WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 70: Fame Is Often Exaggerated (7)

──────

"...Ugh."

Kang Jin-ho slowly pushed himself up.

He brushed away several chunks of rubble that had covered him in the middle of the collapsed gymnasium, then looked up at the night sky. His head throbbed, and his whole body ached as if he'd been beaten senseless, but... he could feel it. The perfectly ordinary sensation of his body moving according to his will.

"I'm back."

As he got to his feet and looked down, there was barely an uninjured spot on his arms or chest. His karma had improved his physical abilities immensely, so these weren't injuries from the building collapsing...

"Self-harm?"

There were marks as though someone had strangled himself and raked his nails across his entire body. It seemed the bastard who had borrowed his body for a while had gone through quite an ordeal.

"Ow, that stings."

Just as he frowned and dusted the dirt from his body...

"Ugh, ughhh..."

An inhuman sound came from beyond the rubble.

"..."

When he walked over, he found Body Snatcher collapsed beside a fallen pillar. Apparently, he'd been thrown out of Kang Jin-ho's body and sent back to his original one. He still had an old man's body and a young man's face.

"Ugh, ughhh..."

Body Snatcher was clearly not in his right mind. His limbs twitched disgustingly like a cockroach sprayed with insecticide, and his eyes stared blankly ahead, completely unfocused. His mouth worked strangely as he mumbled animal-like noises.

It was a hideous sight for someone who had survived tenaciously in Light City's back alleys and risen to become a major 1-rank villain. Kang Jin-ho stared at him for a while, then quietly looked away. It wasn't a pleasant sight.

'...So this is what a severe penalty means.'

That was right. This had been Kang Jin-ho's experiment.

Until now, Kang Jin-ho had never once failed to meet his karma quota. He was always busy solving cases, and whenever there really was no work and he couldn't earn enough karma, he made up the difference through donations. Honestly, the monthly quota had only mattered at the beginning. The more influential Kang Jin-ho became, the more meaningless it grew.

Even so, he had never taken this thing called a karma quota lightly. It always flashed ominously whenever he opened the status window, and he had no desire whatsoever to personally experience a "severe penalty."

Think about it. The status window was connected to the power that had made an ordinary person's body as tough and strong as a hero's, and dragged someone who had lived on modern-day Earth into an unfamiliar world. If that status window called something severe, was Kang Jin-ho crazy enough to take it lightly?

Then, this month, an absurdly capable ace named Jeong Do-man had joined as his junior, and Kang Jin-ho's karma income had plummeted. Since Jeong Do-man was the one wrapping up cases, they weren't counted as cases Kang Jin-ho had solved. Before he knew it, there wasn't even a week left until the day he had to meet his karma quota.

At first, he'd planned to cover it with donations. Kang Jin-ho didn't spend much compared to how much he earned, and he already donated most of his income anyway. He'd intended to clear away the karma as usual with a quick donation.

Then, at just that moment, the Body Snatcher case had broken out. Kang Jin-ho saw it as an opportunity. A chance to indirectly find out what this "penalty" actually was.

He would hand his body over to Body Snatcher and make the bastard bear the penalty. If it worked, the payoff would be enormous.

There was no question that it was an incredibly dangerous, risky attempt. Just think about it.

What if the penalty was too weak? What if Body Snatcher received it, went, "Huh, what was that?" and simply shrugged it off before taking control of his body without any trouble? It would be a disaster.

What if the penalty was something permanent? Even if he managed to defeat Body Snatcher, what if the damage remained and he could never move like he used to again?

Even so, Kang Jin-ho had several reasons for taking this risk.

First, he was certain that if Body Snatcher received the penalty, he would be left unable to recover.

His basis was the status window itself. Every time Kang Jin-ho had accumulated karma, he had steadily and reliably grown stronger. Gain karma, his body got stronger. Solve a case, gain karma. It calculated things with mechanical precision.

And based on his experience so far, the status window had never made empty threats. If the power that had devoured an enormous amount of karma, remade an ordinary body into something close to a hero's, and pulled a person into another world called something "severe"... then it really was severe.

Still, just in case, Kang Jin-ho had briefly tried speaking to the status window.

'Status window, could you describe what the penalty is? Like, tell me exactly what happens?'

-It is not possible to provide advance notice regarding severe penalties. Becoming aware of the type of penalty itself will act as a penalty upon the user.

