Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 25
After settling his debt, the first thing Hyeonjun did was throw a small party.
He ordered a mountain of delicious food and shared the joy with Hyeona at home.
Hyeona suddenly burst into tears, causing a bit of a commotion, but the party wrapped up with laughter.
“So I don’t have to be a Hunter anymore?”
Right around the time they’d cleared the food and started on ice cream for dessert, Hyeona asked.
“Not quite.”
“Why not?”
“If things go well, we might find a cure for Mom.”
Plop.
Hyeona dropped her spoon.
Her already large eyes went round as the full moon in the night sky.
“R-really?!”
“Finding a cure and actually curing her are two different things, of course, but there’s still hope.”
“Wahaha! That’s great!”
Hyeona bounced up in delight.
Hyeonjun caught hold of her and calmed her down.
“Someone’s coming up from below.”
“Oh, right. There’s a unit downstairs.”
Hyeona scratched her head sheepishly and sat back down.
She was always forgetting that they’d moved.
-Earlier this afternoon, the suspect behind the terror attack in Jongno was arrested at his residence around 5 p.m. The individual in question…
The TV, left on like background music, was playing the news.
Hyeonjun had been half-listening to the anchor’s voice, but he found himself reaching for the remote as if pulled by something and turning up the volume.
-According to police investigation results, the explosions across the Jongno area were a decoy meant to divert attention, and the true target was the destruction of Gyeongbokgung and Gwanghwamun.
The suspect had commissioned a criminal organization for the job.
The original objective was the destruction of cultural assets, starting with Gyeongbokgung.
However, while a villain was planting explosives inside Gyeongbokgung, he was spotted by a Hunter flying toward the attack site from the sky, and the plan reportedly failed.
-The suspect Mr. Kim, arrested as the mastermind behind this attack, has been confirmed to be the CEO of a large real estate development company.
Kim has reportedly been pushing radical claims for some time, insisting that “cultural heritage is nothing but an obstacle blocking urban development.”
Police believe this attack was also a premeditated crime aimed at opening the way for redevelopment projects stalled by the Cultural Property Protection Act, and are expanding their investigation.
“How can someone like that even exist?”
Hyeona snapped out the words.
Hyeonjun felt the same way.
‘That guy’s completely insane.’
He’d destroy cultural treasures and kill people just to make money?
The villains who do whatever they’re told are a problem, but the real problem is people with such warped ways of thinking.
‘Damn bastard.’
Anger boiled up from somewhere deep inside Hyeonjun.
An attack where anyone could become a victim.
What if the one standing at that scene had been his little sister instead of himself?
The thought made his blood run cold.
‘If I’d been there, a lot of people would have died right in front of me.’
The anchor calmly reported the casualty figures.
The number alone came close to thirty.
Considering the scale of the attack and how crowded Jongno was, it wasn’t as high as one might have expected.
‘Thank heavens the terror crackdown period was in effect.’
Numerous Awakened Police officers and other forces had been deployed across the Jongno area, and thanks to them the damage was said to have been reduced considerably.
It had been an almost uncannily perfect timing.
‘Looked at another way, though, that still means thirty people were injured or killed.’
What if the terror crackdown period hadn’t been in place?
What if those bastards had carried out the attack by avoiding this very period?
‘The damage could have been several times worse than this.’
It was something he didn’t even want to imagine.
“Brother, let’s watch something else. This is just making me feel awful!”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Why keep watching this kind of news on such a good day?
Just as Hyeonjun was about to change the channel.
The screen shifted, and CCTV footage appeared.
-But just as light follows darkness, where there are villains, there are bound to be heroes. Today at the scene of the attack, a hero made his appearance, as always.
A dark underground.
Two figures clashing in the gloom.
Behind them, a woman lies collapsed, and a child sits frozen on the ground.
‘Wait, that’s me?’
Hyeonjun recognized himself at once.
It wasn’t something from days ago. It was today. The scenery of the underground already looked familiar.
-A man is fighting a villain to protect a child and the child’s mother.
The footage of the fight played through without any special filtering.
You couldn’t even see his face properly.
And above all, there was hardly any brutal footage worth censoring.
“Wow, that guy must have saved the kid and the mom.”
“…Yeah, he did.”
“Oh, but doesn’t he kind of look like you, brother?”
“How can you tell anything from that?”
“Even if you can’t see his face, you can make out the silhouette. He looks a bit like you.”
The video froze just before Hyeonjun stabbed the enemy in the back.
