Chapter 287
Chapter 287
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 287
Chapter Title: 65. Clear Autumn Ripples (3)
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“Hoo, so it’s Jeong the Great Hero.”
Yeongwoo reread the letter from Im Dupyeong with an intrigued expression.
There wasn’t much content, but the phrase “skyscraper” caught his eye.
‘Skyscraper... Does he mean the path my brothers have embroidered across the sky?’
As Yeongwoo looked up at the sky while holding the letter, Hwang Seongri approached and asked,
“What is it? Was that just now...?”
“Im Dupyeong wants to meet.”
“...What?”
Hwang Seongri snatched the letter with an incredulous look, then gaped in shock.
“This bastard really has no pride?”
She was referring to how Im Dupyeong had used honorific language in the letter.
“It’s not that he has no pride—he might just read the flow of the times well.”
Yeongwoo was just as baffled, but he was also genuinely impressed in a way.
After all, for a former national chairman to humbly request an audience with a mere commoner—and a foreigner at that—was no easy feat.
Trap or not, it was clear Im Dupyeong was no ordinary man.
“You’re not seriously planning to go and buddy up with that guy, are you?”
Hwang Seongri, having already sized up the “Greatest Sword” tendencies, glared at Yeongwoo fiercely.
Yeongwoo rubbed his nose bridge with his index finger.
“Who knows. He needs China’s money just as much as I do, so coexistence might be tricky. Unless we’re forced into cooperation.”
“You said you could definitely beat Im Dupyeong, right? Then there’s no situation where allying with him is inevitable.”
“Yes, that’s true, but...”
But was there really such a thing as “absolute” in this world?
You never knew what the world might throw at you.
Especially in this post-Reset world.
“Anyway, Im Dupyeong will die with very high probability, and no matter what, Tongliao will never fall back under Chinese government control.”
Having made the strongest promise he could, Yeongwoo sent the golden goblin to fetch the ten million karma the citizens had prepared.
“Now you just need to prepare the remaining forty million, plus the fifty million daily from now on—for a total of ninety million by tomorrow.”
“Ninety... million...?”
Hearing the amount directly made it feel staggeringly huge, so Tongwon First Sword and Third Sword rushed over in a panic.
Tatatak!
“Hey! No, Great Hero Jeong!”
“Ninety million? Isn’t that too harsh?”
Ninety million karma by tomorrow.
Of course, if the Tongwon Three Swords actively rained down golden coins, it was far from an impossible sum.
“Think of it as a tribute...”
Just as Yeongwoo was about to bring up the Tongwon Three Swords’ karma debt,
Plop!
Suddenly, the citizens surrounding the group all dropped to their knees en masse, looking up at Yeongwoo.
“Great Hero Jeong!”
“Great Hero! Please show mercy...!”
“It’s too harsh!”
Yeongwoo looked at them in surprise.
‘Ah, so you can get called Great Hero without even tugging at their heartstrings!’
As long as you moved people in some way, the title would come.
“Ah... everyone.”
Yeongwoo put on a moved expression.
Then he spread his hands toward the citizens who were on the verge of tears over the harsh demand.
Flash!
“Nothing to be done. The masters of a nation are its people, are they not? Though China isn’t my country, I won’t take your will lightly.”
He held up four fingers and continued.
“From tomorrow, Tongliao’s daily tribute is forty million. But you’ll pay the original amount for today, so prepare eighty million by tomorrow.”
“Tha...!”
Tongwon First Sword Jeong Chosan tried to object, but Hwang Seongri held him back.
She had a gut feeling that provoking the demon further might turn eighty million into a hundred.
“Fine. Forty million—we can manage that somehow.”
As Hwang Seongri nodded, Yeongwoo pointed upward with his finger.
“When mutants appear, lure them to densely populated areas, deal with them, and choose the thirty-thousand-karma supply option. That’ll cover the tribute easily.”
With that, Yeongwoo summoned Negig.
He’d finished everything he needed to do in Tongliao, so now it was time to meet Im Dupyeong as per the letter.
-Kweeeek!
Spotting Yeongwoo’s signal, Negig slammed its iron hooves into Tongliao’s ground. Hwang Seongri hurried over and pleaded with him.
“Don’t let Im Dupyeong live. He’ll be a future disaster—at the very least, a huge problem for our city.”
“It depends on what kind of man he is and his situation. For now, I can only say I’ll try to kill him if possible.”
Yeongwoo avoided a firm commitment to the end.
Nothing seemed certain at a glance.
Sure, the Politburo Standing Committee members were dropping like flies, but was that the only reason Im Dupyeong had initiated contact?
‘Of course, there’s a good chance it’s not a real talk. The letter didn’t say anything about chatting casually, did it?’
Whatever the case, he wouldn’t know until he met the man in person.
It was an early meeting, but not a bad situation for Yeongwoo.
There were already several major events expected today, even without Im Dupyeong.
Right now, another dragon was highly likely to crash in Seoul.
And among those possibilities was his mother, who might one day return as a dragon.
‘Always something new.’
Mutants returning daily due to Earthlings’ karma debts, and all sorts of bizarre incidents from the planet opening post-Reset.
