Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 18

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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 18 7. The First Sword’s Dignity (2)

The First Sword was angry.

Everyone could feel this fact to the point where their hearts tingled.

In reality, as soon as the ‘First Sword’s Aura’ was unleashed, everyone without exception found themselves clutching their chests.

“Huk!”

“Kugh…!”

Meanwhile, Young-woo saw three golden glowing wedge patterns floating among the crowd.

It was such an intuitive sight that Young-woo immediately understood.

Those were the targets who had been hit by Sense Steal, the bastards who had tried to stab them in the back while they were confronting the mart owner.

“Move aside.”

Young-woo, who unconsciously recognized everyone in the crowd as potential ambushers, spoke in a cold voice as he pushed through the crowd.

The first attacker he found this way.

A man in a suit who appeared to be in his 40s.

His pupils, filled with terror, gleamed golden as they received Young-woo’s gaze.

When Young-woo threateningly twisted his blade right in front of the man’s nose and asked this question, his pupils grew even larger.

“Don’t you have any family? If so, that’s fortunate at least. There won’t be anyone else to ruin their lives because of you.”

“Hi, hiik…”

The man’s body trembled violently at Young-woo’s tone, which reeked of terrible hostility, and soon after.

Swish!

A silver-white trajectory was drawn diagonally as the man’s head separated from his torso.

Beheading.

Young-woo’s strength had increased so much that he could now sever an opponent’s neck with a single slash.

Blurble, spurt…!

The man who lost his head made sounds like a broken water pump as blood gushed from his neck.

“Kyaa, kyaak!”

“Ugh, uaak, this crazy bastard!”

“Please spare me…!”

When the decapitated corpse collapsed among the people, the scene fell into complete panic.

However, there was no one with strong enough willpower to immediately shake off the First Sword’s Aura, so everyone was forced to remain seated.

Unable to bear watching this, Ye-chan barely escaped from the aura and squeezed out his voice.

“Mister! The other people are innocent! And there are children…!”

“…?”

Young-woo, who was just about to put a hole in the second attacker, flinched upon hearing Ye-chan’s words.

He finally realized that he had been in an extremely agitated state.

Whoosh…

It was then that the First Sword’s Aura was released all at once.

“Uaaaak!”

“Save me!”

As soon as their legs were freed, the crowd of about a hundred people each ran into the darkness seeking escape routes.

Of course, the remaining two attackers who were still physically intact also joined the fleeing group, but.

Swish, pierce!

They couldn’t escape Young-woo’s lightning-fast pursuit and died one after another.

In the end, what remained in front of the mart was.

“Hmm…”

“This has become troublesome.”

Only Ye-chan and the Sky Villa group again.

Plus the Mart Family as an exception.

Thud, thud.

Eventually, Young-woo returned from the darkness with heavy footsteps.

The Early Bird that had just seen blood was reddish, and Young-woo’s face, still tense, was also deeply flushed.

“Whew.”

Young-woo let out a heavy breath.

He could feel that the atmosphere in front of the mart had grown somber.

This was the first time Young-woo felt uncomfortable even after acting in self-defense.

A hundred people.

Though it would be an extremely small number compared to all of Gumi City, anyway, they would now live the rest of their lives recognizing the face on the commemorative coins with terror.

“…”

Young-woo looked at the place where people had fled with bitter eyes.

Then he glanced at the Sky Villa children hiding behind their parents and asked Ye-chan.

“Were the kids also…?”

A question about whether they were exposed to the First Sword’s Aura.

Then the children’s parents answered instead of Ye-chan.

“No… it didn’t seem like it. If they had been affected, they would have been crying and making a fuss.”

The parents tried to look like everything was okay.

But apart from the aura, they had certainly seen enough unpleasant sights, so Young-woo still felt sorry.

As the First Sword, and moreover as the First Sword who distributed Golden Rain and commemorative coins, he himself had to be a proper human being to live properly.

It’s easy to become strong, but difficult to become a hero. Even more so in such turbulent times.

Swish.

Young-woo looked at the Mart Family with gloomy eyes.

Then the mart owner handed the Early Bird to his wife and suddenly knelt on the ground.

“I… I apologize. I think I went temporarily insane. I’ll accept any punishment, so please spare at least my family.”

He had apparently heard what Young-woo said earlier about family to one of the attackers.

Young-woo thought for a moment, then pointed at the inside of the mart with his finger.

“As I said before, pack up as much as you can carry and leave. More people will come flocking here soon.”

“Yes…?”

“I said go.”

“…!”

For a moment, a strange light flickered in the mart owner’s eyes.

He realized that for some unknown reason, the First Sword was showing a welcome change of mood.

Practically a miracle.

Thud!

The mart owner silently sprang up from his spot and rushed into the mart in a hurry.

Then his family members also hurriedly followed behind.

And Young-woo.

Clink.

He fiddled with the coins he had recovered from the attackers he had just dealt with while waiting for the Mart Family.

9 commemorative coins and 16 regular coins.

“Huk, huk.”

The family of three who had once been the owners of the mart reappeared about 5 minutes later, gasping for breath.

But their appearance was.

“Ah…?”

“My goodness.”

“What, what’s that? Is that even allowed?”

The Sky Villa residents each covered their mouths with wide-open eyes.

The Mart Family had brought out far more items than imaginable.

They had taped together over ten shopping carts from inside the mart, piled all sorts of items inside them like heaping rice bowls, then came walking out supporting the whole thing.

There were even three such ‘heaps’ in total, one per person.

If the sun had been shining at an angle right now, the Mart Family’s shadows would have covered the entire area and more.

They looked like… dung beetles.

