Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: 37. Biological Father (3)
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“Father?”
“What……?”
“Who are you looking for?”
The magical word: father.
At that single word, the bloodlust emanating from the sword-wielding men fizzled out weakly.
Most people here had lost their families due to the Reset or had picked up swords to avoid losing them like others had.
And that was precisely why.
“H-Hold on.”
Their wariness was extreme.
Their own death was tantamount to the death of the families they had left behind in the residential areas.
“Everyone, snap out of it! This could be a mutant disruption tactic!”
Someone instinctively gripped their drooping sword tighter and shouted, just as a metallic clank echoed from within the dust cloud at the perfect timing.
Clank.
It was the sound of Youngwoo stepping forward to exit the dust cloud.
“Everyone, relax for a moment and hear me out…….”
As Youngwoo swept away the dust with his arm and took another step, one of the Gangbuk side's swordsmen overinterpreted the movement as an attack and reflexively thrust his blade.
Shing!
“Whoa!”
“Huh!”
The other Gangbuk First Swords couldn't help but intervene upon seeing it.
Such clumsy attacks wouldn't work on mutants and often led to counterattacks that cost lives.
Thus, in an ironic twist, the three First Swords from Gangbuk, Nowon, and Dobong launched a simultaneous assault to save the one who had struck first.
Shiiiing!
‘Fuck, what the hell is going on? Whoever this bastard is, thanks to him, I’ll escape with my life.’
Thanks to the intruder buying him some time, Uijeongbu's First Sword Kwak Seongwon scanned his surroundings for an escape route.
He planned to flee while the Gangbuk Alliance tangled with the monster in the distant dust cloud.
But before he could even move, something utterly absurd happened first.
Clang clang clang!
The Gangbuk Alliance's blades, which had sliced into the dust cloud, were all blocked.
Then.
“Teachers, from the second attack onward, I’ll counterstrike.”
The man's voice, which had been coming from within the hazy dust all along, flowed out without a single hitch in his breathing.
And then.
Pwing!
The alliance's blades bounced back, revealing the figure in question.
Clank!
“Fathers! Everyone, stop moving!”
As Youngwoo called out to the nameless fathers collectively and stepped out from the dust cloud, everyone in the crowd aiming swords at him widened their eyes.
“What…….”
“……!”
“…Guh.”
Everything about the opponent surpassed imagination.
A height of over two meters.
The title of Joseon First Sword.
Golden armor enveloping his entire body.
A massive golden greatsword hovering in the air like a guardian deity.
And even a demonic sword radiating sinister energy.
“H-He’s really human?”
“Not a mutant……?”
Finally, someone uttered the problematic line.
“Then whose son is that guy……?”
* * *
Father.
No, to be precise, he was searching for his biological father.
Youngwoo had only a creator, no nurturer.
Thus, what he was seeking now was merely his biological father.
More accurately, the being who had passed on some of his genetic components to Youngwoo—the original, depending on one's perspective.
「This character is a randomized combination of 4th-grade settings.」
「Influenced by parents' settings, acquires the following immutable elements upon birth: #4th-grade #Orphan」
「As a congenital 4th-grade combination, receives negative adjustments to acquiring 2nd-grade or higher settings throughout lifespan.」
[Father]: 6th-grade Extra
[Mother]: 1st-grade Supporting Character
The union of a 6th-grade extra and a 1st-grade supporting character.
This inharmonious pairing produced the problematic entity known as Jeong Youngwoo07.
The system's certified ‘hothead’ and the ‘rising stock’ now drawing attention from the universe's beings.
Yet Youngwoo was also a pitiful existence who, without the Reset, would have been beaten to death by a drunkard on his way home.
So he held no great expectations for his biological father.
He wouldn’t be some remarkable or admirable figure.
Before the Reset—in the original world—his biological father’s child hadn’t become the Joseon First Sword but some nobody beaten to death on the roadside.
|Name: Jeong Youngwoo
|Role: 4th-grade Extra
|Function: Background, Maintenance Material
Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious about his biological father.
No, precisely because his expectations for a father were low, his curiosity burned even stronger.
How wretched could such a being be? That curiosity had taken root.
“Anyone here could be my father. So for now, everyone, lower your swords.”
The man with the bizarre backstory and overflowing power swept his gaze over the crowd as he said this, prompting them to glance at each other hesitantly before slowly sheathing their blades one by one.
He was a monster who had effortlessly blocked the attacks of three First Swords, after all. They had no choice but to obey.
Moreover, the three Gangbuk Alliance First Swords knew full well that he had defended barehanded without using any weapons.
‘Where the hell did this freak pop out from?’
‘If it wasn’t an illusion, he blocked our combined assault with his bare hands.’
‘Even if our attacks were blind swings without clear sight…….’
As the Gangbuk, Nowon, and Dobong First Swords mentally replayed that single clash, Youngwoo scanned the people before him one by one.
‘This is tricky.’
The reason Youngwoo had called them ‘fathers’ earlier was that a significant portion of them were indeed of fatherly age.
Furthermore.
|Conception: April 8, 1992, 11:41 PM, by constructive intent insemination.
Having been inseminated by constructive intent and then abandoned, Youngwoo’s biological father could be far younger than expected.
‘He might’ve knocked someone up young, so candidates probably start from early fifties onward.’
Youngwoo was currently thirty-four.
Thus, his biological father was among those excluding all the women here and the men in their 20s to 40s.
Counting the candidates: nine in total.
“H-Hey. You’re saying your father is here……? You sure?”
Soon, a question arose from within the candidate pool.
The speaker was none other than Gangbuk First Sword Lee Jin-geun13.
