Player of a Ruined World - Chapter 59

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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 059
How in the world did he manage to create a second-tier enhanced weapon?
I stared at Yun Taeseong and asked.
“How did you make it? Equipment enhancement should be impossible right now, shouldn’t it?”
“You’re a Player and you don’t know?”
There was a way to enhance equipment without Character Awakening?
I had no idea.
No posts about this had ever appeared on Yan-ben.
Just as I had experimented with the Buster, this was information that couldn’t be known unless someone experimented with the Maker.
Could it be that the man killed at Gaewun Mountain.
‘Was he the one who experimented with the Maker?’
So that’s why the Group members couldn’t resist whenever they saw the Maker.
When I didn’t answer, Yun Taeseong laughed heartily and spoke.
“Hahaha! Looks like the guy on our side wasn’t completely useless after all.”
“The Player you’re talking about now—is he the one who supposedly founded the Group?”
“You know that much? How did you find out?”
“I know because I killed him at Gaewun Mountain.”
His laughing face hardened like stone at my words about killing a Group member.
The man killed at Gaewun Mountain seemed to hate Yun Taeseong, but… was I wrong?
“Well, it doesn’t matter now.”
His rigid expression melted away in an instant, and he looked at me with a broad grin.
I gripped my sword hilt in caution, but Yun Taeseong suddenly extended his right hand.
“Join me.”
“…What?”
“You’re a Player too, right? If the two of us join hands, there’s nothing to fear.”
“…”
“If we join hands… I think we could actually enjoy this insane game quite a bit. What do you say?”
“You’re insane.”
I furrowed my brow and let my thoughts spill out without filter.
He burst into hearty laughter at that.
“Ah, how cute. Are you one of those types? Still clinging to justice?”
“…”
“Think carefully while you have the chance. That kid you killed at Gaewun Mountain? He was just as spirited as you at first.”
“…”
“But once you taste Grade 1, your perspective changes. You seem strong, so I’ll give you Grade 1 as a special offer. Five should be enough, right?”
Grade 1?
What’s that?
It’s not like a test score.
“What’s Grade 1?”
“It’s a world where only the strong survive. So naturally, rewards follow for the strong.”
“Answer the question.”
“In a world where strength is everything, what would be the top-tier gift among men?”
“….”
“There are some girls who used to be entertainers. They’re at our factory, so you can go enjoy yourself there….”
Whoosh—!
I shot forward like an arrow and swung my curved blade at him.
Clang!!
It was definitely a surprise attack, but he blocked my strike with his scabbard.
This bastard… just how strong is his physical ability?
“Whoa, calm down.”
“Shut up! You crazy son of a bitch.”
“Why are you being so harsh?”
“Harsh? Do you think you can say whatever you want just because your mouth runs loose?”
“I don’t dislike strong guys like you. You could become my reliable right arm.”
“Right arm? Listen to this beast talk nonsense.”
“Then I’ll make you my right front paw instead.”
He chuckled to himself, amused by his own words.
This man was already out of his mind.
Possibility of rehabilitation?
I never even considered that from the start.
This bastard… I need to kill him now to avoid future trouble.
The problem is that Yun Taeseong’s physical ability surpasses mine.
‘Gaia, you damn bastard….’
Why did the system place restrictions on my body while leaving him completely unrestricted?
Does the Gaia System not have the capacity to monitor every individual?
Come to think of it, the restrictions on me were only applied after confirming the Giant Zombie hunting footage, so it’s entirely possible they missed this guy.
“Hey, let me ask you one thing.”
“What, are you thinking of joining me?”
“How did you enhance yourself?”
“Equipment?”
“Equipment aside, your physical ability doesn’t seem to be at a normal level either.”
“When your equipment improves, your physical ability naturally improves too.”
“That’s not all of it though.”
I glared at Yun Taeseong as I asked, and he simply smiled faintly without answering.
After a moment, he let out a sigh and opened his mouth.
“Fine, I’ll tell you specially.”
“….”
“Do you know about the job called Buster? You must know since you’re a No Way Home Player, right?”
