Chapter 209
Chapter 209
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 209
Chapter Title: 48. Karma (1)
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“Damage to civil servants...?”
The moment Youngwoo saw the main effect of the cloak, he immediately understood what the chairman meant by his “unavoidable choice.”
‘So he must have been wearing this when he beat that committee member to death.’
In a way, the incident itself had been tremendous advertising.
Wear this product, and any “problem” can be solved.
‘But then, who the hell are Dogo’s main customers?’
It made sense that Dogo would make such shady gear, but who exactly bought it?
Youngwoo’s curiosity finally extended to the customers of the company he was endorsing.
“…Damage to civil servants? What the hell have you been doing out there?”
Jeong-gu, who had wandered over, saw the “Public Decency” tooltip and recoiled in shock. Youngwoo hurriedly gathered up the cloak and shook his head.
“I haven’t done anything yet.”
“Yet?”
“Well, you never know with people.”
Youngwoo couldn’t fathom the chairman’s true intentions in leaving him this insane cloak.
It might be preparation against an impending tax bomb, or perhaps a hint at some entirely different incident.
‘Either way, “civil servants” is a pretty broad term.’
The chairman apparently believed that even his own advertising model would clash with them sooner or later.
‘I hope it’s just paranoia. I’m not planning to become a full-on criminal yet.’
Of course, parading around in this cloak wouldn’t exactly win him any favors from civil servants.
‘Does it just drape over the shoulders and attach itself?’
There were no visible hooks or belts to bind the cloak to his body, so Youngwoo tentatively slung the massive metal slab over his shoulders like a coat.
Clink!
「Public Decency」 - ◇ Dogo Phantasm
【Damage to civil servants +20%.】
【Ability resistance +20%】
【Dogo】
A remarkable cloak that threatens civil servants just by wearing it.
Immediately, Youngwoo’s ability resistance surged, confirming that Public Decency had properly taken effect.
|Fire resistance: 35%
|Cold resistance: 35%
|Lightning resistance: 30%
|Poison resistance: 15% 【Osmotic Pressure 50%】
|Ability resistance: 50%
‘Insane... even poison resistance went up.’
This was thanks to the Narrative Ring’s Osmotic Pressure effect.
【The lowest base resistance value matches the highest resistance value.】
He was unwittingly making full use of Osmotic Pressure.
‘Free poison resistance at 35%.’
As Youngwoo thought this, his mind spun once more.
‘Wait... poison resistance was the sole lowest at 15%, triggering Osmotic Pressure?’
What if poison resistance had been 30% instead?
‘Then there’d be two lowest base resistances. Would both get the Osmotic Pressure effect?’
Reaching this conclusion, Youngwoo’s eyes gleamed as he quickly scanned his equipment codexes.
He couldn’t raise poison resistance to 30% right now, but he could temporarily drop lightning resistance to 15%.
‘Find gear with 15% lightning resistance, deactivate it, and test.’
And finally.
‘Found it.’
He spotted it in the accessory codex.
「Insulating」 - Mutated Bracelet
【Lightning resistance +15%】
Insulating: lightning resistance 15%.
Deactivating this from the codex would make both poison and lightning the lowest values.
Flash!
Youngwoo instantly deactivated Insulating, and his lightning resistance dropped to 15%.
Then.
Flash!
|Fire resistance: 35%
|Cold resistance: 35%
|Lightning resistance: 15% 【Osmotic Pressure 50%】
|Poison resistance: 15% 【Osmotic Pressure 50%】
|Ability resistance: 50%
Lightning resistance also received Osmotic Pressure, rising to 50%.
“Holy shit... this is straight-up broken.”
Youngwoo muttered aloud in awe at the successful experiment, tilting Jeong-gu’s head.
“What now? What are you up to this time?”
“Free resistance gains.”
“…What?”
Jeong-gu blinked in confusion, but Youngwoo’s eyes were already back on the codex.
Thanks to the stage-2 collection effect in the accessory codex, deactivating all base resistance effects would apply Osmotic Pressure to all four major resistances.
[Collection effect: 20]
|All base resistances +15%
‘Nobel Prize material.’
Buzzing with excitement, Youngwoo hunted down and deactivated each base resistance effect.
The result:
|Fire resistance: 15% 【Osmotic Pressure 50%】
|Cold resistance: 15% 【Osmotic Pressure 50%】
|Lightning resistance: 15% 【Osmotic Pressure 50%】
|Poison resistance: 15% 【Osmotic Pressure 50%】
|Ability resistance: 50%
Ironically, stripping off resistance gear had skyrocketed his resistances.
‘Damn, the chairman didn’t just give me the power to smack civil servants—he threw in maxed resistances too.’
No need to buy resistance gear anymore; it even saved on slot costs.
