Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 140

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Player of the Ruined World – Episode 140
When I played No Way Home, I couldn’t have known this much.
The NPCs developed the vaccine on their own.
Back then, all I had to do was fend off the aerial assaults alongside the Zombie King until the vaccine was complete.
Bae Hyeonseok continued speaking.
“Have you heard of antibody cocktail therapy?”
“I have no idea what that is.”
“It’s a method used in previous Co-X vaccine research. When three types of antibodies decompose the virus and generate safe antigenic fragments, that becomes the vaccine.”
Song Junhyeok, standing beside him, chimed in.
“Simply put, you combine three antibodies to create a neutralizing antibody platform. An antibody-based vaccine.”
“I don’t know about any of that.”
“In reality, it’s a hypothesis that’s hard to accept, but that doesn’t make it impossible.”
….
“With the system’s help right now, it should be possible!”
Bae Hyeonseok and Song Junhyeok, both brimming with optimism.
Whatever it was, if these two said it was possible, I nodded and spoke.
“Then I’ll leave it in your hands.”
“Yes!”
Bae Hyeonseok and Song Junhyeok, confident and assured.
Moments later, Kim Hanna, who had been dealing with the reinforced Creepers and Jokers in the corridor, rushed into the research laboratory.
“Baek Doyun, can you move right now?”
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“The subordinate I left guarding the left flank of the Brain Research Institute has disappeared.”
The Zombie King said that the locations of his subordinates appear as red dots in his mind.
If the left flank has vanished….
“Is the General dead?”
“Yes. The General and his subordinates suddenly disappeared. There’s still a strong one remaining.”
“Understood. I’ll go check it out.”
As I turned to leave the research laboratory, Kim Hanna grabbed my arm and spoke.
“You’ve rested enough by now. It’s your turn to rest, Baek Doyun.”
Kim Hanna, who had recovered her stamina by dealing with Stage 3 and below Mutants in this place.
Meanwhile, I hadn’t rested at all.
Because of the Eighth Mutant Variant and the Seventh Mutant, I’d spent more time running than sitting in the vehicle.
Sensing that my expression wasn’t good, Kim Hanna spoke calmly.
“I’ll handle the one outside, so don’t worry.”
“…Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Kim Hanna dashed out immediately.
Truly… what would I have done without Kim Hanna?
The reason I staked my life on having the Zombie King as an ally.
There could be no more reassuring ally in our current situation.
Was it because I thought everything would end without major incident?
A wave of lethargy washed over me belatedly.
My companions were still locked in combat with the Zombies, and I wasn’t sure if I deserved to feel this way.
Just five more minutes of rest, then I could go back to support them….
BOOM!!!
In that instant, the building resonated with a deafening roar, and my drowsy mind snapped awake.
The emergency generator’s lights flickered, and several Barricades installed inside the building twisted out of shape.
An impact that shook the entire building.
My companions in the Research Laboratory exchanged startled glances.
“What was that? What’s that sound?”
“Did a gas pipe explode?”
Park Sangha and Park Sanghun rushed into the Corridor and surveyed left and right.
Meanwhile, I felt tension grip my palms with sweat.
An alarm bell ringing through my mind.
My heart pounding with increasing violence.
Because all my senses surpassed those of my companions, my five senses were reacting first.
I pushed myself up from my seat and spoke to my companions in the Research Laboratory.
“Everyone stay here. Don’t come out.”
“Is there an enhanced Giant Zombie or something? I haven’t seen any Giant Zombies in the area.”
I gave no answer to Park Sanghun’s words.
If I told them what I sensed, they would all panic.
The epicenter of the impact was… the left side of the Building.
The direction where Kim Hanna’s General had just died, and where Kim Hanna had gone after.
“Just stay here for now. I’ll go check and….”
CRASH!!!
Before I could finish speaking, the Building Exterior Wall collapsed, and a world shrouded in thick fog unfolded before me.
A figure visible through the debris of the half-destroyed Building.
It was Kim Hanna, reduced to a bloody pulp.
“Kim Hanna!”
I rushed to her side in panic and assessed her condition.
Kim Hanna tried to say something, but her voice wouldn’t come—something was wrong with her lungs.
Eyes filled with terror.
Lips trembling with anxiety.
She struggled with all her might to move, but her limbs no longer obeyed her.
