Chapter 269
Chapter 269
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 269
Chapter Title: 60. Highway (4)
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On that day when a massive beam of light descended from the sky, every orc in Australia remembered it.
—From now on, roughly kill a hundred, then suck the high blood from the rest.
Those were the words uttered by the human who had come from the Korean Peninsula.
Roughly a hundred...
Kwaaaaaa!
But no matter how you looked at it, the laser beam piercing the sky above didn't seem like it would stop at just killing a hundred.
Even orcs ignorant of asymmetric warfare could tell from the sheer area of that mass of light...
-We're all gonna die!
-It's coming...!
-Run!
The Red Foot Orcs, who had started at the very bottom of Australia's food chain and climbed to the top through their own power.
They were perhaps the greatest "magical beasts" on Earth, but faced with asymmetric warfare for the first time, they lost their composure.
-Uwaaaak!
-Hiiiik!
-Spare me...!
Red Foot Orcs, at least three meters tall and up to six meters in some cases, scattered in panic in all directions, kicking up massive clouds of dust and shaking the ground.
And in the meantime.
Kwaaaat!
Toma Corporation's laser barrage landed precisely at the spot Yeong-woo had designated.
Peeeeeeng!
Just as expected, it swept across the earth with a tremendous roar.
"Eueeek!"
Even Choi Mun-soon, Jeju's Greatest Swordsman, who was with Yeong-woo, let out an unseemly scream.
But Mun-soon, who had been shrieking at the top of her lungs, soon realized something.
"...Huh? What?"
There had been an enormous impact sound, but it came from quite a distance away.
And indeed.
Goooooo...!
The site of the monstrous bombardment was an empty lot about a hundred meters from the negotiation table.
Of course, some orcs had nearly been caught in the blast radius because they fled too quickly, but still.
"No casualties yet. This one was just a warning."
As Yeong-woo said, there were no casualties so far.
From Yeong-woo's perspective, these orcs were valuable manpower who would manage Australia and pay exorbitant taxes in the future, so he didn't want to reduce their numbers if possible.
"Well then, shall we resume negotiations?"
Yeong-woo took his seat first again.
Click.
The orc lord Bantubangtung, who had somehow managed to stand his ground, bit his lip hard.
Then.
-It's hopeless.
He sat down in his chair with a dejected expression.
Thud.
Yeong-woo tilted his head and asked.
"Why is it hopeless? You haven't suffered any losses yet."
But Bantubangtung was more emotional than he appeared.
-Can this even be called a negotiation? Like that table, this is just for show—it's not a real negotiation.
Bantubangtung pointed at the negotiation table Yeong-woo had shattered earlier with his thick finger.
-We're being threatened now.
And around this time, the thousands of orc legions noticed that their lord had sat back down and began returning.
Kugugugugu...!
"...Whoa."
Yeong-woo audibly marveled at the sight of the Red Foot Orcs kicking up dust as they returned.
He had expected it to some degree, but their cohesion was truly impressive.
'It's hard to expect this from humans. They think too much.'
But orcs could do it.
And perhaps that's why, despite being magical beasts, they had been able to seize the Australian continent.
If they had started out on the Korean Peninsula or in China, they would already be long gone, though.
'Their arrival in Australia was fate, in a way.'
Yeong-woo looked at Bantubangtung with softer eyes.
Not moving a single step from his spot even after seeing the laser barrage come down was truly remarkable.
Worthy of the leader of this massive group.
So Yeong-woo sincerely showed respect.
"Lord."
-...?
"Usually, I smash the heads of anyone who speaks casually to me. It's because of my lowly birth—I have a bit of a victim complex."
-Ah... I-is that so?
"But as a sign of respect for you, I'll allow casual speech. That's on the level of how I treat my father."
-....
Bantubangtung couldn't hide his confused expression upon hearing Yeong-woo's words.
No orc spoke like that, so he couldn't grasp how to respond.
So, was he saying to speak casually, or not?