'...'

The answer he received was deeply unsettling. That was when Kang Jin-ho became certain. Whatever happened, no one could possibly come through that penalty unharmed.

Also, according to information he'd gotten from HiCiSi, Body Snatcher was vulnerable right after performing the ritual. It took time to adapt to a new body, and if he received the penalty in that state... he would definitely be taken out. It was a gamble, but there was over a 99 percent chance Body Snatcher wouldn't be able to endure it.

The second point was that Kang Jin-ho needed to be sure this "penalty" wasn't something that would remain permanently in his body.

"Because the system has a direction."

That was his guess based on the system's overall direction.

Think about how the status window had behaved so far. It had guided Kang Jin-ho in the direction of earning karma. In other words, it wanted him to work diligently in ways that helped the city.

If that was the case, then the penalty for failing to earn karma had to be a punishment for laziness... but wouldn't it be absurd for a punishment given to the lazy to be so harsh that they could never work again? It might inflict a major psychological shock, but that was different. The point of the punishment was obviously to push him forward.

It was Kang Jin-ho's own assumption, and there was a chance he was wrong... but there was no helping it. He had decided to accept the risk.

The biggest reason Kang Jin-ho had pushed forward with this plan was to find out what the "severe penalty" was.

Think about it. Until he repaid all 500 million karma, Kang Jin-ho would have to live alongside the status window for the rest of his life. Maybe even afterward.

But he was supposed to continue with this system without knowing what its penalties were? Forever? That was no different from signing a contract without knowing how much the fine would be. He probably wouldn't fail to meet his quota under normal circumstances, but there were always exceptions. He could be kidnapped, or badly injured and unconscious for over a month...

At some point in his life, there would definitely come a time when he failed to meet the quota. Kang Jin-ho wanted to learn what the penalty was in advance so he could prepare for that day.

But this act of checking was a serious problem in itself. The risk of finding out firsthand was far too great, and there had been no way to make someone else check it for him.

"This time, the opportunity came along."

His karma deadline was just around the corner, and Body Snatcher had been cornered and desperate. All Kang Jin-ho had to do was set a five-day time limit and make him come on the fourth day. The mysterious five-day deadline that had the entire city wondering was Kang Jin-ho's karma deadline.

If Body Snatcher hadn't come, Kang Jin-ho planned to quickly make up the karma through donations and run. But fortunately, Body Snatcher fell for his psychological ploy, and the plan succeeded. He reduced civilian casualties and protected his own reputation.

"...Well, I'm never doing that again."

As all the tension drained away, the strength left Kang Jin-ho's legs. He used the fallen rubble as furniture and lay down. Reporters came running frantically from afar, while Body Snatcher groaned at his feet.

The sun was preparing to rise. The sky turned faintly gray, and color returned to the darkness overhead.

"Whew."

Watching it all, Kang Jin-ho broke into a relieved smile.

For the first time since arriving in Light City, he had risked his life. For the first time, he had put a plan into action. For the first time, he had succeeded.

This was Kang Jin-ho's first success. A real, proper success.

* * *

-[Breaking] Officer Kang Jin-ho successfully apprehends 1-rank villain Body Snatcher...

-The collapsed gymnasium, and the man who walked out alone... What happened that night?

-"He kept his promise." Citizens celebrate... The "five-day mystery" remains unsolved

That morning, Light City descended into a frenzy.

Kang Jin-ho had truly succeeded in apprehending Body Snatcher within five days as promised, and Body Snatcher was immediately transferred to a maximum-security detention facility. Investigators tried to pry information out of him, but Body Snatcher seemed to have already lost his mind and could only make noises like "Ugh."

-Wow, he actually caught him?

-This is insane.

-So how the hell did he do it?

-If I knew that, I'd be a hero, idiot.

In any case, while the public celebrated Kang Jin-ho's victory...

"Did you secure it?"

"Yes."

"Play it."

In Light City, where superpowers and science had both developed to their limits, there was no such thing as an eternal secret.

The powerful. The highest-ranking heroes. Even the 1-rank villains. Those who mobilized every information network at their disposal obtained footage from that night within days. Through satellites, through superpowers, or if nothing else, through a camera that had happened to be recording the gymnasium.

"..."

Everyone who watched the footage took on similar expressions.

"...What the hell did he do?"

What... was this?

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried