Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: 6. Golden Rain (1)
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[3 Million Karma]
or
[Distribute 30,000 Karma to all residents in the region]
Yeong-woo couldn't tear his eyes away from the choice reward options.
‘So that’s why it was an either-or.’
At first glance, monopolizing 3 million karma seemed like the obvious pick, but depending on your perspective, the second option brought far greater gains.
Why?
‘Distribute 30,000 karma to all residents in the region...? Even if there are only 100,000 people left in Gumi City, that’s 3 billion karma handed out.’
And they wouldn’t even have to risk their lives fighting monsters for it.
Just one person. If Yeong-woo alone gave up 3 million karma, he could hand everyone the seed money for survival.
‘But who in their right mind would pass up that kind of fortune?’
As Yeong-woo ground his teeth in front of the golden sphere, Ye-chan approached, sensing something was up.
“Uncle, what’s wrong?”
Reminded that Ye-chan deserved to know about this too, Yeong-woo shared his dilemma.
“There’s a choice reward. One is me getting 3 million karma, and the other is...”
Distribute 30,000 karma individually to potentially hundreds of thousands of Gumi City residents.
“What? 3 million karma?”
As expected, Ye-chan had his answer the moment he heard the details.
“Then it’s gotta be the 3 million, no question. In times like these, with everyone running around armed to the teeth, what good’s handing out cash? It’ll just bring more robbers. Now everyone knows there’s money to be had.”
Spot on. And Ye-chan added his own reasoning.
“Plus, if it were me, I wouldn’t want to give money to the bad guys anyway, so I’d take the 3 million solo. That way, at least I could crush injustice with my own strength, right?”
“…Yeah, probably.”
Yeong-woo nodded.
Bad guys.
That likely included whoever bullied Ye-chan at school, the thugs who beat him up at the exchange, and the like.
In other words, sharing the money with everyone meant handing profits to enemies and villains too.
That’s why Yeong-woo wanted to pick the 3 million right away, but...
‘Feels too off.’
He was suspicious.
Anyone would choose the monopoly, so why present such a foolish alternative? What was this world’s intent?
Hadn’t it been the same at the start of the reset?
It baited the masses into targeting celebrities, then dropped the hammer with punishments like it had been waiting.
Just look at his roommate Im Bong-hee, who burned through all her points and ended up beaten to death.
The mutants’ emergence was the backlash from the mob’s witch hunt.
“...”
This world—and whoever designed the ‘reset’—knew human nature well and wasn’t kind to humanity.
So maybe this time too.
‘A trap? Choosing based on base instincts accelerates ruin.’
Plus, the second option let them print overwhelmingly more currency this time.
At least 3 billion, possibly multiples of that.
‘If it comes to it, I could recover the karma circulating in the market myself. Hate to go that far, but...’
As Yeong-woo’s eyes gleamed with his insane resolve, Ye-chan clocked it and tried to stop him.
“Uncle, no, seriously. That’ll just make things worse, trust me.”
“...Ye-chan.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s close our eyes and dump 3 billion just once.”
“Uncle! Come on!”
While Ye-chan made a face like he was staring at his gambling-addicted dad, Yeong-woo made the most arbitrary decision of his life.
[Distribute 30,000 Karma to all residents in the region]
Flash!
If anyone were watching, they might scoff or explode in frustration at the choice.
But Yeong-woo vowed not to regret it.
In his mind, spreading 30,000 karma alone made it worthwhile.
‘Outside Gumi, are there other regions getting karma handouts? I doubt it.’
The golden sphere accepted his choice and began spinning rapidly.
Ye-chan realized what had happened and went slack-jawed.
Then, moments later.
Boom!
The sphere shook like it might burst any second, then shot into the sky.
“Huh?”
“Gasp, what’s that?”
Even the Sky Manor folks approaching Yeong-woo and Ye-chan stopped and stared at the golden streak slashing across the sky.
Shwoooo!
The golden sphere rose to the edge of everyone’s vision, then.
Pop!
It exploded.
Like fireworks.
“...!”
What Yeong-woo’s group witnessed next was a golden wave blanketing the entire sky.
Centered on the explosion, a golden pulse spread wide, as if the Greatest Swordsman’s aura had activated.
Then, all the gold in the sky rained down toward the ground.
Shwaaaa...!
One of the Sky Manor kids pointed at the sky.
“Mom, it’s rain.”
“What...?”
“Rain’s falling.”
Just as the kid said.
The countless golden drops falling looked exactly like rain.
“Uncle. This is, like, real rain?”
Ye-chan caught the golden raindrops in his palm and asked.
Strangely, the golden streaks vanished the instant they touched anything, leaving no trace or sensation.
“No idea... Doesn’t seem harmful to the body, though.”
Yeong-woo stood there taking the rain too, just as baffled.
Shwaaaa....
About a minute later.
A message appeared in everyone’s view.
《Gumi's Greatest Swordsman ‘Jeong Yeongwoo07’ has given up monopolizing 3 million karma and gifted 30,000 karma to all Gumi residents.》
Then, the usual warning that popped up with karma payouts appeared slightly different.
《30,000 karma will soon be distributed in the form of commemorative coins. Prepare yourselves.》
Prepare yourselves...
