Chapter 303
Chapter 303
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 303
Chapter Title: 69. Successor (2)
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Sightseeing in Seoul.
Youngwoo had Bang Daehyeop ride in the back seat of Neugig and raced down the elevated highway his brothers had built, swift as light.
Vwooom!
Their destination was Seoul... no, Dogu Special City, Metal Seoul.
"Is this your first time in Seoul?"
Youngwoo glanced back as he asked, and Bang Daehyeop looked down at the Australian continent, already receding into the distance.
-Leaving the autonomous territory is a first for me.
Of course. Until now, the Red Foot Orcs had been busy conquering northern Australia, and right after the Pangea incident fused the lands, they had met the demon Jeong Youngwoo.
So, the only place they'd seen on Earth was Australia's wasteland.
Sure, the brothers who built the travel route themselves had seen parts of the planet from the sky...
'But they've become stars now, so they can't share their impressions of this planet.'
Youngwoo shifted his gaze below the highway, revealing the landscape of the southern Korean Peninsula.
Bang Daehyeop, who had been gazing at the peninsula alongside him, cautiously asked,
-Little Foot.
"Yes."
-How many humans are there?
"...Who knows."
Youngwoo stroked his chin at the tough question.
"There were about eight billion before the Reset exploded..."
-Eight billion?
The number far exceeded his expectations, leaving Bang Daehyeop's eyes and mouth agape.
"Yes. Of course, that's pre-Reset, so it's much less now."
Through the disappearance vote where the masses judged the 'imbalanced' world, countless people vanished or mutated, but in population terms, it was probably a tiny fraction.
Youngwoo figured the procedure that truly culled the most people was likely the 'individual filtration.'
The second step, where the masses turned on each other.
That must have halved Earth's population, which in turn halved the planet's Reset resistance.
Starting the Reset with only half the original population meant half the karma that should have been unleashed on Earth.
And with the population—meaning the fighting force—also halved, the odds of unparalleled heroes, villains, and demons emerging were cut in half too.
"Probably right when the Reset kicked off, the population got sliced in half. Then that half, totally unprepared, ran into the monsters and mutants..."
As he explained how the already halved population got halved again on day one, Bang Daehyeop tilted his head.
-The concept of mutants is still hard to grasp.
"......?"
This implied he understood the other concepts, so Youngwoo had to ask.
"Then you get the Reset and monsters?"
-The idea that humans indiscriminately judged their own kind is hard to believe. But...
Bang Daehyeop trailed off and stared silently at Youngwoo.
-It could be possible.
He went on to say that his home planet of the Red Foot Orcs had gone through something similar to the Reset, though the process differed somewhat.
-One day, we received word that our planet's fate had reached its final chapter.
"The final chapter of fate...?"
Youngwoo perked up his ears.
It was his first time hearing Bang Daehyeop and his brothers' story.
-To continue our fate, we had to prove our worth through struggle. For us, struggle is life itself. It wasn't hard to accept.
But he added that the ordeal was beyond imagination.
-We voted too.
"What kind of vote?"
-We could choose our own opponent to prove ourselves against.
"...Ah."
Youngwoo finally understood.
In other words, it was a Reset tailored perfectly for the Red Foot Orcs.
'Does each planet—or each race—have its own way of being tested?'
Maybe this 'Reset' was just one type among many trials.
For Earth’s humans, it happened to be the Reset.
"So, you chose Mara as your struggle opponent."
-The word describing it was the most wicked. I voted for Mara myself, certain everyone else thought the same.
"......"
It was such a quintessentially Red Foot way of thinking.
If you had to fight someone anyway, why not unite against the wickedest candidate?
But the price...
'They became cosmic refugees. Thrown onto another race's planet as monsters, no less.'
So, all the other monsters he'd been farming until now—were they like the Red Foot Orcs, natives of some planet?
'Probably.'
From the heavily armored goblins on Reset day one to the wyverns, they were all likely refugees fleeing their homeworlds in search of new homes.
"If each planet passes its trial safely... what happens then?"
Youngwoo asked vaguely, but Bang Daehyeop shook his head.
-We are those who lost our home. How could you ask us?
He placed his blunt fingers on Youngwoo's shoulder.
Thud.
-But now Aratubank is in your hands. The holy relic we preserved through failure. So you won't fail.
"...Bang Daehyeop."
-Coming to the land of those who haven't failed yet may be fate's call.
Grip.
With those words, Bang Daehyeop squeezed Youngwoo's shoulder tight.
"......"
Feeling so many emotions in his grip, Youngwoo couldn't bring himself to look back.
-Protect this planet, Little Foot! Only if you don't fail can we build a new great city in Darwin.
It meant the Red Foot Orcs' new home could only be Earth.
So Earth had to succeed for them to have a future.
"Guess there's no choice—we'll have to find out firsthand what happens if we pass the Reset."
The moment Youngwoo said that, the scenery below suddenly grew dense and heavy.
-......!
It was the start of Metal Seoul, the steel capital boasting the Korean Peninsula's pride—no, Youngwoo's pride.
-Little Foot! Turn around! I think we took a wrong turn!
Bang Daehyeop freaked out at the steel-clad city and shouted, but Youngwoo grinned wickedly.
