Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 108

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Chapter 108: On a Pitch Black Night (2)

Former Gangnam’s Strongest Sword, Taewon Group ‘Executive Director’ Jeong Hyun-sik.

His office and lodging were on the 32nd floor of the Parnas Hotel across from COEX, in the Presidential Suite.

Before the reset, the daily accommodation fee for this high-priced room was a whopping 15 million won.

Of course, there was no way the Serpent of Greed would turn its head for such a reason.

「Serpent of Greed」 – Epic Compass

【Always seeks rarity.】

‘Rare things… generally refers to equipment or something essential at the moment.’

Whatever it was, it meant there was something valuable in that room.

“Over here.”

Baek Dohwan, who guided Yeongwoo to the lobby of the Parnas Hotel, pushed open the large glass door of the entrance and led the way.

Then, he cautiously said, glancing at the four parked cars shaped like ala in front of the entrance.

“Um… there’s one problem.”

“What is it?”

“The elevators here only operate at night.”

“Oh.”

The elevator would start moving once the building began to be classified as a ‘residence’ as the day-shift service commenced.

The petrification phenomenon had been applied to the entire Parnas Hotel.

In other words.

“So how did the Strongest Sword get to his room?”

Even as Yeongwoo spoke, he was already looking towards the emergency exit in the corner of the lobby.

Considering it was Jeong Hyunsik, could there have been another way?

If not climbing the exterior walls of the building, the only option would be to use the stairs.

And sure enough.

“Although it is assumed that you only use the room at night… in unavoidable circumstances, you would have used the emergency exit.”

Baek Dohwan’s hand immediately pointed to the emergency exit.

“Yes. I understand for now.”

As Yeongwoo nodded, intending to use the emergency exit, Baek Dohwan hastily added a follow-up.

“Um… so, do you plan to stay in the room today?”

“Well, do I have other matters to attend to today?”

“If it’s okay with you, I was planning to personally introduce you to Gangnam District. Since you probably aren’t familiar with this area……”

This was probably one of Baek Dohwan’s political activities.

Yeongwoo wanted to accommodate him if possible, but there was too much to do immediately.

There were the spoils held by the Golden Goblin, the karma distributed in the form of cards, and the equipment obtained from the past two battles that needed to be properly examined.

“I see. But I’d like to take it easy today.”

“Oh, I see. Still, you need to keep communicating with us, so I’ll assign a resident employee. Is that okay with you?”

“Yes. Please do.”

After nodding, Yeongwoo immediately began to ascend the emergency exit.

***

Thud, thud!

Climbing the stairs from the 1st to the 32nd floor.

Yeongwoo couldn’t help but laugh as the golden goblin, adorned with spatial pockets, followed closely behind him.

Although he didn’t particularly want to receive any extravagant protocol, it was amusing to see someone who was touted as the strongest in the region climbing so many stairs himself.

“Goodness, what is this? It’s truly a disaster.”

The impending ‘ruin’ finally hit him.

Yet, if it had been the previous Yeongwoo, he probably wouldn’t have been able to climb these stairs in a month.

Yeongwoo arrived at the entrance to the 32nd floor in an instant, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door leading to the corridor.

Squeak-

There, he could see a hotel corridor with a peculiar patterned rug.

‘Is it over there?’

The room number given by Baek Dohwan was 3233.

At the end of the corridor stretching to the left, there was a large door, which seemed to be the room where Jeong Hyun-sik had stayed alone.

Creak, creak.

It had been a long time since he’d been in a space where even a pin dropping could be heard.

– Click……

Even the golden goblin seemed to feel unfamiliar in this environment so different from the fields it had been running around in.

‘Do I need a key card or something?’

Finally arriving at room 3233 with some hesitation, Yeongwoo pulled down the door handle.

Clunk.

The sound of the lock being released echoed.

Then, as Yeongwoo pulled, the door opened.

“…Oh.”

The space revealed beyond the door was a room so spacious and luxurious that it made one forget why they had come in search of ‘precious things’.

“You used this spacious room alone? It must have had a hefty rental fee.”

Yeongwoo, who had been marveling, quickly regained his composure and moved in the direction indicated by the serpent of greed.

– Shhhh.

Naturally, he passed through the spacious living room and reached the office space arranged in the corner of the room.

And there.

“…Huh.”

Now, he found an ‘item’ blatantly without the snake’s assistance.

A white coin casually placed on the desk as if it were nothing.

Thud.

As Yeongwoo touched the coin, a tremendous tooltip appeared.

「Blank Check」 – Unique Currency

【Once, it transforms into touched currency.】

“…!”

Blank Check.

It was something he had seen once before through a merchant.

‘Did he just leave it like this?’

Of course, even if he had obtained a safe and put it in, in a world where the superhumans ruled, it would have been meaningless.

‘Maybe he left it here so he wouldn’t use it carelessly.’

Yeongwoo shook his head in disbelief.

He couldn’t help but think that Jeong Hyunsik was not an ordinary person.

“Putting it there won’t activate it immediately, right?”

As Yeongwoo asked the golden goblin while holding the Blank Check, the goblin raised both arms high and shook its feet.

– Kit! Kit!

It must mean it wanted Yeongwoo to hand it over quickly.

Yeongwoo handed the Blank Check to the goblin, confirmed that it put it in the spatial pocket, and then instructed again.

“Take it out.”

Fortunately, the goblin handed back the Blank Check in its unused state.

‘It seems reliable in performance.’

