Canon Fodder - Chapter (473)

CHAPTER 473 SILVER SPOON

EASTON

“Simply take a life, and you may pass,” the Dokkaebi taunted. With that he disappeared into pink smoke. Underneath where he floated were large wolves. They were about five feet tall standing on all fours, their fur blood red, they growled and gnashed at us behind the rend in the floor.

I was Weston Woon, although one asshat calls me Easton. I had been out shopping when the world decided to end. My two bodyguards right in front of me, they were Israeli and expensive. My life before had been rather easy. And by easy, I meant past me didn’t learn how to feed himself food until he was 5 years old.

Born into one of the richest families in South Korea, I was what they called a Chaebol. Never wanting for anything, I had enough money to buy any building in the city. Of course that was on a credit card. The me now didn’t carry actual cash, which would have been helpful if I had thought to run to an ATM before the world ended. For now, I had no won, and was facing a line of devil dogs.

The Dokkaebi had shown up in the middle of the shopping plaza. After killing a few people a quest appeared making us kill any one being. Luckily, I remembered this from the manhwa. The main character had found some grasshoppers or ants or something and killed those, allowing him to pass. Everyone else that didn’t kill a bug died of course, but that was beside the point.

We had to kill something, and once we did we could leave the plaza. My Observation Haki scanning everything around us, there were a few hundred people. But we were in the mall, there was…I looked up, seeing the pet store on the second floor.

“By the way, you guys are fired,” I said to my two bodyguards. They had been with me for months, and I felt a little bad about it. “I’ll uh send you like a bunch of won if you survive this. Worry about yourselves, okay?” I moved away from them and jumped. Kicking in my flight I got to the second floor pet store quickly as people yelled and screamed in fear about the whole death scenario.

Stepping into the pet store there was a scared clerk who was hiding behind the counter. “Kill something quick, before the only thing left are puppies.” Inside the store was whining dogs, kittens, birds, lizards, snakes, and most everything I needed. My Observation watching it all, I moved to the clerk’s counter and reached around it, grabbing the big box of bugs they fed the lizards. On my way out I grabbed the cage of mice for the snakes as well.

Once outside I noticed the first child. They were a newborn. I walked up to their parent and grabbed the kid’s hand.

“What are you doing?!” The mother yelled. I locked eyes with her, picking a cricket out of the box and putting it in the kid’s hand. I squeezed the outside of his small hand, crushing the bug.

“Kill this,” I said, handing her a bug. I took another and did the same. I received a notification about receiving 100 coins.

Scanning the area quickly I rushed to the kids and their parents, giving them bugs to kill. People realized what I was doing and others ran for the pet shop. By the time I was back on the first floor people were scrambling to the stairs. I moved around as swiftly as possible, pushing back people that tried to take the bugs and mice, and handing kid’s bugs to kill.

The trouble was I had to make sure their parents survived this as well. A kid wouldn’t survive in this new world. They needed someone to watch over them. By the time I finished with the kids and their parents, the bugs were gone. Annoyed, I stepped up to the rift in the ground marking the safe and danger zone. On the other side the red wolves continued to gnash at me.

“Here you go!” I yelled to the people running for the stairs to try to reach the pet shop. I threw open the box holding the mice. Dozens of them ran for the people rather than the wolves. People began to fight over killing them as I turned back to the dogs. I stepped past the line on the floor. The monsters stepped back. I had killed something, thus I was safe. Walking amongst the dozens of wolves they gave me a small berth.

Not satisfied with this ending though I pooled Hoken in my hand. The electricity turned black as I shot it straight forward. Searing through the dogs they yelped and fell to the ground. Still none went for me. With a smile on my lips I received a notification.

Congratulations

For Being the first to kill a Tier 2 beast

you receive a reward

200 coins

Congratulations:

You murdered a beast

100+ coins

I received 100 coins for each kill. With the new currency in the world, that felt rather helpful. Bringing more Hoken to my hand, I jumped forward at the beasts, killing them one by one as they were able to do nothing to me.

I remembered a little of this manhwa. Mainly the beginning, which happened for most stories. They usually tried to hook you in with some crazy part at the beginning. I knew the story followed a man that knew everything, and he always had run-ins with some Returner guy. Other than that I probably chose the world because it was easy to grow strong.

As I finished up with the dogs I pulled up my status screen.

Name: Weston Woon

Age: 20

Constellation: N/A

Personal Attributes: Rich

Personal Skills: Commander LV 1, Half-Price LV 1,

Double Trouble LV1, Lightning LV 15

Stigma: Silver Spoon

Overall Stats: Stamina LV 1, Strength LV 1, Agility LV 1

Mana LV 1

“Damn, I’m weak,” I mumbled as I touched the Commander skill, then each skill in turn.

Commander

People are more likely to listen to your orders.

Half-Price

Everything you buy is now half the cost.

Double Trouble

You receive double monetary rewards

With a frown I looked to my main status screen. Instead of only receiving 100 coins for killing everything like the notification stated, I had received 200.

“What the absolute…ah, Serendipity,” I said with a laugh. My new Bonus had somehow given me a blessed life with a great backstory, and even better rewards. I knew Stigmas were something special about everyone in this world. I guessed being born with a silver spoon in my mouth had it’s bonuses even in the apocalypse.

I next clicked the Stamina stat. When I did, a new screen appeared.

Increase Stamina?

Level 1-> 2

Cost:

200

100 Coins

“Fancy,” I said. Looking over my stats I currently had 4,800 coins. Double what I should have had, and costs to increase strength were halved. Making it so I could get stronger four times faster than anyone else. “Don’t mind if I do,” I said as I began to raise all the stats. Once they all reached level 5 the price jumped to 300, so 150 for me.

