Chapter 274
Chapter 274
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 274
Chapter Title: 61. On a Starlit Night (4)
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Afternoon, 10:21 p.m.
After disbanding the First Swords, Yeong-woo hurried back to his room.
The night dungeon would appear soon along with the abnormal weather, leaving him little time to rest.
“Ugh.”
As Yeong-woo groaned and collapsed onto the sofa, Jeong-gu, who had followed him, sat down on the living room floor and stared at him.
“How do you even manage all this? What were those orcs earlier?”
“What else? I told you already. They’re the ones who conquered northern Australia on their own power. But now we’re allies, so you’ll be seeing them around from time to time.”
“I have to deal with those things again...?”
“Yeah. The brothers will handle bridge maintenance, and we’re teaming up for the China invasion too.”
The latter was even part of the official agreement.
As for the former.
‘The vice minister couldn’t even scratch it, so the bridge won’t collapse easily. But...’
Yeong-woo recalled the moment the tower’s surface had been easily damaged by the bastard child.
It definitely hadn’t been due to his own strength.
Back then, it was.
‘A Mythic weapon. Even the tower can’t withstand an attack from a Mythic weapon.’
Which meant that elevated highway could collapse at any moment too.
If another owner of a Mythic existed on this planet, that is.
“...I’m a bit worried.”
“About what?”
“This country—no, this world. Anything too radical is never good.”
Jeong-gu was voicing his concerns because he felt the planet was changing far too quickly.
But what worried Yeong-woo was slightly different.
“Adding one more alien race to the planet’s residents doesn’t feel like a radical change. Our way of life won’t shift much because of them.”
“Then?”
“Far bigger changes are already underway. Like, say, a cosmic porn production company getting involved in planetary development rights.”
“What?”
Jeong-gu’s eyes went wide.
It was something he’d never even imagined.
“W-what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just something to keep in mind. Right now, we’re taking the third- or fourth-best path just to avoid the worst-case scenario.”
There was no time to explain in detail, nor the energy left to do so.
Yeong-woo closed his eyes just like that, hoping to shake off some fatigue.
Then, a sudden thought struck him, and he asked Jeong-gu.
“What’s today’s abnormal weather?”
It varied by country.
Having come from Australia to Korea, the scheduled weather would have changed accordingly.
Jeong-gu answered promptly.
“Extreme cold, they said.”
「Note: Tonight’s weather is extreme cold.」
「Beware of freezing and ruptures.」
The Republic of Korea’s sixth abnormal weather: extreme cold.
“Extreme cold? Why does that sound so familiar?”
Yeong-woo, who had been lying on the sofa trying to sleep, opened his eyes again and pulled up his equipment catalog.
Flash!
He soon found a necklace related to extreme cold in his accessories catalog.
「Hot Stone」 - Hero Necklace
【Ignores extreme cold.】
Fortunately, he had the ticket to enter tonight’s night dungeon.
“...What’s that?”
“Oh, looks like we can head to the dungeon without prepping extra gear.”
Yeong-woo said this and closed his eyes again.
All while thinking about the potentially ‘radical’ events that might unfold starting tomorrow.
‘The brothers will struggle with the abnormal weather too, so no night work. Construction resumes in the morning.’
And since they’d be starting construction here, the other two factions might be up to something as well.
Lemu and Mara, that is.
‘We’re building a road... what are the other two doing? Which of them is Im Du-pyeong’s backer?’
As Yeong-woo pondered the weight of being a ‘First Sword,’ his consciousness slowly sank to the floor.
And then.
“......”
Right before Jeong-gu’s eyes, he fell completely asleep.
Snore.
As Yeong-woo began snoring loudly, Jeong-gu left the living room for a moment and headed to the bedroom.
There, Seo-ok and her children, who had been watching TV, turned their heads toward him.
“Ma’am, everything alright?”
Glancing at the TV as he asked, Seo-ok nodded.
“Watching them work.”
“Work? Oh.”
Properly checking the TV at her words, Jeong-gu saw the four returnees now laboring away.
“That’s...”
“A bow figurehead, apparently. A really big one.”
Though Seo-ok kindly explained, the reason Jeong-gu tilted his head wasn’t because the four were assembling a bow figurehead.
“That’s... my son’s face, isn’t it?”
Only parts like part of the brow, the right eye, and about 30% of the lips were assembled separately and scattered around the room, but Jeong-gu recognized it.
Put them together properly, and it would be Jeong Yeong-woo’s face.
“Huh? That’s Yeong-woo’s face?”
“Yeah. Take a good look. If you attach this and that, and fill in the middle just right...”
“Oh my, it kinda does look like it?”
Seo-ok still seemed half-doubting, but Jeong-gu was certain.
‘What the hell are these guys making...?’
On top of that, only the face was partially sculpted; the bow figurehead’s torso was nearly complete.
The body of a man drawing a sword and pointing forward.
The armor draped over it differed greatly from Yeong-woo’s current look, but Jeong-gu was still sure.
‘That’s Yeong-woo. But why use a model of Yeong-woo for a bow figurehead?’
As Jeong-gu eyed the screen with full suspicion, the four people on it busily carried pieces of the bow figurehead.
And finally.
“Huh.”
A short sound came from behind Jeong-gu.
“Huh...?”
Turning around, he saw Yeong-woo staring at the TV with half-lidded eyes.
The guy had taken a short nap and woken up.
“What, when did you get up?”
“Just now. We can’t be late for the dungeon, right?”
Sure enough, quite some time had passed, and the room’s wall clock now read 10:54 p.m.
Six minutes until the abnormal weather and night dungeon began.
