The Automatic Rooting Range Is Too Wide - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Auto Looting Range Too Wide Episode 23

Episode 23: Become My Comrade (1)

Kim Cheol-su and Aunt were confused.

‘Huh? That guy didn’t even draw his weapon?’

‘Doesn’t this mean we attacked first? Is this okay?’

They weren’t the only ones who were confused.

“Y-you murderous bastard!”

The last remaining PK shouted while sobbing.

Then Mincheol replied sarcastically.

“Who started the fight first and you’re calling me a murderer? Are you insane?”

Kim Cheol-su and Aunt immediately understood.

‘Right, they picked the fight first.’

‘They had it coming the moment they pulled that stunt.’

The two’s eyes changed completely.

Since the battle had already started, they needed to eliminate any future troubles.

Most importantly, killing all three would earn them points, which was good.

“D-damn it!”

As the situation turned unfavorable, the PK immediately fled.

His agility stat must have been quite high as his running speed was extraordinary.

“He’s running away!”

“We can’t let him escape!”

The two immediately tried to chase after the PK.

At that moment, the hand axe cut through the air again.

The hand axe flew like lightning and struck the PK’s back.

“Gack!”

The PK screamed and fell forward.

By the time Kim Cheol-su and Aunt approached, he was already dead.

There was no way a human could withstand an attack that killed even Hop Goblins in one hit.

The two looked back at Mincheol with disgusted expressions.

“Heave-ho.”

Mincheol was already pulling out his hand axes from the two corpses that had died earlier.

His indifferent appearance felt even more eerie.

Noticing their stares, Mincheol looked back at them and asked.

“Hm? What?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Y-yeah. R-right.”

The two shook their heads vigorously.

【You have eliminated the entire team!】

【You acquire points!】

【Team ‘Hand Axe’s ranking rises!】

12th place -> 11th place.

“Oh?”

“Wow.”

“Ooh.”

The three were pleased to see their ranking rise.

In the competition, people revived even if they died anyway.

There was no need to feel guilt about killing people.

“Shall we move again then?”

Despite the minor incident, the three didn’t mind and started hunting again.

“There are three over there!”

Thanks to Kim Cheol-su’s unique skill, the battles went smoothly.

Having realized Mincheol’s combat power, the three now actively sought out and hunted Hop Goblins.

【Team ‘Hand Axe’s ranking rises!】

11th place -> 10th place.

Their ranking rose smoothly as well. Now single digits seemed within reach.

However, things weren’t entirely smooth sailing.

“Well, well, more point bundles here?”

“We’re 15th place, you know? Don’t bother resisting unnecessarily.”

“It’s all points we raised by killing scrubs like you.”

They encountered other PK teams intermittently.

Of course, with Mincheol there, it wasn’t much of a problem.

“Sh-shit! This crazy bastard suddenly throws hand axes and goes berserk… Gack!”

“P-please spare me! I’ll apologize for what I just said… Gack!”

Mincheol threw hand axes at every PK he encountered, taking their lives.

【Team ‘Hand Axe’s ranking rises!】

10th place -> 9th place.

【Team ‘Hand Axe’s ranking rises!】

9th place -> 8th place.

Thanks to annihilating every PK team they encountered, their ranking rose even more steeply.

Kim Cheol-su and Aunt, who had been happy at first, gradually became overwhelmed with anxiety.

‘Is this really okay?’

‘We didn’t break any game rules, but…’

‘Raising our ranking by killing people.’

‘This makes us no different from PKs.’

Then at some point, the frequency of encountering PK teams suddenly stopped.

“Huh, no one’s appeared for a while now?”

“Several approached but then retreated. Word must have spread in the meantime.”

Mincheol’s group hadn’t only encountered PKs.

They had also met teams that were hunting normally a few times.

Of course, they let those teams go. In the process, rumors about Mincheol’s group seemed to have spread.

“Or they might have been watching us from afar.”

“Either way, rumors about us were bound to spread.”

Awakeners who used throwing weapons were quite rare to find.

Moreover, awakeners who used throwing weapons to kill Hop Goblins in one hit were even rarer.

So whenever throwing sounds were heard, people seemed to run away.

“Aw, that’s a shame. It was good eating up lots of points.”

Mincheol muttered while fiddling with his hand axe.

‘Isn’t that guy really dangerous?’

‘Ugh, my heart’s racing.’

