episode_0077

77. Favor.

Yohan felt his head spin. Okay, he could accept a rotten apple. But…

Wriggling-

‘Maggots, really?’

Wasn’t this going a bit too far? He turned his head to look at the other fruits. Fortunately, that strange apple was the most bizarre food.

[Watermelon That Tastes Like Earwax]

[Puppy Poop Cherry That Was Only Successfully Defecated After 3 Days of Waiting]

…Well, the rest weren’t entirely normal either. Still, they were better than the maggot apple.

After gathering a decent amount of usable fruit, Yohan approached the skeleton guarding the checkout counter.

“I’d like to pay, please.”

[Oh! Understood!]

For fruit that looked so disgusting, it wasn’t even that cheap. The group finished paying and headed back towards the main gate.

Just then, someone spoke to them from the side. The gravelly voice, as if filled with phlegm, was impressive.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Is it just the three of you traveling together? You’re lying, right?”

A man with long hair hanging down haphazardly. A man resembling a Viking that you could only see in movies. Yohan replied in a leisurely tone.

“Yes. There are three of us. Why do you ask?”

The man frowned at Yohan’s words. He looked as if he had heard something strange.

“One scrawny guy like you, one one-armed woman holding an iron skewer, and one bald guy who looks weak at a glance. Tsk, a combination that could die at any moment.”

“Hahahaha…”

What did he want him to do about it? Yohan tried to brush it off with a laugh and pass by him. But he made a strange proposal.

“How about traveling together?”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, you know, the more the merrier, right? In this harsh world, that is. Ahem, ahem.”

At that moment, the people behind the Viking man whispered. They seemed to be his companions.

“There, there. He’s starting again. When will that nosiness of his ever be fixed? Tsk tsk.”

“The boss is going to get burned badly someday. It’s like a pushover starting a business.”

Yohan scanned their faces. They were in pretty good shape. They all seemed to be capable in their own right.

‘This Viking and 5 others.’

Yohan looked at Sarah. She had a look on her face that said Yohan could handle it himself, as if she wasn’t interested. And Deoksu didn’t have a say in the first place. He was just the driver.

Yohan did some quick calculations. Would it really be beneficial? To travel with these people? His mind raced, and he quickly came to a conclusion.

“Sure. We’d be happy to.”

“Hmm! Hahaha! A wise choice!”

“Then we’ll head out first.”

“We’re done paying too. Let’s go out together.”

“Yes.”

Some players clicked their tongues inwardly at the sight of the two groups joining forces. Tsk, it was such an appetizing target.

Now, to eat Yohan’s group, they would have to deal with that behemoth. They decided to give up. There’s only a fine line between recklessness and courage.

***

Vroom-!

After finishing their shopping at the store, they continued to race through the wasteland. Yohan, who was on his motorcycle, thought.

‘Now that there are more of us, we’re not even getting attacked, let alone glanced at.’

Humans are sensitive to numbers. Humans shrink back even if another group has just one more person. And 8 people, at that? In this rough wasteland, that was quite a large group.

But even so, it wasn’t like there were no guys who bothered them. Occasionally, there were some groups with 10 or more people, and some of them attacked Yohan’s group and the Viking’s group.

Phew- Crack!

Every time that happened, Yohan would put a hole in the attackers’ foreheads.

Unfortunately, the time of day was stuck in the daytime. They didn’t die, but their movements were severely restricted. That alone was a huge penalty.

And there were occasional decent side incomes as well.

“Team leader. It seems like your fingers and neck are getting more and more fancy?”

“Hahaha.”

Deoksu said that to Yohan, who was on the bike. Before he knew it, Yohan had several rings on his fingers, each with a different design. Necklaces were dangling from his white, slender neck.

Most of them were items obtained during the ‘night’ time. But sometimes they could loot items even when the time of day was daytime.

‘It’s not easy to endure the pain.’

Well, it’s not like he killed them, right? Yohan tried to rationalize it.

At that moment, the Viking’s voice came from the side.

“Hey! Your magic skills are no joke! I misjudged you!”

He was shouting loudly because he was quite a distance away. Yohan smiled and replied.

“Thank you!”