“Then, take a look at that. Isn’t that your face?”
“Dunno. Hard to say.”
Yeong-woo scratched his chin with an indifferent expression.
Then he tilted his head once more and said this.
“No matter how I look at it, that’s our chairman’s armor.”
* * *
11:00 p.m. sharp.
「[Abnormal Weather] Extreme Cold now generating.」
A blizzard began raging outside the room’s glass window, and Yeong-woo prepared to head out.
Of course, the mystery of that ‘bow figurehead’ from earlier remained unsolved.
“Why’s that bow figurehead wearing your chairman’s armor?”
“No idea. Most of my assets come from the company, so maybe it’s to commemorate him...”
“But why stick your face on it?”
“That armor’s his signature, and he basically is the company, so they dressed it up like a uniform or something.”
Yeong-woo had nothing more to add.
Because crucially, that bow figurehead hadn’t come from Dogō—it had been provided by another arms company, Toma.
The pan-galactic arms manufacturer ranked third on the planetary development risk list.
[Risky Company List]
*Ranked by companies with histories unfit for planetary development.
1-Dogō
2-Kwaya’s Hammer
3-Toma
4-Hexagon Society
5-Serium
And given his direct ties to two of the five companies on that risky list, it was an objective fact that even Yeong-woo himself wasn’t walking a straight path.
‘But what choice is there? Can a single human protect a planet just by staying righteous?’
Sheathing the ‘bastard child,’ Yeong-woo stood up.
“I’m heading out for now. Dad, keep watching how that bow figurehead turns out.”
With that, Yeong-woo opened the room’s door, and Jeong-gu, gazing at the blizzard outside, asked.
“Where you clocking out tonight? Coming back here?”
He said it knowing the orcs had built a suspicious road for his son.
Now, this kid could leave this land in the blink of an eye if he wanted.
For some reason, that made Jeong-gu feel a twinge of fear.
Everything, all the changes, were happening far too rapidly.
“Hey, mutants are people at their core too. Got it?”
“Huh?”
“No matter what you’re up to out there, act like a human.”
“Why curse me out of nowhere?”
Yeong-woo’s brow furrowed.
Even so, he turned back briefly, gave a light wave, and bid Jeong-gu farewell.
“I’ll probably clock out here if I can. Bridge isn’t fully built yet.”
* * *
11:11 p.m.
Leaving Gangnam, Yeong-woo raced across Cheongdam Bridge toward Gwangjin District, as always.
Plowing through a blizzard so thick it was nearly impossible to see ahead.
“Man, couldn’t it just be cold? Did they have to make snow fly like this too?”
As Yeong-woo grumbled, the golden goblin hiding under his cloak from the snow let out an agreeing grunt.
-Kit!
Meanwhile, Popu Tenta seemed fascinated by the falling snow, deliberately sitting at the rear edge of the back seat and swatting at snowflakes with both arms.
-Bat...!
“What, no snow on your planet?”
Every planet had wildly different climates, after all.
And unlike the goblin, this one didn’t seem too bothered by the cold.
Yet it was seeing snow for the first time.
Crunch, crunch!
By then, Negigga had crossed Cheongdam Bridge and reached Gwangjin District.
A district turned to ruins long ago, now serving as Yeong-woo’s duel arena with the dragonkin.
Also, every night.
“Time to pull it out.”
It doubled as the summoning zone for night dungeons where the world’s top martial artists gathered.
-Kikkit!
Soon, the golden goblin opened the subspace pouch and retrieved the golden orb.
Swoosh.
The orb immediately turned pitch black, losing its original luster.
“......”
A phenomenon that never failed to look eerie, no matter how many times seen.
Halt!
Yeong-woo stopped Negigga, landed on the ground, and confirmed no one was around.
Then.
Thud.
He placed his hand on the black orb the goblin had set down.
Fwaaaah!
As always, gray waves spread out from the orb.
The entire area’s colors shifted to gray, and the abnormal weather ceased instantly.
-Kii...
-...Bat.
The goblin flattened its pointed ears, and Popu Tenta narrowed its large eyes, both tensing up.
But nothing else happened after that.
Just the occasional sound of Negigga pawing the ground in the gray stillness.
So as Yeong-woo scanned the surroundings again.
“What, where’s the dungeon...”
Fwaaaaah!
A sharp whoosh came from high above, through the thick gray fog.
Something was coming down.
“Falling from above this time?”
Having seen all sorts of dungeon entrances by now, Yeong-woo wasn’t too surprised.
But.
Boom!
When he saw the dungeon entrance that had landed right nearby, his jaw dropped in shock.
Because.
“Wha?”
What had fallen from the sky was in the shape of a massive anchor.
“No way, it can’t be, right?”
Muttering incoherently, Yeong-woo hurried over to the anchor.
When he got within about five meters, a hologram text finally appeared.
Flash!
◇ Upon waking in his bedroom, Dogō saw it filled with assassins.
Dogō thus commanded:
【Do you lot not know manners? You’re too few in number—bring more.】
But the immoral ones did not heed him, and the next day, they were executed at his bedside. An unavoidable affair.
“W-what the hell is this...?”
Stunned by the never-before-seen phrasing, Yeong-woo stared blankly until the dungeon interface appeared.
[Moral Lecture]
| Dungeon Grade: Ancient
| Difficulty: B
| Required Personnel: 8
| Recommended Personnel: 16
The first Ancient-grade dungeon since the Reset.
But the problem was.
‘The... chairman made this dungeon?’
As Yeong-woo stood there dumbfounded, another never-before-seen notice appeared.
「No equipment of any kind may be used in this dungeon.」