Chapter 314
Chapter 314
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 314
Chapter Title: 70. Prestigious Family (6)
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“What’s a collection team? And why do we need one?”
Collection team.
Even Song Ji-seon showed curiosity at the highly unique term.
In response, Young-woo gazed into the distance beyond Gwangjin-gu with distant eyes and said,
“It’s because I’m not yet the master of this planet. I can’t automatically collect taxes from other countries. It’s truly regrettable.”
Song Ji-seon tilted her head and asked back.
“What are you talking about? Does that mean you’re manually collecting taxes from other countries?”
“Something like that. Though it’s more like alliance fees than taxes right now.”
When he explained that he had to send people to various cities in China he’d successfully “convinced” so far to collect money, Song Ji-seon made a gesture as if it was absurd.
“What nonsense is that? China’s so vast—do you really send people one by one to collect money?”
“That’s why we built the highways.”
“Huh...? Highways? In China?”
“No, across the entire world.”
“Wha...?”
As his mother hesitated, seemingly unable to easily believe the claim, Young-woo picked up the bastard sword and pointed to a “tower” embedded in Gwangjin-gu.
“That’s our highway. My sworn brothers, the Red-Footed Orcs, built it for us.”
No doubt, at this very moment, that highway was still under construction.
His brothers were probably crossing Europe by now, paving roads somewhere in Africa.
“Orcs... are building highways across the world? And you’re using those roads to extort foreign currency?”
“It seems you still don’t grasp the concept of alliance fees, but outwardly, it looks similar enough.”
As Young-woo nodded, Ji-seon finally seemed to understand. She lifted her greatsword with one hand and pointed it at her son.
Whoosh!
“This bastard’s a total imperialist! Way crazier than I thought...?”
Having finally learned about the “Korean Peninsula” foreign policy her son kept mentioning, Ji-seon couldn’t help but be shocked.
“So that ‘master of this planet’ you mentioned earlier means squeezing protection money out of the whole world?”
“Protection money? Mother, soon it’ll be a perfectly legal tax. Until then, it’s revenue.”
“What?”
“What’s the one thing everyone in this world wants?”
When Young-woo asked in a serious tone, Song Ji-seon was at a loss for words. Watching from the side, Ye-chan very cautiously raised his hand.
Rustle.
“Oh, Ye-chan. Go ahead and say it.”
Ye-chan glanced at both Ji-seon and Young-woo’s faces before announcing his answer.
“Life... maybe?”
Life.
That’s right.
Ye-chan had bought life from Young-woo on the very first reset day, so he could answer immediately.
Life insurance—or more packaged, he’d once hired Young-woo as a bodyguard.
And sure enough, Young-woo patted Ye-chan’s shoulder with an approving expression.
“Exactly! Who in this world doesn’t want to avoid death?”
“......”
Even after getting it right, Ye-chan couldn’t feel happy. Hearing the answer, Song Ji-seon asked back in disbelief.
“Hey, you lunatic, how is that a product? ‘Pay up or I kill you’—that’s just robbery!”
In other words, her son had turned the Korean Peninsula into a giant den of thieves.
But Young-woo was someone who went far beyond what Song Ji-seon imagined.
“Robbery? Please call it the violence business.”
“...What?”
“With the world reset, various concepts need redefining too. In a world like this, life can be a commodity.”
With that, Young-woo clenched his fist, wrapped in the Vesdel armor, and gripped the ground.
Crunch.
The asphalt crumbled like a cookie, and clumps of earth stuck to his fingers underneath.
“Countries without a drop of oil to sell are the same now as ever. So what do we sell?”
By this point, even Song Ji-seon could guess her son’s next line.
“Crazy bastard.”
“That’s right. We take other people’s lives as collateral and sell them.”
Creative economy, indeed.
Truth be told, if it weren’t essentially robbery, it would be an impressive business.
Creating value from absolute nothing, after all.
Song Ji-seon, a businesswoman to her bones, wasn’t unaware of this point—but it was still far too radical a philosophy to accept just an hour after arriving in this world.
“Mother, it’s like insurance or investment funds. It’s creating intangible value based on the company’s credibility.”
“You punk, where’s this ‘credibility’ you’re talking about? Insurance and funds rely on trusting the company’s ability to pay...”
As his mother tried to counter based on old-world concepts again, Young-woo quickly raised his hand to stop her.
“Why wouldn’t there be credibility? The belief that ‘oh, that guy could kill me anytime’—that’s trust. And no matter who the opponent is, I’m confident I can instill that trust within three exchanges.”
Surprisingly, this included Song Ji-seon.
She and Young-woo had properly clashed within three exchanges too.
“So in the business I’m trying to do, salesmanship means power. In that context...”
Thud!
