Breathing Life into Real Dolls - Chapter 66: 3 Days Of Waiting

1.

When I opened the community forum in the evening, this post was trending in real-time popular posts.

[I think Kim Doha might have already arrived.]

I live near Uljin, where the Haneul nuclear power plant is, so I immediately set out as soon as I saw the post.

It didn’t even take a day to get there, and now I’m waiting at the power plant for other ability users to arrive.

There are quite a few people like me, so over 10 ability users are already gathered here. Most lived nearby, so they’re either E-Class or F-Class…lol.

Anyway, while we were waiting, one of the ability users said they saw someone with wings flying into the power plant carrying several people during the day.

I didn’t think much of it then, but the local authority here suddenly called us and told the E-Class and F-Class ability users to just go back.

Considering they had been telling us to wait until now and suddenly say they don’t need E-Class and F-Class, it seems likely that Kim Doha or some other high-ranked individual is here.

Probably, that bastard said they didn’t need us and told them to send us back…

Thinking about it makes me pissed, lol

So, for now, I’m holding out and refusing to leave.

Who does he think he is, telling those who came to seal the rift to go back?

Just because he’s ranked 1st? Damn it, lol

If they want to send us back, let Kim Doha come and say it directly. I’d like to see his face, lol.

In this zombie apocalypse, the existence of ability users was precious.

They were indispensable for fighting against zombies, and there weren’t many of them.

Hence, ability users naturally realized their status, and everyone had somewhat developed a thuggish side.

‘I’m a special existence, so you all should be beneath me.’

Such an attitude was emerging.

The problem was that if someone accepted this survival-of-the-fittest logic, they should properly grovel in front of ability users stronger than themselves. Yet, there were occasionally those who, seemingly without ever having been put in their place, recklessly acted out without assessing the situation.

As expected, the guy who wrote this post seemed to carry that sort of attitude.

The comments weren’t very favorable either.

-If Doha says to leave, just leave, you damn jerk…

└Why should I? What can you do if I don’t leave, lol

└You dumbass, do you think you’d even be a speck of dirt under a nail in sealing a B-Class rift? Know your place and scram.

└Exactly, let’s see Kim Doha’s face and then leave, lol. Does it make sense for us, who arrived later, to be told to disappear immediately?

└Ugh, damn, this guy doesn’t get it…

└Freaking hell, lol

-The success of this operation depends on the nuclear power plant, and this guy’s completely lost it.

-Upon hearing the news of Kim Doha’s arrival, all the local pests have gathered, lol

-Didn’t he receive any home education?

-What’s with this EF-Class punk acting cocky against a ranker?

└For real, lol

└Probably a narcissistic bug.

After reading the comments, I thought…

‘This guy seriously needs a good smack to come to his senses.’

I immediately called Director Seon Jong-yun.

-Hello? Mr. Doha?

“Yes, Director. Are there any E-Class and F-Class ability users refusing to leave?”

-Ah… actually, there are. I thought our D-Class ability user staff would handle it, but they came out in a “let’s give it a try” manner. But it’s also not possible for them to really risk their lives and fight.

“They want to see my face, right?”

-Huh? How did you know?“

“There was a post in the community forum. Please gather all of those people in one place. Tell them they can see Kim Doha’s face as they wished.”

-Oh dear, will you be okay? Sorry for the trouble…

“It’s okay. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

-Yes.

After hanging up the phone, Serena and Ciel were looking my way.

“Should I kill them all for you?”

Serena asked with an innocent look on her face.

Perhaps it was because the last opponents she had faced were the humanoid creatures that had attacked the department store at Jeongbalsan Station, which made her a bit aggressive.

However, this situation wasn’t that severe.

There was no need to bring Serena and Ciel with me.

“You can’t just kill people on a whim. I’ll handle this alone, so rest here.”

“Yes, Master.”

I left the room by myself.

2.

When I approached the room where the ability users were gathered, Director Seon Jong-yun was waiting for me.

“Mr. Doha, you’ve arrived.”

“Yes. Was there any trouble?”

“Not yet. Our employee, a D-Class ability user, is monitoring them inside. I tried asking them to leave peacefully once more, but I was rejected, and the atmosphere is quite tense now.”

“I see. Let’s go in and see.”

As soon as I finished speaking, I opened the guest room door.

I quickly scanned the people inside.

Firstly, a man dressed in a staff uniform stood near the entrance. He must be the D-Class ability user.

As for the troublemakers…

Three were lazily sitting around a round table, and two were on the sofa. A total of five.

The guys were staring at me with wide eyes.

“…Kim Doha?”

The one who spoke had tattoos densely packed on his arms and neck, visible from under his black short-sleeved shirt. The tattoos had the vibe you’d expect from real gangsters.

Suddenly acting familiar, he approached with a grin.

“Mr. Kim Doha, I’ve missed you. I’m a fan.”