The key caveat in this setup:
‘Now resistances can only be boosted via ability resistance, and I can’t accidentally raise any base ones.’
Special resistances like the new dragonkin resistance could be farmed in bulk, but for now, ability resistance was the only path.
‘Might as well slot some olive stones early. Pretty good chance I’ll run into dragons again tomorrow.’
With three codexes, nearly all gem slots were now usable.
For example:
「Phantom Armor」 - Mutated Breastplate
【Projectile damage reduction 15%.】
【--Empty Slot--】
Phantom Armor in the armor codex meant he got equipped gem effects without wearing it.
He also had two void stones left to create new slots.
Ping!
Youngwoo slotted an “olive stone” into Phantom Armor, adding a new line at the bottom of his resistance list.
|Dragonkin resistance: 10%
‘Farming never ends. No way there’s a civil servant resistance too.’
Half-joking, but probably not.
Public Decency, meant to obstruct official duties, didn’t have ability resistance—meaning cosmic civil servants mostly dealt ability damage.
“What’s next? If someone else is coming, tell me ahead of time.”
Jeong-gu, who had watched Youngwoo blankly for a while, shook his head in exasperation.
Meanwhile, the golden goblin had gathered the 10 million karma scattered in the Benz field and brought it back.
-Keek!
Finally recovering the “protection fee” from Eunpyeong-gu.
Youngwoo belatedly noticed the goblin no longer carried the Dharma Wheel.
As expected, it vanished with the Diamond Yaksha’s destruction.
‘Can’t get mythics for free.’
What was the myth codex’s collection effect?
And how full was the chairman’s?
“Hmm, no more visitors for now.”
Youngwoo began, fiddling with the Illegitimate Child at his waist.
No more mythics or equivalents today, so remaining tasks were night dungeons.
‘Can blow the whistle once more, so meet friends in the dungeon.’
But to avoid burning Kim Il-sung’s orb on a dungeon ticket, he needed another golden orb.
“Next stop’s probably back to North Korea...?”
“What?”
“Need one more orb for tonight’s dungeon.”
“…So you’re going to North Korea for it?”
“High chance mutants are still there.”
Plus, by the time he returned, Dobong’s collection fees would arrive at the dorm.
Basically, just incoming cash from here on.
“The hard stuff’s mostly done, so no worries.”
Youngwoo offered his unhelpful reassurance, then checked his achievement reward last.
[Achievement unlocked: Black Legend]
|Achievement rank: Narrative
|Achievement rank: #2
「Confront legendary evil.」
The reward notice for meeting the “Kim” clan had been flashing in his peripheral vision.
‘Black Legend, huh. Let’s see.’
Youngwoo claimed the reward, and a glow appeared before his eyes.
Flash!
A peculiar item with an odd tooltip emerged.
「Evil Karma Meter」 - Narrative Tool
【View target’s evil karma value.】
【Evil karma reduction from good deeds +20%】
‘Evil... karma meter?’
Youngwoo’s eyes widened.
This gear related to the structure of this world—the universe.
Shaped like a pistol, its entire barrel shimmered iridescently like a prism catching light.
“W-What’s that? A gun?”
Jeong-gu approached, mesmerized by the barrel’s glow. Youngwoo, a bit tense, replied.
“Evil karma meter.”
“What? Evil karma?”
“Yeah. Shoot someone, and you see their evil karma.”
Shhk.
Youngwoo aimed the gun—no, the meter—at Jeong-gu, making the distant First Swords murmur.
To the uninformed, it looked like Youngwoo had suddenly drawn on his father.
Meanwhile, Youngwoo watched multicolored lights gather over Jeong-gu’s head in front of the barrel.
Likely a targeting marker.
“Good deeds reduce evil karma, apparently. Says so in the tooltip.”
“…Why tell me that with a gun to my head?”
“Just saying. It’s wild.”
As Youngwoo waggled the barrel, Jeong-gu wiped sweat from his brow.
“So, how much good offsets evil? Not 1:1, right?”
“No clue. But now with this, we can gauge it.”
To do so, they’d need to know exactly what the universe defined as “evil karma” and “good deeds.”
Evil and good were abstract, sometimes subjective concepts.
“So it just reads others’ evil karma?”
“Nah, shoot me and you’ll see mine.”
But the barrel still pointed at his father.
“Really? Mind if I shoot you first?”
Jeong-gu mimed a gun to his own temple.
Youngwoo nodded.
“Yeah. Gotta check mine. But first.”
His finger rested on the trigger, producing a click.
“Not curious?”
“…About what?”
“If the universe counts deliberate orphan creation as evil karma.”
“What?”
“The cosmic verdict—let’s see it together, Dad!”
Whoosh!
Youngwoo gripped the evil karma meter with both hands.
“……!”
Then.
BANG!