Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: 1. The Chaebols Turn into Dragons (3)
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“This... this is the exchange station?”
“Where the hell did this thing fall from...?”
As soon as the exchange station slammed into the ground, the frontrunners’ reactions split in every direction.
People staring up at the sky with uneasy eyes.
People with faces frozen in terror, staggering backward.
And...
Plod.
People who boldly began striding straight toward the exchange station.
The latter group was tiny in number, but Youngwoo was one of them.
“...”
Forcing his fear-stiffened legs to move forward, that is.
‘The world has reset, but not everyone’s stats. In terms of physical ability, I’m dead last... a predetermined weakling.’
It was a realization that hit him the moment he’d fallen behind in that earlier sprint.
In a world with dragons and quests, what stat mattered most? Physical prowess, without a doubt.
And as if to prove it, the first quest even offered first-place rewards.
If the exchange station’s arrival hadn’t stunned everyone into silence, the quick ones would’ve claimed them already.
‘But I still have a shot.’
Youngwoo kept pushing forward, seeing that even those who’d passed him were still frozen in place.
...Humm.
...Humm.
As the distance shrank to within twenty meters, the light and vibrations emanating from it intensified.
And with them came new information seeping into Youngwoo’s mind.
One, the exchange station does not attack humans.
Two, it will vanish after about two hours.
Three, place your palm on its surface to begin exchanging.
It felt like recalling facts he’d known forever.
‘...?’
Strange as the experience was, Youngwoo pressed on.
Until finally.
“...Hoo.”
He stood before the exchange station, which vibrated even more intensely, as if welcoming him.
...Humm!
...Humm!
A surface of impossible-to-gauge material, pitch black.
Even with the sun high overhead blasting light, the bizarre object neither reflected nor let any through.
It screamed “not of this world.”
“...”
Youngwoo cautiously extended his hand and made contact.
Thud.
Cold.
And a rock-solid texture, like touching marble, spread across his palm.
Only then did a new interface appear before his eyes.
Flash!
「Resident information registered.」
|Name: Jeong Youngwoo07
|Role: Undecided
|Active Benefit: [Tax Deduction - Single Household]
‘Tax... deduction?’
Now even Jeong Youngwoo felt grateful to Bonghee for dying in front of him.
Without that, he never would’ve taken a profile like this seriously.
‘Like a status window, sort of.’
Youngwoo scrutinized his resident info.
The “07” after Jeong Youngwoo probably meant...
‘I’m the seventh Jeong Youngwoo nationwide to register.’
In other words, there were six more daring—or reckless—Jeong Youngwoos out there.
Basking in the odd sensation, he checked the one benefit unique to him: tax deduction.
|Active Benefit: [Tax Deduction - Single Household]
No argument there on the single-household diagnosis.
Abandoned at an orphanage as a newborn, he’d never known his parents—and thus had no siblings.
‘But being a single household makes me eligible for a tax deduction... meaning someone’s collecting taxes anyway.’
With even the president disbanded and gone, who the hell was levying them?
As Youngwoo pondered this, the resident info screen vanished, replaced by new text.
「Beginning exchange.」
「1 remaining karma point = 10,000 karma issued in coin form.」
Karma.
The new currency of the reset world, no doubt.
‘As expected...!’
Confirming his remaining points were exchangeable, Youngwoo felt a subtle thrill.
|Worker Jeong Youngwoo07 holds 3 karma points.
|Exchange will issue 30,000 karma. Prepare yourself.」
‘Prepare? For wh—?’
The moment Youngwoo tilted his head at the message.
Clink.
A sound like coins rolling inside the exchange station echoed out...
Clatter!
Dozens of crimson coins suddenly poured out all at once.
“Wha...!”
He reflexively thrust out both hands, but catching them all was impossible.
Ting, ting! Ting!
In the end, over a dozen coins slipped through his fingers, hitting the ground with a racket and scattering everywhere.
‘...Damn.’
But the “accident” didn’t end there.
As Youngwoo scrambled in panic across the ground, a familiar sound came from the opposite side of the exchange station.
Clink.
Someone else assigned to the same station had started exchanging.
“W-watch out!”
Youngwoo tried to warn them, but it was too late.
Clatter!
Far more coins than his own spewed out from the exchange station, followed by a startled voice from the other side.
“Huh?”
Then the figure hidden until now behind the massive station came into view.
“S-sorry! I mean, it just...!”
It was a burly young man who immediately apologized the moment he saw his coins mixing with Youngwoo’s.
Meanwhile, spotting the police uniform, Youngwoo picked up a few that had rolled right to his feet and handed them over.
“These... rolled all the way here.”
“Ah, thank you!”
Youngwoo momentarily lowered his guard at the young man’s repeated bows.
He just seemed like a good guy, for some reason.
But only for a moment.