I was inwardly shocked at the mention of Buster.
But I didn’t show it on my face and continued to glare at Yun Taeseong.
“It seems only people who played the game can choose that profession.”
“….”
“The god who created this system gave players a privilege. Don’t you think that’s unfair?”
“That’s not a privilege. Buster is a job even players avoid. If someone who’s never played the game chose Buster, they’d obviously die early on, so it was removed from the selection options.”
“Do you really believe that?”
Yun Taeseong snorted derisively.
Was there something I didn’t know?
“Then what else would it be?”
“Before we were summoned here, the system said so. It told us to enjoy the existing games before the fourth game, Another World, began.”
“….”
“And the first emergency episode’s survival qualification. It said those who couldn’t survive that wouldn’t deserve to live in Another World.”
Yes, that was something I’d confirmed before the world became like this.
Instead of arguing, I focused on his words as Yun Taeseong clenched his fists and continued.
“Don’t you get it? From the start, that god had no intention of letting anyone survive unless they were a player.”
“….”
“So I thought about it. That profession called Buster, which we had no choice in… wasn’t it actually a ticket to Another World?”
“Just tell me the main point. What are you trying to say?”
“I decided to become a Buster.”
Yun Taeseong answered with a satisfied smile.
Become a Buster?
What kind of insane answer was that?
“Become a Buster?”
“That guy you killed at Gaewun Mountain. He told me. About the character setting for Buster.”
The character setting for Buster.
I’d never read all the character settings in detail, so I didn’t know how they obtained their abilities.
Honestly, when playing games, people only looked at character abilities before deciding—how many actually read through a character’s entire narrative?
When I didn’t answer, Yun Taeseong tilted his head and asked.
“You don’t know? Buster’s setting?”
“….”
“Buster is actually someone with incredibly good luck.”
“Good luck?”
“He was someone with a physical disability. Because his body was weak, he couldn’t escape from zombies and got bitten.”
“….”
“But it turned out he had a unique constitution where instead of becoming a zombie, his body was gradually strengthened by the zombie virus.”
I didn’t know that either.
Hearing a character setting for the first time, I listened intently to Yun Taeseong’s words.
Yun Taeseong laughed hollowly as he spoke.
“Isn’t it funny? Someone who was far behind everyone else could gradually become stronger over time.”
“So what?”
“So I thought. If the game became reality, then surely the character settings would remain too.”
Could it be that this bastard….
I was left speechless by the unbelievable situation.
As I stared at Yun Taeseong in silence, he spoke with a sinister smile.
“Do you understand now? You seem to be catching on.”
“You’re insane.”
“Deliberately getting bitten… it’s quite a thrilling experience, isn’t it?”
….
“In the end, life is all about luck. Those destined to succeed will, and those destined to fail won’t.”
….
“And me? As you can see, I’m destined to succeed.”
He was saying that he’d been bitten by a Zombie and yet maintained his sanity?
This is….
A setting that should have appeared in the fourth episode originally.
He didn’t become a Buster.
He became another Mutant Zombie instead.
Something that is neither Zombie nor human.
Damn it, I should have realized this when the Giant Zombie appeared in the second episode.
Reality is not unfolding according to the episode settings I know.
Rather than moving according to the system or programmed input, it was changing fluidly like a living organism.
If that’s the case….
‘There might already be someone who has become the King of the Zombies.’
Just as Yun Taeseong is alive and well, there might be another person who was bitten by a Zombie but maintained their sanity.
And that person… might already have become the King of the Zombies.
I asked with a complicated expression.
“What did you gain by going that far?”
“Have you ever played a mobile game?”
What an absurd question.
“Are you talking about phone games?”
“Yeah. I don’t play computer games, but I’ve played phone games a ton.”
….
“In any game, you have to spend heavily at the beginning to enter the upper tiers, and then the rest of the game becomes easier.”
“That’s bullshit. You just want to get ahead of everyone else.”
“Exactly. For that, I gladly spent my entire salary and living expenses. You think things are different now? If all I have is my life, then I have to bet my life.”
This man is not an ordinary person.
A human with a fundamentally different brain structure.
