Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: 12. An Unknown World (5)
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“Where are you going? Where the hell are you going right now!”
She was hysterical.
Myeong-ae clawed wildly at the arm and shoulder of her only remaining son.
Yoon-ho was right there behind them—how could they just leave without him?
“Our Yoon-ho! We have to bring Yoon-ho...!”
Myeong-ae’s eyes darted around frantically.
She looked like she truly believed her eldest son was abandoning his younger brother.
But did she really not know?
She had seen Yoon-ho’s head get lopped off clear as day.
“Stop it, Mom... This is hard for me too.”
Myeong-ho gripped the steering wheel, tears streaming down his face.
Fed up with it, Young-woo grabbed Myeong-ae’s arms as she pounded on the driver’s seat.
Thud!
If this kept up, they’d crash into the guardrail and all die together.
“Ma’am, I’m truly sorry. But now’s not the time...”
Before Young-woo could even finish, Myeong-ae, her arms held by him, unleashed a torrent of resentment.
“You...! What the hell have you done? Our boy was right there in front of us! What the...!”
“...”
Young-woo stayed silent, feeling the muscles in Myeong-ae’s arms bulging like mad in his grip.
He did feel some responsibility for Yoon-ho’s death.
If he hadn’t let the kid go ahead first and they’d attacked the orcs instead... maybe Jeong Yoon-ho would still be alive.
‘But he would’ve died eventually anyway. If it weren’t for me, these people would all be dead already.’
Young-woo stared out the car window with a heavy expression.
That’s when he spotted a volley of spears launching from the road ahead.
‘There they are.’
He’d finally pinpointed the position of the orc support squad that had been lobbing artillery nonstop.
“Myeong-ho.”
“...Yes?”
“You saw that, right? I’m going to take those bastards out. So in the meantime, go your way or wait—your call. If you’re planning to split here, drop my stuff on the ground before you go.”
As Young-woo finished speaking and checked the metal gear at his waist, Myeong-ho’s face stiffened.
With Yoon-ho gone—the real muscle of the Jeong family—they had no other options.
“Uh... where should I pull over? We’ll wait for you.”
Hearing Myeong-ho’s helpless response, Young-woo tapped the headrest above the driver’s seat.
“Right now.”
Screech!
The car slammed to a halt the moment Young-woo spoke.
“Spears could come flying again anytime, so keep moving slow if you have to.”
With that, Young-woo opened the back door and stepped onto the road.
Thud.
Far off, black silhouettes squirmed. The orc support squad, a thorn in his side.
About 300 meters away.
Crunch!
Young-woo kicked off the ground, launching himself forward, closing the distance in an instant.
Whoosh!
He moved with the sound of a spear piercing the air, and the orcs sensed the ominous presence, responding in kind.
Fwoosh!
They hurled spears straight at the unidentified target.
But unlike the blind bombardment, this was aimed fire.
「Sensory stat temporarily increased from 100 to 134.」
「Sensory stat temporarily increased from 134 to 168.」
「Sensory stat temporarily increased from 168 to 202.」
It ended up boosting the senses of the target, Young-woo.
“...!”
Thanks to it, he could clearly see the spears flying straight at him and predict their paths.
Clear enough to deflect them before they pierced his body.
Clang!
When Young-woo drew his sword and batted away the first spear tip, he was close enough to make out the orcs’ faces.
Screech!
By the second spear tip he flicked aside, he could vividly hear their panicked voices.
-What, what is that?
-Human...?
-Kill it quick!
The orc support squad numbered six in total.
They stood amid piles of spears on the ground, each gripping a long spear shaft in both hands.
No shields to block attacks.
“Hup!”
Confirming their gear, Young-woo instantly drew his black sword to full length and swung.
Whoooosh!
A massive black arc swept through the orcs’ waists, and soon their fleshy bodies transmitted vividly through his grip.
Crunch-crunch!
It was less like slicing orcs and more like snapping them.
The orcs, their waists split wide, tumbled to the ground off-beat.
Then, in short order.
Flash-flash, flash!
Their bodies vanished in light, spilling crimson coins in their place.
Clink-clink!
‘Damn.’
Only then did Young-woo realize he hadn’t picked up the coins from the first orcs he’d encountered.
‘This can’t be right? Every fight ends with me scavenging coins like this...?’
Bending over like a harvester gleaning wheat, all the heavy emotions squeezing his chest moments ago faded away.
And around then.
Vroom...
The Jeong family SUV approached from behind with a low engine rumble.
“You okay?”
Myeong-ho asked cautiously from inside the driver’s seat.
Young-woo glanced at him while dumping a handful of coins into his backpack.
“What about your mom?”
“...She passed out.”
“Good. I need to go back and grab more coins.”
“Yes...?”
* * *
Clank.
From Yoon-ho’s death site, Young-woo had collected 160,000 karma.
Adding what he got from the support squad brought the total to 280,000 karma.
‘So my full assets now... 304,000.’
Converted to stat points, that’s 304.
If invested in appearance alteration, he could achieve about 14% of the combat preset’s recommended optimal body conditions.
But Young-woo had one more option. Namely.