"Then... what happens to Australia...?"
Bantubangtung tentatively spoke casually, but Yeong-woo didn't mind at all.
"Australia remains yours, Lord, and the Red Foot Orcs' as it is now."
-What? You mean it?
Bantubangtung's eyes widened.
Yeong-woo nodded.
"Yes. However."
Then Yeong-woo's gaze shifted to Bantubangtung's flashy title.
『Red Foot Orc Lord』
≡Northern Australia Invader≡
"You said Australia is an orc autonomous territory, but strictly speaking, you've only occupied northern Australia, right?"
-Something like that.
"Then there must be people in southern Australia. We haven't confirmed that part yet, have we?"
Yeong-woo was certain they hadn't.
If the Red Foot Orcs had conquered all of Australia, the modifier under that special title would be something like "Australian Continent Invader," not "Northern Australia."
And above all.
'This land is too vast. Orcs moving on foot couldn't have scoured all of Meganesia in just a few days.'
Yeong-woo's reasoning matched the facts perfectly.
Soon, Bantubangtung confessed as much.
-We only occupied the areas our feet reached. We don't know what's in the places we haven't reached yet.
"Then there are definitely more humans left in Australia. No, far more than you think. The two largest cities are clustered in the southeast of the continent."
It was only now that Yeong-woo fully grasped the Australian situation.
It was impressive that the magical beast Red Foot Orcs had taken vast northern Australia, but they hadn't encountered Australia's "real powerhouses" yet.
'Someday, when those Australian metropolises push north, that'll be the real great war.'
But Yeong-woo didn't want to slaughter this orc legion for them.
He had already won over Lord Bantubangtung, and these orcs seemed better suited to managing the north than fellow humans.
'They've already proven it in practice, haven't they?'
So the strategy Yeong-woo could take was.
'Strengthen the Red Foot Orcs so they won't be pushed back by the Australian metropolises.'
At least until Yeong-woo himself came down to mediate.
-Bigger cities in the southeast?
Bantubangtung's fierce eyes twitched immediately.
Though he and the Red Foot legion were under threat from Jeong Yeong-woo, within the Australian continent, they prided themselves as the strong.
The news of another competitor still remaining ignited his innate belligerent nature.
"No."
-...?
"No more killing. My survival guarantee proposal includes a ban on murder."
After saying this, Yeong-woo glanced around, wondering if there was anything useful.
Then.
"Golden, you got a pen and paper in that pouch?"
He asked the otherworlder who had been by his side the longest, the Golden Goblin.
Asking if there was paper and a pen in the subspace pouch.
Of course, he asked without much expectation, but surprisingly.
-Keeit!
The Golden Goblin actually pulled out a pen and memo pad from the subspace pouch.
When it had taken over the sack Yeong-woo carried, it included items from a Gumi mart.
Yeong-woo had grabbed pens and paper from the mart, thinking they might come in handy someday.
"Oh."
Yeong-woo took the pen from the goblin and tore off a memo sheet.
Then he instructed the trumpeter Popu Tenta to hold up one side of the shattered table.
-Bwat....
The alien Popu lifted the table onto his shoulder, and for some reason, feeling a sense of camaraderie, Bantubangtung subtly extended his left arm to help hold it.
-What are you doing?
Yeong-woo then placed the memo sheet on the table and wrote something.
"Can you read this?"
He held up the memo that said 'Orc, illiterate,' and Bantubangtung's face twisted immediately.
-Don't humiliate us. You'll learn there's something more important to orcs than life.
"...So you can read."
After this small test, Yeong-woo tore off the next memo, placed it on the table, and asked the orc lord.
"How many mutants appear daily in the territory you currently control?"
-Six every day. And countless magical beasts.
"Ah, six for now. Got it."
That meant only six locations in northern Australia were judged "valid zones" by the reset system.
It seemed areas uninhabited by humans were consolidated broadly to spawn mutants.
"Now, you will send me 120 million karma every day."
