Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 27

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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 27 10. Battle of Villains (1)

As soon as Young-woo approved receiving the reward, a golden gleam flashed before his eyes.

Flash!

Then, just like when he received rewards before, a list of obtainable items appeared.

But the option status of those items was quite unusual.

‘What, what is this.’

Regardless of whether the items’ performance was good or bad, they were the type whose effects were difficult to predict carelessly.

「Golden Punishment」 – Legendary Bracelet

【Inflicts pain on enemies.】

【Accumulated Golden Rain: 2】

*’Golden Altar’ privilege.

「Amber Whistle」 – Legendary Necklace

【Calls a friend.】

|Young-tae.

*’Premium Social Worker’ privilege.

One inflicts pain on enemies, and the other calls a friend…

‘Since they’re legendary items, they must have amazing options.’

At this point, Young-woo couldn’t help but feel confused.

Even with Golden Flash, he could sufficiently infer what kind of effect it would have.

But these two items had no particular numbers displayed and their effects were so unusual that it would be difficult to evaluate them until he tried using them directly.

‘I can roughly guess what inflicting pain means… but what the hell does calling a friend mean.’

Young-woo’s gaze fell on the ‘Amber Whistle’.

「Amber Whistle」 – Legendary Necklace

【Calls a friend.】

|Young-tae.

The name ‘Young-tae’ written at the bottom of the tooltip was probably Hong Young-tae, the mutant from Gimcheon City.

The first mutant Young-woo had ever returned.

‘Does it mean calling him to fight together?’

As Young-woo briefly looked away from the tooltip, the approval process was immediately completed and the newly obtained items were equipped on his arm and neck.

Swoosh!

With a cool sensation, the golden bracelet wrapped around his wrist, and then a whistle connected to a thin string hung around his neck.

‘Really… it’s really a whistle.’

A whistle that could call Young-tae.

Seeing that Jang Seon-bok, the mutant he met in Gumi, wasn’t on the friend list, it seemed he could only call those he had returned.

‘Then if I have many friends, could I call multiple people?’

Young-woo stopped running for a moment while thinking this.

Then he carefully brought the whistle to his mouth.

“…”

A whistle out of nowhere.

Young-woo let out a hollow laugh and exhaled forcefully.

Then.

Tweeeeet!

The characteristic sound of a whistle burst out vigorously, momentarily lowering the saturation of the surrounding scenery.

「Friend Young-tae is being summoned in response to your call.」

‘Crazy, it was real.’

As Young-woo gaped at the text before his eyes, a white crack appeared in the air about 10 meters above his head.

Crack!

Then Hong Young-tae broke through the crack and jumped down.

「Yaaahhhhh!」

His spirit was still as good as ever.

Even his snout that had been smashed to pieces by Young-woo’s beating was back to normal as if nothing had happened.

Crash!

Finally, Hong Young-tae crushed the asphalt floor with both feet and landed in front of Young-woo.

“…!”

Young-woo flinched in surprise and stepped back.

The first reason was the belated thought that he might have to fight the guy again, and the second was…

[Jung Young-woo07’s Friend – Hong Young-tae]

It was because of the name tag above the guy’s head.

It was completely different from when he was a mutant.

“What’s going on? That Hong Young-tae who returned earlier… is it really you?”

When Young-woo asked this, the guy also looked up above his head and made an awkward expression.

「That’s right. How much time has passed since then?」

Hong Young-tae asked about time first thing upon arrival, setting aside everything else.

A common trait of mutants, then and now.

“Not much. Probably less than an hour.”

When Young-woo answered like this, the guy widened his eyes and spoke as if frightened.

「What…? Only that much time passed? I thought it would have been at least several months.」

“Did you come after waiting aimlessly in darkness again this time?”

「No. I was lying quietly in a room and came here. So I was just waiting for you to call me.」

“A room?”

At the unexpected answer, Young-woo looked into Hong Young-tae’s eyes.

However, in Young-tae’s eyes, having spent time in a place with no concept of time, there was no trace of lies to be found.

