Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 68

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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 68 19. First Appearance in Martial World (5)

Room 403 was considerably more spacious than expected.

The roughly 8-pyeong room contained a queen-size bed, a simple dining table, and a built-in vanity, beneath which a mini-refrigerator hummed with its characteristic mechanical sound as always.

Another notable feature was that mirrors were installed on three walls around the bed.

“Ha.”

Young-woo, who had been examining the area around the bed, chuckled softly at his reflection in the mirror.

His outfit looked quite bizarre due to haphazardly wearing all sorts of equipment.

It looked like children playing at sword fighting and randomly imitating knight’s attire.

Swoosh.

When he removed the helmet that had been tightly covering his head, he finally felt as if the tension throughout his body was being released.

“Good grief.”

Next, he removed his cloak, belt, and shoes in order, then took off all the equipment that had been attached densely to his forearms and laid them out on the table.

The Golden Goblin looked at him with an expression of incomprehension.

-Keet?

The creature didn’t yet know that this place was a safe zone.

“You should rest too. You’ve been running around all day.”

Young-woo said this to the goblin and then threw off his training clothes in front of the bathroom.

Then he threw open the frosted glass door of the bathroom.

“…!”

Surprisingly, there was a bathtub.

* * *

Although it was a narrow bathtub that required drawing up both legs, it was a sufficiently satisfying half-bath.

Having completed all his business, Young-woo lay down on the bed wearing only a bathrobe.

Plop.

The goblin, who had been lying on the bed while Young-woo was washing, suddenly sat up.

-Kit!

It couldn’t appear too relaxed in front of its master.

Of course, that was definitely just for ‘show.’

After all, this was the same creature that had hastily fled when Young-woo was cut in half by the Chungju First Sword.

Nevertheless, Young-woo waved his hand to indicate it should continue resting.

Then he lay on the bed and looked at the ceiling.

‘Oh my.’

There was a mirror on the ceiling too.

‘Why are there so many mirrors in this place?’

The Gyeongbuk First Sword in his bathrobe was reflected quite explicitly.

The goblin beside him had already entered rest mode with both hands folded.

The subspace pouch it always gripped tightly in its hands was placed by the pillow.

-Keeee….

A drowsy sound he’d never heard from the creature before flowed out.

‘It fell asleep already…?’

Young-woo checked the table clock beside the bed with disbelieving eyes.

Current time: 9:57 PM.

“Huh?”

When Young-woo startled and got up from his position, the sleeping goblin also sprang up reflexively.

-Kit?

“It’s almost tax collection time.”

When he checked his wristwatch for cross-verification, he saw the minute display that had been 57 just moments before turn to 58.

「21:58」

It really was approaching 10 PM, which meant.

‘Everyone who hasn’t obtained cash yet will die….’

As Young-woo swallowed dryly, a system-wide announcement appeared.

―Tax collection will begin shortly at 10 PM.

―The basic tax amount is 1,000 Karma, and tax delinquents will be immediately eliminated at the time of collection.

At the same time, it became noisy outside the door.

“What’s this?”

When Young-woo opened the room door, he saw women’s alliance members lined up in the motel corridor.

However, unlike when he’d seen them before, they were notably holding crimson coins instead of weapons.

‘Could they be doing a headcount? To make sure no one dies from not having money for taxes…?’

If that was really the case, it was a surprisingly systematic approach.

This was only the second day after reset, and no matter how much these people had gathered within Cheoin-gu, they were still strangers to each other.

Moreover, in a world like this, strangers were essentially potential….

“What are you doing there?”

Before Young-woo could finish his thought, Seong Ye-rin’s head suddenly popped out from one side of his vision.

“Eek!”

When the startled Young-woo stepped backward, Seong Ye-rin tapped the protective shield blocking the door.

“Why are you so surprised? Now that I look at you, you seem to be human after all. Earlier you really looked like some kind of monster.”

“Ah.”

Hearing Ye-rin’s words, Young-woo suddenly realized he was currently wearing only a bathrobe.

In contrast, Ye-rin was in full combat gear, just without her weapon drawn.

Her daily routine wasn’t over yet.

“Is that… a headcount?”

When Young-woo adjusted his bathrobe and pointed to the corridor, Ye-rin nodded while showing him a coin.

“That’s right. If anyone doesn’t have money right now, the squad leader will lend it to them.”

“Lend it…?”

“Yes. They just have to participate in monster hunting the next day to pay it back.”

Ye-rin explained that anyone with intact limbs who didn’t participate in monster hunting wasn’t accepted as an alliance member in the first place.

“Well… they might die before paying back the money, but just that alone is worth the cost.”

It was an extremely tough statement.

Young-woo couldn’t help but be surprised again.

Just how many alliance members were staying in this motel?

Just looking at the number of people lined up in this 4th floor corridor, there were at least ten.

Since it was a 6-story building, a simple calculation meant nearly 60 combatants were living according to their own rules.

‘But they said they occupy half the buildings in this area….’

At least several hundred.

It’s said that the military force of the Podocheong, which was responsible for security in the capital city during the Joseon Dynasty, numbered less than two hundred.

So being able to mobilize hundreds of personnel in this era of decimated population was truly tremendous power.

Beep.

Finally, the alarm on Young-woo’s wristwatch rang to announce 10 PM.

And simultaneously.

―Tax collection begins as of this time.

A system announcement appeared, and a strange phenomenon occurred.

Pop, pop pop!

The crimson coins held by the Women’s Alliance members began disappearing one by one.

