Chapter 240
Chapter 240
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 240
Chapter Title: 54. Joseon Twin Evils (3)
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“Huh? Mister! W-Wait a second!”
As Youngwoo was just about done reciting the coordinates, Yechan hurriedly grabbed him.
Ta-at!
“What? What is it?”
“What are you doing right now?”
The gaze Yechan directed at him was already fixed on the sky.
No matter what it was, he had a gut feeling his master was about to summon something terrifying from the heavens again.
“You said we need to get rid of the corpses. So I was going to wipe them out.”
“So, what exactly do you mean by ‘wipe out’...?”
At Yechan’s question, Youngwoo casually glanced around at the corpses, about to bring up the laser cannon.
If he fired a laser barrage here, not only would the troublesome bodies vaporize in an instant, but he could also let the Southern Alliance folks know they absolutely had to cough up the cash they promised.
But before that.
“Huh!”
“...?”
“Hey, Chanie. Good thing you stopped me. That would’ve been a disaster.”
“W-What are you talking about? On your own.”
“The corpses, I mean. If I’d called in the barrage right away, it would’ve been bad. We gotta loot them first, right? A barrage like that wipes out gear and everything.”
“Y-Yes...?”
Only then did Yechan finally realize what Youngwoo meant.
This crazy master of his was about to call down a strike powerful enough to obliterate not just the corpses, but their equipment too.
“The gear disappears?”
“Yeah, I figured since it wasn’t mine, I could just erase it.”
“...”
It was hard for Yechan to believe.
In this world, gear was made of materials practically impossible to destroy, wasn’t it?
That’s why certain gear effects specifically boasted the ability to destroy items below a certain grade.
“How the hell do you destroy gear?”
“With lasers.”
Suk.
Youngwoo casually jabbed at the empty air with his finger, and Yechan’s jaw dropped.
So that “general something” barrage he’d been requesting earlier was a laser strike?
“Hurry and loot the gear. Out of the goodness of my heart, I won’t take my cut of that.”
At Youngwoo’s words, the dazed Yechan belatedly started rummaging through the pirates’ corpses.
He’d realized his master wasn’t joking about lasers wiping out gear.
“This is insane. You’re saying a barrage can shatter gear...?”
As Yechan stripped every piece of gear off the pirates’ bodies, Youngwoo muttered while eyeing the ‘Serpent of Greed’ coiled around his own wrist.
“You wouldn’t believe it even more if you knew who was firing that barrage.”
Right now, Youngwoo was using the Serpent of Greed to check if Yechan had missed any loot.
He might be a thug of a master, but his affection for Yechan, who’d volunteered as his disciple, was genuine.
That’s why he was even yielding the loot—something he’d never do under normal circumstances.
“Got it all? I’m on a tight schedule.”
“Y-Yeah. Pretty much.”
“Then get way back. The strike zone’s pretty wide.”
At Youngwoo’s words, not just Yechan but the Southern Alliance’s Supreme Swordsmen lined up behind him scrambled away.
And then.
“Earth! 063, 152, 4675 17!”
Youngwoo shouted the coordinates he’d cut short earlier, and soon after.
Kwaaaaaaaa!
With a roar like the sky itself tearing open, a real laser beam lanced down from somewhere in space.
Puaaaaaaat!
“Eek?”
“W-What’s that?”
“It’s a laser...!”
The Supreme Swordsmen instinctively backpedaled at the sight of the massive laser beam piercing down from above.
Even Yechan, who’d seen it all, gaped as the pirates’ corpses began turning ghostly white.
‘This... this is real? How does a person turn into this in just five days?’
Just where was the limit of his master, Jeong Youngwoo07?
Kuwaaaaa!
A performance that utterly surpassed the realm of ordinary Supreme Swordsmen.
Everyone present watched, mouths agape, as the laser beam erased dozens of corpses without a trace.
And at the same time.
‘If that dropped on our heads...’
‘Obviously meant for killing people, right?’
‘He said he’s from Seoul? What the hell goes on in Seoul?’
Everyone came to fear Jeong Youngwoo—and Seoul.
Anyone could see that barrage wasn’t for clearing corpses; it was a weapon of slaughter.
Suaaaat!
Finally, the laser beam blanketing the battlefield faded, leaving nothing where the scattered corpses had been.
“All good now? Clean up and head up to Seoul.”
Youngwoo said this to Yechan, then added as if he’d just remembered.
“And if you’ve got any spare gear, sell it to me when you get to Seoul.”
“Spare gear...?”
“Yeah. Whatever it is, sell it. The more gear I have, the stronger I get.”
He was talking about his catalog, but time was really running short now.
Ta-at!
Youngwoo immediately tugged the reins, turning Neguig’s head north, and said.
“This is an important border zone too, so I won’t charge defense fees. But you’ve gotta send up that travel fare we agreed on today.”
It was a one-sided promise, but the Southern Alliance had no reason not to pay up.
They’d all just seen it—a laser barrage crashing down from the sky.
What the hell was up there?
As everyone stared at the heavens, Youngwoo galloped north once more.
* * *
Reset Day 6.
So much had happened in that time that Youngwoo felt like he’d lived 60 days, not 6.
Probably because he’d been living life down to the minute.
It was one of the few ways to survive in this mad world.
‘Never realized days were this long before.’
Youngwoo checked the time as the scenery whipped past.
Suk.
Current time: 12:38 PM.
In about 20 minutes, the sky would rip open again, spilling monsters and mutants.