His tone didn’t feel like that of a fan but rather carried a lazy, almost mocking vibe.

Moreover, as he spoke, he brazenly took out his smartphone and snapped a photo of me.

Click.

Keeping a poker face, I watched him do so and then raised the tablet I brought with me so that all five of them could see its screen.

Displayed on it was the trending post we had seen earlier.

“Which one of you wrote this post?”

“…”

Realizing the coldness in my voice, their expressions finally turned grave.

The tattooed man who had just taken my picture replied with another smirk.

“Oh, that? I wrote it. Just out of my admiration for Mr. Kim Doha, I wanted to see your face once…”

Bullshit. Talking as if it was some kind of fandom.

I swiftly grabbed his smartphone, exerting force with my grip.

The smartphone’s screen shattered into dust and crumpled like a piece of toilet paper.

Crackle-!

That should have destroyed the storage containing the photo as well.

“…”

Placing the crumpled ball that used to be his smartphone onto his stunned hand, I said,

“You said you wanted to see my face, right? Now that you’ve seen it, get out of here.”

All these jerks here had blatantly ignored Director Seon Jong-yun’s polite request for them to leave.

There was no need to treat them with respect or decorum.

Seeing his smartphone get crushed, the guy’s expression contorted in anger.

“What the hell? Just because you’re number one in ranking, you think you can do this?”

The tattooed man clenched his fists, seemingly ready to pounce.

“…”

At this point, there was no need to continue this tedious conversation.

There was also no need to wait and see if this guy would use some unknown ability.

Silently, I threw a punch right into his face.

Thud-!

He, of course, didn’t have time to react, and my fist connected squarely with his face.

It felt like I might’ve broken a bone due to the force.

When I pulled my hand back, his nose appeared to be completely smashed in.

It would’ve been better if he had half the resilience to match his bad attitude.

He promptly fainted and collapsed to the ground.

He was probably an ability user, however weak, so he shouldn’t be dead from that.

I hadn’t intended to kill him, so I just made sure to rough him up appropriately.

“…”

A heavy silence enveloped the room.

The other four, who had been sitting, now awkwardly stood up, all of them eyeing me warily.

Brushing off the blood on my fist, I finally spoke.

“Hey, you guys.”

“Yes, yes!”

“Yes!”

The visibly shaken group responded.

“Why didn’t you guys leave when Director Seon Jong-yun asked you nicely?”

“…”

“Well, that’s…”

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

They were now exceedingly polite.

They’d probably leave if I told them to right now, but that wasn’t all I wanted.

More of these guys might appear in the next three days.

And I didn’t want to repeat this scene every time, so I decided to make an example out of these guys.

“If you’re sorry, gather here, kneel, and raise your hands.”

“…”

“Do you want to lie down next to this guy?”

Pointing at the guy whose face was smashed, the four hesitating ability users promptly knelt and raised their hands, looking quite embarrassed.

I then took a picture that captured both the unconscious guy and the four of them clustered together.

Snap.

“Good. All four of you write an apology on a full A4-sized paper. If you write carelessly, you’ll end up like this guy.”

“…”

“Answer.”

“Yes!”

“We’ll write it!”

I turned to address a power plant worker who was staring at me blankly.

“Could you watch them to make sure they write their apologies properly?”

He stiffened as if I were his boss and replied.

“Yes! Understood!”

“Thank you.”

3.

I posted the photo of those guys kneeling with their hands up and the four apology letters to the community.

With a post titled, “[E-class, F-class, please leave gracefully when asked nicely.]”.

With this, I doubt there’d be any more guys acting tough.

Anyone who did would essentially be saying, ‘I want to get hit and write an apology too!’.

The comments were mostly positive.

-LMAO ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Kim Doha is tougher than I thought, LOL ㅋㅋㅋ

-ROFL ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Feels so refreshing ㅋㅋㅋ

-Did those idiots really think they stood a chance against a ranker in real life? Did their guts spill out? LOL ㅋㅋㅋ

└Just act tough on the internet against rankers, LOL ㅋㅋ

└For real, LOL ㅋ

└They always talk about rankers lightly in the community, probably lost their sense of reality ㅋㅋ

└I’ve laughed so hard after a long time ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-The sincerity in those apology letters is damn hilarious ㅋㅋㅋ

For the next three days, having little to do, I spent most of my time browsing the community.

With everyone thirsty for news on the Haneul Power Plant, any related post skyrocketed in popularity.

Rumors about rankers were no exception.

Posts like, “Rank 9 has set off for the power plant, Rank 3 seemed to have left a while ago, Rank 2’s identity hasn’t been revealed yet, but who could it be…” were all over.

I waited, munching on the lunch boxes provided by Mr. Sangdeok, with Serena and Ciel.

And now, three days later…

It was time to form a party and explore the rift.

I entered the conference room where all the ability users had gathered.