“…Run.”
“What?”
“Escape…now.”
Whoosh—
Then a shadow fell over my head as I supported Kim Hanna.
‘Danger.’
The alarm bells in my mind rang louder and more insistently.
They say the body freezes when a person is overwhelmed by shock or terror.
Crushed beneath the oppressive weight, I couldn’t muster the courage to even turn my head.
But whether driven by the instinct to survive or by senses honed to a razor’s edge, my body reacted before my thoughts could finish forming.
Without time to turn around, I raised both arms into a guard position.
Crack—
At the same moment, I heard something shatter near my ear.
‘What?’
A crushing pressure drove my entire body sideways.
BOOM-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!!!
I lost count of how many times I tumbled across the ground.
Everything happened so instantaneously that I couldn’t even feel the pain yet.
As I stared ahead in a daze, I spotted a strange presence observing this place.
A creature roughly two meters tall.
Muscular and dense—the kind of physique where a needle would shatter upon contact.
Like a demon freshly emerged from the depths of hell, its entire body was pitch black.
As I tried to push myself up by pressing my hands against the ground—
“…What?”
A delayed, searing pain accompanied the realization of my arms’ condition.
My forearms were bent in directions they should never bend.
No, these weren’t even parts that were supposed to bend.
That sound I’d heard moments ago—something breaking—had been my two arms snapping.
There was no time to be shocked.
‘Think.’
If I don’t think, I’ll be destroyed.
But my mind went blank before such overwhelming power.
I blinked hard to focus on the situation.
Suddenly—
The black entity was already right in front of my face.
It had been forty meters away just moments ago, yet in the blink of an eye, it stood before me.
I tried desperately to create distance, but its right foot was already hurtling toward me.
CRACK-!!!
With the sound of thick wooden planks splintering, my shin shattered.
There was no time to escape.
My Strength stat exceeded 200.
That included increased bone density.
Yet this creature was snapping my bones like brittle reeds.
With all my limbs broken, I couldn’t even resist anymore.
‘It breaks them in a single strike?’
Shock overwhelmed me so completely that I couldn’t even feel the pain—I was caught in a state of cognitive dissonance.
What is this?
Where did it come from?
A Mutant?
A Mutant? Is that really a Mutant?
Could this be the Ninth Mutant?
Its power level is completely different.
Countless stray thoughts drifted through my mind like wisps of cloud.
My perception couldn’t keep pace with its movements.
Like a shell-shocked soldier mechanically collecting severed fingers from the ground one by one, that was my current state.
I was in no condition to assess the situation rationally.
Whoosh—
Then it raised its right leg high.
I watched as it lifted its right leg vertically and thought to myself.
That it would come crashing down onto my head.
That I couldn’t evade it, and if it connected directly, my skull would shatter.
‘I’m going to die.’
Is this how a condemned prisoner feels being dragged to the guillotine?
“Hallucination!!!”
At that moment, a voice pierced through my fading consciousness.
Park Sanghun was screaming at the unknown entity.
Then the creature that had raised its right leg slowly lowered it, and like a malfunctioning robot, it turned its head slowly toward the Brain Research Institute.
Did the Skill Hallucination actually work?
“Cough!”
But contrary to my fragile hope, Park Sanghun collapsed the moment he activated the Skill Hallucination.
Blood was pouring from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
This… this isn’t something that can be controlled.
Thud—thud—thud—
The monster resisted Whisper’s Skill and walked slowly toward the Brain Research Institute.
“Cut the Skill! Deactivate it now!”
Park Sangha saw his brother’s condition and screamed with desperation, veins bulging in his neck.
But Park Sanghun, whose mind had been consumed by the monster, couldn’t deactivate the Skill.
Instead, Park Sanghun’s eyes turned black, and he began strangling Park Sangha with both hands.
“Ugh…! Park Sanghun!!”
“Aah… ah… aaah…”
Park Sanghun had gone mad.
Park Sangha looked at his brother with an agonized expression, then gripped the curved blade he’d lowered to the ground.
Thunk!
The curved blade drove directly into Park Sanghun’s thigh.
Only then did Park Sanghun’s eyes return to those of a human, and simultaneously, he rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness.
The monster walking toward the Brain Research Institute tilted its head, gazing down at its own thigh.
Was it puzzled that the mental connection it shared with Park Sanghun had suddenly severed?
