Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 12

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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 12 4. The Goblin is Too Big (2)

“Huh?”

As soon as the Quest message appeared, Ye-chan made a surprised sound.

This made Young-woo realize that Ye-chan was also included among the ‘residents who possess monster elimination records.’

The target for triggering this Epic Quest, that is.

“You can see it too, right? Both the message and the marker.”

“Marker?”

Ye-chan, who had been tilting his head at Young-woo’s question, soon discovered the red pillar of light visible in the distance and flinched.

“I… I can see it.”

Could it be that this time he was planning to go fight a Mutant?

Ye-chan looked at Young-woo with eyes full of worry.

And indeed, Young-woo was staring at the red pillar of light that seemed certain to be the Mutant’s location.

‘It’s moving.’

Even though there seemed to be quite a distance from here, he could feel the pillar of light moving in real time.

This probably meant the target’s movement speed was extremely fast.

‘Where is it going?’

Of course, the only way to find out was to chase it. Pondering more here would just be a waste of time.

“Let’s get ready to move now. We’ve finished everything we need to do here.”

Young-woo picked out 40,000 Karma from the pile of coins at his feet and handed it to Ye-chan.

Then Ye-chan glanced sideways at the red pillar of light with a reluctant expression.

“We’re going to the Mutant… aren’t we?”

“Of course. And if we see more Goblins on the way, we’ll have to catch them too.”

Young-woo said this while bringing coins to his mouth.

It was to reinvest the Karma he had gained this time into his stats.

Flash!

『Character: Jung Young-woo07』

[Strength] 96 (19+77)

[Endurance] 97 (21+76)

[Durability] 13

[Senses] 24

* 1,000 Karma is consumed per stat point.

* Available Karma: 200,000

Since he had 200,000 Karma, if he invested it all in stats, he could raise 200 points.

Young-woo decided to first balance out each stat to some degree.

‘Let’s raise Durability and Senses to 50 for now.’

And distribute the rest between Strength and Endurance.

『Character: Jung Young-woo07』

[Strength] 150 (19+131)

[Endurance] 150 (21+129)

[Durability] 50 (13+37)

[Senses] 50 (24+26)

* Available Karma: 30,000

‘This is really incredible. The growth rate is too fast.’

Young-woo blinked his eyes.

His Strength stat, which was only 19 just a few hours ago, was now a whopping 150.

Moreover, even after increasing his stats like this, he still had 30,000 Karma left.

‘I should save what’s left and not use it. There might come a time when I need cash.’

Young-woo closed the settings window and looked at Ye-chan, who was now surrounded by dotted lines.

Then Ye-chan glanced at him and asked cautiously.

“Did you use up all your Karma again this time?”

“I saved a little just in case.”

“Oh, then I should also…”

“No. It’s better for you to use it all. You’re still struggling to fight monsters.”

Young-woo described 30,000 Karma as ‘a little’ without feeling any sense of incongruity.

It was because the amount of money he could operate had greatly increased as a reward for diving into monster hunting.

‘By the way, what are other people doing? Are they still running away? Still, some of them must have tried fighting against those things.’

Young-woo looked around at the blue pillars of light that were still shining down on various parts of Gumi.

Those meant that unprocessed monsters remained scattered everywhere.

The pillar of light that had appeared here disappeared along with their corpses as soon as they were all wiped out.

“Mister, I’m done too.”

Eventually, Ye-chan, who had finished distributing his stats, stood next to Young-woo holding his Spear and Shield.

Young-woo asked while keeping his gaze fixed on the red pillar of light.

“What’s your Endurance now?”

“52. The base stat was 22.”

Seeing that he had the presence of mind to add the base stat as well, Ye-chan seemed to have found some stability.

Young-woo double-checked that the Backpack containing 30,000 Karma was properly secured, then pointed at the red pillar of light with the tip of Early Bird.

“Now we’re going to move straight to there. Follow me well.”

* * *

Movement.

It sounds grand, but in the end, it was running.

Still, if there was something different from before.

Whoosh!

Even though they were running at a considerably fast pace, they didn’t get tired easily.

Of course, this only applied to Young-woo, whose Endurance reached 150, and Ye-chan had been showing clear signs of fatigue for a while now.

“Huff, gasp!”

Nevertheless, instead of saying let’s rest for a moment, Ye-chan gritted his teeth and endured.

He thought that the moment Young-woo considered him baggage, he would be abandoned.

“…Gasp! Hic, hic!”

However, before long, his stamina reached its limit and his breathing began to break pathetically.

“…”

Young-woo gradually slowed down.

“I think we need to rest a bit.”

“No, no! I can go a little more…!”

“No. If you completely exhaust yourself, it’ll be troublesome for me instead.”

Just a few hours ago, Young-woo had been helplessly overtaken in the first-come-first-served race to the Exchange Office.

So he had no intention of abandoning Ye-chan simply because he lacked stamina. There was no particular reason to do so yet.

“Rest a little. We don’t know when we’ll have to fight again, so I think it would be good for me to rest too.”

When Young-woo completely stopped walking, Ye-chan, who had been following behind, gasped for breath and poured sweat onto the ground.

‘If possible, I should have him focus on Endurance next time. If not that, then…’

Young-woo’s head stopped at one point as he looked around.

