Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 21

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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 21 8. Night Room Rental (2)

Room 208 was a typical motel room.

About 6 pyeong in size with a double-sized bed, and under the desk that doubled as a vanity was a small refrigerator.

The bathroom was right to the right of the entrance where Young-woo was now standing.

The toilet and sink were so close together that he worried his shoulders might touch under the sink when doing his business.

“…It’s incredibly cramped.”

“I know.”

Young-woo and Ye-chan briefly looked at the room’s panorama that could be taken in at a glance, then soon sighed and pushed their respective bicycles up toward the entrance.

The bicycle wheels, dirtied from riding on the road, left black marks on the room floor, but it didn’t matter anyway.

Thud.

Seeing the bicycle lean diagonally along with the sack full of stones, Young-woo confirmed the room door was locked, then took off his shoes and entered the room.

And he realized belatedly.

‘The room has lights on.’

It was probably part of the ‘room rental service.’

‘Then I wonder if the water works properly too.’

Young-woo’s gaze reached the showerhead inside the narrow bathroom.

Actually, his physical fatigue wasn’t great, but he was mentally exhausted.

It was because he had experienced too many things in one day.

The fierce struggle at the Exchange Office, his first murder, First Sword, battle with goblins, and Jang Seon-bok from Gumi City Council.

“Whew.”

Young-woo visually confirmed the room door he had locked earlier, then put down his shield and Early Bird on the floor and unpacked his backpack too.

Next.

‘Can I even take this off?’

He fumbled around trying to remove the simple scabbard that was constricting his waist.

Then he found a small button attached to the rear side of the belt.

It was structured so that pressing it deeply with his fingernail would release the belt’s joint and unlock it.

Click.

Having finally released even the scabbard, Young-woo helped Ye-chan, who was fumbling around his own waist following his example, remove his scabbard and said.

“I’m going to wash up first. If anyone tries to come in, let me know.”

“Ah, yes yes.”

As soon as Young-woo heard Ye-chan’s answer, he unhesitatingly stripped off his clothes and entered the bathroom.

Then immediately the sink mirror reflected him.

His nakedly exposed entire body looked like meat that had begun to rot. It was because black and blue bruises were situated all over.

In contrast, the title “First Sword of Gumi” above his head was shining excessively brilliantly.

As if proudly showing off that it was obtained in exchange for all those bruises.

“Ah.”

Only then remembering something, Young-woo touched the spiral tattoo engraved on his left chest with his hand.

Then.

Pop!

The title that had been attached above his head disappeared without a trace.

‘It’s touch-activated. Not even funny.’

Young-woo stood in front of the showerhead with his head completely clear.

And with a somewhat nervous heart, he turned on the water.

Squeak.

What happened next was quite surprising.

Whoooosh!

Because water immediately gushed out without even a moment of silence.

“Wow, my goodness.”

Young-woo unconsciously let out an exclamation while being hit by the pouring stream of water.

Even though it was a shower after just one day, it actually felt like washing for the first time in over ten years.

* * *

When Young-woo came out after finishing his pleasant shower, Ye-chan, who had been sitting in front of the desk, approached and held out something.

Swish.

“What’s this?”

“It was in the refrigerator.”

What Ye-chan held out was none other than canned orange juice.

“You could take this out without paying money?”

When Young-woo received the juice, a notice appeared in his vision.

* All provided items cannot be taken out of the guest room.

It meant that drinking the beverages provided in the guest room was possible, but you couldn’t take them with the intention of stockpiling.

‘Well, of course.’

Young-woo opened the juice can and drank it while looking around the room again.

‘…Strangely, there’s no computer.’

Were there motels without computers in this day and age?

Young-woo tilted his head and thought that maybe the system had deliberately removed it.

After all, would this crazy world lend out a computer all night for just 3,000 won in room rental fees?

‘Let’s be satisfied that we could shower.’

Young-woo stared blankly at the clothes scattered on the floor, then suddenly realized.

‘Ah.’

The fact that he was currently naked.

