The Basement Level Smash-Up Scales Way Bigger! (Part 4)
I scooped up a handful of dirt from the courtyard flowerbed with my shovel and flung it lightly at my little sister's feet as she clocked out for the day...
**"Hey! You crazy bastard! What the hell is this?"**
I shrugged. **"Testing whether you have a bad personality or not."**
**"What kind of bullshit is that? You're such an asshole, bro!"**
**"Hm, you're already jumping around like a wild animal. Definitely has that bad vibe... but anyway, did you dig up those details I asked for?"**
**"Did it. Really, little bro, consider yourself lucky I saved your ass."**
Now how the hell did this happen?
To understand it, I had to go back a few days.
* * *
A few days ago,
The moment I left the Red Tower Korean branch after selling my snake, I immediately started getting paranoid about tails.
It was because I was worried Deputy Choi might pull some sneaky shit.
Thankfully, nothing showed up, but to be safe I headed straight to Yongsan and grabbed the latest mana-tech anti-surveillance kit—the Sentinel 22.
Two hundred million won was steep, but the reasons were solid.
The Sentinel 22 was built with cutting-edge mana engineering, packed with an AI that analyzed the movement patterns of anyone following me to spot tails.
Then the very day I bought it, shit hit the fan.
I recovered the prosthetic leg of that Mr. Byeon who got repossessed from the auction, and was on my way to the K-Tem Bank to sell it.
Only ten minutes after the taxi left, the Sentinel flashed a warning.
**[Warning: Suspicious vehicle spotted. 50 meters behind, left lane, gray Starlex.]**
What the—?
Even with naked eye it was clear.
I figured the Sentinel was too sensitive, so I parked the taxi right in front of the nearest convenience store.
The Starlex zipped past me and kept creeping forward.
I bought a drink, chugged it, then hopped back in and drove.
Right ahead, a parked Starlex and three grubby-looking guys smoking cigarettes on the sidewalk.
They were definitely tower scavengers.
As soon as our car passed, they jumped like they got burned, stomped out their cigarettes, and scrambled into the vehicle.
Scans showed max floors of 6, 6, and 5.
Amateur tier for sure.
But there was no doubt they were tailing me.
Who the hell are these trash?
No way Deputy Choi would stoop that low and send dregs after me.
I drove straight to the branch.
The Starlex stuck to me like a shadow.
**[Warning: Suspicious vehicle spotted. 70 meters behind, gray Starlex.]**
I parked at the branch, walked in like nothing was up. They didn't follow.
Once inside, I sprinted to the second floor and filmed everything.
Of course I recorded it.
As expected, the three guys got out, glanced around, and slithered toward my taxi.
They stuck something under it.
What the—?
Bomb?
No way. Who would kill me just to get what?
Definitely a tracker.
I left my shovel at the branch and headed back to the taxi.
Sure enough, it was a GPS tracker.
I took a taxi home.
The Sentinel confirmed no more tails, so I breathed easy and went inside.
* * *
**"Hyung?"**
**"Hm?"**
**"What's this bag on my desk?"**
**"Oh, that? I went to the department store on a whim and thought of you, so I picked one up. Thanks for the nail polish loan too."**
**"Whoa, what kind of money does a first-floor tower scavenger have to buy something this expensive? Are you crazy?"**
**"How do you know I'm a first-floor scavenger? I'm in a way harder place now."**
**"You're full of crap. I scan you every day because I'm worried about you."**
**"Huh, really?"**
Scans would still show me as first-floor max.
They only displayed the highest floor.
**"Actually... I bought coins with money I made in the tower and hit the jackpot. You want the bag? Fine. Here."**
I tried to snatch it back.
Suddenly my sister grabbed it and hugged it to her chest.
**"Wait!"**
**"Why? Give it back! I need to exchange it."**
**"Ugh..."**
**"Hand it over!"**
**"...I didn't say I don't want it."**
**"So you're calling it? Okay?"**
My sister thought for a second, then smiled.
**"Okay, deal! But... you have good sense, huh? This thing is totally trending among girls right now. Heehee."**
My plan worked.
I was going to sell that luxury bag anyway.
But when I thought about it, gifting it to pay my sister back for the nail polish was way better than selling it.
Even if I got retail price, giving it away meant I paid full retail, and plus...
I also needed to butter her up.
**"This Shalex Hoborabag is way more expensive than the nail polish. You sure?"**
**"Just do one favor for me."**
**"Sigh, I knew it. Our Hwang Geumpa doesn't do anything for free. What is it?"**
**"Check out a few people for me. You guys have a guild info network, right?"**
I showed her the videos.
Of course the back part was cut out—no shots of the suspicious stuff under the car.
My sister watched and asked.
**"Can you look into who these three tower scavengers are?"**
**"Sure."**
**"Did you scan them?"**
**"Yeah. Max floor around six. Not exactly big shots."**
My sister sharpened her voice.
**"Six floors isn't big at all! You're way past first floor, remember? A shovel swing from these scavengers and you'd be gone in a second!"**
I already had stats far beyond first-floor level.
But I kept that hidden around my sister.
**"...Yeah, guess so."**
She sighed and softened her tone.