Anyone who’d been to the exchange knew that phrase meant business.
30,000 karma was a whopping 30 coins.
Sure enough, everyone—including Yeong-woo—frantically holstered their weapons to brace for the money drop.
Clink.
The familiar sound of coins rolling hit everyone’s ears.
But what happened next was beyond anyone’s imagination.
Clatter.
With a faint frictional scrape, the coins that appeared...
“Huh?”
“Whoa?”
Were golden.
And only 3 of them.
“W-wait a sec!”
Too stunned to grab them in time, everyone missed the golden coins that appeared before them.
Ting, ting, ting!
6 for Yeong-woo and Ye-chan combined.
21 for the 7 from Sky Manor.
A total of 27 golden coins clattered noisily on the ground.
But the surprises didn’t end there.
“Uncle? You gotta see this.”
Ye-chan picked one up first and grabbed his arm, so Yeong-woo glanced at the coin—no, gold coin—he held out.
Then.
“...?”
He stood there, mouth agape, speechless.
His own face was engraved on the brilliantly shining golden coin.
“What the hell?”
Dumbfounded, Yeong-woo picked up his share from the ground.
“My god.”
Every other coin had the same face.
Below it, the name Jeong Yeongwoo07.
The reverse had a thick solid line, likely marking it as a 10,000 karma coin.
“So that ‘commemorative coin’ thing...”
Yeong-woo couldn’t finish.
Even the Sky Manor folks were glancing between their golden coins and him.
Then.
“Uh, we should probably thank you somehow...”
They shuffled over awkwardly.
Not that they planned to hand the coins back voluntarily.
“...Ugh.”
Caught off guard, Yeong-woo actually stepped back and shook his head.
“Wait... hold on. Everyone stop. I’m still wrapping my head around this.”
And he had reason to: another message had popped up.
Ping!
[Quest Complete - “Either-Or”]
[Reward Issued]
|Mutant Equipment
|Massive Amount of Karma
Ping!
[Reward Issued Complete – Mutant Equipment]
「Raging Goblin」 - Mutant Ring
【Strength +100 Daily】
【--Empty Slot--】
Swish.
As the second message appeared, Yeong-woo felt a foreign object on his left index finger.
“Huh.”
Looking down, a reddish ring was fitted there.
‘Ah, so this is the Raging Goblin.’
Focusing on it brought up a small tooltip.
|This equipment carries the mutant’s scent. Other mutants may detect it and become wary.
‘So it lets them know I’ve killed one of their kind.’
Plus, the moment it equipped, vitality surged through him—the next alert explained why.
「Strength permanently increased by 100 via Raging Goblin.」
Strength 100.
Equivalent to earning 100,000 karma a day in cash terms.
‘Oh? Not bad at all.’
Of course, he’d paid 3 million karma to plaster his face and name across Gumi City, so whether he’d chosen wisely in the ‘either-or’ was still up in the air.
But seeing the Sky Manor folks clutching their commemorative coins with hopeful eyes made him feel good, at least for the moment.
Maybe others in Gumi were wearing the same expression? Villains among them, sure.
“This rain’s not letting up.”
Ye-chan grumbled, swatting at the rain with his hand, so Yeong-woo eyed the coin in his grip and teased.
“Butthurt?”
“You don’t have the right to say that to me. You’re the one who fought the mutant.”
“Right? You’ve got every right. Couldn’t have caught that bastard without your help.”
“Yeah, true.”
A faint smile finally crossed Ye-chan’s face.
“But still, doesn’t it feel like a total waste? 3 million karma is 3,000 stat points.”
“Yeah, it stings.”
Yeong-woo replayed his fight with Jang Seon-bok.
The only reason his waist and pelvis hadn’t shattered from that monstrous knee kick?
‘Durability prepped to 150 ahead of time.’
Even a mere 150 had that much effect—what if he’d added 3,000 more on top?
“...”
Impossible for Yeong-woo to imagine.
“Uncle, but listen.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s gotta be mutants stronger than Jang Seon-bok, right? Like that guy who turned into a dragon.”
“Yeah.”
“So eventually, they’ll come for us...”
Ye-chan trailed off.
Yeong-woo finished for him.
“How’re we supposed to beat them without that 3 million?”
“...Yeah.”
“Hmm, well...”
Truth was, that was the issue.
Sure, he was still way ahead of most folks, but only within Gumi.
Other regions surely had monopoly holders with 3 million, and mutants would scale up accordingly.
“Hmm.”
As Yeong-woo groaned and stared into space, the golden rain began tapering off right on cue.
Then, finally.
Shwaa.
The rain stopped completely, and the sickly yellow sky cleared to blue.
“Ha.”
Was that really it?
Now he’d pay the price for his reckless selflessness?
Yeong-woo let out a sigh, sensing the party was over.
As if waiting for it, new messages flooded his vision.
Piiing!
[Achievement Unlocked: The One Who Calls the Golden Rain]
|Achievement Rank: Legendary
|Achievement Rating: First
.
.
.
「Achievement discovered for the first time!」
「Achievement system unlocked.」
「Achievement tendency set to ‘Contrarian’.」
「You have 2 unclaimed achievement rewards.」