Chapter 313
Chapter 313
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 313
Chapter Title: 70. Prestigious Family (5)
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“Oh, you’re finally coming to your senses.”
Ji-seon Song, who had been mulling over the thank-you gift issue for the subcontracted work, lit up with joy upon seeing her son reappear from the south.
Even if he was an orphan brat, it didn’t make sense for him to persecute the mother he’d barely obtained.
He must have left but felt bad about it and come back.
“Yeah. It could be a one-time mistake.”
Just as Ji-seon was steeling herself with resolve to forgive her son’s rudeness.
Thud!
Suddenly, an incredibly swift presence popped out from right behind her son.
“Huh…?”
Someone who looked even younger than the problem child in question was boldly pointing a finger at her and charging straight ahead.
Thud thud!
The movements were no joke.
Ji-seon was still in her dragon form, with her head positioned about a hundred meters up in the sky.
From her vantage point, the approaching figure looked like a tiny dot, yet she could feel it moving at an astonishing speed.
An unexpectedly formidable opponent had appeared out of nowhere.
“What…?”
Ji-seon’s gaze naturally shifted to her son, who was running behind the uninvited guest.
He was glancing her way while saying something to the young spear-wielder.
And then.
“…!”
Whoosh!
The blue-haired kid menacingly raised his spear and picked up even more speed.
There was clear fighting spirit in his movements.
He was coming to fight.
“You little bastard?”
Realizing too late that her son had sent an assassin, Ji-seon’s entire body glowed blue.
Her blue blood was boiling within.
“You worm!”
As the ‘Iron-Blooded Empress,’ Ice Dragon Ji-seon Song opened her maw wide and let out a roar, Ye-chan Kang—who had unwittingly ended up in Seoul’s battle for second-in-command—went wide-eyed.
The inner energy emanating from her voice was anything but ordinary.
“Wh-what the hell? That thing’s really a mutated being?”
And it was no wonder he thought that. The ice dragon before him was on a completely different scale from any mutated being he’d encountered.
All the mutated beings he’d faced so far had been at most ten meters tall, but this dragon’s base unit started at a hundred meters.
“Die!”
Soon, Ji-seon exhaled a long breath toward the south, unleashing a torrent of sharp blue ice shards like a tidal wave.
Kwaaaa…!
Ye-chan maxed out his mobility output and urgently dodged to the side.
Flash!
“Is this for real? Is Seoul always like this?”
Ye-chan swallowed hard as he saw massive ice chunks embed themselves right where he’d been standing moments ago.
He was certain that taking even one of those shards to the body would mean instant death.
‘Still, if I can just get close…!’
Ye-chan’s eyes lit up again.
He’d definitely run into a far tougher opponent than expected, but backing down now would wound his pride.
Besides, the uncle was watching plainly from behind.
This was his first public fight since arriving in Seoul.
He’d gone around calling himself the Gyeongbuk First Spear—failing to take down even one mutated being would be unacceptable.
Thud!
Ye-chan gripped his spear tight and unleashed pitch-black flames from his entire body.
Fwoosh!
This was the effect from the legendary-grade spear he favored most, ‘Shadowless’.
【Shadowless】 - Legendary Spear
【Incarnation of Lumoah】
|Transform into a black flame demon to gain powerful piercing attacks, and all combat abilities increase by 15%.
Unlike Yeong-woo Jeong, who had started roaming the central and southern regions early on and dealt with all sorts of merchants, Ye-chan had once met a gambler who traded items via a card game.
Flip stone tablets to guess numbers from 1 to 9 three times in a row correctly to take the desired item, or lose a million karma if you failed—that was the deal. Ye-chan succeeded in just eleven tries and obtained the legendary spear ‘Shadowless’.
It required insane luck or massive capital, but this world did have ways to acquire even legendary gear.
On top of that, there were the ‘Martial Lord’ achievements unlocked by consecutively slaying mutated beings without a First Sword title, and thanks to those, Ye-chan currently possessed three pieces of legendary equipment.
In other words, just as Yeong-woo had predicted, Ye-chan was practically the strongest within ‘standard specs,’ and that allowed him to.
Kwagwagwa!
Dodge every bit of the ice dragon’s insane breath attack and close in near her front paw.
Finally, he’d brought the massive monster into his striking range, just as he’d hoped.
‘It’s over now! I’m confident in close quarters!’
As Ye-chan, victory assured, targeted the ice dragon’s front paw now right in front of him, Ji-seon—who had reflexively been about to unleash her ice aura—froze for a moment.
“Damn it.”
It was because humans still recovering from the Gwangjin District incident lay nearby.
The First Swords who were supposed to pay her way to space, according to them.
And in that moment of hesitation.
Screeech!
Ye-chan’s spear blade thrust toward her front paw.
“Hup!”
A legendary spear’s attack, no less.
It might not compare to Yeong-woo’s mythic demon sword, but it was plenty threatening.
Crunch!
In fact, the spear tip cracked Ji-seon’s scales and burrowed inside.
“Th…!”
For Ji-seon, it was just a slight sting, but the very fact that the enemy’s attack had landed was deeply irritating.
First the crazy son, and now another semi-threatening foe had shown up.
“You insolent bastards, pushing your luck!”
In the end, Ji-seon’s temper flared again, and she released her dragon form.
Shoooo!
Her body, hundreds of meters long, transformed into a massive orb of light, forcing even the spirited Ye-chan to fall back.
And in that instant, the huge light compressed in the blink of an eye, forming a three-meter-tall grayish swordsman.
Ji-seon Song’s polymorph.
