Chapter 36: Decree (1)
There were two glass chambers in the queen’s room.
One was empty, and the other held a woman captive.
The woman’s hands and feet were bound, rendering her unable to move.
When she needed to use the bathroom, she had to shake a string connected to the left side with her teeth.
Tinkle—tinkle—.
Then, two people would approach, release her, and escort her to the bathroom.
Afterward, she would inevitably be locked back in the glass chamber.
She had to eat standing up and sleep standing up as well.
It was part of the queen’s collection.
The queen would capture the man and woman she thought most closely matched her ideal image and keep them in glass chambers.
They were, quite literally, for display.
The man’s glass chamber was currently empty.
“What’s the reason for all this?”
Se-bom, who was sitting on a chair, asked.
The queen was lying on a luxurious bed.
She was wearing only a robe.
Beside her were piles of snacks and drinks.
Se-bom strained against the rope binding his hands, trying to free himself, but it didn’t budge.
The queen was gazing at a cage.
Inside the cage was a hamster the queen had been raising since before the world fell into ruin.
The hamster was diligently running on its wheel.
The queen stared at it for a while before walking to the end of her bed.
From an old oil heater, she pulled out a roasted sweet potato.
Carefully unwrapping the foil, steam rose from it.
The queen handed the sweet potato to Se-bom.
“Do you want some?”
Only then could Se-bom meet the queen’s eyes.
She had a youthful face.
Early twenties, short bob haircut, a college student.
She was petite.
She didn’t look taller than about 160 cm.
Her appearance was striking enough to make her popular in her department.
Despite this, she was the ruler of Anyang’s most powerful faction in Dongan-gu.
Se-bom shifted his gaze from the sweet potato in her hand to his “chair.”
A naked man and woman were kneeling, forming the chair.
The two trembled as they crouched.
“Are you not going to eat it?”
The queen’s voice rang out again.
Se-bom turned back to her.
She looked like any ordinary college student.
It was hard to believe that someone with her face had committed such irrational and grotesque acts.
But the queen was calm.
“You must be hungry. You haven’t eaten anything since you got here, just drinking water.”
The queen walked up to Se-bom.
She placed her hand on his right shoulder and pressed down.
The two people beneath him let out faint groans.
“What’s the reason for all this?” he asked again.
The queen leaned over Se-bom from behind, resting her chin on his left shoulder.
Her breath brushed against Se-bom’s ear with every word.
“Do I need a reason to do this?”
Crunch.
The queen bit into the sweet potato, skin and all.
Se-bom had to endure the sound of her chewing right next to him.
He closed his eyes tightly.
Every second he spent here was torment.
Se-bom needed to find out what had happened to his sister, Joo-yeon.
The queen removed her hand from his shoulder, walked back to the bed, and sat at its edge.
Casually, she continued speaking.
“I just wanted to try it.”
“What...?”
Se-bom looked at the queen in disbelief.
She crossed her legs and kept eating the sweet potato.
A glass of milk sat on the table next to her bed.
“I just... felt like trying it. I wanted to see something cruel. I was curious. The world is boring beyond belief, isn’t it?”
She set down the sweet potato and took a sip of milk before continuing.
“Going to school like everyone else, meeting friends, going to karaoke, sometimes dating, eating pork cutlets, giving my parents a bit of money... curling up under the blankets to read webtoons, drinking occasionally... repeat, repeat, repeat. Like a hamster on a wheel. Of course, I didn’t live such a normal life myself... probably?”
The queen wiped her lips with the back of her hand.
Then she lay down sideways, letting her fingers tap against the bed.
One by one, her fingers began to “walk” across the bed.
“Hamsters must wonder what’s outside their tiny cage. Don’t you think? I’m the same. I’m curious about things I’ve never experienced. If something like that happens... what would happen next? If a couple who were once married are now bound and turned into furniture... would they go insane? Or would they endure?”
Her tone was as languid as ever.
