Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11 4. The Goblin is Too Big (1)

“Are… are goblins originally this big?”

At Ye-chan’s trembling voice, Young-woo shook his head.

“…How would I know? This is my first time seeing a goblin in person too.”

It was quite a foolish conversation, but there wasn’t a trace of laughter on either of their faces.

Whether goblins were originally figments of human imagination or not, the fact remained that a 2-meter-tall goblin had appeared before their eyes.

Moreover, its massive arms were excessively bulging with muscles and tendons that matched its towering height, and the armor covering its head, chest, and lower abdomen showed almost no gaps where a sword could penetrate.

‘This is troublesome.’

Young-woo was overcome by an ominous feeling that his expectations might have been wrong.

Since hunting monsters was the only way to obtain Karma, he had decided to stay here under the assumption that they wouldn’t be too strong.

However, the reality before him was no matter how he looked at it…

-Kerreuk!

Soon the goblin horde spotted Young-woo and Ye-chan and made threatening sounds.

“Should we… should we fight?”

Ye-chan’s question, which sounded almost like a scream, had already lost all fighting spirit.

In contrast, Young-woo gripped his shield tighter and prepared to advance.

“Is there any other option?”

As soon as Young-woo finished speaking, the goblins charged forward, crushing the ground with their iron boots.

-Kieeeek!

-Kirreuk!

The overwhelming presence of twelve heavily armored goblins, each 2 meters tall, was tremendous.

Every time they moved their bodies, their massive shadows wildly tore through Young-woo and Ye-chan’s shadows.

As if they had already begun butchering them.

“Ah, ah…!”

“…?”

Something seemed wrong with Ye-chan’s voice, so when he looked to the side, he could see the spear shaft the guy was holding trembling violently.

His legs weren’t even properly planted on the ground, barely managing to keep his body upright.

Seeing this, Young-woo felt his blood boiling in reverse.

“Damn it, won’t you snap out of it? Are you really going to die here?”

This was an opponent they might not be able to defeat even if both fought with full strength. However, even after hearing Young-woo’s sharp rebuke, Ye-chan only continued to hesitate.

Finally, something in Young-woo’s mind snapped with a ‘crack.’

“Kang Ye-chan! Are you going to commit suicide again this time too!”

Then.

“What…?”

Ye-chan looked at Young-woo in surprise, then soon showed a complex expression in his eyes.

He had understood what Young-woo had just said.

|Demise: February 1st, 2039, 8:36 PM, murdered a customer while working at a tavern, then committed suicide.

The previous fate, no, the original fate written in the Fate Record.

“Ah.”

Just as some kind of power was about to form in Ye-chan’s eyes, the goblins pounced on the two of them.

-Kiiiek!

Young-woo had no time to check on Ye-chan and had to raise his shield.

A large axe blade was flying straight toward his head.

Moreover, the Gumi Sword Technique that used to indicate defensive postures whenever attacks came wasn’t working now.

‘Could it only be effective in human combat?’

Just as Young-woo gritted his teeth seeing his future grow dim.

Clang!

With a clear sound, the goblin’s attack hit the outer edge of his shield and bounced off.

‘Huh…?’

And Young-woo realized.

‘It’s not as strong as I thought?’

His elbow did ache from the impact on the shield at the moment of being hit, but it certainly wasn’t from lack of strength.

It was simply that his joints weren’t sturdy enough.

Right now, only his muscle strength and endurance had increased fivefold while his durability remained as it was from birth.

This meant.

‘I won’t lose in a contest of strength…!’

Young-woo recalled the axe blade that had bounced off so lightly just moments ago and swung his shield forward.

Whoosh, clang!

The sound of metal clashing rang out.

Because the goblin was too tall, the shield struck the upper part of its breastplate instead of its head.

-Kreuk!

But surprisingly, it wasn’t an ineffective hit.

-Kyaaak!

The creature’s expression visible inside the helmet was horribly contorted.

It was only after this that Young-woo realized the opponent’s breastplate had been dented.

‘This bastard is in so much pain it can’t even move.’

Seeing the possibility of a reversal, Young-woo’s momentum surged.

But the opponent was a horde of twelve goblins.

Hwaeaek!

Immediately, a ridiculously large blade came flying from the right side.

“…!”

With goosebumps rising all over his body, Young-woo thrust out Early Bird and took a defensive stance.

When he tilted the blade diagonally like the Gumi Sword Technique hologram had done, it was purely an unconscious action.

He unknowingly recreated the most successful defensive posture from his recent experiences.

Tsuiiik!

Soon the goblin’s blade that met Early Bird slid down along the silver-white inclined surface.

In fact, this was possible because Young-woo’s own muscle strength had increased to match the opponent’s power, but he didn’t realize this himself.

What was important to him right now was simply…

‘Ti… timing!’

Only that he had detected the timing to counterattack.

Whoosh!

Though not perfect, Young-woo managed a fairly swift counterattack like when the Gumi Sword Technique was working.

Early Bird, which had been pressed down by the opponent’s blade, suddenly sprang up like lightning.

Swish!

With a thin sound, the tip of Early Bird’s blade skillfully shot between the goblin’s helmet gaps.

-Kuwaak!

The giant goblin fell backward, screaming a bizarre cry.

Of course, another one immediately charged forward breathing hot air, but Young-woo was no longer intimidated.

He felt like he could do it again this time.

* * *

Goblin.

Like dragons, an imaginary creature, but an unfortunate monster set to have far inferior Martial Prowess.

Essentially used as a synonym for ‘mobs,’ and as such, appeared in all kinds of media, making their recognition comparable to dragons.

Also, since most creators borrowed from ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ settings when depicting goblins, their publicly known appearance was quite consistent.