In these cosmic upheavals, it was only natural that those standing out were mostly demon-like figures.
‘Alright, time to sightsee Beijing.’
Finally, Yeongwoo mounted Negig, and Tongliao’s kneeling citizens rose in unison once more.
They were genuinely thrilled to finally see the ogre-like bastard leave.
“Greaaat Heeeero Jeong!”
“Go safely...!”
“Farewell!”
Just like Yeongwoo bidding farewell to Chairman Dogon, Tongliao’s citizens waved into the air, saying goodbye to the Korean Peninsula’s Greatest Sword.
Swoosh.
Yeongwoo raised his hand in response, then leaped into the brothers’ tower with Negig.
Boom!
As before, brilliant light enveloped the tower’s interior, shooting Yeongwoo along the path of light.
* * *
Beijing.
China’s capital, and the problematic city Im Dupyeong had made his base after the Reset.
Pre-Reset population: about 21.4 million—the most populous “capital” on Earth.
That spoke to China’s massive population.
And that meant enormous potential capital on this land.
Excluding daily quests, a single person could generate at least thirty thousand karma per day.
‘Of course, that requires at least one powerhouse capable of handling mutants in each city.’
That was why Yeongwoo avoided killing off each city’s martial artists as much as possible.
‘But that alone isn’t enough.’
Atop the tower, Yeongwoo pondered while projecting the high-speed transit route.
‘Can’t I legally claim all this land’s money for myself?’
Like the defense tax he collected via Korean Peninsula elected authority, for instance.
Defense tax had no delivery issues or delinquency risks.
So if he could extract defense tax from China too...
“Hmm.”
Yeongwoo eyed Beijing, boldly marked to the west on the route.
Currently about 640 kilometers straight-line from Tongliao.
In the old days, he wouldn’t have dreamed of heading to Beijing at this point.
Mutants hadn’t yet appeared in Seoul, so visiting Beijing would leave Seoul unguarded all day.
But now it was different.
‘Once the roads are fully laid, there’s nowhere on this planet I can’t reach.’
Mobility was one reason Mongol cavalry struck fear in the past.
In the early 1200s under Genghis Khan, Mongol horsemen ravaged from Jin Dynasty to Eastern Europe. Their greatest weapons: mobility and logistics.
Their advance outpaced enemy mobilization, and supplies came from local plunder—leaving foes helpless.
Add their battle-hardened skills from the Mongol unification wars, and the Mongols were practically a plague on humanity.
Just like Korean Peninsula demon Jeong Yeongwoo, operating with impeccably unpredictable preparation.
“Go! To Beijing!”
Yeongwoo jabbed Beijing on the route. The tower’s top wall opened, revealing the sky hundreds of meters up—and the brothers’ path stitched across it.
-Kweeeee!
Negig, knowing the path’s meaning, reared its forelegs high and let out a long cry.
Yeongwoo gripped the iron horse’s reins and shouted skyward.
“Lunch today—in Beijing...!”
Then he plunged into the sky with Negig.
Taat!
The high-speed transit sucked in Yeongwoo, Negig, the golden goblin, and even Popu Tenta, hurling them toward the next station.
Piaaa!
Then to the next point at hyperspeed.
Revolutionary mobility.
‘Already near Beijing? No way.’
As he neared the destination, an alarm pinged even for Yeongwoo in his high-density energy state.
The route reactivated, highlighting his position and Beijing.
Moments later.
Paaaa!
The illusory scenery sharpened into reality.
‘Almost there.’
Speed slowing as he approached, Beijing sprawled below the transit like a massive circuit board from 800 meters up.
“Uh... so where exactly do I go now?”
Yeongwoo zoomed his clairvoyance, scanning Beijing’s panorama.
First thing: crowds milling at the base of a distant tower.
“...?”
Looking closer, laborers were hammering the tower’s surface with metal tools.
They’d been persistently trying to demolish it, success or not.
‘A blessing in disguise. Means no Myth yet in Beijing.’
So where was Im Dupyeong, self-proclaimed master of this Beijing?
With the traitor stamp here, he’d know a dangerous guest had arrived in Beijing’s skies.
‘No choice but to land and see.’
Yeongwoo sighed, heading into Beijing’s station.
Zing!
A bizarre noise echoed from below.
Shwaak!
A chilling whoosh—and a laser beam struck the elevated road.
Precisely, Yeongwoo mid-transit, fused to the road.
Boom!
“Huh?”
Yeongwoo’s eyes widened at the unexpected ambush, but that wasn’t the issue.
The impact had flung his body off the road.
-Babam!
-Kek?
Shocked cries from Popu Tenta and the golden goblin echoed from the now-distant road above.
Then the sound repeated.
Zing!
“Im Duuuupyeong!”
This time pinpointing the source, Yeongwoo twisted mid-fall to glare at it.
There.
Shwaaaaak!
A crimson laser beam lanced from the Forbidden City in the distance.
‘Huh?’
More precisely, the entire palace reinforced with metal.
“...Metal Forbidden City?”
The moment Yeongwoo uttered the absurd phrase, the red laser engulfed him.