Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 24

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

Chapter 24 9. The Barefoot Superhuman (2)

‘What the hell has Gimcheon been doing?’

Young-woo found himself unconsciously criticizing Gimcheon City.

The fact that the Mutant had been alive all day yesterday meant many things.

Unimaginable casualties.

And a powerless First Sword.

Of course, the First Sword had no obligation to protect the residents of their region.

But regardless of that, if the First Sword of Gimcheon had been strong enough, the Mutant couldn’t have survived this long.

Flash!

Soon the upper right of his vision flickered and the regional status changed.

He had finally left Gumi and entered the Gimcheon regional area.

But no matter how he looked at it, the state of the First Sword of Gimcheon was strange.

|You are currently staying in the region ‘Gimcheon’.

|The First Sword of this region is ‘Park Kyung-tae421’. 36th generation, 0 defenses.

’36th generation…?’

It meant the First Sword had changed 35 times in a single day.

In other words, no one in Gimcheon had ever properly held onto the First Sword title. This city had failed to maintain any strong fighters.

‘These crazy bastards.’

Young-woo was angry.

In this world where everyone carried swords, being strong generally meant being close to evil, but still, someone had to stop the Mutants, didn’t they?

Rather than all running around like sheep and getting bitten to death, wouldn’t it be better to at least struggle?

‘They might not have even been able to properly deal with monsters before the Mutant. How much of a mess was it for the First Sword to fall to the 36th generation?’

Young-woo recalled the scene of the Goblins eating yesterday and ground his teeth.

Then he kicked the ground even more fiercely.

Kwagwak!

Every time he stepped on and lifted off the floor, he could feel asphalt fragments hitting his heels and bouncing away.

The wind brushing his cheeks and earlobes was also much sharper than before.

Then finally.

“…!”

The panoramic view of Gimcheon City began to come into sight in the distance.

As expected, behind the red light pillar, blue light pillars marking monsters remained scattered here and there.

Still, seeing that there weren’t dozens of markers, it seemed not everyone had given up completely.

But ultimately they had failed to stop the Mutant. It meant some residents had been quite brave, but it wasn’t enough.

=Kindness·Order·Cleanliness Campaign=

〔Happy together, Welcome to Gimcheon.〕

Young-woo passed the sign erected at the entrance to Gimcheon City and ran like mad on the road with rice fields spread out on both sides.

He could feel the distance to the Mutant marker getting closer then farther.

‘It’s still active. It’s continuously chasing people.’

Kwagwagwagwak!

At some point the marker tilted westward, so Young-woo also left the road and crossed through the rice fields.

Ppapapapat!

It was early June. The rice fields that had just finished planting were filled with water, and when Young-woo entered them at high speed, muddy water and rice seedlings splattered in all directions.

“…?”

And at this moment Young-woo saw something important.

The rice seedlings scattered in the field weren’t stones.

‘All the food should have turned to stone… Maybe it didn’t judge them as food since the rice wasn’t fully grown yet?’

He didn’t have time to think more deeply.

His legs had already passed through the rice fields and were now stepping on mountain terrain, and soon a gas station appeared ahead.

The real entry into the city had begun.

Kwajak!

Young-woo jumped down from the hill back toward the road, passed the gas station, and entered an area lined with apartments.

And at the same time.

“…”

He saw more corpses scattered on the streets than there were households in the apartments.

From those roughly dismembered to those with body parts eaten away, to cases bent at bizarre angles.

Yet seeing how they all had their heads pointing toward the direction Young-woo had entered from.

‘They were caught trying to escape the city.’

This was even the outskirts of Gimcheon City.

Since he hadn’t seen other corpses while coming from Gumi to here, most Gimcheon citizens must have died without even reaching the highway.

‘Everyone’s skin is intact. The monsters in this region aren’t Goblins.’

In Young-woo’s experience, Goblins peeled the skin… that is, the hide or shell of their prey when eating.

However, all those who died in Gimcheon City still had their skin intact.

Papapat!

The procession of corpses continued.

At least the armament condition of the corpses improved as they got closer to the inner city.

In the city outskirts, quite a few unarmed corpses could be seen, but now he could often see those who had carried two or more weapons.

‘This place was truly hell.’

Just as Young-woo was thinking this and about to check the regional status again.

Pat.

|You are currently staying in the region ‘Gimcheon’.

|The First Sword of this region is ‘Kim Sun-hwa190’. 37th generation, 0 defenses.

The First Sword of Gimcheon had been succeeded again.

“…?”

Only after seeing this did Young-woo realize.

‘The previous First Swords weren’t killed by challengers. The reason the First Sword changed 36 times wasn’t because of people but…’

The Mutant.

No First Sword could defeat the Mutant that appeared in Gimcheon and they died one after another, so when the First Sword position kept becoming vacant, the system was arbitrarily designating the next candidate.

Just like how Young-woo had become the First Sword of Gumi simply for showing Martial Prowess in front of a crowd.

‘Then where is the current First Sword? Is that person also near the Mutant now?’

Young-woo looked toward the red light pillar, the point where he expected ‘Kim Sun-hwa190’ to be.

Then as if on cue, the light pillar seemed to flinch, and the vicious cycle began again.

|You are currently staying in the region ‘Gimcheon’.

|The First Sword of this region is ‘Kang Sung-ho306’. 38th generation, 0 defenses.

In that brief moment, Kim Sun-hwa190 had also died.

‘What the hell is going on?’

He couldn’t tell whether what was happening there was one-sided slaughter or battle.

In any case, it seemed certain that the system was appointing people near the Mutant as First Sword.

‘Fuck, I’m going.’

