My Students Regret It After I Retired

21 – Former Disciples Contact Leos Again

“Kuhuk… kuh-heok…”

Pakol, unable to even put up a proper resistance, was struck by Leos’ chain blade and fell to the ground. He knew he should be fighting back, but he had no way to stop the merciless ranged attacks flying at him.

Leos gathered up all the useful items from Pakol’s corpse, put them in his inventory, then walked towards the distance recorder that was still rolling.

‘Got it all on camera.’

Seeing his face and the back of his head, he went through the editing process to avoid being recognized as much as possible, and completely removed his voice. After several layers of modification, enough to make it impossible for Herisia and Benedict to guess it was Leos, he slowly began to clear away the bodies.

“They sure eat well.”

As he tossed a corpse far away, monsters suddenly swarmed like a pack of wild dogs that had found a meal, tearing into it.

‘Are they eating because they’re hungry, or do they attack because they just hate humans?’

Even Leos didn’t know the reason why monsters were hostile towards humans. All monsters unconditionally attacked humans. Some mutations might behave slightly differently, but most monsters, like the ones he was seeing now, would bite, tear, attack and devour anything human, even if it was a corpse.

It didn’t seem to be for survival, as they didn’t show the same interest in other plants and animals as they did humans, and given that the monsters didn’t even eat each other, he could only speculate it was out of hostility.

‘There’s no point thinking about it. It’s a problem that won’t have an answer anyway.’

To know exactly why monsters attacked humans, the only way would be to hear it directly from them. But how could he possibly ask creatures he couldn’t even communicate with?

Leos, after confirming that the corpses were completely devoured, slowly began moving towards the secret bunker.

‘There’s no one around now. It was a bit reckless, I admit, but it couldn’t be helped.’

The raider groups that called him ‘Drelf’. Not only did they expose the existence of the safe zone, but they also shared its location. This place was destined to draw an immense amount of attention.

Located in the center of the Red Gate vortex, those near large distant cities would never be able to break through and reach this point, but conversely, those who were already in this vicinity when the Red Gate incident broke out could easily come here.

A few people gathering wouldn’t be a problem, but now that the information had spread on the Interrunner, everyone nearby could potentially come here. Just looking at the Interrunner now confirmed that.

[But is it real that the safe zone is in the central area? I’d rather die than go outside but since it’s in the center, maybe I can move over there.]

[Are there no monsters in the safe zone? If we hold out there, will the Empire come to rescue us…]

[The raider said he went to the safe zone, so does that mean that people like him are gathering there?]

Leos agreed with that last point. There was a concept called the broken window effect. If someone throws trash in a clean public space, it will quickly become a large dump. A single bad actor can trigger a terrible snowball effect.

If the safe zone became known as a place for raiders, then other raiders would likely flock here, and if things went wrong, they might even unite, causing a completely unprecedented situation.

The solution to prevent this was very simple.

[LEO]

[Title: Proof]

[Body: Raider.avi / I’ll kill every raider I see and post proof. You guys better watch out.]

This time Leos uploaded a video of himself fighting instead of just a photo. It was provocative, but it was enough proof to leave a lasting impression on people. And sure enough, the reaction was fierce.

[Shit…what the hell is this? LEO is fucking strong]

[Wow, he fights like in a movie. Is that even possible?]

[Look closely at the video, there are a ton of bodies on the side too?]

[LMAO, serves the raiders right. I hope they all died.]

[LEO is our gallery leader now.]

While there were positive reactions, of course, there were also some negative opinions.

[This is kinda scary]

[LEO, are you going to kill regular people if they go near the safe zone?]

The murdered man was a notorious pillager, so there weren’t many who defended him. Even so, some viewed Leo’s harsh response with a cynical eye. However, these people were a minority, and most began to praise Leo.

[FUCK KAR. How many Interrunners did that b*stard kill? Serves him right.]

[This is justice. I’m going to like every post LEO makes from now on ㅇㅇ]

[Let’s show him some firepower, guys]

Public opinion rapidly began to form, and even Leo’s older posts started receiving a merciless bombardment of likes. The popular posts TOP 10 list became completely filled with Leo’s posts, and watching this, Leo made a new post.

[LEO]

[Title: I won’t touch regular people near the safe zone.]

[Body: But I’m going to chop the heads off any pillager b*stards I see. And anyone doing useless shit, I’ll kill them too. And a few of you keep commenting, don’t try to latch on. I’m solo, I don’t run with anyone.]

ㄴ Wow, so LEO is protecting us?

ㄴ I watched the video, and if someone this strong protects us, won’t the pillagers stay away?