"Haha! Bang Daehyeop, that's Seoul—the future capital of Earth."
-W-What? That demonic realm...
The wicked Little Foot's nest, Seoul.
"No laser cannons installed yet, so no getting shot down. Relax."
As Youngwoo said this and sped toward the tower in Jongno-gu where the Victory Monument stood, Bang Daehyeop, his pupils still dilated wide, spoke.
-Humans really live here?
"Of course. The folks there are probably pretty shocked too..."
Soon, they arrived at the Jongno-gu station he'd set as destination, and the open outer wall at the tower's top sealed shut behind the road.
"There's a saying on Earth: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together."
Youngwoo operated the tower's descent mechanism and instructed Bang Daehyeop.
"Let's go far together. Invest all your disposition records into this planet."
* * *
Sajikdan in Sajik-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
A crowd still gathered before the Victory Monument erected at Korea's ancient cultural heritage site.
So when Greatest Sword Jeong Youngwoo arrived with Orc Lord Bangtubangtung aboard Neugig, everyone doubted their eyes and screamed.
"An o-orc!"
"He really brought a real orc...?"
Youngwoo had mentioned Australia's Orc Autonomous Territory in his 'business presentation,' but no one dreamed he'd bring one straight to Seoul.
-Humans are plentiful here.
In Australia, Youngwoo was the only human among thousands of orcs, but in Seoul, Bangtubangtung was the lone orc amid a sea of humans.
Even Bang Daehyeop couldn't help feeling psychologically dwarfed, and knowing this well, Youngwoo stepped out of Neugig first and extended a hand to him.
"Take my hand. Once they see I respect you, Bang Daehyeop, they won't dare act rashly."
Bang Daehyeop cleared his throat awkwardly, then grabbed Youngwoo's hand and leaped from Neugig.
Clank!
As his iron boots touched Seoul soil for the first time, the surrounding crowd recoiled en masse.
"W-What..."
"He's huge!"
Standing on two feet, they finally realized Bang Daehyeop was even bigger than Youngwoo.
Youngwoo addressed the crowd.
"This is Bangtubangtung, lord of Australia's Red Foot Autonomous Territory. He's here to donate glory points to the monument for Seoul's eternal prosperity—and Earth's rise in status."
He extended his left arm toward the monument as escort, and Bang Daehyeop followed with a reluctant expression.
-At least here, act normal.
"It's a kind of domestic mode. These people aren't just my kin—they're my fellow countrymen."
-Fellow countrymen?
Bang Daehyeop looked puzzled.
To Red Foot Orcs, who lumped all kin as 'brothers,' the idea of extra attachment to countrymen among kin was foreign.
So Youngwoo gave another example.
"I'm a Red Foot too, but not a 'real' one, right? Didn't the Aratubank incident prove that? Earth’s the same. Even among humans, true allies are separate."
-Complicated.
"If you don't get it, just boost the glory points and go."
As Youngwoo pointed to the now-arrived monument, Bang Daehyeop looked up at the two towering pillars piercing the sky.
-How do you use this?
As he touched the monument's surface, his pupils lit up.
He'd connected to the Victory Monument's interface.
"You get the usage now. How many records can you register?"
Youngwoo asked, but Bang Daehyeop said nothing.
"No way... none?"
Possible.
Legendary disposition records depended on the target's stature.
The system had to recognize them as 'legendary beings'—at least historically significant on a planetary scale or void-dwelling dragon level.
So it wasn't surprising if Bang Daehyeop, robbed of his homeworld by the Devourer, lacked impressive feats...
-How many do you need?
"Pardon?"
Youngwoo froze at the sudden question and stared at him.
"What did you say?"
-The disposition records you mentioned. How many in total do you need?
"Oh, that."
Earth's current promotion required 635 glory points.
So, 7 Earth disposition records or 4 offworld ones.
'I already have 2 offworld ones, so just 2 more alien kills would do.'
Youngwoo nearly blurted '2' but clamped his mouth shut at the last second.
'Hold on.'
What if the orc had a massive haul?
He blinked rapidly, staring at Bang Daehyeop.
"Bang Daehyeop, I'm not sure. We'd have to plug them in to know exactly... How many do you have right now?"
Red Foot Orc Lord Bangtubangtung replied with a steadfast expression.
-Little Foot, here we go again.
"......!"
Just like Youngwoo had done in front of Neugig earlier, Bangtubangtung extended his hand.
Swish.
-Respect me, us, as you said. Why volunteer to be a swindler?
"...Ah."
Youngwoo felt ashamed.
-Speak the truth, from the heart. I'll do the same. Always have.
Youngwoo clasped Bang Daehyeop's hand.
"Bang Daehyeop! I was gonna lie and say 2! Truth is, I want way more! Can you donate everything you've got...?"
-......?
This was some curveball—no, devil ball.
Even truth-telling Bang Daehyeop faltered, and Youngwoo, sensing it, gripped the orc's hand with both of his.
Squeeze!
"Bang Daehyeop, you can say it now. How many disposition records? You'll tell the straight truth, right? Like always!"
-......
Bang Daehyeop swallowed heavily and looked skyward.
Not at the towering monument, but toward his distant home planet somewhere above.
-14.
"...Pardon?"
-I have 14 disposition records. Records of our great ancestors.