Because of this, Young-woo and Ye-chan were able to immediately recognize the identity of the monsters that had burst out of the sphere.

Generally small in stature with green or brown skin, and an evil race with pointed ears and noses.

Of course, the goblins now sprawled before Young-woo’s eyes were by no means small in stature.

“Haak, hak!”

His lungs felt like they would burst, so Young-woo half-collapsed while leaving Early Bird stuck in the ground.

He wasn’t sure exactly how many minutes he had fought, but one thing was certain.

‘If I hadn’t invested Karma in stamina, I probably would have died. Even alone, I would have died from exhaustion.’

At least nine monsters. He had probably directly faced about ten of them.

In other words, this was the maximum length of combat he could perform with 97 stamina.

“…Huuk.”

His breathing wouldn’t settle down easily.

Young-woo turned his bobbing gaze to look at Ye-chan sitting far away in the distance.

He probably ended up over there from continuously fighting while backing away.

‘That guy’s got quite the tenacious life too.’

In fact, up until the moment the goblins came rushing, he hadn’t expected Ye-chan to survive.

He had just hoped the kid would hold onto at least one monster to help in the battle.

His harsh words asking ‘Are you going to commit suicide again this time!’ were actually Young-woo’s own desperate struggle to survive.

‘I should definitely apologize.’

Being able to dig into the other person’s ‘past fate’ in that urgent situation was only possible because he was the adult—in other words, the relatively more cunning one.

At least Young-woo thought so and felt sorry.

Tseuk.

When Young-woo lifted his 34-year-old body off the ground, Ye-chan, who had been staring blankly at the floor, raised his head.

Kang Ye-chan, 19-year-old male.

Unlike Young-woo, the kid was in an unarmed state, having dropped both his spear and shield.

Even seeing Young-woo get up and approach right in front of him, he didn’t even attempt to grab his weapons, so Young-woo sheathed Early Bird and spoke.

“Um… I’m sorry about earlier. My words were harsh.”

Then Ye-chan shook his head.

“No. If you hadn’t said that to me, I really would have died without trying anything. And more than anything…”

Ye-chan said this much and looked down at both his hands.

He was recalling it again.

That moment when he directly brought down those impossibly strong-looking goblins with his own two hands.

“…I could kill them too, those bastards. I never imagined it.”

“Of course. I told you it would work.”

Young-woo said this while secretly giving an awkward smile.

Strictly speaking, this was just a lucky successful bet.

But as a result, he had survived again this time, and as always, rewards for taking on challenges would be given.

‘That’s right. I haven’t collected the Karma yet…’

Just as Young-woo was wondering if he’d have to rifle through the goblins’ pockets and turned around.

Shiririk.

The goblin corpses scattered here and there melted away into thin air.

“…?”

“Huh?”

Ye-chan also jumped up in surprise, and soon small lights flashed once each from where the goblins had disappeared, a total of 12 times.

Papak, pak, pak!

Then a very familiar sound was heard.

Jjalgeuraek.

“…!”

The identity of this sound that made Young-woo reflexively run forward was.

Chwareureuk!

None other than the sound of Karma in coin form pouring out.

“These crazy bastards, really.”

Young-woo cursed at this unidentifiable world while collecting the coins that began falling from all directions.

Then.

‘Wait.’

He felt something was strange.

‘How much did each one drop roughly? Isn’t this too few coins?’

After frantically sweeping the floor to collect the coins, the total amount of Karma left by the 12 goblins was only 240,000.

In other words, each had dropped exactly 20,000 Karma.

Of course, considering that 1,000 Karma equals 1 ability point, it wasn’t a small amount.

‘But 1,000 Karma is also one person’s lifespan for a day. So 240,000 would be roughly…’

An amount that could keep 240 people alive for one day.

“…”

Young-woo didn’t know exactly what Gumi City’s population was.

But wouldn’t it be at least several hundred thousand?

‘Even if they exchanged Death Strikes, about half should have survived… There’s too little Karma released compared to the remaining number of people.’

No, this wasn’t even at a low level.

The number of light pillars Young-woo had confirmed with his own eyes was at most around a hundred.

By simple calculation, that’s Karma for 24,000 people.

Even if there were more such light pillar groups beyond the visible range, it would be ridiculously insufficient to save a population in the hundreds of thousands.

This meant, in other words.

‘No matter how much people hunt monsters, the absolute majority will die from tax delinquency.’

Young-woo realized that this monster hunting wasn’t originally a mechanism to release Karma into circulation.

Even if Gumi City’s entire population jumped into monster hunting, except for a very few, the rest would inevitably die from being unable to obtain Karma.

‘What the hell is this? Just a predetermined apocalypse?’

Overwhelming bewilderment struck him.

A few superhumans capable of monster hunting could survive by continuously reinvesting Karma, but what would be the point if everyone else died in the meantime?

“…Ha.”

As Young-woo, shocked, wasn’t even picking up coins, Ye-chan cautiously approached.

“What’s wrong?”

The kid couldn’t even guess that Young-woo was reverse-calculating the total amount of Karma released in Gumi City.

Young-woo looked at Ye-chan with miserable eyes.

“It seems we…”

However, Young-woo couldn’t continue his words.

It was because Quest text suddenly appeared in his vision, which had been quiet for a while.

Piing!

[Epic] “Binary Choice”

【Mission】 Track down the mutant and either eliminate or send them back.

【Reward】 Mutant Equipment, massive amount of Karma.

【Special】 This Quest only activates for residents with monster elimination records.

Grade 4 Human of the Ruined World (Serial)

Author │ Oetu

Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong

Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.

Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok

Address │ 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul City, Room 204 (Guro-dong, Daeryung Post Tower 1)

Email │ [email protected]

Website │ www.jayplemedia.com

ⓒOetu2023

※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and no part of the content may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.

Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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