ㄴ I’m near the safe zone, can you take me in? I can do anything, really.

ㄴ LEO said don’t latch on, you b*tch. Shut up and take the info.

ㄴ Why are you being so harsh? ;

Leo checked the comments one by one and slowly began to look around.

‘Am I fighting for them?’

What a joke. Now that the safe zone was revealed, it was inevitable that people would gather here. The next best option was to at least prevent the pillager groups from coming here, or more fundamentally, prevent them from getting close to the bunker.

‘Human shield’

When ordinary folks start swarming this place, we can quickly get a read on the situation from their screams or the posts they put up on the Interrunner when the looters show up. We can react on the fly when problems arise. In short, we can use them like living, breathing human CCTVs.

‘This is better. If I hadn’t posted this way, only the strong, nasty b*stards would’ve holed up in the safe zone.’

The more weaklings we gather, the better. They’ll become our human sandbags, taking the hits for us and keeping the looters at bay.

– *Screech* –

As Leos opened the bunker door and stepped inside, Bendict clapped wildly, welcoming Leos.

“Boss! I saw the video! Why didn’t you tell me you were such a badass fighter? That chain sword move, never seen that before!”

“Of course you haven’t. It’s only for killing people.”

Leaving the childishly grinning Bendict behind, Herisia spoke with a worried tone.

“Leos… now that people are going to flock to this area, what if there’s some kind of conflict…”

“Kill them. It’s only natural. In this situation, you have to keep killing to survive. Those weaklings who can’t? They’re already dead, run through by some other b*stard’s blade.”

“…”

Herisia was about to say something but ended up just nodding.

“That’s right. After all, most citizens of the Empire never trusted you, Leos. Maybe the people from the Leos Gallery, though…”

Something occurred to Leos, and he asked Herisia,

“What’s the Leos Gallery admin doing?”

“Ah! I was messaging them back and forth. They said they followed your advice and managed to get some food. They left a comment thanking you, didn’t you see it?”

“I get so many notifications, I can’t check them all individually.”

“Ah… I guess that makes sense. By the way, you made it to the top of the trending page, how many points did you rack up?”

Leos went to the Interrunner site and checked his remaining points.

[Current points: 11,777P]

He finally let out a faint chuckle, muttering,

“I can finally make a high-grade Artifact. With this, even if people flock to me, I won’t have anything to fear.”

*

“Ughhh… Ughhh…!”

A man groaned, writhing in pain within the cave. Enas frantically tied a bandage around his arm to stop the bleeding, shouting,

“Just hold on! I’m healing you as much as I can with the Artifact…!”

“Don’t leave me… please… I can recover soon…”

“I won’t leave you. Why would I abandon a comrade?”

Having barely escaped the mutated Minotaur, the members of the Gatekeeper Management Headquarters frantically sought refuge in a nearby cave. But they were in a dire situation, most of them incapacitated after suffering gruesome injuries.

Bellin, huddled in a corner, muttered in despair,

“Why… it shouldn’t be like this… this shouldn’t be happening…”

Her face was pale, completely blank, as if something was deeply wrong. Enas frantically asked the others,

“Does anyone know anything about mutated Minotaurs?”

“…”

“We don’t know… maybe Leos would.”

At someone’s words, Enas flinched, looking towards Bellin. Bellin just had her head buried between her knees, silent.

“Don’t mind me.”

With Bellin’s permission, Enas spoke,

“Master Leos… Master Leos definitely killed one of those monsters before. I’m sure it didn’t even take a minute that time, but how on earth…”

“That time, the two heads weren’t attacking at the same time…”

“No, even when he was attacked like that, Lord Leos just killed it without breaking a sweat.”

Leos’s former disciples, lost and unsure what to do. They stared at the ground in despair for a long moment, then muttered.

“If we go on like this, we’re all dead… Even if we go outside, if we encounter that thing, we’re wiped out… Maybe we should try to contact someone…”

“Contact… what do you mean?”

When Enas asked, Belin spoke.

“I mean, contact Leos… He wouldn’t answer if I tried… but he… he’d know a way.”

For a moment, Enas gave Belin, who was clearly in a state of confusion, a peculiar look.

“Belin, didn’t you say you were in pain even just hearing Leos’s name? But why…?”

Then, Kozaric quickly answered instead.

“It’s because our lives are on the line! Belin doesn’t want to die either, right? Enas. You were at least close to Leos, so try contacting him. He might pick up if it’s you.”

“…”

Enas looked at the Distance, then slowly entered Leos’s unique identification number.

‘…’

Holding her breath for a moment, she stared at Leos’s unique number and then pressed the call button.

Hoping, desperately, that he would answer.