At sixty-six, he had a son about Youngwoo’s age back in Gangbuk District.
“If your father’s really here, there’d be no reason to drag this out.”
Meaning: everyone had halted combat as requested, so why not go claim him? You’d recognize him at a glance.
It was natural thinking for those who hadn’t lived their whole lives as orphans.
So Youngwoo glanced at the tracking marker in the upper part of his vision.
Ever since arriving here, it had shifted to a square shape.
Indicating the wanted target was nearby.
“I’ve never met my father in my life. I was abandoned right after birth.”
“……!”
“But somehow, I got my hands on an item that helps find people.”
Swish.
As Youngwoo pulled out the ‘wanted poster,’ the crowd simultaneously let out sympathetic gasps as if on cue.
“Oh my, really?”
“…That’s awful.”
“So you came here using that to find your dad.”
“He was an orphan…….”
Their gazes then locked onto the men of fatherly age—the potential fathers of this freak.
Who among them had committed the sin of abandoning a newborn?
“Man, whoever it is, that’s rotten.”
“Who is it? Confess already.”
“In this day and age, orphans? Who the hell?”
The candidates waved their arms and stepped back one by one.
“N-Not me. Got a perfectly fine family.”
“Me neither.”
“What kid? Didn’t even have a girlfriend.”
The Uijeongbu prison, which had been a battlefield moments ago, instantly turned into a witch hunt for the worst father amid the chaos of war.
Those with their own reasons for joining the battle began voicing their irritation.
Like Dobong First Sword Kim Jeong-gu11, for instance.
“What the fuck is this bullshit? We came here to fight, not play word games?”
Kim Jeong-gu, fifty-eight.
He had come to avenge his brother, killed by Uijeongbu’s First Sword.
“How do you plan to find him if you don’t even know what your own father looks like?”
With that, Kim Jeong-gu gripped his sword aggressively.
“Anyway, our numbers are about to thin out more, so pick from whoever’s left later.”
He meant to resume the war for now.
“……!”
At those words, Uijeongbu First Sword Kwak Seongwon—who had been waiting for any chance to flee—launched himself toward the prison’s high outer wall.
“Fuck!”
Thud!
True to being the strongest from Uijeongbu Prison, Kwak Seongwon moved like lightning.
“That bastard?”
“Grab him!”
Naturally, Kim Jeong-gu from Dobong and all the Gangbuk Alliance swordsmen ignited with fury and leaped after him.
And Youngwoo did the same.
“Kwak Seongwon……!”
Shouting the name of the man who might be his biological father, he hurled ‘Dragon’s Legacy’ at his left leg.
Whiiiish!
It was the Joseon First Sword’s thrown blade.
Thanks to it, Kwak Seongwon was struck in the leg before even cresting half the wall and crashed to the ground.
“Grah!”
The enraged Gangbuk Alliance members then swarmed him, swords gripped fiercely.
Of course, they were soon halted by the golden wave sweeping the area.
Whoosh!
“Ah……!”
“Urk!”
“This is……?”
Some in the crowd instantly recognized the aura’s nature and bulged their eyes.
This heart-squeezing pressure could only be felt facing a First Sword’s presence.
『Joseon First Sword』
Youngwoo, the source of the presence, strode leisurely through dozens of swordsmen, golden light gleaming from his eyes.
Then.
“…Mmgh.”
He stood before Kwak Seongwon, who still hadn’t pulled Dragon’s Legacy from his leg, and looked down at him.
“…….”
The tracking marker in his vision remained square.
Youngwoo pondered briefly before speaking.
“How old are you? Probably early fifties at most.”
Kwak Seongwon, drenched in cold sweat, barely managed a reply.
“Y-Yeah. I’m fifty-one this year……! More importantly, what about this sword? What if I’m your dad and you’ve crippled my leg?”
Youngwoo glanced at Dragon’s Legacy embedded in the man’s leg, then continued in a merciless tone.
“I’m thirty-four.”
“…What?”
“If you’re fifty-one, that means you got someone pregnant at seventeen.”
“W-What are you talking about?”
“I’m saying I hope you’re not my father.”
“……!”
With Youngwoo’s final words, a long shadow fell over Kwak Seongwon’s head.
“W-What? You crazy fuck!”
Kwak Seongwon screamed his last line.
Then.
Crack!
His body was bisected by the mythic one-handed sword, ‘Bastard.’
“Kyaaak!”
“You fuck!”
At the sudden slaughter, everyone except Kim Jeong-gu flinched and retreated.
Even Kim Jeong-gu, who had come for his brother’s vengeance, couldn’t muster killing intent in his eyes at that moment.
The Joseon First Sword’s gaze, having just personally cleaved one of the father candidates, overwhelmed him.
“…That guy was my brother’s killer. I only regret not killing him myself—no feelings toward you.”
As Kim Jeong-gu spoke, Youngwoo extended his left hand to retrieve Dragon’s Legacy from the corpse’s leg.
Ting!
“I knew he wasn’t my father. The sword didn’t heat up.”
Then Youngwoo raised Dragon’s Legacy and pointed it at Kim Jeong-gu.
Swish.
“By the way, this guy was your big brother’s killer?”
“Big… what?”
Unlike Kim Jeong-gu’s dumbfounded expression, Youngwoo gazed clearly at the tracking marker before him.
The moment everyone except Kim Jeong-gu had retreated earlier, it had shifted to a circle.
Meaning.
“You must be my father.”
“W-What? No way…….”
Kim Jeong-gu shook his head with an indignant look.
Meanwhile, Youngwoo asked with a face full of conviction.
“How old are you this year?”