Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 8

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

Episode 8 3. What Used to Be a Grade 4 Extra (1)

‘Cr-crazy…’

Young-woo, who had instantly pierced through the Giant, stepped back a couple of steps with a dazed expression.

‘So this is the Gumi Sword Technique.’

More precisely, it should be called Real-time Sword Instruction.

The hologram only showed him where to attack and how to defend, but executing it was entirely Young-woo’s responsibility.

Moreover.

‘The hologram disappeared without a trace again. Does it only appear during combat?’

Young-woo looked at the two challengers frozen stiff about five or six steps away.

Their gazes were moving back and forth between the corpse lying on the ground and Young-woo, and they seemed to sense a lot through this.

“Hey… sorry. We seem to have made a mistake.”

“We’ll quietly retreat, so please release this.”

At their request to release this, Young-woo finally realized.

The fact that they were still under the influence of ‘Intimidation’.

‘What?’

Young-woo looked at Ye-chan, who had been giving off normal presence for some time now.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh? Yes. Earlier I was so scared my legs went stiff, but I got better quickly.”

“Really?”

That meant it was one of two things.

First, Ye-chan’s spirit was incredibly strong, so he quickly shook off the First Sword’s Authority.

Or second.

‘I didn’t think of this guy as an enemy…’

This was something that could be easily verified by harboring killing intent toward someone, but that wasn’t easy to do.

‘Just glaring isn’t enough. Do I need to really intend to kill?’

Well, if someone could harbor killing intent toward just anyone, they wouldn’t be a normal human.

‘Then what about those guys.’

Swoosh.

As Young-woo stepped closer to the two challengers, a change immediately occurred.

“…!”

Death Strike markings appeared all over their bodies.

However, the hologram wasn’t visible yet.

‘Anyway, it means I genuinely want to kill them.’

For some reason, it felt bitter.

But there was no more time or reason to hesitate.

‘Letting guys like this live and go would make even less sense.’

As Young-woo threateningly twisted the angle of Early Bird, the two men who sensed their time had come screamed frantically.

“N-no! Please!”

“Stop! We’re really sorry!”

However, Young-woo mercilessly stabbed both their necks in succession.

Swoosh, pierce!

Then, before blood could even pool on the ground, he searched their pockets and found coins.

1,000, 3,000.

The Giant who had been carrying the axe didn’t even have a single penny.

Despite having such a good physique, he hadn’t even managed to secure his basic funds from the Exchange Office.

‘There was a reason he was so obsessed with my backpack.’

Perhaps he too had been robbed at the Exchange Office.

Young-woo thought for a moment, then turned his eyes to the regional status in the corner of his vision.

He felt something was off.

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

|The First Sword of this region is ‘Jung Young-woo07’. 1st generation, 3 defenses.

‘3 defenses…?’

The recent battle was counted as 3 consecutive title defenses.

Even during this, people continued to pass by the area.

Most of them took a wide detour after seeing the corpses scattered at Young-woo’s feet.

“Um… should we collect all of this?”

“…?”

When Ye-chan spoke to him and he turned his head that way, he saw the guy holding an armful of various weapons.

Hammer, spear, shield, sword.

These were the spoils of war they had obtained so far.

“You won’t be able to walk far like that.”

“R-right.”

Young-woo stared at Ye-chan’s thin arms.

“Just take the spear and shield. Throw away the rest. You can’t use them all anyway.”

“You want me to throw all of this away?”

Ye-chan looked at the weapons with an expression of great regret, but Young-woo had already made his decision.

“New weapons will keep coming with the next challengers. So don’t be attached. We’re moving immediately.”

* * *

West again.

Since not only watches but even cell phones had all turned to stone, there was no way to know how much time had passed, but one thing was certain.

―A new component, 『Dungeons』, has been added to this world.

―A new component, 『Quests』, has been added to this world.

The fact that the world was changing by the second even now.

―A new monster type, 『Knights』, has been added to this world.

―[Chaebol 3rd Generation-Shin Yeon-hwa] has now become a Black Knight and threatens you.

This time, another new type of monster and a ‘Named’ addition.

Although he had never encountered a monster yet, the mere fact that such things now existed somewhere was sufficiently horrifying.

‘They called it a reset… but isn’t this closer to punishment.’

To anyone’s eyes, the reset world was closer to hell than a new world.

After the reset, all that had happened among people was murder and plunder.

‘Isn’t there a single good thing. Are we going to live like this forever?’

As Young-woo wore a gloomy expression, Ye-chan also seemed worried about the future and cautiously spoke up.

“What are you planning to do from now on?”

“What do you mean?”

“After our deal is finished. Once we find a safe place and complete the settlement, won’t our deal be over too?”

“That’s true… but I haven’t thought about what comes after that yet.”

At this, Ye-chan looked at Young-woo with a strange expression.

“What about family? Usually people go looking for their families.”

“I’m alone. If I had family to look for, I wouldn’t be doing this with you.”

“Ah.”

Ye-chan made a complicated expression after hearing Young-woo’s answer.

“What about you? Shouldn’t you be hurrying to find your parents?”

“I’m also at an orphanage right now.”

“What a mess.”

“That’s right.”

Young-woo asked again while watching Ye-chan smile bitterly.

“What grade are you in?”

“I’m a senior.”

“You’re older than I thought. Then you’ll be leaving soon.”

He was talking about leaving the orphanage.

In principle, you had to leave the orphanage when you turned 18.

And hearing this, Ye-chan realized that Young-woo was also from an orphanage.

