Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse-Chapter 217 : The moment

At the loud shout, everyone's eyes turned to Justin.

In the midst of all those gazes, Justin found the unfamiliar faces and asked Nathan.

"Is that them?"

"Yes."

"...!"

The moment they met his eyes, the newcomers hurriedly looked away.

Their reaction was so clearly one of fear that Justin tilted his head in curiosity.

'...These people rebelled?'

Regardless of their power, they lacked even the slightest bit of boldness.

To rebel meant to oppose Justin, the previous ruler of their land.

If they had acted with that knowledge, surely they would have at least some baseless confidence to carry them through.

And yet, they were trembling.

'Well, we'll find out after some questioning.'

Justin walked forward and casually perched himself on the edge of the fountain in the center of the plaza.

At the same time, Derek jerked his chin toward the immigrants and said,

"Kneel."

"Huh?"

"Kneel. Don't you understand?"

"...."

The command to kneel was so natural that the immigrants hesitated for a moment.

But only for a moment.

As soon as the man in front kneeled, the rest followed suit, awkwardly mimicking him.

After all eight immigrants had knelt, Justin finally spoke.

"Who's the leader?"

"I am."

The man who had knelt first answered.

He looked to be in his early twenties and was the most composed of the terrified group.

"Your name?"

"David."

"Alright, David. Let me ask you one thing first. Why did you come here?"

"Huh?"

"You lot rebelled against me and declared independence. So why did you come here now?"

"That's..."

David hesitated for a long time, then clenched his eyes shut and answered.

"To surrender."

"Surrender?"

"Yes."

"Hahaha."

A dry laugh escaped Justin's lips.

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Were these people serious?

"If you were going to surrender, you shouldn't have rebelled in the first place. You rebelled, took a chunk of my land, and now you're surrendering? What kind of nonsense is that?"

"No, it's not that! We're not trying to pull anything...!"

"Then what is it? Did you think you'd have a great time living independently, but then ran into something you couldn't handle on your own?"

"...!"

David's face turned pale in an instant, as did the faces of the other immigrants behind him.

Noticing this, Derek made a disgusted expression.

"So, you mean to tell me they only came crawling back because they needed help? They were going to keep living as rebels if they didn't need anything?"

"Probably."

"No, that's not it! We're not here because of that...!"

"Not because of that? What a load of crap. Can I just kill one of them as an example?"

"Leave it. Let's hear a bit more of their excuse. I'm curious how convincing it'll be."

With each exchange, the immigrants' faces grew more colorful.

Especially the man behind David, who looked like he was about to pass out.

David was the only one still holding onto his sanity.

Under Justin's expectant gaze, David began to speak with a trembling voice.

"There really was a reason. We had no choice but to rebel...."

After the Day of the End, Earth had fallen into complete chaos, but ironically, there was little infighting among humans.

The reason was simple.

There were so many monsters that people didn't have much opportunity to interact with each other.

"If we had been on the verge of starving, people would have been forced to act, but with an unlimited supply of water and boiled potatoes, no one ventured out unless they had a very good reason."

Of course, there were people who left their isolated lives out of frustration, boredom with the potato diet, or for other reasons.

Like those who formed a faction at the large supermarket during the first Great Migration and were now working as slaves in Washington.

But they were in the minority.

The majority, who were terrified of the monsters, preferred to survive on boiled potatoes and never left their homes.

And even those who moved to find resources stayed put once they reached their destination.

"There were so many monsters that moving from place to place was practically a death sentence. Whether they liked it or not, people couldn't interact with others. At most, you might bump into someone near a convenience store by chance."

The situation only changed dramatically after the first Great Migration ended.

After ignoring the system's call to migrate a second time, no more messages were heard.

But just because the messages stopped didn't mean the world was frozen in time.

It simply stopped informing people of changes.

As a result, when the number of monsters on the streets started to dwindle, hardly anyone noticed right away.

"At some point, the monsters were confined to specific areas, and the rest of the land was cleared of them. Even in the areas where monsters still roamed, it became possible to travel safely if you avoided them. It was like how hunting grounds and villages are separated in games."

"That sounds like a good thing. At least, as long as you avoided the hunting grounds, you wouldn't die, right?"

"No, it was the opposite."

David shook his head bitterly at Justin's comment.

"As people gained the freedom to move around, things got much worse. Organizations began to form, and crime became rampant. I started to miss the days when we couldn't interact with anyone because of the monsters."

In a world without law and order, people acted on their desires, and the worst of humanity came to the surface.

The irony was that while these thugs feared monsters, they became bold when dealing with other humans.

At first, it was mostly individual crimes, and self-defense was enough to chase them away, but as they began to form groups, the situation changed.

Then came the appearance of the "empowered," which accelerated the decline of order.

"Empowered?"

