Chapter 54
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Shim Hyung-taek
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Fifteen days had passed since Ma Kyung-rok and his party left.
During that time, Ryu Min had stayed home.
He had nowhere to go and no friends to meet.
Too lazy to go out, he subsisted on delivery food.
His brother was in a similar situation, so they both stayed cooped up.
Even when it came to taking out the trash or recycling, his brother was the one who went out to do it.
'This is the life of a total bum, isn't it...?'
Ryu Min chuckled to himself, but considering the future, this kind of rest was necessary.
'Well, the rest ends today, I suppose.'
Ryu Min opened the calendar on his phone.
Sunday, April 17th.
Today was the day he had marked, just in case he forgot.
'It's time to make a move.'
One of the five runes that could be obtained in the real world.
[Rune of Clones].
This rune, often considered a must-have, was what Ryu Min intended to acquire today.
'Because today, Sunday, is the day those guys are regularly active.'
Ryu Min checked the time with a meaningful smile.
It was only 9 AM.
'If I want to handle everything today, I should apply early.'
Holding his phone, Ryu Min's fingers moved quickly.
Just then, there was a knock—tok tok—and Ryu Won came in.
"Hyung, what are you doing?"
"Browsing the internet. What's up?"
"I was going to ask if you wanted to go out for lunch today. I'm getting sick of only eating delivery food...."
"I don't think I can. I'm scheduled to have a lunch meeting."
"Scheduled to have one? So you have one or you don't?"
Ryu Min let out a soft chuckle.
"We'll have to wait and see."
* * *
[1.8 Billion People Dragged to Another World. Reduced to 90 Million in Just Three Months...]
[Celebrities, Soldiers, Police Officers, and More Dragged to Another World, Dying of Cardiac Arrest Regardless of Profession.]
[Economic Paralysis Due to Deaths of Young Adults. Schools Nationwide Temporarily Suspend Operations.]
[Unending Waves of Mourning Bring Suffering to Parents and Siblings Worldwide.]
Just reading a few headlines was enough to feel the grim atmosphere.
But Shim Hyung-taek smiled.
It was someone else's problem.
Because he was none other than a surviving Player.
"1.8 billion down to 90 million? We're only four rounds in, and they've died off like crazy, the pathetic bastards. Keuk keuk."
For a while, only the sound of laughter filled the quiet classroom.
It was the laughter of a victor who had not been weeded out.
He knew he was steeped in arrogance, but that was fine.
After all, he was a ranker who had reached 3rd place in his zone.
[Number of Confirmed Players in the Country Estimated at 450,000 to Date.]
[Players Causing Trouble. Is It Okay to Leave Them Unchecked?]
[Fatalities Caused by Players Sharply Increase After the 4th Round.]
[Players Running Rampant, Committing Murder, Theft, Arson, and Rape.]
[Thousands of CCTV Cameras Destroyed. The Nights Have Become Lawless Zones...]
[Expert Says: 'What Good Are Laws When Humanity Is Facing Extinction?' The Anxiety of Not Knowing When You'll Die Leads to a Loss of Self-Control...]
[The Power of Players Bending Steel Bars to Escape. Police Have Virtually No Way to Stop Them...]
[Players Uniting Against Government Regulations. Even a Player Alliance Café Has Emerged...]
[Growing Anxiety Among Citizens. Immediate Countermeasures Needed...]
Reading the article, Shim Hyung-taek let out a sneer.
"This is hilarious. They would've done the same damn thing if they'd become Players."
His smiling face soon filled with discontent.
"What's the big deal if we do what we want before we die? Fucking old geezers. They shouldn't have suppressed us so much. ‘Don't do this, don't do that’—all these regulations just made what we were holding back explode. Tsk!"
He irritably slammed his axe onto the floor.
Thud—!
Startled by the sound, three students looked at him with tearful expressions.
They were middle school students from his class, whom Shim Hyung-taek had kidnapped.
"What are you looking at? You sons of bitches."
"..."
"What? Surprised to hear me curse when I'm usually so quiet? You think I'm some idiot who can't swear?"
"..."
The students just stared silently.
Not that they could speak; their hands, feet, and even their mouths were sealed with duct tape.
"Mmph, mmph."
"What? Want me to untie you?"
"Mmph, mmph."
"Mmph!"
"What the hell are you saying? Dammit."
As the three of them made sounds in unison, Shim Hyung-taek approached with an annoyed expression.
Rip— Rip— Rip!
He tore off all the tape from the students' mouths.
"What is it? You have something to say to me?"
"*Gasp, gasp*, w-we were wrong, Hyung-seob."
"Y-yeah. We were wrong."
"Please spare us just this once."
"Oh, really?"
Shim Hyung-taek raised his axe high.
Thwack—!
He brought it down on a head like he was splitting a watermelon, and brains spilled out.
"U-uaaaagh!"
"Ugh, uweck...!"
Having killed one of them in a single blow, Shim Hyung-taek spoke irritably.
"This son of a bitch got my name wrong."
Looking down at the two students trembling like aspens, Shim Hyung-taek smiled.
"Why are you shaking so much? Are you cold?"
"..."
"You don't know my name either?"
"N-no! I know it. It's Shim Hyung-taek."
"You next to him look like you didn't know."
"Th-that's not true! Of course I knew it too!"
"Then I guess you know why you're tied up here?"
The two students slowly nodded with guilty expressions.
"S-sorry, Hyung-taek...."
"We're really sorry for bullying you all this time...."
"Tell me specifically how you bullied me."
"Th-that's...."
The students hesitated, reluctant to speak.
They were afraid he might kill them if what they said put him in a bad mood.
