Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 44

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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 44 13. Opening the Gates (1)

“Since the second mutant of Mungyeong has been eliminated, Basic Welfare will be applied to this region.”

|Time remaining until Daily Quest application: 20 minutes.

|Time remaining until Merchant appearance: 5 minutes.

Despite the grandiose system message, what Young-woo was actually doing wasn’t particularly dignified.

He was crouched down on the floor, rummaging through a corpse.

But since he didn’t know what form Jang Chun-yong’s mutant equipment might take, he had no choice.

‘He’s not even wearing a ring… Could it be something he carries in his pocket?’

Swish.

He searched both pockets thoroughly, but all he found were a few crimson coins.

‘There’s no way he didn’t kill the Day 1 mutant.’

If that were the case, the martial prowess he’d witnessed earlier wouldn’t make sense.

“…”

Just as Young-woo tilted his head wondering what was going on, his own wrist came into view.

Or more precisely, he noticed the blue-green snake wrapped around his wrist.

Its head was bent at an odd angle.

“Snake of Greed” – Epic Compass

【Always gazes upon precious things.】

‘Always gazes upon precious things…’

Young-woo’s gaze followed the direction of the snake’s head.

Naturally, this led him to look at Jang Chun-yong’s face.

‘Face…? Something worn on the head?’

But no matter how carefully he looked, there was no equipment on Jang Chun-yong’s head.

‘What is it?’

It couldn’t be an error, could it?

Young-woo thought for a moment, then brought his wrist with the snake closer to the dead man’s face.

Slither.

Sure enough, the Snake of Greed began turning its head in a specific direction.

After several more adjustments, Young-woo finally reached a conclusion.

‘The eye… is it?’

Whatever this mutant equipment was, it was located somewhere in Jang Chun-yong’s left eye.

“…”

With a disgusted expression, Young-woo carefully lifted the dead man’s left eyelid.

And then he saw it.

Something whitish was covering Jang Chun-yong’s lifeless pupil.

It was, in other words.

‘A contact lens.’

A lens.

The moment Young-woo saw it, he felt all the hair on his body stand on end.

Though it was more instinctive revulsion than fear.

Did he really have to put a lens of unknown origin and maker, with a grade called ‘Mutant’, over his own eye?

And it was stripped from a corpse, no less.

‘Surely not… Do mutant lenses really exist?’

Young-woo shook his head while spreading his index finger and thumb toward Jang Chun-yong’s left eyeball.

And then.

Tseulip.

He pinched and extracted whatever was resting on the eyeball.

“Ugh.”

Immediately, the terrible situation Young-woo had anticipated unfolded.

Flash!

“One-Eyed Sentry” – Mutant Cornea

【Stands watch when you fall asleep.】

The problematic lens was indeed mutant equipment.

“Ah, seriously.”

Moreover, its official designation wasn’t lens but cornea.

Though he felt quite nauseous, Young-woo had neither the luxury nor reason to hesitate.

He had a mountain of other tasks to complete.

He still needed to check for mutant equipment left by the mutant Jang Dae-myeong, and bring Golden Rain to Mungyeong City.

‘Wearing this won’t blind me. Jang Chun-yong was fine with it.’

Young-woo took a small breath, then lifted his own left eyelid.

Then.

“…Whew.”

He exhaled and brought the mutant cornea to his eyeball.

Then.

Snap!

“Urgh…!”

As if it were alive, the ‘One-Eyed Sentry’ attached itself to Young-woo’s pupil on its own.

“Th-this… damn it. What is this thing?”

Startled, Young-woo couldn’t bring himself to close his eye and screamed, but the ‘One-Eyed Sentry’ showed no reaction.

After that brief movement, its presence had completely disappeared.

It seemed to have finished integrating.

Probably it wouldn’t show any movement until Young-woo fell asleep.

“This…”

Young-woo kept his face toward the ground with his eyes wide open for a while, before finally accepting it.

Blink.

He simply closed and opened his eyelid once.

Even so, he couldn’t feel the presence of the One-Eyed Sentry that had clearly attached to his eyeball moments ago.

‘Is this right…? A mutant cornea?’

Only after blinking several more times could Young-woo accept the fact that he would carry this foreign object in his eyeball until he died.

‘It said it stands watch when I sleep… So when I’m asleep, it looks around for me instead?’

This was something he could never know until he actually fell asleep.

Anyway, the remaining procedure was.

“…”

Making contact with the golden orb still rotating in mid-air.

The reward for eliminating Jang Dae-myeong, Mungyeong City’s Day 2 mutant.

Touch.

When Young-woo placed his hand on the sphere, the golden orb spun faster and displayed a message.

“You have eliminated a mutant.”

“Please select a reward to complete the procedure.”

≪Guaranteed Reward≫

“Blue Blood” – Mutant Drug

【Increases Strength by 30% for 10 minutes.】

【Number of uses: 4】

≪Selection Reward≫

[3 Million Karma]

or

[30,000 Karma distributed to all residents in the region]

Following the cornea, now it was a drug that had to be put inside his body.

“….”

Young-woo chose the selection reward with a somewhat resigned expression.

Flash!

[30,000 Karma distributed to all residents in the region]

Then the golden orb spun rapidly and shot up into the sky, soon exploding overhead and pouring down Golden Rain.

Swoooosh…!

《Gyeongbuk First Sword ‘Jung Young-woo07’ has given up monopolizing 3 million Karma and gifted 30,000 Karma to all Mungyeong residents.》

《30,000 Karma will soon be distributed in the form of commemorative coins. Please prepare.》

Just yesterday, even deciding on the selection reward was difficult, but now there was no hesitation at all.

