Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: 38. Hot Night (3)
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“What……?”
While Jeong Gu let out a bewildered sound, the golden goblin reattached Young-woo’s arm.
Squelch!
Right before his eyes, the flesh on both severed ends, which had been completely separated just moments ago, visibly fused together.
“W-What the hell? This bastard.”
A wave of discomfort surged up.
Riding a high-level mount from outer space was one thing, but his body itself functioning in such a grotesque manner was on an entirely different level.
“What the hell did you do to your body? Getting stronger is great and all, but you still need to stay human, right?”
For the first time since meeting Young-woo, Jeong Gu scolded him like a proper adult.
He was 58 years old this year.
He couldn’t help being a conservative middle-aged man.
Of course, his face being splattered with someone else’s blood and leaving him in a foul mood played a part too.
But.
“You have to endure this much to survive in a world like this without inheriting jack shit.”
Young-woo, in turn, subtly rebuked his father.
And honestly, if they were talking about becoming inhuman, didn’t that include all the Supreme Swords of this world?
How could people who could punch through building walls with their bare fists be called ‘human’?
‘Anyway, the effect is incredible. As expected of its grade.’
「Body Loss」 - Saga Chestplate
【Power increases by up to 80% depending on the extent of limb loss.】
In Young-woo’s vision right now, there was an icon schematically showing his severed arm, along with the number 40% displayed below it.
It meant he’d gained a 40% power increase from the left arm amputation just now.
Then, the number began to drop soon after.
Probably because his arm was starting to reattach.
‘High-end stuff lives up to the hype. It even shows the exact buff values.’
Losing just one arm gave a whopping 40% power boost.
If he cut off a leg or his other arm too, he could probably hit the max 80%.
‘I absolutely need that equipment catalog. It turns a strong enemy who can sever my arm into a variable I can use, and for all-out offense, I can sacrifice an arm temporarily.’
The loss icon in Young-woo’s vision appeared because he was wearing the equipment directly.
Once the deal with the blacksmith was done, the Golden Oath had been replaced by ‘Body Loss’ automatically equipping itself.
‘In terms of versatility, the Golden Oath is still way better.’
So ‘Body Loss’ was equipment that felt a bit awkward to use right away.
‘The catalog… the catalog is just broken. With that, you could make truly insane equipment setups.’
By then, his left arm was nearly fully restored, and the Body Loss power increase effect had dropped back to 0%.
‘Even if the arm’s not perfectly reattached, the buff turns off once it’s somewhat restored.’
Having learned one more thing about this bizarre equipment, Young-woo turned his eyes to the system message he’d been putting off.
「Would you like to equip the Unique-grade spine ‘Body Modification’?」
|Warning: This involves an unconventional equipping procedure. You must remove your top clothing before equipping.
“…….”
If the system called it ‘unconventional,’ then it really was.
Even Young-woo, who prided himself on his boldness, couldn’t help but hesitate at the message.
‘Do I really have to physically rip out my spine and swap it…? Is that even possible?’
Thinking that far, he couldn’t help but worry about Jeong Gu behind him.
Wasn’t this the guy who’d freaked out just from seeing an arm reattach?
‘If I said I was swapping spines, he’d probably faint dead away.’
It didn’t seem like something he could do on horseback either, so he decided to put it off a bit longer.
Conveniently, the Gwangjin District merchant was visible up ahead.
“Kubu! Broker……!”
As soon as Young-woo called out the broker’s name from afar, the space in front of the light pillar truly split open, and he appeared.
—Nice to see you again, Jeong Young-woo07.
“Did you secure it? The merchant!”
Kubu rolled his eyeballs once before responding.
—We’ve successfully negotiated with the merchant caravan that had arrived in Gwangjin District, Seoul, South Korea, on Earth.
“Then Paju’s……?”
Even as Young-woo asked, he had a gut feeling the Paju merchant had already left Earth.
—In the case of the Paju merchant you mentioned, a deal with the caravan has already begun, and their stay has expired.
It meant someone else had met and dealt with the Paju merchant Young-woo had summoned in the meantime.
So due to the merchant’s limited stay time, they’d been forced to clock out as the sun set.
“Ah, what asshole.”
Young-woo rubbed his forehead.
No way to know for sure, but it was most likely someone from North Korea.
‘Still, I snagged the Gwangjin merchant, so it’s not a bad outcome.’
He could just convert the remaining money into stats anyway.
Equipment was overflowing, but stats were lacking.
—Kubu! Let’s proceed with the trade!
Eager to swap out his spine quickly, Young-woo urged the broker on.
Kubu blinked his eyes wide before introducing this trade’s seller.
—The current trading party on standby is the Cultists of Serium.
—The brokerage fee for this trade is 10%, included in the item prices.
‘Cultists of Serium, huh… So there are religious groups in space too.’