But when he raised his axe as if to say he'd kill them if they didn't talk, they had no choice but to open their mouths.
"S-sorry for calling you a fat pig with glasses...."
"Is that all?"
As he lifted the axe high above his head, the student spoke with fearful eyes.
"S-sorry for calling you a useless piece of livestock that only wastes food...."
"...That's the first I'm hearing of that one."
"Huh?"
"You've been talking behind my back, haven't you?"
"What?"
Thwack—!
The axe plunged mercilessly into the top of his head.
"Ugh, ughh, uwaaaah!"
The student next to him screamed.
It was a sight that no ordinary person could handle.
"How could that son of a bitch say something so harsh behind my back? Ugh, so annoying."
"Aaaah...."
Watching the student, speechless with shock, Shim Hyung-taek let out a smirk.
"Why are you so surprised by this? The 4th Round was filled with scenes far more gruesome than this."
And that wasn't all.
He had even experienced being decapitated.
Not just once, but five times.
And all by a single person known as the Black Scythe.
'If I had really messed up, I might not have made it into the rankings.'
Who else in the world could experience dying and coming back to life?
When Shim Hyung-taek glared with demonic eyes, the remaining student flinched in terror.
"Hey, Jin-gon."
"..."
"You son of a bitch who teased me and made me your gofer every break."
"..."
"Do you think I'm killing you just because you bullied me? No."
Shim Hyung-taek raised the axe once more.
"Because my stacks go up. When I kill a human, I get something out of it. Keuk keuk, isn't it funny? That even human trash like you can be useful to me."
"Aaargh, spare me! Spare me, Hyu-Hyung-seob, n-no! I mean, Hyung-taek!"
"Ha, this bastard."
Shim Hyung-taek's eyes turned icy cold.
"So you really didn't know my name, huh?"
Crack—!
The unhesitating swing of the axe sent blood splattering in all directions.
"Agh, damn it! Spit! It got all over my face."
Wiping his face with the back of his hand, Shim Hyung-taek left the corpses behind and exited the classroom.
Screech—
The hallway was silent.
With school suspended nationwide, there was no one left in the building.
Except for the trash lying scattered in the classroom with their heads split open.
He went straight to the school bathroom to wash his face.
Splash— Splash—!
After washing off the blood, he looked in the mirror.
A fat, ugly middle school student with glasses stared back.
"Fuck, this life is a lost cause. For my final round wish, I'll ask to be reborn as Cha Eun-woo in my next life."
Muttering to himself, Shim Hyung-taek also washed the bits of flesh off the axe blade.
He had lured the trio that always bullied him to the school and killed them, but he didn't feel good about it.
It was because the reward was small.
[You have gained 1 stack from the Rune of Absorption.]
[You have gained 1 stack from the Rune of Absorption.]
[You have gained 1 stack from the Rune of Absorption.]
[Current Stacks: 22/100]
Even though he had committed murder, he only gained 1 stack per person.
'Is it because they're civilians? It's barely anything.'
Once the stacks reach 100, a random stat increases by 1, and the stacks reset.
It was an obviously overpowered rune—the Rune of Absorption.
'Even goblins gave 1 or 2. Fuck, these bastards are worse than goblins.'
The best times for farming were the 3rd Round, which had many monsters, and the 4th Round, where he had slaughtered Players.
'The 4th Round was especially sweet. Killing a single Player gave me nearly 10 stacks.'
He remembered being surprised at how much more efficient it was than killing monsters.
"Anyway, I'm glad I have an early birthday. Otherwise, I might not have been able to kill them so easily."
The three he had just killed were all civilians.
Even though they were in the same class, they were divided into Players and civilians based on whether they were 15 years old or not.
"My first time killing people in the real world."
Was it because he had already experienced hell?
He felt nothing, even after committing murder in reality.
It felt like his emotions had been dulled.
"Keuk keuk. Well, good. Now there's no one left to stand in my way."
He was no longer the Shim Hyung-taek who was teased for being fat.
He had been reborn as a superior being—a Player.
"Now, which bastards should I kill next?"
What's the point of just sitting around until the next round?
To build up stacks, it was better to kill even one more civilian.
"If possible, I'd like to kill Players who give more stacks... Ah!"
Shim Hyung-taek recalled the article he had just been reading.
"It said there was a Player alliance café, right?"
A quick internet search brought it up easily.
"What if I join, make contact with Players, and then kill them? Keuhuhu!"
He could accumulate stacks incomparable to what civilians offered.
Grinning, Shim Hyung-taek tapped on his phone and immediately began the registration process.
◆Café Description◆
-An alliance café for Players! Players will change the world! Welcome to [Ple.Se.Ba]!
◆Registration Guide◆
-To thoroughly screen out civilians, our PleSeBa accepts members through an interview process. If you are not a Player, please press the back button.
◆Pre-Registration Questions◆
-You must answer all questions truthfully. Providing false information may result in disadvantages.
1. Please write your full name, address, and phone number without omission.
2. Please write your level, your class in the other world, and your nickname.
3. Please write your zone name (if you cannot remember, please write the location where you first lost consciousness on January 1st).
4. Please list your rankings for each round completed so far (your ranking within the zone).
5. If you agree to an interview for registration, please write 'I agree'.
"They want all my personal information and even an interview? This is a huge pain in the ass."
Still, he had to join if he wanted to meet other Players and backstab them.
The other Players would probably never even dream of it.
That there was a Player who preyed on other Players.
Shim Hyung-taek smiled as he wrote down his level, class, and nickname.
Lv. 10, Warrior, Black Flame Dragon in the Right Hand.