Seeing him speak so nonchalantly, Kim Cheol-su and Aunt couldn’t help but feel creeped out.

* * *

How many Hop Goblins had they hunted by now?

【The ‘Hand Axe’ team’s ranking has risen!】

8th place -> 7th place.

Once again, a message appeared saying their ranking had risen.

“Wow, looks like we earned a lot of points.”

Mincheol said with satisfaction.

He couldn’t help but feel good since additional rewards awaited based on rankings.

“Damn it, I can’t stand this anymore.”

Just then, Kim Cheol-su said something out of the blue.

Mincheol and Aunt looked at Kim Cheol-su with surprised faces.

“I can’t let my pride be hurt like this.”

“Why? Is there some problem?”

“Problem? There is one. I keep getting carried by you.”

Mincheol made an expression asking what he was talking about.

“Huh?”

“If it weren’t for you, I would’ve stayed in the 20s, let alone the top 10. But thanks to you, I’m in 8th place.”

Kim Cheol-su grumbled as he spoke.

“Even if I die like this, I can earn more points than usual. It’s all thanks to you.”

Mincheol was dumbfounded.

His tone was rough so he didn’t realize it right away, but this was…

“Uh… so you’re saying you’re grateful to me?”

Kim Cheol-su’s face turned bright red.

“Young man, I feel the same way. Thanks to you, I earned points I couldn’t even dream of normally.”

Aunt also expressed her gratitude to Mincheol.

With both of them suddenly acting like this, Mincheol felt embarrassed for no reason.

“Don’t worry about it. It would’ve been hard to achieve this ranking without you two.”

Thanks to Kim Cheol-su’s unique skill, they could identify Hop Goblin locations in advance.

Plus, hunting was easy thanks to Aunt sparing no effort to tie down the Hop Goblins.

‘Honestly, being alone would probably be more comfortable.’

In fact, if he could use auto looting, he was confident he could earn even more points.

But with both of them expressing gratitude like this, he couldn’t ruin the mood.

“You don’t need to say empty words.”

“That’s right. Even without us, you would’ve done well, young man.”

Both of them spoke in slightly subdued voices.

“Take this.”

Park Cheol-su took out a small pouch from his inventory and held it out.

“What’s this?”

“Magic stones. They’re the lowest grade, but I collected them with difficulty.”

Mincheol’s eyes lit up.

Magic stones were items that dropped at an extremely low probability when killing monsters.

They had many uses, so even the lowest grade traded at quite expensive prices.

“I’ll use them well.”

Mincheol gratefully accepted the pouch Kim Cheol-su offered.

When he opened it slightly, he saw about 10 magic stones inside.

“I can’t just stand by either. Take this.”

Aunt also opened her inventory and handed over a magic stone.

Unlike Kim Cheol-su’s, there was only one. But it was quite large.

“Huh? How did you get that?”

“Hehe, I knew Cheol-su would recognize it. I got it luckily while hunting monsters.”

Kim Cheol-su reacted before Mincheol did. Then Aunt spoke triumphantly.

“Even among magic stones of the same grade, larger ones are treated more preciously. With this size, it’ll be quite useful.”

“More than just useful! With this size, you could easily get ten million won for it!”

Seeing Kim Cheol-su shout excitedly, it seemed like a really precious item.

“I wonder if I should accept something like this…”

“Compared to the points we earned thanks to you, hunter, this is nothing.”

Aunt held out the magic stone again. Mincheol gratefully accepted it.

“Now that I’ve received gifts, I should fight even harder, right?”

“You’re doing enough already.”

“That’s right. You don’t need to overdo it because of us…”

Shiver-

Mincheol felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

He reflexively kicked off the ground and stepped back.

Slash-

Right after, with an eerie sound, the necks of the two who couldn’t react in time were severed.

The headless bodies slowly fell to their knees. Behind them, two men appeared.

“How did he react first? He shouldn’t have been able to sense our presence because of my unique skill.”

“I told you. He’s no pushover.”

One held a longsword, the other an axe.

The one with the longsword was someone he’d never seen before. But the axe was different.

“…Kim Dae-seong?”

It was the Iron Fang awakener he’d met on the 5th Floor.

“That’s right, it’s me. You damn masked bastard.”

Kim Dae-seong grinned, baring his teeth. His eyes were full of anger.

“You made quite a racket tearing through the forest, didn’t you? Thanks to that, we could easily find you! I’ll repay the grudge from that day…”

“Move aside.”

