WILL: A Wonderful World Part #13 - The Lives in Group Loyalty

Part 13: The Lives in Group Loyalty

_{content warning: child abuse (physical), spousal abuse (physical), domestic violence, hand mutilation, torture

(once again, heed the content warning, though you know what to expect now)}

[BGM: Getting Serious]
It's obviously a terrible situation for both of them, and something tells me it's going to take some work to get the S ending for both halves.

Once again, let's just rip the bandage off and get the other Bad Ends out of the way quickly; this time around, the Bad Ends are pretty exclusive (as in, one side gets a Bad End and the other does not), so let's start with Carlos's first. (Jeabus Mahogany's guess for Carlos ends up with this ending.)

Mr. Kuan came back.
He looked inside the room, and a grim expression came over his face.
”You are dead now, CARLOS!”

I quickly turned around. Oh my Lord!!

Earlier, the girl seemed to be having a seizure. Her entire body was shaking and she kept hitting the wall with her head.
I was afraid that she would hurt herself too much, so I adjusted the rope on her.
But I didn't realize that the rope had become tighter and tighter while she was struggling, and that she couldn't even breathe. Now she was dead!

Oh Lord, what have I done?

I dropped down on my knees. I couldn't stop shaking.
A bullet flew out of Mr. Kuan's gun. It was flying towards me and I could see it getting closer, and closer...

...Yeah. The good news is that this confirms at least that Mr. Kuan has a vested interest in this unknown girl's survival, though why he has her seemingly captured is still unknown. Let's try something else.

Let's try this.

I had just sat back down when Mr. Kuan came back.
He looked inside the room, and a grim expression came over his face.

“This is how you watch someone?”

I quickly turned around. Oh my Lord!!

Earlier, the girl seemed to be having a seizure. Her entire body was shaking and she kept hitting the wall with her head.
I was afraid that she would hurt herself too much, so I adjusted the rope on her.
But I didn't realize that the rope had become tighter and tighter while she was struggling, and that she couldn't even breathe.

Thank God Mr. Kuan had come back early and noticed that. Otherwise I would have made an unforgivable mistake.

Ren tossed a knife over to me and looked away.
I had not been in the group for long, but I knew the rules.
If I wanted to stay, I had to do this.

I bit my lip hard and cut off my left pinky finger.
Half of the bloody finger dropped to the floor. Blood was still gushing out.
It hurt like hell. But I was a man. I didn't make a sound.

Who on earth was that girl?
If only I had been more alert...

Well, she's still alive here, but Carlos still ends up losing his finger, which is an outcome we do not want (obviously).

We're done with Carlos' Bad Ends, so lets see Sang-Gun's next before we start getting some better outcomes.

I must stop Dad.
I climbed up onto the table and smashed the vodka bottle onto his head.
He suddenly stopped and fell to the ground on his back.

Something dark and red was coming out of Dad's head and onto the floor.

I carefully climbed off of the table and ran into her arms, just like I always did.
Every time Dad lost his temper we would huddle together like this.
It was the only way we could make ourselves feel better.

But this time, Mom seemed to have fallen asleep.
I tried to shake her awake. I tried as hard as I could, and shouted as loud as I could. She would not wake up.

I cried.

Well, we know that using the bottle on Sang-Gun's side stops his father, but by not dealing with the rope she's still murdered by him.

There's one more Bad Ending for him, and it's... the most gruesome one, so I won't blame you if you just skip past this one.

Mom's face turned red first, and then blue.
The rope in my hands was choking her tighter and tighter.

I could see the old bruises all over Mom's body.
I couldn't stand this anymore.
I couldn't stand to watch Mom suffer like this anymore.

I was screaming at the top of my lungs, but my brain was completely empty.
I didn't know what I was doing. I just wanted to scream my lungs out.

Dad's face changed into a shocked expression. He stumbled back.
Then he stepped on the bottle on the floor and fell over backwards.

Finally, Mom stopped struggling. She fell into my arms with a smile on her face. She was so still.
I dropped my hands, helped Mom close her eyes, and wiped the tears off of her face.
Mom, I'm so happy...

I heard the door open behind me.
I turned around. Dad had run out. I didn't know where he was going.

..... Let's just get to the non-Bad ends, starting with Carlos again.

I heard the sound of a rope snapping.
I turned around and I saw the girl shaking off the rope.
Mr. Kuan would kill me if I let her get away.

[BGM: Silence]
I grabbed her arm as she was trying to get up from the chair.
“You can't...”

[BGM: Russian Horse]
Before I could finish she kicked me in the crotch.
I felt a BOOM in my head.

