Chapter 165
Chapter 165
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: 38. Hot Night (9)
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Kwaaaa……!
The moment the abnormal weather alert appeared, the view outside the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows turned a blazing red.
The ember typhoon had truly begun.
“My, my God.”
Jeong Gu gaped at the window, and the high-speed flying embers slammed into the glass, making sharp noises.
Ting-ting-ting!
“Is this really okay?”
It was his first time viewing abnormal weather through such massive windows, so Jeong Gu turned to his son—no, Yeong-woo—with a fearful expression.
Yeong-woo, still glued to the pursuit marker in front of him, replied.
「△」
“What’s my mother’s name?”
“Huh?”
“The name of the youngest daughter of Jin-hyeon Group who beat the crap out of her dad and left.”
“Song… Song Ji-seon.”
“Ah.”
Song Ji-seon.
It was a name even Yeong-woo, who had little interest in society news, had heard of.
The so-called ‘Iron-Blooded Empress’ Song Ji-seon.
It was because articles about her defeating her two older brothers in the conglomerate’s succession battle had flooded the internet at one point.
‘That group was Jin-hyeon.’
And that meant.
‘Wait. Two older brothers…?’
If Song Ji-seon, the final owner of Jin-hyeon, was truly Yeong-woo’s birth mother, then he naturally had two uncles as well.
Uncles from a chaebol family, and thus very likely mutants by now.
‘What the hell is this mess?’
Thirty-some years ago, the snowball that 6th-class human Kim Jeong-gu had started rolling had grown into this monstrosity.
The hidden illegitimate child of Jin-hyeon, the nation’s second-largest conglomerate and a byproduct of ‘90s nightclub bookings, 「Joseon Supreme Sword」 Jeong Yeong-woo, had emerged.
“So Mother’s a mutant too, then. Or she got beaten to death and vanished.”
As Yeong-woo imagined his mother transformed into a dragon and asked, Jeong Gu scratched his chin.
“W-well, I dunno.”
“You dunno?”
“Like you know, things were crazy hectic right after the Reset. I couldn’t check every single mutation message.”
“……”
Fair enough. Back then, Jeong Gu hadn’t even dreamed that Song Ji-seon had borne his child, and even without that, just surviving had been a struggle.
So Yeong-woo couldn’t blame his father for it.
‘Besides, after the exchange office section, there wasn’t time to track every mutation message.’
Plus, if she’d been beaten to oblivion, she might be rotting away in some dungeon, not as a mutant.
‘Either way, we’ll find out once more time passes.’
Yeong-woo reached his own conclusion, then spoke into the ‘Wave’ ring.
《Anyone with abnormal weather gear for today, come to the Parnassus entrance immediately. We leave in 10 minutes.》
He hadn’t expected much from the broadcast.
Seoul’s Supreme Swords were too busy boosting their stats to properly utilize merchants.
“Think anyone’ll show?”
As expected, when Jeong Gu asked, Yeong-woo shook his head.
“There are plenty who want to hit the dungeon, but they probably haven’t gotten gear yet.”
Songpa Supreme Sword Oh Yeon-hee, Seocho Supreme Sword Choi Nam-hee, and Gwanak’s Jo Sang-ik had the guts to walk into a dungeon on their own and some integrity.
Yeong-woo hoped they’d show within 10 minutes.
‘But odds are low. Unless they’ve deliberately sought out every merchant in Seoul.’
Swoosh.
“Cloak.”
Yeong-woo crooked a finger at the golden goblin, which opened its subspace pouch and pulled out a reddish cloak.
-Kikkit!
It was gear for Jeong Gu.
「Flame Ward」 - Unique Cloak
【Ignores all flame-attribute abnormal weather.】
“Put this on. We’re heading out there soon.”
Thud.
Yeong-woo pointed at the window where scarlet embers swirled, and Jeong Gu made a horrified face.
“…You serious?”
“Quit yapping and put it on already.”
Grumbling to himself at Yeong-woo’s urging, Jeong Gu draped the red cloak over his shoulders.
“We’ll head down, wait 10 minutes, then go.”
“So if someone braves that typhoon and shows up… it’ll be the three of us?”
“Yeah. Anyone who makes it.”
