Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 37

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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 037
Uhyeok bowed respectfully to me before following Hong Yeonhui.
These people had initially tried to hide that this place was a shelter.
If they’d intended to keep it hidden until the end, they would have blindfolded me and dragged me outside.
That way, I wouldn’t know the exact location.
But sending me back without any precautions like this….
‘Are they saying I can come back if I change my mind?’
I could interpret it as leaving open the possibility of me becoming an ally.
The Safe House and the shelter.
If this shelter were destroyed, wouldn’t they come to the Han O Apartment?
A strategy for dealing with Hong Yeonhui, who survives by reinforcing the shelter.
When that strategy fails, they’d need an escape route.
One of those escape routes is probably why they let me live.
Similarly, if the Safe House were destroyed, they might be revealing this location to me as a way of saying I can come find them anytime.
I stopped my thoughts there and hurried toward the 1st Floor of the parking lot.
The 1st Floor entrance was blocked by a massive wall.
A public parking lot five stories high.
It seemed the entire place was being used as a shelter.
As I looked around in front of the wall, an unnamed man approached me.
“Huh? You were here yesterday….”
You were here yesterday?
Ah, this man must have seen me rampaging too.
He stared at my face intently, then gripped a club in his hand and asked.
“Why are you here alone? Where are Yeonhui and Uhyeok?”
Did he think I’d done something to Hong Yeonhui and Uhyeok?
“Hong Yeonhui said it was okay for me to go.”
“…Yeonhui said that?”
“Yes. You should ask Hong Yeonhui for the details.”
“….”
The man lowered the weapon he’d been pointing at me and approached the wall.
Zzzt- Zzzzick-
Then a small door appeared where there had only been a wall.
It was a function of the shelter.
I bowed respectfully to the man and spoke.
“Thank you.”
“Hey.”
The man called to me with a displeased tone.
When I turned my head, he opened his mouth with a serious expression.
“You need to take what you know about this place to your grave.”
“Yes, I understand.”
The man gestured for me to leave quickly.
He was reluctant to let me go, but since Hong Yeonhui had given the order, he sent me off anyway.
There was nothing more to gain from further conversation, so I nodded lightly and stepped outside.
‘First, I need to figure out where I am.’
I pulled out the 3D terrain map I’d kept in my pocket.
I’d lost the curved sword, but fortunately the map was still in my pocket.
“Can you record my current location?”
[Would you like to save the coordinates?]
“Yes.”
[Current coordinates saved. You can check this location later through your favorites.]
Along with the system message, my current location was marked with a red flag on the map.
I checked the saved coordinates and examined the surrounding terrain.
There were no zombies visible on the street.
Well, I’d killed them all on the way here, so that made sense, didn’t it?
Wait, then where are my points?
“Open my player information.”
[Player Information]
[Name: Baek Doyun]
[Age: 28]
[Class: Buster (Physical Enhancement)]
[Title: Battlesteam Honorary Player]
[Current Stats: Health 45(+5), Strength 30(+5), Agility 30(+5), Epidermis 110, Mentality 0]
[Points Held: 9,571]
[Coins Held: 0]
“What?!”
I couldn’t close my gaping mouth when I saw my held points.
9,571 points?
How many zombies did I kill?
Well, it wasn’t just zombies—the mutants I dealt with must have contributed significantly.
Since mutants give 500 points each, I likely earned around 3,000 of these points from processing mutants.
Even so, that’s still a lot.
If this were a game, it’d be like I’d run a double experience event for almost an hour.
I’d already calculated which stats to raise once I acquired points.
“Invest 5,000 points in Mentality. Put the rest into Strength.”
[Consuming 5,000 points to increase Mentality by 50.]
[Consuming 4,500 points to increase Strength by 45.]
Ding—!
[Current Stats: Health 45(+5), Strength 75(+5), Agility 30(+5), Epidermis 110, Mentality 50]
[Points Held: 71]
[Coins Held: 0]
Originally, I had planned to increase agility and stamina while preparing for a prolonged battle in the early episodes, but circumstances had changed.
