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The first step of the operation was reconnaissance. We checked the enemy’s firepower and level of alertness, built intimacy and trust as familiar neighbors, and looked for gaps to stab them with a knife.

It seemed easy, but it wasn’t something to be taken lightly or done carelessly. This was the groundwork for building the structure of pillaging. A mistake here would bring everything crashing down.

So, I brought our entire Pillager Group with me.

Night fell, and the dark streetlights illuminated the area.

Only one streetlight was intact, while the others had wires dangling loosely. People clung to the wires like bugs drawn to the light.

“Once you’re done charging, move aside.”

“Ah, cutting in line! You wanna die? Where do you think you’re squeezing in front of me? No, go ahead, stand in front of me. Let me see the back of your head. I’ll crush it nicely.”

“Are we really gonna be able to charge today?”

With many areas without electricity, a lot of people had gathered. The heat seemed to make people irritable, and the sounds of arguments and loud phone calls from those charging their phones filled the air.

‘Good. Lots of people, and just dark enough.’

I subtly gestured from the shadows. My Pillager Companions scattered into the chaotic streetlight area.

We had already made a reconnaissance plan.

Jeondohyeong, the Electric Thief, would scout for electrical skills. Park Yang-gun, the thief and robber, would search for infiltration routes and weak points. Sajihyeok, the conman, would use his silver tongue to interact with people.

They couldn’t build or fix anything, but they were good at doing evil.

My job was simple. I observed the overall situation and atmosphere, and made plans.

I pretended to look around casually. The city’s situation could be inferred from the many conversations.

“Excuse me, do you have any antibiotics? My kid has diarrhea and is on the verge of death.”

“We don’t deal with medicine. Try going to the Tower of Life.”

“I can’t trust those lunatics spraying poison on the streets…”

Someone with a family suffering from waterborne diseases was asking an Electric Nomad handing out numbers for antibiotics.

“Can I exchange batteries and a lighter for food?”

“Only bring food for charging phones. Ask someone else.”

With the military gone, the market had disappeared, and people gathered to charge their phones were bartering.

I grimaced as I counted the number of people squirming in the darkness.

‘How many people are there? They’re like cockroaches. How did so many people survive?’

Even as civilization crumbles, people live on. That tenacious vitality was on display before my eyes. And this wasn’t even a lawless zone. It had its own rules and functioned as a small society.

There was no war of all against all, no bloody fights.

At this point, I started to doubt. Had I been wrong? Even in the Apocalypse with resources dwindling, could people not join hands and survive?

…No. A commotion broke out. I quickly turned my head and headed towards the source of the loud shouts.

“Give us the food!”

The Electric Nomad’s business must have gotten around, as Pillagers had come. Three of them. Their clothes, splattered with mud, were stained yellow, and the machetes and hatchets in their hands gleamed white under the streetlight.

The Electric Nomad, standing like a security guard at the entrance of the streetlight area, let out a deep sigh.

“Ah… Pillagers are here again.”

“Give us the food! What right do you have to use the streetlights? It’s a government facility paid for by my taxes!”

I quietly observed their standoff.

The Pillagers looked like they hadn’t eaten in a while, their faces gaunt and cheekbones protruding. Their skin was damp with sweat from the hot weather.

The Electric Nomad’s physical condition seemed better than the Pillagers’, but they lacked the weapons and desperation.

‘I hope those Pillagers do well.’

I gripped my hammer tightly and watched the Electric Nomads. If those Pillagers caused trouble, I could see how the Electric Nomads would handle it. The number of armed personnel, the level of their weapons, their response methods, and the time it took to respond.

“I can’t stand anything else, but I can’t tolerate anyone messing with electricity.”

The Electric Nomad, who looked like a security guard, muttered as he leaned against a streetlight and reached out his hand. His eyes seemed to flash with an electric blue light.

Click, the sound of a switch being turned on. Then, the three Pillagers convulsed as if having a seizure and collapsed into a puddle. Strange screams erupted from their mouths.

‘Electrocution?’

I knew from using a police taser. It seemed weaker than a taser, but that was definitely electrocution. I quickly looked around and found the trap the Electric Nomad had set.

