Chapter 255
Chapter 255
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 255
Chapter Title: 57. Beijing's Tyranny (2)
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“Heart? Of course I’ll take it. Hand it over quick!”
The great news that his uncle’s heart had arrived made Young-woo’s eyes sparkle.
No matter what it was, in this situation, he had to grab anything that could boost his combat power.
After all, he planned to convince the experts of China’s greater regions through sheer force to cut off all supplies heading to Im Du-pyeong.
And so, the dragon heart loaded with all sorts of stacked effects was an incredibly welcome gift at this very moment.
However.
“Uh, hold on.”
Young-woo, who had been gazing up at the sky waiting for the heart to drop, suddenly froze as something occurred to him.
“Surgery… you’re not saying I have to do it again, are you?”
Young-woo asked this because he now had the Body Catalog.
The Poison Dragon Heart he’d acquired earlier had been classified as a “body part” and was already registered in the catalog.
So if the Steel Dragon Heart followed the same process.
“Then I can just add it straight to the catalog and activate it without surgery, right?”
[Body Catalog]
〔4〕
There were currently four pieces of equipment registered in his Body Catalog.
So registering the Steel Dragon Heart this time would unlock the catalog’s first collection effect.
Thanks to his uncle, he was on track for double enhancement.
“Blood really is thicker than water.”
Young-woo felt a warmth in his chest for some reason and placed a hand over his heart. Kubu blinked.
―Since you already possess the Body Catalog, you can fully utilize the new heart’s effects without directly implanting it.
“Oh… I knew it.”
Being able to use two hearts at once—truly, any “catalog” came with astonishing effects.
―However.
“……?”
―The Steel Dragon Heart you’re about to receive is also a “Dragon Heart,” just like the Poison Dragon Heart.
“…Yeah?”
It felt like there was more to it.
Young-woo gestured for Kubu to continue, and it blinked once more.
―The Dragon Heart has a unique function called “Fusion.”
“Oh, I know what that is.”
It was the function listed at the bottom of the Poison Dragon Heart’s tooltip.
【Heart Fusion】
| Fuses when another dragonkin heart is acquired.
“I thought it said ‘fuses,’ so it’d merge automatically, but that’s not the case?”
―Processed hearts fuse automatically, but in cases like yours, Jeong Young-woo07, where it’s directly implanted, a physical procedure is required.
“Ahh.”
It seemed he’d need to remove the existing heart and fuse it with the new one.
And that meant.
“I’ll have to see that crow guy again.”
But didn’t that come with an unignorable surgery fee and a massive karma debt increase?
“Is the heart fusion effect that good? Worth paying surgery fees every time?”
Young-woo asked with a nuance hoping it wasn’t, and after a moment’s thought, Kubu replied.
―It’s generally known that fusion becomes advisable starting from the third heart.
“So it’s not essential right now? I only have two hearts at the moment.”
―…That’s one way to see it.
“Ah, perfect.”
Young-woo checked his watch.
Current time: 3:34 PM.
Shandong Province had already finished its tribute to Beijing, so he was in a position where he needed to hurry after the collection squad. Time was money.
He didn’t have time to leisurely cut open his chest on Yeongjongdo.
“Let’s just grab the new heart quick. I’m kinda busy right now.”
―Understood.
At Young-woo’s command, Kubu rolled its eye.
And soon.
Boom!
A sound like a cannon firing echoed from beyond the sky, and a heavy presence sliced through the air overhead.
Whoosh!
With a brutal air-rending roar, what appeared between Young-woo and Kubu was.
Rumble…
A massive heart in form, but composed entirely of steel plates and metal pipes—the Steel Dragon Heart.
“What the—why’s it so huge?”
Young-woo blankly stared at his uncle’s heart, far larger than the Poison Dragon Heart.
Soon, the new heart’s tooltip filled his vision.
Flash!
「Steel Dragon Heart」 - Legendary Heart
【Steel Dragon Emergence】
【Ironclad Exoskeleton】
【Heart Fusion】
【Steel Dragon Emergence】
| All physical attribute effects increased by 10%.
【Ironclad Exoskeleton】
| Reduces all physical damage except crushing attacks by 15%.
【Heart Fusion】
| Fuses when another dragonkin heart is acquired.
‘This is insane.’
Surprisingly well-balanced offense and defense.
