Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 66

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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 66 19. First Appearance in Martial World (3)

Vrooom!

The propulsion power of the Iron Horse Negwig was truly tremendous.

Just from its rapid acceleration alone, both Young-woo and Jong-su couldn’t properly control their bodies.

Especially Young-woo, who was someone with superhuman-level physical abilities.

‘Just how fast are we running right now?’

When Young-woo barely managed to straighten his upper body and looked back, he could see a dark road stretching out beyond Jong-su’s shoulders as he screamed with his eyes closed.

And at the far end of that road, he could see something glowing small. It was none other than a patrol car running with its headlights on.

In that short time, they had created this much distance.

Moreover, the distance from the patrol car was continuing to widen.

‘Could it possibly go even faster than this?’

Young-woo was about to test the Negwig’s abilities further but stopped when he heard Jong-su’s screaming continue.

“H-hyung! Can’t we go just a little slower?”

“I’ll look for it. Just bear with it for a moment.”

Receiving Jong-su’s request, Young-woo fumbled around the Negwig’s neck and head to find what appeared to be a braking device.

Then.

-Squeak!

Part of the iron plate covering the Negwig’s snout stretched down long and instantly created reins.

‘That’s novel.’

The reins were also made of black metal like the Negwig’s outer plate, but their texture and flexibility were like leather.

‘If I pull this, does it brake?’

Tug.

When Young-woo lightly pulled the reins, the Negwig’s head lifted up, and along with this, the guardrail that had looked like afterimages began to regain its proper form.

The creature had really reduced its speed.

“Phew.”

Jong-su exhaled loudly as if he could finally live.

And when a little more time passed, the sound of sirens could be heard from afar.

“…?”

“Huh?”

Looking back, a patrol car with its police light on was approaching at high speed.

When Young-woo completely disappeared from sight, they had sounded the siren to signal him to stop.

“Young-woo!”

Soon, Byeong-cheol’s flustered voice came from the patrol car that had approached right behind the Negwig.

“Even so, shouldn’t we at least be able to confirm each other’s positions?”

Byeong-cheol looked around the dim surroundings with eyes full of wariness.

Meanwhile, Young-woo took out the Scared Cat, confirmed there was nothing wrong, and spoke calmly.

“It was much faster than expected. But now that I know how to control it, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

Swish.

When Young-woo showed him the reins, Byeong-cheol’s expression became complicated again.

He felt uncomfortable about the fact that reins were attached to that bizarre iron horse.

It could be called an uncanny valley.

‘How can he ride something like that so nonchalantly? Are only such oddballs able to adapt to this world?’

Byeong-cheol felt bitter admiration watching Young-woo, who was already loosening the reins again and preparing to depart.

* * *

9:26 PM.

The surrounding scenery was still nothing but rice fields and simple buildings, but according to the regional status window, this was now Yongin.

Pop!

|The area you are currently staying in is ‘Yongin’.

|There is no First Sword in this area.

“As expected.”

“Is this also the work of those Seoul guys, hyung?”

“Probably so.”

Young-woo looked west, which he estimated was probably the direction of Yongin City downtown.

He’d need to get closer to know for sure, but there were no light pillars visible so far.

In other words, if there were no mutants or monsters but the First Sword had disappeared…

‘Someone swept through and cleaned everything up.’

Most likely someone from Seoul.

The second possibility would be a provincial First Sword who had started heading to the capital early.

‘If the mutant competition in Seoul is so fierce that they’d come down here… wouldn’t it be better to just settle down here instead?’

Young-woo thought this while taking out the Scared Cat.

“….”

The creature still had its eyes closed.

At least there were no threatening targets in this area.

Thud thud thud thud…!

Listening to the sound of the Negwig’s hooves as they went further inside, traces of fairly rough battles began to appear.

Torn vinyl greenhouses, warehouse buildings that had completely collapsed.

Looking at the scenery in all directions, it seemed like the result of monsters running wild rather than superhumans fighting each other.

It meant that monsters had survived long enough to damage the city comprehensively.

‘The Yongin First Sword probably wasn’t very strong.’

Wasn’t it a similar situation to Gimcheon, where the First Sword was being succeeded in real-time due to lack of suitable candidates?

“….”

As Young-woo stared at the destroyed Yongin outskirts, Jong-su in the back seat asked.

“Hyung.”

“Yes.”

“Buildings damaged like that can’t be restored, right?”

Jong-su pointed to a building visible in the distance.

It was a small 4-story building, but two floors were completely crushed, essentially losing its function as a building.

“Probably not? Places like that probably won’t even count as shelter.”

“Huh… Then shouldn’t we prioritize protecting buildings over other things?”

Jong-su pointed out a fairly important aspect.

With no knowing how many more mutants and monsters would pour out, the ‘residential areas’ essential for surviving the night alive were gradually disappearing.

“You’re right. No matter how strong a First Sword is, they can’t block multiple places simultaneously.”

Therefore, continuous residential damage from monsters would be unavoidable.

Eventually…

‘Only areas with strong First Swords might have buildings left.’

Of course, that area would most likely be Seoul.

‘Even now, most provincial cities have lost their First Swords. I’d say they’ll become ruins by tomorrow.’

In other words, for anyone to survive, they’d have no choice but to seek out cities where First Swords were active.

Thud thud thud…!

