Chapter 164
Chapter 164
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 164
Chapter Title: 38. Hot Night (8)
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“No, this crazy bastard for real.”
Jeong-gu, whose life had been publicly trashed, was so stunned he couldn’t even continue speaking.
A 6th-class human.
Yeah, that much was true.
Even Jeong-gu himself had confirmed his internal rank and his pathetic end through the Fate Record he received on the first day of the reset.
But.
‘A 1st-class side character…? What bullshit is that? Nothing like that ever happened to me….’
As he retraced his past with a look of utter disbelief, something suddenly caught in his mind, making his body twitch.
Young-woo immediately picked up on it and pressed his father.
“See? There’s something, right? Who’s my mother?”
“W-wait a sec. You’re making me dizzy.”
Jeong-gu glared at Young-woo like he was utterly sick of him.
Yet he began scrutinizing the face of this 4th-class orphan inch by inch.
“…….”
Considering the age difference between them, Kim Jeong-gu would have been twenty-three or twenty-four when Jeong Young-woo was conceived.
So, any woman Jeong-gu had hooked up with during that time was a prime candidate for Young-woo’s biological mother.
And Jeong-gu thought.
‘…No way. That can’t be. It’s ridiculous.’
Around his mid-twenties, when he was still a reckless punk, he’d gone through a pretty unusual event.
It was…
“Did you… see anything else in the Fate Record? Like grandfather’s name or something.”
“Grandfather?”
Young-woo’s eyebrows twitched at the unexpected keyword, and Jeong-gu’s gaze drifted into space.
“A long time ago, I used to hit up nightclubs a bit.”
“Nightclubs?”
Young-woo’s mouth fell open.
He had a rough idea of where this was heading.
“No way, right?”
“W-what do you think I’m gonna say?”
“You’re not about to tell me you met my mom through a nightclub booking and had a one-night stand, are you? Right?”
“…….”
“Goddamn it.”
When Jeong-gu couldn’t say a word, Young-woo grabbed his father’s collar in a fit of rage.
Crack!
It was the collar grab of none other than Joseon’s Greatest Swordsman.
With strength no mere regional top swordsman could shake off, Jeong-gu barely managed to suck in a breath.
“Y-you little shit…!”
“Is that really the best you could come up with as a dad? Was that seriously the highlight of your life?!”
As the two-meter-tall Young-woo bellowed down at his father’s head, Jeong-gu shook his head wildly in response.
“I-it wasn’t just a one-night stand.”
“Then what?”
“Chaebol.”
“……?”
“The girl was the youngest daughter of Jin-hyeon Group.”
Jin-hyeon Group.
A chaebol conglomerate owning affiliates across tourism, hotels, shipping, and more—including Jinju Airlines, one of the country’s top three airlines.
Right before the reset, they ranked second in Korea’s corporate world, a step above Taewon, who now controlled Gangnam.
In other words, a chaebol family even Young-woo would recognize.
“What? Jin-hyeon? Don’t talk crazy. Even in a nightclub, how does someone from that family hook up with a guy like you?!”
At that, Jeong-gu finally flared up, bulging his eyes.
“You think I knew? I got dragged out of bed and beaten half to death because of it.”
According to Jeong-gu, he’d been sleeping with her at a motel, unaware she was Jin-hyeon’s youngest daughter, when her family’s staff raided the place.
It was the early ’90s, so it wasn’t entirely implausible.
“…Fuck, still doesn’t add up.”
Young-woo couldn’t easily accept it.
Jeong-gu pointed at him with a told-you-so look.
“See? You don’t believe it either? That’s exactly how I’ve felt all these years.”
Then, still fuming, he continued.
“And I still don’t think—no, I can’t believe—you’re my son. Why?”
Crunch.
Jeong-gu clenched his fist.
“Because the woman who calmly got in her car while watching me get the shit kicked out of me outside wouldn’t have given birth to my kid.”
“…….”
He had a point.
From a father’s—no, Jeong-gu’s—perspective, he couldn’t think otherwise.
Even Young-woo saw it that way.
“But… you are my father.”
“You crazy fuck, to the end!”
Crack!
This time, Jeong-gu grabbed Young-woo’s collar.
Fed up, Seo-ok let out a piercing shout.
“Both of you, shut the fuck up!!”
The refined rebuke from Kim Seo-ok, CEO of the Moi Cultural Foundation, which supported artists.
The two top swordsmen froze mid-grapple, eyes wide in shock.
“……!”
Composing herself with steady breaths, Seo-ok continued.
“No, seriously? We came here to see my husband, not to watch your family drama. Sure, I’m grateful to you, Young-woo, but enough’s enough.”
She then gazed at Kim Tae-jun on the screen with pitiful eyes.
“And technically, aren’t you holding us hostage and making my husband work for free?”
“Ma’am, that’s…”
Young-woo, at a loss for words, broke into a cold sweat as Seo-ok shot him a razor-sharp glare.
“I’m not asking for anything grand—just basic manners. No more ‘this fucker’ and ‘that fucker’ in front of the kids.”
“…I have no excuse, ma’am.”
Young-woo upgraded his address to “ma’am” and bowed his head.
It definitely wasn’t a good scene for the kids’ education.
“And.”
This time, Seo-ok hesitated, her tone shifting noticeably.
She carefully opened her mouth.
“She might’ve just given birth. Out of necessity.”
“…What?”
“W-what’d you say?”
As the two men asked in confusion, Seo-ok repeated.
“That woman might’ve had no choice but to give birth. Didn’t have the guts to kill the baby.”
“Ah.”
Coming from a current mother, neither Young-woo nor Jeong-gu could argue.
So, in the end.
“Dad, let’s talk this out alone later.”
“…….”
At this point, even Jeong-gu couldn’t keep bickering.