After all, he had already attached a mutant cornea to his eyeball and would soon be drinking orc blood, so what did a selection reward matter?

Clink clink!

Young-woo skillfully caught the commemorative coins among the Golden Rain and opened his Achievement window.

[Golden Flood]

|Call down Golden Rain in 5 or more regions. (4/5)

‘Just one more to go.’

Adding to this, he had already collected four First Sword titles in the Gyeongbuk region, so his position could be considered solid in many ways.

Shimmer!

Soon, a bluish wave-like phenomenon appeared in the air and began forming the shape of a palm-sized potion bottle.

It was the mutant drug ‘Blue Blood’.

‘I didn’t know doping existed too.’

Young-woo picked up the potion bottle and put it in his pocket, then sighed while looking at the coins scattered all around.

‘Isn’t there something like auto-pickup? If they made doping potions, they should have implemented a pickup function too, right?’

However, instead of auto-pickup, what appeared was.

ROOOOOAR!

A thunderous roar that seemed to tear the sky.

Swoosh!

Then a pitch-black light pillar appeared, cutting through the clouds – none other than a merchant marker.

Even seeing it again, it felt incomparably more intimidating and alien than monster or mutant markers.

‘Northeast? This time it’s not too far.’

As Young-woo was gauging the position of the black light pillar, the sound of car horns blared loudly from the road behind.

Beeeep!

A gray SUV rushing straight toward him. It was the Jung Family’s vehicle.

Following Young-woo’s instructions to flee, they had managed to return alive without encountering any orcs.

“Young-woo!”

Myeong-ho, who had stopped the car at a safe distance, stuck his head out the window and called to Young-woo.

He was asking for confirmation that the situation had been completely resolved.

In response, Young-woo sheathed his sword completely and gestured toward Myeong-ho.

“Come quickly and help pick up some money. We need to move again.”

* * *

560,000 Karma.

When he and Myeong-ho collected all the coins in the area, the total amount reached an incredible 560,000.

Converted to ability stats, that was 560 points – enough money to instantly turn anyone into a skilled Monster Hunter.

“…Good heavens.”

Myeong-ho couldn’t easily take his eyes off the coins piled high on the ground.

And for good reason – with this much money, it seemed entirely possible to protect Mother on his own.

However.

“Did you collect the commemorative coins from earlier?”

“Huh? Oh, ah… Yes. Of course.”

“Then let’s use those for travel expenses.”

Young-woo himself had no intention of investing money in the Jung Family, whose power had already declined.

Rustle.

As Young-woo swept the pile of coins on the ground into his backpack, Myeong-ho, who had been watching blankly, asked cautiously.

“Um… Young-woo?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to Chungju now?”

Chungju. The city where Myeong-ho’s father, the last member of the Jung Family, lived.

However, given the situation, whether they could take that vehicle to Chungju depended entirely on Young-woo.

There were no more fighters to protect the vehicle from monsters and other people.

“Ah, well. I do need to go to Chungju.”

“…?”

Myeong-ho made an uneasy expression at Young-woo’s cryptic response.

Then he looked at the black light pillar visible in the distance with a ‘surely not’ expression.

This was because Young-woo’s gaze had shifted in that direction.

“Something will appear there soon.”

“…Yes.”

“So let’s just meet with that and then move.”

“Meet… with it?”

Since Myeong-ho was also watching the merchant appearance timer, he naturally knew that what Young-woo wanted to meet was a ‘merchant’.

But would that really be a merchant in the conventional sense? Just looking at that ominous black light pillar…

“I, I see. Understood.”

Myeong-ho ultimately nodded contrary to his true feelings. There was no alternative.

And sensing this, Young-woo tried to comfort Myeong-ho even though he knew it wouldn’t help much.

“It won’t be dangerous this time, since we’re not going to fight.”

“Ah… Have you met one before?”

“Yes, sort of, but also not really.”

“…?”

Myeong-ho tilted his head at the puzzling answer, but Young-woo had actually told the truth.

Now that he had designated a main intermediary, he would meet Kubu just like in the previous transaction, but… he couldn’t know what kind of being would appear as the ‘merchant’.

The only thing he could vaguely guess was that at least he probably wouldn’t end up fighting the alien trading company.

Of course, this was purely Young-woo’s one-sided thinking.

Clatter.

Young-woo dumped the last of his coins into his backpack, then opened his ability stats window to check his current holdings.

『Character : Jung Young-woo07』

[Strength] 600 (19+581)

[Endurance] 350 (21+329)

[Durability] 550 (13+537)

[Sense] 100 (24+76)

* 1,000 Karma is consumed per ability stat point.

* Available Karma : 894,000

His current total assets amounted to 894,000 Karma.

If he poured all of this into ability stats, he could achieve dramatic growth, but for Young-woo, whose main adversaries were First Swords from other regions, raising his ability stats by about 890 points wouldn’t yield any meaningful results.

Because.

‘Soon, First Swords who have devoured even 2nd day Mutants will appear.’

And if those First Swords had chosen to monopolize 3 million Karma in both binary choices, their expected minimum total ability stats would be 6,000.

So for Young-woo, whose current total ability stats didn’t even reach 2,000, adding 890 ability stats would be meaningless.

At best, it would make battles against monsters easier. But what would be the point if he lost in duels against other First Swords?

‘I need something that can create a major variable like Sense Steal.’

And Young-woo planned to create that variable through the Golden Rain Achievement and trading with the Alien Trading Company.

Kwarrrung!

Meanwhile, with less than a minute remaining until the Merchant’s appearance, explosive sounds began emanating from the black light pillar.

Was it preparing to bring in a being from another dimension?

At this, Young-woo shouldered his backpack and pointed at the SUV.

“Let’s go meet the alien.”

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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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