Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: 9. Barefoot Superman (2)
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‘What the hell was Kimcheon doing?'
Young-woo found himself cursing Kimcheon City without realizing it.
The fact that the mutated being had been alive all day yesterday meant a lot.
Unimaginable loss of life.
And the powerless First Sword.
Of course, the First Sword had no obligation to protect the residents of their area.
But regardless, if Kimcheon's Greatest Swordsman had been strong enough, the mutated being wouldn't still be alive.
Flash!
Soon, the upper right of his vision flashed, and the regional status updated.
He had finally left Gumi and entered the Kimcheon area.
But no matter how he looked at it, Kimcheon's Greatest Swordsman's status was off.
|You are currently in the 'Kimcheon' region.
|This region's Greatest Swordsman is 'Park Kyung-tae421'. 36th generation, 0 defenses.
'36th generation...?'
It meant the title had changed hands 35 times in a single day.
In other words, no one in Kimcheon had properly held the Greatest Swordsman title. The city had no true powerhouse.
'These crazy bastards.'
Young-woo was angry.
In this world where everyone carried a blade, being strong usually meant being close to a villain, but still, someone had to stop the mutated being, right?
Better to fight back desperately than flee like sheep and get devoured entirely.
'The mutated being aside, they probably couldn't even handle the monsters properly. How much of a mess was it for the title to cycle through 36 generations?'
Young-woo gritted his teeth, recalling the goblins' feast from yesterday.
Then he kicked off the ground even harder.
Crack!
Each time his foot hit and left the pavement, he felt asphalt chunks smack against his heel and fly off.
The wind whipping his cheeks and ears was far sharper than before.
And finally.
"...!"
The skyline of Kimcheon City came into view in the distance.
As expected, behind the red pillar, blue monster markers dotted the area sporadically.
At least they weren't in the dozens, so not everyone had given up.
But in the end, they failed to stop the mutated being. Some residents had shown considerable bravery, but it wasn't enough.
=Kindness · Order · Cleanliness Campaign=
〔Happy together, welcome to Kimcheon.〕
Young-woo blew past the sign at Kimcheon's entrance, racing down a road flanked by rice paddies.
He could feel the mutated being's marker drawing closer, then farther away.
'The bastard's still active. It's still hunting people.'
Boom boom boom!
At some point, the marker tilted westward, so Young-woo veered off the road, cutting across the paddies.
Splash splash splash!
Early June, right after transplanting. Water filled the fields, and as Young-woo barreled through at high speed, muddy water and rice seedlings sprayed everywhere.
"...?"
And that's when Young-woo noticed something important.
The rice seedlings trampled underfoot weren't stones.
'Food should all be stone by now... But since the rice hasn't matured, it didn't count as food?'
He didn't have time to think deeper.
His legs had already carried him past the paddies onto hilly terrain, and soon a gas station appeared ahead.
He was entering the city proper.
Crunch!
Leaping from the hill back onto the road, Young-woo passed the gas station and entered an area dense with apartments.
And at the same time.
"......"
He saw more corpses on the streets than there were apartments.
From crudely dismembered bodies to ones with parts gnawed off, twisted at grotesque angles.
Yet every one had their head facing the direction Young-woo had come from.
'They were trying to escape the city and got caught.'
This was the outskirts of Kimcheon City.
He hadn't seen any other bodies from Gumi to here, so most Kimcheon citizens must have died before reaching the highway.
'Their skin looks intact. No goblins in this area.'
From Young-woo's experience, goblins peeled the skin... or hide/shell off their prey when eating.
But the dead in Kimcheon still had their skin intact.
Whoosh!
The trail of corpses continued.
At least as he got deeper into the city, the bodies were better armed.
On the outskirts, there were plenty unarmed, but now he saw some with two or more weapons.
'This place really was hell.'
As Young-woo thought that and checked the regional status again.
Flash.
|You are currently in the 'Kimcheon' region.
|This region's Greatest Swordsman is 'Kim Sun-hwa190'. 37th generation, 0 defenses.
Kimcheon's Greatest Swordsman had changed again.
"...?"
Only then did Young-woo realize.
'The previous Greatest Swordsmen weren't killed by challengers. The title changed 36 times because it wasn't people...'
The mutated being.
No Greatest Swordsman could defeat the mutated being in Kimcheon; they died one after another, leaving the seat vacant, so the system arbitrarily appointed the next one.
Just like how Young-woo became Gumi's Greatest Swordsman simply for showing his prowess before the crowd.
'Then where's the current Greatest Swordsman? Are they near the mutated being too?'
Young-woo gazed toward the red pillar, where he expected 'Kim Sun-hwa190' to be.
Right on cue, the pillar twitched, and the vicious cycle repeated.
|You are currently in the 'Kimcheon' region.
|This region's Greatest Swordsman is 'Kang Sung-ho306'. 38th generation, 0 defenses.
In that short time, Kim Sun-hwa190 had died too.
'What the hell is going on over there?'
He couldn't tell if it was a one-sided slaughter or a battle.
Either way, the system was clearly appointing people near the mutated being as Greatest Swordsman.
'Fuck, I'm going in.'
By then, Young-woo was close to the urban area from which the red pillar shot up.
Maybe 2 kilometers left at most.
