Chapter 24

[Translator – Night]

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 24: The Barefoot Superhuman (2)

‘What on earth is Gimcheon doing?’

Without realizing it, Yeongwoo criticized Gimcheon City.

The fact that the mutant had been alive all day yesterday meant a lot.

Human casualties beyond imagination.

And the powerless Strongest Sword.

Of course, Strongest Sword had no obligation to protect the residents of his area.

But apart from that, if Gimcheon Strongest Sword was strong enough, the mutant couldn’t have survived until now.

Thud!

Soon, the upper right corner of the field of vision flashed, and the regional status changed.

Finally, He had left Gumi and entered the Gimcheon region.

But no matter how you looked at it, Gimcheon Strongest Sword’s condition was strange.

|The current area of residence is ‘Gimcheon.’

|The Strongest Sword of this area is ‘Park Kyungtae 421.’ 36 times, no defense.

‘36 times…?’

It meant that in one day, the title of Strongest Sword had changed 35 times.

In other words, no one in Gimcheon had properly held the title of Strongest Sword.

This city did not possess a strong person.

‘These crazy people.’

Yeongwoo was angry.

In this world where everyone carried a sword, being strong generally meant being closer to evil, but still, someone had to stop the mutant, right?

Rather than running away like a flock of sheep and being attacked by all, wouldn’t it be better to resist?

‘Maybe they couldn’t even handle goblins before the mutant. How chaotic was it for the Strongest Sword to come down to 36?’

Yeongwoo recalled the goblins’ meal scene from yesterday and gritted his teeth.

Then he pounded the ground even harder.

Thump!

Each time he lifted his foot off the ground, he felt the asphalt fragments hitting his heels and bouncing off.

The wind brushing against his cheeks and earlobes was much fiercer than before.

And finally.

“…!”

The distant view of Gimcheon City began to come into sight.

Behind the red light pillar, sporadic blue light pillars, marks of monsters, remained.

Still, judging by the fact that there weren’t dozens of marks, it seemed that not everyone had let go.

But ultimately, they couldn’t stop the mutant.

Some residents were courageous, but it wasn’t enough.

=Kindness, Order, Cleanliness Movement=

〔Happy together, welcome to Gimcheon.〕

Yeongwoo passed the signboard set up at the entrance of Gimcheon City and ran madly on the road with fields spreading on both sides.

The distance between him and the mutant mark kept getting closer and farther.

‘He’s still active. He’s continuously chasing people.’

Thud!

Since some time ago, the mark had been tilting to the west, so Yeongwoo also left the road and crossed the fields.

Thud, thud, thud!

Splash!

It was early June.

The fields, just finished being harvested, were filled with water.

As Yeongwoo, moving swiftly, entered the area, mud and stalks splattered in all directions.

“…?”

And at that moment, Yeongwoo noticed something crucial.

The stalks spread across the field were not rocks.

“Food must have turned into rocks… but since the rice hasn’t fully grown, they didn’t consider it as food?”

There was no time to delve deeper into his thoughts.

His legs had already passed through the fields, now stepping on the mountainous terrain, and soon a gas station appeared in the distance.

The proper entrance to the city had begun.

Splash!

Leaping down from the hill back onto the road, Yeongwoo passed the gas station and entered an area filled with apartments.

Simultaneously,

“….”

He saw more corpses scattered on the streets than there were apartments.

From roughly cut pieces to partially consumed bodies, and bodies twisted at strange angles.

However, judging by the fact that they were all facing in the direction Yeongwoo came from…

‘They were trying to leave the city but got caught.’

Moreover, this was the outskirts of Gimcheon City.

Considering that he hadn’t seen any other corpses on the way from Gumi to here, it could be assumed that most Gimcheon citizens couldn’t even reach the highway and died.

‘They still have their skin. The monsters in this area might not be goblins.’

In Yeongwoo’s experience, goblins would peel off the skin or outer layer of their prey when eating.

However, the dead in Gimcheon still had intact skin.

Pop!

The procession of corpses continued.

As he approached the city center, the state of the corpses improved.

While unarmed corpses were not uncommon on the outskirts, now Yeongwoo occasionally saw people with more than one weapon.

‘This place was really hell.’

As Yeongwoo thought this, while checking the regional status again,

Pop.

|The current area of residence is ‘Gimcheon.’

|The Strongest Sword of this area is ‘Kim Sunhwa 190.’ 37 times, no defense.

Gimcheon Strongest Sword had changed hands again.

“…?”

Only after seeing this did Yeongwoo realize.

‘The previous Strongest Swords didn’t die at the hands of challengers. The reason for changing the Strongest Sword 36 times was not because of people but…’

Mutants.

Any Strongest Sword who appeared in Gimcheon to confront the mutants failed to defeat them and consecutively died.

Because of this, the position of Strongest Sword kept becoming vacant, and the system was arbitrarily assigning the next challenger.

Similar to how Yeongwoo became Gumi Strongest Sword just by showing off in front of the crowd.

‘Then where is the current Strongest Sword? Is that person also near the mutants right now?’

Yeongwoo looked toward the spot where ‘Kim Sunhwa 190’ was expected to be, focusing on the red light pillar.

At that moment, the pillar seemed to twitch, and the vicious cycle began again.

|The current area of residence is ‘Gimcheon.’

|The Strongest Sword of this area is ‘Kang Sung-ho 306.’ 38 times, no defense.

And in that short time, Kim Sunhwa 190 also died.

‘What is happening?’

It’s unclear whether the massacre unfolding there is a one-sided slaughter or a battle.

In any case, it seemed certain that the system was appointing people near the mutants as Strongest Sword.

‘Damn it, I’m going.’