「They give each returnee a room. But right now it’s really just one room. I can’t go out and there’s nothing to do. I just stay still. It’s better than waiting in darkness, but it’s still a living hell.」

After saying this, the guy glanced up at the sky and then looked at Young-woo again.

「But the voice said so. If I help you and achieve merit, life in the room will gradually get better.」

“…”

Young-woo couldn’t continue speaking for a moment.

It was because he couldn’t even organize what he had just heard.

“So you’re saying there’s a separate world where returnees are quarantined, and for you to live well there, I need to help you? Is that what you’re saying?”

Then Hong Young-tae, who had been quietly listening to Young-woo’s words, nodded his long snout up and down.

「That’s right. So what do I need to do now?」

He acted as if he was only interested in achieving merit and returning.

Well, if everything he just said was true, then Hong Young-tae’s ‘remaining life’ would depend on how much merit he could achieve through Young-woo.

But unfortunately.

“Sorry, but there’s nothing for you to do right now.”

「…What? Then you’re telling me to go back like this? You don’t understand, do you? If I go back, there’s really nothing there. That place is…」

Hong Young-tae, who had been spitting out words like a machine gun, suddenly stopped talking and showed a terrified expression.

“What, what’s wrong?”

「Time’s up… I can feel it.」

At this, Young-woo looked at Hong Young-tae’s name tag.

“Ah.”

Why did he only notice now.

At some point, his name tag had been slowly erasing from the top. Like sand decreasing in the upper part of an hourglass.

‘So I can’t summon him indefinitely.’

「Please call me again. I’m begging you.」

The dejected Hong Young-tae flattened his ears and melted away into thin air.

Swoosh.

Somehow it was an unsettling ending.

‘So is he now trapped in that room again, endlessly waiting for a summons?’

Young-woo considered blowing the whistle again but stopped.

Since there was no opponent to fight right now, it would only cause unnecessary disappointment.

It might be better for his mental health to wait earnestly for the right moment and achieve merit all at once before returning.

‘If merit can be achieved, that is.’

He tried to imagine fighting the Sangju First Sword together with Hong Young-tae, but the picture didn’t come together well.

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

|The First Sword of this region is ‘Dokgo Se-hwan01’. 2nd generation, 148 defenses.

While Young-woo was climbing along the road between mountain areas, Sangju First Sword Dokgo Se-hwan01 had added one more to his defense count.

‘That crazy bastard. Did he kill someone again in that short time…?’

Young-woo was thinking this when he suddenly realized.

‘No, wait. That’s the defense count. Unilateral attacks that result in kills don’t get counted, do they?’

Since most of Young-woo’s kills had been in self-defense, he didn’t know exactly how the First Sword’s defense count was calculated.

He had just assumed it would go up whenever someone was killed.

But even if it only reflected kills made in counterattack, it still didn’t explain things clearly.

‘With such a high defense count, there are still people challenging him? That’s strange in its own way.’

In any case, what was certain was that the situation in Sangju would be completely different from Gimcheon.

Even though farmhouses were starting to appear in the distance, there were no red light pillars visible, not even blue ones.

Mutants and monsters all cleared.

This was a first.

Tap.

Young-woo tapped his left chest to hide his title, then moved along the road leading toward the farmhouses.

Unlike Gimcheon, where corpses were scattered from the city outskirts, Sangju City was relatively clean.

Occasionally there were bodies lying in the middle of rice field ridges or fields, but their numbers weren’t many, and rather…

‘Huh?’

Living people came into view already.

About two hundred meters ahead, people were gathered in front of what looked like a warehouse building.

‘What, there are people in a place like this. Usually don’t they gather in urban areas?’

As Young-woo tilted his head and walked toward the building, those over there also noticed Young-woo’s presence and reacted.

Several who had been crouching in place stood up, and some others walked out as if to greet Young-woo.

Step, step.

The distance between both sides gradually decreased.

Young-woo could soon see the other party’s appearance properly.

‘They’re elderly men.’

The other party consisted of six elderly men with graying hair.