After Young-woo confirmed the merchant’s name, Kubu announced the start of the trade.
—I’ll show you the item list now.
Shrrk.
1 — 「Flame Ward」 - Unique Cloak
【Ignores all abnormal weather with fire attributes.】
◇ 623,000 Karma
2 — 「Heretic」 - Unique Gauntlets
【15% of attack power converts to psychokinetic damage.】
◇ 680,000 Karma
3 — 「Regeneration」 - Unique Jewel
【When nearing death, all stats increase by 25%.】
◇ 732,000 Karma
4 — 「Judgment」 - Unique Gloves
【#Psychokinetic enemies: 20% power increase.】
◇ 850,000 Karma
Four Unique-grade items for sale, no less.
After scanning the full list, Young-woo’s eyebrow twitched.
‘They’re selling some pretty peculiar gear.’
The items from the Cultists of Serium seemed geared not toward Earth’s civil wars, but for whatever came after.
Take the gloves ‘Judgment’—a power boost against enemies with the #psychokinetic tag.
‘There’s even stuff that converts attacks to psychokinetic damage. Collect enough of those, and you could probably hit 100% conversion later.’
For your average Supreme Sword, the prices would be prohibitive, so they’d pass.
“I’ll take them all.”
But for Young-woo, they were investments in the future.
He’d already grown to a level where he had few equals on Earth.
‘Of course, there are probably some insane monsters somewhere on that continent. But the moment I get more catalogs, they’re done.’
With a meaningful expression, Young-woo decided to buy out the entire stock, making Kim Jeong-gu’s eyes go wide.
“Y-You have that much money?”
As a Supreme Sword himself, he had a rough idea of these merchants’ item prices.
And this was already the second full buyout.
Even Supreme Swords made bank compared to civilians, but they were still essentially day laborers…
“I told you earlier, I get ad revenue too.”
Young-woo said that to Jeong-gu before wrapping up the trade with the cultists.
—Trade complete. Thank you as always.
Kubu blinked, then updated Young-woo’s karma balance.
Flash!
* Available Karma: 5,955,000
‘Five point nine five million? More left over than I thought.’
Pouring it all into stats would net him nearly 6,000 points.
『Character: Jeong Young-woo07』
[Strength] 3,200 (19+3,181)
[Stamina] 2,648 (21+2,627)
[Durability] 3,648 (13+3,635)
[Sense] 1,500 (24+1,476)
His total stats were around 10,000 now.
‘How much stronger will I get? No, more like, how much stronger am I set up to become? If I had infinite money, could stats go up to ten million?’
His own power, starting to feel bottomless, began to scare Young-woo a little.
At the same time, he wondered just how high the stats were on monsters like Destruction King Togo.
As confirmed in their last meeting, the chairman didn’t use ‘equipment’ either.
And one of those, the Illegitimate Child, was right in his hand.
「Illegitimate Child」 - Mythic One-Handed Sword
【Authority Interference】
【Weakling Contempt】
【Challenger】
A weapon for lowly upstarts daring to challenge transcendent beings.
“…….”
Young-woo stared at the grotesquely shaped Illegitimate Child for a moment before gripping Neugig’s reins again and speaking.
“Alright, let’s get going.”
“…Where to this time?”
“Gangnam. I’m done with all my business outside for now.”
“Ahh.”
Jeong-gu let out a sound like he was finally relieved.
At the same time, Neugig let out a long cry and bolted toward Gangnam.
* * *
Boom! Boom!
The distance from Gwangjin District to Gangnam wasn’t far, so Young-woo had to move quickly.
He needed to equip the new jewel first.
「Regeneration」 - Unique Jewel
【When nearing death, all stats increase by 25%.】
Nearing death basically meant half-dead, useless for normal humans, but for Young-woo with his mysterious regenerative powers, it was the perfect insurance.
‘All stats up 25%? That includes strength and durability, right? It’ll definitely help tank that final blow.’
His accessory catalog had a slot open on ‘Enraged Goblin,’ so Young-woo equipped the jewel right away.
「Enraged Goblin」 - Mutated Ring
【+100 Strength daily】
【When nearing death, all stats increase by 25%.】
He was turning into a monster by the day.
But he still had nearly 6,000 stat points to invest, among other things.
「Night has fallen.」
「To guarantee your right to rest, dayrooms will open in 1 hour.」
Soon, the pre-announcement for the 8 PM dayrooms appeared.
Jeong-gu stared at the Parnass Hotel building visible in the distance and cautiously spoke up.
“Is it really over now? We go in and rest, right?”
At his age, mental fatigue piled up fast, and he desperately wanted to rest.
He’d been through enough horrors today.
“Yeah. We head to the lodging, rest up a bit, and once dayrooms start, we can check on how the general and the chairman are doing…….”
“General……?”
“Oh, but first I gotta swap out my spine. Before the kids arrive.”
“…Spine?”