Soon a savage, massive presence enveloped not just the two of them, but everyone exchanging nearby.
Thud thud thud...!
The “latecomers” who’d been watching from afar saw the coins spilling out and belatedly charged in.
“It really gives money?”
“No way.”
“Just scattered all over the ground?”
Everyone knew the reset had rendered old currency worthless.
That was why those racing toward the exchange station now had eyes rolled back in frenzy.
‘Crazy. Gotta hurry.’
Sensing the area would soon descend into chaos, Youngwoo scooped up the last coins from the ground.
And in doing so, he realized: these crimson coins, about the size of a 500-won piece, were each worth 1,000 karma.
Exactly thirty after gathering the scattered ones.
Clunk.
‘Would’ve been real trouble without the backpack.’
As he dumped the fistfuls into his bag, Youngwoo suddenly thought of the cop and looked up.
Swipe.
Sure enough, there was the police officer, desperately stuffing coins into his pants and shirt pockets with a look of grim determination.
He’d gotten so much karma that even using both hands, he couldn’t grab it all.
Thud thud thud...!
By then, the latecomers were almost upon them.
Eyes locked on the dozens of coins scattered around the cop.
‘No way he makes it. They’ll snatch every last one.’
Seeing the cop’s pockets were full, Youngwoo shouted.
“You’re too late! Give up the rest!”
“B-but...!”
Only then did the cop grasp the situation, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave.
Too many coins littered the ground.
So in the end.
“Waaah!”
The latecomers who finally swarmed the exchange station front overwhelmed him.
Thud thud, thud!
Fancy calling them “latecomers”—they were street robbers, plain and simple.
Deliberately starting brawls to steal the money.
“H-hold on!”
Anyone could see the cop’s pockets bulging with coins; he was the top target.
Dozens mobbed him, hands diving into his pockets, while those intimidated by his size and uniform grabbed at the ground money first.
‘...My god.’
Even Youngwoo, who’d slipped away early, wasn’t safe.
No, there was no safe zone to begin with.
Similar chaos was erupting at every other exchange station popping up around them.
‘No escape.’
Robbery scenes everywhere he looked.
And soon the robbers came for Youngwoo too.
“Yaaah!”
Unlike the cop facing dozens, only three or four men latched onto Youngwoo.
But for someone small and weak, the numerical disadvantage felt crushing.
“You fucking bastards!”
And then.
Rip!
As someone yanked viciously at his backpack from behind, terror near death gripped him.
“Eek...!”
His entire fortune was in there.
Whoosh!
Another brutal tug on his body.
Enraged, Youngwoo twisted his torso to face the culprit.
A fist slammed into his face like it was waiting.
Thwack!
The robbers were desperate too.
Had to snatch the backpack before more piled on.
“Urk!”
As Youngwoo groaned in pain and curled up, his attackers thought:
Just a bit more beating, and he’ll give up the bag.
Thwack!
The flawless second blow struck between his right ear and cheek.
“Guhk!”
A dull impact rang with tinnitus in his ears, and he felt his legs go limp at once.
He’d never been hit like this before; he couldn’t even think straight.
And still, they kept trying to wrench off the backpack.
“No! If I lose that too...!”
As Youngwoo writhed in resistance, someone out of sight twisted his arm mercilessly.
Crack.
Pressure that said they didn’t care if it snapped.
‘Th-this’ll really break.’
Bankrupt, or bankrupt and crippled?
‘Ah.’
The moment despairing Youngwoo nearly surrendered the backpack.
Flash!
The quest text fixed in his vision vanished, new text appearing.
[Quest Complete - “A New Life”]
[Reward Issued]
|Basic Living Funds
|First-Place Reward
Then blazing red warning text slashed across his sight.
|First-place reward recipient.
|Prepare yourself.」
‘Prepare...?’
Now just seeing “prepare” sent chills down Youngwoo’s spine.
Last time it appeared, the exchange station had blasted out coins without warning.
And this time.
Screeeee!
A sharp whoosh pierced the air as something shot down from dizzying heights.
‘What?’
Youngwoo, sprawled on the ground taking blows, barely pried open one eye to look skyward.
And saw it.
A sword plunging straight down toward him.
“...!”
So fast that by the time he registered, it had arrived.
Right beside the hand propping him up on the ground.
Ting!
The 80-centimeter steel blade dropped from the sky, freezing everyone in place.
“Huh...?”
“Wh-what?”
“Uh.”
Small wonder: it wasn’t just one sword.
Screeeee!
Screeeee!
A slight delay, but every first-place qualifier got one without fail.
Ting, ting, ting!
Silver streaks stabbed down at crowded spots—one, two, even three at some.
‘Two, three, seven... ten... about ten people, roughly.’
Youngwoo gauged the “frontrunners’” count from the landing sounds.
Then.
Grab!
Snatched his sword faster than anyone.