‘Mungyeong still hasn’t had its Day 2 mutant taken down.’
Which meant.
‘Killing it will bring a merchant here too.’
Another chance to trade with the alien merchants.
Thanks to his special deal with broker Kubu, he could even preview and handpick from all bidding merchants.
‘Who knows what’ll be on offer this time, so I should save up as much as possible.’
Swipe.
|Current region: ‘Mungyeong.’
|Mungyeong’s Greatest Swordsman is ‘Jang Chunyong16.’ 1st gen, defended 96 times.
Young-woo glanced at the info on Mungyeong’s Greatest Swordsman, still surviving somewhere.
‘What’s up... Did he leave Mungyeong early?’
The red pillar of light was now close enough that he could reach the mutant in ten minutes by car or on foot.
“You sure you’re okay with this?”
Young-woo whipped his head toward the SUV idling nearby, making the dazed Myeong-ho flinch.
“Yes? Uh, with what...?”
“I mean, you really okay coming with me? I’m heading to kill the mutant now. No idea what it’ll be like, so I can’t guarantee your or your mom’s safety.”
Of course, he skipped the part about even crazier stuff—like actual aliens showing up for business.
“Ah...”
Myeong-ho wore that dazed look again.
Not that he could do anything else.
The Reset itself had been too unreal, and after overhearing Young-woo’s chat with the orcs, his mind had gone blank.
“We have to... We don’t have any other choice.”
Myeong-ho glanced at his mother slumped lifelessly in the back seat.
He’d lost all his functions and abilities as the eldest son and family head.
So the best Myeong-ho could manage now was to feel pathetic gratitude for being the chauffeur to this Jeong Young-woo guy, whose family name wasn’t even certain.
As long as the man was strong enough to take down mutants too, he and his mom would keep living.
“...”
It was basically entrusting his life to him.
They said the Reset reset everyone’s fates too, but this was the result? Barely scraping by like this?
Myeong-ho recalled his own fate log—smooth enough, without major bumps—and made a bitter face.
If a new fate log was being written, how would this scene be recorded? And how would it end...?
Crack!
Myeong-ho’s reverie snapped at the bursting sound from the passenger window.
Startled, he looked up to see Young-woo yanking a spear shaft out from the passenger seat outside.
“Now I see—this is ours.”
“Huh?”
“This spear wasn’t brought by the orcs. It was gear handed out to people. From the Mountain of Swords.”
With that, Young-woo pulled the spear shaft free and tossed it to the ground.
If it had been orc gear, it would’ve vanished with their bodies.
‘Invaders using our own resources?’
It irked him oddly.
Young-woo yanked out two more spear shafts from the car, then slid into the passenger seat.
Myeong-ho gave him a puzzled look.
“...?”
“Figure your mom won’t be thrilled to see me now. Lock the back door.”
Myeong-ho wordlessly locked the back without argument.
“So where to now? Follow that?”
Myeong-ho pointed to the red pillar visible ahead, and Young-woo’s jaw worked up and down.
* * *
Vrooom...
As the car picked up speed again, Myeong-ho finally voiced the question he’d been holding in his head.
“Hey.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re a Greatest Swordsman, right? Of somewhere.”
Young-woo, who’d been staring out the passenger window, turned to him.
“Yeah.”
Casual as could be.
“Oh, I see... Got it.”
“...”
As silence threatened to settle again, Myeong-ho mustered the next question.
“So, have you faced other mutants before?”
For Myeong-ho, it was a question he couldn’t skip.
Their lives—his and his mom’s—hung on Young-woo’s combat experience.
So Young-woo deliberately gave an answer that’d offer some reassurance.
Sure.
“Yeah. Killed two, and the other one...”
He couldn’t finish with, is trapped in another world waiting for a whistle sound.
Because.
Rumble-crash!
A massive roar like a building collapsing echoed from somewhere.
“Huh?”
The car had just turned onto a road entering the city center, so both Myeong-ho and Young-woo could see it.
-Don’t be scared...!
-Keep pushing in!
-Charge!
Dozens of orcs charging in unison toward one spot.
Battle had clearly been raging; dust clouds hung thick in the air, with buildings crumbled or shattered here and there.
“Wh-what the.”
Screeech!
Myeong-ho instinctively slammed the brakes, but not a single orc glanced back.
For good reason.
「Graaaah!」
The orc legion already faced a major threat.
Another blue-skinned orc roaring ferociously, swinging a weapon against dozens of its kin.
「Die!」
This orc was so huge the others looked like dwarves by comparison, and no matter how you sliced it...
‘No way—a mutant...? Why’s a mutant fighting monsters?’
Young-woo, eyes wide as he scanned the scene, soon figured it out.
Mungyeong City’s mutant wasn’t just fighting orcs.
“Tch!”
Near the blue muscle mass moved another figure, incredibly agile.
Swoosh!
Emaciated build, pitch-black skin, contrasted by stark white hair.
‘No way.’
Young-woo’s eyebrow twitched at the unbelievable sight.
Mungyeong’s Greatest Swordsman, Jang Chunyong16, was teaming up with the mutant to fight.