The Automatic Rooting Range Is Too Wide - Chapter 211

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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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Auto Looting Range Too Wide Episode 211

Episode 211: Grade 3 Candidate (3)

Kim Taek-su flew through the air and crashed into a wall.
Even the concrete and reinforced steel structure couldn’t fully absorb the impact.
Crash—
The wall shattered into fragments, and Kim Taek-su tumbled across the ground amid the debris, rolling several times.
“Ugh, what—what’s happening?”
“It’s Kim Taek-su! Kim Taek-su is down on the ground!”
Everyone’s attention snapped toward Kim Taek-su.
But Kim Taek-su remained sprawled on the ground, unable to rise.
“Is he… dead?”
That’s when someone spoke.
“Cough.”
Kim Taek-su coughed up blood.
It didn’t stop with one cough—blood poured from his mouth continuously, pooling on the ground beneath him.
“He’s alive!”
“But is that really what we’d call alive?”
“Blood is seeping from every opening in his body…”
The crowd gasped at the crimson liquid pooling beneath Kim Taek-su.
‘As expected, he’s still alive.’
I accepted Kim Taek-su’s survival as a matter of course.
A Middle Layer Awakened One who had activated a mana engine.
Though I didn’t know the exact limits of his endurance, he could withstand most attacks.
That’s why I could kick him with full force without hesitation.
‘This feels incredibly satisfying.’
When I kicked Kim Taek-su with all my strength, it felt like a decade of pent-up frustration melted away.
‘I need to get back to Mother.’
I’d left without explanation. She was probably looking for me by now.
It was also why I’d rushed to clean up the Gakgwon-hyeop.
Just as I was about to leave, it happened.
Whoosh—
A Dimensional Gate appeared outside the department store with a strange sound.
People in identical uniforms poured out from within.
“From this moment forward, the Special Task Force will be taking over this incident! We’ll resolve it as quickly as possible, so please don’t worry!”
A man with pomaded hair, neatly swept back, shouted loudly.
The crowd began to murmur at their arrival.
“The Special Task Force? Aren’t they Awakened ones from the Police?”
“Tch, tax thieves have shown up.”
The reaction was hardly favorable.
Many people held negative views toward the Awakened division operated by the Police.
They called them parasites who produced no results while draining money.
In truth, it wasn’t entirely unfounded criticism.
Whenever crimes occurred, Awakened ones summoned through emergency Quests resolved them.
“Why show up now! It’s all over!”
“Wow, the timing is insane. Look how they appear right after all the dangerous work is done.”
“There’s no bigger money-waster than this.”
The Special Task Force members were flustered by the citizens’ heated reactions.
“What’s going on here… Wait, what’s that? Isn’t that Kim Taek-su?”
Then they spotted Kim Taek-su sprawled across the ground and were greatly alarmed.
But that was brief. The Special Task Force Commander quickly issued orders to his subordinates.
“You two, arrest Kim Taek-su. He’s been selected as a Grade 3 Candidate, so restrain him properly. The rest of you, go inside and arrest the Gakgwon-hyeop members.”
The Special Task Force members entered the Department Store.
And their eyes met with Mincheol, who stood motionless.
“The Butcher…!”
The Special Task Force Commander exclaimed in surprise.
Mincheol was equally startled. It was because of the man standing to the Special Task Force Commander’s right.
‘That’s Yoo Cheon-hee…?’
It was Yoo Cheon-hee, whom I had frequently encountered at the Japanese restaurant Cheonghe.
‘She said her goal was to become a police officer… I didn’t know she’d already passed.’
The Yoo Cheon-hee I met outside was completely different.
Gone was the friendly, playful expression—she was sharp as a blade, as if touching her carelessly would draw blood.
“…Did you subdue all these people alone?”
At the Special Task Force Commander’s question, Mincheol snapped out of his reverie.
“Yes.”
Huh?
For a moment, the Special Task Force Commander seemed flustered, letting out a sound like he was holding his breath.
After deliberating for a while, he spoke to Mincheol.
“Butcher, I have something urgent to tell you.”
At his serious tone, Mincheol flinched slightly.
‘…Could he be trying to claim damages?’
The Department Store was completely destroyed from the fight with Kim Taek-su.
Especially the damaged columns—it seemed repairs would be necessary for a long time due to safety concerns.
‘I should escape for now.’
Mincheol wrapped the Cloak of Shadows around himself.
The moment Mincheol’s form vanished, the Special Task Force Commander cried out urgently.
“Wait! Hold on a moment!”
But Mincheol had already left his seat.
Once Mincheol disappeared, the Special Task Force Commander muttered softly to himself.
“I was going to ask if he had any interest in joining the Special Task Force….”