Meanwhile, Yeongwoo was in close proximity to the city where the red light pillar was shot.

The remaining distance would be at most 2 kilometers.

Zap!

It didn’t take even a few minutes for Yeongwoo to focus his sight on the scene of the incident.

“…!”

As expected, there were dozens of people.

And from Yeongwoo’s perspective, they seemed to be the strongest group in Gimcheon.

Why?

Because each of them had one weapon and shield.

Some even had early bird privileges, and there were those who had farmed quite a bit the previous day, carrying large backpacks.

However, they were all in retreat.

“R-run!”

“Aaah!”

And behind them,

「Ket… This could be a somewhat enjoyable life, too.」

A hefty humanoid emitted a fierce aura as it rushed forward.

‘Mutant…!’

Yeongwoo’s pupils dilated.

The mutants in Gimcheon were not goblins but ‘Gnolls.’

Humanoid bodies with hyena heads.

Their height was about 3 meters, like Jang Sun-bok in Gumi, but in terms of body thickness and muscle size, their physique looked much larger.

The notable feature was that they had no separate weapons, and their armor only covered their torso.

‘But their combat power is probably higher than Jang Sunbok.’

Yeongwoo pulled out his early bird from his waist, checking the opponent’s name tag.

[Internet Broadcaster – Hong Youngtae (Pabble)]

‘Huh?’

Hong Young-tae.

Also known as BJ Pabble.

Yeongwoo had come across this name through news articles.

He was a bit of a problem child, famous in the internet broadcasting industry.

He already had his license revoked for drunk driving, and recently, he caused a sensation by disrupting train operations on the tracks while claiming to fulfill viewer missions.

‘He usually caused accidents in Seoul… Was he originally from Gimcheon?’

But Hong Youngtae seemed to have no affection for his hometown people.

「Another one’s gone!」

Chasing after those fleeing with their backs turned, Hong Youngtae gleefully swung his fist, and anyone hit by his punch fell to the ground and died without exception.

「Kikik! It’s like a kimchi war!」

Hong Youngtae laughed as he wiped his hands on the body sprawled on the ground.

The malicious delight had an unsettling, dark humor.

Then, as soon as the corpse no longer looked human, he bounced up to pursue the next victim.

In other words, this group, which could be Gimcheon’s last defense, had been doing this long before Yeongwoo arrived.

They had become fanatical warriors, being preyed upon by the mutant.

‘…Oh my god.’

In the midst of the fleeing crowd, Yeongwoo saw the title ‘Gimcheon Strongest Sword’ shining brightly.

Even the 38th Strongest Sword, Kang Sungho 306, was in retreat just like any other person.

At this point, Gimcheon practically had no Strongest Sword.

「Hey, Strongest Sword! Wait up!」

Hong Youngtae pointed towards Kang Sungho 306 with his distant claw and crouched down on all fours.

Then.

Whoosh!

With lightning speed, he leaped high into the air, intending to land right on the head of the new Strongest Sword.

In response, Yeongwoo ran straight to the expected landing point and tapped his left chest.

Then,

Thud!

Yeongwoo’s hidden title was revealed above his head.

『Gumi’s Strongest Sword』

“Huh?”

“Ugh…?”

“Gumi’s… Strongest Sword?”

People who had been running towards Yeongwoo stopped and looked at him in astonishment.

Meanwhile, under the massive shadow, Yeongwoo shouted towards the dumbfounded Kang Sungho 306.

“Avoid, Kang Sungho!”

“Wha…?”

Gimcheon’s Strongest Sword, frightened by the fierce face of Gumi’s Strongest Sword, looked terrified.

Then.

Thud!

Yeongwoo’s body landed on top of Hong Youngtae, who had been falling.

Splat!

This time, the corpse truly looked like a scene from a kimchi war.

“….”

Yeongwoo looked down at the shattered and sprawled Kang Sungho 306.

“I told you to avoid.”

Upon hearing Yeongwoo’s words, Hong Youngtae widened his long jaws.

“The Strongest Sword is here again.”

Then,

“Huh? What’s this?”

Sensing something unusual, he suddenly wrinkled his nose and furrowed his forehead.

“What the hell is this smell…”

When Hong Youngtae pronounced it this far, Yeongwoo finally remembered.

“This equipment carries the scent of a mutant. Other mutants can detect it and be on guard.”

The warning message he had seen when acquiring the mutant-grade ring, the ‘Furious Goblin.’

In other words, what the mutant was smelling now was the scent of Gumi City Councilor Jang Sunbok.

“You, this bastard, could it be?”

While Hong Youngtae realized the identity of the smell, Yeongwoo was looking at the symbols of slaughter attached all over the guy’s body.

‘The only route is to kill them all.’

However, Yeongwoo didn’t want to kill him.

He needed to achieve as many feats as possible since he had encountered a mutant.

【Special Grade Social Worker】

|Send back the mutant alive.

‘Can’t you show enough determination that the opponent would want to die?’

As Yeongwoo silently asked this question to himself, the positions and forms of the symbols attached to Hong Young-tae changed.

—Break

—Break

—Break

—Break

The symbol to break.

It was a sword that Yeongwoo was shown, not intending to kill.

‘His size is so big that there are plenty of places to hit.’

Nodding his head, Yeongwoo tightly gripped the early bird and shield.

Finally, Hong Youngtae bared his teeth and made a threatening gesture.

Snarl.

And it was confirmed that the mutant would indeed launch an attack through the next message that appeared.

「The sensory value has temporarily increased from the existing 100 to 164.」

As expected, Golden Flash deprived the mutant’s senses as well.

[Translator – Night]

[Proofreader – Gun]