She was so tough, even tougher than my sister...
She knocked me out in just a few hits. Then she tied me to the chair like a zongzi.
_{(PS: Zongzi was one of my favorite Chinese desserts.)}

She spent a long time tying me up.
When she opened the door, she happened to bump into Mr. Kuan, who had just come back.
Mr. Kuan looked over her head and saw a tied-up zongzi.

“Bondage play? Hmm. You couldn't even handle a girl? You useless piece of shit.”

As a “reward”, Mr. Kuan gave me a punch to the face.
I could see so many Mexican flags flying around my head.

And now we know that if she manages to get out of her restraints, Carlos is unable to stop her. Another clue to lead to the S endings.

But first, we have one more non-S for Sang-Gun. (Jeabus Mahogany's guess for Sang-Gun results in this outcome.)

[BGM: Getting Serious]

The rope fell out of Dad's hands.
He was about to pick it up when the doorbell rang.
Dad then went into the yard.

It sounded like Alex had brought some people over to intervene.
He had once tried to do it by himself, but he was badly beaten by Dad and kicked out.
He never dared to come back on his own since.

When Dad returned from the door he seemed to have forgotten about what was going on.
He just gave me a kick when he walked past me and went straight to bed.

Mom sat on the ground and cried.
I climbed over into her arms just like I always did.
Every time Dad lost his temper we would huddle together like this.
It was the only way we could make ourselves feel better.

We were lucky enough to get through it this time.
But what about next time? How long did we have to keep living like this?
I hated to be so scared all the time.
I wished... I never had a dad like him.

And, lastly... we need to get an S outcome for both sides. If this update feels a little disjointed, it's because it's actually surprisingly easy to get an S outcome... for ONE of them. The puzzle comes in finding the specific combination of circumstances that will get an S outcome for BOTH sides, and it's trickier than it would seem. That said, our solution is:

...Just putting everything on Sang-Gun's side, but in the right order so that his mother can't be killed but he also is able to knock his father out. This also has the effect of ensuring nothing goes wrong on Carlos's side, too. (That said, the placement of 'five minutes later' isn't actually needed for this ending for Sang-Gun, which is why Regallion's guess ALSO results in the S outcome for both of them.)

[BGM: Misterio]

Mr. Kuan had come back. He pulled up a chair in front of the girl and sat down. He began asking her questions.
The others had come back from the massage as well. We were all standing next to the wall. No one dared make a sound.

From Mr. Kuan's questions, I learned that the girl's name was Ye.
Mr. Kuan had only met her recently.
Mr. Kuan had even bought her an apartment.
Mr. Kuan was a tough man, but he had always been very gentle to women, and he had never slept around either.

Therefore, he couldn't tolerate being betrayed by his woman.

A few days ago he had found out that Ye had been hanging out with people from the Blood Gang.
He began to suspect that she had been approaching him with other intentions. He decided to find out the truth.

Mr. Kuan dumped a bucket of ice water on her head.
The air conditioning had been set to max power, and at 16°C. And it was blowing directly at her.
Every time she would not answer a question, he would cut off some of her hair or slap her in the face.

Ye was quite tough though. Her mouth had started bleeding, almost all of her hair had been cut off, and she still hadn't spoken once.
But Mr. Kuan was tougher.

He sent Ren to fetch him a bottle of whiteflower oil.
He twisted off the cap, forced Ye's eyes open and was about to drop it into her eyes.
Ye was shaking uncontrollably, and tears were welling out of her eyes. She was finally broken.

Mr. Kuan was right about everything.
Ye was not just a member of the Blood Gang. She was also the niece of their Big Boss, Mr. Chang.

But that wasn't what had angered Mr. Kuan the most.
Ye hadn't seduced him to infiltrate Group Loyalty for our loan business. She was only trying to get closer to the other groups of the Black Dragon Gang.
She had only chosen Kuan because he was single, and therefore an easier and more convenient target for her.
The Blood Gang had never cared about the loan business at all.

Mr. Kuan was outraged, feeling incredibly insulted.
”Carlos! Take care of this bitch! Never let me see her again...”

[BGM: Blood Ties]

I must stop Dad.
I climbed up onto the table and smashed the vodka bottle onto his head.
He suddenly stopped and fell to the ground on his back.

Something dark and red was coming out of Dad's head and onto the floor.

Mom sat back up. Her face was pale, like a piece of paper.
She coughed violently for a while, and cried.

I carefully climbed off of the table and ran into her arms, just like I always did.
Every time Dad lost his temper we would huddle together like this.
It was the only way we could make ourselves feel better.