Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: 1. The Chaebols Turn into Dragons (4)
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Sword.
It was much lighter than it looked.
A few hundred grams at most, that was the feeling.
And the tooltip that popped up the moment he gripped the hilt confirmed it—this was indeed a weapon designed to be feather-light.
「Early Bird」 - Hero One-Handed Sword
【Extremely lightweight.】
There was nothing else.
Not even the attack power that normally showed up on weapon item tooltips.
All Youngwoo could tell was that it was light.
But for now, that was enough.
“Get out of my way! Anyone who touches me from here on out dies!”
Youngwoo roared in fury, gripping the sword with both hands, and the people surrounding him flinched.
But they didn’t scatter right away.
They had seen the tip of his blade trembling violently.
“…….”
An odd silence fell.
A scrawny build, a face caked in blood, a precarious stance that looked like he might topple over at any second.
Did this guy really have what it took to kill someone?
Besides, a sword was far more valuable than coins. With a sword, you could take anyone’s coins by force.
And it was one of the rare few in the area, to boot.
‘…They must think I’m a total pushover.’
Seeing resolve flicker in their eyes, Youngwoo clenched his hands and forearms tight.
Whoosh!
Sure enough, a massive presence erupted behind him. Someone was lunging to grab his arm.
“……!”
Youngwoo twisted his body in a flash and swung the sword backward.
Swoosh!
The blade’s arc flashed, followed instantly by a wet squelch.
Schluck!
The blade buried into the trapezius of the man charging at him.
“Uh……!”
It didn’t slice clean through like in movies or comics.
What actually happened was the man’s trapezius contracting reflexively, clamping down on the blade.
…Tremble.
The faint quiver of the tensed muscle transmitted through the hilt.
This must be what human flesh felt like.
‘…….’
What kind of life had just begun? The days of shuttling between factory and dorm suddenly felt like a dream.
Rip!
Yanking the blade free drew a spray of blood, and the ambient noise he’d momentarily forgotten came rushing back.
“Grab him!”
“Uwaaaah!”
Judging his first slash a failure, they all rushed him at once.
Strictly speaking, though, Youngwoo’s slash hadn’t failed.
Unintentionally, it had been a sort of ‘zeroing shot.’
It let him gauge the sword’s impact point to some degree, and he realized that if the blade got stuck in flesh like before, it meant ‘damage loss’ right there.
And above all—
‘…Killing a person by slashing isn’t easy.’
That realization was crucial.
From that moment, he switched to thrusts.
Swoosh.
Of course, it wasn’t a perfectly formed stance.
He just laid the blade horizontal at a right angle to his body and stabbed at the approaching foe’s throat.
But the effect was tremendous.
Puk!
The blade pierced the throat instantly.
“Gurk……!”
The man’s eyelids fluttered, and his followers froze in their tracks.
They’d seen the blade burst out the back of his neck, tearing through.
“Crazy bastard.”
“…Hold up.”
The tide turned in an instant.
“I warned you! Touch me again, and I’ll really kill you!”
Youngwoo gripped the sword for a second thrust in rage, and only then did the thugs start fleeing.
Tatat!
But the distance was still close enough.
Swoosh!
The second thrust nailed another fleeing man’s nape.
Spurt!
“……!”
A different texture from before.
He could feel the tip scraping the cervical vertebrae with a dull prod.
“A, aaah……!”
The man twisted with a bizarre scream, but Youngwoo’s eyes were locked on the rest bolting away.
‘…Two.’
The number of thugs who’d escaped the blade unscathed.
‘Shit, should’ve killed them all.’
Pride, revenge, and some kind of obsession.
It didn’t seem fair—same attackers, yet some died and some didn’t.
But chasing them now was impossible; the gap had widened too much.
So his only choice was to let them go for now.
‘Damn it.’
He furrowed his brow, vaguely memorizing the faces of the two escapees.
At least he’d recognize them if they crossed paths on the street. If the chance came, he’d kill them on sight.
Maybe this was karma, too.
“Ugh… uh…….”
The second thrust victim was still writhing in agony, so Youngwoo finally put him out of his misery.
Puk.
As if waiting for it, the system message reappeared before his eyes.
|Basic living funds have been distributed.
|Prepare yourself.
“Oh.”
Come to think of it, he’d only claimed the first-come-first-served reward, the Early Bird. He hadn’t gotten the main quest’s base reward yet.
Clink.
Soon, the familiar sound rang out, and three red coins materialized in the air he was staring at.
Flash!
“Eek.”
Youngwoo yelped in surprise but snatched them up quick.
‘One red coin is 1,000 karma, so… basic living funds means 3,000 karma each.’