With that, Yeong-woo went to the bedroom with the TV and spoke to Seo-ok, Jong-su, and Tae-young.
“Like I said before, best not to let the kids see any more TV. There’s an extra bed in the room across the hall—put them there.”
Officer Kwon Tae-young, not knowing the exact reason, asked cautiously.
“Yeong-woo, if I may ask… why’s that?”
Yeong-woo held up the whistle around his neck.
“I’ll be blowing this in the dungeon soon, and who knows what’ll show on TV then.”
“Ahh……”
Tae-young nodded in understanding.
Seo-ok nodded too.
“Got it. It’s late anyway, so time for the kids to sleep early.”
“So… you’re heading out there now, Yeong-woo?”
At Tae-young’s question, Yeong-woo glanced at Jeong Gu in the living room, then told Jong-su and Tae-young.
“Yeah. Dungeons are unpredictable, so if luck’s bad, I might die.”
“……!”
“If that happens, go to Gwanak Supreme Sword Jo Sang-ik. He’ll pay less attention without me around, but he won’t toss you out on the street.”
Yeong-woo left those not-quite-last words, then looked at the TV screen still showing the Returner’s room.
Now, the three men under Yeong-woo’s thrall sat huddled, staring intently at the hourglass.
* * *
11:16 PM.
“…Nobody’s coming. Or maybe they can’t.”
“Doesn’t matter—we’re just the two of us either way.”
Even after the 10 minutes were up, no one appeared in the Parnassus Hotel lobby.
No one had gear to withstand the ember typhoon, or they had it but lacked the courage.
The lobby itself was no longer a residence, filled with such intense heat that the space seemed to shimmer.
“No choice. Let’s go.”
Clunk.
Yeong-woo opened the hotel entrance doors without hesitation, but Jeong Gu hesitated.
“I-I… this is my first time.”
“Mine too, second time.”
With that, Yeong-woo stepped outside.
Clang.
Scarlet embers battered his body, leaving angry red welts.
But.
「Typhoon’s Eye」 - Narrative Necklace
【Ignores wind-type abnormal weather.】
The ‘Typhoon’s Eye’ effect rendered Yeong-woo utterly unscathed.
As expected, the ember typhoon was wind-type.
“Come on out. We’re not going far.”
Yeong-woo beckoned him to hurry, and Jeong Gu inched his foot out of the lobby, very slowly.
“…It’s really fine, right?”
Still unable to shake his fear, Jeong Gu asked again, and Yeong-woo pointed at his father’s toe.
“You’re already fine.”
“……!”
Ting-tip!
Indeed, Jeong Gu’s toe, peeking out of the lobby, had been exposed to the embers for a bit.
He’d actually been under ‘Flame Ward’ protection since the hallway outside the room.
“Wha……!”
Jeong Gu’s eyes widened in shock.
No burns, not even heat. So he.
Swoosh.
Extended his other arm, still inside the hotel, outward.
Tip!
His bare hand, gloveless, fully exposed to the ember typhoon—nothing happened.
“Huh.”
Jeong Gu finally exhaled, tension draining away.
Then, with a face like he’d made a big decision.
Step.
He thrust his whole body into the ember typhoon.
Whoosh!
A ferocious, flame-like aura enveloped him.
“Ahh… unbelievable.”
It felt like driving a car at high speed with windows wide open, amplified dozens of times, with the sound of massive trees shaking in wind roaring in his ears.
Ruuush……!
The countless embers filling the air collided with building walls or each other.
“Pretty wild, huh?”
Yeong-woo’s voice came through the noise.
He was already mounted on Iron Horse Negig, waiting for his father.
“Get on.”
Yeong-woo extended a hand clad in golden plate armor from the Iron Horse, and Jeong Gu took it, entranced.
Whoosh!
Joseon Supreme Sword Jeong Yeong-woo effortlessly lifted him onto the rear seat.
“Dad.”
“……?”
“You know I still can’t swim, right?”
“Uh… yeah?”
“But now I walk through flames and ride through obsidian rain. That’s the world now. No need to fear the weird stuff. This’ll be everyday from here on.”
“…….”
Jeong Gu couldn’t fully accept Yeong-woo’s words yet.
But one thing was clear.
Jeong Yeong-woo was perfectly suited to this insane world.
