall already!!!"
Shhk
As a final struggle, Kim Namwoon pulled a knife from his clothes and slashed at me.
Kak—!
Ting
"You... what the hell are you?"
"An old bastard and a siscon, you piece of shit."
Thud
"Kghhk!!!"
Boom!!
This time it landed properly... maybe two or three ribs had broken.
"Cough!"
Blood spilled from Kim Namwoon's mouth.
I could see fear settling into his eyes.
I could feel the same fear in the gazes of the others behind him.
All except one.
Dokja alone.
"...Two minutes left."
"S-save me...!"
"Since I'm an old man, let me teach you one thing you didn't know."
"W-what?!"
"If you're going to kill someone, you have to be ready to die too."
It was only natural.
The world was fairer than people thought. When you tried to kill someone, it didn't let you stand risk-free while only the other side paid the price.
"You said it yourself! You're never supposed to get used to kids dying! And you're still going to kill me?!"
"And my little sister said this too. That we have to get used to the deaths of kids like that."
"You sick siscon bastard."
"And you looked at my little sister and said, 'I just have to kill a coward like you.' So who's the coward now? If you ask me... I think that coward is standing right in front of me."
Thud!
Thud!!
After saying that, I started attacking Kim Namwoon without another word.
Kim Namwoon begged me to spare him, then cursed at me, but...
Crunch!
Crunch!!
Crunch!!!
By the time the sound of the impacts changed, Kim Namwoon's jaw had been completely ruined, and he couldn't even make a sound anymore.
Even after the message appeared, telling me Kim Namwoon was dead, I kept throwing punches.
Splash
Splash...!
Before I knew it, Kim Namwoon's head was gone, and only his body remained.
He looked no different from the people whose heads had exploded at the Dokkaebi's hands in the beginning.
"3, 2... 1. That was close."
When I checked the time after finishing everything, it had been dangerously tight.
I hated Kim Namwoon for trying to kill Dokja, so I had given him despair and killed him brutally.
But I had nearly gotten myself killed doing it... Next time, even if Dokja is involved, I should probably restrain myself a little.
"Aaaaaargh!"
"Ughhk!"
As soon as the time limit passed, the heads of the people who hadn't killed 'at least one living being' began to burst apart.
I survived.
And I would make sure she survived too.
My life. My hope. My Dokja.
The Dokkaebi appeared before us again, as if this were all routine.
Things like this would happen a lot from now on. I'd have to get used to it.
But why was it that even after brutally killing a person... I felt no hesitation?
Was that just the kind of person I was?
Was that what it meant to be a hypocrite?
"Oppa, are you okay?"
"I don't know. I'm more shocked by the fact that I killed someone and feel nothing than by the fact that I killed someone at all."
"...It might be because of your attribute. Don't worry too much."
Only then did I notice a new message window.
Just as Dokja guessed, my attribute had blocked the mental shock.
Was that a good sign or a bad one?
It was hard to see it positively when the contents of the message made it impossible to take it that way.
"Haah... You were right. My attribute blocked it."
"An attribute that protects your mind is a really rare and valuable attri—!"
The Dokkaebi cut us off and looked into the air with delight.
No, not completely empty air.
It was staring at something in the air that looked like stars and grinning.
Dokja probably knew what those were too, but there was no reason to irritate the Dokkaebi by talking now.
'The survivors are Lee Hyunsung, Yoo Sangah, Dokja, me... and that guy called Manager Han, plus the brat who owned the bugs. Six in total...'
Crunch
A faint bursting sound came from Dokja's side, so I turned to look. She was crushing the last remaining bug.
I didn't know why she had bothered to kill it, but she must have had her own reason.
And naturally, I had no intention of stopping her.
Constellations. The most central mysterious beings in [Ways of Survival], the beings we also called gods.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this entire story was controlled by them.
At least, that's how Dokja had explained it to me.
I knew Coins had all sorts of uses, but I didn't know exactly what they were for, so it was probably best to save them for now.
"Dokja. Here."
"This is... a handkerchief?"
"You've got blood on you. You should wipe it off."
"Thanks."
Kindness...
It wasn't a word that suited someone like me, someone who couldn't even feel guilt after killing another person because of an attribute.
"Dokja. Six, including me. Is that a lot of survivors?"
"You could say that."
Dokja and I turned our eyes toward the youngest child among the six.
As if to prove we were siblings, we looked at each other for a moment without saying anything, then walked over to the child.
"Kid. ...Do you want to live?"
The child quietly nodded at Dokja's words.
"Then come with us."
"Become our little sibling!"
"...? Oppa, what did you just say?"
"? I told that brat to become the youngest in our family."
Normally, in an apocalypse like this where a child had no guardian, if someone said, "Come with us," wouldn't that usually carry the feeling of becoming their new parent?
That's all I meant by it.
It's not like I have some suspicious taste for little boys.
At that moment, it felt like my eyes met the Dokkaebi's once again.
The Dokkaebi giggled while looking at me, as if to say its earlier words hadn't been empty talk. It looked so innocent that it was hard to believe this was the same being that had exploded people's heads right in front of us.
Other than me and Dokja, no one had any information about Constellations, so the reaction was muted.
Of course, if I showed that I knew setting details, I'd only be treated as even stranger, so I couldn't let it show.
Snap
As always, the Dokkaebi flicked its fingers.
Ding
Ding
Ding
Ding
Ding
Ding
A familiar yet subtly different window appeared before everyone.