“You… you should wash up quickly too. I need to put on a bathrobe.”

When Young-woo awkwardly picked up the bathrobe placed on the desk, Ye-chan nodded with a reluctant expression and carefully took off his clothes.

Rustle, swish.

“…”

For some reason, it was an embarrassing moment.

Young-woo deliberately made loud movements as he lay down on the bed.

With a soft sound, the sheet sank down and supported his tired body.

Then an enormous sense of stability instantly enveloped Young-woo.

“Whew…”

Was this finally the end of the long day?

「01:16:32」

The abnormal weather timer was still embedded in the upper part of his vision, but he could no longer pay attention to it.

It was because sleep that rushed in instantly was weighing down his eyelids.

He seemed to hear the sound of water pouring down with a whoosh from somewhere, but he soon forgot even this.

And then next…

.

.

.

Bang.

.

.

.

Bang, bang!

.

.

.

Crash, bang!

‘Damn it, what crazy bastard is banging on someone’s door at this hour…’

Young-woo was having this thought in his sleep when his eyes suddenly snapped open.

“Huh.”

He remembered where he had fallen asleep just before.

A motel where the room service had started.

In other words, right in the middle of this insane world.

Crash!

That loud noise came again.

And this time he could pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from.

“Is anyone inside? Please open the door!”

Because someone outside was mercilessly pounding on the door.

「00:06:46」

The timer at the top of his vision was already showing the 6-minute mark.

‘I must have slept for over an hour.’

Since he could barely remember falling asleep, it must have been quite a deep sleep.

Whoosh.

Once he sat up, he was fully awake.

Young-woo first checked if there were any signs of intrusion in the room.

Things like missing items or other people’s footprints.

“Mmm…”

Meanwhile, Ye-chan, who had been sleeping on the floor, lifted his head with his eyes half-open.

“Wha… what’s happening?”

“Someone seems to be looking for a room.”

Young-woo checked the bathroom one last time, then picked up Early Bird from the floor and approached the entrance.

Thud, bang! Bang!

Even during this, the unidentified person was pounding on the room door as if they were about to break it down.

‘They said they guarantee sleeping rights, but I guess that didn’t mean peaceful sleep.’

But if he opened this door, would the other person be able to enter immediately?

‘I’m sure they said that renting a room would restrict other people’s access.’

As Young-woo thought this and placed his hand on the doorknob, sure enough, a blue text box appeared.

「If you open the door, a barrier will be created that only allows the renter to enter and exit.」

「If you want to share the room, check the other party through the barrier, then change the room fee and maximum occupancy.」

Young-woo opened the door without hesitation.

Whoosh!

As soon as the door opened, a blue curtain rose above the threshold, and the outsider’s fist, which was about to knock on the door, was blocked in mid-air.

Thump!

“Oh!”

“…!”

Both Young-woo and the outsider were surprised at the same time.

The outsider was surprised because the room owner’s face was exactly the same as the one on the commemorative coins, and conversely, Young-woo was.

‘What, what is this.’

He was surprised because the other person was a woman.

And not just any woman, but a woman carrying a backpack stuffed with all kinds of weapons and petrified food.

On top of that, a small dagger was stuck in a simple scabbard at her waist, a one-handed sword in her right hand, and a steel round shield in her left hand.

Her backpack had an axe, a spare one-handed sword, and another steel shield all neatly wrapped with rope.

‘Am I still dreaming? What does this person do?’

She was in the most thoroughly armed state of anyone he’d seen so far, and judging by how she carried all that gear, her strength and endurance stats must be extraordinary.

“What is this…?”

Young-woo unconsciously muttered to himself.

The woman looked above Young-woo’s head and tilted her head in confusion.

“Huh… isn’t it?”

She was puzzled that he clearly resembled the First Sword from the coins but had no title attached.

His first impression was also too… ordinary compared to her imagination.

“Aren’t you the First Sword of Gumi? But why is there nothing? The First Sword is…”

The woman who was continuing to speak suddenly closed her mouth.

Then she looked straight into Young-woo’s eyes again and said.