The Viking’s group was driving a heavy mid-size car that looked like a retooled version. It was a vehicle that suited him, who had a huge physique.

Yohan glanced back and gauged the Viking group’s strength. They weren’t as good as the gangsters, but they were strong enough.

Their skill in stopping attacking players was superb. In particular, the Viking’s axe swings were heavy with each strike.

He had a towering physique of over 190cm, and a reach that seemed even longer. Even skilled lancers had a shorter range than the Viking.

‘His reach seems to be at least over 2m.’

He was truly in perfect physical condition to participate in combat. Yohan was slightly envious. If he had such a body, it would have been much easier to deal with the gangsters.

If he had known this would happen, he should have gotten more sleep when he was in modern times.

***

[11:46:25.2321 seconds.]

Several hours after moving while dealing with the attackers who swarmed in like gnats. Suddenly, the Viking shouted.

“Yohan! It’s a store!”

Yohan couldn’t see it yet. It was the limit of a magician. Not yet, anyway.

“Are you going to buy something? Or are you going to pass by?”

“Hmm! Let’s buy something! With your magic skills, it’s definitely possible!”

“Yes.”

The Viking seemed to have built up quite a bit of trust in Yohan. Even though Yohan hadn’t even shown his full power yet.

Of course, Yohan was also in favor of buying something. The number of people had more than doubled, and Yohan wasn’t the type to avoid fights in the first place.

Vroom-!

They gradually got closer to the store. Yohan quietly loosened his fingers.

‘Why aren’t there any normal stores?’

The exterior of the store was unusual this time as well. Various weapons and armaments were floating around the store like satellites. They weren’t real objects, just holograms.

Deoksu was curious and touched it. His hand passed right through the holographic kunai. It was only natural.

“Oh, oh! Amazing!”

Deoksu tended to like seeing new-fangled phenomena. In contrast, Yohan didn’t feel anything. All he wanted was to return to modern times. That was all.

“It looks like a weapon store.”

“Yes. It would be nice if there was a sword that Ms. Sarah could use.”

“Well, as you know, my arm is like this…”

“……”

Yohan shut his mouth. It wasn’t a very good topic. Yohan glanced at her left shoulder blade.

‘It’ll take another 2 days to heal completely.’

It was amazing enough that her arm was recovering. But the speed was very slow. Something had formed, but it was still far from functioning properly.

He had tried to reattach the arm that had been blown away by Chain, but he stopped because he was worried that it would reattach strangely.

Anyway, if it really came down to it, he could just regress. Yohan had asked her if she had any intention of regressing. Her answer was always the same.

─It’s okay. It’ll heal someday.

Her tone was too nonchalant. It certainly wasn’t the kind of reaction you’d expect from someone who had lost their arm.

In any case, they entered through the front door of the weapon store. This store didn’t seem to have the nasty rule of opening at 12 o’clock. They could have been in trouble if they had just passed by.

Inside the store, a muscular, small man was standing with his arms crossed. He said to the group in a sullen tone.

“Buy something if you’re going to buy something, and get out of here quickly if you don’t want to buy anything. There are too many humans, so it’s too hot.”

Whoosh, a fan was spinning vigorously to the man’s left. It wasn’t particularly hot, but he seemed to be very sensitive to heat.

‘He’s too short. Is he really human?’

In fact, the man was a half-human, half-dwarf hybrid, but Yohan couldn’t know that. He’ll find out someday.

‘Was he born with a deformity?’

They looked around inside the store. Yohan took this opportunity to replace his old longsword. Weapons are consumables by nature. It was good to replace them periodically.

Sarah also bought some suitable weapons. She also bought some throwing weapons separately. To use in case of emergency.

“I’ve picked out everything.”

“Me too.”

The Viking’s group didn’t seem to be done shopping yet. Yohan’s group ignored them and went outside. There was no need to stay inside with them.

After some time, the Viking, who had come outside, said cheerfully.

“Yohan! Let’s get going again!”

“Yes.”

Yohan checked the time.

[12:15:15.2325 seconds.]

Before they knew it, the day had darkened and the time had passed 12 o’clock.

Now it was time for the nature of humans to also darken. Yohan could already feel the heavy air pressing down on him.