I Became a Disaster-Class Newbie by Stealing Abilities - Chapter 11

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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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Episode 11. Explosive Growth (1)
Lee Do-jun and Baek Seol-gi emerged from the Desert Cafe and made their way to the Hanam City Administrative Office.
The interior was bustling with activity.
Civil servants wore the Imperial Uniform, emblazoned with the Kraken that symbolized the Empire.
They moved about efficiently, processing administrative work.
[Commission Compensation Settlement Department]
Commissions from the Empire were ordinarily finalized here.
“Confirmed. That’s definitely a 5-Star Rank Hazardous Species dwelling in the sewers, Level 3 basement.”
The civil servant handling the examination studied the mutant tiger’s head through scanning equipment.
“My goodness.”
“Professional cleaners and strike teams kept failing every time they went in, and you’re telling me you succeeded…?”
“And with just the two of you, no less.”
Murmurs of astonishment rippled through the office.
“Say, have you considered becoming a professional cleaner for Hanam City? With so many contaminated areas like the sewers, you’d never run out of work.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I don’t intend to affiliate with any organization.”
“I see. A shame, but I can’t force you.”
The settlement was processed immediately.
A bank account and Citizen Grade certificate were issued at the same time.
Since no Merit Points had accumulated yet and Star Rank hadn’t been authenticated, the grade issued was January Grade—the lowest in the Empire’s caste system, which ran from January through December—but there would be plenty of opportunities to raise it later.
[Balance: 85,000,000 won]
Base compensation plus performance bonus, combined with the equipment costs recovered from the six-man team.
‘That’s a nice haul.’
In Hanam City, monthly living expenses typically ran about two million won.
If I lived frugally, I could manage for over forty months.
Though now there was one more mouth to feed, so I’d have to halve that estimate.
She had quite the appetite for snacks, so the money might disappear even faster.
It was at that moment.
Wheeee-eee-eee!
A loud siren suddenly blared across the city.
It meant a public announcement addressing all of Hanam City.
‘No second siren.’
Siren one.
That meant.
A public execution.
A large crowd had gathered in front of the plaza to witness the execution.
“These criminals were caught last night attempting to escape Hanam City and cross into Gangdong Ward! Look well and burn it into your eyes—this is the fate of a deserter!”
Clang!
The blade of the guillotine fell vertically.
Thud.
Five men and women lost their heads.
“Do-jun. Did those people commit crimes that warranted death?”
“Residential relocation is one of the most strictly enforced crimes in the Empire right now.”
Why did everyone go through such lengths scraping together money and accumulating Merit Points, desperately trying to move inward?
The answer to that question stood before my eyes now.
Fifty years ago, Hanam had been a safe and prosperous outpost city, but…
The monster invasions cost the Empire the entirety of Chungcheong Province, and as a result, the inhabited territories of the Empire were forced to retreat dramatically.
Hanam City had become one of the front lines holding back their assault.
[Great victory approaches! Citizens, do not lose courage. Before long, His Imperial Majesty’s army shall reclaim Pangyo!]
A recorded propaganda message blared from the loudspeakers.
Of course, no one believed it.
“Blegh, ptooey! Victory my ass. Just weeks ago, an expedition that went beyond the walls was annihilated, or so I heard.”
“Shh! Keep it down. You don’t want to end up like them if you’re not careful.”
An uneasy atmosphere hung over everything.
But this wasn’t mere dark speculation.
Within months, Hanam City would come under siege.
‘The so-called Newbie Thresher Episode.’
When the walls broke and monsters poured in, survivors would face hundreds of life-or-death choices in rapid succession.
Countless beginners would abandon the game during this section, unable to endure it.
The difficulty was, quite frankly, brutal.
But.
‘This should be interesting.’
Joo-sang’s body trembled with electric anticipation, thrumming with the thrill of danger.
Danger meant explosive growth was possible.
This was the threshold moment—half water, half fish—and he couldn’t let it pass.
But he wasn’t fully prepared to break through that barrier yet.
He needed to grow stronger still.
Strong enough to handle whatever came his way.
With that in mind, there was one place he absolutely had to go now.
A hunting ground where he could achieve explosive, systematic growth.
Normally, it would’ve been too high-return, high-risk to attempt without serious deliberation….
‘But now? It’s worth trying.’
His right hand was adapting faster and faster.
And with the strongest damage dealer newly recruited, the odds were more than in his favor.
* * *
Kch-kch-kch-kch-kch!
An unsettling aura poured from the Gate entrance.
A genuinely formidable presence emanated from within.
The raid party assembled here was a different caliber altogether from the ones he’d seen in the sewers.
