Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: 24. Waves (1)
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What is a Mutated Being?
Superficially, it would of course be a monster.
Because they possess the power to crush an ordinary human with a single finger.
Moreover, they generally harbor hostility toward the world.
Why?
Because the masses that constitute this world killed them.
An anonymous, one-sided assault carried out under the pretext of the Annihilation Vote.
So Hyunsik didn't consider the Mutated Beings' return an attack on this world.
If he had to define it somehow.
‘…It's closer to a counterattack.’
The one killed by the masses returns to kill the masses.
It was a truly horrific world, but Hyunsik could accept it without issue.
‘It’s the karma we brought on ourselves. Did you think you could slaughter people like that and come out unscathed?’
And above all.
Boom!
Hyunsik was strong.
To the extent that nothing in this world felt like a threat.
In fact, this was the decisive reason Hyunsik could accept the ‘Reset’.
At least he was still the protagonist of this world.
Just like before the Reset occurred.
“Tch.”
Hyunsik clicked his tongue as he gazed at the massive creature sprawled at his feet.
Height around 3.5 meters.
Thick limbs reminiscent of logs, covered in razor-sharp scales.
What Hyunsik was looking down at now was Pastor Kim Won-gil, who had manifested as a Lizardman in Gangnam District.
“Pastor, while we're at it, let me ask you this. Does God really exist?”
When Hyunsik nudged Kim Won-gil's nape with his foot, the long snout that had stretched out far slackened open powerlessly.
「…Now I see this was hell all along. Just finish it.」
Kim Won-gil spat out a detached line, but Hyunsik paid it no mind and stomped on the opponent's eye socket.
Puk.
「Urgh, ahhh!」
“I asked you, does God really exist? Do you still believe that crap?”
Hyunsik bared his teeth and growled.
Jeong Hyunsik, 52 years old. Current Gangnam First Sword.
At the same time, he was a former chaebol heir.
The youngest son of the Taewon Group founder, the nation's third-largest conglomerate.
Yet the reason Hyunsik hadn't ended up on the Reset's Annihilation Vote list was purely due to his lack of public exposure.
Unlike his brother and sister, who had claimed the group chairmanship and key subsidiary presidencies, Hyunsik was merely executive director of Taewon's smallest affiliate.
Thanks to that, blocking a dozen or so '煞' during the ‘individual filtration’ had been enough to spare him disaster.
“My merchant brother and sister at least became dragons. But what are you, huh? Just a pathetic lizard. How'd that happen?”
Thud!
Hyunsik delivered a hard kick to Won-gil's midsection, but there was no reaction this time.
“Ah, already dead?”
It was only natural—he'd pummeled the subdued opponent for quite a while afterward.
Shaa!
Soon, Kim Won-gil's corpse disintegrated cleanly, officializing his death.
Gangnam's large church ‘Purm’ senior pastor Kim Won-gil deceased.
“…….”
Of course, it wasn't as if Hyunsik held any deep affection for Kim Won-gil.
No, if anything, the opposite was closer to the truth.
Every time Purm Church launched a major project, Taewon Group had shelled out massive ad fees disguised as donations and offerings.
In short, the two ‘firms’ had a business relationship.
But even so, the guy was a man of the cloth at heart, so Hyunsik had expected at least some minimal conviction...
“All an illusion.”
Hyunsik recalled how Pastor Kim Won-gil had been hunting for someone to rip apart the moment he arrived on this land, then spat on the spot where he'd lain.
Ptoo!
A golden orb then materialized there.
「Mutated Being eliminated.」
「Please select your reward to complete the procedure.」
“Hmm.”
No need to deliberate—straight to the 3 million exclusive.
The golden orb dissolved into thin air the moment Hyunsik made his choice.
And right around then.
Vrooom…!
A vehicle engine roared in from the distance.
“What’s that?”
Current time: 1:14 p.m.
With the Mutated Being marker shining here just moments ago, no one in their right mind from Gangnam would be heading this way.
Ordinary folk would fear the Mutated Being; sword wielders, the First Sword.
Which meant.
‘Outsider?’
Every now and then, out-of-town swordsmen slipped in via back routes, bypassing the checkpoints.
Vrooom…
The vehicle soon entered Hyunsik's view and began slowing.
They'd spotted the Gangnam First Sword too.
A gray Avante.
A modest model for a vehicle driven by some regional powerhouse, leaving Hyunsik to tilt his head.
Clunk.
The driver's door of the fully stopped Avante swung open.
And stepping out was.
‘Huh? That face looks familiar.’
Someone Hyunsik recognized.
Of course, by Hyunsik's standards, the guy didn't even qualify as a supporting character—no name or status came to mind.
“Ex-Executive Director, sir.”
The man who emerged from the car approached very cautiously, stopping about ten meters away.
“…….”
Mid-thirties, by the look of him.
Seeing the man's hand trembling faintly, Hyunsik was suddenly seized by a bad premonition.
Addressing him as Executive Director rather than First Sword meant either a Taewon Group employee or someone who'd bid on Gangnam District monster-hunting rights.
But a monster business rights winner would be more familiar than this.
‘Not a Gangnam monster hunter, not one of our employees.’
That left only swordsmen nominally under Gangnam District but who hadn't secured those lucrative rights.
In other words, blades-for-hire scraping by in Gyeonggi Province outside Seoul.
And among them was Jeong Gyu-sang, his only son who’d loudly declared his self-made independence.
“…How’d you get here?”
As Hyunsik took a step forward to greet him, the man startled and waved his hands frantically.