It was because he could see two bicycles standing side by side in front of a shop on the main street.

Of course, they were in a petrified state.

‘But they said you can restore petrified objects to their original form using Karma.’

Young-woo took out a coin from his backpack and walked toward the petrified bicycle.

Then.

Tap.

He touched the coin to the bicycle’s handlebar.

Whirr!

“…!”

Sure enough, a small rectangular hologram appeared where the coin and bicycle made contact.

“Oh, this is.”

It was none other than a price tag.

[Bicycle : 3,000]

* To confirm purchase, touch the coin to the target object again.

Bicycle, 3,000 Karma.

It meant that by paying 3 Crimson Coins, he could make this bicycle usable again.

‘Even buying both would only cost 6,000.’

To Young-woo, who currently had 30,000 Karma, it felt very cheap.

Riding a bicycle would greatly reduce stamina consumption relative to travel distance, and would also increase travel speed itself.

Tap.

When Young-woo, who had been examining the price tag, briefly removed the coin and touched it again, the coin immediately disappeared and the bicycle began to change.

Whoooosh!

It began emitting hazy smoke, just like when objects from the previous world turned to stone.

Then the petrification rapidly dissolved starting from the point where the coin had touched.

“Huh? What, what is it?”

Ye-chan, who had been catching his breath behind them, saw the smoke and came running in surprise.

“You know how to ride a bike, right? From now on, we’ll travel with this.”

“Huh? Oh, yes! I do know how to ride, but….”

Ye-chan looked at Young-woo with eyes full of wonder.

At a time when most people were busy avoiding monsters, buying bicycles to chase a Mutant… the more he saw, the more amazing he thought it was.

“Mister, you’re not some kind of Returner or something, are you?”

“What?”

At the absurd comment, Young-woo briefly furrowed his brow before chuckling.

“What nonsense. I’m not anything like that.”

“Then why are you going this far?”

“Why, you ask.”

Young-woo was about to say something but closed his mouth.

The truth was, even he didn’t have a clear answer.

“I’m scared, I guess.”

“You are? What are you scared of?”

“Becoming weak.”

“…Ah.”

Young-woo pushed one bicycle toward Ye-chan and asked back.

“Aren’t you?”

“I am….”

While Ye-chan looked down at his half-burned name tag, Young-woo was placing his foot on the bicycle pedal.

“Sometimes that’s scarier than dying. That’s why I try to get as strong as possible when opportunities come.”

Click.

Soon Young-woo’s bicycle gears began to engage.

Ye-chan stared blankly at Young-woo gradually moving away, then hurriedly put his foot on the pedal.

* * *

The two men, whose bodies had been strengthened by Karma, rode their bicycles incredibly fast.

They instantly broke through the shopping district and entered the residential complex, where they could see other people again.

However, the problem was.

“Ahhhhh!”

“P-please save me!”

Everyone was in a state of extreme terror.

Dozens of people of various ages and genders were running toward Young-woo and Ye-chan’s direction.

“What is this….”

“They’re fleeing. There must be Goblins over there.”

Young-woo pointed to the blue pillar of light shining down on the residential area.

Then he glanced at someone who had just passed by them.

It caught his eye that they were carrying some kind of stone in the midst of all this. It was a bit disappointing that he only saw it briefly and couldn’t confirm its shape.

‘Whatever it is, it must be an object from the previous world.’

It was probably something very precious.

Besides that, he saw several relatively vulnerable groups for survival: a man carrying a child on his back, sisters sweating profusely while supporting their elderly mother, and others.

“This is really hell on earth.”

Ye-chan said this while looking at a staggering elderly person, but Young-woo shook his head.

“At this speed, they can’t outrun those things. Someone inside is buying time for them.”

He omitted the follow-up thought that the real hell on earth would be inside there.

Of course, he couldn’t know whether someone inside was voluntarily buying time.

Perhaps people were just being cut down one by one from the back of a long evacuation line.

“….”

Young-woo unconsciously grimaced as he imagined the horrific scene.

If people really were dying back there, they would need to hurry more than they were now.

“Let’s go. Avoid the people and stick to the side.”

Since people kept pouring out of the residential area, Young-woo and Ye-chan moved to the edge of the road to ride their bicycles.

“Oh, now that I think about it.”

Ye-chan, who had been pedaling hard, spoke up again.

“There are quite a few people with no weapons at all.”

“Not everyone would have followed the Quest.”

Young-woo saw another group of people come pouring out and sensed that they were approaching the scene of the problem.

Indeed, the blue pillar of light had come within close range.

Then finally.

Crack! Crunch!

Ominous tearing sounds began to reach Young-woo’s ears.

‘Crazy. What is that sound?’

Young-woo reflexively raised his upper body to look behind the refugees.

Then blood-red things immediately filled his vision.

They were….

Goblins soaked in blood.

A group of feeding Goblins, each holding a person and covered in blood from devouring flesh.

Crack!

This time the sound came again right before Young-woo’s eyes.

The sound of a Goblin stripping flesh from human bone.

“These bastards…!”

As the enraged Young-woo shouted and ran against the flow of the refugee procession, one of the goblins that had been peeling the skin off its prey looked up at him.

Then it grinned, showing white teeth that weren’t yet stained red.

As if there was more food to be had.

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, 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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