VICK'S POV
"I was sick and tired of so much injustice.
Even after the end of the world, people were still the same.
I wasn't very smart, but I knew who was worth trusting and who wasn't.
I had never trusted people who had too much power, and when Sally told me those bastards over there were from Central, I kind of understood the situation.
— They're rotten bastards... It's always like this.
I grabbed my spear and stopped holding back. Even though Sally had tried to pull me back again, this time I walked toward the dome.
When the man who came outside noticed me, he panicked and ran back inside, clutching something in his pocket and closing an electronic iron gate at the entrance to the dome. But with a swing of my spear, I destroyed the front entrance.
— Vick!
Sally ran toward me, and I saw more people coming outside, but they were all weak. They weren't Returners.
Those looks... Those expressions.
Expressions of pigs who had power and clung to nothing but money and their petty interests.
They all had those intellectual faces of people who thought they were important.
But they were just humans, cockroaches like us who would die from a bullet to the head or a broken neck.
One of them, a middle-aged woman, began communicating through what looked like a pocket radio, but I struck her with my spear again and cut off her arm, making her scream.
The others around her started running, but Sally understood the situation and began pulling them back with her ribbons.
— Two went inside. Get ready.
I told Sally, but there wasn't even enough time. Two enormous lions with demonic appearances and tails covered in about ten snakes came charging out of the dome toward us.
— I'll take care of them. Don't let anyone escape.
I said that, but then I noticed a long-haired man who looked like a Returner charging toward me. He jumped in front of the lion, but Sally stepped in front of me and used her ribbons to form a circle, slamming into the young man and knocking him to the right.
The lion tried to hit me with its paw, but I dodged without moving my feet from the ground and pierced its stomach with my spear.
Its entrails spilled out almost immediately, but it kept advancing. This time, it tried to bite me, but with a kick I knocked its head upward, then swung my spear and cut its neck.
Even so, it remained standing.
Enough blood poured out to form a huge pool on the ground. It had to be weakened by now, but it didn't show it.
Instead, it attacked me ferociously while the other lion came from behind.
I dodged both of them and used my spear to block their attacks with their heavy paws.
One of them hit me and made me stagger. It had cut my waist, but it was nothing I couldn't handle.
I used my ability to make mana flow through my spear and spun it rapidly, forcing both lions back.
One of them had lost an eye and charged toward me. I blocked its bite with the shaft of my spear and slid underneath it. I pulled my spear back, ripped open its stomach, and cut the snakes off its tail.
They fell to the ground and came crawling toward me, but I used a slash of fire to set them ablaze.
Taking advantage of the movement, I set the one-eyed lion on fire, jumped on top of it, and drove my spear into its back, leaving a huge hole.
I jumped upward and struck the other one as it leaped toward me.
I tore one of its legs off, but it tried to bite me. I used an ability to reinforce my body and let it bite my arm. Then I used my spear to pierce its forehead twice, until a purple fluid sprayed all over my body.
It fell to the ground, but it was still moving, even though its brain had been struck.
"What the hell is this? Are they zombies?"
I looked at Sally, who was having trouble against the man. He was wielding a medium-sized sword and blocking every strike Sally made with her ribbons.
I saw another lion coming out of the circular wing and quickened my movements.
I swung my spear in a 360-degree arc and cut that lion's head off.
The slash continued in Sally's direction, and she took advantage of it, using her ribbons to redirect the attack toward the young man, cutting part of his shoulder.
The other lion was already leaping toward Sally. She used her ribbons against the ground to propel herself upward. She kicked the lion and then used one of her ribbons on it to gain momentum and launch herself toward the man.
One of the ribbons transformed into a blade and cut his neck, sending blood spraying into the air.
The lion roared and charged, but I pierced its side and threw it to the ground.
— Don't these bastards die?
Sally noticed that the other lion, the one that was burned and missing an eye, was also still moving as if it were perfectly fine.
— Apparently, they did something to them.
I infused the tip of my spear with mana and began firing rapid strikes at the advancing lion as its body was torn apart.
I finally tore away half of its head, but it only stopped when it approached Sally and she pierced its eardrum with a sharp silk thread.
— They're running away!
I noticed two bastards already far away. I couldn't allow that.