-...What?
"It's your first time being exploited, so you're surprised, but other regions pay too. And those are even Earth's natives."
-What? How in the world...
Bantubangtung was even more shocked than before.
-You're saying you're extorting money from your own kind too?
It seemed Red Foot Orcs had no concept of exploiting their own.
"Yes. That's how Earth works."
Yeong-woo answered nonchalantly and continued.
"You're not humans anyway... and you're freeloading on this planet, right? I was going to drain you dry, but I changed my mind."
Of course, demanding 120 million daily from orcs whose entire income was six mutants was still draining them dry.
But Bantubangtung and the Red Foot Orcs, still ignorant of Earth's situation, didn't know that.
-So what do you plan to do?
"I'll take just enough money, and help you become a rich, strong nation. From now on, the Red Foot Orc tribe will guard the southern border of the Korean Peninsula. Like a kind of barrier."
At this, Choi Mun-soon, standing behind him, suddenly shouted in shock.
"No way! What did you say? What are you talking about? Are you insane?"
But Yeong-woo waved her off as if it was fine.
"How many Red Foot Orcs are currently in Australia?"
-Roughly five thousand brothers.
"Five thousand...?"
This time, even Yeong-woo was a bit surprised.
The number was higher than expected.
Typically, the number of magical beasts spawning in one region ranges from dozens at the low end to about a thousand at the high end, depending on the species.
Five thousand was...
"That many? All five thousand... no, five thousand brothers dropped into Australia together?"
When Yeong-woo asked, Bantubangtung shook his head.
-No. At first, we were only three hundred seven brothers.
307 brothers.
Meaning only 307 Red Foot Orcs had appeared in this country.
And one of the vanguard was Orc Lord Bantubangtung.
'Normal up to here?'
So how had the number of Red Orcs swelled to five thousand in just a few days?
"So what? How did three hundred seven brothers do it?"
-Extermination. We exterminated the fake brothers first.
"Fake brothers?"
Yeong-woo blinked for a moment before realizing.
"Mutants, you mean?"
-Yes. In truth, we were three hundred six brothers. After exterminating the fakes, we became two hundred thirty brothers.
"...Ah."
It was a dry statement, but a truly sad story.
The 307 Red Foot Orc brothers had fallen together into this world, only to discover one was a mutant, forcing them into fierce battle.
An intense fight in the wasteland.
In the process, Bantubangtung lost 76 brothers.
But Bantubangtung was far more emotional than Yeong-woo expected.
-If they had red feet, they were Red Foot. The fake brother fought bravely like a true Red Foot. So that day, I decided to bury 77 brothers in my heart. In that unfamiliar wasteland.
76 real orcs had died that day, but he was counting the brave mutant as a brother too.
"Ah... Lord, if you'd told that story in Shandong Province, you could've been called a great hero."
Yeong-woo wiped away non-existent tears and asked the Red Foot Orc Lord, Bantubangtung.
"So how did the 200 surviving brothers from the wasteland build this massive legion?"
They hadn't hyper-bred in the meantime, had they?
Even Yeong-woo, who had seen all manner of bizarre cosmic things on Earth, found this miraculous.
Then Lord Bantubangtung snapped out of his reminiscence and pointed with his thick finger toward the distant wasteland.
-In our city, Darwin, there is a portal.
"Yeah?"
Portal. If the orc wasn't using the word wrong...
"Lord, do brothers walk out of that portal?"
At Yeong-woo's question, Bantubangtung nodded.
-Each time we put in money, we can rescue our brothers.
"My god."
From that one line, Yeong-woo intuited a great deal.
Magical beasts who had taken the bottom rung of the food chain in the reset world.
When one of them earned the Greatest Swordsman title, they could open a kind of dimensional gate connected to their homeland.
"Lord...? Why rescue brothers? What happened in your original world?"
Then, a word came from the orc that Yeong-woo never imagined.
-Mara.
"Yes?"
-Mara took our planet.