A Mutant had appeared in the first episode.
My current strength, including the protective gear buff, reached 80.
At this level, I could survive even encountering a Mutant without using skills.
My mind was at ease, but No Way Home was a place where variables could emerge at any moment—complacency was forbidden.
With my point allocation complete, I closed the System Message before me and picked up the 3D terrain map.
I needed to return to the Safe House before it got any later.
‘They must all be waiting for me.’
A smile spread across my lips without my realizing it.
At the thought of reuniting with my companions, I found myself smiling unconsciously.

* * *
The moment I reached the intersection leading from Wangsimni Station to Haengdang Station, I had no choice but to stop.
I needed to keep moving, but the human forms scattered across the ground halted my steps.
There were not just one or two.
Nearly twenty corpses lay strewn about.
And among them…
I could make out the faces of Elders I knew.
Four of them were lying collapsed in that place.
“Grandfather, grandmother.”
I sank to the ground and checked the condition of all four.
Their complexions were already pallid and drained.
The Elders who had played with the children while wearing kind smiles…
Their smiles remained vivid in my mind even now.
Those Elders had become cold corpses.
Then suddenly, their wounds caught my eye.
These were not bite wounds from Zombies.
Anyone could see they were stab wounds from a blade.
Thump-thump.
My heart raced.
Anxiety overwhelmed me.
No Zombie corpses were visible in the vicinity.
Then this meant…
‘The Survivors fought each other.’
Why? Why on earth?
There should be enough food.
Going from house to house, we could find plenty of supplies.
Why. Why.
Why would people attack people?
I needed to get back to Han O Apartment quickly, but my breathing became irregular and my vision wavered.
I couldn’t believe that all of this had happened while I was gone.
No—I didn’t want to believe it.
Slap!
‘Get it together.’
I struck my right cheek hard, and my vision began to clear once more.
I had to focus.
Suddenly, words that Hong Yeonhui had spoken to me at the shelter came to mind.
-It’ll unfold differently than the game. In the game, the Safe House was destroyed because of the Mutants, but reality won’t be like that.
She had been right.
Our enemies weren’t just Zombies and Mutants.
Competition with people desperate to survive.
Combat against madmen who relished violence.
I had to survive against all of it.
Tap! Tap-tap-! Thud!
My pace quickened toward the Han O Apartment.
I ran at full speed, even holding my breath.
The torrential downpour limited visibility, but now nothing that might emerge seemed frightening.
A resolve to utterly crush the heinous bastards who had done this to my companions was suppressing my reason.
Slap-!
“Ah, you damn bitch!”
In that moment, a curse cutting through the sound of rain.
‘Left.’
My head reflexively turned toward the direction of the voice.
Exactly where?
It was close.
With no other option, I dragged the steel pipe across the asphalt and walked left.
Scrape- Scrape-scrape-
“What is that? What’s that sound?”
“Wasn’t it you?”
“It wasn’t me.”
The bastards reacting to the sound of the dragged pipe.
Thanks to them, I could pinpoint their location clearly.
At the main entrance of the Safe House, something like a fountain was set up.
The voices were coming from there.
As I dragged the steel pipe closer, three men came into view.
And collapsed in front of them was a woman.
It was Han Hye-ri, still just a high school student.
Both her cheeks were swollen red from being struck.
Seeing her like that, I felt a rage that boiled backward through my veins.
“Um… um… mister…”
Han Hye-ri’s face was so swollen that her voice came out distorted.
Regardless, the three men stared at me and sneered.
“What is this bastard?”
“Looks like some kind of colleague?”
“Ha! Just when we were about to have some fun.”
The three men each picked up their weapons.
One held a sashimi knife, while the other two wielded wooden clubs.
“Old man, if you don’t want trouble, move along.”
….
“Can’t you hear?”
….
“I said move along, you bastard!”
My gaze remained fixed on Han Hye-ri.
