Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: 55. Bean Powder (4)
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Fear.
There are countless fears in the world, but among them, the greatest is probably the fear of the unknown.
Something or a phenomenon that cannot be predicted because it has never been seen before, yet is instinctively recognized as threatening.
In fact, "Reset" also fell under the broad category of fear of the unknown, and its byproduct, the mutants, should rightfully be a massive source of terror for humanity.
Goblins, orcs, trolls, dragons... All of these were beings humans had imagined long ago, but none had ever truly existed in the world.
Song Tae-ho, who appeared in Seoul today, was a steel dragon with a total length of forty meters.
Even the blue whale, known as the largest mammal on Earth, maxed out at thirty-three meters in body length.
Thus, it was only natural for Song Tae-ho—who possessed a forty-meter frame, soared through the skies, and rained down steel— to become an object of dread.
Song Tae-ho himself had thought the same.
At least until encountering the man who claimed to be his nephew, the Joseon First Sword.
*Chomp, chomp, chwap!*
"This battle is brought to you with support from the pan-cosmic weapon brand Doggo!"
A self-proclaimed illegitimate son of the Jin-hyeon family, spouting bizarre lines with his entire body drenched in blood.
Of course, as a mere two-meter-tall human, he was no bigger than an insect compared to Tae-ho, whose height alone reached twenty meters.
But...
―Sh, shit, what the hell is that guy saying?
Imagine that insect surviving a stomp, leaving an ominous bloodstain on the ground as it scuttled upward with alarming speed.
Better if it stayed away.
I don't want to get bitten by that thing.
Tae-ho felt unmistakable terror toward this tiny creature, a mere tenth of his own size.
―You damn god!
Just then, as the steel dragon Song Tae-ho gaped his jaws to unleash his breath.
"「Doggooooo...」...!"
From the Joseon First Sword Jeong Yeong-woo's mouth erupted a transcendental language, trailing a long tail.
The ability possessed only by those among the universe's countless specks who had, for even an instant, shone brightly: transcendental language.
―Gurk!
Having grasped the concept of a "pan-cosmic weapon company" through the foe's utterance of 「Doggo」, Song Tae-ho was so shocked that he blasted his breath into empty air.
*Pfooooosh!*
Just like a martial artist vomiting blood from qi deviation.
*Kwarrrrk!*
Song Tae-ho's breath consisted of fine iron shards, so what he spewed skyward soon became a hail of steel grains plummeting to earth.
"Ah, you're really making this a hassle."
Grumbling as he dodged sideways with evasive maneuvers, Yeong-woo thought he absolutely had to confine his uncle to the Returner's Room.
A monster like this would be overwhelmingly powerful if summoned as a "friend."
Plus, the Returner's Room was short-staffed.
Assembling the trophy pedestal while pedaling for laser barrages—three people wouldn't cut it.
"Uncle! You gonna keep fighting? Let's make up!"
Yeong-woo shouted up at Song Tae-ho's head, dangling twenty-odd meters in the sky. In response came a precisely locked-on breath attack.
*Kuaaaaa!*
Likely a sign of refusal.
―Why the hell should I be uncle to a freak like you? It's just your word against mine.
Having regained his composure, Song Tae-ho posed a perfectly valid question.
Frankly, the only thread linking Jeong Yeong-woo and Song Tae-ho was Yeong-woo's one-sided claim of being the Jin-hyeon family's bastard.
Strip that away, and Yeong-woo was just a monster wielding overkill power bankrolled by some alien corporation.
And above all...
―Gangnam in the clutches of aliens? Shocking, truly. But only until today.
"Yes...?"
Yeong-woo realized his uncle—who'd repeatedly called Gangnam "my city"—meant every word.
―I'll liberate Gangnam—no, Seoul!
Song Tae-ho bellowed with the gravitas of an independence fighter.
"No, why's it gotta be phrased like that?"
Yeong-woo tried correcting his uncle's not-quite-misunderstanding, to no avail.
*Kwaak!*
Suddenly, an ill omen stirred from underground.
*Kwudududuk!*
House-sized steel spikes erupted wildly.
"Waugh, you lunatic!"
The steel dragon Song Tae-ho commanded not just steel rain, but the power to rend the earth asunder.
"You're seriously doing this?"
Yeong-woo vaulted high into the air to evade the spikes. For the first time, their eyes met level, and Song Tae-ho shot him a glare of disgust before yawning his maw wide.
―Die, you alien frontman!
"Wha..."
―Seoul belongs to... humanity...!
From the humanist Song Tae-ho's gaping throat rose a colossal roar.
Judgment Breath.
*Kuaaaaa!*
This time a direct hit from above left Yeong-woo no escape.
'No, what does he even know to call me a frontman?'
Soon the pitch-black steel breath engulfed him. Yeong-woo swung the bastard sword to deflect a portion before slamming into the ground.
*Thud!*
The Joseon First Sword Jeong Yeong-woo's first crash-landing.
Witnessing it, Song Tae-ho grew haughty, thrusting out his long neck.
―You, our family's bastard? Could be, I suppose.
*Boom!*
Song Tae-ho stomped a massive foot toward Yeong-woo, pinned to the dirt.