Armed to the teeth.
The sheer volume of Mana they carried.
Everything was at least a stage or two above what he’d encountered before.
‘Some of them belong to a guild.’
A familiar emblem caught his eye.
That must be the Red Tiger Guild, wasn’t it?
Just then.
Crunch.
A brown-haired man bearing the Red Tiger insignia approached.
Clang! Clang!
Full Plate Armor clad and bearing a massive shield, each step rang out loud and clear.
“Hold on. You’re trying to enter this Gate too?”
“And if we are?”
“Huh, and if you are? You talk short for a kid.”
The man’s eyebrows slanted downward in displeasure.
“Short words in, short words out—that’s how it goes.”
Hadn’t his mother taught him?
To speak formally when meeting someone for the first time.
Then again, he was an orphan, so casual speech on first meetings was fine for him.
“You greenhorns don’t know any better, but I’m Lee Do-jun of the Red Tiger Guild. We have a monopoly on this place, so if you want in, sign a contract agreeing to hand over half your earnings.”
Lee Do-jun dropped a piece of paper at Joo-sang’s feet.
The Red Tiger Guild.
No one living in Hanam City could afford to ignore them—a mid-tier guild with considerable reach.
Let’s see.
What was the right response in a situation like this?
Right. It was this.
“Is this the right seal to use?”
Joo-sang extended his middle finger, rigid and straight.
Across dimensions and species, there was no gesture more universally understood.
Whoosh.
The temperature plummeted in an instant.
“You fool. I was giving you a chance to avoid humiliation.”
Lee Do-jun placed a hand on Joo-sang’s shoulder.
“I’m going to increase the pressure bit by bit from now, so let me know if you change your mind.”
Crunch.
He applied his weight, bearing down on the shoulder.
True to a shield warrior who’d dumped everything into strength and stamina, his grip was brutal.
“Ow! His collarbone’s definitely breaking.”
“Should’ve kept his mouth shut.”
Snickers rippled through the watching raiders.
They could already picture Joo-sang weeping, snot running, begging for his life within a second.
But.
Joo-sang’s expression remained unmoved.
There was no reason it shouldn’t.
With his Star Rank approaching mid-4-Star, his Strength was 75 and his Stamina 80.
For Lee Do-jun, whose estimated Star Rank had barely surpassed early 3-Star, there was no way to close that gap no matter how hard he fought.
“Why, is that all?”
A crescent moon curved across Joo-sang’s lips.
Then he seized Lee Do-jun’s wrist with his other hand.
Crunch.
A heavy, bone-deep sensation shot through the wrist.
He felt it instinctively.
That it would snap if he didn’t pull free.
“Ugh!”
Lee Do-jun wrenched his hand away and shouted urgently.
“All of you—attack together!”
Everyone gathered here was either under the Red Tiger Guild’s command or allied with it.
Two people alone couldn’t stand against dozens.
That was common sense.
Yet.
Life had a way of throwing impossibilities in your face when you least expected it.
“Seol-gi.”
“Yes.”
“These people talk too much.”
My ears are starting to hurt from all the noise.
“Can I kill them all?”
“Just restrain them for now.”
“Understood….”
Baek Seol-gi clicked her tongue regretfully and drew her sword with deliberate slowness.
A sharp ring of steel.
A pristine blade of white light traced an arc through the air.
Then.
Crack-crack-crack.
Frost spread across the ground beneath them.
Snow blossoms bloomed, and beautiful ice crystals formed in the empty space.
More than fifty people went rigid where they stood.
With each breath, it felt as though their lungs would crystallize.
‘A monster. This is a monster.’
‘There’s an Ice-type Ability user like this in the world?’
Fight?
That was something only worth considering if you were in the same league.
A hundred newborn puppies gathered together were still no match for a wolf.
Even if everyone here rushed her at once, they couldn’t have hurt a single strand of that girl’s hair.
And yet, right then.
The pale girl bowed respectfully to the man.
“I’ve restrained them all.”
Her expression was like that of someone gazing upon an absolute being.
Her eyes, yearning for praise, glistened with a shy smile.
‘Who in the world is this man?’
‘Surely he’s even stronger than that girl?’
‘We really did touch the heavens, didn’t we.’
One second felt like an hour.
Joo-sang, who held the power of life and death, stepped forward to face Lee Do-jun.
Then he swept his gaze—cold as winter—across everyone present.
“This place is ours now.”
One by one. As I commit your faces to memory.
“Anyone have a problem with that?”
The warning hung in the air like a blade: never cross our path again.
…….
Of course, not a single person dared open their mouth.