Those insects that roll dung several times their own body size.

“Is that okay? Mister?”

Ye-chan looks at Young-woo while unconsciously gripping his spear shaft.

Young-woo was equally bewildered.

‘Are they crazy, really.’

To carry that much load, the entire family must have invested in Strength beforehand.

Those baskets and tapes must have originally been stones that they restored using Karma.

What’s even more surprising is that it only took them 5 minutes to plan and execute all of this.

Truly befitting a shop owner’s family, one could say.

“….”

Young-woo quietly watched the dung beetles carefully line up in front of the mart while carrying their massive loads.

Thud.

Finally, judging that they had gotten into position, the head of the Mart Family asked Young-woo.

“We’ve… packed everything. May we go now?”

A strange silence falls.

Neither Ye-chan nor the Sky Villa Residents looked at the Mart Family with pitying eyes anymore.

“….”

Young-woo looked at their somewhat bizarre appearance and nodded as if telling them to hurry up and leave.

“Th… thank you, truly.”

The Mart Owner barely managed to bow in greeting.

Then, without looking back, he gathered his family and disappeared into the darkness.

“Hmm. Well, then….”

In any case, now that the mart was completely empty, it was their turn to take care of business.

Young-woo made somewhat awkward gestures as he tried to usher Ye-chan and the Sky Villa Residents into the mart.

Beep!

If only an alarm sound hadn’t suddenly gone off.

‘What’s this now.’

[Achievement Unlocked: Forgive Your Enemies]

|Achievement Grade: Hero

|Achievement Rank: 46

This was an Achievement that wasn’t on the recommended list.

‘Don’t tell me this happened because I let those people go?’

Young-woo looked in the direction where the Mart Family had disappeared.

Then new text crossed his vision.

「You have 1 unclaimed Achievement reward.」

「Would you like to claim the reward?」

‘Hero grade… in terms of items, that’s Early Bird level.’

When Young-woo approved claiming the reward, all the text disappeared at once and a sound occurred.

Clink.

“Huh?”

What happened next was as expected.

Flash!

Six coins were generated in mid-air.

‘Six coins?’

Young-woo’s current Sense stat was a whopping 100.

Accurately tracking the position of six coins and catching them before they hit the ground wasn’t difficult.

Tap tap.

Young-woo swiftly caught all the coins and opened his hand.

This time they were blue coins.

The front had 4 vertical lines and 1 horizontal line drawn on it.

So how much would these be worth?

As Young-woo tilted his head and looked at the coins, a tooltip appeared.

「Blue Coins」 – Common Currency

|Worth 50,000 Karma each.

‘So 50,000 Karma coins existed.’

That meant this Achievement reward was worth 300,000 Karma.

‘Money accumulates faster than I thought.’

Of course, it was also thanks to killing people and looting their pockets. Actually, that was the fastest way to make money.

‘So my current wealth is… four hundred fifty-nine thousand five hundred. In terms of stats, that’s 459 points.’

Young-woo decided to buy what he needed from the mart, then invest the remaining money back into stats.

* * *

He still didn’t know what time it was.

Even the clock hanging in the mart had turned to stone.

The indoor lighting had also been petrified, so Young-woo and the Sky Villa Group had to fumble around in the darkness to find flashlights and batteries first.

“Those people from earlier seem even more impressive now. The mart owner, I mean.”

Ye-chan spoke admiringly after finally gathering all the supplies and turning on a flashlight.

“They probably knew the location of items like the back of their hand.”

Eventually Young-woo also borrowed Ye-chan’s flashlight to find batteries.

What followed was swift progress.

They found plastic shopping carts that had turned to stone, reversed their petrification, and began sweeping necessary-looking items into them.

“Do we have to go around looking weird like those people did?”

“Well. I don’t really want to do that.”

Besides, how much support could tape provide?

It was certain that all the items would spill onto the floor in just a few hours, let alone a day.

Also, from Young-woo’s perspective of needing to go to other areas to achieve Achievements, it was better not to be too conspicuous.

“We have bicycles. Let’s find some proper bags and rope to hang from the bicycles.”

Getting a car would be another option if necessary… but that had the disadvantage of needing to continuously procure fuel.

“Actually, whatever happens, if you have strength you won’t starve to death.”

Ye-chan spoke in a rather cynical tone.

And that was actually true.

Petrified food doesn’t rot, and you need to pay Karma to eat it.

In other words, the survival rate of food was bound to be higher compared to typical apocalypse situations.

Therefore, if you had the power to take what others possessed, the probability of starving was extremely low.

“Um… First Sword, if you’ll excuse me, may we start eating first?”

“Yes?”

Someone politely asked, so he turned around to see the Sky Villa Married Couple standing side by side, waiting.

They seemed to have already found food.

“Ah, yes. Don’t mind me. You don’t need to call me First Sword either….”

“Thank you.”

As soon as Young-woo gave his approval, the couple walked away with quick steps.

And Young-woo stared intently at their retreating figures before turning his head toward Ye-chan.

“You need to eat too. I should probably replenish some calories as well. Today definitely won’t end like this…”

Beeeep!

His premonition was right on target.

Young-woo’s words were drowned out by the sharp warning sound that suddenly echoed through the air.

「Night is approaching.」

“Night?”

What kind of bullshit was this now?

Young-woo held up a coin to the canned food he had just picked up and waited for the next message.

And sure enough, as expected.

「Therefore, to guarantee your right to sleep, day-use will begin in one hour.」

Another bizarre event was about to unfold.

So much so that even Young-woo felt bewildered.

“Day-use…? Don’t tell me it’s the kind of day-use I’m thinking of?”

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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