In particular, “Steel Dragon Emergence,” which boosted all physical attribute effects, applied to both attack and defense capabilities as described in the tooltip.
“Physical attribute effects” included not just physical damage increases, but also reductions in received physical damage, ignoring 50% of enemy physical damage mitigation, and other special effects.
―Would you like to use it in its raw form without processing into a talisman?
As Kubu asked the same question as last time, Young-woo nodded immediately.
“Yeah. Straight into the catalog like this.”
As Young-woo approved receipt, the Steel Dragon Heart, casting a huge shadow over the ground, began to glow white.
Shimmer!
And right away.
Bang!
It turned into a thick beam of light and seeped into the top of Young-woo’s head.
The Steel Dragon Heart was truly registered in the Body Catalog.
‘Thanks to you, I’ve gained immortality, Uncle.’
Though all that remained was this one heart, Jin Hyun-ga’s eldest son, Song Tae-ho, would now weather all sorts of trials alongside Young-woo.
As Young-woo stood tall to receive his uncle’s heart, the Body Catalog soon reacted.
「Stage 1 collection effect unlocked!」
Unlike other equipment catalogs, the Body Catalog unlocked collection effects in batches of 5 items.
Thus, acquiring the Steel Dragon Heart triggered the first effect.
Ping!
[Body Catalog]
〔5〕
[Collection Effect: 5]
| Body optimization limit increased by 10%
‘What’s this mean?’
A collection effect befitting the Body Catalog—somewhat unfamiliar.
Increasing the body’s optimization limit.
“…….”
Young-woo stared at the tooltip for a while before finally getting it.
‘Oh, duh.’
Body optimization.
In other words, the body forms he could enhance via karma.
Limb lengths, torso thickness, total muscle mass, skeletal proportions, height, and all.
The first collection effect of the Body Catalog raised the optimization ceiling for those body composition ratios by 10%.
‘So I can grow up to 2.2 meters tall?’
Of course, he could already increase his height further, but the system discouraged it due to poor efficiency for human physiology.
Now, that recommended limit was up by 10%.
‘It’s just 10%, but applied to height, that’s a full 20 centimeters taller.’
Greater height meant bigger strides, longer reach, and higher max jump.
One more way to gain an edge outside of gear.
‘At this rate, I’ll turn into a total giant later.’
Thinking this, Young-woo was already biting a karma coin to adjust his appearance.
‘The presets really changed.’
As Young-woo predicted, the appearance change system now recommended an optimized body height of 2.2 meters.
And the cost to readjust skeletal muscles and proportions was a whopping.
[8,406,000]
‘Huh? Not that bad? Way cheaper than heart surgery.’
840 million to pour into his body to become a bigger being.
A massive sum for Young-woo just days ago, but now, as the acknowledged strongest in Korea—receiving tributes not just domestically but from China too—it didn’t seem like much.
‘Instant buy.’
As Young-woo approved the 8.4 million payment, a dire warning appeared.
Flash!
「All appearance changes are permanent, and some elements may be inherited by the next generation.」
「Proceed?」
Young-woo nodded again, and at nearly the same instant, his karma balance dropped to 58 million.
* Available Karma: 58,532,500
Still a hefty sum remained, but Young-woo couldn’t even check it.
Because.
“Gasp!”
The bizarre pain accompanying the musculoskeletal changes tingled from his toes to the crown of his head.
‘R-right! The berserker talisman didn’t block this one?’
The intensified pain from last time nearly made Young-woo drop to his knees unwittingly, but he barely held back.
He figured this scene might be broadcast somewhere in space or recorded for Korea’s constituents someday.
“Urk……!”
Young-woo swallowed a weird groan to stifle the pain.
Soon, his whole body was enveloped in white light, and it began to grow bit by bit.
His eye level slowly rose accordingly.
His height was increasing in real time.
‘What a crazy world.’
As Young-woo marveled anew, the clothes he wore loosened again as the growth reached its final phase.
Shimmer!
The light covering his body faded, revealing newly formed skin, and the sea breeze of Yeongjongdo wrapped around his longer readjusted limbs.
“Done?”
As Young-woo inspected his new body this way and that, he spotted Incheon’s boss, Kim Yong-gwan, who had fallen on his ass in the distance.
Kubu, who had delivered the Steel Dragon Heart, had vanished without a trace, apparently clocking out.
‘No way, even if I said I was busy, clock out without saying goodbye?’
