Chapter 312
Chapter 312
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 312
Chapter Title: 70. Prestigious Family (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘Hmm, having a capable subordinate really does make things convenient.’
After handing off the matter of return gifts for his mother to the chaebol chairman and fleeing to Gangnam, Yeongwoo was already gazing at the Coex building coming into view off in the distance.
‘Our house is fine for now. So where’s the mutant?’
The reason Yeongwoo had left, even subcontracting the return gift issue to the reclusive tycoon, was none other than the mutant in Gangnam.
If a mutant had appeared in Gwangjin District, then surely something had cropped up in Gangnam as well.
Yet contrary to expectations, there were no signs of a mutant anywhere in Gangnam District.
Blue pillars marking monsters dotted the area here and there, only to vanish one by one.
In other words, nothing had happened in Gangnam at all—the monster hunters were still going strong.
‘What’s going on? Does this make any sense?’
Tilting his head in confusion, Yeongwoo headed toward the entrance of the Parnass Hotel to link up with Tae-won’s group. Just then, Im Seon-ah, who had been waiting there, came out to greet him.
“Mayor……!”
“…….”
Watching Im Seon-ah, who had sorted out her own title without anyone asking, Yeongwoo made a sour face.
“Has my title already changed to mayor?”
“That’s what you actually are.”
“No, more importantly, what happened to the mutant? I’m a bit late to Gangnam because I was meeting my mother.”
“Mother……?”
The completely unexpected word left Im Seon-ah momentarily confused, her face twitching before she composed herself.
“Your mother is here?”
“Yeah, she is, but isn’t there something more urgent right now?”
The mutant.
What on earth had happened to Gangnam’s mutant?
The district’s First Sword had been away—there was no way it had just disappeared on its own.
Whoosh.
As Yeongwoo kept craning his neck this way and that in search of the mutant, Seon-ah glanced back cautiously and whispered.
“If you’re looking for the orb, it’s at Gyeonggi High School’s baseball field.”
“Gyeonggi High?”
Gyeonggi High School was a school up north a bit in Samseong-dong from here.
If the orb was there, that meant Gangnam’s mutant had already been dealt with.
“The golden orb is there? You’re sure?”
As Yeongwoo asked in disbelief, a tall man soon emerged from inside the hotel lobby behind Seon-ah.
Thud, thud.
“…Huh?”
It was none other than Kang Yechan, the self-proclaimed ‘Gyeongbuk’s Greatest Spear Wielder.’
The high schooler from the ruined world, standing two meters tall.
“What the—when did you get here?”
As Yeongwoo asked with a look of utter surprise, Yechan set down the bags in his hands onto the ground.
Clang!
It was the 8.6 million karma balance Yeongwoo had been set to receive in Busan.
“When? I got here ages ago. What have you been doing instead of checking on your own house, old man?”
With Yechan now exuding the aura of a true powerhouse as he confronted him, Yeongwoo flinched for a moment.
‘Uh… this might threaten Mother’s position as number two.’
Come to think of it, Yechan’s skills were insane.
He had taken on Japan’s top experts invading Busan all by himself.
“So you handled the mutant here?”
“Yeah. I saw the marker drop right as I arrived.”
“…Good thing.”
This Gangnam issue had been entirely Yeongwoo’s blunder, so he had nothing to say.
Still, Yechan arriving just in time was sheer luck for Gangnam’s residents.
“Anyway, take the money quick and show me around Seoul.”
As Yechan nudged the money bags with his toe, Yeongwoo looked troubled.
“You must’ve had a rough trip here, but it’s going to be tough right now.”
“…What?”
At the unexpected cold shoulder, the delight in Yechan’s eyes chilled over.
“Why? Got some VIP more important than me?”
“Ah.”
Yeongwoo smoothly followed up as if he’d said the right thing.
“An enormous guest.”
“……?”
“Mother’s here.”
“…Whose mother?”
“My mother.”
“Huh?”
Yechan’s face twisted comically in an instant.
“You’re an orphan, old man?”
“Regrettably, not anymore.”
“Wh-what? Does that mean I’m the only orphan now?”
Orphan solidarity shattered.
“No way.”
It was the moment Yechan’s world crumbled.
How could the top orphan success story, Uncle Yeongwoo, no longer be an orphan? It didn’t make sense.
“Uh… so where’s your mom?”
“In the neighborhood next door. Probably catching up with Dad right now.”
“You’ve got a dad now too?”
As Yechan unwittingly yelped, Yeongwoo waved a hand to calm him.
“Being an orphan might be better. Parents are what they are.”
With that, he picked up the money bags Yechan had set down and handed them to the goblin.
-Keeek!
The money Yechan brought was exactly 8.6 million karma in coins.
Flash!
* Available Karma: 12,779,605
* Available Defense Funds: 0
Thanks to this, Yeongwoo’s cash reserves were back in the ten-million range, but it still wasn’t satisfying.
He’d once held over 100 million, after all.
