It was a miracle. Most of them had almost no understanding of this world. In the previous world, ‘most’ people had no understanding.
How did this disaster come to be in this world?
Why did they have to suffer?
Even if fighting to survive was the answer, not everyone had the ability to do so. In fact, all of the people had just lost everything they had achieved in their lives.
In the very early stages of the trial, the most common reason for death was suicide due to giving up. This did not change even during the second life. Those who couldn’t adjust to the new way of life decided to take their own lives. To them, a second life wasn’t a blessing. It was just a repetition of hell.
They tried to do something. It was a second chance, after all. But the ones that received a second chance wasn’t only them. It just grew worse as they were competing against corrupt people.
They were now losing in knowledge, experience, and the will to survive.
And the south was especially brutal for losers. In the north, the ones with experience paid no attention to those with none. There was no profit from using or killing those losers so they were largely left alone.
The south was different. These losers were properties or assets. The strong reigned over them and used them to profit for as long as they lived.
Ironically, this eventually allowed more inexperienced people to survive in the south, even if it meant a life worse than death as slaves.
“S-savior…!” a bald man blurted out at Dohyuk. He was holding a rosary bracelet. It seemed that the man had interpreted what he saw as a miracle from heaven.
“Thank you- Thank you!!”
He wailed. He was the first one who knelt in the first place. That prompted the other people to follow. Even to those with no religion, there was no other way to explain what Dohyuk had done.
An island descended from beyond the horizon, and a man came out and killed all the tyrants with unimaginable movements. He wasn’t even injured after being struck multiple times.
A miracle.
“Thank you, God, for saving us!”
“Hey- I’m not Go…”
Dohyuk tried to object, but stopped.
‘Actually, I am.’
Dohyuk waved them off.
“Stop kneeling and follow me.”
Dohyuk asked Heeyun to guide the people, “Can you control those people?”
“All of them?”
“The crazy ones will be kicked out anyway. Just in case, show them your power if they try to do anything fishy.”
Dohyuk knew that even if they were not crazy, humans were not all that good anyway. Force was necessary to keep order.
“If there are any murders, use your judgment.”
“And if there’s any who do dumb- I mean improper actions, I will warn them first and then kick them out the second time.”
Dohyuk was surprised to see Heeyun smile.
“It was what you did ‘before’.”
“…”
Heeyun then immediately turned and shouted, “LISTEEEEEEEEN!!!!”
She shouted with such power that it seemed like she would be a better leader than Dohyuk.
“EVERYONE LISTEN WELL! FROM NOW ON…”
Dohyuk then remembered Heeyun as one of the top members in his group in his previous life. It seemed that it was true. As Heeyun began talking to the group of people, Dohyuk turned to Duhoon.
“I don’t have much experience in this.”
“…”
“But I know enough. If you tell me what I need, you will live longer.”
Duhoon nodded.
“Those people.”
“A-at least I didn’t kill them. I’m sorr…”
“How can I use them?”
“Huh?”
It was Duhoon who was shocked instead. He was prepared to listen to Dohyuk lecture about morals or justice.
“You can’t even answer the first question? I asked you where you use them and why.”
As he had said to the boy, Dohyuk was going to try his best. Even if it wasn’t free, it only seemed fair.
What Dohyuk wanted was just like the other corrupt ones: to become powerful. The difference was that he wanted it in a different way than those corrupted ones. He didn’t have the will or power to take care of all those people like some saint.
“If-if you are talking about how to use those slaves…”
If they kept that number of people alive, it meant they were getting something out of their labor.
“…S-so, we taught them to gather various extracts and herbs from the forest… The ones you currently have are normal slaves without any special skills.”
“Skills? Like that of a doctor or an engineer?”
Duhoon was a little confused.
“Uh… Y-yes, we have those kinds of slaves… but you know, the ones with special ‘Nature’ or ‘Talent’ that are not suitable for fighting.”
“…”
“Those are controlled by the officers of the circle themselves. Oh, a-and some good girls..”
“That’s enough.”
Dohyuk ordered him to stop, and then began to think. He had planned to capture one person to gather information when he arrived, but the existence of ‘slaves’ was unexpected.
‘It’s different.’
North and south. The landscape was still relatively the same, but the culture was different.
“Good.”
Dohyuk asked the original question he was going to ask.
“Where’s the city named Barkatu?”
…
When Dohyuk and Aruga were still busy talking about their ‘contract’…
“….W-what?”
Dohyuk had the upper hand in the contract they made. It was Aruga who was in a bad situation.
“My profit is too little,” Dohyuk said. Half of it was a bluff, while half of it was the truth.
“You have no coins or anything you can give me right now?”
“I-I told you! It’s not like my power is weak! It’s just how the ‘rule’ works!” Aruga replied.
“If you serve me, as a god, I can give you everything you want. I mean, with just the flick of a finger, I can make it rain fire from the sky…”
“Don’t talk about nonsense.”
This world was not their own. The gods needed help from Casita’s needle to shape the world, or a host to bring forth their power. Without those conduits, it was not possible to do anything.
“That’s annoying.”
“…”