The queen, who had been watching her fingers, turned her gaze to Se-bom.
“It’s dull, isn’t it? Experiencing and feeling the same things every day. Don’t you agree?”
Se-bom gritted his teeth.
Blood trickled between his lips and dripped onto his chin.
Drip.
The drop of blood fell onto the back of the man who formed part of the chair.
A psychopath.
A lunatic.
A madwoman.
There were no words to define the queen beyond these.
Se-bom said to her:
“You’re... insane.”
“No, I’m not insane.”
The queen immediately refuted.
“You’re a lunatic. A crazy psycho!”
“Really? I don’t think so. I’m just honest.”
The queen’s eyes sharpened.
“You’re the one who’s not being honest.”
Knock, knock.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
A voice called out from outside.
“This is Search Unit Commander Lee Soo-eun. May I come in?”
The queen stared at Se-bom before responding.
“Yes. Come in.”
She carefully got up and pulled the warm, soft blanket around her.
Lee Soo-eun, the search unit commander, entered and bowed slightly before the queen.
It was a gesture of respect.
“Yes, Soo-eun. How are the cops?”
The queen asked, peeking out from under her blanket.
The age gap between the queen and Lee Soo-eun was apparent.
If they were seen together, they could easily be mistaken for a mother and daughter.
Lee Soo-eun, still slightly bowing, continued.
“They’ve now entered the first district.”
“The first district?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Is that so?”
The first district was a bustling area that even the queen’s faction in Dongan, the largest in the region, aimed to control.
Capturing the first district would mean no one could rival her power in Anyang.
This battle between factions ultimately revolved around food supplies.
Securing food meant consolidating power over Anyang.
The queen, lying under the blanket, gazed absentmindedly at the ceiling before speaking.
“All right then.”
The queen thought.
It was time to crush the spirit of the Manan faction.
The cops were just...
They can never be trusted.
Cops are a force that needs to be eradicated from the world.
“Execute the remaining cops. And package their heads neatly as a gift.”
At those words, Search Unit Commander Lee Soo-eun fell silent.
But she couldn’t disobey the queen.
Her decrees were absolute.
Lee Soo-eun lowered her head slightly again as she accepted the order.
“Yes.”
That’s when it happened.
Right after those words, the chair Se-bom had been sitting on began to tremble.
The man was trying to get up.
Se-bom naturally rolled to the side and fell.
The man, still bound, crawled toward the queen and knelt before her.
“Please…! Please!!! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I apologize. At least spare my wife. Please.”
The woman, who had been part of the chair, lay sobbing on the floor, while the man fervently begged, his hands clasped together.
The queen slightly lifted her upper body.
Through the slipping folds of her robe, her bare skin was exposed.
Frowning, the queen asked the man again.
“Why should I?”
“If, if, if it’s because of that incident…! I can explain everything. Everything! Really!”
“No need.”
“Park Ji-soo. Park Ji-soo…! No, Your Majesty! Regarding that case back then, the suspects… those bastards! My superior took bribes and reduced their sentences. We were just following orders from above… and my wife did nothing wrong… Ah, Your Majesty.”
At that moment, two of the queen’s subordinates entered and approached the kneeling cop.
The queen finally spoke.
“I know. Your wife did nothing wrong.”
“Ah… then… then why?”
Thud!
The queen’s subordinates grabbed the cop couple and dragged them away.
The queen smiled.
From his spot on the floor, Se-bom, who had a direct view of the queen’s expression, was horrified.
“Oh, come on. How many times do I have to say it? I’ve already forgotten all about that. Hm? I know the Korean police only protect perpetrators anyway… how sloppy your investigations are… and how ‘innocent’ you all claim to be.”
The queen propped her chin on one hand and smiled with her lips curled.
Her expression was one of pure amusement.
She continued speaking as if it was the funniest thing in the world.
“It’s just entertaining. Don’t you agree, Se-bom?”