I spent 4,000 coins on stats, making each over level 8. I kept some back, unsure what coins were needed for exactly. When I finished, my body glowed white for a moment, then bulked up. Making me stronger.

Much better than a World Lasting Physique, I was on my way to catch up to other Weston. As the sound of dying puppies and birds continued on, the timer ran out and I turned to see many people’s heads explode.

“Very nicely done,” the Dokkaebi said. The black furred demon wore a tiny vest that made him look cuter.

Main Scenario #1 Proof of Value

had ended.

Survivors of Shopping Plaza

Section A: Total 89 people.

Weston Woon

…

Reward: 300 Coins

Omniscient Reader Quest 1: Complete

Complete the First Scenario

Reward:

World Lasting Physique

Content to have World Lasting Physique, at least I wouldn’t be super weak when I got to Solo Leveling. Looking around for more opportunities at coins a screen popped up.

New Skill

Exchange

Exchange human currency for Coins

“The gains keep rolling in,” I said with a smile. I clicked the skill and I was able to convert Gold into Coins. Considering it for a moment, I decided against it for now. I could maybe luck out and find a bank to rob. With luck they would take won as well. Pretty much getting the world on easy mode I looked forward to the next scenario.

“Before that,” the Dokkaebi said, eyeing me. “Let’s see your gains.”

Sponsor Selection

Your sponsor could help you with future endeavors.

Please choose wisely.

1. Drunken Jovial Celestial

2. Black Guardian of Valhalla

3. Mother of Virtue

I didn’t recognize any of the names. I knew these were supposed to be gods or something. They would watch the scenarios, betting on people, or hoping they make choices they agree with. I was fairly certain the main character had opted not to take a sponsor. Allowing a lot of different celestials to watch in hopes of becoming the sponsor. They would give him coins and he would play them like a fiddle.

I considered what to do. I honestly didn’t plan on sticking around in this world once I dealt with Solo Leveling. I wanted to get back to Comics. I would also need a lot of money to get strong enough to last in Solo Leveling. It sounded like Weston was in the endgame, so I needed to prepare.

Unsure which name to pick I looked up stating, “I want coins. That’s it. As many as you can give me.” I closed my eyes and moved my head around, touching the screen randomly to increase my luck. As I suspected my luck let me pick the Drunken Jovial Celestial.

Congratulations

You have formed a contract with

Drunken Jovial Celestial.

As a greeting gift, he has awarded you

25,000 Coins

“Ha,” I laughed, feeling his jovial attitude. “Don’t mind if I do.” I began spending the coins in haste on stats. I got each of the four stats to level 28, leaving 1,800 coins. My body glowed and bulked up again. “I’m catching up to you,” I said to a specific person that couldn’t hear me.

“Now that the trash has been put out,” the Dokkaebi said, drawing more eyes. “It’s time for the next scenario.” With that the weird energy surrounding the building disappeared.

Main Scenario #2

Safe

Find a Safe Zone within 5 days

Type: Main

Difficulty: F

Time Limit: 120 Hours

Reward: 300 Coins

Failure: Death

With that the glass doors in front of us were blown away. On the other side of the door was a massive snake. It slithered across the plaza outside, uncaring about us. Slowly I began to walk outside to see the state of the world.

Fires everywhere, even in the main part of the city I could see other huge serpents around us. They were at least 200 feet tall, with hoods like cobras around their head. It was easy to see that finding these safe zones wouldn’t be so easy. From what I remembered I just had to find the subway stations, but I wasn’t too scared about some giant snakes.

Before anyone from inside the shopping plaza could stop me, I flew outside. Going straight up the skyscrapers I extended my Observation to everywhere I could. All around me was death and destruction. People crying over dead family members, others already starting with the murdering of one another. I was fairly certain killing someone gave you their Coins, so I would have to watch for that.

Either way, the world had gone to shit. Huge flying beasts in the dark sky, overly large sea serpents slithering all over the city, I heard a massive boom and noticed a shadow in the distance. A kaiju size monster off in the distance, I decided to not head that way.

“What to do…” I mumbled. I needed money. I had a cheat, and I would be cheating myself if I didn’t use it. Old me had been rather sheltered. Since he had a driver who took him everywhere he didn’t know his way around the city. This was my first time in Korea in any life, so I would have to look around.

Dropping back down to ground level, one of the serpents noticed me. Hissing at me the large jaw opened as it struck. I flew to the side and continued on. I wasn’t going to bother wasting my time on the big stuff. I wasn’t strong enough, and I didn’t know the gains. Positive that there was some kind of reward for doing it, I doubted it was worth the effort since these Dokkaebi’s seemed to like suffering.

“Where are you going?” A voice asked. I looked over to see the Dokkaebi floating next to me.

“No idea,” I said, flying on. The imp monster followed after me.

“Kid, this is a word of advice. I don’t know why you can fly or how, but you got a lot of eyes on you. Keep it interesting, alright?” He turned away from me, looking at nothing. “And we are back from our commercial break. Let’s see how he does.” He disappeared instantly.

Annoyed by the interruption, I didn’t overly care about making it interesting. Weston and I hadn’t agreed on a timeframe, but I doubted he wanted to be in this world long. Now that I had World Lasting Physique, the only thing keeping me there was money.

Noticing some men run out of a building below, I dropped down. It was a bank. People scrambling through the teller drawers for cash. My eyes lit up happily. Walking amongst the chaos inside, I went up to the bank vault. Like the one in Luthor’s house I used Observation Haki to find the correct numbers on the dial. Opening the tall door, I knocked out the men that went for me with some Hoken.

Piles of money, and walls of safety deposit boxes all around me, it was time to buy my way through the game.