I didn't know what their intentions were, but they certainly weren't good.
I swung my spear and cut both of them in half.
I might have committed a crime and an injustice there, but no one was going to escape.
Sally looked at me pale-faced, but I charged at two more men who were still trying to communicate through that radio.
I jumped and swept the legs out from under a bald man, who immediately began begging for mercy.
— I'm just doing my job! Don't kill me!
— Vick, inside!
Sally pointed toward the inside of the dome, and three creatures that looked like trolls came out, tearing one of the men in half and drinking his blood.
Another man tried to escape, but one of the trolls threw a rock at him, crushing his body and turning everything above his waist into ground meat.
"Cockroaches."
— Try to leave at least one alive. We need answers!
Sally said as she went to fight the trolls.
She jumped onto the head of one of them and wrapped her blue ribbon around its neck. She stepped on its head and jumped upward, making its neck twist violently.
Why did all this injustice happen?
Why in this fucking tower?
Weren't we supposed to be free here?
I activated my rage mode and engulfed my body in mana. I tore the bald man in front of me apart and charged at the two trolls.
I used my spear to cut the right leg off one of them, making it fall backward onto the ground.
As for the other, I jumped onto its chest and drove the blade of my spear into its head. I spun around while gripping the shaft with both hands and split its head open, sending its brain and skull flying in all directions.
Sally had to create a shield with her ribbons to keep herself from getting covered in it.
— Vick...?
Of course she was surprised by that. After all, violence always shocked people.
But so what?
That tower was a path to hell. It was no different from the real world.
When I was little, I had seen things far more hellish than this tower.
When I was only seven years old, I had to take care of my five-year-old blind sister. Our grandmother helped us, but she was already very old.
It was just the three of us.
I learned from an early age to work and struggle so I could become someone capable of taking care of them both.
Our parents ran away and left us behind because of my sister.
They didn't want the burden of taking care of someone who was visually impaired.
I always lied to Kenya and told her they had left because of money, but I knew it was because of her.
I taught her the things she learned at school at home.
When I was twelve, I started working delivering flyers. My grandmother was already becoming frail because of her age and back problems, so I also had to do the housework and take care of the bills.
At that age, I was practically doing things adults did.
But I was okay with it.
I always endured everything.
I would work hard for Kenya.
She was weak, a lamb in a world of merciless, hungry lions.
Why did she have to be born that way?
I cursed God many times and even thought about joining some cult, but I knew they were all just con artists and worms too.
In this world, the strongest survive.
I also started training my muscles. After all, I couldn't afford to be weak.
I was taking care of an elderly woman and a blind girl.
I thought about running away many times, but where would I go?
All I had left was to accept that burden.
But if that had been all, I could have handled it.
The problem was that those cockroaches always seemed to enjoy causing trouble for everyone else.
People aren't satisfied with simply living their lives and surviving.
They have to fuck with everyone else's lives.
In high school, I started getting bullied because I had a blind sister and because of my more 'masculine' appearance.
As for my appearance, I didn't care.
But when they talked about Kenya, I wouldn't forgive them.
Until then, I had ignored every injustice and kept to myself. I worked and did my best.
But why did those demons keep trying to ruin other people's lives?
It was the first time I had ever beaten someone up.
I sent two girls to the hospital. Another was traumatized and needed psychological treatment.
After that, I was suspended from school and even lost my part-time job.
But that wasn't all.
One of the brothers of one of the girls I had hospitalized set my house on fire.
I lost my school life.
I lost my job.
I lost my home.
No.
I wasn't going to lose anything else.
I was going to start taking things too.
Cockroaches only stop when they're crushed.
It didn't matter what I did. Nothing would be enough.
All I had to do was step on them and crush them.
Crush every single fucking bastard!
When I realized it, my body was covered in blood, and there were two corpses in front of me.
The brother and that bitch.
Two fewer cockroaches in the world.
Crush them.
That was the solution.
When I came back to my senses, all those scientists were dead, along with the trolls and monsters.
Sally was staring at me with her eyes wide open, fear in her expression, covered in blood beside one of the dead scientists whose head had been severed.
I couldn't feel guilty.
Why should I?
After all, I'm just crushing these cockroaches."