After all, its purpose was to collect and store equipment.

But the real settlement would start now.

He needed to examine the equipment obtained from the mutants today and the equipment from the 1st Gwangjin’s Strongest Sword brought by the golden goblin.

Since the meeting in Yongsan, he had acquired only two mutant equipment.

「Deformed Claw」 – Mutant Necklace

【Increased power against beast-type enemies.】

「Frost Crown」 – Mutant Helmet

【20% cold resistance】

‘Oh, such a helmet.’

Yeongwoo couldn’t help feeling regretful when he saw the “Ice Crown.”

Of course, he knew someday this would happen, given the large amount of equipment he was collecting, but…

‘So, that’s why it asked me to buy the Extractor back then.’

「Extractor」 – Ancient one-handed hammer

【Change equipment into gems for slots.】

He still remembered it as it was the first item he saw during his trade with the merchant.

At that time, the price of that hammer was 40,000 karma.

Now, it might seem like a small amount, but back then, it was quite a sum.

“’ust seeing Jeong Hyunsik having a Blank Check… I might encounter the same item again someday.’

When that time comes, he should buy it without hesitation.

Yeongwoo decided to wear the “Deformed Claw” for now, handed the “Frost Crown” to the golden goblin, and instructed it to keep it in the pocket.

“Now, let’s take a look at the equipment of the 1st Gwangjin’s Strongest Sword.”

When Yeongwoo issued this command, the goblin began rummaging through the spatial pockets.

– Kit!

Then, to Yeongwoo’s surprise and anticipation, the goblin pulled out a piece of equipment.

Thunk.

It was none other than…

「Climber」 – Mutant Pants

【Leap distance tripled.】

“Pants…? There are pants among the equipment?”

Even the unique effect was peculiar.

Increasing leap distance… Was it for fighting giants or something?

‘Tripled effect is quite remarkable.’

Coincidentally, the pants he was currently wearing were almost burnt and torn, almost to the point of being in tatters.

‘If I had waited a little longer, I would have been walking around in my underwear… It’s a good thing it happened now.’

As Yeongwoo touched the “Climber,” the pants swiftly disappeared and appeared on Yeongwoo’s lower body.

Swoosh!

‘It’s too tight, isn’t it? Anyway, next…’

As Yeongwoo glanced at the goblin, it presented a hatchet and a ring this time.

「Merciless」 – Mutant one-handed axe

【Increase power against opponents with a total lower stat sum than the wearer.】

「Agility」 – Mutation Ring

【When sense is the highest attribute, gain 10% damage reduction.】

‘Oh, Agility is quite good.’

While he already had good weapons, accessories like rings were always welcome.

Moreover, this one seemed perfect for Yeongwoo, who used sense abduction.

‘The stronger the opponent, the higher the probability of Agility activating. If I want it to be constantly active, I just need to focus more on sense.’

Through a series of settlements, Yeongwoo ultimately gained increased power against beast-type enemies, conditional damage reduction, and tripled leap distance…

Yeongwoo briefly looked at the “Climber,” which looked like leather pants, and finally began the long-delayed project.

Putting the money where his mouth was.

Snatch!

「Change character settings」

|Appearance

|Attributes

‘Let’s give it a try.’

This time, what Yeongwoo was going to do was change his appearance.

He had already designated an appearance preset optimized for combat, and the exact amount of money needed for this was 2,116,000 karma.

* Available karma: 3,112,500

With the whopping cash he had, nearly 3.11 million, there was no better time to make a decision than now.

“Hoo.”

He had experimented with mutant corneas in his eyeballs and changed his appearance before, but altering the structure and size of his body was a different challenge altogether.

It meant becoming a completely different entity outwardly.

‘… External, external appearance.’

When Yeongwoo selected exterior change, another interface appeared.

「For user convenience, we provide three types of preset collections.」

|Combat

|Charm

|Special

It was a menu he hadn’t seen in a while.

When Yeongwoo chose ‘Combat’ among the three presets, a semi-transparent window opened on the left side of his field of view, displaying dozens of body samples.

“Oh my god.”

Even though it was his second time seeing it, he still hadn’t quite adapted.

These samples, in stark nakedness, showed human body types deemed advantageous by the system for combat.

Around 2 meters tall, perfectly balanced upper and lower bodies both aesthetically and functionally.

“….”

Yeongwoo, who knew well that his own arms and legs were somewhat short and his upper body skeleton was unimpressive, felt a strange sensation as he looked at the nearly perfect bodies.

It felt like the phrase ‘Innate 4th Grade’ was floating around in his mind.

Perhaps this was also a form of inferiority complex.

But even this inferiority complex might be a 4th-grade trait.

Yeongwoo cleared away messy thoughts and called up the body preset he had chosen in advance.

Then, a body sample appeared, very similar to what he had seen before, but strangely familiar to Yeongwoo’s eyes.

And underneath it…

[2,116,000]

The total karma required for that body was written there.

2,116,000 karma.

It was still a considerable amount of money, but now that his total stats had increased, it was definitely worth investing in.

Increased reach due to elongated arms and increased stride due to extended legs.

These were not things that could be obtained simply by increasing stats.

‘In fact, it’s practically plastic surgery.’

Yeongwoo chuckled and approved the preset payment.

Then, a final confirmation message, almost like a warning, appeared.

「All appearance changes are permanent, and some elements may be inherited when the next generation is created.」

「Do you want to proceed?」

———