Or perhaps….
‘It shared the pain too.’
Since their minds had been connected, the creature felt the same pain that Park Sanghun experienced.
If that were the case, then that thing….
‘Has no concept of pain.’
A being that had never experienced pain a single time since its birth.
It questioned this unfamiliar sensation.
“Baek… Doyun….”
Then came Kim Hanna’s voice from thirty meters away.
Tears streamed down Kim Hanna’s cheeks.
These were not tears of physical pain.
They were tears born from her own helplessness.
The helplessness of being unable to end this filthy game, unable to save her family, her daughter.
Only when I saw Kim Hanna calling my name in a voice that sounded like she was about to die did I truly understand.
Now was not the time to analyze my opponent.
It was time to judge and act.
“I’m using all my accumulated points.”
[Where would you like to allocate them?]
“Enhance all skills.”
Ding-!
[Would you like to enhance skills that have not yet reached maximum level with your current points?]
“Yes.”
[Skill enhancement commencing.]
Over two hours of slaughtering countless Zombies and Mutants.
Without even seeing the numbers, I must have earned millions of points by now.
Ding-!
[Whirlwind Lv.5: For 20 minutes, you are freed from all status ailments and completely recover all wounds and fatigue.]
[While Whirlwind is active for 20 minutes, your strength, agility, stamina, and skin resilience are doubled.]
-Cooldown: 1 hour.
Ding-!
[Challenge of the Tyrant Lv.5: All status ailments are removed, and for 1 hour…]
“No need for explanations.”
Explanations were unnecessary.
I was going to pour everything into this anyway.
People who look only at me.
My companions.
My family.
The people who taught me the meaning of “us.”
To someone who has lived alone their entire life.
To someone who felt loneliness even in the midst of countless crowds.
They are the ones who taught me human warmth for the first time.
To live up to their expectations, to save them, I will stake everything here and witness the ending of this game.
“Whirlwind.”
Ding-!
[Whirlwind Lv.5: For 20 minutes, you are freed from all status ailments and perfectly recover all bodily wounds and fatigue.]
[During the 20 minutes Whirlwind is maintained, strength, agility, stamina, and epidermis stats increase by 2x.]
-Cooldown: 1 hour.
Ding-!
[Frenzy’s cooldown has ended.]
Simultaneously, a message materializes before my eyes.
The cooldown is already over?
Frenzy’s cooldown should be 12 hours.
Could it be.
That I raised the Skill level by two stages at once?
If the cooldown was reduced to less than 3 hours, then it makes sense that I can use Frenzy now.
“Frenzy.”
[Frenzy Lv.5: For 1 hour while the effect persists, you are immune to viruses and status ailments, and all physical abilities increase by 3x.]
-While Frenzy is maintained, the target detection function can be used 5 times, and each effect lasts for 30 minutes.]
-Cooldown: 2 hours.
The moment I activated Whirlwind and Frenzy simultaneously, veins bulged across my entire body.
As if I had varicose veins, as if my human flesh had reached its absolute limit.
“Khhaaaa…!”
As I exhaled, scorching heat burst from my mouth.
Cold and hot.
It was a bizarre sensation—whether I was suffering from high fever or hypothermia, I couldn’t tell.
One thing was certain.
I could not control my own power.
Thanks to Frenzy, my vision cleared, and thanks to Whirlwind, my body, mind, and spirit felt as refreshed as after a deep sleep.
My broken limbs had long since healed, and my two fists clenched with such crushing grip strength that I felt capable of pulverizing everything.
Thud- thud-
As I stepped toward him, he calmly turned to look at this place.
Immediately after, without a moment’s hesitation, the black creature threw a punch at me.
I see it.
The shape of the fist.
Its speed.
The trajectory of the attack.
Whoosh-
I slightly tilted my head to evade the attack, and I could see the corner of his eye twitch.
“My turn.”
I clenched my fist until my knuckles threatened to crack, feeling every muscle fiber ignite in sequence—from my ankles to my hips, shoulders, elbows, and wrists—before unleashing a punch with every ounce of my power.
BOOM-!!!
I watched as it raised its left arm to guard, but its form had already vanished from before me.
Unlike the other Mutants, its body didn’t explode.
Unable to withstand the impact, it was sent flying hundreds of meters away.

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