Less than an hour after returning to this world, she was already unleashing her true power for the second time.
“You punk, do you even know who I am?”
With her face hidden behind thick iron armor and long white hair whipping in the air, Ji-seon’s presence evoked the term ‘strongest’ on its own.
“Wh-who are you…?”
Overwhelmed by her extraordinary aura, the bold pup Ye-chan Kang instinctively pulled his spear shaft back a bit as he asked.
Ji-seon then pointed incredulously at the nameplate above her head.
“You really don’t know me? You’ve never heard of Song Ji-seon of Jin-hyeon Group?”
“…I-I know Jin-hyeon the company, but…”
No matter how much of a powerhouse Ye-chan was in the reset world, he’d been just an ordinary high schooler in the previous one.
So while he’d heard of Jin-hyeon Group, knowing the name of its chairwoman was another story.
“Is that so? Then I’ll make sure you learn.”
“Huh?”
Ye-chan, who had suddenly ended up crossing blades with an offended mega-corp chairwoman, turned around in bewilderment.
Swoosh.
There, in the distance, was the former orphan Jeong Yeong-woo, just standing there watching.
“Ye-chan! Eyes front! She’s coming at you!”
Wagging his finger and offering pointers, no less.
“Huh?”
The moment Ye-chan realized something was off.
Kwaaaaak!
Ji-seon’s massive greatsword tore through the air toward him.
“Gasp!”
He didn’t need to take the hit to feel her insane physical strength.
His bangs were already fluttering even before the blade reached him.
“Ugh!”
Ye-chan reflexively gripped his spear tight and raised his guard, just as the chaebol chairwoman’s merciless downward slash landed atop it.
“You rude little shit!”
Boom!
A resounding gong-like echo rang out, blue sparks flying from the center of Ye-chan’s spear shaft. At the same time, spiderweb cracks spiderwebbed across the ground beneath his feet.
Crack!
“……!”
An overwhelming strength he hadn’t felt in ages.
But Ye-chan was no longer the boy who trembled before heavily armored goblins.
Even now, he angled the spear shaft diagonally for a counterattack.
Clang!
As the greatsword atop the spear shifted along the slant, Ji-seon’s body naturally tilted, and Ye-chan—waiting for just this—launched his spear blade toward her neck.
“Raw strength all you got? Let me teach you a thing or two!”
Sensing victory, Ye-chan shouted boldly, only for Ji-seon to scoff from within her helmet.
“Talking about teaching me? That’s a new one.”
With that, she grabbed Ye-chan’s spear shaft with her left hand—which she’d kept free from the start.
Crunch!
Before the blade at its tip could reach her neck.
“Huh?”
Among mutated beings, none were this skilled in combat, so Ye-chan couldn’t help but be shocked.
First Swords got forced into fights to earn their titles, so they had some familiarity with battle—but mutated beings? No.
And this was proper gladiatorial combat with weapons.
Unless the chaebol chairwoman had trained in fencing or kendo as a hobby, how could she pull off maneuvers like this?
“H-how’d you block that?”
As Ye-chan stared in disbelief, Ji-seon pushed back his spear shaft purely with brute force and spoke.
Grind.
“Always assume your opponent has one more move up their sleeve, kid. Crises always come from the realm you least expect.”
This was essentially Ji-seon’s management philosophy, but with her superhuman physique now, it doubled as her combat doctrine.
Even when victory seemed certain, she focused on preparing for that unexpected final move.
“Ha.”
Ye-chan, who had truly learned a lesson, let out a deflated breath—only for a red flash to flicker at the edge of his vision.
“……?”
When Ye-chan turned to look, the red demonic energy of the bastard sword had already traced a long arc past him.
Kaaaaang!
Yeong-woo, who’d seemed to be spectating from afar, had suddenly hurled the bastard sword and jumped in.
“And when you smack them in the back of the head after their final move’s spent, that’s how you become the strongest.”
Yeong-woo declared proudly, extending his empty right hand. The bastard sword embedded in Ji-seon’s shoulder behind her quickly returned to him.
Splash, thud!
Ji-seon’s arm went slack, dropping the spear shaft from her grip, and Ye-chan didn’t miss the chance to hurriedly retreat.
“Wh-what just happened?”
As Ye-chan alternated glances between Ji-seon and Yeong-woo, Jeong Yeong-woo pointed at his mother with the sword tip.
“Say hello. It’s my mom.”
“Huh?”
Then the red blade spun to point at Ye-chan.
“Mom, this is my little bro Kang Ye-chan, who I owed a favor to back in the day. You’re not strangers anymore, so make yourselves at home.”
“What?”
Ji-seon, still not grasping the situation, let out a flustered breath from inside her helmet, and Yeong-woo continued.
“You’re now Seoul’s number two—no, Korean Peninsula’s number two.”
“……?”
Yeong-woo turned back to Ye-chan.
“Ye-chan, you lost to Mom, so you’re number three. Which means you’ll handle collections for us.”
“Uncle, what are you even saying…? Why do I have to do collections all of a sudden? And what exactly is that?”
As expected, Ye-chan showed resistance, so Yeong-woo pulled out the logic he’d prepared in advance.
“So, how’re you gonna atone for trying to kill my mom…?”
“Huuuh?”
Ye-chan’s pupils dilated to maximum size.
The shock stiffened his entire body, making it hard to even breathe.
He’d fallen into an enormous trap.
‘Th-this is Seoul…?’
Ye-chan looked at Ji-seon with fearful eyes.
The iron-armored chaebol chairwoman had been right.
Crises came from the unlikeliest places.