* * *

Afterward, the Special Task Force rescued the hostages remaining in the Department Store and arrested the remaining members of the Gakgwon-hyeop.
In truth, there was little for the Special Task Force to do.
“…All the Gakgwon-hyeop members on every floor have been subdued, haven’t they?”
Every member of the Gakgwon-hyeop lay unconscious with holes pierced through their bodies.
All the Special Task Force had to do was handcuff them and gather them together.
They didn’t even need to worry about the hostages.
“…No one was injured?”
From the 1st Floor to the 7th Floor.
All the people who had been held hostage were safe.
Considering the scale of the incident, it was unbelievable.
And the Butcher had accomplished all of this alone.
“Ah, we did help a little.”
“But all we did was draw attention….”
“I just mimicked voices from behind.”
There were accomplices, but from what they described, their help had been minimal.
It was all accomplished through the Butcher’s overwhelming power.
“Wow, even seeing it with my own eyes, I can’t believe it. Facing so many Awakened ones alone.”
A rookie member of the Special Task Force.
Yoo Cheon-hee spoke while looking at the restrained Awakened members of the Gakgwon-hyeop.
The Special Task Force Commander shook his head.
“That’s not the truly impressive part.”
“It’s not?”
“An Awakened one who accepted an emergency Quest prioritized saving lives. That’s what’s truly impressive.”
Awakened ones who specialized in accepting emergency Quests were called Bounty Hunters.
They accepted emergency Quests to earn virtue points.
The problem was that not all Bounty Hunters were virtuous simply because they earned virtue points.
They acted only to accumulate those points.
They had no interest whatsoever in the safety of ordinary people.
The Butcher, on the other hand, prioritized saving lives.
“An Awakened one with both skill and character! Such talent absolutely must join the Special Task Force!”
The Special Task Force Commander thumped his chest with his fist as if filled with regret.
Yoo Cheon-hee looked at the Special Task Force Commander with a disgusted expression.
‘Here he goes again.’
The Police operated several dedicated Awakened teams in addition to the Special Task Force.
But no organization could match the Special Task Force Commander’s military might.
The reason was that the Special Task Force Commander had gathered talent without regard for means or methods.
It was reckless, but no one dared to restrain the Special Task Force Commander.
It was because of his formidable background.
A First Generation Awakened One who had been active in the early days when the Tower appeared.
One of the legends who had brought glory to South Korea’s reputation.
He was the grandson of Kim Myung-ri.
Of course, the Special Task Force Commander’s own achievements also played a significant role.
The Special Task Force was the only dedicated Awakened team under the Police that was actually producing tangible results.
“What a shame. Such a real shame….”
The Special Task Force Commander’s lament showed no signs of stopping.
Then, the Gakgwon-hyeop Awakeners who had been unconscious began to wake.
“Ugh, uaaaagh! Help me! I don’t want to die!”
“Metal, metal skewers! They, they pierced me! Uaaaagh!”
The moment they opened their eyes, they cried out in terror.
It was the typical appearance of PTSD patients.
The Special Task Force Commander, watching them, tilted his head in confusion.
“…Hmm, seeing this makes me reconsider.”
“Exactly. There’s no way someone who can punch fist-sized holes through a human body is normal.”
The Special Task Force Commander and Yoo Cheon-hee exchanged words and nodded in agreement.