Did that mean this money covered food and shelter for a while?
If so, then the 30,000 karma from exchanging karma points was… what?
“…….”
Suddenly, the image of the cop at the exchange booth—and the coins scattered there—flashed in his mind, but he shoved it away.
‘Probably dead by now, or worse. Too many people around the exchange booth.’
The coins would’ve gone to various owners by now.
So his top priority was escaping this hellhole.
‘Alright, where to now.’
Gripping the sword as he turned to find an exit, a new quest popped up right on cue.
[Main] “Rookie”
<Mission> Follow the arrow to the Mountain of Swords and exchange your fate.
<Reward> Survival Gear
‘Mountain of Swords…?’
Youngwoo’s gaze drifted to the Early Bird unbidden.
He had a hunch what the next quest meant.
‘Weapons distribution phase, huh. No idea what “exchange your fate” means, though.’
No first-come-first-served this time, so anyone who reached the Mountain of Swords alive got a weapon.
What the hell was coming next that they were handing out weapons?
“…….”
No point dwelling on it.
Youngwoo stopped thinking and checked the arrow at his feet.
‘West… toward Gwangpyeong-dong.’
Gwangpyeong-dong. A residential complex next to his current spot in Gongdan-dong.
Familiar area—factory dorm food deliveries usually came from there.
Problem was, the Mountain of Swords was there.
He had a bad feeling another bloodbath was coming, but there were no other options.
Youngwoo stepped out without hesitation, following the arrow.
* * *
―A new monster type, 『Troll』, has been added to this world.
―A new element, 『Abnormal Weather』, has been added to this world.
Even as Youngwoo ran after the arrow, the world kept changing.
He was still crossing Gongdan-dong’s outskirts, though, so he didn’t feel it yet.
All he saw were hazy factory buildings and exchange booths crashed here and there.
One big difference from before, though.
‘Why’s that?’
No one was blocking his path anymore.
Not just that—people were hurrying out of his way left and right.
Why?
It wasn’t like gaining murder experience suddenly made him aura with menace.
‘No way.’
Youngwoo could only reach one conclusion.
‘They’re not scared of me. They’re scared of the Early Bird.’
It had been at least several dozen minutes since the exchange booths landed and the first-comers were decided.
Conditions were similar at each booth, so Early Bird recipients had fought tooth-and-nail against dozens.
Thus…
‘Just becoming the final owner of an Early Bird proves you’re strong.’
In other words, the Early Bird was now a mark of the ruthless and mighty.
“Eek.”
“W-watch out behind!”
Even guys way bigger than him scrambled back in panic, and Youngwoo felt a dark thrill wash over him.
Being an object of fear to others was a first.
But he quickly remembered his place.
He soon encountered the Early Bird’s ‘true owner.’
Tatat!
The man appeared like lightning ten meters off Youngwoo’s right flank.
A tall figure with coppery skin.
So tall the 80cm Early Bird looked stubby, his bronzed skin radiating both elasticity and raw power.
‘Holy shit.’
Anyone could see he was a powerhouse, with that physique.
“…….”
The man locked eyes with Youngwoo at an angle for a split second, glanced at the Early Bird in his hand, then shot forward.
Flash…!
The distance between the two Early Birds widened rapidly.
Youngwoo adjusted his course slightly, following the exact path the man had cleared.
The guy’s overwhelming presence had parted the road wide open.
‘What happens when I reach the Mountain of Swords? Gotta fight guys like that?’
Youngwoo swallowed dryly, watching the ‘powerhouse’ shrink to a dot.
Around then, a noisy commotion erupted to his left.
“……?”
Turning his head, he spotted about a dozen people in identical white shirts and maroon ties.
Office workers out en masse?
‘No office that big around here….’
Tilting his head, Youngwoo belatedly remembered something.
‘Oh.’
There was one place nearby with that many people in shirts.
Right there in Gumi City’s Gwangpyeong-dong…
‘Geumo High School.’
The students hadn’t been exempt from the reset.
They were heading to the Mountain of Swords, so they’d clearly survived the exchange booth chaos.
One in the lead even held an Early Bird.
‘They’ve banded together around that guy?’
A group of high schoolers with an Early Bird secured.
Youngwoo couldn’t help but stay on guard, preconceptions aside.
Sss.
The arrow at his feet began tilting gradually.
‘Almost there.’
Keeping an eye on the students slanting toward his path, Youngwoo scanned ahead for what he assumed was the Mountain of Swords.
And then.
Crack—something shattered loudly, and the sky ahead changed.
‘My God.’
Youngwoo’s pupils dilated to their limit.
What he saw was tens of thousands of weapons raining down from the heavens.