“…Fine. We’ll settle it quietly somewhere later.”
In the end, only Jeong-gu’s privacy had been thoroughly invaded as the conversation wrapped up. Soon after, text signaling the night’s end appeared.
—Starting at 10 PM shortly, taxes will be collected.
—Base tax is 1,000 karma; tax delinquents will be instantly erased at collection time.
“Ah.”
“Time flew already…”
Tax payment time had arrived.
“Are the kids’ taxes all set?”
Just to be sure, Young-woo asked Seo-ok, who nodded.
“Yes. That Im Seon-ah woman came by earlier and handed out coins.”
“I see.”
As expected of a major corp’s fixer.
That left.
“No one here short on cash for taxes, right?”
Young-woo scanned the room, and everyone nodded.
As Dobong’s Greatest Swordsman, Jeong-gu had plenty; Jong-su and Tae-young, handling monster ops via Taewon Group job placements, were flush too.
“Good.”
Young-woo checked his wristwatch.
10 PM soon.
And moments later.
Beep.
His watch alarm signaled 10 PM as the system text appeared.
—Taxes are now being collected.
Hands holding coins across the room vanished simultaneously.
Flash, flashes!
For Young-woo.
Whoosh…!
It felt like wind brushing his whole body, and a separate tax bill appeared.
|Base Tax: 1,000
|Deduction: Single Household
|Final Tax: 500
‘Same as last time.’
Young-woo blinked at the bill.
But it was his misconception.
Flash!
Another message appeared in his view.
「Your business classification has changed to ‘Sole Proprietor-Advertising Agency’.」
‘Huh…?’
「Accordingly, your tax type changes from ‘Simplified Taxation’ to ‘General Taxation’, with base tax adjustments starting tomorrow, June 14, 2025.」
‘What the hell? Taxes going up starting tomorrow?’
Precisely, they’d pegged Young-woo—who’d started raking in big bucks via the Dogo contract—as a business and jacked his taxes.
‘It’s true I made a fortune in an unusual way on Earth, so fair enough.’
A bit unfair, sure.
‘But shouldn’t they tell me the estimated amount? So I can prepare.’
No follow-up came.
Just notified him of higher future taxes and done.
‘No, these bastards.’
Absurd, but griping at thin air wouldn’t change it.
Young-woo switched gears quick.
‘Gotta finish the dungeon tonight anyway and call the chairman. I’ll ask him directly—how much tax does a business this size pay?’
Maybe Dogo would even hook him up with a cosmic accountant for ad model gigs.
Anyway, the priority now.
‘Tonight, drag Dad into the dungeon. And survive.’
* * *
10:52 PM.
Eight minutes till escorting Dad into the Ember Storm.
Young-woo had stepped into the living room and was talking with Jeong-gu.
“Anyway, I couldn’t be wrong. It’s already proven once that this finds the target you want.”
「Wanted Poster」 - Narrative Text
【Finds what you desire.】
|Father
Earlier, Young-woo had used this fountain pen to find Kim Tae-jun’s family.
So, the same method pinpointing Jeong-gu meant he had to be Young-woo’s father.
“Fine. Say I buy it a hundred times over and I’m your dad. Then what? Only thing left is you killing me. What the hell did I do?”
“In a world falling apart, your son finally tracks you down, and your life’s the problem? What kind of dad says that? The dads in movies I saw didn’t.”
“That’s because it’s a movie…!”
Jeong-gu whispered his scream, glancing nervously toward the bedroom.
“Sure, you might really be my son. But are you just a son? You’re a son trying to slit his dad’s throat.”
“Can you blame me when you deny ever having a son the second you see me? No murderous intent there?”
When Young-woo said that, Jeong-gu pointed at the “Wanted Poster.”
“That thing.”
“……?”
“How do you know it didn’t glitch? Could be a temporary malfunction.”
“Ha.”
Young-woo let out a hollow laugh but showed extreme patience.
Because, as Jeong-gu said, he hadn’t double-checked the tracking mark.
“Alright. I’ll switch the target and search for ‘father’ again.”
“G-good.”
Jeong-gu brightened at Young-woo’s words.
“You said your uncle died? To Uijeongbu’s Greatest Swordsman.”
“What’re you plotting now.”
“Gonna input your uncle here. That’ll either change the target or reset it.”
And if inputting “uncle” brought up an arrow, it’d prove the Wanted Poster glitched.
You can’t track the dead, right?
Swipe.
As Young-woo held up the narrative fountain pen and re-entered the target, Jeong-gu tensed.
Flash!
|Uncle
The new target registered on the Wanted Poster, and soon.
Tsss!
A new tracking mark appeared in Young-woo’s vision.
“Huh?”
“W-what? What’s wrong?”
It was none other than.
「X」
“An X mark. First time I’ve seen it. Guess that’s what happens for dead people.”
Of course, other possibilities existed.
“Maybe it’s the default for non-existent targets.”
So Young-woo switched targets once more.
Flash!
|Older Brother
A target who never existed in this world.
This time, the mark vanished entirely, replaced by a notification.
「Target does not exist.」
‘Aha.’
Now it was clear.
The Wanted Poster distinguished non-existent targets from those who once existed but were now dead.
‘Then searching for Mom would show an X too.’
The “Complete Orphan” achievement had hinted at her death, so he’d never tried inputting her.
Thus, Young-woo.
‘Might as well try.’
He promptly entered “mother” as the new target.
Flash!
|Mother
A tracking mark reappeared in his vision, shaped like.
“…Huh?”
「△」
“A triangle?”
Young-woo muttered in confusion just as his wristwatch alarm blared.
Beep!
11 PM.
Then, system text filled everyone’s vision.
「Starting now, [Anomalous Weather] Ember Storm is generated.」