In a way, he’d evolved to greet the new era.
And that person.
‘Might be my son….’
The last blood kin left in this world.
His legacy, which would remain in this world long after his body rotted away.
Yet Jeong Gu still couldn’t feel ‘son’ from the monster before him.
Perhaps because he’d never had a son in his life, he was as lost about ‘son’ as Yeong-woo, groping for ‘father,’ wandering unsure what it meant.
“Where we headed now?”
Jeong Gu asked, eyeing Yeong-woo’s massive back.
The freak claiming to be his son spoke another bizarre line.
“Gwangjin District’s basically a huge empty lot now, so we’ll open the dungeon there.”
Kwang! Kwang!
At Yeong-woo’s command, Negig charged through the embers.
“Of course, there’s one variable.”
“…Variable?”
“Yeah. Entering through the same gate doesn’t guarantee the same dungeon.”
“What?”
“You can exit before it starts, so don’t worry too much.”
“W-well, that’s good, but……”
“Anyway, if you enter the dungeon and don’t see me, come back out before the party fills. Like I’ve said a million times, no guarantee you can clear it.”
As the two conversed, Negig crossed Cheongdam Bridge linking Gangnam and Gwangjin.
Kwang! Kwang!
Nearly across, Jeong Gu spotted a massive hole in the bridge’s center and freaked.
“What the hell is that?”
To him, it looked like abnormal weather had collapsed the bridge.
But actually.
“…I did that.”
“Huh?”
“Shot some arrows from there.”
“Arrows did that……?”
Strictly speaking, the spot where he’d embedded an ability arrow in Seoul councilor Kim Seok-shin’s head after he returned as a wyvern.
But Yeong-woo didn’t bother explaining in detail and brushed it off.
“Think of it as battle scars from a mutant fight.”
Then he pointed ahead and ordered the golden goblin.
“Take the orb there. We’ll open the dungeon from that spot.”
-Kikkit!
The goblin pulled a golden orb from its subspace pouch and leaped off Negig.
Thud!
Even to Jeong Gu’s eyes, the orb, gleaming gold when removed, rapidly lost its shine and turned black.
“……!”
An ominous sight.
“Th-the orb’s black?”
“That’s normal.”
Yeong-woo, experienced with dungeon entrances, dismounted calmly.
“Get down. Can’t bring mounts or slaves into dungeons anyway.”
“Talk about one thing after another.”
Jeong Gu looked exasperated.
But they’d come this far—what could he do?
The goblin had already placed the black orb in southern Gwangjin outskirts, and now Yeong-woo just needed to touch it to open the dungeon.
“Come closer. Never know how the dungeon’ll open.”
“Wh-what’s that mean?”
Jeong Gu tilted his head and approached. Once close enough, Yeong-woo placed his hand on the black orb.
Thap.
“Last time a pyramid rose, so if dungeons vary each time, obviously……”
The entrance method would differ too—or so Yeong-woo was about to say.
Kwaaaaa!
Suddenly, the ground beneath them shot into the sky.
No—the land they stood on surged upward.
Meaning.
“…A tower.”
In other words, they now stood at the top of a tower rising from underground.
“Wh-what is this? How high’s it going?”
As Jeong Gu panicked, text appeared in the air between them.
「This dungeon prohibits accompanying slaves.」
Then the golden goblin at Yeong-woo’s feet was flung off the tower top.
-Kyaaaa……!
The goblin plummeted earthward, trailing a long scream from its tail.
Yeong-woo stared at the now-tiny speck, then told Jeong Gu.
“Too bad, but looks like we can’t just turn back from this dungeon.”
“Huh……?”
As Jeong Gu asked what he meant, Yeong-woo pointed upward with his index finger.
Jeong Gu instinctively looked up.
“Hiiik……!”
High in the sky, an enormous ring of light—at least dozens of kilometers wide—blazed.
“What the fuck is that?”
“Portal. Dungeon entrance.”
“What?”
Even now, the tall tower carrying them gaped open toward the portal’s maw, rising steadily.
This dungeon forced entry upon summoning.
To bail midway, they should’ve jumped when the tower started rising.
“N-now what?”
With the portal imminent, Jeong Gu asked urgently, and Yeong-woo quietly checked his gear.
“Good luck, Dad.”