Moments later, Joo-sang and Baek Seol-gi disappeared into the Gate.
“Do-jun. Are we really giving up just like this?”
“Of course not. Request support from the guild immediately. And get authorization to use A-Grade Items.”
Lee Do-jun clenched his teeth hard enough to break them.
If he backed down now, the Red Tiger Guild would be treated like a laughingstock in Hanam.
But right then.
Crunch.
A lean man approached them.
His wispy violet hair and beautiful features—sharp enough to put most male idols to shame—were immediately striking.
“Heh heh! What’s this? I thought there’d only be small-timers, but looks like some interesting specimens showed up? This might actually be fun to hunt.”
The man kept chuckling to himself, his eyes tracking the direction Joo-sang had vanished into.
“And who the hell are you?”
Lee Do-jun narrowed his eyes at the newcomer.
Then.
“Yong-sa.”
A long black scythe had appeared in the man’s hand as if from nowhere.
“The strongest one.”
From 8,025 participants in the 32nd Selected Participant round, all but one were slaughtered.
He was the sole survivor.
* * *
Whoooosh!
The moment they stepped through the gate, their entire field of vision shifted.
The field: Grassland.
Verdant grass stretched endlessly across the horizon.
After spending time in the ramshackle slums that had sprouted throughout the city, this place felt like stepping into a resort.
The dungeon’s difficulty was actually quite low.
1 to 2-Star Rank monsters dominated, and even the boss monster was barely a low-tier 3-Star.
That’s why the Red Tiger Guild had grown greedy.
If they could clear the dungeon with minimal casualties, the guild’s reputation would skyrocket.
“Kyaow!”
“Gooooh!”
Rhinoceroses the size of large dogs bounded about.
Cute little fairies rode atop them.
“There seem to be quite a lot of adorable creatures. You did say we only needed to be careful about humans, right?”
Baek Seol-gi licked her lips as she surveyed the monsters.
A faint gleam of madness flickered in her eyes.
This one’s really unpredictable.
I just hope she doesn’t throw a tantrum later about turning the whole country into a frozen kingdom.
“First, there’s somewhere we need to go.”
Unlike the Red Tiger Guild, they weren’t here for a safe, peaceful raid.
They wanted spectacle and excitement.
They planned to detonate every bomb they could find.
After traveling for roughly thirty minutes, they arrived at a peculiar location.
[Entering the Sanctuary of Sun and Moon.]
A sight that defied gravity.
Enormous rock fragments floated suspended in the air.
“Be careful! Something’s using a levitation technique. There’s definitely a master-level expert nearby!”
She’s talking nonsense.
Even if the Heavenly Demon ate an eel wrapped in mulberry wine, it’d be impossible to levitate this many stones.
“Don’t worry. It’s just a natural phenomenon unique to this place.”
“Oh, I see? Of course, I noticed as well. I was certain from the start that was what it would be.”
Baek Seol-gi puckered her lips sheepishly.
He’d have to revise his earlier assessment.
It looked like he’d have plenty of fun teasing her going forward.
Apart from her abilities, she still seemed naive about how the world worked—which, strangely, came across as endearing.
Joo-sang smiled faintly and tilted his head upward.
Between the rocks, he could see sun-shaped ornaments.
Those were the Solar Fragments.
The twelve fragments bathed this entire dungeon in warm sunlight twenty-four hours a day.
“Seol-gi.”
“Yes?”
“If I slash those sun-shaped fragments, you could freeze them instantly, right? Just imagine freezing all twelve almost simultaneously.”
“I think it’s possible.”
Crackle.
Frost rose from the tip of Baek Seol-gi’s blade.
“All right. Let’s try it.”
Joo-sang focused every ounce of his perception.
At first glance, it seemed as though rocks were drifting about in irregular patterns.
But there was a fixed order to them.
He calculated their distinctive orbital cycles, gauged their speed and timing.
‘Thank goodness I studied Kepler’s Laws.’
Mental arithmetic was difficult, but he’d grown clever at it through practice.
And so, once every seventeen minutes.
He identified the single blade-path where he could bisect all the fragments at once.
Right here…
Now!
Swoosh!
The blade drawn from his hip blazed with lightning-bright fire.
Just as Benneroth had done.
The trajectory shifted mid-arc, tracing an elegant curve.
—Within 1.5 seconds, cleanly halve every Solar Fragment; within 0.4 seconds after, freeze them all solid.
Those were the conditions.
White tendrils of ice wove between the bisected fragments.
Crack-snap!
In an instant, they crystallized.
As if the cutting and freezing occurred in perfect simultaneity.
The timing was that flawless.
Then.
Something remarkable happened.

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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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