Then, another voice came from behind the two.

Surprisingly, as soon as the voice was heard, Kim Dae-seong and the swordsman quickly stepped aside to the left and right.

The newly appeared figure was a woman.

Unlike the other two, she wasn’t holding a weapon. Instead, she wore scale-like gloves.

“Wow, you’re really wearing a strangely shaped mask.”

The woman looked at Mincheol and briefly exclaimed in admiration.

“I’m Kim Ju-yeon from Iron Fang. This is Park Yeong-ho. And that one… you’ve fought him before, so you know, right? Kim Dae-seong.”

The woman, Kim Ju-yeon, pointed to each person as she spoke.

“All three of us belong to Iron Fang.”

“Did you come for revenge?”

“Revenge? That’s somewhat correct.”

“Somewhat?”

“Our guild master seems to have taken a liking to you. If you join Iron Fang, he’ll forget about past grudges.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then well… you die.”

Kim Ju-yeon said nonchalantly.

“Oh, we won’t kill you nicely. After all, even if you die in the event battle, you revive, right?”

Kim Ju-yeon made a cutting motion with her index and middle fingers like scissors.

“We’ll slowly cut you up starting from your extremities. Even if you scream, even if you beg, we’ll never stop. Until your sanity is completely shattered so you can never challenge the Tower again.”

In other words, they were talking about legal torture.

“So, what will you do?”

Mincheol looked at the corpses of Kim Cheol-su and Aunt.

Seeing the two bodies, something began to surge up from within his chest.

People who had briefly formed a team with him had been murdered.

Even though they would resurrect, he couldn’t help but feel angry.

“Get lost.”

“How brave. Or did you take my warning as a joke? I’m not kidding around. Do you know how many people I’ve crippled with my own hands?”

When Mincheol spoke firmly, Kim Ju-yeon let out a hollow laugh.

“Or is it because those two died? They’ll just resurrect anyway. So why don’t you cool your head and think it over again?”

“Even if those two hadn’t died, I never had any intention of joining something like Iron Fang.”

Mincheol added with a sneer.

“I’m not climbing the Tower to join some third-rate guild like Iron Fang.”

“That’s unfortunate. Then… subdue him.”

As soon as Kim Ju-yeon’s order fell, Kim Dae-seong and Park Yeong-ho rushed forward.

“Good thing you refused, you bastard! I wanted to kill you with my own hands!”

“Hey hey, don’t underestimate me. Let’s coordinate.”

Mincheol’s eyes moved rapidly.

He mapped out their movements in his head.

‘Kim Dae-seong in front, Park Yeong-ho in back.’

Unlike Kim Dae-seong whose eyes had gone slightly mad, Park Yeong-ho was very calm.

“Die, you bastard!”

Forgetting even the order to subdue, Kim Dae-seong brought his axe down hard.

【Activating Quick Turn!】

The moment Mincheol’s body spun half a turn, Park Yeong-ho thrust his blade forward.

“Perfect for stabbing!”

An unwavering thrust aimed for Mincheol’s shoulder.

Unlike someone else, he seemed not to have forgotten the order to subdue.

At that moment, Mincheol kicked off the ground with rotational force.

【Using Strong Strike!】

Mincheol shot forward and kicked Park Yeong-ho in the abdomen.

His body bent forward and Park Yeong-ho’s face contorted in pain.

Mincheol used the recoil to leap into the air.

At the same time, he brought his one-handed sword down toward Kim Dae-seong.

“This bastard!”

Kim Dae-seong panicked and blocked the one-handed sword with his axe.

Crack.

No, he failed to block it.

The one-handed sword broke through the axe blade and dug in.

But unlike when he had clashed with Kim Dae-seong on the 5th Floor, the one-handed sword couldn’t completely destroy the axe and stopped.

“Th-this is impossible. Th-this is rare grade…”

【Using ‘Whirlwind Slash’.】

【Consuming mana with 2x stack.】

Mincheol’s body rotated and the one-handed sword that had been stuck in the axe slipped out.

Still, Mincheol didn’t stop. The one-handed sword drew a circle and slashed across Kim Dae-seong’s torso.

At the same time, the hand axe severed the neck of the incapacitated Park Yeong-ho.

Kim Ju-yeon’s eyes widened at the sight.

Regardless, Mincheol simply stared intently at the severed heads that had fallen to the ground.

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