-The mother and child rescued by the unidentified Awakened stated in an interview with the press that they wanted to meet them again and properly express their gratitude.
Additionally, the Awakened Police Bureau announced it is reviewing whether to grant the Brave Citizen Award to the Awakened in question, along with other citizens who contributed to resolving this terror incident.
‘Brave Citizen Award?’
What good is it, even if you get it?
I have no idea.
‘Maybe they’ll give out some kind of reward money.’
Then I’d like to go take a look.
***
The next day.
Hyeonjun visited the Seoul South Exchange early in the morning.
He took a number ticket and waited for a while.
Soon, his number was called at the counter.
“You’ve come empty-handed today?”
The clerk at the counter greeted him like an old acquaintance.
Hyeonjun, who came in and out of the exchange every day with his backpack stuffed to bursting with loot.
Because he came so much more often than others, he had become something of a celebrity here, where Hunters flocked in great numbers.
He had even earned the nickname Two Hearts, so well known was he.
It was because he had none of the “days off” that ordinary Hunters enjoyed.
“I came to buy something today.”
The exchange was a place he always visited to sell things.
But today, his purpose was different.
The money left over after paying off his debts out of the one billion won.
He had come to use that money to buy runes.
“What kind of item are you looking for?”
“E-Rank Runes.”
“Which type?”
“Hmm…”
His current stats were Agility 100, Strength 28, and everything else at 1.
Until yesterday, his Strength had been 17, but the moment he opened his eyes today, he copied and absorbed eleven points, bringing it up to 28.
‘Raising Strength first would be neat, I suppose.’
If it had been the Copy Skill, he would have raised Strength first.
But this time, he had to spend money he had bled for.
He needed to take a different strategy.
“How much is a Willpower Rune?”
Hyeonjun decided to use the same method he had when he was F-Rank.
Buy the cheapest runes with cash.
And fill the expensive runes with the Copy Skill, to get the greatest efficiency possible.
“About 1.5 million won.”
1.5 million won.
It was roughly the same price he had seen last time.
“Can I buy ninety-nine of them?”
“That many? Just a moment. Let me check our stock.”
With an exchange this large, there was surely no shortage.
The clerk checked for a moment, then nodded.
“We have plenty in stock. You can purchase them.”
“And the next cheapest one is Stamina, right?”
“Yes. They’re going for 1.7 million won apiece right now.”
Stamina was still the more favored option, so it cost more than Willpower Runes.
‘That leaves me with about 300 million…’
Ninety-nine Willpower Runes would come to around 150 million.
With the remaining money, I could buy Stamina Runes and raise it to 89.
‘Filling the rest of my Stamina with Copy should be just enough.’
Hyeonjun emptied his pockets to buy the runes.
“Wow, you’ve been hunting hard lately, and it looks like you’ve saved up quite a bit.”
“I’ve just been lucky.”
“Could you wait a moment, please?”
The clerk walked off.
It was quite a while before she came back, carrying a basket.
“Ninety-nine E-Rank Willpower Runes and eighty-nine E-Rank Stamina Runes. That’s 188 in total.”
Hyeonjun checked the basket.
Runes packed into a square case.
The case was divided into a grid, with one rune set firmly into each compartment.
“The ones on top are Willpower Runes, and the ones below are Stamina Runes.”
When the clerk lifted the case, another case lay beneath it.
“Go ahead and count them.”
Hyeonjun counted the runes.
Ninety-nine. Eighty-nine.
Exactly what he had ordered.
“The count is right.”
“We’ve checked them several times, so the runes shouldn’t have been swapped.”
So that’s why it took so long.
With so many of them, they must have checked again and again to make sure no wrong rune had slipped in.
“Should I wrap the whole case for you?”
“Yes, please.”
Hyeonjun collected the carefully wrapped box and left the Exchange.
Gulp.
Hyeonjun’s throat bobbed.
Knowing that what he held was worth a full 300 million won, he couldn’t help but feel tense.
He found himself glancing warily around.
Clutching the box tightly to his chest so no one could snatch it, he even took a taxi home.
“Phew.”
The moment he arrived home safely, Hyeonjun finally let out his breath.
He set the box on the living room table and fetched a few bottles of water from the fridge.
“Let’s get started.”
Hyeonjun opened the box and began swallowing the runes one by one.
.
.
.
The absorption that had begun in the morning.
By the time Hyeonjun picked up the last rune, sunset had painted the sky outside.
“Whew, just one more.”
Absorbing 188 runes in one go was an exhausting task.