Whoosh!
It took less than a few minutes for Young-woo to bring the scene into view.
"......!"
As expected, dozens of people were there. To Young-woo, they looked like Kimcheon's strongest group.
Because every one of them had a weapon and shield.
Some even had Early Birds, and having farmed quite a bit the day before, a few carried large backpacks.
Yet they were all in full retreat.
"R-Run!"
"Uwaaaak!"
And chasing them.
「Kket... This seems like a pretty decent life, huh?」
A hulking beastman radiating ferocious aura was charging after them.
'Mutated being...!'
Young-woo's pupils dilated.
Kimcheon's mutated being wasn't a goblin—it was a gnoll.
A beastman with a hyena's head.
Its height was about 3 meters, like Gumi's Jang Sun-bok, but its torso thickness and muscle mass made it seem much larger overall.
Its features: no separate weapon, just chest armor for defense.
'Still, its combat power feels two levels above Jang Sun-bok's.'
Young-woo drew his Early Bird from his waist and checked the opponent's nameplate.
[Internet Streamer-Hong Young-tae(Pagle)]
'Eh?'
Hong Young-tae. Aka BJ Pagle.
Young-woo had seen the name in news articles. A notorious figure quite famous in the internet broadcasting scene.
He already had his license revoked for drunk driving, and recently caused a huge stir by disrupting a train on the tracks for a viewer challenge.
'He mostly caused trouble in Seoul... Guess he was actually from Kimcheon.'
But Hong Young-tae showed no affection for his hometown folk.
「One more down!」
He gleefully pursued the fleeing people showing him their backs, swinging his fists wildly.
Splat!
His strength was immense; anyone hit by his fist was unexceptionally smashed into the ground and died instantly.
「Kikkit! It's like kimchi pancake!」
Hong Young-tae laughed as he ground a body into the dirt with his palm. A blood-red clownery laced with deep-seated rage.
Then, once the corpse no longer looked human, he sprang after the next victim.
In other words, this group—possibly Kimcheon's last bastion—had been like this long before Young-woo arrived.
Reduced to ragged remnants, toyed with by the mutated being.
"...My god."
Young-woo spotted the 'Kimcheon Greatest Swordsman' title shining brightly amid the fleeing crowd.
The 38th generation, Kang Sung-ho306, was fleeing like everyone else.
At this point, it wouldn't be wrong to say Kimcheon effectively had no Greatest Swordsman.
「Hey, Greatest Swordsman! Hold up!」
Soon, Hong Young-tae pointed at Kang Sung-ho306 with his black claw, planting all four limbs on the ground and crouching.
Then.
Whooosh!
He exploded forward like lightning, leaping high into the air.
Aiming to drop straight onto the new Greatest Swordsman's head.
Young-woo immediately dashed to the projected landing spot and tapped his left chest.
Flash!
The title he'd kept hidden until now appeared above his head.
『Gumi's Greatest Swordsman』
"Huh?"
"Uh...?"
"Gumi... Greatest Swordsman?"
The people running toward Young-woo widened their eyes.
In the meantime, Young-woo yelled at Kang Sung-ho306, who stood dumbfounded under the massive shadow.
"Dodge, Kang Sung-ho!"
"Y-Yes...?"
Kimcheon's Greatest Swordsman, terrified at the sight of the fierce-faced Gumi Greatest Swordsman.
Then.
Thud!
He was crushed and burst under Hong Young-tae's falling body.
Splatter!
This corpse really did look like kimchi pancake.
"......"
Young-woo looked down at Kang Sung-ho306's finely pulverized remains that had rolled to his feet.
"Told you to dodge."
Hearing Young-woo's line, Hong Young-tae opened his elongated muzzle.
「Another Greatest Swordsman, huh.」
Then.
「Eh? What is this.」
As if sensing something off, he suddenly flared his nostrils and furrowed his brow.
「What the fuck is this stin—」
As Hong Young-tae got that far, Young-woo finally remembered.
「This equipment carries the mutated being's scent. Other mutated beings may detect it and become wary.」
The warning from acquiring the 'Enraged Goblin' mutated being rank ring.
So, what he was smelling now was the scent of Gumi Clinic's Jang Sun-bok.
「You bastard, don't tell me.」
While Hong Young-tae realized the smell's source, Young-woo noted the kill (殺) markers all over the gnoll's body.
'Only the full-kill route, huh.'
But Young-woo didn't want to kill it.
He needed to unlock as many achievements as possible now that he'd encountered a mutated being.
[Special Social Worker]
|Send the mutated being back alive.
'Instead of killing it outright, can I just beat it until it wants to die?'
As Young-woo muttered that inwardly, the markers on Hong Young-tae shifted in position and form.
—Break (破)
—Break (破)
—Break (破)
—Break (破)
The 'break' that shatters, without killing.
Just as he'd ordered—a sword path that didn't kill.
'Guess with that huge body, there are plenty of spots to hit.'
Young-woo nodded, gripping his Early Bird and shield tightly. Finally, Hong Young-tae bared his teeth, emanating a threatening presence.
Grind.
And the next message confirmed the gnoll would truly attack.
「Sense stat temporarily increased from 100 to 164.」
As expected, the golden flash had stolen even the mutated being's senses.