A puddle of water at the entrance. Wires submerged in that puddle.

It was similar to the trap I had set up on Villa Street. Just as I had blocked the sidewalk and left the road clear to create an environment where intruders could be hit by a car, they had deliberately set up a puddle at the entrance to electrocute people.

The Electric Nomad’s outfit caught my eye again. I had thought they were wearing rain boots because of the rain, but they were insulated safety boots. The gloves also looked like insulated gloves.

The Electric Nomad muttered as he watched the screaming Pillagers.

“Must be because I rigged the voltage booster. The output’s too low to kill them quickly.”

“Ugh, gah!”

The Pillagers splashed in the shallow puddle. They tried to get up, but their hands slipped on the ground, and they fell face-first into the water, convulsing from the electric current.

It was a scene of simultaneous waterboarding and electrocution. And on top of that, traditional torture was added.

The Electric Nomad grabbed three spears with nails and stabbed them into the Pillagers one by one. The electric current flowing through the water traveled through the nails and into their bodies.

That was it. The Pillagers became corpses, the electricity flowing from the switch was cut off, and the Electric Nomads calmly removed the bodies.

Silence returned to the streetlight area.

I blinked, and only then did I realize something I had overlooked.

‘Nomads.’

It was a name I had given them, but it was true that they lived a nomadic life searching for electricity. And nomads are strong by nature.

Moreover, weren’t they humans obsessed with electricity to the point of madness? Not like me, forcing myself to be ruthless, but naturally harboring madness.

For a moment, thoughts of cooperation returned to their rightful place.

‘After all, force and ruthlessness are the best.’

***

Returning to my home in the villa, I talked with the Pillagers. We shared the information we had gathered to find a way to get the masks.

“Did you find anything?”

“No. From what I saw, the streetlight area isn’t their main base. That street is just a workplace for trading food. They seem to store resources separately in their residential area.”

Park Yang-gun shook his head. He meant we needed to investigate the Electric Nomads’ main base further.

Turning to Sajihyeok, he looked a bit scared. He spoke hesitantly in a low voice.

“I talked to some people who came to charge their phones. The people selling electricity seem pretty dangerous.”

“Why?”

“Pillagers have attacked the streetlight area a few times, but they were all repelled. They even used drones to track the fleeing Pillagers and set fire to their base.”

Fire? Arson?

My jaw dropped. Are they really insane? In a world where even firefighters have become Pillagers, setting fires that could spread to the city would kill everyone?

For the first time, I felt a shiver at someone else’s madness.

“Electricity addicts…”

I couldn’t understand their thinking. Not something else, but electricity, and not even their main base, just a streetlight area, and they set it on fire.

It was so genuinely ruthless that I didn’t want to mess with them.

Yet, somewhere in my heart, a competitive spirit quietly rose.

‘I can’t fall behind.’

Once you fall behind, you keep falling behind. As the city’s competitors become more ruthless, I must advance too.

At that point, I looked at Jeondohyeong.

“Didn’t you investigate anything?”

“How can I investigate when I don’t know anything about electricity?”

True? That didn’t seem entirely wrong. Thieves only steal the end product; they don’t care about the process of how it’s made.

Jeondohyeong continued.

“I asked how they made it, but they wouldn’t tell me. They said they just studied from books and did it roughly, so they couldn’t explain.”

“They got to the level of modifying streetlights just by reading books?”

It sounded like a lie. No matter how I thought about it, it seemed like there was an electrical expert among the Electric Nomads.

I fell into thought for a moment, then clapped my hands and stood up.

“It’s getting late, so let’s call it a day. Come up with ideas to attack the Electric Nomads and steal the masks by tomorrow.”

The Pillager Companions nodded obediently and left.

Alone in the quiet room, I sat hunched in the dark, refining the scenario over and over. I thought from the Electric Nomads’ perspective, plotted schemes, compared armaments, and prepared various options.

Gradually, the skeleton of the scenario took shape, and its outline became clear.

“Humans obsessed with electricity. If we cut off the electricity, they’ll move to find it.”

The Electric Nomads’ clear weakness. If we exploit this weakness, we can control their movements. If we can control their movements, we can make them walk into our trap.

 

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