"That's what we called people who gained jobs and skills. I've heard they're officially called pioneers, but since there were no system messages after the second call, no one told us that on Earth."

"I see."

The condition for becoming an "empowered" was simpler than expected.

It was to hunt a certain number of monsters in a hunting ground.

Ironically, it was the thugs who first discovered this condition.

Since they occasionally ventured into hunting grounds to establish dominance among themselves.

Once the empowered started appearing among the thugs, they became even more unruly.

Ordinary gangsters began acting like warlords, and ordinary citizens had fewer and fewer ways to resist them.

"There were some citizens who managed to become empowered after learning how, but far more of them died before they could awaken. Even those who became empowered were too few to fight against the criminal organizations."

"So, you banded together. Now I understand. You're telling me that on Earth, there's been a war between citizen groups and criminal organizations?"

"...."

At Derek's comment, David averted his gaze without saying a word.

The unexpected reaction made Derek blink in confusion.

"What? Am I wrong?"

"Of course, you're wrong. Do you really think those complacent people would actively fight back?"

At Justin's words, Derek looked at him with confusion.

Justin fixed his gaze on David and continued,

"I don't even need to see the people who stayed on Earth to know what they're like. They wouldn't want to risk their lives fighting, and they'd hate even more to protect someone else's family. Do you really think they'd willingly form an organization to fight?"

"Uh... Then how have they survived this long? Without forming groups, they should have been easily wiped out."

"All they had to do was join the very criminal organization that was tormenting them. With the strength of a large group, there'd be less danger to their lives, and no leader would carelessly get rid of a useful empowered individual. Isn't that right?"

"...!?"

Derek turned to David, eyes wide, as if asking if Justin's words were true.

David's face flushed red, and he was unable to respond.

"It's not like we wanted to... There just weren't many choices..."

"I didn't ask. Just keep talking."

His tone made it clear he didn't care about David's sincerity, which caused David's expression to darken even more.

He seemed to realize that appealing for sympathy would get him nowhere.

"The situation gradually worked in their favor. Eventually, with nowhere left to expand, different groups began to clash. But as their organizations grew, resource shortages started to become a problem."

Everything on Earth had remained frozen since the Day of the End.

There was no additional production.

Once something was consumed, that was it.

For those in power, it was a frustrating situation.

They had fought to become leaders, only to be stuck eating boiled potatoes and drinking bottled water.

"In that situation, a system message that hadn't been heard for a long time suddenly appeared. And then..."

"Portals to this place opened up?"

"Yes. They appeared everywhere. Once a certain number of subjects and empowered individuals passed through, the portals closed."

"I see."

Justin didn't need to hear more to understand what had happened next.

The leaders probably didn't want to enter the portals themselves, but they must have realized that they couldn't remain kings in a resource-less Earth forever.

If they wanted to continue enjoying their status, they needed access to something that set them apart from others.

And with their organizations behind them, they likely felt confident enough.

Their mistake, however, was in not knowing that each portal led to a different territory.

"So? Now I understand how you ended up here, but what does that have to do with rebelling against me and then surrendering?"

"As I said before, we had no choice but to surrender to those criminals...."

"Enough with the excuses."

"It's not an excuse. I'm trying to tell you that some of the criminals came with us. Some real scum slipped in among the rest of us."

"What? Are you saying they rebelled before you could?"

"...Yes."

At David's reply, Derek scoffed.

"What kind of nonsense is that? What difference does it make who rebelled first?"

"No, it does make a difference."

"Brother!?"

"Think about it. When someone rebels and seizes control of a territory, the leader changes. And you know what happens when the leader changes, right? There are special privileges that come with leadership."

Derek's eyes widened as he realized the significance.

Seeing Justin's reaction, David seemed to gain a bit of hope, nodding his head eagerly.

"That's exactly it. They rebelled to seize control and gain the leader's privileges, so we had no choice but to act first to stop them."

"Impressive."

"Huh?"

"I said, impressive."

"I-I don't understand what you mean...."

Justin clicked his tongue at David's confusion.

"If you lose your leadership rights, you can just take them back through war. But it seems neither you nor the criminals even considered that possibility. How much do you value your own lives? How did you even manage to fight monsters?"

"...."

"You're all the same. Those who gave up the moment they lost their land and those who act like they'll do the same when it's taken from them. I've learned enough about the pioneers this time."

David opened his mouth as if to make an excuse but quickly shut it and lowered his head.

It seemed he had no more words to explain.

"So, we've covered why you rebelled. Now, tell me why you surrendered. With your level of competence, I'm surprised you had the courage to come here at all, instead of being too scared to show your face."

"Well, that's because..."

"Speak up. I can't hear you."

"The criminals who escaped joined forces with other territories and came after us... We didn't have enough strength to stop them..."

"...."

Justin pressed his fingers to his forehead as he felt a headache coming on.

How could the answers be so consistently pathetic?