* * *

Cloaked in the Silver Mantle, I slipped through the crowd to find Mother.
Mother wandered about, glancing nervously in all directions.
“Mom!”
The moment Mother spotted me, her face lit up.
“Where on earth were you? I’ve been looking everywhere!”
“I was coming out of the restroom when suddenly people with guns appeared, so I hid quickly.”
“So you’ve been hiding all this time?”
I nodded. Mother let out a sigh of relief.
“You did well. You did so well.”
“Are you hurt, Mom?”
“I’m fine. A wonderful person helped me.”
“A wonderful person?”
“Well, the Butcher, apparently…”
Mother recounted what she’d witnessed of the Butcher.
At her praise of me, I let out a quiet chuckle.
“People say the Butcher is originally a very scary person. That he kills without hesitation?”
But my smile faded at what came next.
“…That’s all lies.”
“Really?”
“Really. The Butcher has never killed anyone. People just…”
I launched into an earnest protest against the injustice.
Of course, it was futile. Telling Mother wouldn’t clear up the misunderstanding anyway.
“But we came here to eat, and look at this mess.”
“We didn’t even get to eat. What should we do?”
At Mother’s question, I paused to think.
“Let’s just eat at home.”
“That sounds good. I’ll make you some delicious kimchi fried rice.”
And so, Mother and I left the chaos behind and headed home.

* * *

[…And with that, we conclude this broadcast.]
The screen went dark as the reporter finished speaking.
Cheongchul set down her smartphone. Then she clicked her tongue sharply.
“Kim Taek-su, you absolute idiot….”
He received a Legendary-grade skill only to surrender? Pathetic.
“The next harvest is still six months away… Ugh.”
What infuriated her more was that the opportunity to gauge the Butcher’s true strength had vanished in vain.
That was the real loss here.
“Check what happened to the others who received the blessing.”
“Yes!”
Kim Yu-seok quickly began manipulating his smartphone.
“Park Ki-seok, Lee Dong-gyu, Hwang Ki-gae… They were all subdued by the Special Task Force.”
“That’s all?”
“Multiple casualties occurred in the process, and property damage was extensive. The entire nation is in chaos right now.”
Only then did a smile bloom across Cheongchul’s face.
“The remaining embers burned quite well. That’s all I needed.”
This was something the Hope Society had been planning for a long time.
Those dissatisfied with society.
Those who sympathized with the Hope Society’s ideology.
She gathered such people and granted them power and knowledge.
To deliver a message to the world.
“From now on, more Awakened will seek out our Hope Society.”
There were many Awakened dissatisfied with society.
The yearly increase in Awakened crime rates proved it.
They didn’t voice it openly, but discontent festered within them.
Toward a modern society that oppressed them with countless regulations and forced them to live on equal footing with ordinary people.
“The Butcher, the Butcher….”
Cheongchul tapped her fingers rhythmically on the table, lost in thought.
A name she despised utterly. Yet she couldn’t help but acknowledge it.
“A tool… truly a tool.”
Recently, Cheongchul had encountered a remarkable talent called Nameless Spear at the Crimson Arena.
In terms of raw talent alone, he ranked among the top three Awakened she’d ever met.
The Butcher shone far brighter than even Nameless Spear.
“…I should tell Song Beom to add more poison to his isolation.”
“Pardon? If you do that, that idiot… No, Song Beom will die?”
Kim Yu-seok asked in surprise. Cheongchul let out a soft laugh.
“Oh my, Yu-seok. Don’t pretend to worry. Deep down, you want Beom to die anyway.”
“I was just pretending to worry. You enjoy expressing your emotions openly, after all.”
“Kya-hahaha, you and Beom really do know me too well.”
Cheongchul clutched her stomach, laughing.
“If we increase the poison dosage, he’ll die. But he went into the poison because he wanted to devour the Butcher, right? At that level, he can’t even stand against the Butcher.”
Whether he died this way or that way, it amounted to the same thing.
“We need to double the poison—no, quadruple it—for him to have any chance against the Butcher.”
Song Beom would accept it gladly.
Once he set his sights on prey, he wouldn’t rest until he’d devoured it by any means necessary.
“Right. I actually have something to give you.”
Cheongchul extended a complexly folded slip of paper.
It wasn’t an ordinary slip. Made from special paper, unfolding it would inscribe volatile knowledge directly into one’s mind.
“I received it from Sekigen. You know where that is, don’t you?”
“Isn’t that an organization created by yakuza? When did you make contact with them?”
Sekigen.
An organization that dominated Japan’s underworld.
You could call it Japan’s Hope Society, though their nature and methods were quite different.
“Inside, there’s information about hidden rewards in the 40s. Take a few capable people and bring back the rewards.”
“The Middle Layer, then. The price must have been steep.”
“I gave them information on how to enter the Hidden Stage from the Mercenary Layer.”
“Ah, the Statue that accepts offerings.”
Kim Yu-seok quickly pocketed the slip of paper.
It was a mission significant enough for Cheongchul to entrust personally. Not a single mistake would be tolerated.
Kim Yu-seok’s face grew taut with tension.
“Now go on. You’re not drunk enough yet.”
Kim Yu-seok bowed respectfully and hurried out.
Left alone, Cheongchul brought the glass to her lips once more.