She must have cried so much—her eyes were grotesquely swollen, and blood dripped from her nose.
I ignored the men and looked at Han Hye-ri, asking, “Did these bastards do this to you?”
“Did these bastards do this?”
Instead of answering, Han Hye-ri nodded.
“Where are the others?”
“U… up…”
Her mouth was torn inside.
From the way she couldn’t pronounce “up,” it seemed her teeth were broken too.
Crack—
I set down the steel pipe I’d been holding and clenched both fists.
These bastards… I couldn’t just kill them cleanly with a steel pipe.
They deserved to be beaten to death.
Ding—!
[Your hostility has reached its peak.]
[Activating emergency episode.]
Ding—!
[Emergency Episode: Angel of Evil]
[You care for people, yet you despise them.]
[You have resolved to commit murder to save your companions in danger.]
[Defeat all enemies who have attacked the Safe House within the given time.]
[Remaining enemies: 40]
[Time limit: 2 hours]
[Clear condition: Eliminate all enemies]
[Clear reward: Alliance formation + 500 points distributed to all alliance members]
[Failure: Helplessness effect occurs. All stats permanently reduced by –80%]
Thud—!
“Hey, are you ignoring us?”
The bastard grabs my shoulder with a sneer.
An enemy acknowledged by the System.
Yes, the Gaia System was always like this from the beginning.
This world gone mad now… is a qualification test to become a new resident of Another World.
There is no citizenship for these pieces of trash.
They are… merely illegal residents of the new world.
Crunch-!!
I crushed the hand of the man grabbing my shoulder without hesitation.
“Gaaahhhhh!!”
The creature falls backward on his rear, clutching his right hand.
“My, my hand. My hand!!”
“That crazy… bastard! Hey! Kill that son of a bitch!”
The other two rushed at me in unison.
I clenched both fists and drove a punch straight into the face of the one in front of me.
Crack-!!
With a sound like shattering rock, his face caves in.
I killed a man.
But why….
Why do I feel no guilt whatsoever.
The one watching the situation stood motionless, mouth hanging open in shock.
“Cr, crazy… you… you bastard?”
“….”
“Die, you monster!”
He rushes at me with a machete, so I push off the ground and deliver a spinning heel kick to his head.
Crack!!!
His temple caves in with a single blow, and his eye pops out.
After confirming two of them are dead, I turn to the one with the crushed hand.
He crawls across the ground and disappears into the rain.
“Where are you going. You’re coming with me.”
“Hik…! D, don’t come. Don’t come!!”
“You’re coming.”
I want to kill him painfully, but my strength has grown so much that human bones feel like straw to me.
The creature’s legs give out—he can’t even think of standing and running away.
He thrashes desperately, waving his left hand through the air.
Snap-
I make his left hand match his right one.
Crunch-!!
“Gaaahhhhh!!”
“Where is your leader.”
“Ugh… uhhh….”
“Answer me, or next time it’s your head.”
“P-please. Spare me. Please….”
The creature just whimpered and repeated pleas for mercy.
It seemed he wanted his head to shrink as well.
I grabbed the whimpering bastard’s head with both hands and twisted it.
Crack-crack-crack-!
The creature went limp like a deflated balloon.
I had no intention of sparing him anyway, and I couldn’t afford to.
An Emergency Episode had been triggered.
After confirming that all three men had breathed their last, I rushed to Han Hye-ri’s side.
“Can you move?”
Han Hye-ri’s face was puffy and tear-stained as she whimpered, then nestled into my arms.
“Grandpa… and Grandma… sob….”
The bodies of the Elders I’d seen at the intersection.
After I cleaned up the trash that had infiltrated the Safe House, I planned to give them a proper burial.
“Hye-ri, do you know where those bastards’ gang went?”
“Bat… Batsipal-dong….”
“Where our group is?”
“Those… those damn bastards…!”
Han Hye-ri cursed clearly, even if she couldn’t say much else.
It was a sign of the deep rage she felt.
I tried to calm Han Hye-ri as I asked her something.

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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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