Dark skin with deeply carved wrinkles, but their expressions weren’t scary or anything.

They were just ordinary old men you’d commonly see near farmhouses, and the swords, shields, spears and such that each held in their hands were also…

‘Things you’d commonly see in this world.’

Young-woo calmly watched as the old men subtly formed an encirclement.

And also noticed that their bladed weapons were all stained red.

It probably meant they had killed quite a few people so far.

Step, step.

Young-woo walked straight between them as if nothing was wrong and asked.

“This is my first visit to Sangju so I don’t know, but what happened here?”

Then one of the old men standing opposite pointed at Young-woo’s Early Bird with his axe blade and said.

“Why would someone who should know ask such a thing.”

“No, I really don’t know. You know what I’m holding, so why are you risking your lives?”

“If you feel sorry for old men risking their lives, just hand over some money and go. Then we’ll let you pass.”

“Put down that sword too.”

The last two lines were spoken respectively by two old men who had taken positions behind Young-woo.

They were informing him in their own gentlemanly way that he was already surrounded.

“Hmm.”

Young-woo felt puzzled seeing that the old men didn’t even glance at Golden Flash.

Perhaps it was because they were all too old.

Maybe they had no gaming knowledge at all, lacking the basic common sense that you should be wary when an opponent’s appearance is unusual?

‘Maybe they just think it’s some uniquely shaped glove I picked up somewhere.’

Before attacking the old men, Young-woo asked one last question.

“Then where can I meet the Sangju First Sword?”

“…What?”

The question was so out of the blue that several old men even burst into laughter.

“Completely crazy bastard.”

“First Sword? You can meet him if you go to City Hall.”

“City Hall? Which direction is that?”

The last was Young-woo’s question.

As Young-woo asked the question, he simultaneously tapped his backpack to make the coins jingle.

Then the old men, who couldn’t fail to recognize this sound, lit up their eyes.

“City Hall? Just keep going up that main road. But I don’t think you’ll make it there.”

One old man chuckled and pointed with his finger to a road leading to City Hall, and after confirming this, Young-woo put the whistle to his mouth.

He was thinking of having Young-tae handle the ‘small fry’ to let him achieve some merit. He was also curious about what would happen.

Swish.

Meanwhile, the elderly people who saw this even thought Young-woo might have some mental disability.

A young man in his prime walking around barefoot with a whistle hanging around his neck would certainly look that way.

However, Young-woo ultimately couldn’t blow the whistle.

「You have 1 friend summon remaining for today. Do you wish to continue?」

This message appeared just as Young-woo was about to blow into the whistle.

‘If there was something like this, you should have told me right away earlier.’

Fortunately for his misfortune, Young-tae would remain unaware of this incident.

That he had wasted one of his only two daily opportunities.

‘Can’t be helped. Let me finish this quickly and head toward City Hall.’

The shadows of the elderly people had already reached Young-woo’s feet.

Young-woo immediately threw Early Bird toward the elderly man in front.

Shwaaaang!

The silver-white blade flew like an arrow and struck precisely into the old man’s forehead, then returned to its original position at Young-woo’s call.

Whirrrr!

“Huh?”

“What…!”

“What the hell, this bastard.”

Even the elderly people who didn’t know much about games seemed greatly impressed by the Semi-Sword Control Art.

As soon as Young-woo retrieved his sword, they attempted a coordinated attack with all their might.

Taaaat!

However, their opponent was the Two-Region Integrated First Sword.

Young-woo easily neutralized their attack by unleashing First Sword’s Aura, then swung his sword like lightning to cut the elderly men’s necks.

Swish swish swish!

Due to his high Strength and their low durability, Young-woo felt as if he was cutting through tofu.

Thud thud.

The old heads rolled across the ground in uneven rhythm.

“…”

Young-woo searched through the headless bodies to recover what little Karma they had, then stepped onto the road leading to City Hall.

What kind of place was Sangju City, really.

He had a feeling he would see many things ahead.

Fourth-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, 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 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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