Young-woo boldly gripped Ye-chan’s shoulder again.
“For collecting from powerhouses around the world, you’re the perfect fit for the collection team, Ye-chan.”
“......?”
Ye-chan’s mind reeled at the sudden target shift.
“B-but what if I refuse to the end...?”
“Then I’d have no choice but to convince you too. To earn your trust.”
“......”
Gulp.
As Ye-chan swallowed heavily, Ji-seon pointed to Gwangjin-gu—no, the entire Seoul skyline—and asked.
“Do people know the country’s run like this? That you’re collecting taxes, no less?”
Young-woo placed his right hand over his left chest and spoke in a reverent tone.
“There’s a reason taxes auto-collect here too. I’m the first elected Supreme Swordsman in Korean Peninsula history.”
“Elected?”
“And my approval rating is 76.8%.”
“What?”
Song Ji-seon’s eyes widened inside her helmet, then swept over the distant Metal Seoul skyline again.
76.8%. An unheard-of approval rating.
What on earth had happened in this Seoul?
No, more than that—what the hell had this guy done in Seoul?
“But using this approval rating to pacify the world is just groundwork. My ultimate goal is for us to hold our own even in space.”
Rustle.
As Young-woo looked up at the sky, Song Ji-seon’s voice finally trembled faintly.
“To you, ‘global’ really means space forces.”
“Yes. I’ve seen a bit of space myself. Just as you once led Jin-hyeon Group in competing worldwide, I’ll take this planet and advance into space.”
Then Young-woo scattered the earth from this planet still clinging to his hand onto the ground.
“So conflicts within this planet are just preliminaries. It’s a fight over who gets to decide the direction we take in space.”
And three massive space factions had already entered that competition.
In a sense, “space” had already begun.
“But even in space, you can’t pull off that robbery—no, violence business, right? Aren’t you just inviting planet-wide backlash on yourself?”
To this, Young-woo unexpectedly nodded readily.
“You have a point.”
Then he U-turned just as quickly.
“But it’s not the right answer.”
“What?”
“My sponsors are the type who beat up civil servants. If you have enough force and backing... it’s proof you can run a violence business in space too.”
“......”
Ye-chan, listening quietly, realized at some point that the conversation had gone terribly off-track but stayed silent.
It was a truly cosmic discussion—one a self-proclaimed Gyeongbuk upstart couldn’t dare interject in.
Meanwhile, Ji-seon—who’d joined hands with her son precisely to board a spaceship to space—had no choice but to keep asking.
“Fine, enough force, I get that. But what’s the backing?”
“The chairman of my sponsors is royalty before being space thugs.”
“What?”
By now, the fact that her son openly called his business partner “space thugs” didn’t even register as a red flag.
No—didn’t he just say he had space royalty as backing?
“Royalty?”
“Yes. Probably why they face no repercussions for killing officials or invading other planets.”
Of course, it was still just speculation.
But no other hypothesis fit.
“Then what about you? Compared to space royalty, you’re just...”
As Song Ji-seon raised a bluish finger to point at her son, Young-woo barked instead.
“Hey now, ‘just’? Kill off Second Uncle, and I’m the sole heir to the Great Jin-hyeon Family and the only son of the Iron-Blooded Empress Song Ji-seon, aren’t I?”
“...Is this kid’s brain broken or what?”
“Sure, right now I’m a bastard child without my current parents’ blessing, with no background or proper family to speak of.”
For a moment, Young-woo’s eyes clouded with sadness.
But only for a moment.
“So if it doesn’t exist, we make it. A background.”
“What?”
And at that moment, Young-woo was viewing the family achievement granted to him.
[Prestigious Family: Root Revival]
“It’ll become the prestigious family that makes any alien tremble at the mere name—rulers of the violence business. To do that, I need to conquer Earth first and solidify the foundation, so yeah, I need a background. A family.”
And a family naturally requires relatives.
Clank!
Suddenly grabbing his mother’s arm, Young-woo startled Song Ji-seon, who tried to pull back.
But his grip was too strong to shake off easily, and in the meantime, his head turned toward Ye-chan.
“Now that I’ve gathered mother and father to form the family basics, I need a retainer or two. That’s how prestigious families work.”
“A retainer...?”
As Ye-chan tried to step back too, Young-woo held him fast.
“Welcome to the family of a cosmic prestigious house.”
“...!”
This family’s goal was nothing less than growing into a power rivaling space royalty.
‘And to do that, naturally, the status of this family’s birthplace on Earth needs elevating too.’
As Young-woo thought this, his vision displayed a VIP timer that had shrunk to 10 minutes.
[00:10:02]
And then.
Flash!
As the timer dipped below 10 minutes, a system message appeared.
「Promotion examiners will arrive in 10 minutes.」