**"Hyung. Why the hell are you getting mixed up with this kind of trash? You're gonna keep taking dangerous risks and I can't take it anymore!"**
**"Mixed up? They're just asking me to dig with them. I want to check if they're trustworthy."**
**"Sigh, you can't trust anyone in the tower! Even guild members stab each other in the back! I'm so worried I can't sleep!"**
**"Damn it, just give the bag back! Better to call a private investigator."**
That day my sister grumbled the whole time, but she agreed to look into the guys.
* * *
**"...So you looked into it?"**
**"Did. Really, little bro, owe me your life."**
**"Owe my life?"**
**"Those idiots are always around—two older brothers and a younger one. Among low-tier scavengers they're considered the worst. Over ten people have vanished since they got tangled up with them."**
**"Killed them?"**
**"Probably. They pretend to groom young guys, then murder anyone with decent traits and sell the runes. No proof yet, so the Hunter Association hasn't moved. The government just dumps tower stuff in the trash.**
The Hunter Association is pretty hands-off, but they still send people to deal with repeat nasty criminals.
With how many cases there are, manpower is too thin. Real justice is a joke.
**"So stay the hell away from those four brothers!"**
**"Wait, three of you said four?"**
**"The big brother has only one leg."**
**"Name?"**
**"Byeon Seongcheol, Byeon Huicheol, Byeon Gicheol, Byeon Sucheol. Four brothers."**
Aha.
The guy I killed was their older brother.
Everything after that made sense.
After their brother vanished, they figured whoever killed him would sell his prosthetic on the auction, so they dug through it.
They found it days later, but it alone didn't point to me.
When the leg kept getting repossessed, they bet I was coming back to claim it, and waited right outside the office for hours.
For revenge.
**"Phew, good I checked in advance. Gives me the chills. I can't work with people like that."**
**"Now you know how scary the tower is, right? Stay out. It's crawling with scum like this!"**
**"Yeah, you're right. The tower just doesn't fit me."**
I talked to my sister trying to calm her down, but inside I was already figuring how to take out these three.
They wouldn't stop until they avenged their brother.
So I had to strike first.
Kill them before they could kill me.
These bastards had already killed over ten people and eaten their traits and runes.
I couldn't let any more victims...
...though I wasn't sure if my trait was going to drop anything useful.
* * *
The next morning.
I quietly headed to the branch, loaded the taxi, and drove toward the tower.
Everything was prepped—every skill point invested into the extra skill on my shovel, Shovel Stab!
**[Warning: Suspicious vehicle spotted. 40 meters behind, right two lanes, gray Starlex.]**
Sure enough, twenty minutes later they stuck close.
From my sister they had levels around four to five.
Mine was eight.
But thanks to the massive Rune Stone **"Self-Development Shoveling"**, my stats were closer to seventeen or eighteen.
When they scanned me, I still showed as a weak first-floor nobody.
They were cocky as hell.
And that was a huge advantage.
Even so, three against one wasn't easy.
I needed home ground.
I parked the taxi at the tower lot, then walked toward the Uijeongbu excavation site.
The three ghosts followed like shadows.
**[Warning: Suspicious individuals spotted. 30 meters behind]**
They wouldn't attack on the street—too many cameras, murder charge.
I walked deep into the dig site and hid in the early-morning shadows.
* * *
**"Damn, the bastard didn't go straight to the tower. Where the hell is he?"**
**"Can't do that... gotta kill him in the tower or it's too dangerous... and recovering the runes is easy."**
**"Brothers, you don't think that guy figured out we're tailing him, do you?"**
The three scavengers whispered among themselves and slipped into the dig site behind the fence.
Soon they had switchblades in hand.
Shovels, folding knives...
The weapons looked cheap but were sharp enough to kill.
But once they crossed the inner fence, the man they were chasing had vanished without a trace.
**"Where the hell did he go?"**
**"Shut up, hyung. You'll get us caught."**
**"Damn it, this isn't hide-and-seek. Scatter and look!"**
**"Hyung, he's the one who killed our big brother. We can't be sloppy. We have to take him down together."**
**"Hey, this guy's only been to the first floor! At most he'd be level three or four. What are you so scared of?"**
The three scavengers scattered across the dig site.
Then, from somewhere in the shadows, came the sound of digging.
**"Whump!"**
**"Shwaaak!"**
I flung dirt with my shovel.
At the same time one of them let out a sharp scream.
**"Aaaaaah!"**
The kid clutched his face and rolled around in pain.
**"Hey! Kid, what happened? What hit you?"**
**"Hot sand! My face is burning! Aaaah!"**
**"Let go, you crazy bastard! Your hands are burned too!"**
The oldest rushed over and pulled the kid's hands away.
His face was a mess of burns and blisters.
The same sound came again.
**"Whump!"**
**"Shwaaak!"**
**"Aaaah! My neck! My back of the head!"**
Another scavenger ran over, screaming about the pain in his neck.
Same burned wounds.
**"It's acid! The bastard's using acid terror!"**
The three brothers stared into the darkness.
There the silhouette of a young man carrying a shovel walked out.
He stopped in front of them and spoke calmly.
**"It's not acid."**
**"Then what? Phosphorus?"**
**"No. Just dirt."**
The shovel guy drove his tool into the ground, scooped up more, and flung it forward.
**"Zzzzzt!"**
**"Aaaah!"**
**"Shit! What the hell!"**
The three scavengers crossed their arms to block the flying dirt, but it still burned their arms.
**"Well, maybe all three of you deserve to die."**
**"W-what?"**
**"Anyone who feels pain from my Shovel Stomp is an evil bastard."**