“N-No, sir! I... uh, well.”
The man halted about five meters from Hyunsik.
Then.
Thump!
He suddenly flattened himself to the ground, forehead pressed to the earth.
‘Ah, no way.’
Hyunsik bit down hard without realizing it upon seeing the display.
He could already guess the words coming next.
Had his son made the blunder of challenging a Mutated Being?
Or maybe it was just an unusually monster-heavy day.
With that stubborn streak that took after no one, he might've picked a fight with some outsider.
Of course, it could all be baseless worry.
But short of that, why would some nameless extra he’d never even exchanged greetings with show up out of nowhere to kowtow?
“I asked how you got here.”
Hyunsik's voice quavered slightly this time.
The man, still forehead planted to the dirt—Jang Ho73—reported to the Gangnam First Sword.
“My son... has passed away. And I... am the sole witness.”
Terrified of Executive Director Jeong—no, Gangnam First Sword’s fury, Jang Ho stressed ‘sole’ as clearly as he could.
He figured an enraged First Sword could slay with a mere breath.
“…….”
Yet contrary to Jang Ho's fears, the First Sword didn't erupt in a rampage.
Instead, he ground out his first question through clenched teeth.
“Where is my son right now?”
* * *
1:31 p.m., Gwanak District.
Youngwoo stared at the empty sky beyond the intersection.
A black pillar of light marking the merchant's location had finally descended there.
With day-long services and abnormal weather alerts not due until after sunset around 8 p.m., the major tasks for the day were essentially wrapped.
“Planning to meet the merchant now?”
Jo Sang-ik asked Youngwoo, following his gaze to the merchant marker.
Youngwoo turned to look at Jo Sang-ik instead.
“As this region's First Sword... merchant priority goes to you, Vice Minister. Of course, if you'll allow it, I'd like to take a look.”
Truth be told, this was partly because he didn't urgently need new gear.
With armor that halved enemy attack power now in hand, raw stat efficiency would dominate for the foreseeable future.
“Well, cash on hand is tight at the moment, so I'm not sure meeting the merchant would even matter.”
Jo Sang-ik spoke half in jest, half in earnest.
A reminder that Youngwoo's golden rain shower here had vaporized his own 3 million.
“If I head back to school and explain the situation, they'll pool karma from everyone. After all, for Gwanak District to speak up at the assembly and keep facing Mutated Beings, we need a powerful First Sword.”
Jo Sang-ik's eyes then drifted to the dazzling armor draped over Youngwoo.
“Speaking of, what’re your plans going forward, Youngwoo? Gonna roam Seoul scattering golden rain everywhere?”
Jeong Youngwoo was an incredibly conspicuous figure.
And the 3 p.m. assembly would surely demand an account of the ‘golden rain sighting’.
Which was why Jo Sang-ik wanted Youngwoo to attend with him if at all possible.
To sidestep any ensuing disputes.
“…….”
Youngwoo, meanwhile, hesitated to reply.
He knew Jo Sang-ik wasn't a bad sort, but he wasn't someone to confide in fully either.
And above all.
[Golden Journey]
|Sprinkle golden rain in the next region.
|Domestic (0/3) |Foreign (0/2)
The fourth golden rain achievement had his mind in knots.
‘Foreign regions... China or Japan? If North Korea counts as foreign, might be worth a shot.’
Whatever qualified as ‘foreign,’ the key point was that the achievement system accounted for Mutated Being kills overseas.
Such an achievement's existence proved that domestic First Swords could end up fighting abroad.
What did that imply?
“…….”
Youngwoo blinked, then shelved the pointless speculation.
He still had business in Seoul, after all.
“For now, if you'll permit it, I should meet this region's merchant first. And as promised, track down Representative Kim Tae-jun's family.”
Though unspoken, that included hunting down his own father too.
“Ah, right. Smart thinking.”
Jo Sang-ik looked relieved at Youngwoo's words.
“To find Representative Kim Tae-jun's family, government assistance is the way to go.”
In other words, attend the assembly.
“That is…….”
Just as Youngwoo started to cautiously broach the Gangnam First Sword issue.
“…Hm?”
Jo Sang-ik, smiling easily a moment before, glanced skyward, then stiffened.
He turned to Youngwoo with wide, shocked eyes and a quavering voice.
“S-Surely it was you?”
“What do you…….”
Youngwoo shot back, yet somehow already knew.
Jo Sang-ik had undoubtedly received some kind of dispatch.
For instance.
“They found Gangnam First Sword's son beheaded. On the highway near Bundang.”
“I see.”
Jo Sang-ik clapped a hand over his mouth at Youngwoo's utter lack of surprise.
“Th-That... no…….”
“Like you said, some punks near Bundang started trouble, so I killed them.”
“All fourteen?”
“Something like that.”
“Then the b-bodies? He was lying there decapitated—did you just leave them?”
“Do you hold funerals for monsters after you kill them, Vice Minister?”
In other words, Youngwoo had abandoned the corpses of fourteen Seoul swordsmen—including Gangnam First Sword's decapitated son—right there by the roadside.
“Cra...zy.”
He trailed off before ‘bastard’ could escape his lips, falling silent briefly.
Because the truly critical words came next.
“We're screwed. Gangnam First Sword's on a rampage right now. He saw his son's body firsthand... nothing's safe in his sight.”
“But why ‘we’? It's solely my problem.”
Jo Sang-ik bristled at Youngwoo's retort but barely reined himself in with a steadying breath.
“Because you just showered golden rain over Gwanak District. Fuck, everyone saw it.”
