Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 17

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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 17 7. The Dignity of the First Sword (1)

After Young-woo finished his first meal, a brief silence settled over them.

Everyone was so hungry that they momentarily forgot the fact that this world was in the midst of a terrible process called reset.

“Um… excuse me, First Sword sir.”

Eventually, the Wolf Cut Elder from the Sky Villa side was the first to speak up.

“Yes? Oh, well… if you don’t mind, please just call me Young-woo.”

“Yes, Young-woo sir.”

What on earth was he trying to say?

Young-woo looked at the elder’s stiffly hardened face.

Then the elder held up the problematic commemorative coins and spoke carefully.

“If it’s alright with you… would it be okay for us to use these?”

30,000 Karma per person.

He was probably asking them to speak up in advance if they were thinking of taking these back.

“Oh, that.”

Young-woo stared blankly at his own face engraved on the coins, then nodded.

“Of course, I gave them to you to use as you see fit.”

“Wow…!”

“Really, is that true?”

Finally, the Sky Villa Residents broke into relieved smiles.

Young-woo smiled faintly along with them, then suddenly remembered something and asked.

“But may I ask specifically how you plan to use them?”

It was a question to gauge how the tens of billions of Karma that had flowed into Gumi City would be used.

“We haven’t decided anything definite yet, but…”

This time, the woman from the Married Couple group answered.

“We’re thinking of setting aside 10,000 per person for taxes, and using the rest to raise our stats. That way we’ll be able to fight monsters more easily.”

“Ah, I see. Then will the children also raise their stats?”

At Young-woo’s follow-up question, the Sky Villa Residents’ mouths suddenly clamped shut.

Come to think of it, they had never considered that far.

“Well… wouldn’t it be better to raise the guardians’ combat power first for now?”

“Yes. You can discuss and decide that among yourselves. I was just asking out of pure curiosity.”

After this conversation, Young-woo shifted his gaze to Ye-chan, who was quietly waiting behind them.

“You’re hungry, right? Let’s go get something to eat now.”

“Where to?”

“Anywhere that might have food. Since this is a residential area, there should be a mart or something nearby.”

Then the elder from the Sky Villa side, who had been listening to their conversation, pointed south with a polite gesture.

“This happens to be our neighborhood. Since we know where things like marts are, let us guide you.”

Obviously a scheme to keep staying close to the First Sword.

But since Young-woo needed to secure food before it got darker, he nodded without hesitation.

* * *

When they first set out, there were definitely nine people.

The combined headcount of Young-woo’s group and the Sky Villa group, that is.

But now.

“Is this… really going to be okay?”

Ye-chan kept gripping and releasing his spear while constantly looking back.

It was because of the crowd that had started gathering one by one at some point.

“…What can we do. It’s not like we can kill them.”

When Young-woo glanced back, reactions immediately poured out.

“Wow… it’s really the First Sword.”

“He looks exactly like the one on the coins.”

“He doesn’t seem as vicious as I thought.”

These people, who had swelled to dozens in just over ten minutes, kept whispering and following them without rest.

“…”

Young-woo tried to ignore the constant commentary about himself that kept reaching his ears and asked the Wolf Cut Elder who was guiding them.

“Excuse me, sir, is it still far?”

“We’re almost there now. It’s just up ahead.”

Then the elder also glanced back and continued speaking.

“It bothers you, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. Somewhat…”

“But they’re not doing it with bad intentions. What person would harbor resentment toward their life’s savior? Especially if they have families, even more so.”

Ironically, the elder saying this had no family.

“And it’s the first time.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s the first good thing that’s happened since all that reset business or whatever started. What you did, Young-woo sir.”

As the elder moved his dry cheeks and cheekbones to smile broadly, Young-woo unconsciously lowered his head.

“There it is.”

Finally, the elder raised his hand and pointed ahead.

By then it had gotten much darker, to the point where surrounding objects were only visible as silhouettes, but Young-woo could tell exactly where the mart was.

There were already a great many people gathered there, and it was very noisy.

“Are you really going to be like this?”

“What the hell are you trying to do? Let us all starve to death?”

“Everyone needs to eat to survive for now, right? Please compromise a little!”

About a hundred people surrounded the mart entrance, shouting various things.

And at their center.

“Compromise? Are these bastards really crazy? This is robbery right now! You know?”

A man with a face full of murderous intent and people who appeared to be his family were staging a sit-in, blocking the mart entrance.

Both groups even had weapons.

“Oh no.”

The elder clicked his tongue after grasping the situation.

Young-woo also realized the situation was complicated and made a troubled expression.

‘Everyone came looking for food because they’re hungry, but the mart owner isn’t opening the way.’

It was actually natural.

Although most objects had turned to stone due to the reset, that didn’t mean the ownership of those objects had changed as well.

Even Young-woo himself thought the chocolate bar he had brought with him when the reset started was still his.

A legitimate possession that he had legally purchased by paying money at a convenience store before this happened.

So in the same context, that mart owner was probably asserting his own legitimate rights.

‘That’s right. I naturally thought we’d pay proper prices since we have to pay Karma to undo petrification, but… if there’s a separate owner of those items, it can’t be considered paying fair prices. Whether we undo the petrification or not, no money goes to the original owner.’

Therefore, the bicycles Young-woo and Ye-chan were pulling around were actually stolen from others.

In other words, the cause of this situation was largely twofold.

