Chapter 11
The Goblins Are Too Big (1)
“Goblins... are they normally this big?”
At Yechan’s trembling voice, Yeongwoo shook his head.
“How would I know? It’s my first time seeing a goblin too.”
It was a ridiculous conversation, but neither of them had the slightest trace of a smile on their faces.
Whether goblins came from human imagination or not, the fact remained that a two-meter-tall goblin was standing right in front of them.
Its massive arms were bulging with muscle, and the armor covering its head, chest, and lower body left almost no visible gaps for a blade to penetrate.
This looks bad.
For the first time, Yeongwoo felt a grim premonition that his prediction might have been wrong.
He had decided to stay because he assumed monsters wouldn’t be overwhelmingly strong. After all, hunting them seemed to be the only way to obtain Karma.
But the reality before him was...
“Kerrok!”
The ugly goblin horde spotted Yeongwoo and Yechan, releasing threatening growls.
“We’re fighting them?”
Yechan’s voice sounded closer to a scream.
His fighting spirit had already vanished.
Meanwhile, Yeongwoo tightened his grip on his shield and prepared to move forward.
“What other choice do we have?”
The moment he finished speaking, the goblins charged.
“Kieeeek!”
“Kirrok!”
The pressure exerted by twelve heavily armored goblins, each standing over two meters tall, was overwhelming.
Every step they took crushed the ground beneath their iron boots, while their enormous shadows swallowed and tore apart the shadows of Yeongwoo and Yechan.
It was as though they were already being butchered.
“Ah... ah...!”
“Hm?”
Hearing something strange in Yechan’s voice, Yeongwoo glanced sideways.
The spear in Yechan’s hands was shaking violently.
His legs were trembling so badly that he could barely remain standing.
Seeing this, Yeongwoo felt his blood boil.
“You bastard! Pull yourself together! Do you really want to get skewered here?”
Even if both of them fought at full strength, victory wasn’t guaranteed.
Yet despite Yeongwoo’s outburst, Yechan merely hesitated.
Something snapped inside Yeongwoo’s head.
“Kang Yechan! Are you going to kill yourself again this time too?!”
“What...?”
Startled, Yechan stared at him.
A complicated look appeared in his eyes.
He understood exactly what Yeongwoo meant.
Death: February 1, 2039, 8:36 PM.
While working at a bar, murdered a customer and then committed suicide.
The fate written in Yechan’s Book of Destiny.
His original future.
“...”
At last, something changed in Yechan’s eyes.
But before the moment could fully settle in—
“Kiiiiik!”
The goblins attacked.
Yeongwoo had no time to pay attention to Yechan anymore.
He immediately raised his shield.
A huge axe was already flying toward his head.
What was worse, the Gumi Sword Technique, which normally guided his defense, wasn’t activating.
Don’t tell me it only works against humans?
Just as panic began to cloud his thoughts—
CLANG!
A clear metallic sound rang out.
The goblin’s axe struck the outer edge of his shield and bounced away.
What...?
Then Yeongwoo realized something.
It’s not that strong?
The impact made his elbow ache, but not because he lacked strength.
His joints simply weren’t reinforced enough.
After all, his Strength and Stamina had increased fivefold, while his body itself remained largely unchanged.
Which meant—
I won’t lose in a contest of strength!
Remembering how easily the axe had been deflected, Yeongwoo swung his shield forward.
WHOOOSH! BAM!
The shield slammed into the goblin’s breastplate.
Because the goblin was so tall, he had struck its chest rather than its head.
“Krrok!”
Surprisingly, it wasn’t ineffective.
The goblin’s face twisted violently beneath its helmet.
Only then did Yeongwoo notice that its breastplate had caved inward.
This bastard’s hurt so badly he can barely move.
Seeing a chance to turn the fight around, his confidence surged.
Unfortunately, there were still eleven more goblins.
SWISH!
A massive blade came flying in from the right.
“...!”
Goosebumps spread across Yeongwoo’s body.
Instinctively, he raised Early Bird into a defensive stance.
Without realizing it, he angled the sword exactly as the Gumi Sword Technique hologram had shown him before.
It was the defensive posture that had worked best in his previous experiences.
SHING!
The goblin’s sword slid down the silver slope of Early Bird’s blade.
This was only possible because Yeongwoo’s strength had risen enough to match the goblin’s power.
But he didn’t realize that.
The only thing that mattered right now was—
The timing!
He had found an opening.
SWISH!
It wasn’t perfect, but he launched a swift counterattack reminiscent of the sword technique’s guidance.
The blade of Early Bird snapped back like lightning.
PSSHT!
The sword tip slipped through a gap in the goblin’s helmet.
“KUWAAAAK!”
The giant goblin screamed and collapsed backward.
Another goblin immediately rushed in, exhaling hot breath.
But this time, Yeongwoo didn’t shrink back.
I can do it again.
***
Goblins.
Like dragons, they were creatures born from imagination.
Unlike dragons, however, they were generally considered much weaker.