‘I need to collect from Bang Daehyeop soon. Gotta do some gear farming today too.’
With mutants just cleared, merchants would soon drop into various spots.
So he needed cash on hand for shopping.
And he had to prepare for all the taxes coming due today.
‘Come to think of it, now that I have both parents, no more tax deductions.’
The special reduction for single-parent households was a whopping 30%.
But now he had to give up that massive perk.
‘In this world, parents are luxury items.’
Of course, when it came to planetary equity competitions, paying more tax was actually advantageous, so it wasn’t a huge loss right now.
“Let’s move on for now.”
“Huh, where to?”
“Gwangjin District, then Sajik Altar. Some massive guests are arriving there soon.”
“Guests even bigger than parents?”
“…Pretty much.”
Such was the weight on Metal Seoul’s mayor.
Clank!
As Yeongwoo climbed back onto Neguig, Yechan eyed the otherworldly iron horse with deep unease.
“Me too?”
“Obviously. You faster than this thing?”
“Three times faster than you think.”
“What?”
Knowing Yechan wasn’t the type for lame jokes, Yeongwoo just blinked.
‘Wait… come to think of it… this guy came from Busan.’
He finally pieced together Yechan’s mystery.
It was just past 1 p.m., and starting from Busan, Yechan was already here in Seoul.
‘The Path of Vengeance is just me and my brothers.’
He hadn’t registered any additional users for the ultra-high-speed lanes yet.
In other words, Yechan had crossed that insane distance on foot before noon.
“How are you that fast? Wearing like ten pairs of speed boots?”
No matter how much farming he’d done, Yechan couldn’t possibly have a gear codex, so how…? Yeongwoo trailed off with a groan as he spotted the guy’s hands.
“Totally insane.”
Sure enough, Yechan had rings on every finger.
Plus four or five bracelets per arm, looking like some exotic flying carpet merchant.
‘Without a codex, you end up like that, huh.’
It meant a lot.
No matter how much karma you amassed, without breaking through ceilings via gear codexes and such, your growth had limits.
Sure, stats could keep rising, but raw high stats alone couldn’t surpass codex users benefiting from hundreds of gear effects.
“Why don’t you have any gear, old man?”
Catching Yeongwoo’s gaze, Yechan’s eyes widened as he asked.
But Yeongwoo couldn’t reveal that he could infinitely store certain gear types and still get all their effects.
How shocked would Yechan be?
“I’ll… tell you later.”
Swish.
Yeongwoo’s head turned north.
“First things first. VIPs arrive soon.”
* * *
After heading to Gyeonggi High to retrieve the golden orb, they moved to Gwangjin District.
For First Sword level, it was too short a distance to bother with lanes, but the trip was profoundly impressive.
Tata-tat!
Heartbreakingly, Yechan’s mobility wearing ten rings was beyond imagination.
‘What the hell? He’s a total monster now?’
Racing neck-and-neck with Neguig all the way to Gwangjin, Yechan seemed to embody the pinnacle of ‘standard’ human capability.
‘No way… how is everyone around me such an outlier?’
As Yeongwoo stared in disbelief, Yechan grinned.
“How is it? Impressive, right?”
“Yeah. I admit it. Insanely so.”
And Yeongwoo felt sorry again.
Wondering what Yechan would think upon learning about the ultra-high-speed lanes.
‘No… actually, maybe I can use this guy as my collector? For intercontinental stuff, make him use lanes, and with his speed, tracking deadbeats would be instant.’
The late Im Du-pyeong’s collectors were slow, always getting robbed by bandits on the peninsula, but this would be different.
Barring some alien vanguard outliers on Earth, Yechan was the strongest human.
No chance of force issues leading to unpaid debts, and mobility was a given.
“Yechan, have you ever thought about…….”
As Yeongwoo finished his calculations and moved to offer the job—
“Whoa!”
Spotting something ahead, Yechan jolted in shock, mouth agape.
“Old man! There’s a massive dragon over there……!”
He’d finally spotted the ice dragon, Song Ji-seon.
So Yeongwoo shrugged and pointed at his mother with one finger.
“Yeah, that’s…….”
“What are you doing? Get ready to fight! That bastard’s already seen us!”
“What?”
Before Yeongwoo could add anything, Yechan surged ahead with his signature speed.
Taaa!
“Y-Yechan! That one is……!”
Yeongwoo hurriedly tried to reveal the dragon’s identity, then closed his mouth.
Out of curiosity.
Yechan was currently the strongest ‘purebred’ human.
In other words, the proper top dog of the reset world.
And while Mother was an off-spec mutant, she was still a legitimate threat returned via proper channels.
‘So, who wins if they fight?’
In a way, this duel was what history should have produced.
Instead of revealing his opponent was his mother, Yeongwoo shouted:
“Yechan! Be careful! Looks insanely strong! Doesn’t seem like a normal mutant!”
And so, the battle for Seoul’s vice-mayor began.