Park Jin Hyuk held his sniper rifle and walked toward the waterfront.
It was impossible to go into the forest and create an ambush. They could also be attacked if a cannibal were alive. Cha Jun Sung thought the same.
In a position where they were on a quiet chase, they could not take that kind of risk.
Seuseuk.
The two who had been walking as though running, lowered their bodies. They had found Campbell.
“Shoot?”
“We can’t shoot without talking to him. We need to be sure he’s the killer.”
The context pointed to Campbell, but what if it wasn’t him? Blindly shooting him was not something someone in their right mind could do.
“I’m going. You stay here and aim. Pull the trigger if I send the signal.”
“Be careful.”
Cha Jun Sung approached Campbell. He left some distance between them and made his presence known. If his senses had been amplified with body modification, he would already know anyway.
“Campbell.”
“Huh?”
Campbell reacted to the voice and turned around. His shaking eyes – Cha Jun Sung did not miss this change like an eagle watching its prey.
“Mister Cha? You hadn’t gone back?”
“Carlyle.”
“Carlyle?”
“He died. I’m assuming you won’t give the excuse that a cannibal killed him?”
“I want to say, ‘I didn’t kill him!’ but the situation won’t let me. That’s right. I took more care in killing him, but I guess I got caught.”
Campbell put on an expression of discomfort. This was a scenario he had not expected.
He had procrastinated thinking that Cha Jun Sung had already gone back. He had given his back to him while he had peace of mind. It was surprising, but he was unfazed.
“Are points the goal?”
“About half?”
“What is the other half?”
“Points are the main reason, but killing is also fun.”
Kik kik!
His mask was coming off.
Cha Jun Sung realized that he was facing a psychopath.
“Aren’t you curious as to how many points you’re given when you kill a Lifer?”
He was curious. If all of the deceased’s points were passed over, a war could arise among Lifers. It would be more rewarding than hunting mutants.
“They give you 10%. I earned about 5000 points after killing 4 people.”
Cha Jun Sung needed to get through a 1500-point mission. He could earn that easily by killing just a few Lifers. He could see how it would be addictive.
“Did you kill Lloyd and his men as well?”
“They were mortally wounded while trying to save Carlyle. I am the one who killed them, but I guess it would be right to say that they pulled it ahead of schedule.”
This is why he had not found traces of Campbell on Lloyd and his men.
“You have an impressive eye. It’s a good thing I didn’t follow you back there.”
If he had followed Cha Jun Sung, not only would he not have been able to kill him, but he might have died himself.
“Let me ask you. Is what you said the truth? What about the party you came with?”
“I killed everyone because they tried to quit when they found out it was impossible to complete the mission. I was captured because I was unlucky. Thank you, Mister Cha. You saved me.”
This much was the truth. If Cha Jun Sung had not saved him, he would have died 100%.
“Everything is true except that?”
“There’s no reason to hide the rest is there?”
“How did you stay alive?”
“The cannibals….. They’re stupid but maybe they felt a certain level of kinship with their own?”
Campbell annihilated his party and killed hundreds of cannibals. The smell of blood spread all throughout the island because he had been unable to clean up the battlefield.
This had called the cannibals to him. He fought back because he could not die so pathetically, but he could not handle the numbers that swarmed to him.
The funny thing was that the cannibals had locked him in a pen and killed Lifers in front of him. They had wanted him to experience the pain of watching his kin die.
They did not want to starve him to death, so they had thrown him the provisions that Lifers brought in with them.
“I even pretended to be surprised sometimes because I thought they might kill me if I didn’t care. And….. I told them how to use the electric net.”
After he had spent a few days in the pen, the evil cannibals came looking for him.
They brought a few items that had bothered them and motioned something with their hands and feet. What could it be? They were asking how to use them.
They put the dangerous firearms in storage and started using the items for capture and camouflage in hunting Lifers because all they had to do was press a button.
Campbell had felt some pleasure in watching this because it was like watching a play. This was why he had not been bored even though he had been locked up for weeks.
Guilt? He didn’t have anything like that. If it was to stay alive, he could kill thousands of people without blinking. Look at him. Hadn’t he survived?