At that moment, for the first time, Se-bom felt fear from a human smile.
The queen burst into laughter and flopped backward onto the bed.
“Ah. I’m a little bored. Decree.”
At her command, a hologram window appeared in front of her.
[Leader of the First Faction of Dongan, Queen Park Ji-soo]
[Decree]
[Article 1, Clause 1: All members of the faction must obey the queen’s orders.]
[Article 1, Clause 2: No member of the faction may speak the queen’s name or slander her.]
[Article 1, Clause 3: All members of the faction must gather their assigned quotas and offer them to the queen each week.]
[50 Achievement Points are required to unlock additional decrees under Article 2.]
Queen Park Ji-soo continued scrolling through the hologram.
50 Achievement Points.
Points could only be obtained by completing quests.
She was eager to earn them quickly and establish her own laws.
“What should I add next?”
The laws listed in the decree were enforced by the system.
In other words, even if the queen didn’t witness or sense a violation, the system would automatically detect it and notify her.
The ruler’s system was an immensely powerful authority.
Using this system, she had rapidly expanded her influence, leading to her current position.
Park Ji-soo felt like she was about to go mad with happiness.
The two weeks since the world ended had been far more fulfilling than her entire 21 years of life.
Everything moved according to her will.
Just like a game.
“Se-bom, how long are you going to keep lying there?”
She glanced over.
Park Ji-soo tilted her head slightly to look at Lee Se-bom.
He lay trembling where he had fallen.
Watching him, Park Ji-soo smirked.
“Don’t you want to save your sister? She’s probably being tortured right now… must hurt, don’t you think?”
“You… you’re insane… I’ll kill you, I swear…”
“Sure, sure. If you were the absolute best man for me, you could’ve lived comfortably like that sister in the glass chamber. Too bad. But what can I do? You’re just excellent, not supreme.”
The woman inside the glass chamber flinched.
Leaning back, Park Ji-soo finished speaking.
“Get up. That’s an order.”
Se-bom remained motionless.
At that moment, a notification window appeared before him.
[Decree by Queen Park Ji-soo of the First Faction of Dongan, Article 1, Clause 1]
[Clause 1: All members of the faction must obey the queen’s orders.]
[Failure to comply within 60 seconds will result in a penalty.]
The penalty was death.
Se-bom bit his lip.
Slowly, he rose and climbed onto the queen’s bed.
A total of 35 police officers captured in Dongan-gu were lined up and executed.
The executioner of the First Faction used a large disaster axe to hack at their necks.
One strike wasn’t enough to sever the spine; it took two or three swings.
The cop couple who had been part of the chair met the same fate.
The members of the First Faction carefully packed the cops’ heads to send as gifts.
They retrieved colorful boxes and wrapping paper from a stationery shop and placed one head in each box.
These were loaded onto a junked car pulled by Toon-Toon.
They were intended as gifts for the cops in Manan-gu.
It took us three hours of travel to reach Manan Police Station.
Everyone was exhausted and on the verge of collapse.
Two patrol officers guarding the station spotted us and rushed out.
“Captain! You’re safe?!”
“Captain! Oh, thank goodness.”
The two young officers hurried to Lee Chung-chun, ignoring the rest of us.
Jin Jae-hee and I bypassed their tearful reunion and headed into the building.
We desperately needed rest.
But just as I was about to enter, Lee Chung-chun stopped me.
“Wait a moment, Sion.”
I paused and turned to look at him.
Lee Chung-chun stepped forward and made a suggestion.
“Would you like to meet the chief? There’s something urgent I’d like to discuss with you. I need your counsel.”
“……”
His voice was solemn.
Meeting the chief.
It meant confronting the leader of this faction.
The implication was clear.
Lee Chung-chun was acknowledging me.
And it proved that everything was going according to my plan.
I was tired, cold, and wanted to lie down immediately, but I answered him.
“Yes.”