* * *

Mincheol had just returned home and was eating his Mother’s kimchi fried rice with gusto.

[Do you see him there? This is Kim Taek-su, the criminal who attacked The Gosung Department Store in Daejeon!]

On the news screen, Kim Taek-su was being dragged out in chains.
But something about his appearance seemed off.
“What? Why does he look so old?”
The Kim Taek-su I’d seen during the day was somewhere between a young man and a middle-aged man.
But the Kim Taek-su on the news looked withered like an old man.
As if he’d drained away all his life force.
I recalled the mana engine that Kim Taek-su had used.
A skill far too alien to be called a mana engine.
Kim Taek-su had said he received it from the Hope Society.
There had to be a reason why the Hope Society handed over such a skill so readily.
“Those bastards really are unlucky, I’ll give them that.”
I furrowed my brow deeply.
Suddenly, my appetite vanished.
Of course, my mother’s kimchi fried rice was so delicious that I regained my appetite soon enough.

[It’s not just The Gosung Department Store. Similar crimes occurred simultaneously across the entire nation today.]
[All perpetrators demanded improved rights for Awakened Ones and took civilians hostage.]
[Experts believe this incident represents an explosion of long-accumulated grievances among Awakened Ones.]
[Furthermore, predictions suggest the probability of similar crimes occurring in the future will increase….]

As the broadcast continued, I felt a sense of foreboding.
“They’re saying crimes like this might increase…?”
What if I got caught up in another crime while in my civilian identity?
This time I’d been lucky enough to disguise myself as the Butcher, but there was no guarantee I could do the same next time.
“I really should prepare in advance…?”
My first thought was to learn a concealment skill.
I had the Cloak of Shadows, but taking it out of my Inventory and changing into it was too cumbersome.
Besides, its grade was too low. It was merely Rare grade.
Just as Kim Taek-su had discovered me, there was no guarantee another Awakened One wouldn’t.
“It seems the time has come to use this.”
I opened one of my previous messages.

【You have cleared the 40th Floor while possessing multiple ‘Lucky Coins’!】
【You have satisfied the conditions to unlock the Secret Shop!】
【Your usage count for the ‘Secret Shop’ has increased.】
【You can now use the ‘Secret Shop’ a total of ‘2 times’!】

Every time I cleared a 10-floor increment, I obtained a Secret Shop pass.
The last time I cleared the 30th Floor, I had conserved my Secret Shop passes.
Thanks to that, I was able to use them twice.
“How many Lucky Coins do I have again…”
I opened my Inventory to check the coins.
Lucky Coins took up no weight.
So regardless of how many I obtained, I could store them in my Inventory.
And that number was.

-Lucky Coins: 300

My jaw dropped.

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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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