Though he clearly had the appearance of a human, the being before me felt like a monster.
Just as seeing a disgusting insect sends shivers down your spine, my entire body erupted in goosebumps.
Yun Taeseong spread both his arms wide as he spoke.
“Look, I succeeded in my early gamble. There’s no one in this world who can surpass me now.”
….
“This is the power of Buster. I was bitten by a zombie and all my physical stats increased by 5 each.”
“That’s not Buster’s power, you psycho.”
“Hahaha! You must hate admitting it. It’s hard to accept that someone stronger than you exists.”
“….”
“I can raise one stat point for every 100 zombies I consume. Do you have any idea how many zombies I’ve devoured so far?”
“…You’re insane.”
“What else would you call this if not Buster’s power?”
So he gains stat points by consuming 100 zombies instead of 100 Points?
But that’s just… being a zombie.
If No Way Home had a zombie mode, wouldn’t it feel like this?
If you gain the ability to command zombies as subordinates, you become a Walking Daddy, and if you gain stat-boosting abilities, you become someone like him?
A new setting of No Way Home that I didn’t even know about.
Or perhaps it’s not a new setting at all.
In the game, there’s no madman eating zombies, so it was natural not to know about it.
They say reality is more like a movie, and that turned out to be true.
There were far too many people doing things that no sane person would do.
Regardless, thanks to that guy’s rambling, I learned Yun Taeseong’s specifications.
The starting stats for existing players are 15.
Yun Taeseong was bitten by a zombie and succeeded in the gamble to maintain his sanity, and because of that, all his stats increased by 5 each, he claims.
Since his armor enhancement reached stage 2, the set-wearing buff would have raised all stats by 40.
So Yun Taeseong’s current stats would be….
Health, agility, strength—all at 60.
The variable would be additional stats depending on how many zombies he’s consumed.
When our blades clashed, I was pushed back in strength, so his strength stat must be at least 20 higher than mine.
“You’re a complete psychopath.”
As I spoke while frowning, Yun Taeseong burst into hearty laughter.
“Thanks to that, I’ve become the strongest. There’s no one who can defeat me now. And there won’t be in the future either.”
“You really believe that?”
As I grasped my curved sword, Yun Taeseong gripped his sword hilt in turn and spoke.
“Just accept it. You’re quite strong, but there’s someone stronger right here.”
“What kind of person are you? You’re a zombie bastard.”
“Do you think I’ve been fighting you seriously this whole time?”
“And you don’t think I was serious with you?”
“Puhaha! Alright, let’s see then.”
Thud!!
Crack—!!
Without hesitation, we both kicked off the ground and rushed toward each other.
Clang!! Crash— Crash-crash!! Thwack!!
Every time our blades collided, sparks flew, and when it became difficult to swing our swords, we exchanged blows with our fists.
It felt different from hunting Giant Zombies.
If fighting the Giant Zombie felt like battling an enormous wall, then combat with Yun Taeseong was like being pelted by dozens of solid iron spheres hurtling through the air.
‘An opening.’
As we exchanged blows relentlessly, I spotted a gap in his lower body.
Gripping my curved blade in reverse, I feinted toward his ribs before driving my foot down directly onto his instep.
Thunk!
The blade bit cleanly into his foot.
With his foot pinned, his mobility should be severely restricted….
Huff—
“Huh?”
In an instant, something black obscured my vision.
Crack!!
Before I could even register what had struck my face, the crushing impact slammed into my features.
Yun Taeseong had sacrificed his own foot and delivered an uppercut directly to my face.
A sharp, tingling pain radiated from the bridge of my nose as my vision went black in an instant.
It felt as though a hole had been punched through the center of my face—for a brief moment, my sense of self seemed to vanish from this world entirely.
“Ugh…!”
A groan escaped a beat too late.
Strength drained from my legs.
The impact forced me to drop my curved blade, and I staggered like a paper doll.
Crack—!!!
Simultaneously, a heavy blow struck my ribs.
Crunch—
I heard the sickening sound of ribs fracturing as I lost my balance and tumbled several times to the right.

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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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