First, the mart owner’s family happened to be alive up to this point.

Second, social consensus on ‘past ownership rights’ had not yet been reached.

“…”

It was a difficult problem.

Young-woo felt his head starting to ache and slowly moved toward the mart entrance.

With dozens of paparazzi following behind him.

Then.

“Huh?”

“It’s Gumi First Sword!”

“Ooh…!”

The attention of the crowd surrounding the mart focused on Young-woo.

On the other hand.

“…Shit, we’re fucked.”

The Mart Owner spat on the ground and made an expression that said the situation had gone to hell.

Given the circumstances, wasn’t Gumi First Sword also here to loot the mart?

Property rights and all that wouldn’t matter if the First Sword forced his way in with power.

And if that really happened, all those people would obviously rush into the mart and steal everything indiscriminately.

“….”

Having glimpsed this damned future, the Mart Owner instinctively looked at his family’s faces.

And Young-woo, who happened to witness this, instead tucked Early Bird into his waist and looked around.

‘There are too many people. If the owner keeps holding out like this, bloodshed will definitely occur.’

Moreover, what the crowd wanted was nothing other than food. Wasn’t that the second most important element for survival after taxes? So there was no way they would retreat quietly.

Then what should be done?

As Young-woo silently continued toward the mart, all those people automatically cleared a path for him.

It was the power of the commemorative coins distributed to everyone and the First Sword title floating above Young-woo’s head.

“Oh, First Sword sir….”

“Please do something about this person.”

“Please resolve this, First Sword sir.”

With each step Young-woo took, people voiced their complaints.

And finally.

Step.

Young-woo, Ye-chan, and the Sky Villa group arrived in front of the Mart Owner’s family.

“Damn it.”

“Ah… Dad.”

The Mart Family consisted of three people total: the owner couple and a boy who appeared to be around middle school age.

Compared to the hundred or so people in the crowd surrounding the mart, it was far too frail a force.

But the reason people couldn’t force their way in wasn’t because they had gained sympathy.

Trembling….

The silver-white blade cautiously pointed toward Young-woo trembled faintly.

‘It’s Early Bird. You’re no ordinary person.’

Young-woo stared intently at the Early Bird gripped in both hands by the Mart Owner.

Then he extended his right hand wrapped in golden gauntlet and lightly pushed away the opponent’s blade tip.

“You need to step aside. I fully understand your unfair position, but… you know that staying like this will get you killed, don’t you?”

“What did you say…?”

The Mart Owner’s gaze, speaking with displeasure while twitching his eyebrows, was fixed on Young-woo’s golden fingers.

Even he could see it was extraordinary equipment.

“With fate itself reset, who would consider others’ circumstances? Trying to protect everything you had before the reset is greed. Right now you need to preserve your life first. Everyone became penniless the same way.”

When Young-woo said this, the Mart Owner became furious.

“Greed? Just wanting to protect what I had is greed?”

“It is greed. If you’re forcibly clinging to something you can no longer hold onto.”

While saying this, Young-woo recalled the police officer he’d seen at the Exchange Office.

The young man who kept picking up coins from the ground even while seeing robbers approaching.

“If you stay like this, not only you but your family will die horribly too. So if I were you, I’d take as much food as I could carry and leave this place.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yes.”

This was indeed a threat.

Young-woo, like everyone else, had no intention of starving to accommodate the Mart Owner’s property rights.

“You have Early Bird too, don’t you? If you raise your stats with the coins I gave you, you’ll be able to hunt monsters well enough. Start over step by step with that. Everyone’s doing the same.”

When Young-woo went this far, the Mart Owner’s Wife, who had been listening to the entire conversation, looked around the inside of the store and said quietly.

“I think we should do as he says. At this rate, we… might not be able to take anything.”

This “anything” included not just food but their lives as well.

After all, with even the First Sword coming here, what more could they do?

“….”

However, the Mart Owner couldn’t break his stubbornness… no, his pride until the end.

So eventually.

“Kwaah!”

While Young-woo shifted his gaze inside the mart following his wife, he committed the outrageous act of attempting a surprise attack.

Swish!

The silver-white blade came in, grazing Young-woo’s golden fingers.

But Young-woo was already clearly seeing his opponent’s sword path.

‘Choosing the worst option in front of your family.’

Not only did the Gumi Sword Technique hologram appear before his eyes, but the Sense Enhancement notification informed him that combat had begun.

「Sense stat has temporarily increased from existing 100 to 116.」

It was the Sense Steal effect of Golden Flash.

‘At least there was one gain.’

Young-woo, having unintentionally confirmed his new gloves’ effect, was about to subdue his opponent.

“…?”

But seeing the following notifications, he decided to change priorities.

「Sense stat has temporarily increased from existing 116 to 131.」

「Sense stat has temporarily increased from existing 131 to 145.」

「Sense stat has temporarily increased from existing 145 to 163.」

Because in the midst of this, someone else in the crowd was targeting him from behind.

It was also the moment it was confirmed that ‘Golden Flash’ doubled as a rear camera.

Ting!

Young-woo first simply deflected the Mart Owner’s Early Bird, then turned around while unleashing First Sword’s Aura.

Paaaah!

Then, scattering golden light from his eyes, he spoke fiercely.

“You fucking bastards, I’m reclaiming the disaster relief funds.”

4th-Class 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 our 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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