“No, more importantly, there’s no time right now. Please open the door!”

「00:03:41」

As the woman said, time was indeed running short.

But Young-woo had no desire to play hero even from his sleeping quarters.

“Look for another room.”

Young-woo tried to close the door again after saying this.

Then the woman frantically pounded on the barrier and said.

“This is the last room! No one would take me in!”

“Of course. So go find an empty room.”

Creak.

The door gap began to narrow further.

The woman almost screamed out.

“I’m! I’m pregnant!”

And this strategy was quite effective.

Because Young-woo stopped moving with about 1 centimeter of the door gap remaining.

“Huh.”

The woman also seemed not to have expected the door to stop closing, so she reflexively flinched and watched Young-woo’s reaction.

“It’s, it’s true. But no one believes me.”

That made sense since the woman’s belly wasn’t swollen at all.

If that claim were true, she would be in the early stages of pregnancy.

“You’re pregnant and… you go around like that?”

“I have to protect my child. If I die, my baby dies too.”

The woman’s eyes were quite serious as she said this.

“What about your husband?”

“He was killed by goblins.”

“…”

At this point, Young-woo had nothing to say.

Then Ye-chan, who had been listening from behind, said quietly.

“We’re already awake anyway… wouldn’t it be okay?”

“We only slept for an hour and you want to stay up all night because of her? We won’t have the stamina for tomorrow.”

“I’ll set up a night watch. And we can just take away all their weapons and tie them up.”

Ye-chan seemed to want to let the woman in no matter what.

Well, hadn’t he shown an unusually soft spot for children from before? There was no way such a Ye-chan would simply ignore a claim about being pregnant.

‘If we tie her up in an unarmed state, there shouldn’t be any major problems… but do we really need to go through such trouble?’

While Young-woo thought this, he also felt somewhat sympathetic.

From the circumstances, it seemed the married couple had challenged the Goblin and only the wife survived.

Of course, that was assuming the other party’s claim was true.

「00:02:11」

The remaining time had already dropped to the 2-minute range.

There really was no time left now.

“Are you really going to do this? There are two of you. We can tie them up like that student said, so please just let us in.”

“…”

After a moment of consideration, Young-woo decided to let the woman in.

“Wait.”

Looking at the corner of the barrier, Young-woo saw a keypad and pressed ‘3’.

Beep.

「Maximum occupancy has been changed to 3 people total.」

「Would you like to set a lodging fee?」

At this point, Young-woo looked at the woman again.

“Money.”

“Excuse me?”

“How much money can you pay? Check how much time is left and answer carefully.”

“Ah.”

The woman looked dazed for a moment, then quickly came to her senses and pulled something from her pocket.

Swish.

Ironically, it was a commemorative coin with Young-woo’s face engraved on it.

“This is all my wealth. I’ll give you all of it.”

To say she’d give it all was a bit much, since what the woman offered was one commemorative coin—that is, 10,000 Karma.

In any case, considering this room’s rental fee was 3,000 Karma, it was an incredibly profitable deal.

“Yes. That’ll do.”

When Young-woo set the lodging fee to 10,000 Karma, the blue barrier changed to green.

「Those wishing to enter must pay the lodging fee and enter.」

This was a message visible to both Young-woo and the woman.

“Should I put it in there…?”

The woman carefully pushed the coin through the green barrier.

Slide.

Then they could see the coin that passed through the barrier being wrapped in a green protective shield.

It seemed to protect the coin until entry was properly completed.

This was a system to prevent ‘scamming’ behavior where the room owner would just take the lodging fee and close the door.

Eventually, when the woman fully entered the room, the protective shield peeled away from the commemorative coin.

And at the same time, the pitiful aura the woman had been showing on her face completely disappeared.

“What a damn expensive night. If I’d known it would be like this, I should have come a bit earlier.”

The woman placed the commemorative coin on the table with a thud, then looked back and forth between Young-woo and Ye-chan and asked:

“Nice bathrobe. Can I wash up too?”

Class 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 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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