―Know what they call a bastard in other words?
*Rumble.*
As Song Tae-ho reared his majestic torso, his pitch-black shadow stretched endlessly.
―It's precisely.
From the long shadow, Song Tae-ho bared his fangs.
―A "mistake."
The Jin-hyeon family's mistake.
Having defined Yeong-woo thus, the pureblood supremacist Song Tae-ho gathered his might to erase his kin's error.
*Whoooosh!*
Intending the killing blow on the Jin-hyeon bastard, still buried and motionless.
Then.
"...Safari."
Yeong-woo, embedded like a corpse, muttered something.
Song Tae-ho, mid-charge of steel breath, halted his incantation and cocked his head.
―What?
"Safari."
―What bullshit is that? Safari what?
"Four-eight-two! One-eight-three...!"
―Uh...?
Instantly recognizing it as a serial code, Song Tae-ho's gut twisted. He wrenched his jaws open anew.
*Crack!*
*Kill him before he finishes reciting.*
But.
"Four-four-three-seven! Zero-two-zero-zero!"
The code in question wasn't long—and Yeong-woo had already intoned it fully.
And that number was none other than.
〔Earth-482-183-4437-02〕
Coordinates for a spot in Seoul's Gwangjin-gu.
Song Tae-ho never dreamed it was an artillery fix.
*Whoooosh!*
Only upon hearing the freakish whoosh from the sky—directly overhead—did realization dawn.
―W-what did you do?
Song Tae-ho craned skyward in panic and demanded. From the dirt, Yeong-woo propped up his torso.
"Double ad."
And right away.
*Fwoooooom!*
A laser barrage from another pan-cosmic arms giant, Toma, punched through Earth's atmosphere into Gwangjin-gu.
―No, you fucking pricks!
Reeling from the insane scale of the snipe, Song Tae-ho whipped around—only to spot the mad bastard already hightailing it sideways.
―Hey, you dog bastard!
"Pardon? My mom's not a dog—she's a dragon."
Now in a safe zone, Yeong-woo glanced back coolly.
There was his uncle, loping along on all fours.
And overhead, a searing white laser beam lancing down.
*Kwaaaaaaaa!*
―Aaaaaagh!
Song Tae-ho's anguished scream told all: direct hit... or rather, partial.
Head intact, but a third of his right wing vaporized.
'Anyway, no flying off now.'
From afar at the blast site, Yeong-woo watched his wing-crippled uncle wobble, then strode forward.
*Step!*
Meanwhile, forty percent skin regen: no more blood from his instep, face mostly reformed.
Missing patches made him grotesquer than fully flayed, though.
Left jaw, for instance: skinless, exposing jaw muscle, bone, and teeth in full undead glory.
"Call it quits. You don't seriously think there's just one shell?"
Gripping the bastard sword right-handed, Yeong-woo advanced on his uncle. Song Tae-ho quivered his wingtip, glaring daggers at his nephew.
―You... really Song Ji-seon's son?
Song Tae-ho, at last truly buying Yeong-woo's lineage.
Power was the key to all things, after all.
"I can fetch a family register if you want. Cosmic edition."
Whether an uncle-nephew cert existed? Unknown.
Key point: Yeong-woo's prior 「Doggo」 yell had clued Song Tae-ho into the cosmos.
So "cosmic edition" rang true on instinct.
―Then where's your mom? Song Ji-seon.
"Uh, well..."
Yeong-woo glanced skyward naturally.
"Doesn't seem she's here yet. Word is you two are thick as thieves. Bet you wanna see her, huh?"
Song Tae-ho.
Jin-hyeon eldest, defeated in succession war by baby sis Song Ji-seon.
Yeong-woo knew the grudge lingered.
Hence the peace pitch: reconcile, await Mom.
―Ji-seon? Yeah, gotta see her. No question.
Song Tae-ho followed suit, tilting skyward.
*Swish.*
Whether eyeing little sis out in the void or the laser that scorched him earlier? Unclear.
―So if we reconcile, what then? I stick around here?
Song Tae-ho surveyed bleak Gwangjin-gu.
Yeong-woo shook his head.
"Nope. There's a spot where my reconciled folks bunk together. You'd relocate there."
―A spot?
"Yeah. Sub-space, bit off from Earth... but comfy. Famous faces aplenty, sneaky fun stuff too."
Zero lies.
Thus, Song Tae-ho pierced the truth.
―Am I hearing things? Sounds like prison.
"Three summons a day to this world. Mom meetups feasible."
―Now it screams prison. Right? Your 'reconciliation' means lockdown.
Song Tae-ho's tone had shifted sometime back.
Made sense: the nephew who'd claimed Gangnam on entry wouldn't spare him intact.
Can't have two suns.
Tae-ho's reconciliation play was partly to pause the fight, scheme later.
―Nah, this ain't right. What nephew jails his uncle?
"Ain't that chaebol life?"
―What?
"Whatever. Can't leave you mutating out. Soon as I dip, you'd gulp the city."
―......
No rebuttal from Song Tae-ho.
Yeong-woo proffered his right hand.
"Shake with me. Pass on this, next shell drops on your dome."