Even if you had to swallow a small pill 188 times, it would be a chore, and these runes were much bigger, so his throat felt like it was running out of room.
“Ugh…”
After absorbing the 188th rune, Hyeonjun winced and rubbed his throat.
“Maybe I rushed it.”
He didn’t have to hurry the absorption; he could have spread it over several days.
But since he wanted to get more out of the hunting ground, he had pushed himself too hard.
“That took half a day.”
Hyeonjun tidied up his spot, opened the Status Window, and checked his Stats.
[Stats]
-Strength: 28
-Agility: 100
-Stamina: 89
-Mana: 1
-Willpower: 100
The number of runes left until D-Grade is now 182.
Going by the Copy Skill alone, that’s seventeen days more. If I factor in the runes I can buy with Hunter income, I might be able to shorten that.
“I really need that Hunter License to come through quickly.”
I passed the exam, but I won’t truly have the qualification until the license is issued.
The schedule they gave me is tomorrow.
If I go in person, I can pick it up the same day. Mail delivery takes a day longer, apparently.
“For today, I suppose I’ll make do with F-Rank.”
A hunt at the F-Rank Gate, which will be the last one.
Hyeonjun left his house with the intention of ending on a high note.
***
The F-Rank Hunting Ground, Grassland Field.
The place where newly minted Hunters usually begin their work.
At the same time, a place where countless Hunters nurture their dreams.
“Die already!”
“Got it!”
Novice Hunters were taking down monsters without much trouble.
Slimes, Grassland Boars, Grassland Mushrooms, Rabbits, and so on.
“Squeee!”
“Kkig-kkig-kik!”
Monsters with little aggression and weak offense fell one after another under the desperate attacks of the Hunters.
“It’s running away!”
“Catch it!”
Some of them were herding Rune Rabbits, aiming to hunt them in a pack.
And there were quite a lot of them.
“Why are there so many people trying to catch Rune Rabbits?”
“The Management Bureau is encouraging Rune Monster hunts this time. Bring in ten Rune Fragments and they’ll swap them for whichever rune you want.”
“Why would anyone bother with that?”
“I heard they want to raise the quality of Low-Rank Hunters, since the number of Hunters keeps dropping.”
The Hunters who usually frequented this place were left speechless at how many newcomers had crowded in.
Rune Rabbits had always been avoided, since the runes you got from synthesizing Rune Fragments were random.
But now that the government had removed that uncertainty, everyone was scrambling to catch a Rune Rabbit.
“Wow, how are they that fast?”
“I’d never catch one even if I died trying.”
Hardly anyone succeeded in catching a Rune Rabbit.
That was because most of them had jumped in without any real experience.
And the Rune Rabbits just stared from a distance, as if mocking the Hunters who had failed.
“Ugh, this is infuriating.”
“Well, there’s nothing to be done.”
Then, blue-glowing arrows sank into the heads of the Rune Rabbits.
One rabbit was not the end of it.
The rabbits beside it, and the ones beside those, were struck through the head by arrows as well.
It happened in an instant, before anyone could even react.
“…W-what was that?”
The Hunters stood there in confusion.
Even as they tried to make sense of what was happening, arrows rained down from every direction.
“Huh?”
“Who’s shooting these?”
Only the Rune Rabbits the Hunters had failed to catch became targets of the arrows.
The countless Rune Rabbits that had been darting around freely were wiped out in no time.
“W-wait, they’re all dead?”
“How could anyone fire this many Magic Arrows in such a short time?”
The Hunters looked around with blank faces, completely unable to make sense of it.
They wanted to know who on earth was hunting like this.
“Phew.”
Hyeonjun collected his prey at his leisure, under all those stares.
Normally he would have finished skinning them right there, but since he’d caught more than thirty Rune Rabbits, he took the whole lot as they were.
“Having a high Willpower stat really does make a difference.”
Even after firing Magic Arrows nonstop, it didn’t affect my body at all.
If my Willpower stat were low, I’d have collapsed long ago.
“That’s enough for today.”
Less than thirty minutes after I started hunting, I had filled two large backpacks with Rune Rabbit corpses.
I’d have liked to stay longer, but there were so many people that their stares were getting uncomfortable.
‘Maybe I should have just gone to the Mountain Area.’
I came to this nearby spot because the Mountain Area is far from home, but…
Why are there so many people today, of all days?
‘Well, I’ll just run starting tomorrow.’
Just you wait, E-Rank Gate.
I’m going to scrape you clean down to the bottom.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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