“Yes. Though I don’t think it matters anymore.”

“I suppose not.”

Young-woo nodded and looked at the arrow at his feet.

The arrow had been tilting very rapidly for a while now.

“It looks like we’re almost there.”

As soon as Young-woo said this, an enormous crowd unlike anything they’d seen before appeared in the distance.

“Huh…?”

At what looked to be easily hundreds of people, Ye-chan stopped walking first, while Young-woo moved forward to examine the people’s equipment.

‘Everyone who passed through Sword Mountain has gathered here.’

Young-woo noted that most of the crowd was carrying weapons.

He could even see quite a few people with Early Bird.

The frontrunners from all over Gumi had gathered in this place.

Even so.

‘What on earth has captured their attention…?’

Everyone was so focused on looking ahead that they couldn’t even think to look behind them.

Thanks to this, Young-woo and Ye-chan joined the rear of the crowd without any interference.

Some people flinched when they belatedly saw Young-woo’s title, but soon turned their heads back to the front.

“…?”

It was truly strange, but Young-woo and Ye-chan soon understood.

Swoosh.

Because they saw it when they turned their heads following the people’s gazes.

‘Park Do-hwan…?’

President Park Do-hwan, who they thought had died after being ‘dismantled,’ was standing blankly in the middle of the street.

* * *

‘How is that person here? Wasn’t he supposed to have died after adding the Quest?’

Young-woo looked at the president with disbelief, then noticed something was strange.

It was the same face he’d often seen on television, dressed in a neat suit.

His height and build were exactly the same as the president he knew, but one thing was very different.

That was the fact that the president’s body was flickering from time to time.

‘What, is that also a hologram?’

Flicker.

Park Do-hwan’s figure just disappeared for a moment and then reappeared.

It gave an uncomfortably alien feeling.

In addition, a red circle with about a 10-meter radius was drawn around him, so no one could approach carelessly.

‘It can’t be the real Park Do-hwan. It doesn’t make sense that he’d be here of all the many cities.’

Then what was it?

Had some unknown being borrowed Park Do-hwan’s appearance to appear here?

Perhaps something like this had appeared in every city across the country.

“…”

Young-woo confirmed once again that the arrow at his feet was pointing at Park Do-hwan.

And at the same time.

Swoosh.

Park Do-hwan made a gesture as if checking his wristwatch.

Then he looked around at the crowd and said:

―Time’s up. I will now reveal your existing fates.

“…Fate?”

“If it’s fate, it’s fate, but what’s this about existing fate?”

“The Quest mentioned replacing fate. I think it’s because of that.”

While people murmured, yellow rectangular objects appeared in front of everyone’s heads.

Flash, flash, flash!

Then Park Do-hwan’s follow-up explanation:

―What you’re seeing now is the Fate Record from before the world was reset. If the reset hadn’t occurred, you would have lived and died exactly as written there.

“What did he say?”

“Does that make sense?”

Everyone’s eyes widened at Park Do-hwan’s words as they fixed their gazes on their respective Fate Records.

Young-woo was no exception.

The first line of the Fate Record immediately caught his attention.

『Jung Young-woo-49523-IIIII_II-Grade 4-Extra』

‘Grade 4… Extra.’

Among the incomprehensible numbers and barcodes, he could clearly make out his three-character name and the designation “Grade 4 Extra.”

And what this meant was confirmed by the content below.

「This character is a random combination of Grade 4 settings.」

「Affected by parental settings, gains the following immutable elements from birth. #Grade 4 #Orphan」

「As a natural Grade 4 combination, receives reverse compensation for acquiring Grade 2 or higher settings during lifetime.」

This simply meant that someone born Grade 4 would find it difficult to become a Grade 2 human no matter how hard they tried in life.

And parents had a tremendous influence on birth grade.

‘…Is this real? Was it predetermined internally from the beginning?’

The Fate Record continued below.

[Father] : Grade 6 Extra

[Mother] : Grade 1 Supporting Character

‘So father was a Grade 6 Extra. But mother is…’

Not an extra but a supporting character. And even Grade 1, which was five levels higher than father.

It was probably the highest grade.

Then what kind of person was a Grade 1 Supporting Character?

‘No, before that, how did a Grade 6 Extra man meet a Grade 1 Supporting Character?’

All Young-woo knew about his parents was that they had abandoned him as a baby in front of the orphanage and left.

So all this time, he hadn’t known whether his parents were even alive or dead, let alone their true identities.

It was only after the world reset that he indirectly learned about his parents’ status.

And that too by glimpsing into the internal settings of the original world.

“….”

As Young-woo made a strange expression, the Fate Record once again slid upward to reveal the next content.

|Name: Jung Young-woo

|Role: Grade 4 Extra

|Function: Background, Filler

|Creation: April 8, 1992, 11:41 PM, conception by willful negligence.

|Destruction: November 7, 2028, 8:36 PM, beaten to death by a drunk on the way home.

‘Fuck, what the hell is this now.’

He felt nauseous.

Young-woo couldn’t endure it any longer and turned his head away from the Fate Record.

Then he noticed Ye-chan right beside him with a pale face.

And the Fate Record floating before his eyes as well.

|Name: Kang Ye-chan

|Role: Grade 6 Extra

|Function: Background, Eraser

|Creation: July 16, 2006, 2:30 AM, conception by forced rape.

|Destruction: February 1, 2039, 8:36 PM, suicide after killing a customer while working at a tavern.

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 our 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
—————