“Oh.”

Ye-rin’s coin, who was standing outside Room 403, also vanished without a trace, and then.

Swoosh.

Something came to Young-woo as well.

“…!”

A feeling like wind brushing past his entire body.

Then a series of text appeared in his field of vision.

|Basic Tax Amount: 1,000

|Deduction Items: Single Household

|Final Tax Amount: 500

‘This is….’

It was a tax bill.

That strange feeling he just experienced was the moment the final tax amount was withdrawn.

“Is everyone alright? Please conduct a headcount starting from the back.”

Meanwhile, in the corridor, they were busy checking if there were any personnel changes before and after tax collection.

And Young-woo watched the people in the corridor finish their inspection in perfect order and disperse, then asked Ye-rin.

“What is the purpose of this alliance? There must be a reason for being this organized.”

Then Ye-rin stared directly at Young-woo.

“If you’re really asking out of curiosity, I hope you’ll listen without prejudice.”

“Yes. I’ll try my best.”

“Imagine you encountered a robber on the street and lost the fight. In the worst case, Young-woo, you’d probably just end up dead, but for us, it’s generally not like that.”

Ye-rin’s jaw muscles twitched.

“…That’s right.”

Young-woo could understand what she was saying without difficulty.

She was talking about sexual violence that could follow after losing a duel.

“Yes. Of course Young-woo, you understand what I’m talking about. But that’s as far as it goes.”

“So… you’re saying I can understand and imagine it, but only to that extent?”

“That’s right. If Young-woo had ever been raped or been in a similar situation, the story would be a bit different… but generally that’s not the case, right? It’s not that it’s bad or anything. It’s literally something that can’t be helped.”

“Yes. It’s something that can’t be helped.”

“That’s why we don’t bother recruiting men. We could make them understand our situation, but we couldn’t make them empathize enough to risk their lives fighting alongside us.”

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

As Ye-rin said, he couldn’t fully empathize with the double-layered fear they felt, but he could fully understand why this alliance had to be formed of a single gender.

“Our purpose is to not die, or experience something that might be worse than death. For that, we need very strong power, and we built up our organizational strength for that.”

By the time Ye-rin finished saying this, the corridor was completely empty as if nothing had happened.

The communal routine only ended after checking that everyone had safely paid their taxes.

“Was that a sufficient answer?”

Ye-rin scanned the empty corridor with her eyes.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t directly participated in the headcount on the 4th floor.

All Seong Ye-rin had done since coming here was.

‘Just talk with me until the roll call ended.’

Young-woo finally realized.

The reason Ye-rin came here was to keep Young-woo’s group in check. Since they were the only male group in this building.

‘Is she actually much stronger than she looks? She was covering this place alone when Icheon First Sword is staying here?’

When Young-woo tried to examine the equipment status of Ye-rin, who looked extremely ordinary, she made a cold expression.

“Do you have any more questions?”

“No. I was just….”

As soon as Young-woo began to speak, Ye-rin disappeared from his sight.

She too had finished her daily routine.

‘I don’t know what all this is about, but it’s impressive anyway.’

Young-woo glanced at the now truly empty corridor and closed the door.

Then he returned to the bed and lay down looking at the mirrored ceiling.

‘So these people are going to stay here and keep collecting karma?’

Judging from Ye-rin’s words about becoming First Sword someday, they might be waiting for a mutant to drop here tomorrow.

If they killed it and monopolized the 3 million, it would be a great help in a future duel with First Sword.

‘Hundreds of female warriors gathered under red light pillars….’

It would have been an unrealistic imagination just two days ago, but not anymore.

‘…But the First Swords are getting stronger every day.’

Young-woo felt his eyelids getting heavy as he recalled the duels with past mutants.

Even though they were events from just a few days, or even a few hours ago, they felt as distant as if months had passed.

All those events had brought extreme fatigue.

Both mentally and physically.

“Phew….”

Half asleep, Young-woo let out a long breath. Like a whale briefly surfacing.

And as he was about to breathe out again with another phew.

.

.

.

Whoosh!

Suddenly his body shot upward.

Or at least, that’s how Young-woo felt.

‘…Huh?’

So he opened his eyes wide.

Shiiing!

“Gasp!”

Through the ceiling mirror, he could see a red eye-shaped icon floating above his left eye.

This was probably the effect of the mutant grade cornea ‘One-Eyed Sentry’, but before Young-woo could recall that, Jong-su burst in.

“Hyuuuung!”

Shouting loud enough to assault the ears.

“Hyung! Something terrible has happened!”

“…?”

Young-woo felt something was off seeing Jong-su pass through the door as if it were nothing.

Swoosh.

He hurriedly looked at the desk clock.

「10:07」

‘Ten o’clock…? No way.’

This time Young-woo’s head turned the other way.

Then he could see bright light seeping through the window frame.

It was 10 AM, not night.

He had slept for a full 12 hours without even hearing the motel system’s wake-up call.

Because of this, Young-woo’s ownership of the guest room had also expired, allowing Jong-su to enter without any restrictions.

‘Good grief.’

Sensing that something had gone terribly wrong, Young-woo hurriedly put on the equipment from the table.

Clatter!

Then when he picked up ‘Scared Cat’, he finally noticed that it had its eyes open.

「Scared Cat」 – Epic Compass

【Points to threatening targets.】

【–Empty Slot–】

This meant there was a target powerful enough to be threatening somewhere nearby.

And then.

Bang!

The sound of a pistol firing came from outside the motel.

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]

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 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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