And right now, Youngwoo was passing through Seongnam City, the southern gateway into Gangnam.
Kwa-kwit, kwa-kwit!
Neguig’s speed had noticeably dropped after the nonstop run from Busan.
But Youngwoo couldn’t tell the beast to take a break.
“...!”
Because Seoul’s sky had finally come into view ahead, dyed blood-red.
“Ah.”
That was probably.
“...Dragonkin procession.”
Even before the first dragonkin in Seoul, ‘Venom Dragon Lim Gwangho,’ appeared, the sky had turned that same crimson.
The phenomenon appeared for one reason: to find a worthy opponent.
‘So it’s not just Venom Dragon that marks its foes. Any dragonkin designates an opponent and comes hunting.’
As Youngwoo left Seongnam and entered Gangnam’s outskirts, lightning cracked through the scarlet sky.
―Hahaha!
Accompanied by a booming laugh.
This laughter echoing from the heavens was surely Seoul’s high-risk mutant on Day 6.
‘Another dragonkin dropping by today, huh.’
As Youngwoo raced on, staring at the blood-red sky, the voice boomed again.
―No one’s even looking up? What a letdown.
Only then, hearing this, could Youngwoo piece together what had been going on in Seoul.
The high-risk mutant had been searching for a challenger long before Youngwoo arrived.
But with the strongest absent, no one in Seoul would step up against a dragon...
‘So how long has this been going on?’
Kwarung!
Another peal of thunder and lightning.
Then a voice, sounding truly disappointed, rang from the sky.
―If really no one steps up...
At this, Youngwoo immediately raised his Illegitimate Child high and shouted.
“Me!”
―...?
“I’ll fight! Send the mark!”
When Youngwoo mentioned the ‘mark’ first, the opponent faltered, falling silent for a moment.
Only much later.
―...Who the hell are you?
The tone was far more cautious than before.
Seoul had been cowering, heads to the ground in terror.
Then this figure with an ominous aura appeared, catching it off guard.
So Youngwoo pondered his introduction, then copied Intermediary Kubu’s line verbatim.
“I’m the master of the Illegitimate Child, dragon-slayer, Joseon Supreme Swordsman Jeong Youngwoo07!”
The response was immediate.
―What? You slayed wha...?
Meaning the voice-only opponent was a dragonkin too.
But to Youngwoo—who’d already felled one dragon and cleared dungeons in space every night—dragons weren’t that impressive.
To him, they were just big lizards offering the next heart upgrade.
Of course, he had no doubts about their strength.
“No more words? Then hurry up and drop the mark. I’m busy.”
At Youngwoo’s bored demand for the next phase, an obviously offended voice shot down.
―What the fuck, you punk?
“...?”
Youngwoo blinked at the sudden drop in class.
―You little shit, do you even know who I am? You’re not scared?
The dragonkin snarled menacingly, but Youngwoo had a temper too.
“What’re you yapping about? You’re just some typical chaebol spawn, right?”
―What’d you say?
The bullseye hit; the opponent went quiet again.
Then it shook the heavens in a furious roar.
―Me? I’m the legitimate heir of Jin-hyeon, Song Taeho!
“What?”
Jin-hyeon.
The nation’s No. 2 chaebol house.
Of course, it was just a retort to being called a ‘typical chaebol,’ but it landed differently for Youngwoo.
Because.
“Jin-hyeon? That Jin-hyeon run by Chairwoman Song Jiseon?”
Jin-hyeon was the family of Youngwoo’s birth mother, Song Jiseon.
And sure enough.
―S-Song Jiseon...!
The sky voice spasmed at the name.
It called itself Jin-hyeon’s legitimate heir, but history said otherwise.
The infamous ‘Iron-Blooded Empress’ Song Jiseon.
Youngwoo had read the article about how the youngest heir candidate outmaneuvered her two older brothers to seize Jin-hyeon Group.
In other words, the opponent was.
‘So Jin-hyeon’s eldest son was named Song Taeho.’
The only name Youngwoo knew from Jin-hyeon was the ultra-famous Song Jiseon.
Only after the world flipped did he learn the eldest son’s name.
And in about ten minutes, he might meet the man himself.
“So... you’re Jin-hyeon’s eldest son, Song Taeho?”
As Youngwoo confirmed, the opponent slammed a ‘General’ mark onto his head.
Paaat!
「將」
―Get it now? Just who the fuck you’re challenging!
Song Taeho still sounded pissed.
Youngwoo hit him with news to instantly cool that rage.
“W-Well, do you know who I am?”
―...What? You’re obviously...
Master of the Illegitimate Child, dragon-slayer, Joseon Supreme Swordsman Jeong Youngwoo07.
But naturally, Song Taeho couldn’t recall the intro exactly.
It was as absurd and unreal as becoming a dragon himself.
However, Youngwoo hadn’t asked to jog the memory.
Chak!
He reined in Neguig, then shoved his voice into the hesitant breathing from above.
“Better late than never—nice to meet you. I’m the illegitimate son of Jin-hyeon Group Chairwoman Song Jiseon.”
―...?
“And also the son of Kim Jeonggu, Jeong Youngwoo.”
―Song... Kim... Jeong? What kinda bullshit is this?
Not a single surname matched.
―And who the hell is Kim Jeonggu?
Disgust seeped into Song Taeho’s voice now.
Youngwoo’s response?
“The guy she had a one-night stand with back in the day.”
―What? Had a what?
“Anyway, see you soon, Uncle.”