In fact, they were practically synonymous with “fodder monsters.”
Because they appeared in countless works of fiction, their popularity rivaled that of dragons.
And since most creators borrowed heavily from the settings of Dungeons & Dragons, goblins had a fairly standardized appearance in the public imagination:
Small bodies.
Green or brown skin.
Pointed ears and noses.
Of course, the goblins sprawled around Yeongwoo now were anything but small.
“Haa... haa...!”
Feeling as though his lungs would burst, Yeongwoo planted Early Bird into the ground and sank to one knee.
He wasn’t sure how many minutes they had fought.
But one thing was certain.
If I hadn’t invested Karma into Stamina, I’d be dead.
Even alone, he would have collapsed from exhaustion.
He estimated he had personally fought at least forty goblins, perhaps as many as fifty.
This seemed to be the limit of what 97 Stamina could sustain.
“Huff...”
His breathing refused to settle.
Looking up, he spotted Yechan sitting in the distance.
They must have retreated steadily during the battle until Yechan ended up all the way over there.
That guy’s surprisingly tough too.
To be honest, Yeongwoo hadn’t expected Yechan to survive at all.
He had only hoped Yechan could at least tie down one goblin and help a little.
Even the words “Are you going to kill yourself again?” had been spoken mostly out of desperation to survive himself.
I should probably apologize.
Digging into someone’s tragic future at such a critical moment had been possible only because Yeongwoo knew something Yechan didn’t.
Because he held an unfair advantage.
And for that, he felt guilty.
Rising to his feet, Yeongwoo walked over.
Kang Yechan.
Male.
Nineteen years old.
Unlike Yeongwoo, he had discarded both his spear and shield.
Even as Yeongwoo approached, he made no attempt to pick them up.
Yeongwoo sheathed Early Bird and spoke.
“Uh... sorry about earlier. I went too far.”
Yechan shook his head.
“No. If you hadn’t said that, I probably would’ve died without even trying anything.”
Then he looked down at his hands.
As though reliving the moment.
The moment he had personally killed goblins that had seemed impossibly powerful.
“I... I could kill them too.”
He laughed softly.
“I never imagined that.”
“Of course you could. I told you.”
Yeongwoo replied with an awkward smile.
Strictly speaking, he had simply gotten lucky with his gamble.
But the result was the same.
They had survived again.
And survival always came with rewards.
Speaking of which... Karma.
Just as Yeongwoo turned around, wondering if he needed to loot the goblins’ corpses—
Shrrrt.
The goblin bodies began dissolving into the air.
“Huh?”
“What?”
Yechan jumped up in surprise.
Then twelve flashes of light burst from the places where the goblins had disappeared.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
And a familiar sound followed.
Clink.
Yeongwoo immediately recognized it and sprinted forward.
Whoosh!
Coins began pouring out.
Karma coins.
“You crazy bastards.”
As he frantically gathered the falling coins, he cursed whatever unknown force governed this world.
Then he suddenly paused.
Wait.
Something felt wrong.
How much did each goblin drop? Isn’t this way too little?
After collecting everything, the total came to only 240,000 Karma.
Twelve goblins.
Exactly 20,000 Karma per goblin.
Not a small amount.
Since 1,000 Karma equaled one stat point, it was substantial.
But—
1,000 Karma was also equal to one human life.
Which meant 240,000 Karma could support only about 240 people for a day.
Yeongwoo didn’t know Gumi’s exact population.
But it had to be at least hundreds of thousands.
Even if half the population survived by exchanging Killing Intent, there are still way too many people left.
The amount of Karma entering circulation was absurdly low.
He remembered seeing at most around a hundred pillars of light.
That translated to roughly 24,000 people’s worth of Karma.
Even if there were several more clusters beyond his sight, it still wouldn’t be enough to sustain a city with hundreds of thousands of residents.
Which meant—
No matter how many monsters people kill, the vast majority will still die from unpaid taxes.
At that moment, Yeongwoo realized something terrifying.
Monster hunting was merely a mechanism for releasing a limited amount of Karma into the world.
Even if everyone in Gumi hunted monsters, only a tiny minority would survive.
The rest were doomed.
What is this?
Is the ending already predetermined?
A crushing sense of despair washed over him.
The few superhumans capable of repeatedly investing Karma into themselves might continue living.
But what was the point if everyone else died?
“...”
Seeing Yeongwoo frozen in shock, not even picking up the remaining coins, Yechan cautiously approached.
“What’s wrong?”
Of course, Yechan had no idea Yeongwoo had just calculated the total amount of Karma available in the city.
Yeongwoo looked at him with hollow eyes.
“I think we...”
But he never finished the sentence.
A quest notification suddenly appeared in his vision.
Ping!
[EPIC] “Two Choices”
Objective: Track down the Mutator and either eliminate them or send them back.
Reward: Mutator equipment, an enormous amount of Karma.
Special Condition: This quest is only available to residents who have records of killing monsters.