Young-woo nearly summoned Kubu again but remembered he really was busy.
Quite some time had passed while growing his body.
“A-are… are you alright?”
Kim Yong-gwan cautiously asked after Young-woo’s well-being as he slowly stood.
Proper Earthling manners.
Young-woo gathered his gear from the ground, put it on, and climbed back onto Negig.
Thud!
“I’m fine, but are you really okay, Yong-gwan?”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“No money coming from China today, so no commission fee.”
“…Huh? Is that how it works?”
Yong-gwan’s eyes flashed savagely at the money talk for a moment, but he quickly softened them.
“W-well… no work done, no fee, right?”
“Guess so?”
Young-woo nodded at Yong-gwan.
Then, gripping Negig’s reins, he gazed beyond Yeongjongdo toward mainland China.
“Still, you’ll probably get commissions starting tomorrow, so don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”
* * *
The commission fee Young-woo had agreed to pay Incheon for brokering deals: 5 million daily.
He’d talked them out of today’s, but starting tomorrow, he’d have to pay up.
Thus, he planned to use Incheon as the main broker for China.
He’d route tributes from greater regions near Beijing he’d sway exclusively through Incheon.
‘Taking money through multiple spots means fees everywhere. Daily outflow adds up to real losses.’
Of course, for Young-woo’s bold plan of collecting tributes from China’s regions to become reality, he first needed to resolve the Shandong issue.
Boom, boom!
Negig carrying Young-woo passed Yeongjongdo and reached Shandong’s coastal outskirts, but no welcoming crowds appeared.
Just barren fields.
‘All off greeting the collection squad?’
Like they’d done for him, waving flags for Beijing’s squad was fine.
Shandong, caught between Beijing and Seoul, had no choice.
But what Young-woo worried about.
‘Or maybe Jang Ja-ham… that hothead didn’t pick a fight with the collection squad, did he?’
With his fiery temper and underlying loyalty, thinking he was now Jeong Young-woo’s man, he might’ve refused Beijing’s tribute.
And if so, the pissed squad might’ve made an example of Shandong, turning it to ruins.
Otherwise, how could there be not a single soul in sight?
Boom, boom!
Negig pressed westward into Shandong.
Soon, a familiar line of flag-bearing residents entered his view.
“……!”
It was the exact hand flags that had welcomed Young-woo at Shandong’s coast that morning.
They’d already finished one event somewhere and were heading back.
“Hey! Hey!”
Young-woo pointed at the flag-bearers and signaled to stop. The residents, recognizing him, paled in fear.
But they didn’t dare flee, merely lowering their flags toward the ground.
“J-Jeong Young-woo, sir.”
One who remarkably remembered Young-woo’s name stepped forward to represent the group.
Young-woo tried his best for a gentle expression.
“Where to? Where the Beijing guys visited.”
With the nuance that he already knew plenty, the resident rep pointed north with a trembling finger.
“Y-yes, Yantai.”
Yantai, aka Yentai City. One of Shandong’s port cities, not far from Young-woo’s spot.
Unfamiliar with Chinese geography, Young-woo had to rely on the direction.
“Thanks. I’ll handle the rest.”
Young-woo handed a 10,000 karma coin bearing his face to the brave rep who stepped up.
Then.
Boom!
He spurred Negig north, swiftly leaving the residents behind.
‘Too late after all. But I can catch them on Negig before they reach Beijing.’
And above all.
‘That means they’re carrying 30 million right now? I was supposed to get 20 million… so I earn an extra 10?’
Young-woo unwittingly thought of today’s income jumping by 10 million, then steeled himself.
‘No, Young-woo. Think big-picture.’
The agreed tribute from Shandong was 20 million.
Sure, the squad had taken 30 million already today, but letting them keep it all made him no better than Beijing.
‘Return 10 million to Shandong. That’s righteous, right?’
Repay those who trusted and helped you.
That was Young-woo’s idea of “righteousness.”
So today, on Chinese soil, he’d uphold that righteousness…
“Huh?”
Mid-thought, Young-woo’s eyes widened.
Yantai’s city appeared in the distance, and Shandong’s Twin Evils—Jang Ja-ham and Woo Cheong-jin—were coming out to greet him.
‘Phew, both safe!’
Young-woo sighed inwardly in relief, but his mouth blurted.
“My money! Where’s my money headed right now?”