As they drove the Negwig further into Yongin City, far more buildings began to appear than in the outskirts, and accordingly, the number of damaged buildings increased.

And finally, they could see people too.

“Eek?”

“M-monster…!”

People who started running while shouting “monster” as soon as they saw Young-woo.

“Save me!”

“Aaaaah!”

In fact, their reaction was only natural.

Young-woo’s appearance emerging from the darkness riding an iron horse looked exactly like a monster or mutant.

“What, what… are they running away that desperately?”

Jong-su, who was startled by their intense reaction, gaped in surprise.

Since Young-woo was already causing trouble for the second time today, he hurriedly stopped Negwig and looked around the area.

“If we go any further, it’ll cause chaos. We should find a place to sleep around here if possible.”

While Young-woo was saying this, a patrol car from Icheon police approached from behind.

“What’s the matter?”

Soon, Byeong-cheol stuck his head out of the passenger seat and asked with a puzzled tone.

They had just reached the entrance to downtown, so why had they stopped?

“It seems there are still many people left in Yongin. Rather than cause unnecessary trouble, we should start looking for rooms around here.”

“…Ah.”

After hearing Young-woo’s words, Byeong-cheol understood the situation without needing further explanation.

After all, wasn’t Byeong-cheol the first person to be terrorized by Young-woo?

“How many rooms do we need? We should sleep separately, right?”

The ‘we’ that Byeong-cheol mentioned referred to himself and Police Officer Kwon Tae-young.

Young-woo glanced at Jong-su in the back seat, then turned his gaze back to Byeong-cheol.

“I’ll sleep alone for now. So it would be best to get three rooms, and if that’s difficult…”

Jong-su and the Icheon Police Station side would have to share a room.

“…”

“Hmm.”

Since it was the opinion of Young-woo, the strongest person in the assembly, the other three showed uncomfortable expressions but couldn’t raise any objections.

“Well, regardless of how many rooms we get, it would be good to stay close to each other, so we should look for a villa or apartment.”

Byeong-cheol tried to change the atmosphere, and soon Jong-su found a building that met their conditions.

“How about that place?”

Swish.

The place Jong-su pointed to was a motel in the corner across the road.

‘…A motel again?’

Young-woo’s expression crumpled. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant place for him.

But he couldn’t keep avoiding motels forever.

“Yes. Let’s start by checking that place.”

So in the end, Young-woo agreed to go to the motel.

* * *

「Rousseau」

The motel’s name was Rousseau.

Except for the damaged vehicles scattered in the parking lot next to the entrance, there seemed to be no problems with its exterior appearance.

“Two, three… five… six floors. There should be vacant rooms available.”

While Jong-su was counting the number of windows in the building, the patrol car came up behind them and stopped.

“Motels… how much do they usually charge for accommodation?”

Byeong-cheol asked as if Young-woo would naturally know.

And coincidentally, Young-woo had experience staying at a motel after the reset.

“A small room would cost about 3,000 Karma.”

“3,000…? That’s much cheaper than apartments.”

“Are apartments more expensive?”

“Of course, they charge 8,000 Karma for an 18-pyeong unit.”

“…!”

This was new information.

“8,000 for one night wouldn’t be cost-effective.”

“Naturally. So usually trustworthy people pool their money together to check in.”

“I see.”

Young-woo nodded.

Conversely, single-person households without trustworthy people would have to look for motels or goshiwons due to their circumstances.

‘But that’s only possible when motels remain for a long time. If residential buildings keep disappearing like Jong-su said, eventually everyone will have to do forced group lodging every night.’

Did everyone know this fact?

“…”

Young-woo briefly scanned the fairly sophisticated-looking motel exterior and jumped down from Negwig.

Clank!

Then Jong-su also got down following him, and seeing that both people had landed, Negwig suddenly crouched down in place, hiding its head, limbs, and tail inside its body and transforming into a giant oval shape.

Swoosh!

Like an egg.

“Huh.”

“Eek?”

Since this was unexpected, Young-woo also looked at Negwig with surprised eyes.

“What’s this…?”

“Is it like a parking mode?”

Jong-su made a plausible inference.

Since they were in front of a building that functioned as residential housing, Negwig might have automatically switched to parking or standby mode.

“If that’s really the case, isn’t that thing unaffected by abnormal weather?”

This was a question from Byeong-cheol, who was still in the patrol car.

Since he was wondering what would happen to the patrol car if they ended up spending the night here, he asked this question.

Of course, Young-woo didn’t know the scope of abnormal weather application either.

“Well, we’ll have to park the car and come out tomorrow to find out.”

Today’s abnormal weather was a heat wave…

People outside would naturally burn to death, but what would happen to things legitimately bought with Karma?

“Should we first check if there are vacant rooms here? We’ll have to move again anyway if there are no rooms.”

Just as Young-woo was about to open the motel entrance with these words, a shadow flickered beyond the opaque glass door.

“…!”

It was a scene that gave Young-woo a sense of déjà vu.

‘…I never see anything good at motels.’

Sure enough, as soon as he quickly stepped back, the glass door cracked loudly and some bloodied man came flying out.

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 │ Seoul Guro-gu Digital-ro 288, Room 204 (Guro-dong, Daeryung Post Tower 1)

Email │ [email protected]

Homepage │ www.jayplemedia.com

ⓒCoat2023

※This work is published by JPL Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and no part of this 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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