Meanwhile, Young-woo had approached close to the urban area where the red light pillar was shooting up.

The remaining distance was probably about 2 kilometers at most.

Swoooosh!

It didn’t even take a few minutes for Young-woo to get the scene of the problem into his sight.

“…!”

As expected, there were dozens of people there. And in Young-woo’s view, they were the strongest group in Gimcheon.

Because they all had weapons and shields, one each.

Some were even Early Bird holders, and some carried large backpacks, apparently having done quite a bit of ‘farming’ the day before.

Yet they were all in full retreat.

“R-run!”

“Aaaaah!”

And behind them.

「Keh… This could be quite a life worth living, couldn’t it?」

A beast-man with a massive build was charging forward, emanating a ferocious aura.

‘A mutant…!’

Young-woo’s pupils dilated.

Gimcheon City’s mutant wasn’t a goblin, but a ‘gnoll’.

A beast-man with a hyena’s head.

Its height was about 3 meters, same as Gumi’s Jang Seon-bok, but its torso thickness and muscle size made its overall physique look much larger.

Its distinguishing feature was that it had no separate weapon, and its only armor was a breastplate covering just the torso.

‘Still, its combat power seems at least two levels above Jang Seon-bok.’

Young-woo drew Early Bird from his waist while checking the opponent’s name tag.

[Internet Broadcaster-Hong Young-tae(Ppagle)]

‘Huh?’

Hong Young-tae. Also known as BJ Ppagle.

It was a name Young-woo had encountered through news articles. He was quite a famous troublemaker in the internet broadcasting industry.

He already had his license revoked for drunk driving, and recently made big headlines for disrupting train operations on railway tracks while claiming to fulfill viewer missions.

‘He mainly caused trouble in Seoul… I guess he was actually from Gimcheon.’

But Hong Young-tae seemed to have no affection whatsoever for his hometown people.

「Another one down!」

Because he was excitedly chasing people who were fleeing with their backs turned to him, swinging his fists around.

Thwack!

His strength was so great that anyone hit by his fist was without exception smashed into the ground and died instantly.

「Keekit! Like some kind of kimchi pancake!」

Hong Young-tae laughed while crushing the corpse embedded in the ground with his palm. It was a blood-red jest with terrible anger underlying it.

Then, when the corpse no longer looked human, he bounced up to chase the next victim.

In other words, this group, which might be Gimcheon’s last bastion, had been like this long before Young-woo arrived.

Reduced to defeated soldiers being toyed with by a mutant.

“…Good Lord.”

Young-woo saw the title ‘Gimcheon First Sword’ glowing brightly somewhere in the middle of the fleeing procession.

The 38th First Sword, Kang Sung-ho306, was also fleeing like everyone else.

At this point, it wouldn’t be wrong to say Gimcheon effectively had no First Sword.

「Hey, First Sword! Wait up!」

Finally, Hong Young-tae pointed at Kang Sung-ho306 with his black claws, then crouched down on all fours.

Then.

Swoosh!

He stretched his body like lightning and leaped high into the air.

He intended to land right on top of the new First Sword’s head in one go.

Young-woo immediately ran toward the creature’s expected landing point and tapped his left chest.

Then.

Flash!

Young-woo’s title, which had been hidden until now, appeared above his head.

『First Sword of Gumi』

“Huh?”

“Uh…?”

“First Sword of… Gumi?”

The people who had been running toward Young-woo widened their eyes.

Meanwhile, Young-woo shouted toward Kang Sung-ho306, who was standing stupidly under the huge shadow.

“Get out of the way, Kang Sung-ho!”

“What…?”

The Gimcheon First Sword was terrified at the sight of the fierce-faced Gumi First Sword.

Then.

Thud!

He was soon crushed and killed by Hong Young-tae’s body falling on top of him.

Splat!

This corpse really did look like kimchi pancake.

“….”

Young-woo looked down at Kang Sung-ho306, who had been crushed to pieces and rolled to his feet.

“I told you to get out of the way.”

Then Hong Young-tae, who heard Young-woo’s words, opened his long snout.

「There’s another First Sword.」

Then.

「Huh? What’s this.」

As if sensing something strange, he suddenly started sniffing and frowned.

「What’s this fucking sme…」

When Hong Young-tae got this far in his pronunciation, Young-woo finally remembered.

「This equipment carries the scent of a mutant. Other mutants may detect this and become wary.」

The warning message he had seen when acquiring the mutant-grade ring ‘Angry Goblin’.

So what the creature was smelling now was the scent of Jang Seon-bok from Gumi City Council.

「You bastard, don’t tell me.」

While Hong Young-tae was realizing the identity of the smell, Young-woo was looking at the Death Strike marks attached to various parts of his body.

‘It’s all killing routes.’

But Young-woo didn’t want to kill him.

Since he had encountered a mutant, he needed to clear as many Achievements as possible.

[Premium Social Worker]

|Send the mutant back alive.

‘Instead of killing him right away, can’t I just beat him up enough to make him want to die?’

When Young-woo asked this to himself like a monologue, the positions and forms of the marks attached to Hong Young-tae changed.

―Break

―Break

―Break

―Break

Break, meaning to shatter.

It was a Sword Path that wouldn’t kill, just as Young-woo had requested.

‘Since his body is so big, there must be many places to hit.’

As Young-woo nodded and gripped Early Bird and his shield tightly, Hong Young-tae finally bared his teeth and emitted a threatening presence.

Crack.

And the fact that he was really going to attack could be confirmed through the next message that appeared.

「Sense stat has temporarily increased from the existing 100 to 164.」

As expected, Golden Flash had stolen even the mutant’s senses.

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]

Homepage │ 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.

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